When I get home from work tonight I’ll do what any parent would do which is hug him tight, smother him in kisses then look him square in the eye and tell him if he scares me again like that by all that’s holy there will be hell to pay.

Thank you to everyone who passed along their thoughts that our boy would be reunited with his family. For now we have a Happily Ever After ending.

Devi man you are loved and missed.

Here’s what others are saying:

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The daughter of a papermaker in a small French village in the year 1320—mute from birth and forced to shun normal society—young Auda finds solace and escape in the wonder of the written word. Believed to be cursed by those who embrace ignorance and superstition, Auda’s very survival is a testament to the strength of her spirit. But this is an age of Inquisition and intolerance, when difference and defiance are punishable “sins” and new ideas are considered damnable heresy. When darkness descends upon her world, Auda—newly grown to womanhood—is forced to flee, setting off on a remarkable quest to discover love and a new sense of self . . . and to reclaim her heritage and the small glory of her father’s art.

Whereas The Empty Mirror was all about solving murder using criminology in its early days before all the high tech equipment and methods of today Requiem in Vienna is more about indulging the author’s passion for Vienna and all things Viennese. Mr. Jones is so knowledgeable about Viennese culture and history at times I feel I’m over-immersed in time and place (what they had for each meal, where they ate those meals or drank their coffee). For me Requiem in Vienna was a lot of detail and little substance. ** If you do read the series I recommend reading them in order as it will give you the background and relationships for the main characters.

At first it seemed like a series of accidents plagued Vienna’s Court Opera. But after a singer is killed during rehearsals of a new production, the evidence suggests something much more dangerous. Someone is trying to murder the famed conductor and composer Gustav Mahler. Worse, Mahler might not be the first musical genius to be dispatched by this unknown killer.

Alma Schindler, one of Mahler’s many would-be mistresses, asks the lawyer and aspiring private investigator Karl Werthen to stop the attacks. With the help of his new wife, Berthe and his old friend, the ground-breaking criminologist Hans Gross, Werthen delves into Vienna’s rich society of musicians to discover the identity of the person who has targeted one of Austria’s best-known artists. Soon Werthen discovers that Mahler might not be the first musical genius to be dispatched by this unknown killer. With the recent deaths of Johann Strauss and Johannes Brahms, the investigators fear a madman is killing the great musicians of Vienna.

Requiem in Vienna was provided to me by Bridget at Minotaur Books. I was not paid and this book is being donated to my local library

Milo Weaver used to be a “tourist” for the CIA—an undercover agent with no home, no identity—but he’s since retired from the field to become a middle-level manager at the CIA’s New York headquarters. He’s acquired a wife, a daughter, and a brownstone in Brooklyn, and he’s tried to leave his old life of secrets and lies behind.

But when the arrest of a long-sought-after assassin sets off an investigation into one of Milo’s oldest colleagues and exposes new layers of intrigue in his old cases, he has no choice but to go back undercover and find out who’s holding the strings once and for all.

The Tourist was provided to me by a publicist at Minotaur Books (unsolicited request). I was not paid and this book is looking for a new home. If you’d like my copy leave a comment. )

An illiterate slave, Dred Scott trusted in an all-white, slave-owning jury to declare him free. But after briefly experiencing the glory of freedom and manhood, a new state Supreme Court ordered the cold steel of the shackles to be closed again around his wrists and ankles. Falling to his knees, Dred cried, “Ain’t I a man?” Dred answered his own question by rising and taking his fight to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Dred ultimately lost his epic battle when the Chief Justice declared that a black man was so inferior that he had “no rights a white man was bound to respect.”

Dred died not knowing that his undying courage led directly to the election of President Abraham Lincoln and the emancipation proclamation.

Dred Scott’s inspiring and compelling true story of adventure, courage, love, hatred, and friendship parallels the history of this nation from the long night of slavery to the narrow crack in the door that would ultimately lead to freedom and equality for all men.

Am I Not A Man? The Dred Scott Story was provided to me by Tristi at Valor Publishing Group. I was not paid and this book is being passed along to the another book blogger through Read It Forward )

Meredith and Nina Whitson are as different as sisters can be. One stayed at home to raise her children and manage the family apple orchard; the other followed a dream and traveled the world to become a famous photojournalist. But when their beloved father falls ill, Meredith and Nina find themselves together again, standing alongside their cold, disapproving mother, Anya, who even now, offers no comfort to her daughters. As children, the only connection between them was the Russian fairy tale Anya sometimes told the girls at night. On his deathbed, their father extracts a promise from the women in his life: the fairy tale will be told one last time—and all the way to the end. Thus begins an unexpected journey into the truth of Anya’s life in war-torn Leningrad, more than five decades ago. Alternating between the past and present, Meredith and Nina will finally hear the singular, harrowing story of their mother’s life, and what they learn is a secret so terrible and terrifying that it will shake the very foundation of their family and change who they believe they are.

Winter Garden was provided to me by Nicole at Authors on the Web. I was not paid and this book is being passed along to the another book blogger through Read It Forward )

He Can Only Truly Love Her Once Her Heart Stops

Homicide Detective Taylor Jackson thinks she’s seen it all in Nashville—from the Southern Strangler to the Snow White Killer. But she’s never seen anything as perverse as the Conductor. Once his victim is captured, he contains her in a glass coffin, slowly starving her to death. Only then does he give in to his attraction.

When he’s finished, he creatively disposes of the body by reenacting scenes from famous paintings. And it seems similar macabre works are being displayed in Europe. Taylor teams up with her fiancé, FBI profiler Dr. John Baldwin, and a New Scotland Yard detective named James “Memphis” Highsmythe, a haunted man who only has eyes for Taylor, to put an end to the Conductor’s art collection.

Has the killer gone international with his craft? Or are there dueling artists, competing to create the ultimate masterpiece?

(The Cold Room was provided to me by TJ at Planned Television Arts. I was not paid. This book doesn’t have a home yet so the first reader to tell me they want it can have it )

At the age of fourteen, Catherine de Medici, last legitimate descendant of the Medici blood, finds herself betrothed to the King Francois I’s son, Henri. Sent from her native Florence to France, humiliated and overshadowed by her husband’s life-long devotion to his mistress, when tragedy strikes her family Catherine rises from obscurity to become one of 16th century Europe’s most powerful women.

Patroness of Nostradamus and a seer in her own right, accused of witchcraft and murder by her foes, Catherine fights to save France and her children from savage religious conflict, unaware that her own fate looms before her — a fate that will demand the sacrifice of her ideals, her reputation, and passion of her own embattled heart.

From the splendors of the Loire palaces to the blood-soaked battles of the Wars of Religion and haunted halls of the Louvre, this is the story of Catherine’s dramatic life, told by the queen herself.

(The Confessions of Catherine de Medici was provided to me by Quinne at Ballantine Books, a division of Random House. I was not paid and this book is being passed along to the another book blogger through Read It Forward )

Spanning the 20th century, the story of Roses takes place in a small East Texas town against the backdrop of the powerful timber and cotton industries, industries controlled by the scions of the town’s founding families. Cotton tycoon Mary Toliver and timber magnate Percy Warwick should have married but unwisely did not, and now must deal with the deceit, secrets, and tragedies of their choice and the loss of what might have been–not just for themselves but for their children, and children’s children.

(Roses 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 )