Tag: mystery

Ebook Review Central, Multi-publisher, August 2012

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Ebook Review Central> ebooks

Welcome to the Ebook Review Central multi-publisher wrap-up post for the titles published in August 2012. This week’s edition covers the output from Amber Quill Press, Astraea Press, Curiosity Quills, Liquid Silver and Riptide for the month of August. Red Sage didn’t publish anything new this month.

This is also my multi-conundrum post. Out of six possible publishers, not all of whom have output in any given month, there are entirely too many months, like this one, where Riptide publishes three titles and absolutely sweeps the featured titles. No other publisher has titles that received more than four reviews, and there were way too many ones and zeroes, all over.

Why am I bringing this up right now? I’m moving to Seattle in November, and starting a full-time job in early December. Some things will have to re-arranged. I will continue Ebook Review Central, but for publishers where there are regularly no reviews, or very few reviews, to report, I’m going to have to make some decisions about priorities.

Multiple reviews on Goodreads or Amazon, even when they exist, do not count on Ebook Review Central. Why? Because many reviewers cross-post their reviews on Goodreads, Amazon and Barnes & Noble. When we receive review copies from publishers, the publishers generally make that request specifically.

All of this week’s featured titles were from Riptide. While I would have liked to have spread the featured titles out a bit, Riptide absolutely ran so far ahead of the pack, it wasn’t remotely possible. And good on them and their publicity department/review coordinators as well as the authors for getting their books out there.

Featured title number one is Anne Tenino’s Love, Hypothetically. I’ll say up front that the reviews weren’t universally good, but there were simply a ton of them. When this many people are talking (and writing), the book is worth looking at just to get in on the conversation! Love, Hypothetically is the sequel to Frat Boy and Toppy, and is a story of reunited lovers. Paul and Trevor were high school boyfriends who veered way off track. Trevor chose a major league baseball career instead of coming out, but threw Paul pretty much under the bus on his way. Now the big career is over and Trevor is back in town and he wants a second chance with his first love. See Under the Covers for the wow review and Avon Romance for the meh vote.

Almost all of the 16 reviews for the number two feature were raves. I’m talking about Aleksandr Voinov’s look back at two German flyers during World War II, Skybound. Even though this is a time and/or a side that many people avoid like the plague (as my fellow Book Lover Caro put it) every one who read this one fell in love with the characters and saw it as a beautiful story of love and courage, set in dark and desperate times.

Coming in at number three was the book I expected to be number one, which says something about the strength of the competition this week. Anything that could beat out the latest entry in the Cut & Run series has to have been pretty damn good. Because the number three title for this week is Stars & Stripes by Abigail Roux, the 6th book in the Cut & Run series. Everyone who reviewed this one absolutely loved it, but that’s not a surprise. By six books in, everyone reviewing is deeply invested in the series. The series started as a mystery/suspense series about two FBI agents, Ty Grady and Zane Garrett, who have absolutely opposite working styles and one hell of a lot of sexual tension. During a significant part of the series, it’s a question whether they’re going to fall into bed or get each other killed, or both. The series is meant to be read in order, starting with Cut & Run, and highly recommended by pretty much everyone who has ever reviewed it.

We’ll be back! Next week! Carina Press, September 2012. The Frankenstorm will not bring me down.

Review: Willow Pond by Carol Tibaldi + Giveaway

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> blog tours> Book Giveaway> book reviews
Format read: ebook provided by the Author
Formats available: Trade paperback, ebook
Genre: mystery
Length: 324 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace
Date Released: December 12, 2011
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository

The Roaring Twenties crumble into the Great Depression, but Virginia Kingsley, New York’s toughest and most successful speakeasy owner, is doing just fine. Now that the world is falling apart, bootlegging is a flourishing business, and she’s queen of that castle.

Then her infant nephew is kidnapped. Her niece, Laura, and Laura’s philandering movie star husband, are devastated. The police have few leads, and speculation and rumors abound in the media circus that follows the celebrity abduction.

Only one reporter, Erich Muller, seems to care enough about the child’s welfare and the parents’ feelings to report the case responsibly. Over the course of the investigation, Erich Muller and Laura fall in love, but their relationship is doomed to failure since he suspects her beloved aunt Virginia is behind the kidnapping. Laura, jaded when it comes to men, sides with Virginia.

But Virginia has figured out the truth, and she can’t tell anyone for fear of losing her niece’s affections and having the police ransack her life. So she pursues her own investigation, shaking down, threatening, and killing one petty crook after another during her search.

Little Todd’s absence shapes everyone’s lives. When he is finally found, the discovery will bring disaster for some and revelation for others.

There’s something about “The Roaring 20’s” that continues to fascinate, even nearly a century later. The styles still look incredible cool, for one thing. The sleekness of Art Deco has become instantly recognizable.

Ms. Tibaldi evoked the era so completely that I half expected Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot to step out of the pages and offer to solve the case. The 20’s were, after all, his time, and this type of upper-class affair would have been just the sort of thing to exercise his “little grey cells”.

But the case it reminded me of most was the Lindbergh baby kidnapping of 1932. The 20-month-old son of famous aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was kidnapped in May of 1932, and later found murdered. This case resulted in the Federal Kidnapping Act, the law which makes it a federal crime to transport a kidnapping victim across state lines.

When I started the story, I wondered how much the kidnapping in Willow Pond would resemble the historic crime. Thankfully, not at all.

Instead, Willow Pond looks at another memorable historic law of the 1920s–Prohibition. We romanticize the speakeasies and laugh about “bathtub gin”, but Prohibition also brought about the rise of Organized Crime to transport the illegal booze that everyone still drank.

In Willow Pond, four lives intersect. Laura Austin’s life is turned upside down when her son is kidnapped. It seems that this should be her story, and it somewhat is, but only somewhat. In the aftermath of the terrible devastation wrought by the limbo of her missing child, Laura finally grows up. She completes her separation from her self-absorbed actor-husband, Philip Austin.

Both fortunately and unfortunately, Laura turns to Erich Muller, the crime reporter sent to cover the sensational story. Their relationship draws his investigative reporter skills in to pursue leads long after the police have let the trail run cold.

Virginia Kingley is Laura’s aunt, and the woman who raised Laura after her mother died. However, and most important, Virginia is part of the underworld. She runs a speakeasy called the Bacchanal, and she runs booze with the big boys. Her love affair with the Police Commissioner gives her the clout to keep her life from being investigated, but it doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be.

Because Laura is caught in the middle between her need to defend the woman who raised her, and her lover’s certainty that someone in Virginia’s shady life had something to do with the kidnapping. All the trails seem to lead back to Virginia Kingsley, where every investigation gets blocked. Laura sides with her aunt. She may have come to love Erich, but her narcissistic bastard of a husband taught her that Virginia is much more trustworthy than any man.

It’s just too bad that Erich is right. Because that fourth life in the intersection…is her child’s kidnapper. She doesn’t want money. She just wants a child of her own.

And Todd just wants his mommy.

Escape Rating A-: I stayed up until 3 am to finish Willow Pond. I was so caught up in it that I couldn’t wait to find out how it ended.

Two things about Willow Pond that I found captivating were the 1920s setting and the kidnapping mystery itself. The author did an excellent, absolutely marvelous job invoking the feel of the 1920s. Poirot or Lord Peter Wimsey would have seemed right at home in this mystery.

The tension of limbo that the “not knowing” had on Laura was intense and very well-done. I felt for her pain and loss. Also the whole suspense of where the kidnapper and Todd were and the chase for them was definitely a thrill-ride.

One part didn’t work for me and that was Erich’s incredibly shabby treatment of his wife at the end of the story. This was not a romance, so I was not expecting that kind of happy ever after. But if Laura and Erich were going to get one, then Erich’s rebound marriage to Jenny seemed an unnecessary bit of pathos to this reader.

All in all, Willow Pond is a fantastic evocation of the 1920s with their glamour, scandals, and crimes.

~*~*Giveaway*~*~

As part of the book tour for Willow Pond, Carol Tibaldi and Pump Up Your Books are giving away one (1) trade paperback copy of Willow Pond to one lucky commenter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand? 9-23-12

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Banned Books> The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand

If you haven’t hopped on over to the Naughty or Nice Blog Hop yet, what are you waiting for? Nat at Reading Romances organized a terrific blog hop around the age-old question, “what kind of romances do you like best, naughty romances or nice?” If you’re willing to answer that question on this blog, you’ll have a chance at a $15 Amazon Gift Card. There are almost 90 blogs participating, so there are lots of other fantastic bookish giveaways!

What else happened besides the blog hop this week? Funny you should ask. I did review a few books.

B+ Review: The Cowboy and the Vampire by Clark Hays and Kathleen McFall
B Review: Racing With The Wind by Regan Walker + Giveaway
B+ Review: Daring Greatly by Brené Brown
C- Review: The Last Victim by Karen Robards

There is still plenty of time to get in on a chance to win a copy of Regan Walker’s Racing With the Wind. If you enjoy historical romance, especially if you liked Shana Galen’s Lord and Lady Spy or the historical parts of Lauren Willig’s Pink Carnation series, give this one a try.

But what about this week, I hear you asking? Or at least I hope I hear you asking. (Mostly, I’m hearing a cat with the “screaming me-me’s”at the moment because I’m blogging instead of paying attention to Her Highness!)

Schedules happen. That’s not quite how that saying goes, but we’ll take it as read. After Monday’s Ebook Review Central (this week it’s the Hexapost) this week I definitely have the interview with Clark Hays and Kathleen McFall about their fascinating journey towards each other and to the writing of their darkly romantic western vampire thriller series, Cowboy and Vampire. They’ll be here on Wednesday, along with my review of the second book in the series, Blood and Whiskey.

 

Before Wednesday, we’ll have a real treat. It’s that chocolate treat I promised last week. Suzanne Selfors will be here to talk about The Sweetest Spell, her fairy tale about an outcast girl who is the only person in her world who has the magic to make chocolate. Talk about a much, much better version of the King Midas power! Wow! One lucky commenter on the blog will receive a very special prize from Suzanne. Come back Tuesday to read the review and her interview and find out what the prize is and how to enter.

 

Chocolate on Tuesday, Vampires on Wednesday, what’s left? Mystery. On Thursday, my guest will be Carol Tibaldi, discussing her kidnapping mystery, Willow Pond. Part of the fascination of Willow Pond is the setting; it’s not just set in the 1920’s, so there’s the whole Art Deco/Roaring 20’s era style, but it’s also the time of Prohibition and speakeasies and the Mob. The story also has the hint of Golden Age Hollywood and a high-profile kidnapping.  This story has oodles of mystery and suspense in an utterly fascinating time.

It’s going to be a busy week. Looking ahead to next week, there’s something more important than any individual book I might be planning to read, and that’s the freedom to read whatever book I might want to read.

Next Sunday, September 30, is the beginning of Banned Books Week. A week that celebrates the freedom to read. Last year, there was a Virtual Read-Out, an opportunity to upload a video of a reading of a banned or challenged book. The list of books you can pick from is frightening. And ironic.

I’m planning to do it again this year. I’ll read from Fahrenheit 451, wearing my Fahrenheit 451 t-shirt, explaining why the book is important. Or maybe I’ll pick Brave New World this time. It’s also on the list. It’s all about the irony of not letting “Big Brother” choose my reading for me.

If you don’t want “Big Brother” to ever be able to choose your reading for you, support Banned Books Week.

 

 

 

Stacking the Shelves (17)

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Stacking the Shelves

This was one of those weeks when I tried to be good. Only 12 books.

Three comments. I’ve already reviewed Delusion in Death, the new J.D. Robb. Got it Tuesday, finished it Wednesday. It was terrific to see how everyone at the NYPSD is getting on, but this wasn’t one of the “great” cases in the series. I still ate it up like candy. <sigh> Now I’ll have to wait until February, 2013, when Calculated in Death comes out for my next Eve and Roarke fix.

 

Beyond Shame says it’s by Kit Rocha, but it’s really by Moira Rogers. I adore their Bloodhounds series, so when I saw that this was them, I grabbed it from NetGalley. The authors are labeling it as “dystopian erotic romance”. Obviously not intended for the faint of heart, but based on their previous work, I’m definitely interested.

 

One of the fun things about video games is hearing actors where I have no idea what they look like. Then I see someone and “wait, I’ve heard that voice before!” I finally started watching Buffy (I know, what took me so long?) and realized that Ripper’s old pal Ethan Rayne, well, I’d heard that voice before. Frankly, I’d listen to Robin Sachs read the phone book. But hearing him read John Gardner’s The Return of Moriarty is definitely perfect casting. He’s reading the Godfather of London criminals, Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis. Cool and calculating. Marvelously chilling. Oh, the book is pretty good, too. (Ironically, the video game character I first heard him voice is a good guy).

What have you added to your stacks this week? A little? A lot? Anything special?

For Review: (as always, all ebooks unless specifically stated otherwise)
Blessed by a Demon’s Mark by E.S. Moore (print ARC)
A Vengeful Affair by Carmen Falcone
The Book of the Night (Libyrinth #3) by Pearl North (print)
Provoked (The Dark Protector #5) by Rebecca Zanetti
Beyond Shame (Beyond #1) by Kit Rocha (new pseudonym for Moira Rogers)
How to Date a Henchman by Mari Fee
Need by Todd Gregory
Of Blood and Bone (The Minaldi Legacy #1) by Courtney Cole
The Dead of Winter by Lee Collins

Purchased:
Frozen Heat (Nikki Heat #4) by Richard Castle
Delusion in Death (In Death #35) by J.D. Robb
The Return of Moriarty by John E. Gardner (audiobook from Audible, read by Robin Sachs)

Review: Delusion in Death by J. D. Robb

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> book reviews
Format read: ebook puchased from Amazon
Formats available: Hardcover, ebook, audiobook
Genre: Futuristic, police procedural, mystery
Series: In Death #35
Length: 416 pages
Publisher: Putnam
Purchasing Info:Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository

It was just another after-work happy-hour bar downtown, where business professionals unwound with a few drinks . . .until something went terribly wrong. And after twelve minutes of chaos and violence, eighty people lay dead.

Lieutenant Eve Dallas is trying to sort out the inexplicable events. Surviving witnesses talk about seeing things—monsters and swarms of bees. They describe sudden, overwhelming feelings of fear and rage and paranoia. When forensics gives its report, the mass delusions make more sense: It appears the
bar patrons were exposed to a cocktail of chemicals and illegal drugs that could drive anyone to temporary insanity—if not kill them outright.

But that doesn’t explain who would unleash such horror—or why. And if Eve can’t figure it out fast, it could happen again, anytime, anywhere. Because it’s airborne. . . .

The near-term future looks pretty bleak in the rear-view mirror of Robb’s  2058. Between our now and Eve Dallas’ then lurks the devastation that goes by the seemingly innocuous name, “the Urban Wars”.

There are two types of Dallas and Roarke stories, ones where the case seriously delves into the skeletons in one or both of their closets, and there are plenty, and the current case rattles loose a lot of personal trauma. New York to Dallas was one of those, and it was a terrible beauty, as my review indicated.

The other kind are those where the murder investigation is the point of the exercise. Those type are necessary to keep the whole series from slamming the willing suspension of disbelief into the dust. Not even with Dallas and Roarke’s troubled pasts could they manage to survive the kind of emotional crash that making every single case personal would mean. Some murders need to be just murders, no matter how awful.

One of my favorite books in the series, Fantasy in Death, was an “ordinary murder case” type story.

While Delusion in Death is not one of the truly personal cases for Dallas and Roarke, the murders are anything but ordinary. Their roots lie in the murky dark of the Urban Wars. A time that Summerset remembers all too well. He and Eve call a temporary truce to their domestic hostilities, because a bio-terrorist weapon from those bad old days has re-surfaced in New York, and Summerset’s contacts might have information that will lead Dallas to the killer–before he makes another venue full of innocent people into raving lunatics that turn on each other in a murderous rage.

Escape Rating B: I re-read my review of Celebrity in Death, where I said Celebrity needed a few more bodies to give it flavor. Delusion in Death has all the bodies it needs and then some. What this one needs is a clearer motive for the killers.

The Urban Wars have always been a bit mythic in the timeline for the In Death series, so it’s difficult to bring them out of the deep, dark as the motivation for the ultimate evildoer in this story. This person stays too deep in the background, and the history has been too shadowy. I accept that this person was the puppet-master, but I don’t totally understand the reasoning. The mastermind is less awe-inspiring (even in a bad way) when you don’t buy into what makes them masterful.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: Blind Traveler Down a Dark River by Robert P. Bennett

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | book reviews> C Reviews
Format read: ebook provided by the author
Formats available: paperback, ebook
Genre: Mystery
Series: Douglas Abledan #1
Length: 204 pages
Publisher: PublishAmerica
Purchasing Info:Author’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble

Douglas Abledan is a blind man using a GPS unit to navigate the world. One day the device malfunctions. He stumbles upon the scene of a murder about to take place. Due to the confusion caused by the failure of his technology, it isn’t until he hears a radio announcer reporting an accidental shooting that pieces start falling into place. Unable to convince authorities to look into the matter, he launches his own investigation. In the year 2021 increasing global earthquakes threaten civilizationas infrastructure. Unimat Incorporated is trying to stop the destruction by introducing a new building material. Special interests are up in arms. Environmentalists blame technology for the problem and want a different solution. Steel workers worry about jobs and safety. Now someone has hired a contract killer to stop the project. How can Abledan expose the killer without becoming a target?

Blind Traveler Down a Dark River is a near-future murder mystery. I wanted to settle into following the amateur detective as he solved the mystery, but the near-future part kept tugging at my willing suspension of disbelief until it got partially resolved. Why? Because the reason for the murder hinged on it.

The reader needs to accept that this near-future earth is close enough in time that the 1990s GPS satellites are still used as a historical touchpoint, but earthquakes have increased in frequency all over the planet, and faultlines that are currently dormant, have become violently active.

It turns out that the earth’s magnetic poles have reversed. Again. A once every 700,000 years or so event. But okay, I read science fiction. I can go with this. It’s an explanation. I just needed it a little sooner in the book than half-way through.

Back to the story. About those GPS satellites…take GPS technology and imagine how far it can go into the future. What if everything had an active GPS tag, including moving vehicles.  Including people. If cars could sense other cars, buildings, and people, then cars wouldn’t need drivers. Driver-less taxis and buses.

Personal GPS devices. Personal navigators for the blind. Better than any cane, even one with radio and sonic devices. Not as cuddly as a dog, but with a much longer life expectancy.

What happens if the programming on the navigator glitches, and gets its signals from the wrong street? A person might walk into traffic instead of away from it. A person might “witness” a murder they didn’t see. And no one would believe them.

That’s what happens to Douglas Abledan. A blind computer genius who figures out that the event he witnessed was a murder, and not the drive-by shooting the police claim it was. Abledan knows all about drive-by shootings, and exactly how much, or how little effort the police put into solving them. He lost his sight in a drive-by shooting.

He’s compelled to solve this murder. No matter what it takes. And no matter how much his  lack of sight, lack of experience, and lack of resources hamper his investigation.

Then there’s the murder he’s investigating. Earthquakes can be devastating, particularly when they are hitting densely populated areas that contain buildings that were never intended to be earthquake-resistant. People are dying (Think of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and move the devastation to 21st century New York City. Groan loudly for emphasis)

But changing construction materials and methods always causes disruption to jobs. A lot of power and money is involved. Secret government project money, environmental protest groups and union bosses afraid that union members will lose out if new materials use different processes. There’s more than enough motives for murder.

Abledan is going up against some very big boys and girls. And he can’t even see them coming to get him.

Escape Rating C+: The setup is interesting, once you get past trying to figure out when this takes place and how the world got into the fix it’s in. I had the feeling that the author had some very cool ideas, and needed certain tech in place to make them work. As a reader, I just needed to know how the world got that way much earlier.

Douglas Abledan is an amateur detective who gets caught up in the thrill of the chase. As such, he’s a member of a long line of private eyes, no matter how ironic that moniker might be in his case. For this series to continue Abledan needs to have a few more people to interact with who are a little more sympathetic than Speckler, the researcher who helps him figure out some of the ins and outs of his Navigator.

I found the reasons for the murder all too believable, with or without the near-future technology. But then, human nature doesn’t change. What made the story different was the detective. Douglas Abledan working both with his limitations, and rising above them. Also his determination to solve this crime, because his own case was never resolved.

Abledan’s amateur sleuthing continues, and gets more wrapped in the problems of the near-future world he inhabits, when he goes on vacation to Chicago in Blind Traveler’s Blues. Take a look at my review on Book Lovers Inc for the details of how earthquakes in the Windy City, murder and eco-terrorism, stir up more adventures.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: Garment of Shadows by Laurie R. King

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> book reviews
Formats available: Hardcover, ebook
Genre: Mystery/Suspense
Series: Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes #12
Length: 288 Pages
Publisher: Bantam
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher, Goodreads, Amazon, B&N, Book Depository

Laurie R. King’s New York Times bestselling novels of suspense featuring Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, comprise one of today’s most acclaimed mystery series. Now, in their newest and most thrilling adventure, the couple is separated by a shocking circumstance in a perilous part of the world, each racing against time to prevent an explosive catastrophe that could clothe them both in shrouds.

In a strange room in Morocco, Mary Russell is trying to solve a pressing mystery: Who am I? She has awakened with shadows in her mind, blood on her hands, and soldiers pounding on the door. Out in the hivelike streets, she discovers herself strangely adept in the skills of the underworld, escaping through alleys and rooftops, picking pockets and locks. She is clothed like a man, and armed only with her wits and a scrap of paper containing a mysterious Arabic phrase. Overhead, warplanes pass ominously north.

Meanwhile, Holmes is pulled by two old friends and a distant relation into the growing war between France, Spain, and the Rif Revolt led by Emir Abd el-Krim—who may be a Robin Hood or a power mad tribesman. The shadows of war are drawing over the ancient city of Fez, and Holmes badly wants the wisdom and courage of his wife, whom he’s learned, to his horror, has gone missing. As Holmes searches for her, and Russell searches for herself, each tries to crack deadly parallel puzzles before it’s too late for them, for Africa, and for the peace of Europe.

With the dazzling mix of period detail and contemporary pace that is her hallmark, Laurie R. King continues the stunningly suspenseful series that Lee Child called “the most sustained feat of imagination in mystery fiction today.”

So many shadows. The story begins in the shadows of Russell’s memory…she has been struck on the head and has forgotten who she is. All she knows is that she has enemies after her. If only her life were that simple. But it never is.

If it were, she would not be Mary Russell, and she would not be the partner and wife of the world’s first consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes. And, most importantly, her life would not interest us.

The shadows of the title are in this case a metaphor. There are many shadows. Russell’s memory clears up. Eventually.

But the year is 1925, and the place is Morocco. North Africa during the shadow war between the great powers, in that uneasy temporary cessation of hostilities between World Wars One and Two.

Russell came to Morocco at the behest of Inspector Lestrade to investigate a film company, but mostly because she is waging her own private little war with Brother Mycroft. This would not be conducive to good family relations under normal circumstances, but Mycroft Holmes has occasionally been, at times, the British government. At least the secret parts of it.

In Morocco, Russell and Holmes meet old friends from their travels in Palestine. The only problem is that they are not sure whether Ali and Mahmoud Hazr are there to plan an assassination, or to stop one.

And which would best serve the interests of the people of Morocco, the people of England, and the interest of Mycroft Holmes?

Russell, for one, is very, very tired of worrying about the puppet-master in the shadows, manipulating her life, and the lives of those around her, thinking he knows what’s best for everyone. What if he’s wrong?

Escape Rating A-: What sticks in the mind at the end of this tale are two facets. One was the way that the story slid into historical events. This could have happened and would have left this little trace in history. This is just cool.

Then there’s the question that comes up so often, “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”  But when the decision is between this many over here and that many over there, the side with the bigger and better guns generally wins. “Might makes right” in other words.

But might isn’t always right. The way that the Hazr brothers questioned the British treatment of the Moroccan people is intended as reminiscent of T.E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”) with good reason. What may have looked reasonable from London was undoubtedly balderdash from a closer perspective. Think of the U.S. Revolution for an example that may be more familiar.

Starting the story with Russell in a mental fog made for somewhat of a slow start. She normally has a very clear and direct narrative voice; even when she doesn’t know where she’s going, she knows what she’s doing while she’s getting there. The story took a while to gather itself together as Russell reassembled herself. Once she remembered who and what she was, and the plan pulled together, the story took off!

The Sunday Post AKA What’s On My (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand? 9-2-12

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand

This Sunday’s version of the Sunday post takes place at Dragon*Con, so today’s motto is: “Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup”.   I’ve probably picked up some signed copies of too many books in the Hucksters’ Room by now. And added way too many t-shirts to my t-shirt collection. (I’ve got to weed some of the ones I really can’t wear…one of these centuries)

And as happy as I am to be at Dragon*Con, there a part of me that’s sad not to be at WorldCon this weekend in Chicago. We would have managed, somehow, if it hadn’t required a TARDIS. <sniff>

This is Labor Day weekend here in the States. The last three-day holiday weekend that a lot of people get until Thanksgiving.  That’s what makes it the end of summer.

Before we forge ahead to Fall, or even to the upcoming week, there’s one big giveaway from last week that you still have plenty of time to get in on.

If you love small-town romance, take a look at Susan Wigg’s Return to Willow Lake. I reviewed it on Thursday (I’m afraid I waxed really eloquent), and Susan is offering a giveaway of one print copy of the book. So if you like her work, here’s a great chance for a free book. (US only this time, sorry.)

Coming up this week, I’ve got one review/interview combo this Thursday, too. Kerry Adrienne will be here on September 6 to talk about the first two books in her All Mine series under the Decadent Press 1Night Stand series, Druid, Mine and Senator, Mine. (Not US Senators, Senators in Ancient Rome, much yummier) Mixing the 1Night Stand concept with time travel, yes time travel, turns out to be pretty cool. Both books were a LOT of fun.

Don’t worry, I’ll have plenty of other books to talk about this week. I’m in the middle of Laurie R. King’s new Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell book, Garment of Shadows. (No, I can’t resist Sherlock Holmes, apparently ever).

And looking ahead to next week, I’ll be hosting visits from Lia Davis, to talk about her paranormal entry in the 1Night Stand series, Ravished Before Sunrise.

I’ll also have a special treat, because it’s science fiction romance. I have an interview with Heather Long to get the scoop on her new superhero/time-travel/science fiction romance story, Yesterday’s Heroes. Even better, it’s the first book in a series, so there are more for me to look forward to.

So what are you reading to welcome Fall?

Review: The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> book reviews

The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny is definitely that, a beautiful mystery. But that’s not all it is.

The Beautiful Mystery is the eighth book in Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache series, after A Trick of the Light (see review). Instead of returning to the small village of Three Pines, where the body count is getting inconceivably high, Penny sends Gamache, the head of the Homicide Division of the Sûreté du Québec, to the remote monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups to solve, of course, a murder.

But not just any murder. This case is a sort of locked-room murder writ large. Saint-Gilbert can only be reached by boat, and there are only 24 monks in this cloistered order. 23 suspects and a corpse.

But the monks of Saint-Gilbert released a bit of themselves out into the world they left behind. One glorious CD full of Gregorian chant. The beautiful mystery of a plainchant so harmonious, so beautiful, that a world starving for the peace the monks captured in that incredible music stormed their remote sanctuary. A sanctuary that had remained hidden for four centuries.

The CD brought the funds that the monks needed to repair the monastery. The roof, the walls, the electricity. Québec winters are brutal. Even the best masonry wears out eventually. But in selling their music, they sold their peace.

The loss of that peace exposed critical differences within the community. When all they had was each other, all alone in the wilderness, the differences didn’t matter. But when the debate was between bringing their message, their music, to the wider world, and returning to their isolation, those differences became a chasm, a schism.

A reason to kill.

Murder in the remotest parts of the province might not bring the Chief Inspector and his best detective, Jean-Guy Beauvoir. Except, except, that chant, that beautiful mystery of music made the monastery, and the victim, famous. This is a high-profile case.

The victim was the choir director, the man responsible for the music. He represented one side of that terrible divide in the monastery. Now he was dead. It is up to Gamache and Beauvoir to determine which of the remaining 23 monks committed the murder.

Into the middle of the case drops Sylvain Françoeur, the Chief of the Sûreté. Gamache’s. Françoeur is not there to help with the case. He is there because of the schism within the Surete, a chasm where Françoeur stands on one side, and Gamache on the other.

Françoeur is part of the rot within the Sûreté. An insidious evil that Gamache has been fighting for many years. Françoeur and Gamache are old enemies, and know each other all too well. And Françoeur, snake that he is, knows where Gamache’s weak spots are.

Gamache’s strengths, and his weak points, are the Surete agents he has trained, particularly the ones he loves as much as his own children. Agents like Jean-Guy Beauvoir.

Escape Rating A+: The Inspector Gamache series, starting with Still Life, is definitely a mystery series. There is always a body. But they are also complex character studies. Gamache, Jean-Guy, often the people of Three Pines, the monks in this case, Françoeur.

Gamache studies people, and it’s from that study he figures out who committed the murder. Jean-Guy is usually the evidence guy. Or Isabelle Lacoste, who isn’t in this one. Gamache is also a terrific mentor.

But there’s an over-arching story in The Beautiful Mystery, in addition to the mystery of the dead monk. It’s the story of the rot in the Surete. The case in the immediate past is the one detailed in Bury Your Dead, but there’s old history between Gamache and Francoeur. It’s that old history that’s coming to a head, and Jean-Guy is caught in the middle.

There’s a part of me that is starting to wonder if the overall arch isn’t so much Gamache’s story as it is Jean-Guy’s journey. If so, The Beautiful Mystery is the point in the hero’s journey where everything looks really, really bleak.

The murder is solved. But not the mystery.

The Sunday Post AKA What’s On My (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand? 8-26-12

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand

It’s the unofficial last gasp of summer, because next Monday is Labor Day. School is already in session so many places.

In Atlanta, next weekend in Dragon*Con. In Chicago, next weekend is Worldcon. Science fiction has not moved nearly fast enough. I really need either a TARDIS, or a transporter.

And if that weren’t enough, the Decatur Book Festival is going on at the exact same time. A street festival full of books! Right here in the Atlanta burbs. It was pretty darn awesome last year. We might nip out of Dragon*Con for a bit…maybe…it’s possible.

But there’s a whole week, a whole week, between now and that wonderful, marvelous 3-day Labor Day weekend. What’s coming up on the bookish front at Reading Reality?

Monday, Ebook Review Central, of course. Carina Press is up this week, and they had some fantastic titles in this batch. One book, one single book, attracted (ahem) over 40 reviews. Maybe it’s one you’ll want to read? Check in and see!

On Tuesday Marie Treanor will be stopping by to talk about her latest book, Serafina and the Silent Vampire. This is a terrific start to her new urban fantasy series, Serafina’s, about the psychic and occasional con artist, Serafina, who runs into just a bit more than she bargained for in the vampire Blair.

Thursday I’ll be interviewing Susan Wiggs about the latest book in her Lakeshore Chronicles series, Return to Willow Lake. I’ll also be reviewing this new contemporary romance, which is due out this week.

And last but not least, as we’re all waiting for the weekend…on Saturday, September 1…Reading Reality will be part of the Romance at Random Labor Day Blog Hop!

Looking ahead to after Labor Day (when it will unofficially be Fall but will still be hot in Atlanta)…I have a book I’ve been looking forward to for quite a while on my calendar.

If you’re pining for the next season of Sherlock, and you want to try a different version of Holmes, might I suggest Laurie R. King? Her interpretation starts with The Beekeeper’s Apprentice. The latest book in her Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell series, Garment of Shadows, will be published on September 4. I’ve had a review copy for a while, but I’ve been caught in the “so many books, so little time conundrum”.

I’ll make time.

What are you up to this week? And do you have any special bookish plans for the long Labor Day weekend?