It’s 1999, the "Glimmering" is destroying the ozone layer, the seas are rising, and the world is falling apart.

I thought this was well written and the two main characters were well-drawn, but I didn’t enjoy this book.

Mary Russell—Sherlock Holmes’ much younger wife—in­ves­ti­gates the odd goings on in a British silent film company that’s making a pirate film on location in Lisbon and Morocco in 1924. The filmmakers get more than they bargained for, as the rogues they cast as pirates seem to be real pirates.

A decent entry in this series.

In 1942, Ernest Hemingway ran a counter-espionage ring and submarine-seeking operation from Cuba. Staffed by amateurs, it was approved by the American ambassador. The narrator, Joe Lucas, is sent by J. Edgar Hoover to infiltrate Hemingway’s op. There seems to be a lot of espionage going on in Cuba and it looks like Hemingway is being set up for something.

Based loosely on true events, this is en­ter­tain­ing, if a tad longwinded and confusing.

Joe Kurtz is a hardboiled ex-PI who just spent eleven years in Attica for killing the men who killed his partner. He’s out now, in­ves­ti­gat­ing the dis­ap­pear­ance of a mob accountant, and he quickly makes new enemies. Mayhem ensues.

A woman calls at a Yorkshire police station to talk to her friend, Detective Inspector Alan Banks, about the gun she found in her daughter’s bedroom. Banks is out of the country, however. An un­reg­is­tered gun is a serious offence under British law and the police take it very seriously. The daughter’s friend—Banks’ own daughter, Tracy—goes to warn the owner, and he goes on the run with Tracy. She’s willing at first then realizes that she’s in way over her head with this bad boy.

Another good entry in Robinson’s long-running series …continue.

Tom Musgrave, sword master and master of logic, is called away from the Eliz­a­bethan court to the Scottish borders, where his brother has been found dead­—ap­par­ent­ly frozen in terror by the sight of a hellhound. Musgrave uncovers a nest of intrigue and murder when he returns home to in­ves­ti­gate.

Tonkin has written a good historical mystery, though I found the pro­ta­gan­ist’s ra­ti­o­ci­na­tive powers improbable.

In Cold Blood, Truman Capote’s best­selling non-fiction novel, describes the 1959 murder of a wealthy farmer and his family, which terrorized Kansas; the in­ves­ti­ga­tion by the Kansas Bureau of In­ves­ti­ga­tion; the arrest six weeks later of two parolees, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith; and the lives and deaths of Hickock and Smith. Smith was a ne’er-do-well, brought up by footloose alcoholic parents, with two siblings dead of suicide, while Hickock had been brought up in a good home.

Capote “recre­at­ed” the events of the Clutter murder and, in­ci­den­tal­ly, helped create the genre of …continue.

Emma and I are going to spend most of June and all of July 2015 in Berlin.

Two years ago, our friend Joanna announced that she was going to spend a year in Paris with her husband and daughters. This got us thinking about spending a year in Europe ourselves. After con­sid­er­ing Bilbao and some other cities, we eventually decided upon Berlin. We had both studied German in high school or college; Berlin is a vibrant cultural city, full of history and art; it’s a tech hub and a startup magnet; and it’s con­ve­nient­ly located for travel within Europe.

We spent a week there last year in early August, staying with our …continue.

I woke up this morning to the news that Ireland’s referendum on Marriage Equality looked set to pass with a strong majority. Tears began running down my face as I read the reports of con­stituen­cy after con­stituen­cy voted "Yes". I’m crying again as I write this.

When I was growing up as a bisexual teenager in Dublin in the late 1970s and early ‘80s—out to no-one but myself—it was hard to imagine a day like this. Hardly anyone then had the fortitude to live openly as gay, if they could pass for straight. Queers and pansies and poofs were objects of derision and occasional violence. It wasn’t until after I emigrated that ho­mo­sex­u­al­i­ty …continue.

Fifteenth book in the Dresden Files series of urban fantasies.

Harry Dresden is Chicago’s only pro­fes­sion­al wizard and the Winter Knight to Queen Mab. Mab compels him to team up with one of his old enemies to rob an im­preg­nable vault, a vault that belongs to Hades, lord of the Underworld. Harry distrusts Nicode­mus—right­ful­ly, as Nicodemus turns on him. But Harry can stab backs too.

A solid entry in this long running series. Harry is in­creas­ing­ly careworn but he still cracks wise, en­ter­tain­ing the readers if not his an­tag­o­nists.