I thoroughly enjoyed A Master of Djinn and my library had "A Dead Djinn in Cairo" on audio, so I picked it up. The setting is a steampunk 1912 Cairo in a world where magic has been discovered/released. With the help of the djinn, Egypt has pretty much thrown England out.
Fatma is sent out to investigate the apparent suicide of a strong djinn, but nothing's ever that simple is it. I enjoyed meeting Fatma again and seeing how her relationship with Siti started. The plot was fun, full of djinn and clockwork angels and ghouls. The main problem, the thing Fatma has to stop, becomes a problem again in the first full-length novel in the series, so I'm not sure if I'm glad to see how it originated or disappointed that the same "machine" is used in both....
There are several short stories set in the same world as A Master of Djinn and I do wish I had read them first. A Master of Djinn does a fabulous showing us this Cairo and introducing the character, but the events from at least two of the stories are mentioned and I think reading them would have given me a better background. I may actually go back and read them now - I did love the world.
A Master of Djinn is more or less a murder mystery set in a steampunk alternate 1912 Cairo where djinn live and work among mortals. Our investigator is Fatma from the Egyptian Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities. The dead men and woman are members of an Al-Jahiz Secret Brotherhood, all found murdered, their bodies, but not their clothes, burned to a crisp. Turns out an imposter claimant to be Al-Jahiz returned is running around town causing all kinds of havoc.
Clark...
Putin's People is a clearly well-researched, possibly slightly biased, history of Putin, the KGB, and Russia from the fall of the Soviet Union to a couple of years ago. This was obviously published before the current war, but you can still see it coming. Honestly, the war is why I picked it up. I don't read much history or politics or economics, but then something happens and I wish I had more background to draw on.
I am probably not the best audience for this book. There are tons and tons of people, places, companies, very few of which I'm familiar with. It's a dense book and I won't remember many of the details, but it's also well laid out and at times almost reads like a thriller.
The Russia of today isn’t much different from the Russia before 1991 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Not only are the viewpoints, world views, and goals for the most part...
Isn't that cover adorable?
If you read the blurb above, you know Andy's client, Pups. is clearly not guilty. Then it turns our the gun used to kill the neighbor was used a year and a half ago to kill Pups' husband. Someone is framing her, but who and why? The mystery is good. As Andy starts digging, he finds a prodigal son, a real estate broker, gang members, and a lawyer.
I like Andy, especially as narrated by Gardner. He's smart and sarcastic and funny. The plot gets a little rambly for me and sports trivia is never going to be a clue I'll catch, but overall I enjoyed it. Really, how could I not enjoy it with dogs and humor, murder and Christmas?...
Best in Snow is the first Andy Carpenter mystery I've picked up. I couldn't resist the adorable cover and Grover Gardner as narrator. It worked fine as a stand-alone for me, although I'm sure I would have known more about Andy and the other recurring characters had I read the series from the beginning. At 24 books, that's not going to happen.
This time around, Andy finds a dead body while walking his dogs. A former reporter for Andy Carpenter is an almost retired defense attorney with more than enough money, so he can pick and choose his clients- unless his friend and newspaper editor asks him to help out a former reporter charged with the mayor's murder. Then he doesn't get much of a choice.
Andy is clever and sarcastic and downright funny, all of which Gardner pulls off perfectly. The dialogue is entertaining and the dogs are all adorable. The plot was well-done, with plenty of twists and turns,...
My mom and I both read Penny's Gamache series. She loves all of them; I like the "smaller" mysteries, the ones that don't involve institutional corruption or cross-country drug trafficking. The Madness of Crowds is one of those smaller, more personal mysteries. We're back in Three Pines, which is always nice, and Gamache and his whole family are there for the holidays. Gamache is asked to provide security for a professor's lecture, but, of course, it's not quite as simple as it sounds. The professor's visit and talk lead to moral dilemmas, violence, and ultimately a death.
The mystery itself was fine. We have several suspects, even if I question why a couple of them would make the list- the motives seem rather weak. The clues are revealed slowly, allowing us to discover them along with Gamache as he and his team pull back the layers of people's lives, discovering their secrets and past choices.
Penny does touch on COVID, or the...
