The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield (on CD)

Very gothic (in the 19th-century "Jane Eyre" kind of way) with a wink at modern lit-crit. Wonderful complex story about complicated and rather unlovely (and normal) people. Discusses the essence of who we are based on who the world thinks we are vs. our experiences. And a mystery inside a riddle inside a puzzle. There's also melodrama and some romance (but not very pleasant, so be warned).

WONDERFUL!! There are two narrators on this recording, which went a long way toward making it memorable. I think I may go back and read the hard copy (i.e. the paper) because I want to do some flipping back and forth. This is a problem when 'reading' with your ears--you can't go back and reread what happened in chapter three before continuing with the paragraph you're listening to in chapter twelve.

This book makes me want to read Trollope and the Brontes again, not to mention Thomas Hardy and Henry James.

The Sudoku Murder, by Shelley Freydont

OK, I admit: I picked this up when I cataloged it, strictly because of the connection with Sudoku.

It's a relatively formulaic intro to a potential mystery series: hapless heroine thrown into unusual danger, fortitude in the face of danger, a hint of attraction to someone who she would prefer not to be attracted to.... Yep. There'll be sequel.

And by the way, with the exception of the Killer Sudokus that I've started doing this year, there is absolutely no math skills needed for solving sudoku. It's about LOGIC, not math; they could be solved with the letters A-J instead of the numbers 1-9. The author says she does sudokus, but then she make them into the Math Puzzle, which they aren't.

OK, the idea is that the former Geek of the Century of Granville, NH, is asked by her mentor, Professor P.T. Avondale (the "P.T." is enormously misleading--the man shares no personality characteristics with P.T. Barnum whatsoever!) to come back to her home town and help him save his Puzzle Museum. Then he's killed. Then someone tries to kill, or at least scare, her. And the police chief is out of his element, but has melty brown eyes and a beautiful smile. And her aunt keeps setting her up with "eligible" men (which the chief isn't because he gave Aunt Pru--I kid you not!--a traffic ticket). And she's plucky, although I'm almost sure that word isn't actually used.

I liked the book, actually. It had a nice, fresh take on some of the dusty stereotypical formula-heroine books. But don't expect Dostoevsky.