Title: Valor of the Healer
Author: Angela Highland
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Publisher: Carina Press
Copyright: 2013
Pages: 266
Keywords: fantasy
Reading period: 17 March–14 April, 2016
Fleeing from his botched attempt to assassinate the Duke of Shalridan,
Julian discovers the Duke's greatest secret:
Faanshi, a half-elven slave girl with extraordinary powers of healing.
She heals his wounds in an instant and he makes his escape.
Meanwhile, Kestar, a knight of the Order of the Hawk,
who are sworn to extirpate elven magic,
also discovers her existence.
When Julian rescues her and Kestar is gravely wounded,
she heals him too,
forming a strong mental bond with him,
which endangers them all.
This is a well-told high fantasy,
with …continue.
Title: The Hateful Eight
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Released: 2015
Keywords: western, mystery
Watched: 16 April, 2016
We saw the “roadshow” edition of The Hateful Eight at the Cinerama,
projected in 70mm as Tarantino and God intended.
The eight protagonists are all as hateful and violent
as you would expect given the title and the director.
Tarantino is incapable of making a film
without gratuitous violence and gore,
but neither can he make a film
without memorable characters who eviscerate with dialog.
He continues to deliver both.
During one long day, some years after the Civil War,
eight characters find themselves trapped by a blizzard in a remote inn.
Two are bounty hunters,
another …continue.
Title: The Locked Room
Author: Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ½
Publisher: Vintage
Copyright: 1973
Pages: 279
Keywords: mystery
Reading period: 8–12 April, 2016
In The Locked Room,
Martin Beck, recovering from being shot,
investigates the death of a man,
who has been found shot in a locked room with no gun.
Meanwhile, some of his former colleagues,
now serving on a special task force,
are trying to deal with an epidemic of bank robberies.
The latter is a comedy of errors, with the police consistently messing up.
The authors are severely critical of the growth of Swedish police powers
in the decade before this book was written.
They also write harshly of …continue.
Title: A Stone of the Heart
Author: John Brady
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Publisher: Steerforth Press
Copyright: 1988
Pages: 256
Keywords: mystery
Reading period: 2–8 April, 2016
A student is found murdered on the grounds of Trinity College Dublin.
Sergeant Matt Minogue, newly back on duty after serious injuries,
investigates and eventually finds links to the violence
then roiling Northern Ireland.
A slow-moving but thoughtful police procedural.
Minogue may be traumatized by earlier injuries,
but he is not the cynical, hard-drinking policeman so typical of fiction,
but rather a happily married father with a nose for the truth.
Title: Venetian Mask
Author: Mickey Friedman
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ½
Publisher: Penguin
Copyright: 1988
Pages: 352
Keywords: mystery
Reading period: 27 March–2 April, 2016
Six people arrange to meet in Venice for Carnival,
masked and costumed as their true selves.
Not knowing how the others are costumed,
each makes very different—and wrong—assumptions.
Brian, husband of Sally and lover of Jean-Pierre, is found dead.
Surely one of the group is the killer.
An effete local, Count Michele Zanon, takes an interest in the affair.
A strange novel whose plot hinges on
miscommunication, mistaken identities, and incorrect assumptions,
as the seven protagonists rush around Venice,
seeking or hiding from each other.
Title: National Sunday Law
Author: A. Jan Marcussen
Rating: ☆
Publisher: Amazing Truth Publications
Copyright: 1988
Pages: 94
Keywords: delusional religious propaganda
We received an unsolicited copy of this ridiculous book in the mail.
It drones on and on about Satan and his plans,
bashing both Catholics and Protestants.
Apparently, ‘Sunday worship is “the mark of the beast!”’.
Who knew? Who cares.
I assumed that it's from the Seventh Day Adventists,
though I couldn't confirm that from skimming it.
However, Catholic Answers confirms my guess.
Best avoided, especially on Sundays.
Title: Winter
Author: Len Deighton
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Publisher: Ballantine
Copyright: 1987
Pages: 536
Keywords: thriller
Reading period: 15–27 March, 2016
Peter and Pauli Winter are brothers,
born to a wealthy German industrialist and his American wife
at the end of the nineteenth century.
They proudly serve as young officers in the German military in the Great War,
live through the tumultuous 1920s in Berlin,
but go in very different directions,
and end up on opposite sides in World War II.
Peter, the elder, is a brilliant lawyer and talented pianist.
Pauli, loyal but less talented,
bonds with other embittered veterans of the First War,
serves in the Freikorps,
and joins the Nazi party early, rising …continue.
Title: The Mercy of the Night
Author: David Corbett
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Copyright: 2015
Pages: 431
Keywords: thriller
Reading period: 5 March–2 April, 2016
Jacqi Garza was abducted when she was eight.
She got away but her life has gone far off course in decade since.
Now she's the prime witness to a murder.
Phelan Tierney, a former lawyer, has taken her under his wing,
but she's not easy to help.
This is dark and disturbing, if ultimately hopeful.
It's a portrait of a town in distress
and of some of its citizens.
Some are still trying to make a difference,
while others are too lost in their own pain …continue.
Title: Trap Line
Author: Carl Hiaasen & Bill Montalbano
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Publisher: Open Road Media
Copyright: 1982
Pages: 224
Keywords: crime
Reading period: 10–17 March, 2016
The drug smugglers who bring their merchandise in through the Florida Keys
need some local expertise and decide that Breeze Albury is their man.
Although he has no desire to be involved,
they force him to take part.
When they need a convenient fall guy and set him up,
he turns on The Machine and on the corrupt local cops.
Revenge is sweet.
Although it's set in Florida,
this early Hiaasen novel lacks the humor of his more famous books.
Still, Breeze is an engaging character and …continue.
Title: Run Jane Run
Author: Maureen Tan
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Publisher: Warner
Copyright: 1999
Pages: 292
Keywords: thriller
Reading period: 13 March, 2016
Sequel to A.K.A. Jane.
Jane Nichols' parents were murdered in front of her on a Greek hillside
when she was six.
An MI5 operation triggers some dormant memories
and she starts to suspect who was responsible.
An attempt on her life confirms that she's not imagining it.
She returns to her life in Savannah to lay a trap.
Another entertaining entry in the Jane series.
The last, presumably, since it's nearly 20 years old.
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