The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2022 Edited by Jess Walter (Bibliolifestyle Book Tour)

 

Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @marinerbooks @williammorrowbooks for a review copy of The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2022.

What genre do you turn to when life gets stressful?  It varies for me, but lately it has been mystery, suspense, and/or romance.  I made an impromptu trip back to Michigan to see my Grandma who isn’t feeling well this past weekend and I’ve gotten behind on posts.  Please forgive me as I catch up!  I loved this explanation in the Foreword to this collection, “Whatever the mechanism, and whether or not we ask, fiction helps us make sense of life, the universe, everything.”

The Best American Mystery and Suspense is a fantastic collection of the top twenty mystery and suspense stories published in 2021.  I was intrigued by the Foreword by Steph Cha where she explained her process of combing through various publications and anthologies published in 2021 and selecting the top fifty stories.  These stories were then forwarded on to Jess Walter, the author of Beautiful Ruins.  I enjoyed Beautiful Ruins, but now realize I need to find Walter’s works of suspense and mystery.  Walter’s Introduction explained his process of further narrowing down the stories to the top twenty stories in a humorous way.  I loved his introduction and in fact think it’s one of the most entertaining introductions that I’ve ever read.  The foreword and introduction were a great set-up for the stories themselves. 

The collection included a lot of unique and intriguing stories.  I have to admit though that my favorite story was “Long Live the Girl Detective” by Megan Pillow.  The Girl Detective is not named, but it is Nancy Drew.  She is referred to as “The Girl Detective Who Is Dead but Not” as she investigates her own murder and decides to take back the narrative of her own story in the modern day.  Bess and George even make an appearance.  I’ve loved Nancy Drew since I was a child and this story surprised and delighted me.  I did enjoy so many of the other stories and they definitely have kept me thinking about them.  It’s also introduced me to a lot of new to me authors that I will definitely need to keep my eye out for.  I enjoy short stories.

This book was published on November 1, 2022 and is now available.

The House on the Cliff (Hardy Boys #2) by Franklin W. Dixon

 

What is your favorite book about smugglers?  Mine is Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier.

The House on the Cliff, which is the second book in the Hardy Boys series, is a thrilling adventure and mystery involving smugglers.  The Hardy Boys and their crew of friends try out their new telescope and notice some strange happenings both at sea and at the house on the cliff.  After their father disappears investigating a smuggling ring, they are on the case to determine what has happened to him.  Is the house on the cliff haunted or is there more than meets the eye?

It has been hard to get Daniel to read with me lately as he’s obsessively reading through the Harry Potter books on his own lately.  As a twelve-year-old, he feels the Hardy Boys books are formulaic, but he likes the mystery and how most chapters end with a cliff hanger.  They are entertaining books.  I think for this one we both in particular really liked the underground tunnels and Daniel really liked the speed boat. At times we had to remind ourselves that this book came out in 1927 and that is why things were the way they were. 

Overall, The House on the Cliff is a good clean entertaining mystery for both kids and adults.

The Tower Treasure (Hardy Boys Mystery #1) by Franklin W. Dixon

I was a Nancy Drew fan when I was a kid and somehow, I missed the Hardy Boys.  I believe it is because my local library had the entire Nancy Drew series, but I don’t remember them having the Hardy Boys series.  I loved to check the books out and read them.  As an adult, we read the first Hardy Boy novel for a book club I used to be in over ten years ago.  I purchased a set of the first ten Hardy Boys from Costco last year for my then 11-year old son Daniel for Christmas.  He sadly was not enthused about them, but we picked up the first book a month ago to try it out and he was quickly hooked.

 Joe and Frank Hardy stumble onto a mystery when their friend Chet’s beloved “jalopy” is stolen by a mysterious man in a red wig.  The mystery in their town of Bayport deepens when their Detective father Fenton is hired to solve the mystery of stolen jewels and other articles from a local mansion that has two towers.  The boys are on the case and through many twists and turns they are able to solve it to help out their father and the wrongly accused father of one of their “chums.”

 This is the first novel that started the Hardy Boys long running series that was written by ghost writers.  It was written in 1927 which you could tell by the use of certain phrases like “chums.”  Daniel and I both like old books so this was fun for us. Like Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys also have a fat friend, Chet, whose weight and stoutness seem to be commented on throughout the book.  This was annoying to me, but Daniel and I just joked about it.  The now 12-year old Daniel does not like horror or scary books, therefore the low stakes mystery in this book was perfect for him.  He at first pointed out that it reminded him a lot of The Boxcar Children, which he liked in his younger years.  He wasn’t sure if this book was too young and formulaic for him.  I think Frank and Joe being older teen boys (17 and 18) helped him out on this and their constant adventures.  He was both annoyed and intrigued at the end when he kept thinking they found the treasure but did not.  A fun mystery with adventure, teens riding on motorcycles, and treasure were all a good COVID read for both Daniel and me.  We’ve already started on the second book in the series.

 Overall, The Tower Treasure was a fun vintage mystery to read together with my son.

 
Book Source:  I purchased this set of Hardy Boys books from Costco last fall for Danny’s Christmas present. 

 

Confessions of a Teen Sleuth: A Parody by Chelsea Cain

I heard about this novel on NPR a month or so ago and thought it sounded pretty funny. It was a pretty funny novel, and a VERY quick read (only took an hour or two).

The premise of this novel is that Nancy Drew was a real teen sleuth in the 1920's. Her story was stolen by her vengeful roommate Carolyn Keene and published with errors. Upon her death She had her manuscript of her real life delivered to Chelsea Cain for publication.

Each chapter is a different mystery and most are set in a different decade or so from the 1920's to the 1990's. The main story of Nancy's life is that her one true love was Frank Hardy and not Ned Nickerson. Ned junior looks like Frank with "Titian" hair :-) Nancy marries and divorces Ned, deciding she'd rather be "special friends." Bess and George are her, Bess with anorexia after becoming known as the "plump" friend and George who is gay, but Nancy never seems to notice. Each adventure is rather outlandish, but picks up some of the main fun of her books.

Other teen sleuths make apearances including Donna Parker, the Dana Girls, Tom Swift, the Bobbsey Twins, Trixie Beldin, etc. I only wish I was familiar with all of their stories.

My favorite line, "They didn't call him Hardy for nothing." LOL

If you are looking for a quick, funny read concerning your favorite teen sleuth, I highly recommend it!

How Nancy Drew Saved My Life by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

I read about this book on a Bronte blog. They were actually making fun of it, but I thought that since it was supposed to follow the plot of Jane Eyre and also had mention of Nancy Drew, it was worth a read.

I've been pretty stressed out the last couple of weeks so I put aside the historical fiction novel I'm reading and read this for a light stress-relieving read. It proved to be good for providing light entertainment, but was not really that great of a book overall.

The book is about a nanny named Charlotte Bell who has had an affair with her married employer. She decides to move on my taking a new job as a nanny to an ambassador in Iceland and by reading all of the original Nancy Drew books to become more "plucky." Once she gets to Iceland, she has moments of irritation with her mysterious employer, Ambassador Edgar Rawlings, but eventually falls in love.

The book had all of the makings of being good, but it never quite got all of the pieces together. None of the characters were that well developed and likeable. The action of the story was very slow until the last few pages where it finally picked up and was good. Also the main character and her "What Would Nancy Drew Do" got very old very fast.

Overall if you need a light entertaining read, I'd actually pick something else unless the premise really intrigues you!

Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak

Since I was on a mystery/Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys kick from my last book club meeting, I thought I'd read Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women who created her, a non-fiction book that's been on my to-read list since it came out last year.

I liked this book, it was very interesting. It tells the story of the Stratemeyer Syndicate and how it started such classic children's book series as the Bobsey Twins, the Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew. Specifically the book tells the story of Harriet Statemeyer Adams, a housewife who became the CEO of the Syndicate in the 1930's after her father's death, and also Mildred Wirt Benson, the original ghost writer for the Nancy Drew series. Both women were extradinary women for their times and I had fun reading about them.

It was also interesting that there is or ever has been a Carolyn Keene. Harriet, her sister, and her father came up with the names for the Nancy Drew novels and also the outlines for the storys. Mildred then wrote in the story. Without both parts, you wouldn't have the Nancy Drew that we know today.

Also of interest was that in the 1950's and 1960's, the early Nancy Drew stories were edited and changed. They made them more PC by taking out racial slurs, and also more up to date by taking out antiquated expressions. It would be okay if they stopped there, but they also shortened the novels considerably - and in some cases, totally rewrote them. So the Nancy Drew stories that I read are not the same as what Grandma Arlt read! I'm really interested in reading both versions. You can buy the old versions online, but sadly my library system doesn't have them:-(

I've always wondered why they still sell the old Nancy Drew's as hardbacks. It turns out that in 1980, Harriet broke off from her old publisher, Grossap and Dunlap, and moved over to Simon and Schuster for a bigger pay check. I guess Grossap had not changed the rates maybe ever for the Nancy Drew books through the passage of time and popularity. There was a giant court battle and Grossap won the right to sell the old titles only in hard back forever while all new titles would be at Simon and Schuster. So that's why they are still hardback in our paperback world!

I enjoyed the book, except for a lag in the first quarter where the author was setting up the history of women's rights and society in general before the introduction of Nancy. I could see what she was getting at, but I really just wanted to read about Nancy!

It's a good book for anyone who ever loved Nancy Drew as a child.

The Hardy Boys #1: The Tower Treasure by Franklin W. Dixon

Why is Laura reading the Hardy Boys you might ask. Well, it's actually for my Kewaunee book club this month. John, one of the book club members, says that he's getting spring fever and is thinking about gardening therefore he wanted to read a quick mystery. When I look out the window and see the snow falling today, spring is far from my mind - but whatever! We had been discussing childrens' novels previous to that and found out John had never read a Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys novel. We thought that was a crime and decided to have "read any Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys novel" this month.

When I was a kid, I LOVED Nancy Drew novels. Luckily the Union City library had all of the originals (and the paperback 1970's ones too) and I read them all. I also loved the updated (well at the time) Casefiles and read them too.

Although I loved Nancy Drew, I never actually read a Hardy Boys novel. So for my book club pick, I chose to start from the beginning and learn what the Hardy Boys are all about.

The Tower Treasure was an enjoyable book. I enjoyed the simplicity of the plot, and the innocence of the Hardy Boys. For those of you, like me, that don't know anything about the Hardy Boys, Frank is the oldest with dark hair and is 18, while Joe is 16 with blonde hair. Their father is the famous detective Fenton Hardy, and was once on the New York Police Force. Their mother, Laura, is a homemaker. They live in the fictional city of Bayport.

In this book, their first mystery, Frank and Joe are almost run over by a crazy driver as they ride their motorcycles on a mountain. They later spot this car smashed along side the road. The mystery driver then steals their friend Chet's bright yellow car, nicknamed "The Queen." The beginning of the book is focused on locating "The Queen," until a robbery at the Tower mansion. The owner of the mansion, Hurd Applegate, accuses his gardener, Mr. Robinson, of the crime and fires him. Mr. Robinson's son, Slim, is a classmate of the Hardy Boys. He is a smart guy and wants to go to college, but has to quit school to support his family after Mr. Robinson is fired. The Hardy Boys want to help out the Robinson family and win the $1000 reward from Mr. Applegate so they are on the case.

I enjoyed reading the novel, but I still think that Nancy Drew is better than the Hardy Boys . . .anyone else beg to differ? Also, does anyone else think that the picture of the Hardy Boys on "The Tower Treasure" makes them look like they are about 10 years old, not 16 and 18?