book reviews.

A MOST PARISIAN MURDER

by Millicent Binks

Publishing Date: May 13, 2005  –  COMING THIS MAY!

Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery & Thriller, Cozy Mystery

Setting: 1930. Paris, France

Summary: Feathers, diamonds, showgirls, oh la la… Paris is everything Opal Laplume could dream of. But she wasn’t expecting to be cast as the lead detective in a murder case…

Paris, 1930. The Honourable Opal Laplume has just started working as a seamstress in the most glamorous cabaret in Paris. The stage is set for a spectacular opening night, but tragedy strikes when the star of the show, Valentine Beaumanoir falls from her hotel balcony.

The police believe it’s an accident, but Opal isn’t convinced. Witnesses heard Valentine shout for help before she fell. But if she was pushed, how could the culprit have escaped when her room was locked from the inside? And who left a perfect white rose on her bedside table?

When a deadly note to another dancer is found, Opal ditches her threads and thimbles to take charge of the case. Stepping backstage, she finds everyone had a reason to want Valentine dead. The chorus girls were jealous of Valentine’s spot in the limelight. But did one of them want the lead role that badly? Before she fell, Valentine called out the name of her beau, costumier Christophe. Could the show-stopping murder have been a crime of passion?

But just as Opal thinks she’s on track to solve the mystery, the theatre is rocked by a murder on stage, where once again the killer vanishes into thin air. Opal soon realizes a bigger plot is unfolding. Can she keep her composure and catch the cabaret killer? Or will it be her final curtain call?

Book Club: Yes

Would I Read Again: Yes

Last Comment: Tres Bien!

FIVE STARS for:

• Story – well-plotted, suspenseful
• Characters – fun, interesting characters that are eccentric and lovely
• Author’s Style & Voice – accessible, playful voice
  
• World & Details – Wonderful setting, dropping the reader into the main character’s world
• Audio Narration – Good range

THE MARRIAGE PORTRAIT

by Maggie O’Farrell

Genre: Historical Fiction, speculative and suspenseful elements

Setting: Florence, Italy; 16th century

Logline: A young Renaissance nobelwoman, Lucrezia de’ Medici, is thrust into a perilous marriage with the Duke of Ferrara and must fight for survival when she suspects her husband intends to kill her.

Book Club: Yes

Would I Read Again: Yes

Last Comment: Belllisima!

FIVE STARS for:

• Story – well-plotted, suspenseful, immediate with first person close narrator
• Characters – fascinating, detailed, believable
• Author’s Style & Voice – literary with the cusp of upmarket due to plotting, movement, and suspense
• World & Details – lush, believable, sink into the Lucrezia’s world
  

THE MARRIAGE PORTRAIT

by Maggie O’Farrell

Genre: Dystopian fiction, speculative, spy thriller, feminist political elements

Setting: About fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, set in the not-too-distant future. It takes place primarily in Cambridge, Massachusetts (heart of the Republic of Gilead), with significant scenes in Toronto, Canada.

Logline: In the totalitarian theocracy of Gilead, three women are featured.  Aunt Lydia, a powerful yet subversive architect of the regime, Agnes, a privileged Gilead girl confronting the truth about her origins, and Daisy, a Canadian teenager with a mysterious past-become unlikely allies in a covert conspiracy to bring down the oppressive regime. They risk everything to expose Gilead’s secrets and ignite its downfall.

Book Club: Yes

Would I Read Again: Yes

Last Comment: Finally! (For those of you who sat on pins and needles through The Handmaid’s Tale, this is vindication.)

FIVE STARS for:

• Story – well-plotted, suspenseful, immediate with first person close narrator
• Characters – fascinating, detailed, believable
• Author’s Style & Voice – literary with the cusp of upmarket due to plotting, movement, and suspense
• World & Details – lush, believable, sink into the Lucrezia’s world
  

THE MARRIAGE PORTRAIT

by Maggie O’Farrell

Genre: Historical Fiction, speculative and suspenseful elements

Setting: Florence, Italy; 16th century

Logline: A young Renaissance nobelwoman, Lucrezia de’ Medici, is thrust into a perilous marriage with the Duke of Ferrara and must fight for survival when she suspects her husband intends to kill her.

Book Club: Yes

Would I Read Again: Yes

Last Comment: Belllisima!

FIVE STARS for:

• Story – well-plotted, suspenseful, immediate with first person close narrator
• Characters – fascinating, detailed, believable
• Author’s Style & Voice – literary with the cusp of upmarket due to plotting, movement, and suspense
• World & Details – lush, believable, sink into the Lucrezia’s world