Friday, June 29, 2012

Reviews:

The Sword-Edged Blonde by Alex Bledsoe:

An amusing tale of a sword-jockey, a sort of private detective. He’s drug back, against his better judgment and wishes, to help his childhood friend (who happens to be a king) find out why the Queen murdered her son. Action packed adventure ensues, with lots of flashbacks to Eddie’s past which he’s been trying to avoid for years.

---------------------------------

The Dante Club – Matthew Pearl

In the last year following the Civil War, Longfellow and his fellow poets and friends, set about translating the Commedia by Dante into English in order to introduce it widely to America. Harvard’s powers that be are NOT happy about this and are trying to do everything they can to block him.  Might this include murder? The Dante Club, as they call themselves, begin to wonder, as two murders take place in Boston that enact two of the punishments Dante details in the Devine Comedy. Can they solve the murders, and catch the murderer and keep the police in the dark about the connection to Dante?

------------------------------------------

Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance

A terrific romp through the Vorkosiverse with Ivan at his best.  I generally want to kick Miles when the story’s about him, but I almost always want to hug Ivan. The poor guy has spent his entire life trying to hide in the shadows and keep his abilities hidden under the nearest bucket. But he’s forced to step up his game when his ‘friend’ Byerly asks him to help out a damsel in distress. What’s Ivan to do (other than fall in love with her)? And when he finds out who she is, and just why assassins are on her doorstep, well, he takes drastic action.

A delightful book that had me quite often laughing out loud!

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Review: Requiem for a Mezzo–Carola Dunn

 

This is the third of the Daisy Dalrymple series set in the flapper era in London. Nicely written fluff mystery, with good period details and interesting characters. Pretty good mystery too!

Certainly not difficult to read but good fun nonetheless.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Reviews:

 

Scourge of the Betrayer (Bloodsounder's Arc) by Jeff Salyards

What the heck is the Veil, why did the gods leave, what the devil is Braylar up to?
A scribe is hired by a group of infamous men led by a 'Black Noose' to record their actions as directed by their King. LIttle did the scribe know what he was getting into. And what few answers he might actually be given.
I enjoyed the characterizations, and the dialog, and the action. I was disappointed that the book itself offered no real resolution. I'll have to read the follow on in hopes of that. Still, a good read that left me wanting more. ( )

 

 

The Crossing Places (Ruth Galloway) by Elly Griffiths

Atmospheric and intelligent, The Crossing Places is about character and setting, The mystery is tied up with the setting deftly and altho I figured out most of the mystery fairly early on, I was unsure about much of it, enough to want to hurry through the book to find out how it all fit together.
Will definitely continue the series! ( )