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Archive for the ‘Pleasure Reading’ Category

Title: Deliver Us From Evil
Author/website(s): David Baldacci
406 pages
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publication date: April ‘10
Genre: Suspense/thriller
Review book or pleasure reading: Pleasure reading
New-to-me author: Oh no, Mr. Baldacci has been on my favorite authors/auto-buy list since his very 1st novel Absolute Power
Would I recommend this book: You betcha
Would I read more from this author: Absolutely
Journal notes: Pleasure reading – no review.

Evan Waller is a monster. He has built a fortune from his willingness to buy and sell anything . . . and anyone. In search of new opportunities, Waller has just begun a new business venture: one that could lead to millions of deaths all over the globe.

On Waller’s trail is Shaw, the mysterious operative from The Whole Truth, who must prevent Waller from closing his latest deal. Shaw’s one chance to bring him down will come in the most unlikely of places: a serene, bucolic village in Provence.

But Waller’s depravity and ruthlessness go deeper than Shaw knows. And now, there is someone else pursuing Waller in Provence-Reggie Campion, an agent for a secret vigilante group headquartered in a musty old English estate-and she has an agenda of her own.

Hunting the same man and unaware of each other’s mission, Shaw and Reggie will be caught in a deadly duel of nerve and wits.

Deliver Us From Evil was provided to me by Miriam at Hachette Book Group. I was not paid and this book is being passed along to the another book blogger through Read It Forward

Title: Bellfield Hall: Or, The Observations of Miss Dido Kent (Dido Kent, book #1)
Author/website(s): Anna Dean
300 pages
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Publication date: February ‘10
Genre: Historical mystery
Review book or pleasure reading: Pleasure reading
New-to-me author: Yes
Would I recommend this book: Definitely
Would I read more from this author: Yes; I’m looking forward to reading the Dido Kent mystery which appears to be A Gentleman of Fortune
Journal notes: Pleasure reading – no review though I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun I had spending time with Dido as I don’t usually enjoy old english style mysteries.

In September 1805, Dido journeys to Bellfield Hall, the country seat of the Montague family, at the request of her niece, Catherine, who’s upset that her fiancé, Richard Montague, has suddenly broken their engagement and taken flight. Soon after arriving at Bellfield Hall, Dido learns of an even more distressing event—the discovery of the body of an unknown young woman in the shrubbery. In the Miss Marple tradition, Dido observes the residents of Bellfield Hall closely, questions the servants, and interviews local shopkeepers. Excerpts from letters the likable Dido writes to her sister further illuminate her sleuthing methods. Several red herrings keep the reader and Dido guessing. Regency fans will look forward to the next installment..

Bellfield Hall was provided to me by Bridget at Minotaur Books. I was not paid and this book is being passed along to the another book blogger through Read It Forward

Title: The Last Child
Author/website(s): John Hart
416 pages
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Publication date: March ‘10
Genre: Suspense
Review book or pleasure reading: Pleasure reading
New-to-me author: Yes
Would I recommend this book: Most definitely
Would I read more from this author: I have another of Mr. Hart’s novels, The King of Lies, on my Kindle right now. I imagine it’ll be moving towards the top of the TBR pile.
Journal notes: Pleasure reading – no review. I will say this: I couldn’t put it down and the author took me places I never expected Johnny’s story to go.

Thirteen year-old Johnny Merrimon had the perfect life: a warm home and loving parents; a twin sister, Alyssa, with whom he shared an irreplaceable bond. He knew nothing of loss, until the day Alyssa vanished from the side of a lonely street. Now, a year later, Johnny finds himself isolated and alone, failed by the people he’d been taught since birth to trust. No one else believes that Alyssa is still alive, but Johnny is certain that she is—confident in a way that he can never fully explain.

Determined to find his sister, Johnny risks everything to explore the dark side of his hometown. It is a desperate, terrifying search, but Johnny is not as alone as he might think. Detective Clyde Hunt has never stopped looking for Alyssa either, and he has a soft spot for Johnny. He watches over the boy and tries to keep him safe, but when Johnny uncovers a dangerous lead and vows to follow it, Hunt has no choice but to intervene.

Then a second child goes missing . . .

Undeterred by Hunt’s threats or his mother’s pleas, Johnny enlists the help of his last friend, and together they plunge into the wild, to a forgotten place with a history of violence that goes back more than a hundred years. There, they meet a giant of a man, an escaped convict on his own tragic quest. What they learn from him will shatter every notion Johnny had about the fate of his sister; it will lead them to another far place, to a truth that will test both boys to the limit.

The Last Child was provided to me by a publicist at Minotaur Books. I was not paid and this book is being passed along to the another book blogger through Read It Forward

Title: The Empty Mirror (Viennese Mystery, book#1)
Author/website(s): J. Sydney Jones
310 pages
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Publication date: January ‘10
Genre: Historical mystery
Review book or pleasure reading: Pleasure reading
New-to-me author: Yes
Would I recommend this book: Definitely
Would I read more from this author: I have book #2 in the series, Requiem in Vienna, sitting on my review shelf right now. I’m very much looking forward to reading the second book.
Journal notes: Pleasure reading – no review though the author presents an intriguing premise of tying seemingly random fictional murders to factual historical events.

Fin-de-siecle Vienna comes to life in this colorful historical thriller featuring the artist Gustav Klimt

It’s the summer of 1898 and Austria is transfixed by a series of brutal murders. When renowned painter Gustav Klimt’s female model becomes the fifth victim, the artist is fingered as the culprit. Klimt’s lawyer, Werthen and his friend, the famed criminologist Inspector Gross must delve into a nationwide conspiracy in order to acquit the unusual and unpredictable artiste. With an unmatched knowledge of Vienna’s history, culture, and politics, J. Sydney Jones introduces a gripping new mystery series set in a cosmopolitan city at the height of its artistic and social importance.

The Empty Mirror was provided to me by Bridget at Minotaur Books. I was not paid and this book is being passed along to the another book blogger through Read It Forward

Title: The Stones Cry Out
Author/website(s): Sibella Giorello
267 pages
Publisher: Revell
Publication date: January ‘07
Genre: Police procedural/faith-based author
Review book or pleasure reading: Pleasure reading
New-to-me author: Yes
Would I recommend this book: Maybe
Would I read more from this author: I do have book #3 in this series, The Clouds Roll Away coming to me as a review book so I will be reading book #2, The Rivers Run Dry.
Journal notes: Pleasure reading – no review though I found the story a bit slow for me.

When nobody talks… the stones cry out.

During a rally in the searing heat of a Virginia summer, two men plummet from a building into the crowd below. The victims are a white police officer and a young black man with a troubled past. And though hundreds of people stood at the scene, nobody saw what happened. Or are they just not talking? FBI agent Raleigh Harmon, one of Richmond’s own, has to solve the case—fast.

The Bureau wants a quick verdict, with or without the truth. But with tight-lipped witnesses, Raleigh must rely on her instincts and her training in forensic geology to uncover the facts. Working her connections with the city’s powerful families and its seedy underbelly, Raleigh is determined to see justice prevail. Will she solve the case before the growing racial unrest rages out of control? Or will her choices ultimately bring down everyone involved—including Raleigh herself?

Title: The Vanishing Point
Author/website(s): Mary Sharratt
364 pages
Publisher: Mariner Books
Publication date: June ‘06
Genre: Historical fiction
Review book or pleasure reading: Pleasure reading
New-to-me author: Yes
Would I recommend this book: Probably
Would I read more from this author: Looking forward to reading her newest coming this April, Daughters of Witching Hill
Journal notes: Pleasure reading – no review.

In the tradition of Philippa Gregory’s smart, transporting fiction comes this tale of dark suspense, love, and betrayal, featuring two star-crossed sisters, one lost and the other searching.

Bright and inquisitive, Hannah Powers was raised by a father who treated her as if she were his son. While her beautiful and reckless sister, May, pushes the limits of propriety in their small English town, Hannah harbors her own secret: their father has given her an education forbidden to women. But Hannah’s secret serves her well when she journeys to colonial Maryland to reunite with May, who has been married off to a distant cousin after her sexual misadventures ruined her marriage prospects in England.

As Hannah searches for May, who has disappeared, she finds herself falling in love with her brother-in-law. Alone in a wild, uncultivated land where the old rules no longer apply, Hannah is freed from the constraints of the society that judged both her and May as dangerous – too smart, too fearless, and too hungry for life. But Hannah is also plagued by doubt, as her quest for answers to May’s fate grows ever more disturbing and tangled.

Title: Lady of Milkweed Manor
Author/website(s): Julie Klassen
416 pages
Publisher: Bethany House
Publication date: January ‘08
Genre: Historical fiction, faith-based (faith does not dominate the storyline)
Review book or pleasure reading: Pleasure reading
New-to-me author: Yes
Would I recommend this book: Undecided (I wasn’t very interested in some of the subject matter: wet-nursing/childcare)
Would I read more from this author: I have Ms. Klassen’s second novel, The Apothecary’s Daughter on my Kindle as it was also offered as free eBook.
Journal notes: Pleasure reading – no review.

Even a proper vicar’s daughter can make a mistake…and now Charlotte Lamb must pay a high price for her fall. To avoid the prying eyes of all who know her, she hides herself away in London’s forbidding “Milkweed Manor,” a place of mystery and lore, of old secrets and new birth.

But once there, she comes face to face with a suitor from her past–a man who now hides secrets of his own. Both are determined, with God’s help, to protect those they love. But neither can imagine the depth of sacrifice that will be required.

Sprinkled with fascinating details about the lives of women in Regency England, Lady of Milkweed Manor is a moving romantic drama about the redemption of past failings and the beauty of sacrificial love.

Title: Judas Kiss (Taylor Jackson, book #3)
Author/website(s): J.T. Ellison
410 pages
Publisher: Mira
Publication date: January ‘09
Genre: Police procedural
Review book or pleasure reading: Pleasure reading
New-to-me author: No
Would I recommend this book: If you love this genre than a resounding yes
Would I read more from this author: Yes, book #4, The Cold Room is sitting on my review shelf right now.
Journal notes: Pleasure reading – no review.

It was a murder made for TV: a trail of tiny bloody footprints. An innocent toddler playing beside her mother’s bludgeoned body.

Pretty young Corinne Wolff, seven months pregnant, brutally murdered in her own home. Cameras and questions don’t usually faze Nashville Homicide Lieutenant Taylor Jackson, but the media frenzy surrounding the Wolff case is particularly nasty… and thorough.

When the seemingly model mommy is linked to an amateur porn website with underage actresses and unwitting players, the sharks begin to circle.

The shock is magnified when an old adversary uses the sexy secret footage to implicate Taylor in a murder – an accusation that threatens her career, her reputation and her relationship.

Both cases hinge on the evidence – real or manufactured – of crimes that go beyond passion, into the realm of obsessive vengeance and shocking betrayal.

Just what the networks love.

Title: Secrets of the Tudor Court: The Pleasure Palace
Author/website(s): Kate Emerson
400 pages
Publisher: Pocket
Publication date: February ‘09
Genre: Historical fiction
Review book or pleasure reading: Pleasure reading
New-to-me author: Yes
Would I recommend this book: Probably
Would I read more from this author: Yes
Journal notes: Pleasure reading – no review.

Jane Popyngcourt was brought to the English court of Henry VII as a child to be a companion to his daughters—the princesses Margaret and Mary. With no money of her own, Jane could not hope for marriage, but as she grows into a seductively beautiful young woman, she receives flattering attention from virile young courtiers and even from the handsome new king, Henry VIII, who has recently married Catherine of Aragon. Then a dashing French prisoner of war, cousin to the king of France, is brought to London, and Jane finds she cannot help giving some of her heart—and more—to a man she can never marry. The Tudor court is filled with dangers as well as seductions, and there are mysteries surrounding Jane’s birth that have left her with deadly enemies. She must follow a perilous path in her search for answers and risk even more to have a chance at happiness.

Title: 14
Author/website(s): J.T. Ellison
416 pages
Publisher: Mira
Publication date: September ‘08
Genre: Police procedural
Review book or pleasure reading: Pleasure reading
New-to-me author: No
Would I recommend this book: Yes
Would I read more from this author: Definitely, book #4 (The Cold Room) is sitting on the review shelf right now.
Journal notes: Pleasure reading – no review. If you’re a fan of police procedurals J.T. Ellison is a must read.

Ten victims, each with pale skin and long dark hair. All have been slashed across the throat, the same red lipstick smeared across their lips.

In the mid-1980s the Snow White Killer terrorized the streets of Nashville, Tennessee. Then suddenly the murders stopped. A letter from the killer to the police stated that his work was done.

Now four more bodies are found, marked with his fatal signature. The residents of Nashville fear a madman has returned, decades later, to finish his sick fairy tale.

Homicide Lieutenant Taylor Jackson believes the killings are the work of a copycat killer who’s even more terrifying. For this monster is meticulously honing his craft as he mimics famous serial murders…proving that the past is not to be forgotten.