After some of the relatively heavy stuff I've been reading (Gnomon by Nick Harkaway and Last Call by Tim Powers -- both highly recommended), I was in the mood for something that wasn't going to tax me at all. Death Takes Priority is just such a book. It's entirely inoffensive: it's not poetry, but it's competently written; I didn't find a single quote that is going to stay with me, but I'm not sorry I read it.

Looking back on what I just wrote, it really doesn't sound like a positive review. And, insofar as I'm not likely to hold it up and say "Quick! Go read it!", I suppose, in practical terms, it's not. But, if this makes sense, I sort of want it to be. It's a story about a woman named Cassie Miller, who moved back to her tiny home town of North Ashcot, Massachusettes, to look after her dying aunt, and then stayed on as the town postmaster. This particular book (it's a series -- "The Postmistress Mysteries". No, I'm not kidding) is about how she gets involved in solving the murder of the guy she used to date in high school.

It's ... sweet, I guess, is the word. Simple and straightforward, the way the world usually isn't. And the author obviously thinks the post office (and its workings) is neat, and that's geekery I'm simpatico with. There's a non-zero chance I'm going to read the next book in the series -- titled Cancelled By Murder, if you can believe it.

I was sort of startled to find "thudthwacker" taken when I tried to sign up with it earlier today. Evidently, that was because I myself signed up and utterly forgot (and, I guess, wasn't yet using a password vault).

But, I'm here, if anybody is still watching (other than @fings). (Not sure if that's how you tag people in a post, or even if there *is* a way to tag people in a post.)