Booking It :: An Update

I'm still here, I'm still reading, and I'm still linking up to the Life as MOM posts about Booking It, but I sort of fell off the bandwagon for my list of selected books. Life got busy and at the end of the day, I just didn't feel like reading any of the books on my list this month. I read other books, but not Booking It books. Am I forgiven? Can I still play with my Booking It peeps? Thanks. I knew you guys would understand.

So...another month since my last update, and what have I read? Three books - two mysteries and a short children's story thrown in for good measure. If you would like to read my review of George MacDonald's fairytale, The Golden Key, then take a minute to pop over HERE. Or for my take on Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe character, click HERE.

     

The third book on my list this month was Dancers in Mourning - my second chance for Margery Allingham, the British mystery authoress. I'll keep this review short and say that I'm still not in love with her writing style or how she fashions her mysteries. Dancers in Mourning had great potential, but I didn't feel that the characters were fully developed or that the plot was ever totally clear. I couldn't stand the character of Jimmy Sutane or the strange attraction between our hero-detective Albert Campion and Linda, Sutane's wife. Chloe Pye was no loss to the story and the ending was a muddled mess. I understood who killed her and why, but the clarification of the history leading up to the murder was...murky. It took me three weeks to get through this book because there were times when I couldn't make it through a chapter before my attention was lost. I just can't recommend this one.

I'm currently reading one last Campion mystery (actually, the first one that Allingham wrote, in which she introduces Albert Campion), but after I'm done with this one, I'm done with Margery. {Sorry Emily, I just couldn't get into her like I can with Agatha Christie - but I really tried! And she did hold my attention better than Rex Stout - point in her favor.}

My stack of books by the bed seems to be growing instead of shrinking and some of them look really good, so I'm hopeful that next month I'll have some winners to share with you! In the meantime, I'm linking up today with Jessica's Booking It post and I'm looking forward to seeing what others have read in the last month. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Reading!