Review: The Widow’s Son by Thomas Shawver

widows son by thomas shawverFormat read: ebook provided by the publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: ebook
Genre: mystery
Series: Rare Book Mystery #3
Length: 200 pages
Publisher: Random House Alibi
Date Released: July 7, 2015
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo

In 1844, Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet, died at the hands of an angry mob who stormed his jail cell in Carthage, Illinois. Shortly after, a radical faction of Smith’s followers swore to avenge Smith’s death by killing not only the four men deemed most responsible, but to teach their heirs to eliminate future generations of the prophet’s murderers as well.

One hundred and seventy years later, rare book dealer Michael Bevan is offered a valuable first-edition Book of Mormon that bears a strange inscription hinting at blood atonement. Within days of handing the book over for authentication, the volume disappears and two people lie dead. Michael soon learns that his friend Natalie Phelan, whose only crime is her genealogy, is the likely next victim. One of her would-be murderers has fallen in love with her, another is physically incapable of carrying out the act, but other avenging angels remain on the loose.

When Natalie is kidnapped, Michael must venture into a clandestine camp of vengeful men hell-bent on ritual sacrifice. To save her life, the book dealer needs all his worldly courage, brawn, and wits. But to defeat fanatics driven by an unholy vision, a little divine intervention couldn’t hurt.

My Review:

There are two threads to this story. One is the continuing saga of bookseller Michael Bevan and the sometimes cutthroat nature of the antique book business. In this installment of Michael’s odyssey to get his Midwestern bookstore into the exalted ranks of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America, Michael makes several wrong turns. Even more than he has already made.

Michael has a tendency to take short cuts – it’s how he got disbarred in the first place. But the prestigious ABAA doesn’t just want pristine provenance for their books, it wants the appearance of squeaky cleanliness for its booksellers as well.

left turn at paradise by thomas shawverAnd Michael is not squeaky clean. While the deal that brought him his prize collection was legal (see Left Turn at Paradise, reviewed here, for details) it occurred mostly under the table and involved more than a bit of blackmail on the part of all the participants – even some of the dead ones.

It’s a story that Michael can’t tell, not even to the grand doyenne of the ABAA. So he tries bribing her instead.

It’s not exactly a bribe. He lets her “help” him sell a rare and very pricey book – one of the original copies of Joseph Smith’s Book of Mormon, a copy which includes a handwritten dedication by one of Smith’s disciples.

Michael takes one of his famous shortcuts – he neglects to get a receipt for the $250,000 book. So when the old lady collector dies in a very suspicious fire, Michael is in all kinds of trouble with his client – who turns out to be in all kinds of trouble himself.

This is where the story gets interesting, and more than a bit crazy. His client, Emery Stagg, is the descendant of one of Smith’s disciples. When he was a teenager, he was brainwashed into the lunatic fringe of his religion. As a descendant of one of the disciples, he and his two cousins were tasked with sacrificing the last descendants of one of the men who colluded in Joseph Smith’s murder.

Instead poor Emery Stagg has a change of heart. Instead of killing Natalie Phelan, he falls in love with her. It should all be over, and the threat to Natalie and her daughter Claire should be finished.

But Emery’s family hasn’t given up. And now Emery himself is considered a traitor, and must be eliminated so that the sacrifice can proceed as planned.

Unless Michael can stop it.

dirty book murder by thomas shawverEscape Rating B-: As the three books in this series prove (starting with The Dirty Book Murder, reviewed here) the antique and collectible book trade is a lot more dangerous than an outsider might believe. Mike Bevan is always in trouble. Sometimes its financial trouble, and sometimes its just plain deadly dangerous.

His friends, like Natalie Phelan, often find themselves in hot water over their heads for something Mike did, or didn’t do. Once the trouble appears, Mike is the best friend a person could have, but he often had something to do with things going from bad to worse in the first place, even if it’s by accident.

In this case, Mike’s attempt to sell the book for Emery is the catalyst that brings all the trouble down on everyone’s head. It’s not Mike’s fault. It’s also not NOT Mike’s fault. The story of his life.

The mystery in The Widow’s Son is incredibly convoluted, and involves a lot of beliefs that have been disavowed by the LDS Church multiple times. While I’m a bit uncomfortable using the backdrop of the history of an existing religious group as twisted fodder for a mystery, it did make for an extremely twisty tale.

I was able to figure ot some of what was going on in advance, but the twisted reverence for an insane reading of history, along with the inclusion of some less-than-sane people, cloaked the entire picture in the fog of war until it was too late for Bevan or the reader to prevent getting sucked all the way in.

Mike Bevan is a likable character, a hero who is so flawed and screws up so often he is almost an anti-hero, but not quite. In the end, Mike does the right thing, and he always protects his friends. He’s one of those guys who has a heart of gold, but never quite grows all the way up.

We have a little bit of that in all of us, which makes him interesting to watch.

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***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 7-5-15

Sunday Post

Happy day after the 4th to everyone in the U.S. It’s been a marvelous three-day weekend here. I hope that everyone has made the most of it!

Speaking of the Fourth, there is still time to enter the Freedom to Read Giveaway Hop for a chance at either a $10 Gift Card or a book of your choice up to the same amount. The freedom to add something new to your TBR stack awaits you!

Looking ahead to this week’s reviews it looks like speculative fiction week at Reading Reality. And speaking of speculative fiction, the latest issue of Sci-Fi Romance Quarterly came out today, with all new reviews, new short fiction and terrific discussions of the genre we (I’m one of the reviewers) all love, SFR. Check out the new issue and be amazed!

freedom-to-read-giveaway-hop1-237x300Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 book of the winner’s choice in the Freedom to Read Giveaway Hop
A New Hope by Robyn Carr
5 copies of A Sword for His Lady by Mary Wine

Winner Announcements:

The winner of Ruthless by John Rector is Jo J.
The winner of their choice of a $10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Favorite Heroines Giveaway Hop is Anne

new hope by robyn carrBlog Recap:

B Review: Phoenix Inheritance by Corrina Lawson
B+ Review: A New Hope by Robyn Carr + Giveaway
B Review: The Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy by Sam Maggs
Freedom to Read Giveaway Hop
B Review: A Sword For His Lady by Mary Wine + Giveaway
B- Review: Duke City Desperado by Max Austin
Stacking the Shelves (142)

 

ink and shadows by rhys fordComing Next Week:

Invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen (blog tour review)
Ink and Shadows by Rhys Ford (review)
Among Galactic Ruins by Anna Hackett (review)
Video Game Storytelling by Evan Skolnick (review)
Inherit the Stars by Laurie A. Green (review)

Review: Duke City Desperado by Max Austin

duke city desperado by max austinFormat read: ebook provided by the publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: ebook
Genre: mystery/thriller
Series: Duke City #3
Length: 174 pages
Publisher: Random House Alibi
Date Released: June 9, 2015
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo

Under a sky full of stars, Dylan James lies sleeping on the roof of a pueblo-style house. He’s a fugitive, and everyone in Albuquerque seems to be looking for him. A murderous Mafia prince wants to kill him. Two FBI agents want to cuff him. A Goth girl wants to make love to him. And a fierce, sexy Chicana just wants to clean up the mess Dylan made.

The trouble started with a drug-addled career criminal named Doc and a bank robbery staged with a garage door opener. Then it all goes off the rails after a little misunderstanding with Dylan’s ex-girlfriend and her jealous, gun-toting new beau.

When the sun comes up, this sleepy, scrawny desperado is going to show the world what he’s made of—all for a one-in-a-million shot at walking out of Duke City alive.

My Review:

I didn’t realize until this entry in the series that it’s the same hapless pair of FBI agents who get left holding the bag in every book in this series.

It’s not that Pam and Hector are involved with any of the crimes – it’s that they are the primary agents investigating each of the messes, and the bad guys keep getting the best of them, over and over. Their careers are never going to recover.

duke city hit by max austinThe story in Duke City Desperado, as in the previous entries, Duke City Split (reviewed here) and Duke City Hit (here) all comes from the criminal side of the equation. The poor FBI agents keep ending up as patsies.

And just like in the other stories, the criminals in Desperado are way more lucky than good. Doc and Dylan are pretty much small-time all the way around, until Doc, permanently hopped up on pharmaceutical grade speed, gets the wild idea to rob a bank through the drive up window. Pretending that a garage remote control is the detonator for a bomb.

The teller has to stop herself from laughing while she stalls Doc long enough for the police to get there. The police have a hard time too. No one has ever tried to rob a bank through the drive up because it is just so lame.

The bank captures the entire ridiculous scene on video. It’s an open and shut case.

Until it isn’t.

Poor Dylan is in the passenger seat of the van while Doc pulls his crazy stunt. When the cops enter the scene, Dylan exits, and a citywide manhunt ensues.

Doc ends up in Municipal Detention. Of course he does, he’s so high that he gives up Dylan’s name to the cops before he can manage to calm down and make a deal.

While Doc experiences the joys of the correctional system and waits for his trial, Dylan is on the run. Every place he goes, and every friend he looks up, just lands him and them in more and more trouble.

The only person who seems to be on Dylan’s side is a crazy Goth chick who gets turned on by all the violence that follows in Dylan’s hapless wake. As Dylan gets beaten and beaten up on all sides, together they cook up a foolish plan for her to honk off her hated stepfather by robbing the guy who pays her bills and helping Dylan spring Doc.

After all of Dylan’s incredibly hellacious bad luck, he finally gets just one thing right. It’s a hell of a ride.

duke city split by steve brewerEscape Rating B-: I didn’t like this one nearly as much as the first book in the series, Duke City Split. While Dylan just seems like someone who, if it wasn’t for bad luck, wouldn’t have any at all, the amount of chaos he manages to accidentally stir up strains the bounds of even fictional disbelief.

Neither Dylan nor Doc is evil, just hapless, hopeless and more than a bit lazy. Crime seems to be their easy way out, and they’re not particularly good at it. Right up until Doc turns spectacularly bad at it.

There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of motive or motivation for either of them, until Dylan finds himself on the run for something he not only didn’t do but actively argued against. He’s afraid to turn himself in because he’s sure, and undoubtedly correct, that the cops will find something to charge him with.

The wild and crazy stuff gets stirred up as Dylan starts looking for a friend to take him in and help him out. He manages to rile his ex-girlfriend’s insane new boyfriend, setting off multiple chases through the city, as the angry little man chases Dylan, the cops chase Dylan, and the ex-girlfriend gets her sister to chase the abusive new boyfriend. The Keystone Cops would feel right at home.

The Goth chick turns out to be the big surprise. At first she just seems part of the weird, but the more she talks about the hate-on she has for her stepfather, the more the reader starts to wonder. The surprise at the end of that particular plot string was a real shocker.

Duke City Desperado is a madcap cops and robbers chase across Albuquerque where you find yourself wanting the bad guys to ride off into the sunset – in their stolen Audi. You’re left wondering if the FBI has an even less prestigious post for those two agents, because if they do, they’re definitely going to be assigned there. Probably somewhere in Alaska. Like maybe Barrow.

Nobody should have luck that bad.

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***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 6-28-15

Sunday Post

We’re on the road again, so any scheduled winner announcements will appear next week. Which will be the July 4 weekend in the U.S., and probably no one will care until after the weekend.

ALA san francisco 2015This weekend we’re in San Francisco at the American Library Association Annual Convention, hopefully not freezing. I’m referring to the famous quote attributed to Mark Twain, “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” SF can be a bit chilly, but I’ve never found it to be quite that cold. And a few days in the 60s are going to feel quite refreshing after weeks in the 90s in Atlanta.

Ironically, the research seems to say that when Twain first made the original statement, he was not referring to San Francisco, but Duluth Minnesota. I currently live in Duluth Georgia, which was named for (you guessed it!) the city in Minnesota.

I keep reminding myself that every place has something that sucks, weatherwise. Atlanta and the South in general, are hotter than Hades in the summer, but generally lovely in the winter. Chicago had horrible winters, and hot summers, but the spring and fall are marvelous. Anchorage totally sucks in the winter, but summers are usually sweet, although apparently not this year. And, just to keep things really interesting, you have to get used to the earthquakes. But I grew up in “Tornado Alley”, so there’s always something.

Current Giveaways:

Ruthless by John Rector

on a cyborg planet by anna hackettBlog Recap:

C+ Review: Dissident by Cecilia London
B- Review: Ruthless by John Rector + Giveaway
B Review: Epitaph by Mary Doria Russell
B+ Review: Valentine by Heather Grothaus
A- Review: On a Cyborg Planet by Anna Hackett
Stacking the Shelves (141)

 

 

 

freedom-to-read-giveaway-hop1-237x300Coming Next Week:

Phoenix Inheritance by Corrina Lawson (review)
A New Hope by Robyn Carr (blog tour review)
The Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy by Sam Maggs (review)
Freedom to Read Giveaway Hop
A Sword for his Lady by Mary Wine (blog tour review)
Duke City Desperado by Max Austin (blog tour review)

Review: Ruthless by John Rector + Giveaway

ruthless by john rectorFormat read: ebook provided by the publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genre: mystery/thriller
Length: 270 pages
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Date Released: June 1, 2015
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository

Nick White is the only person who can save Abigail Pierce. After uncovering a plot to have her killed, he attempts to warn her but instead puts himself squarely in the crosshairs. They know who he is, they know where he lives, they know how to get at his family.

Drawn into the conspiracy surrounding Abigail, Nick soon discovers the danger is bigger than he ever believed. Now he must uncover the truth to save her and himself.

My Review:

duke city hit by max austinRuthless reminded me a lot of The Dismantling by Brian DeLeeuw (reviewed here) and Max Austin’s Duke City series (Duke City Split and Duke City Hit, reviewed here and here).

Why? Because in all these cases the protagonist is a guy who ends up involved in basically two-bit crimes. He’s not evil, he doesn’t intend to become a career criminal, but he just takes the easy way out one time too often and finds himself on the wrong side of the law and in way over his head.

Also, in both Dismantling and Ruthless, the poor schlub is misled by a woman who he wants to believe is basically innocent, and turns out to be anything but.

Ruthless also takes a surprising turn into lab-based science fiction, but we’ll get there in a minute.

At the beginning of the story, Nick White is at his regular bar, talking to his regular bartender and feeling regularly sorry for himself. His wife is over him because he keeps gambling, and often losing. Even worse, he gambled away their savings – and her trust. It’s not clear whether Nick is addicted to gambling, or if he’s just good enough at it that he generally walks away ahead – just not ahead enough.

His life is basically on the skids when he decides to play a prank on a drunk woman who walks into the bar. She thinks he’s the person she was planning to meet. It’s only after she staggers away that he opens up the manila envelope she left him. (Why is it always a manila envelope?)

The lady was expecting to meet a hitman, to contract with the guy to off her step-daughter. Because Nick’s luck is running true-to-form, meaning bad, the real hitman walks in as Nick is skulking out, and the really bad guy figures out who Nick is and what he has let himself in for.

Nick’s life goes all downhill from that point. Not that it had far to roll.

He should call the police and turn the evidence over to them. Instead, he decides to warn the intended victim.

Abigail Pierce looks like innocence personified. When the bad guys show up and start cutting her, Nick will do anything they say – and anything Abigail says, to keep her, and himself, and his soon-to-be-ex-wife, and possibly his dad, from being murdered.

He should have run as fast as he could, and left Abigail to her well-deserved fate. By the time he figures things out, he’s much, much too late to save anyone – including himself.

Escape Rating B-: At first, it just seems like Nick is out of luck and over his head. After his initial mistake, he keeps trying to do the right thing. It’s only as he gets deeper in to the quagmire that he finally figures out that everyone on all sides is using him.

He doesn’t even know what it is he is being used for. Poor schlub.

For all of Nick’s faults, and he has a bunch, he can’t see through Abigail’s innocent act, and he can’t believe that everyone is lying to him all the way around. For a guy who supposedly makes a living as a gambler, he does a lousy job of reading everyone’s tells.

dismantling by brian deleeuwAt first, this story seemed pretty familiar – it was a better written version of the story in The Dismantling. Nick gets sucked in to a life of crime, or at least a life on the run, by trying to save a woman who doesn’t really need saving. What made this one different is what he finally discovers he is saving Abigail for, or from. Or not.

Abigail and her stepmother appear to be fighting over the estate of a wealthy industrialist, the man they have in common. The question is presented to Nick as a matter of who gets the vast estate when the guy dies, which is expected to be soon.

It’s really about the details of his research. Abigail is the result of a experimental genetics lab. (This bit reminds me just a little of Orphan Black). Abigail wants the details of the research that created her, because she wants to start it up again. Her stepmother won’t deal with her, so she enlists Nick as a go-between. Also as a patsy.

This one ends up being about who is using who.

I’m not totally sure about the science fictional nature of the reason why Abigail gets Nick into this mess. There was plenty of thriller there if Abigail was just a typical heir trying to stay alive to inherit, and if she and her stepmother were in the middle of some mutually assured destruction without the lab-related distraction.

You will end up feeling sorry for Nick. He should have seen it at least some of it coming.

~~~~~~ GIVEAWAY~~~~~~

I’m giving away a copy of Ruthless to one lucky U.S. or Canadian commenter.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

TLC
This post is part of a TLC book tour. Click on the logo for more reviews.
***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 6-21-15

Sunday Post

For those of you wondering who won some of the recent giveaways, I was able to catch up now that I’m back home.

ALA san francisco 2015Next week I’ll be at the American Library Association Annual Conference. This year, ALA has done something sensible for a change. We’ll be back in San Francisco. Because San Francisco is generally cool, or cool-ish in the summer, it’s a perfect place to have to be dressed up and running around, unlike last summer in Las Vegas. Or next summer in OMG Orlando. If ALA decided to have every Midwinter Conference in San Diego or San Antonio, and every summer in San Francisco (with the occasional break for Chicago) that would be just fine with me. But c’est la vie.

For anyone who loves fantasy, and has not yet read The Goblin Emperor, go forth and get a copy post-haste. I have seen it described as manner-porn, which is a term I’d never heard before. The Goblin Emperor is set in a world where manners don’t just make the man (or elf, or goblin) but they also keep him alive in the midst of his enemies. It certainly runs counter to the recent spate of grimdark fantasy. And it is simply awesome.

There are still a couple of days left to get in on the Favorite Heroines Giveaway Hop. Just tell us who your favorite heroine is for a chance at either a $10 Gift Card of a $10 Book of your choice.

Current Giveaways:

favorite heroinesFlirt and Loveswept mugs + ebook copies of Rock It by Jennifer Chance, After Midnight by Kathy Clark, Alex by Sawyer Bennett, Wild on You by Tina Wainscott, Plain Jayne by Laura Drewry, and Accidental Cowgirl by Maggie McGinnis from Loveswept
$10 Gift Card or book in the Favorite Heroines Giveaway Hop

Winner Announcements:

The winner of her choice of title in Jeffe Kennedy’s Twelve Kingdoms series is Kristia M.
The winner of The Marriage Season by Linda Lael Miller is Maria S.
The winner of Let Me Die in his Footsteps by Lori Roy is Brandi D.

goblin emperor by katherine addisonBlog Recap:

A+ Review: The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
B- Review: Zack by Sawyer Bennett + Giveaway
Favorite Heroines Giveaway Hop
A- Review: Waterloo by Bernard Cornwell
B Review: The Sage of Waterloo by Leona Francombe
Stacking the Shelves (140)

 

 

 

valentine by heather grothausComing Next Week:

Dissident by Cecilia London (review)
Ruthless by John Rector (blog tour review)
Epitaph by Mary Doria Russell (review)
Valentine by Heather Grothaus (blog tour review)
On a Cyborg Planet by Anna Hackett (review)

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 5-17-15

Sunday Post

Next weekend is Memorial Day, the unofficial start of Summer. It feels early this year, calendar-wise, but the weather in Atlanta is already into the mid-80s, so by that measure, Summer is already here.

Winters in the South are marvelous. Summers are hot, muggy, sticky and sometimes stormy. And did I mention hot? On that other hand, everywhere I’ve ever lived had something unpleasant in their normal weather pattern. In Anchorage, summers are wonderful, mostly in the 60s but sometimes the 70s, and the winters are, well, abominable. And abominably long. In Seattle, the summers are pretty good, except for that two-weeks-maybe-three where you really, really wish you had air conditioning – and you don’t. And it’s never really cold in the winter, but it is gray and wet and terribly gloomy Chicago has a cold, snowy, miserable winter, and a hot sticky summer, but the spring and fall are gorgeous. Then there’s the big stuff. In Florida, it was hurricanes. In Anchorage, earthquakes.

There’s something I miss out of every place we’ve lived. And something I don’t miss!

11-02-Reading-Reality---A-Match-for-Marcus-Cynster-Blog-Tour-Ad-600-x-600Current Giveaways:

$25 Gift Card + an ecopy of Ryder: Bird of Prey by Nick Pengelley
Highland Prize package from Stephanie Laurens

Winner Announcements:

The winner of The Dismantling by Brian DeLeeuw is Anne.

 

lowcountry boneyard by susan m boyerBlog Recap:

B+ Review: Ryder: Bird of Prey by Nick Pengelley + Giveaway
B+ Review: A Match for Marcus Cynster by Stephanie Laurens
Excerpt + Giveaway: A Match for Marcus Cynster by Stephanie Laurens
A Review: Lowcountry Boil by Susan M. Boyer
A- Review: Selfish, Shallow and Self-Absorbed edited by Meghan Daum
A- Review: The Clockwork Dagger by Beth Cato
Stacking the Shelves (135)

way of the warrior by Suzanne BrockmanComing Next Week:

Lowcountry Boneyard by Susan M. Boyer (blog tour review)
The Curse of Anne Boleyn by C.C. Humphreys (blog tour review)
The Case of the Invisible Dog by Diane Stingley (blog tour review)
The Way of the Warrior by Suzanne Brockmann et al (review)
Echo 8 by Sharon Lynn Fisher (review)

Review: Ryder: Bird of Prey by Nick Pengelley + Giveaway

ryder bird of prey by nick pengelleyFormat read: ebook provided by the publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: ebook
Genre: thriller
Series: Ayesha Ryder #3
Length: 238 pages
Publisher: Random House Alibi
Date Released: May 5, 2015
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo

The Maltese Falcon was no mere legend—this fabulously jewelled golden bird really existed. Still exists, according to the last words of a dying man. Ayesha Ryder is on its trail, but not just to find the Falcon itself. It is said to contain a clue to the lost burial place of King Harold of England, a potent symbol for ruthless politicians determined to break up the UK and create a new, independent English Kingdom. The Falcon may also contain a second clue, one that few would believe.

Labelled an assassin, hunted by Scotland Yard and Dame Imogen Worsely of MI5—as well as those who want the Falcon and its secrets for themselves—Ayesha joins forces with Joram Tate, the mysterious librarian known to her friend Lady Madrigal, a one-time lover of Lawrence of Arabia. As Ayesha’s attraction to Tate grows, they follow clues left by long-dead knights to the tomb of a Saxon king and to the ruined Battle Abbey. When the trail leads them to a stunning secret hidden for a thousand years beneath an English castle, Ayesha must battle modern killers with medieval weapons before confronting the evil that would destroy her nation.

My Review:

ryder by nick pengelleyRyder: Bird of Prey is the third book in the Ayesha Ryder series, after Ayesha’s awesome introduction in Ryder (reviewed here) and Ryder: American Treasure (reviewed here)

Ayesha Ryder still feels like the love child of Indiana Jones and Lara Croft, but her adventures have a “ripped from the headines” feel in spite of their setting in a slightly alternate 21st century from our own.

On the one hand, in Ryder, Ayesha’s adventures led to the foundation of a new combined Israeli/Palestinian country in the Middle East named “The Holy Land”. Her rescue of that peace process and its principal political figures brought her to the attention of world leaders as a Middle East expert and a woman who can and will get the job done and the treasure found, no matter how mythical that treasure might initially seem to be.

In Bird of Prey, Ayesha is hunting for the sword of Harold Godwinson, the last English king. For those not familiar with the history, Harold is the king who lost England in 1066 to William the Conqueror.

While Ayesha’s friend, the British Prime Minister Susannah Armstrong, is vehemently opposed, there is a bill in Parliament, brought forward by Susannah’s Deputy PM, to not only dissolve the United Kingdom but take the remaining country, England, out of the European Union, NATO and the World Trade Organization. This England for the English platform would give Scotland its independence and allow Ireland to reunite. Or not in the latter case, but the English would be officially out of it.

In last week’s newspaper I saw an article about the British Parliamentary elections then in progress which also posits some of the same ideas. That this was closer to real than I expected was a huge surprise.

Back to the story. As a symbol of this England for the English movement, the organizers want Harold’s sword, which was supposed to have been buried with him. As usual for one of Ayesha’s adventures, the question on the table concerns the real life location of that burial. Which is, of course, part of the mystery Ayesha has to solve.

The clues to where that burial might be are hidden in yet another legendary artifact. Not on is the Maltese Falcon real in Ayesha’s world, but it contains both the key to Harold’s burial site and clues to the location of the fabled lost Templar treasure.

Someone, or multiple someones, are willing, in fact downright eager, to kill in order to get the sword and the treasure. But the bad guys should know by now that attempting to pin your crimes on Ayesha Ryder is a ploy that is guaranteed to fail. With extreme prejudice.

Escape Rating B+: It’s the treasure hunts that keep drawing me in. History is fascinating in general, and the idea that so many of the things we thought were legendary might be real is always enthralling. While there seems to be more than a bit of luck involved, it is so easy to get swept up in the way that Ayesha spins from one clue to the next, and always just one step ahead of the villains.

Ayesha’s assistants in this particular treasure hunt are a librarian whose propensity for adventure belongs in the TV show The Librarians and a female archaeologist who is thrilled to be the gender bent Indiana Jones in this running chase and battle.

That the chase comes to its conclusion in a reconstructed castle complete with reconstructed weapons and reenactors, while the villains arrive by Zeppelin, made for an exciting and climactic conclusion that goes from tongue-in-cheek to serious and deadly in the blink of an eye.

That one of the villains is a ghost from Ayesha’s past added to the stakes for her, and the consequences for the next book.

Something about the political setup of this one didn’t quite gel for me. The idea of England for the English is closer to real-life truth than I expected, but the idea that the House of Commons would be moved to revolt by the finding of the sword, or that such an important concept could pass this easily, seemed a bit too far-fetched.

I will say that the idea that highly-placed villains continue to try to shift blame for their crimes at the initial stages of the story by framing Ayesha Ryder has probably run its course. The first time it happened it added to the suspense. In this story even the characters who are intended to investigate the accusation saw it as a red flag that whoever said it must be part of the plot. I hope not to see this idea again for a while.

I absolutely love the treasure hunt aspects of the Ryder series. Ayesha always finds herself on the trail of something incredible, and always finds it, even if she doesn’t always get to keep it. It’s the chase that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat, especially because there is always someone out to get Ayesha and that treasure right behind her.

I can’t wait to read more of Ayesha’s pulse-pounding adventures. There must be lots more legendary treasures just waiting to be rediscovered!

~~~~~~TOURWIDE GIVEAWAY~~~~~~

The tour includes a Rafflecopter giveaway for a $25. eGift card and a copy of the book!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

TLC
This post is part of a TLC book tour. Click on the logo for more reviews.
***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 5-10-15

Sunday Post

Happy Mother’s Day to those of you who are mothers.

selfish shallow and self-absorbed by meghan daumAnd for those of us who are not, one of my reviews this coming week is Selfish, Shallow and Self-Absorbed, a collection of essays about choosing to be childless, edited by Meghan Daum. Because I still get people telling me I’ll change my mind about not wanting to have children. And let me tell you, not only has that ship sailed, but it’s no longer even remotely able to re-dock at this facility.

After having been teased by (meaning read) The Deepest Poison last week, I’m really looking forward to The Clockwork Dagger this week!

 

Current Giveaways:

spring fling giveaway hopGiveaways from 11 Shops and a $280 Prize Pack in the Spring Fling Fabulous Giveaway
The Dismantling by Brian DeLeeuw (paperback)

pleasantville by attica lockeBlog Recap:

Spring Fling Giveaway Hop
A Review: Speak Now: Marriage Equality on Trial by Kenji Yoshino
A+ Review: Pleasantville by Attica Locke
B- Review: The Dismantling by Brian DeLeeuw + Giveaway
A Review: Dead Wake: the Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson
B Review: The Deepest Poison by Beth Cato
Stacking the Shelves (134)

 

lowcountry boil by susan m boyerComing Next Week:

Ryder: Bird of Prey by Nick Pengelley (blog tour review)
A Match for Marcus Cynster by Stephanie Laurens (blog tour review)
Lowcountry Boil by Susan M. Boyer (review)
Selfish, Shallow and Self-Absorbed edited by Meghan Daum (review)
The Clockwork Dagger by Beth Cato (review)

Review: The Dismantling by Brian DeLeeuw + Giveaway

dismantling by brian deleeuwFormat read: ebook provided by the publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genre: thriller
Length: 288 pages
Publisher: Plume
Date Released: April 28, 2015
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Brian DeLeeuw hits that sweet spot between literary and commercial suspense with his brilliantly adept, ingeniously plotted novel—a chilling, fast-paced drama that urges readers to question the meaning of atonement and whether revenge might sometimes be the only way we can liberate ourselves from our past.
Twenty-five-year-old med school dropout Simon Worth is an organ broker, buying kidneys and livers from cash-strapped donors and selling them to recipients whose time on the waitlist is running out. When a seemingly straightforward liver transplant has an unexpectedly dangerous outcome, Simon finds himself on the run. In order to survive, he must put aside his better moral judgment and place his trust in a stranger who has a shocking secret.

My Review:

There are a lot of things that get dismantled in this suspense thriller. A career, a life or two, a criminal enterprise and a cadaver.

It all starts with the cadaver. Medical school dropout Simon Worth dropped out over that cadaver. As he and his study group dissected the anonymous donor, he kept seeing the face of his dead sister in place of the corpse. He couldn’t take the nightmares, and he ran away.

That he still feels responsible for his sister’s death (he isn’t, not really) is what makes his nightmares so peculiarly devastating. Not that his next choice is much better.

He finds himself, with the help of one of his very, very few medical school friends, in a new job where his medical knowledge, incomplete as it is, comes in very handy. Simon is the new face of Health Solutions Inc., a company that matches poor but willing organ donors with recipients who are willing to pay to get moved to the top of the transplant list.

Which is all completely illegal. But Simon is able to elide the moral issues by telling himself that everyone involved, including the highly compensated donors, knows exactly what they are getting into when they game the system.

As long as everybody in the chain of illegalities has something to lose, the delicate balance of crime stays under the radar. Of course, it can’t possibly last forever, and everyone seems to get that except poor Simon, who gets caught actually caring for the people in this chain of questionable practice.

It all falls apart when one retired football player needs a liver, and one of his friends decides to buy one for him. Not that Leonard Pellegrini really wants a new liver or a new lease on life, but his friend Howard Crewes is trying to buy himself atonement for an entirely different event. Leonard was perfectly content (happy never comes into this thing) drinking himself to death, and understands completely that his liver is just the first and most vulnerable organ to pay the price of his oblivion.

But Crewes wants absolution, Leonard’s wife and kids want him to stick around a few more years, and Peter DaSilva, the actual head of Health Solutions Inc., just gets greedy. So everyone ignores the warning signs.

The donor, Maria Campos, just wants a new life with enough money to set herself up far away from her old life. There are plenty of warning signs on her side of this particular equation, too.

Although the system is successfully gamed, it all falls apart when Lenny commits suicide, and Maria runs instead of showing up for her followup care and finds herself admitted to a hospital with obvious signs of being an off-the-books organ donor.

As the investigations coincide, all the players start trying to clean up any collateral damage, and any potential witnesses.

Simon and Maria run for their lives, still arguing over how much danger they are really in. When the entire structure completely dismantles, it is just barely possible that they might be able to start over again. If they can get past the mess that got them there.

Escape Rating B-: This is a book where I have a lot of mixed feelings. For some reason, I found it difficult to care a lot about Simon or even Maria. Simon just seems to be an emotional mess who has gotten himself in way over his head. It’s not that what happened with his sister isn’t terribly sad, it’s that Simon is so good at suppressing his own emotional reactions to everything that I didn’t get enough of a feel for him to, well, feel for him.

On that other hand, the case that brings down the whole house of cards did connect to a lot of my feel buttons, probably because it was so real. Although it isn’t named specifically, Leonard Pellegrini and a lot of the other ex-football players who are in the support group he doesn’t want to be a part of are suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) which is very, very real.

(Without spoiling it completely, Leonard’s ultimate fate mirrors the real-life case of Dave Duerson, a member of the 1985 Chicago Bears Super Bowl Championship Team. Which explains why I remembered the case.)

(It is also possible that the on field hit that is responsible for Crewes’ guilt, which gets all of them into this mess, is intended to represent the case of Darryl Stingley, who was paralyzed in an helmet to helmet hit during an exhibition game between the Oakland Raiders and the New England Patriots.)

Leonard is suffering from CTE, and he’s been drinking in order to make the pain, and the headaches, mood swings and general depression, stop. He doesn’t want to go on living. But he also isn’t willing to fight all the people around him who want him to. There are plenty of warning signs, but Health Solutions Inc. is greedy and his family is desperate. It is a recipe for disaster on every side.

For me, the football tie-in gave me a lot more feels, and a lot more sympathy, for the reasons why everyone got themselves into this mess than anything to do with Simon or the donor Maria. The football references gave the story a real-life grounding that Simon and Maria’s story did not.

However, the football connection made the rest of the story all too plausible. Whether one agrees or disagrees with the concept of organ brokering, it is all too easy to believe that some variation of this is probably happening.

And that does give me the chills.

~~~~~~ GIVEAWAY~~~~~~

a Rafflecopter giveaway

TLC
This post is part of a TLC book tour. Click on the logo for more reviews.
***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.