Iced in Paradise

Iced in Paradise is a cozy mystery taking place in Hawaii. It is the first of two novels in the Leilani Santiago Hawaii Mystery series and is the first book that I have read by the author, Naomi Hirahara. She is the Edgar-winning author of the Mas Arai mystery series and the L.A.-based Ellie Rush mystery series. Her Mas Arai books earned a best book of the year award from Publishers Weekly. Iced in Paradise was published in 2021.

The publisher's summary:

Leilani Santiago is back in her birthplace, the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i, to help keep afloat the family business, a shave ice shack. When she goes to work one morning, she stumbles across a dead body, a young pro surfer who was being coached by her estranged father. As her father soon becomes the No. 1 murder suspect, Leilani must find the real killer and somehow safeguard her ill mother, little sisters, and grandmother while also preserving a long-distance relationship with her boyfriend in Seattle.

Iced was not as exciting as I had hoped. I struggled with the Hawaiian slang and could not always figure out what was being said. I wasted too much time trying to figure it all out and kept reading. However, the slang was too big of a disturbance for me. In the beginning I thought that it was pretty cool to learn all these new words. It became cumbersome though. I found it hard to decipher what the action was because it too was told to the reader through slang terms. The plot shown above in the summary is a good one. I just didn't see it and am disappointed with the book. I had high hopes for it due to the positive reviews but it just didn't click with me.

1 out of 5 stars.

The Nanny

The Nanny is a fantastic psychological thriller by Ruth Heald. I have read every one of her books and they all are unputdownable. In The Nanny, there are many twists and turns but they particularly happen in short sequence beginning at the midway point in the book. 

The publisher's summary:  

"I clutched baby Chloe's blanket, tears streaming down my face as I remember the night she disappeared. I looked up at the apartment block I once called home. I knew I'd never be welcome here again. One mistake had ruined everything.

When I  accepted a job working as a nanny for David and Julie and their young children, I couldn't believe my luck. I bonded with the baby Chloe instantly and would have done anything for her. She had David's thick dark hair and smiling eyes. I fell in love with her and was excited about her future. But when a terrible mistake led to Chloe disappearing, I was instantly blamed. With no evidence, I was let go and I returned home to try and rebuild my life. 

Twenty years later and I am still haunted by what happened. I have a family of my own now and I've worked hard to be the best wife and mother I can be. But I've never forgotten the child who stole my heart. Then a young woman arrived on my doorstep and the past secret that I have kept from my family comes hurtling into my present. I try to tell myself that I am overreacting but the woman in front of me looks so much like David. Who is she and why is she here?"

I loved this book. It is plot driven with a super fast pace. Half of the story takes place in 1999 Thailand and half in London in the present day. There isn't much that the Thailand setting provides other than being known for its stiff criminal penalties. 

There are quite a few characters. Hayley is the main character and she is married to Lars with a young daughter named Alice. Hayley's mother lives with them also as she has early dementia and mom has a caregiver named Michelle. In 1999 Hayley had been traveling during her gap year with two girlfriends and they landed in Bangkok. Running short of money caused her to accept a job with British expats David and Julie MacFarlane as a nanny for their newborn infant Chloe and two of David's daughters from an earlier marriage. 

Hayley has alot of secrets that she has kept from her girlfriends, the MacFarlanes, her husband and mother. Trying to keep them all close to her heart gives the story tension that keeps the reader engaged. We don't know what the secrets are and I wasn't sure who was going to turn out to be the villain. While the story is told in alternating time periods, there is no alternating plot. 

The Nanny is sure to be a hit with mystery lovers. 5 out of 5 stars.

Her Perfect Life

Her Perfect Life is Sam Hepburn's first novel. She later published Gone Before in 2020 and A Good Mother in 2021. Hepburn writes psychological thrillers. This is the first book of hers that I have read. The premise for the story is how far would a person go to create the perfect life. Character Gracie Dwyer has it all, the handsome husband, the adorable child, the beautiful home and the glittering career. The perfect life. Her new friend Juliet doesn’t exactly fit in. She’s a down-on-her-luck single parent with no money and not much hope. So just what is it that draws Gracie and Juliet together? And when the cracks start to appear in Gracie’s perfect life, can both of them survive?

When I began reading I thought that the story sounded familiar and that perhaps I already read this book. After reviewing my previously published book reviews I noticed that in 2020 I reviewed Valerie Keogh's book The Perfect Life.  It is exactly like this novel. I also got it confused with Hank Phillippi Ryan's 2021 book, also titled Her Perfect Life and wondered whether I purchased the right book. I knew that I was going to read a book with this title for the Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge but failed to write down the author's name, not knowing that there could be more than one book with this title.

I was not thrilled with the Hepburn book. It had a slow start. There was no suspense and I felt nothing for the characters. While the plot is similar to the Keough book, the writing is not as good as Keough's. Since I thought the Keough book was mediocre, this book was a big disappointment.

Children of Sugarcane

I received a free copy of the Children of Sugarcane through the Early Reviewer's Program at Librarything. It is a historical fiction novel of 19th century India and the British owned sugarcane plantations in Natal, South Africa. The book was published in 2021 in South Africa by Jonathan Ball Publishers. It was then published in the UK in 2022. Author Joanne Joseph is a well known media personality in South Africa and has hosted both radio and television programs there. She previously wrote an expose of prisons in Thailand but this is her first novel. 

The publisher's summary:

Shanti, a bright teenager stifled by life in rural India and facing an arranged marriage, dreams that South Africa is an opportunity to start afresh. The Colony of Natal is where Shanti believes she can escape the poverty, caste, and the traumatic fate of young girls in her village. Months later, after a harrowing sea voyage, she arrives in Natal and realises life there is full of hardship and labour.

Spanning four decades and two continents, Children of Sugarcane illustrates the lifegiving power of love, the indestructible bonds between family and friends, heroism, and how the ultimate sacrifice becomes Shanti’s greatest redemption.

I enjoyed reading this book. It is a little different from my usual fare and while it is historical I wonder whether the book should be categorized as literary fiction. The pace was slower than the historical fiction that I usually read. Shanti doesn't arrive in Natal until page 140, a third of the way through the story. I thought this was slow but it wouldn't be for literary fiction. The characters were well drawn and the history of the time and place was detailed. The author was obviously very familiar with what happened on the sugarcane plantations in Natal. She gives us alot of important information about this sad and not well known part of history. For that we can be thankful.

5 out of 5 stars.

Paris

Engrossing! This book is unputdownable. I picked it up intending to read only a couple of pages while the Kindle recharged. The next thing I knew I was 200 pages into the book and knew that I would not read anything else until I finished it. 

Paris is a historical fiction novel by Edward Rutherford. It covers 1,000 years of history by telling the sagas of six families. The families interact with famous people from their eras in order to bring the reader some familiarity with Parisian history. I have read 2 other historical novels by Rutherford and both told their stories chronologically.  Paris skips back and forth in time but I found it is easy to follow. 

There are many, many historical details that are clearly explained. If you want to know why plaster of paris is named such, read this book. What about the building of the Eiffel Tower? Here, you will discover everything that went into its construction by following characters who were hired to work on it. While the book covers two wars, I was glad that the fighting scenes were short. I don't like war stories much. The plague and the Spanish Flu also appear as well as the world exhibitions that were held in Paris and the rise of feminism.

I LOVED this book and cannot recommend it more highly to historical fiction fans. Do not be put off by its 800 pages. Most of Rutherford's books are over 1,000 pages so Paris is a short story. 5 out of 5 stars.

Salt

I read Mark Kurlansky's Salt as a selection for the Nonfiction Reader Challenge. It is a history of the discovery, mining, sale and taxing of salt by cities and nations from 3600 BCE to the present. It is Kurlansky's 5th nonfiction book and here he explains how salt has shaped civilization from its very beginning and how its story is an important part of the history of humankind. For most of its history salt has been used as a currency. It also influenced the establishment of European trade routes as well as cities, provoked wars between cities and inspired revolutions. Civilizations in China, Greece, Egypt and Rome all discovered salt on their own at about the same time. None of them can say that they discovered salt, although all of them make this claim. In each case, salt was discovered when lake and river waters evaporated in the sun. People harvested the square crystals on the surface of the water. Almost immediately it was used to preserve fish. As a necessary commodity for sustaining life, ancient politicians knew that they could make money by taxing the sale of salt. Cities that had saltmines made money from harvesting it while others that did not have this resource made money by regulating it. It is interesting that salt is a rock, the only rock that humans eat.

The book reads like a textbook, which in my mind is a negative. Almost every other sentence contains a new fact and made the book an overwhelming one to read. Kurlansky has found a salt connection nearly everywhere, especially in the modern era. The Erie Canal was built for the sake of salt, which needed to be moved from the upstate Onondaga region to New York City. The West Indian slave trade was primarily underwritten by sales of salt, even more than by molasses and rum. So how did salt encourage revolution?  It was the salt tax in India that inspired Mohandas K. Gandhi to start a rebellion that led to independence.  The American Revolutionary War was partly incited by salt shortages.

While it is pretty cool to amass these interesting facts about salt, the book itself is a hard and sometimes dull book to read. I am rating it 3 out of 5 stars. 

William at 40

My review of Tom Bower's Revenge was a popular read, for my blog at least. I decided to take on another royal family tome, Robert Jobson's William at 40 The Making of a Modern Monarch. I was expecting a few new revelations but, sadly, the only new facts that I am aware of were written in the Preface.  

The publisher's summary:

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, is destined one day to be king. Determined to serve his country as his grandmother, the Queen has so selflessly done for seven decades, William is the epitome of a loving husband to Catherine, and a devoted father to their three children: George, Charlotte and Louis. In public, William appears calm, balanced and determined. He is passionate about safeguarding the environment and helping to protect species under threat of extinction. The Duke and his wife have also worked tirelessly to remove the stigma that continues to mark mental health problems. In private, however, those close to him say that William, while being a dedicated servant of the Crown can defy his calm, family-guy public demeanour. This is the definitive account – insightful and nuanced – of the life of the Duke of Cambridge as he approaches his milestone birthday. Jobson explores the complex character of the man who will one day reign as King William V. It is the story of the making of a king for our times. THE STORY OF THE MAKING OF A MONARCH FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY.

 

If you have ever read any newspaper article about William, or a social media post, then you probably are familiar with the material in this biography. These posts seems to rehash his life in its entirety. There isn't anything new here other than the description of William's temper in the Preface. The book seemed to me to be a fluff piece. It begins with his birth and continues to the present day. I guess readers of a younger generation than mine might find something new here but I did not learn anything new about the future King William V. I also did not read anything to justify the subtitle "the making of a modern monarch." Jobson talks about William's listening skills and his use of modern technology as proof that his dynasty will be modern. Any fortysomething individual is going to use modern technology. I don't see that as a reason to call him a modern monarch. I was looking for other reasons for the use of the subtitle. I am not sure what I was looking for, but more than what I got.

3 out of 5 stars.

The Woman in Valencia

The Woman in Valencia is a Staff Recommended book at the Chicago Public Library this month. I took it out of the library, though, because it takes place in my favorite international city, Valencia, Spain. It was originally written in French by Annie Perreault in 2018 and translated into English by Ann Marie Boulanger in 2021. It was published by QC Fiction, the Canadian imprint that specializes in translating French fiction into English.

The publisher's summary:  

While on vacation with her family in Valencia, Claire Halde witnesses a shocking event that becomes the catalyst for a protracted downward spiral and a profound personal unravelling as she struggles to come to grips with her role in the incident. This haunting novel, which unfolds across three timelines set in as many decades, takes the reader on a dark journey through the minds of three women whose pasts, presents, and futures are decided by a single encounter on a scorching summer afternoon.

Every published review of this novel that I have seen has highly rated it. However, I did not like it much. It was hard to get into and I restarted reading it about 4 times. The plot concerns Claire's obsession with a suicide that she witnessed in the rooftop pool of the hotel where she was staying in Valencia. We primarily read about Claire's internal thoughts whether she should have intervened and why she did not intervene. Claire kept the bag that the victim had with her at the pool and brought it with her when she returned to Valencia a few years later. Here, Claire dyes her hair blonde and assumes a Russian name. It was difficult to figure this out because Claire's internal thoughts about the Russian blonde made it seem that this was a different character. Herein lies the problem that I had with this book. It was near impossible to figure out the difference between plot action and Claire's thoughts. I also question whether there was any plot action at all. 

I cannot give this book a rating. In fact, I don't even know what genre it is and cannot figure out why this book is so highly rated.

Dark August

I chose this book for my August entry in the Calendar of Crime Reading Challenge.  The author is a successful screenwriter and this is her debut novel. I am a little confused, though, about the publication date of her next book Poison Lilies. It was published in Canada on May 22, 2022 while Dark August was published on June 30, 2022. Why is Dark August her debut novel? Is it a debut novel in the U. S.?  

The publisher's summary:

Augusta (Gus) Monet is living an aimless existence with her grifter boyfriend when she learns that her great grandmother—her last living relative—has just died. Ditching her boyfriend, Gus returns to the home she left as a young girl. Her inheritance turns out to be a dilapidated house and an old dog named Levi. While combing through her great grandmother’s possessions, Gus stumbles across an old trunk filled with long-lost childhood belongings. But that’s not all the trunk contains. She also discovers cold case files that belonged to her mother, a disgraced police detective who died in a car accident when Gus was eight. Gus remembers her mother obsessing over these very same documents and photographs, especially a Polaroid of a young ballerina.

When Gus spots a front-page news story about the unearthing of a body linked to one of the cold case files from her childhood trunk, she can’t resist following her mother’s clues. As she digs deeper, determined to finish her mother’s investigation, her search leads her to a deserted ghost town, which was left abandoned when the residents fled after a horrific fire. As Gus’ obsession with the case grows, she inadvertently stirs up the evils of the past, putting her life in danger. But Gus is undeterred and is committed to uncovering long-buried secrets, including the secrets surrounding a missing geology student, the young ballerina in the Polaroid, a prominent family’s devastating legacy, and a toxic blast that blew an entire town off the map. 

But is Gus ready to learn the truths that culminated on one terrible August night, more than a decade earlier, when lives were taken, and secrets were presumed buried forever…? 

I loved this novel! It is a tightly paced, engrossing mystery with a captivating cast of characters. Gus is a fantastic female investigator so I hope that this book will become a series. She is a strong enough character who can anchor a series. The plot was pretty amazing as well. It had a couple of huge surprises that floored me. In fact, there is absolutely nothing negative that I can say about the story. It is the perfect mystery. The Ontario, Canada setting felt somewhat international to me because I am not Canadian and I would love to continue to read stories set here.

I am rating this book way over 5 out of 5 stars!  Mystery fans are definately going to want to read this one.

The Spanish Daughter

A cacao plantation in Ecuador is the setting of this historical fiction novel by Lorena Hughes. The Spanish Daughter is Hughes' second novel, following The Sisters of Alameda Street. Sisters takes place in 1960s Ecuador while Spanish Daughter takes place in the 1920s. I love this new setting for historical fiction and hope that Hughes continues to write stories taking place there.

The publisher's summary:  

As a child in Spain, Puri always knew her passion for chocolate was inherited from her father. But it’s not until his death that she learns of something else she’s inherited—a cocoa estate in Vinces, Ecuador, a town nicknamed “París Chiquito.” Eager to claim her birthright and filled with hope for a new life after the devastation of World War I, she and her husband Cristóbal set out across the Atlantic Ocean. But it soon becomes clear someone is angered by Puri’s claim to the estate…
 
When a mercenary sent to murder her aboard the ship accidentally kills Cristóbal instead, Puri dons her husband’s clothes and assumes his identity, hoping to stay safe while she searches for the truth of her father’s legacy in Ecuador. Though freed from the rules that women are expected to follow, Puri confronts other challenges at the estate—newfound siblings, hidden affairs, and her father’s dark secrets. Then there are the dangers awakened by her attraction to an enigmatic man as she tries to learn the identity of an enemy who is still at large, threatening the future she is determined to claim.

I had a hard time not only becoming interested in this story but also maintaining interest. In addition, there were several flaws in the plot. The story starts out with Puri traveling to Ecuador because she has inherited part of her father’s cacao plantation. While sailing on a ship to South America Puri’s husband is killed. She soon realizes that she was supposed to be the intended victim. As a former chocolate store owner in Spain, I expected that she would continue her interest in selling chocolate in Ecuador. I would have liked this storyline. However, the story becomes a search for who signed or perhaps forged a blank check. Whoever signed the check is the one who wants her dead. Puri begins to imitate her dead husband, wearing his clothes, in order to more easily find out information about the plantation and who wants her dead. It's a crazy strategy that results in Puri not being eligible to inherit the plantation. However, she continues to disguise herself. 

None of this seemed plausible to me. Who would give up a cacao plantation? Puri should have stopped pretending to be her husband and forged a new life in Ecuador. Also, the fight on the ship that resulted in her husband's death was merely a short scene. It did not figure into the story much nor did the idea that she was supposed to be the victim. The writing was disjointed given the plotline faults.

Another problem is that the characters were not very interesting. Puri has two half sisters in Ecuador who could have played the role of villains. Unfortunately, they didn't. While the story alternated between the three women's viewpoints on events that occurred between 1907 and 1920, none of them had strong feelings about anything and I wondered why the alternating plot lines were present in the novel. The lack of suspenseful writing is another reason the book falls short. Very short.

2 out of 5 stars.

Portrait of an Unknown Woman

Portrait of an Unknown Woman is Dan Silva's 25th novel and his 22nd Gabrial Allon novel. He has also written one standalone novel and two books in his Michael Osborne series. At 448 pages, Portrait it is just 2 pages short of qualifying as a chunkster for the Chunkster Challenge.  The book was published on July 19, 2022.

The publisher's summary:

Legendary spy and art restorer Gabriel Allon has at long last severed ties with Israeli intelligence and settled quietly in Venice, the only place where he has ever truly known peace. His beautiful wife, Chiara, has taken over the day-to-day management of the Tiepolo Restoration Company, and their two young children are discreetly enrolled in a neighborhood scuola elementare. For his part, Gabriel spends his days wandering the streets and canals of the watery city, bidding farewell to the demons of his tragic, violent past.

But when the eccentric London art dealer Julian Isherwood asks Gabriel to investigate the circumstances surrounding the rediscovery and lucrative sale of a centuries-old painting, he is drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse where nothing is as it seems.

Gabriel soon discovers that the work in question, a portrait of an unidentified woman attributed to Sir Anthony van Dyck, is almost certainly a fiendishly clever fake. To find the mysterious figure who painted it—and uncover a multibillion-dollar fraud at the pinnacle of the art world—Gabriel conceives one of the most elaborate deceptions of his career. If it is to succeed, he must become the very mirror image of the man he seeks: the greatest art forger the world has ever known.

Stylish, sophisticated, and ingeniously plotted, Portrait of an Unknown Woman is a wildly entertaining journey through the dark side of the art world—a place where unscrupulous dealers routinely deceive their customers and deep-pocketed investors treat great paintings as though they were just another asset class to be bought and sold at a profit. From its elegant opening to the shocking twists of its climax, the novel is a tour de force of storytelling and one of the finest pieces of heist fiction ever written. And it is still more proof that, when it comes to international intrigue and suspense, Daniel Silva has no equal.

I LOVED this novel! Daniel Silva has never written a book that wasn't fantastic and Portrait follows his successful ride. The plot is based upon the true stories of art forgers John Myatt, John Drewe, Guy Ribes and Wolfgang Beltracchi. John Myatt painted more than 250 forgeries that John Drewe sold through well established London art galleries. Ribes was able to paint approximately 1,000 Chagall and Picasso forgeries that his network sold. His German counterpart, Beltracchi, sold forgeries through all of the prominent auction houses. All four of these men have a matching character in Portrait. Most of their forgeries are still in circulation today.  

The novel was spell-binding. I read this chunky book in one sitting late one evening. I am apprehensive, though, about the retirement of Allon from the spy business. His work for the Office has catapulted the series into fame and I don't see how the series can continue much longer if he no longer works as a spy. In this installment of the series, Allon is resting after his retirement but will soon begin working as an art restorer for his wife Chiara who owns the Tiepelo Restoration Company. With Allon being sixtysomething years old and retired, where does this series go?  

5 out of 5 stars.

One Girl Missing

One Girl Missing is the 11th Detective Gina Harte crime thriller from Carla Kovach but the first that I have read. I must say that I have been missing out on alot of good reading. One Girl Missing was a fantastic read. The series takes place in Britain during the present era and this installment of the series was published on March 4, 2022.

The publisher's summary:  

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?

This book is unputdownable. I read it in one sitting and it seemed that it took no time to read it, thanks to the super fast pace. The investigation into the hit and run had many layers. While there was alot happening in the story, it was not difficult to follow. There were numerous twists, turns, and red herrings that kept me wanting to keep reading.

The setting was not stated but with all of the British slang words and the division of job titles in the police department, I knew that it had to be in Britain. Some of the slang I couldn't figure out but the meanings were somewhat obvious from the context. The main character is, of course, Gina Harte, and her co-workers are the secondary characters. It's odd, but the two female victims were not discussed much as characters. They figured in the investigation but that is about all we read about them. 

If you like crime thrillers or police procedurals, you will want to read this novel.  5 out of 5 stars.

Rising Tiger

Rising Tiger is Brad Thor's 23rd Scot Harvath spy thriller. All of the books in the series to date have been fabulous. However, with Rising Tiger Brad Thor is beginning to slip.

The publisher's summary:

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.

As I mentioned above, the book was no where near as good as the others in the series. In fact, it was rather dull. It's hard to believe that Thor wrote it as the writing formula is quite different from his earlier books. Harvath did not approach his investigation in his usual manner. In addition, there is no suspense. When Harvath meets with his Indian counterpart they have boring conversations about food and '70s music. There is an alternating plot involving Asha Patel of India's Defense Department Special Ops Division and this plot was also dull. I had to skip pages in order to stay awake so I have to ask again:  Did Brad Thor write this book?  

This was a disappointing read but I have noticed that when a series gets to be as long as this one, the author usually has 1 or 2 setbacks. 2 out of 5 stars.

The Omega Factor

The Omega Factor is Steve Berry's 21st novel. He writes treasure hunt mysteries featuring Cotton Malone and Casseiopeia Vitt. However, Omega is a standalone novel. Another installment of the Cotton Malone series will be published in 2023.

The story centers around UNESCO investigator Nicholas Lee, who works for the United Nations’ Cultural Liaison and Investigative Office (CLIO). Nick’s job is to protect the world’s cultural artifacts—anything and everything from countless lesser-known objects to national treasures. When Nick travels to Belgium for a visit with a woman from his past, he unwittingly stumbles on the trail of a legendary panel from the Ghent Altarpiece, stolen in 1934 under cover of night and never seen since. Soon Nick is plunged into a bitter conflict, one that has been simmering for nearly two thousand years. On one side is the Maidens of Saint-Michael, the Vulture, a secret order of nuns and the guardians of a great truth. Pitted against them is the Vatican, which has wanted for centuries to both find and possess what the nuns guard. Because of Nick the maidens have finally been exposed, their secret placed in dire jeopardy—a vulnerability that the Vatican swiftly moves to exploit utilizing an ambitious cardinal and a corrupt archbishop, both with agendas of their own. Nick Lee must confront a modern-day religious crusade intent on eliminating a shocking truth from humanity’s past. Success or failure—life and death—all turn on the Omega Factor.

I liked this new character Nick Lee. His job for UNESCO gives him many opportunities to be involved in interesting investigations. While I miss the Cotton Malone character, I hope Nick returns in another book. I also liked these gun-toting nuns. Whoever said nuns have to be meek and mild? The nuns in this particular order must train to be able to defend their secret places. Their training reminded me of the type that Cotton Malone had. 

The Pyrenees Mountain setting was new to me. The mountains divide the France/Spain border and there was some action in the plot from both sides. Also, I enjoyed reading about the religious history of the Cathars as well as Marian theology. I had no knowledge about either before reading the book. The Cathars had some beliefs that I would not describe as Christian yet the church has romanticized them. As the author said in his Writer's Note, if the faithful wanted to believe in doctrine that was wrong, the church would go along in order to keep them happy.  A happy church member is a member that continues to give money. In addition, I learned alot about painter Jan van Eyck. His most famous work, the Ghent Altarpiece, is featured in this story and I think I can now talk about him with my artsy friends well enough to look smart.

The Omega Factor itself was not mentioned in the story until the last 40 pages. I can see why Berry had to wait to  bring it up but usually he gives his readers a hint early in his books as to what the main character is searching for. The plot did not suffer though. Omega is a fast read and highly entertaining.

5 out of 5 stars.

Star Spangled Murder

After beginning Star Spangled Murder, I thought I might have read it before. The first 50 pages sounded familiar. I searched for the book among my blog posts but didn't find it. Then I searched my Librarything account. Nothing there either. To further confuse me was the prologue titled Fourth of July Murder. I was convinced that I had read this book before. I even googled Leslie Meier's book list thinking that maybe this was a book that was retitled. It wasn't. I am guessing that having read 4 of Meier's books this year has left me numb. They all begin the same way and I can no longer differentiate between them.

Star Spangled Murder begins with Lucy Stone's dog Kudo killing her neighbor Prudence Pratt's chickens in their Tinker's Cove, Maine neighborhood. Kudo has a habit of getting out of the house and running wild through the neighborhood. The story then switches to a group of nudists who are skinny dipping in the pond that borders Pratt's property. In addition, the local lobstermen are upset about poachers and wonder whether Pratt's husband and son are guilty. Then next thing that happens is that the fourth of july fireworks are canceled by the town in order to protect purple spotted lichen, a rare species. A huge suspension of belief is necessary to follow this series but canceling fireworks to save the lichen is too far for me to go. Is one night of fireworks going to destroy the flora and fauna of Tinker's Cove? No. 

I was happy when I read that Mrs. Pratt had died. She is that always complaining, nosy neighbor that we all have had at some point in our lives. It didn't matter to me who killed her, just that someone did.  She is probably the best villain that the series has ever had. She wanted Kudo to be euthanized and even though she thought the nudists were immoral, she watched them sunbathe with her binoculars. 

A disappointing read. No rating.

Beasts of a Little Land

Beasts of a Little Land begins in Korea in the early 20th century. During this time Korea was one nation. While there are a dozen characters, the story alternates between the lives of four main characters whose lives intersect. There is Luna, Lotus, Jade, and JungHo. Luna is the daughter of the famous courtesan Dani whose beauty she inherited. Lotus is her younger and plainer sister. Jade was not as pretty as Luna and Lotus but when her mother sends her to Dani's household for courtesan training, she becomes Lotus' best friend. JungHo is an orphan who had to beg to survive. The book was published in December 2021.

The publisher's summary:  

In 1917, deep in the snowy mountains of occupied Korea, an impoverished local hunter on the brink of starvation saves a young Japanese officer from an attacking tiger. In an instant, their fates are connected—and from this encounter unfolds a saga that spans half a century.

In the aftermath, a young girl named Jade is sold by her family to Miss Silver’s courtesan school, an act of desperation that will cement her place in the lowest social status. When she befriends an orphan boy named JungHo, who scrapes together a living begging on the streets of Seoul, they form a deep friendship. As they come of age, JungHo is swept up in the revolutionary fight for independence, and Jade becomes a sought-after performer with a new romantic prospect of noble birth. Soon Jade must decide whether she will risk everything for the one who would do the same for her.

From the perfumed chambers of a courtesan school in Pyongyang to the glamorous cafes of a modernizing Seoul and the boreal forests of Manchuria, where battles rage, Juhea Kim’s unforgettable characters forge their own destinies as they wager their nation’s. Immersive and elegant, Beasts of a Little Land unveils a world where friends become enemies, enemies become saviors, heroes are persecuted, and beasts take many shapes.

I enjoyed the Korean setting. There aren't too many historical fiction novels that take place there and the ones I am aware of all tell the WWII story of haenyoes (sea women) on Jeju Island. Beasts covers a period of time from 1917 through 1964, during which the nation was fighting for independence from Japan and separated into north and south. The author has left out the years of the Korean War from her story.

Many of the female characters are courtesans. Being a courtesan was quite different from being a prostitute. The only women in Korea who were intellectuals and artists were courtesans. This dates back to medieval times. The courtesans had several years of formal training, beginning with reading, music and dance. While they were on the lowest rung of the social ladder, they made alot of money that they could send home to their families. Note, though, that the novel does not have sex scenes.

Some of the remaining characters include the revolutionary MyungBo, aristocratic SungSoo, and upwardly mobile HanChol. MyungBo was born into a wealthy family but during college he abandoned that lifestyle in order to work toward Korea becoming a socialist country. Sungsoo was also born into wealth but after college he decided to continue his family's business legacy. HanChol started out as a rickshaw driver but advanced into being a mechanic and ultimately an auto builder. Two Japanese officers round out this amazing cast of characters.

The characters and the history are what make this novel a masterpiece. I cannot recommend it more highly.  5 out of 5 stars.

My Wife is Missing

My Wife is Missing is another great novel by Dan Palmer. When the story opened with Michael Hart finding his wife and children missing from their hotel room in New York City, I assumed that they had left of their own accord. It's the classic disappearing act one spouse does when they want a divorce. I did not think much about it but knew that it would take alot for me to give up this premise.  I was totally surprised where Palmer took the story though. As usual, he came up with an ending that shocked me.

The publisher's summary:

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

Kaikeyi is the story of an infamous queen from the Indian epic tale the Ramayana. The author has taken the biggest villain of the epic and made her into a sympathetic character. It was just published in April 2022 and with 496 pages it is a chunky book. I bought the book at Barnes and Noble and enjoyed reading this hardcover as I held it. Holding a book seems like a blast from the past with all the ebooks around these days. 

The publisher's summary:

"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."

I haven't read many historical novels taking place in ancient India so this was a lovely departure from my usual reads. The pacing was what I expected from a historical fiction novel, as opposed to a historical mystery. It was just right. Because it is fiction, there is more emphasis on the Kaikeyi character than action. That said, there was still a good amount of action due to the main character's life story. 

The character was easy to like. She was a woman who helped other women and strove to enter a man's world. That's always a type of character that I will be drawn to. Her resilience was encouraging and inspirational; never let anyone get you down. Her use of magic is not something that I would typically want to read about. Kaikeyi always tried to get others to do her bidding by concentrating on the Binding Plane where she thought about the threads that bound her to other people. Her use of the binding place was integrated well into the story and seemed a normal part of the plot. However, she did not want anyone to know that she used magic. That would have had a negative impact on her life.

So how do you pronounce the name?  I believe it is "ki-kay." It may be my 2022 book of the year. I have only said that once this year so it will definitely be a top ten book. 5 out of 5 stars.

Blue Murder

Blue Murder is the second book in author Emma Jameson's Lord and Lady Hetheridge Mystery Series. It was interesting to learn that to "scream blue murder" is a British slang term for complaining in an angry way.  All of the books in the series have the word "blue" in the title and there are seven book in the series to date.

In Blue Murder two men were found dead at a Halloween party hosted by Emmeline Wardle, the teen daughter of a frozen food baron. Handsome Trevor Parsons was found with an axe in his head and computer nerd Clive French was also found dead in the garden of the home. Clive also had an axe in his head. Clive was not invited to the party but showed up anyway. Since all of the party goers, thirty nine, were children of the wealthy New Scotland Yard asked Chief Superintendent Anthony Hetheridge, ninth baron of Wellegrave, to investigate. His girlfriend, Detective Sergeant Kate Wakefield was also involved in the investigation as was her partner, Detective Sergeant Deepal "Paul" Bhar.

I really enjoyed this novel. In fact,  it was even better than Ice Blue. The dialogue between the police officers showed the closeness of their relationships with each other. The three of them work well together. I am not usually a fan of a police procedural but this cozy mystery hit the spot. The British flavor of the setting helped, even though many of the colloquiallisms  were very American. They still came off as British.

4 out of 5 stars.

Why Mermaids Sing

I loved this historical mystery set in 1811 London. It is the third book in the Sebastian St. Cyr series but the first one that I have read. In this installment of the series, murder stalks London's elite families as the sons of prominent families are found dead in public places. Their bodies have been mutilated with strange objects stuffed in their mouths.  Sebastian handles the investigation to find the killer alongside his sidekick, magistrate Henry Lovejoy.

Sebastian is a likable character. He is the only surviving son of the Earl of Hendon and will inherit the title some day.  His father is horrified that he is performing common work for the police force. He currently has the title of the Viscount Devlin. Sebastian served in the army as an intelligence specialist and the skills and contacts he obtained from his military service came in handy in this investigation. This background is a fabulous basis for a sleuth.  His girlfriend, Kat Boleyn, is a prostitute but he wants to marry her.  I am not sure how he came to fall in love with Kat. That information must be in the prior books in the series.  It didn't seem likely to me that he would fall for someone like Kat.

The writing was tight. There were alot of twists and turns in the plot and the author had me guessing what the outcome might be.  The whodunnit was surprising and I did not see it coming. I am excited to continue reading this series.  Author C. S. Harris is a new author for me and it's always awesome to find a new author that I love.

5 out of 5 stars.