OUT OF THE GATE LIKE A STUTZ BEARCAT

Radha Vatsal is a scholar and a talented storyteller, evident in her strong historical mystery debut,A Front Page Affair, just released this summer.

Capability Weeks (“Kitty” to her friends) and her father (a well-to-do, self-made mogul) live well in 1915 New York City. Kitty, a young addition to the New York Sentinel’s Ladies Page, covers a July 4th society soiree and becomes unintentionally tied to a murder and what looks like a plot to endanger the delicate international balance. 

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Finished the first Cadfael book. Have heard of this series (of course) but never read any of the books. It was great! Will definitely pick up others in time – like when waiting on another series book to come out, or just nothing in the old TBR pile is sparking.  Apparently there are 20 books in this series, and everyone recommends reading them in order, so this is where you start.

Fantastic story, wonderfully written.  No wonder Brother Cadfael is one of the most popular historical mystery series, even spinning off a television series (I think).  I may need to track those down too.  

Within the first few pages of this first book of the series, I knew Brother Cadfael would be a character that I’d want to follow through many more stories.  

What I liked:
Peters captures what I suspect to be a lot of historical/ cultural nuances in simple, effective ways.  There’s a huge amount of research behind this, but we’re not drawn out into these huge sweeping encyclopedia entries in an attempt to build this distant time and place around the modern reader.  We jump straight in as a fly on the wall, watching and listening, wholly transported.  I also liked that the religious aspects of the story were handled in a sympathetic, but I think also very honest way.  The mystery itself wasn’t overly complicated, but that’s part of what made it ring true to me.

Brother Cadfael is also a very interesting character.  Peters obviously wrote this with an eye toward several more books, with many hints and winks at his colorful past.  

A big recommend from me if you’re into history, mystery, or even books like Game of Thrones.

I have only read a couple of the first pages and it occured to me that this is going to be one of my favorites and I would like to share that fact with my readers. It is not written by an amature writter ans the author knows what he is talking about. Pick up a copy and we will read it together.

This is the second book in the Baker family Saga. Dianna is growing up and Richard is grown and ready for Princeton. Jonathan's not doing well and his doctor son, Miles, can't discover why. A death in the family effects everyone. Chester Thomas is as old as Richard physically, but he is worse with age, while Richard is more mature. Dianna looks good to him, but he scares and sickens Dianna. Then three other men move into Ferndale - a man and his two grown sons, Dianna looks good to both of them but only the younger one pays any attention to Dianna. Unfortunately he does not impress Dianna, but his brother is the answer to her dreams. In the midst of this unhappy love triangle Chester Thomas comes back to the west intent on evil.