The Literate Kitty

So. I'm back home safe and sound (as of last night, about 10:45 p.m.) from my most-recent Big Adventure (to the Pacific Northwest), only to find myself thrown most unceremoniously back into the fray, as it were. Did "life" have the basic decency to grant me a little reprieve, kinda letting me ease back into the groove? Um, no. [Cue crazed/maniacal laughter.] Not even close . Paperwork is stacked up several inches high. A half-dozen orders were waiting for me to pack and ship. (As in today, chop-chop, whatdoyoumeanyouhave "jetlag"?!?) More taxes are due. (Taxes are always due.) Payroll is past due. I don't think I'm actually behind on any bills... but I better check; it's just tempting fate to say that I'm all caught up, you know? To top it all off, my house is a wreck. One man and one cat, left to their own devices for a measly 5 days, can wreak utter and absolute havoc on what was previously a more-or-less clean abode. I am appalled, but t...

Give me a great bunch of characters, and I’m willing to read about them doing nearly anything.  Take, for instance... A pair of unexpectedly-harmless vampires--one, the metrosexual mentor (sort of a Nathan Lane-meets-Martha Stewart type); and the other, his innocent, boy-next-door protege who’s shy around girls.  An archdemon (a former angel who fell from grace, to you and me), who oversees all of the destined-for-the-Underworld residents in his area--just as cranky, imperious, and scary as you’d think (though ruining that image just a tad by dint of his quirky decision to go around looking like John Cusack’s identical twin).  The still-in-divine-favor angel--who dresses in the very best Seattle grunge-wear, circa 1990, and (in a totally-unexpected twist) also happens to be the aforementioned archdemon’s BFF.  A nephilim--the archdemon’s bastard child (the result of his fall-from-grace, as it happens), impossibly hunky but a touch, shall we say, prickly, who carries ...

A few things to know before you crack open an Elizabeth George book:   ·        Plan to devote serious time to it, because she doesn’t do short books  ·        Prepare to feel part detective, part voyeur, because you’ll swear you’re reading actual eyewitness accounts of real events  ·        Settle in with a nice cuppa or glass of wine, because you’ll feel as though you’re catching up with old friends (whether you’ve read her books before, or not)   The latest entry in her “The Inspector Lynley Mysteries” series is  This Body of Death — either the fifteenth or sixteenth (depending on if you count one book that’s only tangentially-related).   Either way, it’s a very good addition to a nearly-uniformly excellent body of work. ____________________________________________________________________________   The core group are Scotland Yard detectives, led by the very po...