BOOK REVIEW: The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin by Alison Goodman

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin by Alison Goodman will be released in 4 days. I’ve been waiting for this impatiently since reading book 1 in the series, The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies. 

Book 2 continues the Regency-Era adventures of Lady Augusta (Gus) Colebrook and her sister, Julia. They are 42-year-old twins of genteel birth and modest fortune. But they are spinsters, which puts them in an odd place in Society. They have some independence, but are not expected to use it.

They have already caused a stir by their rescuing of Lady Hester Belford from an insane asylum, where she had been imprisoned by her brother. Now they are hiding the lady so that her brother, Lord Deele, can’t try again to have her locked away elsewhere. (For the record, Hester is not insane.) The only reason Deele (a second son) has control over his sister is that their eldest brother, Lord Evan Belford, is supposed to be in exile for a murder he did not (he didn’t think) commit. Evan has sneaked back from exile to try to clear his name. In book 1, he and Gus met and fell in love. Unfortunately, he’s on the run from the law and they can’t be together. Awkwardly, the law includes Mr. Kent, a Bow-Street Runner, who is pursuing Evan, and who is enamored with Julia—the feeling is mutual.

Gus and Julia have to protect Lady Hester, Evan, and their own reputations while also dealing with their brother, Lord Duffield, who is mortified by their behavior and determined to make them behave so they’ll stop bringing shame upon the family name.

Along the way, they encounter a “thief-taker,” who is determined to catch Lord Evan and kill him. Someone, they don’t know who, wants Evan dead. They uncover a secret club devoted to sexual violence and depravity. And they become involved with government plots. All the while, they have to accept that their own sisterly relationship is changing.

This book is a worthy successor to book one. While entertaining in its own right, you should really read book one first to help keep all the players straight. If you enjoy historical adventure with a strong dose of romance, this series is not to be missed.

BOOK REVIEW: The Hearts of All on Fire by Alana White

The Hearts of All on Fire by Alana White is the second book in her A Guid’Antonio Vespucci Mystery series. (See review for book one, The Sign of the Weeping Virgin. It isn’t necessary to read book one first, but historical political mystery fans will enjoy both.)

Set in 15th -century Florence and based on true historical figures, this tightly plotted thriller is hard to put down. The protagonist, Guid’Antonio, is a doctor of law, currently assigned to the case of an old man accused of abusing, killing, and burying his own granddaughter. The man’s guilt is clear. Unless, like too many of the men swirling around this 11-year-old child, the judge decides the girl was a temptress who deserved her fate.

But this is the least of Guid’Antonio’s problems. Hovering over him is the uncertain outcome of his recent diplomatic mission. As ambassador of Florence, he’d gone to the duke of Milan to arrange for the purchase of the town of Imola. Florence’s ruler, Lorenzo de’ Medici, wants to keep the town out of the Pope’s greedy hands. Guid’Antonio thought the deal had been done, but the contracts have failed to arrive.

With all this, he does not need new trouble. Nevertheless, trouble rains down. During a holiday party at his house, one of the guests drops over dead. The physician who performs the autopsy (the only female physician in Florence and Guid’Antonio’s ex-lover) finds evidence that the man was poisoned by mushrooms. Mushrooms fed to him by a young servant in Guid’Antonio’s house. A series of necessary interactions with this physician causes his new young wife to grow jealous and mistrustful. And maybe she has cause to be.

The author deftly combines meticulous historical accuracy, top-notch plotting, and a compelling cast of characters to create a gripping not-to-be-missed thriller. I hope there is a book three!

BOOK REVIEW: The Woman in the Castello by Kelsey James

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

The Woman in the Castello by Kelsey James is a newly-released slow-build mystery/horror story set in Italy a generation after WWII.

Silvia Whitford is an Italian-American actress desperately in need of a break. An unwed mother with a two-year-old, she is also supporting her mother who is slowly dying of cancer. In order to allow her mother to die back in Italy, Silvia must make her way in a country she has never really known.

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, her mother has an estranged sister who lives in a crumbling castle. An Italian production company in need of a castle in which to set their horror film hires Silvia to be the star–and to secure permission to use her aunt’s castle.

At first, it seems like a dream come true. Her co-star is a long-admired handsome film star. The supporting actress is eager to be Silvia’s friend. And the show’s “fixer,” a man named Paul, is gorgeous, kind, strong, and interested in a relationship. 

Unfortunately, everything quickly goes wrong. The castle is reputed to be haunted. And strange happenings seem to bear out its reputation. Silvia’s aunt disappears and Silvia fears she has been murdered. The director is a bully. Her co-star is a sexist pig. And even her new friend is not entirely trustworthy. When Silvia starts to doubt Paul, she begins to question if it really is everyone else in the wrong or if she is imagining things.

The stakes rise as accidents threaten the production and no one takes Silvia’s concerns seriously. Is the castle truly haunted? Or is one of her coworkers a murderer?

This atmospheric novel is a bit slow-paced for a thriller and the love story, to me, seemed a bit banal, but I did love the setting. There is also an intergenerational family drama twist. And fascists. Maybe the novel was trying to be too many things at once, but I wasn’t as drawn in as I expected to be. I’d be interested in what fans of gothic horror think, since it mostly seems to be a ghost story in the setting of a horror movie. 

BOOK REVIEW: The House of Lamentations by S. G. MacLean

The Captain Damian Seeker series by S.G. MacLean is one of the most compelling historical political thriller series that I’ve come across. Start with The Seeker. You won’t be disappointed.

After reading The Bear Pit (book 4) I was so impatient for book 5 that I bought the ebook because that was the earliest release I could obtain. But then, concerned it was the last book in the series, I put off reading it because I didn’t want the story to end. Then, unfortunately, it fell off my radar and languished on my TBR pile. Until I saw that there will be a book six released in September. 

I pulled out my ipad and settled down to enjoy The House of Lamentations. 

Set in the mid-1600s near the end of Cromwell’s controversial reign as Lord Protector, the novels bring the time period to life with all its idealism, uncertainty, and violence. Captain Damian Seeker is one of Cromwell’s most loyal men. He began his career in the army, but now serves as an enforcer and spy. He is a brutal man with a complicated past and a soft core.

After the events of book 4, Seeker is sent to Bruges to keep tabs on loyalist ex-pats who are plotting against Cromwell. Seeker takes on the identity of “John Carpenter,” insinuating himself easily into places the royalists would not like him to be. There is a double agent working within royalist circles who feeds information to Seeker. However, since their plots are consistently foiled, higher-ups have concluded there must be a spy in Bruges and they are sending a “she-intelligencer” to uncover him.

Strangers come and go in Bruges and Seeker tries to keep tabs on them all. His most pressing current task is to identify the “she-intelligencer” before she can discover his contact or, worse, expose him. But he has an even more pressing concern. He has been separated for more than a year from the woman he loves back in England. Now, with Cromwell’s England becoming more violent and more of a dictatorship, Maria’s brother has decided to move to Massachusetts and take Maria along. Seeker races against time to complete his mission and return to England to reunite with her before she goes.

The complex plotting will keep readers guessing. The atmospheric writing is superb. Seeker’s internal conflicts keep him as compelling a protagonist as ever. Now, on to book 6!

BOOK REVIEW: Coldwater Confession by James A. Ross

Coldwater Confession by James A. Ross is the second book in the Coldwater Mystery series. It is as entertaining as book one, Coldwater Revenge. This novel can stand alone, but to get the most out of the family drama, reading book one first is recommended.

Set in Coldwater, a small lakeside town in upstate New York, Coldwater Confession is an intense psychological thriller focusing on the fraught relationship between two close but very different brothers. Joe Morgan is the local sheriff, a job inherited from their father, “Mad Dog Morgan.” (Mad Dog was murdered years ago. The murder remains unsolved.)  Tom Morgan is a lawyer and financial whiz, who returned to Coldwater (in book one) for a variety of reasons and stayed on to try to get his head straight after a traumatic reintegration into the town. (He helped his brother with some intense law enforcement and was nearly killed.)

Tom is now living on Pocket Island, trying to renovate an old Frank Lloyd Wright house and help start a school for wayward boys. However, none of this is making much progress and he’s beginning to second guess the feasibility of the projects. More pressing, and probably equally futile, is Tom’s attempt to smooth the path towards reconciliation – or at least pragmatic communication – between Joe and his estranged wife. The family dynamics are complicated. Not only is brother Joe a womanizer who probably deserves to lose his wife, but there is also a lifelong rivalry between the two brothers, and their widowed mother, who drinks heavily, unhelpfully takes sides. Mrs. Morgan likes to keep secrets and refuses to talk about her tempestuous relationship with her dead husband or the warped upbringing of her sons.

Things heat up when a stunning young woman arrives in Coldwater. Maggie grew up in the town but moved away as soon as she could. Now she has returned to take a job as an elementary school teacher. Both brothers are physically attracted to her. She is not averse to flirtation and maybe something more (even though she is in her mid-to-late twenties and they are pushing forty.) But she’s dealing with too much else to pursue or be pursued. Her relationship with her father is frayed and that with her stepmother is toxic. Moreover, her mother, who is mentally ill and deep in denial, keeps stirring the pot. And it’s possible the mother’s mental illness is now manifesting in the daughter.

The psychodynamics are compelling enough in this page-turner, but there is more. Someone is creeping around on Pocket Island looking for something. Arsonists set fire to Tom’s house. And the local low-level criminals that Joe treats as nuisances have gotten themselves mixed up with a truly dangerous character or characters – and Joe is nearly ambushed as his father had been.

The author neatly weaves together the threads (including the murder of their father) for another action-packed thriller that will leave readers eager for the third installment. 

BOOK REVIEW: Hold Fast by J.H. Gelerntner

Hold Fast by J.H. Gelerntner is a Regency Era (Napoleonic Wars) spy adventure novel. It’s also book one in the Thomas Grey series, so there is more adventure to come.

Thomas Grey is an agent in the king’s Secret Service. Or, he was. He has just resigned, after the shipboard death of his beloved wife, Paulette. They were returning from his posting in Malta when their ship was attacked by the French and she was killed by cannon shot. Unable to continue his work, Grey has decided to move to Boston and work for a lumber firm.

However, as he sets out, war with France resumes. After a short skirmish at sea, the ship Grey is on must put into Portugal. There, he is mistaken for a disaffected British navy man. Seeing his chance to exact revenge upon the French for killing his wife, specifically upon the captain of the French ship that fired the cannon shot, Grey takes it upon himself to work as a double-agent.

The novel is chock-full of action-adventure. Grey is a master of pretty much everything and invincible to boot. Nevertheless, suspend disbelief as when watching a James Bond movie and this book will thrill.

BOOK REVIEW: Coldwater Revenge by James A. Ross

I don’t generally read contemporary thrillers, but having enjoyed the historical thriller, Hunting Teddy Roosevelt by James A. Ross, I decided to try Book 1 of his A Coldwater Mystery series: Coldwater Revenge.

Tom Morgan, a high-powered corporate lawyer arrives in his old hometown of Coldwater (just south of the Canadian border) for a short family visit. He calls it a vacation, but he’s come home because his mother broke her leg and his younger brother’s family could use a bit of help caring for her. His brother, Joe, is a busy man. Joe is the local sheriff, who inherited the position, with all it entails, from their father.

The two brothers are both hard-driven, grasping, intelligent men, but there the similarities end. Tom fled the small-town life, leaving behind a failed romance and the disillusionment of discovering his father was not the hero he’d thought him to be. Joe embraced it all.

No sooner does Tom return home when a local ne’er-do-well, Billy Pearce, is discovered drowned in the lake, clearly murdered.

The murder interests Tom because that failed romance from his past was with Susan Pearce, Billy’s sister. Susan is back in town as well, working for a pharmaceutical research company, a start-up with very shady business practices. Tom may not have Joe’s skills at criminal detective work, but he knows a good deal about shady business practices. Joe enlists Tom’s help, partly because he can use it and partly to keep him from zipping back to New York to deal with an urgent corporate legal mess. Tom stays, partly to help but partly because of Susan.

The investigation branches out to include local small-time drug dealers, big-time pseudo-researchers, a jaded priest who might be a pedophile, and potential terrorists. As Tom casts his net wider, he finds he can’t even exclude Susan from suspicion, or even Joe.

The plotting is taut; the characters are intriguing, and the setting is vividly described. Even though contemporary thrillers are not my usual fare, I’m looking forward to the next book in the series.

BOOK REVIEW: The Bear Pit by S.G. Maclean

 Among the best historical thrillers I have read are the books in the A Captain Damian Seeker Novel series by S.G. Maclean. Set in England during the time of Oliver Cromwell, the books focus on the exploits of Damian Seeker, captain of Cromwell’s guard. The first book is The Seeker, and you should really start there. I bought book four, The Bear Pit, while reading book three, but I’ve been holding off reading it because these books are so amazing I don’t want them to end. (The fifth book, which I fear is the last, will be out in paperback in the fall, and I’m trying to wait till then to buy it. I might not be able to wait.)

Seeker is a busy, busy man, given Cromwell’s increasing unpopularity and the numerous factions that are attempting to eliminate him: Royalists, Republicans, foreign governments, disaffected one-time adherents. The head of Cromwell’s intelligence agency, John Thurloe (Seeker’s direct boss) is overwhelmed with all the reports he’s receiving and can’t keep up with the threats. It’s Seeker’s responsibility to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.

On a personal level, Seeker is also busy. The long-lost daughter he retrieved from the north is now living under an assumed identity in London, helping to serve in a tavern. The owner of the tavern, Dorcas, is a smart, good-hearted woman in love with Seeker, and he takes what comfort there that he can. However, his heart still belongs to Maria Ellingworth, sister of a radical Republican lawyer. Their relationship was thwarted by politics and family loyalty. But when their paths cross accidentally, after two years of no contact, it’s clear they are both suffering from being apart.

Seeker also has to keep tabs on Thomas Faithly, a “turned” Royalist that he recruited as a spy, but whose loyalties he can’t be sure of. 

If all that isn’t enough, there is a bear somewhere in the bowels of London that has been feasting on human flesh. Bear-baiting, once a popular gambling sport, has been banned. Supposedly, all the bears were shot. Bear-hunting would normally be below Seeker’s pay grade, but the victim of the attack was an old army buddy of Samuel Kent, Samuel being a coffeehouse owner who Seeker would consider a friend if he had friends.

The politics of the times have been so well portrayed throughout the series that they are treated a little more lightly in this book. The reader is already immersed so it’s easy to follow what’s going on. The stakes are high for Seeker, since he must always, above all else, serve Cromwell’s interests, but his own interests are getting harder to set aside. I’m rooting for Seeker, not Cromwell.

This series is phenomenal. Highly recommended.

BOOK REVIEW: Children of the Valley by Castle Freeman

 I received this book for free from Netgalley. This did not influence my review.

I just finished Children of the Valley by Castle Freeman, jumping right into it after finishing Old Number Five.

When reading books in series that I love, I’ve found that extraordinary books are often followed by books that don’t excite me as much. Unfortunately, that’s the case here. Children of the Valley is an entertaining mystery/thriller. It would work fine as a standalone. In fact, it probably would work better as a standalone. I liked it less because, as a follow-up to Old Number Five, it’s disappointing.

Lucian Wing remains the same brave, dogged, but slow-motion law enforcer, the sheriff of a rural Northern Vermont county. An indeterminate amount of time has passed since the last book, which can be judged somewhat by the aging of Lucian’s mentor, the previous sheriff, Wingate. The current dilemma is that Lucian’s county is playing host to two runaway teenagers, a local boy who made good as a high school football player and a young rich girl named Pamela, who’s gone AWOL from boarding school. Pamela’s stepfather sends a few New York City goons to retrieve her. One of them, a slick lawyer-type, tries to enlist Lucian to locate the girl for them. (There is some question as to the intentions of the stepfather and some hints of abuse.) Lucian finds the pair, but rather than turn them in, he helps them to hide. Lucian’s usual pals (Homer, Cola, and Wingate) join in the fun. Things get violent.

The plot is a bit uneven but holds together well enough. Lucian’s voice and folksy wisdom are as enjoyable as ever. (And by that, I mean very enjoyable.) As an individual book, this is enough to recommend it.

The problem I have is that there’s no continuity to the series. Issues raised in the previous book are not merely swept under the rug; they don’t exist. Lucian’s mother with Alzheimer’s and overbearing brother? Absent. Not even a passing reference. Also, Lucian seems to be chronically looking for a decent deputy. In each of the previous books, we were introduced to wonderful characters, potential new deputies that I would love to have seen more of. They’re gone without a word. Still, if the core cast of characters is maintained without the addition of new long-timers, I can let go of newbies even if I liked them. And minor plot threads, like the declining mother, don’t have to be woven into the next instalment. That wasn’t my main objection.

The thing that disturbed me was that bombs were dropped at the end of the last book. One reason I picked up book three right away was to see how the author would sweep up the mess. Now I’m not sure how to interpret the ending of Old Number Five. Maybe Lucian’s betrayal of his own code of behavior wasn’t really a big deal to him. Which is sad because, for me, it really lessens the impact of the book. And are he and his wife simply settling down as an old married couple? Were they were just joking around at the end of the previous book? It could just have been a joke that I didn’t get. Or maybe it’s just that Lucian is doubling down on the philosophy that whatever the problem, it’s better to do nothing than to do something. I guess it would be consistent with his character to do his best to ignore a problem and hope it sorts itself out, but that’s not always satisfying for the reader.

BOOK REVIEW: Old Number Five by Castle Freeman

I am a huge fan of Castle Freeman’s work. I recently re-read All That I Have, in preparation for tackling books 2 and 3 of his Lucian Wing series. I ordered book 2, Old Number Five, and was given an estimated delivery date in mid-January, so I was thrilled to receive it before Christmas.

Old Number Five continues to follow the adventures of the laconic, low-key, Northern Vermont County Sheriff Lucian Wing. His philosophy of law enforcement is to pretty much let things sort themselves out and, generally, things do. He was a wild youth himself before a stint in the Navy straightened him out, so he has a certain sympathy for boys-being-boys. Most of the people he serves in the small towns in his jurisdiction approve of his approach. He’s cheap, and the various town councils mostly want low-budget law enforcement.

Lucian takes the same laid-back approach to his home life, which is a toxic mess. His wife has essentially booted him out so that her boyfriend, Jake, can move in. She keeps in touch when she needs Lucian to come around and fix things. Since he built the house himself and doesn’t want Jake wrecking it, he does his wife’s bidding in a passive-aggressive manner. It’s a small town, so everyone knows his business. Everyone is on his side. But everyone pretty much agrees that the best approach is to wait it out. His wife, Clemmie, will tire of Jake and come back to him. (Why on earth he would want her back is beyond me. And some of her complaints against him seem valid too. Maybe they are right for each other, but what an awful relationship.)

At any rate, Lucian’s current concerns are numerous. His mother is showing signs of Alzheimer’s and he’s not sure what to do about it. A feral dog is increasing its attacks on local livestock and people are spooked. And an attack on a local petty criminal adds to a number of earlier isolated events so that it’s becoming harder to overlook them. The violence is not subtle; it’s more of the literal eye-for-an-eye, chop-off-a-thief’s-hand type, so one might think it’s the work of an oddly Biblically-inspired vigilante. Moreover, the victims’ stories are not believable. They are clearly afraid of worse befalling them should they complain to the law.

Lucian’s approach would be to leave it alone since the victims are not pressing for action. Unfortunately, a big-city, ex-military busybody has moved to the area and gotten himself elected Chairman of the town Selectmen. He insists Lucian begin an investigation, and, when the pace of the investigation doesn’t suit him, he goes above Lucian’s head. The sheriff’s usual feet-dragging method, which has served him so well, isn’t going to cut it.

The writing is tight. The characters are concisely, wonderfully drawn. Lucian is smart and bitterly funny. The novel moves along at a quick pace. The mystery is well-cloaked but clues are sprinkled in enough that the answer slowly dawned on me. And then. . .

It’s a cliché to talk about a “shocking conclusion” but that’s what this was. Appalling, even. In so many ways, it’s appalling. I’m still rejecting what I read, even though it was sort-of brilliant. So now I have to move on to book three.

This series is highly recommended. Start at book one, or even earlier with Go With Me.

BOOK REVIEW: Mortmain Hall by Martin Edwards

 It’s not light Christmas reading, but Mortmain Hall by Martin Edwards is a compelling psychological thriller that kept me turning pages. It’s the second book in the Rachel Savernake series. Since I recently read Gallows Court (book one), I thought I should keep going before I forgot all the details. 

Much like the first book, Mortmain Hall is multi-charactered and complex. The plot is held together by the protagonist/anti-hero, amateur detective Rachel Savernake, and her enthralled sidekick, crime reporter Jacob Flint.

In a roundabout way, Rachel and Jacob reunite after an unsavory murder trial. The obviously guilty man is suddenly cleared when his ridiculous alibi is supported by a high-ranking government official/war hero. Jacob is poking into the crime for his newspaper. Rachel is peripherally involved, since this particular murder is linked in some way she has not yet figured out to the murder of a man she was trying to help. (This is an impossible book to summarize. There are far too many murders and suspects. The trick is figuring out what they all have to do with each other.)

In the course of his investigation (during which Jacob is almost framed for murder), Jacob comes into contact with a female criminologist/author, Leonora Dobell, who has made a hobby and a career of re-examining miscarriages of justice. She asks him to take an invitation to Rachel.

Leonora is fascinated by “the perfect murder.” She invites three notorious people, accused of murder but exonerated, along with Rachel, to her country home, believing they all belong to some sort of club. Jacob sneaks along for the ride at Rachel’s invitation.

The pieces to the puzzle fall into place slowly. When two (or maybe three) more murders occur at the house party, Rachel is the one who finally figures everything out. The denouement takes place as an old-fashioned detective story reveal: all major players are summoned into one room while Rachel narrates the crime and names the criminal. Meanwhile, a violent storm rages outside. The drama of the final scene would probably play better in a movie. It was a bit overwrought on the page. However, the unfolding of the plot was very satisfying. Rachel is a brilliant detective and a cool-as-a-cucumber heroine. Poor Jacob is a bit of a useful bumbler, but charming after a fashion. The show really belongs to Rachel. It’ll be interesting to see where the author takes this series next.

BOOK REVIEW: All That I Have by Castle Freeman Jr.

 Many years ago, I somehow acquired two short works by Castle Freeman, Jr.: Go With Me and All That I Have.  I thoroughly enjoyed them both. I reviewed Go With Me. I’m not sure why I didn’t review All That I Have.

However, on Netgalley, I saw a new book offered, Children of the Valley, which is the third book in the Lucian Wing series. It turns out that book one was All That I Have. So, book three is now on my kindle queue, but before I can read it I had to re-read book one and chase down book two.  Book two is difficult to find, but I ordered it from the Book Depository and should have it sometime in mid-January! In the meantime, I re-read book one.

All That I Have is narrated by a small-time rural Vermont county sheriff, Lucian Wing. Most of his job is small potatoes. He is an elected official and, as he states, most people want the sheriff to do his job, just not on them. So he mostly takes a laid-back approach that he learned from his mentor, the now-retired Sheriff Wingate.

Things get a bit rough when a Russian mafia boss buys a large gated property in one of the towns, visiting only rarely, but storing stuff there. Someone breaks in (most likely Sean Duke, a local delinquent) and steals a small safe. The Russians are angry. They send various goons to locate the safe and beat the hell out of anyone who may know where it is. They are internationally dangerous people, the likes of which the locals have never seen.

Sheriff Wing has to solve the crime, meaning locate the safe, even though he knows the Russians are up to no good. He knows Sean is the thief, but Sean is a local boy and Wing doesn’t want to come down too hard on him–or see him dead.

At the same time, Wing’s marriage is going through a slow-motion marital crisis. He and his wife love one another, but they communicate poorly. This is shown rather brilliantly through Wing’s eyes.

The novel is short, only 164 pages, but a lot of story is packed into those pages. The author does a wonderful job of creating Wing’s voice, showing his laconic dry humor and commonsense approach to sheriffing. I’m thrilled to rediscover this author and can’t wait for book two to arrive, so I can continue the series.

BOOK REVIEW: Gallows Court by Martin Edwards

 Phew! I just finished a dense historical thriller, Gallows Court by Martin Edwards. Set in London in 1930, the novel takes us into the corrupt and perverse world of a cabal of London’s richest and most powerful men.

Rachel Savernake is a mysterious heiress, the daughter of a judge famed for harsh justice and for eventually going mad. Recently returned to London after years of isolation with her father, she emerged from seclusion to help Scotland Yard solve a brutal murder. 

The notoriety of that case attracted the attention of Jacob Flint, junior crime reporter for a sensationalist newspaper, The Clarion. The senior crime reporter had been looking into Savernake’s sleuthing when he was hit by a car and fatally injured. Flint takes over the investigation and becomes intrigued with Savernake. When a second, equally brutal murder occurs, Flint is convinced the heiress is somehow involved.

Rachel Savernake is a cold, calculating woman who is always one step ahead of Scotland Yard, the police, and Jacob Flint. What is she up to?

There is a large cast of characters and the plotting requires close attention as the murders pile up and the motives become murkier and murkier. With so much going on, Flint is not the only one lost in the confusion. Determination to see the mystery solved pulled me along. The author ties it all together in a thrilling and satisfying conclusion.

Book two in the series, Mortmain Hall, was recently released and I want to get to it soon!

BOOK REVIEW: Destroying Angel by S.G. MacLean

 England in the mid 1600s, under Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate, was a scary and oppressive place to be. I don’t know much about that time period, but S.G. MacLean’s historical thriller series featuring the captain of Cromwell’s Guard, Damien Seeker, is teaching me quite a bit.

Seeker is utterly loyal to Cromwell and works closely with the chief government spy, Thurloe. In the previous two books, starting with The Seeker, the reader is introduced to this strong, complex military man who is feared and hated by many on both sides for good reason. However, we also learn that he can be gentle and kind to those in need. And that he certainly does have a heart.

At the end of book two, Seeker is forced to walk away from the woman he has come to love because he can’t serve Cromwell and look away from her brother’s treasonous leanings. 

In book three, Destroying Angel, Seeker has been sent north to the Yorkshire moors to connect with the Major-General sent there to keep order and to look into the possible return of a banished Loyalist, Thomas Faithly. Faithly had been in exile with the young King, and it is supposed that he has returned to his ancestral estate to drum up support. This sort of thing, rooting out Royalists, is all in a day’s work for Seeker, but there are complications.

Seeker is originally from Yorkshire—not Faithly Moor, where he has been sent—but the area around it. And it was in Yorkshire, as a young man, where personal tragedy changed the course of his life. I don’t want to introduce spoilers for the first two books, but Seeker’s marriage was destroyed and he lost contact with his daughter. With nowhere else to turn, he fled to join Cromwell’s Army and the bitterness and cruelty of that life made him what he is today. He is very, very good at soldiering--cold, demanding, and relentless. (He’s also very good at solving political mysteries.) 

Now that he is back in his old stomping grounds, his past comes back to haunt him.

There is a lot going on in this book. Seeker not only has to search for Faithly, but he also becomes involved in solving a murder of a young girl, the ward of the town constable, a loyal Cromwell supporter. The town is also undergoing an upheaval because of the arrival of a “trier,” a rigid Puritan examiner who has been called in to try the local rector who has been accused of not being Puritan enough. Bitter, long-held grievances between villagers are at play, and Seeker has to sort through what is important and what is not. There is also fear of witchcraft and those who would hunt witches. Although at first it is a lot to take in and keep track of, the reader just needs to keep following the protagonist. Seeker is as clever as ever at untangling the threads until it all comes clear.

These are fascinating novels. Thrilling and disturbing. We keep rooting for Seeker even as the cause he serves becomes more and more corrupt. At some point, there will have to be a reckoning as Cromwell’s England becomes just as evil as the regime it replaced, moving farther from the ideals that drew Seeker to the fight. I’ve got the next book on hand and am anxious to see what comes next.

BOOK REVIEW: The Black Friar by S.G. MacLean

 The second book in the  Damian Seeker series by S.G. MacLean, The Black Friar, is as superb as the first, The Seeker. 

Picking up where Book 1 left off, Damian Seeker continues in his role as the captain of Oliver Cromwell’s guard. It’s a difficult job, protecting the Lord Protector, when plots are springing up right and left. The main antagonists are the Royalists, but there are also Fifth Monarchists (religious fanatics) as well as the generally disenchanted folks who once supported Cromwell but who speak against him now that he has assumed the role of king. For them, he’s no better than the deposed and executed tyrant.

Amongst the disenchanted are those honest people we met in book one, Elias Ellingworth, an impoverished lawyer and pamphleteer, and his sister, Maria. Seeker and Maria have begun an affair. For these star-crossed lovers, there is no viable future. Seeker knows it’s only a matter of time before he will have to arrest Elias, and possibly Maria herself. Keeping such a relationship secret with so many spies watching each other is also a dangerous undertaking.

As the book opens, a dead man is found walled into an old monastery. The body is too well- preserved to belong to the centuries-old location or to the Blackfriar’s clothing he’s wearing. Seeker recognizes the man, a spy who was supposed to have died months earlier, a spy whose funeral he witnessed. The man was deeply embedded in uncovering something. Seeker’s superior, Thurloe, assigns Seeker to find out what the spy had learned that got him killed.

At the same time, children are going missing in the city. Not many, but the coincidence is too striking for Seeker to ignore since their circumstances are not typical of runaways or street children.

Seeker is good at his job. He’s known and widely feared throughout the city. He navigates the swirling conspiracies within the government with intelligence and cynicism. He’s kind to the lowly but ruthless to those who fall afoul of the law.  And if he has to choose between his duty to Cromwell and his love for Maria. . .

Again, the various threads of the mystery are thickly interwoven. The historical background is fascinating. And Seeker’s personal battles are as gripping as the political ones.

I have book three on my shelf and book four on order. These books are great!

BOOK REVIEW: The Seeker by S.G. MacLean

I’ve found a new historical mystery series! I’ve come late to it but that means the others have already been released so hopefully I can get to them soon.

The Seeker by S.G. MacLean is the first in the series that features the cold, cynical Damian Seeker, an agent in the service of Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector, in London in the mid-1600s. Cromwell and his forces have deposed and beheaded King Charles, and now must be on their guard against Royalists who plot to bring Charles’ son back to the throne.

England is gripped by fear under Cromwell’s repressive regime. The freedoms promised by the revolutionaries have not materialized. Damian Seeker understands the complexities of the situation, but he has pledged loyalty to Cromwell and he’s standing by that pledge.

When one of Cromwell’s most popular army captains is found murdered on his own doorstep, the guilty party seems clear. Elias Ellingworth, an impoverished lawyer who is known to be critical of Cromwell’s government, is standing over the corpse with a bloodied knife in his hand.

Seeker begins the investigation at once by interrogating the widow. Her story convinces him that Elias is innocent. Truth matters to Seeker. He doesn’t want an innocent man executed. Plus, the real killer is still at large. Seeker sets about finding the real killer. He uncovers a web of conspiracy, multiple suspects, and a couple of unrelated crimes. Moreover, his veiled compassion for some of the oppressed Londoners, including Elias’ sister, Maria, yields something he wasn’t seeking: friendship? Maybe love?

The plotting is dense, with multiple intertwined subplots. Characters have depth. Seeker is one of those thrilling anti-hero types of detectives: fearless, ruthless, brutally effective. His dark, violent past renders him able to kill coldly without remorse, yet he has an inner core of goodness that leads good people to trust him as much as they fear him.

S.G. MacLean does a wonderful job of placing the reader into the time period, bringing us up to speed quickly on the politics at play that set the stage for the intrigues. I’m eager to read book 2!

BOOK REVIEW: The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

Having been so impressed with Jasper Fforde’s Early Riser several months ago, I bought one of his earlier books, The Eyre Affair, which is book one in the A Thursday Next Novel series.

Set in England in an alternative 1985, this young adult novel follows Thursday Next, a thirty-something-year-old special operative in the Literary Detective Division. Generally, her job involves chasing down counterfeiters and plagarists, fighting copyright infringement, etc. Nothing as exciting as her father’s job. He’s in the Chronoguard, watching out for timeslips and rents in the spacetime continuum, things like that.

In this world, England and Russia have been fighting over the Crimea for a hundred years. Thursday (and her brother and her brother’s best friend who was the love of Thursday’s life) were in the military at one point. The battle that they were in was botched, her brother died, and, afterward, Thursday’s relationship died too. Long story.

The plot of this book includes an evil mastermind with strange superpowers, a seemingly all-powerful corporation that pretty much owns England, and an absent-minded but brilliant inventor (who happens to be Thursday’s uncle), as well as a slew of special operatives in Thursday’s division and other more dangerous and secretive divisions. Their lives intersect when one of the uncle’s inventions allows the evil mastermind to kidnap characters from works of fiction. If he can steal the original manuscript and manipulate (or kill) the character, changes ripple through every copy ever made through time. Naturally, as a literary detective, Thursday must prevent him from doing this dastardly thing.

As in Early Riser, the setting  is crazy and takes a while to sort out. There are quirky characters galore and a galloping plot. The protagonist has a snarky, funny voice. However, I didn’t enjoy this novel anywhere near as much as Early Riser. Maybe the style didn’t seem as original this time around. Or maybe the humor seemed too forced and the plot a bit too sloppy. It was a quick, fun read, but I don’t think I’ll be chasing down the next book in the series.

BOOK REVIEW: The Spy of Venice by Benet Brandreth

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from Netgalley. This did not influence my review.

Here is the jacket blurb of The Spy of Venice by Benet Brandreth to show why I was interested in reading this historical novel:


CJ Samson meets Shakespeare in Love - a historical thriller with a swashbuckling twist and a hero like you've never seen him before. When he's caught out by one ill-advised seduction too many, young William Shakespeare flees Stratford to seek his fortune. Cast adrift in London, Will falls in with a band of players - but greater men have their eye on this talented young wordsmith.
England's very survival hangs in the balance, and Will finds himself dispatched to Venice on a crucial embassy. Dazzled by the city's masques - and its beauties - Will little realises the peril in which he finds himself. Catholic assassins would stop at nothing to end his mission on the point of their sharpened knives, and lurking in the shadows is a killer as clever as he is cruel.

As a new convert to the historical thrillers of C.J. Samson, I thought I would enjoy this one. The premise is promising. Unfortunately, the story takes a long time to get going, and even though at 448 pages it isn’t overly long, it reads much longer.

Roughly the first half of the book is taken up setting the stage for the adventure. It establishes young Will Shakespeare as a thoroughly unlikeable character, a man far too full of himself, whose idea of a clever prank to forestall the vengeance of a powerful townsman he has insulted is to seduce that man’s pretty young daughter. Since the girl doesn’t mind, I suppose we are supposed to cheer his lark. But it brings down more trouble on his doting parents and long-suffering wife and children and he’s banished to London. He’s a bit miffed to learn that his family is able to get along happily without him. He joins forces with a troupe of players, making some new enemies along the way, none of whom will actually be important to the plot. This set-up plods along, but I continued reading with the hope that the pace would pick up when Shakespeare and his crew finally connected with the main thread of the story.

There are other forces at play. Already at odds with the Pope, England fears she will soon be at war with Catholic Spain. She needs an ally and turns her face to Venice, a powerful city whose only allegiance is to whoever serves her interests. The Queen’s spymaster is setting out to offer an alliance to Venice. For some reason, he feels the need for an additional spy, someone who is clever but not too clever, so he searches around for a player and chooses Will.

Finally, the story moves on to Venice. It’s a fairly dull trip, necessarily punctuated by the spymaster’s lecturing to Will about current politics, until their company is accosted by that of the villain, an agent of the Pope.

Once the meat of the story begins, the pace picks up, but the complicated plotting of the various people involved is laid out in such detail that there isn’t much mystery or suspense. Things just have to wind their way to the violent conclusion. Since we know William Shakespeare has gone on to better things (and will incorporate names and situations from his Venice adventure into his later plays), there isn’t even much concern how things will end for him. The goals of the main characters are fairly straightforward and credible, but some of the situations are not particularly plausible.

Overall, the story at half the length would have been an enjoyable romp but I was out of patience before the spy ever made it to Venice so I don’t think I was able to appreciate the unfolding of the tale.

BOOK REVIEW: quiet neighbors by Catriona McPherson

It’s been a while since I’ve read a contemporary mystery/thriller, so when I read a blurb for quiet neighbors by Catriona McPherson I decided to give it a try. It’s an oddly compelling book, with a slow build at first that then gets hard to put down.

Jude Hamner is the unreliable narrator. A young woman with a compulsion for cleanliness that has veered into the pathological, Jude has fled from her librarian job in London to a tiny remote town in Scotland after something unspeakable happened to her. She chose the hidey-hole because she had been there a year earlier on a vacation with her husband and she’d fallen in love with a used bookstore run by a kindly old man, Lowell Glen. (Another book about bookstores and bookstore owners. I can’t get enough of these!)

The old man is still there and he’s just as kindly. On the spot, he offers her a job and a place to stay. His mannerisms are odd, but she puts it down to old-fashioned politeness and loneliness and besides, she’s desperate. Because she’s terrified of being discovered, particularly by police, whatever she did must be criminal and pretty bad.

The truth dribbles out little by little, aided by the arrival of a pregnant teenager who claims to be Lowell’s long-lost daughter, whom he never knew existed. Her mother, Lowell’s ex-lover, is recently dead. Lowell welcomes her with open arms. Jude is more suspicious. It’s hard to tease out whether she’s overly suspicious or has cause.

But Jude can’t focus on obsessing over the daughter. While sorting the used books, she stumbles on yet another mystery. Years ago, someone was apparently murdering elderly residents of the town. Is the murderer still around?

This novel is entertaining, although rather farfetched. Jude is an intriguing protagonist and the daughter is a good foil. I had a bit of trouble with Lowell, who never really jelled for me as an actual character. I couldn’t quite tell what the author was going for with him. Maybe that was deliberate, given the mysteriousness of the goings-on in the town, but it detracted a bit from the story. Yet after multiple twists and turns of the plot, there was a satisfying conclusion. If you’re interested in a thriller that combines a bit of gothic creepiness with a bit of farce, you’ll enjoy quiet neighbors.

BOOK REVIEW: Dark Fire by C.J. Sansom

I’ve started a few series in the past several months. Some of these were published a while ago so there are a fair number of books already out and I have a lot of catching up to do. Over the weekend, I read the second book in C.J. Sansom’s historical mystery series starring Matthew Shardlake: Dark Fire.

I was very impressed by the first novel, Dissolution, and enjoyed Dark Fire just as much. In it, we return to Tudor England with Matthew Shardlake, a lawyer whose sharp mind has made him one of Thomas Cromwell’s more useful aides. Shardlake was once an ardent reformer, but his faith has been shaken by the misery unleashed by the dissolution of the monasteries and the persecution of religious dissenters.

This novel opens in 1540, three years after the assignment given to Shardlake by Cromwell in Dissolution. Since then, Shardlake has concentrated on the law and on staying out of Cromwell’s way. He no longer wants anything to do with the man who was once the most powerful person in England after the king. Cromwell has been falling from favor ever since finding Anne of Cleves for the king to wed. Vultures are circling. Matthew fears Cromwell, but even more, he fears what will happen to Cromwell’s adherents if Cromwell falls.

He has a couple of cases ongoing. One is against a fellow lawyer whose corruption has grown so great that Matthew is willing to break an unwritten rule that says lawyers don’t expose their fellows. A second case is even more difficult. A young woman, niece of an old friend of Matthew’s, has been charged with murdering her cousin by pushing him into a well. The uncle (who is not the boy’s father) cannot believe the girl did it. The most perplexing problem is that the girl, taken into custody and thrown in jail, refuses to speak. That stance will end with her being tortured to death. Matthew also believes her innocent, but has very little time to prove it.

These things pale in comparison to what comes next. Cromwell, who is growing desperate to remain in the king’s good graces, has learned about a secret weapon discovered in one of the monasteries that is being dismantled. The weapon is Greek Fire, or Dark Fire, an old Byzantine incendiary device, the secret of which is long lost. This fire can burn complete ships within moments. It can burn in water. King Henry, who has been collecting powerful enemies such as France and Spain, would love to have this weapon. The men who discovered it have been able to duplicate the formula and demonstrate its power to Cromwell, and they are willing to hand it over for a fee. Cromwell has promised it to Henry, but the men who have it are too slow to complete the deal, and Cromwell fears some sort of double-cross. He sends Matthew to get it, providing him with some muscle for back-up, a coarse young ruffian named Barak. When Matthew and Barak reach the home of the men with the formula, they find them murdered.

The race is on. Matthew must find the murderers, the formula, and the person high up in the government who hired the murderers. He must also save the young girl from execution by solving the mystery of who really killed the boy. And he has to adapt to this new assistant, Barak, who is ill-bred and yet, oddly companionable. Matthew must also struggle with his conscience–does he really want to be responsible for loosing this weapon upon the world?

Like Dissolution, Dark Fire is a grim book, showing the cruelty and grit of Tudor England. It’s densely written, with numerous subplots that intersect over and over, so that you have to pay attention or risk missing something important. The period detail is exquisite. The characters are richly developed. It’s a marvelous book. You don’t absolutely have to read Dissolution first, though I’d recommend doing so. This is a series, and an author, that I’ll be sticking with for a long time.