Llanfair acquires two new residents, a single mother from London and the long-gone tycoon son of a local farmer, just before a well-liked visitor is found dead. Evan rightly suspects the man was murdered and he and D.S. Watkins pursue the killer even to London.
Another light, fast-paced, thoroughly enjoyable entry in this series. The annoying characters, such as the women pursuing Evan, are at least tolerable, and the story moves along too quickly to bore even me. The title wasn't as perfectly appropriate as the previous book, Evans Above, but wasn't so irrelevant as to bother me.
Margaret Alton, now grown up and an academic musicologist, returns to Darkover to record native ballads and finds herself in the middle of Domain politics as well as threshold sickness.
There were two major problems with this book. First, Lew loved Marjorie and it is simply not believable that he would have rejected little Marja so completely. Second, Bradley has done this plot so many times: someone comes to Darkover, finds her laran awakened, nearly dies from threshold sickness, yada yada yada. Yes, Margaret is a native Darkovan but that doesn't alter the story that much. I got halfway through and then skipped to the confused end, which didn't resolve anything even when I backed up and read the last 6 chapters! I can't even think of any group who would enjoy this book. There is too much backstory that is integral to following the plot to recommend it to Darkover newbies, and those who had read the previous books are likely to find this repetition just as tedious as I did. OTOH, the cover art accurately represented Margaret, and the title was extremely appropriate!
When a young woman is found frozen to death, Acting Detective Murdoch investigates while his supervisor tries to keep him from offending the wealthy family who employed the victim.
Okay police procedural, but I'm not generally a fan of police procedurals and there was nothing special about this one to pique my interest, although the author did a great job with the setting and people of 1890's Toronto.
A beautiful and exotic Eastern princess arrives at Elizabeth's court, the sole member of her family to escape a palace revolution. But when her priceless ruby is stolen and found in Ellie's laundry basket, Grace must find the real thief before Ellie suffers the traditional punishment for a thief: loss of a hand.
Finally, cover art that has something to do with the story! Not perfect - Grace is in Jane Austen-era clothing rather than Elizabethan - but at least it's not 1950's garb! And Banoo Yasmine is suitably exotic and wearing the famous ruby, although not dressed in the outfit described in the book. The story itself moved right along with a straightforward plot and likable characters. I continue to enjoy this series.
P.C. Evan Evans suspects that the deaths of two mountain climbers are murder, and related to the same event. But he must evade two persistent female admirers if he hopes to track down the killer.
Super fast read and quite enjoyable, with a feeling similar to the early Hamish Macbeth tales. The killer was pretty obvious, which sometimes happens when the author is scrupulous about giving the reader the information to figure it out, but there were lots of red herrings to distract poor Evan as well as a ripping good story. And a book title that is both clever and relates to the plot.
When beautiful teenager Sara is found murdered, the sex offender found standing over her body is immediately charged. But his sister hires ex-cop Georgia to prove the mentally handicapped man did not kill the girl.
Disjointed story, unlikeable and unrealistic characters. I got 1/4 of the way through and still didn’t care what happened to anyone in it, so I gave up.
“Finder” Brodie Farrell found the man who reportedly scammed her client, but comes to the police after she learns that he was tortured and killed. Shocked again to discover he is barely alive, she and Daniel Hood evolve an odd relationship as she tries to help him recover his self-respect by tracking down his torturers.
Bannister has a knack for exceptionally grisly descriptions, and this was no exception. However, grisly does not necessarily mean interesting, and neither the characters nor the story held my interest and I gave up halfway through.
Collection of recipes that supposedly can be made in one pot or pan. There were lots of meatball and other ground meat recipes, and recipes using cream of xxx soup. There were also a large number of stir fries as well as casseroles and long-cooking oven or crockpot dishes.
The book starts with an invaluable section on various “pots,” including crockpots and woks, selecting and cleaning, and how to adjust cooking times from one type of cooking to another. The recipes were not as impressive. Some were repeated in different sections, such as the Potato Gratin recipe. Some weren’t truly one-pot recipes, such as the one that started with cooking noodles according to package directions and then using the cooked noodles in a casserole. I only found one recipe I really wanted to try, but I’m a very experienced cook. This would be a good wedding or new-home gift to someone who isn’t very knowledgable about cooking and fears working all day and then making dinner.
Temeraire and the feral dragons finally arrive in England to find all the British dragons dying of a mysterious disease. Temeraire is accidentally exposed and he and Laurence find what may be a cure.
Novik’s storylines have been steadily getting darker and I’m enjoying them less and less. The Hornblower and Jack/Stephen books certainly faced problems but were essentially cheery. I skipped 20-30 page chunks without losing the story, indicating that the book is not tightly written. On the other hand, I did reach a point about 2/3 through where I didn’t want to skp forward any more, and by the time I finished, even though the resolution was somewhat unbelievable, going on to the next book was a necessity.
Lofts’ superb biography of a complex and unusual medieval woman. Born heiress to a great province, married first to a French king who would rather be a monk and then to lusty Henry Plantagenet of England, she lived far more independently than medieval women managed and gave birth to the famous Richard the Lion-Hearted. Lofts offers a few unusual speculations but overall, well worth reading.
Really involving biography of one of history’s most fascinating women. A kept woman who attracted nearly every man who saw her and managed to get her protector to marry her, a faithful wife who avoided any hint of scandal until she became involved with the greatest hero of England’s 19th century, she graced the highest circles of society but never hid her lower-class background. The story turns sadly depressing after Nelson’s death; she overspent her small income dramatically, spent time in debtor’s prison, and died in poverty in Calais.
Bette is an investment banker, daughter of 60’s rebels, single, and wildly jealous of her best friend’s engagement to a guy she dislikes and distrusts. But when she spontaneously quits her banking job and winds up party-planning for a high-profile PR firm, she is unable to extract herself from a lifestyle of continuous partying. Halfway through the book, with nothing happening except more partying and no characters involving enough to keep me reading, I skipped to the end. I run into enough genuine shallow people in the world, I don’t want to waste my valuable time reading about them.
Depressing story about a group of losers. If I wouldn’t enjoy meeting the characters in real life, I probably won’t enjoy a book about them.
The only interesting part of this book was Bujold’s faithful presentation of the point-of-view of a man who had been raised believing women were evil. The story itself ranged from boring to weird, and it was completely predictable that Ethan’s helper would be a woman. Also, this was not a Vorkosigian book, although the library labelled it as such.
Skip the first half of this book. Besides being unbearably slow-moving, it could be a textbook example of how NOT to write: telling the reader how the character feels or thinks rather than showing, long involved flashbacks, and whole plot lines depending on implausible coincidences. If you open the book about halfway through, you'll still have plenty of tearjerker time but the slow-moving plot is a little more interesting and the flashbacks are over. I hate to knock Christian fiction but this would just have been better as a short story or novella.