Gallows Thief by Bernard Cornwell (5*)
British officer returns from Waterloo to find his family in debt and disgrace because of his father's scams and suicide. Now working as an investigator of clemency appeals for condemned prisoners, he is expected to just confirm the verdict, but he's sure an accused is innocent and sets out to find the real killer.
A departure for Cornwell, an historic murder mystery and a good one at that! There were places that I found repetitious and dragged out, and there was something about the ending I wasn't keen on (but that's just me), still the characters are well-rounded and compelling and the mystery plot well-planned and executed (pun!) I am surprised with such great characters and setting that it wasn't made into a series. It was still a very engrossing and entertaining novel on a par with Gabaldon's Lord John series.

LadyCalico2 wrote: »

--The Flame Bearer (The Last Kingdom #10) by Bernard Cornwell (5*)

When it comes to historical fiction, nobody does it better than Cornwell, and this is his best anti-heroic hero and best series ever, IMHO, as narrated from the POV of the acerbic, fatalistic bad*** Uhtred. You not only get to read some of the most exciting and engrossing battle novels ever written, but with the side effect of now knowing more early English history than you ever thought possible.

I have these on my TBR mountain, and I enjoyed the first season of The Last Kingdom TV show. It reminded me a lot of Vikings on History and when that moved to Amazon Prime I continued watching Vikings and kind of quit The Last Kingdom (which is a Netflix show now, was BBC). I imagine that the books are very much superior to a TV show. Cornwell is such a prolific writer and I want to read some of his stuff, he has the Sharpe's books, the Starbuck Chronicles, King Arthur trilogy, The Grail Quest, and some others; I don't know where to start.

I said I would finish this cheesy western by Johnstone and I will, then on to something new (and hopefully exciting). The Star Trek book I finished up this morning, it was the best of the Discovery novelizations so far in my opinion, if you are a fan of the show.

Currently reading The Rebel Angels by Robertson Davies. I think I heard about it on Spark People, but perhaps it was elsewhere. In any case, it's quite dated in some ways, but I'm sticking with it for two reasons. 1) it's set in a Canadian university and has some humorous moments and I like academic comic novels and 2) it's part of a trilogy and the second part is supposed to be really special.
So glad to find you all here, especially Lady Calico and Catfish Fan from the old World of Books!

kellibee2000 wrote: »

Btrflydog wrote: »

Currently reading Gods of Jade and Shadow - Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Interesting so far.

Oooh, I've got Mexican Gothic waiting to be read, I hope it's good too!

This author is on my mountainous TBR list too. I have Mexican Gothic on audiobook already. It won the Nebula award and the Goodreads Choice award for horror, so it was on my radar. Hopefully I'll get to it soon.

I'm now reading the third book of the Cursebreakers trilogy by Brigid Kemmerer, A Vow So Bold and Deadly. I'm not very far into it so I don't yet see how the series will concude.

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane (5*)
Two cop families live next door, one plagued by mental illness and alcoholism. The son of one and the daughter of the other develop a deep and committed relationship opposed by both families. When something horrible happens, a chain of events starts that will have consequences that take 34 years to overcome. This is an excellent and oh so real novel but one that is serious, deep, and complex. The multidimensional characters in here are human, flawed, injured, and makes mistakes, just like us. Forgiveness is not forgetting, and you may forgive by suppressing your feelings but that doesn't mean the harm done to you is gone and may still come back to bite you until you deal honesty with the damage and really come to terms with it.

I'm reading book 7 in the Sandman Slim series by Richard Kadrey, Killing Pretty. I think you kind of must have to be from Generation X to "get" these books and enjoy them very much. They are easy, silly reads but I am entertained. They are getting better as the series goes along too, the first book was a little bit rough. They are profane, a tad, and twisted, have some language, and are not for everyone.

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave (4*)
I initially found this book very engrossing and was really hooked when the bad stuff started coming down. However, as it became more complex and implausible, I grew less intrigued. It is still a better than average suspense novel, but could have been better if some of the rougher absurdities were better polished. If you love suspense novels, you will probably enjoy this one.

I have been neglecting my Kindle Unlimited and Audible Plus memberships, so I am going to try to throw some of those into my reading list each month. I'm reading Skysworn (Cradle series #4) by Will Wight. I have read reviews by others that mention that this is a series, not a bunch of stand-alone books, so if you do not intend to commit to the entire fantasy series then don't waste your time. I am on book 4 of 9 and finding that to be the case, the story keeps going and going. This series is both in KU and a free checkout for Audible members on Audible Plus, so I can immersion read it. Like most KU books, it is ok but not spectacular. Easy reading, sometimes that is what I'm in the mood for (not always a Pulitzer Prize winner).

I finished The Teacher's Funeral and love it. I'll be beating down the doors of the library tomorrow for two more books by Richard Peck: A Long Way from Chicago and A Year Down Yonder. What wonderful language he has?

So everyone knew about Richard Peck but me? Well, glad to learn about him now! I've stated A Long Way from Chicago and really enjoying it. I also got Robertson Davies's What's Bred in the Bone and I'm starting it. So nice to have books to help get through the heat wave!

--The Maidens by Alex Michaelides (3*)
Group therapist travels to Cambridge University when a series of murders comes uncomfortably close to her niece. Although this is an engrossing whodunnit, there are a few things that really bothered me about it. The story was uncomfortably similar to Donna Tartt's A Secret History and the ending's way too similar to Agatha Christie's ABC Murders. The ending involves one of my most unacceptable pet peeves in mysteries, the ridiculously complex and implausible plan involving needless extremes and idiotic risks required for the killer to pull off an absurd murder plot. Seriously, why bother? Excessive murders and complexities just make it more likely to get caught, so nobody's actually as stupid as the criminals in this story. KISS, murderous dummies! Very weak ending!

--A Man at Arms by Steven Pressfield (4*)
Retired Roman officer turned mercenary is offered a release from criminal charges if he can bring in the people carrying Paul's letter to the Corinthians. I found this to be an engrossing and enjoyable novel but lacking in realism. There were too many implausibilities, sadly, the plot itself. It was so unbelievable that the Romans would exert that extreme of manpower, trouble, and expense over an innocuous letter, carried by some minor peasants, when they had very serious and real terrorism from the deadly zealots to deal with in those days. A little toning down of the overkill would have helped. There are good points to this novel that make it a very worthwhile read and I wished I could have rated it higher based on those alone. In short, an otherwise great book that requires a a suspension of disbelief in places.

Thank you for the extra tip, Lady Calico! I am so happy to have learned about Richard Peck!!

The Secret Keeper of Jaipur (The Henna Artist #2) by Alka Joshi (5*)
It's 1969 and the grown up canny street kid Malik apprentices with the Jaipur Public Works. When a deadly balcony collapse occurs in a grand new theater, Malik's boss and old family friend is scapegoated to take the blame. But Malik and his guardian Lakshmi's keen intuition tell them that this cover-up is baloney, so they set out to find the truth. Just as good if not better than The Henna Artist. This second volume involves a very intriguing mystery that those with power and money do not want solved, since it is more convenient to just push little people under the bus to protect their own kind.

I finished Swan Song by Robert McCammon tonight. I would say that if you've read The Stand by Stephen King that this is a dud. Since The Stand was written in 1978 and Swan Song was written in 1987, I am surprised that there wasn't a lawsuit. Probably beneath King to sue over this. Instead of a virus killing everyone it was a nuclear war, and it included many of the elements of The Stand, but was slightly varied. I gave it a generous 3 (rounded up from 2.5) on Goodreads, I did finish it and I was entertained at points, but it was 35 hours on audio so it was almost a DNF a couple of times!

Now I am reading The River Between Us by Richard Peck. It isn't funny, about 1861, and won a Scott O'Dell award (along with being runners for other awards). I don't know what a Scott O'Dell award is, I'll have to look that one up. This book, like most of Peck's books, is short.

FitMary202 wrote: »

I'm going to put The River Between Us on my list as well. The restrained emotions he describes just seem so "real" to me. Yesterday I was struck, for example, by his description of the pause for silence at the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month to commemorate the loses of WWI. I can still remember when we did that in my little home town in Wyoming...

I got out The River Between Us and On the Wings of Heroes at the same time but enjoyed "Wings" much more. It is a really sweet story about a young boy trying to do his best (but not always succeeding) to help on the homefront as his older brother goes off to fight in WWII. But I'm really a sucker for WWII books!