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.
Another crazy week. A high school reunion infected myself, my husband, and a number of other friends with Covid. Light cases all but still an interruption in our usual routines.
This week I read When Blood Lies by C.S. Harris.
F
I strongly recommend this series, which begins with What Angels Fear.“ These historical mysteries take place in the Regency and follow Sebastian St, Cyr.
When Blood Lies is number seventeen or eighteen.
After years of searching for his mother, Sebastian finally locates her in Paris living under the name Sophie Cappello. He and his family travel to Paris and Sebastian makes an arrangement to meet her. He has many questions, including about the identity of his biological father. But just hours before the meeting, she is murdered. Despite being warned off the investigation, and seeing both his life and the lives of his family threatened, Sebastian (or Devlin, as he is also called), persists.
The mystery is set against Napoleon’s escape and return from Elba and the heightened tensions his imminent arrival in Paris brings.
I read and write historical mysteries because I love the historical details included in the story. I did not know that the armies went over to Napoleon instead of fighting him and he took Paris without a single shot being fired.
This week I read the third in the Gunnie Rose series, the Russian Cage, by Charlaine Harris.
A coded letter from Lizbeth’s sister Felicia tells her Eli is in jail. Lizbeth immediately takes the train to the Holy Russian Empire to rescue him. Once there, She is thrust into a power struggle between Alexie, the tsar and the Grand Duke who is trying to take power.
Much bloodshed ensues but the book ends with a wedding. Very enjoyable.
The second book is Three Debts Paid by Anne Perry.
Perry is now on the second generation of the Pitt family, following the investigations of Daniel Pitt, an up and coming young lawyer. Marion Ford-Croft is now a full-fledged pathologist working under another woman, Eve Hall, who has distinguished herself in the field. Daniel and Marion pursue their specialities to identify and catch a killer, nicknamed in the papers as the Rainy Day slasher. The victims are slim young women. So far, no one has seen the murderer or even has an idea whom it might be.
I enjoy these although not as much as the original Pitts.
Last week was a crazy week. Instead of choosing my reading material carefully, as I usually do, I quickly picked up second books in two different series.
The first one was Charlaine Harris’ Longer Fall.
In this sequel to An Easy Death, Gunnie Lizbeth Rose is hired on a new crew tasked with protecting a large trade to the town of Sally in Dixie. The train is derailed and as Rose searches the carnage for the whereabouts of her old crew, she meets Eli Savarov, the Russian Grigori. They join forces to find the crate and, if possible, safeguard its contents.
Lizbeth is almost immediately confronted with several problems. The mores in Dixie are very different than what she is use to. Required to wear a skirt and hose and carry a purse. she and Eli must pretend they are married.
Dixie also runs on slavery. Lizbeth’s good friend Galilee has escaped from this town and the Ballards, the ruling family.
Plenty of bloodshed, betrayal as well as magic; I liked this one even better than the first. A winner.
The second book is another second: Death of a Starling by Linda Norlander.
Our intrepid poet continues to investigate in the school shooting in Cascade. She is warned repeatedly to let it drop but, although she considers it, she doggedly continues despite repeated threats against her.
Why is everyone afraid to even speak about the shooting, let alone answer questions about the teacher and the alleged shooter?
Tess, a student at the High School, tells Jamie that there is something rotten in Cascade and then disappears.
I read three good books this week, all purchased at Malice in April.
First up, Watch her by Edwin Hill.
The second Hester Thursby mystery. Hest, and her friend Detective Angela White are at a university function when another guest, Jennifer Mason, mentions their mansion has been broken into. Hester and Angela investigate and Hester begins to doubt the Matsons’s story. Investigation into finances connected to the university reveals financial malfeasance. How are they linked? A murder ramps up the urgency.
I really enjoy these mysteries, not least because Hester does a lot of research (she is a researcher) that reminds me strongly of library reference work.
The second book I read is An Easy Death by Charlaine Harris. I have enjoyed all of her works and this one does not disappoint.
The former United States has been broken up into five regions: Britannia (still allied with Great Britain), Dixie (the Southern States), Texoma (Texas and environs), New America, and the Holy Russian Empire (California, Oregon and Washington State). Lizbeth Rose is a gunnie from Texoma, a hired gun that signs onto crews tasked with transporting refugees from Texoma through the a bandit-ridden land to New America. This trip goes sideways and she is the only one remaining of the crew. She rescues the cargo and gets all of them but two alive to New America. Home again, she is hired for another job by rigors (Russian magic users) to find a descendent of Rasputin. A gory adventure. Highly recommended.
Finally, I read The Bone Track, the second in Sara E. Johnson’s New Zealand mysteries.
Alexa Glock is on vacation with her brother Charlie hiking in Fiordland National Park. They are independent hikers, hiking from hut to hut, under rainy conditions with regular landslides.
If that were not excitement enough, Alexa, running from a landslide, stumbles across a body revealed by the shifting early. She goes into forensic investigator mode and photographs the skeleton and takes evidence. While she is so involved, a helicopter carrying a bag of bulk rocks tries to kill her by dropping the bulk bag on her.
Simultaneously, one of the luxe hikers is missing. Alexa and her brother find it smashed on the rocks below a swing bridge over a gorge. Then Alexa discovers the marks of hiking poles used to push the victim off the cliff in her back.
Highly Recommended for both the mystery and the setting.
Although I spent this past weekend in North Bethesda, MD for Malice Domestic, I still managed to read two books. The first was Ninja’s Blade by Tori Eldridge, the second in her Lily Wong series. The second was a book I bought at Malice. Murder in First Position, by Lori Robbins, features a ballerina as the main protagonist/detective.
Ninja’s Blade is even more exciting than Ninja’s Daughter.
Lily Wong is hired to find a young woman, Emma, who was rescued from the streets and prostitution. While Lily is searching, she becomes aware of the trafficking of minors. Dolla is a recruiter for Manolo, a really terrifying pimp. Lily struggles to find out what she needs to know and finally goes undercover as a streetwalker to rescue the girls. Exciting and gritty. Highly recommended but Not for the faint of heart.
The second mystery was Murder in First Position.
Leah Siderova is coming back from a serious knee injury. She is in competition for a lead role but when her rival is found stabbed with a pair of scissors, she goes from ballerina to murder suspect. Former friends and fellow dancers treat her like a pariah. When the police are poised to arrest her, Leah goes on the run. She finds new friends in a band of ladies on their way to Atlantic City. Leah’s sister plays decoy and in a final scene at the theater the murderer is finally revealed.
What an interesting, albeit disheartening, view of the ballet world. Rivalry, backstabbing, out and out cruelty. And the ballerina’s struggles to stay at ninety pounds certainly put my diet struggles in perspective. Recommended.
Now that I have completed reading the books for my Malice Domestic panel, I am branching out. This week I read the newest book by an old and favorite author (Ann Cleeves – The Heron’s Cry), and a book by a new author, to me at least (Nancy Allen – the Code of the Hills).
Cleeves’s new book is the second in her Matthew Venn series.
Venn is called to an artist’s colony. Dr. Nigel Yeo has been stabbed to death by a shard of glass from one of his daughter’s glass creations. Dr Yeo is an unexpected victim. A good man, and very concerned about the treatment of mental health patients, he has been investigating the suicide of young man.
Then the owner of the artist’s colony is found murdered in exactly the same way. Since Matthew’s husband Jonathan is connected to this colony, he must tread carefully.
Although the Vera and Jimmy Perez mysteries are my favorites, the Matthew Venn books are very enjoyable as well.
The second of the two is The Code of the Hills by Nancy Allen.
Although she is probably more well – known as a co-writer with James Patterson, this mystery that she wrote alone is great as well. Elsie Arnold is a state prosecutor tasked with trying an incest case. Kris Taney has been accused of the rape of his two oldest daughters.
Everyone lies to Elsie, including Kris’s wife and the two daughters. Then a Evangelical group becomes involved – and Elsie is targeted. Her car is vandalized in some particularly horrible ways.
Elsie herself is not entirely admirable. She drinks too much and her choice of men leaves a lot to be desired. But she works on the case to the best of her ability.
The author, who spoke to my Sisters in Crime group via Zoom, referred to her early series as ‘Hillbilly noir” and noir it is.
I read three very different books this week. I began with The Shadow of the Empire. No, not a Star Wars book but a new series by Qiu Xialong, the first of a series using the Golden Age’s Judge Dee as the protagonist.
Because of a political conflict, over succession, Judge Dee has been posted out of the city. On his travels he receives two mysterious message, one pinned to a post in his room with a dagger, and a message from an opponent asking him to investigate a murder, A famous poetess has been accused.
Naturally, the mystery, and the subsequent deaths, are more complicated than they first appear.
For me, the primary charm is the light it shines on this very exotic culture, so different from out own.
To another culture, although one a little closer to home, I turned to Stargazer by Anne Hillerman. She had taken over for her father, the world famous Tony Hillerman. Although she uses Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, she had expanded the role of a female character, Bernie Manuelito.
Bernie’s best friend from high school has confessed to the murder of her estranged husband. But, by all accounts, the split was amicable. Did something happen the night Maya and her husband met so Maya could obtain her husbands signature on the divorce papers?
As usual, there are plenty of details about the Navaho culture. A captivating read.
Finally, I read The Corpse at the Crystal Palace by Carola Dunn. This is the 23rd Daisy Dalrymple and the series hasn’t lost any steam.
Daisy, now married to Alec Fletcher, takes her daughter Belinda and some adopted cousins to the Crystal Palace. The children notice some strange behavior by their nanny and follow her – fortunately. They come upon her floating unconscious in a pond but manage to save her.
Once the children have told their story, Daisy embarks on her own investigation and discovers a dead body in the women’s loo (that’s the rest room.) The victim looks familiar but at first Daisy can’t place her. Once that small mystery is cleared up, Daisy begins her investigation into the murder. Charming as always.
Searcher for the Dead, by Nancy Herriman, is a historical mystery that takes place during the Elizabethan era. After the tragic death of her husband Martin, Bess relocates to the small town where she was born and moves in with her mother. Bess’s brother in law, Fulke, is found hanged and at first the murder is deemed a suicide. Since suicide was a crime, all of his assets are to be taken by the Crown. But Bess does not believe it was suicide and with the help of Kit, the constable, she investigates further.
This was captivating and enjoyable. Since it ended on a cliffhanger, and the possibility of some romance between Bess and Kit, I expect there will be another in this series. It is already on my list to read.
The second book I read was far different. In The Bone Cay, by Eliza Nellums, it is unclear whether there is a mystery. Magda Trudell is the current caretaker of the home of a famous poet, Isobel Reyes. A cat four hurricane is bearing down on Key West and is forecasted to be a direct hit. Magda chooses to stay in the house and when the storm damages the gift shop, it reveals a steamer trunk with the remains of a young woman. This does not occur until page 102. Shortly thereafter, the handy man and his daughter arrive seeking refuge but Magda soon discovers they are not what they seem. I am not sure how I feel about this book. It is not a whodunit and the mystery really does not begin until quite late. But it is beautiful written and I did finish it. The descriptions of the storms were especially riveting.
