FINISHED:
Lawrence, Caroline. (2013). P.K. Pinkerton and the petrified man. New York: Penguin/Putnam.


[Having just set up shop as Virginia City’s newest detective, twelve-year old orphan P.K. Pinkerton is hired by Martha, a girl who witnessed the murder of a local “soiled-dove”, to find the killer.  When Martha herself goes missing, P.K. must look for a man who is “tall & slim & blond with a billy goat beard”… which, unfortunately describes half the men in Virginia City.  Told from P.K.’s perspective in “journal” form (chapters are referred to as “Ledger Sheets”), this second book in Lawrence’s recent Western Mysteries series picks up just days after the events of the first, with P.K. starting his detective business out of an old cigar shop.  P.K.’s undefined, though clearly evident, high-functioning Autism is referred to as he meticulously “catalogues” and memorizes the different brands of tobacco left in the shop from its last inhabitants, and still needs some schooling on how to read the emotions on others faces.  Though not as fast-paced and suspenseful as the first in the series, there’s still a good amount of action and surprises, and fans of the first novel, P.K. Pinkerton and the Deadly Desperados (G.P. Putnam’s/Penguin, 2012), will find plenty of enjoyment in this installment what with the duels, poker games, barn fire, and P.K.’s penchant for disguises (including posing as Martha in an effort to flush out the killer).  As in the previous volume, Samuel Clements makes an appearance as he was a writer for the Virginia City newspaper at the time, and a brief glossary is included which defines/describes period terms, people and places.  References to opium, prostitution, and some laissez-faire-treated, gruesome violence make this one best suited for a slightly older audience.]


STARTED:
Sedaris, David. (2013). Let's explore diabetes with owls. New York: Little, Brown & Co. 


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