"All the best stories in the world are but one story in reality -- the story of escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape."
Sherlock Holmes, the world's best-known and most-loved fictional detective, is more popular today than ever. This collection presents many of the most familiar cases Holmes and his assistant, Dr. Watson, ever solve, including "Silver Blaze," "The Greek Interpreter," and "The Musgrave Ritual." As Holmes's fame grows, it brings him notoriety that piques the ire of London's criminal underworld, who begin to scheme against him. It is in "The Final Problem" that Dr. Watson relates the grisly, fatal, and shocking tale of how Holmes finally meets his match, encountering the diabolical Professor Moriarty in a terrible struggle at Reichenbach Falls.
I have to start out by telling you that when I was asked to review this book, it took me only seconds to respond. My husband and I are huge Sherlock Holmes fans.
Exhibit #1 Our Cats
Back in the days when there were just 4 television selections, ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS, chances were pretty good that late nights on Fridays or Saturdays there would be a Sherlock Holmes movie on at least one of the channels. My favorite Holmes was Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce was my favorite Dr. Watson. But today with the Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes movie starring Robert Downey, Jr. and its sequel coming out in December there is a whole new audience for the Arthur Conan Doyle character. If you are a fan of the television show House you would also notice many similarities between Sherlock Holmes and Gregory House. In fact many episodes contain actual Holmes references. For example in the season two finale, House is shot by a crazed gunman credited as "Moriarty," the name of Holmes's nemesis. Today I just found this article that says CBS is working on a modern day Sherlock Holmes story. BBC already has out their own contemporary series. There are even cartoons based on the characters and books written about Holmes for all grade levels.
I guess what I am trying to say are these stories are timeless and can be read again and again at any time in your life.
Be sure to go see the new movie in December. I am not sure I like explosions and shooting but that's what is in all suspense movies these days.
I am more a fan of the Holmes in this book who uses his deductive skills, perceptions and sharp observations to solve the cases. This is a fantastic book for the older fans like me and a great way to introduce new fans on how Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson started out. The first story was published in 1887 and the character of Sherlock Holmes is still relevant today. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has truly created characters that are timeless and who I "deduce" will be with us in one form or another forever and ever.
Your Escape With A Good Book Travel Agent
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Penguin Books. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Here is just a small sampling of books and DVDs available
Featuring Sherlock Holmes
Click on the picture to go to Amazon.com to order yours today.
The Milwaukee Brewers have won their first division championship since 1982.
plus
The Green Bay Packers Beat da Bears 27-17!! and
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers in named NFC Player of the Month! plus
Badger Football is on fire beating South Dakota last Saturday 59-10, and Madison is filling up for tomorrow's game against Nebraska!!! and
My favorite NASCAR Sprint Cup Driver Matt Kenseth is up to 6th place in The Chase with 8 races to go. Please keep his wife Katie in your prayers, she was practicing for a charity race when her car hit the wall and she has a broken scapula and bumps and bruises.
Cover Illustration
by Alan Ayers
Cover Design
by Rita Frangie
India Black and the Widow of Windsor The Berkley Publishing Group Published by The Penguin Group A Madam of Espionage Mystery Second book in the series. Available October 4, 2011
India Black is back and on a new mission with her friend French in Scotland.
Queen Victoria attended a séance where she is contacted by her dearly departed husband, Prince Albert, where he insists she break tradition and spend the Christmas holiday at Balmoral, their Scottish castle. The Prime Minister believes that Scottish nationalists are planing to assassinate the Queen and calls on his friend and British spy, French, who invites India to join him undercover at the castle. French poses as one of the guests, while India's assignment is to be the maid to the eccentric Dowanger Marchioness of Tullibardine.
It doesn't take long for India to realize the Prime Minister was exactly right in his assessment of the situation. For the next few days India and French will be running themselves ragged to find the Queen's enemies and assure her safety.
My Thoughts
Like the first book in this series, India Black, I loved this story. I adore where the author took this character on this adventure. Balmoral is a fascinating setting and I don't know how true the author's descriptions are of the castle, but I felt like I was right there sneaking through the hallways with India.
The story also contains a wonderful mystery with plenty of twists but what really captured by heart in this story was the humor. India has a quick wit and keen intelligence and while not at all happy with her job in this adventure she continues to entertain us with her observations and quips. The Lady India serves sets up several instances that had me laughing out loud.
Carol K. Carr is an amazing storyteller. I love her writing style. In her case, her words are worth a thousand beautiful pictures. I have absolutely no problem "escaping" far into her books and don't want to leave after the last words are read. I want to follow India on her next adventure. Please Carol don't make me want too long for my next trip abroad.
To find out more about this wonderful author be sure to visit her Web Page.
Your Escape With A Good Book Travel Agent
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Berkley Prime Crime. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
I am really excited about this one!!
Thanks to the wonderful people at Berkley Prime Crime
I have 2, Yes 2 copies of this fabulous book to giveaway!!! U.S. & Canadian Residents Only
You do not need to be a follower
of Dollycas's Thoughts to enter but
Followers will receive 5 Bonus Entries!!!
If you publicize this giveaway, you will receive
an additional 5 Bonus Entries for each link you provide.
Welcome to Cozy Wednesday. I was blown away when I received the guest post from today's guest. The author information is curiously missing from today's featured book so I knew it was probably an author I knew using a pseudonym. The question was who was it? You will find out below!
Button Holed (Button Box Mystery) is the first installment of a brand new series and I loved it!!! My full review will follow Kylie's Guest Post. Please help me give a warm welcome to Kylie Logan!
Welcome Kylie!!
Thank you so much for the invitation to blog on your site.
Not everyone is lucky enough to not only have more than one personality, but to be able to celebrate it. As Casey Daniels, I write the Pepper Martin mystery series about a cemetery worker who investigates for the ghosts in her cemetery. The seventh book in that series, "A Hard Day’s Fright" came out in April and book #8, "Wild, Wild Death," will hit shelves on January 3.
But I’ve got a new alter-ego, and she’s just recently made her first official appearance.
She’s Kylie Logan, author of the Button Box mystery series. Book #1, "Button Holed," hit store and virtual shelves early this month.
Cover Illustration
by Jennifer Taylor
Cover Design
by Annette Fiore Defex
It’s been an interesting road to publication for Kylie and it all started, quite simply, because I like buttons. As Josie Giancola, the heroine of the new series comments, buttons are little bits of history, and tiny works of art. They say something about a person’s style, and that person’s social class. Many antique buttons display incredible workmanship, dazzling jewels and even say something about a wearer’s love life; back in the nineteenth century, it was fashionable for a young lady to have a photograph of her beau put on her coat buttons!
Still, I never thought about actually writing a mystery series about buttons until a couple years ago when I visited Ann Arbor, Michigan. I’d just finished lunch at a charming coffee shop and I was alone on the front porch, sipping coffee and knitting, when a couple sat down at the table next to me. There are a couple operative words in that last sentence, namely, alone and next to. You see, they decided to pick that very moment to break up.
I listened to it for ten minutes or so and honestly, I expected them to apologize. After all, there was no doubt I could hear everything they were saying. They didn’t. Instead, they went on and on and I’d had enough. I gathered up my knitting and went next door to an antique shop.
What I didn’t know until I opened the door was that it was an antique shop that specialized in buttons.
Thousands and thousands of buttons.
I was in heaven, and the nice lady who owned the place was only too happy to tell me stories and answer my questions.
It was that encounter that gave me the idea for the Button Box mysteries. Josie owns an antique button shop, too, though hers is in a Chicago brownstone. It’s there that she meets a famous actress who’s come to Josie for the buttons she’ll put on her wedding gown when she marries a European prince. And it’s that actress who is murdered in the shop. When Josie’s cleaning up, she finds an unusual button–one she knows didn’t come from her collection.
As for those multiple personalities of mine . . . readers who enjoy the Pepper Martin mysteries can expect much the same light and airy reading experience and the same sort of humor and intricate plotting. However, there are no paranormal elements in Kylie’s books as there are in Casey’s.
Because Kylie is a new person, she has her own, new blog. You can find her at:
Thank you so much for being here today. You are always welcome to come back no matter what alias you are using. Kylie also shared with me that she also writes as Miranda Bliss, author of the Cooking Class Mysteries, another of my favorites. She has other nom de plumes as well but I won't give out all her secrets here today. J
Josie Giancola is known as a button expert for all kinds of buttons and has even worked in Hollywood. Today she is opening her new button shop, The Button Box, set up in a Chicago brownstone. She also has an appointment with a well known Hollywood starlet who wants to find the perfect buttons for her perfect wedding dress. Josie arrives extra early on her opening day to make sure everything is ready for her appointment only to find that her store has been broken into and ransacked. There are buttons everywhere. Buttons she had spent many days sorting and categorizing and displaying with flawless precision.
Things don't get any better when the next day the starlet is found dead right in the middle of The Button Box. The homicide detective seems to be looking for clues in all the wrong places and the murderer has now set his sights on Josie. She has no choice but to follow the clues she has and get this murderer all buttoned up before she finds herself "Button Holed"!
My Thoughts
This story could not have been more perfect. Wonderful characters, a delightful complex plot, and thoroughly engaging humor.
I fell for Josie on the very first page. I come from a family of seamstresses and they all had button bowls and boxes. As a child I spent hours sorting, stacking and separating my favorites. I have my own button box around here somewhere from my sewing days and I know there are some buttons in there from my ancestors as well. Button Holed (Button Box Mystery) and The Button Box brought back some wonderful memories. Thankfully none of my memories include a dead starlet.
There is also a very interesting thread throughout the story about some very special buttons that I really enjoyed.
I was truly entertained from the first page to the last! I am patiently waiting for Kill Button, the next book in The Button Box Mystery Series coming soon, but never soon enough!!
Your Escape With A Good Book Travel Agent
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Berkley Prime Crime. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
NOW ARE YOU READY FOR A GIVEAWAY!! Thanks to Berkley Prime Crime I have 2 copies to share!!
All wars have rules! 1. No killing innocent bystanders. 2. No killing anyone under the age of eighteen. 3. Have a child before you are eighteen, the child must be turned over to the other side. BREAK THE RULES YOU BECOME THE TARGET!
Children are indoctrinated at the age of 16 and begin their war training. On their eighteenth birthday they become the hunters and the hunted in the war of "us" vs. "them".
The war has gone on for generations, fought all over the world, with two distinct sides "good" and "evil". The terms vary based on which side you are on. Reasons for the war change depending on who you ask. Every killing is done in way to look random or like an accident right out in the field of innocents. Plus the "us" and the "them" are not even clearly identified by those fighting the war. There is one rule everyone knows, Paranoia will keep you alive.
My Thoughts
When I finished this book, I said "Wow" and then sat back to contemplate the story I had just read. The news is filled daily with crime, scandal, and war. Wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, gang wars, drug wars, political wars, but to think a war like the one described in this book never entered my mind. Many wars are entered into without exit strategies or based on unclear information but the fact that this war has divided two factions without even a clear inkling WHY? scares me more than any of the other wars.
This book takes us with Joe on his journey in this war. It is definitely an intense suspense thriller that at times will have you on the edge of your seat, but it is so much more than that. Children of Paranoia is a book that will make you stop and think.
What really knocked me for a loop is that this is Trevor Shane's first novel. He has created the character of Joe with so many layers, it is almost like peeling an onion and there is still more. He also surrounds Joe with other wonderful characters that the reader becomes invested in with a few short sentences. Joe's mother is just one of those characters, her actions were both shocking and understandable.
This story is heart stopping one moment and tear jerking in another. Shane has created a masterpiece you will pick up and not put down until the final word and then you will say "Wow" and sit back contemplate this story and then want to tell your friends all about it. Just like I did!!
Your Escape With A Good Book Travel Agent
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Dutton, a division of The Penguin Group. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Blogger and Amazon are having issues and those of us who use Blogger for our blogs are being punished. We have had the luxury of a gadget that with just a point and click we could add Amazon links to our posts. Since September 15 this gadget has been turned off and links must be created on the Amazon site and copied and pasted. Yes, I was spoiled, but these created links don't always format as easily as the ones made with the gadget, plus it just takes more time. Amazon has answered our questions/complaints and has stated they are willing to work with Blogger. We have seen no response from Blogger/Google at all. Plus there are many bugs in other Google products, as well, that have been "updated", like Google Docs that are not being dealt with.
Out of my frustration and upon learning that this has gotten Blogger's attention in the past I have created a Facebook page addressing the Amazon issue. If you use Blogger and are missing the Amazon Gadget as much as I am, please go to Facebook and "like" this page and leave comments.
With cats named Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson and Professor Moriarty how could I turn this book when it was offered to me for review. Review Coming Soon!!