Kvothe—the infamous, legendary Kvothe—has been living under an assumed name when the Chronicler tracks him down and asks him for his life story. Kvothe relates the story of his early years: his precocious talents for music and arcanism (magic); the happy childhood that ends when his parents and their troupe are murdered by an ancient evil; his years as a feral street child; and his early entrance into the University to study the Arcanum, where his brilliance makes him a star and his reck­less­ness brings him much …continue.

George Smiley has retired after the events of Call for the Dead. He is asked to look into the murder of the wife of a teacher at the exclusive Carne public school, as he can mix socially with the staff while the police cannot. She had sent a letter predicting that her husband would murder her. The couple were from a lower-class, Non­con­formist background. He had tried to assimilate, she had not, and it had rankled the snobs.

Smiley finds class prejudice and moral ambiguity as he …continue.

Le Carré's very first novel, Call for the Dead introduces his most famous character, George Smiley. After a harmonious meeting with Smiley to review his security clearance, Samuel Fennan goes home, writes a letter com­plain­ing of har­rass­ment, and commits suicide. But little things don't add up and Smiley starts in­ves­ti­gat­ing, only to be nearly murdered himself.

A strong debut, and amazingly short at 160 pages. Call provides some background about Smiley's very bad war, undercover in Nazi ter­ri­to­ries, and his rocky marriage.

The first Irene Adler novel by Douglas, im­me­di­ate­ly preceding Good Morning, Irene, which retells Conan Doyle's A Scandal in Bohemia from Irene and Nell's per­spec­tive.

We learn how the narrator Nell Huxleigh met Irene; of Irene's early years in London when she struggles with her singing career and develops a sideline as an in­ves­ti­ga­tor; how she meets Godfrey Norton, her future husband; how they despise each other at first, in the best rom-com tradition; her operatic triumphs in Warsaw that draw her to the attention of the …continue.

Charlie Parker, the hero of John Connolly's books, has always been able to rely on his friends, the former assassin Louis and his life-partner Angel, for backup when events turn blood­y—­most recently in The Unquiet.

Louis' past is catching up with him, leading to a bloody climax. As we explore that past, we learn how a gay, black teenager in a sundown town was recruited to be a “reaper”. When Louis and Angel are set up, Parker and other friends must go in after them.

Partly an ex­plo­ration of the …continue.

Sequel to Murder at the Mendel. Teenage pros­ti­tutes are being mutilated and murdered in Regina. Joanne Kilbourn and her family become entangled with some of these “dis­pos­able” girls, in a case that touches too closely to home.

In the previous novels, her children were important secondary characters. Here they become central to the story, each in their own way.

Joanne Kilbourn has moved to Saskatoon after the events of Deadly Ap­pear­ances, and renewed her childhood friendship with Sally Love. Sally is now a famous artist and the focus of con­tro­ver­sy: a huge fresco that she painted for the Mendel museum of the penises and vaginas of her former lovers is being picketed. As events turn ugly, Joanne will learn more than she ever wanted to know about Sally's and her own history.

Bowen writes knowl­edge­ably about art and artists and frustrated ambitions. Joanne's long, entangled history …continue.

Andy Boychuk has just become the leader of the opposition party in Saskatchewan when he is murdered. His advisor, Joanne Kilbourn, sees him drink the poison. Her own husband was sense­less­ly murdered a few years earlier, and Andy was not only her boss but an old friend, so it's difficult for her. When she decides to write a biography of Andy and learns unexpected things about him, her health mys­te­ri­ous­ly begins to fail.

Joanne is a middle-aged widow with children, who has spent her life working behind the scenes in …continue.

Paul Christo­pher, sep­tu­a­ge­nar­i­an and former superspy, was last seen in a remote Chinese province. His ashes are delivered to his cousin Horace, also a retired spy, who is not convinced that the ashes belong to Paul. Then he learns that Paul is on the trail of Ibn Awad, a mad sultan with nukes who covets a first-century manuscript (a Roman spy­mas­ter's report on Jesus) that is thought to be in the possession of Paul's 94-year-old mother, who hasn't seen since 1940, when she was abducted by the Nazi Reinhard Heydrich. So …continue.

Sequel to Shad­ow­march. Southmarch is under siege by the fairy army and the teenaged regent, Briony, has been deposed by an ambitious noble. Briony is on the run, fleeing for her life. Her twin, Barrick, is lost, mentally and physically, behind the fairy lines. Far to the south, Qinnitan has suc­cess­ful­ly fled from the autarch, but now the autarch is besieging the city of Hierosol where she is hiding.

The second book in a trilogy often suffers from Middle Book Syndrome: the first book es­tab­lish­es the characters and the plot, the final book …continue.