An Update While We Watch Curling

It's a cool Saturday night. A bit of snow and wind today. Jo went out for awhile this morning, then we went for lunch at Benino's. We ended up tied after 4 games of Sequence. We bought a nice meat lovers pizza at Quality Foods. It was yummy. Now we're watching Manitoba and Northern Ontario in the Scotties' 1 / 2 curling match. It's really anybody's game. Nobody is especially hot.

I've finished one book since my last update. As per normal, I'll provide my review and also the synopses of the next books I've started. I'll also update any new books I've received since my last update. 

Just Finished

1. Murder by Matchlight by E.C.R. Lorac (Robert MacDonald #26 / 1945).

"Murder by Matchlight is my first exposure to the mystery writing of British crime writer E.C.R. Lorac. It was the 26th mystery of the CID Inspector MacDonald series. The first book was written in 1931 and the last in 1959. This 26th story was published in 1945 and is set during the German bombings of London during WWII. I have to say I enjoyed the story very much. They reminded me of police procedurals of crime writer Michael Gilbert.

A young man, Bruce Mallaig, whose dinner date was cancelled finds himself wandering around London during the blackout. While sitting in a park, he hears noises that sound like a struggle and seeing a body and what appears to be another gentleman trying to flee, he tackles the other man, at the same time shouting for the police. 

The uniformed bobby takes over, calls for an Inspector, who asks for assistance from CID, thereby bringing Inspector MacDonald into action. Thus begins a neat little mystery investigation that will provide you with a satisfying mystery as well as a group of fascinating characters (suspects?). 

Inspector MacDonald is a very likable, intelligent detective. His methods are methodical and keep adding information to the case. He has a team of capable officers assisting him and also even some of the 'suspects' who provide information the more they are questioned and also prove to be very useful in providing him with clues.

It's just an excellent, satisfying story; well written, with an interesting portrayal of WWII London, peopled by intelligent personalities. The case was resolved most satisfactorily. In this edition, there is even a quick short story of about 10 pages, with a different case involving uniformed policeman, Lind. It provides a nice little aperitif after the excellent main story. (4.0 stars)"

Currently Reading

1. The Cometeers by Jack Williamson (Legion of Space #2 / 1936). 

"In the second book in the Legion of Space series, Jay Kalam, Hal Samdu and Giles Habibula fight The Cometeers, an alien race of energy beings controlling a "comet" which is really a giant force field containing a swarm of planets populated by their slaves. The slave races are of flesh and blood, but none are remotely similar to humans. The Cometeers cannot be destroyed by AKKA, as they are incorporeal from the Universe's point of view and exist for the most part in an alternate reality. The ruling Cometeers feed on their slaves and literally absorb their souls, leaving disgusting, dying hulks in their wake. It is said that they do so, as they were once fleshly entities themselves of various species. Hence, the ruling Cometeers keep other intelligent beings as slaves and "cattle." They fear AKKA, though, as it can erase all their possessions."

2. Heartstopper, Volume 2 by Alice Oseman (2019).

"Nick and Charlie are best friends. Nick knows Charlie's gay, and Charlie is sure that Nick isn't.

But love works in surprising ways, and Nick is discovering all kinds of things about his friends, his family ... and himself."

New Books

1. A Loyal Character Dancer by Qiu Xiaolong (Inspector Chen #2 / 2002). I just finished the first book in this series earlier this year. It was excellent.

"Inspector Chen’s mentor in the Shanghai Police Bureau has assigned him to escort U.S. Marshal Catherine Rohn. Her mission is to bring Wen, the wife of a witness in an important criminal trial, to the United States. Inspector Rohn is already en route when Chen learns that Wen has unaccountably vanished from her village in Fujian. Or is this just what he is supposed to believe?

Chen resents his role; he would rather investigate the triad killing in Shanghai’s beauteous Bund Park. But his boss insists that saving face with Inspector Rohn has priority. So Chen Cao, the ambitious son of a father who imbued him with Confucian precepts, must tread warily as he tries once again to be a good cop, a good man, and also a loyal Party member."

2. Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo (2020). I just finished The Poet X and it was quite different and excellent.

"Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people… In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal’s office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash. Separated by distance—and Papi’s secrets—the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered. And then, when it seems like they’ve lost everything of their father, they learn of each other. "

3. Horse, A Novel by Geraldine Brooks (2022). A new author for me. It looked interesting.

"A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history

Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack.

New York City, 1954. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance.

Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse--one studying the stallion's bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success.

Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred Lexington, Horse is a novel of art and science, love and obsession, and our unfinished reckoning with racism."

4. Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo (Alex Stern #1 / 2019). I'd purchased the 2nd book in this 'series' recently but thought I should get the 1st before I tried to read it. Makes sense, eh?

"Galaxy "Alex" Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale's freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug-dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. In fact, by age twenty, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she's thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world's most prestigious universities on a full ride. What's the catch, and why her?

Still searching for answers, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale's secret societies. Their eight windowless "tombs" are the well-known haunts of the rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street's biggest players. But their occult activities are more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive. They tamper with forbidden magic. They raise the dead. And, sometimes, they prey on the living.

Ninth House is the long-awaited adult debut by the beloved author of Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows. Leigh Bardugo will take her place alongside Lev Grossman and Deborah Harkness as one of the finest practitioners of literary fantasy writing today."

5. The Edge Chronicles; The Curse of the Gloamglozer by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell (Quint Saga #1 / 2001). I've enjoyed a few of Riddell's YA books. This series sounded interesting.

"Fourteen-year-old Quint Verginix is the only remaining son of famous sky-pirate Wind Jackal. He and his father have journeyed to the city of Sanctaphrax – a great floating rock, bound to the ground below by a chain, its inhabitants living with their heads literally in the clouds.

But the city hides a dangerous secret: deep inside the great rock, something horrible lurks. With his father away, Quint may be the only one who can save Sanctaphrax from the dreaded curse of the gloamglozer . . .

The Curse of the Gloamglozer is the first book of the Quint Saga – first trilogy in The Edge Chronicles, the internationally best-selling fantasy series, which has featured on the UK and the New York Times best-seller lists and sold more than 3 million copies. There are now 13 titles and four trilogies in the series, but each book is a stand-alone adventure, so you can read The Edge Chronicles in any order you choose."

I hope you see something that piques your interest.