Once again I must preface my review of one of the Artesans of Albia series with the disclaimer that this book cannot be reviewed in isolation. It marks the start of a new trilogy, but it also continues the conflicts and characters set up in the previous books of the series. It contributes its part […]
A Sudden Gust of Gravity by Laurie Boris
This story is a love triangle between Christina, a hesitant magician’s assistant, Reynaldo the Magificent, her boss, and Devon, the resident doctor who suspects her bruises may not be the rehearsal accidents she considers them. If you ever harboured a sneaking suspicion that a woman who gets into an abusive relationship has some kind of […]
The Dead List (A John Drake Mystery) by Martin Crosbie
When I was teaching I mentored a student teacher of First Nations heritage. One day he sat down on a chair and gathered the students around him on the floor to listen. And then he proceeded to blow the lesson. He was doing everything wrong, and I wondered what I was going to tell him […]
Seized (The Pipe Woman Chronicles Book 1) by Lynne Cantwell
This story is rooted in a disagreement between the gods of the Norse and the gods of the Plains Indians. But the cooler heads of the metaphysical world have decided that the good old ways are counterproductive, and have decided to short-circuit the old violent methods of their contemporaries by inserting an element of negotiation […]
For Your Damned Love by Linton Robinson
I hope Linton Robinson doesn’t shoot me for saying this, but there ought to be another book genre: Masculine Romance. I mean, if you look at generic Romances, what do you see? The fantasies of women, including a token amount of romance, a good dollop of action, and a great deal of sex. There are […]
Thin Air by Anne Cleeves
The detective in this series is Jimmy Perez, a Shetlander returned to work in the islands of his birth. In this story Perez is called to a remote island where a woman has gone missing and a ghost has appeared on the same day. The plot involves Perez and his superior officer, Willow Reeves, unravelling the increasingly […]
Blade of the Destroyer: The Last Bucelarii Book 1 by Andy Peloquin
Let’s get to the point right up front; this is a well-written story that will appeal to a small readership: fans of Dark Fantasy and fight scenes. It would be an exaggeration to rate the story “completely concerned with violence,” because it also contains the requisite artistic merit: a wonderfully-described setting, an important theme, an […]
Mary of Angels (Borderland Book 1) by Linton Robinson
This book starts out with a lunch meeting wherein a journalist promises his editor that he will change from his writing about “irresponsible womanizing” and instead produce something “topical…a bit sexy…down to earth, ear to the ground.” He also decides, that, much though he would like to, it would be financially reckless to commit the violent murder-with-a-table-utensil […]
Hidden Depths (Vera Stanhope #1) by Anne Cleeves
There oughta be a subgenre: Women’s Detective Novels. There probably is, somewhere, genre description being as unrestricted and disorganized as it is. If there was such a designation, Anne Cleeves’s Vera Stanhope series would be right up there near the top. None of that Mickey Spillane/Mike Hammer stomping in and bullying everyone to comply. Vera […]
Death at La Fenice: a Commissario Brunetti Mystery by Donna Leon
I have reviewed other books in this series, and probably will indulge myself again in the future, because I find them endlessly fascinating. My excuse for this one is that it is the first book in the series, and as such deserves special attention. It is not unusual for a writer to get a good […]