Rita Mae Brown - Hiss of Death

Hiss of death is the 19th book in Rita Mae Browns mystery series which she writes together with her cat Sneaky Pie and which focus around ex postmistress Harry (Mary Minor Harristeen) and her pets. The story begins with the planning of a 5K run in favour of breast cancer victims.
As in most of the "Crozet"-mysteries Harry is involved in the findings of bodies. This time, Paula Benton, nurse, is found dead in her barn, with a hornet lying next to her. As Paula was allergic, nobody thinks of murder in the first place. The 5K run is dedicated to her, and after the run Harry and her friends decide to make the necessary mammographie, just to check that everything is ok - but it isn't. Harry is diagnosed with stage one breast cancer, gets operated and gets radiation treatment.
Harry, trying to do something new every day, now she is diagnosed, goes for a ride with a friend on very good horses, and finds another body - the one of Thadia, another person working in the hospital.
Later on, Harry witnesses another murder - a surgeon. Now things are clear, something is happening at the hospital, and Harry will soon find out - and get herself into troubles, as usual :-)

I bought this book, despite the mostly negative critics on amazon.com. I can understand, why people have problems with the last few book of Brown - mostly she is writing in a very political way, and what made the first 15 books or so so loveable was the story, the pets, and the loving creation of the characters. Now a lot of these characters are either completely missing (Miranda) or have just a very short appearance (Reverend). But I sense Brown is coming back. Hiss of death beats the pants of Cat of the Century (which really was not readable at all).
All in all I award 6 out of 10.

I have not yet decided what to read next, I am hovering between the second Panem book and the 10th Kathy Reichs book, but it might be something completely different as well. UPDATE: So! Now I decided what to read! This morning I started with "What Maisie knew" by Henry James.
UPDATE2: Henry James... I do not think I will read another one of his books... well, I am at 32% (12.4.2012), and I decided to put my kindly on my nightstand, and read now "Kai Meyer: Die Gebannte".

Neil Gaiman - Anansi Boys

Neil Gaiman tells the story of Charles Nancy - known to everyone as Fat Charlie, thanks to his father. Fat Charlie is a perfectly normal guy, living somewhere in London, has a normal job, a normal fiancée and finds out by chance, that his father (a more or less friendly guy, always a little mischievous) has died. He flies to the US, where his father lived, and as if losing his father is not enough, he learns, that his father was a god, and that Fat Charlie has a brother - and what is really strange, if he wanted to get to know to him, he shall tell a spider to get and find him. Back in Europe, Fat Charlie does tell a spider to find his brother, the spider winks, and the next thing you know is, that the brother is there. The brother - Spider - and Fat Charlie go grieving about their late father in the necessary three stages: wine, lady, song.
When Fat Charlie awakes the next morning, he lies next to a naked lady, and has no idea, who she is, has overslept and his fiancées mother is on the front door. At the end of the next day, all of Fat Charlies live is completely changed: he gets money from his chef, and a plus of 2 weeks holidays, he has lost his fiancée to his brother and is no more able to get home... Things involve another trip to the States, a trip to the beginning of the world (mind you, not the end!), a murder, a ghost, a trip to the prison and (without telling too much) a happy end!

I do have my problem with Neil Gaiman's Godstories, I don't know why this is, but "American Gods" is not one of my favourites either. All the same... I did not like all of the story, but I really liked the last 50 pages or so. Everything turns in a nice way, everything comes to a good end, so a perfect happy ending!

I award 7 out of 10, for a story which could not really convince me, but which turned out to be very nice!

Next book to be reviewed is the much discussed (in amazon, anyway) Hiss of Death by Rita Mae and Sneaky Pie Brown.