Jo is at work, the puppies are on the couch with me, relaxing and awaiting their noon walk. Time to do my first reading update in April. Amazing that we are already starting the 4th month of the year. It's a beautiful, fresh, sunny day here today. Hope everyone else is having good weather.
Following is my normal update; reviews of books finished, synopses of books started and any new books. And today I'll continue with my ongoing look at women authors whose works I've been enjoying.
Just Finished
(Three enjoyable thriller / mysteries)
"Think Inc is the 4th and last book in the Philip McAlpine spy series by Adam Diment. From what I've read, the series was sort of an anti-Bond spy series and quite a cult favorite. But after 4 books, Diment basically disappeared, never to write again.
In this final book, McAlpine is persona non grata with the British spy service after a bungled mission in the US. After an attempt on his life in London, McAlpine is now hiding out in Italy, on the coast by Rome. He has cut his blond locks, gotten a tan and spends his life wandering along the shore, eating at local restaurants, etc. One day he is taken 'hostage' by a criminal group, Think, Inc. run by a giant of a man, Faustus. Faustus, knowing about McAlpine's situation with British intelligence, offers him employment with Think, Inc.
This begins a series of activities, gun smuggling, robbery of counterfeit money, searching for ancient Greek artifacts. It's an entertaining, and yet, thoughtful thriller. McAlpine has grown as a character, is even thinking of a permanent relationship with the lovely Chastity. It's an entertaining, action-filled story and a suitable ending to the series, even if it's left hanging a bit and in sad terms.
McAlpine is an interesting character, hates violence, likes drinking and women and pot, as I said, a kind of anti-Bond. He's cool in his way and is more developed in this story. The rest of the cast, Faustus, Chastity and the other members of the group add to the story. It might be the best story of the four. (4.0 stars)"
"No Next of Kin is my first look at the work of American mystery writer Doris Miles Disney and I was pleasantly surprised by it; a most enjoyable, quickly paced mystery. Over the course of her life, 1907 - 1976, she wrote 47 novels, some in series format, others standalone. No Next of Kin is one of her standalones
Andrea Langdon has a deep dark secret. As a young girl, almost 18, she became pregnant at a party, was abandoned and with the aid of a loving teacher, boarded her child with strangers. When Greg was five, she takes him back with the hope of showing Greg to her father and having the youngster become a member of her family. Unfortunately, tragedy strikes at a county fair, when a fire starts and rages. Andrea, injured herself, doesn't identify the body of the little boy as hers and must carry the secret for the rest of her life.
Now begins a tale of blackmail and threats as the father, Seymour Boyd, turns up. Andrea comes from a rich family and her father is running for a seat as a Connecticut Rep. Boyd digs up the dirt, with the help of Walt Horbal (husband of the family who boarded Greg as a child), demands money from Andrea. Reporter Fergus MacDonald, attracted to Andrea, suspects something and begins his own investigation.
It's a fascinating, quick-paced, well-written story. Lots of tension, a bit of action and violence, definitely a page turner. Fergus MacDonald is an excellent character. Andrea, a suitable victim, with sufficient strength and intelligence to appeal to Fergus. The villains are well-presented and interesting. I don't know that it's an original idea, but it's crafted in a satisfactory fashion and draws you in, making you want to see how it will resolve. And the ending is suitably satisfactory. All in all, an excellent mystery and story. Checking out more of Disney's work now. (4.0 stars)"
"The Doomsday Men is my first exposure to the writing of English writer, J.B. Priestley. Priestley lived from 1894 - 1984 and wrote novels, plays and even screenplays. The Doomsday Men was one of his earlier works, originally published in 1938.
The book follows three men; Malcolm Darbyshire, an English architect, Hooker, an American physicist and Jimmy Edlin, an American traveler. As the novel progresses, their lives will be intimately intertwined as they follow their own stories.
Malcolm falls in love with Andrea, as they partner at tennis tournament in France. Andrea is a mysterious woman and after the tournament she disappears. Malcolm is determined to find her and he follows her to Barstow in California.
Hooker is trying to find another physicist who has disappeared. Following him to England, he finds Prof Englefield. Englefield, whose last name in fact is MacMichael, and his brother trick Hooker and get him arrested. But Hooker escapes and follows Englefield aka MacMichael, to Barstow as well and he meets Malcolm.
Jimmy Edlin returns from the Far East to San Francisco and discovers that his brother, a reporter, has been murdered. Jimmy determines to find out who murdered him and this leads him to a fanatical society, the Brotherhood of the Judgement. Going to a meeting he meets a widow and also tricks (he thinks) members of the society into telling him where he can meet the leader, Brother John. And yes, this leads Jimmy to Barstow.
Once the three meet up, events begin to percolate until the ultimately meet the 3 MacMichael brothers; one a physicist, one a wealthy businessman and the other a fanatical sect leader. They have a plan that will be catastrophic to mankind. And these three will play a role in the ultimate ending.
It's an interesting story, well-written with great description. The characters are all interesting, especially the main three and their acquaintances. There is some action, great scenery, romance, and some philosophical thought. I enjoyed this very much, an interesting concept, an interesting story and thoughtful. I may check out more of Priestley's work. (4.0 stars)"
Currently Reading
"The International Committee for the Preservation of Big Game was a cover for a sinister Chinese international spy network, an operation which needed big money - and obtained it by blackmail and extortion. Their latest victim was the Nawab of Shahnagar, the wealthy ruler of a small Himalayan kingdom. With a price of ￡2,000,000 on his son's safety, the Nawab desperately sought help from his old friend Jason Love, on holiday in Switzerland - and as a trail of violence and murder pursued him from the Swiss ski slopes to the Himalayas, Dr. Love found he had indeed accepted a passport to peril. In a final confrontation on the roof of the world, Jason Love launched a dramatic bid to destroy the enemy..."
"By Cecile depicts post-World War II France as it reels from war and recovery. In Paris, an orphan girl, Cecile, finds refuge with an older man. He introduces her to nightclubs, intellectuals, artists (Jean Cocteau, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Eartha Kitt!), and non-monogamy. When she falls for his mistress, she begins to live a life she deems worthy of writing about . . . but only under the pseudonym of her husband.
Tereska Torres is the author of Women's Barracks, which is widely considered to be the first lesbian pulp novel, and has sold over four million copies. Torres lives in Paris, France."
In unmistakable Highsmithian fashion, the novel opens in a seedy Zurich bar with the brutal murder of Peter Ritter. Unraveling the vagaries of love, sexuality, jealousy, and death, Highsmith weaves a mystery both hilarious and astonishing, a classic tale executed with her characteristic penchant for darkness. Small g is at once an exorcism of Highsmith's literary demons and a revelatory capstone to a wholly remarkable career. It is a delightfully incantatory work that, in the tradition of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, shows us how bizarre and unpredictable love can be."
So the Ulleran challenge begins, with the rantings of a prophet and a seemingly incidental street riot. Only when a dose of poison lands in the governor-general's whiskey does it become clear that the "geeks" have had it up to their double-lidded eyeballs with the imperialist Terran Federation's Chartered Uller Company. Then, overnight, war is everywhere.
How it will end is in the (merely) two Terran hands of the new governor-general, a man shrewd enough to know that "it is easier to banish a habit of thought than a piece of knowledge." The problem is, the particular piece of knowledge he needs hasn't been used in 450 years. . . ."
"It was a dark and stormy night.
Winner of the 1963 Newbery Medal, A Wrinkle in Time is the first book in Madeleine L'Engle's classic Time Quintet."
Since a nuclear war decimated the human population, the remaining humans began to rebuild their future by interbreeding with an alien race -- the Oankali -- who saved them from near-certain extinction. The Oankalis' greatest skill lies in the species' ability to constantly adapt and evolve, a process that is guided by their third sex, the ooloi, who are able to read and mutate genetic code.
Now, for the first time in the humans' relationship with the Oankali, a human mother has given birth to an ooloi child: Jodahs. Throughout his childhood, Jodahs seemed to be a male human-alien hybrid. But when he reaches adolescence, Jodahs develops the ooloi abilities to shapeshift, manipulate DNA, cure and create disease, and more. Frightened and isolated, Jodahs must either come to terms with this new identity, learn to control new powers, and unite what's left of humankind -- or become the biggest threat to their survival."
“They killed him. It was bad money. I told him no,” Benedetta Toso gasps the words about her recently-deceased husband, Vittorio Fadalto. Even though he is not sure she can hear him Brunetti softly promises he and Griffoni will look into what initially appears to be a private family tragedy. They discover that Fadalto worked in the field collecting samples of contamination for a company that measures the cleanliness of Venice’s water supply and that he had died in a mysterious motorcycle accident. Distracted briefly by Vice Questore Patta’s obsession with youth crime in Venice, Brunetti is bolstered once more by the remarkable research skills of Patta’s secretary, Signora Elettra Zorzi. Piecing together the tangled threads, in time Brunetti comes to realize the perilous meaning in the woman’s accusation and the threat it reveals to the health of the entire region. But justice in this case proves to be ambiguous, as Brunetti is reminded it can be when, seeking solace, he reads Aeschylus’s classic play The Eumenides.
As she has done so often through her memorable characters and storytelling skill, Donna Leon once again engages our sensibilities as to the differences between guilt and responsibility."
THE BALANCE OF POWER HAS FINALLY TIPPED...
The precarious equilibrium among four Londons has reached its breaking point. Once brimming with the red vivacity of magic, darkness casts a shadow over the Maresh Empire, leaving a space for another London to rise.
WHO WILL CRUMBLE?
Kell - once assumed to be the last surviving Antari - begins to waver under the pressure of competing loyalties. And in the wake of tragedy, can Arnes survive?
WHO WILL RISE?
Lila Bard, once a commonplace - but never common - thief, has survived and flourished through a series of magical trials. But now she must learn to control the magic, before it bleeds her dry. Meanwhile, the disgraced Captain Alucard Emery of the Night Spire collects his crew, attempting a race against time to acquire the impossible.
WHO WILL TAKE CONTROL?
And an ancient enemy returns to claim a crown while a fallen hero tries to save a world in decay."
 |
| Emma Orczy |
.JPG)
No comments:
Post a Comment