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Reading Challenge Status Update – April 9, 2015

2015 Reading Challenges Update and Projected April Reads

So we are almost a third of the way through April and I guess it’s time to update my Reading Challenges status and update the list of books I hope to finish this month!!! First yesterday I finished book 15 for 2015 Woo Hoo! To put this minor accomplishment in perspective I finished book 15 in 2014 on August 17th! I actually believe that having a plan and the reading challenges have helped me keep up this great pace!! (and not working full-time help just a wee little bit!) Read More

The Chessmen – Peter May

The Chessmen Book # 3 in the Award-winning Lewis Trilogy from Peter May

The Chessmen is the third and final book in Peter May’s outstanding Lewis Trilogy. The trilogy follows the life of ex-Detective Inspector Fin MacCleod as a returns to his home on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Through the outstanding writing of Peter May the reader is swept away to that rugged landscape and given a glimpse of the life of the people of live there.In this final installment Fin has left his former life and is temporarily living with his childhood love Marsaili. Fin has taken a job as head of security for Red River Estates. The Estates are experiencing problems with poachers and one of Fin’s first assignments reunites him with his childhood friend John Angus Macaskill, known as Whistler, who both poaches and lives on the Red River Estates. One night while pursuing Whistler across the rugged hills of the estate, they are forced to take shelter in a cave, The next morning they awake to find a loch in the valley of the hills has drained and a small aircraft is visible within the loch. The plane is the missing plane of a former friend Roddy MacKenzie, lost seventeen years earlier. When they explore the plane they find a decomposing body of a man who did not die in a plane crash but was murdered! Discovering the who and why of the murder will turn the lives of some of Fin’s closest friends upside down!! Read More

When Gods Die (Sebastian St Cyr) – C.S.Harris

When Gods Die – Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery Series – Book #2

I often joke that if I was ever on Jeopardy and the Final Jeopardy category was English Royalty I should just be prepared to be a loser!! When it comes to that category, in the infamous words of Sgt Schultz of Hogan’s Heroes fame, “I know NOOOTTTHHHHING!” But I do know a bit more after reading When Gods Die by C.S. Harris. Read More

Reading Challenges – A Quick Update – April 2, 2015

Edward finishes Book 13 of 2015 – brings home 3 new Reading Challenges Books -Oh My!

A quick Reading Challenges Update! This afternoon I finished book number 13 for 2015.When Gods Die -a Sebastian St.Cyr mystery from C.S.Harris. This is the first book that I have read in this series and it will not be my last!! It is actually Book #2 of what is now a 10 book series. The book’s setting is London in June of 1811, where Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin is investigating the murder of a beautiful young wife of an aging marquis. The young woman was found dead in the arms of the Prince Regent with a jeweled dagger that once belonged to Bonnie Prince Charlie in her back. And a necklace that belonged to Sebastian’s dead mother around her neck! I will write my complete review tomorrow but for now I’ll just say I really, really liked the book!! Read More

Green-Eyed Lady – Chuck Greaves

Green-Eyed Lady –  Chuck Graves – Jack MacTaggart No 2

Green-Eyed Lady from Chuck Greaves has a great opening. Liberal Democratic candidate for the Senate in California Warren Burkett three weeks before the election, encounters a damsel in distress. The young lady’s pursue and keys have been stolen by an unknown assailant. Burkett offers to give the beautiful green-eyed lady a ride back to her mansion. Reminiscent of another Democrat, this one was elected President, Burkett’s libido doesn’t stop. He believes he has hit the mother lode with this young woman! So much so, he helps break into her mansion (remember her keys were in her purse, which was stolen!) But when the door to her bedroom bangs open,  where a lust-filled Burkett  lies in wait for a thankful young woman to repay her debt it’s not the damsel who enters the room, but the police. They had responded the break-in at the mansion! When the dust settles, the green-eyed lady is gone along with a 2 million dollar plus painting and  maybe Burkett’s hopes of winning the election! Read More

Breaking Creed -Alex Kava

Breaking Creed – Alex Kava Introduces Ryder Creed to Thriller Readers 

Alex Kava has been one of my favorite authors ever since I read A Perfect Evil, the first novel in the Maggie O’Dell series.That was one helluva great debut novel. Ms Kava has written 10 addition novels featuring and each one has been a wild ride! Now Ms’ Kava has introduced a new character for us fans to enjoy, Ryder Creed, The first book in this new series is titled Breaking Creed and like A Perfect Evil it’s a damn good debut. Read More

Safari – Parnell Hall

Safari – Parnell Hall – Stanley Hastings Series (Book # 19)

It’s been a while since I read a nice cozy murder mystery, and while the story is set in Zambia where Stanley Hastings and his wife Alice are on a safari, that is what Safari by Parnell Hall is. This is book 19 in the Stanley Hastings mystery series and the first to be set outside of the United States.The setting of the books is usually New York City where Stanley works as a private investigator for negligence attorney Richard Rosenberg and is a thorn in the side of New York Police Department Sergeant MacAullif. In fact the only other of the books set outside of New York was another cozy mystery apply titled Cozy! In that book Stanley and Alice are on vacation at a cozy bed and breakfast in New England! Read More

Reading Challenge Update and March Reads

March Reading Challenge Update and Current Reads

So I finished book 8 of the year The Things Carried on February 27 and Book 9 Hard Rain by Barry Eisler on March 2nd. Both of those books were from my TBR pile and they bring the total number of books I have read in 2015 from my TBR pile to six. Since The Things They Carried is about the Vietnam War,it is historical fiction and the first book I have read this year that counts toward that challenge! While Hard Rain is a cloak & dagger book and brings the total in that challenge to 5! So here is where I stand now on my various challenges! Read More

Hard Rain – Barry Eisler (John Rain # 2)

Hard Rain – Barry Eisler – Book 9 for 2015

It’s been a while since I visited Japan and the world of assassin John Rain. In fact it’s been so long that I have forgotten most of what happened in Rain Fall, Book 1 of the Barry Eisler series, when I started Hard Rain Book 2 in the series. What I didn’t forget was that the half-American, half Japanese Rain was a killer and a good one. What he is particularly good at is making his hits look like the victim died of  “natural causes” I also remembered that he has rules, no children, no one else is involved except rain and his client, and the victim has to be a principal, someone of importance! Read More