A.J. Fikry is a 39-year-old bookseller who was widowed a couple years ago and remains in a grumpy—sometimes drunken—funk. His bookstore is on Alice Island off of Boston, and in spite of an influx of summer visitors, his business is not doing that well. A couple people enter his life – Amelia, a young book representative who's not afraid to mix clothing styles, and Maya, a baby.
Each chapter in the book is preceded by one of A.J.'s book reviews. It's a sweet book with a great cast of characters.
The year is 1888 and Veronica Speedwell, a 26-year old woman with a scientific bent, is trying to find time away from Stoker, her usual partner in solving crimes, because she's conflicted about their friendship perhaps turning into a romantic relationship. She's not sure what she wants, although she's quite vocal about never getting married. When Stoker's brother, Lord Tiberius Templeton-Vane, asks Veronica to join him on a journey to a small island where a longtime friend resides in order to bring some rare butterflies back to London, Veronica can't help herself. Veronica fends off advances from Tiberius in the train, and is annoyed when she finds out that their host, Malcolm Romilly, has been told that she and Tiberius are engaged.
Stoker appears after the train drops them off and they are about to take a boat to St. Maddern's Isle, where Malcolm resides in a castle. There's quite a bit of tension between the brothers, but as it turns out, Tiberius wanted Stoker to join them at the island, which is why he had forbidden him to come. The butterflies are forgotten for awhile as the visitors learn that Malcolm's bride, Rosamund, disappeared on their wedding day three years ago, and Malcolm really needs closure. He wants them to find out what happened to her. Is she dead or did she run away? The castle has secret passageways and priest's holes, which were hiding places for priests when Catholicism was taboo, but they were all checked at the time of Rosamund's disappearance.
The suspects include Malcolm's sister Mertensia (who cultivates plants, including poisonous herbs), Malcolm's sister-in-law Helen (a dabbler in seances) and her son Caspian. And perhaps even Tiberius, who wasn't present on the wedding day, but who was clearly in love with Rosamund.
Even though I had not read the first three books in the series, I didn't feel lost, although this book whetted my appetite for the earlier installments. I've been finding out that books like this one, written recently but set back long ago, are not the fuddy-duddy stories I expect them to be, especially when given a feisty heroine like Veronica!
Blythe is turning 30 and feels the pressure to take on the life that her mother, sister and boyfriend want for her. But everything is upended when she's unexpectedly given her grandmother's ashes along with the job to go to a specific island, find the spot where something special was buried long ago, and then to inter the ashes in that place. If she is successful, she will inherit $500,000 that her grandmother had put into a trust for her.
By leaving her boyfriend and rejecting a high-profile job which he had lined up for her, Blythe reaches for the unknown, and the chance to find out what she really wants to do with her life. She books a spot on the island of Vinland, a tourist destination for treasure-seeking. The tourists choose to be Vikings or Pirates, and they learn how to use metal detectors to find clues that have been planted for them. But Blythe's hunt is a much different one, and she meets a few people on the island who try to help her find where to bury her grandmother's ashes - in particular, Flynn, a man who doesn't really want to be on the island, but who came to be with his 12-year old niece after his sister died, and Savannah, the niece. The uncle and niece are butting heads constantly.
Blythe's grandmother has been dead for 24 years, but when she was still alive, she and Blythe had such a playful and loving relationship, with more than a touch of make-believe magic in it. Or *was* it make-believe? This book is filled with magic, at least one ghost, lots of ravens (including one who talks), and a lot of secrets.
Zoey is ready to start college, and is feeling pressured by her father and stepmother to permanently move out of their house in Tulsa. They had reluctantly taken her in when her mother died when Zoey was seven. She has never really been treated as part of the family and she seeks to find some essence of her mother at an efficiency apartment that she had inherited on Mallow Island, off the coast of South Carolina. The condo is not far from the university she'll be attending in the fall. When she arrives on the island, she meets Fraiser, the caretaker of the small condo community called The Dellawisp, named after the small turquoise birds who live on the property, birds which are not shy about landing on people, pulling on their shoelaces, or even following them inside. Additionally, there are four other units besides the one now owned by Zoey, but the inhabitants aren't open about meeting her ‒ or each other, for that matter. The only person who makes an extended appearance on Zoey's first day there is Lizbeth, a hoarder who shushes any activity. Zoey tries to change the dynamics; her enthusiasm is refreshing for a young woman whose best friend at the moment is an invisible pigeon.
I'm not sure what I love the most about this book. It could be the birds, the ghosts (yes, even the ghosts have chapters, telling us about themselves!), or the atmosphere of The Dellawisp in general. But the characters are compelling, and as we learn their backstories, the story grows in scope. I highly recommend this book!
Ten Little Indians by Agatha Christie (1939) 183 pages
In each bedroom is a nursery rhyme. The first stanza goes thus: "Ten little Indian boys went out to dine; One choked on his little self and then there were nine." The stanzas continue until "there were none." After dinner on the first night, a record is played for them, per the instructions left to the butler. Instead of music, the recording names each one of them in turn, calling them murderers. Almost immediately, one of the guests took a large gulp of his drink and fell to the ground, dead. Thus started the progression of deaths. As the guests realize the gravity of the situation, they try to explore every possible hiding place and believe that the only people on the island are themselves. Will they be able to escape their death sentences? This mystery is still thrilling some 82 years after its first publication.
