eyes.2c Reviews

Havana Highwire (A Cuban Noir Novel #1) by  John Keyse-Walker  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Laconic, self deprecating ex-army intelligence officer, had “expected to finance [his]permanent vacation in [Havana] the land of sun, balmy breezes, rum, gambling, and compliant señoritas”, doing soft Private Investigator work. You know, like chasing down husbands for hard evidence in divorce cases.  We all know that nothing is going to be that simple. Still it’s the 1950’s and a guy needs dreams. The reality leads Henry Gore way beyond the dream into darkness and confusion. Then there’s his street wise, old before his years, side kick Benny. Maybe eight years old, Benny sort of adopts Gore, even after attempting to rob him. A likeable, eager to please youngster who provides  a lively counterpoint to the by now jaded Henry. When Henry takes on a job offer from a Cuban Senator to look for trouble makers, described to him as “a minuscule element, of the population who seeks to disrupt and overthrow the legitimate go

The Assassins of Thasalon  (Penric & Desdemona #10)   by Lois McMaster Bujold           ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I think Demon carrying sorcerer Learned Penric is one of my favourite fantasy heroes.  When Penric’s brother-in-law General Arisaydia is attacked by assassins from Cedonia and demons are involved Penric knows something is very wrong. It seems someone is embezzling demons. Penric contacts his order’s Chapter House and to his surprise is sent a Saint to help investigate the outrage. It seems they will be required to go to the source of the problem, Cedonia. All this as Arisaydia has been asked to return to his country. The same country he’d been hunted from. The same country that desired his death. Penric and Blessed Iroki,  a saint of the white God’s order, find both sorcerers and demons  distraught. Many have been coerced into actions that go against the Gods’ rules for  Temple Demons. Once again a rich and unexpected episode in the World of Five Gods pantheon that ratchets up my appr

Never Marry a Scandalous Duk e (Infamous Lords #6) by Renee Ann Miller ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I think I smiled most of the way through this fun read. Marriage of convenience trope melds with a wicked stepmother, and some very naughty boys. Miss Trunchbull would not be amused. And let’s not forget the kitten. Wallflower entomologist and butterfly enthusiast, Lady Sara Elsmere just wants to be free to pursue her passion. But when the cold hearted Duke of Dorchester, Ian McAllister mistakes her for one of his lady dalliances, and they’re discovered in the library KISSING, it’s marriage or worse for Sara. Ian has an important  business deal hovering, and a couple of rambunctious wards that needed car. Marriage just might prove the answer, and after all, it has to happen sometime!  Sara negotiates her own settlement with the Duke but she didn’t quite negotiate her heart.  Fun read that heartedly entertained! A Kensington Books ARC via NetGalley 

Sands of Dune : Novellas from the worlds of Dune (Dune 11)   by Brian Herbert; Kevin J. Anderson          ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Ok, it’s been many years since I’ve read the Dune series (think the 70’s) and I’m still as enamoured as I was then. These four novellas by Herbert and Anderson shed light on the back story of Gurney Halleck and other major figures of the Dune pantheon. A younger Shadeout Mapes, the relentless training of the  Sardaukar represented by Bashar Jopati Koloa (with a curious finale), Willem Atreides and the of the conflict between the Houses of Atreides and Harkonnen.  We  follow individual paths for revenge and  freedom against the uncaring, debauched, power hungry elite of the Kaitain Empire and the implacable feuding outcomes of the various Houses spanning many worlds. Betrayal, determination, vengeance and the shifts of power balances stalk the pages. A must read for Dune aficionados.  Indeed I enjoyed these novellas so much I’m considering a Dune series reread. A  Macmill

A Matter of Temptation  by Stacy Reid    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A lively, comedic romantic drama, the female lead reminding me of Shakespeare’s Viola. A twin sister who takes the place of her brother during a duel, a  young woman whose elopement in the past caused scandal. A brilliant Earl who is fighting for social justice issues. A ‘take no prisoners’, cool, dispassionate man who knows what he wants and goes after it. Women take a secondary place in the scheme of things. He sets his grandmother to find a bride for him. No messy indulgences like “love” in this arrangement thank you very much! Of course there’s a history here! There’s so many little twists in this enemies to lovers, Reason versus Emotion tale set in Victorian England. Dialogue might not be  Shakespearean, but there’s some delightful ripostes from time to time. Miss Wilhelmina Eleanor Crawford—Mina  is a young woman of determined sensibility, with a yearning for adventure. Now right there’s a combination ripe for the very opposite! S

The Key to Deceit  (Electra McDonnell #2) by  Ashley Weaver     ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Electra (Ellie) McDonnell is on a quest. To find out if her dead mother really did kill her father. London, 1940. The war is raging, bombs are being dropped by the Germans. Major Ramsey, working for a secretive arm of the intelligence service has a job for this ex-jewellery thief and her family, her reformed safe cracking, jewel robbing family.  The major is a man Ellie is conflicted about. She’s antagonistic in his company, can’t seem to get a handle on her responses to him, and is alarmed that she thinks about him too frequently. The government has found their skills useful in the past. Their help is urgently needed. A dead woman has been dragged from the Thames wearing a camera disguised as a bracelet. Major Ramsey needs their skills to try and track down a probable espionage ring. I love the tension in the plot. Ellie’s quest for information about her mother is supported by her long time friend Felix Lacey,

A Botanist's Guide to Parties and Poisons (Saffron Everleigh Mystery #1) by Kate Khavari           ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Saffron Everleigh is the daughter of a renowned botanist Thomas Everleigh who had been engaged in the enthralling  (to her) pursuit of  the pigmentation of different kinds of tropical plants. . A research assistant in a male dominated landscape she’s no stranger to the sexual harassment, the discounting and bullying that pervades her chosen discipline. When a professor’s wife is poisoned at a cocktail party and her kindly mentor is accused of attempted murder it’s Saffron who desires to prove the Doctor could not have been the instigator. Her knowledge of plants and toxins prove invaluable. She is assisted by another department member, the very interesting Alexander Ashton. The interactions of the staff, the politics, the dismissal of Saffron as a serious scientist with a focused intelligent mind, her pursuit of the truth about the poisonings add tension that engage. A sol

Valiant Ladies   by Melissa Grey Swashbuckling sword carrying ladies, depraved and dastardly villains, all merge to give a powerful story set in 17th century Potosí, Peru. Their adventures sweep through society from the heady heights of the rich and powerful to the inhabitants of narrow alleys and taverns. On their journey, the gift of love and acceptance is challenged. When her brother Alejandro is found hanging from a tree on the eve of her unwanted betrothal,   Eustaquia “Kiki” de Sonza  is overwhelmed with grief. Determined by authorities as being a suicide, Kiki’s friend, more adopted sister, Ana  Lezama de Urinza  i s not convinced.  Kiki was to be married off to a man she has little time for. Inheritance being a key motivator. In fact Kiki doesn’t want marriage, hers and Ana’s relationship has steadily been growing into something more—sapphic love. Meanwhile, amongst the lower classes someone is killing young women, and others are disappearing. Kiki and Ana’s  search for answers

The Woman in the Library   by Sulari Gentill          ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I’ll admit that I was unsure where this unusual murder mystery arose from and where it was heading. It’s definitely not a cosy mystery. It hangs around in the thriller zeitgeist. By the time I was into the second chapter I was still trying to build a picture of events, and who was who. Talk about needing bits of tape to join the pieces together! Reality and fiction became intertwined—despite it all being fiction. By this time I’d been neatly suckered in and there was no way I was leaving. So we begin with four unusual strangers hearing a woman’s scream in the Boston library. This single fact draws them together. The four Boston Library would-be-friends are amazing, somewhat weird, and all have secrets. I loved the whole crazy group encounter—built on a scream and held together by that event.  I really enjoyed the plot. Australian writer Hannah, a Marriott Fellowship Holder who’s working on a novel about—Yup! You guessed i

The Hanging Tree  ( A Brother Athelstan Mystery #3) by Paul Doherty ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ If ever any one can take you into the bowels of a Bosch painting with his descriptions of the London that our Brother Athelstan and Sir John Cranston, the Lord High Coroner tread it’s Paul Doherty. In this latest medieval mystery we have the locked room theme (here a locked tower) complete with murder most foul, stolen kingdom treasure, garrotted hangman being found across the parishes, and a further garrotted body in Athelstan’s own St Erconwald church, and hints of the mysterious and deadly Italian smugglers and robbers, the Carbonari lurking in the deep shadows. Both Aleston and Sir John come under threat.  Tasked with solving the theft of the Crown’s Treasury by John of Gaunt and King Richard II, our pursuers of truth are lead down a fantastical path. Oh my! The bees in the beehive are well and truly buzzing as unseen enemies stealthily slip through their midst. Another intriguing Athelstan and Cranston

Edward and Amelia  by Karen Thornell         ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Marriage of convenience trope is stretched to include a young woman, Lady  Amelia Kennington, youngest daughter of the Duke of Stafford,  who found herself forced to marry a stranger she’d met whilst investigating the cries of a child along the banks of the Serpentine River. Said young lady should not have been unchaperoned in the park without a maid, and should not have spoken alone to a gentleman who turned out to be the much vaunted rake, Edward Drayton, the Earl of Norwich. Falling into the waters of the Serpentine didn’t help, although really that was more Edward’s fault. So public a place and so damning when they were caught by other members of polite society.   The young woman is more a Cinderella figure with very superior twin sisters (stand-ins for the ugly sisters) and a father who has no patience with her (wicked step mother equivalent). Of course this is only half the story but the couple coming to an understanding after

Bloomsbury Girls: A Novel   by  Natalie Jenner     ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A sparkling companion to The Jane Austen Society, riffing off Evie Stone, the young servant who’d secretly    catalogued the family library at Chawton Great House. After those amazing days Evie had attended Girton College Cambridge and attained first-class honours. Being rejected as a research assistant Evie came to work with an influential bookseller, Bloomsbury Books & Maps. It’s post war England. Women and equality might have been good enough for the war years but in the 1950’s things aren’t so clear. Along with two other women, she will challenge the status quo male dominated workplace, with Evie leading the way in the search for another literary jewel. I could waft lyrically about this story, but truly all you need to know is that this is a fabulous read. It was wonderful to encounter favorite characters from the Jane Austen Society, and really, a pleasure all round! A St. Martins Press  ARC via NetGalley 

A Taste for Killing (A Bradcote and Catchpoll Investigation #10) by Sarah Hawkswood  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A sudden death, apparently by poisoning has Lord U ndersheriff  Hugh Bradcote, Serjeant Catchpoll and Catchpoll’s journeyman, Young Walkelin baffled. When a wealthy Burgess, bow maker and arms supplier to the castle, Godfrey Bower and his wife suddenly take ill Bradcote and Catchpoll are called to investigate. All possibilities lead to someone in the household as the culprit. As their investigations deepen the poisoner seems to be in sight—all neatly tied up even, but Catchpoll is troubled by loose ends.  As I’ve said before watching the three mens’ relation develop is a pleasing part of the story. Young Walkelin whom Catchpoll took as his journeyman is coming along. Walkelins actions are confident and his thoughts clear as he puzzles his way through his part of the investigation. His thoughts are now turning to marriage, albeit with a Welsh girl which has his mother somewhat alarmed. As th