Book reviews of mysteries, historical fiction and graphic novels with a smattering of non-fiction books.
Friday, July 16, 2021
Return to the Big Valley
Saturday, July 3, 2021
Gone
Friday, July 2, 2021
The Night Gate
The Night Gate is the final installment of Peter May's The Enzo Files series. I have loved this series since it began and hate to see it end but I understand that authors need variety in their writing to keep it crisp.
"In a sleepy French village, the body of a man shot through the head is disinterred by the roots of a fallen tree. A week later a famous art critic is viciously murdered in a nearby house. The deaths occurred more than seventy years apart. Asked by a colleague to inspect the site of the former, forensics expert Enzo MacLeod quickly finds himself embroiled in the investigation of the latter. Two extraordinary narratives are set in train - one historical, unfolding in the treacherous wartime years of Occupied France; the other contemporary, set in the autumn of 2020 as France re-enters Covid lockdown.Tasked by the exiled General Charles de Gaulle to keep the world's most famous painting out of Nazi hands after the fall of France in 1940, 28-year-old Georgette Signal finds herself swept along by the tide of history. Following in the wake of DaVinci's Mona Lisa as it is moved from chateau to chateau by the Louvre, she finds herself just one step ahead of two German art experts sent to steal it for rival patrons - Hitler and Goring. What none of them know is that the Louvre itself has taken exceptional measures to keep the painting safe, unwittingly setting in train a fatal sequence of events extending over seven decades.The Night Gate spans three generations, taking us from war-torn London, the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, Berlin and Vichy France, to the deadly enemy facing the world in 2020."
Thursday, July 1, 2021
The Bombay Prince
The Perfect Daughter
Sunday, June 13, 2021
Portrait of Peril
"Victorian London is a city gripped by belief in the supernatural - but a grisly murder becomes a matter of flesh and blood for intrepid photographer Sarah Bain.London, October 1890. Crime scene photographer Sarah Bain is overjoyed to marry her beloved Detective Sergeant Barrett - but the wedding takes a sinister turn when the body of a stabbing victim is discovered in the crypt of the church. Not every newlywed couple begins their marriage with a murder investigation, but Sarah and Barrett, along with their friends Lord Hugh Staunton and Mick O'Reilly, take the case.The dead man is Charles Firth, whose profession is "spirit photography" - photographing the ghosts of the deceased. When Sarah develops the photographs he took in the church, she discovers one with a pale, blurred figure attacking the victim. The city's spiritualist community believes the church is haunted and the figure is a ghost. But Sarah is a skeptic, and she and her friends soon learn that the victim had plenty of enemies in the human world - including a scientist who studies supernatural phenomena, his psychic daughter, and an heiress on a campaign to debunk spiritualism and expose fraudulent mediums.In the tunnels beneath a demolished jail, a ghost-hunting expedition ends with a new murder, and new suspects. While Sarah searches for the truth about both crimes, she travels a dark, twisted path into her own family's sordid history. Her long lost father is he prime suspect in a cold case murder, and her reunion with him proves that even the most determined skeptic can be haunted by ghosts from the past."
Tuesday, June 1, 2021
Play Dead
"The discovery of two teenagers ritualistically murdered in a secluded Austin park outrages a nation already on the brink of tearing itself apart. The victims are the latest in an epidemic of deaths linked to a mysterious, underground virtual game known only as Play Dead.
The forensic evidence soon points to Jamie Hamilton, a brilliant yet naive young man on the autism spectrum. But Angie Channing, a world-renown true crime writer, isn’t so sure. Could such a seemingly innocent person be capable of clinical brutality? Why the rush to silence him? What secrets are hidden in the world of Play Dead that were worth killing for? What if Jamie is the key to something far more sinister?
Angie quickly finds herself in a relentless game of cat and mouse that threatens far more than just her sanity or her life. How far will she go to uncover the shocking truth? Enter a psychological thriller ripped from tomorrow’s headlines that will haunt you until the last page. It is said that nothing is as it seems in the halls of power and that some truths are far too dangerous for the common man."
The setting is not Texas but the virtual reality world itself. How virtual reality works as well as how it could be used in the future is prominant. After all, the story takes place 30 years from now and the virtual reality of today has been tremendously expanded in this futuristic novel. I don't know much about virtual reality but the book had a sci-fi feel to me.
The characters were quite compelling. In the beginning the reader only hears about Clair and Timothy but Angie Channing is the main character. The hunt to determine what Clair and Timothy had discovered about a virtual reality game called Play Dead is the focus of Angie's search for truth. The answer concerning what the teenagers found also solves their murders. One thought kept coming back to me: how can two teenagers know more about this topic than the adults who create these virtual reality games. It didn't seem authentic to me. Angie and another character, Jamie, are the primary characters after the teenagers are killed. Jamie is autistic and is a virtual reality game champion. Society calls him a derogatory term "dead head." Angie is also a dead head but she has been able to keep this fact a secret from her readers. Angie has authored a book on the subject and is researching another one. No one knows how she does her research, though.
The plot is intricate but I got lost in all the background information on virtual reality. I am not scientifically inclined so trying to figure all this out was challenging. This was a huge drawback to my enjoyment of the novel. Some chapters went so far over my head that I merely tried to read fast through them until more plot action took place.
I enjoyed Play Dead but did not enjoy it as much as someone who is more scientificaly inclined will enjoy it. However, I will highly recommend the book. It is thought provoking. 4 out of 5 stars.
The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba
"A feud rages in Gilded Age New York City between newspaper tycoons William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. When Grace Harrington lands a job at Hearst's newspaper in 1896, she's caught in a cutthroat world where one scoop can make or break your career, but its a story emerging from Cuba that changes her life.Unjustly imprisoned in a notorious Havana women's jail, eighteen-year-old Evangelina Cisneros dreams of a Cuba free from Spanish oppression. When Hearst learns of her plight and splashes her image on the front page of his paper, proclaiming her "The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba," she becomes a rallying cry for American intervention in the battle for Cuban independence.With the help of Marina Perez, a courier secretly working for the Cuban revolutionaries in Havana, Grace and Hearst's staff attempt to free Evangelina. But when Cuban civilians are forced into reconcentration camps and the explosion of the USS Maine propels the United States and Spain toward war, the three women must risk everything in their fight for freedom."
The Cuban setting comes to life with the author's meticulous descriptions of the homes of the rich and the poor. She presents the awful truth about the conditions of the women's prison in Havana, the Recogidas. The prisoners all lost a tremendous amount of weight, froze during the night and many just hugged their bodies and stared into space. The prison is what I remember most from the novel. I learned a great deal about the battle between Pulitzer and Hearst. Pulitzer ran a news focused paper that did not earn much profit. Hearst, on the other hand, ran news stories that were sensationalized and his profits soared. Does this sound familiar in today's society?
The only character that interested me was Evangelina. Perhaps she was easier to write about since there are many news articles about her. We know from history what she thought and how she lived during this time period. The other two main characters did not seem as prominent, although the chapters that were told from their points of view had just as many pages as Evangeline's chapters. Evangelina was brave but she had to be. Before her arrest and incarceration, she was spoiled, rich girl. We don't see her slowly becoming brave, she just rose to the occasion when it was necessary.
I enjoyed reading The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba and highly recommend it to historical fiction fans. It isn't every day that we get a novel set in Cuba. This should be appreciated by those of tired of reading about books set in England, France and Italy. 4 out of 5 stars.
Monday, May 24, 2021
Persian Perpetrator
Saturday, May 8, 2021
The Cartiers
Thursday, May 6, 2021
The Murder of Emma Brown
Sunday, May 2, 2021
The Lantern Boats
Elly Ruskin is trapped between worlds. Half-Japanese, Half- Scottish, she is deported from Australia to Japan after the war, but Tokyo is a city Elly barely knows. In a whirlwind romance, she falls in love with a Scottish journalist and they marry. Kamiya Jun is a teenage war orphan from the lost Japanese colony of Karafuto. He is smuggled to the mainland on a fishing boat. Captured by the police, he is handed over to the occupation forces, and finds himself unwillingly recruited to work in an underground intelligence unit run by a maverick American officer. Now Elly thinks her husband is having an affair, and her suspicions will her down a treacherous path that will put everyone in danger. Jun might be the only person who can help her.
The Girl From Silent Lake
When single mother Alison Nolan sets off with her six-year-old daughter Hazel, she can't wait to spend precious time with her girl. A vacation in Silent Lake, where snow-topped mountains are surrounded by the colors of fall, is just what they need. Hours later, though, Alison and Hazel disappear. Detective Kay Sharp rushes to the scene. The only evidence that they were ever there is an abandoned rental car with a suitcase in the back, gummy bears in the open glove compartment and a teddy bear on the floor. Kay's mind spins. A week before, the body of another woman from out of town was found in a wrapped blanket, her hair braided and tied with feathers. Instinct tells her that the cases are connected - and it won't be long until more innocent lives are lost.As Kay leads a frenzied search, time is against her, but she vows that Alison and little Hazel will be found alive. She works around the clock, even though the small town is up in arms, saying she's asking too many questions. Then she uncovers a vital clue - a photograph of the blanket that the first victim was buried in. Just when Kay thinks she's found the missing piece, she realizess she's being watched. Is she getting too close, or is her own past catching up with her? With a little girl's life on the line, Kay will stop at nothing. But will it be enough to get inside the mind of the most twisted killer she has ever encountered, or will another blameless child be taken?
Saturday, May 1, 2021
The Code Breaker
Thursday, April 22, 2021
Shadow Life
Shadow Life was published in March 2020 by First Second. It is a graphic novel written by Hiromi Goto and illustrated by Ann Xu and is about Kumiko, a 76 year old woman. Kumiko's middle aged adult daughters place her in an assisted living home against her wishes. However, she agrees to give it a try. Kumiko does not like living there, runs away and finds herself a cozy bachelorette pad. She keeps her location a secret from her daughters, even while they are talking on the phone. Kumiko loves decorating as she pleases, eating whatever she wants and swimming in the community pool. Something has followed her though from the assisted living place - death's shadow.
Friday, April 16, 2021
The Wedding
Wednesday, April 7, 2021
One Perfect Grave
Friday, April 2, 2021
The French Paradox
Thursday, April 1, 2021
Haunted Hibiscus
"It is the week before Halloween and Theodosia Browning, proprietor of the Indigo Tea Shop, and her tea sommelier, Drayton, are ghosting through the dusk of a cool Charleston evening on their way to the old Bouchard Mansion. Known as the Grey Ghost, this dilapidated place was recently bequeathed to the Heritage Society, and tonight heralds the grand opening of their literary and historical themed haunted house.Though Timothy Neville, the Patriarch of the Heritage Society, is not thrilled with the fund-raising idea, it is the perfect venue for his grandniece, Willow French, to sign copies of her new book, Carolina Crimes & Capers. But amidst a parade of characters dressed as Edgar Allen Poe, Lady Macbeth, and the Headless Horseman, Willow's body is suddenly tossed from the third-floor tower room and left to dangle at the end of a rope. Police come screaming in and Theodosia's boyfriend, Detective Pete Riley, is sent to Willow's apartment to investigate. But minutes later, he is shot and wounded by a shadowy intruder.Timothy begs Theodosia to investigate, and shaken by Riley's assault, she readily agrees. Now, she questions members of the Heritage Society and a man who claims the mansion is rightfully his, as well as Willow's book publisher and fiance, all while hosting a Sherlock Holmes tea and catering several others."
- the front door da-dinged
- I only have time for drive-by kisses and hugs
- He's as wide as a soccer mom's van
- Holy cats, what a mess
- Floradora Florist
- Being young and dipped in folly, I fell in love with melancholy