eyes.2c Reviews

Invisible Helix  (Detective Galileo ##5) by Keigo Higashino       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The complex situation of a death that goes from at first glance relatively simple to murder, highly involved, and back to its simple root’s is teasingly intriguing. All very laid back despite the accompanying twists.  A body is found with a bullet in its back. A young woman has a partner she’s reported missing. Now the woman can’t be found. Chief Inspector Kusanagi and his team explore the angle of domestic abuse.  In the mix is an older woman who’s much struck by the younger woman and as time goes on she’s convinced Sonoka Shimauchi is her granddaughter. Is this a lie or the truth? The story’s beginnings lay in the past decades back when a young mother places her daughter on the steps of an orphanage accompanied by a very distinctive hand made doll. It takes Professor Manabu Yukawa (Detective Galileo) to quietly make sense of it all So much space and time throughout the story to ...

The Unlikely War Hero : A Vietnam War’s POW Story of Courage and Resilience in the Hanoi Hilton by Marc Leepson       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Unlikely is the key word in the relaying of twenty year old Seaman Apprentice Doug Hegdahl’s story of captivity in North Vietnam. Ending up in the ‘Hanoi Hilton’ after falling overboard from his ship the U.S.S. Canberra, a guided missile cruiser,  off North Vietnam in the South China Sea, the picture we have of Doug is an highly intelligent young man whose bumbling attitude covered an adept mind. The lowest ranking prisoner in the Hilton, Doug was dismissed as being importantly, or even capable. The men he was imprisoned with, including Senator John McCain, are legend. This is his and their stories and how against his wishes Doug was ordered by the camp higher command to take release as a POW to let the Pentagon know about POW’s who’d been listed as dead or MIA. Doug finally came home against his will, having memorized the details of ...

The Chrysanthemum Tiger  (Gabriel Tavener Mystery #3) by Alys Clare      ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Having discovered that he’s no longer ill when stepping onto a boat Gabe wastes no time putting his affairs in order and grabbing with two eager hands the chance to voyage across the oceans once more. Gabe joins the Luipaard as the ship’s physician which will travel to the Eastern Seas. The merchant Walter Haverleigh is sending his fastest ship on this trade mission which he believes will make them all very wealthy. Gabe did not expect to be away for three years. He did he expect their trading goal to be Japan. Nor did he expect to be leaving with treasures that would incur the wrath of a wealthy Japanese warlord  One so angry that he had ships and men pursuing Gabe back to England. Exotic and exciting, added to by Gabe’s coming up against the mystical that illuminates the universe. Gabe explores the world, friendship, family and home as he comes to realize where his heart truly...

No Ordinary Duchess  (Greycourt #3 ) by Elizabeth Hoyt        ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Lady Elspeth de Moray met a stranger in the Duke of Windermere’s library. When voices were heard outside the stranger whipped her up to an upper area to hide. What’s happening? Well, apart from the fact that Elspeth liked the smell and feel of him and actually sniffed him! Yes, that’s right sniffed him! That was the first meeting between Elspeth and Julian Greycourt, the duke’s nephew and heir. Oh, and it turns out Elspeth’s brother Ran is Julian’s enemy! Elspeth has come to England from Scotland to search the Greycourt libraries. She   belongs to a secret organization  that helps females,  the Wise Women.   However the Hags have become fearful. They have closed ranks and are withdrawing. Elspeth believes that’s wrong and is looking for their founder’s writings,   Maighread’s diary.  Julian is also searching for notes, his mother’s diary. He believes it cont...

Murder's Snare  (A Brother Athelstan Mystery #23) by Paul Doherty        ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Brother Athelstan and Sir John Cranston, Lord High Coroner of London have a truly horrific problem to solve. In 1358 Free Companies were formed by English lords who ravaged their way across Normandy unchecked, pillaging, robbing and killing all before them, including women and children. Now some thirty years later those same  lords are being dealt with, in appalling and horrific circumstances. The French government has sent a diplomatic party to claim justice against one company, the Via Crucis, but someone is beating them to it. It’s the Feast of the Epiphany and masques are to be held at Athelstan’s parish of St Erconwald’s in Southwark. Later King Richard is viewing a masque performed by the men and women who’d been children taken from Normandy to England at those times of the Free Companies rampage. Brother Athelstan has his hands full governing his unruly flock. He’s f...

A Snake in the Barley  (Owen Archer Mystery #15) by Candace Robb    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Tom Merchet, owner of the York Tavern has disappeared. He’s been gone five days with nary a word. Bess his wife is beside herself. Close friends with Captain Owen Archer his wife Lucie and their children, Owen is as puzzled as Bess by Tom’s absence. Captain of the City, Owen is approached by Will Potter who overheard men discussing Tom, an unknown person called Jules, and a mystery woman, the Widow Cobb. Somewhere to start! It’s 1377. Edward III has died and London has been in turmoil. Y oung King Richard is heir.  The Duke of Lancaster had been governing for the old king. Owen is Princess Joan’s spy here in York. He’s hoping that the unrest won’t reach into the north. Tom is located, in custody but seriously injured and beaten at the sanctuary town of Beverley. The past once more encompasses a good man’s present. Owen and a party of men leave to investigate and fetch back Tom.  A ma...

A Whisper at Midnight (Raven and Wren #2 ) by Darcy Burke   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Private Investigator Miss Matilda Wren and Hadrian Becket, the Earl of Ravenhurst are once more up to their eyeballs in intrigue. Raven’s ex fiancé’s husband has been murdered. Stabbed in his bed. Raven is a suspect. Apparently Louis Chambers hated him! Why? Raven can’t fathom it. After all Louis had married Beryl when Raven found them in a compromising situation. Coincidently, after three years, Beryl had written and asked Raven for his help? From the outside it looks as if Raven is a suspect. However the list becomes longer when it’s discovered Louise had tarried with a number of women including his own domestics. As it is, Tilda  is also involved as Beryl has just hired her to investigate Chambers and some stolen heirloom jewellery. Beryl’s seeking a divorce from Chambers. Various twists on this also come to light! Add to this Raven’s mysterious gift of touching someone or something inducing visi...

The Wrong Lady Meets Lord Righ t by Suzanne Allain     ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ What happens when a poor, but attractive relative changes places with her slight, underwhelming cousin to take her place for the last few months of the season.  Well, everything that can go wrong and can be misunderstood, that’s what! Arabella Grant is the poorer cousin to heiress Lady Isabelle Grant. Bella went to live with the family when she was orphaned at the age of three. She and Issie were as close as sisters, both bullied by Issie’s mother, Lady Strickland. Isabelle had sought her couch and a book well before her much disliked, overbearing mother died. That’s where she’d prefer to be. Only now Issie’s been summoned by her great aunt to London for the season. Unfortunately great Aunt Lucretia, Lady Dutton, took one look at the healthier Bella and decided she was her niece Issie. Issie was wan and retiring, fuelling that impression. What are the young ladies to do but continue the deception. A win wi...

Ripples in Stone  (Ripples in Stone #1) by Claire Harper    ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Being walled up in a convent, a silent order at that, by your family for something your sister did is so unjust that I was shocked. Not only that the Abbess de Tourmont  was a bully, self interested and a harsh disciplinarian. Lady Geneviève was fourteen when she entered into the Abbey as a novice.  It is a time of unrest in Paris and their majesties have retired from the troublesome area waiting for calm. Their court of course travels with them. Viva la Revolution! (sort of)  As background, her sister Félicité had been acting as the King’s mistress, however the King bedded their sister Celeste to prove he wasn’t impotent. Unfortunately the Pope is furious because bedding sisters is incest. Someone had to pay. That someone was the horse mad, innocent  Geneviève. What’s really happening is that the aristocracy is caught in the snare of the French Revolution, fighting for their positions...

Tall, Dark and December  (Rake Review #12) by Tracy Sumner       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ What a delight! Illegitimate half brother to the Duke of Mercer, Weston Whitaker is a mathematical genius and leader in the use of steam power. Not only that he’s as handsome as sin. He’s come from Philadelphia looking for investors in his scheme for minting coins using steam power. He already had an investor when the offer was withdrawn after he was referred to in the Rakes Review. His acceptance of a  Lady’s invitation to a dalliance had been noted. Wes hadn’t been concerned as the lady wanted nothing more than a good time. However, he’d broken one of the unacknowledged rules of society. Now he has to be polished and made presentable to the ton. Who better to do it than Lady Penelope Anstruther-Colbrook who’s making ends meet, barely maintaining her position in society by helping young women to know how to conduct themselves.  Penny however has ‘secrets’! What works for a woman sho...

Love & Misdirection (Quirky Romantic Comedy #3) by Mari Jane Law      ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A woman who will never become pregnant is caring for a baby she wants to adopt but she’s single, not culturally aligned, and runs a care home. A single father, a health inspector,  whose  wife has died is uptight and nearly manages to destroy the children’s home by not asking questions before reporting them. His son enjoys the company of the children in the home, communicating with a young boy who doesn’t speak. So much to admire in the story. Chances, coincidences, two different points of view, makes this tale interesting. It has the same quirkiness as Love in the Cupboard, although that is expressed in different ways. A Fuchsia Publication via the author.

A Worthington Wedding  (Here Comes the Groom #1) by Ella Quinn       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️     Charlie, the Earl of Stanwood can’t stand careless lords who loose their houses gambling without a care for their dependants. When he’s having a drink in White’s he overhears such a bet. Now Charlie doesn’t gamble but he knows how to. He takes Lord Ognon  to the cleaners, claims his prize, and finds his newly acquired house is in his estate’s neighbourhood. Only when he confronts the woman of the house he finds that the estate was not Ognon’s to bet with, it belongs to Miss Oriana Ognon. Oriana is sick of Ognon sending his gambling debtors to her to be rebuffed. Charlie however tells her he was going to give the house to her no strings attached. Now he doesn’t have to. Charlie is much struck by Oriana and plans to get to know her better. Oriana’s having nothing of him. How this situation is turned around is pleasantly fun although I did lose patience with both of them Or...