Book Critic
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Review: The Inheritance (Charles Lenox Mysteries #10) by Charles Finch
One of my favorite ‘armchair detectives’ is back…..though he’s less of an amateur and more of a professional than he was in the first books! Charles Lenox receives a cryptic note from a former classmate, pleading for help and eludes to the fact that he might be in danger. Lenox and his friend Leigh agree to meet but when Leigh doesn’t turn up, Lenox begins to worry. Fortunately Leigh is found alive but his lawyer is not……and it’s clear that Leigh is being stalked by a group of gangsters but what is unclear is the why? Leigh was lured back to London after many years abroad, with the promise of…
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Review: Friday on My Mind (Frieda Klein Mystery, #5) by Nicci French
It’s just another day on the River Thames. Commuters are avoiding the Tube by taking the water ferry when a body catches the attention of the passengers. The body is that of a man who has had his throat slashed and while he lacks any other identification, he is wearing a hospital ID tag that reads Dr F Klein. The police quickly discover that Dr F Klein is actually a women, Dr Frieda Klein psychotherapist to be exact, and one who has helped the police in many investigations before this. Dr Klein identifies the body as her former lover, Sandy. Dr Klein quickly becomes the prime suspect in his murder.…
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Review: Romancing the Inventor (Supernatural Society #1) by Gail Carriger
In the Parasol Protectorate books, one of my most favorite characters was the unconventional Genevieve Lefoux. So when a short story was presented about the inventor I was totally on board. I am a huge fan of Gail Carriger’s books and even though I don’t read a lot of short stories nor have I read any LBGTQ literature, I couldn’t help but want to read about the fascinating character that is Madam Lefoux.
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Review: The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks
Finding a historical fiction novel set in the ‘ancient world’ always seems to be a challenge for me. In my experience, the historical fiction genre is saturated with books from the Tudor, Regency, and Victorian eras, so when I find a historical fiction novel set in another era, I’m usually on board to give it a shot. THE SECRET CHORD is one such novel….something different set in a unique period of time.
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Review: A Girl Like You: A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel by Michelle Cox
For Henrietta von Harmon times are hard. Not only is it the 1930s but her father committed suicide leaving behind a large family. Henrietta helps support her family by working as a 26 girl in a local pub and waiting tables when she can. But it’s not enough. So she takes a job taxi dancing to help support her younger siblings and mother. It’s while she’s taxi driving that she meets the mysterious Clive Howard. Detective Inspector Howard is investigating the dance hall as a potential supplier of prostitutes to a mob establishment.
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Review: A Murder in Time (Kendra Donovan #1) by Julie McElwain
Kendra Donovan has worked hard to become respected in the FBI as one of their youngest agents ever. She has been working tirelessly on a case that reveals a mole within the FBI itself. She is wounded during the course of duty and once she recovers she is hell bent on revenge for her team. Unfortunately her quest for revenge is short lived as she falls through a worm hole at a castle in England only to reemerge in the early 19th century…..1815. After having more or less come to terms with the fact that she some how time travels back to 1815, she realizes her purpose there might be more…
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Review: The Queen’s Accomplice (Maggie Hope Mystery #6) by Susan Elia MacNeal
I’ve been a fan of Maggie Hope for quite some time now. I read the first book when it came out and fell in love with that sassy red head. Over the years, Maggie’s adventures have been one part spy and one part detective/mystery series. Maggie has also evolved immensely as a character which if both exciting and at times a little sad when you look back on how much she has changed over the course of the books. In this book, there is a madman on the loose, systematically murdering women in the fashion of Jack the Ripper. Dubbed ‘The Blackout Beast’ by the press and the women of London…
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Review: Christmas in Paris by Anita Hughes
Isabel had made a huge decision to call off her wedding one week before the nuptials. Career minded and independent, the thought of giving up her lucrative career in finance for life on a farm is unprecedented. She does the only sensible thing….calling it off as she knows she won’t be happy. Her ex-fiance suggests that she take their honeymoon tickets to Paris to clear her head and figure out where her life is going. As she stand on the balcony of the elite Hotel Crillon, admiring the city of lights, she realizes she is locked out on her terrace.
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Review: Dark Road to Darjeeling (Lady Julia Grey #4) by Deanna Raybourn
Fall is the perfect time to read a good mystery…..my fall reading is always full of mysteries, thrillers, suspense, and detective novel. We have had a few foggy mornings here in the Pacific Northwest so I couldn’t help but read yet another Lady Julia mystery! This book finds the newly married Lady Julia and her husband, Nicholas Brisbane, enjoying their honeymoon abroad when a couple of Julia’s siblings show up and beg them to join them on the road to India. Julia’s sister, Portia, is sure that her long time friend and lover, Jane, is in danger. Jane recently abandoned Portia for a more ‘conventional life’ with Freddy Cavendish in…
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Review: Silent on the Moor (Lady Julia Grey #3) by Deanna Raybourn
Yes people, I am reading yet another Deanna Raybourn book. Sometimes it just so happens that I find a great series and fall in love with the characters and simply must binge read all the books in the series! Which is exactly what’s happened here….I’ve fallen in love with Lady Julia and I think this is my favorite in the series so far! I LOVE LOVE LOVE Wuthering Heights and anything set on ‘the moors’ so based on this book’s title, I knew I was going to love this one! In this book, Lady Julia has decided once and for all to put a label on her relationship with her…