Sid Halley, ex-jockey turned detective, returns in a new book. Someone is cutting of the off-hand leg of yearlings, just below the fetlock joint. When the person injures the horse of a terminally ill child, it becomes more personal. A few clues point to a famous jockey, loved by many, friend to Halley, and who wasn’t present, the mystery deepens and the the political cost to Sid is high.
A ship has run aground, an abbess has been killed, the nuns traveling with her disappeared and an elderly scholar has been killed. Although at peace, some members of the Ui Figente seem to be rebellious, several scholarly text are missing and destroyed. It is up to Fidelma, with Aedulf’s help, to understand these mysteries and weave them into a single tapestry.
Craig Johnson finds a motorcyclist, critically injured, run off the road by an unknown motorist. His investigation takes him across the border into Sturgis South Dakota during the big motorcycle rally, interacting with motorcycle gangs during his research.
Henry Standing Bear is present with his car named Lola and two motorcycles bearing female names, preparing for the hill climbing competition. During the investigation they encounter the original Lola for whom the car is named and who is the mother of the dead motorcyclist and involved in whatever is going on.
The writing is good, the characters interesting and the story compelling. This is he 12th in the series.
The Long Way Home is the 10th book in the Chief Inspector Armande Gamache series. This book is very enjoyable, mostly exploring the relationship between the involved characters and brings out some idiosyncrasies. From the last book, Peter was sent off by his wife, they scheduled a meeting to revisit their relationship after one year. When he doesn’t show, she became worried about him and invoked Gamache’s assistance.
The first thing I noticed about the book is the cover. It is textured as a canvas and the image is upside-down. The backside is the same image but right-side up. I think this refers to Peter. When he parted, he worked on his art. Art was his problem when his wife showed him up having all the success. He was the one who studied art, In order to restore their relationship, he had to stand on his own.
Louise Penny has a wonderful writing style. The way she describes people and scenes makes the reader feel like he is there among the action, part of the conversation. I had felt some of the previous books hadn’t maintained the same quality, but this one is one of her best. This book has a slower pace than most, and a slow pace is normal for this series. Gamache is a thoughtful, patient protagonist.
Gamache would normally talk through the mysteries with Beauvoir, but now has several companions from Three Pines to add thoughts, concerns and support. I wonder if this is part of the reason Louise took him away from La Surété. I am looking forward to reading the next book.
This is the second book in The Cat Who… series. At the beginning of the book, Jim Quilleran has a week to vacate his apartment. He goes to work intending to get a better assignment than the art beat, to be surprised by an assignment to do a weekly interior design supplement to the newspaper called Gracious Abodes.
Given a designer contact of David Lyke, he goes in search of something to write about. David refers him to George Tate, David had done his interior design. David also leads him to a friend who wants someone to sit in his apartment while he is in Europe, it is in a posh building near David. Thus Jim is thrust into a good life, and he begins by sharing his fortune Koko, feeding him fine sea foods.
Within 24 hours of the magazine being published, George Tate’s valuable collection of jade is stolen, his wife dies, and his houseboy, Paolo, disappears and becomes a prime suspect. A point that Jim vehemently disagrees with. The consequences have foreboding affects on The Fluxion! Then David Lyke turns up dead and Koko leads Jim to the clues.
The book gets funny as it delves into the world of interior design. This culture refers to colors by food names that get outrageous as the book goes on. Then sprinkle in a lot of odd characters with unusual quirks makes for a fun read.
Jim picks up a romantic interest in Alacoque Wright, aka Cokey. She has several cat-like characteristics such as scratching at a table when the two met. Except for an occasional salad, she always eats foods a cat would eat, mostly seafood. And she knits (plays with yarn) her own sweaters, so she’s covered in fur.
The author sprinkles lots of words describing furniture and upholstery that I had to look up. It added to the color.
In the end, the mystery was good and resolved well. Although the guilty is revealed early, the why and how are held close until late in the book.
This was my first Craig Johnson novel. This story is half mystery-half ghost story.
In the story, a policewoman receives radio signals from an officer. in distress from 30 years in the past. With her sanity in question, Walt Longmire investigates while keeping an open mind, and the radio signals seem related to missing money from the time of the distress signal.
The story involves well-developed characters that come to life in the story.
This is my first Maigret novel and I found it enjoyable. Although there are a number of suggestions that I’m missing some elements of his character development. For one, he is working on a drinking problem. Further, the relationship with his wife suggests prior development.
In this novel, Maigret is investigating the. death of a nightclub owner. His was found two days after his death in a public place, someone killed him, kept the body and then moved it.
The deceased took an effort to remain above-board. He is clean to a whistle, family members are readily ruled out. Other related figures include other nightclub owners, a possible mob connection and his lawyer. The killer’s motive leads to Maigret losing his temper!
When returning home, Fidelma and Eadulf board a ship along with Fidelma’s cousins and diplomat. Then the ship is attacked by pirates and her cousin killed, she and Eadulf jump overboard and find themselves rescued by a monk and taken to an island.
Fidlema is duty-bound to find her cousin’s killer, with few clues other than the ship’s cat and odd comings and goings, she strings together a large collection of seemingly unrelated facts to not only discover the killer, but to uncover a conspiracy to seize power.
This is book 18 is Peter Tremayne’s series of Sister Fidelma. The series still holds my attention, this story is well-told and enjoyable.
Jim Chee has been transferred to a team commanded by Captain Largo. His duties are to investigate the repeated sabotage of a windmill, solve the killing of a man by a witch and to solve a robbery case. When a drug-running plane crashes and several people are killed, things get more bizarre. The crash and related murders are outside of Chee’s jurisdiction, but all the events seem interrelated.
The story takes the reader into the Navajo and Hopi cultures as Chee tries to sort things out. Even the cultures are tied into the crimes.
When the solution unravels, Hillerman has intertwined everything into a fully satisfying solution.
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