NY: Mariner Boks, 2022.
It’s hard to believe that, by internal chronology, it’s been a dozen years now since Dr. Ruth Galloway, forensic archaeologist on the faculty of the University of North Norfolk, first began doing consultancy work for the police, in the person of DCI Harry Nelson. A lot has happened to both of them in that time, both professionally and personally. They’ve shared lots of adventures, all of them interesting, through thirteen previous volumes.
NY: Houghton Mifflin, 207.
I’ve previously read four of this talented author’s YA novels and all have been above average, but this may be her best so far. Chloe Mitchell is starting her senior year of high school and she’s very popular, with the best available boyfriend, and she’s a good student — stacking up all those AP classes — but she’s conflicted about going away somewhere for college. The thing is, her sister, Ivy, is three years older and she’s autistic. Relatively high-functioning, so she goes to school (in a special program that she will age out of in a few months), but “anxiety is her constant companion” and she’s vulnerable because she tends to believe what anyone tells her.
Continue reading “La Zebnik, Claire. Things I Should Have Known.”
Westmorland, UK: Paw Press, 2017.
If you have a subscription to Kindle Unlimited at Amazon, you know that the items available for borrowing include a large number of self-published, straight-to-Kindle titles. I’ve read (or attempted to read) at least a couple hundred of them since the service was introduced in 2014, and while they were mostly pretty mediocre at the beginning, their quality has improved dramatically in the past couple of years. That’s where I found this one, the opening volume of a ten-book series, which is an interesting mix of urban fantasy and techno-thriller, and it’s first-rate, both in its story and characters and in the author’s unadorned but vivid writing style. I don’t know anything about Hayden, who is British, but I’m guessing he had a career in the RAF before he turned to writing, for reasons that are apparent almost from the first page.
Seattle: Thomas & Mercer, 2022.
This is the fourth in the series about Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department homicide detective Eve Ronin and it’s excellent. I’ve read several of Goldberg’s earlier thrillers (of which he has written several dozen) and while they’ve mostly been okay, they simply can’t compare with the adventures of the heroine known to the media (to her great annoyance) as “Deathfist.” She never holds back, either. Her partner and mentor, Duncan “Donuts” Pavone, who’s retiring in just a few weeks, complains that she’s put him in more danger in the half a year she’s in been homicide than than in his entire career to date.
NY: St. Martin, 2022.
To my mind, a good rom-com is one that breaks the rules just a little, catching the reader off-guard with unusual characters and original plot twists, and this story of revenge and self-redemption is a good example. It’s apparently the author’s fifth novel, so she’s not a beginner and the narrative moves along very smoothly, seen through the eyes of two of the three main characters. The first Good Guy is Maya Bailey of Connecticut, who has just graduated high school and is headed (somewhat reluctantly) for college in the fall. Two years before, she had dated Jordy Miller for ninth months, who was a major catch from a wealthy family, two years older than her, dangerously handsome, but also a major player. Then his family moved to Canada and they attempted a long-distance relationship, but he cheated on her and lied to both girls about it. When Maya found out, she walked away and swore she would get even.
Continue reading “Gonzales, Sophie. Never Ever Getting Back Together.”
NY: Soho Press, 2021
There are more than twenty murder mysteries out now featuring Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond of Bath and while the first couple in the series were problematic, Lovesey quickly got a grip on his character, and all the books since has been above-average. The stories have always been strictly from Diamond’s POV, but this time there are two narrators and it all works surprisingly well.
NY: Ballantine, 2022.
Jennifer Smith can always be relied upon for an excellent story and has a long shelf of awards as a result. And this one demonstrates that a rom-com can be even more successful when it doesn’t follow all the expected rules of the genre. And while all of the author’s previous books have been YA, this one really isn’t. The protagonist is Greta of the title and she’s an indie rock star — but she was far from an overnight success. She’s in her 30s and she’s waited a lot of tables along the way and she still lives in a tiny NYC apartment, though she can afford much better, now. And she works very, very hard at her career, spending hours every single day over her guitar and struggling with new lyrics, and learning all the ins and out of the business side of music as well. But she’s finally had a break-out album and people actually recognize her on the street now, which is satisfying.
Continue reading “Smith, Jennifer E. The Unsinkable Greta James.”
NY: DAW, 2022
This author always manages to come up with original and unusual plots and this ninth episode in the “Rivers of London” series is no exception, featuring DC Peter Grant, the second-best wizard in the London Met (and soon-to-be father of twins with Beverly, goddess of a pretty minor London stream, but smart and gorgeous all the same). It all starts with a body in the London Silver Vaults that has had its heart removed by (according to the only witness) a fiery spear wielded by a angel of death, complete with flaming wings and a halo.
NY: Dutton, 2019.
The heroine of this well written and very atmospheric historical thriller set in Sydney, Australia, in 1946, is Billie Walker, private inquiry agent. She had been a kick-ass war correspondent, first covering the Nazi takeover of Europe in the late ’30s, then following close behind the Allied forces in the liberation. She had met and fallen in love with and married Jack Rake, a correspondent from London, but he disappeared in Poland in 1944 and is still missing. And then the war was over and women who had spent five years in the thick of things were told to go back to the kitchen so the returning soldiers could have their jobs back. Billie wasn’t going to be reduced to covering weddings and Sunday teas for the local paper, so she took over her recently deceased father’s business as a private eye.
Oakland, CA: Inkshares, April 2023.
This one is a slightly odd mix of almost-science-fiction, historical-conspiracy thriller, and hard-core paleontology, with a substantial flavor of Michael Crichton, The Da Vinci Code, and Indiana Jones threaded through it. There are four main characters: There’s Molly Wilder, California high school junior and dinosaur geek, with considerable volunteer field experience already under her belt. Now she’s won a summer internship at as very hot dig in Montana crammed with dinosaur fossils. There’s Sarah Connell, doctoral candidate and Molly’s crew boss on the dig. There’s Derek Farnsborough, a freelance paleontologist who sells the fossils he discovers on the open market — which is perfectly legal, but his activities make him no friends in the academic community. He also has ambitions to build a museum in Montana. And there’s Prof. Sean Oliphant, Sarah’s academic supervisor and overseer of the dig, and a general p.i.a.. He and Derek have been at odds for a long time, naturally.
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