Sunday Salon: A Reading Retrospective (September 2004)

It actually is quite common for the fall season to open with triple digit temperatures in the part of the world where I live. Summer likes to hold on as long as she can before giving way to her cousin. I wouldn't be surprised if she gets winter and fall confused, considering how little change there is between the two seasons; and, therefore, winter thinks fall has an advantage. The heat now will only make the fall weather all the sweeter when it finally does arrive. I just hope it will be before Halloween.

In honor of the coming spooky holiday, I will be reading and reviewing Haunting Bombay by Shilpa Agarwal next month. Got to try and fit a ghost story in there somehow. In the meantime, I have been spending much of my time overseas in Darfur, Sri Lanka, and London as I study hard to become a doctor, travel cross-country by train and fall in love with a mobster. I also spent a little time closer to home this month in New Orleans, but that might as well have been a foreign country. It is not every day I get to walk around in the shoes of a wealthy mentally ill woman.

September is nearing an end and as has become my habit on the last Sunday of every month, I pulled out my old reading journal to take a look at what I had been reading five years ago this month. Mystery, particularly involving murder, was the order of the day (which does not seem that much different from the month before that same year does it?).

My husband's and my end of the summer road trip through the southwest was encouragement enough for me to pick up and read the third book in J.A. Jance's Sheriff Joanna Brady series set in Cochise County, Arizona. In Shoot/Don't Shoot, Joanna Brady attended law enforcement training in Phoenix and got wrapped up in an investigation of possible serial murders. I especially love the setting of this particular series, having a special place in my heart for the state of Arizona. Joanna is one of those strong female protagonists I like to read about so much.

My reading that year also took me to the Virgin Islands where I met up with Jonathan Nasaw's Pender, a retired FBI agent who was called in to help investigate several murders on the fictional island of St. Luke. Who is behind the murders is no mystery in Twenty-Seven Bones to the reader as the author reveals it early on; it is the game of cat and mouse which made me keep turning the pages. This is one of those books that I really cannot remember much of were it not for the notes in my reading journal, and, even then, I could not tell you anything beyond what I've written there.

I did not have the same problem with Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's Cabinet of Curiosities, a book I devoured in no time. It was my first introduction to FBI Special Agent Pendergast and it was practically love at first sight. In this book, the mutilated bodies of 36 people are found deep inside a tunnel—a horrific crime that occurred over a century ago—and Pendergast is called to investigate. Preston and Child are skillful writers and I was riveted to my chair the more I read of this novel—a bit of history and horror rolled into one. I even went so far as to do some research on cabinets of curiosities, something I had not been familiar with before. I love it when a book inspires the researcher in me.

September of 2004 also found me spending time with ex-cop turned art historian, Kate McKinnon, in Jonathan Santlofer's Color Blind. She is asked to help with a murder investigation. It is the second book in a series, but my first experience with Santlofer's work. Although I hadn't been overly impressed with the heroine, finding her to be a bit too perfect and a little mechanical, that did not detract much from my overall enjoyment of the story. I loved the pop culture references, and I made a special note of the ending in my journal, mentioning how well written it was, both in conception and length. It was a fitting ending given all the characters had gone through.

Abigail Padgett's Child of Silence was not my first book by the author, but it is one of my favorites by her. Child of Silence is the first book in a series featuring a Child Protective Services Social Worker in San Diego County. In this book, the protagonist, Bo Bradley, is assigned to investigate the case of an abandoned boy found tied up and unconscious on a local reservation. The further she gets into her investigation, her own life is suddenly on the line and she finds herself on the run from two hitmen. One of the aspects I like most about Padgett's series is the way she weaves Bo's mental illness (Bipolar Disorder) into the story in a very real way. Padgett also paints a very realistic portrait of what many child welfare workers face day in and day out.

I was still reading Patricia Cornwell back then. I was anxious to read Blow Fly, the 12th book in the Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Chief Medical Examiner series, because Trace would be coming out soon after. I had been an early fan of the series and always looked forward to seeing where Cornwell would take me next. I had been disappointed with Isle of the Dogs, a book from another of her series, and hoped the return to more familiar ground would prove better. While on some level I liked Blow Fly, I also found it disappointing. The ending in particular left a lot to be desired, and it was clear the series was going in a direction that I wasn't sure I wanted to go. Up to that point, I had never given up on a series, and so I figured I would wait and see what Trace had to offer before deciding if Cornwell and I would part ways.

Although also a mystery, I stepped out of reality and into urban fantasy in September of 2004 as well. I quite enjoyed Laurell K. Hamilton's Cerulean Sins, the 11th book in the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series. The mysteries in the series at that point were fast becoming very minor story lines. In this case, Anita was asked to help find a serial rapist/killer who was believed to be a lycanthrope. Vampire politics played a heavy part in the novel, however, as Anita was pulled deeper and deeper into her lover and vampire friend Jean-Claude's world. In my notes about this particular book, I commented about how I appreciated Hamilton showing me a softer side of Anita and giving voice to some of the emotional turmoil the character was experiencing with all that she had been through up to that point. Anita was also beginning to recognize the sacrifices that others had made for her, something she had taken for granted for so long.

I clearly had murder on the brain five years ago this month, in particular serial murders. It was a month for visiting old friends and making new ones--and for seeing justice win the day. All this talk of mysteries and thrillers is putting me in the mood to read one next. I wonder which it will be . . .

Where has your reading taken you lately?

This Week In Reading Mews:

Reviews Posted:
A Disobedient Girl by Ru Freeman (Plus a giveaway--there's still time if you are interested!)
The Hunter (Richard Stark’s Parker, Book 1) adapted and illustrated by Darwyn Cooke

Currently Reading:
DeMarco Empire by J Lou McCartney
Tears of the Desert: A Memoir of Survival by Halima Bashir

Posts of Interest This Week:
TGIF: Music, Wish Lists & Tears

I can't resist putting in a little plug for a new feature on my husband's blog, where he stretches his creative muscle. Take a look: Microfiction: Cross-Country.

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