Black Sheep

 

By Georgette Heyer

Abigail Wendover had to go out of town for a few weeks and when she returned home to Bath and her sister Selina it was to discover that Selina and Fanny, their young niece of 17, had become enamored of a fortune hunter, Stacy Calverleigh. A handsome and well-spoken man of an ancient British family, Stacy knows how to charm the ladies. And impressionable Fanny and gullible Selina, who is plenty old enough to know better, have fallen for his charms. Fanny has decided that Stacy is the love of her life. But Abigail has been informed of Stacy's true character, that he is a gambler and is known to be nearly bankrupt and has been chasing after every wealthy female that crosses his path. So Abigail is certain his love for Fanny is based upon the knowledge that she will be a wealthy woman when she comes of age.

Stacy Calverleigh is not the only Calverleigh to enter into the Wendover's lives. Stacy's black sheep uncle, Miles Calverleigh, has returned to England after a long absence of nearly twenty years. He was sent to India as a young man in disgrace for running away with another man's fiancée. Now he is home for good and has made the acquaintance of Abigail Wendover and he is smitten. His feelings are returned but he is still looked at as unacceptable due to his past mistakes and to the belief that he is as poor as his nephew Stacy. What no one knows is that Miles made his fortune in India and has come home a very wealthy man.

So Miles is chasing after Abigail but Abigail considers herself an old maid and is more concerned about taking care of her idiot sister Selina and their niece Fanny than she is about her own future. Plus her family is as against any connection with Miles are they are about Fanny's love affair with the disreputable Stacy.

This was a good read. The repartee between Fanny and Miles is some of the funniest that Heyer ever wrote. The plot is kind of lame, with the supposedly intelligent Abigail willing throw her future happiness away for the sake of naïve Fanny and selfish, silly Selina. But Miles pursuit of Abigail makes this one of Heyer's most amusing romances, especially the ending, which is very satisfying.

Here is a review by Austenprose.

The World Gives Way

 

By Marissa Levien

The last hope for humanity. The best and the brightest and, of course, the wealthiest on a massive spaceship headed to a new world and hopefully a new beginning, leaving behind a planet no longer alive.

Myrra Dal is a young woman, a slave on the ship, her life signed away by her ancestors as part of the price for a place onboard and a chance to survive. Myrra works as a servant and nanny to one of wealthiest families on the ship. So why do both her employers, man and wife, commit suicide one day, leaving behind their vast wealth and their baby daughter? The wife, selfish and privileged though she may have been, asks Myrra to take care of the baby, before jumping to her death, informing Myrra that the ship is failing and it will never reach its destination and everything on it is doomed. 

They filled the ship with the best of everything. They even brought on animals of all kinds, a sort of Noah's Ark. They brought their wealth, their gems, their artworks, all in a bid to save it from extinction. But all to no avail. A tragic flaw is causing the ship to slowly break apart and nothing they do has been able to stop its disintegration.

So here is Myrra, with a little girl not her own, and the wealth she looted from her dead bosses, facing the end of humankind and of all the precious lives of the many plants and animals they brought with them. She is one of the few who know the truth. How is she supposed to cope with the loss of hope? How is she supposed to care for the little one left in her charge who is equally doomed? 

This story is so depressing. If you weren't depressed before reading it, you probably will be after doing so. In the beginning of the story, there is the hope that something will be done to save at least some. But by the middle of the it, the author makes it quite clear that no one will survive. At about page 200 she tells us of "the deafening crashing noise that comes before everyone dies." At that point all hope for the reader of a happy ending is gone. The last half is about Myrra and those around her facing the facts and dealing with their eminent death.

On the plus side, the author really knows how to tell a riveting story that flows so smoothly and logically, it was a pleasure to read even though it left me in sorrow at the ending.  

Here is a review by Kirkus Reviews.

Between the Bridge and the River

 

By Craig Ferguson

George and Fraser are at turning points in their lives. Fraser is a disgraced TV preacher in Scotland and George, also Scottish, has been told he has incurable cancer. George abandons his wife and teen daughter without a word and travels to Paris. Fraser gets invited to an evangelical convention in the US and travels to Florida before attending the convention in Alabama. 

When in Paris, George meets the love of his life, Claudette, a woman of grace, charm, intelligence and great beauty. She hasn't had much luck with men, though. They all tend to die on her. And now she has George and he has been honest with her that he abandoned his family and is dying. But that doesn't phase Claudette. She is determined George will not die on her like all her past lovers have.

Meanwhile, in Florida, Fraser gets mugged and left for dead in an alley. Amazingly, his muggers return for him and load him into their vehicle, promising to take him to his meeting in Alabama. Along the way, they collect a motley crew of followers, Fraser now being regarded as some kind of prophet or visionary after having had an epiphany while unconscious in the alley, visions which included George, whom he knew as a schoolmate back in Scotland, and the dead psychiatrist Carl Jung, who visits Fraser quite often in Fraser's dreams.

This is a whacky, fun read with lots of digressions and general weirdness. I enjoyed immensely. 

Here is a review by Kirkus Reviews.

Rabbits

 

By Terry Miles

When K was a young teen, he was in a crash that killed one friend and injured himself and the friend's twin sister. The crash happened because the three teens were playing a game known as Rabbits. Rabbits is kind of a treasure hunt, where you get clues and follow them to the prize, said to be wealth beyond belief and your heart's desire. Following the instructions they had figured out, the three were driving down a road in the dark, with their vehicle's headlights turned off as instructed in the clues they deciphered. Not surprisingly, they crashed.

Not long after, a few years maybe, K lost both his parents in a boating accident. This left him alone in the world with no one in his life except a few close friends. Living in Seattle, his closest friend is Baron. His next closest is Chloe, who works at an arcade where K give occasional lectures on the game, Rabbits, helped out by his friend Baron. 

One day a man who showed up at his lecture asked to speak to him afterward. They went to a nearby cafe and the man, Scarpio, asked K about Rabbits. According to Scarpio, the game is messed up and this could lead to serious trouble. They make an agreement to met the next day, but Scarpio never shows up. 

This starts K and Chloe on an adventure to find out what is wrong with Rabbits even though they get warned repeatedly not to have anything to do with the game, as it seems many Rabbits players have died pursuing its clues, just like his friend did when K was a teenager.

This was an OK read if a bit boring. It takes K and Chloe several chapters to finally leave their homes or the arcade where Chloe works and get out in the city to follow the clues, all of which are conveniently located in the area around Seattle. Then it turns out that the threat to the Rabbits game and to the world is being caused by one nutty genius who is on a quest to bring his dead family back to life. Bit underwhelming, in my opinion.

See also the review by Publishers Weekly.

Arabella

 

By Georgette Heyer

A Regency Romance

Arabella is a lovely young girl, eager to make her debut in polite society. She has three sisters younger than she is and her family is hoping Arabella finds a husband who is well enough off the help the three younger girls find suitable husbands when the time comes. Fortunately, Arabella has a godmother who lives in London and who is happy to sponsor her into society.

So Arabella sets out on her journey from her home in northern England to London, a journey that will take several days. She is being accompanied by a respectable older woman who is also traveling to London. But the carriage they are traveling in suffers a breakdown and Arabella and her companion take refuge at a nearby house, seeking shelter from the rain. 

The house belongs to Robert Beaumaris, a man of great wealth and a leader of London society. He is there with a friend of his and is inclined to send the two women packing but his friend protests. So the housekeeper takes them to freshen up and upon their return, Arabella overhears Robert telling his friend that he thinks Arabella's accident was just an attempt to attract his attention: "My dear Charles, when you have been hunted by every trick known to the ingenuity of the female mind, you may more readily partake of my sentiments upon this occasion! I have had beauties hopeful of wedding my fortune swoon in my arms, break their bootlaces outside my London house, sprain their ankles when my arm is there to support them, and now it appears that I am to be pursued even into Leicestershire! An accident to her coach! Famous! What a greenhorn she must believe me to be!"

Which is more than just a tiny bit conceited of him. Thing is, Arabella has no clue who he is. But when she hears this, it makes her very angry. So when she and her companion rejoin the two men, she pretends she is a very wealthy heiress who is tired of being pursued by men more interested in her wealth than in her. Then she asks the men not to reveal to London society that she is vastly wealthy and they promise to keep it a secret. 

Robert sees through her lie and is amused by it. Just to stir things up, he encourages his friend Charles to spread the rumor of her wealth to society. So Arabella finds herself feted and courted when she settles in London in her godmother's house and is upset to discover it is because people think she is rich. 

Robert's intention was to cause mischief when he encouraged Charles to reveal her secret. But as he becomes more acquainted with Arabella, he starts to understand she is not like most society maidens. Arabella is a very compassionate girl and she rescues, in short order, first a small abused boy and then a small abused dog. Both of whom end up in Robert's care. Obviously, Robert has fallen in love with her, but consciousness of the lie she told him is preventing her from returning his affection. Then her hapless younger brother arrives in London and proceeds to get himself into serious trouble, it seems to her only Robert has the wherewithal to rescue the young man. But how could Robert ever believe her love is real if she marries him only to get access to his money to save her brother from his folly?

This is a charming story. Arabella and Robert are both a bit impetuous. Arabella flies to the rescue of suffering creatures and Robert enjoys wrapping society around his little finger with his little jokes, like wearing a dandelion in his buttonhole for several days, getting all the society swells searching for dandelions to wear in their buttonholes too. Whereupon Robert stopped wearing them. He's certainly a bit more fun than Arabella is and seems to enjoy that the joke is on him too. 

Check out this review by  Austenprose too.

The Guncle

 

By Steve Rowley

Patrick is living quietly in Palm Springs. A well-known TV actor, he pretty much shut down after his partner, Joe, was killed in a car crash. Even though it's been several years, Patrick is still devastated by the loss. 

Tragedy hits his family again with the death of his brother's wife, Sara, who was also Patrick's great friend. Sara's death was not unexpected, as she had been fighting cancer for quite a while. But what is unexpected is that her husband, Patrick's brother, became addicted to Sara's pain medication and has now checked himself into rehab and has asked Patrick to take care of their two young children, Maisie and Grant. 

Taking care of children is new to Patrick. But he does his best and takes the kids to live with him in Palm Springs. Together, they learn to deal with grief and to enjoy the good things life has given them, especially each other.

This is a story about a man and the two kids he is caring for learning to cope with grief. It is told with a lot of humor and compassion and is quite enjoyable. It's sure to appeal to those who like stories about families and family dynamics. It's pretty amusing, despite the depressing premise (dead wife, dead friend, dead lover, addict brother, bereaved children).

See also a review by Kirkus Reviews.

The Best Bad Things

 

By Katrina Carrasco

It's not that opium is illegal in 1880s in the  US. It's that criminals don't want to pay the hefty import duty on the drug. So the illegal drug business is big money for importers on America's West Coast. One of these smuggling hot spots is Port Townsend in the territory of Washington. 

Alma Rosales was a Pinkerton agent who used to investigate crimes like smuggling. But she made some bad mistakes and ended up unemployed. And that is when she met Delphine, the woman she loves and who led Alma into a life of crime.

Alma was a tomboy. She even learned to box and likes to dress as a man. She comes to Port Townsend, summoned by Delphine, who runs a criminal enterprise there, fueled mainly by smuggling opium. Her front man in Port Townsend is Nathaniel Wheeler and she wants Alma to size him up and to discover why so much of their illegal opium is going missing. It must be someone inside the operation, but Delphine doesn't know if Wheeler is part of the thefts. 

Alma first meets Wheeler dressed as herself but then enters his organization disguised as her male alter ego, Jack Camp, a small, feisty man who fears no one. Wheeler is fooled at first but quickly catches on and acts disgusted by her charade. Alma senses he is turned on by her crossdressing act and she likes that. She is very attracted to Wheeler, but her infatuation with Delphine rules her life.

These are not nice people. Unreliable, double dealing, out to get what they can, violent and unpredictable, including Alma. She doesn't seem to have any qualms about switching from law enforcement to law breaker. She also doesn't seem to have any qualms about murder. She is not a good person.

I had no sympathy for anyone in this book. They are scum. It hard to like a book where you hate all the characters. And I didn't like this book. But I paid for it, so I finished reading it. It is unforgettable, true, but like a disaster is unforgettable.

See also, a review by Publishers Weekly.

Frederica

 

By Georgette Heyer

Frederica considers herself past the age of worrying about finding a husband (she's 24). But she does have a younger sister who is outstandingly beautiful. Here is how one of the characters describes Charis: "I have never before seen, or—or even dreamed of such a lovely girl! Her eyes! So big, and of such a blue! Her hair! like shining gold! The prettiest little nose, too, and her complexion quite exquisite! And when she spoke—" 

Frederica has no ambition for herself, but she is aching to find a worthy match for the gorgeous but dim Charis. The only way to find Charis the match that Frederica feels she deserves is to bring her to London to meet the wealthy bachelors of the British nobility. Their father used to talk about a distant cousin of his who he greatly admired, a man of wealth and style, the Marquis of Alverstoke. So Frederica gets the bright idea of enlisting Alverstoke's help in launching Charis on London high society even though she has never met the man before.

Alverstoke is a selfish man, accustomed to thinking about no one but himself. His sisters have tried to talk him into giving a ball for two of their daughters and he has definitely indicated that he is unwilling. But then he meets Frederica and sees the beauteous Charis and changes his mind. He declares he will give the ball but wants his sister to sponsor Charis into society. The rub is that the sister's daughter is a plain Jane and that the sister has no idea what Charis looks like. So it's Averstoke plot to get back at his sister who is really upset when she sees how beautiful and charming Charis is. 

But once Alverstoke holds the ball, he can't seem to disentangle himself from Frederica and her siblings. Between rescuing the youngest boy's mongrel dog after it got in trouble for chasing cows and rescuing the teenage boy after he crashed his bicycle-like vehicle and then again rescuing the youngster when he takes a serious fall and develops a fever, he seems to be coming more and more involved in caring for Frederica's family and ultimately caring, not for the lovely Charis, but for her capable, practical and "over-the-hill" older sister, Frederica.

This was a pretty good story, if a bit long. Not one of my favorite Heyer novels, but still a fun and entertaining read. 

Check out this review by Dear Author.

Nine Nasty Words

 

By John McWhorter

English in the Gutter: Then, Now and Forever

John McWhorter is a linguist and professor at Columbia University and has published several books, including several on language. Nine Nasty Words looks at the origin and evolution of nine common profane words.

From inside the book jacket: "McWhorter examines the realms of language that are considered shocking and taboo in order to understand what imbues curse words with such power—and why we love them so much."

These are the words he examines, censored;

• Damn & Hell
• F*ck
• Sh*t
• Ass & Assh*le
• D*ck & C*nt
• N-word
• F*ggot
• Bitch
• Motherf*cker

This isn't a long read but it is really interesting, especially to see how words change over time and how we react to them changes over time too. It's been something that has puzzled me: why is "sh*t" censored but "poop" is acceptable? They both mean the same thing: feces. Why is it ok to say "frick" but not "f*ck"? Everyone knows when you say frick, you are really mean f*uck. Asshat is acceptable but assh*le is censored on some social media. Hat is OK but hole is too much? McWhorter does explain how words gain emotional attachments that they never had in the past. An informative and enjoyable read.

Review from Publishers Weekly.

Devil's Cub

 

By Georgette Heyer

Dominic Alastair, Lord Vidal, is a man of few scruples, impetuous and passionate. Although only a young man, he has a reputation for being dangerous and unpredictable. But he comes from wealth and privilege and much is forgiven the children of the nobility. 

This time, maybe, he has gone too far and shot a man who accused him of cheating at dice. So Vidal has been informed by his father, the Duke, that he needs to leave the country to escape facing trial. Vidal is willing to leave England for France but he has no intention of going alone. 

He has been wooing a beautiful young but silly girl. His intentions towards Sophia are strictly dishonorable. Sophia and her mother believe they can ensnare Vidal into marriage but Sophia's older sister Mary thinks otherwise. She is certain Sophia will be seduced and abandoned when Vidal tires of her. So when Mary receives a message from Vidal intended for Sophia directing Sophia to come away with him, she decides to intervene. Disguising herself, she meets with Vidal and climbs into his chaise and lets him carry her away to an unknown destination, letting him believe she is Sophia. Her hope is that when he discovers the deception, she will try to make him think that Sophia was in on it in order to make him look like a fool and thus cause him to wash his hands of Sophia. 

When Mary reveals herself to Vidal and laughs at him, he becomes enraged and forces her to come with him to France. Once they reach France, things become more complicated, as Vidal begins to understand that Mary was trying to save her sister from disgrace and that he has carried away a respectable maiden and is now responsible for ruining her good reputation. Upon realizing this, he steps up and offers to marry her. But Mary is a bit contrary and decides that she is not interested in a loveless marriage. Or rather a marriage where one loves and the other does not because Mary realizes she has fallen in love with her captor, Lord Vidal, the Devil's Cub.

This book is the sequel to These Old Shades, the story of the Duke and Leonie, the aristocrat and the guttersnipe, Vidal's parents to be.

This story doesn't have the depth or seriousness of the first book, and in many ways, that makes it a more enjoyable read. It is more of a romp, with lots of complications and true love thwarted, with the Duke stepping in at the end to set everything right, in his usual omniscient fashion that we are introduced to in the first book. 

It's not one of my favorite books of Heyer's, but it is still a good read. 

Review by Austenprose.

I Am Number Four

 

By Pittacus Lore

When their planet was attacked, the people loaded up the best and brightest of their children and sent them to Earth to hide among the populace until the kids grew up and gained their magical powers. But the enemy tracked them to Earth and is hunting the kids down, already killing numbers one through three.

Fearing for his safety, number Four's guardian moves himself and Four, changing their names and creating new IDs for them. Four is fifteen years old and just starting to develop his powers. Newly arrived in a small rural town in Ohio, Four is making himself at home in his new high school, making friends and enemies: he runs afoul of a jock/bully when the boy's old girl friend takes a shine to Four and the jock gets jealous.

Four's guardian warns him not to get involved with the local girls. But Four falls hard for ex-cheerleader Sarah. So when the guardian begins to fear the enemy is nearby and wants to leave the area, Four refuses. He has become tired of their rootless existence and he is falling in love with Sarah. 

But the enemy is implacable and dogged in their determination to track down the surviving alien kids and destroying them all. And once they achieve that, their next victims will be the people of Earth. 

This was a fairly good read, a bit juvenile and predictable, but still quite moving and enjoyable. It is the first entry in a series of books. The author is not Pittacus Lore as the books are written by James Frey, Jobie Hughes, and Greg Boose. Pittacus Lore is actually a character in the novels.

Mistborn

 

By Brandon Sanderson

A cursed world, plagued by volcanic ash fall and nights of mist and strangeness in the mist, so much so that people are fearful of being out in the mist, and where there are only two classes of people, the ruling class and the slave class.

Vin is a teenage thief, the daughter of a slave and of a lord. The law requires that children born of such a union must be destroyed. But Vin and her brother Reen survived and lived by their wits, until the day Reen left his sister behind to survive on her own, a betrayal that has left Vin suspicious and untrusting of everyone. 

The some in the ruling class have mystical powers, fueled by the metal and metallic compounds they consume. Vin also has these powers, although she doesn't really understand what she is doing and she doesn't know about using metals to enhance her innate abilities. That is until she became acquainted with Kelsier, a man with a plan to overthrown the ruling class and its leader, the Lord Ruler. But the Lord Ruler is more like a god than a human man, believed to be immortal. 

Kelsier sees the potential in Vin and brings her into his crew of rebels, teaching her how to use the metals to achieve amazing feats beyond ordinary human powers. He eventually places her in the house of fake lord who works for him, introduced into the nobility as the young daughter of a country lord. Her job is to spy on the noble houses and gather intelligence to be used against them. 

Vin becomes smitten by a bookish young lord, Elend Venture. Elend is the heir of House Venture, the most powerful house in the capitol city. But Vin is a thief and criminal and fake who is supposed to be helping Kelsier  bring down the ruling class, including House Venture and Elend Venture. According to Kelsier, they are all corrupt and deserve to be destroyed. But Vin sees goodness in Elend and argues with Kelsier that not all of the nobility deserve death.

Then an important battle goes against the troops Kelsier has gathered and they are defeated. Which drives Kelsier into a face to face confrontation with the Lord Ruler, who is revealed to be as indestructible as claimed and Kelsier dies. Which causes Vin to attempt to get into the Lord Ruler's citadel to discover the secret of his immortality.

This was an OK story, although way too long. It is the first book in a trilogy, and, looking ahead I found out that the author has a habit of killing off the heroes of his stories. We already know Kelsier dies, Elend dies later on as does Vin. After finding that out, I lost interest in reading the other two books in the trilogy. Life is sad enough in reality without it being miserable in fiction too. Also, like I mentioned, the book is too long. I frankly skipped through a lot of its over 600 pages.

Review by Erik Kain in Forbes.

Sprig Muslim

By Georgette Heyer

A Regency Romance

Sir Gareth has given up on romantic love. His first love died tragically several years ago and Gary has never recovered from that loss. But he knows his duty to his family and has decided to ask Lady Hester to be his wife. Lady Hester is an old friend and Gary thinks she will make him a good wife who won't expect passion in their marriage. Little does he know.

On his way to propose, he comes across a maiden in distress. Amanda "Smith" is obviously a runaway who is in trouble. Gary befriends her and she tells him her story. Just sixteen, Amanda, only grandchild of a doting grandparent, is determined to wed Captain Neil, whom she has known all her life. He is home from the war to recover from a wound. And before he has to return to duty, Amanda wants to be married to him and accompany him overseas. Of course, the grandfather is opposed to this plan, believing she is much too young for such a serious step. Also, he wants his beautiful granddaughter to make a "better" match than a military man. 

So Amanda ran away, planning to get some sort of work to support herself. Her first attempt fell through when she showed up to be a governess. The mom immediately knew Amanda was a phony and sent her packing. When Gary found her, she was trying to get a job at an inn and was being told off by the landlord who thought she was a not a nice girl. 

Gary, seeing that Amanda is an innocent with no experience of the real world, offers her a ride, letting her think he will take to the next town where she hopes to get a job at another inn. But what he really does is take her to the woman he intends to propose marriage to, Lady Hester. Which makes Amanda enraged and determined to get away and carry on with her plan of forcing her grandpa into agreeing to her wedding her Neil.

Hester's family doesn't take too well to Amanda, even though Hester welcomes her and even loans Amanda a gown to wear to dinner. Too bad for Gary, though, for when Hester sees how he can't seem to take his eyes off of Amanda, she rejects his offer of marriage. Then Hester's Uncle Fabian, who is also visiting Hester's family's home, thinks Amanda is Gary's mistress and when she confides in him that Gary is holding her against her will, he offers her a ride and they sneak away early in the morning. Fabian is not planning to help her, he thinks she is an easy woman and he wants to seduce her.

When Gary discovers the two are gone, he sets off after them, to rescue Amanda from the licentious Fabian and bring her home safely to her grandpa. But Amanda is, to quote Gary, "the naughtiest little wretch I ever encountered." Gary doesn't really understand the lengths Amanda will go to get her way and will embroil Gary, a chance-met schoolboy named Hildebrand and Hester in her schemes.

This is one of my favorite Heyer novels. I think I first read this story when I was in junior high school. I have reread several times over the years.  I enjoyed it nearly as much as this time as I did the first time I read it. It's sweet and amusing and so satisfying. I just like everything about it. It's perfect!

Review by Laura A. Wallace at Austenprose.

Native Tongue

 

By Carl Hiaasen

The Amazing Kingdom of Thrills has made Francis X. Kingsbury of South Florida a wealthy man. But Francis, or Frankie the Ferret as he is known to some folks up north who would really like to track him down, has dreams of rivaling the big Florida amusement parks. So he is building a golf course next to his park. Never mind that he is tearing down critical habitat and uprooting native trees and plants. Never mind that his golf course plans to dump waste water near one of the few coral reefs in the area.

Still there are a few people who would like to keep a least a bit of Florida environmentally healthy. One of them is Skink, the ex-governor and current wild man who lives in the back country and eats road kill. The other is Joe Winder who likes fishing off that reef that Frankie's development is threatening and who happens to work for Frankie in the park's public relations department. 

When a park employee turns up dead under suspicious circumstances, Winder senses a cover-up that centers around the park's star exhibit: the last two living Blue-Tongued Mango Voles, who are in a captive breeding program intended to bring the voles back from the brink of extinction, similar to the Dusky Seaside Sparrow program at Disney World: Washington Post article.. (Frankie has a bug in his ear about Disney World and fancies himself a rival to the giant park in Orlando.) Unfortunately the two voles get kidnapped by an environmental group who wants to use them to blackmail Frankie into halting the golf course development. 

Another entry in Hiaasen's Florida saga, this one seemed more cohesive to me than some of his other novels. The plot is less convoluted and doesn't seem to have so many sidetracks that can make the reader feel a bit lost at times. Skink, of course, makes his usual appearance, acting in this story as a kind of deus ex machina, enacting justice on baddies and moving behind the scenes. 

I liked this story a lot. It was not so complex as some of his stories can be and everything wraps up very nicely. He even includes a fun afterword where we get to see how the various characters (who are not killed off) end up. Very enjoyable story.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

Venetia

By Georgette Heyer

Oh, the Wicked Baron: byword of the neighborhood. Subject of scandal and gossip and warnings to the local young ladies to take care when he is at home. Fortunately, Lord Damerel is rarely at home. So when Venetia decides to gather some berries, she is not worried about any unwanted encounters is she trespasses on Damerel's land. Dressed in a shabby old gown and wearing a sun sunbonnet and carrying her basket, accompanied only by her pet dog, Flurry, it not surprising that the Wicked Baron mistakes her for a farmer's daughter and not a member of the English nobility. And so he takes liberties with her that he might not, maybe, take with a woman of his own social class. Not to worry though, Flurry flies to her rescue only to be commanded to sit by Damerel. But when Venetia quotes Shakespeare to him, Damerel quickly realizes he has made a mistake: "Who are you? I took you for a village maiden—probably one of my tenants." Venetia responds, "Did you indeed? Well, if that is the way you mean to conduct yourself amongst the village maidens you won't win much liking here!" To which he fires back, "No, no, the danger is that I might win too much!" And so begins the courtship of two of Heyer's most appealing characters, the black sheep Damerel and the innocent but bold maiden Venetia. 

I really like this story. It is not a lively read and there are no thrilling scenes, no runaway romances, no duels at dawn. Just two adults falling in love, despite the obstacles Venetia's well-meaning friends and family members put the way.

Review by Austenprose.

A Civil Contract

 

By Georgette Heyer

When Adam Deveril's father dies unexpectedly, he finds out that his father, Lord Lynton, has died in debt with almost all the family lands mortgaged.  All his advisors feel Adam will have to sell off much of the family land, including Fontley, their ancient family estate, to pay off all the debts. 

But a close family friend suggests an alternative. Marry a wealthy woman! The friend, Lord Oversley, knows just the woman too. Jenny Chawleigh is the only child of an extremely rich businessman. Jonathan Chawleigh wants the best for his daughter, and to him, that means a husband who is a member of the English nobility. And although he was hoping for an Earl, he might be willing to settle for a Viscount, which is Adam's title now that his father is gone. If he approves of Adam, naturally. An added bonus: Jenny actually knows and admires Adam already, having met him, briefly, at the Overley's. She and the Overley's daughter Julia went to the same school and have a casual acquaintance. 

Marry Jenny, and her father would save Adam from ruin and save the family estate and enable Adam to provide for his teenage sister, Lydia. But the main problem is that Adam is deeply in love with Julia Oversley and has already asked her to be his wife. Given his current financial state, Julia's parents are refusing to permit the marriage to proceed. 

Despite his misgivings and his love for Julia, Adam allows himself to be persuaded to propose to Jenny. Jenny accepts his offer and Adam believes Jenny is just as ambitious as her overbearing father is. What no one knows is that Jenny fell head over heels for Adam those few times she met him at the Overley's. And that she isn't ambitious or a social climber. She marries him because it is the only way she can help him. She also marries him knowing that his heart belongs to Julia but she is willing to live with that knowledge. 

Adam is a gentleman, but that is no guarantee that he will be a good husband. And poor Jenny can't hold a candle to the lovely Julia. The only thing she brings to this marriage is her father's vast wealth and her hidden love for Adam. 

This was an enjoyable read. It is a quiet story of two people learning to care for each other despite all the differences in their backgrounds. There is not a lot of excitement, no dramatic love scenes, just Adam learning to respect and understand his prosaic little bourgeois wife. And Jenny learning to adapt to the ways of her spouse and to the ways of the nobility in 19th century England.

Review by Sunita on Dear Author.

The Great Time Machine Hoax

 

By Keith Laumer

Chester W. Chester IV has inherited an estate which also contains a powerful experimental computer. Problem is that the the estate is burdened with a massive amount of tax debt and is due to be liquidated. So before that happens, Chester and his friend Case are taking a look around the place. They are especially interested in the computer.

It is a very powerful computer and has been quietly growing more powerful, as Chester and Case soon discover. It has spread itself wide and far, on the sly, expanding its hardware and manipulating society for its own benefit. Case gets the idea that they could use the computer to create realistic 3D vignettes that the public would be willing to pay good money to see. But these two goofs don't understand the power of this computer, because instead of creating the vignettes, it actually creates reality. Which becomes almost fatally clear when it conjures a scene of primitive humans who then rush out of the viewing area and capture the two men and Genie who is the human computer interface that the computer created from a drop of Case's blood.

Chester and Genie are locked away in cages and Case is forced to fight one of the primitives, a huge giant of a man.  While Case is taking on the giant, Chester and Genie manage to get free and run back to the arrival base and yell for the computer to bring them home, fully intending to return to get Case. But when they return it is not the same place as it was when they left. It's similar but slightly different. Genie gets captured by the police and locked up and Chester returns to base but still can't get back to the where he started. Now he is in a new location and the locals have lots of plans for him and they won't let him have access to the arrival base unless he agrees to do as they wish. Meanwhile Genie is stuck in jail and who knows what is happening to Case, battling the giant, primitive man.

This is fun and exciting story and very entertaining. Laumer is at his best when he is telling a humorous and action-packed tale. I suppose he is best known for his Retief stories. This story is similar to the Retief stories, just without Retief. There's dumb cops, mean thugs and self-involved bureaucratic types just like in the Retief stories.

I've read this story three or four times over the years and enjoyed every time.

Day by Night

 

By Tanith Lee

On a planet where one side is in eternal darkness and the other in eternal day, two societies built on similar patterns are unaware of the other society's existence. In both, the struggling masses are ruled by a technological elite who call themselves princes and princesses. Life for the masses is brutal, harsh and deprived. Life for the elites is luxurious beyond belief.

Princess Vel and her brother Prince Velday are young elites, living in ease and excess on the lightside of the planet. But a friend of theirs, Prince Ceedres, is living in poverty due to the failure of his estate, getting by sponging off his friends. Ceedres wants to marry Vel and thus gain access to her wealth and her estates. Even though Vel actually does loves Ceedres, she also knows he doesn't love her, he wants her wealth. When she refuses to marry him, he frames her for attempted murder of himself, and as punishment, Vel's portion of the family estate is awarded to Ceedres and she is sent to live among the workers.

Meanwhile, on the darkside, is Princess Vitra and her brother Prince Vyen. Vitra is creating the story of Vel, Ceedres and Velday, who she believes are characters she has created. She doesn't know the lightsiders are real and not made from her imagination. Vitra, Vyen and Prince Casrus have a similar story to that of the lightside characters, with slight differences. Vitra and Vyen are the ones whose estate has failed and they have hatched a plot to seize Casrus' property by framing him for assaulting Vitra. The plot works and Casrus is exiled to hard labor with the rest of the working poor and Vitra and Vyen are awarded his estate for their own.

How is it that two separate sets of young elites on opposites sides of the world are living such similar lives? It's like some godlike force is playing with their lives, letting the evil ones prosper and sending the innocent to perdition. But why?

This was quite a good story. Especially once Vel and Casrus are cast out of their comfortable lives of wealth and privilege and forced to confront the reality of the struggle of the working people. The different ways they cope with their circumstances is very gripping. However, the ending is rather lame, I think: deus ex machina. 

Review by James Nicoll Reviews.

The Piano Teacher

 

By Janice Y. K. Lee

The story of two young women in Hong Kong, living ten years apart, Trudy in 1941 and Claire in 1952.

Claire is a young newlywed English woman who has come to Hong Kong with her husband, Martin. Being a British colony, there are plenty of British people to socialize with. But Claire feels a bit isolated and when she is offered a job teaching piano to a wealthy local couple's child, she accepts it. It's not that she needs the money, but it just gives her something to do. The couple, Victor and Melody Chen and their daughter Locket, are Chinese but sophisticated and worldly. Their chauffeur is an Englishman, Will Truesdale, which is very unusual at the time for a British person to work as a servant for Chinese family. Claire becomes fascinated by Will, who is quite a bit older than she is and lets him make her his mistress.

Flashback to 1941 and Trudy Liang. Trudy is a captivating and vital woman of mixed heritage, part European and part Chinese. She is the only child of a wealthy Chinese businessman. Her father doesn't live in Hong Kong and Trudy is left to her own devices. She takes up with Will Truesdale and they become lovers. But this is 1941 and the Japanese are about to embark on a quest for Asian domination which will lead them to bomb Pearl Harbor and set off World War II. One of the casualties of their egomania will be the British colony of Hong Kong. By January of 1942, Hong Kong is under Japanese control and, typical of their conduct throughout the war, their are cruel, vicious and inhumane. Trudy becomes a liason between the Japanese and the colony and the unwilling mistress of a Japanese VIP, Otsubo. Will Truesdale ends up in a prison compound with many other non-Chinese, including a British man who is in possession of some knowledge the Japanese want, the location of the Crown Collection. This is a collection of Chinese artifacts the British have acquired and is extremely valuable and was stashed away when it became obvious that Hong Kong was in danger.

The connection between Claire and Trudy is the man, Will, who they both loved but whose love did not benefit either of them.

I enjoyed this story, especially as it informed me about a subject I had never given any thought to: the fate of Hong Kong in World War II.

The story of Trudy is certainly the most captivating part of the novel. I don't even really understand why the story of Claire was included except perhaps as a vehicle for exposing the misdeeds of the characters during the Japanese occupation. So even though Claire seems kind of pointless, it was a really good read.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

The Green Brain

 

By Frank Herbert

What if you could get rid of all the nasty bugs and replace them with "better" bugs? That is the idea behind The Green Brain. 

So the Chinese are the first to embrace the idea and are eager to spread the effort to the rest of the world. But what they are not revealing is that their effort to rid China of "bad" bugs and replace them with modified bees has resulted in massive crop failures. 

So Brazil has been implementing the Chinese plan and wholesale extermination of insects has been undertaken. But the insects seem to be fighting back. Deep in the jungle, the insects have created a brain, a brain to guide them in their fight to survive against the poison onslaught from the human world. 

A group of investigators enter the jungle trying to track reports of giant insects and of organized attacks by insects. But it doesn't go well for them at all. Almost everyone at their camp gets killed when the insects launch an attack against the camp. Three of them manage to get to an amphibious vehicle and land it in a river they hope will get them back closer to civilization. The vehicle was seriously damaged in the insect attack and is nearly defunct. The three people have to cope with the muggy heat, the lack of food, the dangers of the river and continuing attacks by the organized insects. But all the insects want is to bring the people to the green brain so it can try to talk sense to the humans, that their wholesale insect slaughter is endangering all life on the planet.

This book dates from the 1960s. Hopefully we now know that insects are vital to the ecology of the planet and an attempt to exterminate them all is just foolishness. So the whole premise of the book is rather silly. But besides that, most of the story is concerned with the three survivors traveling down the river and that part of the story was boring. So all in all, not a great read.

Catseye

 

By Andre Norton

Troy Horan is a war refugee. His family was evacuated from their home planet to another planet and never were able to return home. Now Troy is alone, everyone else in his family died in an epidemic that swept the ghetto, called the Dipple, were they all lived. Troy is just a teenager and every day he goes to the labor center in the hopes of snagging a job as a laborer. This day he gets a job working for a pet store.

He feels lucky to get this job and tries to do his best. But something fishy is going on at the pet store and it seems to center around the five animals from Terra (Earth): two house cats, two foxes, and a kinkajou. Troy discovers that the animals are telepathic and that he can communicate mentally with them. He feels connected to the five creatures. 

One terrible night, Troy, returning to the pet shop, finds a door that should be locked isn't. Entering the premises, he also finds the door to the owner's apartment open and his boss is inside and dead. He also finds the five Terran animals on the loose. But then Troy is found with the dead man by one of the employees who jumps to the conclusion that Troy killed him. Troy flees, accompanied by the animals. They escape in a vehicle. 

But where can they go where they will be safe? Troy thinks of one place, the Wild. On this planet, much of it is preserved in its natural state where no cities or roads exist. This might give Troy and the animals a chance to survive. But instead the vehicle crashes in a forbidden zone, Ruhkarv. Ruhkarv is an ancient ruin, mostly underground with a very bad reputation. A few years before, an exploration party there went insane and killed each other and themselves. Since then, the place has been sealed off by force fields. But when Troy's stolen vehicle went down, it skipped over the force field and landed inside the boundaries of Ruhkarv. Now he and his five animal companions are stuck in a frightening and puzzling alien underground city and are being pursued by the authorities, by the local forest rangers and by the dead man's henchmen.  

I first read this book a long time ago, when I was just a kid. I remember liking it a lot them. But the only thing I really remembered about the story was the time the main character spent in the underground city. So reading decades later was almost like reading it for the first time. It was a pretty good read but I think I liked it better when I was young.

April Lady

 

By Georgette Heyer

Nell is the beatiful young wife of one of the wealthiest lords in Regency England. Giles is quite a bit older than Nell, who is still in her teens. Nell's family is not well off and she has been spending the generous allowance that Giles gives her a bit too freely. But that is not the reason why she can't pay her bills. She can't pay her bill because she has been giving a lot of money to her brother, Dysart, who, like their father, is a gambler and, like their father, not lucky. 

It's not surprising that Giles might think that Nell married him because of his wealth. How else to explain her spendthrift ways and her standoffishness? Giles knows she gives money to her improvident brother and he has laid down the law forbidding her to continue to do so. What Giles doesn't know is Nell's mother has explained to her that men of their class often take mistresses and that Nell mustn't be a clingy, emotional wife and not take offense if Giles strays. Plus Giles' little sister artlessly informed Nell that Nell was much prettier than Giles' mistress. What Giles also doesn't know is that Nell loves him very much and is distant because she believes that is what is expected of a Society wife.

So when Nell discovers a large bill she forgot she owes, she feels she cannot tell Giles about it because it will only confirm his suspicion that she married him for his money. Thus she launches on a frantic effort to raise the money on her own with the help of her gambler brother Giles and hindered by Giles' little sister, Letty, who is busy hatching plots of her own.

I first read this book decades ago and loved it from the first. I have reread it many times and enjoyed it each time. But this is the last time. It is time to pass on my copy to another reader who enjoys the novels of Georgette Heyer.

Review by She Reads Novels.

Beauvallet

 

By Georgette Heyer

Nick Beauvallet is the scrouge of Spanish shipping during the days of Queen Elizabeth I. A man of daring whose motto is Reck Not, the Spanish fear him as a witch. How else to explain Nick's extraordinary luck? 

Now Nick is going to test his luck to the utmost. He dares to sneak into Spain itself to find the woman he has fallen in love with, Dominica. A beautiful maiden, Nick captured her when he destroyed the Spanish galleon she was traveling on from the Spanish colonies in the New World to her home in Spain. 

Dominica at first resisted her attraction to Nick but, when it became clear he was a man of honor and not the brutal pirate the Spanish believed him to be, she admitted she returned his feelings. As a man of honor, Nick returned Dominica and her ailing father to Spain under cover of night and promised he would return and claim her to be his bride. But if the Spanish capture him, it will certainly mean torture and death at the stake. But Reck Not, Nick dares all.

I first read this story a long time ago. I wasn't that impressed with at the time. I suppose I was expecting something along the lines of Heyer's Regency Romances. This is not that kind of romance. But this time, I quite enjoyed this romp of a novel. Nick Beauvallet is definitely the star of this story and his love interest is third place at best, the second place is held by his charming and capable manservant, Joshua Dimmock, with his fabulous mustachios that he willingly sacrifices to help Nick escape his Spanish captors. 

Review by She Reads Books.

The Fly on rhe Wall

 

By Tony Hillerman

John Cotton is a political reporter for a newspaper in a large Midwestern city. He works out of the statehouse along with several other reporters from various other media outlets. 

It's election season and the governor is running for reelection. Roark seems like a competent and honest politician but he is facing a challenge within his party by Senator Clark, who has his eye on the governorship. Any scandal within state government would be a black eye for Roark and give Clark a chance to  become the nominee instead. 

One evening, while Cotton is finishing up work in the capitol press room, another reporter comes in and claims to be working on a really big story. The reporter, McDaniels, is drunk and tosses his steno pad carelessly down on his desk and leaves the press room. But McDaniels shortly ends up dead, of an apparent accident, tumbling over a railing and falling to his death.

Cotton is curious about the big story McDaniels was working on and finds the steno pad which had fallen down between the McDaniels' desk and the wall. Reading the man's cryptic notes, it appears McDaniels was investigating discrepancies in some highway projects. But it all seems to Cotton to be minor stuff and not something anyone would be willing to commit murder to cover up.

Then one night, at a poker game with friends, one man asks to borrow Cotton's car to run an errand. But the man is run off a bridge by a truck and the car plunges into the river, killing him. At first, Cotton assumes it was just an unfortunate accident. But then Cotton comes home soon after to find a fake bomb in his house and receives a threatening message telling him to stop investigating the highway story or be killed.

Fearing for his life, Cotton flies off to New Mexico, only to be tracked down by a hired killer while on a fishing trip. He manages to elude the killer and returns home, desperate to figure out what McDaniels was working on that someone is willing to commit two murders to keep hidden. 

This was a pretty good mystery story with a surprising twist at the end. It is also an interesting look at politics and corruption that is very relevant today. Towards the end of the story, Cotton explains why he believes political reporting is vital to the voting public:

"'You fault Gene Clark for having no political philosophy. Well, I've got one. I believe if you give them the facts the majority of the people are going to pull down the right lever on the voting machine. A lot of them are stupid. And a lot of them don't give a damn. And some of them have closed minds and won't believe anything they don't want to believe. But enough of them care so if you tell them what's going on they make the right decisions.'" 

 
Fifty years later, his description of the voting public still stands.

Duchess in Disguise

 

By Caroline Courtney

A Regency romance

Things are not good in the de Villiers household. First father died and now mother is dead and elder brother is now in charge and he has a gambling addiction and is deeply in debt plus the debts inherited from an improvident father and a foolish mother. If something doesn't happen, the three siblings will lose the family home. 

A letter arrives that just may save the day. The de Villiers name is ancient and honorable and a wealthy lord, a Duke, is interested in allying himself with the de Villiers family and wishes to wed Miss de Villiers, sight unseen. Problem is, Miss de Villiers is already in love with a worthy but not at all wealthy local man. So the youngest sibling, Clorinda, who is only seventeen, volunteers to marry the wealthy lord instead and save the family honor and the family home. 

So Clorinda is bundled off to London wearing her dead mother's old clothes and is immediately married to the Duke. He installs her at his mansion in the country and heads back to his hedonistic life in London. Naturally, Clorinda is not happy with this arrangement. So she hatches a plot to win the Duke's love. She will go to London to live with her sister, who is now also married, and with the very generous allowance the Duke set her up with and with a new hair style and fancy new clothes, and a false name, charm the Duke and make him fall in love with her. Complications ensue.

This was a good story, despite how silly it sounds. It is just a light and fluffy regency romance story, but sometimes a person just needs something light and fluffy. I enjoyed it. 

Dutch Uncle

 

By Marilyn Durham

A Western

Jake Hollander is a gambler with a past in law enforcement. He was settled in San Francisco but is now headed by stagecoach to El Paso, Texas. At one of the stops along the way, in various improble ways, he ends up in charge of two orphan Hispanic kids. Their mom was taking them to a boom town in New Mexico but she died on the journey. Jake is told to take the kids to the New Mexican town and deliver them to the address on an envelope found in the woman's luggage. 

When the three arrive, the address turns out to be a whore house and then the stagecoach leaves without Jake and another stage to El Paso isn't due for a month. Jake gets a temporary job as town sheriff, talked into it by an acquaintance from his days as a lawman and noted gun in Kansas. 

As Jake spends time in the tiny town, he renews his friendship with the Kansas acquaintance and his sister who are publishing the local newspaper. He also starts to build a relationship with the two kids, one of whom, the boy, Paco, has become very fond of Jake. In the process, Jake becomes embroiled in his old friends' problems and in trying to locate any family for the two orphans and in the various troubles plaguing the town. On top of all that, Jake's assaulted and robbed of his money belt containing his life savings. Things go from bad to worse when the orphans' father shows up and the only thing he cares about is the stolen money he left in the dead woman's possession.

I did enjoy this story very much. I did not like that the author kills off one of the orphans. I also thought that the strategies the author uses to tie Jake to the town and the two kids were rather contrived. And I found Jake's love interests in the story rather disappointing. But overall it was a good story, well worth reading.

There There

 

By Tommy Orange

Are group of people of Native ancestry come together for a big powwow in Oakland, California. They are all connected in various ways, some of which they are aware of and some of which they are not. 

Unfortunately some of them are not interested in the actual powwow. A drug dealer of Native and Hispanic origin owes dangerous people money and he and his associates have heard that the powwow will be giving away cash prizes. So they have a plan to attend the powwow and take the cash. 

The stories of the lives of the various people who come together for the powwow were interesting. These are people who have struggled and fought poverty and addiction and are working to overcome adversity and who are  heading to a hopeful outcome only for the reader to see it all brought to disaster because of a gang of hapless drug dealers. Some people find this sort of juxtaposition compelling and dramatic. I didn't. I frankly hated the violent and cruel ending. It spoiled the whole book for me.

The Way West

 

By A. B. Guthrie, Jr.

The story of a wagon train headed from Missouri to Oregon back in the 1840s.

Lije Evans was a farmer in Missouri with a loving wife and a teenage son. The three of them work hard and have a good life. But Lije is having second thoughts. He feels like he is just breaking even, not improving. So when folks start talking about immigrating to Oregon, which was currently part of the United Kingdom, Lije came to think maybe he should try his luck there. The word was that the land there was rich and productive and a man could get ahead if he was willing to put in the work. 

Lije talks his wife Becky into selling the farm and going west, even though Becky is happy in their little home on their Missouri farm. So off they went, sold the farm, loaded up their wagons, bought their provisions and headed to Independence, Missouri to form up a wagon train and brave the trials of the trails. They face the typical wagon train problems, accidents, deaths, natives, arguments, bison, heat, bugs, dust, river crossings, steep trails, lack of water, the usual. Actually, not too many people die in this story. One man dies of sickness, a woman has a miscarriage, a child dies of snakebite, a native gets shot by a settler. That's about it unless I am forgetting someone. 

This was a fairly good read. Not very exciting, and to someone who grew up in the 1950s, familiar territory. Lije is the main character with him moving up from traveling in the train to becoming the wagon train leader. Secondary characters are his son, his dog Rock and lastly his wife Becky. Rock gets more text than Becky does. Her main function is to tell Lije what a good guy he is. In fact, women in this story are mostly only there to cook and clean and take care of the kids and keep their menfolk happy. Their trials and tribulations are only touched on lightly. Not surprising for a book written in the 1940s.

Also not surprising for a book written in the 1940s is Guthrie's depictions of the natives encountered which he dismisses as lazy, dirty, heathen, ignorant, thieving savages. Near the end of the book, as the settlers are traveling by boat downriver, they pass a native cemetery. One of the settlers remarks about so many good indians, a reference to the old saying, the only good indian is a dead indian. 

If you have never read a story of the wagon trains headed west in America, this will probably be a very interesting story. But as a child of the 1950s, this story didn't tell me anything I wasn't already familiar with. I think the author touches too lightly on the suffering endured by the settlers and romanticizes it all a bit too much.  It did win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1950. It is also one novel in a series that Guthrie wrote about settlers headed to Oregon, which I didn't know until I looked up the Wikipedia page about the book: Wikipedia. 

The Bone Is Pointed

 

By Arthur W. Upfield

First, a note about the title. "Pointing the bone" is a kind of magic the native people in the story use to curse their enemies to death: death by suggestion. 

Detective Napoleon Bonaparte aka Bony comes to the outback to investigate the disappearance of a jackeroo (ranch hand) Jeffery Anderson. He was out riding the fence line on the Lacy station, Karwir, and failed to return home. His horse came back riderless. Karwir is a large station (what Americans would call a ranch) and although they searched as best they could, no trace could be found of Anderson. But the owner of the station, called Old Lacy, wants to know what happened to him. Enter Bony to solve the mystery of a disappearance that is several months old.

After such a long span of time, not much in the way of trace evidence remains to be investigated. But Bony does his best, spending much of his time scouring the land searching for the minute clues that will lead him to the answer. His investigations cause the local native people to turn against him and they place a curse on him called pointing the bone. This is where they will an enemy to death mainly by informing the target that the curse has been placed on him. It really only works with people who believe it will work. Unfortunately, Bony, due to his native blood, is one of those who believes even though he tries to convince himself he doesn't believe in curses. Will he be able to solve the mystery before the curse does its deadly work?

Fascinating story, not for the mystery, really, but for the picture of life on Australian sheep and cattle stations in the 1940s. Bony, of course, solves the mystery which turns out to be not that mysterious. The only thing I really didn't care for was the silliness involving the curse. I thought Bony was above those kind of superstitions. 

Their Eyes Were Watching God

 

By Zora Neale Hurston

Janie Crawford never knew her mother or her father. She was raised by Nanny, her grandmother. Her grandmother was born into slavery and her mother was raped by a white man. Her mother left Janie with Nanny and disappeared. Nanny worried about Janie's future, concerned that she would end up like her mother. So when Janie grew up a beauty, Nanny decided it would be best if Janie married right away and thus be under the protection and rule of her husband. And so she convinced Janie to marry Logan Killicks. But Logan was a hard man and he slapped Janie around. When a sweet talking man, Joe Starks, came around, Janie gladly left Logan and went off with Joe to start a new life in a town being constructed in Florida. 

Joe opened a grocery store in the town, Eatonville, and built a two story house and soon became the mayor of Eatonville and a big deal in the tiny town. But Joe was a jealous husband and criticized Janie and they gradually became estranged, although their marriage lasted twenty years until his death from kidney disease. 

Now Janie was a wealthy widow and she had lots of men hanging around hoping to get a chance at her. But she was not interested. Until Vergible Woods, aka Tea Cake, arrived in Eatonville. He charmed her and amused her and won her and she left Eatonville with him. He was a guitar player and a gambler and field hand and he made friends everywhere he went. Sometimes she doubted him, but eventually she realized he was the love of her life and she was willing to follow him to whatever crazy location his travels took him.

Overall, I like the story. However, I did skip some of the men's conversations. I would read a couple paragraphs, but it was all big talk and BS and I just don't have the patience for such nonsense. I suppose it was meant to be humorous or illustrative of the man-talk of that time but it was just annoying. Other than that, I did enjoy the story, although the dialect sometimes required a couple of readings to understand the language. I was glad Janie found her true love after her two disappointing marriages.

See also a review by Kirkus Reviews.

Sing the Four Quarters

 

By Tanya Huff

When Princess Annice was 14 she persuaded her dying father, the king, to decree that she could become a Bard. This made the her brother, Prince Theron, the king-to-be, angry because he wanted to wed her to the prince of the neighboring kingdom to create an alliance with that kingdom, Cemandia. So when he became the king, Theron decreed that Annice was no longer a royal princess and that if she ever bore a child without his permission, she would be committing treason.

So Annice goes on to become a Bard, one of those special people who can command the nature spirits of air, water, earth and fire. In Annice's case, she can command all four kinds of spirits when most Bards can control only one type of spirit. 

She loves her life, traveling the land and performing her Bardic functions. Until she discovers she is pregnant. And the father of her child, a one-night-stand, has been arrested for treason and has been hauled to the capitol in chains. From what she knows of the man, Pjerin, Duc of Ohrid, she is certain he did not do the crime he is accused of, even though he has admitted it. So she sneaks into the King's castle and frees Pjerin. Pjerin tells her that he knows he admitted to the treason but also knows he didn't do it and he doesn't understand what strange force compels him to admit to actions he didn't do.

Together Annice and Pjerin travel back to Ohrid to unravel the mystery of his false confession, both hunted by the king's guard, Pjerin for conspiring with Cemandia to invade the kingdom and Annice for bearing a child without the king's permission. 

This was a fairly good story. It starts out pretty slow and doesn't really become more interesting until Pjerin and Annice set out on their journey to Ohrid. Until then, it's not that exciting.  

It's the first book in a four part series. It was not interesting enough to entice me to read the rest of the books in the series. Although I will say, unlike many series, this book stands alone quite well, with no really annoying cliffhangers.

Enchantment

 

By Orson Scott Card

Ivan Smetski never knew he was Jewish until his father decided the family need to leave Russia, and, based on their Jewish ancestry, immigrate to Israel. However, immigrating to Israel was just the excuse to get out of Russia. In reality, the father's goal was America.

Before Ivan left Russia for America, he spent some time at his cousin Marek's farm. One day, while wandering around the nearby woods, Ivan stumbled upon a Sleeping Beauty, a princess on a pinnacle. But as he approached her, he saw she was being guarded by some kind of hidden monster. As he was just a lad, Ivan had to leave the sleeping princess behind. 

Once in America, Ivan went to become a scholar of ancient Russian languages and fairy tales. He returned to Russia to do research and decided to visit cousin Marek's farm again. He remembered the Sleeping Beauty in the forest and found his way back to the site. She was still there, asleep and still being guarded by the monster which turned out to be a giant bear. Ivan managed to defeat the bear and wake the princess with a kiss. 

The princess, Katerina, took Ivan back to her land, thousands of years in the past. She had been cursed by an evil witch, Baba Yaga, who wanted to acquire Katerina's father's kingdom. And now Katerina and her father were relying upon Ivan to defeat Baba Yaga and save the kingdom. But the only way Ivan can do that is to return to the present with Katerina, now his wife (in name only) and enlist the help of his father and mother in defeating the evil witch.

I really enjoyed this story, it's just wonderful. Ivan is a sweetheart as are his amazing mother and loving father. Lots of surprises, one of which is cousin Marek who turns out to be an ancient weather god. And Baba Yaga is a formidable foe who almost succeeds in her evil designs.  

For another opinion see this review by Kirkus Reviews.

The Dream Walker

 

By Charlotte Armstrong

Early 1950s, in the depths of the Red Scare in the United States, what better revenge is there than to frame an upright and respected man by smearing him as a part of the Communist conspiracy? This is the idea Ray Pankerman came up with to pay back John Marcus for exposing Pankerman's financial ties to the Communist Party. He enlists three other people in the plot: Kent Shaw who is in it for the money and for the thrills, Cora Steffani, two-bit actor who is in desperate need of cash, and Darlene Hite who is under the mistaken belief that she is performing in a publicity stunt.

Cora assembles her "audience" and goes through her act, going into a trance and waking up and relating a strange dream where she is walking on a beach and encounters a famous person and they briefly talk. The person, Josephine Crain, a successful and respected performer, verifies that she was approached on the beach by a woman who looked like Cora.

Cora pulls her act several times, each time going into her trance and waking to recite her story of approaching some respectable and well known person and while at the same time being in her apartment in New York City, each incident verified, with qualifications, by the other persons.

Of course, it is a scam. The dream walker is a woman who resembles Cora, Darlene Hite. It is all orchestrated by Kent Shaw, with codes and secret signals. Cora's best friend, Olivia Hudson, can't understand why her friend is pulling what she is positive is a scam. 

Then someone turns up dead, someone connected to Darlene. And now the four plotters know they are in too deep to turn back.

This is not a tale of the supernatural. The "dream walking" is a scam to frame an innocent man. It all blows up in the plotters faces when one of them takes it too far and murders a witness. But it is quite intriguing to watch the plotters carry out their scam and fool the police and the press and, in Cora's place, her closest friends as to how they are doing it. Plus there is also a rather soapy love story included. An enjoyable read.