I won't provide an entry on my ongoing look at the mystery genre this time but I will next time for sure. I finished one book since my last entry and also had a few book orders arrive via Canada Post. I also went to the Rotary Club's Annual Book Sale and purchased a few books. I'm happy that I tried to be a bit more picky than usual. I've been pretty good this year with my book purchases, probably 1/2 as many as the previous years.
So, let's get down to business.
Just Finished
"Back in my university days, 74 - 78, I took a science fiction novel course and was introduced to Ursula K. Le Guin, specifically The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed. I enjoyed those books so much that I went looking for others of her books. I found A Wizard of Earthsea but over the years I never tried to read it.
I found another copy of the book recently and decided to try this series again and I'm glad that I did. Ged is a young man of Earthsea who lives on the island of Gont. When the island is invaded by pirates, we discover Ged's talents as a wizard. He saves his village. The wizard of the island takes him in after his naming ceremony to teach him how to be a wizard. After Ged brings a shadow from the underworld up in an effort to impress a young girl, Ogion sends him to the Wizard school on the Island of Roke.
Much time is spent with Ged's education as a Wizard but he is involved in a number of incidents, almost dying when he tries to impress another wizard - student by bringing up a spirit from the underworld. A Shadow remains on the earth and when Ged finally completes his wizard training he must go after the Shadow as it is a threat to his life.
It's a fascinating story, thoughtfully written and describing an interesting new world. In so many of these stories, I struggle to read the maps or many places are left out, but I was quite happy that these were clear and easy to read, even in a paperback edition. Ged is an interesting character and the others, while not as major, are still interesting, especially his friend Vetch. There were intimations of events that take place in Ged's future, presumably they'll be described in the continuing versions of the Earthsea saga. (4 stars)"
I haven't started any new books after finishing this one as it was a freebie, an extra thrown into the mix of my ongoing reads. I hope to finish one more, maybe two more before end April.
New Books
I received two books from Better World Books and one from a new online book company, CMB Books and Art in Toronto. Plus I purchased 7 at the Book Sale. (Ed. Note. Two books arrived from Reusebooks in the UK this afternoon)
"Sean Duffy knows there's no such thing as a perfect crime. But a torso in a suitcase is pretty close.
Still, one tiny clue is all it takes, and there it is. A tattoo. So Duffy, fully fit and back at work after the severe trauma of his last case, is ready to follow the trail of blood-however faint-that always, always connects a body to its killer.
A legendarily stubborn man, Duffy becomes obsessed with this mystery as a distraction from the ruins of his love life, and to push down the seed of self-doubt that he seems to have traded for his youthful arrogance.
So from country lanes to city streets, Duffy works every angle. And wherever he goes, he smells a rat..."
"When those in power hide the truth, she risks everything to reveal it.
When lawyer, Jenny Cooper, is appointed Severn Vale District Coroner, she’s hoping for a quiet life and space to recover from a traumatic divorce, but the office she inherits from the recently deceased Harry Marshall contains neglected files hiding dark secrets and a trail of buried evidence.
Could the tragic death in custody of a young boy be linked to the apparent suicide of a teenage prostitute and the fate of Marshall himself? Jenny’s curiosity is aroused. Why was Marshall behaving so strangely before he died? What injustice was he planning to uncover? And what caused his abrupt change of heart?
In the face of powerful and sinister forces determined to keep both the truth hidden and the troublesome coroner in check, Jenny embarks on a lonely and dangerous one-woman crusade for justice which threatens not only her career but also her sanity."
"Playing the corpse in a wooden murder mystery at the Regent Theatre, Rugland Spa, is not exactly a triumph for Charles Paris, actor. In fact his career could hardly sink any lower. But suddenly the mystery spills over into real life when a bizarre sequence of events culminates in the Artistic Director's apparent suicide. And the talents of Charles Paris, amateur sleuth, are called into action."
"Work hard, play hard. That's the credo on the oilfields of Alaska's North Slope, where harsh conditions and long, isolated shifts make for some of the best-paid jobs in the state. Management typically turns a blind eye to off-hours drinking and gambling, but a spate of drug-related deaths means it's time for Royal Petroleum to get its house in order. Working on behalf of the Anchorage DA, Kate Shugak is brought in undercover to identify the dealer and shut down the flow of cocaine. Of course, the dealer might have some very different ideas"
"This The New York Times bestseller will make the Bernie Gunther series the new gold standard in thrillers.Bernie Gunther is one of the great protagonists in thriller literature. During his eleven years working homicide in Berlin's Kripo, Bernie learned a thing or two about evil. Then he set himself up as a private detective-until 1940 when Heydrich dragooned him into the SS's field gray uniform and the bloodbath that was the Eastern Front. Spanning twenty-five tumultuous years, Field Gray strides across the killing fields of Europe, landing Bernie in a divided Germany at the height of the Cold War. Bernie's latest outing will mesmerize both readers of the Berlin Noir trilogy and anyone who loves historical thrillers, catapulting this cult favorite to breakout stardom."
"Somebody in Pacific Point is guilty of a kidnapping, but what probation officer Howard Cross wants to find most is innocence: in an ex-war hero who has taken a tough manslaughter rap, in a wealthy woman with a heart full of secrets, and in a blue-eyed beauty who has lost her way. The trouble is that the abduction has already turned to murder, and the more Cross pries into the case the further he slips into a pool of violence and evil. Somewhere in the California desert the whole scheme may come down on the wrong man. Somewhere Cross is going to find the last piece of a bloody puzzle—a mystery of blackmail, passion, and hidden identities that might be better left unsolved."
"When a mysterious package is delivered to Robin Ellacott, she is horrified to discover that it contains a woman’s severed leg.
Her boss, private detective Cormoran Strike, is less surprised but no less alarmed. There are four people from his past who he thinks could be responsible – and Strike knows that any one of them is capable of sustained and unspeakable brutality.
With the police focusing on the one suspect Strike is increasingly sure is not the perpetrator, he and Robin take matters into their own hands, and delve into the dark and twisted worlds of the other three men. But as more horrendous acts occur, time is running out for the two of them…"
"In this thrilling new novel from the author of Industrial Magic, a pregnant werewolf may have unwittingly unleashed Jack the Ripper on the twenty-first century — and become his next target…
Ever since she discovered she’s pregnant, Elena Michaels has been on edge. After all, she’s never heard of another living female werewolf, let alone one who’s given birth. But thankfully, her expertise is needed to retrieve a stolen letter allegedly written by Jack the Ripper. As a distraction, the job seems simple enough — only the letter contains a portal to Victorian London’s underworld, which Elena inadvertently triggers — unleashing a vicious killer and a pair of zombie thugs.
Now Elena must find a way to seal the portal before the unwelcome visitors get what they’re looking for — which, for some unknown reason, is Elena…"
"An intrigue against Britain by Bolshevik agents is strongly suspected at MI6. Sir Leonard Wallace sends Captain Hugh Shannon, disguised as a professor of English Literature, to India to get to the bottom of it."
"On a hot summer day in 1938, a beautiful actress is murdered on the grand Kent estate of Sir Jack Jessup, close friend of the Prince of Wales. An instant headline in the papers, the confession of a local troublemaker swiftly brings the case to a close, but in 1949, the reappearance of a jade necklace raises questions about the murder. Was the man convicted and executed the decade before truly guilty, or had he wrongly been sent to the gallows?
Inspector Madden is summoned out of retirement at the request of former Chief Inspector Angus Sinclair to re-open the case at Scotland Yard. Set in the aftermath of World War II, The Death of Kings is an atmospheric and captivating police procedural, and is a story of honor and justice that takes Madden through the idyllic English countryside, post-war streets of London, and into the criminal underworld of the Chinese Triads."
"Proton and Phaze, parallel worlds of science and magic, are ripe with the seeds of revolution. Mach, a brave and sensitive robot from Proton, and his alternate self, magical Bane from Phaze, hold the power to link the two warring systems – or destroy them entirely. Both are prepared to save their worlds. But neither Mach nor Bane had anticipated the dangers of forbidden love ... with members of the opposite realm!"
"Nestled along the Adriatic coastline, the kingdom of Averna has suddenly - and suspiciously - become the hottest property in Europe, and Albert Campion is given the task of recovering the long-missing proofs of ownership.
His mission takes him from the French Riviera to the sleepy village of Pontisbright, where he meets the flame-haired Amanda Fitton. Her family claim to be the rightful heirs to the principality, and insist on joining Campion's quest. Unfortunately for them, a criminal financier and his heavies are also on the trail - the clock is ticking for Campion and his cohorts to outwit the thugs and solve the mystery of Averna."
So there you go. Next time I'll get back to my look at the Mystery Genre I hope. Have a great weekend!
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