Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen by Marthe Jocelyn

AGGIE MORTON, MYSTERY QUEEN: THE BODY UNDER THE PIANO

  by Marthe Jocelyn

Aggie is twelve and does not go to school – except dance class. In England in 1902 that was not so unusual. But meeting a boy – a foreign boy and making friends with him certainly was! Finding a dead body in her dance class room was also unusual. Joining with the foreign boy to solve a murder is VERY unusual.

This unusual story introduces Aggie (based on Agatha Christie) and Hector Perot is the boy (based on Hercule Perot). They band together to solve the mystery.

A delightful romp through English manners and murder for the middle school set.  Intended to be the first in a series, this is set to become an interesting and lengthy series.

4 of 5 stars

Westering Women by Sandra Dallas

WESTERING WOMEN  by Sandra Dallas  

Characters are all important in this book that relates what it might have been like for a group of women, two ministers (who arranged the trip), and a few men (to drive the teams) traveling by wagon across the country from Chicago to the gold fields of California in 1852.  The object was to provide the men working the male dominated gold fields with honorable women as brides and co-workers. 

The women, their reasons for making the perilous journey, their personalities and their growing sisterhood are the basis for the book. Dallas excels at characterization and the book shines because of her deftness in examining the women through the hardships and dangers of the trip. Maggie, the main character, carries lies, burdens, secrets, and fear with her as do many of the other women.  None are prepared for the trek through plains, mountains and deserts as they make their way across the country. 

Although the hardships of the journey are made clear, this book is about the women.  The epilogue informs us of the resolution for each of the women the reader has come to know intimately.

Book groups will find much to discuss, including answering the questions “Would you have made this trip?” and “Would you have survived?”

5 of 5 stars

THE PRISONER'S WIFE by Maggie Brooks

THE PRISONER’S WIFE  by Maggie Brooks

Based on a true story, THE PRISONER’S WIFE tells of a Czech farm girl who falls in love with the British POW assigned to work on her family’s farm.  When it becomes apparent the POW’s will be moved to another area, Izabela and Bill decide to marry and then have Izabela pose as a mute British soldier. The privations and terror of prison camps, hard forced labor, fear of discovery and then a forced march ahead of the Russian Army as the German’s face defeat make up the whole of the book.

The characters are well defined and grow and change as time passes. Each of the POW’s is a complete and complex person.  The guards are more “stock” characters.  The situations are believable and grab your attention from the first pages. 

My one complaint is – I want to know the outcome of all the characters we have become so intimate with, what happened to them when the POW camps were disbanded and they returned to civilian life, were they able to achieve their desires as war’s end? My desire to lnow more confirms the writer’s ability to draw me in to each character’s story.

Book groups might discuss the decision’s that were made, the morality of various deaths, the culpability of civilians, the actions of the guards, the treatment of POW’s in time of war, the endurance of the human spirit, etc.

5 of 5 stars