eyes.2c Reviews

Fatal Charm   by Blair McDowell A deceptively simple start to  dramatic and lively unfolding action,  where romance and mystery take the lead! Caitlin Abernathy, a jewelry designer is shocked by the murder of her boy friend Allen Thompson. His last words to the medics were a message for her. Something about an omelette. It didn't make sense. Nothing is straightforward with this day. Shortly before Caitlin learns of Allen's death she is confronted by two men who rob her of a selection of her jewelry designs as she's on her way to meet a potential client. A stranger enters Caitlin's workshop to commission a piece. He is a noted historian, professor and  mentor for her associate and friend Aristotle, a doctoral student who resides above her studio. Dr. Colin Stryker is an Irishman, charming and intelligent. The attraction between the two is immediate. The finding of a dragon brooch hidden amongst Caitlin's store of gems and precious stones draws these ...

Murderous Mistral:  A Provence Mystery (Roger Blanc) by  Cay Rademacher.   Capitaine Roger Blanc is the ideal obsessive investigator, formerly with the Parisian anti-corruption unit. Perhaps a bit too obsessive as after a successful case against personages in high places he finds himself reallocated to Sainte-Françoise-la-Vallée, a hamlet in Provence 500 miles south of Paris. At the same time his marriage collapses. Blanc is forced into making a fresh start. Fortunately he owns a 200 year old dilapidated house that he'd virtually forgotten he'd inherited and had for some unknown reason kept on paying the taxes. His welcoming investigation was that of the body of a man deliberately torched. By all accounts Moréas had been a very nasty person; a belligerent bully who terrorized his neighbours and anyone else who crossed his path, a thief and murderer. A man no-one mourned when he met his grisly ending.  Blanc can't help but sniff out corruption,...

An Echo of Murder (William Monk #23)   by Anne Perry                             As always a masterful rendition of murder inquiry, doubt, and the machinations of the human mind under stress. Once again Perry brings a reality check to murder most foul.  Commander Monk of the Thames River Police is confronted by a murder unlike any he's seen before.  A Hungarian man has been killed in what appears to be some sort of ritualistic endeavour. The body is surrounded by seventeen candles, two of them a dark, purplish-blue color. As more killings occur fear spreads throughout the Hungarian community. Are these sacrificial murders, a secret society run amok, evidence of extreme ethnic prejudice, or the product of a deranged mind? Is the perpetrator English or Hungarian? The community wants answers and a scapegoat is needed. The person of possibility turns out to be a friend of ...

The Lost Letter: A Victorian Romance by Mimi Matthews                              Sylvia Stafford, once a society diamond of the first water is left impoverished and shunned when her high rolling father takes his own life. She finds sustenance and a certain amount of peace as a governess with a kindly merchant's wife. Unexpectedly coming into an earldom, Colonel Sebastian Conrad, badly scarred and emotionally tortured from the terror that was the Sepoy Rebellion, has withdrawn from any form of society, to his estates in Hertfordshire. Sylvia and Sebastian had been in love. An understanding between them as Sebastian left for active duty in India was cut short when promises were not held to. Each feels betrayed and hurt.   Conrad's feather headed sister concocts a scheme to bring them together. Anything to have her beloved brother return from his self imposed hermit lifestyle. However mis...

A Dangerous Engagement  (The Regency Spies of London #3) by  Melanie Dickerson                  I found it difficult to relate to Felicity Mayson for all her heroic efforts. I know, a merchant's daughter with a smallish dowry, who is railroaded into an engagement when she finds herself at a little known aunt's house party, can be pretty heady stuff. The man Felicity finds herself engaged to is Oliver Ratley, a wealthy young gentleman that Felicity's aunt, Lady Blackstone, has taken under her wing. Mr. Ratley seems quite taken with Felicity. His attention is almost to the point of strange. He definitely doesn't know quite how to behave properly, as Felicity reflects on when he squeezes her hand when they are introduced. That's just not right but then Felicity was trying to make allowances for him. I still don't quite know why a woman of Felicity's supposed strong views acquiesced to the engagement, but I can unders...

Broken Duke (The 1797 Club #3) by Jess Michaels                                         I keep being amazed by the way an author can meld the stories of a series so that they bounce off each other without a fault. I must admit that The 1797 Club series is somewhat like a regency Days of our Lives only raunchier. In this novel the background of lifetime friends falling out, and the resolution of that via the women they love, together with the realization of what love brings, is a fitting resolution for this Duke's progress towards a healthier future. Lady Adelaide Longford's secret life as the actress Lydia Ford crashes headlong into her normal life of dutiful wallflower daughter of the ton when she meets the emotionally damaged Graham Everly, Duke of Northfield whose ex  fiancé just happens to be Adelaide's best friend. They give to each other what h...

Highland Flame ( Highland Weddings #4)   by   Mary Wine                              Jane Stanley's  husband had been a feckless excuse for a man who sought to sell her favors to pay his gambling debts. When she refused and he was killed she found herself newly widowed and in the depths of the Highlands. After she refused the inn's owner the same liberties she found  herself thrust from the Scottish inn wearing only her chemise. Which is how  Laird Diocail Gordon  and his men found her some days later, trudging barefooted and determined towards England--sort of. Diocail needed a woman of Jane's background to bring order to the run down castle he'd inherited when his miserly uncle had died.  He needed "a lady and the duties she would have been trained to do. ... Running a kitchen was more than turning bread; it was knowing how much bread to set out to rise i...

Lady Eleanor's Seventh Suitor (The Sutherlands #1)   by Anna Bradley If ever a woman was caught in the cross hairs of a deadly game, even as the reason for its very being is a deep mystery,  that is  Eleanor Sutherland. If ever a man stalked his prey so efficiently then that hunter is  Camden West. From the very beginning I was caught up in the manoeuvre that Cam had instigated against  Eleanor using her sister Charlotte. The lengths he is prepared to go to punish her are puzzling. What he punishing her for is even more so. Is it just because she appears cold and unfeeling? Lady Frost is the name Eleanor has been given. Bets are placed on her at White's. She has her own page! As the story develops we and Cam discover that he has badly underestimated and misjudged Ellie. As she turns the tables on him things look hopeful but always Ellie is taken by surprise by yet another layer that is added to the equation. It isn't until the end that we start to s...

Last Gentleman Standing   by Jane Ashford                              A regency novel in the Georgette Heyer mode. The story has interesting characters, treachery, villainy, a mystery, interesting characters and an heiress newly come.  Miss Elisabeth Elham  is named as the heir to her Scrooge type miserly uncle. Upon finding out about her fortune she immediately takes up her two hitherto unknown cousins, Belinda and Tony who were also in the running as heirs to share in her good fortune. Earning her living as a teacher, Elisabeth proceeds to London and the pace of the plot becomes dizzying with the elements added. These include a handsome country neighbor, a charming fribble of a would be swain, a Duchess friend of her chaperone and long lost older cousin  Lavina, a mysterious planter Mr. Garrett, a kidnapping and so much more. And let's not forget the unrepentant canine Gows...