eyes.2c Reviews

Christmas in Newfoundland--Memories and Mysteries: A Sgt. Windflower Book (The Sgt. Windflower Mysteries)   by Mike Martin.    What can I say. Windflower's Christmas stories are as I expected redolent with that Newfoundland spirit of independence, the joy of simple pleasures and communal eccentricities. Set in both Grand Bank and St. John's I could easily picture the houses and streets described in St. John's, the areas of the town, the snow, the excitement and traditions of Christmas, and the tragedies. I loved the illustrations provided by the 'young artists from the Visual Arts Program at Canterbury High School in Ottawa.' They aptly depict my memories of the St. John's houses in rows and their colorful exteriors. I loved the Grand Bank Christmas tales, "where gifts were few and love was plenty. Those were the days when the snow and a homemade sled were sufficient entertainment, the nights were filled with kerosene lamps and laughter, and the tw...

The Fast800 Diet: Discover the Ideal Fasting Formula to Shed Pounds, Fight Disease, and Boost Your Overall Health   by Dr. Michael Mosley           A combination of ideas put forward about food, exercise and losing weight by Mosley are ringing bells with me. Particulars he's mentioning are factors my doctor has been raising with me. Although my need is more to do with excess weight putting pressure on my arthritic knees. The book is pithy, easy to read, not too complicated in its explanations, fairly straightforward and most importantly, held my interest. The things that struck me most included: that Mosley gives "a number of options so you can tailor the program to your needs, goals and motivation...based on 800-calorie fast days—it’s high enough to be manageable and sustainable but low enough to trigger a range of desirable metabolic changes." So changing metabolism gets a tick and there are Options available for the way you might approach the pr...

Rebellion's Message (A Bloody Mary Mystery #1)   by Michael Jecks     I first reviewed Rebellion's Message in 2016. Before going any further, I must say I do like the cover for this new digital edition. I loved Jack Blackjack when I first met him and have continued to shake my head over his wayward journey. He's somewhat like that annoying younger brother, always walking deeper and deeper into trouble, and then wondering how on earth things had come to pass. Thankfully, like a cat with nine lives, he seems to land on his feet, even if the landing is somewhat shaky. Jack being Jack, and me being me, I am incorporating parts of my review from two years ago.  Rebellion's Message was the first in a Tudor mystery series rife with "intrigue, deadly court politics, a roguish, likeable anti hero, and murder-- all centered on the firm historical detail of the period during the rebellion of 1554 lead by Jane Grey supporters against Queen Mary." An "engaging...

Treachery (Giordano Bruno #4) by S. J. Parris.                Caught up with intrigue, the Spanish question, the French and English monarchs, and his own troubles Italian "defrocked monk, excommunicated for heresy," and now spy, Giordano Bruno accompanies his friend Sir Philip Sidney, a favorite of Queen Elizabeth's to Plymouth where Sir Francis Drake's fleet is readying  to set sail for the Spanish Main. It's 1585 and Drake is on the eve of departure. Ostensibly Sir Philip is to escort Dom Antonio, the pretender to the Portuguese throne, back to Elizabeth's court. In reality Sir Philip has decided to go against the Queen's wishes and join Drake on his great adventure. That great voyage though has been brought to a halt. A man, "Master Robert Dunne, a gentleman of Devon," has apparently suicided on Drake's galleon. On closer inspection it appears that the suicide is actually a murder. A lose-lose situation for Drake. Sailors being a su...

Trace of Evil (Natalie Lockhart #1) by Alice Blanchard           Natalie Lockhart is conflicted. She has a list of hard things she'd faced in her life. Natalie's now back in her hometown of Burning Lake as a detective. Burning Lake a town where everyone knows everyone, but in the end, they didn't. A town with a history of witchcraft that drew tourists and troubled the teenage population.  The attraction of witchcraft for the teenagers of the town is like a rite of passage. All partake, not all relinquish it. "On the surface, it would appear that Burning Lake had a sparse Wiccan population, but that was due to the fact that many of them were still in the broom closet." We have disappearances, we have secrets, we have dead bodies and we have concentric circles linking everything together. "Death was like a secret. You could bury it deep underground, but it wouldn’t stay buried for long. Eventually, our secrets—like old bones—had a way of knuckling o...

The Sacrament: A Novel by  Olaf Olafsson             A boy locked in a school's broom closet views something strange out of the window. A Catholic nun whose locked away her own secrets, including the reasons for her not quite belonging despite her best efforts. Her sense of humor, her attachment to her dog George Harrison and her rose garden don't quite still her heart. The persuasive church hierarchy who don't want to know. Cardinal Raffin, a sly holder of Sister Joanna Marie's life from before. He thinks that sending a nun with secrets can be controlled to investigate a school where abuse charges have been made. That this will suffice. Sister Joanna is sent not once but twice, in her forties and then twenty years later to investigate complaints about the church school. The major part of the novel, is set in Reykjavík, Iceland. How Sister Joanna comes to speak Icelandic is another story that we glimpse as Joanna recalls her time at the Sorbon...

City of Pearl (Aelf Fen #9) by Alys Clare           A presence fills the alleys near Gurdyman's house. A vagrant is found dead with a lustrous pearl in his hand propped up against the wall outside Grurdyman's house. Gurdyman is panicked. He knows he's being called back by his past to the places of his childhood and his growth in magico-mystical knowledge. Lassair is feeling isolated. Jack Chevestrier has sent her away and she finds no place but Gurdyman's. When Gurdyman asks her to accompany him to Spain, despite it being near to winter, she agrees. After all healer Lassair is Gurdyman's pupil and as is pointed out, 'it is a part of his duty to ensure that [she] encounter others who are so much further advanced in the arts.’ These words are those of Lassair's aunt, healer Edild. Edild is now married to Hrype, who first introduced Lassair to Gurdyman. Hrype knows what Gurdyman is and what Lassair could be. He also feels that Gurdyman is exposing Lassair...

A Fatal Assignation (The Rutherford Trilogy #2)   by Alice Chetwynd Ley             This second in the Rutherford Mysteries is once again a delightful read--if murder and blackmail can be considered that! Justin Rutherford's personae is as always the decisive, yet slightly detached, gentleman detective. Andrea his niece is back being the bright ton darling, smart and at times wayward, and Justin's scintillating accomplice. This time Andrea's friend Charlotte Jermyn's uncle is missing. Only it turns out he's dead and Andrea might have been the last to see him in an unexpected place. It seems Preston was somewhat of a roué with a string of mistresses to his bow. As Justin describes him, "one of Prinney’s set ... Odd fish." It takes some time for a hue and cry to be raised as Lady Jerymn and her husband go there separate ways, having "little in common, and merely try to support the usual observances of marriage." She initially approaches Ju...

Night of the Scoundrel (The Devils of Dover #3.5)   by Kelly Bowen          King, "Lord of London's underworld," always enigmatic and aloof. Dangerous! I felt King's story was going to be something special, I knew this was going to be a five star read before I'd reached the end of the first page. King witnesses a fight in a darkened alleyway between three ruffians and a mysterious angel with a rapier and a knife. He is both disturbed and intrigued, "He might not know who this woman was, but he knew what she was—one who understood what lurked in the dark corners of the soul. Like recognized like, after all." What follows is a story that reaches into the depth of King's dark corners, exposing who he is and matches him with a stunning partner grown from similar hidden places. Adeline Archambault sees in King something that causes her to stumble, to be wary. He is "predatory and remote. Piercing and impenetrable." In her line of wo...

The Battalion Artist: A Navy Seabee's Sketchbook of War in the South Pacific, 1943–1945 by Janice Blake (Author), Nancy Bellantoni (Editor), Natale Bellantoni (Illustrator) I have always been drawn to art works depicting battles and wars and marveled at how the artists were able to work under pressure to produce some amazing pieces. I have spent time at major art galleries reflecting on varies artists' abilities. That interest is  what drew me to this title. Of course with the advent of the camera, paintings and sketches were no longer the only medium recording historical moments of life at the front. If your an ordinary serving seaman you use what media you have available. Natale Bellantoni used them all. Watercolor paintings, sketches, photographs and other realia. His paintings very much have that aura of late forties Realism (And how can they not be one asks!) I marveled at how this talented young painter, attendee of the Massachusetts School of Art, was able to prod...

The Princess Plan (A Royal Wedding #1) by Julia London         I really enjoyed the Tricklebank household. The maid who sits and has tea with her mistress. The mistress who mends clocks, the father who knits, the houseman Ben who is definately not the butler--much to the shock of both the Princes when he refuses to take their hats. No wonder the Prince Sebastian is confused, what with the daughter of the house, Eliza, who is a somewhat outspoken spinster (I could just imagine the scene when she discovered years early at a dinner party that the rogue who'd been paying his addresses to her had become engaged to someone else), the widowed daughter Hollis, who has turned her husband's political paper into a gossip and advice rag, and Judge Tricklebank  who's blind and obviously supports his daughters independence, mostly! So we have the very precious Prince Sebastian seeking trade alliances (and casting around for an English wife to sweeten the pot), a possib...

Lethal Pursuit (Barker & Llewelyn #11) by Will Thomas            London 1892, a man is stabbed to death just near Whitehall. Various packs of mysterious young men dressed uniformly in blue coats and caps with swords have been seen. Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn are led via a convoluted route to visit the Prime Minister. As part of that journey involves tunnels, Thomas is not enamored. “Down the rabbit hole,” he jokes, but it appears he has a fear of enclosed spaces and is not so sanguine about this part of things. The mysterious man was a Foreign Office Agent. Barker and Llewelyn are not to look into his death but are to deliver a package and its mysterious contents to France. And even here Barker is very careful about the phrasing of his agreement. In the words of a well loved Bard and a famous sleuth, "The game is afoot!" Barker's nemesis, Commissioner James Munro of the London Metropolitan Police, comes into play with a large amount of ac...

Galway Girl (Jack Taylor #15) by Ken Bruen            Jack Taylor, ex Garda, Jameson whiskey glugging alcoholic, and private investigator, attracts tragedy and psychotics in equal amounts. Jack has hit an all time low with the murder of his daughter. The last thing he needed was to become emerged in random acts of murder targeting the Gardai. How is it that this man limps or more often than not, slides from one disastrous situation to another just by being? The action in Galway Girl is brutal and swift buoyed along by the protagonists who are involving themselves in a deadly game of one upmanship. And when Jack becomes the target, well anything can and does happen. Does Jack walk on the wild side, flatlining his emotional needs in a bottle of whiskey or has he just become so inured to what normal people are horrified by that he just can't seem to care? (My visual image of Jack is as always tied to the onscreen detective as portrayed by Iain Glen...

The Woman in the Water (Charles Lenox #11, Prequel #1)   by Charles Finch London, 1850. Charles Lenox is obviously intelligent. At first I thought he was a tad awkward socially. Later I realized it's just his way, after all he's only 23 and just beginning his life as a detective. Apparently Charles has let the girl he loved slip away due to his own inaction, not recognizing that what he felt for Elizabeth (who is later called Jane) was more than a childhood friendship. Between establishing himself in the detecting arena and losing his love before it could become a reality, Charles doesn't seem to be as yet comfortable in his own skin Charles' companion and valet Graham, is a partner in this cohort of investigation. We are told that Graham has a mind that absorbs and holds onto information. I love the scene of them both cutting out newspaper articles and then comparing notes to discover where things might be amiss, where their skills might be needed. Charles has ...

The Vanishing Man (Charles Lenox Mysteries #12, Prequel #2)   by Charles Finch     Dare I say it? I am SO enamored of Charles Lenox, a gentleman detective of Victorian times who can't ask for payment as that would seem like he's in 'trade.' He is a thoroughly nice man (now 26), intelligent, a sense of humor, compassionate and always willing to learn. This case was a difficult one for Lenox as he stepped into the rarified atmosphere of Dukes (of which there are only twenty-eight), their closeness to the throne in the pecking order of things, and how all this impacts Lenox's investigations when his particular Duke, the Duke of Dorset,  is taken to the Tower when his manservant of thirty years, Craig, is killed. A lively and often discouraging investigation that includes something stolen from the Duke's real private study (as opposed to his public private study--I love that!), lost Shakespearian realia, a kidnapping, and murder. Somewhat puzzling, because...

Someone to Remember (Wescott #7) by Mary Balogh     After reading 'Someone to Honor' I noted 'the amazingly secretive meeting of Aunt Matilda (Lady Matilda Westcott) with someone she has previously known,' and exclaimed, 'therein lies a story!' Therein did lie a story! A story of lost dreams, of lives taking different paths and an endearing love lying hidden for more than thirty-six years, pushed into the depths of the couple in question's respective hearts, until they meet again. Charles Sawyer, Viscount Dirkson, and natural father to Gil Bennington, now married to Abigail Westcott, and Matilda's niece, loved Matilda when he was twenty. Charles had proposed but had been refused by Matilda as her parents disapproved of him and his lifestyle. Matilda has never married, despite various opportunities, and had reconciled herself to being a loving aunt and her mother's somewhat put upon companion.  Recently, unbeknownst to all but her nephew Bert...

Dead Don't Wait, The (A Bloody Mary Mystery #4 )  by Michael Jecks.               It's 1555 and Jack our bumbling non assassin is back. A fellow who has ideas above himself, who's only interested in swiving, the cut of his coat, drinking wine' keeping his head on his shoulders, and who more often that not gets taken in by a soft word from the ladies. I am constantly exasperated by Jack but can't seem to stop turning the pages to see what situation he falls into next. He seems to always go from the frying pan into the fire and just as he's about to be burnt alive, he miraculously lands on his feet. More by luck than intent. A priest has been killed at St Botolph just outside of London. Jack has been accused of the murder and is called on by the coroner Sir Richard of Bath to accompany him to the crime scene, to be present at the inquest. Even the getting to St Botolph's is so essentially Jackish that one can't help to be both amused and appal...

Death Has Deep Roots: A Second World War Mystery (Inspector Hazlerigg #5) by Michael Gilbert            If I were a 'courtroom drama' purist I'd be in seventh heaven over this reprint of this 1951 British Crime Classic.  I'm not, and yet I found myself following the court action and the investigation process as avidly as if I were watching Rumpole of the Bailey. It's post World War II London. A young French woman, Victoria Lamartine, a former resistance member, and ex Gestapo prisoner has been accused of murder. Her victim is Major Eric Thoseby, her supposed lover and contact in France during the war. It looks like a cut and dried case. But at the last moment Victoria changes briefs and things go from a ho hum, 'Guilty as charged', murder case to 'High Drama.' Victoria's new defense team led by Hargest Macre with young solicitor Nap Rumbold are wily, thorough and astute. The investigations are visually clear and thrilling. As the case ...

Sisters of Shadow and Light (Sisters of Light and Shadow #1)   by Sara B. Larson             A combined Beauty and the Beast and a Gateway to another world story. No beasts in this world now, but they have been here in the past, and they truly were malignant Beasts. What we do have is a sentient hedge that sprouts thorns around a strange citadel and doesn't let any one in or out, except for Sami, the midwife and now the cook and housekeeper for the family, when absolutely necessary. Zuhra and Inara, born of a Paladin father and a human mother, are secured inside the citadel along with their mother Cinnia and Sami. When the Paladins came through a portal from another world they came to rescue the human world from the renegade Paladins, and the monsters that had swarmed through the gate and attacked the human world. Then the Paladins disappeared, including the girls' father Adelric, something their mother Cinnia had never recovered from. She is ...

Poppy Redfern and the Midnight Murders (A Woman of World War II Mystery #1) by Tessa Arlen    Ok, so a Poppy Redfern mystery is not in the same class, as yet, to Foyle's War, but she is quite a delightful and rather winning protagonist. Poppy is the shy granddaughter to repected English landed gentry. Their house has been given over to the war effort and housing an American airfield base. So the Yank have landed! There are some attempts at developing relationships between the  two communities but then things go horribly wrong. Two young women are murdered and a third was nearly done for. The Americans are in the spotlight as those responsible. Poppy Redfern and her alter ego Ilona, along with Bessie the dog, (whom I adore!) a welsh herding dog apparently, (I can't decide if this means Bessie's a corgi or something else) set out to catch the muderer. Then there's American Lieutenant Griff O’Neal, whom Poppy doesn't know whether to like or dislike. Of course...

The Guinevere Deception (Camelot Rising #1)   by Kiersten White             As always with stories about Camelot, where Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot and Mordred take center stage, things can't help but be complex. Nothing is as it seems. White has given us another take that comes out of left field, and yet holds the line blending magic and myth magnificently. A Delacorte Press ARC via NetGalley  ****

Novice Dragoneer (Dragoneer Academy #1) by E.E. Knight              One thing I can say about Ileth is that she has determination, almost to the point of foolishness. Ileth is a Cinderella figure in her village with the emphasis on Cinders. She  knows little but had work and nothing about kindness. As an orphan without a known paternal name and a person with a stutter, she's not only the butte of jokes, she's labeled as the daughter of a whore due to her affliction. Having idolized dragons by the actual meeting with a dragon as a seven year old child, at fourteen Ileth leaves her village and journeys to the Serpentine gate at the Accademy, to put herself forward for training as a potential Dragoneer. She needed to arrive by Midsummer's Day. Her late arrival has her having to seek other means of being noticed. I did feel for her. After this quite solid beginning, I was disappointed at the slower pace of the novel. All Ileth wanted to do wa...

Missing Diamond Murder, The (Black and Dod mysteries #3)   by Diane Janes               A throughly innocuous murder mystery. The detecting is by a mild mannered woman, Fran Black, in the throes of obtaining a divorce. Due to the legal difficulties of the time around granting of divorce Fran must be circumspect, so she and Tom Dod, a fellow member of the Robert Barnaby Society and a companion in previous family investigations, are keeping their distance. They obviously have feelings for each other but Tom is married with a son and that seems to be that. A wealthy Devon family have had an heirloom diamond stolen and the patriarch of the family died in somewhat suspect circumstances. Fran is asked to circumspectly assist in looking into the disappearance of the diamonds as the family doesn't want to raise any sort of scandal and awkward questions. Not a story that fully grabbed my attention, but I rather liked Fran. Not as clever as Agatha C...

The Highlander's Christmas Bride (Clan Kendrick #2)   by Vanessa Kelly   Near to Christmas 1819, and Donella Haddon, the Flower of Clan Graham, who'd fled to a convent three years before when her engagement ended has just been given a shock. Now the convent is returning her. It seems that her vocation is in doubt, if not dead in the water. Logan Kendrick, a wealthy widower has returned from Canada to more firmly establish his Shipping business. He been negotiating financial matters with Lord Ruddick and agrees to escort his grandniece home. What he doesn't agree to is defending her from a kidnapping attempt. Not that Donella wanted to be kidnapped either. So fleeing from the brigands is their main priority. I very much enjoyed Logan and Donella's interactions that ranged from humorous to pointed. They "fashed" each other continually. And when clan business became involved things became even more obscure. Of course they were drawn to each other but the...

This Earl of Mine (Rogues and Rebels #3) by Kate Bateman           An usual woman, a former soldier (ex Rifles, ah Sharpe!), and a hurried marriage at Newgate Prison ensure this tale opens with a bang. Fortunately the pace doesn't waver and the beginning frames the subsequent action superbly. Georgiana Caversteed, a fabulously rich young woman who controls a shipping empire has decided to do away with importunate odious cousins, fortune hunters and other such sycophants that haunts her every step. Her plan is failproof! She will buy herself a husband, one who's about to depart this world, and then present herself to society after a time as a widow. Unfortunately her target died of jail fever and the only other candidate was to be shipped to the other side of the world. Not to be thwarted Georgina goes for plan B and decides to make do with the replacement. What she didn't know was that the dubious character, her prisoner husband was actually Benedict W...

Penny for Your Secrets (Verity Kent 3) by Anna Lee Huber Attending a dinner party and having the host murdered is shocking! For Verity Kent and Sidney we might be forgiven in thinking it's naught but small change for them after all they've encountered other the past years. It's not! Ada, Lady Rockman is an old friend of Verity's and due to a totally dramatic moment between the hosts at the dinner table, it seems Ada is about to be charged with murder. Ada appeals to Verity for help. To find out who really killed her husband. The trail is convoluted and snakes back in upon itself. Add to this the unrelated death of a woman who'd worked for the Royal Mail,” in the censorship department. Verity and Sidney are forced to cast the net wide. Along the way they encounter Ada's lover Lord Ardmore, who "holds some unknown  position within Naval Intelligence", and as things become more complex, Captain Alec Xavier, a man Verity became close to after Sidney...

A Mackenzie Clan Christmas (Mackenzie series) by Jennifer Ashley             Two Christmas season stories with my favorite MacKenzie man taking a lead role, Ian with his wife Beth and their three children. A Mackenzie Yuletide At two in the morning Mac is painting in his room at the top of Kilmorgan Castle when he's disturbed by what appears to be the ghost of a woman. He pursues the trailing  apparition without success. Later, the younger Mackenzies decide to help, after a humorous start. Ian wants to purchase a special present for his Beth for Hogmanay. A heavy gold "antique necklace with intricately worked loops of gold and hung with emeralds and lapis lazuli." Unfortunately its disappeared. Ian brings his unwavering focus to bear on solving the problem, not realizing that his son Jamie is going toe to toe with him trying to find the piece. A Mackenzie Clan Gathering I had read this previously and a second reading in no way diminished my...

The Girl with the Pearl Pin (The Society for Single Ladies #1 )  by Lynne Connolly      On the outside she's a demure young woman, always relegated to second place beside her younger, beautiful and vastly shallow sister Lucinda. Miss Phoebe North has removed to London ahead of her family to keep her friend Angela Childers company. Angela is a wealthy young woman, not interested in finding a husband, but in husbanding her business ventures and her latest brainchild, the Single Ladies Society. Pheobe has a terrible stutter, a lively intelligence, a keen sense of the ridiculous and is convinced of her unworthiness to be special. She is! Unbeknownst to all, including Phoebe, inside hides a wanton woman the match for any strong man. Enter the Duke of Leomore, “Call me Leo,” whom we meet at the beginning of the story  just as enticement gives way to alarm! Phoebe and Leo are thrown into the midst of a jewel heist and Phoebe is accused of the theft. Our noble Du...