May 2010 Reads

Yes, it may be a little late but here's a review of what I read in May:

DEATH IN THE WEST WIND by Deryn Lake

This is 7th of 13 in series featuring John Rawlings, an apothecary and associate of John Fielding, mostly in 18th century London. here is a description:

Newlyweds John and Emilia Rawlings are spending their honeymoon touring the mysterious county of Devon. The gruesome discovery of the body of a young girl, badly beaten and bruised draws the Apothecary into the investigation. Recognising the dead girl as the daughter of a Dutch merchant John realizes that he is deeply involved in something rather sinister - especially when the girl's brother, Richard, goes missing at the same time. Although he knows the identity of the dead girl, he is still no further towards finding her killer. Did her possessive father, furious with her for her wayward behavior murder her? Or is the father of her unborn child is to blame? Perhaps her fiance, Tobias Wills, exacted a deadly revenge for the betrayal? John Rawlings is determined to find some answers...even if it means putting himself in danger.

It was published in 2002 and has 282 pages. I like this time period, Rawlings is an interesting character. We did make a big leap here from being very attracted to Emilia in the last book to being married to her. And she will either be background noise in the series and a woman of infinite patience as her new husband goes gallavanting after solving crimes in spare time or be a true contributing partner. Time will tell.

SHOOT TO THRILL by PJ Tracy

This book is the 5th of 5 in series featuring homicide detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth and the Monkeewrench gang, a game software company, in Minneapolis. Here is a description:

With murders around the country being posted on the Web by killers who leave no online trail, the FBI is reduced to asking civilian hackers for help. None is more qualified than Monkeewrench Sofware: the unconventional unit of cyber investigators led by ponytailed Harley Davidson, whose Minneapolis mansion houses his eccentric but super-efficient team: eyelash-batting belle, Annie; exercise-addicted Roadrunner; and Grace MacBride, the object of MPD detective Leo Magozzi’s affection. With straitlaced FBI Special Agent John Smith as their liaison and, with Magozzi and partner Gino Rolseth working the local scene, the group starts its 24/7 efforts. Are the murders real or simply enactments? Will federal regulations thwart Monkeewrench, or will Smith (who’s facing retirement) bend the rules?

It was published last month and has 320 pages. I dunno. It had been a long time between books for these authors (mom and daughter under this pseudonym) and I liked it for most part but I wanted more "there" there.

REVENGER by Rory Clements

This is 2nd of 2 in series featuring John Shakespeare, elder brother of playwright William Shakespeare and investigator for Queen Elizabeth I in England 1580s-1590s. Here is a description:

1592. England and Spain are at war, yet there is peril at home, too. The death of her trusted spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham has left Queen Elizabeth vulnerable. Conspiracies multiply. The quiet life of John Shakespeare is shattered by a summons from Robert Cecil, the cold but deadly young statesman who dominated the last years of the Queen’s long reign, insisting Shakespeare re-enter government service. His mission: to find vital papers, now in the possession of the Earl of Essex. Essex is the brightest star in the firmament, a man of ambition. He woos the Queen, thirty-three years his senior, as if she were a girl his age. She is flattered by him – despite her loathing for his mother, the beautiful, dangerous Lettice Knollys who presides over her own glittering court – a dazzling array of the mad, bad, dangerous and disaffected. When John Shakespeare infiltrates this dissolute world he discovers not only that the Queen herself is in danger – but that he and his family is also a target. With only his loyal footsoldier Boltfoot Cooper at his side, Shakespeare must face implacable forces who believe themselves above the law: men and women who kill without compunction. And in a world of shifting allegiances, just how far he can trust Robert Cecil, his devious new master?

It was published in the UK April 2010 and has 448 pages. In history, William Shakespeare did not have this brother. The author could easily have named this lead character anything else and it would still be good. It has all the elements I love: Tudor setting, political intrigue, religious conflict, historical espionage ...

THIS BODY OF DEATH by Elizabeth George.

This is 16th of 16 in series featuring Lynley, a Scotland Yard inspector and eighth Earl of Asherton and Sergeant Barbara Havers in London. Here is a description:

On compassionate leave after the murder of his wife, Thomas Lynley is called back to Scotland Yard when the body of a woman is found stabbed and abandoned in an isolated London cemetery. Aggressively career-minded Isabelle Ardery, the new acting superintendent of London's Metropolitan Police is being tested by being put in charge of the case. The body of Jemima Hastings, a young woman recently relocated from Hampshire, has turned up in a London cemetery. With suspects in both locales and numerous leads to follow and interviews to conduct, Ardery succeeds in raising the hackles of Det. Sgt. Barbara Havers, Det. Insp. John Stewart, and other members of the investigating team. There are ties to a horrific earlier murder case.

This was published in 2010 and has 704 pages. Feels like George is getting back to form but this book could have used editing. More procedural with Lynley and Havers please.

THE GOD OF THE HIVE by Laurie R. King

This is 10th of 10 in series featuring Mary Russell, student and then wife of Sherlock Holmes. Here is a description:

It began as a problem in one of Holmes’ beloved beehives, led to a murderous cult, and ended—or so they’d hoped—with a daring escape from a sacrificial altar. Instead, Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, have stirred the wrath and the limitless resources of those they’ve thwarted. Now they are separated and on the run, wanted by the police, and pursued across the Continent by a ruthless enemy with powerful connections.Unstoppable together, Russell and Holmes will have to survive this time apart, maintaining tenuous contact only by means of coded messages and cryptic notes. With Holmes’ young granddaughter in her safekeeping, Russell will have to call on instincts she didn’t know she had. But has the couple already made a fatal mistake by separating, making themselves easier targets for the shadowy government agents sent to silence them? From hidden rooms in London shops and rustic forest cabins to rickety planes over Scotland and boats on the frozen North Sea, Russell and Holmes work their way back to each other while uncovering answers to a mystery that will take both of them to solve. A hermit with a mysterious past and a beautiful young female doctor with a secret, a cruelly scarred flyer and an obsessed man of the cloth, Holmes’ brother, Mycroft, and an Intelligence agent who knows too much: Everyone Russell and Holmes meet could either speed their safe reunion or betray them to their enemies.

This was just published this week and has 368 pages. This series is the exception to the rule that I don't like Sherlock Holmes. This concludes the cliffhanger of the previous book.

UNCLEAN SPIRITS by MLN Hanover. Urban fantasy (I guess). Here is a description:

Jayné Heller thinks of herself as a realist, until she discovers reality isn't quite what she thought it was. When her uncle Eric is murdered, Jayné travels to Denver to settle his estate, only to learn that it's all hers -- and vaster than she ever imagined. And along with properties across the world and an inexhaustible fortune, Eric left her a legacy of a different kind: his unfinished business with a cabal of wizards known as the Invisble College. Led by the ruthless Randolph Coin, the Invisible College harnesses demon spirits for their own ends of power and domination. Jayné finds it difficult to believe magic and demons can even exist, let alone be responsible for the death of her uncle. But Coin sees Eric's heir as a threat to be eliminated by any means -- magical or mundane -- so Jayné had better start believing in something to save her own life. Aided in her mission by a group of unlikely companions -- Aubrey, Eric's devastatingly attractive assistant; Ex, a former Jesuit with a lethal agenda; Midian, a two-hundred-year-old man who claims to be under a curse from Randolph Coin himself; and Chogyi Jake, a self-styled Buddhist with mystical abilities -- Jayné finds that her new reality is not only unexpected, but often unexplainable. And if she hopes to survive, she'll have to learn the new rules fast -- or break them completely....

Published in 2009 and 400 pages. I dunno, I guess the excerpt had caught my attention with the setting in Denver and first person narrative and I was in the mood for something different. It was an okay read though I balk at the label of "urban fantasy". That label has been hijacked by the publishing industry -- and readers -- to describe the hot trend of paranormal suspense involving vampires, werewolves, zombies and the like. To me, urban fantasy is Charles deLint, Neil Gaiman, Emma Bull, Pamela Dean, Terri Windling, et, al.

Sunday morning is starting out cool, cloudy and little drizzly but it supposed to get up to the mid 70s. Steve is off for his shooting class. I'm reading the news and blogs. Tug and I will walk in a couple hours. I have laundry to finish today.

I'm going to have to start paying attention to tv listings and giving up my week nights again. Lie To Me is starting up again tomorrow, Food Network Star, Design Star, etc. Oy. Tonight I'll have to watch The Tudors. I'd like to finish FIGURE OF HATE by Bernard Knight today and move on to the next read.

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster