No quirky murder mystery series had caught my eye until Karen E. I really loved this premise — and I thought there was lots of potential for the leading lady, Brett Kavanaugh, to get caught up in various criminal cases. When you think about it, criminals and tattoos pretty much go hand-in-hand stereotypical, but true. In theory, I really liked Brett. Plenty of times throughout the book she observes and shatters common misconceptions about people who have ink.
Brett is no exception. She has a detective brother who is working on the missing persons case that she is at the center of — yet she withholds so much vital information from him and is then surprised when she discovers that her silence causes more problems that she could have easily prevented. For many inexplicable reasons she feels the need to take matters into her own hands — and is surprised when she finds herself in increasingly hotter and hotter water. The man in question is obviously using her, and is clearly a sleazy womanizer, but she falls for his bedroom eyes and pretty accent.
The thing is, Karen E. The desert town becomes a character in itself, and a reflection of sinister characters twisted motives. Olson really knows this city, and it shows in her writing. A playground for adults, where no one can really win, but the illusion puts blinders on. I did enjoy this book. The murder mystery is wonderfully constructed, a genuine page-turner. And the Vegas setting is pure genius. The cover art by Craig Phillips is divine as it should be, when visuals and appearance mean so much in the book.
But a gaping hole does lie in character — mainly that Brett Kavanagh is so darn annoying and stupid that you almost become antipathetic to her plight. I really appreciated the fact that the universe is happening in the tattooing world. This is not often the case and I found it very interesting. Brett Kavanaugh has her own tattoo shop in Las Vegas and everything goes smoothly until a young woman comes in to ask for a tattoo and disappears even before the job is done.
On the front of the media scene, Brett will try to understand what could have happened to the young woman. And even her police brother will not prevent her from discovering the truth!
I really had a great time with this novel. I went into the investigation without suspecting how it would end. I found that the author had managed to train us and make us doubt about all the characters and I can tell you that we can not expect the events!
Yes, Brett is a great heroine but we will discover many other secondary characters that make us have a great time too! I have already ordered the sequel to read what the author has in store for us! The first of the series, Olson introduces us to a cast of characters worthy of new and old Las Vegas. Runaway brides, the personal directed - selfishness of extreme wealth, an Elvis Karaoke bar and police officers number among them the extremely ethical and the ones open to petty revenge.
An excellent mystery introducing us to Brett and her employees. I wish I had read this before 2 - but each stands alone well. I'm glad I was introduced to this author. Chelle MaleficentBookDragon. A nice fun cozy with a different kind if heroine. Not the strongest of plots; but a nice fluffy little romp in Vegas.
I may continue on in this series. Laura Roberts. I wanted to like this, not least because I bought my mother a hardback copy a while ago because of her interest in all things pen, ink and handwriting. A lot of what he says is true. View 1 comment. I read this because I'm writing a feature on handwriting and thought it might be useful.
I was sent it by the publisher when it was first released and had it lying around this whole time. Immediately I was put offside by the author's snobbish tone.
Hensher uses footnotes mainly to bitch about the people and organisations he's discussing, or to assert his own superiority to whatever he's mentioning. On page 19 he sniffs that a teacher he's quoted "evidently knows eff-all about the dangling partici I read this because I'm writing a feature on handwriting and thought it might be useful. On page 19 he sniffs that a teacher he's quoted "evidently knows eff-all about the dangling participle", while on page 21 he uses another footnote to dismiss a headmaster's pedagogical claim: "Oh, crap.
Seriously, what crap. Later on, he uses a footnote to complain that American taxi drivers can't understand his English accent! Come on! Does he expect the reader — who simply wants a cultural history of handwriting — to be on his side in such petty disdain?
The book itself is a curiously unstructured and unsatisfying mix of history, literary criticism and memoir. It's a shame it's so all over the place because the chapters on the history of pens and ink were really fascinating, and I enjoyed meeting the pedagogues who trained generations of young writers in particular styles.
However, Hensher introduces various proponents of handwriting instruction, and varying writing styles, in an offhand way, and out of any meaningful sequence, so you don't get a clear sense of how handwriting developed and spread over time and geography as different looks and techniques became fashionable. There's no narrative, no throughway. It reads like a random notebook of ideas. I was especially bored by the chapters about the pseudoscience of 'graphology' claiming to understand someone's character by their handwriting , and there are also some really tiresome chapters about the role of handwriting in the novels of Dickens and Proust, which felt like a 5pm Friday lecture by your most pompous lecturer.
Indeed, Hensher seems to take a dim view of young people in general and his students in particular, seeing himself as vastly superior to them because of his love of handwriting and how brilliant and pretty his writing is. Adding to the scattershot atmosphere is the way the book is peppered with transcripts of Hensher's conversations about handwriting with his friends, family and associates, some of whom actually praise his writing and talk about how much they enjoy receiving postcards from him.
What kind of egomaniac puts that in their book!?!? The preening self-regard reaches its apotheosis in an absurd chapter relating how Hensher goes shopping for a new pen with an italic nib and a refillable, pump-action, hydraulic reservoir. He can't help raging snobbishly about the staff and customers in the various shops he visits — I mean, his is a perfectly simple quest! At the mercy of what kind of dull, savage, screen-prodding society does this refined and wise scholar find himself?
By this late stage in the book I was reading bits and pieces out to my friends in a posh voice and we were all laughing convulsively. It opens our personality out to the world. This review formed part of an article about the lost art of letter writing on Bookkaholic. Dec 25, Terry Brown rated it it was ok. I was really hoping to enjoy this book but found myself frustrated. The book trips from topic to optic--Dickens' handwriting, graphology, the history of pens, Hitler's handwriting I can't say I learned much at all.
The lack of coherent structure is in part the result of a completely ahistorical approach. I was so desperate for dates Palmer method is devised when? May 04, Gregory rated it liked it. Nerd alert. Unless you are into handwriting, typography, and fountain pens you probably aren't going to enjoy this book. Fortunately for me I'm enamored of all three.
Like most people I hate my handwriting. It's crabbed, and even when I remark to myself that ah I can't. This book feels your pain and embarrassment in a soothing sort of way. While it was a little rambling and often went down odd little paths.
If you can b Nerd alert. If you can bear this which I can then you will enjoy Mr. Hensher's book. Shout out to Chapter 28 - My Italic Nightmare wherein the author goes on a search for a pen with an italic nib.
He searches all over the boroughs and ends up with the same type of pen, a Lamy, that he already owns Again you probably need to have "super geek" powers to enjoy this. You know who you are Top Hat Reviews View 2 comments. Mar 02, Stefanie rated it it was ok. Since the subtitle of the book is "The Lost Art of Handwriting" and since in interviews he talked about why handwriting is important, I thought the book might be different than it was.
In the introduction he suggests the book is going to be about what might be lost if the habit of writing by hand disappears. But the book turned out not to address that except briefly in the first and last chapters. Hensher's book had a lot of padding in it, snips of interviews with people talking about their handwriting, two and a half chapters on graphology, one about Hitler's handwriting, and a few others.
He does provide a bit more detail on the history of teaching handwriting in schools than Florey did. In Hensher, each of the "great" reformers gets a chapter. Hensher is also British so his perspective was especially interesting when he was talking about American handwriting. He claims Europeans can always pick out the handwriting of Americans because we are the only ones who have loops in our letters. Is this true? He spends a chapter admiring the way the French teach handwriting and thinks theirs is the nicest writing of any western country.
I enjoyed the social history aspects of the book especially all those reformers who believed that moral improvement could be had through learning to write a beautiful script. The chapter on a brief history of ink was interesting as was the history of pens. Did you know that fountain pens were available in ? They weren't very popular though. Manufacturing had also not yet figured out how to make a flexible metal nib which meant it was somewhat akin to trying to write with a knitting needle.
Quill pens wore out fast but they had the advantage of flexibility. Now, of course, there are ball point pens and Hensher has a fun chapter on the history of the Biro.
I expected the book to be rather light and it was. And while I did enjoy the parts I mention above, I almost didn't make it past page Hensher's sense of humor is often rather crude and insensitive and not funny at all. In the introduction he takes a swipe at "fat Denise" whose "obese writing" also "contains the atrocity of a little circle on top of every i.
A mixed bag overall. If you are going to read this book, be prepared to take the good with the bad. Dec 26, Jane rated it liked it Shelves: non-fiction. The final chapter of this book made it worth the read with its encouragement to embrace handwritten communication in the same way that we embrace the slow-food movement.
Philip Henscher needed an editor with a firm hand as he wanders away from the topic with ease. What is missing from the book are sufficeint illustrations of the styles of handwriting under discussion.
None the less it was an interesting read and has highlighted the topic of handwriting whenever it is mentioned, most recently for m The final chapter of this book made it worth the read with its encouragement to embrace handwritten communication in the same way that we embrace the slow-food movement.
None the less it was an interesting read and has highlighted the topic of handwriting whenever it is mentioned, most recently for me in Middlemarch, which I would have glossed over previously.
Apr 07, Aimee rated it did not like it Shelves: abandoned. I'm done with this and I've barely started. What an ass. His overuse of pointless footnotes, his poke at fat people, he's irritating and life's too short for books that piss me off this early in. Hensher looks at the history of writing and recalls his own experiences of learning to write and how it's something that's being used less and less.
Amusing quick read. Mar 08, Melanie rated it it was amazing. This is not an author who shies from his opinions, or from sharing his vocabulary. Oh, Philip, how do I love thee? The Missing Ink is a very personal amble with handwriting and pens. You get history, style, art, practice, and glances into strange places, real and virtual. Or that the Prince of Wales writes long letters to various government ministries, imparting his philosophy in purple ink?
The subject of handwriting analysis yields treasures. And what, I wonder, would that do to my own handwring? Hensler devotes an entire chapter to the pen that has been my own guilty pleasure for over half of a century: the Bic Cristal. How many of these have I used until the last of the black ink, long disappeared from view and confined only within the oh-so-solid confines of the point, finally discharges its last, perfectly-black line?
I hoard them against the day that some scribbling tyrant decides these pens are no longer necessary in the corporate line. I love to read about ink colors. I am, in most things, a child of the sixties. I do admit to having been chastised by a pen friend, once, for writing a red letter on yellow paper. Point, as it were, taken. Oxblood brings me back to Oxford. Meet Brett Kavanaugh, owner of one of the hottest, upscale tattoo parlors in Sin City The Painted Lady. Brett is unforgettable, due largely in part to the huge arm tattoo that features water lilies and a dragon.
The cops come sniffing around Brett's shop, all because of a woman who wanted a devotion tattoo of a heart with the name of her fiancee, Matt. Brett learns that the woman, who gave her name as Kelly Masters is not who she claimed she was. Chip is the son of big time developer, Bruce Manning; who has properties all over the world and has just built a swanky new casino called the Versailles.
Brett starts doing some investigating of her own. All she knows is that all clues point to her rival, Jeff Coleman of Murder Ink. Brett decides to confront Jeff, which is a bad idea but Brett always reacts first without really thinking her plans all the way through. Will Jeff leave a permanent mark on Brett?
This book has everything including action, thrills, humor, and a kick-ass heroine! You know the saying She doesn't take anything lying down.
There is one thing I do have to say and that is, it is Brett should keep her day job as the music industry is not ready for her, unless there is an audience for tone-deaf singers. I loved this book. What a great, strong start to this series. I have just found myself a favorite new author in Karen E. Can't wait to join Brett in her next adventure. Dec 14, Jessica rated it it was amazing Shelves: cozy.
My four-sentence take on the plot: Brett Kavanaugh is a tattoo artist and owner of a fancy Las Vegas tattoo parlor. And, of course, romance is in the air with a Pierce Brosnan-style English casino manager.
Rating: A What worked: I loved this book! LOVED it. First off, it was something different. I liked the My four-sentence take on the plot: Brett Kavanaugh is a tattoo artist and owner of a fancy Las Vegas tattoo parlor. I have a lot of tattoo artist and piercer friends and the characters really rang true.
The mystery was solid. Sometimes "mistaken identity" plots get sort of a Scooby Doo feel but The Missing Ink managed to avoid that. Nobody was too-stupid-to-live, which is always a plus. Brett has believable relationships with her co-workers and her brother, all who are interesting characters on their own. Brett is the daughter of a cop and the sister and roommate of her cop brother, which gives her a real reason to have knowledge about police work and procedure, as well as leads. This is something that greatly annoys me in some cozies--how can some of the protagonists get involved in murder after murder, assault after assault, and not have the cops throwing them in jail for something anything?
Plus, the cover is gorgeous. Feb 06, Liz rated it it was ok Shelves: mystery. One of my reading goals this year is to clear out some TBRs from the beginning of my list and maybe I should have left this one there. There were definitely some things to like here. Brett is, unfortunate-in name aside, generally a likable character. She has some strong POVs—her fat shaming attitude toward Joel was not great—but that aside, she doesn't come across as overly preachy or judge-y.
She also gets involved with the case for a decent reason. The problem is that she's never really d One of my reading goals this year is to clear out some TBRs from the beginning of my list and maybe I should have left this one there. The problem is that she's never really developed further. No one is. And while that might change in other books, I wanted a little more here because otherwise everyone became interchangeable.
I could not get past Brett being so confounded by the women knowing not one, but two 2 Matthews though. It's a fairly common name not one where there's like a handful of them in the entire country. Also, the whole group of suspects seemed too connected. It just ended up feeling like way too many instances of overlap to be plausible for people who appeared to be strangers and in the end the motive for the murders seemed flimsy at best.
The action in the second half was a little too much of jumping to conclusions and driving to action from there and I didn't buy any of the "romance". Sadly, not enough here for me to check out more. Feb 19, Mary C rated it liked it Shelves: ebook , reread , , series-to-restart , boston-library , , contemporary. I liked this book but I found it a little odd that Brett would just jump right into investigating a missing person and murder case just because she met the woman for about 2 minutes.
It's not like they made this deep personal connection at that meeting. They scheduled an appointment for a tattoo. It would have been more believable to me if she started investigating because the main suspect was someone close to her not a guy she hates. Plus her brother was the lead detective so she could have just pumped him for information if she was curious. One would think having a brother, that she lives with btw, be a homicide detective would make her realize that she could be messing up evidence and causing trouble by trying to do a job she isn't trained to do.
But that's the basis of most cozies, an amateur detective solving a case better than the police. This is the first cozy series I've read set in Vegas so I found that refreshing. They seem to mostly be set in small towns or quiet English villages.
I can see a lot of potential for the folks from The Painted Lady to get into some crazy adventures in Sin City. I already have the 2nd book and plan on reading the rest. Also loved the bright colorful cover. Aug 23, Danielle rated it really liked it Shelves: 4-stars , mystery , read , m. Most cozy mysteries are set around bakers or crafters so to read one about a tattoo artist was really fun. A breath of fresh air, if you will.
So unique. I loved reading about the tattoo shop and the people who work for Brett. I loved the tattoo design aspect, as well. Aug 31, Myhotstylist rated it it was amazing. Awesome Awesome cozy! She is accompanied by her brother, detective Tim Kavanagh, Bitsy the dwarf office manager, Joel her pound gay co-worker, and Ace, her pretty-boy co-worker.
Things go haywire for Brett and the gang when a client comes in for a devotional tatoo and doesnt show for the appointment. Next thing you know the cops are sniffing around, a body is found dead, and another one turns up. Someone is trying Awesome Awesome cozy! Someone is trying to pin the muders on her and her long time busines enemy and fellow tatooist:Jeff Coleman.
Things get even more frustrating for Brett as she seems to be being followed by an unknown person who is scaring the living daylights out of her. Throw in a budding romance and something missing that everyone seems to be after, and you have yourself a perfect little cozy!! The plot itself was a bit complicated to follow, but if you paid attention it is wrapped up nicely, with a bit of a twist at the end.
All in all, I highly reccomend this book, and will continue to follow the series. I especially love the super short chapters and the backdrop of Fabulos Las Vegas! This was an excellent beginning to a series!! There was never a dull or slow moment in this story. She was an awesome character and I loved the fact that her brother Tim is a detective.
The author can take these characters a long way in future stories. Of course, I also loved the Las Vegas setting. It was pretty cool to recognize the places that were described. There were many great characters in the story that it was nail biting trying to figure out who was behind the "mi WOW!!!!
You will have to read it to find out why!! Just a little warning though: pay close attention to the plot or you might get confused!
But trust me it is worth it in the end as long as you really pay attention to the story and the characters. Jan 26, Kimberly rated it it was amazing Shelves: cozy-mystery. I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, but so many people suggested it that I finally ordered it off of PBS.
I'm so happy that I did! The book was fantastic and a great surprise. I couldn't put it down once I started reading it. The mixture of characters was perfect and the story line kept me guessing until the very end. The author did a great job of describing everything perfectly. I could picture every scene almost as if it was a movie. I can't wait to read book 2. Jul 17, Kala rated it it was amazing. The cover of this book really grabbed me in the store and I'm glad it did! The story and characters in The Missing Ink are engaging and the book just won't let you put it down.
I can't wait for the next one to come out : The cover of this book really grabbed me in the store and I'm glad it did! I can't wait for the next one to come out May 26, Karyogini rated it liked it Shelves: read-onor-before.
It's a Cozy Mystery book Definitely a light read. Unlike the other cozies, this has no "romance" factor, just flirting. Don't know if I still want to read the next book Maybe after some hardcore UFs. Jul 19, Melissa rated it really liked it Shelves: fiction. This was a fun fast mystery read. Las vegas, tattoos, murder Shelves: exwishlist , borrowed , ebook , read-in This was a fun read. I loved the main character Brett. She was quirky, fun, a smart mouth, sarcastic and definitely someone I would want to hang out with!
Brett finds herself thrown right into the middle of a murder mystery. Her brother Tim is a detective and she seems to be taking things into her own hands more than she should. I loved how it takes place in Vegas. Sigh I wonder if Vegas misses me as much I miss it! Loved the book. They all seem to get introduced at once and it took me a while to establish in my mind who they all were as I always visualize everything in my head and it plays out like a movie as I read.
Is this normal? Nov 20, Jasmine rated it it was ok Shelves: mystery , romance. Brett Kavanuagh runs an exclusive tattoo shop in Las Vegas when a customer comes in and sets up an appointment for a tattoo but then never shows Brett writes it off. When Brett becomes embroiled in the disappearance. I felt that the main characters could have had more depth an Brett Kavanuagh runs an exclusive tattoo shop in Las Vegas when a customer comes in and sets up an appointment for a tattoo but then never shows Brett writes it off.
I felt that the main characters could have had more depth and development and the love story that was added in felt rushed. I think this is a good book I you need something to distract you from your day to day but take it with a grain of salt when reading it. There are better books to read. Aug 02, Keziah Cannon rated it it was ok. While not the worst "cozy mystery" I've read, it's far from the best.
0コメント