Reviewed By Liz

ISBN 1-59414-591-1

THE BURNING GLASS is the third book in the Jean Fairbairn/Alasdair Cameron series. Jean writes for Great Scot, which is sending her to the Scottish Border for two weeks to cover an assortment of stories for the publication. And ex-cop Alasdair Cameron is now the caretaker of Ferniebank Castle, one of the sites Jean is to write about, and the two of them have an extended tryst planned. However, Ferniebank Castle is no longer off the beaten path, thanks to THE DA VINCI CODE – Ferniebank’s chapel and the famous Rosslyn were built by the same hands.

Jean and Alasdair’s plans for a romantic getaway are complicated by a New Age developer who wants to turn the castle into a conference center and spa, the theft of an antique harp, the disappearance of a local politician, and the fact that both Jean and Alasdair can see the Castle ghost roaming around at night as she reenacts her death. They quickly realize that some of these problems are going to have to be fixed before they are going to have any peace and quiet.

THE BURNING GLASS is a fairly hefty book and has lots of interesting plot elements that I can’t really do justice in a short review. Carl incorporates some very interesting historical elements, a little romance, and a generous dash of the supernatural into her book. I found the supernatural aspect of the book very interesting. One of the things that Jean and Alasdair have in common is the fact that they are both sensitive to ghosts. But they aren’t weird about it, they just accept and acknowledge it. The two of them are intrigued by the castle ghost and the mystery surrounding her death and, since they can see here, they can pick up some clues and figure out what really happened.

If you took one of the better X-Files episodes and turned it into a mystery novel with more mature characters, you would end up with something very like THE BURNING GLASS.

Favorite character? I quite like Ciara Macquarrie, the New Age capitalist. Did I guess it? Mostly. Will I read another? Yes. In Carl’s previous books, Jean and Alasdair turn their attentions to the lost treasure of Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Loch Ness monster. These sound like too much fun to miss.

Mystery Book Reviews by Liz at http://reviewedbyliz.com ©2007

Available at Amazon!

I’m extending my crusade to get people to read mystery authors new to them to the local library. Next Thursday I am giving a talk on mystery authors I really enjoy but that others may not yet have discovered. I limited myself to 12, which was a painful process, but the library had to request these books from all over the area to get copies in house for the talk so I couldn’t go overboard. I’ll be talking about: Hailey Lind, Boris Akunin, Craig Johnson, Chris Grabenstein, Megan Abbott, Kathy Lynn Emerson, Mary Anna Evans, Karen Olson, Jasper Fforde, Dean James, Perri O’Shaunessy, and Bill Crider. If you are interested, you can find reviews for all of these authors on this blog.

Yes, I know, some of these authors have a lot of books out, but they don’t have any/many in my local library. I tried to pick something for everyone and hope that they will come back for more next month. Wish me luck!

I am also putting together a list of “Freshman Class” authors who have had their first books (or first mysteries) published in 2007. I picked up the names of several from the SMRC, but could use a few more. So if you have discovered somebody new and fabulous (or if you are a new and fabulous mystery author) please let me know the title and author of the book so I can include it on my list. Everybody is looking for some new reads!

Second, I just know that somebody is going to ask me for Janet Evanovich readalikes. The librarians will, if no one else does. So give me your recommendations for that, too. I have read several readalike lists and have yet to discover mysteries that are really like the Plum books. The ones I have personally read tend to have better mystery plots (which I like) and are humorous, but don’t have the laugh-until-you-blow-milk-through-your-nose aspect of the Plum books. Yeah, I’m a sucker for Bob the dog and Granda Mazur.

Here are some of the ones I would recommend:

MURDER… SUICIDE… WHATEVER by Gwen Freeman

DATING DEAD MEN by Harley Jane Kozak

WHISKEY AND TONIC by Nina Wright (just reviewed yesterday!)

And, depending upon what you like about the series:

Donna Andrews’ Meg Lanslow series (funny relatives)

Donald Westlake’s Dortmunder series (capers)

Sarah Strohmeyer’s Bubbles series (romance)

Tim Dorsey’s Serge A. Storms series (general bizarreness and things that go boom)

P.G. Wodehouse (the grandfather of the humorous mystery)

So who would you add to the list? And what aspect of the book or series makes it like Evanovich?