April Wrap-Up and P.O.M. Award

 

Found on inspireme.lasoeurkaramazov.net

I'm enjoying another year of tracking reading progress and statistics for all things bookish on the Block. I will also be contributing to Kerrie's Crime Fiction Pick of the Month. Here's what happened here on the Block in April....

Total Books Read: 15
Total Pages:  3,482
Average Rating: 3.23 stars  
Top Rating: 4.5 stars 
Percentage by Female Authors: 20%
Percentage by US Authors: 60%
Percentage by non-US/non-British Authors:  0%
Percentage Mystery:  80% 
Percentage Fiction: 93%
Percentage written 2000+: 13%
Percentage of Rereads: 6%
Percentage Read for Challenges: 100% {It's easy to have every book count for a challenge when you sign up for as many as I do.}    
Number of Challenges fulfilled so far: 5 (12%)


AND, as mentioned above, Kerrie had us all set up for another year of Crime Fiction Favorites. What she was looking for is our Top Mystery Read for each month. March was a big month for mysteries with nine coming from that field and two in non-fiction. And one of the non-fiction was all about poisoning, so it could almost count. Here are the books read:
The False Inspector Dew by Peter Lovesey (4.5 stars) 
Poison Jasmine by Clyde B. Clason (3.5 stars) 
The Murder of Sir Edmund Godfrey by John Dickson Carr (3.5 stars) 
Murder in the Wind by John D. MacDonald (3.5 stars) 
Flying to Nowhere by John Fuller (1 star) 
The Ringmaster's Secret by Carolyn Keene (4 stars) 
The Cavalier in White by Marcia Muller (3 stars) 
The Wilberforce Legacy by Josephine Bell (3 stars) 
The Smiler with the Knife by Nicholas Blake (3.5 stars) 
Safari by Parnell Hall (2 stars) 
Call for Michael Shayne by Brett Halliday (3 stars) 
The Adventure of the Three Students by Doyle; adapted by Vincent Goodwin (3 stars) 
The Case of Colonel Marchand by E. C. R. Lorac (4 stars)

And the run-away winner of the P.O.M. Award is The False Inspector Dew by Peter Lovesey with 4.5 stars.

This is a terrific, near-perfect mystery in the traditional mode--it has everything: murder, ship-board romance, small-time crooks, mistaken identity (several), and a closed set of suspects. Lovesey expertly sets the reader up for certain scenarios and then, with a quick flick of the wrist changes things up in the most logical manner. He also seems to be having a great deal of fun playing with all the standard tropes of both detective and romantic fiction--from the passion of the romance-obsessed Alma to the Inspector who isn't really an inspector to the doting mother who's bound and determined to marry off her daughter.