eyes.2c Reviews

The Dying Light  (Matthew Venn #4) by Ann Cleeves        ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Two sixteen year olds are found dead near North Devon. They’ve come down from London for the summer holidays and to attend a music festival. One is the daughter of a politician, the other a product of a divorce. There are hints of a tainted past, and another girl who mysteriously died. On the home front Matthew is having trouble coping with the fact that Jonathan, his partner, has been seeking his birth mother. Ann Cleeves always never fails to intrigue. Her writing encompasses both the personal story of the main characters and the central mystery. A deep and often disturbing read! A Minotaur ARC via NetGalley.                                               Many thanks to the author and publisher.

Blood on the Wind  (Sister Fidelma #37) by Peter Tremayne     ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Set in post Roman times of seventh century Ireland,  Sister Fidelmas, a dálaigh, a justice in the kingdom of Cavel, and her husband, healer Eadulf are travelling back to Mumun (Munster) by ship when they’re blown off course and wrecked on islands. Two men are missing, some injured and some dead. They have landed in the Kingdom of Sulis. Their reception is unwelcome, with running suspicion high. It seems the King, Lowarn, has returned from a mysterious meeting, almost dead. Lowarn’s being looked after by an incompetent brother from the nearby Abbey. Fidelmas is asked by the king’s sister Princess Sirona to investigate what has happened. Eadulf recognizes the King’s symptoms as poisoning by arsenic, not from being falling down drunk as previously diagnosed. The king’s family is a strange mixture of those upholding the Old Gods and those of the New. An intriguing story unfolds as the traditional g...