Tag Archives: Currently Reading

Currently Reading

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I read two cozies, plus another Jane Yellowrock, this past week.

I continue with the Marcia Talley series – except I accidentally skipped number 3 and had to go back. I am glad I did.

In Occasion for Revenge, Hannah’s father begins dating a woman named Pauline, a woman who both Hannah and her sister Ruth despise. They are also dealing with their father’s alcoholism. (I know this sounds heavy but Talley has a light touch.) Then Pauline is found murdered and Hannah’s father disappears. Recommended.

Doggone Death is the second by S.A. Kazlo.

At a hooker’s workshop (that’s rug hooking), a difficult woman dies in Jamies’s arms. So, she is instantly suspected of the murder. Of course, she begins investigating. The murderer tries to warn our intrepid heroine off, including by poisoning her beloved dog Porkchop. Fun and frothy.

Finally, I read the next in the Jane Yellowrock series, Blood Trade.

Jane heads to Natchez on a job for the Master of that City. Naturaleza, vampires who treat humans like cattle and drain them, are killing humans. When Jane arrives, she finds these vampires are unlike any she’s ever seen before. Silver does not kill them and they scuttle like insects. What is going on?

Jane is also dealing with an appeal from an old friend who grew up in the children’s home with her. Misha’s daughter is desperately ill with leukemia. Misha risks meeting with vampires, some of them the Naturaleza, and now she has disappeared, leaving her daughter in Jane’s care.

Another page turner!Occasion

Currently Reading

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The first book I read this week was Book Four of the Jane Yellowrock series, Raven Cursed.

Jane is working security in Asheville, N.C. for a vamp parley. The vamps in Asheville want to set up their own territory. Evangeline Overheat, Molly’s older sister, has agreed to facilitate the parley. But a group of campers are attacked by something supernatural, and Jane realizes the two werewolves she didn’t kill have followed her to North Carolina and are on the hunt.

Then Lincoln Shaddock does not turn up at the parley and Evangeline begins changing, growing younger and prettier. What is going on?

Action packed and fun.

The second book I read was A Truth to Lie For by Anne Perry, the fourth Elena Stands mystery.

Elena is called into service again, tasked with pulling a scientist working on German warfare out of Germany. Elena calls upon her old friend for Jacob and they successfully find the scientist. But when they try to take him out of Berlin, traffic jams and roadblocks send them south to Munich. Just in time for the Night of the Long Knives; Hitler’s strike against Rohm’s brownshirts.

At the same, a young Gestapo officer, Hans Beckendorff is trying to navigate the politics of working for the Reich, and for an increasingly unhinged Hitler. In the end, he is forced to make a life-changing decision.

I had a few criticisms. The ending seems rushed. Perry relies on a few phrases over and over (I really got tired of ‘surprisingly good coffee’.) It is not really a mystery, more a thriller.

But here’s the thing. Despite the absence of blood and gore (a constant feature of the Yellowrock novels), A Truth to Lie For is absolutely terrifying. Maybe because the reader knows what is coming in the next few years, but I felt a sense of dread throughout. I was truly scared at several points in the book.

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I went back to two of my favorite series this week: the Hannah Ives series and the Jane Yellowrock series.

Through the Darkness by Marcia Talley starts out with a scary premise: Hannah’s ten month grandson is kidnapped. No ransom demand arrives and the family is left to imagine the worst.

It comes at a particularly terrible time: Hannah’s daughter Emily and her husband Dante are in the process of opening their own luxury spa. As their marriage begins to fall apart, Hannah begins to investigate on her own, despite the resistance from the cops and her own brother-in-law.

This part of the mystery was great. Very captivating. BUT, the death towards the end seems tacked on, as though Marcia was told to add 50 pages. Although this was less than perfect, I enjoy this series and will continue.

The story continues almost immediately after the previous book. Campers in North Carolina have been found slaughtered. Although it appears the murders were done by the vampires, Jane scents the werewolves. The fact that only the males have been killed, while the women have been taken convinces Jane that the weres are still trying to turn females for mates.

At the same time the grindylow is tracking the wires, Turning humans is forbidden so the grindy is tasked with killing the malefactors.

Riveting as usual. I can only wonder that Faith Hunter is able to continue this series with every book exciting and fascinating.

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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.

Another exciting read.

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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.

Currently Reading – week of June 13

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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.

Another excellent mystery.

Currently Reading -May 30

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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.

Currently Reading – Week of May 22

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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.

What is going on?

Highly Recommended.

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Week of May 21

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.

Currently Reading – April 17

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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.