This Side of Murder (2017) Anna Lee Huber Set in England in 1919. Verity Kent is a war-widow. Her husband was killed during the Great War and she has spent the last 15 months trying to come to terms with his dead and adapt to her new status. The period during and immediately after the […]
Night Watch, Audio Version (1998/2006/2010) Sergei Lukyanenko translated by Andrew Bromfield and narrated by Paul Michael Last year I re-read books one through five of the Night Watch series, but kept putting off reading the final book. So when I finished off the final (published) Jane Yellowrock book, I decided I should re-listen to Night […]
An Impartial Witness (2010) Charles Todd Set in Europe in 1917. Nursing sister Bess Crawford has just escorted a group of wounded soldiers back to London, including a terribly burned pilot whose picture of his wife was what he turned to through his excruciating first days. When that woman’s murdered body is discovered, Bess realizes […]
A Duty to the Dead (2009) Charles Todd Set in Europe in 1916 Bess Crawford is a nursing sister on the HMHS Britannic when its sunk by the Germans. She’s sent him to recuperate, and also to deliver a message given to her by a dying soldier. The mystery here is good, but what I […]
Cold Reign, Audio Edition (2017) Faith Hunter narrated by Khristine Hvam I’ve been working my way through the Jane Yellowrock audio books since 2014. It’s been lovely since it’s allowed me to keep the story and world current in my brain, so I didn’t feel the need to go back and re-read every time a […]
Shores of Desire (1997) Tracy Grant Set in Europe in 1815 Robert Lescaut is a French colonel and spy, who has come to Scotland to try and discover who killed his wife–a woman he believed was a Scottish Blair. Emma Blair is tired of the feuding between the Blairs and Lauders, so when Captain Robert […]
Dark Angel (1994) Tracy Grant Set in Spain and England in 1813 Adam Durward has used his ability with languages to move throughout Europe, gathering information. He also investigated issues in England, including the problem of exploding canon. Caroline Rawley has known Adam since they were children. Once they were best friends, then things changed […]
Rising Stars: Visitations (2002) J. Michael Straczynski Visitations is four short stories, the first two of which are the background of what the Specials were. Interestingly, the recurring character throughout the entire run is Dr Wells, the man who was supposed to watch the kids, but also report on them to the government. The first […]
From the Editorial Page of the Falchester Weekly Review (2016) Marie Brennan This short story is a series of scientific letters between Isabella Camherst and Benjamin Talbot in “The Falchester Weekly Review” about a supposed discovery made by Talbot. It’s a brief story, and silly, since it’s all the politeness of scientists accusing each other […]
Rising Stars: Voices of the Dead / Bright (2006) by Fiona Avery, Dan Jurgens, Staz Johnson, Al Rio This is actually the last published of the Rising Stars comics, but it’s my least favorite, and since there was no need to read the latter comics in order, I read it before Visitations because I don’t […]
The Raven King (2016) Maggie Stiefvater Believe it or not, I preordered this book and got it when it was published. And then proceeded to not read it. Why? Because I knew this was the last book in the series. Because we’d been told from the very start that Gansey was going to die. As […]
A Scot in the Dark (2016) Sarah MacLean Set in London in 1834. Alec Stuart has become the Duke of Warnick, even though he wants nothing to do with the Dukedom–or England. Seventeen dukes, if he were honest, Bernard supposed— all dead. All within the span of a fortnight. It was a turn of events— […]
Rising Stars, Vol. 3: Fire And Ash (2005) J. Michael Straczynski, Keu Cha, Ken Lashley, Christian Zanier, Jason Gorder, John Livesay, Edwin Rosell, David Wohl, Dennis Heisler, Dreamer Design, Robin Spehar, Liquid!, Matt Nelson, John Starr, Tyson Wengler And the story ends. We see the culmination of the paranoia and fear that those in power […]
The Myth Manifestation (2018) Lisa Shearin Our world is populated by a greater variety of creatures than we might imagine, from vampires and werewolves to goblins and dwarves and all variety of creatures considered mythical. For these creatures to hide in plain sight, a treaty was hammered out 100 years earlier, to keep fights that […]
Dukes Prefer Blondes (2016) Loretta Chase Set in London in 1822. Lady Clara Fairfax is this season’s popular beauty. But she’s turned down multiple marriage proposals, never quite sure of what she wants. Raven Radford is the grandson of a duke, but as his father became a barrister and married a divorcee, he is most […]
Forever Your Earl (2015) Eva Leigh Set in London in 1816. Eleanor Hawke runs one of London’s scandal sheets, and one of their favorite subjects is Lord A–d, a notorious rake. Daniel Balfour, Earl of Ashford, is searching for his best friend, Jonathan Lawson, who returned from the war a changed man. He is trying […]
The Brimstone Deception, Audio Version (2016) Lisa Shearin narrated by Johanna Parker This is a series that we both listen to on car trips. I generally try to get input as to what Michael wants to listen to (since he’s the driver) but generally it’s me picking a couple books and him choosing one of […]
Bridge of Birds: A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was (1984) Barry Hughart Set in the Middle Kingdom of China, Year of the Tiger 3337 (AD 639) All the children in the village between the ages of eight and thirteen have fall victim to an unknown illness, and all the silkworms have died, […]
Hugger Mugger (2000) Robert B Parker narrated by Joe Mantegna Walter Clive has hired Spenser to come down to Georgia to see who has been shooting his horses. What Spenser finds makes no sense: there is no rhyme or reason to the shootings, and the in-house security has seen nothing. Two of the three daughters […]