The End of #20BooksOfSummer PLUS #BookBeginnings & #Friday56

Oh how I love Fridays with Book Beginnings and the Friday 56!  Friday56 (share a blurb from the 56th page or 56% mark) is hosted at Freda's Voice & Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences & your thoughts) is at Rose City Reader! This ALSO marks the final day of the #20BooksOfSummer challenge and this, my dear readers, is book # 30. More about that, though, at the end of the post.

Today I'm finishing up Catriona McPherson's Dandy Gilver and the Proper Treatment of Bloodstains, which I also used for this week's Teaser Tuesday. The last book I had read in the series I couldn't really get into but, looking back, I really blame that on trying to read it while going through all sorts of agony with work and exhaustion and dental procedures. I'll have to give that one a re-read at some point because I'm sure it'll be as delightfully amazing as I've found every other book in the series -- this one included.

At the beginning of the book I had to wonder where Dandy was and why she was in disguise ... and what/who she was disguised as. This being the fifth book in the series I already know and love Dandy and I always look forward to seeing what she's up to.

In the 1920s (this particular tale takes place in 1926), Dandy (short for Dandelion) is a privileged and bored middle-aged wife and mother whose husband is fairly absent even though he's almost always present (I'm sure you know the type). Early in the series she sort of stumbles into a career as a private investigator with her younger friend, Alec Osborne, taking upon the role of being her "Watson" (which they have often declared in so many words). Why, then, is Alec not yet with her at 56%?!? Well, the General Strike of 1926 was going on which made travel quite difficult and Dandy, of course, was away from home in her disguise. He does finally arrive, however, and the two of them delightfully knock their heads together to solve yet another mystery. 

No, I'm not even going to tell you what the mystery is. Go back and take a look at my Teaser Tuesday post. That should at least give you a hint.

I know. I don't always play fair.

I also don't always play by the rules... which is how my "20 Books of Summer" turned into 30.

Not in the actual order of being read, here are my 20+ Books of Summer!
Titles in bold were from my original 20 Books of Summer plan:

1. Stephanie Bond - 7 Brides for 7 Bodies (Body Movers #7) 
2. Rhys Bowen - A Royal Pain (Royal Spyness #2) 
3. Gail Carriger - Curtsies & Conspiracies (Finishing School #2) 
4. Deanna Chase - Engaged Off Bourbon Street (Jade Calhoun #3.5) & Angels of Bourbon Street (Jade Calhoun #4) 
5. John Connolly - The Infernals (Samuel Johnson #2) 
6. Robert Evert - Betrayal in the Highlands (The Riddle in Stone #2) 
7. Charlaine Harris - Shakespeare's Trollop (Lily Bard #4) 
8. Carolyn Hart - Mint Julep Murder (Death on Demand #9) 
9. Charlotte MacLeod - Wrack and Rune (Peter Shandy #3) 
10. Anna Loan-Wilsey - A Lack of Temperance (Hattie Davish #1)
11. Anna Loan-Wilsey - Anything But Civil (Hattie Davish #2)
12. Anna Loan-Wilsey - A Sense of Entitlement (Hattie Davish #3)
13. Anna Loan-Wilsey - A Deceptive Homecoming (Hattie Davish #4)
14. B. B. Oak - Thoreau At Devil's Perch (Henry David Thoreau Mystery #1)
15. B. B. Oak - Thoreau On Wolf Hill (Henry David Thoreau Mystery #2)
16. B. B. Oak - Thoreau In Phantom Bog (Henry David Thoreau Mystery #3)
17. William Ritter - Jackaby (Jackaby #1)
18. Deanna Raybourn - A Curious Beginning (Veronica Speedwell #1)
19. M. C. Beaton - Death of a Gossip (Hamish MacBeth #1)
20. Heather Blake - A Witch Before Dying (Wishcraft #2)
21. Jenn McKinlay - Due Or Die (Library Lover's Mystery #2)
22. Carola Dunn - The Winter Garden Mystery (Daisy Dalrymple #2)
23. Caroline Dunford - A Death in the Highlands (Euphemia Martin #2)
24. Leslie Meier - Mistletoe Murder (Lucy Stone #1)
25. Leslie Meier - Candy Corn Murder (Lucy Stone #22)
26. William Ritter - Beastly Bones (Jackaby #2)
27. Colette London - Dangerously Dark (Chocolate Whisperer #2)
28. Heather Graham - Sacred Evil (Krewe of Hunters #3)
29. Agatha Christie - The Man In The Brown Suit (Christie #4)
30. Catriona McPherson - Dandy Gilver and the Proper Treatment of Bloodstains (Dandy #5)

Titles I had originally intended but went unread/unfinished:
* Jasper Fforde - Lost in a Good Book (Thursday Next #2) - Gave up at about 10% in because I just wasn't feeling it. I'm assuming that I will read it at some point. 
* Alice Kimberly - The Ghost and the Dead Deb (Haunted Bookshop #2) - Didn't even make it to Chapter 2 before my brain was begging for something with more substance.
* Carolyn Hart - Ghost In Trouble (Bailey Ruth #3) - Honestly, I had even forgotten it was on the list.
* Lisa Lutz - Trail of the Spellmans (Spellmans #5) - Not 100% sure I've read # 4. Series is definitely worthy of a marathon re-read and ramble from the beginning.
* Sharyn McCrumb - The Songcatcher (Ballad #6) - I know without a doubt that I've read (and re-read) 1-5 ... but I would feel somewhat amiss if I reviewed/rambled about #6 without touching base with the others first so it looks like another re-read will be happening.