AGHM 18-20

I'm behind on my AGHM reviews. The Strange Case of Baby H sat partially read on my pile for weeks and I finally finished it a bit ago.

It's an interesting mystery set during the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco. A baby is left on the doorstep of the boardinghouse run by Clara's family. The baby is a girl with her head shaved to disguise her as a boy. Soon, a woman in red is trying to get the baby back, while Clara struggles against her controlling mother to try to solve the mystery alongside an orphan boy she befriended. The action level gets a little unrealistic by the end, but it's not a bad tale overall.

I really enjoyed Danger at the Wild West Show. Rose, her older brother and their mother are members of a travelling Wild West show, which gets into some trouble when a man is shot during the show. Rose's brother is accused and she works to clear his name with help from the show owner's scholarly, city boy son and her Sioux friends.

This one was good because the action was all believable. Nothing seemed even a little unlikely. It would be easy enough to disguise a shooting during a Western show with all its gunshots and noise, and Rose is a trained trick-rider, so her horsemanship skills are completely plausible. I liked both Rose and Oliver a lot, so this is definitely one from this series that I'd recommend.

 




Gangsters at the Grand Atlantic is another good one and for the same reason: it's believable. Emily and her friend never do anything completely unrealistic. They eavesdrop, ask questions and use their brains to solve the mystery and save the day without any crazy heroics.

I liked all the characters in this one, too, even the spoiled upperclass ones. Oh, except Bitsy's mother. She's a bitch.

AGHM #11-14

Man, these last four have taken me ages to slog through.

Set in 1904, Minstrel's Melody is an interesting story, but the lead's mother is such a horrid bitch that it's hard to get through. She's basically abusive out of fear, thanks to something that happened in the past, but you're left with the feeling at the end that she's not going to change too much, except to allow the lead to play her music instead of trying to stop her.

I liked how the lead's eyes were opened to what life on the road in a travelling minstrel show was really like. She was a good character and I was left wondering what happened to her in her future.

This is the only AG book by this author.

Prairie Bride, set in 1878 Kansas, was the most enjoyable of this batch of four. Its main problem is that the mystery is really, really obvious. It's clear from her first appearance that "Caroline" is not Caroline. I'm not even spoiling anything there. It's that obvious. So you suffer through the rest of the story, frustrated with how long it takes the lead to get her shit together and figure things out fully.

I liked all the characters though and the concept of writing back East for a bride is an interesting one.

The author did one other history mystery before moving on to write several of the historical character mysteries.

Set in 1754, Enemy in the Fort is one of the earliest stories in the series.

Its main plot point is that the whites do bad things and the Indians do bad things. There's no right or wrong group. The lead is a bit prejudiced, but she lost her father, mother and baby brother to an Indian raid, so...yeah, it's not that off-putting to read her bitch about Indians, because it's in character. She also gets a lot of counterpoints from the ex-captive who wants to return to the Abenaki because that's his proper home now, so by the end, she's got more of an open mind.

Most of the characters are likeable, except the ones who are supposed to be assholes. I thought this was just okay though, because the actual perpetrator of one of the thefts never gets a comeuppance.

I just finished Circle of Fire and I have to admit that I skimmed the crap out of it, because I'm in a bad mood today and it wasn't the right time to reread the Klan book.

I do like the lead character a lot, although the others were weaker. Her mother is almost the same mother as the one in Minstrel's Melody, abusive and controlling out of fear and overly obsessed with her Tennessee mountain kid acting like a "lady."

I feel like this one bites off more than it can chew though. The Klan is a big and more adult topic, so this particular lead, who feels a lot younger than the other leads in this series, doesn't fit the story that well. Especially when some rather adult topics are brought up and she's all "ew, boys!"

She also saves the life of Eleanor freakin' Roosevelt, so...yeah, not very realistic.

Eight more of these to go!

AMERICAN GIRL HISTORY MYSTERIES: #1 Smuggler's Treasure

I started my reread of the American Girl History Mysteries. These shall henceforth be known as AGHM because I'm too lazy to type all that every time.

The AGHM series consisted of 22 books written by various authors, each one taking place in a different place and time period. These were released from 1999-2004 and I believe predated the AG mysteries featuring the established historical characters. As in many of those mysteries, the AGHM girls are age 11. (Or at least the first two have been. I'm a chapter into the second book right now.)

The first book was written by the author of the Marie-Grace/Cecile series and several of the historical character mysteries.

It's 1814 in New Orleans. (This author must know New Orleans.) So it's during the War of 1812 and Elisabet's father, a wealthy ship captain, is kidnapped by the British. Elisabet is sent via ship from Boston to New Orleans to live with her aunt and uncle. However, upon her arrival, she finds out her uncle died shortly after he sent for her, her aunt is in Baton Rouge helping her daughter from her first marriage, and she has to work in the family bakery. As a higher class girl, she's pretty horrified. Elisabet starts out a bit snooty, but quickly gets that worked out of her, although she never loses her passion for helping her father. All of the characters are decent and the mystery was part ghost story, part hunt for a treasure map, and part pirates. A good start to the series.