Rewrites

I haven't written anything new the past couple of weeks it's all been re-writes. This is not a bad thing - it's great to have four fresh pairs of eyes pointing out things that I've missed. Read an arc of The Host. Am currently reading 'The Beekeepers Apprentice,' It's the first of the Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell series by Laurie King - so good I bought my own copy. Also reading 'Bonk' by Mary Roach and 'Willful Creatures' by Aimee Bender - I sold books at the event last week - not many but the reading itself was really good and so I've borrowed a copy (thanks Linda!)

Hold Tight by Harlen Coben

How far would you go to keep your kids safe? Would you spy on them, track the GPS in their phones install software on their computer? Add to these troubling moral questions the seemingly unrelated puzzle pieces of two suburban murders, a homicidal brother in law, teenage suicide, pharm parties, paternity issues and a tough as nails police investigator trying to connect the dots.

Hold Tight is part police procedural, part hi-tech and part twisted soap opera. It also shows the damage done by the click of a mouse. After finishing this book you may just want to pop upstairs and check on your kids……

The Rosetta Key by William Dietrich

If only all history lessons could be like this! Adventurer Ethan Gage arrives in Jerusalem still on a quest for ancient knowledge and hardened by the loss of the woman he loves. The French, led by Napoleon are trying to conquer the Middle East, do they seek the same thing Gage does? Old enemies and new friends help Gage in his quest. Gage uses his brain and his mentor Ben Franklin's knowledge to survive against impossible odds. Will Gage find The Book of Thoth? and can he trust the Rosetta Key - a woman risen from the dead to bewitch him again.

This is fic-history at it's best. The battles of Jaffa and the subsequent massacre, the Siege of Acre and the battles at Mount Tabor are all historical record. Dietrich winds Ethan Gage into this world and makes it real for the reader. He also shows how the supposedly civilised French could be capable of such horrific atrocities and how war un-civilises even the most cultural of races. A cracking read, I can't wait to read Napoleon's Pyramids - the first of the Gage books.

Finally writing again - review of Compulsion

We've been back since Monday and today is the first time I've written anything. 599 words but this is a bit of puzzle piece, not quite sure where to stick it or even if I'll use it at all.....

I'm reading an arc of William Dietrich's Rosetta Key. I started it last night at the Art Barn in between setting up and waiting for people to arrive for the event - no I didn't read it in front of anyone else. One of my Uncles who has long since passed away used to spin stories of his exploits in India and the Far East and I used to lap them up. Dietrich's Ethan Gage, reminds me of him and now I have to find Napoleon's Pyramids because that seems to be the first book in the series. Again more fic-history - this one comes out next week.

Also trying to get hold of an arc for The Host - the new Stephenie Meyer - nothing to do with the Twilight series. She's coming to SLC in May and we're hosting (no pun intended!) her.

I reviewed Compulsion before we went away but it's out now so here's the review.

Ten years ago murder made him a millionaire and now he’s turned it into a hobby.

LAPD Detective Milo Sturgis returns from an extended sick leave to zero case load. Then a girl goes missing, a harmless old lady is attacked in her front yard and across the country a serial murderer claims he killed missing 16 year old Antoine Beverly. Swamped, Milo calls on Dr Alex Delaware for help. Alex travels from the bright lights of New York city to a forgotten ghost town North of LA. He and Milo are on the trail of a crafty killer whose twisted ‘benevolence’ leaves a trail of bodies in his wake. Can they catch him before he kills again?

Losing You - Nicci French

On her 40th birthday Nina Landry, her son Jackson and daughter Charlie are due to leave remote Sandling Island and jet off to Florida with Nina’s new boyfriend. But 15 year old Charlie vanishes and normal life is suspended. When a desperate Nina can’t get any help from the local police, she turns detective, questioning Charlie’s friends, lovers, even her own ex-husband, uncovering her daughter’s secrets, deconstructing her teenage life in order to save it. But can she? Who can she really trust on this island of secrets? Nina isn’t going to stop until she’s found her daughter but the tide is rising and time is running out.

I couldn’t put this down. French spins a gripping tale out of every parent’s worst nightmare.

Sepulchre

Past, present, revenge, murder, betrayal, doomed love and tarot cards. It’s all here among the drab of old Paris and the wild beautiful countryside of Southern France.

The story spans 2007 where Meredith Martin an American researching the mercurial composer Claude Debussy in Paris gradually uncovers the legacy of his upstairs neighbour Leonie Vernier a 19th Century Parisienne who arrives at the Domaine de la Cade an estate belonging to her widowed aunt after a headlong flight from Paris. As the plot seesaws between time-periods Meredith travels to the village of Rennes-les-Bains, her luxury hotel, Domaine de la Cade. According to local superstitions a place where devils run free. It is said that the ruined Sepulchre in the grounds is a door between worlds and that a deck of Tarot cards hidden somewhere on the property is the key. The spirit of Leonie wants Meredith to find the cards and bring her justice, but Meredith isn’t the only one who is looking. I much preferred this to Labyrinth Mosse's first book.

Back to the reading business

Right, won't be leaving the country for at least six months so I'm posting this while still awake. For some arcane reason my body saved up two lots of jetlag and sicced them onto me when we arrived back. Successful trip, downloaded over 100 photos off my camera this morning. I had Wednesday to myself while C was visiting DK in London. I haven't read anything yet 'cos I'm not back at work until tomorrow but I notice that a few books have come out - or are out this week that I've done reviews for so they will be my next few posts.