It is the 15th century in Spain. Called to a convent to care for the ill niece of a bishop, Isaac and his new helper Yusuf find themselves in a web of deceit surrounding the missing crown prince as well as a plot to overthrow the king.
Complicated but interesting plot, and real-enough characters up to the end, which I found rather unbelievable. But Roe absolutely nailed the tensions between Christian, Jew, and Moslem in medieval Spain.
Actor’s apprentice Ben Button must recover a stolen gold plate to prevent another actor from being executed.
Clearly written for the preteen set, with a simple and straightforward story featuring brave preteens accomplishing what the adults can’t. But it’s a legitimate historical mystery and light-years above most preteen books, even though it failed to hold my adult attention.
Elizabethan spymaster is sent to Roanoke colony to secure gems and gold.
I couldn’t get into this at all. The main character is completely cynical and scruple-free, and I couldn’t find anything likable about him.
Inspector Madden investigates a brutal murder in the quiet 1921 Surrey countryside. The police uncover little in the way of clues but Madden finds the local doctor quite intriguing.
A how-are-the-police-going-to-catch-him rather than a whodunit, definitely for fans of grisly police procedural thrillers. I couldn’t finish it, it was too scary.
A Terran Empire spaceship comes to map Cottman’s Star and finds the descendants of one of Terra’s Lost Colonies, living in a feudal culture and believing in telepathy. As the Terrans build a spaceport in Aldaran’s territory, both Keeper-in-training Leonie Hastur and Terran computer guru Ysaye Barnett sense approaching danger. And the complicated relationships between Aldaran, the Domains, and the Terrans may lead to tragedy.
Bradley and Lackey set themselves quite a task, given all the references in various Darkover novels to how the Terran Empire came to Darkover. They must have known that any deviation would result in outraged screams from fans. But if there were any flaws, I couldn’t find them. And they added some unexpected aspects to known characters, such as Leonie Hastur as a young brat. This was a good combination of authors: there is a feel of the series-of-individual-episodes that Lackey does so well, but more of an overall novel-type progression than she usually manages. Good entry in the Darkover series.
Alternative history of what might have happened if the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 had developed into full-scale nuclear war.
I didn’t even open this one, the back cover alone scared me off. I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis and reading what might have happened isn't what I consider entertainment.
On the run from Cromwell’s victorious army, King Charles is aided by some loyal commoners.
I didn’t realize this was about Charles I of England, and lost interest as soon as I saw it. His story is just too sad and either the book was true to history, in which case it would end badly, or it re-writes history which I despise. Plus I haven’t liked Heyer’s other attempts at writing history.
In 11th century Japan, Akitada takes a temporary assignment as a law professor to assist his former mentor in identifying a blackmailer. Then a young entertainer is found dead and Akitada must bring the killer to justice. Further complicating the case is a prince who disappeared from a temple, leaving his grandchildren in the care of a greedy upstart retainer.
Slow read but a real story, not a series of verbal paintings like some historical fiction. The periodic use of “this unworthy person” type descriptors was jarring, but I don’t know how Parker could have done it better. If she had peppered every conversation with it, as I believe would have been totally authentic, it would had slowed the story down drastically (and doubled the length of the book). Parker does a nice job managing multiple storylines and giving the reader the appropriate clues.
Young advocate Cicero, to defend an accused patricide, hires Gordianus the Finder to identify the real killer.
Sam Spade in ancient Rome, besides an overly talky start that bored me. But since I don’t like hard-boiled-type mysteries, I wouldn’t have stuck with it anyway.
After her mother dies, Sarah is sold into prostitution and winds up known as “Angel” in a brothel in Gold Rush California. God tells Michael this girl will be his wife, but it is not until after Angel suffers a brutal beating that Michael is able to marry her and take her back to his farm. She recovers physically but remains unable to trust Michael’s kindness.
I started skipping chunks of this book during the treatment Angel suffered as a child prostitute. I wasn’t even halfway through when I realized I didn’t particularly care what happened to Michael or Sarah. The story dragged and the characters weren’t up to Rivers’ usual standard.
Country siblings Sir Peregrine and Judith Taverner come to London, finally meet their unknown guardian, and enjoy the delights of society.
I don’t like romances, period, and consequently am not surprised that I don’t like Heyer’s either. She portrays the era marvellously, but both people and story are one-dimensional and predictable. I'm still curious about her mysteries, but I don’t think I’ll waste time with any more of her romances.
Collection of short stories set in Bradley’s mythical world, mostly by other authors but with Bradley’s approval as editor.
Some surprisingly good stories along with many adequate but unexceptional ones, often bringing in elements not given in Bradley’s own stories. The short format means they move along quickly. (As much as I like Bradley’s Darkover novels, they often drag in the middle.)
Charlotte’s mother asks her help when a locket disappears. But a minor theft is soon eclipsed by the death of one of Mrs. Ellison’s, and Charlotte and Thomas uncover a number of secrets among the highbrows as they pursue the murderer and Charlotte tries to keep her mother from a costly romantic mistake.
Lots of lovely red herrings among the posh set, but the ending felt pat rather than satisfying.
The disinterred corpse of an inoffensive peer leads Thomas to a murdered artist as Charlotte’s former brother-in-law is recruited to support a bill that would humanize workhouses. Thomas thinks he has a motive when he discovers the artist also took pornographic photographs and blackmailed his victims.
This story confused me. There is no argument that the workhouses were a blot on the supposedly merciful Christian environment of Victorian England, but the lengthy, detailed efforts of Lord Carlyle to horrify and motivate society members to pass a bill in Parliament lacked any connection to Thomas’ case. (Well, okay, as an experienced mystery reader I figured Lord Carlyle would turn out to be the murderer, but what benefit he stood to gain from the bill or what the artist had to do with it still seemed pretty far-fetched even for a Victorian mystery. And I ain’t saying whether it turned out to be Carlyle or not.) If you skip some of the long workhouse sequences, it’s another good workmanlike mystery from Perry’s pen.
Oh jeepers. What is it with novels about loser women? The hook here is that the three women are the wives of three partners in a law firm who are all unfaithful to their wives. One is desperate to get back the husband that moved out to live with his secretary, one is a food addict, and one lives through her soft-porn books because her husband and children aren’t the ideal she always pictured. Not being a loser woman, I couldn’t get into the story at all. The only good part of the book was the clever title.
Thoroughly depressing story of a woman going through a divorce who takes her rebellious daughter to the family horse ranch where her father is dying of ALS. I couldn’t get into it.
Selfishly obsessed Alice Ashenfelter desperately pursues wimpy Theo Sinclair to prove her father didn’t really commit the murder for which he was executed.
No likeable characters in the whole book. I don’t find a greedy, brash blonde any more interesting than a man who doesn’t have the guts to say “no” and mean it, and the story wasn’t interesting enough to compensate. I gave up halfway through.
Daisy and Alec are enjoying a concert when one of the soloists drops dead of cyanide poisoning. Alec investigates the murder while Daisy “helps,” but her gift of attracting confidences supplies Alec with useful information as well as Daisy’s convictions as to who could or could not have murdered.
Good mystery with well-developed characters. The murderer was on my short list but for the wrong reason.
Starting an obedience class with Faith puts newly-married Melanie on the scene of the murder of a nice elderly lady. When her fellow class members discover her hobby, they expect her to solve the murder (and so, of course, does bossy Aunt Peg).
Quick read, enjoyable, although the reader isn’t given a crucial piece of information until the end (but neither is Melanie).
Rocker JP Kinkaid’s band is the planned subject of a vicious unauthorized biography, and when the writer is found murdered in JP’s backstage dressing room, his longtime girlfriend Bree is the prime suspect.
Although most of Grabien’s work relies on the supernatural, this is a straightforward well-done murder mystery. I don’t know enough about a rock star lifestyle to tell whether Grabien’s details are correct, but they feel right. In addition, writers who rely on flashbacks should read this book to see how it SHOULD be done. Grabien uses flashbacks selectively, in reasonably short bursts, to provide information that really couldn’t be provided any other way. I did guess the murderer but I don't hold that against the author if the story makes sense, and this did. Excellent choice as a gift for murder mystery fans.
An old woman, left behind in an abandoned colony planet, makes contact with a native sentient species. When a quarrelling first contact team arrives, Ofelia must try to protect both species from each other.
Very inventive story, but more interesting prior to arrival of the team than afterwards. The newcomers were just too irritating to be enjoyable, especially in looking down on the old woman. That was probably part of Moon’s goal but not entertaining.
Librarian Aurora “Ro” Teagarden enjoys discussing old murders with fellow aficionados. But when someone starts re-creating those murders with club members as the victims, she is terrified.
Well enough written except the reader isn’t given any information to pick the murderer out of the crowd. Believable, I suppose, but not the best choice for the reader who wants to solve it herself.
When an explosion leaves many Candlewood residents homeless, Emma takes in as many as Hill House will hold. Among them are the two most unpopular people in town, a hateful brother and sister to whom Emma tries to show Jesus’ love. A would-be suitor, a panther, and escaped chickens complicate Emma’s life and plans.
The plot is rather predictable, but well-done, and the interesting and mostly sympathetic characters make up for a lot. I wish Christian fiction wouldn’t equate acting like a doormat with true Christian charity, but once past the first few chapters, the annoying Burkes become a smaller part of the story.
I got this cookbook to look for simple recipes that my kids would like to make and eat. They are pretty good about trying new foods but there are still a lot of things that they would just as soon not taste again, and unfortunately most of these recipes take advantage of “different” foods like asparagus and fennel to produce different flavors. Many of the recipes call for expensive ingredients that require a certain amount of disposable income: shallots, artichokes, pine nuts, balsamic vinegar, hazelnuts, etc. I did find a number of suitable recipes, though, and someone more adventurous would find lots of recipes worth trying.
Since I loved Ahern’s first book “PS I Love You,” I had high hopes for this one. Unfortunately, it’s yet another 18-year-old-gets-pregnant-and-keeps-baby story. It’s supposed to show how the baby keeps her apart from the love of her life (as well as from normal young-adult activities) but it still propagates the utterly false idea that it’s normal for young pregnant women to forgo growing up themselves to take care of another little person, and that the baby benefits by the mother sacrificing everything to raise it instead of being adopted by a mature couple. Very disappointing.
Because his other books sounded more like thrillers than classic murder mysteries, I was leery of trying this one. I was right, it's a thriller and too scary for me.
Once again, I have no idea where the title came from, but this is another collection of well-written fantasy short stories offering truly different worldviews.
Shaara is a famed author of historical novels with a great reputation. And I'm a history buff, period. Unfortunately, this was slow-moving it never became interesting, and I gave up about 1/4 of the way through.
Sure wish I'd read this book back in 2004, when we were initially sued. It covers the basics in clear, plain language. The biggest problem is that if a complaint is filed against you, by the time you get through the book, it will be too late to answer the complaint.
As the Elm Creek Quilters secretly make a special quilt for Sylvia, Sarah and her mother try to remake their relationship.
Same problem of one-dimensional characters as the previous book, but enjoyable light reading anyway.
Mildly amusing saga of a 50+ widow re-entering the dating scene. The moral "note" at the end of each date was sometimes funny, sometimes philosophical.