Wow! The Wolf and the Watchman is the most engrossing novel I've read in a while. I want to tell you that you should read it and you should, but only if you like historical mysteries and don't mind some gruesomeness and brutality. It is not for everyone; it's dark and disturbing and if it was a movie I would have had to cover my eyes. It's also brilliant and I loved it.
Stockholm in 1793 seems a terrible place to live unless you're rich. Crime, sickness, poverty, filth, corruption, rape, and death. Against this backdrop, two men with little to lose are on the hunt for a killer. Mikel Cardell, a former soldier with no family, no friends, one arm, and little money, pulls the mutilated body of a young dead man out of the lake. Cecil Winge, dying of consumption, takes the case in his position as consulting detective for the Stockholm police. Winge and Cardell are both interesting...
The Secrets of Wishtide is fine. I really just don't have much to say about it. Letty is a competent investigator, but I wanted her to have more of a personality I guess. She's a little bland, which does allow her to fit in unobtrusively, but I wished she had more of a spark to her. Ido have some hope for her and Inspector Blackbeard though.
I liked the Victorian Britain setting, both London and the countryside. We see the seedy side of the city and the drawing rooms of the rich. We see inside of Newgate and the country manor. I do think it did a good job of portraying how women were treated and the (lack of) options in that era.
As far as the mystery goes, what started as a short trip to look into an unacceptable love interest turns more complicate and dead bodies start to pile up. The story got a little complicated and I'm never much...
I enjoyed The Sculthorpe Murder so much more than #2 in the series. Lavender and Woods are sent out of London to Northamptonshire to investigate the killing of an elderly man, presumably by a gang that has been terrorizing the area. I like that the trip takes Lavender away from his love interest. I really can only stand them as a couple for short periods of time.
The plot was well-done with a good array of suspects and clues. I like that Lavender doesn't take things for granted and as an outsider can be more suspicious of certain people than the locals are.
Wood gets a lot of screen time in this one, which I appreciated. He's a good, kind man and I liked his interactions with . (Don't want to give anything away.) He tends to put people, including children at ease. Lavender, on the other hand, tends to make people a bit uncomfortable. He's the thinker where Woods is the talker. Together...
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...
I have a fondness for historical mysteries, so the setting of The Heiress of Linn Hagh caught my attention. It's a gothic mystery, complete with the rundown manor home, a missing heiress, gypsies, a madwoman, a beautiful Spanish woman and family secrets.
The mystery itself is a little predictable, but I enjoyed seeing Lavender pull all the clues together. I don't know that Lavender himself is particularly likeable - intelligent, dedicated, tenacious, but perhaps not likeable. He knows it though, and brings Woods along. Woods is more likely to be able to get the non-gentry locals to talk. They are a good pair, each with his own strengths and weaknesses. I wasn't terribly fond of Lavender's obsession with the Spanish widow though. She could have been a fascinating character, but Lavender's lusting felt a bit forced. Woods may have been my favorite of the two. He's more down-to-earth, friendlier, is a family man. He's just a solid good guy who will have your back.
The...
Isn't that cover great?
I don't read many middle school books, but I have to thank whoever wrote the review that made me put Serafina and the Black Cloak on my to-read list. I really enjoyed it. Serafina herself is a charming twelve-year old. She has an odd life, hiding in the basement of the Biltmore Estate where her pa works, but she's adorable and brave and smart. And not quite human, but part of this first story is her discovery of who she is. The narrator does an excellent job, giving Serafina a perfect accent and a very expressive voice, showing her pride, curiosity and fears well. I love Serafina's pa, too. He's not a huge part of the actual plot, but he's a strong, caring man, doing the best he can in an unusual situation.
There aren't really any surprises in the story, we see most things coming well before they're revealed, but it's a middle school book, so I'm...
