A New Month; Some New Books

So here we go, August is now upon us. It's started off here in the valley a tad cooler; definitely more comfortable for sleeping at night. Jo has taken advantage of the cooler temps by spending the afternoon at the stove; making a pot of stew and also Beef Bourguignon. Supper will be good. Last night she made chicken curry, also quite excellent. And here I sit, doing nothing but some laundry.

I've had one new book arrive in the mail and I also did my monthly trip around the Local Free Libraries, dropping off a few books and acquiring a few others. Today I went to Nearly New Books with the rest of my trade-ins and found 3 there of interest.

So today, my entry will be about 'new' books that will make there way onto my bookshelves.

New Books

1. From Mr. G.D. Price, Mansfield UK

Passport to Oblivion by James Leasor (1964). This is a new spy series for me. I think it was highlighted in the back of one of my other new spy series.











"As K pushed his way through the glass doors of the Park Hotel, he realized instinctively why the two stumpy men were waiting by the reception desk. They had come to kill him...

Who was K - and why should anyone kill him? Who was the bruised girl in Rome? Why did a refugee strangle his mistress in an hotel on the edge of the Arctic Circle? And why, in a small office above a wholesale fruiterers in Covent Garden, did a red-haired Scot sift through filing cabinets for the name of a man he knew in Burma twenty years ago?

None of these questions might seem to concern Dr. Jason Love, a country practitioner of Bishop's Combe, Somerset. But, in the end, they all do.

Apart from his patients, Dr. Love has apparently only two outside interests; his supercharged Cord roadster, and the occasional Judo lessons he gives to the local branch of the British Legion.

But out of the past, to which all forgotten things should belong, a man comes to see him - and his simple, everyday country-life world is shattered like a mirror by a .38 bullet."

Little Free Libraries, Comox BC

1. The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham (1925). I've read two or three Maugham stories this past few years and have definitely grown to appreciate his writing style.










"Kitty Fane fell in love for the first time two years after she married Dr. Walter Fane. It was an ecstatic, passionate, violent love, and the man was not her husband.

Her lover, Charles Townsend, was also married. Kitty worshiped him. And, at least at first, they managed their affair with skill and caution.

But Dr. Fane found out. Quietly he gathered complete proof. Then, just as quietly, he offered Kitty Fane a choice of dramatic alternatives.

What her choice was and what it did to her life and character is the story Maugham tells-a novel that has become a modern classic."

2. The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings by Edgar Allan Poe (Short Stories / Poetry / Essays). One of my challenges this year is to read something by Poe. I'll probably read the stories and maybe take a glance at the Poetry and Essays.

"Essays on literature accompany poems and stories about the strange forces that lead men to their doom."

3. No Middle Name by Lee Child (Short Stories / 2017). This is a collection of short stories featuring Jack Reacher.

4. The Grave Maurice by Martha Grimes (Inspector Jury #18). I've been reading the Jury books again, this time starting at the beginning. It's an excellent mystery series.










"'Chew on this,' says Melrose Plant to Richard Jury, who's in the hospital being driven crazy by Hannibal, a nurse who likes to speculate on his chances for survival. Jury could use a good story, preferably one not ending with his own demise. Plant tells Jury of something he overheard in The Grave Maurice, a pub near the hospital. A woman told an intriguing story about a girl named Nell Ryder, granddaughter to the owner of the Ryder Stud Farm in Cambridgeshire, who went missing more than a year before and has never been found. What is especially interesting to Plant is that Nell is also the daughter of Jury's surgeon.

But Nell's disappearance isn't the only mystery at the Ryder farm. A woman has been found dead on the track-a woman who was a stranger even to the Ryders.

But not to Plant. She's the woman he saw in The Grave Maurice. Together with Jury, Nell's family, and the Cambridgeshire police, Plant embarks on a search to find Nell and bring her home. But is there more to their mission than just restoring a fifteen-year-old girl to her family?"

Nearly New Books, Comox BC
(I traded in 5 or 6 and found 3 that interested me)

1. Spartan Gold by Clive Cussler w/ Grant Blackwood (Fargo Adventures #1). I've been reading the Isaac Pitt books by Cussler and I hadn't found a copy of the 1st Fargo book until today.

"A fortune lost for ages...

A millionaire pursuing his destiny...

Sam and Remi Fargo are about to encounter both."

2. Innocent Graves by Peter Robinson (Inspector Banks #8). This is one of my favorite current mystery series.












"The eighth novel in the critically acclaimed Inspector Alan Banks series. Detective Inspector Banks had seen crimes just as savage in London, but somehow the murder of a teenage girl seemed all the more shocking in the quiet Yorkshire village of Eastvale. Deborah Harrison had been found one foggy night in the churchyard behind St Mary's, strangled with the strap of her school satchel. But Deborah was no typical sixteen-year-old. Her father was a powerful financier who ran in the highest echelons of industry, defence and classified information. And Deborah, it seemed, enjoyed keeping secrets of her own..."

3. Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night by James Runcie (Chambers #2). Jo and I have enjoyed the TV series based on these books very much. I've read the first book so far and found it excellent.










"The loveable full time priest and part time detective Canon Sidney Chambers continues his sleuthing adventures in late 1950's Cambridge. Accompanied by his faithful Labrador Dickens, and working in tandem with the increasingly exasperated Inspector Geordie Keating, Sidney is called on to investigate the unexpected fall of a Cambridge don from the roof of King's College Chapel; a case of arson at a glamor photographer's studio; and the poisoning of Zafar Ali, Grantchester's finest spin bowler, in the middle of a crucial game of cricket. As he pursues his quietly probing inquiries, Sidney also has to decide on the vexed question of marriage. Can he choose between the rich, glamorous socialite Amanda Kendall and Hildegard Staunton, a beguiling German widow three years his junior? To help him make up his mind Sidney takes a trip abroad, only to find himself trapped in a complex web of international espionage just as the Berlin Wall is going up."

So there you go, folks. Some books for you to check out. Tomorrow is Friday and another weekend will be upon us. Enjoy your Friday and your weekend!