Rating: 
Summary: An unusual mystery
Review: After all the Harry Bosch-thrillers (by Michael Connelly) I moved on to April Henry and her "detective" Claire Montrose. And I really liked it! It feels very new and different. Claire is not a journalist or a police, she does not have a (very) messed up life with lots of personal problems, she is 35 without kids and husband but there is not a lot of talk about that or the Clock, and she lives in Oregon. All of this makes a nice change to all "regular" mysteries set in LA or NY with gross details from autopsys, shootings, and the effects of too much coffee, drugs and sex.The mystery itself is also unusual, combining art, history and Nazis. Very interesting and I learnt a lot! Another good thing about Circles of confusion is that April Henry is a good writer. Even though this book does not start in an extremely exciting way, you still have a hard time putting it down. And it's funny too in the middle of all the art and Nazis. Especially when Claire's boyfriend Evan, the insurance guy, shows up. He's too good to be true!
Rating: 
Summary: "Is it the Real Thing?"
Review: Circles of Confusion, April Henry's first novel, has a contemporary setting (it was written in the late 1990s), but you'll probably remember it in the bright Technicolor of a 1950s Hitchcock film. The heroine, Claire Montrose (Hitch would probably have cast Doris Day in the part), works in the vanity plate dept. of the Oregon DMV (vanity plate combos are used as section bumpers--complete with a glossary in the back in case there are a few you don't get). That's an occupation that might have got her on a favorite TV show of the era, "What's My Line." The Hitchcock McGuffin is a painting she inherited from her aunt, who, as Claire learns from the aunt's diary, she acquired in Germany during WWII. Soon, Claire is off to New York to see if the painting is valuable or not, where she finds one man, Troy, who works at an auction house, who tells her it's a fake, while Dante, who works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, thinks it might be a Vermeer (the art history and the WWII history is accurate). Two men, with two different stories. Who's telling her the truth? Is it Granada Claire sees or "only Asbury Park"? Soon Claire finds herself in the typical Hitchcock situation, an innocent person caught up in intrigue, as she has a series of adventures that won't be given away here (well, all right one--Claire buys an evening dress in New York's Filene's Basement on the Upper West Side--a truly hilarious scene) but that eventually lead her back to her native Portland and a satisfying conclusion. And with the right guy. Is it at long last love? A semiserious fast-paced entertaining read, and since it's the first of the series, chances are you'll be back for the next of Claire's adventures. All in all, there are far worse ways to pass the time.
Rating:
Summary: Zany Characters... Plot
Review: Claire is a hapless young adult wandering through life when she gets the call that a distant aunt has died. She is the last known living relative and must clean out her aunt's trailer. She takes her dim witted boyfriend with her and they find mostly junk. One picture catches Claire's eye and she keeps it. After checking out the picture and taking a last minute whim trip to New York. She quickly has people looking for her and wanting this picture. It seems that the Nazis took it from a family who wants it back. At times this book got lost and Henry threw anything trying to make the book work. Clair job as a vanity plate approver provides a few comical moments and I had funny trying to decipher the acronyms. Sadly this story didn't connect the dots and the solution to the mystery was not supported by the clues woven in the story. I tried this series out since this author also wrote "Learning To Fly" which many refer to her as her breakout novel. I know this author has potential and I will read the next in the series.
Rating:
Summary: Not really a mystery
Review: Claire Montrose, has the very unique and intresting job of approving personalized license plates for the DMV in Oregon. Then one day, her Aunt dies and leaves everything to her. In the midst of a trailer full of junk, she finds a beautiful painting. On a whim, Claire decides to take a much needed vacation to New York City to find out if the painting is valuable. Once there, she meets two different men, both interested in her and her painting... I think Claire is a wonderful character, but I don't think this book deserves to be called a mystery book! When I read a mystery, I want lots of plot twists and more than one suspect to choose from. This simply read like regular fiction, no suspense at all. If you put that aside though, it's an ok read. Just don't expect a lot of suspense, as I did, or you will be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: An Interesting Gimmick Plus...
Review: Claire works in the Oregon state custom license plate division so, one assumes she's familiar with a lot of the cutesy combinations people come up with for their plates. The author capitalizes on this by giving us clues in the form of these license plates at the end of certain chapters. She even obliges by giving us a Key to License Plate Terms near the end of the book--just in case we can't figure them out. I'll admit I was drawn to the gimmick at first but, the story is good. When her aunt dies, Claire inherits the contents of her trailer. She is intrigued by a painting she finds that people keep telling her is worthless but, she pursues it anyway with intriguing results. We find out the Claire is a smart girl with good intuitive instincts except when it comes to men. Hopefully, she will improve her skills in the romantic department in the future. Circles of Confusion is a very entertaining read.
Rating: 
Summary: Smart and fun! Imagine that!
Review: This book is smart, fun, and a delicious page-turner. April Henry has created a character most of us can relate to in Claire Montrose, an almost-reluctant sleuth with a "normal" life, normal insecurities, normal problems ... but oh, the unusual situations that find her! And I never expected to see so much of my past art history training presented in a way that actually made it fun. (For the previous reviewer who wondered if this information was "true," it most certainly is.) Read this book, enjoy a great mystery, and learn a little art history painlessly!
Rating:
Summary: A whirlwind of activity.
Review: This book started out slowly enough, but soon picked up speed and kept right on going. From one page to the next, it seemed as though Claire was on the run and never stopped. From hiding the painting, to altering her appearance to help hide herself, the author did a good job of keeping you hanging as to who was going to find Claire and when. Claire's occupation as a clerk in the vanity plates division of Motor Vehicle was another plus; and the information given on the various painters and their techniques was interesting.
Rating:
Summary: fun mystery set in New York and Portland
Review: This debut novel by April Henry is a fun mystery revolving around 35-year old heroine Claire Montrose, a woman with a boring job, an annoying boyfriend and white trash roots. When her great aunt dies and leaves her a mysterious painting, Claire's life takes a turn for the adventurous, and she is soon faced with a lot of questions and a number of characters, trustworthy and un. This book is a quick read with an interesting mystery and, centering as it does around the authenticity of an unknown Vermeer painting, Henry relates a lot of interesting art history while keeping the entertainment level high. Details about Portland and New York are enjoyable (though how could she not bring up Powell's Books?), and the characters are three-dimensional. Well done. I will read other books by this author.
Rating:
Summary: fun mystery set in New York and Portland
Review: This debut novel by April Henry is a fun mystery revolving around 35-year old heroine Claire Montrose, a woman with a boring job, an annoying boyfriend and white trash roots. When her great aunt dies and leaves her a mysterious painting, Claire's life takes a turn for the adventurous, and she is soon faced with a lot of questions and a number of characters, trustworthy and un. This book is a quick read with an interesting mystery and, centering as it does around the authenticity of an unknown Vermeer painting, Henry relates a lot of interesting art history while keeping the entertainment level high. Details about Portland and New York are enjoyable (though how could she not bring up Powell's Books?), and the characters are three-dimensional. Well done. I will read other books by this author.
Rating: 
Summary: An insipid mystery
Review: This has to be one of the worst "mysteries" I've ever read. The main character is stupid and, for someone who's supposed to be solving a mystery, very blind to the possibilities. It took forever for the mystery to begin, and once it did I had it solved almost immediately. If this book is intended for a 4th grader, it should be a success.
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