Summer Knight

Title: Summer Knight
Author: Jim Butcher
Published: September 3rd 2002 by Roc
Format: Mass Market Paperback, 446 pages
Genre: Urban Paranormal
Series: Dresden Files #4

I am not a diehard Dresden fan. I cannot quote each book like a true aficionado. I have my favorite characters and wait impatiently until they appear and hope that I can keep other characters straight. What I can tell you is that the humor and Harry’s bad luck is what keeps me reading this series. Harry, and the spirit that lives in a skull, commonly known as Bob, tend to find humor when there is only death and destruction around them. I am aware that it is not a good thing to read a book solely to see what misfortune will confound Harry, but to be honest, very few breaks present themselves and when they do, there are always some serious strings attached that prevent a happily ever after. Yet, I find myself laughing at the situations that he gets himself into and his snarky comebacks.

Thankfully, Jim Butchers gave a brief recap of Harry’s past or I would have forgotten that he had a serious debt owed to his godmother Lea. Mab, the Winter Queen, has purchased this debt and is offering Harry his release if only he will perform three favors. Of course, it is not as simple as ‘pass the ketchup’, but then again, this would not be a Dresden book if life were easy for the only Wizard in Chicago.

I love faeries since they are seriously evil baddies. Each fae queen has a knight and the first request from Mab is to find out who killed the Summer Knight and recover his mantle. Nope, Harry wants nothing to do with this group yet he is being forced to comply and thus begins a trip into a hell that will bring Harry face to face with Elaine, his first love, the person that he has been mourning.

This is still not enough to confound Harry’s life. He gets involved with changelings and the power struggle between the Summer and Winter Courts and is transported into the eerie Chicago-over-Chicago where a stone table resides that balances the power between the two warring courts.

I got confused somewhere in the middle of this book. Harry comes through with his own wounds – both physical and emotional, and at times, you begin to wonder if Harry can find the strength to carry on. The burdens he carries from previous books begin to catch up with him and he questions his purpose. All Harry needs is hope, a clean apartment, the loyalty of friends and a vampire cure. I guess that last part will have to wait until another book, since that is what drives Harry, as they say to fight another day.

Murder by Moonlight

Title: Murder by Moonlight
Author: Matthew Costello and Neil Richards
Published: February 13th 2014 by Bastei Entertainment
Format: eBook, 107 pgs
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Series: Cherringham #3

Short stories are hard, but when two talented authors come together, the lines are tight and the mystery moves along without the usual plumping up of unnecessary character traits or overly descriptive surroundings.

Ex-NYPD detective Jack Brennan and web designer Sarah Edwards, team up again to answer the question of who killed Kristy Kimball. Known by everyone around her that she is deathly allergic to peanuts and carries multiple epi-pens how did she manage to die from anaphylaxis on the side of the road after choir practice?

For being a small tight knit community, they have their fair share of mystery and with each new installment, which reads more like a “Murder She Wrote” episode, you become more enamored with both the people and the place that is Cherrington.

Needles and Pearls

Title: Needles and Pearls
Author: Gil McNeil
Published: May 11th 2010 by Voice
Format: Paperback, 432 pages
Genre: Women's Fiction
Series: Beach Street Knitting Society #2

From time to time, I need to take a break from my usual murder/suspense/thriller books and visit the calmer sides of life. I cannot say that Jo Mackenzie's life of running a knitting shop in the seaside village of Broadgate and raising two bickering boys is calm, but it is definitely a break that I enjoy.

Jo’s philandering husband was killed in an accident right after he admitted to an affair and wanting a divorce. With the world, and his mother, not knowing the truth and thinking that he was a saint - Jo must carry on with her boys, her stitch and bitch group, a life in need of repair, and a little gift that is the result of a very brief tryst with photographer Daniel Fitzgerald.

Jo needs nothing from the father, she may not be wealthy, but she had decided to take life on on her own terms, which do not involve tracking down Daniel, or asking for money. Her life is too busy with knitting clubs and school projects, two weddings to plan, and a shop that needs to be rebuilt. The baby on the way is just another thing in her life that she will get to, and what she does not yet know, is that this unexpected arrival maybe be the one thing that will bring her life full circle.

Of course, Gil McNeil adds in a new love interest that started out as a friendship and after a bumpy start, Jo can see the chance of a do-over. Her grandmother was given a second chance and her anxiety ridden best friend is about to partake in her own adventure, so why shouldn’t Jo have another shot at her happily ever after.

Granted, this is only book number two in the series and with Jo’s chaotic life, anything can go wrong, but for now, she is definitely allowed the hope that she is feeling with her little family.

Marathon

Title: Marathon
Author: Brian Freeman
Published: May 3rd 2017 by Quercus
Format: Hardcover, 408 pages
Genre: Police Procedural
Series: Jonathan Stride #8

Taking a nod from the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing, Brian Freeman expands his story by pointing out how rumors and hatred can turn a town like Duluth, Minnesota, upside down and drag the innocent into a web of deceit and lies.

Near the finish line of the Duluth marathon, a bomb explodes and with it, countless lives have been changed. Dawn Basch is in town stirring up trouble with her First Amendment speeches and finds the Muslim community an ideal target to blame for this attack. With no real justification, and social media stoking the fires, cab drive Khan Rashid is targeted as a person of interest and FBI special agent Gayle Durkin is called in to find their suspect.

All of this turns into a major cluster as Jonathan Stride, Serena Dial-Stride, and Maggie Bei race around Duluth in hopes of finding the truth before more innocent people are killed. Dawn Basch does not care who is caught in her crossfire. She has an agenda and she knows who is responsible, yet Freeman would not make it that easy for his readers. There are twists. There is even a time or two that the reader is lead down a wrong path, or maybe it was just me trying to tie up loose ends, but in its conclusion, there is still a gasp or two.

This is a fast read. The characters are real, their pain is apparent on each page, and Brian Freeman does not pull any punches. There are times where you hope that the hero of the day will ride in and save the innocent, but the fact that he does not, leads more credence to the pain that both the town and its people have to endure.

A Lady in Shadows

Title: A Lady in Shadows
Author: Lene Kaaberbol
Published: December 5th 2017 by Atria Books
Format: eBook, Paperback, 352 pages
Genre: Historical Suspense
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Madeleine Karno #2

Dreadful. That is the only word that I can come up with to describe this long and drawn out book. Trying either to shock the reader with the subject matter or to lure them in with the detailed gynecological practices of a villainous doctor in 1880’s France, or if that is not enough, the unbeknownst relationships of Madeline Karno’s fiancé – which really served no point. The book should have been wall-banged within the first 100 pages.

Trying to disguise a failed, what we now call a cesarean section, as the acts of a French Jack the Ripper, Madeleine Karno, who we were introduced to in ‘Doctor Death’ begins to see tell tail signs and sets off to find the hideous person brutalizing the local prostitutes all in the name of science.

Lene Kaaberbol goes into curious detail about the time and place, but tends to go overboard for shock value. The doctor at the center of this fiasco reads more like Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz Angel of Death, in his need to find perfect subjects to rebuild France’s dwindling birth rates. Then throw in a person from August Dreyfuss’ past, and a photographer with his own naughty secrets, and those that should know better but do not do better when it comes to those in need.

Considering how I loved her first book in this series, this was a torture to read. The gruesomeness of the subject matter was not the issue for me, but rather how drawn out it all was. How in the end she tried to tie her storylines together and how unrealistic that it all played out. If there is a third book, I certainly hope that she tries not to throw too much in in hopes that something will catch the reader and that she reduces her fillers to keep the story flowing.

The Vanishing Season

Title: The Vanishing Season
Author: Joanna Schaffhausen
Published: December 5th 2017 by Minotaur Books
Format: eBook, Hardcover, 288 pages
Genre: Suspense
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

Joanna Schaffhausen is a gifted writer, every time I thought that I had this puzzle put together, a new piece was added sending me down a new path with a new suspect in mind. I love it when an author does not intentionally mislead a reader but rather lets little parts slip in that opens up new directions to explore.

As a child, Abby Hathaway was abducted and held captive by a brutal man that liked to keep souvenirs. FBI Agent Reed Markham was determined to find this psychopath before he could claim another victim. A bond was forged between these two in a harrowing rescue. Now twenty years later with Markham mirroring John Grisham and Abby, going by her middle name of Ellery, a member of the Massachusetts’ Woodbury Police Department, their world’s collide again when Ellery calls on him when people start disappearing every July around Ellery’s birthday and cards appear that let her know that her secret is no longer safe.

Though a twisty tail, the plot does not follow the unreliable narrative that so often befuddles this genre. The reader is given the bits and pieces that move the intrigue along, without insulting your intelligence and at the same time, making your brain work sorting out the details and at the end you realize a giant clue was given to you in the beginning that you had brushed away as unimportant fluff.