A review by P.E. Logan
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I have never considered myself much of a mystery fan. Growing up, I watched my middle sister Virginia devour volumes of Nancy Drew and Ian Fleming’s entire oeuvre of James Bond adventures. I preferred disaster tomes like Walter Lords’ A Night to Remember about the Titanic, and I was smitten with a history of the circus that listed all the oddities P.T. Barnum brought to the spotlight — Jenny Lind, Tom Thumb and Eng and Chang the conjoined brothers. I was the lone teen reader among my peers of Nicholas and Alexandra and The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. No wonder I didn’t date.

As an adult I didn’t catch the spark for the ‘who-done-its’ that perpetually eat up prime real estate on best-seller fiction lists. But Alan Bradley has changed that with his terrific Flavia de Luce Mystery series. If there is a softer side to murder, this is it. And it’s a lot of fun for the reader.

In 2009 he introduced Miss de Luce, an 11-year-old girl sleuth who draws trouble to her like metal filings to a magnet. She is the gas for the engine in his charming series that began with The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and continues in The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag.

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A feature by P.E. Logan
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Last Sunday I test drove Mother’s Day. I had to. I live in a fraternity as the lone female in a house with two teen-aged boys and a husband. With Mother’s Day fast approaching, I thought it best to provide a subtle hint for a gift I would really like this year. They can skip the electronics and hold the Jean Nate drugstore cologne. I want a book. I went to the local bookstore and kindly made this list for them.

When I picture my men folk in a book shop, stumped by all that bound paper, I know they will need my help in the same way only I can home in on lost iPods and cell phones. I have real fear about what they could bring home. On the Mother’s Day display table I saw this tome, She Ain’t Heavy, She’s My Mother. Guys, if that comes into the house, you three are toast. And, a special shout out to the sixteen-year-old: No, I will not enjoy the complete transcripts of South Park, even if it exists. (Hedging my bet here…)

I know my guys will select a book for me based on its cover and a peak at the back ad or flaps. So, like a fluke entranced by a lure, I swam the main aisles and combed the endcaps to create this list of what caught my eye and why. Dudes: it doesn’t get any easier than this to make The Mother (or T’Mo, on text messaging) happy on Sunday.

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