After the events of The Truelove, Aubrey and Maturin set sail for Peru to undertake the in­tel­li­gence mission originally begun four books ago in The Letter of Marque. O'Brian packs more than usual into this book: multiple sea battles, the Reverend Martin's descent into madness, Stephen inciting a revolution of in­de­pen­dence against the Spanish, naturalism high in the Andes, Jack almost being lost at sea in a small boat, and a nerve-wracking encounter with an American frigate amongst the ice floes of Cape Horn.

Highly rec­om­mend­ed.

Leaving Sydney after the events of The Nutmeg of Con­so­la­tion, Aubrey and Maturin sail for Moahu, a fictional British island near Hawaii. Jack Aubrey is out of sorts for various reasons; most notably a young female convict, Clarissa Harvill, has been smuggled aboard by Midshipman Oakes. Like many sailors, he is su­per­sti­tious about women on board his ship. Not without reason: even after her shipboard marriage to Oakes, men vie for her attention and factions form aboard the ship.

Few battles in this one. Most of the conflict arises …continue.

Ian Rankin's first novel is a coming-of-age tale. Mary Miller is a single mother, with a reputation as a witch since childhood. Her son, Sandy, is fifteen, and as lost and confused as you'd expect. They live in Carsden, a small, dying Scottish town in the 1980s.

A creditable first novel.

Digger Doherty is a smalltime Boston crook who went to Vegas for a few days and blew a lot of money that he didn't have. Now he has to figure something out.

It seems like all of George V. Higgins' books—[1], [2]—involve lowlifes who like to talk. A lot. He had a wonderful ear for dialogue. Sur­pris­ing­ly, none of his books seem to have been adapted for the stage and only The Friends of Eddie Coyle was filmed.

At the end of The Thirteen-Gun Salute, Aubrey, Maturin, and the crew of the Diane were marooned on an East Indian island. They are rescued eventually by a passing junk and taken to Batavia, where the governor gives them a new ship, the Nutmeg of Con­so­la­tion. They resume their original mission and travel to the penal colony in New South Wales. Sydney is a hellhole, ruled by capricious sadists.

This is another fine entry in the long-running Aubrey–­Ma­turin saga. Seafaring, a long chase, a couple …continue.

Two boys grow up together in Kabul in the 1970s. Amir is the son of Baba, a wealthy merchant; Hassan is the son of Ali, Baba’s servant. Amir betrays Hassan, and his guilt pushes Hassan and Ali away. When the Russians come, Amir and Baba flee to America. Twenty years later, Amir returns to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan to atone.

The Kite Runner is well written and touching. Betrayal and redemption, fathers and sons, love and hatred, cowardice and sac­ri­fice—all against a backdrop of Afghanistan's horrible modern history.

In the end, …continue.

William Gibson has abandoned cyberspace for the present day. No matter. The same elements of paranoia, adrenalin, and tech­nos­peak are present.

His story follows three sets of characters, all of whom ultimately intersect, chasing the same mcguffin.

Enjoyable, if confusing.

After the events of The Letter of Marque, Jack Aubrey is reinstated as a post-captain in the Royal Navy. He and Stephen Maturin are sent on a diplomatic mission to the South China Sea. Stephen gets to indulge in both a great deal of natural history and in behind-the-scenes political intrigue during the ne­go­ti­a­tions. Soon after their departure from Pulo Prabang, the Diane beaches upon a reef and breaks up during a storm, marooning them on a remote island.

The book stands on its own merits, …continue.

Jack Aubrey was disgraced in The Reverse of the Medal. He is now a civilian privateer, bitter at having been framed. Two ex­tra­or­di­nary actions do much to recommend him to the general public and make him wealthy, and by the end of this book, it seems certain that he will soon be restored to the Navy List. Stephen Maturin's own fortunes improve as he effects a rec­on­cil­i­a­tion with his wife.

The Letter of Marque is the twelfth novel in the Aubrey-Maturin series. O'Brian once again …continue.

Patricia Teeling wants to experience more of life than farming and university, and moves to Dublin to be a science teacher. She quickly finds herself adrift, belonging no more in her country home yet not of the city. She is soon drawn to the married Englishman who lives downstairs. His wife is murdered after she receives obscene telephone calls. Then an attractive man with a limp—­dubbed the Goose­foot—ap­pears.

While the author has an enviable command of English, I found his characters to be tiresome and in­scrutable yet un­ac­count­ably eloquent. Patricia is improbably untouched by …continue.