St. Francis Society for Wayward Pets

St. Francis Society for Wayward Pets by Annie England Noblin, 351 pages

In the course of 24 hours, Mae has lost her job, lost her boyfriend, and been mugged. Forced to move in with her parents, she's ready for a good long sulk and pity-party when she learns that her biological mother has died and is leaving everything she owns to the daughter she hasn't seen since birth. With nothing to lose, Mae decides to head to the tiny town of Timber Creek, Washington, and learn a bit about her biological mom and the town where she lived her whole life.

This book is in turns sweet, stark, and funny, peppered with flashbacks to Mae's mother before Mae was born. I enjoyed the characters, and Mae's growth, though everything seemed to happen a bit too quickly to feel real to any degree. But the quirky small-town characters (including Mae's new cat and dog) were enough to make up for it. A quick, engaging read.

Murder on a Midsummer Night

Murder on a Midsummer Night by Kerry Greenwood (©2008, US edition 2009) 257 pages

Smart, sexy, fashionable Phryne Fisher juggles two different mysteries along with a very sweltering Australian summer in 1929, prior to air conditioning. First, a possible murder of Augustine, a junk shop owner whom everybody calls "good" and "honest." His death is currently listed as suicide, greatly upsetting his mother, who made the case that he would never do such a thing. Second, Phryne fields a request to look discreetly for a child who may have been born to a teenager in 1865, prior to a later marriage that produced four children. The woman has recently died, and her family and attorney find that they need this information in order to disperse her estate. Add theft, blackmail, greed, drug use, and excess alcohol into the mix and sprinkle with information about antiquities and some relevant history. Thus the scene is set. Phryne isn't always her cool, collected self in the impossible heat, but along with her usual crew of helpers and a couple retired actors, the knots eventually become untangled. 17th in the series, this book was a great read on a winter day!