Mysteries and Suspense

Lord Edward Corinth and Verity Browne mystery series by David Roberts

feeds@yuku.com (corky3) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:05:30 GMT

Sweet Poison is the first installment of this series set -at least in the first book- in 1930's England. The Duke of Mersham,who we later find out is Edward's older brother, is hosting a dinner which he hopes will be a series of dinner parties in hopes of improving Anglo-German relations. Among the guests is a womanising politician, a Canadian news lord with a troublesome stepdaughter, a pacifist bishop, an old general and a German diplomat with a direct line to Adolf Hitler, the...

Laetitia Talbot Mysteries by Barbara Cleverly

feeds@yuku.com (corky3) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:20:11 GMT

This is the first book of a new series by Barbara Cleverly. Laetitia is a privileged young woman who has chosen to work in the field of archaelogy. Her first assignment is in Crete with Theodore Russell and his group to find the tomb of the king of the Gods, Zeus. But things take a very different turn for Laetita when Russell's wife hangs herself. And a further complication is that one of the team is an ex-lover William Gunning who took off from her life mysteriously.

This is...

C. J. Box - Joe Pickett series

feeds@yuku.com (Carla) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:49:27 GMT

I just finished the first in a series by C. J. Box.- Open Season. C. J. Box is a Wyoming author whose mysteries are set in Wyoming. Joe Pickett is the protagonist who is a Game Warden. I loved Open Season and I am ready to read the next in the series. Suspenseful and refreshingly different!

Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott

feeds@yuku.com (corky3) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 05:06:44 GMT

This is a rather short but rather complicated novel. It begins with the drowning death of Elizabeth Vogelsang. A Cambridge University historian who is writing a piece about Isaac Newton and his involvment with alchemy, she is found holding a glass prism, which she had stolen which had belonged to Newton.

Enter Lydia Brooke, a old friend. After Elizabeth's funeral, Lydia is asked by Cameron Brown, Elizabeth's son and, to complicate matters, her former married lover-still...

The Devil's Disciples by Susanna Gregory

feeds@yuku.com (corky3) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 06:03:16 GMT

I can not recommend this series enough. This is the 14th chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew-and the first of the books ( I treated myself 10 books ) I bought on a recent trip to England.

Matthew is bemoaning the fact that the lady he wanted to marry Matilde has been gone for 2 years when he becomes embroiled in the town of Cambridge's frenzy of spells and witchcraft. Rather than burning witches it appears the townsfolk are embracing the dark magic. It has been ten years since the...

God's Spy by Juan Gomez-Jurado

feeds@yuku.com (corky3) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 07:09:05 GMT

I confess I am a big fan of Spanish mystery-historical fiction writers so I am inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt and read them. Realizing that they all can not be of the caliber of Zafron or Reverte-Perez, I still think there is a strong literary group coming out of Spain. The problem, unfortunately, in some cases, lie not in the writing but in the translation. That is the major problem here with Gomez-Jurado. God's Spy, it appears, to be the first in a series and there are...

The Black Tower by Louis Bayard

feeds@yuku.com (corky3) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 06:54:31 GMT

This the third novel by Louis Bayard I have read. He basically writes historical fiction-Mr Timothy,Timothy Crachit is the chief detective in that one, and The Pale Blue Eye, the detective in this one gets a little help for a young Edgar Allan Poe,during his West Point days-I think the best of the three.

To quote the book jacket-"a spell binding novel about a lost king and the real life convict who transformed himself into the world's first modern detective"...

Barbara Cleverly -Joe Sandilands series

feeds@yuku.com (corky3) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 06:38:30 GMT

This is the series I am now committed to,now that I have collected them all.

The first in this series is The Last Kashmiri Rose which is subtitled Murder and Mystery in the Final Days of the Raj.

Joe Sandilands, after a six monthy stint in India, after WWI ( and yes he is a survivor of the fields of Flanders) is returning to England to resume his career at Scotland Yard. He is delayed because a young woman is found with her wrists slit in a bathtub. While the local...

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

feeds@yuku.com (corky3) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 08:50:25 GMT

FYI -if you get Parade magazine in your Sunday paper there is an exclusive -the prologue to the new Brown novel and a link to the first chapter. I am sure there will be bargains galore in places like Sam's Club and Cosco. And ,of course, both Borders and Barnes and Noble had 40% off of pre order ( I believe the book is going for around $ 28 ). After the initial rush I am sure there will be copies showing up at used book stores-I think that is when I will pick it up.

The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

feeds@yuku.com (corky3) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 08:06:27 GMT

This is the much awaited sequel to The Shadow of The Wind. Being an advocate of the latter I simply had to read -playing more than I normally would . Zafon has said in interviews this will be a quartet of books so they are interconnected by some characters and places.

From the book jacket:

In an abandoned mansionn at the heart of Barcelona, a young man, David Martin, makes his living by writing sensational novels under a pseudonym. The survivor of a troubled...

The Dracula Dossier by James Reese

feeds@yuku.com (corky3) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 07:45:01 GMT

I picked this book when B&N was running 75% off last chance tank. Remembering when it first came out there had been a number of them so I figured someone had bought all the rest and the topic does sound interesting the story of Jack the Ripper connected with the Dracula story. Reese is best known for his supernatural stories and a strong element of that comes to play in the plot-an explanation of why Jack the Ripper does what he does.

The main protagonist of the...

The Shortest Way to Hades by Sarah Caudwell

feeds@yuku.com (corky3) — Sat, 02 May 2009 06:53:47 GMT

This series- a short one-four books because the author died- is subtitled A Hilary Tamar Mystery. Hilary is a law instructor at Oxford-specializing in tax law who has a personal and working relationship with a group of young lawyers in Lincoln Inn in London.

This first case takes you from the chambers of London to the Greek Isles. It involves a case of avoidind inheritance tax by changing a trust arrangement of one Sir James Remington-Fiske. All the inheritees agree but one...

The Last Cato by Matilde Asensi

feeds@yuku.com (corky3) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:59:52 GMT

At least once a year you hope if you read a lot of books that you will find a real "winner". This year it is The Last Cato. It was so good that before I had gotten just about a third through I ordered Asenti only other novel that has been translated on Amazon.

The novel could be called a DaVinci Code imitation EXCEPT it was written several years before Brown wrote his novel. The cover says it was an international best seller and I could well imagine why. It is...

My Lady Judge by Cora Harrison

feeds@yuku.com (corky3) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 07:19:10 GMT

This is a mystery set in sixteeth century in the Burren area of Ireland, which is County Clare, where my husband's Irish ancestors originated. This is the time-after Sister Fidelma-when the Catholic Church has banned marriages for priests and nuns but woman were still allowed to be judges and doctors.

Mara, is not only a Brehon, but runs the law school where young boys start learning the law as early as six. Her assistant, one that she is not particularly pleased with, is...

A Rich Full Death by Michael Dibdin

feeds@yuku.com (corky3) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:25:56 GMT

Michael Dibdin is most known for his Italian detective series Aurelio Zen- a rather quirky policeman who gets involved with rather quirky plots. I have read all of the series except End Games which was finished just before Dibdin died about two years ago.

A Rich Full Death also takes place in Italy-Florence- and the characters are historic- Robert Browning is one of our detectives. The plot begins with the death of a young Bostonian wife, Isabel Eakin nee Allen,who is found hung...

The Ballad of Frankie Silver by Sharyn McCrumb

feeds@yuku.com (mom2acat2) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 11:31:44 GMT

THE BALLAD OF FRANKIE SILVER
Sharyn McCrumb

This story is a blend of the true story of Frankie Silver, a young woman who was executed in North Carolina in 1832, and of a fictional character, Fate Harkryder, on death row in the early 80's. The theme that ties the two stories together is the inequality of justice of the poor.

The story of Frankie grew into a legend in that part of the country. What really happened will never be known, but it is believed that she...

The Canterbury Papers by Judith Koll Healey

feeds@yuku.com (corky3) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 07:22:54 GMT

This was a novel that was recommended to me a while back and it turns out this was an excellent recommendation. The Canterbury Papers are subtitled a novel of suspense-and it is that-there are several murders-one in the past -Becket's and a few in the present day of the novel time. Basically what Healey does is take some true historical facts-there was a Princess Alais-daughter of the French king Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine. After her mother's remarriage to Henry II she did...

Napoleon's Pyramids by William Dietrich

feeds@yuku.com (corky3) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 08:16:24 GMT

This novel is probably one of the hundreds that was written after the success of the DaVinci Code. This one also has a religious theme, although in this novel, it is the religion of ancient Egypt. Reading it all I could think of was the National Treasure movies-lots of information-in this case lots of mathematical theories concerning the pyramids-and one of those movie hair-raising endings and Masonic connections. One of the mistakes-and I call it a mistake because I feel a novel so be...

Morality Play by Barry Unsworth

feeds@yuku.com (corky3) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 08:24:08 GMT

A novel by Barry Unsworth would not normally be placed in this category. He writes serious fiction and even has a Booker prize to prove it. At least one of his novels has been made into a movie-Pascali's Island with Oscar winners Ben Kingsley and Helen Mirren. He does not write series but has quite a catalogue of books with many themes from the Trojan War to a slave's life aboard ship.

Morality Play was recommended to me a long time ago and I recently purchased a...

Unholy Fire by Robert J. Mrazek

feeds@yuku.com (corky3) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 19:36:12 GMT

This novel is subtitled a novel of the Civil War. This is the story of John "Kit" McKittredge, a young Union soldier from Maine. He is horribly wounded in an early battle in Virginia with little hope of recovery. Miraculously he does although he is saddled with an addiction to laudeum. Fortunately for Kit he is recruited by Colonel Valentime Burdette, who in the end proves to be more of a friend than a superior. Val involves Kit in the cases of the Provost Marshal General's...