Picked up from the library today, about to start THE DEVIL'S BREATH by Tessa Harris. This is 3rd of 4 in series featuring Dr. Thomas Silkstone, an American anatomist working in 1780s England. Here is a description:
A man staggers out of his cottage into the streets of Oxfordshire, shattering an otherwise peaceful evening with the terrible sight of his body shaking and heaving, eyes wild with horror. Many of the villagers believe the Devil himself has entered Joseph Makepeace, the latest victim of a "great fog" that darkens the skies over England like a Biblical plague. When Joseph's son and daughter are found murdered - heads bashed in by a shovel - the town's worst suspicions are confirmed: Evil is abroad, and needs to be banished. A brilliant man of science, Dr. Thomas Silkstone is not one to heed superstition. But when he arrives at the estate of the lovely widow Lady Lydia Farrell, he finds that it's not just her grain and livestock at risk. A shroud of mystery surrounds Lydia's lost child, who may still be alive in a workhouse. A natural disaster fills the skies with smoke and ash, clogging the lungs of all who breathe it in. And the grisly details of a father's crime compels Dr. Silkstone to look for answers beyond his medical books - between the Devil and the deep blue sea...
Published in 2013, it has 368 pages. For some reason, I couldn't get into the second book of this series so I'm skipping that and moving on to the third in hopes it will hit better.
I also started, last night, THE WARRIOR'S APPRENTICE by Lois McMasters Bujold. This is a reread; the start of the much beloved Miles Vorkosigan portion of her series.
Miles Vorkosigan is the son of one of the most powerful men on Barrayar, but is also a cripple, cursed with fragile bones and occasional hubris. Intrigued by a mystery involving his bodyguard, Bothari, Miles decides to take an offworld trip...but nothing goes to plan. He decides to intervene in a Betan police problem. This leads, inevitably, to his involvement in another system's civil war. Will Miles be able to hold together his fictitious group of mercenaries, keep track of his prisoners, earn enough money to redeem his mortgaged land, win the girl, and get back to Beta Colony before his parents find out what he's doing?
Published in 1986, it has 320 pages. Miles is one of the greatest, classic characters of modern SFF.
Much love,
PK the Bookeemonster
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