Finished FOLLOW THAT MOUSE by Henry Melton

All of Henry Melton's books pick a common theme in science fiction and this is no different.  It takes up the mad scientist theme and couples with Star Wars' "force."  As always, really inventive.  I loved it, and even, by the end, was sitting on the edge of my seat.

I have now started reading Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline.  This is a well-researched novel.  So far, I have met Molly, for all intents and purposes an orphan since she was young, is now 17 and has been stuck in the foster care system going from family to family for a very long time.  Now, sentenced to community service for stealing a beat-up paperback copy of Jane Eyre from the library, she meets Vivian, a 91 year old woman whose attic Molly will be cleaning up.  Both women have interesting/ tragic pasts.

Finished THE DREAM STALKER

I love this mystery series, and I have only read 2 of them.  There is a good mystery that keeps me guessing, a dangerous villain who keeps me on edge, and wonderful characters that I can like and therefore worry about.  Not bad at all.

I have now started Follow that Mouse, another of Henry Melton's science fiction for young people novels.  This one appears to be veering strongly toward fantasy, but it is a pretty interesting fantasy.  A mouse runs ahead of the protagonists and then turns back and waits for them to catch up, obviously wanting them to follow him.  How could anyone's curiosity not be piqued?

Finished DO YOU PROMISE NOT TO TELL?

Sometimes promising not to tell is not a good thing.  I believe this is the first of Mary Jane Clark's Key News books.  Her heroine is a reporter/producer for a popular news television show.  The subject of this book is Faberge jewelry and, of course, the eggs.  I thoroughly enjoyed the book.  Stayed up late last night to finish it.

I am now about to start the third of Margaret Coel's Father O'Malley Arapaho mysteries.  I really enjoyed the first of them and expect to do the same with this.  I thought I had the second book in the series, The Ghost Walker, but I don't.  I have two Dream Stalker's, so I need to order the second and read them out of order.  Phooey!

Finished SHADOWED SOULS

I very much enjoyed this, maybe more than most of the books of short stories I have read.  There was only one that I found too silly (the zombie detective--but I really dislike zombies).  There was one author that I immediately ordered the first book in his series.  (This is pretty good.  If I can find one new author in an anthology, that is fabulous.)

I have now started Do You Promise Not to Tell? by Mary Jane Clark.  An enamel artist is killed.  Why?  Who is next.  This is a Key News book featuring Ferrell Slater, reporter.

Finished RAISINS AND ALMONDS

As with all of these Phryne Fisher books, I marvel at how much can be made to fit in this small a space.  The multifaceted mystery is solved satisfactorily and the saga of Phryne's social life and household is advanced.  Altogether fun reading.

I have now started Shadowed Souls, an anthology of short stories edited by Jim Butcher and Kerrie L. Hughes.  The first story is Jim Butcher's entitled "Cold Case."  This has Molly as the protagonist and narrator and, though I have only just started, I am already into it.  The theme of these short stories are beings (people-ish folk) whose personality and influence on the world are both evil and good.