27. Monkeewrench

By P. J. Tracy.  
Rated 4.5
Kindle

My Granddaughter Nicky highly recommended this book to me.I was a little leery of it as she tends to read things like Patricia Cornwall books with lots of gore in them.  She isn't bothered by gore as her job exposes her to lots of it while I'm more the cosy mystery type reader.  But this book is kind of between the two types.  Some violence but not too much. :)  And a right out of the blue ending.  I love mysteries that keep you hanging until the very last page.

Publisher Description:

People are dying for the new computer game by the software company Monkeewrench. Literally. With Serial Killer Detective out in limited release, the real-life murders of a jogger and a young woman have already mimicked the first two scenarios in the game.

But Grace McBride and her eccentric Monkeewrench partners are caught in a vise. If they tell the Minneapolis police of the link between their game and the murders, they'll shine a spotlight on the past they thought they had erased-and the horror they thought they'd left behind. If they don't, eighteen more people will die...

9. Voice of the Violin

By:  Andrea Camilleri
Rated 3.5 Stars
Paperback Loan from Connie

I liked this book slightly less than I did The Terra Cotta Dog and The Snack Thief.  I thought it was kind of slow.  Also I had a feeling that Montalbano was going to mess up with Livia.  I am hoping that in future books he can bail himself out.


Book Description:

 As the fourth mystery in the internationally bestselling series opens, Montalbano’s gruesome discovery of a lovely, naked young woman suffocated in her bed immediately sets him on a search for her killer. Among the suspects are her aging husband, a famous doctor; a shy admirer, now disappeared; an antiques-dealing lover from Bologna; and the victim’s friend Anna, whose charms Montalbano cannot help but appreciate. But it is a mysterious, reclusive violinist who holds the key to the murder.

7. The Snack Thief

By: Andrea Camilleri
 Rated: 4 Stars
 Paperback Loan from Connie

Montalbano is such a great and quirky character. He's wonderful in so many ways --excepting his foul mouth which I find out of place for some reason,
 his love of fine food to his ability to see smells in color.  It's better in some ways than The Terra Cota Dog. I found Montalbano's refusal to visit his dying Father because he loved him too much to see him at death's door a little odd.  Surely the comfort he could have provided his father would have off set his "discomfort" but I am chalking this up to the possibility that his reaction is a cultural thing.  I did like his reaction to "The Snack Thief: but I am not altogether sure he is not really going to marry Livia when it comes to the sticking point.  But I did like the mystery very much and loved some of the secondary characters especially Signora Cozzo.

Book Description:

In the third book in Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano series, the urbane and perceptive Sicilian detective exposes a viper's nest of government corruption and international intrigue in a compelling new case. When an elderly man is stabbed to death in an elevator and a crewman on an Italian fishing trawler is machine-gunned by a Tunisian patrol boat off Sicily's coast, only Montalbano suspects the link between the two incidents. His investigation leads to the beautiful Karima, an impoverished housecleaner and sometime prostitute, whose young son steals other schoolchildren's midmorning snacks. But Karima disappears, and the young snack thief's life—as well as Montalbano's—is on the line..

6. The Case of the Missing Marquise

By: Nancy Springer
Rated 4 Stars

 I read this book in one night.  It was a fast but fun read.  I didn't think I was going to like it at first because it started off slow and I wasn't sure where the author was trying to go with Sherlock and Mycroft.  I hate it when  pastiche authors expect the established characters to carry all the water so to speak.  But Enola elbowed them both out of the way pretty quickly (she too is a Holmes after all) and the story zipped right along for me.  Thank you Sabrina for the recommendation.  I will be reading the sequels and I hope there will be many.

 Publisher's Summary

Two-time Edgar Award-winning author Nancy Springer introduces the sleuthing powers of Sherlock Holmes' sister in the captivating mystery Booklist and School Library Journal praise with starred reviews. Prompted by clues her missing mother cleverly left her, 14-year-old Enola races from the clutches of her captors. But how can Enola escape these slimy ruffians and find her mother?

5. The Terra-Cotta Dog

By:  Andrea Camilleri
Rated 3 1/2

Copy of an e-mail I sent to friend regarding this book:

Your right, I do need to re-read the book because I was very confused for a great deal of it.  To start with, it had nothing to do with the blurb which highlighted the bodies in the cave and that part didn't come into the story until about half way through so I was wondering if I had gotten the wrong recording.  I had that happen to me once so I knew it was possible.

Also the crude language kept jolting me out of the story.  Not because I am a prude but because it felt like the author just threw it in for effect.  But then I remembered that you had mentioned that this was the second book in the series and I decided that the author was still trying to find the right 'feel" for the character.  Then after a while the crude language stopped and I decided I was right.  THEN I realized that this series is being written by two authors instead of one and then I decided that one of them was a much better writer than the other and that was the reason for how uneven the language was and for the fact that the second half of the book was much better than the first half.

Well, by that time my head was starting to spin! <LOL>  I was very happy to get your comments because they were a great help.   I am going to save your spoilers and then relisten with all of them in mind.  And yes, I would like to continue to read the series because the venue is very interesting.  It is a little serendipitous that we just finished reading about Operation Mincemeat because it added some background for this story. I caught myself watching for the submarine lurking silently off shore. :) 

Publisher's Summary

Montalbano's latest case begins with a mysterious tête à tête with a Mafioso, some inexplicably abandoned loot from a supermarket heist, and some dying words that lead him to an illegal arms cache in a mountain cave. There the inspector finds two young lovers, dead for 50 years and still embracing, watched over by a life-sized terra-cotta dog. Montalbano's passion to solve this old crime takes him on a journey through Sicily's past and into a family's dark heart amidst the horrors of World War II bombardment.

Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano has garnered millions of fans worldwide with his sardonic take on Sicilian life. With sly wit and a keen understanding of human nature, Montalbano is a detective whose earthiness, compassion, and imagination make him totally irresistible.

Death Cloud (Sherlock Holmes: the Legend Begins)

By Andrew Lane
Rated 3 stars
Audiobook

This was simply an OK book.  Fortunately I didn't have enough invested in it to tick me off so I can simply shrug it off.

The problem for me with this one is that it was supposed to be about a young Sherlock Holmes and the author obviously had no feel what so ever as to the character of Sherlock Holmes.  This book could have been about any kid.  Any kid that is except Sherlock Holmes.

But to readers who are not long time Sherlock Holmes readers it probably worked for them.  But for long time Holmes fans and like I am that that are convinced that even as an infant he had a distinctive personality and his first words were probably uttered in a sarcastic tone the book fell utterly flat.  It's my opinion that the author should have used someone whose personality was not so distinctive  if they felt the need to use an established character to draw in readers.

Book Description

Release Date: October 25, 2011 | Series: Sherlock Holmes: the Legend Begins (Book 1)

It is the summer of 1868, and Sherlock Holmes is fourteen. On break from boarding school, he is staying with eccentric strangers—his uncle and aunt—in their vast house in Hampshire. When two local people die from symptoms that resemble the plague, Holmes begins to investigate what really killed them, helped by his new tutor, an American named Amyus Crowe. So begins Sherlock’s true education in detection, as he discovers the dastardly crimes of a brilliantly sinister villain of exquisitely malign intent.

27. Not My Blood

By:  Barbara Cleverly
Rated 4 Stars
Kindle Book



This is the 10th book in Cleverly's Joe Sandiland's detective series set in the 1920's and 30's. I ended up giving it a 4 of 5 stars in my reading journal. I have been waiting for this book since the first book "The Last Kashmiri Rose" was released in 2001. I always felt that it was inevitable that a follow up to that book would be written and sure enough, here it is. And I only had to wait for eleven years.

 It was written in her usual twisty style and I thought a couple of times I had it figured out but the solution slipped out of my grasp each time. I like a mystery that keeps me guessing until the end.

 I downgraded it slightly because I felt that the author had unnecessarily trashed one of the secondary characters at the end. I felt like it should have been left up to the reader to pass judgement on this character's actions based on their behavior in the first book. Perhaps the author though that not many of her readers would remember that far back but I did and I did not draw the same conclusions. Part of the fun of reading is placing ones own interpretations on events.

 I get enough of people trying to tell me how to think by what little notice I take of the MSM and RW pundits.

Publisher Summary

Scotland Yard Detective Joe Sandilands is caught off guard one night in 1933 by a phone call from a distressed boy named Jackie Drummond, who just might be the illegitimate son Joe never knew he had. Jackie is in trouble at his Sussex boarding school, where a teacher has been murdered. When Joe gets himself assigned to the investigation, he learns the boarding school case is more complicated than it appears: A frightening number of boys, all from wealthy families, have gone missing over the school’s history, and by some coincidence none of the families have followed up on their sons' whereabouts.

18. The Eye of Jade

By Diane Wei Liang
Rated 4 Stars
Audio Book

This is a pretty  a good  book but I had to adjust my expectations in order to enjoy it.  I was expecting a mystery, and it is that, but only sort of.  But he whole mystery thing is not developed very well.  What interested me about the book was place and people.  I enjoy arm chair traveling and this book did a pretty good job with time-and-place.  It says this book is the first book in a series that the author is planning and I think she was laying a lot of background introductions to the characters and Mei's family situation.  If there is a book two I plan to give it a try.  There was just enough in this book to like that I will give this author another chance.  But if she doesn't get a handle on the mystery thing then Ms. Wei Liang and I will part company.

Here is a link to this book on amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Eye-Jade-Mystery-Mysteries/dp/1416549560

17. Elegy for Eddie

By:  Jacqueline Winspeare
Rated 4 Stars
Audio Book

 I ended up kind of conflicted about this after I finished it.  On one hand I liked it very much but there were a couple of things that bugged me.  One of them was that some of the character's started taking pot shots at Maisie regarding the way she was handling her new found wealth.  They were telling her that trying to help some of the people she cared about was putting them under an obligation to her that was not a good thing.  Not a word about how Maurice, Lady Compton and Priscilla did the same thing for her. 

As a result I thought that then Maisie over reacted with what seemed to me with teenage angst (and believe I have seen enough teen age angst to recognize it when I see it) and started clutching her working class background like a hair shirt she was afraid to take off for fear she wouldn't be normal anymore unless she was itching. 

I also thought  her willingness to swan around in Priscilla's cast off's and her reluctance to buy herself new clothes or even, for heaven's sake pay to have her car tuned up went beyond thriftiness and bordered on parsimony.  If I'm going to continue this series Masie is going to have to do a little growing up and moving on.

But on a positive note II thought the mystery was good and I could see the basis for some darn good stories in the future.  And as ever, Windspeare does a stellar job of nailing the time and place.  She obviously is as fascinated with that era as I am.

Product Description:

Early April 1933. To the costermongers of Covent Garden—sellers of fruit and vegetables on the streets of London—Eddie Pettit was a gentle soul with a near-magical gift for working with horses. When Eddie is killed in a violent accident, the grieving costers are deeply skeptical about the cause of his death. Who would want to kill Eddie—and why?

Maisie Dobbs' father, Frankie, had been a costermonger, so she had known the men since childhood. She remembers Eddie fondly and is determined to offer her help. But it soon becomes clear that powerful political and financial forces are equally determined to prevent her from learning the truth behind Eddie's death. Plunging into the investigation, Maisie begins her search for answers on the working-class streets of Lambeth where Eddie had lived and where she had grown up. The inquiry quickly leads her to a callous press baron; a has-been politician named Winston Churchill, lingering in the hinterlands of power; and, most surprisingly, to Douglas Partridge, the husband of her dearest friend, Priscilla. As Maisie uncovers lies and manipulation on a national scale, she must decide whether to risk it all to see justice done.

The story of a London affected by the march to another war years before the first shot is fired and of an innocent victim caught in the crossfire,Elegy for Eddie is Jacqueline Winspear's most poignant and powerful novel yet.

6. Sick of Shadows

By:  Sharon McCrumb
Rated 4 Stars
Kindle Book

I read this back way back when  and loved it. Re-reading it recently left me a bit nostalgic for some of the wittier books in this series.  I will continue to work my way through them as they are released on Kindle. But this is still a good book and I have always loved McCrumb's writing.  Elizabeth and her brother are compelling characters, and the rest of the wacky family are -- well, no spoilers! A light, easy and fun read, and the must-read intro into the other MacPherson tales.


Book Description

 The book that started it all for Edgar Award winner Sharyn McCrumb's widely acclaimed series featuring amateur sleuth Elizabeth MacPherson.
When delicate Eileen Chandler is set to marry, her family fears the man is a fortune hunter. Thank goodness, Eileen's cousin Elizabeth MacPherson comes early for support. Unfortunately, Elizabeth also has some detecting to do, as a dead body is found, and none of the wedding party is above suspicion....
"A good deal of suspense...McCrumb writes with a sharp-pointed pen."
LOS ANGELES TIMES

34. Strange Images of Death

By:  Barbara Cleverly
Rated: 4.5 Stars
From:  Library
Format:  Hard Cover Book

I have been following this author ever since her first novel The Last Kashmiri Rose hooked me in 2008.  While this is not, in my opinion, one of her best, it's still an engaging mystery with some delightful secondary characters from previous  mysteries making an appearance.  Witty dialogue is this author's forte along with interesting settings that are of course, set in a period that I particularly enjoy.

Publisher's Summary:

Since Scotland Yard detective Joe Sandilands was going to drive down to the French Riviera for a vacation, he agreed to drop his niece off at a chateau along the way for a visit with her father. But when the pair arrive at the chateau, they find recent vandalism has caused an uneasy atmosphere among the guests. A troubling crime committed just before their arrival leaves a clear message that more violence is to come. To allay panic, Joe agrees to stay on and root out the guilty person. But, despite Joe’s vigilance, a child goes missing and an artist’s beautiful young model is murdered in circumstances eerily recreating a six hundred-year-old crime of passion.

Helped and hindered by a rising star of the French Police Judiciaire, Joe must delve into a horror story from the castle’s past before he can tear the mask from the diseased soul responsible for these contemporary crimes.

34. One Was A Soldier

By:  Julia Spencer-Fleming
Rated:  4.5 Stars
From:  Library
Format:  Book


I really had to think about how I wanted to rate this book.  On one hand I wanted to give it a full 5 stars because I loved the book and thought the mystery was very, very well written

On the other hand I though that Ms. Spencer-Fleming had an anti-war message and got a little heavy handed with it.  I am anti-war myself but when I am reading a book of fiction for entertainment I don't particularly like being hit over the head with public service announcements from the author.  So I rated it down .5 stars and that was pretty much an act of charity on my part because it probably deserves only a 4 because of the clumsy way the message came through.  To me at least.

One other thing, I sure do wish that Flynn and Hadley would stop dancing around each other and get on with things.

Regarding the news Clare got at the end of the book?  Cool! :)


Publisher's Summary

On a warm September evening in the Millers Kill community center, five veterans sit down in rickety chairs to try to make sense of their experiences in Iraq.  What they will find is murder, conspiracy, and the unbreakable ties that bind them to one another and their small Adirondack town.

The Rev. Clare Fergusson wants to forget the things she saw as a combat helicopter pilot and concentrate on her relationship with Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne. MP Eric McCrea needs to control the explosive anger threatening his job as a police officer. Will Ellis, high school track star, faces the reality of life as a double amputee. Orthopedist Trip Stillman is denying the extent of  his traumatic brain injury. And bookkeeper Tally McNabb wrestles with guilt over the in-country affair that may derail her marriage.

But coming home is harder than it looks. One vet will struggle with drugs and alcohol. One will lose his family and friends. One will die.

Since their first meeting, Russ and Clare’s bond has been tried, torn, and forged by adversity. But when he rules the veteran’s death a suicide, she violently rejects his verdict, drawing the surviving vets into an unorthodox investigation that threatens jobs, relationships, and her own future with Russ.
As the days cool and the nights grow longer, they will uncover a trail of deceit that runs from their tiny town to the upper ranks of the U.S. Army, and from the waters of the Millers Kill to the unforgiving streets of Baghdad.

23. A Lesson in Secrets

By:  Jacqueline Winspear
Rated 5 Stars
Audiobook

In this book Masie is asked by the Secret Service to take a job at Cambridge as a Philosophy professor at a college dedicated to the furthering of peace.   Masie is tasked with the job of finding out if the staff or students are part of the Communist party and are engaged in activities that are a threat to the Government.

Sure enough, Maisie is not there more than a day or two before a man is murdered and Scotland Yard is called into investigate.  Maisie engages in a delicate dance between investigating subversives for the Secret Service and assisting Scotland Yard (unasked) solve the murder. Maisie turns up a group of students sympathetic  to the growing SDP in Germany and warns the Secret Service about their activities.  The Secret Service is more concerned with ferreting out Communists than they are Fascists and this creates a certain amount of conflict between Maisie and the SS.  At that point my brain switched over to real life and I remembered that it was in just this very period in time that Trinity College in Cambridge was the place that  The Cambridge Five met and became the most effective  espionage agents against the British and American interests in the history of spydom. Using 20/20 hindsight perhaps the SS and Winspear should have expanded Maisies mission to include both groups.  But then no one had a clue at the time that that nest of vipers was forming its self so I guess being clueless is appropriate.

This book is not heavy on plot.  The main mystery was the murder and the spy hunt merely peripheral it seemed to me.  Meantime, back at the ranch (London) another mystery develops and is left to Billy to investigate.  I thought that much more could have been done with this mystery but perhaps Winspear thought Maisie had her hands to full already.

But is was a lovely visit into Maisie's world.  Winspear is a master at creating an atmosphere that drips with authenticity and her secondary characters are always credibale, both new and those from previous books who have become old friends.

One of the things I like most about Maisie is that she is never static.  She is not stuck in time but moves on with her life appropriately, according to the situation that is unfolding in Britain at the time each book is set.

Publisher's Summary

Maisie Dobbs' first assignment for the British Secret Service takes her undercover to Cambridge as a professor—and leads to the investigation of a web of activities being conducted by the emerging Nazi Party.

In the summer of 1932, Maisie Dobbs' career takes an exciting new turn when she accepts an undercover assignment directed by Scotland Yard's Special Branch and the Secret Service. Posing as a junior lecturer, she is sent to a private college in Cambridge to monitor any activities "not in the interests of His Majesty's government".

When the college's controversial pacifist founder and principal, Greville Liddicote, is murdered, Maisie is directed to stand back as Detective Chief Superintendent Robert MacFarlane and Detective Chief Inspector Richard Stratton spearhead the investigation. She soon discovers, however, that the circumstances of Liddicote's death appear inextricably linked to the suspicious comings and goings of faculty and students under her surveillance.

To unravel this web, Maisie must overcome a reluctant Secret Service, discover shameful hidden truths about Britain's conduct during the Great War, and face off against the rising powers of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei—the Nazi Party—in Britain.

As the storm clouds of World War II gather on the horizon, this pivotal chapter in the life of Maisie Dobbs foreshadows new challenges and powerful enemies facing the psychologist and investigator

The Woman in White

By Wilkie Collins
Rated - 3.5
From: Audible.com
Format: Audio Book

This was only an OK book as far as I was concerned.  Way too much description and rambling prose.  If an editor with a sharp pen went through and reduced by about half it would have been a much better book because the story was very good.  It was just that I had to fight my way through to find it.

Product Description

One of the greatest mystery thrillers ever written, Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White was a phenomenal best seller in the 1860s, achieving even greater success than works by Charles Dickens. Full of surprise, intrigue, and suspense, this vastly entertaining novel continues to enthrall audiences today.

The story begins with an eerie midnight encounter between artist Walter Hartright and a ghostly woman dressed all in white who seems desperate to share a dark secret. The next day Hartright, engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie and her half sister, tells his pupils about the strange events of the previous evening.
Determined to learn all they can about the mysterious woman in white, the three soon find themselves drawn into a chilling vortex of crime, poison, kidnapping, and international intrigue.

Masterfully constructed, The Woman in White is dominated by two of the finest creations in all Victorian fiction: Marion Halcombe, dark, mannish, yet irresistibly fascinating, and Count Fosco, the sinister and flamboyant "Napoleon of Crime".

70. Face of a Stranger

By:  Anne Perry
Rated 4.5
From Library

This is a new series to me although it's been around a while.  I enjoyed it enough to request the next book in the series.

Publisher's Description:

After an accident in his carriage, detective William Monk wakes up with no memory; ashamed to admit it, he bluffs his way through recovery and returns to work, where he is assigned a particularly tricky investigation of a young nobleman's brutal murder. While tracking the last affairs of the victim, Monk traces his own history and dislikes what he turns up on both fronts. Uncovering unpleasant secrets within Grey's aristocratic family, he also finds his gradually revealed former self to have been ambitious, cold and perhaps cruel. Integral to Perry's rich, unpredictable plot is the Crimean War, graphically described by Hester Latterly, a forthright young woman of the middle class who nursed there with Florence Nightingale.

67 & 68 Bess Crawford Mysteries

A Duty to the Dead

By Charles Todd
Rated 4.5
Audiobook
From Library

The summary below that I copied from my library's website (and is not copyrighted) is so complete that I will only comment that  I thought the character of Bess got off to a somewhat rocky start.  She was coming across like a long suffering bore and I was sure I wasn't going to like her.  But after a while the authors got a handle on her I soon warmed up to her.

The mystery was excellent.  Even after I figured out whodunnit I was still in doubt whether or not everything was going to turn out alright.  I would have been very upset if it hadn't.

Publisher's Summary:

From the brilliantly imaginative New York Times bestselling author Charles Todd comes an unforgettable new character in an exceptional new series

England, 1916. Independent-minded Bess Crawford's upbringing is far different from that of the usual upper-middle-class British gentlewoman. Growing up in India, she learned the importance of responsibility, honor, and duty from her offi­cer father. At the outbreak of World War I, she followed in his footsteps and volunteered for the nursing corps, serving from the battlefields of France to the doomed hospital ship Britannic.

On one voyage, Bess grows fond of the young, gravely wounded Lieutenant Arthur Graham. Something rests heavily on his conscience, and to give him a little peace as he dies, she promises to deliver a message to his brother. It is some months before she can carry out this duty, and when she's next in England, she herself is recovering from a wound.

When Bess arrives at the Graham house in Kent, Jonathan Graham listens to his brother's last wishes with surprising indifference. Neither his mother nor his brother Timothy seems to think it has any significance. Unsettled by this, Bess is about to take her leave when sudden tragedy envelops her. She quickly discovers that fulfilling this duty to the dead has thrust her into a maelstrom of intrigue and murder that will endanger her own life and test her courage as not even war has.

An Impartial Witness

Rated 5 Stars
Hardcover
From:  Library


It is the early summer of 1917. Bess Crawford has returned to England from the trenches of France with a convoy of severely wounded men. One of her patients is a young pilot who has been burned beyond recognition, and who clings to life and the photo of his wife that is pinned to his tunic.

While passing through a London train station, Bess notices a woman bidding an emotional farewell to an officer, her grief heart-wrenching. And then Bess realizes that she seems familiar. In fact, she's the woman in the pilot's photo, but the man she is seeing off is not her husband.
Back on duty in France, Bess discovers a newspaper with a drawing of the woman's face on the front page. Accompanying the drawing is a plea from Scotland Yard seeking information from anyone who has seen her. For it appears that the woman was murdered on the very day Bess encountered her at the station.
Granted leave to speak with Scotland Yard, Bess becomes entangled in the case. Though an arrest is made, she must delve into the depths of her very soul to decide if the police will hang an innocent man or a vicious killer. Exposing the truth is dangerous—and will put her own life on the line.

64. Whose Body

By: Dorothy L. Sayers
Rated: 5 Stars
Audio Book
From: Download from Libravox

This is the only Dorothy Sayers book available at Libravox.org.   It's Sayers introduction to Lord Peter Wimsey. It was a fun read/listen. I love Lord Peter.

The stark naked body was lying in the tub.Not unusual for a proper bath, but highly irregular for murder -- especially witha pair of gold pince-nez deliberately perched before the sightless eyes. What's more, the face appeared to have been shaved after death. The police assumed that the victim was a prominent financier, but Lord Peter Wimsey, who dabbled in mystery detection as a hobby, knew better. In this, his first murder case, Lord Peter untangles the ghastly mystery of the corpse in the bath.

56. The Attenbury Emeralds

By:  Jill Paton Walsh
Rated 4.5 Stars
From:  Owned
Format:  Audio Book

The novel begins with Lord Peter and Bunter telling Harriet the story of their 1921 investigation into the disappearance of the Attenbury emeralds. Then the  current Lord Attenbury asks Lord Peter to investigate a new mystery involving the emeralds. As Lord Peter starts looking into the current mystery he discovers mysteries within the mystery.  

In addition the Wimsey family has an adventure of their own.  It's interesting how it ends.  Also I'm very curious whether or not there will be another LPW mystery in the future.   While bringing the career of Lord Peter to a rather logical conclusion Walsh left the door slightly open for a future book.  It probably depends on how well this one sells.


Product Description

It was 1921 when Lord Peter Wimsey first encountered the Attenbury emeralds. The recovery of the magnificent gem in Lord Attenbury’s most dazzling heirloom made headlines – and launched a shell-shocked young aristocrat on his career as a detective.

Now it is 1951: a happily married Lord Peter has just shared the secrets of that mystery with his wife, the detective novelist Harriet Vane.  Then the new young Lord Attenbury – grandson of Lord Peter’s first client – seeks his help again, this time to prove who owns the gigantic emerald that Wimsey last saw in 1921.

51. Rag and Bone

By:  James R. Benn
Rated 4.5 Stars
From:  Library

This is the fifth book in the Billy Boyle series and I think it's the best one yet.  It's a fascinating picture of the intelligence world during WWII and the author is very skillful in depicting the impact of war on London--the bricks from bombed buildings piled neatly on the streets, families living in Tube stations, "the odor of the Blitz." Destruction aside, Billy never forgets that "Even in the midst of war, murder is unacceptable."

Publishers Description

Billy is sent to London in the midst of a Luftwaffe bombing offensive to investigate the murder of a Soviet official. There's reason to believe that the crime could be connected to the recent discovery of mass graves in the Katyn Forest, where thousands of Polish officers were executed. Is a killer is out there, targeting Soviet officials in revenge for the Katyn Massacre? If so, the diplomatic stakes couldn't be higher as the uneasy relationship between the Soviets and the other allied powers hangs in the balance. Further complicating matters, Scotland Yard names Billy's friend Kaz, now working for the Polish government in exile, as the prime suspect. Billy must track the killer through London's criminal underworld and save his friend.

52. The Last Lie

By Stephen White
Rated 4 Stars
From Library

This book got some pretty bad reviews on Amazon but I stayed up reading until after midnight to finish this book last night.  That's very unusual for me.  I thought it was a real page turner but I didn't quite buy into all the secret's the house its self had.  I guess I need to go back and read the book that featured the builder.

Publisher Summary - bestselling author Stephen White returns to his beloved Alan Gregory series with a taut, ripped-from-the-headlines crime story.

Stephen White's most recent bestseller, The Siege, featured his series character Sam Purdy in a relentlessly paced stand-alone thriller that critics hailed as "brilliantly conceived and executed" (Publishers Weekly) and "the best and most interesting terrorism thriller I've seen." (The Washington Post) Now, in The Last Lie, White returns to his Alan Gregory series roots with the popular characters and Boulder setting that first launched him onto the bestseller lists and attracted legions of fiercely loyal fans.

Shortly after Alan and Lauren welcome their affluent new neighbors-a legal legend in women's rights law and his beautiful wife-the couple hosts a housewarming party that ends in quiet disaster. One of their guests, a young widow, elects to spend the night after indulging in too much wine, only to wake the next morning with no memory beyond getting ready for bed. Was she drugged? Raped? Lauren, a deputy district attorney, and detective Sam Purdy are both privy to facts they can't share with Alan, but Alan soon discovers that he has a most unusual perspective into what truly happened after the housewarming party. Before Alan can discover all the pieces to the puzzle, an important witness to the events is murdered. Alan fears that other witnesses-people he loves-will be next. Smart, topical, and deftly plotted, The Last Lie delivers the pulse-pounding return of one of contemporary fiction's most enduring heroes.