A Christmas Grace

A Christmas Grace (2008) by Anne Perry. Mild-mannered mystery set in Ireland in 1895 has our heroine, Emily Radley, coming to town during the Christmas season to be a companion to a dying aunt. Radley senses an old murder that has gone unsolved, and by dint of some gentle but persistent questioning, she manages to unravel the crime. A very genteel murder mystery. Grade: B

Blue Genes

Blue Genes (2008) by Christopher Lukas. In a moving yet not-very-well-written memoir, Lukas recounts the history of his family in America, and the vein of mental illness which seems to run through every branch. The book opens with his brother, Tony's suicide, then flashes back into the past to tell the events leading up to it. Christopher and Tony Lukas have lived fascinating lives, both being highly successful in media fields, but somehow that fails to totally come through in this book. Grade: B

The Tin Roof Blowdown

The Tin Roof Blowdown (2007) by James Lee Burke. Burke's police detective Dave Robicheaux returns in this paean to post-Katrina New Orleans. It's pretty standard stuff, set against the backdrop of the greatest natural disaster to ever hit the U.S. But nobody writes it like Burke, and it makes for a good read. Grade: B+