eyes.2c Reviews

Blood Enemy  (Warsaw Quartet #4) by Douglas Jackson          ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The quartet of novels depicting a police detective in occupied Warsaw during WWII is concluded with Blood Enemy. Jackson has once again delved into archives and lost places of the era to bring the story of the many parties acting in Poland. We have the Polish resistance (the Armia Krajowa), Jews from the ghettos of Europe brought to Poland, the Jewish resistance inside the death camps, the brutality of the Nazis, the Polish youth resistance trying for when their day to rise up comes, the general populace, and the advancing Russians. It’s dangerous, confusing and terrible. Investigator Jan Kalisz goes undercover into Auschwitz-Birkenau and the gruesomeness of that place is fully on display. Karl is actually a resistance spy and works to maintain his cover, and that of his beloved wife Maria, who is a nurse with the resistance, and his son Stefan who is caught up in secret Youth movement...

The Spy and the Snake  (Mrs. Spy #2) by M. J. Robotham        ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed this. So much so I read the previous title.  It’s post WWII and MI5 personnel Maggie Flynn seizes the opportunity to head back into the field with both hands. It’s the beginning of the Cold War and Maggie is sent to Budapest to extract a  British defector, Fitzroy Carver, and bring him safely back into his country’s arms.  Fitzroy has demanded a woman agent be used. Cue Maggie! Only Maggie finds herself up against the AVH, Fitz’s demands, KGB, and MI6. The experts expected Maggie to fall at the first fence. When she doesn't their plans are blown out of the water. Maggie has explored her own contacts and gets in touch with an older agent, Dottie Hands. An unexpected turn of events has Maggie looking at alternative plans to sew confusion and doubt. Exciting read!  A Bloomsbury ARC via NetGalley.                  ...

Wisdom Corner : A Novel by David Heska Wanbli Weiden          ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Life on the Lakota Rosebud Reservation, South Dakota, can be tough and uncompromising. Not much work, the loss of spirituality, culture, and the ghosts of the past. Virgil Wounded Horse has been trying to reform himself. He has been acting as a local punisher.  When medicine man Jerome Iron Shell is killed, a much admired leader, who has been helping Virgil to reform, and then Virgil’s house is burnt down, Virgil knows he must investigate. A local construction company is going to tear down the old Native Boarding School and build an apartment and shopping  complex. It appears the land was illegally sold to developers. Jerome was part of a Lakota group moving to have the sale overturned. Now unmarked graves from the past, of stolen children, including Virgil’s aunt have been discovered.  Is the death of Jerome connected or is something else afoot? A solid read that makes one ...

Last of the First  (Saga of Recluse #26) by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ What is it about the Recluse books that I enjoy so much? “Last of the First” is set in Cyador in the beginning days of Recluse, after the fall from the Rational Stars. Alyiakal’s is a figure mentioned slightly in early Recluse novels. Weapons and transport that are charged by the Magi are failing. The Great Forest is impinging on the Wall. Alyiakal, promoted to Subcommander is at Mirror Lance Headquarters, but now it seems he must reluctantly take control for the good of all. Alyiakal is a Modesitt hero whose antecedents are somewhat lost in the morass of his upbringing. He’s the outsider. He perceives situations with a fresh outlook. He doesn’t like to waste lives and seeks to bring balance into whatever he does. His appointments so far have been challenging and he’s often has to act in a decisive manner and in roles beyond what his rank calls for. He trained as a healer and developed strong mental s...

Lady Ashley Never Behaves  (Season of Secrets #4) by Bronwen Evans        ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The tale of the Duke of Blackstone and Lady Ashley Ware’s sudden marriage of convenience transforming into a love match has lots of wrinkles and surprises. Who knew pain could bring two people together? Raven is torn up by the murder of his beloved mistress, Ashley’s been the unwarranted epitome of scandal for three years. Consolation shared in a public place! Well!! Loved it! A Dragonblade ARC via NetGalley.                                               Many thanks to the author and publisher.

The Unicorn Hunters : A Novel  by Katherine Arden        ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Reading Katherine Arden’s notes gives me a glimpse into her fertile and often whimsical imagination, always with an edge. Loosely based around Anne, the Duchess of Brittany, her plans and contrivances to avoid marriage to Charles VIII of France, a proxy marriage to Maximilian of Austria, her valiant attempts to keep her duchy and people free. All of which came to naught. Here in Arden’s tale Anne seizes the moment, aided by magical forces and a unicorn the true story gives way to a startling story of light, duty and magic woven unhesitatingly through the pages. I love that Arden has connected the Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries in the Cloisters in New York City to the tale. As always—a splendid read! A Del Ray ARC via NetGalley.                                               Many than...

The Tea Planter’s Secret  (Ceylon series #2) by Clare Flynn       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A young married woman leaves Ceylon to accompany her father on a trip back to Oxford. Stella Baxter has acted as a researcher for her father, Sir Michael Polegate, an esteemed Professor of Anthropology who’d been working on an ethnographic study contrasting the Tamils of northern Ceylon and India. It’s over eighteen months before Stella can return home to her beloved husband Norton. Her father has died and Stella has a baby girl born upon arrival in England, a baby she can scarcely look at. Complex in plot and relationships—the dreadful Bertie Frobisher, assistant to the Governor and bully; the Governor’s wayward daughter; Stella’s brother, who apart from being an unprincipled lothario, steals his father’s and Stella’s works. Just  a  few of the subplots moving through the story.  Interesting read although somewhat thin at times. I’m undecided about picking up the series, altho...

No Ordinary Lyon  (Lyon’s Den Connected World) by Sherry Ewing      ⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Waterloo injured hero, Captain Gideon Tyler, scarred and withdrawn, with memory loss is a common enough trope.  The woman, Miss Violet  Barnet, a practicing apothecary, is come to London at the behest of her cousin, Patience, a recently married countess. Violet has agreed to look for a possible husband at the Lyon’s Den gambling establishment. Perspective suitors  were  introduced to her by Mrs. Dove-Lyon. Patience has paid the match makers fee. Of course there’s a wretched villain who has evil on his mind, and knows our hero Gideon from time spent together in the war.  I find it hard to get over the pet names the main characters call each other, Sir Knight and Lady Angel. Very twee. A Dragonblade ARC via NetGalley.                                           ...

Behind Five Willows  by June Hur         ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ When did a novel become legend? Hur has woven Pride and Prejudice into Behind Five Willows as the basis for a legendary / historical tale of 1780’s Korea. Set at a time when an edict for spinsters to marry was dispensed, and another to restore pure writing styles was decided. These two edicts become central to this Korean Austen like tale. The scholarly father, the unable to cope gossipy mother, the perfect nobleman, the beautiful shy daughter, the wilful daughter, and the thoughtful, protective one. All mesh together into a wonderful tale of forbidden novels and forbidden love. A time of book banning, government censorship and detentions, and forced marriages. A noble son Lord Yu Seojun is secretly writing fiction. The protective daughter, Shin Haewon is a secretly transcribing works. Instead of Lady Catherine de Bourgh seeking promises it’s Yu’s father, Minister Yu. It’s not Haewon who won’t promise not to ma...

Valley Of Death  (Detective Mike Nash #20) by Bill Kitson        ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A body is discovered at an archeological dig on farmland moors near Rowendale Village . The death occurred some twenty years ago. That’s the first body. Later another body is discovered by birdwatchers at the edge of the Ghyll Head Marshlands.  A police drone survey finds more. A convoluted story that has Detective Inspector Mike Nash and his team chasing genealogies, real estate ownership in their efforts to uncover the truth. This is just the beginning. A seperate case is being surveyed—a drug distribution system. Will the two link up? A long shot! I really liked the various characters and their interactions.  I haven’t read any of the previous titles in the series but this British police procedural/mystery encourages me to do so. A Joffe Books ARC via NetGalley.                                 ...

Falconbrow  (The Painted Blade #1) by Peter Eliott         ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Hell’s Labyrinth was once an artistic city state now it’s a ruined wasteland run by criminal overlords. A fourteen year old girl, Terza Jaidenson’s very existence is challenged by the world around her. Daughter of the Foreman, a soldier, Terza has been trained in fighting.  Her interest is in art. Both figure in her journey towards fulfilment. This is Terza’s story. Of how she “ turned into the notorious Contract Blade, Terza Falconbrow, one of the most imposing figures to ever work the criminal byways of Hell’s Labyrinth.” Dark and dangerous, yet empathetic. An absorbing read. A Victory ARC via NetGalley.                                               Many thanks to the author and publisher. Please note: Quotes taken from an advanced reading copy maybe subject to change.

A Tarnished Canvas  (LadyDarby Mystery #13) by Anna Lee Huber      ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Once again Gage and Kieraare in the middle of a murder investigation. They attend an art and collectables auction at a private residence. By the third day many have turned up. It is the amount of people and their weight that causes the floor to collapse. Kiera and Gage are luck to escape with superficial injuries. Boonie Brock Kincaid calls on Kiera and hints at deliberate tampering with the supports.  Later Sergeant Maclean reveals that a supporting joist of the floor had been sabotaged. Gage and Kiera are thrown into the search for the culprit, no easy task. Kiera is nearly killed when she’s pushed towards a galloping carriage. Kiera has been working on an exhibition but will she be brave enough to actually show her paintings? Another tremendous tale from Anna Lee Huber. A Berkley ARC via NetGalley.                         ...

The Carnival Murders  (Tate and Bell Mystery #7) by Irina Shapiro            ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I think this was one of the more wretched cases Gemma Tate and Sebastian Bell become involved in. Someone is desecrating the bodies of those who society view as different, in a thoroughly scientific manner. Gemma first becomes aware of this when a young, heavily pregnant woman, Tamzin Norris, is left near to her father’s pub. Tamzin has post mortem scars. Not only that but her unborn child has been autopsied too! As Bell investigates along with Gemma, they discover more bodies of people who have been killed and then autopsied. A gruesome tale, that strikes close to home for Sebastian and Gemma. A Storm Pub. ARC via NetGalley.                                               Many thanks to the author and publisher.

An Ordinary Sort of Evil  (Rip Through Time #5) by Kelley Armstrong         ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I adore the character Dr. Duncan Gray, a medical practitioner in 1870’s Edinburgh. I’m amused at the 21st century detective Mallory Atkinson who, after being struck on the head, inhabits the well developed body nineteen year old maid, Catroina of that era. Mallory continually has trouble behaving as a Victorian woman should. She keeps forgetting herself, how to behave, how to walk, how not to take offence at men leering at her chest. Duncan and his sister Isla know Mallory’s/ Catroina’s backstory. The case Mallory  and Duncan find themselves  investigating is at the request of Lady Adler, who is a patron of Isla’s charitable works. Mallory and Duncan find themselves involved in séances, dead young girls, Queen Victoria, and the thorny problem of being attracted to your employer. Mallory is at last finding her place in this culture, but she’s tripped up by the real dif...