Five-year-old Cally waits in her pretty pink bedroom for the sound of the front door opening and her mother’s sweet voice in the hall. But when the doorbell finally rings, and Cally creeps out of bed to peer through the banister, a large man in uniform is all she sees. Her mother is missing...
Teacher Annabel Braddock was last seen drinking at the local pub with her best friend, Jennifer. Witnesses saw tears running down her cheeks, and friends say she was having problems with a colleague at work, and that her marriage had broken down.
But as the two women hugged goodbye, neither noticed the car speeding towards them. As the dust settled, Jennifer lay unconscious on the ground and Annabel was nowhere to be seen. She’d never abandon her little girl, so did someone snatch her?
As family crowd around Jennifer’s hospital bed, hoping she’ll wake up, police visit Annabel’s home and her inconsolable daughter, Cally, tells them she had seen a man outside staring into her room as she climbed into bed that evening. Was it her childish imagination, or had someone been watching Annabel’s home?
When Jennifer finally opens her eyes and tells the police what happened that night, it’s clear there are plenty of people with a reason to harm Annabel. With an unpredictable husband, a colleague who denies harassing her and a neighbour who seems to know her every move, could she be in imminent danger? As the hours turn to days, will little Cally ever see her precious mother again? Or will she be next?
Book reviews of mysteries, historical fiction and graphic novels with a smattering of non-fiction books.
Friday, July 22, 2022
One Girl Missing
Wednesday, July 13, 2022
Booth
In 1822, a secret family moves into a secret cabin some thirty miles northeast of Baltimore, to farm, to hide, and to bear ten children over the course of the next sixteen years. Junius Booth—breadwinner, celebrated Shakespearean actor, and master of the house in more ways than one—is at once a mesmerizing talent and a man of terrifying instability. One by one the children arrive, as year by year, the country draws frighteningly closer to the boiling point of secession and civil war.
As the tenor of the world shifts, the Booths emerge from their hidden lives to cement their place as one of the country’s leading theatrical families. But behind the curtains of the many stages they have graced, multiple scandals, family triumphs, and criminal disasters begin to take their toll, and the solemn siblings of John Wilkes Booth are left to reckon with the truth behind the destructively specious promise of an early prophecy.
Booth is a startling portrait of a country in the throes of change and a vivid exploration of the ties that make, and break, a family.
Thursday, July 7, 2022
Rising Tiger
An unprecedented, potentially nation-ending threat has materialized on the world stage. Fearful of the global consequences of engaging this enemy, administration after administration has passed the buck. The clock, however, has run out and doing nothing is no longer an option. It is time to unleash Scot Harvath.
As America’s top spy, Harvath has the unparalleled skills and experience necessary to handle any situation, but this assignment feels different.
Thrust into a completely unfamiliar culture, with few he can trust, the danger begins mounting the moment he arrives. Amidst multiple competing forces and a host of deadly agendas, it becomes nearly impossible to tell predator from prey.
With democracy itself hanging in the balance, Harvath will risk everything to untangle the explosive plot and bring every bad actor to justice.
Tuesday, July 5, 2022
The Omega Factor
Saturday, July 2, 2022
The Good Wife of Bath
Friday, July 1, 2022
My Wife is Missing
A family vacation turns into a nightmare for Michael Hart when he discovers his wife and two children have disappeared from their New York City hotel room. Horrified, he fears they've been kidnapped. Michael's frantic search to find them takes a shocking turn when he discovers that his wife, Natalie, appears to have left quite willingly, taking their children with her. The police want to know why, and so does Michael. But there may be a reason why Natalie ran, something Michael can't tell the police - the truth about his past.While untangling his deceptions might be the key to locating Natalie, Michael knows it could also be his undoing. To find his wife, he must now turn to the one person capable of exposing all that he's been hiding. Natalie thinks she has Michael all figured out and has hatched a plan to escape from him permanently. One detail, though, threatens to derail her efforts: sleep - or more accurately- the lack of it. Since the moment the shocking revelations about her husband come to light, Natalie's insomnia has worsened to the point that she now suffers from delusions.
Dan Palmer writes psychological thrillers that never disappoint. My Wife is Missing is no exception. The suspension was kicked up a notch with each chapter and the twists were creative. The story is told from the viewpoints of Michael and Natalie but also from past to present. It is also action driven as well as character driven. The reader develops a feeling early on that neither Michael nor Natalie are who they seem to be. You don't know who to believe so as the action unfolds, the suspense builds. Michael is the character who is the villain, even though he appears to be the victim of a runaway spouse. His internal thoughts characterize him as such because he tells himself that he cannot let the police find out about all his secrets. As I was reading, I wondered whether the plot line came from the news headlines. I had this in the back of my mind but to give my blog readers some of their own suspense, I won't tell you. Read it for yourself.
This may be Palmer's best book to date. It certainly is the most suspenseful. 5 out of 5 stars.
Kaikeyi
"I was born on the full moon under an auspicious constellation, the holiest of positions - much good it did me.So begins Kaikeyi's story. The only daughter of the kingdom of Kekaya, she is raised on the tales of the gods: how they churned the vast ocean to obtain the nectar of immortality, how they vanquish evil and ensure the land of Bharat prospers, and how they offer powerful boons to the devout and the wise. Yet she watches as her father unceremoniously banishes her mother, listens as her own worth is reduced to how great a marriage alliance she can secure. And when she calls upon the gods for help, they never seem to hear her.Desperate for some measure of independence, she turns to the texts she once read with her mother and discovers a magic that is hers alone. With this power, Kaikeyi transforms herself from an overlooked princess into a warrior, diplomat and most favored queen, determined to carve a better world for herself and the women around her.But as the evil from her childhood stories threaten the cosmic order, the path she has forged clashes with the destiny the gods have chosen for her family. Kaikeyi must decide if resistance is worth the destruction it will wreak - and what legacy she intends to leave behind."
Tuesday, June 21, 2022
The Candid Life of Meena Dave
Saturday, June 4, 2022
Among the Innocent
I received an advanced review copy (ARC) of this book from the Early Reviewer's Club at Librarything in exchange for an honest review. It is an Amish story but with a different twist. This suspense thriller features Leah Miller, a former Amish woman, as a police officer who is investigating a murder.
Thursday, June 2, 2022
Kingdom of Bones
Wednesday, June 1, 2022
Fear Thy Neighbor
The Fugitive Colours
Nancy Bilyeau's The Fugitive Colours is the sequel to her 2018 novel The Blue. If you read The Blue you know that the main character is Genevieve Planche. After fleeing England for France, she met and married Thomas Sturbridge. Six years later they are back in Spitalfields for this installment of the series. It is 1764 and since men control the arts, sciences, politics and law, Genevieve is struggling to keep her silk design business afloat. Both Thomas and Genevieve are Huguenots, Protestants from Catholic France, which further makes them suspicious in the eyes of their associates in England. When Genevieve receives a surprise visit from an important artist, she begins to hope that, as a woman, she can be accepted as an artist. However, she soon learns that portrait painters have the world at their feet. Rivalries among them lead to sabotage, blackmail and murder and Genevieve gets caught up in their antics. Because she fears being exposed for her conspiracy and betrayal at the Derby Porcelain Factory several years back. The Blue novel is about that betrayal.
Saturday, May 21, 2022
The Cleopatra Cipher
I LOVED this book! From the first pages I was captivated by this story. Cleopatra's burial place and her treasures are sought by two opposing groups. One is from academia and the other is from a crime syndicate called the Daughters of Cleopatra. Both groups are present at a Languages and Antiquity Conference in Rome. Sebastian Rossi has given a lecture on the various languages of Ptolemac Egypt. While always a popular lecture, the recent finding of Cleopatra's treasures one week prior to the conference made his lecture a must to hear. Sebastian's friend Adrian West is also in attendance at the conference and soon after Sebastian's lecture has ended, she receives a call from her former FBI partner Nick Harper. Nick tells her that Sebastian has been abducted. The hunt is on to not only locate him but to find out why he was abducted.
The writing was tight and suspenseful and the characters were fully developed. The protagonist of the series is Adrian West. She is a great character but I believe that without Sebastian as a counterpart, I am not sure how well she can carry the series. I definitely liked Sebastian better. I was not able to tell if he will be an ongoing character in the series. Nonetheless, we will find out in 2 months when the second book in the series is published.
I preferred the Rome setting. Fortunately the setting didn't move to Egypt until the midway point in the story. We read more about the Italian landscape and food than the same in Egypt. The Egyptian part of the plot centered on action more than setting description.
This is a hugely entertaining novel! 5 out of 5 stars.
Tuesday, April 12, 2022
Nine Lives
Nine strangers receive a list with their names on it in the mail. Nothing else, just a list of names on a single sheet of paper. None of the nine people know or have ever met the others on the list. They dismiss it as junk mail, a fluke, until very, nad things begin happening to people on the list. First, a well-liked old man is drowned on a beach in the small town of Kennewick, Maine. Then, a father is shot in the back while running through his quiet neighborhood in suburban Massachusetts. A frightening pattern is emerging, but what do these nine people have in common? Their professions range from oncology nurse to aspiring actor, and they’re located all over the country. So why are they all on the list, and who sent it? FBI agent Jessica Winslow, who is on the list herself, is determined to find out. Could there be some dark secret that binds them all together? Or is this the work of a murderous madman? As the mysterious sender stalks these nine strangers, they find themselves constantly looking over their shoulders, wondering who will be crossed off next.
Nine lives is a suspense thriller set in the modern era. Each chapter covers one of the nine characters on consecutive days. It's a clever whodunnit with a surprise ending. I was bewildered by the high body count though. Usually in a mystery I see, at the most, two people killed but here there are more. In the end it all makes sense. Don't be surprised if the plot sounds familiar. Nine Lives is based on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, her most well known mystery. The author used alot of narrative for Nine Lives but it was cut back as the story unfolded and for a good reason. The pacing automatically picked up after each character died because less narrative was needed. The investigation of the deaths was not a big part of the novel. It more or less was character driven.
I enjoyed this mystery and am rating it 5 out of 5 stars.
Saturday, April 9, 2022
The Cartographers
Nell Young’s whole life and greatest passion is cartography. Her father, Dr. Daniel Young, is a legend in the field and Nell’s personal hero. But she hasn’t seen or spoken to him ever since he cruelly fired her and destroyed her reputation after an argument over an old, cheap gas station highway map.
But when Dr. Young is found dead in his office at the New York Public Library, with the very same seemingly worthless map hidden in his desk, Nell can’t resist investigating. To her surprise, she soon discovers that the map is incredibly valuable and exceedingly rare. In fact, she may now have the only copy left in existence . . . because a mysterious collector has been hunting down and destroying every last one—along with anyone who gets in the way.
But why?
To answer that question, Nell embarks on a dangerous journey to reveal a dark family secret and discovers the true power that lies in maps. The Cartographers is an ode to art and science, history and magic—a spectacularly imaginative, modern story about an ancient craft and places still undiscovered.
Reading this book was an amazing experience. I had that warm feeling you get when you finish a satisfying novel. Author Peng Shepherd dreamed up a creative plot and executed the writing skillfully. There is also plenty of of character development as well as information on creating maps.
Seven college buddies travel to New York State after obtaining their Ph.D's in cartography. Their plans are something only the young can dream up: to create the most perfect atlas composed of maps of fantasy lands, such as you would find for the Chronicles of Narnia. The work begins well but as time passes the group dynamics fall apart. Two couples cheat on each other while an odd man out is doing research that he keeps secret from the group. Trust begins to dissipate and the group separates after a tragedy, with most of them staying in New York. All but one has their dream job. Daniel Young heads the map room at the New York Public Library. He and his daughter Nell carry the story. His classmates found similarly fantastic jobs but to summarize the rest of the story would give out spoilers.
These seven characters communicated with each other as only childhood friends can. Their dialogue was realistic and the author primarily used it to advance the story. There was very little narrative. The exuberance the characters had for their studies made me remember my own college days and, frankly, I haven't been that idealistic since then. Real life always interrupts those feelings. These characters experienced highs and lows on a scale most of us have never experienced. While the story refers to the lows, it is the highs that caught my interest. They were working on a huge discovery for cartography and this is what excited me about the book.
The Cartographers is simply magnificent. 5 out of 5 stars.
Saturday, April 2, 2022
Peach Blossom Spring
It is 1938 in China and, as a young wife, Meilin’s future is bright. But with the Japanese army approaching, Meilin and her four year old son, Renshu, are forced to flee their home. Relying on little but their wits and a beautifully illustrated hand scroll, filled with ancient fables that offer solace and wisdom, they must travel through a ravaged country, seeking refuge. Years later, Renshu has settled in America as Henry Dao. Though his daughter is desperate to understand her heritage, he refuses to talk about his childhood. How can he keep his family safe in this new land when the weight of his history threatens to drag them down? Yet how can Lily learn who she is if she can never know her family’s story? Spanning continents and generations, Peach Blossom Spring is a bold and moving look at the history of modern China, told through the story of one family. It’s about the power of our past, the hope for a better future, and the haunting question: What would it mean to finally be home?
When I finished this novel I went back in the story searching for each reference to Peach Blossom Spring. Henry first learned of this fable from his mother while he was a youth. After Henry moves to America he hears the story again, but with a different ending. He wonders why his mother changed the ending. In the last chapter of the book he figures it out. Without being a spoiler I can say it refers to wherever your home is located. The location can be a specific place or state of mind. The way the author ended the story gives us a much bigger idea of what a Peach Blossom Spring is but I won't elaborate here. However, please note that I wanted to immediately re-read the novel after I finished reading it. There has never been a novel that has had this effect on me. Perhaps I am searching for my own Peach Blossom Spring.
The Chinese setting descriptions were spot on. The reader definitely feels the effects of war on all the Chinese cities and villages that Meilin and Renshu walked through on their way to safety. Whenever they found sanctuary, they soon had to move on because of the bombs that the Japanese planes dropped. No place was safe. Eventually Meilin and Renshu moved to Taiwan with their Dao relatives to escape the Japanese and the fledgling Chinese Communist Party. We get a glimpse that Longwei is working with Taiwan's KMT Party but this fact is never specifically stated. Longwei's actions show how the KMT spies operated in mainland China. The problems of emigrating to other countries is also shown. Many Chinese had to lie about their family background in order to get access to boats that would take them to a new place. The lies would always be a problem for the countries in which they relocated.
All the characters seemed flawed. However, each character had to make a decision on how to best handle the circumstances of war. Is this a flaw? Maybe not. When you are in a lose-lose situation, whatever you decide to do looks suspicious. The Dao family did not have positive options available and they used whatever power their family had in order to survive. Instead of saying that they were flawed it may be best to state that the characters were realistic for the era in which they lived, including Henry in America. The current Chinese government does threaten Chinese Americans with harming their relatives who are still in China in order to get concessions. Henry was afraid that he would hurt his mother if he associated with other Chinese in the U. S.
I LOVED this novel! I am rating it 5 out of 5 stars.
The Easter Bonnet Murder
Friday, April 1, 2022
Evil in Emerald
As with her prior novels, author A. M. Stuart has created a Pinterest board for Evil in Emerald that is worth checking out. Here she has pinned photos of 1910 beach wear, several railway stations, street style, portraits of women, and grand mansions in Singapore. Stuart also has a Pinterest page for the Harriet Gordon Mysteries which includes cars, trains, maps, and costumes as well as separate boards for Harriet and Curran.
5 out of 5 stars!