I enjoy this series a lot - it's cozy without being twee, and the mysteries are reasonably well plotted most of the time.  I also love that Kuhn shows way more than she tells; this might be the only reason I'd tell someone to read these in order.  The stories don't require it at all, but the author doesn't waste her established readers' time by going over all the backstory.  New readers might feel lost if they started with book 3 instead of book 1.

The Spirit in Question isn't anything I can rave about, it was just an enjoyable story.  My first inclination was to give it 3.5 stars, but that's more a reflection of my bias against mysteries that take place in the theatre.  It's a haunted theatre though, so that gave it an edge for me.

The plotting was solid; I had no idea who the killer was.  But on the other hand, the motive for the killer felt a little weak.  Possibly, maybe, one that unconsciously falls back on an old stereotype that feminists would grind their teeth over.  It didn't bother me, but I did notice it.

My only complaint about the series overall is that she doesn't write them faster.  I need more solid, dependable cozy/traditional series in my life like this one.

Series: Lila Maclean #1

I guess this book was okay, but I found it kind of condescending and not nearly as tightly-told as it could have been. There were a lot of extraneous details that the author though should be included to flesh out the characters but that didn’t do much for the story and I didn’t really think they were necessary.

The police were made to look like imbeciles. I’m not sure if that was the intention. There were also quite a few melodramatic plot elements that I had to raise an eyebrow at.

It probably didn’t help that I came off another cozy mystery that I thought held together a lot better even though there were still some elements that I suppose I could have taken exception to (A Pint of Murder by Charlotte MacLeod).

I’m not sure whether I’ll read the next book since MbD wasn’t impressed. It won’t be high on my list, anyway.

I’m giving it an extra  half star because the feminist themes in the book have merit although I don’t think they were presented in a particularly interesting manner or utilized as well as they could have been.

Various sources have the page count for this book ranging from 213 to 246 pages, so I’m going to count is as the 201 to 400 pages ranges, or $3 for booklikes-opoly. This brings my bank to $25. I’m counting this book for square #17, cozy mystery. It’s tagged as that on GR, so I think it counts. MbD will probably back me up on the genre too.

Oh ho, so the murder victim was a creepy stalker guy. Just how old was he, anyway? He must be ancient for him to have been able to influence someone's tenure appointment back then. Actually, just how many tenure track positions are there at this university?

And why exactly are these educated women not outright calling him a misogynist? Is the reader not expected to know the word?

At least this book is short.

Good, but not great; I thought the first book showed a lot of potential because I liked the setting, I liked the characters and I liked that the author wasn't trying to make everything cute.  It exceeded my expectations, which have, admittedly, been lowered dramatically by the dreck published en masse the last few years.

What I liked about this, the second one:

*  It's a mystery, but not a murder mystery.  This isn't uncommon in the mystery genre, but it's not mainstream either so it feels fresh.

*  The continuation of a narrative that doesn't feel overly melodramatic: Lila is just trying to get through her days.

*  No TSTL stuff.  Lila isn't running around trying to act like Nancy Drew and interrogate everyone; she just pays attention and thinks.

* I liked the plot twist; when I read it I started to think "same old, same old" but she did something a tiny bit different that really didn't matter much in the scheme of things, but again, gave it that tiny bit of freshness.

What wasn't so great about The Art of Vanishing

*  What's up with this trend of needing to have an over-the-top nasty nemesis?  How is it that in the current age of anti-bullying authors seem so hot to include cartoonish bullies in every book?  And Lila gets two of them - two nemesis (nemesii?) is surely two too many.

*  Love triangle setup.  'nuff said.

These are short and I think, better written than most of what's out there currently.  I hate the cliche of the love triangle but I'll give it one more book to see if - hopefully - the author is just dangling it there as a red herring.

Page count: 216
Dollars banked: $3.00

Is some snappy dialogue really too much to ask for? It seems like older books paid more attention to that sort of thing.

Honestly, this book seems flat so far. And frustrating.

And I can't decide whether Archer was playing dumb or just is dumb (part of the frustration was that whole "canon" exchange). I don't appreciate being explained at.