eyes.2c Reviews

Courting Dragons (A King’s Fool Mystery #1) by  Jeri Westerson         ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A brilliant new series from the ever masterful spinner of tales, Jeri Westerson. Set in the court of Henry VIII, at the time when Henry is trying to put the Queen, Catherine of Aragon, aside and marry Lady Anne Boleyn or here known as the Lady Nan Bullen (read Westerson’s commentary at the end for further information about the spelling of Bullen). Will Somers is Henry’s court jester. (He was a real person historically in Henry’s court btw) A complicated man who can move through the court, unseen and yet not. A man who learns the secrets of the court, even as he has his own. Will is bisexual. He has one true love, Marion, a court seamstress / embroiderer, the illegitimate child of Lord Robert Heyward. He has various alliances of the moment with men. One is the Spanish contingent, Don Gonzalo de Yascar. When Gonzalo is found murdered, Will  investigates. There are so many plots brewing that Will feels stym

A Wicked Game  (Ruthless Rivals #3) by   Kate Bateman              ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Captain Morgan Davies is hell bent on finding the map maker whose map sent his ship aground and left him at the mercy of the French. Harriet Montgomery has drawn her father’s  maps as his eye sight has deteriorated. Not only that, but on orders from the government they had produced false maps with a slight degree of difference in the latitudes and longitudes to confuse the French spies who would seek to attain them. Harriet had no idea one of the altered maps would wreak havoc with Morgan’s ship. And then there’s the unrequited tension between the two! Morgan and Harriet have known each other since childhood and a shared kiss was a distant yet startling memory. Neither is aware that the sadistic Frenchman, General Jean-Luc De Caen, is tracking the cartographer who holds the key to his lost treasure. A very different regency historical novel—chaos, murder and a fortune in gold lead the way to the heart’s desire

The Marriage List  (Worthington Brides #1) by   Ella Quinn        ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Another story in the Worthington series. This time it’s Lady Eleanor Carpenter’s turn. A modern woman who is keen to find out all she can about mining, her ambition is to have a model mine.  However this is her coming out season and she’s also busy making a list, along with her sisters about what to look for in a husband. At the same time John, the Marquis of Montagu has come to town to find a wife. Someone who’s not too intelligent and is content to be in the countryside. His mother supplies him with a list of likely candidates and what their attributes. Unfortunately Eleanor doesn’t fit the bill but she does set his blood afire. Eleanor is wondering if Montagu is sufficiently intelligent as he only seems to discuss the weather. The story meanders on drawing together the many facets,  each blending to make a satisfactory whole I loved it when Montagu meets the Great Danes. I adored the way the children intervi

The Secret of the Lost Pearls  (A Useful Woman Mystery #1) by Darcie Wilde      ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Rosalind Thorne accepts a position to guide her friend Bethany Douglas’s sister-in-law Penelope, an heiress, through the season. That’s not all! A valuable heirloom, a three string rope of black pearls have gone missing and Rosalind is called on to “advise” Bethany about the investigation. The main suspect is her friend’s sister Nora who has returned to the household, destitute and compromised, three years after running away with Douglas’s best friend Bryan Cantrell. Bethany wants Rosalind to get to the bottom of the problem. Unfortunately Nora’s other sister Mariah has just seen Cantrell alive and well, strolling through a gallery with a young woman on his arm! Something is brewing, but what? Throw into the mix Bethany’s u ncertain and volatile mother, her embarrassing father, her sister Leonora, and the possibility of a spy in the household.  Gerald Douglas is the latest heir to Sir Jasper Dou

A Death in Tokyo  ( Kyoichiro Kaga #3)   by   Keigo Higashino      ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A case of a seemingly cut and dried murder turns out to be way more than first thought.  Kyoichiro Kaga—detective, Nihonbashi Precinct, and his cousin Shuhei Matsumiya—detective, Homicide Division, Tokyo Metropolitan Police  are part of a task force to investigate the murder of Takeai Aoyagi, a CEO of a small parts business. It seems an ex-contract employee might be involved. Nothing adds up for Kaga however. The murder takes place on Nihonbashi Bridge. Kaga’s investigation leads the reader through a set of circumstances that come together to make final sense of what’s happened.  Along the way we learn of cultural practices like the Nihonbashi Seven Lucky Shrines pilgrimage, the making of oragami paper cranes to be burnt offerings, health and safety coverups in factories. A solid detective story one part a flash of intuition and three parts thorough investigative work. I’m very excited to add Higashino to my gr

The Vibrant Years : A Novel  by  Sonali Dev    A sparkling intergenerational story of three women of Indian heritage. Bindu Desai (Binji), a Goan widow from Mumbai who has decided to buy a condo in Florida. Alisha, or rather Aly, her daughter-in-law who’s smart, a broadcast journalist who’s been waiting ten years for the big break. She’s lined up a major interview with Meryl Streep, but is being given the runaround by her studio. They’ve decided someone else from the firm will anchor the interview. That is when Aly gives them the pertinent information. It’s not discrimation they assure her! (Loud snorts of indignation from me!) This has happened to Aly constantly over the years.  By the way Aly is divorced from Bindu’s son Ashish who’s returned to Mumbai to find himself, follow his dream, whatever! Binji has chosen to stay in America and live with Aly. Unusual, you and I say! And that’s what’s so striking about Binji. She’s unusual! She doesn’t conform! It seems she had had enough of d

Fortress of Snow  (Dericott Tale #4) by Melanie Dickerson                ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Interesting storyline! Mazelina of Westcombe’s father has died and has left her with nothing. She turns towards her thoughtless brother John, training as a knight, for help. Only to be quashed by her brother’s attitude, part blame and part helpful. Repudiated by her half brother awareness after she’d refused to be married to a much older man, because she left in the company of a hired villager, Piers. Warin who’s petulantly bitter, and filled with his own sense of entitlement, casts her aside with no care for her reputation. All Mazy wanted was to lean on her brother and have him care. Is that too much to ask? Someone does care and that’s a Knight of the Duke of Strachleigh’s guard, Sir Berenger Dericott, also brother to the Duchess. Sir Berenger is called to court by King Richard. The king seeks to marry Sir Berenger to the Earl of Bristow’s widow Catherine Everdon . Sir Berenger is hesitant. This is a ki

The Devil Stone  (DCI Christine Callan #1 ) by  Caro Ramsay         ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Detective Chief Inspector Christine Caplan has just been slotted back to Detective Inspector. A review of lost material had her demoted temporarily. She carried the card for someone else, a member of her team she’d trusted. Part of her punishment is to go up north to Otterburn near Cronchie to take a secondary lead on a bizarre murder—five members of the one family with satanic ritual overtones. Only when she arrives one of the lead detectives is missing. Things are not as they seem. Back home she’s also being looked at for police brutality when she stopped a young thief who’d knocked a pensioner out of her wheelchair in an effort to steal her bag. And n ow the three eyewitnesses have all mysteriously turned against her. The thing is the thief was high. A new drug’s in town that’s diabolical! Snapdragon! People are dying! Who to trust, at home and up north? Those above her seem to be intent on making her the

Bombay Monsoon  by James W. Ziskin         ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Danny Jacobs, a journalist caught up in Bombay as Irandi Ghandi declares an Emergency to help save her party and her power.  Democracy in India is at a standstill. Ghandi rounds up her opposition as the whole country faces upheaval A beautiful young Indian woman, Sushmita leaves him breathless Her companion, a Belgian it turns out, Willy Smets, takes to Danny like father to son An ugly American, Russell Harlan Jr., a gorgeous German Lufthansa hostess, and Danny’s manservant of a few days, Ramu and Police Inspector Lockhande. Then there’s his boss Frank’s secretary, Janice. All form a nexus around which we, along with Danny, are whirled. One of Danny’s first stories, still on the back burner, was an interview with a bomb maker and terrorist. An unfortunate photo leaves Dan in a precarious position. A dive into Indian and European society and culture in 1975 India where n othing is as it seems, cultural differences aside. An intriguin

Into the West  (Founding of Valdemar #2) by  Mercedes Lackey     ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Having passed through a gate into a new land,   Baron Kordas Valdemar’s people  and those who accompanied them, including the “Dolls” were eager to move forward. Kordas is trying to move over fifteen thousand people, their equipment, livestock and barges, in the hunt for unoccupied land. First he has to deal with someone whose brutally attacked on of the Dolls, vrondi elementals trapped in a human shaped body that they animated. That he would not put up with! As the tale progresses we see the remarkable development of the elements. And remember, what one knows they all know. What they become eventually will I’m sure be remarkable. Delia, Kordas’ sister-in-law, who’s been besotted with him, finally makes the break and comes into her own as a member of the scouting group. Kordas leads his people along the waterways, beside a dangerous brooding forest, with inhabitants that looked like they’d been part of a change

Picture in the Sand   by   Peter Blauner               ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Amazing piece of writing that brings together a radicalised young Muslim from the US post 911 and the story of his Egyptian Muslim grandfather in Egypt in the 1950’s during Nasser’s rise to power, coinciding with Cecil B. DeMille’s filming of the Ten Commandments. Alix’s grandfather, Ali Hassan writes to Alix  (now Abu Suror meaning ‘father of joy’)  about his fate, his journey during those years. How he regained a faith he’d lost, not through radicalisation, but through circumstances that lead from a step away from repudiation of his religion to an acceptance of things. The miracle of love during this time comes slowly. His grandfather had been writing about his life over the years and he was now sharing it with Alix.  A family drama that has legs and captures a vast array of reasons why people do things, people who are in the wrong place at the wrong time, the power of belief and commitment, the disappointment of being

A Winter Wedding at Bletchley Park  (Bletchley Park Girls #2) by Molly Green              ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I can’t help it! Anything to do with Bletchley Park grabs me. A place of secrets and mystery. The British War machine well and truly in gear. Rosemary Frost’s  travails and hurts are put aside as she turns to joining the WRNS (Wrens) as part of her war effort. Only that becomes a bitter disappointment. But she wasn’t forgotten and a friend, John Palmer,  had a word in the right ears. Rosie is good at math and speaks Italian. She signs the Secrets Act and ends up at Bletchley Park. Just as she’s becoming comfortable, a new CO, Lieutenant Commander Hugo Garfield turns up. A man she has HISTORY with. Can she push down her feelings, feign the consummate professional, and work with him? A winningly woven novel of spycraft and personal history. Very enjoyable. An Avon ARC via NetGalley.                                               Many thanks to the author and publisher.

Christmas in Newfoundland—Memories and Mysteries (Sgt. Windflower Christmas Mystery #2) by Mike Martin ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Another Christmas treat from Mike Martin. A feast of “memories and mysteries”. We all could use a little love and laughter in our lives and Martin does just that with his writings, giving wings to the delights of this special season in Newfoundland. I must admit to treasuring the growth of Windflower’s daughters, his loving relationship with Sheila, and the development of other characters we’ve grown close to. Like Eddie Tizzard, Herb Stooley, Ron Quigley—valued old friends. The peeks at Christmas Day with these characters, the opening of presents are enchanting, the traditions, some just beginning, others tried and true. Memories of Windflower’s life as a child are a precious addition. An uplifting and very enjoyable trove of stories for this time of the year. A Mike Martin ARC Many thanks to the author.

Mr. Clarke's Deepest Desire  (Enterprising Scoundrels #2) by  Sophie Barnes   ⭐️⭐️💫 Mathew Parker is a modern Victorian man, a man devoted to locomotive engines. He’s also a man with a grudge. Lady Rosamund Parker is a thoroughly modern woman with an independent spirit whose interest in engines matches that of Matthews.  Her father, the Earl of Stoneburrow has died and his joint wills have placed constraints on her. Rosamund’s only way out is to marry or invest. Rosamund chooses the latter. Unfortunately the works of her choice, A&C Locomotives, or rather Matthew, have refused her approaches regarding investment. That’s how she finds herself at Earl of Westhaven’s country house party with men of like mind. It seems Rosamund’s scientific views on engines are quite insightful.  Matthew is there too. He confronts her with her father’s wrong doing towards his mother—the upstairs maid in her home years ago. A maid her father had dallied with and thrown out when things became diffi

The Politician  (DS Cross Mysteries #4) by   Tim Sullivan       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ It’s a definite! I’m absorbed by DS Cross, a detective who has Asperger’s, his shortcomings in everyday relationships, his lack of social awareness and his dogged pursuit of a case are marvellous.  I’m reminded a tad of Stellan Skarsgard’s performing in the tv production River, although Cross and John River are so different. A high profile activist and counsellor is found dead in her bedroom. Presumed to have been killed by an intruder, a thief. Then comes a later discovery that valuable family jewellery is missing. Most see the two connected. Cross doesn’t. The case becomes more complicated as layers upon layers are uncovered, including a link through two sources to an Albanian crime family. On the personal side Cross is starting to question why his mother disappeared so long ago. His partner DS Josie Ottey is both annoyed by Cross and yet pleased to be partnered with him. The whole driving aspect was amusing.

The Laran Gambit  (Darkover) by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Deborah J. Ross  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Deborah J Ross has written a Darkover tale that has no trouble fitting seamlessly into the arc of novels created by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Terran child psychologist, Bryn Haslund is fleeing the star alliance with her Senator father Ernst and her teacher and mentor Felicity Sage. Her father has had a mind control device inserted into his brain and Bryn’s research has found allusions to a lost planet world out on the galactic arm that mentions psychic abilities and telepathy. Bryn herself has strange precognitions about danger, enough to evade capture by the Alliance dictator’s heavy, Black. The fight for freedom continues and Bryn has a dangerous part to play. She meets Desiserio a matrix technician whose help is essential. It was warming to once again tread the literary ground of Darkover, bathe in the light of the four ? moons and have Darkover come to life. Very enjoyable and prompted me to go to my pap

A Christmas Deliverance  by Anne Perry      ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ At last a story about our favourite medico in the poor areas around the docks—Dr. Crowe, and  how he gains a family in spite of the dangers he finds himself in. After all family comes in all shapes and sizes and maybe a chosen one has other special qualities. Will Monk (known as Scuff), Hesta and William Monk’s son, is studying medicine and being mentored by Crowe. He realizes that he now thinks of Crowe’s practice as his home. We meet a small girl with no name, a survivor on the streets who pays Crowe with a kitten. Oh, and helps him eat some soup! This was all so loveable, sweet and tragic at the same time. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. A young woman, Ellie Hollister, whose life Crowe saved a year ago comes back into his life, and now it looks like Crowe’s trying to save her again. This time from a fiancé she doesn’t want. A Christmas story that gives new hope as Crowe finds a family forming around him, despite the unsav

Some Dukes Have All the Luck  (Synneful Spinsters #1) by Christina Britton     ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Ash Hawkins, Duke of Buckley and owner of the premier gaming hell of London has a problem. Three tearaway wards who need taming. A marriage of convenience is not off the cards! Preferably someone who can interest the girls and later steer them through the traps of society. Miss Bronwyn Pickering, resident of the Isle of Synne is being pushed into a titled marriage she doesn’t want by her parents upwardly mobile dreams. All Bronwyn wants to do is study her beloved insects. Maybe even have a paper accepted on her research by the Royal Society. Her only joy is a weekly gathering for tea with like minded young wome who call themselves the Oddments. What she didn’t expect was an invitation to marriage—of convenience! A truly delightful story spun into being from the magical pen of Christina Britton. All the ingredients are present; over reaching parents disapproving of their daughter’s pursuits, a Duk