reviews

A Dog, Cat, and Pig Day Afternoon Author: Eileen Brady I love my cats – really, I do. It would be unseemly for an aspiring Crazy Cat Lady not to, now wouldn’t it? But I can assure you that I do not dote on my pets nearly as much as the residents of the fictional Oak Falls, New York. Which is probably good, since they are the quirky denizens of the small town in which the Kate Turner, DVM, Mysteries take place. As much as I enjoy their exploits in Eileen Brady’s series, I’m not quite ready to declare myself [...]

Skiing Down Mount Murder Author: David P. Wagner It’s February. I currently hate winter. I know there are those of you who love the snowy goodness and activities this wretched season brings, but right now I am not among you. Perhaps in July I will think fondly of cozy fleece pants, but right now I’m thinking fondly of July. So perhaps this wasn’t the best time to read David P. Wagner’s Death in the Dolomites. Nevertheless, I believe I can be fair to this second installment in the Rick Montoya Italian Mysteries series. Rick Montoya is, of course, our protagonist. [...]

One Ring to Rule Them All: One First Encounter With Middle-Earth Author: J.R.R. Tolkien  I’ve been known to concentrate on the esoteric and completely miss certain “staples” of the fiction and novel reading universe. As a teenager and later into college, I discovered fantasy through Dragonlance and fell in love with the heavy tomes detailing the Chronicles of the Heroes. I’d heard that Weis and Hickman were stealing the idea from Tolkien, a much older, far more well-known fantasy epic that for whatever reason – maybe the exceptionally old school drawings on the cover or maybe the too-much-action and over-the-top fantasy [...]