52. Flashforward- Robert. J. Sawyer

 

If you’re a science nerd and the thought of working at, or even just touring CERN, this is the book for you!  I loved all the particle physics parts.

It is far far different from the TV series, by the way.

CERN attempts an experiment to produce the Higgs boson. Suddenly every person on earth loses complete consciousness and many have visions of a few minutes in the future, in the year 2030 to be precise.

Was it the experiment? If so, why? How? Could they reproduce the phenomenon? Should they?  How else to discover what was the cause?

Nerdy scientists arise!

51. Still Life with Murder–P.B.Ryan

A murder at a brothel in Boston becomes less than routine when the man arrested for the murder is thought to have died in Andersonville. But his father bribes police and anyone else he can to ensure his son hangs for the murder. Why?  That’s the question that drives his mother and her accomplice, the governess, to do everything they can to understand why, and to prove the son’s innocence.

Interesting characters even if I found the original setup a bit hard to believe. Even so, the book definitely was intriguing enough to keep me turning pages, and to want to read more.

50. Foreigner–C.J.Cherryh

How difficult would it be to actually meet aliens and understand them?  Foreigner explores the difficulties in understanding aliens with different biological imperatives, different mental wiring and a different understanding of society and how it’s structured.

Bren is the interpreter for his human colleagues. They’ve been stranded on an alien planet and after a short and difficult war have been granted an island on which to live.

Bren is the only human living with the atevi (the natives). He’s the conduit from the human enclave to the atevi. The humans, more technologically advanced, have been feeding the atevi tech advances a bit at a time, naturally with their own agenda.

Things have been going well for a hundred or so years, when suddenly someone attempts to assassinate Bren, and he finds himself scooped up and taken away from the capitol and denied his mail and any access to any outside communication. What is going on? Is he in danger? Can he trust the atevi who say they are trying to protecting him? Or has he been attributing human emotions and motives to a species he just realizes he completely doesn’t understand?

49. Framley Parsonage–Anthony Trollope

 

Tollope continues his Barsetshire series depicting the foibles, frustrations and triumphs of the denizens of the county. Some characters from older novels reappear, some to frustrate us,  some to delight us. And Mrs Proudie appears to make us grind our teeth! 

48. The Spiritualist–Megan Chance

It is 1857, New York City. A poor girl finds herself married to a man from the ‘upper 10’ of New York. He handsome, wealthy and she’s in love.

But he’s away a lot, and she is lonely, although to her surprise, Society has accepted her. Well, she thought they had. Until her husband is murdered and she finds herself the prime suspect.

Well drawn characters, an intriguing plot, with twists and enough surprises to keep me flipping the pages.

I’d have given it a better star rating, but it got a bit too bodice ripping a few times for my tastes, but not so badly that it distracted me from the storyline.

47. The Kill Artist- Daniel Silva

 

Gabriel Allon is a former spy. But he's lured back into the game by the chance to kill the terrorist who blew up his wife and child. Problem is that things in the spy business, as in life, aren't always what they appear to be. He's about to be reminded of that. Again.

Characters well-drawn, twists and surprises, especially the ending!

I'll definitely be continuing this series.

I listened to the audio edition and it has an excellent narrator.

46. Peril’s Gate–Janny Wurts

The 6th book in the Wars of Light and Shadow series.

Best of the series so far, a compelling read.

A mad dash as Arithon once again finds himself pursued by his geas driven enemies, while the Koriani Prime attempts to destroy the Fellowship and nearly destroys Athera along the way.

I simply could not put this book down.