Orphan Carver Young has some general fantasies about becoming a
detective, and devours novels and stories about great sleuths, as well
as serialized and sensationalized mysteries. When ex-Pinkerton
Detective Albert Hawking, cranky, contentious, eccentric, brilliant, and
crippled, offers to take Carver on as an apprentice to share all he
knows, Carver is ecstatic, even though it means living (for a reason I
never really understood) in a private floor at the top of a mental
institution, and getting more questions, half-hints, and criticism from
Hawking than direct answers. Carver's first and main "case" is to
figure out the identity and possibly location of his father based on a
scrap of a letter sent to the orphanage many years before. As part of this Hawking introduces him to the "New Pinkertons", an
underground (literally) and top-secret detective agency endowed by Alan
Pinkerton upon his death. Hawking was head of the agency until his
injuries forced him to give the reins to another former Pinkerton agent,
Tudd, who is devoted to "gadgets" and buys many, many new mechanical,
electrical inventions to help the secret agents with their
investigations, and who is obsessed with catching a murderer, convinced
it is the return of Jack the Ripper.
An incomplete list of books that I've read and liked. Or not liked. And would recommend. Or not recommend. But mostly would.
Showing posts with label mystery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mystery. Show all posts
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Tempest by Julie Cross
19-year-old Jackson Meyer can time travel. Not much, usually just back a few hours or days. And when he does go back, nothing he does actually impacts the future - no one remembers interacting with him if it happened on one of his jumps, if he hurts himself he isn't seriously damaged when he gets back, and if he does something on one of his jumps, like break a window, that thing is undone when he gets back to the present. It's not really serving a purpose, but he's having fun experimenting, and keeping it a secret from everyone but his science genius friend who is helping him figure out why it's happening and how to use it. At least it is all fun until some people who also appear to be able to "jump" back in time show up at his girlfriend's college dor, attempt to kidnap Jackson, and kill his girlfriend in the struggle. Now Jackson has jumped back 2 years, farther than he's jumped before, and no matter how hard he tries, he can't get back to his "real" time. And the Enemies of Time are still after him.
Labels:
adventure,
betrayal,
crime,
dark_humor; edgy,
espionage,
fantasy,
male_protag,
mystery,
relationships,
scifi,
secret societies,
series,
spies,
terrorists
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier
1st in Ruby Red series. Sequel is Sapphire Blue. First published in Germany.
Gwen is 16 and lives with her mum, siblings, grandmother, aunt and cousin in an upperclass London neighborhood. Her extended family doesn't pay much attention to her, focused on her cousin, believed to be the carrier of the time-travel gene that runs through her family and sure to show up very soon in the form of an abrupt trip to somewhere in the past. But all is not as it seems. Since a mathematical formula had worked out that Gwen's real birth date was the birth date of the next time traveler, and her cousin was also born that day, Gwen's mum and (late) father secretly falsified her records to indicate Gwen was born the day before, allegedly in the hopes that she would be able to live a normal life (and since she was born at home with a midwife, no one was the wiser.
Gwen is 16 and lives with her mum, siblings, grandmother, aunt and cousin in an upperclass London neighborhood. Her extended family doesn't pay much attention to her, focused on her cousin, believed to be the carrier of the time-travel gene that runs through her family and sure to show up very soon in the form of an abrupt trip to somewhere in the past. But all is not as it seems. Since a mathematical formula had worked out that Gwen's real birth date was the birth date of the next time traveler, and her cousin was also born that day, Gwen's mum and (late) father secretly falsified her records to indicate Gwen was born the day before, allegedly in the hopes that she would be able to live a normal life (and since she was born at home with a midwife, no one was the wiser.
Labels:
adventure,
betrayal,
chicklit,
explorers,
family,
fantasy,
female_protag,
friendship,
high_school,
historical_fiction,
mystery,
relationships,
romance,
school,
secret societies,
series,
teen,
text
Saturday, August 18, 2012
The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman
Nora has a pretty good life - yes, her brother is still dead and her parents are still withdrawn into their own self-absorbed worlds, but she has made a new family of sorts, with bright, charming, boy-wonder Chris and his lovely, capricious girlfriend Adriane as her best friends, and moody, quiet, scholarly Max as her boyfriend. She also has an engrossing translation project for a local professor to strengthen her link with Chris and Max - while they work on translating the "important" parts of an ancient mystical document the professor is obsessed with, Nora translates late 16th century letters from a young woman, stepdaughter to a great magician - busy work to the professor, but more and more fascinating to Nora. When her translation of the letters leads to a new discovery, she never expects it to end with the professor insane, Chris dead, Adriane catatonic and Max gone and branded a murder...but that's what happens.
Labels:
adventure,
betrayal,
courage,
crime,
edgy,
female_protag,
friendship,
grief,
high_school,
letters,
murder,
mystery,
realistic_fiction,
romance,
school,
secret societies,
suspense,
teen
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Star Crossed, by Elizabeth Bunce
Escaping from Green Men soldiers after a botched theft results in her partner's death, Digger convinces a boat of young nobles to help spirit her away, thinking they are helping "Celyn" escape from convent school. Willing to leave the city of Gerse behind for awhile, Celyn becomes a maid to one of the nobles, a younger girl named Merista who is about to be presented to the marriage mart, and goes with Meri to reunite with her parents, exiled for the last several years for their part in a plot to overthrow the king and the corrupt church.
Labels:
adventure,
courage,
crime,
espionage,
family,
fantasy,
female_protag,
friendship,
historical_fiction,
mystery,
rebels,
royalty,
spies,
suspense
Three Thieves series, by Scott Chantler
Book 1: The Tower of Treasure: Dessa, a 14-year old acrobat in a traveling circus, gets lured into helping Fisk, the scheming troupe juggler, and Topper, the gentle strongman, rob the royal treasury when she decides it will help her learn more about the mysterious man who kidnapped her twin brother several years before. Caught in the act, they are able to escape from the tower prison but are followed by the grasping Queen's honorable, duty-bound captain of the guards, Drake. Graphic novel, good for older elementary and middle school - mysteries, fantasy, adventure readers.
Book 2: The Sign of the Black Rock: After escaping from the royal prison, Dessa, Fisk and Topper flee to the coast, where they seek shelter at an inn from a ferocious storm. The Queen's Dragons and Captain Drake aren't far behind, though, and soon the thieves are hiding from the guards, held captive by the scheming innkeeper, and set free by his abused and silent wife, who also shares more information with Dessa about the sorcerer who kidnapped Dessa's brother and scarred the innkeeper's wife in an attempt to cut out her tongue before she could tell anyone about the spell book and odd word she discovered in his room.
Labels:
adventure,
crime,
elementary ages,
family,
fantasy,
female_protag,
graphic novel,
juvenile,
mystery,
primary_school,
royalty,
series
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Pie by Sarah Weeks
Alice's aunt Polly, world-famous pie maker, dies and leaves her recipe to her grumpy cat Lardo, and her cat to Alice. Alice's mother is jealous of her sister's success with pies and people, someone is out to steal the cat in order to get the pie recipe, and suddenly everyone is trying to make pies to fill the pie-gap. Includes recipes.
SLJ: grades 4-6
SLJ: grades 4-6
Labels:
animals,
crime,
family,
female_protag,
food,
grief,
grieving,
historical_fiction,
humor,
juvenile,
mystery,
realistic_fiction,
recipes
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
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