In a Guilded Cage by Rhys Bowen

Bowen has brought the story about Molly Murphy, transplant to New York City from Ireland in the beginning of the 20th century to new heights. She helps to discover whether young women friends of hers are dying of influenza or they're being poisoned. She is also deeply involved in an investigation about what happened to the parents of one of these friends, Emily, while they were supposedly missionaries in China 20 years earlier.

Meanwhile, the information she comes up with helps her beau, Police Captain Daniel Sullivan to solve some crimes having to do with the opium trade and smuggling in drugs from China.

It appears that in one of the upcoming Bowen books about Murphy he will marry her off to the dashing police captain. When she does, will he lock her into the "guilded cage" and away from her detective work? One of the main themes in the book is about how women in the 19th and early 20th centuries were almost prohibited from working outside the home once they married. Ambitious women had a real dilemma whether to follow affairs of the heart or the mind.

Good read, as usual, from Bowen.

Liz Nichols

I Shall Not Want by Julia Spencer-Fleming

This is about the 6th novel by Spencer-Fleming, and the experience shows in her ability to spin a gripping and compelling tale and to draw readers in to being concerned about her characters. The author is a multiple award-winner, and deservedly so.

Our heroine, Clare Fergusson, is an Episcopal priest and an Air Force reservist who toward the end of the book gets deployed to Iraq. This put a rather serious delay on the budding romance with the Millers Kill upstate New York Police Chief, Russ Van Alstyne.

The mystery revolves around discovering who is killing Mexican farm workers. It brings out deep-seated prejudice within the community that Clare needs to deal with inside her congregation. These issues are handled sensitively and make this book a more meaningful and deeper read than the average mystery.

I really look forward to reading more Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne mysteries.

Liz Nichols

The Leisure Seeker by Michael Zadoorian

This is Michael Zadoorian's second novel. He also has published short stories. Zadoorian lives in the Detroit area, which is where the characters of "The Leisure Seeker," Ella and John Robina, have lived all their lives.

Ella and John now find themselves in their 80s and near the end of their lives. He has moderate Alzheimers and Ella has been told she has end stage cancer. They decide to take one more journey across the country, following Route 66 as much as possible, in their Leisure Seeker camper. Their children and doctors are, of course, opposed.

The book is beautifully written as Ella's observations as they travel from spot to spot, visiting shabby diners and motels, ghost towns, desert byways, and tacky tourist traps from Michigan to their destination, Disneyland in California. Some of the descriptions of sunsets, sunrises, and scenery are breathtaking. The often comical and nonsensical dialogue between Ella and the half-there John are reminders that we each will face issues of growing old. The situations that they get in to on this last journey are both poignant and humorous.

The only thing I don't find as convincing about this book is the voice of the main character, Ella. Her voice is more male than female in many cases, perhaps because of the author's perspective. There are some crusty old broads out there-- like Flo from Mel's Diner or most of the characters that Kathy Bates plays, but most women of Ella's age would find her language and the way she solves problems to be a little offensive. This issue bothered me less as the book went on, but I would say that the book is not for people who expect 80 year old women to be genteel.

With that one caveat, I recommend this book to lovers of travel novels and novels about end of life and old age issues.

Liz Nichols

Living the Vida Lola by Misa Ramirez

"Living the Vida Lola" is a first novel by Latina-by-marriage author, Misa Ramirez. Ramirez is a native Californian transplant to Dallas, Texas. This novel inaugurates the Lola Cruz Mystery Series.

Dolores Cruz is a 20-something PI working for the Camacho agency in Sacramento, California. She's a bit of a Stephanie Plum knock-off. The fact that Lola mentions Plum at one point makes it clear that the author has this Evanovich character in mind to some extent. They are similar in age, profession, and similar in the close ethnic family ties that they have. Cruz's 'hood is an older area of Sacramento where she grew up with her Mexican-American family and friends-- and a crush on a non-Latino guy from high school, Jack Callaghan, who is now a Sacramento Bee reporter.

Part of the plot line is the budding romance with Callaghan, and part getting ready for Lola's niece's quinceanera, and the business part is to solve the disappearance and murder of a local woman-- which she does with the help of Jack and a rival PI from her office, Sadie Metcalf.

The character of Lola grew on me, and by the end of the book I was looking forward to the next installment of this mystery series. I like the feisty-ness of this character, and her somewhat unusual value system for a PI. (She does not believe in carrying a gun.)

I did find the book was a little slow to get in to action and the characters got a little confusing at first so it was hard to concentrate on moving quickly from chapter to chapter. The text does not flow as smoothly as the works of more experienced mystery authors, but then, this is a first novel.

There is plenty here to like and to look forward to in future installments.

Liz Nichols