The Rook by Daniel O’Malley

by Carol2 Comments
Loved this book! Granted it's not perfect - there's a fair amount of info-dumping made palatable by the whole amnesia bit. It's kind of a paranormal, sci-fi-ish spy thriller, with a dollop or two of humor. As the blurb says, Myfanwy wakes up with no memory  surrounded by dead bodies. She is guided back into her life as one of the heads of a secret paranormal agency by letters she wrote to herself, having known she would lose her memory thanks to the warnings of a variety of psychics, including a duck. So she fakes her way, but also discovers she has an AWESOME power that the old her barely made use of. She's a character to root for, the underdog due to her amnesia and that people underestimate her and never truly respected the old her. Oh and she's facing an enemy who has been waiting for revenge on England for centuries and has all kinds of yucky, nasty and dangerous things/people/fungi...
Read More

Murder in a Wish-Book House by Wayne Zurl

by Carol1 Comment
Murder in a Wish-Book House is a novella that's heavy on plot, light on character, but is definitely enjoyable and a good little mystery. Sam Jenkins is a police chief in small town Tennessee, but he used to be a New York detective so he's got plenty of experience, friends on call and a bit of an attitude - all of which help him out here. The narrator does a great job with Sam, giving him a bit of that New York accent. At first the mystery seems simple enough, but there's a bit of a twist that worked well. Sam is used to knowing what's going on, he's good at reading people and tough to fool, but this time around someone gets the better of him. There's action, blood, some good dialogue. A lot's crammed into this hour of audio. It's available on the Audible mystery channel, free for members. I think it makes a nice introduction to the series, even though...
Read More

A Midsummer’s Equation by Keigo Higashino

by Carol2 Comments
Higashino might be one of my favorite authors. A Midsummer's Equation is the fourth of his mysteries I've read I've read. It's the third Detective Galileo translated into English but the 6th in the series. It doesn't matter; the ones I've read definitely stand-alone. As the blurb above says, Manabu Yukawa is at a run-down resort town to attend a conference when, surprise, surprise, someone gets murdered. Yukawa is a physicist - good at observing, logical, thoughtful, quiet. He's that character that knows what's going on but isn't going to brag about it. We also get to see his more caring side here. He becomes friends with a boy who is also staying in town and they have some very good scenes together. His concern for the boy is what pulls him into the case, and his natural tendency to get involved in mysteries - he is the series' star. A lot of mystery blurbs talk about a surprise twist, but Higashino actually lives up to...
Read More

The Sans Pareil Mystery by Karen Charlton

by Carol2 Comments
There were several good things about The Sans Pareil Mystery. I enjoyed learning about the theater in London in 1810 and it is interesting to note that both the San Pareil Theater and the woman running it did actually exist. The mystery itself was okay, although the clues were not necessarily as noticeable as the big flashing arrows saying "this is s bad guy." I like Lavender and Wood as a team, but Lavender seems older to me than young 30s, his attitudes and actions don't necessarily fit. Or maybe the reader's voice sounded older and that projected on to the main character? I had to remind myself that he was younger than I think. For the time period, it was also notable that women played central roles in the story, not just in the plot, but on the side-lines too. We meet women who have younger lovers, who support themselves and their household, who are brave, who are loyal, who...
Read More

The Pursuit by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg

by Carol2 Comments
Is The Pursuit good? Probably not - but it's entertaining and action-packed and funny. It's got sex (off-screen) and explosions and life-threatening situations. You know the good guys, presuming you consider Nick Fox a good guy, and the bad guys are going to lose. It's a perfect quick summer read. The Pursuit is the 5th in the series and I've read them in order, which I honestly think is best. Yes, they probably work as stand-alones, but this one picks up right where #4 left off and you get to see how Nick and Kate's relationship develops. Also, most of the secondary good guy characters appear in each of them, and I do love Kate's dad. He is awesome. If you read the blurb you have a bit of an idea on the plot and it's so short I don't want to give away any spoilers. A few things I did enjoy - underground Paris, the melodramatic patriotism, and the lack of high...
Read More

The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North

by Carol2 Comments
I discovered Claire North earlier this year with her Gameshouse trilogy and loved her style, so I had to pick up The Sudden Appearance of Hope. I was not disappointed. I like how North writes, her ways of describing things, of conveying her characters' thoughts. She takes an idea, bases her story around it, and makes them amazing. Hope can't be remembered - that's the idea in this one, the bit that the rest of the story revolves around. You could meet her, have dinner with her, and once she's left your sight, your hearing for a minute or two, you forget and your mind fills in that blank with whatever's most reasonable - you dined alone. Hope is many things - chief among them a thief. An interesting point - since she can't have relationships, she isn't a lover, a friend, an employee, she is free (cursed?) to define herself. Her ethnic backyard, dark skin and hair, have helped form her...
Read More