Showing posts with label Dorothy McFalls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dorothy McFalls. Show all posts

Monday, May 26, 2014

Oak and Dagger

Title: Oak and Dagger

Author: Dorothy St. James [Website] aka Dorothy McFalls [Website]

Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime Mystery

Series: White House Gardener Mystery, Bk 3

ISBN: 9780425252031

Length: 306 pages + "Tips from Casey's Fall Gardener's Notebook"

Obtained: Library copy

Why this book?:

I've been reading the series and recently finished book 2, The Scarlet Pepper.

Comments:

I don't know if I can explain my opinions/reactions.  Because I've been enjoying this series, and I like the characters.  But.  But Casey has this tendency to annoy me.  In the previous book it was how often she jumped to conclusions.  She did that in this one too, but very much cut back... she even says in the book that she's learned from her mistakes (in different words) which is cool.  But she still is weird about relationships and seems to be a total mess, and that can get frustrating.  Of course it looks like a new leaf may be turned for the next book in that area, so maybe we'll be okay.  Although this time around Casey wasn't the only character to annoy me.  Jack did his fair share as well; for one thing, he jumped to his own conclusions.

Anyway. this book came out in spring of 2013 (why, when it's set in the fall, just before Thanksgiving, I do not know).  But the fall/Thanksgiving theme wasn't such a big deal as to make reading it in May strange.

I'd read more by this author - in this genre at least.

Monday, May 12, 2014

The Scarlet Pepper

Title: The Scarlet Pepper

Author: Dorothy St. James [Website] aka Dorothy McFalls [Website]

Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime Mystery

Series: White House Gardener Mystery, Bk 2

ISBN: 9780425247044

Length: 307 + "Page from Casey's Summer Gardener Notebook" + "Recipe for Quick and Easy Sheet Composting"

Obtained: Library copy

Why this book?:

I've read the first book, Flowerbed of State in 2011 (no review, but it was part of a reading challenge).  I enjoyed it, but hadn't gotten around to reading any further in the series.  I was once again at work, going to lunch, and hadn't brought any books with me.  So I browsed, saw the 3rd book, Oak and Dagger, and decided to see if I could find this one to catch up.  And there it was.

Comments:

I did not remember much about the 1st book.  The main character, Casey, annoyed me here and there when she took chances and made assumptions (did she ever!) that I thought were too much.  And I did guess the bad guy from as soon as a murder was discovered.  But despite all that, I did enjoy the series and plan on reading the 3rd book (which I checked out as soon as I finished reading this one).