Today has been a lovely sunny day. I went for a nice walk this morning; it was fresh and cool. I had great news from my Dad. He's on the list finally to get his Covid vaccine. I'm so happy! It's been a slow process here in Canada I must say.
I finished my 3rd Agatha Christie novel this morning. I'll provide the review of the story plus the synopsis of the next Christie mystery on my list. Yesterday I went out to treat Jo and I with croissant sandwiches from Cafe Capuccino to celebrate how well we've been doing on our diets. While I was downtown Courtenay I stopped into the local used book store (UBS) and picked up a few books. It had been awhile since I'd been to that particular store and there were many new ones. I also stopped off at my local UBS to drop off some books. I managed to find a few there as well. Then I drove by a few of the Local Free Libraries and found a book there. Of course, as always happens when I visit my locals, I got some in the mail. LOL! I'll provide the synopses of these new additions too.
Just Finished
"Partners in Crime is the 2nd book in the Tommy and Tuppence Beresford mystery series by classic crime writer, Agatha Christie. There are 5 books in this particular series. Tommy & Tuppence have appeared in various TV and movie adaptations. James Warwick and Francesca Annis have portrayed the intrepid duo. Anthony Andrews and Greta Scacchi played them in a Miss Marple TV movie. And more recently, David Walliams and Jessica Raine were excellent in the Partners in Crime series. (The list is not exhaustive)
Partners in Crime is a fun, entertaining series of short stories. Tommy and Tuppence, such a charming couple, are bored with their lives. The 'Chief' shows up one day and offers them a job. He wants them to take over and assume the identities of the owners of the International Detective Agency, with Tommy assuming the role of Mr. Theodore Blunt. It is a conduit for Russian spying and they hope to break up the spy organization with the Beresford's assistance.
Accompanied by their 'man' Albert, the duo take over the the rest of the book involves them solving a number of fun, interesting cases and also helping break down the Russians. Each story is short and well presented. Tommy decides at the beginning of each chapter which famous detective he will emulate; Sherlock Holmes (w/ Tuppence as Watson), Father Brown, even Agatha's own Hercule Poirot.
The cases are all interesting, a fiancee whose fiance has disappeared, a young lady who predicted her own death, a master of impersonation, etc. They are succinct and fascinating and each member of the duo seems to take turns solving them. I wish there were more than just 5 stories with the two as they are intelligent, witty, clearly in love. I readily admit having a crush on Tuppence (what a great name). They work so well together, backing each other up at all times, keeping each other out of trouble, or saving the other. Albert is also a fun character, the great assistant.
I can't recommend the stories enough. You will not be disappointed. Poirot and Marple might be Agatha Christie's main stars, but she created a delightful grouping with Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. (4.5 stars)"
Currently Reading
"On her way to Scotland Yard to report several murders in her village, an elderly woman encounters a retired policeman, Luke Fitzwilliam. He dismisses her ravings about the murderer finding it easy to kill, as long as no one knows who he is--until two more murders occur--one of which is the old Lady's."
New Books
"In 323 B.C.E, having
conquered Persia, Alexander the Great set his sights on Arabia, then
suddenly succumbed to a strange fever. Locating his final resting
place–unknown to this day–remains a tantalizing goal for both
archaeologists and treasure hunters. Now the quest for this coveted
prize is about to heat up. And Cotton Malone–former U.S. Justice
Department agent turned rare-book dealer–will be drawn into an intense
geopolitical chess game.
After narrowly escaping incineration in
a devastating fire that consumes a Danish museum, Cotton learns from
his friend, the beguiling adventurer Cassiopeia Vitt, that the blaze was
neither an accident nor an isolated incident. As part of campaign of
arson intended to mask a far more diabolical design, buildings across
Europe are being devoured by infernos of unnatural strength.
And
from the ashes of the U.S.S.R., a new nation has arisen: Former Soviet
republics have consolidated into the Central Asian Federation. At its
helm is Supreme Minister Irina Zovastina, a cunning despot with a talent
for politics, a taste for blood sport, and the single-minded desire to
surpass Alexander the Great as history’s ultimate conqueror.
Backed
by a secret cabal of power-brokers, the Federation has amassed a
harrowing arsenal of biological weapons. Equipped with the hellish power
to decimate other nations at will, only one thing keeps Zovastina from
setting in motion her death march of domination: a miraculous healing
serum, kept secret by an ancient puzzle and buried with the mummified
remains of Alexander the Great–in a tomb lost to the ages for more than
1,500 years.
Together, Cotton and Cassiopeia must outrun and out think the forces allied against them. Their perilous quest will take
them to the shores of Denmark, deep into the venerated monuments of
Venice, and finally high inside the desolate Pamir mountains of Central
Asia to unravel a riddle whose solution could destroy or save millions
of people–depending on who finds the lost tomb first."
"Dr. Siri never really wanted to be Laos’s national coroner. And now that he is in his mid-70s, he longs to spend some time with his wife before the untimely death that is sure to befall him, according to the local transvestite fortune-teller. But retirement will have to wait (again) until he has completed one last job for the Lao government: supervising an excavation for the remains of a US fighter pilot who went down in the remote northern Lao jungle ten years earlier. And the stakes are high. The presence of American soldiers in Laos is controversial, and the search party includes high-level politicians and scientists. So when a member of the party is found dead, Dr. Siri suspects it may not have been an accident. Can Dr. Siri get to the bottom of the MIA pilot’s mysterious story before the body count rises and the fortune-teller’s prediction comes true?"
"The Fargos are used to
hunting for treasure, not people. But then a Texas oil baron contacts
them with a personal plea: an investigator friend of the Fargos' was on a
mission to find the oil baron's missing father-and now the investigator
is missing, too. Would Sam and Remi be willing to look for them both?
Though something about the situation doesn't quite add up, the Fargos
agree to go on the search.
What they find will be beyond
anything they could have imagined. On a journey that will take them to
Tibet, Nepal, Bulgaria, India, and China, the Fargos will find
themselves embroiled with black-market fossils, a centuries-old puzzle
chest, the ancient Tibetan kingdom of Mustang, a balloon aircraft from a
century before its time . . . and a skeleton that could turn the
history of human evolution on its head."
"'His Last Bow', the title story of this collection, tells how Sherlock Holmes is brought out of retirement to help the Government fight the German threat at the approach of the First World War. The Prime Minister himself requests Holmes's services to hunt down the remarkable German agent, Von Bork. Several of the detective's earlier cases complete the volume, including 'Wisteria Lodge', 'The Bruce-Partington Plans', and 'The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax'. In 'The Dying Detective', Dr Watson is horrified to discover Holmes at death's door from a mysterious tropical disease as his friend lays a trap for a murderer."
"When Billy, a troubled
young man, comes to private eye Cormoran Strike's office to ask for his
help investigating a crime he thinks he witnessed as a child, Strike is
left deeply unsettled. While Billy is obviously mentally distressed, and
cannot remember many concrete details, there is something sincere about
him and his story. But before Strike can question him further, Billy
bolts from his office in a panic.
Trying to get to the bottom of
Billy's story, Strike and Robin Ellacott — once his assistant, now a
partner in the agency — set off on a twisting trail that leads them
through the backstreets of London, into a secretive inner sanctum within
Parliament, and to a beautiful but sinister manor house deep in the
countryside.
And during this labyrinthine investigation, Strike's
own life is far from straightforward: his newfound fame as a private
eye means he can no longer operate behind the scenes as he once did.
Plus, his relationship with his former assistant is more fraught than it
ever has been — Robin is now invaluable to Strike in the business, but
their personal relationship is much, much trickier than that."
"At Midnight's local pawnshop, weapons are flying off the shelves--only to be used in sudden and dramatic suicides right at the main crossroads in town. Who better to figure out why blood is being spilled than the vampire Lemuel, who, while translating mysterious texts, discovers what makes Midnight the town it is. There's a reason why witches and werewolves, killers and psychics, have been drawn to this place..."
"In a sinister encounter
with a rogue truck driver tricked up like a rhinestone cowboy, Odd has a
disturbing vision of a shocking multiple homicide that has not yet been
committed. Across California, into Nevada, and back again, Odd embarks
on a riveting road chase to prevent the tragedy.
Along the way,
he meets--and charms--a collection of eccentrics who become his allies
in a terrifying battle against a sociopath of singular boldness and
cleverness--and a shadowy network of mysterious, like-minded murderers
whose chilling resources seem almost supernatural."
"PI Kate Brannigan is
hired to investigate a series of strange financial scams across
Manchester. At first it looks like a discrepancy with the paperwork, but
the deeper Kate digs, the murkier the case becomes.
Before long she’s up to her neck in crooked land deals – and murder – and her own life is on the line…"
"Shan Tao Yun is an
exiled Chinese national and a former Beijing investigator on parole from
the Tibetan gulag to which he had been consigned as punishment. He is
ferrying a corpse on mule back over the slopes of
ChomolungmaĆ¢”Everest”at the request of a local wise-woman who says the
gods have appointed this task to him, when he encounters what looks
like a traffic accident. A government bus filled with imprisoned illegal
monks has overturned. Then Shan hears gunfire. Two women in an
approaching sedan have been killed. One is the Chinese minister of
tourism; the other, a blond Westerner, organizes climbing expeditions.
Though she dies in his arms, Shan is later met with denials that this
foreigner is dead.
Shan must find the murderer, for his
recompense will be the life and sanity of his son, Ko, imprisoned in a
Chinese “yeti factory” where men are routinely driven mad
"In a refuse dump next to the Charlotte racetrack, a flash of lightning illuminates a hand reaching out of a barrel of asphalt.
There's
not much that can shock Dr Tempe Brennan, forensic anthropologist, but
even she finds the sight of the hand macabre. And with race week just a
day away, she's under pressure to find answers and clear the area before
thousands of NASCAR fans arrive.
But before she can carry out
proper examination, the FBI confiscate and destroy the body with no
explanation. Infuriated, Tempe is determined to find answers, so when a
young NASCAR engineer comes to her with a story about his sister who
disappeared with her boyfriend twelve years before, she decides to try
and find answers.
Digging deeper into the mystery, Tempe comes up
against the Patriot Posse, a shadowy right-wing group whose dubious
politics repulse her, but could they really be behind the disappearance
of the young couple?
When the young man is found crushed under
the wheels of a race car, his body covered in a mysterious substance,
Tempe realises that she is dealing with something far more sinister than
she imagined. But with both the FBI and the Patriot Posse taking an
interest in her movements, she has no idea where the danger is coming
from, nor whether it could threaten her own life..."
"The people of Earth now
know that the human Colonial Union has kept them ignorant of the
dangerous universe around them. For generations the CU had defended
humanity against hostile aliens, deliberately keeping Earth an ignorant
backwater and a source of military recruits. Now the CU's secrets are
known to all. Other alien races have come on the scene and formed a new
alliance—an alliance against the Colonial Union. And they've invited the
people of Earth to join them. For a shaken and betrayed Earth, the
choice isn't obvious or easy.
Against such possibilities,
managing the survival of the Colonial Union won't be easy, either. It
will take diplomatic finesse, political cunning…and a brilliant "B
Team," centered on the resourceful Lieutenant Harry Wilson, that can be
deployed to deal with the unpredictable and unexpected things the
universe throws at you when you're struggling to preserve the unity of
the human race."
"John Mannering (aka 'The Baron') pulled his scarf up so as to hide his face. The finest jewel thief in London was utilizing all of his skills to nail a crooked Solicitor. Mannering's friend could be ruined by documents contained in the lawyer's strong-room and so he risks all, especially his freedom, to get them back."
"HUMANOIDS: Self-directed robots invented to serve & guard mankind.
"With Folded Hands" is a 1947 sf novelette by Jack Williamson (1908–2006). His influence for this story was in the aftermath of WWII & the atomic bombings of Japan & his concern that "some of the technological creations we had developed with the best intentions might have disastrous consequences in the long run." The story was followed by a novel-length rewrite, with a different setting & inventor. This, serialized as ...& Searching Mind, was finally published as The Humanoids (1948). He followed with a sequel, The Humanoid Touch, published in 1980."
"During what was supposed
to be a few days of skiing at the Whistler Mountain resort with an
attractive female acquaintance, former homicide detective Hunter Rayne
finds himself the prime suspect in the RCMP's hunt for "The Chairlift
Killer". Hunter has no choice but to get involved in the investigation
in order to clear his name.
Meanwhile, trucker Hunter was
scheduled to haul a load of freight to Northern California, so he calls
up his old friend, biker Dan Sorenson, to take his place behind the
wheel. What connects the badass biker from Yreka, California to the most
prolific female serial killer in US history? And what happens when
dispatcher El Watson ignores Hunter's warning and sends the biker on a
search for clues to the motive behind the murder?
In the midst of
the investigation, Hunter's life gets complicated when the progress of
his new relationship is hampered by the appearance of a woman from his
troubled past."
I hope you see some books that interest you. Take care. Stay safe. š·
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