Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker

Review by Cheryl R. (Spuddie)

Although I had a few problems with the book, small annoyances, by the time I finished, I had come to like Bruno and his little village of St Denis very much. I don’t know if it will become a favorite, but I am definitely looking forward to the second in series. Four solid stars!

Blame by Michelle Huneven

Review by Mirah W. (mwelday)

What would happen if an event that changed the course of your life turned out not to have happened the way you thought?  What if there were details you didn’t know?  Would you be the person you became because of the event or would you be fake, just someone portraying who you thought you were supposed to be?

Patsy MacLemoore is a smart, professional woman with a problem: she is an alcoholic who has been known to experience alcohol-induced blackouts.  During one of her blackouts two people are killed and she is found guilty of their deaths.  Patsy’s life changes after this event and she makes choices, some of which are fueled by guilt.  But what is the full story of what happened that night?  I’m not going to tell you here but, as the full story is revealed, Patsy struggles to be honest with herself about all of the motivations behind her choices.

One thing I really like about ‘Blame’ is Huneven carefully crafts and delivers Patsy’s character development.  Patsy’s struggles are relatable; she could be your family member, a friend or neighbor.  Her story is told with honesty and a heavy dose of reality.

I also liked how Huneven started the story with characters other than Patsy.  At first I was confused but then it started to make sense to me.  In my opinion, in the beginning Patsy wasn’t comfortable in her own skin. She was swayed by alcohol and the people around her and didn’t have control of her own life.  So it seemed appropriate for the author to demonstrate that lack of control by not revealing how Patsy fit in the big picture at the beginning of the novel.

After reading this novel, I am definitely going to read other books by Huneven.  My final judgment: ‘Blame’ is worthy of five stars.

The Chalice by Nancy Bilyeau

Review by Jerelyn H. (I-F-Letty)

I enjoyed The Crown so it was a foregone conclusion that I would pick up Ms. Bilyeau’s second novel The Chalice.

Former novice Joanna Stafford is trying to make a life for herself in the village that was once served by Dartford Abbey, all the while facing bigotry and resentment from the villagers.  Many of the Sisters, Brother Edmund, and Constable Geoffrey Scoville, once again populate the pages.  As well as the nemeses that plagued Joanna’s life are back, plus a few more for good measure.  She is once again a pawn in a dangerous game, but one that has a far wider reach than in the last novel.

Bilyeau is a fine writer and she tells a good tale.  She writes with a real knowledge of the Tudor period, and while she takes small liberties now and then with historic figures, it is done with real forethought as it pertains to the arc of the story, so is not gratuitous.  Of course she is going to be more sympathetic to the characters that follow the Church of Rome, Joanna was a novice after all and views life through that belief system.  Bilyleau does a superb job of showing the difficulties that the inhabitance of the religious houses had assimilating back in to a secular society, after the dissolution of the monasteries, especially when the secular society under Henry VIII was so undefined.  There is mysticism and devious plots and love stories and betrayal and through it all Joanna tries to keep her faith.

4 stars 

The Undergound Man by Ross Macdonald

Review by Matt B. (BuffaloSavage)

Ross Macdonald’s complicated plots hinged on PI Lew Archer’s investigations into family backgrounds. Social class, economic hardship, mental illness, and substance abuse pressure families, leading moms to snap, dads to disappear, and kids to dabble in trouble. Macdonald’s stories are all virtually the same, but the concise style plus the social and psychological insights keep us fans reading these uniquely American tragedies.

In The Underground Man, Archer is hired by a distraught mother whose child has possibly been kidnapped by two crazy, mixed up teenagers. Set in about 1970 in California, two specters haunt the setting. The psychedelic drug LSD drives kids to places their minds probably shouldn’t go. Environmental damage is caused by deforestation and wildfires and subsequent landslides as well as oil spills and chemicals  such as DDT. Referring to DDT damaging the eggs of seabirds, he mentions “a generation whose elders had been poisoned … with a kind of moral DDT that damaged the lives of their young.” Indeed, the moral rot and cowardice among the California rich go far beyond one character’s bald advice to small business owners, “The rich never pay their bills.”

The wonder of Macdonald, though, is his Agatha Christie-like talent at misdirection. We readers get so immersed in the calamities that these families must face that the reveal of the perp comes as a complete surprise. Whatever that literary magic thingy is that keeps us reading, engrossed, Macdonald, like Dickens, Christie and Gardner, had it in spades.

Gameboard of the Gods by Richelle Mead

Review by Kelsey O.

I’ve been a loyal fan of Richelle Mead since The Vampire Academy series and this new series did not let me down. The setting for this series is in the future after religious extremists nearly wipe out all of humanity. Now all religious factions and supernatural claims are monitored and investigated by servitors. One such servitor, Justin March, is sent into exile after failing at his job. Now he is being recalled and Mae Koskinen, an enhanced soldier, is sent to bring him back to help solve a string of ritualistic murders which turns into so much more than the two may be able to handle.

In typical Mead fashion we have very fleshed out characters, even the minor ones. Her characters are not perfect and in fact are extremely flawed. Justin is an alcoholic and a druggy and loves to smoke and Mae has severe control issues. The future world that Mead has created isn’t too far out of my comfort zone and I could picture what she wrote. One thing that is obvious is that these Gods need people to worship them and since they aren’t getting it they are going to act out and make sure someone notices.

From page one I was absorbed into this world and I look forward to the next installment. Since The Gameboard of Gods focused more on the development of the characters I do hope the next one has more of a storyline. Well worth the read and definitely different than anything she has written before and is catered towards adults and for people with an open mind (and don’t compare this to her Vampire Academy series).

Blood Between Queens by Barbara Kyle

Review by Kelsey O.

Justine Grenville, the ward of Richard Thornleigh, is tasked with a very important mission on behalf of Elizabeth I. She must befriend Elizabeth’s cousin Mary, Queen of Scots and report back any suspicious behavior. To do this will win her great favor with her betrothed, Will Thornleigh. She must prove that she is a loyal Protestant and deny her Catholic upbringing. After someone from her past makes an appearance, her faith is put to the test.

Though the characters are engaging, the plot line was a bit predictable. It did however have everything that I love about a good Tudor novel, schemes and betrayal. Each page brought the reader further into the intrigue but also at times got a bit complicated with the abundance of characters that come in and out and obviously have a back story but this being the fifth novel the reader is unaware exactly what it is.

Even with the few downsides to Blood Between Queens, I would still recommend this to all Tudor era readers. The blend of historical facts and Barbara Kyle’s imagination flows seamlessly and at times you can picture yourself standing in the halls alongside Elizabeth I.

Murder in Venice by Thomas Sterling

Review by Matt B. (BuffaloSavage)

Victorian and Edwardian mystery writers often set stories in atmospheric Italy. John Meade Falkner set The Lost Stradivarius in the notorious city of Naples to showcase those paganistical Italians, about whose Catholic festivals an English character sniffs, “I cannot, however, conceive of any truly religious person countenancing such a gathering, which seemed to me rather like the unclean orgies of a heathen deity than an act of faith of Christian people.”

In 1878 Wilkie Collins released the novel of sensation, The Haunted Hotel, A Mystery of Modern Venice. Much of the action takes place in a dilapidated palace, which is the same colorful setting as the 1955 novel on review here Murder in Venice a.k.a. The Evil of the Day.

Rich but aging Cecil Fox summons three friends from the past to his dazzling manse in Venice.  Anson Sims is a miser, Henry Voltor trades on his family name, and wealthy Mrs. Sheridan keeps anxiety at bay with constant travel and tyranny over her companion and all other service providers. All three are greedy to inherit Fox’s millions. So in true Venetian style they parry, thrust, and stab among themselves in order to get in position to scoop up the money, manse, and furnishings. Just think of how the Venetians looted the Byzantines and you’ve got it.

Fox hires a male secretary William Fieramosca to manage the party with the three greed-heads and the comely companion Celia Johns. One of Fox’s guests dies during the night. The mystery is very deep, the detecting negligible. Sterling’s description of rooms, furniture, pictures, the canals and gardens is the main attraction. The ultimate praise: The moody and distinctive ambiance made me want to visit Venice, something I’d little interest in doing before I read this novel.

Anthony Boucher, mystery writer and critic for the New York Times said in a review of this novel, “There is the opulent atmosphere of an ancient city erected upon wealth and death. There is prose as witty and subtle as it is sharp and clear. There are characters unconventionally conceived and richly bodied forth. This is, in short, a novel to be treasured.” Boucher, I think, was generous in his reviews of fellow writers but he did not over-sell.