Tag: British Lit

Book Critic, Book Review, Books, Literary Criticism, Reading

Review: Moriarty (Sherlock Holmes by Anthony Horowitz #2) by Anthony Horowitz

by The Lit Bitch1 Comment on Review: Moriarty (Sherlock Holmes by Anthony Horowitz #2) by Anthony Horowitz

Shortly after Sherlock Holmes and his adversary, James Moriarty, go over Reichenbach Falls a body is pulled from the water. American detective, Frederick Chase, rushed to Switzerland where he hopes to identify the body as Moriarty’s and ultimately recover a letter sent from notorious American criminal, Clarence Devereux.

Devereux and Moriarty had planned to form a partnership that would make them the most formidable crime syndicate in Britain and America. But with Moriarty dead, that leaves Devereux holding the reigns.

Chase plans to stop Devereux by any means necessary. When he arrives are Reichenbach falls he meets British detective Athelney Jones who has learned many of Sherlock Holmes’s methods of deduction. The soon for a team and start investigating the links between Devereux and other criminals in Britain but at every turn they meet a dead end…..literally.

The body count is piling up and the pressure is on for Chase and Jones to stop the criminal gang before it’s too late. Chase has spent a good deal of time studying Devereux and though no one has seen his face, he suffers from a rare condition known as agoraphobia. Chase and Jones hope to identify Devereux by exploiting his phobia.

The two detectives encounter many unspeakable crimes and twisted plots as they track the gang through London. Together Chase and Jones make a great team….they almost mirror Holmes and Watson.

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Review: Mrs Roosevelt’s Confidante (Maggie Hope Mystery #5) by Susan Elia MacNeal

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Maggie Hope has just landed state side after being in England for quite some time. She has come with Prime Minister Churchill and the rest of his cabinet to meet with President Roosevelt weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The two world leaders plan on presenting a unified front to the world as allies in the wars against Germany and the Japanese but their relationship is tedious. Any little scandal could threaten to undo their diplomatic relationship.

And the murder of a White House aide qualifies as a scandal!

Mrs Roosevelt’s secretary, Blanche, failed to show up for work and Mrs Roosevelt herself insists on checking up on her. She takes Maggie along with her, and when they arrive at Blanche’s apartment, she is already dead. It appears that she committed suicide but as the story unfolds, murder appears to be more likely. They also discover a rubbing of a note that incriminates the First Lady in a scandal….but the original note is missing.

Maggie plans on protecting the First Lady and solving the murder before the note gets leaked to the press and over turns the diplomatic relations between the two nations. Continue reading “Review: Mrs Roosevelt’s Confidante (Maggie Hope Mystery #5) by Susan Elia MacNeal” →

Book Critic, Book Review, Books, Literary Criticism, Reading

Review: The Determined Heart: The Tale of Mary Shelley and Her Frankenstein by Antoinette May

by The Lit Bitch3 Comments on Review: The Determined Heart: The Tale of Mary Shelley and Her Frankenstein by Antoinette May

Mary Shelley was the daughter of the iconic feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and her husband William Godwin. She has not had a normal childhood….she’s been exposed to all kinds of brilliant literary and philosophical figures.

But she has also suffered tragedy, Mary never knew her mother. Her mother died shortly after giving birth to Mary, so the only family she has ever known was her half sister Fanny and her father. Well, Mary’s life is about to get more complicated and uncomfortable when her father remarries. William has only ever really loved one woman, Mary Wollstonecraft, so when he remarries his neighbor Mary Jane Clairmont she is pretty jealous of Wollstonecraft’s memory.

Mary Jane brings her daughter Claire to the household and it’s clear that Mary’s life is going to now include a jealous step mother and a spoiled step sister both of whom bring constant conflict to the family dynamics.

At a very young age, Mary meets a romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, whom she falls deeply in love with. They elope and the fallout from that elopement will define Mary’s future. Mary and her new husband soon find themselves destitute, in constant debt, ostracized by society, and worst of all, Mary is embroiled in a torturous love triangle as Percy takes Mary’s stepsister Claire as a lover.

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Review: War of the Roses: Margaret of Anjou by Conn Iggulden

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War is coming….or is it winter? This is the book that inspired the wildly popular A Song of Ice and Fire series (AKA Game of Thrones). This latest book in the War of the Roses series was a constant action sequence.

I haven’t read the first book in the series and that did put me at a bit of a disadvantage because I didn’t fully understand the relationships between some of the characters but I do know my British history so it didn’t take too long to get situated in the story.

the year is 1454 and King Henry VI has remained all but exiled in Windsor Castle, struck down by his illness for over a year. His fiercely loyal wife and Queen, Margaret of Anjou, safeguards his interests, and hopes that one day her son Edward will know the love of his father.

Richard Duke of York, Protector of the Realm, extends his influence throughout the kingdom while King Henry struggles with his illness. The Earls of Salisbury and Warwick make up a formidable trinity with Richard, and together they seek to break the support of those who would raise their colors in the name of Henry and his Queen.

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Review: A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy #1) by Deborah Harkness

by The Lit Bitch4 Comments on Review: A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy #1) by Deborah Harkness

Diana Bishop has been trying to keep magic out of her life since she parents died when she was a girl.

She has thrown herself into her work as an alchemy historian and is presently in Oxford researching her next keynote speech.

While at Oxford’s Bodleian Library, Diana calls for an ancient alchemy manuscript, not knowing that it is actually bewitched!

Diana quickly returns the book once she jots down a couple of notes about the book. However, her discovery has drawn the attention of the supernatural world…..vampires, daemons, and other witches.

Suddenly Diana is being stalked by a number of creatures and she can’t help but wonder if it has something to do with the book. Diana has actually stumbled upon a long lost book of coveted treasure….and she is the only creature who can break its spell.

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