Crooked Staircase
Cabals be caballing. In The Crooked Staircase, Jane Hawk is hunting more of the cabal that used brain nanobots to force her husband to kill himself. In this series entry, Simon Yegg is the so-mean-it-is-unbelievable type of villain. He tortures his ex-wives up to, and including, gang rape to getContinue Reading
Obscura
Page-turner is so overused that it has become trite. Here is how I felt about Obscura by Joe Hart. I…COULDN’T…PUT…IT…DOWN! Literally! I was reading my kindle at stop lights, during boring parts of a telephone conference call at work (with my office door closed of course) and when I shouldContinue Reading
High Tide Club
Romance, history, southern charm, friendships, family and secrets swirl in the High Tide Club. At 99, Josephine is dying on her half of an island off the coast of Georgia. She calls Brooke, an attorney, to help search for her best friends, Ruth, Millie and Varina, from over 80 yearsContinue Reading
Motorcity
Lisa is a new detective in Sweden. Up first is locating a missing person, who is deep in the raggare culture of vintage American cars and rockabilly music. His parents report him missing after he misses the annual local car festival, Motorcity. I expect more exotica from Europe Comics. SettingContinue Reading
Bats in the Belfry
Characterization is sacrificed for plot in Bats in the Belfry. There are a multitude of characters in Bats in the Belfry. Most are only vaguely fleshed out. We first meet the main players at a funeral where they begin to discuss how they would hide a dead body. Old AgathaContinue Reading
The Ghost the Owl
Despite being depressingly far from the suggested age for The Ghost the Owl, I loved this middle grade (ages 9-12) comic. The story was intriguing. The artwork is unusual but superb. It merges a picture book and a graphic novel into a surreal dream world of the afterlife. A girlContinue Reading
Happiness Curve
Lengthy meandering summary of research studies about aging. The Happiness Curve is found worldwide in both males and females and even in apes. The curve shows that people get decreasingly satisfied with life (the definition of happiness used here) from age 20 to their early 50s. After bottoming out, theirContinue Reading
The Broken Girls
An eerie ambience suffuses The Broken Girls. It is a mystery wrapped in a ghost story or perhaps the other way around. “Ghosts and dead babies and murdered girls. What next?” Roberta, Katie, Cece and Sonia were all dumped at Idlewild Hall, an all-girl boarding school in 1950 Vermont. RobertaContinue Reading
Marmalade Murders
The Marmalade Murders is an enjoyable cozy mystery set in a small North Wales village. Penny and Victoria are partners in the village spa. When they get roped into checking in contestants for the local food competition, they discover some irregularities. Why did someone call Florence telling her to checkContinue Reading
SHOCK Anthology
SHOCK Anthology is a collection of 21 completely different stories from Aftershock Comics. Fluctuating genres and art keep any one person from liking all the stories. However, there is something for everyone within: horror, sci-fi, memoir, adventure and some with apparently no plot at all. The new Neil Gaiman isContinue Reading
Strategy Strikes Back
Military strategies compared to Star Wars are the theme of the 28 essays within Strategy Strikes Back. Focusing on both past warfare and the wars to come, it is comprehensively researched and annotated. I have to say that only reviewers will have the patience to read a foreword, a prefaceContinue Reading
80s Redux
Beautiful photographs of 80s music industry veterans and short summaries of their life now fill 80s Redux. 46 people are profiled. Most are lead singers but other musicians and a few complete bands are included. Here are the artists and/or bands included: Dave Wakeling, The English Beat Martha Davis, TheContinue Reading
Great American Outpost
The Great American Outpost is a scattershot memoir of the North Dakota fracking oil boom and its impact on local residents. In 2011, the first horizontal fracking oil well was drilled in North Dakota. What followed totally changed the laid back farming vibe of the state. Out-of-state workers flooded theContinue Reading
Baker Street Irregulars The Game is Afoot
Only Sherlock Holmes unites the unique and disparate tales within Baker Street Irregulars The Game is Afoot. The 13 stories within this collection take wildly different approaches in their homages to Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock is a girl, a native American, a student, a teacher, a librarian, a rabbi and aContinue Reading
Beyond the Map
Eclectic mix of essays in Beyond the Map is sure to have something for everyone. How unique islands are formed and claimed is described in Part I. Part II is about how some small nations and communities were developed. Part III describes utopias of religion, lifestyle, or technology. Part IVContinue Reading
The Leavenworth Case
Not for modern readers, The Leavenworth Case will made the reader appreciate Sir Arthur Conan Doyle all the more. Bestselling 1878 amateur detective mystery. It sold 750,000 copies in the 15 years after its publishing. Arguably the first full length mystery written by a woman, The Leavenworth Case is narratedContinue Reading