Distraction

Is a good thing when, after a savage power bump knocked out the compressor on our AC unit yesterday I didn't notice  it was pumping out warm air because I was flying towards the climax of Anonymous Sources!

The vanishing Nine Tailors and Anonymous Sources

Again my Dorothy L Sayers reading has been thwarted! The Nine Tailors which is probably my favourite Lord Peter Whimsey mystery and which I really should know better than to lend out, gone!

Ordered another copy and actually I prefer the cover on this one.

When Whitney gave me the arc of Anonymous Sources by Mary Louise Kelly she said, 'read it for fun'. Kelly works for NPR on their intelligence beat and although I am not finished with this yet, I really hope Kelly's protagonist Alex James gets another book. Anonymous Sources is out now.

Thoughts on Rose Under Fire

Regular readers to this blog will know that Codename Verity was one of my favourite books of last year. Yesterday, I finished reading the companion novel Rose Under Fire which our lovely manager brought back for me from BEA, signed (!) and wow!

In many ways Rose is a continuation of Wein's first WWII novel, some of the characters have crossed into this book but this is the kind of history lesson I can really get behind. After reading it I had my own moment of silence, as Wein says in the afterword, although the character of Rose is fictional, Ravensbruck isn't. The experiments carried out on the 'Rabbits' happened, some books stay with you long after you've read the final page, Rose is haunting, uplifting, sad, rebellious, spirited and hopeful and should be on the curriculum of every school in the land.

Rose Under Fire comes out in September, full review then.

Liv Bergen series

Noah's Rainy Day landed in my box a couple of weeks ago, the latest in the Liv Bergen series, set in Colorado. I have to admit to reading the name 'Bergen' and thinking I was in for a Scandinavian murder mystery. I followed my usual m.o. reading the series from the beginning starting with In the Belly of Jonah, and Lot's Return to Sodom and plan to order Widow's Might at work tomorrow. And don't worry, with the religious connotations of the titles you might think Liv is a nun or something, she's not. Liv is irreverent, nosy, brilliant one of a family of 9 kids. In the first book she's managing a limestone quarry and she is to trouble what magnets are to iron filings.

Noah comes out in September.

Make Good Art

Neil Gaiman has a new book coming out next week 'The Ocean at the End of the Lane'. (no arcs so haven't had a chance to read it but Gaiman's a sight unseen purchase in my case)

He also did a commencement speech at Philly's University of the Arts in 2012 which has just been made into a book. Great graduation present or in my case just because.

Thoughts on 'Bones'

Reading 'The Bones of Paris' and loving it. Under King's deft pen Paris, in the time of Hemingway, Beech, Picasso etc comes to shimmering life. The pavement cafes, the heat, the murders...

The Bones of Paris comes out in September and in the meantime I'm off to dig up my copy of Touchstone.

Your assignment (should you choose to accept it)

So TKE mystery buffs here's a discussion question for next time we meet in the store.

When recommending a mystery (or any book) to a friend how often do you censor yourself according to their taste? I'll give you a for instance to get started, two books that I have read in the last few weeks I won't be blurbing or recommending that we get them in. I didn't hate them but, and this is a massive but, i can't think of any regulars that I could sell them to and one of them was totally hyped up by the blurb and for me sadly it didn't live up to that hype.

Considering how twisted my tastes can be (when being introduced to one of our lovely reps for the first time she said to me 'oh you're the one!' although now she never fails to give me the twistiest arcs she can) I wouldn't put a book on the shelf that I know is going to sit there and not sell.

The Tower, Simon Toyne

The last thrilling chapter in the Sanctus trilogy.

The two biggest telescopes on earth have been sabotaged; seemingly by the program heads, their message? ‘Mankind must look no further’ Rookie Joe Shepherd is pulled off training and paired with a veteran FBI man to investigate, but Joe is hiding things from his partner.

Meanwhile Liv and her companions are getting used to their new Eden and a dying Gabriel is riding back to the ancient city of Ruin hoping to contain the disease that threatens his very sanity.

The prophecy activated by the death of Liv’s brother is coming to pass, the Mala and the Sancti are on a collision course. Could this be a new beginning, or the end of days?

N.B: Sanctus and The Key are the first two books in this series

Graveland, Alan Glynn

Wall Street is losing more financiers. They’re not being pink-slipped or indicted, they’re being shot.

Investigative journalist Ellen Dorsey senses a story even though the public opinion is ‘meh’ and the media are screaming domestic terrorism and then she gets a gilt edged lead. It puts her in contact with Frank Bishop a former architect with a very missing daughter.

Across town, buried in the noise of the media circus there’s a changing of the guard at Oberon Capital group and many, many reasons why the company’s rumoured IPO is never going to happen…

Universe Versus Alex Woods, Gavin Extence

At ten years old young Alex was struck by a rare meteorite so when at seventeen he’s pulled over at Dover ferry terminal in Mr Petersen’s car with pot in the glovebox and an urn containing Mr. Petersen on the front seat he plunges the UK into uproar.

Alex’s coming of age to the point of his arrest told in his own words, is a tale of bullies, seizures, astronomy, the works of Kurt Vonnegut. His unlikely friendship with Mr. Petersen, a Vietnam veteran widower, Alex’s desire to study the Universe and Mr. Petersen’s desire to die with dignity.

It made me laugh and made me think. This is Adrian Mole gone to the dark side.

Loyalty, Ingrid Thoft

The female PI is back! Meet Fina Ludlow, law school dropout but kept in her Boston lawyer father’s firm as their in-house private eye. Fina’s family are Boston royalty, so when Fina’s sister in law, Melanie, goes awol the Ludlows want her found, pronto.

Melanie has gone missing before but this is different and the deeper Fina digs the more doubts she has about her brother’s innocence. Not to mention that someone is out to run her right off the investigation and Boston PD would just love to nail a Ludlow on a murder charge.

How far will Fina’s loyalty stretch?

Wild Beasts of Wuhan, Ian Hamilton

Ava Lee, forensic accountant is tasked with uncovering a network of art dealers who have taken a Chinese couple for millions. The couple live in Wuhan and have ties to Ava’s partner Uncle.

Ava starts investigating in Hong Kong, learning as she goes how complex and cut-throat the world of fine art can be. Crossing the globe, London to New York; Ireland to the Faroe Islands, Ava is finally offered a morally questionable solution which will get her clients’ money back, then a shocking betrayal sends the situation spinning out of control.

Ava risks making some very powerful enemies but no one makes a liar out of Ava Lee

More coming in the next half hour

Have to go and feed some hungry cats!

Slingshot, Matthew Dunn

Third in the thrilling ‘Spycatcher’ series.

1995: A top secret meeting among top US and Russian commanders, the subject, Project Slingshot, an accord so unthinkable that to protect it a deadly assassin is tasked with silencing anyone who threatens to expose its secret.

Present Day: Will Cochrane’s MI6 operation to aid a defector has just gone sideways in Poland. Cochrane, codename Spartan, thinks the document the Russian stole just before his defection is the reason he was kidnapped. Will is pulling at the threads leading to Slingshot, via Tel Aviv, the Scottish Highlands and the European court of Human Rights in the Hague. He becomes a threat to a shadowy East German powerbroker who deals ruthlessly with his enemies and their loved ones. Russia has tasked their own spycatcher to retrieve the document by any means necessary and elements in the CIA would rather betray Cochrane than help him.

In order to prevent a high level political assassination Will’s going to have to risk everything, his job, his loved ones and his life.

Juicy June Mysteries

Those will be coming your way in just a mo.

May was a fantastic month, I got to meet authors Peter Lovesey, Jenny Milchman and the strongest librarian Josh Harnagan.

The second book is complete and work on the third is underway. I am under orders from hubby not to clear off my plot wall just because we have visitors arriving tomorrow.

I joined Riffle and at the moment I am reading Noah's Rainy Day by Sandra Brannan, Kind of Cruel by Sophie Hannah, and Long Fall from Heaven by Weir and Burton.