Since last Thursday, I have read only one book: Blood Cross, the second Jane Yellowrock.
Jane is still in New Orleans, searching for the vampire who is creating new young rogues. (In this world, the newly risen have be controlled i.e. chained in a basement, for ten years until they regain their sanity. The young and newly created are attacking humans and vamps indiscriminately.
After Jane’s friend Molly is attacked and her children kidnapped, Jane realizes she is dealing with something new: witch vampires.
Because I blogged about the Albany Book Fair (tremendous fun) on my usual day, I will do my review of my most recent books now.
The first book I read was John Dedakis’ Bullet in your Chamber.
I unfortunately read this series out of order so I already knew something terrible had happened. I had to go back and fill in. Really excellent, but pretty dark.
Lark Chadwick, finally happy in a relationship, comes across a plot to blackmail one of the president’s advisors into pressing the president into approving a drone law. There were so many possible murderers, it was hard to identify the guilty party. Several deaths later, and problems in Lark’s relationship, make for a captivating read.
Lighter but still fascinating was This Enemy Town by Marcia Talley.
I am gradually reading my way through all the Hannah Ives mysteries. In book 5, another cancer survivor asks Hannah to help with the naval academy’s production of Sweeny Todd. Feeling she cannot refuse, Hannah agrees. While there, she sees Jennifer Goodall, the woman who’d accused Hannah’s husband of sexual harassment and almost destroyed both his career and their marriage. Hannah confronts her and when Jennifer’s body is discovered, Hannah is arrested as the prime suspect.
I did not see the final twist coming and I am now on to number six.
I took a break from mysteries and read Skinwalker by Faith Hunter.
It came up on my Amazon feed as something I might enjoy. And I really did. Jane Yellowrock is a vampire hunter in a world when the ‘vamps’ have been outed and are now part of the human world. A rogue vampire is terrorizing New Orleans, draining humans and vampires alike.
Well-written and full of action. It reminded me of the Thomas Perry Jane Whitehead mysteries with a badass woman, except with an added paranormal aspect. Another series I will continue reading.
Finally, I began reading a nonfiction book by Matthew Green: Shadowlands; Britain’s Lost Cities and Vanished Villages.
Although I haven’t finished this, I read the first chapter and was immediately hooked. Skara Brae is an old old village, estimated as about 5000 years old, so older than the Egyptian pyramids and older than Stonehenge, in northern Scotland. A severe storm in 1850 washed away the sand from a beach and revealed this neolithic village on the shore.
I have seen this village on a pre-pandemic trip to Iceland. On the way home, we stopped in Kirkwald, a very northern town. From there, we took a bus to Skara Brae.
It is a village of little stone huts. Repeated storms have continued to wash away the sand and also, unfortunately, one of the houses.
Although it was the beginning of July, it was COLD.
I had a great time at the Albany Book Festival this past Saturday. It was so wonderful seeing all the other writers (especially my table mate Jode Millman) and the crowds of attendees.
This is a free event and plenty of people took advantage of it. All ages, both men and women, and a wonderful diversity. I will definitely sign up again next year.
All of the authors around me sold books too so we did well with publicity aspect of it. As usual, I picked up a few books to read but at least this time I didn’t spend more than I took in. LOL
Instead of blogging about books I read this week, I wanted to let everyone know about the Albany Book Festival this Saturday. I have attended many times and will be attending again this year.
I feel warm to this event since last year it was the first in-person event I attended.
Besides the local author section, where I will be, the event has talks and a children’s section with games and more. It is FREE.
This will be held at Albany University’s upper campus: 1400 Washington Avenue.
There are many many authors covering all the genres, non-fiction and more.
As anyone who knows me can tell you, I am an avid hiker and one of my favorite places is Acadia Park. We visit the park as often as we can, at least several times a year.
We visited Acadia over Labor Day Weekend. I have never seen the park so busy – but I digress. This was our first time taking the new puppy on a real hike. On our past visits, we took her for several of the easier walks: Wonderland and Ship’s Harbor.
This time we hiked up Flying Mountain. Although short, and one of the easier hikes, it includes many of the things we love about this park: the rock climbing and the stunning views.
After twenty minutes going almost straight up, Cayenne was already tired. But we pressed on to the summit.
Then we began the downward climb. One’s knees really take a beating from climbing over the granite boulders on both the up and the down. Many of the trails are also treacherous with exposed roots.
We were almost to the end here, with maybe a little more than half a mile to go. Cayenne was very tired and didn’t want to walk anymore. We did not carry her and she made it to the end of the trail. When we got home, she collapsed on the floor and didn’t move for about twenty minutes.
August 29. This week I read the latest Kathy Reichs Cold Cold Bones.
A human eyeball is delivered to Temperance Brennan’s front porch. Shortly after, a head missing said eyeball is discovered. Shortly after, other victims turn up, each one mimicking a past case that Brennan worked on.
At the same time, she is worried about her daughter, Katie, who has returned from military service. Suffering from PTSD, she wants to set up a charity for veterans. She begins volunteering at a local shelter, only to disappear shortly after.
What is going on?
Enjoyable. My only criticism is that I knew who the villain was fairly early on.
The second book I read was In Death’s Shadow by Marcia Talley.
I enjoy these which are a cozy as I like to read. In this one, an insurance scam results in several murders. Insurance scams sound as though they would be very dry but I found the insurance in this book interesting. Hannah’s breast cancer, now in remission, is the theme that ties all the books together. Fun.
Inadvertently, I read this one out of order; this is number four so I will have to go back and fill in with the third.
Rum was the lubricant and the fuel for the engine of commerce leading up to the American Revolution and a bit beyond. It was a favorite drink of the slavers, the slaves, and pretty much everyone else. Called Nelson’s blood (as well as a number of less flattering names), rum made up part of the British sailors’ pay.
In fact, one source I read said that the outrage over the Boston Tea Party had more to do with the dumping of rum than tea.
What is rum? Rum is distilled from the molasses left over from sugarcane. The cane has particular requirement and cannot be grown in the temperate lands. It must be grown with lots of sun and water. It also needs intensive labor to cut, cart and process the cane under the tropical sun. A clear and distinct link between the growing demand for sugar and slavery can be drawn because, as plantations were turned over to cane, the needs of a large work force demanded more workers – Slaves. The Good Hope Plantation, at its height, owned approximately 3000 slaves to do with work.
The slaves needed to be fed. New England ships brought dried cod, picked up the molasses for transport to the distilleries in New England. The resulting drink (called among other things, screech, kill-devil, demon water) was put in casks and sent to Africa to purchase more slaves and also to Great Britain. This was the previously discussed Triangle Trade.
Once slavery was abolished and the plantations no longer had this labor pool, the importance of sugar and sugar cane fell, first in Jamaica and then in the United States. (Now machinery performs most of the duties required in farming and harvesting sugarcane.)
Ironically, the long trips over the ocean, stored in casks, made the rum more drinkable.
Although rum was still consumed after the War for Independence, as mentioned in Murder, Sweet Murder, it was falling out of favor as the new country’s beverage. Whiskey, from rye grown in Western Pennsylvania, and distilled in the country, was considered more patriotic and as such became the drink of choice.
I have been a long time fan of the Jane Whitefield mysteries by Thomas Perry. This week I read the latest, The Left Handed Twin.
Jane disappears people. Abused wives, people on the run from the mob, witnesses who fear Witness Protection won’t keep them safe: they all find their way to Jane.
In this one, Jane takes on a young woman who testified against her boyfriend for murder. Jane takes her on and begins training Sara (who becomes Anne) how to survive as someone different from herself. But the story takes a sudden turn when the Russian mob become involved. They are not interested in Jane’s client; they are interested in Jane. They pursue her across the country and then across the 100 mile hike in Maine.
Perry’s style is not the smoothest but the action keeps one captivated.
The second title I read was Undercover Amish by Ashley Emma.
Like the excellent Linda Castillo Kate Burkholder mysteries, Olive leaves the community after a trauma but returns to solve a mystery. Other murders, two fires and a kidnapping all figure in the plot as Olivia deals with her feelings for her long ago flame, Isaac. Olivia, like Kate, has become a cop.
I felt the representation of the Amish was not as compelling or as believable as Castillo’s mysteries and Olivia herself is not as interesting a character as Kate. This series is billed as romantic suspense, which the Castillo mysteries are not, so I may not have liked this as well because of the genre.
I did not like this as well as the Kate Burkholder series.
The cruise I was on for vacation stopped at Falmouth Jamaica. An excursion out went to the Good Hope Plantation. I was particularly interested in visiting this estate since my most recent book, Murder, Sweet Murder, centers around a sugar plantation in Jamaica.
Sugarcane is a finicky crop that demands a particular temperature and regular water. Since it exhausts the soil, new fields must always be planted. It is also very labor intensive.
The Good Hope estate was set up in 1774 and, at its height, used about 3000 slaves.
Several buildings from that time are still there, although they are being used now as a shop, reception area and a restaurant. A small museum was attached.
One of the tools used to create sugar from the cane is a pot that resembles a wok. Five of these, the heat increasing as the syrup was moved from one pan to another, boiled the cane juice down. The resulting syrup was allowed to cool and the sugar crystallized out of it. The crystals are allowed to continue drying and then packed in barrels.
This must have been some process. Anyone who has ever made fudge knows how quickly sugar burns. (At the Whitney Plantation near New Orleans, a site now dedicated to the enslaved people who worked it, we were told that children were usually given the job of stirring the syrup, I can hardly imagine assigning a child to such a dangerous task.)
The byproduct of sugar making is molasses which was fermented into rum. The lowest quality was called killdevil, screech and a number of other names. Nonetheless,, everyone drank rum – until the Whiskey Rebellion in the new United States made whiskey the patriotic drink.
At its height, Jamaica produced about 20% of the world’s sugar. The amount dropped off when slavery was abolished and the plantations lost their enslaved workforce.
I did not see the house but pictures show an elegant home and hint at the gracious lifestyle the enslaved population offered the white planters.
I went on a much needed vacation last week; a Disney cruise to the Caribbean. I don’t think traveling to the Caribbean in August is the best plan but it was fun.
Anyway, waiting for planes in airports and then the flights gave me a lot of time to read. I’d read about The Devil’s Own in a previous book so I decided to read it.
It tells the story of a teacher hired to teach in a small English town that, unfortunately, follows devil worship and other unsavory practices. This was written many years ago and I found it extremely slow moving until about half way through.
I followed it with a cozy, Kibbles and Death by S. A. Kazlo.
Samantha Davies discovers the body of the local kennel owner, bashed in the head and lying amongst scattered kibble. Her dachshund Porkchop begins nibbling on a bone, the murder weapon used to bash the victim in the head. Samantha begins investigating and soon discovers Calvin has been blackmailing a number of town residents.
The arrival of a new detective suggests the possibility for romance for the divorced Samantha.
Charming.
I went darker again with Fake, by John Dedakis.
The third in the Lark Chadwick series, we find Lark involved with the occupants of the White House. Lark has begun interviewing the First Lady for a biography and thus witnesses her sudden collapse and death. At first Lark believes Rose has died from the pancreatic cancer that is slowly killing her but the truth is much more serious, involving politics on the world scale. This is a murder mystery and a political thriller with romantic overtones.
The Ninja Betrayed was next.
This is the third and final (Unfortunately) Lily Wong. Lily travels with her mother to Hong Kong for an important meeting with her grandfather’s company. Not so much of a murder mystery but more of a story of financial malfeasance, it describes riots and unrest in Hong Kong. Lily’s romance with Daniel Kwok continues – but has several startling turns. I really enjoy Lily and wish the series had continued.
Finally, I read a Talent for Murder by Andrew Wilson.
Agatha Christie’s marriage is breaking down; her husband Archie is involved in an affair with Nancy Neele. Agatha disappears, registering at a hotel as Teresa Neele. This much is true. In the novel, Wilson suggests a much darker explanation for her disappearance than her upset over the impending divorce. A Dr. Kurs approaches Agatha and, by threatening her daughter Rosalind, involves her in a plot to murder his wife.
At the same time, a young girl, Uma Crowe, investigates Agatha’s disappearance.
I found this book interesting with its mix of true and fictional. Not exactly a murder mystery but captivating for its depiction of Agatha Christie and the world she came from.
