Library Loot: April 27-May 3

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire (The Captive Reader) and Marg (The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader) that encourages bloggers to share the books they've checked out of the library. If you'd like to participate, just write up your post, feel free to steal button, and link up using the Mr. Linky on Claire's site this week. And, of course, check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.

Here's my haul for this week--I keep adding (or having my husband add since he's my library workhorse at the moment) to my piles of recovery reading:

The Brothers of Baker Street by Michael Roberts (This is the second of a series. When it caught my eye, I had to search for the first one--see below): Robertson's second mystery featuring barrister Reggie Heath, whose chambers are located at Sherlock Holmes's legendary address, offers pacing, prose, and plotting at a level far above that of its predecessor, 2009's The Baker Street Letters. On returning to London from California, Heath finds underwhelming demand for his professional services as well as pressure to abide by the terms of his lease by responding to letters addressed to the fictional character. An attractive solicitor, Darla Rennie, retains Heath to represent Neil Walters, a cab driver accused of murdering a young couple. Despite having been burned in his previous criminal case, Heath dives into defending Walters, only to end up in jeopardy himself. He must rely on his brother, Nigel, for help in escaping his peril, which may be connected with a letter writer to Baker Street who signs his correspondence Moriarty. An extremely clever evil scheme will delight readers. (Publishers Weekly)

The Baker Street Letters by Michael Roberts: London solicitor Reggie Heath, who's just leased office space on Baker Street, finds his obligations include making sure letters addressed to Sherlock Holmes at 221B are answered, if with formulaic replies. After a senior clerk is bludgeoned to death and Heath's younger ne'er-do-well brother disappears, the lawyer suspects both events are connected to a letter an eight-year-old girl, Mara Ramirez, sent nearly 20 years earlier asking the great detective to locate her missing father. Heath follows the trail to Los Angeles, where he succeeds in tracking down Mara and learns current crimes may be connected with her father's disappearance. Readers will want to spend more time with the appealing Heath and company, but the conceit of having future mysteries to solve based on letters to Baker Street may be hard to sustain. (Publishers Weekly)

The Wyndham Case by Jill Paton Walsh: Imogen Quy, who as a small child was taken to tea with E. M. Forster, is the college nurse at St. Agatha's College, Cambridge. Compassionate, intelligent and capable, Imogen (her last name rhymes with why ) is a kind young woman who believes in thinking things through. When a brilliant scholarship student is found dead in a pool of blood in Wyndham Case, a small library established by a 17th-century bequest, Imogen not only helps the police solve the case but also clears the dead boy of suspicion of theft. To do so, she weaves together threads involving a missing priceless book, a medical student drowned in a fountain, a professor imprisoned in a dungeon, feuding librarians, unrequited (and requited) love and a student on the run. In spite of a few frayed patches in the plot's fabric, Walsh produces a clear, sequential mystery, unmuddied by extraneous elements, whose intricate plot is resolved with surprising revelations in the final chapters--all related with precision, grace and a lovely sense of place.

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury: A masterpiece of modern Gothic literature, Something Wicked This Way Comes is the memorable story of two boys, James Nightshade and William Halloway, and the evil that grips their small Midwestern town with the arrival of a "dark carnival" one Autumn midnight. How these two innocents, both age 13, save the souls of the town (as well as their own), makes for compelling reading on timeless themes. What would you do if your secret wishes could be granted by the mysterious ringmaster Mr. Dark? Bradbury excels in revealing the dark side that exists in us all, teaching us ultimately to celebrate the shadows rather than fear them.

One Book on Tape (CD):
Heavy Weather by P. G. Wodehouse: It's Heavy Weather for Lord Emsworth and the Empress, especially with the appalling Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe snooping around with designs on the prize pig.

Plus two books I picked up in the Library Used Bookstore:
The Body in the Bookcase by Katherine Hall Page
Watchers of Time by Charles Todd


Leftover Loot:
Intruder in the Dust by William Faulkner
The Cat Who Could Read Backwards by Lillian Jackson Braun
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman