I had a good time visiting with my former mystery book group in Dallas tonight. Got to say hi to a lot of the members and of course talk about a good mystery. We discussed Billy Boyle by James Benn and it got pretty good reviews from most of the members.

I also enjoyed the story, mainly for the characters. The mystery didn’t captivate me as much but I’d still give the second book in the series a try.

On the subject of mysteries, I’ve got some others to tell you about. If you’ve read some of these I’d love to hear your thoughts.

First, The Last Enemy by Grace Brophy. I found this one on the new shelves at the library several weeks ago and was really taken in by the setting (Umbria) and the way in which the story starts. If you are in the mood for some crime fiction with an international setting, I recommend it.

This is the first in what promises to be a good series. Here is my full review.

I’m also counting this book as one of my First in a Series Challenge reads.

Next up is the fourth in the Barker & Llewelyn series, The Hellfire Conspiracy by Will Thomas. This is becoming one of those series I know I can count on for a good read. Here is my full review.

I’m pretty excited because I actually have the latest book, The Black Hand, waiting for me. This time the inquiry agents are going to be dealing with the mafia.

While I don’t think you need to read the series in order I would recommend it because I think you can really see how the characters are developing and how the partnership is growing.

Finally, I read the latest Victoria Thompson book, Murder on Bank Street almost in one sitting over the weekend. I have been following this series and have been eagerly awaiting each new installment, this is the 10th entry. I love the setting, turn of the century New York, and I really like the two main characters.

But, the last couple of books I was feeling a bit letdown because basically I just felt like we were not getting any resolution with the two main characters. If you read the books I think you’ll understand what I mean. In this latest installment at least some things are finally resolved so once again I’m looking forward to what’s next. Here is my full review.

So that’s the latest on some of the mysteries I’ve been reading. I have a list of mysteries I want to read next which I also want to share with you in case you’ve read them and can recommend them, but I’ll tell you about that another day. It’s back to my Heyer book for now.

Before I get to some book reviews let me just say, Yipee!! Why am I so excited? I just found out that I was one of the winners in Literary Feline’s anniversary contest. I’m going to get 14 books from Hatchett Book Group. Isn’t that fantastic? I was in a blah mood today thanks to intense heat (107 degrees) we’ve been having but I’m feeling much better now.

So, moving on to some reviews I’ve been promising…

Apples & Oranges by Marie Brenner is the memoir of a brother and sister and their difficult relationship. I enjoyed reading about the dynamics between the two as told from Marie’s point of view, but the book also had a lot of background on their family history.

The author points out that she felt that if she could figure out about their past maybe that would explain her relationship with her brother Carl. And, I can understand how that would have made sense to her but for a reader I don’t think that really seemed to fit. As the reader I just wanted to know about her and her brother.

To read more about the book, check out my review.

The other book I finished was Mercy Street by Mariah Stewart. I’ve seen her books before but just hadn’t had the chance to check any out so I was happy to read this one, which I believe is the start of a series.

It is billed as a romantic suspense novel and unfortunately I was a bit let down on the suspense issue but I found it very readable. It was just one of those books you can easily get caught up in and breeze through. I wouldn’t mind checking out another of her books or following up on the series later. You can read more about the book by checking out my review.

Those are just two of the books I’ve recently finished. I was looking at my monthly stats and I read 11 books in July! I have no idea how that happened. That’s not my normal amount but I won’t complain. I guess two of my reads were graphic novels but still that’s still more books than I normally read.

This weekend I’ve been reading Murder on Bank Street by Victoria Thompson and Lady of Quality by Georgette Heyer. I finished the Thompson book so more on that one soon but for now I’m thoroughly caught up in Heyer’s novel. Aside from a great independent and spirited heroine, the book is filled with a fabulous vocabulary.

Bibble-babble, farradiddles, rake-shame, flummery and gabble-monger just to list a few of the words. Aren’t those fun? I need to find a way to drop one of these in regular conversation. ha.

Hope everyone has a great start of the week.