Crikey! I Almost Forgot the Advance Polls Are Open

VOTE Gosh darn it!! VOTE!!  Bark Bark!!

Well, it's been a lovely sunny Sunday afternoon. I almost forgot this weekend that the advance polls are open in our Canadian Federal elections. Since I won't be in town next Monday when the official polls are open, I wanted to make sure that I cast my ballot. The way things are these days south of the  border and the possibility of a similar turn of attitude here in Canada, I think it's especially important. We're pretty civil up here in Canada, but it won't take much for us to get just as fractious. Heck, even today our Prime Minister had to have extra security because of threats when he went to a campaign rally. Back in the day when his dad was Prime Minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau used to drive his security to distraction by walking to work from the Prime Minister's residence to Parliament Hill.

Whether you liked him or not, he was pretty darn cool. Anyway, this isn't a political BLog but make sure you get out and vote; just don't vote for the Progressive Conservatives or the People's Party of Canada. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

I finished my 3rd book of October this morning, helped by the fact that I couldn't sleep very well last night. It's the penultimate book in my September Genre challenge - Women authors. I've got three books started for my October Genre challenge - Horror novels. Oddly enough the first two, Relic and The Passage both have links to South America, in one there is an expedition to find some idol and bring it back to the US, with seemingly disastrous consequences and in the other, there is also an expedition to South America to find something (I think vampires) and to bring it back to the USA with, wait for it, seemingly disastrous consequences. Who knew!

Anyway, I've finished one book and have therefore, started another. I'll update that for you and also continue my look at the Mystery Genre - American Cops.

Just Finished

1. The Bee's Kiss by Barbara Cleverly (Joe Sandilands #5).












"The Bee's Kiss by Barbara Cleverly is the 5th book in her historical mystery series featuring Scotland Yard Inspector Joe Sandilands. The series is set after WWI. The first four books found Sandiland assigned as a special investigator in India. In this fifth novel, Joe is back in London, now back with Scotland Yard and called to investigate the murder of Dame Beatrice Jagow-Joliffe who was found murdered in her room at the Ritz hotel. Two police officers, Det Sgt Bill Armitage and a female Constable, Tilly Westthorpe, were both on site when the crime was committed, Tilly as a guest at party and Armitage on security detail, keeping an eye open for a cat burglar who had been making the rounds. Both are assigned to Sandilands team.

The investigation kind of wanders hither and thither. The team travels up to the Dame's home outside of London and finds a place with lots of friction. There is one very lovely character that we meet there, Dorcas, daughter of the Dame's brother, Orlando. There are a number of suspects, including the brother, a boyfriend of Beatrice, her lady's companion as well. It turns out that Beatrice was a leading light in the WREN's during WWI and an excellent cryptographer. She continued to be involved with this organization.

The mystery includes the impending miner's strike, Bolshevists, maybe German spies and other possible intrigues. Sandilands is told to wrap up the investigation from the top but continues on his own, with help from his team and others in Scotland Yard. It took me awhile to get into this story, but I warmed to it. There were many good characters and the little twists and turns in the investigation added to the intrigue. Sandilands is a light-hearted character, a bit of a ladies man and intelligent. I enjoyed the ending and the overall story. Number 6 sits on my bookshelf, awaiting my attention (3.5 stars)" 

Currently Reading

1. The Dragon Factory by Jonathan Maberry (Joe Ledger #2).









"Having protected the world from a zombie plague in 'Patient Zero', Joe Ledger and his crack Department of Military Sciences combat team are thrown into an even more frightening crisis. A genetic-engineering program has been used to create the ultimate fighting machine."

My Ongoing Look at the Mystery Genre - American Cops
In my last entry I looked at Kay Hooper's Bishop Files series.

Craig Johnson

1. Craig Johnson - Longmire. Craig Johnson is an American mystery writer, born in 1961. He is best known for his Walt Longmire western mystery series. He wrote his first book in 2004 and has since then added another 20 books to the series. I first discovered the series when my wife and I began watching a new TV series on A&E, that being Longmire, of course. It starred Robert Taylor as Sheriff Walt Longmire and also, Katee Sackhoff as Deputy Vic Moretti, Lou Diamond Phillips as Henry Standing Bear and Bailey Chase as Deputy Branch Connally, of course, these among a cast of excellent actors. We enjoyed the series very much; there have been 6 seasons from 2012 - 2017. A&E gave up on it, but in Canada we continued to received it on APTN. Anyway, I soon discovered the book series and have so far enjoyed the first two books. I've a few others sitting on my bookshelf as well. I'll highlight those six books.

a. The Cold Dish (Longmire #1).












"Fantastic intro to the world of Walt Longmire. It brought me similar joy reading it that I found reading Martin Walker's Bruno series and Donna Leon's Inspector Brunetti series. You get more than just a mystery, you get a life style, wonderful characters, humour and finally a great mystery. Walt Longmire is a crusty sheriff in Wyoming, with a quirky support cast, his Cheyenne friend, Henry Standing Bear, his deputy, Vic, his secretary, Ruby, his sometime deputy and the ex-sheriff, Lucian, plus many others. It's a joy immersing yourself in this folksy world and getting to know the place and the characters. And, hey, you also get to solve an interesting mystery. Excellent story and I will definitely continue with this series. As an aside, I was introduced to the books by the excellent TV series that was on AMC and is supposedly going to be continued by Netflix. Both the TV series and the book were excellent. (4 stars)"

b. Death Without Company (Longmire #2). 












"Death Without Company is the 2nd Walt Longmire mystery by Craig Johnson. It's been awhile since I read the first and I'm so glad to revisit the Absarka Police Department in Wyoming. Such a great, entertaining, engrossing story.

It's near Christmas and the snows are starting to fall in the community that Walt Longmire polices. He's waiting for his daughter Cady to come for the holidays from Philadelphia. He is interviewing and considering hiring a new detective, Santiago Saizarbitoria and also heading to the Durant Home for Assisted Living for his weekly chess game with Lucian Connally, the previous sheriff. The trip takes a turn when a woman of Basque heritage, one Mari Baroja, is found dead at the home. It turns out that Lucian was once married to her, for all of 3 hours, and he claims that she has been murdered.

Thus begins a sometimes convoluted murder mystery, more bodies will crop up and there will also be attempted murders. How is Mari involved and for that matter, how is Lucian. Family members begin to arrive to find out what they might have inherited. It turns out Mari was a bit of a financial expert and is worth quite a bit. Her second husband, the father of her children, was an awful man, one who beat her and who has 'disappeared'. Are drugs involved? What about this past? What about the granddaughter who runs the local bakery?

It's such a fascinating story. The cast is excellent, from Longmire himself, to his assistant, Vic, down to earth and sexy, to Henry Running Bear, Longmire's oldest friend, to the other people who work at the Police department and even Dog, Longmire's inherited pet. There is great wit and humor (check out the stakeout at the hospital, some laugh out loud moments there) and awful violence (the incident at the river had me holding my breath) and even spirituality (Longmire has dreams and visions that are interesting to try and dissect). It's not a perfect story (some of the crime solving seems a bit convoluted) but it's just an excellent read. (5 stars)"

c. Kindness Goes Unpunished (Longmire #3).












"Walt Longmire has been Sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming, for almost a quarter of a century, but when he joins his good friend Henry Standing Bear on a trip to the City of Brotherly Love to see his daughter, Cady, he's in for a shock. Walt hasn't even put his boots up when Cady is viciously attacked and left near death on the steps of the Franklin Institute. He soon discovers that she has unwittingly become involved in a deadly political cover-up. Backed by Henry, Dog, Deputy Victoria Moretti, and the entire Moretti posse of Philadelphia police officers, Walt unpacks his saddlebag of tricks to mete out some Western-style justice."

d. Another Man's Moccasins (Longmire #4).












"When the body of a young Vietnamese woman is discovered alongside the interstate in Wyoming's Absaroka County, Sheriff Walt Longmire finds only one suspect, Virgil White Buffalo, a Crow with a troubling past. In what begins as an open-and-shut case, Longmire gets a lot more than he bargained for when a photograph in the young woman's purse connects her to an investigation that Longmire tackled forty years ago as a young Marine investigator in Vietnam."

e. The Dark Horse (Longmire #5).












"Wade Barsad, a man with a dubious past and a gift for making enemies, burned his wife Mary's horses in their barn; in retribution, she shot him in the head six times, or so the story goes. But Sheriff Walt Longmire doesn't believe Mary's confession and is determined to dig deeper. Unpinning his star to pose as an insurance investigator, Walt visits the Barsad ranch and discovers that everyone in town--including a beautiful Guatemalan bartender and a rancher with a taste for liquor--had a reason for wanting Wade dead."

f. As the Crow Flies (Longmire #8). 












"Embarking on his eighth adventure, Wyoming Sheriff Walt Longmire doesn't have time for cowboys and criminals. His daughter, Cady, is getting married in two weeks, and the wedding locale arrangements have just gone up in smoke signals. Fearing Cady's wrath, Walt and his old friend Henry Standing Bear set out for the Cheyenne Reservation to find a new site for the nuptials. But their expedition ends in horror as they witness a young Crow woman plummeting from Painted Warrior's majestic cliffs. Is it a suicide, or something more sinister? It's not Walt's turf, but he's coerced into the investigation by Lolo Long, the beautiful new tribal police chief."

Like the teasers? The complete list of Longmire books can be found here. 

Enjoy what remains of your Sunday and have a great week. Read a good book.