Charlie Parker is an alcoholic and a cop. But when he comes home from the bar to find his wife and child brutally murdered, everything in his life changes. He’s driven to find out who killed them and why, and along the way confront the monsters among us.
Very well written, intelligent background to the murders, complex characters. Definitely continuing on reading this author. This is the second satisfying book I’ve read of his.
Earth is set to terriform a world where The Academy is working to extract the remains of alien artifacts before they are lost. Just before the deadline, a new find is made that changes everything.
What a fun read. Just the sort of book I like. No laser wars, no crazy manic madmen, just scientists trying to figure out the strangeness of what they find.
Definitely continuing this series.
When a young woman is found dead in the snow, suspicion immediately focuses on the recluse and outsider of the island, a man suspected of killing a child many years before. In an effort to not jump to conclusions the local cops and the murder squad flown in to assist keep investigating. And the more they look into the locals, the less they know.
Nice use of atmosphere and geography, a varying and well drawn pool of suspects and twists and turns that keep you guessing as to just who did what to whom.
A young woman awakes and has no memory of who she is or what has happened to her. Then she finds a note in her pocket: ‘Dear You.” Thus begins her quest to find out who she is, what’s happened to her, and, along the way, to save the world.
What a fun read. Great feisty heroine with no sense of fashion, a secret spy agency charged with policing the supernatural, and pet bunny.
“Marry, this is miching mallecho; it means mischief.” – Shakespeare.
And so it was. And Inspector Appleby arrives to find a man dead on the stage of a private production of Hamlet. What does it mean? Why? Why in those circumstances. Is it spies or a very private sort of revenge?
I loved this book. It starts slow, and I wish I’d re-read Hamlet before hand, but when Appleby arrives en scene, the book becomes compelling.
This is my sort of mystery. Very cerebral, very puzzle driven, where the clues are scarce on the ground and the only way to solve it is by deep thinking.
Definitely continuing this series!
The fifth book in the overall arc The Wars of Light and Shadow, does not fail to deliver. Utilizing the magic of music and the music of language, the tale of how the Mistwraith twists Paravia, and its peoples continues.
Her characterization continues to delight. And layers that make up the world of Paravia continue to be revealed as plots within plots are unstrung against not only the Master of Shadow, but against the sorcerors sworn to protect Paravia and against the protective spells guarding the world itself.
Great epic fantasy, with depth and color and music.
I won a book by Alan Furst from Library Thing and found it compelling so decided I’d read the entire series in the proper order. Night Soldiers is the first of the series. It takes place in the 1930s and follows the lives of a few young men who end up, by accident mostly, rather than design, as spies for different sides first in the Spanish Civil War, and then in Paris and Eastern Europe during the run-up and planning for World War II, and then during the war itself.
I love the style this book is written in. Frank, calm, plainly told, no dwelling on the horrors, just calm explanation of them.
You get an excellent sense of how these men’s lives are entirely at the mercy of the grand forces conspiring on all sides, and these men tricked or blackmailed or just accidentally ending up where they are. Also, how easily their lives are turned on end, or suddenly placed at risk because of suspicion or outright plotting by their ‘masters’ regarding their loyalties or competencies.
This is a far cry from 007. Gritty and suspenseful.
John Scalzi has written a paean to the original Star Trek series in Redshirts. It’s going to be far more meaningful to geeks and nerds who remember the surprise and fun on Star Trek when it delighted us as youngsters.
Away teams were almost always deadly for some anonymous extra wearing a red shirt. This story is about what happens when the guys and gals wearing those red shirts begin to realize that they are nearly always destined to die, or at least be horribly hurt during those away missions. And it’s about what they decide to do to stop the madness.
Great fun, but not so much laugh out loud funny, as smiling and remembering and cheering for the expendable ones who decide to take their fate in their own hands.
P.S. I listened to the audio version narrated by Wil Wheaton which just adds to the nerdly value of the book!
