eyes.2c Reviews

Tender Is the Bite Chet & Bernie Mystery #11) by Spencer Quinn             ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Another delightful, dangerous, and confusing mystery with the duo of dudes from the The Little Agency, Bernie Little (hard boiled detective with heart) and Chet the Jet (failed police dog—so it’s rumoured).  This time an almost client disappears. Bernie and Chet turn down a big payout and a sojourn in Hawaii because Bernie’s worried about the almost client and didn’t take to Olek the Rumanian hirer.  Although Chet does have a thought, “Was it possible that we were walking away from a stack of cold hard cash that Olek was paying us for a job that was all about surfing?” Somehow Chet’s been listening to their accountant. Wow! I get so much pleasure from Chet’s moments of enlightment, his running commentary on all things human, and our taken for granted actions and sayings from his doggie perspective. Like Chet on trains of thought. “Was there a whole world of ...

The Windsor Knot (Her Majesty the Queen Investigates #1)   by S.J. Bennett          ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I had my doubts. I was sceptical. I wondered if the concept could ever get off the ground—HRH as a detective. Doubt no more, this idea was brilliantly orchestrated by Bennett. Along the way one glimpses the intelligent compassion and understanding, the earthiness that has made Queen Elizabeth shine throughout her reign. Bennett has judged things to a nicety.  When a young Russian piano player is found dead in a guest room at Windsor, the head of the Queen’s Intelligence Service hares off in the wrong direction. It’s up to HRH to nudge him in the right direction after she’s co-opted the help of her private secretary’s (Sir Simon Holcroft) new assistant, Rozie Oshodi. Humor, thoughtfulness, compassion and reality bump along together together to bring the mystery around to its conclusion with only a select few people knowing who’s putting two and two together an...

A Royal Affair (A Sparks & Bainbridge Mystery #2) by Allison Montclair     This continuation of the series is as good as its predecessor. London 1946 and The Right Sort Marriage Bureau owners Iris Sparks and Gwendolyn Bainbridge who were both affected by the war, although in different ways find themselves investigating a potential groom in a whole new way. Both women have their own devils to conquer. Their joint business venture is one way of moving forward. But this is something from left field. Gwen seems like a privileged ex debutante, wife and mother, but she'd done a stint in a sanatorium when the love of her life was killed, leaving her small son Ronnie in the care of her in-laws. They are now a major problem! Who are these Iris and Gwen? There's an air of desperation in both them. They have both served their country in unusual ways. That's left a mark. Both have hidden scars. When Gwen's cousin Lady Matheson asks them on behalf of the Palace to inves...

Trace Elements (Commissario Brunetti #29) by Donna Leon         Two seemingly simple cases that had no connection. A couple of Roma girls have pick pocketed the wife of a powerful person who wants them out of Venice in case further enquiries open up something they don't want exposed. A dying woman who has something to confess to the police. As investigations unfold, both cases are a minefield of complexities for Commissari Guido Brunetti and Claudia Griffoni. As always they are ably assisted  by the highly efficient Signorina Elettra, whose computer skills allow them into places that  they normally couldn't access. One case involves a question of the health of the planet. Both cases speak to what the powerful are able to get away with. Brunetti is faced with conflicting choices. As Brunetti summarizes his reflections and the questions the situation demands we are reminded of his love of mythologies of the past, "His thoughts turned to the Eumenid...

The King's Justice (Maggie Hope #9) by Susan Elia MacNeal        After having escaped the serial killer Nicholas Reitter, dubbed by the press, the “Blackout Beast”, Maggie Hope's life is grim and becoming more so. She's frenetic, drinking too much, smoking too much and defusing bombs with the Bomb Disposal Unit. She is doing all she can to feel alive whilst flirting with death, to live in the moment.  After all she's been through, with Reitter and her "false imprisonment and near death" at the hands of the Special Operations Executive, Maggie feels not only betrayed but shattered. In today's parlance we'd say she's experiencing PTSD. Her relationship with Detective Chief Inspector James Durgin has rocks strewn in its path. It seems Maggie's looking for the quick fix but Durgin is holding back. They are drawing further apart. And then there's Maggie's mother, a constant undercurrent in her thoughts. Nicholas Reitter is convicted ...

A Small Case for Inspector Ghote? (An Inspector Ghote Mystery #26) .  by H.R.F. Keating     Promoted to the Bombay Police Crime Branch, Inspector Ganesh Ghote finds himself relegated to Bandobast duty, overseeing organizational tasks. He's wondering why he's been promoted to if this is all he does? But when his duty servant's head appears wrapped up in his trash bin things take a definite u turn. Although his superior, Assistant Commissioner of Police Mr Ramprasad Divekar, has told him to not bother about it, to dispose of the head. There are more important matters, including the death of an important man's son-in-law.  Ghote's ethics won't let the matter rest. After all, no matter their caste, Ganesh strongly feels that a victim is deserving of justice. The path to the truth about the appearance of a head in his bin is arduous (sometimes painfully slow) yet Ghote moves forward spurred on by his wife Protima, and the god's own luck. I love that Ganesh...

Inspector Ghote's Good Crusade (An Inspector Ghote Mystery #2)   by H.R.F. Keating            I'm becoming increasingly fond of Southern Asian detective novels. This Inspector Ganesh Ghote novel, first published in 1966, is set in Bombay (now Mumbai) and despite the dated outlook still has arresting appeal. An American philanthropist has been murdered and Ghote of the Bombay C.I.D., must find the culprit whilst struggling with his desire to charge his bete noir, criminal Amrit Singh. Throughout Ghote  is challenged by the idea of care and charity, with understanding the street wise boys who are part of the Frank Masters Foundation for the Care of Juvenile Vagrants, and with the pressure from above to reach a conclusion even if it means framing a lesser employee or Amrit. His home life, his relationship with his wife Protima, comes under scrutiny and we start to see a fuller exposition about who Ghote is. The consideration of the refrigera...

Trace of Evil (Natalie Lockhart #1) by Alice Blanchard           Natalie Lockhart is conflicted. She has a list of hard things she'd faced in her life. Natalie's now back in her hometown of Burning Lake as a detective. Burning Lake a town where everyone knows everyone, but in the end, they didn't. A town with a history of witchcraft that drew tourists and troubled the teenage population.  The attraction of witchcraft for the teenagers of the town is like a rite of passage. All partake, not all relinquish it. "On the surface, it would appear that Burning Lake had a sparse Wiccan population, but that was due to the fact that many of them were still in the broom closet." We have disappearances, we have secrets, we have dead bodies and we have concentric circles linking everything together. "Death was like a secret. You could bury it deep underground, but it wouldn’t stay buried for long. Eventually, our secrets—like old bones—had a way of knuckling o...

This Side of Murder (A Verity Kent Mystery #1)   by Anna Lee Huber.    Set just after the war in England in 1919. Verity Kent's husband Sidney had been killed during action. Now the war is over the rudderless, fragile Verity has been filling her nights with mindless parties and dubious nightclubbing with the upper crust set. Verity had, "gotten rather good at avoiding [memories]. At calculating just how many rags [she] needed to dance, and how much gin [she] needed to drink so [she] could forget, and yet not be too incapacitated to perform [her] job the following morning." Verity is lured to the engagement party of a fellow officer of Sidney's by a letter not only claiming Sidney had committed treason but that Verity had been an agent with the Secret Service, a fact few people, including her husband, knew about. The engagement/house party is on Umbersea Island. A near car crash with Verity driving Sidney's beloved "currant-red with brass fittings"...

The Art of Dying (DI Wetsphall #3) by Douglas Lindsay         At first I thought what have I let myself in for. A few pages in and I was hooked. I was knee deep in vicious murders, Corporate concerns and Russian intervention. Opening with a litany of deaths caused by the hero seemed a tad daunting, but as I progressed I realized their import. This is DI Westphall's "line-up of guilt," from his MI6 days. Now they're joined by ghosts from his cases. This latest investigation begins with a football match death, links somehow to an up market care home and seems to have a whiff of Russian assistance. Westphall's church attendance is an interesting twist. Is he looking for absolution? Maybe. Release from his guilt? Who knows? His attention is caught by the line from the service, "My blood of the Covenant." My attention is grabbed by the inclusion of one of my favorite hymns, "I the Lord of sea and sky." Oh yes, there's more to this novel...

Death in a Desert Land (Agatha Christie #3) by Andrew Wilson         Wilson continues his fictionalized stories about Agatha Christie's life, positing her travels and adventures partly as undercover work for British Intelligence, as supporting her detecting aspirations, and as gathering material for her writing. An inspired idea, the reimagined life of Agatha! Agatha has been asked by her friend and Intelligence Officer Davison to go to Ur by way of Bagdad to investigate the death of a prominent archaeologist, writer and Intelligence Officer Gertrude Bell. (Bell also helped drafted the antiquities law in Iraq. Given the rape of antiquities from the Middle East and Egypt this was an important accomplishment for the times). Agatha is presented as a quiet force, still reeling with self doubts after her infamous disappearance, followed by her divorce from her husband Archie. To those she meets she is a crime writer with interests in archaelogy. The buildup of ten...

Singapore Sapphire (Harriet Gordon Mystery #1) by A. M. Stuart          It's the early 1900's in Singapore. So realistic I felt I was there! Harriet Gordon, widowed and made childless in one fell swoop in India due to Typhus, went home to England. It was there she came in contact with the Suffragette Movement, an organization that espoused those things she'd not only envisioned, but felt deeply. That path ended badly and she joined her brother in Colonial Singapore where he is the Reverend and Headmaster of a prestigious boys school for expats. Wanting to at least earn some sort of living (any work she does for the school is unpaid) Harriet takes out an advertisement to work as a private secretary. Sir Oswald Newbold is deciding to write his memoirs and calls on her services. Unfortunately when Hattie arrives she finds Sir Oswald dead with his throat cut. Inspector Robert Curran is quite taken with the sensibility of Harriet when he arrives at the crime...

Bones of the Earth (Inspector Shan #10) by Eliot Pattison  How can I not give this final installment in the Detective Shan series five stars? I clung to every word Eliot put down, listened to every prayer uttered by the tibetans throughout these captivating pages, and was amazed by the depth of Eliot's understanding of the plight of Tibet in the face of Chinese occupation. Shan Tao Yun is front and center with Colonel Tan, governor of Lhadrung County, as they uncover corruption, murder and foul doings, all in the name of Beijing and the Motherland. The plight of the Tibetans is underscored even as Shan uncovers a massive, fraudulent plot surrounding the building of a dam smack in the center of a Tibetan holy place, known locally as Valley of the Gods, Holy Home, and Gekho’s Roost. When an American archeology student is killed by a mining explosion / accident when investigating a cave holding an ancient shrine, the intrigue ratchets up, especially as Tibetans she was assoc...

Murder in Belgravia (A Mayfair 100 Mystery #1) by Lynn Brittney     I enjoyed the characters in this new series who seem to have wandered out of a post Edwardian soap opera. More like a social justice version of Upstairs Downstairs. Chief Inspector Beech is tasked by the Commissioner of Scotland Yard to bring together an elite group to meet the changing face of crime.  Beech's team consists of intelligent women with special skills, a doctor, lawyer and eventually one other, to investigate situations where it's difficult for the Yard to conduct their  inquiries, particularly if women are the central focus.  The male members of the team have proven specialised skills of one sort or another. WW1 is underway and that's bringing about its own special problems. The group is operating secretly as an experiment. Women are not accepted in the police force as yet. Beech's contacts lead to their operating out of a house in Mayfair with the telephone number 100 M...

Unto Us a Son Is Given (Guido Brunetti #28) by Donna Leon     A brilliant, yet understated performance by Guido Brunetti, offset by his reading of The Trojan Women which seem to act as a reflective prompt for Guido all the way through. Along the way we are treated to an insight into Venetian culture and practices. I love it! Paolo's godfather, Gonzalo Rodríguez de Tejada, and a longtime family friend wants to adopt a younger man as his son. His friends, including Guido's father-in-law Count Orazio Falier, are shocked and try to dissuade him. For the younger man would inherit all. Then Gonzalo fall and dies in the street, and a close friend from Gonzalo's days in Chile comes to Venice, along with a former lover of Gonzalo's to hold a memorial dinner.  Unfortunately she is strangled in her hotel room. All of Brunetti's instincts come to the fore. He is on high alert. Yet the way forward seemingly comes to a full stop. The past haunts the future, but how? T...

Wheel of Fire (David Vogel Mystery #2) by Hilary Bonner                                     David Vogel has a new case that's puzzling indeed. The previous David Vogel mystery I read I found disturbing because of the subject matter. Wheel of Fire is not that. In the last couple of chapters I thought I knew what was going on. I didn't know it all! Edgy murder mystery that kept me on my toes. Deserves a read! A NetGalley ARC ****

In a House of Lies (Inspector Rebus #22) by Ian Rankin                                    A slow start but really heated up as Rebus orchestrates in the background. A dead body missing for some years is found in a rusty burnt out car, the ACU: Police Scotland’s Anti-Corruption Unit is still on the tail of Siobhan Clarke, dirty cops are in full bloom and then there's Rebus lending a hand. A skeleton in situ and skeletons in the closet make for an interesting read. Catching the threads and pulling them together is a challenge and in the end our man Rebus stitches them all up. A NetGalley ARC ****

The Ghost of Christmas Past ( Molly Murphy #17)   by  Rhys Bowen.   This is the first Molly Murphy mystery I've read. Even so, I was not lost with what was happening, or the relationships between the main characters. I am sure earlier readings would have given me more depth of understanding into the intricacies of the various relationships--between Molly and Bridie and Daniel, Daniel Sid and Gus, Molly and Daniel's mother. Through a series of almost happenstance events,  Molly, Daniel and Bridie end up spending Christmas at Greenbriars, the home of Cedric and Winnie Van Aiken, near Scarborough on the Hudson River.  The loss of a child is devasting, and in Winnie Van Aiken's case, the disappearance of her daughter Charlotte years ago, the not knowing if Lottie is alive or dead, continues to be shattering.  The plot around Charlotte's disappearance is convoluted. The child's footsteps led outside to the edge of a frozen stream and disappeared. S...

Death on the Riviera: A British Library Crime Classic (British Library Crime Classics Book 15) by John Bude The language structure here definitely reflects the 50's origins of this novel. An interesting look into writing in that era. The English detectives' journey to France, the tracking down of the forgerer and then other criminal happenings hold one in suspense, worthy of Sherlock Holmes. A tad 'golly gosh' mixed in with Boy's Own Magazine daring-do's and sleuthing. All the usual suspects with a couple of unusual ones thrown in for good measure. Enjoyable, with amusingly archaic turns of phrases as seen from sixty or so years on. A NetGalley ARC        *** 1/2

Hardcastle's Collector: A police procedural set during World War One (A Hardcastle and Marriott Historical Mystery)   by Graham Ison. I enjoyed watching  Detective Inspector  Hardcastle make his way through this murder case, with the long suffering  Detective Sergeant Charles Marriott. Hardcastle's prejudices still abound, his intuitive understandings are still a puzzle given the man's inability to empathize. This time Hardcastle and his sidekick are off to the country to investigate the murder of a young woman, Daisy Salter. The list of suspects could be long--or not! There is an army camp not too far away and Daisy has caused a ruckus already with soldiers from there.  It's 1917, London is being bombed, death is falling from the skies. Surprising insights, cameo parts really, into Hardcastle's relationship with his wife and daughter emerge. The war is changing woman's roles and Hardcastle seems to be accepting this with regard to his daughter....