An Excellent Mystery

 

By Ellis Peters

A Brother Cadfael Mystery

It 1141 and in Britain, King Stephen and Empress Maud are still at war. War which lead to the burning of the city of Winchester and refugees from the fire, two Benedictine monks, arrive at Shrewsbury and are accepted into the abbey. Brother Fidelis is a former soldier who retired from military service after being gravely wounded. His companion is young Brother Fidelis, who is Humilis' caretaker and attendant, as Fidelis never fully recovered from his injuries and is in declining health. 

Before Humilis became a monk, he was engaged to be married to a little girl named Julian. He went off to war, planning to return in about ten years when the girl would be grown. But returning maimed and dying was not part of the plan and he releases Julian from their promise to marry. He joins the brothers and Julian joins a convent.

Three years have passed and Humilis wants to find Julian to assure himself that she went on to have a good life without him. But upon investigation, it is discovered that Julian never reached the convent. What happened to her and to the treasure she took with her as a gift to the convent is not known. Amazingly, her family was not aware that she never arrived at her destination. Once they find this out, though, they are quite anxious to discover her fate! The fear is that she was murdered for the small treasure she took with her.

Humilis and a former associate of his, Nicholas, both want to find out what happened to her. Humilis, because he let her down by ending their connection. And Nicholas, because he was the one who met Julian three years ago to let her know that Humilis was backing out of their marriage. And Nicholas was quite smitten with the young woman and would like to get to know her better. The news that she is missing and her fate unknown makes him determined to figure out what happened. 

Meanwhile, back at the abbey, Humilis takes a tumble and his old wound breaks open. Due to Brother Edmund's and Brother Cadfael's and Fidelis' care, he makes a partial recovery but clearly his already fragile health is failing. It would be a comfort to the dying man to understand what happened to his missing former bride, Julian. Which makes the hunt for Julian even more urgent. But things are not looking good when a distinctive ring of hers turns up in the possession of a silversmith who bought it from a man who claimed it belonged to a woman he knew who had died. 

This was an okay story. It is not hard to figure out what is going on with Fidelis. So that was no surprise. What I never really understood was why Julian did what she did. I wish the author had gone into that a little more deeply because it really did not make any sense to me at all. 

Here is a review by Kirkus Reviews.

They Shoot Canoes, Don't They?

 

By Patrick F. McManus

A collection of funny hunting, camping, fishing and childhood antics stories. I don't know much about McManus, but I would guess that he was passionate about outdoor life. But he enjoyed looking at the funny side of it. 

In my opinion, his best stories are the ones he tells about his childhood. These are what I would call tall tales though I suppose they have some foundation in reality. His stories based on his adult adventures are still quite funny but I love the kid ones best.

This collection includes:

• All You Ever Wanted to Know About Live Bait but Were Afraid to Ask
• The Green Box
• Skunk Dog
• Cold Fish
• The Rifle
• They Shoot Canoes, Don't They?
• My First Deer, and Welcome to It
• The Crouch Hop and Other Useful Outdoor Steps
• Meanwhile, Back at the B Western
• The Education of a Sportsman
• The Gift
• The Sensuous Angler
• And Now Stay Turned for "The Camp Chef"
• The Heartbreak of Astigmatism
• Sneed
• The Hunter's Dictionary
• Tenner Shoes
• Reading Sign
• Tying My Own
• Psychic Powers for Outdoorsmen
• The Fishing Lesson
• The Hunting Camp
• If You Don't Mind, I'll Do It Myself!
• Useful Outdoor Comments
• Journal of an Expedition

So far, every McManus collection I have read has been a real joy. All the stories are funny and some are plain hilarious. And you really don't need to be someone who hunts, camps, hikes, fishes to enjoy them. They are just such an enjoyable read!

Sierra

 

By Richard S. Wheeler

A novel of the California Gold Rush, aka 49ers

Ulysses McQueen is the son of a prosperous Iowa farmer. He is a newlywed and his wife, Susannah, is pregnant with their first child. But it is 1849 and gold has been discovered in California. Talk is of easy money, gold nuggets so easy to get you can just pick them off the ground. And McQueen has gold fever. So he packs up and heads off to western Iowa to join the hopeful men headed to try their luck mining for gold. Never mind the fertile farm he is leaving behind. Never mind the young wife preparing to become a mom. Never mind the disapproval of his parents and siblings. Off he goes, gonna get rich in California.

But things don't go quite to plan. McQueen joins up with another man, Asa Wall, a professional gambler. But their livestock get stolen and they have to join up with another group who doesn't like McQueen and makes life very hard for him until he becomes ill and collapses. 

Despite the struggles, McQueen makes it to California only to find that about a 40,000 men got there before him and all the best sites were taken. He joins a small group of miners and they manage to get quite a bit of gold. McQueen gets tired of mining and set out on his own only to lose everything to his old trail companion, Asa Wall, the gambler. Meanwhile, back home things are not going well either.

Susannah gives birth and gets into a disagreement with McQueens family. In spite, they evict her and the baby from the farm that they had let their son work. So she decides to head to California with her baby and track down her missing husband. She doesn't take the land route, she travels by boat instead. 

Before all that, in 1848, Stephen Jarvis in California, is a recently discharged soldier. He meets a young California woman, Rita Estrada, and they fall instantly in love. But he is a penniless soldier and she is the daughter of strict and old-fashioned Mexican rancher. Jarvis ends up at Sutter's Mill just before gold is discovered and he becomes one of the first miners to strike it rich. But mining is hard work and the more people who show up to mine, the more uncertain things become. Jarvis takes his gold and sets up in business instead, supplying food and necessities to the miners. Turns out he has a knack for business, knowing what people need and want and how to acquire it at a reasonable price. His plan is to return to Rita and show her family that he is a successful business man and ask permission to marry her. But Rita is no longer available. Due to family pressure, Rita married a local man instead of waiting for Jarvis. Jarvis is devastated. 

This was a pretty long book and I got rather bored with it in the last quarter of the story. The author keeps throwing road blocks in the young peoples' way and I found it rather tiring, the endless hard times. Here's another thing, I didn't really like the characters much. Only Jarvis, really. The young husband McQueen walks away from a good life without a second thought about his wife and the child she is bearing. He fails to respond to her letters and she often doesn't know if he is dead or alive. And Susannah, after being kicked out of the home she shared with her husband, and instead of staying with her loving parents, heads out with her baby on a dangerous trip to track down McQueen. It doesn't end well. And Rita, who loves Jarvis but lets her family browbeat her into marriage with a man she barely knows and who she doesn't love instead of standing up to their disapproval of her desire to wed a non-Mexican. I just found McQueen, Susannah, and Rita foolish and unappealing. 

My Life and Hard Times

 

By James Thurber

A collection of short stories based on Thurber's childhood and teenage years. 

In the introduction to the stories, written by John K. Hutchens, he claims that Thurber had an excellent memory and that the stories are all true, for the greater part. I don't know if that is the case or not, but they are all funny and amazing and worthy of being cherished and passed on to later generations. 

The stories are:

• The Night the Bed Fell
• The Car We Had to Push
• The Day the Damn Broke
• The Night the Ghost Got In
• More Alarms at Night
• A Sequence of Servants
• The Dog That Bit People
• University Days
• Draft Board Nights
• A Note at the End - a commentary by Thurber on his stories. 

The book is available to read online for free at Project Gutenberg Canada.

Kirkus Reviews has a review of the book, dating from when it was published in the early 1930s: Kirkus Reviews.

Night March

 

By Bruce Lancaster

Stedman is a captain in the Union Army when misunderstood or misleading orders leads him and his friend, Captain Pitler to being captured by the rebels and locked up in a building in Richmond, Virginia, called the Libby. It used to be general purpose building but was designated a prison for Union officers.

Like most prisons for enemy soldiers, life was not easy in Libby. Food was inadequate and disease was common and medical care lacking. And the guards were trigger happy. However, during a fire, Stedman and Pitler managed to escape and set out to find their way back to the Union forces to continue the fight. 

This required seeking out sympathizers who would supply them with shelter, food, and clothes and a guide to lead them on to the next stop and, hopefully to rejoin the Union forces in Tennessee. 

This story was a bit of a bust for me. The first part goes into great detail about the night Stedman, Pitler and the rest made their way toward Richmond only to be captured. This is detail that I cared nothing about. I skipped reading most of that. I picked the book because I thought it would be about their flight from captivity to freedom. Details of battles don't interest me at all. 

The story of their time in prison wasn't all that interesting either. I had already read Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor which was published a couple years before Lancaster's novel. So there was nothing new in the author's descriptions of the prisoners' suffering. And I found their escape a bit unbelievable. Anyways, I was glad they were finally on the road only to have a poorly written romance thrown in. Most stilted and ridiculous dialogue between two lovers I think I have ever read. I don't know  though. Maybe people in love back in the 1860s talked that way. The author was certainly closer to that era than I am so maybe he is correct. 

Even though this book was published in the late 1950s, there is a review of it online at Kirkus Reviews.

Yurth Burden

 

By Andre Norton

When the Yurth colony ship touched down on a new planet, it mistakenly landed in the middle of a small city, destroying most of the city and killing many of the native residents, the Raski. For which destruction neither the Raski nor the Yurth descendants themselves will forget or forgive. So the two populations live separate from each other, not at war but not a peace either. The native Raski occupy the arid lowlands and the alien Yurth make their homes in the mountains. 

When a Yurth youth enters adulthood, they traditionally take a journey into the valley of the destroyed Raski city to learn and understand why the Raski hate Yurth people so very much. This story concerns a young Yurth woman, Elossa, who undertakes her pilgrimage only to find her path being crossed by a Raski youth, Stans of Philbur. 

It is known among the Yurth that sometimes Yurth folks on pilgrimage never return home. What happens to them is not known. Having Stans on her trail alarms Elossa and she fears his intentions. They end up travelling together but never quite trusting each other as some mysterious force seems at times to be in control of their actions, much against their wishes. 

Arriving at the Mouth of Atturn, a place Stans declares sacred to the Raski, they venture into an underground maze where both young people experience strange episodes and disturbing visions or illusions. As they penetrate deeper into the maze, they are abruptly confronted by a vision of Attun, a Raski god of evil, who attempts but fails to kill Stans. Upon finding their way out, they are again attacked by the one who bears the face of Attun, who once again fails to kill Stans, due again to Elossa's quick interference. But two successes are followed by failure when Elossa and Stans are overwhelmed by the Attun lookalike's hideous, deformed minions and captured and bound and sent down the river.

This was an OK read. It never really grabbed my attention though. I think I have read too many of these Norton stories which seem to be the same story told over and over with a few changes made. Two young people find each other and end up traveling over empty lands inhabited by dangerous beasts, with part of the journey taking place in an underground maze of tunnels and caverns. And some kind of unnatural, deformed creatures working against them. And an old city and old technology always part of the journey. Plus the ever present mind powers that are a standard feature of a Norton story and a magical talisman or piece of jewelry. Formulaic, for sure.

The Sinister Pig

 

By Tony Hillerman

A Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Mystery

Carl Mankin was hired to investigate the disappearance of massive amounts of fossil fuels from the San Juan Basin area of New Mexico, a rich natural gas production area, among other fossil fuels. 

But as Mankin is just starting his investigation in New Mexico, he is mistaken for DEA, Drug Enforcement, and is shot dead. And when the FBI take over the investigation from the local police, they declare Mankin was accidentally shot by a careless hunter, case closed. 

Meanwhile, the drug lords have figured out a way to get drugs out of Mexico and into the US by using old pipelines that crossed the border. Pipelines are periodically cleaned by a device called a pig which travels through the pipeline removing rust and buildup. So the smugglers are using the pipeline pigs to haul drugs through the pipeline from Mexico and into New Mexico.

Bernie Manuelito, who used to be an officer with the Navajo Police, is now working for Border Patrol, when she spots some unusual activity on a ranch near New Mexico's border. Unfortunately, her harmless nosing around gets her put on a hit list. And in the cross hairs of a Washington DC sociopath who has brought his high-powered rifle to New Mexico to take her out. What the DC insider doesn't know is that his number one guy isn't the loyal tool he believes him to be. 

I found this mystery to be a bit disappointing. In that the first murder is never solved, other than the FBI coverup claiming it was an accidental shooting, nor is the mystery of the billions of dollars of missing funds. Yes, the bad guy DC insider is taken care of. But the take down of the corrupt Border Patrol agent is barely mentioned.  Seems to me the story was mainly used to get Jim Chee and Bernie back together. 

Here is a review by Kirkus Reviews.

Charity Girl

 

By Georgette Heyer

A Regency Romance

Viscount Ashley Desford is attending a dinner party when he accidentally meets young Cherry Steane. She wasn't allowed to attend the party because she lives with her aunt as an unpaid employee. Abandoned by her father, she was reluctantly taken in by her aunt, who treats rather unkindly. Desford finds Cherry interesting and spends a few moments talking to her in the hallway as she peers down into the room from the upstairs, hoping to get a glimpse of the festivities. 

Unfortunately, one of her cousins sees her chatting with Desford and tells the aunt who gives Cherry a severe scolding. Feeling she can't bear living in such a cold and unloving household, Cherry packs her few belongings and runs away, where Desford, who is traveling back to London, comes across her trudging alongside the road the next morning. 

When he finds out she has run away, he tries to talk her into returning to her aunt's home. But she flatly refuses and seems to be desperate to get away. So he offers to escort her to her grandfather's house in London. But when they get there, the house is closed up and none of the neighbors knows where the grandfather has gone. 

Not knowing what else to do with the girl, Desford takes her to a close woman friend, Hetta Silverdale. Hetta and Desford have been friends since childhood, and he views her as a sister and is depending on her to help him now. It takes a bit of persuading, but he gets Hetta to agree to let Cherry stay with her while he tries to locate the grandfather. 

Hetta does not live alone, she lives in the family home with her widowed mother and her younger brother, Charlie. At first, Cherry gets along with Hetta, the mother and Charlie very well. But then Charlie steals a kiss and the mother turns against Cherry and gives her a lecture on encouraging men to come on to her which Cherry certainly did not do.

Meanwhile, Desford is traveling around England, trying to track the grandfather down without any luck. He eventually finds him but discovers the grandfather has recently gotten married again and the new wife, the ex-housekeeper, makes it very clear that she is willing to take Cherry in as an unpaid employee, which is exactly the situation that caused Cherry to run away from her aunt.  And the grandfather refuses to give Cherry any financial support to help her out. 

Desford returns to Hetta only to find everyone upset because Charlie and Cherry are both missing. And Cherry's father, who everyone assumed was dead, has suddenly shown up at the Silverdale home, demanding his child and declaring Desford seduced her and ruined her. 

But things are not as bad as they seem because Desford's younger brother, Simon, has become involved and with his help, everything turns out as well as can be expected.  He tells Desford, at the end of the story, "But if you should get into any more scrapes, Des, just send me word, and I'll post straight back to rescue you!" 

For a romance novel, there is really no romance in this story. Mainly it is about Desford's efforts to help out Cherry.

Sometimes even a favorite author can be disappointing. 

Here is a review by Austenprose.

Never Cry "Arp!" and Other Great Adventures

 

By Patrick F. McManus

A collection of humorous stories about childhood, camping, friendship and hunting and fishing. The title story, Never Cry "Arp!" concerns two grade school boy, the author and his dear friend, Crazy Eddie Muldoon, who, "at the age of eight, was a sort of magnet to injuries. It was almost as though Eddie scheduled his injuries for the day when he got up in the morning.

8:00 Stub big toe of left foot.

8:35 Step on rusty nail with right foot.

9:05 Get stung over left eye by bee.

10:30 Run sliver in hand while whittling.

10:35 Cut finger while whittling.

11:00 Twist ankle jumping off pigpen fence.

11:22 Get tick embedded behind left ear.

12:00 Lunch.

1:15 Get stung by nettles.

2:00 Get bitten by the Petersons' dog."

 But the last incident recounted in the story that resulted in Eddie getting injured was when he and Pat were biking down a steep hill and Eddie's pant leg got caught in his bike's chain. He got so banged up that when Pat asked him if he was OK, all Eddie could say was, 'Arp arp arp.'

The other stories in the collection are

• Skunk Dog
• The Mountain
• Reading Sign
• Kid Brothers and Their Practical Application
• Real Ponies Don't Go Oink!
• Secret Places
• A Really Nice Blizzard
• Cubs
• Muldoon in Love
• Not Long for This Whirl
• The Night the Bear Ate Goombaw

The stories in this collection are some of Pat's best, and all deal with his younger days, which are my personal favorite. Someone should publish a collection of all his tall tales from his childhood and teen years. They are always hilarious!

One Corpse Too Many

 

By Ellis Peters

A Brother Cadfael story.

King Stephen has come to Shrewsbury and is occupying the area with his troops. The local lords tried to resist but failed and they and their men are summarily executed. In all, 94 people are hung until dead, their bodies dumped in a ditch. 

Brother Cadfael has permission to collect the bodies and arrange for them to be returned to their families and given proper burials. But when he does a head count, he finds 95 dead men, instead of the expected 94. And no one recognizes or knows who the 95th man is.

Meanwhile, Cadfael has taken on a temporary helper, a teenage boy who Cadfael quickly realizes is actually a girl. The girl, Godith, is hiding in the abbey area because her father was one of the rebel lords. If she is taken by Stephen and his allies, she can be held for ransom. When she views the body of the unknown man, she recognizes him as part of the rebel alliance who was entrusted to remove treasure from Shrewsbury and convey it to Queen Maud, Stephen's rival for the British throne. 

The killer was after the treasure and used the mass hanging event as an opportunity of commit the crime and hide his victim among the dead. But Cadfael, examining the body, clearly sees he died from being garroted, not from hanging. 

Together Cadfael and Godith put together the pieces of how, where and why he was killed. With the help of Cadfael and Godith, a killer will be revealed.

This was a good read. With a bit of a surprise ending, when Cadfael accidentally discovers that the murdered man was not quite the innocent Cadfael believed him to be. 

Here is a review by Kirkus.

Retief: Emissary to the Stars

 

By Keith Laumer

A collection of eight Retief stories dating from the 1960s and 1970s.

• THE HOOB MELON CRISIS:  As per usual, Terrans and Groaci are in disagreement about who owns a newly discovered world, Froom 93 aka New Groac. And, as per usual, Jame Retief steps in to send the Groaci packing, by introducing an invasive species, gribble-worms. The gribbles take over the world, but they shed their skins, which are quite lovely and can be made into gorgeous cloth. Still it backfires, when the Terrans decide they no longer want Froom 93 either, what with all the gribbles. So the Groaci can have it if they want. Unfortunately, the Groaci mistakenly release the gribbles on their home planet and the worms go after their major crop, Hoob melons.
• THE GARBAGE INVASION: Once again, Terran and Groaci can't agree what to do with the latest new world. Delicia is a natural paradise, green and lush, and Terrans want it to be declared a galactic park. The Groaci are pushing to have it turned into a planet-wide garbage dump and have already started dumping trash on it. To complicate things, a third group has arrived on Delicia, the Basurans. A bellicose race of beings known mainly for eating their planet away to bedrock, they want to add the planet of Delicia to their diet. 
• Excerpt from RETIEF AND THE WARLORDS: Retief and a companion, Harrumph, have been jailed and are shortly to be fed to vicious predators in an arena, to the delight of the locals of Harrumph's home world. But Retief gets his hand on a potent drug, that when taken, gives him an interesting super power.
• THE TROUBLESHOOTER: Basurans, led by one Intimidator of Insolent Upstarts Honk, are causing trouble again, this time on Furtheron, a bucolic planet settled by farmers. Stupidly, though, Honk agrees to a bet with Retief. 
• THE NEGOTIATORS: The diplomats find themselves stuck on a small barren island, the only solid ground on a water world, trying to negotiate a treaty with the natives. But they have no idea where the locals are or even what they look like. Until Retief happens to strike up a conversation with a large blob lounging on the beach. 
• GIANT KILLER: The diplomats mistakenly agree to kill a large carnivorous dinosaur that is dining on the local villagers. Failing to do so will be fatal.
• THE FOREST IN THE SKY: Zoon is has been taken over by voracious bunnies that will eat anything and the local people need help. But what the diplomatic missions didn't understand was that the bunnies are the people's children, mindless eating-machines that their parents are terrified of.
• TRICK OR TREATY: Retief and a small band of circus performers thwart an attempted takeover on the part of an unsavory group of centaurs.

Most of the stories in this collection are just average. In all the stories, most everybody is only looking our for number one, including the humans. And most have neither the brains or gumption to save themselves from disaster. Indeed, most seem indifferent to immanent doom. Only Retief seems to have any morals or seems to be the only one to care about his fellow intelligent beings. 

For me, the only stories that I truly enjoyed was  THE HOOB MELON CRISIS and the excerpt, RETIEF AND THE WARLORDS. 

Never Sniff a Gift Fish

 

By Patrick F. McManus

McManus was a humor writer for outdoor life, hunting and fishing magazines. His stories featured improbable predicaments and childhood tales and strange characters, including himself. Often hilarious and always amusing, reading his stories is trip, in more ways than one. 

The title story, Never Sniff a Gift Fish, features Pat's neighbor, Al Finley. While on a fishing trip with Pat and Pat's long time friend, Retch Sweeney, Finley tries to think up short epithets that feature sporting themes, among which is, of course, "Never sniff a gift fish." A few more are, "What the tourist terms a plague of insects, the fisherman calls a fine hatch."  "I have never met a fish I didn't like." "Even a fish stick once knew the glories of the deep."

List of the stories included:

• Blowing Smoke
• Poof—No Eyebrows!
• I Fish; Therefore, I Am
• Running on Empty
• The Cat and the Cat Burglar
• Salami on Rye and Hold the Wild Gobo
• Two-Man-Tent Fever
• Fish Poles, and Other Useful Terminology
• The Man Who Notices Things
• The Elk Trappers
• The Short Happy Life of Francis Cucumber
• The Arkansas Prank Hound
• Well, Excuuuuse Me!
• The Mountain Car
• The Christmas Hatchet
• The Night Grandma Shot Shorty
• The Kindest Cut of All
• The Bush Pilots
• Share and Share Alike
• Never Sniff a Gift Fish
• Backseats I Have Known
• Edgy Rider
• Strange Scenes and Eerie Events
• The Hunters' Workout Guide
• Temporary Measures
• The Fibricators
• The Family Camper's Dictionary
• The Big Match 

The Grasshopper Trap

 

By Patrick F. McManus

McManus was a humor writer for outdoor life, hunting and fishing magazines. His stories featured improbable predicaments and childhood tales and strange characters, including himself. Often hilarious and always amusing, reading his stories is trip, in more ways than one. 

The title story, The Grasshopper Trap, features one of his most iconic characters, Rancid Crabtree, grizzled old woodsman and idler. Desiring to acquire more bait for fishing, school age Pat and his friend Crazy Eddie Muldoon are on a fruitless hunt to catch grasshoppers. Eddie, who has an inventive mind, dreams up the grasshopper trap and Rancid, who also wants to do some trout fishing, thinks the idea just might work. And it might have, if Rancid had known his left hand from his right. 

List of the stories in The Grasshopper Trap:

• The Skunk Ladder
• How to Go Splat! 
• The Human Fuel Pump
• 'Twas a Dark and Dreary Night
• Trailer Trials
• The Grasshopper Trap
• Get Lost!
• Never Cry Snake!
• Metamorphosis and Other Outdoor Phenomena Wives Don't Understand
• The Swamp
• A Hunker Is Not a Squat
• Why Wives on Christmas Mourn
• The Hunting Lesson
• First Knife
• Nincompoopery and Other Group Terms
• Bad Company
• The Case of the Missed Deer
• Character Flaws
• Mean Tents
• Crick Ritual
• Hunting Camp Etiquette
• Stone Soup
• Gunrunning
• The Wager
• Letters From Camp
• Sweet Sweet Sixteen
• Down and Way Out in Brazil
• Strange Encounters of the Bird Kind
• The Outing
• I, the Hunted

Regency Buck

 

By Georgette Heyer

A Regency novel

After their father passed away, his nearly grown children, Judith and Peregrine, knew he had named the Fifth Earl of Worth as their guardian. Coming London to introduce themselves to high society, the two were expecting to find Lord Worth to be an elderly man, a contemporary of their father. But Lord Worth was not an elderly man at all. Indeed, he turned out to be the man who had accosted and stolen a kiss from Judith when he happened upon her as she was out taking a stroll unaccompanied. 

So things got off to a rough start in their relationship with their new guardian. And it didn't get any better due to Judith's desire to assert her independence and to her dislike of Worth. 

Judith and Peregrine are lucky to be very wealthy. Plus Judith and Peregrine are both good looking. So becoming a big hit in society is easy for them. And amazingly, young Lord Worth takes his role as their guardian seriously and his guidance and connections make their success assured. 

But wealth can be a magnet for bad people. And Peregrine becomes the target of someone who wants him dead. If he dies without an heir, his share of their inheritance would pass to his sister, Judith. So his death with really only benefit his sister. No one else would get their hands on it. Unless they were married to Judith! 

This is one of Heyer's novels that I just never liked as well as most of her romance novels. Judith is arrogant and Peregrine comes off as stupid. Lord Worth is even more arrogant than Judith is. Peregrine's only function in the story is to be the target for the killer. 

Heyer features some of the famous personages of Regency high society of the early 1800s including the Prince Regent, Beau Brummel, the Duke of Clarence and Lord William Alvanley, among others. She also describes the Brighton Pavilion in detail. I image she spent much time researching the time period and the people and places. 

Here is a review by Susan Holloway Scott on Austenprose.

More Than Gold

 

By Shirley Hailstock

Morgan had a rough start to life. Abandoned as a child, she lived on the streets, surviving as best she could. Fortunately, she was adopted by a kind social worker. Morgan turned out to have a talent for gymnastics and was good enough to make the Olympic team when she was nineteen. 

She is approached by US government agents who talk her into, while at the Olympics in Korea, breaking into a Korean prison and rescuing a prisoner, a man who will probably die in prison if not rescued. She does as asked but in consequence she lives her later life in hiding, fearful of assassins coming to kill her. Twelve years later, the assassins do track her down. Her only chance for survival is CIA agent Jack Temple.  

But Morgan and Jack Temple have history, going back to her time at the Olympics, where Jack was there to keep an eye on her, posing as the team swim coach. Morgan fell hard for him, but except for one exciting kiss, it never went anywhere. Having Jack suddenly back in her life sets off so many emotions, she isn't sure she wants him there, even though she needs his expertise to survive the killers on her trail. 

Well, this was a romance novel disguised as a thriller. Sure there are lots of dangerous and thrilling encounters but the main point is to get two lovers back together again. Which requires lots of sex. Which I skipped reading because sex scenes do not appeal to me. And besides the surfeit of sex, there are just so many hair-raising encounters, it began to be a bit tedious. And I never figured out why the Koreans wanted Morgan dead. Something to do with a wedding ring that she was given while in the Korean prison. Why didn't she just give it back to them?  Or give it to the CIA and let them deal with it? And Morgan: first she is this kick-ass woman who can deal with anything. And then she is a lost little girl who needs her big strong man to save her. Then she's back to being kick-ass woman tough enough to track down kidnapped Jack Temple and rescue him from the Koreans completely unaided. The story just left me confused.

Here is a review by Publishers Weekly.

Awakening

 

By S.J. Bolton

Clara Benning is the local veterinarian. So when a plague of snakes descends upon the small town where she lives, the locals naturally turn to her for help. And help she can, having studied reptiles and snakes in the past. 

I did not know this, but apparently the British Isles do have a venomous snake species, the adder. So people understandably get upset when adders start showing up in their homes, among other less dangerous snakes. 

In the past, a local man of limited intellect was known for his obsession with snakes. But supposedly this man was in a medical facility and not in the area. People begin to suspect that maybe this man has returned to the village and is the one behind the sudden influx of snakes. Why he would be doing it may be tied to a fire at a church decades ago.

At first it is mostly just an annoying if a bit of a frightening nuisance. Then a deadly snake native from Papua New Guinea is found in the bed of a little baby. The whole village is looking to Clare for help not only to deal with the snakes but to track down whoever is sending dangerous snakes into the village.

*SPOILER* I liked this story a lot until the end when the killer turns out to be someone who was thought to be dead and buried for decades. I mean, how is the reader supposed to solve the mystery on their own when the author resurrects a corpse? But up to that point, I enjoyed it.  Clare has personal problems that make her an interesting detective mainly due to a childhood accident that left her with a nasty scar on her face. Which, for the most part, she is failing to deal with in a healthy manner. But she is smart, stubborn, daring and knowledgeable. And quite likeable. 

Here is a review by Kirkus Reviews.

Eye of the Monster

 

By Andre Norton

Ishkur is a planet that has an intelligent native population that, so far, has been welcoming to the humans who have arrived to set up trading posts and other small operations. They humans have been joined by group of Salarikans, cat-like fellow off-worlders anxious to exploit a newly discovered world. 

Rees Naper, a young man on the cusp of adulthood, lives at his uncle's mission. He came to live with the uncle after his father died. But he doesn't get along with his uncle. Once of the main sources of disagreement is Rees' assessment of the native Ishkurians. Rees doesn't trust these reptilians while the uncle refuses to admit they might be dangerous, even after they have received word that the natives are up to something and they are advised to leave the mission and come to safety at the spaceport, where transportation off Ishkur is available if needed.

Giving up on reasoning with his stubborn uncle, Rees heads off to his job and on the way he also comes across the young child of one of the local traders, Gordy. He lets Gordy tag along with him and arrives at his job only to find everyone missing and his boss' pet dog cruelly abused and tortured. He has to put the poor dog down. He realizes that the warnings his uncle decided to ignore have come true and that the native Ishkurians are on the rampage. He needs to get back to the mission but decides to stop at the Salarikan compound to warn them of the danger. But he is too late. He finds a scene of slaughter and only one survivor, a young Salarikan girl. All three of them head to the mission, but once again it is too late. The natives got there first and no human is left alive, including the uncle. 

Now Rees has to get himself and his two young charges to safety and away from a native population seems determined to eradicate every foreigner on their world. 

High adventure as the young hero struggles to respond to the dangers he now faces, a story meant to appeal, I think, to teenage boys. It was a good read, but we are never told what sparked the native rampage. Which was quite annoying. 

Daybreak 2250 A.D.

 

By Andre Norton

Fors was different. His most obvious difference was his silver white hair. But he had other differences that weren't so obvious, like his superior night vision. Too bad for Fors, mutants were not appreciated in his village, the descendants of the survivors of worldwide  nuclear war. 

Keeping human lineage pure was very important to these people, fearing the mutations that result from a poisoned world. So when Fors came of age, instead of stepping into the role of scout and explorer that he expected, he was ignored as if he did not exist. So he left, setting out to explore the world on his own and prove that he was just as worthy as anyone, accompanied by his cat companion, Lura.

His father, who died while out exploring, had a scrap of an old pre-war map that might lead to a ruined city. These urban areas were a source of materials and knowledge to the survivors of the catastrophe. But the cities were dangerous. They were the lairs of the Beast Things, dangerous half-human, half-beast mutants that killed everything that entered their domains. Fors' father may have even fallen victim to the Beast Things. But Fors is determined to follow the map his father left behind.

It is not long before Fors sees other people out in the world but he avoids for his own safety. It is also not long before he has an unfortunate encounter with a wild boar that results in a bad gash to his leg. The injury slows him down for a time, but soon he gets back on the trail, riding on a horse that has escaped from the Plainsmen, a nomadic tribe of cattle herders. 

His father's map does leads him to the city. It is full of fascinating treasures. And something else: the Beast Things. It is too dangerous to stay there. But before he can leave he finds one of the men he noticed on his travels laying in a deadfall trap, gravely injured. He helps the man out of the trap and in the process finds a true friend. Together, the two young men will explore the world, facing dangerous creatures and hostile humans and learning that maybe the old ways are not always the best ways. 

This was quite an action adventure, as Fors and his cat companion Lura and his new friend and fellow explorer Arskane go from catastrophe to catastrophe, from scrape to scrape, from battle to battle. For me, it was exhausting as these two guys struggle to survive all the dangers they encounter. I think maybe the book was really intended for a younger and male audience, not a tired old woman like me. It's not a bad read. Just not for me. 

Dork Covenant : The Collected Dork Tower, Volume 1

 

By John Kovalic

From Wikipedia: "Dork Tower is an online comic created, written and drawn by John Kovalic. It chronicles the lives of a group of geeks living in the fictional town of Mud Bay, Wisconsin. Mud Bay's design is strongly influenced by the author's home town of Madison, Wisconsin."

Here are a couple of comics from this really funny collection:

Sanctuary Sparrow

 

By Ellis Peters

Its 1140 CE in Britain. Liliwin is an itinerant entertainer. He juggles, dances, plays a rebec and sings, and is an acrobat. He was hired to entertain at a wedding reception but during his performance the guests got rowdy and jostled Liliwin, and a vase is broken. 

The matriarch of the family is a tightfisted old harridan and she refuses to pay Liliwin his full fee, deducting the cost of vase from his pay. This upsets Liliwin and words are exchanged and he leaves. But he comes back later, to speak to the father of the groom, asking to be paid, and is successful.  Liliwin leaves and goes to sleep in the fields since he cannot afford to pay for a room, being a very poor young man.

But the father is attacked soon after Liliwin was there. He gets bashed in the head and robbed, but doesn't see his attacker. The wedding party is still going on and the guests jump to the conclusion that Liliwin was the attacker and set forth in an angry mob to hunt him down. Liliwin hears them coming but manages to escape to the Abbey, where he claims sanctuary. The mob is forced to back off when the Abbot honors Liliwin's claim and give him sanctuary. Claiming sanctuary was an old custom where a person can reside within the safety of a church for about a month. So Liliwin can remain safely within the bounds of the church for forty days while the sheriff's men investigate the attack on Walter Aurifaber, the father of the groom. Of course, the one of the investigators is Brother Cadfael, member of the Abbey and well-known for his investigative skills and herbal concoctions.

Clearly Liliwin is innocent of the attack and the theft of Aurifaber's treasure. It doesn't take long to turn up another likely suspect, the man's own son, Daniel. Even though Daniel is the newlywed, he has lover, a beautiful and greedy young woman who is the wife of a much older man, an older man who often has to travel out of town on business. In order to keep her happy, both men ply her with gifts, the spouse, of course, not aware of Daniel's connection to his wife. The spouse can afford the gifts and trinkets she requires. But Daniel cannot. His tightfisted grandmother keeps control of the family finances and that means Daniel is chronically short of funds. Did his desperation to placate his lover drive him to attack and rob his own father? 

But then someone else turns up dead: a local busybody who was known to stick his pointy nose in other people's business. Was he killed because he knew too much? Or did he try to blackmail the wrong person? Brother Cadfael will root out the murderer and all the secrets too. 

This was an enjoyable read, with an interesting mystery that Cadfael figures out with his usual wit and compassion and his vast knowledge of plants and herbs. 

Here is a review by Kirkus Reviews.