BOOK: Why Shoot a Butler? by Georgette Heyer

Why Shoot a Butler? by Georgette Heyer, 329 pages

New Author Challenge; twenty-ten challenge: before you were born

Great classic mystery, set in the 1930s England, where ironically, the butler is killed first. Heyer, well known for her histories and romances, has a little series of mysteries she's written as well as well. Her mysteries have been rereleased with beautiful covers that really stand out on the murder book shelves with their pretty pastels.

Frank Amberley is the amateur sleuth who happens upon a murder. The reader isn't led in on much of Frank's thoughts or actions, but it is possible to make a few guesses. Red herrings, bumbling police, and a few more murders move the story along nicely, and the reader gets the classic wrap-up where Frank explains all the events to everyone involved. I really liked Frank and his dry wit as he observes and deals with everyone around him, whom he keeps in the dark. I would have liked another book with him, but this is a stand-alone mystery. Heyer has another series with another detective that I'll have to look into.

also reviewed by:
framed and booked
joanne at the book zombie
marg at readingadventures

BOOK: The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz

The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz, 447 pages

Book Awards IV: Alex Award 2008; new author challenge

If you grew up in a house where both your parents were private investigators, I imagine your sense of' appropriate behaviour' would be a little off. Especially if you started working in the family business as a teenager, learning the ins and outs of surveillance, and having no sense of privacy. Izzy Spellman was that person, and at twenty-eight, still lives at home and works for the family. This is one messed up, but hilarious, family.

Izzy narrates the story, which has a bit of a mystery, but also tells the dysfunctional wars that develop within her family. New boyfriend for Izzy, one that mom hasn't set up with a lawyer? Put him under surveillance to look for any bad habits. Crazy stuff like that. Izzy's siblings, older brother David, is a perfect lawyer type, but his dysfunction shows as he continually 'negotiates' with everyone, subtle forms of blackmail or coercion. Younger sister Rae, a PI in the making, is a recreational surveillanceer, following random people instead of doing her homework. The steps she takes to get out of summer camp are crazy.

To summarize: lots of fun, with a dash of mystery, and interesting characters which I've only hinted at. This book won the Alex Award, which is given to books that can crossover between Young Adult and adult novels. There are two more books about the crazy Spellman family, The Curse of the Spellmans and Revenge of the Spellmans.



also reviewed by:
joy at thoughts of joy
shelf elf
kristi at passion for the page

BOOK: I am Morgan Le Fay by Nancy Springer

I am Morgan Le Fay by Nancy Springer,227 pages
a tale from Camelot

Young Adult Challenge; New Author Challenge

I knew very little about the legend of Camelot - I recognize some names and I've seen Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail. From what I gather, this book looks at the beginning of King Arthur and the story of his half-sister Morgan. I was by times enchanted and by times bored, as fantasy is not my usual reading and I don't always 'get' it all. However, it was readable (and short) and I can see the appeal of Camelot.

Much of the book takes place at Avalon, before Arthur is crowned, and I like the power that the women had there, and it made me more interested in reading the classic book The Mists of Avalon. Springer has written several other books about the Camelot era. I am also very interested in reading Springer's other series, Enola Holmes, sister of Sherlock Holmes.

CHALLENGE: New Author Challenge

Hosted at Literary Escapism, you pick the level of new authors you hope to read next year - 15, 25 or 50 new authors.

The Guidelines: the authors must be new to you and, preferably from novels. Anthologies are a great way to try someone new, but only a third of your new authors can be from anthologies.

All the details are at this post. I'll keep track of up to 25 new authors, but I want them to be authors of more than one book, if possible.

I'll start keeping track here:

1. Alan Bradley - Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
2. Martha Baillie - The Incident Report
3. Nancy Springer - I am Morgan Le Fay
4. Lisa Lutz - The Spellman Files
5. Penelope Fitzgerald The Bookshop
6. Georgette Heyer Why Shoot a Butler?
7. Jhumpa Lahiri - Interpreter of Maladies
   
8. Charlotte Gray - Nellie McClung
9. Jane Johnson - The Tenth Gift
10. Nicolas Dickner - Nikolski
11. Alison Lurie - Foreign Affairs
12. Qiu Xioalong - Red Mandarin Dress
13. Stephanie Kallos - Broken For You
14. Lawrence Hill - The Book of Negroes
15. Joseph Boyden - Through Black Spruce
16. Stieg Larsson - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
17. Wilkie Collins - The Woman in White
18. Jacqueline Winspear - Maisie Dobbs
19. Anna Quindlan - Every Last One
20. Elizabeth Taylor - Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont
21. Ngaio Marsh - Vintage Murder
22. Susan Wittig Albert - The Tale from Hill Top Farm
23. Peter Temple - Truth
24. Rachel Ferguson - The Brontes Went to Woolworth
25. Elizabeth Enright - Thimble Summer
26. Carol Ryrie Brink - Caddie Woodlawn
27. Lori Lansens - The Girls
28. Kamila Shamsie - Burnt Shadows
29. Carolyn Parkhurst - The Nobodies Album
30. Irene Nemirovsky - Suite Francaise
31. Catherine O'Flynn - The News Where You Are
32. Joanne Harris - Five Quarters of the Orange
33. Simon Winchester - The Madman and the Professor
34. Lisa Moore - February
35. David Nicholls - One Day
36. Alan Furst - Spies of the Balkans
37. Ellen Raskin - The Westing Game
38. Wayne Johnston - The Colony of Unrequited Dreams
39. Jeff Lindsay - Darkly Dreaming Dexter
40. Emma Donoghue - Room 
41. Johan Theorin - The Darkest Room
42. Caroline B Cooney - Code Orange
43. Deon Meyer - Thirteen Hours
44. Maggie Stiefvater  - Shiver
45. Oliver Sacks - The Mind's Eye
46. Elizabeth Gaskell  - Cranford
47. Jeff Lemire - Essex County
48. Antonya Nelson - Bound
49. Dawn French - A Tiny Bit Marvellous
50. Marcus Chown - We Need to Talk About Kelvin
51. tbr: The Man on the Balcony - Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo
    

 New Authors: Debut Books

1. James Thompson - Snow Angels
2. Matthew Hooton - Deloume Road
3. Patrick Ness - The Knife of Never Letting Go
4. Helena Simonson - Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
5. Kathryn Stockett - The Help
6. Holly LeCraw - The Swimming Pool
7. Eleanor Catton - The Rehearsal
8. Ross Raisin - Out Backward
9. Drew Hayden Taylor - Motorcycles and Sweetgrass
10. Rebecca Skloot - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Sacks
11. Doug Harris - You Comma Idiot
12.