Felix gets a call to come out to a crime scene–something that had not happened since he was accused of murder and became persona non grata with the police. Unsurprisingly, nothing good comes of the call, and Felix is embroiled in a mystery involving involving individuals from his past–way back in his past.

Additionally, Jenna-Jane has taken a grab at Rafi, and Fix and Pen are struggling to keep him out of her hands.

All in all, Felix is once again in over his head.

First things first, I’ve had a heck of a time trying to get the order of these books straight. They were published first in Great Britain, and are (slowly!) being republished in the US. Which means I received this book and the following book long before I received the third book in the series.

But I do have to order correct now, and I have one book left that’s out (in the US anyway) and no sequel in sight.

Which makes me concerned about reading the next book.

Especially considering the conclusion of this book.

So yes, I hate cliffhanger endings, and I hate waiting for sequels, but if I have to have a cliffhanger ending, Mike Carey did a good job with this one. The main thread is concluded, and much of the book (the series even) has been building towards the event that happens at the end of the book. Not that you could see the specifics coming, but the situation is going to have to be resolved, so what he did actually makes sense.

SPOILER (rot 13)

Naq UBYL PBJ V ernyyl yvxrq gur eriryngvba ng gur raq nf gb jurer qrzbaf pbzr sebz. Vg znqr frafr tbvat onpx, ohg wrrfu, V gbgnyyl qvqa’g frr gung pbzvat ng nyy.

V nyfb gubhtug gur ovg jvgu uvf oebgure Zngg jnf tbvat fbzrjurer ryfr ragveryl (naq jnf tynq vg qvqa’g tb jurer V jnf nsenvq vg jnf tbvat.

Obgu bs gurfr cnegf jrer irel avpryl qbar.

END SPOILER

If you are not reading the Felix Castor books, I highly recommend them. I also recommend starting at the first book and working your way towards this book.
Rating: 9/10

Published by Orbit

After the events in The Forgotten Man, Elvis is recovering, so Joe Pike takes center stage in this story (don’t worry, we get to spend time with Elvis).

When he had to help Elvis recover Ben Cheney in The Last Detective, Joe made a deal with the men he used to work with when he was a mercenary–at their request he would do one job for him. Now the pigeons are coming home to roost and he has to keep an heiress safe when the Witness Protection program fails her.

To make matters more difficult, the heiress/witness is a known party girl who is used to having things her own way, and there is a leak somewhere on the inside, because the safe-houses are getting hit almost as soon as the girl is placed in them.

We also get a few more bits and pieces about Joe’s past. Though the major events appeared in L.A. Requiem, we still learn a bit more about him, and what make him the way he is.

One thing I really like about this series (that has absolutely nothing to do with the story arc of the book) is that when Joe & Elvis get shot, they take damage and then have to take time to heal (this is very similar to the reason why I love Robert B. Parker’s “Small Vices” so much). I also like how characters and events from the past can affect current events, yet you don’t have to know the details of those past events to enjoy the current story.

As I said earlier, although this is a Joe Pike book, we spend plenty of time with Elvis, which is a good thing because Elvis’ sense of humor is important to alleviating the darkness of the story and of Joe’s past.

If you like the Elvis Cole novels, don’t miss this one, even though it is marketed as “A Joe Pike Novel.” The two characters are so interrelated at this point, you can’t have one without the other.
Rating: 8/10

Published by Pocket Star Books

Laura Blackstone is still living her multiple lives, and after the events in the last book, Skin Deep, relations between humans and fae, as well as between different fae groups, are making her job even harder, as she is forced to take on the persona of any already existing fae who is involved in a criminal and terrorist organization.

There were several things I liked about this story. As Laura juggles three different personas (along with the jobs associated with each) you begin to wonder how she manages (other than not having much in the way of a social life).

I especially liked the way her relationship with Jono is forcing her to look at her job in InterSec and the actions she takes in the name of security. It’s interesting how in fantasy and supernatural fantasy books, politics and actions that would push my buttons in the real world are glossed over in my reading and accepted without thought. Jono forces Laura (and thus us) to consider not just the fantasy, but also the politics.

Although I like the Connor Grey series a bit more, I am definitely enjoying the Laura Blackstone series, and can’t wait for the next book in the series.
Rating: 8/10

Published by Ace

I finished Vanished last night with a sense of dissatisfaction, but it wasn’t until this morning that I was able to put my finger on what bothered me most.

When I started reading the Greywalker series, I loved the fact they were mysteries with a paranormal element. Harper is a private detective–and was before her death–and she kept on being a detective after she became a Greywalker; it was just an added dimension to her character.

But things started slowly to change. Now, Harper is not just a Greywalker, but a “special” Greywalker.

Bletch.

Can’t we have a fantasy heroine who isn’t all sooper special?

The mystery also wandered all over the place: we start with Harper trying to learn more about her father, then move to vampire politics, then shift to Harper having “special” Greywalker skills. The thread with her father, for as much time we spent on it, was completely unresolved, asking questions but answering few.

The vampire thread was partially, but not completely resolved, and Harper’s special powers were not resolved in any way. So instead of closing the book with a sense of having a mystery resolved, it ended with more questions.

All in all, very disappointing, as the start of this series had such potential.
Rating: 5/10

Published by ROC

Horace Stanton-Lacy needs to get his daughter married. He also needs to go to South America on a diplomatic mission, thus he Sophy to stay with her aunt in London, where he hopes she can be introduced to society and find a good match.

The Ombersley house, however, is in something of an upheaval, and the eldest son, Charles Rivenhall has used his inheritance to pull his father and the rest of the family out of debt, but his control over the house–and the likely control over his fiancee, a well-bred women who seems not to have a sense of humor–has upset the house. Even more distressing is the fact the eldest daughter, Cecily, has fallen in love with a poet and wants to break the match her family has set up for her. The arrival of Sophy and her menagerie pushes everything into a complete upheaval.

Fun! Fun! Fun!
Rating:9/10

I’ve actually been waiting for this book for awhile. The American publishing and access to this series is… quirky. I was able to get the British copies of the two books that follow this, but I had to wait about a year for this to be put out by an American publisher.

Come on folks, you don’t have to take out all the Britishisms for us to enjoy a good story!

Felix Castor has to go to a funeral, the funeral of John Gittings, an exorcist who took his own life. Felix feels guilty because he ignored John’s calls, and wonders if he could have saved John’s life if he’d answered those calls. That guilt leads him to helping John’s widow more than he wants to, which in turn gets him tied up in the case that may well have caused John to kill himself.

The Rafi thread is still here, although it plays a background role right now, and shows no signs of being concluded any time soon, which is perfectly fine, because there may well be no solution.

The story that Felix stumbles into is actually a very interesting one. There’s no way to discuss why it was interesting without giving it away, but it is an interesting idea.

If you like Constantine or Harry Dresden, you might want to check out the Felix Castor series, though you should probably start at book one, The Devil You Know.
Rating: 8/10

Published by Grand Central Publishing

I love Rob Thurman. I really do. Which is why I pre-ordered this book without even having an idea what it was about.

Imagine my disappointment when I read the back cover, “From Rob Thurman, national bestselling author of the Cal Leandros novels, comes a sci-fi thriller that questions what makes us human, what makes us unique…” Sci-fi thriller? WAH! So I set the book on the shelf and continued on in my mystery kick.

But I kept picking it up and looking at it, I mean, this IS Rob Thurman, so how can it not be good. Which is why I stuck it in my bag and started reading it at lunch.

And you know what? It WAS good! Really good! I was quickly sucked in, and the second half of the book a read in one big gulp.

Stefan has spent ten years looking for his younger brother, who was snatched when they were children. Stefan blames himself for the loss, and puts all his money into trying to discover where his brother could have gone. The fact that Stefan works for the Russian mafia in the US just means that Stefan has more money and resources than your average guy.

Although this is touted as a sci-fi thriller, it is much like the Cal Leandros books in that the focus is upon familial relationships, especially the bond between brothers. And as with the Cal Leandros books, we see precisely what that bond and love can do–both good and bad.

If you have not yet read a Rob Thurman book, you can certainly pick this up and be pleased with the results. If you are a fan of the Cal Leandros books (as I am) despite the sci-fi setting, you should find much to love in this book.

Because really, she did many fabulous things with this story, and it is well-worth your time.
Rating: 9/10

Well. That was disappointing.

Anyone who has read Fables knows that Cinderella has been acting as spy and assassin for Fabletown for years. Not that anyone in Fabletown aside from the sheriffs know this fact, but that’s good, because otherwise she’d be a lousy spy and assassin.

There were so many awesome places they could have taken this character, yet, as I read the story, I felt little but continual disappointment. Cinderella felt off from her character in the main fables story line, and the secondary characters were unusually shallow and uninteresting, and although the tale was interesting, it was nowhere near as well done as the main Fables stories, and so felt weak in comparison.

I also disliked the art, the way Cinderella was drawn bothered me on some level, Aladdin just felt off, and the main characters such as Beast, were nigh near unrecognizable.

Sadly, I can’t recommend this story for any reason at all.
Rating: 4/10

Liu Hulan is still in China working for the Ministry of Public Security–and pregnant with an unsanctioned child, when she receives a letter from a woman she hadn’t heard from in years, asking her to come look into the death of her daughter.

David Stark is back in the US and at loose ends after tying up the Rising Phoenix case and trying to figure out how he and Hulan are going to work things out. When an friend is killed in what looks to be an attempt at David’s life, he considers going back into private practice–especially when that practice may take him back to China.

The story as a bit slow to take off, and spent a lot of time with Suchee, Liu Hulan’s friend from the time she spend in the country side. The view of the countryside was both fascinating and depressing: the harsh living conditions, the effects of the one child policy, the conditions in American factories and how the workers are treated.

Yet I still found Liu Hulan and Beijing and the Ministry of Public Security to more fascinating than events in the countryside.
Rating: 7/10

First off, there is a lot of boinking in this book. I’d forgotten about that in the time that had passed between this book and the first.

Once I remembered that and was able to move myself into that frame of mind, I thoroughly enjoyed Tracking the Tempest.

In the previous book, Jane True discovered her “supernatural” heritage–she’s half selkie, and although she cannot transform into a seal, she does have a strong affinity for water, and draws her power from rivers and oceans. Unfortunately for her, as events in the book progress, she is still very new to her power, and has only been taking her training half-seriously, so when trouble arrives, she is far more dependent upon others than she would like.

That was one of the things I especially liked–Jane is dependent, but she has reason to be (she has only just discovered her powers, and cannot control them well) and she doesn’t particularly like being dependent. This is more clear in her complains about Ryu spending money on her, but it eventually becomes her realizing that she needs to learn to learn how to use and control her powers better.

Jane’s conflicted feeling about Conleth were also, I thought, very well done. She wants to understand why he is the way he is, and she really wants to help him, but he is a mess, and she isn’t sure just what she can do. Of course, in creating such a complex and multi-faceted “bad guy” the other baddies in the story ended up being flatter and less interesting. But you can’t win ‘em all.

The last thing I particularly liked was Jane’s attitude about Ryu, and how it changes and evolves over the course of the story. The fact that Jane and her friends often refer to paranormal romance books at their attitudes and actions did feel a bit meta at times, but it also served to set Jane apart a bit from the heroine in your usual paranormal romance.

If you think this might be up your alley, I’d recommend reading the first book, Tempest Rising first, not because of the story development, but because of the character development.
Rating: 7.5/10 (I quite liked it, but there really was too much boinking.)

Synopsis:
Travis McGee works when he is running low on money. He finds things for people, that they might not otherwise be able to get back, then keeps half the value of what he recovers. He’s between jobs and enjoying his relaxed life on his boat when a friend asks him to help out someone she works with. Someone who’s ex-boyfriend asked lots of questions about the fortune her father supposedly came home from the war with, then disappears only to return later flashing a whole lot of money.

First off, this book was written in the early 60s, so things are a lot different than they are now. Unfortunately, the things that are most strikingly different are not the technology or the investigating (in many was the story could easily have been set in current times without much in the way of changes) but in the way women are presented and treated. The fact that the setting could easily be modern was what made this so jarring to me. Reading a book set in Victorian England or even during WWII, one expects the attitude towards women to be radically different from what it is now, and in fact a modern mindset often feels extremely out of place.

But in a setting that feels modern, the attitudes kept throwing me out of the story.

So despite it being an interesting and well-written story, it just didn’t particularly work for me, perhaps because we’re not yet far enough away from that time for the attitudes to see foreign or amusing.
Rating: 6/10

The title actually made me somewhat reluctant to read this book, despite the fact I have really enjoyed the other books in this series. Because despite being a werewolf, Kitty is still a radio host.

Luckily, Kitty does not, in fact, actually go to war herself. She does, however, attempt to help soldiers who have returned from Afghanistan–as werewolves whose alpha was killed and whose pack fell apart after his death. She also gets herself into a bit of a mess when her show on Speedy Marts gains the attention of the owner, who doesn’t like what she and her callers had to say.

I was quite pleased with this story, especially as there were moments I started to get irked with Kitty for missing the obvious only to have her suddenly realize what was right before her.

I also really liked the story arc with the soldiers. The fact that Kitty is alpha does make what she did seem more reasonable, and I particularly liked her analysis of the situation and what needed to be done.

Additionally, I was set to be all annoyed with where Cormac’s character arc was going, until I finally saw what happened and that things had been set up earlier. I also like the fact that Cormac spent several books in prison, and that Kitty took the time to visit him. As I’ve said before, I like books where actions have consequences, and I think Cormac’s arc has been very well done in that regard. Though I do have some concerns about where he’s heading, we’ll just have to see how things turn out.

One last thing–I like that Kitty and Ben’s relationship has turned out to be a solid marriage, with give and take. Huzzah for stories with solid, healthy relationships!

If you have not ready the previous books in the Kitty series, you could start here, although, as usual, many of the character arcs are better appreciated if you know how far the character has come. I’m glad that I am continuing to enjoy this series, when so many supernatural fantasy series seem to be boiling down to little more heroines with super-awesome powers and lots of boinking.
Rating: 7/10

Yes, yes, yes. I know I’m late to the game. But I had a large backlog of books to read through first.

I started reading this soon after I broke my ankle. Since it was very difficult for me to carry things while I was on crutches, this sat on the dining room table and was my book to read while eating lunch. Then, since it was in the kitchen, I ended up plowing through lots of other books while only reading a few pages at a time of this one.

Of course, once I picked up the book and really started reading, I was quickly drawn into the story.

Mikael Blomkvist has just lost a libel court case, and in addition of having to pay a heavy fine, he is also sentenced to three months in prison. He also believes he needs to resign from the magazine he helped found, because he fears his continued presence may well drive the magazine under. It is in the midst of this confusion that Blomkvist receives an offer to help an old man discover what happened to his niece, under the guise of writing the man’s biography.

But there is an additional character in the drama, Lisbeth Salander, who works for a private security firm and has her own ugly history.

A couple notes for the handful of people who have not ready this story–some really awful things happen to Lisbeth. She comes through it, but it’s very disturbing to read. Some of the reviews that disliked the book, did so on the grounds that it was too violent. Unfortunately, this simply reflects reality–the world can be a harsh and unpleasant place if you are a woman, and terrible things sometimes happen to women, for a variety of reasons. In my opinion, it seems ridiculous to read a crime novel and then complain that it contains, you know, crime and violence.

All in all, I enjoyed it and am looking forward to reading the next book in the series.
Rating: 8/10

Frustratingly, Helloboy Vol 10 does not continue the story arc of Vol 9, but instead is another collection of stories, all set in Hellboy’s past.

Mind you, I tend to prefer the “short story” Hellboy collections, but the story line was really heating up at the end of Vol 9.

I hate waiting.

There are four stories in the collection, all of which are interesting, but I have to admit I kinda liked the last story the best, because it was kind of silly and the idea of it was rather fascinating.

The first story, however, really good. It was based on Appalachian folklore and touches on everything from basic witchcraft to the Melungeons.
Rating: 7/10

All those Hellboy stories–the ones in the story collections where there wasn’t necessarily a theme for the entire volume? Suddenly, everything is starting to come together.

Hellboy has spent quite awhile hiding from his supposed destiny. He doesn’t want to rule the world. He doesn’t want to be a source of evil. He just wants to live as normal a life as is possible for a giant red half-human demon.

But no one wants to let Hellboy rest. Some want to put him on a throne, others want revenge. No one wants to let him sit and relax and be himself.

And then there’s the title, The Wild Hunt. For someone like my who lives mythology and folklore, the Wild Hunt is a fascinating subject. It appears in different places and times, and has been used by other authors. Right now, the Wild Hunt wants Hellboy’s help. There are giants loose, and giants are nothing but trouble. If they aren’t eradicated, things will not go well for the humans who come across them.

There are also a LOT of major plot twists and turns and changes in this story. As I said, lots of things are suddenly tied together, and it looks as if Hellboy is no longer going to be able to sit on the sidelines–action or inaction, no matter what he does, there will be consequences. He has a destiny, whether he wants it or not.
Rating: 8/10

Synopsis:
One of Doc’s neighbors shows up asking him to look out for a friend–a woman she’d known for years, who had lost her only child years before, and who now has people breaking into her house and searching–but not actually stealing anything.

He agrees–and somehow Tomlinson ends up heading out with him, only things take a more disturbing turn before Doc and Tomlinson can get there.

Couple things bugged me. This was the first time a hurricane had been mentioned (despite most of the stories being set in Florida) so it was pretty obvious that Ford would end up battling the weather before the end of the story. It wasn’t horrific, but it was annoyingly obvious.

I was also a little unsure about Ford’s current dealings with Tomlinson. Tomlinson has always been flaky, but in this book he was far more of a troublemaker than he’s ever been. It just felt… off.

I guess that’s how I felt about the book in general. Just a bit… off.
Rating: 6/10

I’ve heard Ruth Reichl interviewed several times, and I’d heard her relate stories that were excerpts of the book, so I eventually picked up the book, but then it languished on the shelf for an embarrassingly long time.

Here’s the bit I heard that first drew my attention to Ruth Reichl. Her mother is awake and in the kitchen, and has just awakened her father and drug him into the kitchen:

My father, a sweet and accommodating person, shuffles sleepily down the hall. He is wearing loose pajamas, and the strange of hair he combs over his bald spot stands straight up. He leans against the sink, holding onto it a little, and obediently opens his mouth when my mother says, “Try this.”

Later, when he told the story, he attempted to convey the awfulness of what she had given him. The first time he said that he tasted like cat toes and rotted barley, but over the years the description got better. Two years later it had turned into pigs’ snouts and mud and five years later he had refined the flavor into a mixture of antique anchovies and moldy chocolate.

Whatever it tasted like, he said it was the worst thing he had ever had in his month. So terrible that it was impossible to swallow, so terrible that he leaned over and spit it into the sink and then grabbed the coffeepot, put the spout into his mouth, and tried to eradicate the flavor.

My mother stood there watching all of this. When my father finally put the coffeepot down, she smiled and said, “Just as I thought. Spoiled!”

When I heard that story, I knew I would have to read this book. If only it hadn’t taken me so long to get to it.

From such horrific beginnings, including an incident where her mother actually poisoned her step-brother’s entire family with food gone bad, came an astounding cook, gourmand, and the eventual editor of Gourmet magazine.

Although her mother’s bi-polar illness plays a large part in the story, her discovery of food–good food, Real food–was entirely her own.

Her palate came from spending time with her Auntie Birdie and her cook. From being sent away to school and befriending a girl whose father was delighted by Ruth’s joy in the food she was trying.

It wasn’t necessarily the best book to read before bed, because it made me hungry (not the first bits, with her mom serving rotten food, but the later bits when she discovers that food is more than something you have to eat to keep going.

There are also recipes in each chapter, though I have to admit that I tended to gloss over them to continue to the story. Because it is a fascinating, well-written story.
Rating: 8/10

Azar Nafisi lived and taught English literature in Tehran during the upheaval of the Islamic Revolution. Her memoir is not only of her memories of that time, but of how attitudes towards women changed, and how not just she–but also her students–used English literature to both escape and understand their lives.

These is no an autobiography in the strictest sense. In order to protect the men and women who were her students, she changed names and details and combined individuals into different characters so that no one looking for these individuals will be able to find them.

Yet it is the feelings around the incidents the Ms Nafisi describes that invoke the most feeling: her struggle against the veil; her desire to teach the books she felt her students could learn from rather than the books deemed appropriate; the disappearance of English books from the book stores of Tehran. All of these small incidents create a world that to me would be intolerable–a world that many times Ms Nafisi seems to have been driven nearly mad by herself.

One passage in particular struck me:

The polarization created by the regime confused every aspect of life. Not only were the forces of God fighting an emissary of Satan, Iraq’s Sadaam Hussein, but they were also fighting agents of Satan inside the country. At all times, from the very beginning of the revolution and all through the war and after, the Islamic regime never forgot its holy battle against it’s internal enemies. All forms of criticism were now considered Iraqi-inspired and dangerous to national security.

Although I understood why she did it, the presentation of dialog bugged me. Since she was not truly quoting, she didn’t place conversations in quotation marks. But this kept throwing me, as I kept trying to figure out where the conversation began and ended.

The most interesting thing to me was how–despite everything–how difficult it was for Ms Nafisi to leave Iran. She railed against the veil and being forced to wear it in public. She hated the restrictions placed upon women, and the fear that an authority figure would take offense at some small thing. I think, even more than the fear of bombing during the war with Iraq or the upheaval during the revolution, it would be those day-to-day things that would be most wearing.

Yet, to leave one’s home? To give up the fight and flee? What a wrenching decision it was for her and her husband. And one that I can only imagine trying to make myself.
Rating: 8/10

Uhhh… What the hell was that?

There were so many different things I didn’t like about this volume. First and foremost was the meta “artists in the story” bit. Sorry BKV, but that was just a giant WTF? for me. It didn’t seem to add anything to the story. That started me off on a bad foot, and then the bits with Phearson didn’t help, since they didn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense either–especially the last bit that maybe was and maybe wasn’t a dream?

The only thing I really liked was the twist the major story arc took. Now THAT was fantastic.

So I have hope for the rest of the story, I just hope it makes more sense overall than this volume did.
Rating: 6/10

Fig and friends are now stuck in The City in the Space Between, and no one can come up with a way out. Stories are still told–stories told and histories remembered where we learn a little more about those in the house.

And Cain’s wants to get his house back–to hell (quite literally) with anyone who gets in his way.

The volume also contains a set of linked stories involving a mask, John Constantine, Merv Pumpkinhead and Madame Xanadu. I didn’t actually have a problem with those vignettes, it’s just that they appeared after the conclusion of the story arc for this book, which was… confusing.

Although the story arc of Fig and those trapped in the house is interesting, I still think I prefer the stories shared by those who come into the house–the random, unrelated stories.
Rating: 7/10

Synopsis:
The prologue makes it clear that things went badly for Doc when he went to Panama, then the first chapter opens with Doc discovering a dead body. Slowly… slowly!… we come to learn that Doc was doing a favor for a friend, and got himself involved in a situation that was far beyond what he expected.

Doc also learns the danger and use of computers, though his introduction is an ugly one.

I liked the disjointed story-telling, where we start at the end, jump to the middle, and then work our way to that point and beyond. I also liked the glimpses of Doc’s past we learn as he explains his relationships with Bobby Richardson. What I was unsure about was the epilogue.
Rating: 7/10

Synopsis:Lucy is gone, and Elvis is struggling to keep himself together. The events of the last book made him the center of attention, and the notoriety is something he seems ill equipped to deal with, especially while also attempting to deal with his loss.

When Elvis is called in because a seemingly homeless man carrying copies of articles about Cole claims in his dying breath to be Cole’s father, Elvis has to discover the truth, even if he doesn’t believe the dead man could be his father.

We again learn more of Elvis’ past, from his childhood and how he got his name, to the problems his mother had and how he ended up a private detective.
Rating: 8/10

Synopsis:
Lucy has gone away for business, and Ben has been staying with Elvis. But within moments of Lucy touching down at the airport, Ben is snatched from Elvis’ porch, and a caller blames the kidnapping upon the time Elvis spent in Vietnam.

While Elvis searches for Ben and tries to figure out who could possibly even make a guess as to what happened in the jungle, Lucy’s ex Richard flies to LA to try and makes the situation even worse.

I rather quickly figured out why Ben was kidnapped and at who’s instigation, so that wasn’t a surprise, but with the foreshadowing in previous books, I don’t suppose it was supposed to be much of a secret. However, I think they did a good job building up to this.
Rating: 8/10

Synopsis:
Although this is an Elvis Cole novel, the heart of the story is really about Joe Pike. As Lucy and Ben are settling into L.A., Joe asks Elvis to help him solve the murder of a women with whom he was once involved. In searching for the killer, we learn not just about Joe’s past involvement with Karen (the murdered woman) but also catch glimpses of his childhood and his time in the Marines. We also see the incident that drove Pike from the police.

Although I was unsure how a novel could be centered on Joe–who is silent and taciturn–the opposite of Elvis Cole, really–the desire to learn what made Joe who he is draws you in.

We also see Lucy’s realization about what Elvis really does, and how this affects his life–and eventually hers.
Rating: 9/10

Synopsis:
Three kids walk into Elvis Cole’s office, because they want to hire him to find their father. To make things more complicated, the book opens with the three children and their father being evacuated by the US Marshals as (we quickly realize) part of the witness protection program.

The children (the oldest of whom is 15) are used to being left alone, however, Elvis is not happy with the idea of three children living on their own, and so checks out their situation. Meanwhile, Lucy is in negotiations for a job in LA, and Elvis is trying to keep from influencing her decision but is really hoping she moves.

Once again, Elvis reminds me in many ways of Spenser. This isn’t a bad thing, however, because they are similar, I do keep drawing comparisons between the two, which is mildly distracting.

Doesn’t mean I’m not enjoying the books–because I most certainly am–just means Elvis Cole still feels an awful lot like Spenser. But that’s OK, because there need to be more men like Elvis and Spenser in the world.

Only thing I didn’t like was the single paragraph at the end of the book regarding Lucy’s ex-husband. That felt entirely too much like the opening of the next book rather, which is something I generally dislike. However, since the main plot of the story was not Lucy, I suppose it wasn’t that horrible of a thing to do. I guess I just didn’t like the parallels to the Spenser plot where Spenser has to deal with Susan’s personal problems, which was my least favorite book in the series.
Rating: 8/10

Synopsis:
Dewey has come to visit Doc over the Christmas holidays, unfortunately, Doc also received a call from Tomlinson who is trapped in Havana because the Cuban authorities have confiscated his boat No Mas. Tomlinson wants Ford to bring him the money to get his boat out of hoc, unfortunately, Ford was in Cuba before–and he really doesn’t think it would be safe for him to go back.

But this is Tomlinson, who is still trying to get over coming back from the dead (which has sadly made Tomlinson ever more flaky than he was before) so Ford feels obliged (through friendship) to go.

I…am still not sure how I feel about this book.

Tomlinson is acting even more flaky than usual, however, he has good reason to to do. I’m also not sure about Dewey and how she was acting. Essentially, everyone but Ford seemed to be acting strangely, however, they did have reason to act strangely… thus, I just don’t know how I feel about this book.
Rating: 6/10

The first third of the book is simply a biography of Newton, from his childhood up until he took the position of Warden of the Mint in London. Although it was interesting, I’m not certain the background had a lot of bearing on Newton’s time at the Mint or his hunting of Chaloner the counterfeiter.

And although the case is interesting, it doesn’t seem to have had nearly as much bearing on Newton’s life as the book title and introduction would have you think. Yes Newton did meticulous work in building a case against Chaloner. Yes, Chaloner was almost certainly guilty of far more than the charges for which he was hung. But I’m not sure that I was impressed as far as the legality of the case goes (I think a lawyer would have a far better answer than I do).

I found three parts of the book interesting, but for different reasons. In the first part of the book, where he looks at Newton’s life prior to becoming Warden of the Mint, there is an entire chapter dedicated to his friendship with Nicholas Fatio de Duillier, and hints as to how this may have been a romantic or sexual relationship.

OK. Well… So what does this have to do with Newton being Warden of the Mint or being a detective of sorts or the building of his case against Chaloner? It’s interesting, but I don’t particularly see how it’s related to the subject of the book.

The second interesting bit was how the author skimmed over Newton’s questioning of prisoners in Newgate and the possibility that Newton was present–or perhaps even ordered–the torture of prisoners (which was common practice at the time). Surely, if we get an entire chapter on Newton’s possible romantic relationship with another man, we should get more than a passing mention of how accepting Newton was of the various methods used to gain confessions at Newgate?

The third interesting part was actually the heart of the book and of the story, and that is the English recoining and why and how it happened. It covered not just counterfeiters such as Chaloner, but also clipping and how the currency became so debased in the first place, why the currency had to be replaced, and why the recoining didn’t solve the long term issues of England’s currency.

That was actually the most fascinating part of the story, and it’s the part I thought I would be least interested in, since economics and finance are not my strong suites.

We also got far less detail on counterfeiting than I would have expected. I think I remember a Sherlock Holmes story with more details about the mechanics of counterfeiting than I got from this story.

All in all, it was a very interesting story, but I didn’t find the heart of the story to be the story of Newton & Chaloner. I found the most interesting part to be the problems with the English currency and the various proposed solutions and why they didn’t work.
Rating: 6/10

I really like Mark Bittman’s cookbooks. His How to Cook Everything is well written, clear and concise. So when I heard he’d written something of a food manifesto a la Michael Pollan, I was very curious to see what he had to say.

First, if you’re a vegetarian or vegan for moral reasons, you’re not really going to learn much from this book. The same if you’re already a fan of Micahel Pollan’s writings.

And really, if you’re educated at your health and how diet affects your health, there are no surprises here either.

However. He makes his points in relationship to what works for him, and is quite clear that different people may find success in different ways. What works for him is being as vegan as possible until 6pm, after which he can eat whatever he wants. He also tries to avoid ALL junk food. He calls this “sane eating” and it is a way to eat that most people could follow if they tried. There are no hard and fast rules (for example, he has milk in his morning coffee, because he likes milk in his coffee), but it does require considering what you eat.

And unlike Michael Pollan’s books, he provides menus and recipes that work for him (he is a cookbook author after all). I have not tried any of the recipes yet (I reached that part of the book AFTER I broke my ankle) but from previous experience I expect the recipes to be easy to follow, and written for a modern cook with time constraints to be able to follow.

As I said, if you’re already a conscious eater, there isn’t going to be much here that is a surprise, although there are menus and recipes. But it is a good book, soundly written, and he takes pains to point out that for a diet to work, it has to be flexible and you can’t have “forbidden” foods. He doesn’t go into the science nearly as much as Pollan, but then the second half of the book is dedicated to menus and recipes, so he doesn’t really have the room for it.

Then again, I wonder if the average reader even wants the details and the science. He supports his arguments with facts, but doesn’t delve into a lot of details.

All in all, a good read.
Rating: 8/10

Synopsis:
Doc Ford & Tomlinson are up in the middle of the night to watch the starts. Well, Doc is watching the stars, Tomlinson is looking for extra-terrestrial intelligence he believes is trying to make contact. Because they are awake, they witness an explosion that eventually kills the man involved. And with that the fight over netting takes a far more violent turn than it had.

Wow.This went all kinds of places I was not expecting.

If you have not been reading the series, this probably is not a good place to start, since you probably won’t get Tomlinson at all. Which makes the story a little harder to grok, since Ford’s friendship with Tomlinson is extremely important to the story.
Rating: 8/10

Synopsis:
A woman is found murdered, and her husband becomes the immediate suspect. However, when he hires a celebrity lawyer to defend him, stories start appearing in the case, and Elvis is hired to see if any of those hole in the case are real.

And in the middle of this, Lucy, who Elvis has been seeing for awhile, comes into town on business, so Elvis has to juggle an increasingly confusing and complex case, as well as an increasingly complex love life. (Only that makes it sounds like Lucy is really horrible, and she totally isn’t.)

I actually quite liked the way this mystery came together, as well as the indepth look of Elvis’ relationship with Lucy and Ben.
Rating: 8/10