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"'I think there's too many of us people and we're too close together and we're turning on each other like rats in the gutter.  We're in the biggest city in the world, Day, and I think it's trying to get rid of us'" (176).

The grimy streets of Victorian London teem with criminal activity, from the petty thefts of starving urchins to the enslavement of desperate women to the vicious unsolved killings of Jack the Ripper.  Considering the always-rising tide of violence that plagues the city, the number of men assigned to combat it is laughable.  Only twelve detectives—The Murder Squad—investigate London's most serious crimes.  Severely overworked and chronically underpaid, their shameful solve rate guarantees they are met with derision everywhere they turn.  Wading through the city's hellish underbelly to flush out murderers and monsters is a job rife with danger, devoid of glamour.  It's not a career to which most people would aspire.  

Detective Inspector Walter Day is not most people.  Having worked as a constable in Devon for the last four years, he has no actual detecting experience.  And yet, the idealistic newbie is working the murder of the Squad's own Inspector Christian Little.  The detective's odd and gruesome murder raises a million questions, few answers.  Is Day up to the task of finding Little's sadistic killer?  As more policemen end up dead, the case grows more complex—and deadly.  Day must solve it before his own dead body ends up stuffed into a steamer trunk.  He has little time to prove himself against a masterful murderer ... can he do it in time to save his colleagues and himself?

The Yard, Alex Grecian's debut novel and the first installment in a gritty crime series, brings 19th Century London to life in all its stinking, sleazy, squalid glory.  The story, naturally, echoes the tone of its setting.  Although Day is a likable and admirable man, the sewage in which he slops every day makes his tale a grim one.  Compelling, yes, but also depressing.  Nevertheless, The Yard is an engrossing, atmospheric mystery from which I had a hard time looking away.  I especially liked the interludes that provided needed backstory without interrupting the forward push of the plot.  Intriguing characters and sharp prose added even more to this surprising, satisfying novel.  I enjoyed it overall and will definitely be grabbing its sequels off the library shelves sometime soon.  

(Readalikes: I can't think of anything.  Can you?)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for language (no F-bombs), violence, blood/gore, and disturbing subject matter

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find

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For centuries, the Rossini women have been some of Europe's most sought-after perfumiers.  With their almost otherworldly ability to create scents perfect for their wearers, the Rossinis' abilities have always been in high demand.  So much so that the family business has become more than a mere vocation; it's turned into an obsession.  After a chaotic childhood centered around the all-consuming creation of perfume, 28-year-old Elena wants nothing to do with her aromatic heritage.  So what if she's been "blessed" with the ability to identify the ingredients in a perfume by scent alone?  She's more than just a nose and she wants more than the lonely, haunted lives her mother and grandmother led.

When Elena walks in on her cheating fiancé, her well-crafted future starts to crumble before her eyes.  At loose ends, she doesn't know what to do with herself.  When her best friend suggests starting over in Paris, Elena goes.  Reluctantly.  Although her sales job in a luxurious perfume house is less than satisfactory, she loves her apartment and is intrigued by her mysterious neighbor, a handsome rose breeder.  The longer she's surrounded by the tantalizing scents that take her back to her childhood, the more Elena finds herself drawn back in the world of perfume.  Like her grandmother before her, Elena longs to discover the secret scent combination that first made her family famous.  When her own obsession starts to take over, Elena must take a hard look at herself, her family, and the future she really wants.

Comparisons to Joanne Harris' Chocolat are what drew me to The Secret Ways of Perfume, a debut novel by Italian author Cristina Caboni.  I was expecting a similar set-up— a rich, atmospheric setting; an enchanting heroine; and a storyline that kept me reading.  Did I get it?  Not exactly.  I don't know if something was lost in translation (I believe The Secret Ways of Perfume was originally published in Italian) or if perfume just doesn't excite me like chocolate does, but I really struggled to finish this book.  Without a lot of plot to keep it going, the story drags, creeping along in slow-slow motion.  The characters are too cliché to be interesting.  Caboni's flat prose doesn't help matters—relying more on tell than show, her storytelling feels lifeless and dull.  I found some of the perfume history/technique intriguing, but not compelling enough to carry the story.  In the end, I slogged through the novel only because I had committed to reviewing it.  If I had picked The Secret Ways of Perfume up at the library, I wouldn't have bothered reading past the first chapter.  

(Readalikes:  The premise is similar to Chocolat by Joanne Harris, but that's pretty much where the similarities end, in my opinion.)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for brief, mild language (no F-bombs), and mild sexual content/innuendo

To the FTC, with love:  I received an e-ARC of The Secret Ways of Perfume from the generous folks at Berkley/NAL, a division of Penguin.  Thank you!

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From a young age, Emily Wing felt different from the kids around her.  Her emotions seemed out-of-whack, making her feel alternately aggressive, angry, anxious, lonely, and sad.  Impulsive behavior and frequent dizziness also plagued the little girl.  Starting therapy at six helped a little.  Mostly, though, she found solace only in writing stories.  "Words never let me down," she recalls.  "With words, I never let myself down" (62).  A near-fatal accident at 12 led to a discovery that went a long way toward explaining Emily's feelings of otherness—doctors found a tumor the size of a grapefruit growing at the base of her skull.  This "miracle" find changed the life of pre-teen Emily, who was determined to overcome the lingering, debilitating effects of the brain tumor to fulfill her dream of becoming a successful author.

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for brief, non-graphic mention of mature subjects (prostitution, sex, child molestation, male anatomy, etc.)

To the FTC, with love:  I bought a copy of All Better Now from Amazon using a portion of the millions I make from my lucrative career as a book blogger.  Ha ha.

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"'Don't go pokin' through other people's closets, son.  Them skeletons can be real mean" (40).

(Readalikes:  Hm, I can't think of anything.  Can you?)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for language, violence, sexual content, blood/gore, and disturbing subject matter

To the FTC, with love:  I received a finished copy of The Buried Book from Lake Union Publishing in return for being part of the book's tour with TLC Book Tours.  Thank you!