The Secret History of the Pink Carnation (2005) Lauren Willig Parts of this story I absolutely loved–Spies! Napoleonic France! Daring women! And did I mention spies! Other parts of the story I liked less well. It is a story within a story–an historian gets access to letters and diaries that she hopes will lead her […]
A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia (1994) Victor Pelevin translated by Andrew Bromfield I really really really like the title story to this collection, “A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia.” A young man wanders into a small central Russian village in search of a place he saw in a photograph. He arrives and discovers the […]
Faro’s Daughter (1941) Georgette Heyer Max Ravenscar is one of the most wealthy men in London, but seems to care little for high society and fashion. Yet, as trustee of his nephew’s fortune, a call from his sister to keep Adrian from marrying the niece of a woman who runs–of all things!–a gaming house, send […]
A Question of Belief (2010) Donna Leon It’s summer in Venice, and Brunetti wishes that all criminals would take a vacation with the rest of the country, to allow them to escape the oppressive heat. But even if the criminals were to take a break, two different problems that may or may not be crimes […]
The Anatomy of Deception (2008) Lawrence Goldstone Ephraim Carroll is a young doctor studying under the great William Osler (a doctor who would go on to be one of the founding professors at Johns Hopkins). Osler is a somewhat controversial doctor, who embraces the newest medical techniques including sterile surgery, and autopsy as a method […]
About Face (2009) Donna Leon Brunetti and Paola are invited to a formal dinner at her parent’s house. During the dinner, Brunetti is seated across from an arresting woman–her facial features are frozen–rumor says through too much plastic surgery. Brunetti is unsure how to take this woman, but when she begins to speak of books, […]
The Naming of the Beasts (2009) Mike Carey The last Felix Castor book, Thicker than Water, ended with the escape of Asmodeus. Not a very good point to end a story in my opinion, however, it was a logical conclusion to the way things were going, so I didn’t particularly mind. After all, the series […]
Masques (1993/2010) Patricia Briggs This is a revised version of Patricia Brigg’s first published book, and unlike some of her more recent works, is not urban/supernatural fantasy but straight up fantasy. Luckily for me, it’s not high fantasy that takes 30k pages to resolve the story, but a fun story told in 300 pages. Aralorn […]
Sandman Slim (2009) Richard Kadrey Stark has just gotten out of Hell. His former friends sent him there, but somehow he managed to survive, and now he has escaped and is looking for revenge. That simple summation tells you about the story, but it is so much more than that simple synopsis. If you read […]
Bayou Moon (2010) Ilona Andrews Yes, yes, I know. Two floating head books in a row. But not only was I on vacation, but this is an Ilona Andrews book, and I love those. The first book in The Edge series had Rose attempting to survive on the Edge and raise her two younger brothers, […]
The Last Twilight (2008) Marjorie M. Liu Rikki Kinn is a virus hunter for the CDC, and she’s in Africa looking at what may well be a new outbreak of Ebola. Unfortunately, a contagious and deadly disease turns out to be the least of her problems, when she discovers that she is being hunted–but no […]
These Old Shades (1926) Georgette Heyer Justin Alastair, the Duke of Avon, is walking through Paris one night when a youth dashes out of an alley and runs into him. After first checking for his purse, the Duke starts to berate the boy when a large burly man who claims to be the older brother […]
Daughter of Fortune (1999) Isabel Allende So, I started reading this book in 2006 or possibly even 2005. No, seriously. I never gave up, because I did want to find out what happened, however, the book ended up at work, as my “OMG! I have an appointment and I don’t have a book!” book. But […]
Bryant & May on the Loose (2009) Christopher Fowler At the close of Victoria Vanishes, the PCU was disbanded, the staff placed on leave, and Bryant remains at home, barely able to get out of bed and slowly slipping away. However, the accidental discovery of a body by a staff member at loose ends brings […]
Ghost of a Chance (2010) Simon R. Green I can’t help myself. I know it isn’t good for me, but I have this addiction to Simon R. Green’s Nightside. I’ve read the Eddie Drood novels, and they’re OK, but they just aren’t the same. But I keep ordering them, and when I saw he had […]
An Artificial Night (2010) Seanan McGuire How many miles to Babylon? Three-score and ten. Can I get there by candle-light? Yes, there and back again. If your heels are nimble and light, You will get there by candle-light. Things are not going well for Toby Daye. She sees an unpleasant harbinger, she’s getting calls from […]
Dark and Stormy Knights (2010) edited by P.N. Elrod I can’t help myself–I love anthologies. And fantasy anthologies with writers who write their fantasy with a healthy does of mystery? Sign me up! All anthologies have high and low points, but overall this was a fairly strong group of stories. The book starts off with […]
The Grimrose Path (2010) Rob Thurman I think I love Rob Thurman. Seriously. I’ve only read one book of hers I rated lower than an 8, and that one lost points for a cliff-hanger type ending. (Aside from the ending, it was an otherwise excellent book.) The Grimrose Path is the second book in her […]
A Wild Light (2010) Marjorie M. Liu Maxine’s birthday starts out well–killing a demon, birthday party with her loved ones, unfortunately it doesn’t stay that way, and she wakes up to blood, death, and no memory of what happened. Hmm… now that I look back over my past reviews, I find myself less surprised at […]
Blameless (2010) Gail Carriger I loved Soulless, the first book in this series. I thought Changeless was good with the exclusion of the ending, which I despised, so I had mixed feelings about starting Blameless. Alexia is pregnant, and Lord Maccon–who is a werewolf and an immortal–has thrown her out, believing that the child cannot […]
Chasing Darkness (2008) Robert Crais Elvis seems to have recovered from the events in The Forgotten Man, however, life doesn’t seem to be interested in taking it easy on him. He’s sitting in his office when two cops storm on to demand his notes on a case from years ago. A man he had proved […]
Eye of Heaven (2006) Marjorie M. Liu After picking up a random Dirk & Steele book when I had accidentally left the house without one, I’ve been picking up the available books in the series as I come across them. For the most part this is not a fantasy series per se, in that you […]
Willful Behavior (2002) Donna Leon I really hate the way this series is released/re-released in the US. This book was originally published in 2002, but I wasn’t able to get my hands on it until this year. Which is frustrating, since it obliquely referred to events in the previous book, which was not the book […]
Thicker than Water (2009) Mike Carey 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 […]
The Watchman (2007) Robert Crais 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 […]
Face Off (2010) Mark Del Franco 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 […]
Vanished (2009) Kat Richardson 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 […]
The Grand Sophy (1950) Georgette Heyer 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 […]
Dead Men’s Boots (2007) Mike Carey 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 […]
Chimera (2010) Rob Thurman 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 […]
Fables: Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love (2010) Chris Roberson, Shawn McManus 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 […]
The Interior (1999) Lisa See 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 […]
Tracking the Tempest (2010) Nicole Peeler 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 Deep Blue Good-by (1964) John D. MacDonald 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 […]
Kitty Goes to War (2010) Carrie Vaughn 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, […]
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2008) Stieg Larsson translated by Reg Keeland 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 […]
Hellboy Vol 10: The Crooked Man and Others (2010) Mike Mignola, Richard Corben 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 […]
Hellboy Vol 9: The Wild Hunt (2010) Mike Mignola, Duncan Fegredo 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 […]
Ten Thousand Islands (2000) Randy Wayne White 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 […]
Tender at the Bone (1998) Ruth Reichl 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 […]
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books (2003) Azar Nafisi 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 […]
Ex Machina: Ring Out the Old (2010) Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris, Jim Clark, John Paul Leon, JD Mettler 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 […]
House of Mystery: The Beauty of Decay (2010) Matthew Sturges, Luca Rossi, Werther Dell’Edera, Jose Marzain Jr 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 […]
The Mangrove Coast (1998) Randy Wayne White 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 […]
The Forgotten Man (2005) Robert Crais 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 […]
The Last Detective (2003) Robert Crais 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 […]
L.A. Requiem (1999) Robert Crais 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 […]
Indigo Slam (1997) Robert Crais 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 […]
North of Havana (1997) Randy Wayne White 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 […]
Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World’s Greatest Scientist (2009) Thomas Levenson 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 […]