1 to 20 of 37 -
Page:
Review Date: 12/14/2010
Helpful Score: 2
This is the first of the Sister Fidelma series which was actually not only my introduction to this series but also my first introduction to this author. This series is set in Ireland around 600 to 700 years after the death of Christ, although Sister Fidelma is a Christian, there are major divisions between the Catholic church in Rome and the church in Ireland, for one thing the church in Ireland is very friendly towards women, woman are not only educated but they can rise quite high in the church. Sister Fidelma is a legally trained scholar and is probably the time's equivalent of a lawyer. An ecclesiastical conclave to settle major divisions between the Roman and Celtic branch of Christianity is held at Whitby in 664. When a major proponent of the Celtic way, the Abbess of Kildare, is murdered, Sister Fidelma, a fellow Celtic follower and legally trained scholar, is asked to investigate. She is paired with her ideological opposite, Brother Eadulf, on the Roman side, who is shrewd, highly educated and immediately smitten with the outspoken sister. Also while solving this puzzle Brother Eadulf is very attracted to Sister Fidelma, now while there were church officials who practiced celibacy, this was actually before that time and priests could marry etc. This was a wonderful book, it's nice to find someone like Sister Fidelma, she is highly intelligent. This book is a great read and I plan on reading some more of this series.
Review Date: 3/7/2009
After the end of World War I and before World War II, times are tough and there are a lot of people unemployed in London, among them are soldiers who served in France and came home wounded, many of them suffering not only from physical wounds but also many of the psychological. Shell shocked which is what Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was called then. During the war, many of these men once their physical wounds were healed were sent back into fray, those suffering from shell shock were often considered lazy and malingers. The lucky few have gotten treatment of at least or hospitalized but the government is afraid of the possibility of paying out thousands of pensions and so many are on the streets. Christmas Eve 1931 and Maisie Dobbs and her assistant Bill Beale are on their way to an appointment when they witness the suicide of a man who blows himself up with a hand grenade. The next day a letter is received by the Prime Minister and threats are made and writer mentions Maisie by name. the next day Scotland Yard comes calling. Once she is cleared, she is asked by the head of Scotland Yard's Special Branch to help with the case. To complicate things further, an investigator with the military is involved and he and MacFarlane do not get along. In the meantime Billy is struggling as his wife still despondent over the death of their daughter a year earlier and ends up being hospitalized in an asylum. While Maisie is sure that the suicide was a ex-soldier, no one knows who he is. Maisie is not only a very good detective but she also could be considered an early profiler using her psychological training to be able to come up with an idea of what kind of individual in this case was making those threats. Meanwhile the letters keep coming, the death of animals from some kind of poisonous gas and the murder of a junior minister up the stakes even further and the clock is ticking on a mad man whose next move may bring the death of hundreds of people. Maisie is at her finest in this the sixth book in the series. They say history repeats itself, it's interesting to note that what was happening in England after World War I in the way that the wounded soldiers were treated is similar to what is happening in this country with our soldiers and our veterans. There are many soldiers after their physical wounds are healed are sent back into the war in Iraq and Afghanistan despite problems such as post traumatic stress disorder and concussions, Also there is a shortage of mental health personnel for active duty and veterans and many veterans who have PTSD get denied benefits routinely and in the war those that have mental problems are often seen by the higher ups as malingerers. Just as England treated their veterans shabbily, we are doing the same thing today. History does repeat itself and we should be ashamed of ourselves.
Review Date: 3/13/2011
Set in the year of our Lord 1134 in a Monastery in Germany and old monk sets down the story of Crusader Knight Karelian of Lys, which in part is his story too. as Karelian was his liege lord. As Pauli starts to write the story, he finds his quill is enchanted and he finds himself writing the story as it really happened including his role in betraying Karelian. Karelian just back from Jerusalem and the Crusades is not only bone weary but appalled at all that he witnessed and what he did in the name of the Christian God and Rome. On the way home, a detour through some haunted woods where he meets the witch Raven and falls in love. Thus he is set on the path, he renounces his faith and he and Raven is all that stands between another, a prince who would make himself King and God. This is a fantastic book, a quick read. Marie Jacokber has down her research and has waved fact and fiction together so seamlessly it's hard to tell one from another. If you like sword and sorcery, if you like historical novels, you will enjoy this book.
Review Date: 6/16/2012
Chrysabelle is a comarre. a special race of humans bred to feed vampire nobility. She has been with her patron Algernon for a hundred years, at the Century Ball, she was going to ask for her freedom which is her right, but to her surprise, he doesn't even ask, he assumes that she wants to stay with him and she cannot find it in her to tell him otherwise. The morning after the Century Ball, she finds Algernon dead and know that she will be suspected. This is the beginning. Tatiana and Lord Ivan finds the body, Tatiana has ambitions and with Algernon dead, she wants to be an Elder. Chrysabelle is directed to the club "Puncture" where she ends up running into Malkolm who is an Anathema, a noble vampire who has been cast out of the vampire noble society. She and Malkolm will be thrown together again and ultimately they will have to work together to stop a plot to merge the mortal and supernatural worlds, if they fail, a chaos like no other seen will reign over the land.
Great series, very original, the world of the comarre is very unique, Kristen Painter is certainly a strong and different voice in the vampire world. Couldn't put it down, stayed up all night to finish it and anxious to read more.
Great series, very original, the world of the comarre is very unique, Kristen Painter is certainly a strong and different voice in the vampire world. Couldn't put it down, stayed up all night to finish it and anxious to read more.
Review Date: 2/3/2010
Helpful Score: 2
This is the first in the Body Farm series. Dr. Bill Brockton is a forensic anthropologist at the Body Farm still mourning the death of his wife two years before when he is contacted by Sheriff Tom Kitchings of Cooke County Tennessee. A mummified body is found in a mountain cave which turns out to be a young woman who supposedly ran off years ago. Added to that fact, she is found to have been found to be pregnant at the time of her murder. Added to that, there's a lot of illegal goings on in Cooke county, everything from cock fighting to marijuana growing, added to that the possibility that there is corruption going in the sheriff's office. Leena Bonds, the young woman was related to the sheriff, she was dating a young man who went to Vietnam and when he returned, she was gone. There is bad blood between Kitchings and O'Conner. This was a terrific first novel, you have the Appalachian mountain folk with feuds dating back to the Civil war, you have the Body Farm and of course you have murders and intrigues and of course forensic anthropology which Kathy Reich's novels and TV series brought to people's notice. Even if forensic anthropology doesn't interest you, there's enough of other stuff going on to make this a fast paced novel that's hard to put down
Review Date: 3/21/2015
Loved this series, got this from Thrift Books just because I owed a friend some credits and so I found a couple of books on her WL that I thought I would like and so I would read them before I sent them to her and I'm hooked. This is a great story and stayed most of the night to read it. I figured out what was going on and who the killer was fairly soon into the book but that was just because of my experience. Nuff said don't want to spoil the book for anyone else.
Review Date: 1/18/2012
Leo is a war hero, he is married and lives in Moscow in a nice apartment and he is a memeber of the MGB, the state security agency which defends the system, thus however bad the crime is, the MGB is worse. But then a child is murdered but because the Soviet Union doesn't acknowledge that crime exists, this death is not investigated, the parents of the child are bullied into saying that the death is an accident. When Leo continues to investigate, he finds that this wasn't the first murder, Leo is ordered to let it drop when he defies the order, he is demoted and sent away. Since crime does not exist, the MGB is not about to admit that there is a serial killer on the loose. As Leo continues to investigate will he find the killer before they stop him. This is was a great book to listen too. A glimpse into a world that sounds like science fiction but is a world that thousands of people have lived and continue to do so.
Review Date: 1/18/2012
Before DNA testing there was a woman who caught the attention of people all over the world with her claims that she was Anastasia the last surviving heir to the Russian throne, the daughter of the murdered Czar. In this fictional story is a young Jewess in 1922 Berlin, this is Germany before Hitler. Because of the scar on her face Esther survives by being a secretary to Prince Nick who owns several cabarets in the city. Esther takes pity on a young woman she finds in the asylum and thus blooms a scheme to pass her off as Anastasia. Though she says that there is someone after her, who wants her dead, they pass it off as ravings and delusions of a mental patient. That this until a trail of bodies leading to Anna Anderson (Anastasia) This is a really good book, of course, I have read her Mistress of the Dead series but I found this hard to put down. Would read a follow up with Esther and her cop Schmidt after they left Berlin The ending was a nice touch.
Review Date: 2/27/2012
This is the first time that I have walked away from this series unhappy and unsatisfied, it just didn't gel this time, there was to much going on, at the same time, we are not privy to most of the secrets he uncovered about Helen and then he finds out that Helen is most likely alive and that becomes the cliffhanger which would have been fine if the rest of the book was okay. I love this series and of course now it's been over a year and the authors are working on this new series and their fans are waiting anxiously to find out about Helen. The authors need to be careful because if they dangle that carrot for to long a time, they might find their audience no longer cares. Anyway don't waste your money or your credits for this one.
Review Date: 11/27/2012
Helpful Score: 1
This is the second book in the series and we find that the hangman is still poking his nose into things others would wish he wouldn't. A priest is poisoned but before he dies, he scratches a clue in the frost which leads the hangman, his daughter, the physician's son and the priest's feisty sister on the trail but there are others involved, the band of robbers, some other priests and a dark monk. Again the writing shows a sort of wry sense of fun, almost as if the writer is poking fun at his own characters. This is a really good book, not as good as the first one but if you've read the first one, you know you're hooked, ao might as well sit back and have a good time.
Review Date: 10/12/2012
Elrod, Tanya Huff, Fred Saberhagen, Jody Lynn Nye, chelsea Quinn Yarbo, and others. 16 stories very different and original. We know Dracula was in London but what else did he do in London besides stalk and kill people. These stories attempt to answer these questions, for example one story has him meeting the Prince of Wales.
Review Date: 7/22/2009
This is the first book in the Book of Psalms series set in England and uses the Church of England as a backdrop, my understanding is that the author worked in the Church of England and was fired after writing her first mystery, their loss is certainly our gain. In this first one Father Gabriel Neville is priest in the church of England at St. Anne's in London with a wife and young twin children in line to become the area Arch Deacon, however a secret from his past threatens his way of life when he receives a blackmail letter concerning a gay relationship he had been in where the young man that he broke off with committed suicide, the blackmailer doesn't want money, instead the letter writer demands Father Neville to resign from the priesthood before the Bishop's announcement on the Arch Deacon job. Finding himself unable to confide in his wife Emily who knows nothing of his past, Gabriel reaches out to someone who he hopes will help him. David Middleton-Brown is a gay man, a lawyer in Wymondham who had been taking care of his sick mother for the last few years until her death a few months earlier. Though his good friend Daphne lives in London and works for St. Anne's church as a Sacristan, he has never been to visit because of Father Gabriel Neville who was his first and only love over 10 years ago. His first and only gay relationship, he has never got over Gabriel leaving him and is aware that Gabe is now married with two children. Feeling lost and alone after his mother's death he gets a letter from his friend Daphne inviting him to come to St. Anne's and advise on the restoration of the Comper chapel and a letter from Gabriel asking for his help. Despite his feelings, he can't refuse Gabe and so traveling to London, he sets out to find out who is blackmailing Gabe. The host of people he finds at St. Anne's could be a church anywhere, with the strange and the wonderful This on whole is a very good book, my main complaint was the fact that you not only have Gabriel who has seen the light of day and gotten married to a woman but you have David Middleton-Brown who falls in love with a woman. It seems to be that it would have been more believable had David gone up to London and met a nice gay man, as a matter of fact there was one young man who was a server in the church who was openly gay and was in a relationship though apparently with a young man though he was 19 was under the age of consent and so he risked going to jail. This book was written in 1991, the age of consent was lowered in the year 2000 to 16, the same age as for heterosexual relations.
Review Date: 6/22/2010
This is a historical mystery, set in colonial New England widow and midwife doesn't suffer fools gladly which of course in a small New England village in Colonial times, there are plenty of them, Catherine Williams loses the love of her life, her husband, however he does leave her wealthy. First Catherine takes in a Native American who was enslaved and sets him free to work for her, then an infant dies and an Irish Catholic servant who was working for the family is blamed since being a Catholic, she falls prey to the religious prejudices and superstitions. The widow Williams doesn't believe that the girl is responsible but if she doesn't clear the girl"s name, the villagers will hang the girl. This was a wonderful story, you have to like Catherine Willows, the fact that she's wealthy is probably the one thing that protects her from the villagers whims but for a wealthy woman, she is very down to earth and willing to help.
Review Date: 11/1/2008
This is a stand alone of Jonathan King, Nick Mullins is a crime reporter, his life has been a mess ever since he lost his wife and one of his twin daughters in a car crash a few years ago, it's only because of his remaining daughter that he isn't worse than he is. He's just going through the motions on his job until a convicted killer is killed by a sniper, to Nick's it's just another story, when he realizes that the murderer that was killed was a subject of one of his articles years ago, he hadn't ever known that this individual was out on parole and the funny thing is he was murdered right on the stoop of his parole officer. He shrugs it off until another individual is killed, another subject of an old article, then he finds out about other murders that were subjects of his articles, he can no longer shrug it off as coincidence. Someone is using his articles as a list. He is a suspect at first until he is cleared, then to make things worse the man who was responsible for the death of his wife and daughter is released on parole. If he does nothing, he might be avenged, his old curiosity is coming back and he may be not be able to sit still and do nothing. This book grabs you from the beginning until the end. I read it in one sitting.
Review Date: 5/6/2012
Dr. Al Frampton, a wealthy Vancouver, B.C., surgeon, is murdered in the basement of his office building, and a slew of people are suspected. The doctor's wife, Diana, feared her husband soon would cut her out of his will; his lesbian receptionist was afraid of being dismissed; Frampton's unstable, illegitimate 30-year-old daughter recently had discovered his identity, and he rudely rebutted her efforts to get to know him; a former patient who was a high-priced model until the doctor's botched surgery disfigured her still hated him; and a group of militant feminists disapproved of the way the doctor treated his female patients. Marsha Miller, an urban anthropology graduate student, observes the two police detectives assigned to the case, and together the three slowly narrow down the leads. This is a pleasant mystery.
Review Date: 3/22/2015
This is a series of short stories edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner which includes a new Sookie Stackhouse story which also has Manfred Bernardo from Charlaine Harris's new series which she started in the book "Midnight Crossing" also stories from Mercedes Lackey, Toni L.P. Kelner, Dana Cameron, Laura Lippman, Joe R. Lansdale, Jan Burke, William Kent Krueger and seven others, 14 authors in all, sort of a paranormal sports stories books, if such thing is possible. I picked this up being a big fan of Charlaine Harris and I've read all of her series and all of the books she has edited. Anyway this book was a lot of fun and up to par with what I would expect from Harris and Kelner and there were some unusual authors in this one. Authors that you don't usually find writing paranormal stuff like Laura Lippman and William Kent Krueger. Very enjoyable book and since it is short stories really easy to read over a short period of time. My favorite story was the one "The Case of the Haunted Safeway" by Scott Sigler, it was amusing rather than scary but that's what Charlaine Harris does.
Review Date: 2/15/2010
This is the fourth in Harris's Harper Connelly series. This one has Harper and her step-brother Tolliver developing a romantic attachment, Tolliver's dad is out of prison and wants to see Tolliver and see the girls. Tolliver doesn't want anything to do with him but of course as it is with family things get tangled. And finally after all these years Harper learns what happened to her sister Cameron. For those of you following the series, the answer to that question will shock everyone, it will blindside you as much as it blindsides Harper. As usual, Ms. Harris does not disappoint. Thi may be her best Harper series book yet
Review Date: 8/6/2010
I almost didn't read this book because of the title, I tend not to like books with cutesy titles, someone whole opinion I respected told me to read it and I'm glad she did, this is one of those books with unforgettable characters. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society was formed when some of the Guernsey Island residents were caught out late one night after curfew by the Germans occupying the island and thus this book club is formed and it isn't until the war is done and a chance letter from one of the residents to Juliet because he found her name in a copy of poems by Charles Lamb. You will laugh and you will cry and sometimes you will do both but you won't forget this book.
Review Date: 11/27/2012
Helpful Score: 2
This was a really good book, very interesting, never have read a book where the protagnist is a hangman, a hangman who takes his job seriously and also knows a lot about herbs as a matter of fact, the town's doctor's son who is a doctor is his own rite is always coming over and borrowing books, there's also the matter of the attraction between the doctor's son and the hangman's daughter which would be a scandal if they married. This was a fast read and was anxious to read the next book.
Review Date: 5/24/2012
As usual Barbara Michaels has hit it out of the park, you can always count on her for spooky stuff without overdoing it. English professor Karen Holloway had found some poems from a woman in the 19th century who called herself Ismene, out of the blue several years later, a friend who runs a bookstore finds an old manuscript, when Karen finds out that the author of the manuscript is probably the same woman who wrote the poetry she found. After she buys it, she sets out to find the house which is described in the book and in the process she finds out that the house of stone mentioned in the book is actually real. Whether she is writing as Barbara Michaels or Elizabeth Peters, I will read anything she writes.
1 to 20 of 37 -
Page:
