It's a Cloudy Thursday in the Valley

Clyde and I started off the day going to the vet so he could get his arthritis injection and so I could pick up some meds for him and Bonnie. It's kind of drizzly out today. Jo is off now volunteering at the local Comox Auxiliary Thrift Store. She goes once or twice a week. Along with her part time job, she's keeping busy. So since she's not home and the dogs are resting after their walk, let's do a quick update. Only one book completed since my last update, but I did go to the Rotary Club Book Sale on Sunday so I bought a few books. I'll provide synopses for the newish books and also my review of that book I completed.

Just Finished

1.  Dawn of Fear by Susan Cooper (1970). I've been enjoying Cooper's The Dark is Rising fantasy series. This was an excellent standalone.

"Susan Cooper has written two successful children / YA series, the Boggart and The Dark is Rising. Dawn of Fear is a standalone YA story set in WWII London and follows 3 friends, Derek, Peter and Geoffrey as they navigate the Nazi bombing of their city and try to live as normal lives as possible in this situation.

It's a short story but packs a punch, especially the last half. In some ways it reminds me of Stand By Me but more so of the movie, Hope and Glory, except told from the children's perspective. The boys live on Everett Avenue on the outskirts of London. It's a small street bordered by fields, gardening plots and an army anti-aircraft gun emplacement. Their lives revolve around school and their families. Every chance they get, the 3 head to the ditch in behind their houses, where they are building a fort. Their daily lives are interrupted by air raid sirens (school is closed for a few days when a bomb lands right next to it) and also by the gang of boys on the adjoining street, White Road. The conflict that will result in the last half is directly due to this group of boys.

One day they decide to try a different location, closer to the gardening plots and the army location and they find what they believe is an ideal spot. This is where they build, where they show their camp to a young 16 year old, Tom, about to join the Merchant Navy, and where the conflict with the White Road boys will erupt.

It's a simple story in its way but it packs a punch in each page, whether the nightly terror of living in their back yard bomb shelters as bombers try to destroy their morale and city, or the growing conflict with the White Street boys. It's a wonderful story of comradeship, well told and described. But it's also a story of great tragedy, no matter who simply told. Well worth reading. It will give you pause, I believe. (4.5 stars)"

Currently Reading

1. The Dark Times by Tim Probert (Lightfall #3 / 2024). This just showed up at my local book store and I've enjoyed the 1st two books very much. I have to see how the adventure is continuing.

"The Lights have gone dark in Irpa. Danger lurks as the air grows colder and threats lie in the shadows at every turn. While the rest of their fellowship seeks safety, Bea and Cad team up with a small group of survivors to travel to the Citadel of Knowledge, pursuing answers to their world’s darkest mysteries. But their journey reveals even more secrets. Until an unexpected ally shines a light in the darkness, providing a clue to a mystery from long ago…and a beacon of hope for the future."

New Books

1. The Union Club Mysteries by Isaac Asimov (1983). I've been enjoying his Black Widowers mysteries. This looked interesting.

"The Union Club Mysteries is a collection of mystery short stories by American author Isaac Asimov featuring his fictional mystery solver Griswold. It was first published in hardcover by Doubleday in 1983 and in paperback by the Fawcett Crest imprint of Ballantine Books in 1985.The book collects thirty stories by Asimov, most reprinted from magazines and a few previously unpublished, together with a foreword and afterword by the author. Each story is set at a club known as the Union Club, in which a conversation between three members prompts a fourth member, Griswold, to tell about a mystery he has solved. These are often tall stories, and often based on his time in US intelligence."

2. The Sixth Man by David Baldacci (King & Maxwell #5 / 2011). I've enjoyed this series. This was the only book I didn't have.

"Edgar Roy--an alleged serial killer--is awaiting trial. He faces almost certain conviction. Sean King and Michelle Maxwell are called in by Roy's attorney, Sean's old friend and mentor Ted Bergin, to help work the case. But their investigation is derailed when Sean and Michelle find Bergin murdered.

It is now up to them to ask the questions no one seems to want answered: Is Roy a killer? Who murdered Bergin? The more they dig into Roy's past, the more they encounter obstacles, half-truths, dead-ends, false friends, and escalating threats from every direction. Their persistence puts them on a collision course with the highest levels of the government and the darkest corners of power. In a terrifying confrontation that will push Sean and Michelle to their limits, the duo may be permanently parted."

3. They Wychford Poisoning Case by Anthony Berkeley (Roger Sheringham #2 / 1926). I have read one of this series but it was quite awhile ago.

"A classic British crime novel from the Golden Age – perhaps the first ever psychological crime novel – by the founder of the Detection Club, marking 50 years since the death of the author. Mrs Bentley has been arrested for murder. The evidence is arsenic she extracted from fly papers was in her husband’s medicine, his food and his lemonade, and her crimes are being plastered across the newspapers. Even her lawyers believe she is guilty. But Roger Sheringham, the brilliant but outspoken young novelist, is convinced that there is ‘too much evidence’ against Mrs Bentley and sets out to prove her innocence. Credited as the book that first introduced psychology to the detective novel, The Wychford Poisoning Case was based on a notorious real-life murder inquiry. Written by Anthony Berkeley, a founder of the celebrated Detection Club who also found fame under the pen-name ‘Francis Iles’, the story saw the return of Roger Sheringham, the Golden Age’s breeziest – and booziest – detective."

4. Merchanter's Luck by C.J. Cherryh (Company Wars #2 / 1982). Downbelow Station was the first book in this Sci Fi series and the first I'd read by Cherryh. It was so good.

"The fateful meeting between the owner of a tramp star-freighter that flies the Union planets under false papers and fake names and a proud but junior member of a powerful starship-owning family leads to a record-breaking race to Downbelow Station--and a terrifying showdown at a deadly destination off the cosmic charts."

5. Follow the Toff by John Creasey (Toff #44 / 1961). One of many excellent series I've been exploring by John Creasey.

"Dedicated to helping both the young and beautiful as well as the old and needy The Honorable Richard Rollison was now being entertained by Katherine Dangerfield in a fancy bistro on the Champs Elysees. Beyond was the noisy throng that swarmed and added to the din at the Arc de Triomphe beyond their table.

The Toff had been shadowed in the spring in Paris and young artists were starting to die. Under his bed an engraver Simon Roy Shawn was becoming more dead all the time. Mrs. Dangerfield's art-dealer husband was missing and she was reluctant to notify the police especially when threatened.

Reluctantly the Toff agreed to help was already implicated because he was the last person to see those artists killed alive. Did he do it---many will wonder."

6. The Cold Room by J.T. Ellison (Taylor Jackson #4 / 2010)

"Homicide detective Taylor Jackson thinks she's seen it all in Nashville but she's never seen anything as perverse as The Conductor. Once his victim is captured, he contains her in a glass coffin, slowly starving her to death. Only then does he give in to his attraction.

Later, he creatively disposes of the body by reenacting scenes from famous paintings. Strangely, similar macabre works are being displayed in Europe. Taylor teams up with her fiance, FBI profiler Dr. John Baldwin, and New Scotland Yard detective James "Memphis" Highsmythe a haunted man who has eyes only for Taylor to put an end to The Conductor's art collection.

Has the killer gone international? Or are there dueling artists, competing to create the ultimate masterpiece?"

7. Seaweed in the Soup by Stanley Evans (Silas Seaweed #5 / 2009). An interesting mystery series set in Victoria BC.

"Silas Seaweed is back on the beat as the street-smart Coast Salish cop. A gardener is found dead and the prime suspects are two young local party girls. Silas is handed the case that soon takes a bloodier turn when a policeman's wife is killed. Silas begins to suspect that these murders and other events are related to the recent tide of gang-related crimes that has been sweeping British Columbia. Just as he draws closer to finding concrete evidence, Silas finds his own reputation in danger and is suspended from the police force. His quest to clear his name and find the killers leads him from Victoria's loud and steamy nightclubs and bars to the remote and quiet islands of Desolation Sound."

8. Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly (2017). A new author of YA fiction for me to try.

"Told from four intertwining points of view—two boys and two girls—the novel celebrates bravery, being different, and finding your inner bayani (hero).

In one day, four lives weave together in unexpected ways. Virgil Salinas is shy and kindhearted and feels out of place in his crazy-about-sports family. Valencia Somerset, who is deaf, is smart, brave, and secretly lonely, and she loves everything about nature. Kaori Tanaka is a self-proclaimed psychic, whose little sister, Gen, is always following her around. And Chet Bullens wishes the weird kids would just stop being so different so he can concentrate on basketball.

They aren’t friends, at least not until Chet pulls a prank that traps Virgil and his pet guinea pig at the bottom of a well. This disaster leads Kaori, Gen, and Valencia on an epic quest to find missing Virgil. Through luck, smarts, bravery, and a little help from the universe, a rescue is performed, a bully is put in his place, and friendship blooms."

I did get a few others but these stood out. I hope you get some reading ideas. Enjoy the rest of your week and the upcoming weekend.