This month, between work and travel and projects, I managed a whole two books!

1. The Good Neighbor, by A. J. Banner

Kudos, A.J. Banner.  I had no idea what direction you were going in with this book.  I figured out a few lesser details but the main mystery remained a mystery until the very end.  It was a decent enough mystery – enough interest in the storyline to keep me reading, but I felt the ending to be a little ambiguous.  The whole story starts with the main character saving a little girl from a fire, and then spending the rest of the novel trying to figure out how the fire got started in the first place.  I actually found the whodunnit part of the book to completely take me by surprise – I can’t think of a moment when I suspected how everything might end up.

2. Chef Maurice and a Spot of Truffle, by J.A. Lang

This book was adorable from start to finish.  Actually, I think “delightfully quirky” would be the perfect description.  Maurice is a French chef in a small English village that is suddenly plagued with the murder of the mushroom supplier.  The mystery then proceeds to unfold – who killed Ollie and why did Ollie have thousands of dollars of a rare truffle in his fridge?  While the police concern themselves with the murder, Chef Maurice (rather selfishly) takes on the task of seeing if there are other truffles around.  I enjoyed the whimsy of this book, and I’m excited to see there’s a second book!