Tyler Hawthorne, a British officer wounded at Waterloo, receives a memento mori ring on the battlefield from Messenger Lucien Adrian deVille, Lord Varre. The ring grants the wearer immortality, but in exchange Tyler must forever comfort the dying. Tyler also gets Shade, a black cemetery dog, for protection. In the present, a salvage diver uncovers Adrian's remains in a ship sunk in the Caribbean in 1815. A resurrected Adrian uses the diver to help locate Tyler in Los Angeles, where Tyler is attending to a leukemia patient. Tyler, an ageless 24, has also fallen for wealthy Amanda Clarke, who's haunted by family members killed in an accident that she survived. Mutual attraction and a dedication to do good unite the pair against the evil Adrian.
From the UK, I've got THE WESTMINSTER POISONER by Susanna Gregory coming. It will be released in the US in February and I can't wait that long. It would be the same with a CJ Sansom or Susan Hill book; can't wait. This is the 4th in her Thomas Chaloner, a spy in Restoration England series. Here's the book description from Amazon:
After the Puritan ban on Christmas festivities, Restoration London is awash with excess between Christmas Eve and Twelfth Night, but the two men found in Westminster Hall had not died from a surfeit of gluttony, but from poison. The Lord Chancellor appoints Chaloner as his investigator into the killings, believing them to be of scant importance to the affairs of state he deals with. But Chaloner reveals a stinking seam of corruption in the Palace of White Hall, where even the Queen is a victim to the greed of courtiers and functionaries. And the pickings are so rich that men are prepared to go to any lengths to save their own skins and their stolen fortunes.
THAI DIE by Monica Ferris was released in late November but looks like I'll be getting from the library in December. This is a cosy but I read this series for some reason. It is 12th in the series featuring Betsy Devonshire, a needlework shop owner in Excelsior, Minnesota. And that's it for December as far as I can tell. I'll have to work on my regular series reads otherwise.
Things pick up in January. The one I'm most interested in is the latest in the Pink Carnation series by Lauren Willig, THE TEMPTATION OF THE NIGHT JASMINE. This is the fifth, I believe, and the concept is taken from, of course, the Scarlet Pimpernel. This description comes from Amazon:
Willig introduces to her series the most elusive spy of all time, whose calling card is the faint whiff of jasmine in the cold night air.After twelve years in India, Robert, duke of Dovedale, returns to his estate in England to avenge the murder of his mentor during the 1803 Battle of Assaye. Robert plans to infiltrate the infamous, secretive Hellfire Club to uncover the murderer’s identity— but he has no idea that an even more difficult challenge awaits him—one Lady Charlotte Lansdowne.Having cherished a romanticized view of Robert since childhood, Charlotte is thrilled by his return. To Charlotte, Robert is all the knights of the Round Table rolled into one. That’s not exactly the case, but she can’t help but search for the man she loves inside this less-than-pristine package. And while Robert works to dissuade Charlotte from her delusions, he can’t help but be drawn to her innocence and inner beauty. When Charlotte is approached by Lady Henrietta Selwick to join her in a bit of espionage—investigating a plot to kidnap the king—Robert soon realizes that Charlotte is not only the perfect partner in crime; she’s the perfect partner, period. Caught in a dangerous game with deadly flower-named spies and secret members of the Hellfire Club, Robert and Charlotte must work together to reveal the villain…and confront their true passion for each other.
This series has different featured characters in each book though they are intertwined but the series as a whole should be read in order. It starts with THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE PINK CARNATION. Fluffy but fun reads.
Other books in January I'm interested in are BLEEDING HEART SQUARE by Andrew Taylor, CAMBRIDGE BLUE by Alison Bruce and OF MERCHANTS AND HEROES by Paul Waters. Here's a blurb from Amazon about that last one:
The story of a young man's pursuit of his father's murderer and of the values and qualities he develops that will make him a man-a man capable of a deep, noble, and enduring love. At the end of the third century B.C., as Republican Rome's long war with Carthage was at last drawing to a close, it was already threatened by a new enemy, Philip, the tyrant king of Macedon in the east. Into this turbulent world emerges our Roman hero, Marcus, whose father is brutally murdered by pirates on a journey from Italy to Corfu on a visit to his uncle. Fate takes him to some of the great cities of the Greco-Roman world at a time of major turbulence, where he learns much and finds love unexpectedly.This debut novel explores political and philosophical questions that are as timeless as democracy and tyranny, war and self-defense, right and duty, as well as questions of love, loyalty, and betrayal.
Interesting, no?
In February, I've noted the latest Peter Robinson is released in the US, ALL THE COLORS OF DARKNESS. And SJ Rozan is finally doing another Bill and Lydia book, released in this month called THE SHANGHAI MOON. It's been a while for her on this series while she's been doing stand alones -- that I haven't liked.
March 2009 is a doozy. I'll just have to list them for now:
- GRAVE GOODS by Ariana Franklin (3rd in her Mistress of the Art of Death series)
- SILENT ON THE MOOR by Deanna Raybourn (3rd of her Lady Julia Grey, recently widowed, in 1880s London, England series)
- EXECUTION DOCK by Anne Perry (finally a new Monk!)
- PROMISES IN DEATH by JD Robb (yay!)
- FAULT LINE by Barry Eisler (stand alone)
- PLAGUE OF POISON by Maureen Ash (3rd in histmyst series)
March is very very good indeed. And there may be some that I've missed so I'll update is things occur. But I have to say that the next four months look great.
Much love,
PK the Bookeemonster
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