Lorna Recommends...

The first in a series of literary detective novels that are laugh-out-loud funny. Thursday Next has to outwit a villain who has kidnapped Jane Eyre out of her novel. Great fun with lots of literary references.

WGBH has just finished airing "Return to Cranford" the two part sequel to 2008's "Cranford" and I just loved it. So much so that after I watched the first Cranford I took the book on vacation and read it virtually in one sitting. It was lovely and I have to say even though it is set in the 1840's it seemed quite timeless. I just found out that Cranford was first published as a serial, in a magazine edited by Charles Dickens and is based on the village where Elizabeth Gaskell grew up. We have two editions, one with the lovely Judy Dench on the cover in paperback and the other a beautiful green cloth binding part of a set of classics from Penguin.

A joy to read, this is the latest addition to the 44 Scotland Street series that revolves around the lives of the tenants of an Edinburgh apartment building. Featuring Bertie Pollack (my favorite character) the precocious six year-old that is still trying to escape his overbearing mother Irene. This is observational writing at it's best filled with gentle humor and loving detail.

The second novel from Leif Enger (read his first Peace Like a River if you haven't already) did not disappoint me. I find his writing to be beautiful and surprising. It's part western, part road trip with a group of wonderful characters that seem so real and unimaginable at the same time.

Starting with the title, Dog On It, I knew right away that author Spencer Quinn was a clever man and I found his first book a joy to read. It's a perfect new mystery series with sharp writing, great characters and fast paced action. The narrator is a dog named Chet, an almost K-9 school graduate who likes to ride shotgun with his owner private detective Bernie Little. Chet presides over the action and keeps you informed except of course when distracted by something like a toy at the bottom of a pool, or a smelly parrot, or when he really needs a nap. I never got tired of Chet's narration, the seriously clever, inside the dog's mind view of things is fresh and funny and never takes away from the mystery at the heart of this story. I haven't read all the books that are out there right now that are narrated by dogs but this one is a winner. I look forward to Chet and Bernie's next adventure.

I've been reading mysteries and detective fiction all my life and I found this book fascinating. Its partly a true crime drama (a la Devil in the White City and Thunderstruck) but also an amazing study of who and what detectives are. Throw in some Dickens, Collins and Poe, who were around at the time and totally fascinated with what the new "detectives" were doing. It made me stop and think about all the detective fiction I read and how their authors portray them.

You will learn a lot about Japanese culture both past and present in this fascinating mystery featuring Rei, a Japanese American trying to live in Tokyo.