• My rating: Excellent (based on entertainment value not historical accuracy which I don’t read for)
• New-to-me author: Yes
• Would I read more from this author: Yes

Title: Legacy: The Acclaimed Novel of Elizabeth, England’s Most Passionate Queen and the Three Men Who Loved Her
Author/website: Susan Kay
Publisher: Publisher: Sourcebooks
Publication date & page count: July ’10 (org. pub date 1985) & 662 pages

Kay’s prodigious research buttresses this robust historical romance, winner of Britain’s Georgette Heyer Historical Novel Prize and the Betty Trask Prize for a first novel. England’s greatest Queen is presented from an intriguing psychological viewpoint Elizabeth I’s need for men and the bondage endured by those she chose. Freely mixing the verifiable with the imagined, Kay traces Elizabeth’s rise from lonely childhood to lonely eminence. In the person of Robert Dudley, later Leicester, she creates a romantic fulcrum for Elizabeth’s womanliness, delineating the childhood affection for Dudley that flowered in clandestine liaison and may be the closest Elizabeth came to a loving relationship. All of the Court’s intriguing personnel from the ubiquitous, conniving Cecils to the presumptive upstart, Essexare drawn with care; the turbulence of the period, filled with violent deaths, challenges from abroad, pragmatic liaisons, is conveyed with verisimilitude; the rich tapestry of the Tudor ascendancy is woven with colorful threads. It is, however, the depiction of a woman of whom “half the wives of England were jealous” that lingers.

• My rating: Very good/excellent (based on entertainment value not historical accuracy which I don’t read for)
• New-to-me author: Yes
• Would I read more from this author: Yes

Title: Lady of the Butterflies
Author/website: Fiona Mountain
Publisher: Publisher: Putnam, a division of the Penguin Group
Publication date & page count: July ’10 & 527 pages

From page 197 of Lady of the Butterflies

“I love my husband,” I said firmly. “I love Edmund.”
“I love Edmund too,” he echoed savagely. “I’ve known him all my life. His father and my father knew each other all their lives. Do not think I am not tortured by guilt for this, for how I feel about you. But I cannot help myself. I cannot help it that for these past months I have tossed and turned in my bed every night for longing for Edmund’s little wife. Nell, I have never wanted a woman as I want you.”

Set in Somerset and London during the turbulent time of the Restoration, Lady of the Butterflies is a dramatic tale of passion, prejudice and death by poison, of riot and rebellion, science and superstition, madness and metamorphosis. It is also about the beauty of butterflies, about hope, transformation and redemption.
Eleanor is the daughter of a strict puritan and Roundhead major and lives in a medieval manor on the bleak wetlands of Somerset. Her longing for colour and brightness leads to an obsession with butterflies as well as to an illicit passion for charismatic but troubled Richard Glanville. Richard, the son of an exiled Cavalier, embodies all that Eleanor had been taught to despise and distrust, but he also holds for her all the allure of the forbidden. Her first husband dies, seemingly poisoned, freeing Eleanor and Richard to marry. But can their love survive suspicion and prejudice, a bloody rebellion which makes them bitter enemies, and a superstitious community that stirs up hatred towards her for her love of butterflies? It seems the only peace she can find is in her long-lasting friendship with renowned naturalist James Petiver, a clever young London apothecary who is credited as the father of British entomology. But when Eleanor and Richard’s son becomes apprenticed to James, tragedy strikes, and Eleanor is forced to embark on a dangerous search for her son that is entwined with a personal quest for truth, freedom and love.

• My rating: Very good/excellent
• New-to-me author: Yes
• Would I read more from this author: Yes; looking forward to reading Alchemy’s Daughter, (Alchemy, book #2)

Title: Nonna’s Book of Mysteries (Alchemy, book #1)
Author/website: Mary Osborne
Publisher: Publisher: Lake Street Press
Publication date & page count: June ’10 & 320 pages

From page 165 & 166 of Nonna’s Book of Mysteries

Then, recalling the unpleasant encounter between her husband-to-be and Giacomo Massarino, she told herself that Franco’s jealous impulses would abate in time. Surely Franco would eventually see that her relationship with Giacomo posed no threat. It was true that she and Giacomo had formed a bond through their love of painting. Emilia had to admit that this could be difficult for Franco, but she would reassure him of her loyalty. As time progressed, they would both grow more confident in their mutual affection for one another and such misunderstandings would be a thing of the past.

At age fourteen, all Emilia Serafini wants is to learn to paint so that she can become an artist. But painters’ apprenticeships for young women don’t exist in the Florence of Renaissance Italy. The odds appear stacked against her until she receives a fascinating book, A Manual to the Science of Alchemy. It was once her grandmother’s and Emilia turns again and again to the Manual for guidance.

When Emilia meets the wealthy, brooding Franco Villani, her life takes a thrilling, but dangerous turn. Franco will do anything to win a place in the court of the powerful Cosimo de’ Medici. Well aware that Cosimo prizes ancient manuscripts above all, Franco realizes Emilia’s Manual would be invaluable to him in more ways than one.

Infused with the mysticism of alchemy, Nonna’s Book of Mysteries is an exciting portrait of a young woman who defies convention to seek her destiny

From page 149 of The Dog Park Club

“But we are,” Wolfy said. “We are there.”
Everyone in the room became still at these three words. We are there. The crystalline truth of it resonated in a pure, clear pitch. Everyone turned to slowly look at Wolf. They regarded the slender, soft-spoken man – the foreign man – with his careful words.
“We are here, Wolfman,” Ed said. “And whoever took Amy didn’t figure on us.”

Max Bravo, a wise-cracking gay opera singer, and his best friend, advertising whiz Claudia Fantini, who’s heartbroken that her husband wants a divorce, find solace taking the husband’s dog, Asta, to a Berkeley, Calif., dog park. There Claudia and Max hang out with a variety of fellow dog lovers, including a hoary-headed Vietnam vet, a sartorially offensive software engineer from Barcelona, and bank loan officer Amy Carter, who’s pregnant. After the popular Amy vanishes and the police fail to find her, Max and company, including Max’s visiting German boyfriend, investigate, staking out Amy’s house because they suspect her husband has killed her.

• My rating: Excellent
• New-to-me author: No
• Would I read more from this author: Yes

Title: Blood Harvest
Author/website: S.J. Bolton
Publisher: Publisher: Minotaur
Publication date & page count: June ’10 & 421 pages

From page 151 of Blood Harvest

He realized he was screaming. Then he was running. Then he was screaming in his mother’s voice. And in his dad’s voice. He was yelling ‘Tom, Tom, where are you?’ and she was chasing him, she was coming after him and run, it was all he could do, run, run, run.
And hide.
Everything was quiet. Cold. Wet. He had no idea where he was, but he knew he was somewhere dark and damp. He was lying down, but had no idea whether he’d fallen or jun run out of breath. He was panting as if he’d never get enough air into his lungs ever again. Something hard was digging into his ribs but he didn’t dare move.
‘Tom!’
His dad’s voice. He was close by. Except … was it? Was it him?
‘Daddee.’ A soft voice, low and teasing, like a kid playing hid and seek. A voice that sounded – oh God – exactly like . . .

The Fletchers’ beautiful new house is everything they dreamed it would be. Built between two churches in Heptonclough, a small village on the moors that time forgot, it ought to be paradise for this young family of five, but they barely have a chance to settle in before they find that they’re anything but welcome. Someone seems to be trying to drive them away–at first with silly pranks but then with threats that become increasingly dangerous, especially to the oldest child, ten-year-old Tom Fletcher, who begins to believe that someone is always watching him.

The adults in Tom’s life are trying to help, including his parents; the vicar next door, younger and more dashing than you’d expect a vicar to be; and a therapist, Evi Oliver, who believes him more than she wants to. But there are other clues that something isn’t quite right in Heptonclough, including the mysterious accidental deaths of three toddlers over the last ten years. It is not until Tom’s siblings, two-year-old Milly and five-year-old Joe Fletcher, go missing in turn that the little village’s evil secret turns the Fletchers’ dreams into a nightmare.

• My rating: Very good/excellent (based on entertainment value not historical accuracy which I don’t read for)
• New-to-me author: Yes
• Would I read more from this author: Yes

Title: Poison: A Novel of the Renaissance
Author/website: Sara Poole
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication date & page count: August ’10 & 388 pages

From page 185 of Poison

Vittoro nodded. “Borgia has left instructions that the edict isn’t to go anywhere without his permission, but by morning —

He left the rest unsaid yet I was hopeful all the same. The Vatican was a bureaucracy to rival any in the world. Morozzi could utter all the demands he liked in the name of the Pope, but proper form had to be followed. Some official would have to be awakened and the situation explained to him. That person in turn would have to send word to Borgia, who would have to be found. My guess is that he would be spending the night in fair Giulia’s bed rather than his own. Once he was located, he would have to array himself properly — Il Cardinale never went anywhere without due regard for his dignity.

In the simmering hot summer of 1492, a monstrous evil is stirring in the Eternal City of Rome. The brutal murder of an alchemist sets off a desperate race to uncover the plot that threatens to extinguish the light of the Renaissance and plunge Europe back into medieval darkness.

Determined to avenge the killing of her father, Francesca Giordano defies all convention to claim for herself the position of professional poisoner serving Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, head of the most notorious and dangerous family in Italy. She becomes the confidante of Lucrezia Borgia and the lover of Cesare Borgia. At the same time, she is drawn to the young renegade monk who longs to save her life and her soul.

Pursuing her father’s killer from the depths of Rome’s Jewish ghetto to the heights of the Vatican itself, this mistress of the dark is driven to confront the innermost demons that stand between her and the light for which she yearns.

• My rating: Very good/excellent
• New-to-me author: Yes
• Would I read more from this author: Yes

Title: Through the Cracks
Author/website: Barbara Fister
Publisher: Minotaur
Publication date & page count: May ’10 & 305 pages

From page 152 of Through The Cracks

He laughed, astonished. “What, you have one of your cop friends look me up? I thought that was illegal, using police records for civilian purposes.”
“I read about it in the newspaper.”
“Ought to know better than to believe everything you read in the papers.”
“How did you avoid doing time on a weapons charge?”
“It wasn’t my gun.”
“I thought maybe you had friends in high place.”
“Enemies, more like. People in high places don’t want to hear what I have to say.”

When Chicago private investigator Anni Koskinen takes on a new client, she finds herself working on an impossible case. After spending twenty years in prison, a black man convicted in a notorious rape case has had his sentence overturned. The victim wants to know who was really responsible for the crime that scarred her life. But even if Anni can find out who committed the brutal crime decades ago, a conviction will be impossible – unless the rapist has struck again.

The resourceful victim has uncovered evidence that a serial rapist may still be at work, attacking women with ferocious anger. But as Anni digs deeper, the politically ambitious State’s Attorney who prosecuted the original rape case insists that the conviction was solid, He believes there was no miscarriage of justice—other than that a violent felon has been released on a technicality.

As Anni’s cold case heats up, her friend Dugan, a CPD detective, is involved in a heater case of his own. An undocumented Mexican gang member has been arrested for the murder of a missing woman whose uncertain fate has gripped the city and fueled anti-immigrant sentiment.

As both investigations unfold, the impact of racial prejudice radiates cracks through the criminal justice system. And it is through those cracks that Anni must try to glimpse the truth.

• My rating: Good/very good
• New-to-me author: Yes
• Would I read more from this author: Yes

Title: The Ninth Step: A Jack Leightner Crime Novel
Author/website: Gabriel Cohen
Publisher: Minotaur
Publication date & page count: May ’10 & 274 pages

From page 137 of The Ninth Step

He continued up the driveway, then paused to dig in his pockets. He caught his reflection in the glass outer door; he looked exhausted and disheveled. With difficulty, he managed to locate his keys. After he pulled the key ring out, he accidentally dropped it on the asphalt. As he bent down to pick it up, he heard a sharp thwack overhead. A chunk of brick fell at his feet and some crumbs of it landed on his hair. He looked up, dazed with lack of sleep — had it fallen off the top of the building? He didn’t see anything up there. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a stranger moving up the driveway toward him, a stern fellow with severely short hair, holding up a long, thin wrapped bundle. Farther off, he saw the back door of the contractor’s van hanging open in the street. A flash and muffled sound came out of the front of the bundle and then Nadim heard another thwack on the wall next to him.

Homicide detective Jack Leightner’s brother was killed in a mugging in 1965, an incident Jack always blamed on himself. Now a stranger tells him that he was a member of a gang that had been hired by a local Mafioso to mug the two boys. The man doesn’t know why. The next morning, Jack is investigating a murder in a local deli by a Pakistani man. A security camera taped the assault, and Jack is confident he will soon wrap up the case. Then Homeland Security steps in, saying the man is an Islamic fundamentalist wanted for terrorist activity. Jack struggles to stay in the loop, while also seeking the true cause of his brother’s death.

• My rating: Good/solid debut for this author
• Would I read more from this author: Yes

Title: Saving Max
Author/website: Antoinette van Heugten
Publisher: MIRA
Publication date & page count: September ’10 & 375 pages

From page 186 of Saving Max

The insignificance of the discrepancy reminds her that she has found nothing to disprove the overwhelming evidence that continues to stack up against Max. She studies the paper. Dr. Boris Jojanovich is probably some specialist Marianne took Jonas to. Maybe he can shed some light on whether or not Jonas was suicidal. The medical examiner did say that the angle of the wounds was such that they could have been caused by Jonas – even though it is an extremely remote possibility. If she can find some factual basis for this, perhaps it will counterbalance the preponderance of evidence against Max.

What would a loving mother not do for her child?

Lawyer Danielle Parkman is at her wits’ end. Her son Max, a whip-smart teen with high-functioning autism, has always been a handful. But lately he’s shutting down, using drugs and lashing out – violently.

Desperate, Danielle brings Max to a top-flight psychiatric facility for a full assessment. But rather than reassurance, Danielle receives an agonizing diagnosis describing a deeply damaged, dangerous boy – one she’s never met.

Then Danielle finds Max unconscious and bloodied at the feet of a patient who has been brutally stabbed to death. A fiercely protective mother instinct rears its head – and Danielle is arrested as an accessory to the heinous crime.

In a baffling netherworld of doubt and fear, barred from contacting her son, Danielle clings to the thought of Max’s innocence. But has she, too, lost touch with reality? Is her baby boy really a killer?

With the justice system bearing down on them both, Danielle steels herself to discover the truth – no matter how horrifying. It’s a path well on the wrong side of the law. But only finding the true killer will absolve her from having to choose between her son and her soul.