Tuesday Book Review

Five-star review for Cosega Search by Brandt Legg

 This is my kind of story, despite the otherworldly, spiritualist aspect. Rip Gaines, a well-known and respected archeologist finds an artefact on a dig that seems to be what he’s spent his life looking for. Suddenly, an assortment of groups ranging from the FBI to the Vatican come after him to either possess the find or hide it because of it’s significance. Caught up with him is National Geographic reporter Gale Asher. I wasn’t too pleased that a number of people are killed along the way but that makes the remaining people loyal to Rip more important. Rip and Gale are pursued all the way from Virginia to Taos, New Mexico. It might be because I know the area fairly well, but the scenes at this part of the story were the clearest to me. This is the first in a long series and I’ve already begun to read the second one. I’ve read books by Legg before and always found them fast paced and engaging.

Tuesday Book Review on Wednesday

Four-star review of The Tale Teller by Anne Hillerman

 As Anne Hillerman continues to build on her father’s stories about Joe Leaphorn, Jim Chee and Bernie Manuelito, her ability to intertwine investigations into crimes in the Navajo territory of Arizona and New Mexico continues to improve. Coming out of retirement to investigate the possible theft of part of an anonymous donation to a museum, Joe struggles with his lost command of English after an earlier incident. Meanwhile, Bernie discovers a body near her running trail and Chee must investigate a series of robberies in another part of the nation. The connection of Joe’s case to the Long Walk, a sad episode for Navajos brings in a piece of history that shouldn’t be forgotten. A satisfying mystery read set in an area I know well. 

Tuesday Book Review

 Four-star review of Something Found: A Coin by Troy Aaron Ratliff

 I would have given this one five stars but it ended at a critical point. As far as I can tell, the sequel hasn’t been published yet. Also, a short way in, there’s a large section of info dump about the protagonist’s backstory and what brought him to Key West. Todd Freeman is an artist, dubbed the Selfless Scavenger because he returns many of the items his metal detector uncovers on the Key West beaches to their rightful owners. One day, he finds a strange penny in the sand and thus begins an even stranger journey which really starts late in the story and, presumably, will be continued in the other two books of the series. This was an enjoyable and quick book to read, leaving me wanting more. The writing put me right there with Todd on his drive to Miami, fraught with more adventure than he bargained for.

 

Four-star review for Last Song of the Swans by Jennifer Bohnhoff

 The parallel tales of a girl in Beowulf’s time, Hrunting, and a contemporary high school senior, Helen, was handled so well that I was never confused. The similarities between the tales were surprising, and yet believable. Both girls were outcasts and befriended boys who were considered enemies. Another main theme of the stories was, especially in the Beowulf one, that the facts can be embellished to prove what someone wants to prove. And one final thing that tied the two stories together was that Helen was reading the Beowulf saga for English and working on a paper about it. Her theory in it was similar to what actually happened in Hrunting’s time.

Tuesday book review on Wednesday

Four-star review of Skylar Robbins: The Mystery of the Hidden Jewels: Skylar Robbins Mysteries Book 2 by Carrie Cross

 Shades of Nancy Drew and some of the other mystery series I read as a kid, this one features thirteen-year-old Skylar Robbins. When her parents can afford a larger house, Skylar and her father convince her mother to purchase a one hundred year old four-story mansion on a hill near Santa Monica, California so Skylar can attend Pacific, the same middle school as her BFF dyslexic Alexa. Along with the house comes the mystery of the disappearance of former owner Xandra Collins and her box of valuable jewels. Skylar, who’s determined to start a detective agency as well as to attract the attention of classmate Dustin, sets out to solve the case of the missing jewels following clues Xandra left. Whoever can find the box can keep the jewels inside. 

Tuesday Book Reviews

Four-star review of Hidden in Snow (The Åre Murders Book One) by Viveca Sten translated by Marlaine Delargy

This start to a Swedish murder mystery set in the northern skiing area of the country made me shiver for many reasons. A few of the flawed central characters were well-developed because it was told from multiple POVs. Hanna Ahlander is taking a break from her stressful job working with battered women for the Stockholm police but the young woman who comes to clean at the home where she’s staying, her sister’s place in the mountains, shows signs of being battered. Meanwhile, an eighteen-year-old woman from the area has gone missing after a party and the local police, led by Daniel Lindskog, set out to investigate. As others have noted, there is some strange formatting in a few of the early chapters at least in the Kindle version of the story, which distracted from the multiple plots. Otherwise, this is a solid Nordic noir story. 

Tuesday Book Review

Five-star review of The Case of the Canterfell Codicil (Anty Boisjoly  Mysteries Book One) by PJ Fitzsimmons

This fun quick read features two locked room mysteries and, to solve them, as the POV main character, Anthony Boisjoly, a witty Englishman whose greatest accomplishment was being on the Oxford rowing team. Former teammate Evelyn Fairfax (‘Fiddles’) Canterfell invites Anty to join him at the families manor in Sussex when his uncle jumps from a window of a locked room and that’s just the start of the excitement. Like most amateur detectives, he notices much the police don’t. The setting is very British including the town where the manor is located. I enjoyed this novel enough to look forward to the next one in the series.