It's a busy day. I dropped off some books at my local book store and picked up a few as well. One of my orders arrived in the mail. As well, Jo and I put in an offer on a house in the area. We'll see what happens in that regard, but if it's accepted, it might be a busy summer.
Anyway, the purpose of this quick entry is to let you know about the books I bought, maybe some might sound interesting to you.
New Books
1. Dennis Wheatley - The Launching of Roger Brooks.
"28 Jul 1783 - Nov 1787
This
is the first of Dennis Wheatley's famous historical series in which
appears the young man who was afterwards to become Prime Minister Pitt's
most resourceful secret agent: Roger Brook.
The scene is the
England of George III and the France of Marie Antoinette; the tale is
that of the tall, blue-eyed Roger, who set out to seek fame and fortune
in the year 1783.
He might never have set out at all had it not
been for that ravishing creature, the wicked Georgina Thursby, and he
most certainly would never have been involved in the secrets of French
foreign policy had it not been for the fair Athénais de Rochambeau; but
once on the way, his adventures provide us with an immense variety of
entertainment."
2. Kate Ellis - The Bone Garden (Wesley Peterson #5).
"An excavation at the
lost gardens of Earlsacre Hall is called to a halt when a skeleton is
discovered under a 300 year old stone plinth, a corpse that seems to
have been buried alive. But DS Wesley Peterson has little time to
indulge in his hobby of archaeology. He has a more recent murder case to
solve. A man has been found stabbed to death in a caravan at a popular
holiday park and the only clue to his identity is a newspaper cutting
about the restoration of Earlsacre. Does local solicitor Brian Willerby
have the answer? He seems eager to talk to Wesley but before he can
reveal his secret he is found dead during a 'friendly' game of village
cricket, apparently struck by a cricket ball several times with some
force. If Wesley is looking for a demon bowler this appears to let out
most of the village side. But what is it about Earlsacre Hall that leads
people to murder?"
3. Colin Dexter - The Riddle of the Third Mile (Inspector Morse #6).
"Inspector Morse isn't
sure what to make of the truncated body found dumped in the Oxford
Canal, but he suspects it may be all that's left of an elderly Oxford
don last seen boarding the London train several days before. Whatever
the truth, the inspector knows it won't be simple--it never is. As he
retraces Professor Browne-Smith's route through a London netherworld of
topless bars and fancy bordellos, his forebodings are fulfilled. The
evidence mounts; so do the bodies. So Morse downs another pint,
unleashes his pit bull instincts, and solves a mystery that defies all
logic."
4. Ken Bruen - Headstone (Jack Taylor # 9).
"In Headstone, an
elderly priest is nearly beaten to death and a special-needs boy is
brutally attacked. Evil has many guises and Jack Taylor has encountered
most of them. But nothing before has ever truly terrified him until he
confronts an evil coterie named Headstone, who have committed a series
of random, insane, violent crimes in Galway, Ireland.
Most would
see a headstone as a marker of the dead, but this organization seems
like it will act as a death knell to every aspect of Jack’s life. Jack’s
usual allies, Ridge and Stewart, are also in the line of terror. An act
of appalling violence alerts them to the sleeping horror, but this
realization may be too late, as Headstone barrels along its deadly path
right to the center of Jack’s life and the heart of Galway."
5. C.J. Box - Winterkill (Joe Pickett #3).
"It's an hour away from
darkness with a bitter winter storm raging when Joe Pickett finds
himself deep in the forest edging Battle Mountain, shotgun in his left
hand, his truck's steering wheel handcuffed to his right-and Lamar
Gardiner's arrow-riddled corpse splayed against the tree in front of
him.
Lamar's murder and the sudden onslaught of the snowstorm
warns: Get off the mountain. But Joe knows this episode is far from
over. Somewhere in the dense timber, a killer draws back his
bowstring-with Joe as his prey.
Joe's pursuit of the killer
through the rugged mountains that surround the snow-packed town of
Saddlestring takes a horrifying turn when his beloved foster daughter is
kidnapped. Now it's personal-and Joe will stop at nothing to get her
back."
6. James R. Benn - The First Wave (Billy Boyle #2).
"Billy Boyle is
dispatched to help arrange the surrender of Vichy French forces in
Algeria. But dissension among the regular army, the militia, and De
Gaulle's Free French forces allows black marketers in league with the
Germans to divert medical supplies, leading to multiple murders. Billy
must find the killers and rescue the woman he loves, a British spy."
7. Iain M. Banks - Transition.
"There is a world that
hangs suspended between triumph and catastrophe, between the dismantling
of the Wall and the fall of the Twin Towers, frozen in the shadow of
suicide terrorism and global financial collapse. Such a world requires a
firm hand and a guiding light. But does it need the Concern: an
all-powerful organization with a malevolent presiding genius, pervasive
influence and numberless invisible operatives in possession of
extraordinary powers?
Among those operatives are Temudjin Oh, of
mysterious Mongolian origins, an un-killable assassin who journeys
between the peaks of Nepal, a version of Victorian London and the dark
palaces of Venice under snow; Adrian Cubbish, a restlessly greedy City
trader; and a nameless, faceless state-sponsored torturer known only as
the Philosopher, who moves between time zones with sinister ease. Then
there are those who question the Concern: the bandit queen Mrs.
Mulverhill, roaming the worlds recruiting rebels to her side; and
Patient 8262, under sedation and feigning madness in a forgotten
hospital ward, in hiding from a dirty past.
There is a world that needs help; but whether it needs the Concern is a different matter."
So there you go. Some book ideas for the weekend.
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