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Sword Breaker by Victoria Aveyard
More racing around the Ward trying to close Spindles while the bad guys open more spindles. There is a lot of walking and riding and sailing to the different corners of the land. Lots of battles. Plenty of chapters of sitting around the campfire discussing problems. But there are some inventive battle sequences. I'm waiting for one couple to get over their hate relationship and realize they love each other.
I'll read more. By the time the next book comes out, I will most likely have forgotten all the characters.
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Wrongful Death by Robert Dugoni
This is the 2nd book in the David Sloane series. Sloane has relocated to Seattle with his now wife/former secretary Tina. Just before he is to on a vacation to Cancun he comes across a wrongful death lawsuit about a sergeant killed in Iraq. At issue was whether he had the proper bullet proof vest. But it's not just the vest other things are wrong about how he was killed. And then other members of his squad end up dead. Things are going badly.
Sloane brings in his new friend Jenkins from the Eighth Sister novels to help him. I can't wait for Tracy Crosswhite to appear since she's in Seattle, too. It will be like the ultimate Dugoni teammate reminiscent of Avengers: Infinity War. Or not.
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A Stranger in Mayfair by Charles Finch
Okay, I guessed the reason for the mystery in this one pretty quickly and the murderer a little later on. A young footman is killed in the alley behind the residence where he works. Lennox is called in to investigate the murder and then just as quickly told to get lost. Meanwhile he's having problems with his wife, Lady Jane and he doesn't know if being a member of Parliament is right for him. It's still very British and gentile.
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(08-11-2022, 08:12 AM)Greg Wrote: A Stranger in Mayfair by Charles Finch
Okay, I guessed the reason for the mystery in this one pretty quickly and the murderer a little later on. A young footman is killed in the alley behind the residence where he works. Lennox is called in to investigate the murder and then just as quickly told to get lost. Meanwhile he's having problems with his wife, Lady Jane and he doesn't know if being a member of Parliament is right for him. It's still very British and gentile.
If you want something less gentile, I recommend David Liss or The Yiddish Policemen's Union
In the Tudor Period, Fencing Masters were classified in the Vagrancy Laws along with Actors, Gypsys, Vagabonds, Sturdy Rogues, and the owners of performing bears.
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Excellent. But I'm enjoying the gentleness of it all. It's a nice change of pace from the Gray Man series.
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Excellent. But you wrote “gentile”, so I recommended some Jewish alternatives.
You vill laff at my chokes!
In the Tudor Period, Fencing Masters were classified in the Vagrancy Laws along with Actors, Gypsys, Vagabonds, Sturdy Rogues, and the owners of performing bears.
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(08-11-2022, 02:04 PM)Dr. Ivor Yeti Wrote: You vill laff at my chokes!
That takes a lot of practice and I'm still not quite there, even after all these years.
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LAFF!
In the Tudor Period, Fencing Masters were classified in the Vagrancy Laws along with Actors, Gypsys, Vagabonds, Sturdy Rogues, and the owners of performing bears.
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Oh, sure. yes. Ha! I say. Ha.
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Back Blast by Mark Greaney
Oopsy. The library gave me the books out of order and so I read book 5 before I read book 4. Not that it matters. I know there is the underlying urgency to find out why the CIA wants Court dead but the stories are self contained. When book four comes in from the library I'm sure it will fill in any questions I might have had about Back Blast or give more depth to the story. I didn't have any questions when I was done reading.
This book brings sort of conclusion to The Gray Man's journey to find the truth about his kill order, but it does not conclude his saga. So, Court comes to the states to get answers and clears his name. Everyone freaks out when they find he is in DC. Multiple groups are tasked with finding him and shooting him on sight. Meanwhile The Gray Man gets to defeat all the weapons and people arrayed against him. And he gets to be hurt. He also gets to do heroic things because at his core that is what the Gray Man is. Old foes reappear. New alliances are made. Innocent people get killed. Lots of talk about weapons and tactics.
It amused me that a plot device used in The Batman Begins is also used in this book. I'm curious who used it first.
I'm enjoying the books more. There is a lot of world building. The explanation about the Court kill order was pretty well done and I'm curious to see where we go from here.
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Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
Eric Idle recommended this book on his website and who am I to gainsay Eric Idle?
It's a quirky British mystery set in an upscale old folks home. Some of the residents gather to go over old cold cases to see if they can solve them. Which is all well and good until a current murder happens in their midst. There is the omniscient narrator who tells the tale and then there is one of the residents who keeps a diary and gives her opinions.
There may be too many murders going on. And there may be too many suspects. But it works. The language is very good. Again it's mystery where the clues are kept from you so it's mostly guessing to see who done it. I can see this as something DM would watch on Masterpiece Theater.
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I probably should have wrote genteel rather gentile to avoid humor from some quarters.
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Goy Problems.
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Also to be found in the Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant Thread
Spelunking Through Hell by Seanan McGuire
Another adventure in the InCryptid Series. I'm glad McGuire has this series that are all about the Price/Healey family and she keeps using different characters to narrate her books. Because of that each character doesn't have to spend the first quarter of the book catching everyone up like happens in the Tobey Daye series. And they seem to be funnier, although in this story Alice Price has a lot in common with Tobey Daye.
Alice is the crazy grandmother who has popped up or been name checked in the previous 10 books in the series. Alice has been hunting her husband for over fifty years after he was stolen away by the Crossroads. This time she goes on adventure that finally has a chance of actually finding Thomas Price and maybe bringing him back. There are plenty of science fiction elements to the story as Alice crosses dimensions on her quest. But there is a lot of woo-woo stuff as we talk about souls of planets and universes. It made me drift off when she got to those parts.
But the action is quick. The world building is good. She doesn't waste a lot of time filling us in, which is a blessing. It's kind of fun mapping McGuire's real life into the characters in the book. She does a lot of self therapy I think in her writing. I could do with a little less of the build your own family trope. But again, therapy. And she didn't leave the book on cliff hanger for a change. Although I thought that was were she was heading, but McGuire hurried through the last few chapters to wrap things up.
And there was a novella at the end that walked through how Alice and Thomas finally got together.
I'll say I enjoyed this more than the last Tobey novel.
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Man and Yosemite by Ted Orland
I finally read the Yosemite book written by DM's neighbor. If you know a lot about the early history of Yosemite, this book is a bit simplistic. It basically hits all the high points but not that thoroughly. There is discussion of the history of photography in the park, but again not to any great depth. This would be a good book to start you on your journey to learning about Yosemite.
One of things that struck me was in the book was a picture of the first car in Yosemite, but Orland did not know much about the driver of the car or the photographer. Since this book was published in 1985, I guess a lot more has been discovered about that photo. Not only is the driver Oliver Lippincott, he was also the photographer. He ran a studio down in Los Angeles and was hired by the Locomobile people to do the photographic journey and promote their car. Oddly enough there was another Lippincott during that same year doing surveys that would form the basis for damming Hetch Hetchy. Most of this information is in a book by Hank Johnston that came out only ten years after the publication of Man and Yosemite.
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