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 […]