Book Round-Up: Autumn edition

Wicked Autumn by G.M. Malliet: A cozy but dark mystery seems appropriate for the season.  This is the first installment of Malliet's series centered around an ex-MI5 agent who becomes an Anglican vicar in a small English town; so a modern version of Grantchester. Malliet's writing is smart, fun, and a bit moody.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving: The version I read had been illustrated and adapted by Will Moses, which I didn't realize.  I think I would have preferred to read the original text, but it serves its purpose of making the story accessible to kids -- Beadboy2 reads the book over and over every October.  I did enjoy the illustrations thoroughly. Moses is the great-grandson of Grandma Moses, and he was clearly inspired by her and her son.

First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen: The latest from one of my favorite writers, and a sequel to Garden Spells. This novel highlights by comparison the flaws in the Strawberry Hearts Diner. Allen writes about a southern town with mom-and-pop businesses, quirky people, and a quaint ambience; but she's not afraid to show the trailer parks, desperate people, and bad decisions that also populate the town.

Equal Rites and Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett: I won't commit to reading all of Pratchett's Discworld novels, but I do enjoy the ones I pick up. These are the first two in the "witches" sub-series, and like the best of his books they marry laugh-out-loud high-fantasy satire with genuine insight into the human condition.  I was planning to read the third, but it seems to have disappeared; perhaps Granny Weatherwax disapproves.

G.M. Malliet

Part of the fun of a trip to the library is browsing the new books for ones I would otherwise miss. A few weeks ago I discovered a new mystery series by G.M. Malliet, centered around British DCI St. Just and containing various homages to and parodies of mystery writers and sub-genres. What makes these books stand out from other "themed" mystery series is Malliet's wittiness and writing skills.

An example, from Death and the Lit Chick (which takes place at a mystery writers' convention):

. . . St. Just strode briskly past, gathering odd scraps of conversation as he went.
"You have to have a corpse by page fifty-seven. Page seventy at the absolute outside."
"Says who?"

"Why, so says everyone. It's the industry standard."

This, of course, occurs on page 70. The first body does not show up until page 96 (and page 112 in Death of a Cozy Writer).

Malliet also uses that time-worn staple of mysteries, where something a character says triggers the memory of something significant in the investigator, but she can't quite put her finger on it, not until the very end just in time for the final confrontation. In other books such an event sends me flipping through previous chapters to see if I can find the connection myself. In Lit Chick and Cozy Writer, however, Malliet has St. Just figure it out two pages later, and while it is not irrelevant to the investigation, it is not crucial to the case either. Both times had me laughing out loud.

I look forward to the next installment.