Sometimes I luck out and find a good free book on the Kindle. Murder in Wonderland, by Leslie Leigh is a great example of this. The first in the Allie Griffin Mysteries series, it features Allie – a plucky widow trying to break into the upper crust of her hometown Verdenier by hosting the local book club in her own home only to have one of the snootiest of the snooty fall over dead in the middle of her Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland themed table.

There are various direct quotes and clever connections to the Alice books through out the story. The main character is obsessed with the book and it shows.

The cast of characters at the book club are all rather interesting, some with some rather sordid pasts. The author (and main character) cleverly align them with people out of the Alice books. It certainly made them stick in the mind more and was a wonderful way to add characteristics to them without having to go into high detail. After when you hear RED QUEEN you don’t exactly think sweet little widow lady.

This book is light on violence, no sexual content and no true profanity… instead Allie will often say the word. Something I found rather humorous and not the least bit annoying.

The mystery is an interesting one and the ending a surprise to me. Which I love. There is a shady police officer but he is more of an annoyance than a major thorn in the side. This is balanced out with another more capable and realistic officer thankfully.

So, literary references, humour, fun characters and a mystery that keeps you guessing! Not bad for a random free read, not bad at all!

Time for another review… this time a manga series of 3 (ok first portion… there are supposed to be 3 mini series within the series). Karyn picked them up on her trip to Victoria with her mom to whale watch. The art is gorgeous and the storyline twisted and convoluted and full of mystery but interesting all the same. Alice in the Country of Hearts. 

Based on the novel Alice in Wonderland (obviously) you meet Alice Liddell in the real world. In a rather unorthodox way she falls down the rabbit hole into Wonderland. And there the story truly begins. Some characters are loosely based on the original characters… like the Cheshire cat, Mad Hatter, the Red Queen… and characters unique to the story like Ace and the ClockMaker. In a world where everyone is meant to fall in love with Alice (though this seems not to be limited to romantic love) and some people are much more important than others… well things can get wild and exciting. 

So if you are not adverse to some violence and don’t mind some confusing twist and turns and some amazing manga style art… check this out! I am hoping to get my hands on the continuing volumes. I especially love how they limit the impact of the violence. I am not huge on majorly graphic images BUT be warned there IS quite a bit of violence. 

The three books!