Paradox Bound

 Paradox Bound

by Peter Clines

Pages: 373

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Eli is obsessed with a mysterious women he keeps seeing along the road in his town. It may be years in between sightings but he can't stop thinking about her. This traveler reappears still driving her 100 year old car and wearing Revolutionary time period clothing and Eli is determined to learn more about her. But his determination leads him into a mystery that spans across the United States and across American history. 

The Girl Who Married an Eagle: A Mystery (Amanda Brown #4)

 The Girl Who Married an Eagle: A Mystery (Amanda Brown #4)
by Tamar Myers
Pages: 272
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Based on actual events from the writers childhood, this is the 4th and final book in this mystery series set in the Belgian Congo.
A young, naive girl from Ohio volunteers to be a missionary in the Belgian Congo is totally unprepared to be in charge of an all-girls boarding school primarily made up of runaway child brides from the local native tribes. Julia Newton must defend not only the school but the lives of the girls and her own from the angry chief, Big Chief Eagle whom her newest student is supposed to marry but she is only 8 years old. With the help of Cripple, Amanda Brown and the beautiful young girl herself these women will learn how to save themselves.

The Boy Who Stole the Leopard's Spots (Amanda Brown #3)

 The Boy Who Stole the Leopard's Spots (Amanda Brown #3)
by Tamar Myers
Pages: 304
Ratings: 3 out of 4 stars

Amanda Brown has adjusted to her life as a missionary in the Belgian Congo when a decades old secret invades the peaceful town of Belle Vue. Ancient superstitions and the day of independence from Belgium add to the social upheaval for all who live there. Can Amanda and her assistant, Cripple figure out what is just a bad omen and what links back to an old murder before more lives are lost?

The Gold of Cape Girardeau by Morley Swingle

A historical novel that starts in a modern day court room. A skeleton is found in the basement of an old home being renovated in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Beside it is a cache of gold, and a fierce battle ensues between the current owners of the home, and the family that originally built it. The quest to find out where the gold came from, and how it got in that basement – oh, and who killed the man in the basement?

 

The story goes back in time to steamboating days on the Mississippi River, two star-crossed lovers, and a town deeply divided by the Civil War. The answer to the questions will lead back to the court room, and a resolution to the ownership of the gold.

292 pages

Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer by Katie Alender

Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer by Katie Alender
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is okay. It's kind of fluffy and obvious. If I had known it was a ghost story, I would have skipped it completely (not typically my cup of tea). However, it doesn't follow the pattern for a usual ghost story, in that there isn't much suspense, and it's never scary (which I found disappointing).

This is definitely not a thriller/horror. It's more of a contemporary story with a bit of a twist. I think that's the biggest mark against it. If you have a serial killer in the title (and the story), I should get the chills at least once while reading. My heart should beat fast, or I should get nervous about the fate of a character. Unfortunately, that did not occur. I felt like -- "Meh. Whatever"--so I think that was a missed opportunity. The book has only a very narrow range of emotions that it will make you feel, because everything is a bit superficial.

I don't hate it. I finished it. The writing isn't bad in a general sense, though there were too many characters, they didn't grow enough, and the majority lacked depth. The MC wasn't bad though, which is why I stuck with it.

Pages: 304

The Devil's Making by Sean Haldane

Chad Hobbes, an Englishman recently arrived in Vancouver Canada in May 1768, finds he can only make a living serving in the local police force.  Thus he becomes involved in the murder investigation of a Dr. McCrory, an American 'alienist' who practiced phrenology, Mesmerism, and certain sexual-mystical magnetation methods.  The murder is at first presumed to have been committed by the chief of a local visiting Native American group, but as Chad probes further he finds many in Vancouver have reason to want to kill McCrory.  He also finds that the doctor had discovered several secrets among his patients and used them to his advantage. Haldane provides a convincing picture of life in early Vancouver and the tensions between the Native Americans and the British and American settlers.  There are a few rather unusual plot twists, and a pretty surprising ending to the mystery. 367 pages.

Blood on the Water by Anne Perry

William Monk, Thames River Police Commander, is out on patrol one fine summer night when an explosion rips across the water.  Immediately plunged into rescue work, Monk only later realizes that he saw someone jump off the deck of a pleasure cruise ship seconds before the explosion.  Monk must conduct his own investigation when the case is given over to the Metropolitan Police.  I enjoyed the story but feel that Perry spent a bit too much time rehashing the emotional turmoil experienced by the characters.  They are all traumatized by the 200 lives lost in the explosion and by the botched investigation and trial that follow. There are some satisfying chapters about Scuff, the street urchin that Monk and his wife Hester adopted, and about Oliver Rathbone, their brilliant barrister friend who has been barred from practicing law.  But a bit more action would have improved this installment of the series.    309 pages.

The Beggar King: a Hangman's Daughter Tale by Oliver Pötzsch

This third book in the 'Hangman's Daughter' series finds Hangman Jacob Kuisl being framed for the murder of his sister and her husband. On a ruse, he is lured to Regensburg, where he finds his sister murdered and is immediately arrested. The Hangman of Regensburg uses the same tortures on him that Jacob inflicts on those arrested in his town of Schongau, in order to get him to confess.

Meantime, his headstrong daughter Magdalena and her lover, Medicus Simon Fronweiser, run away to Regensburg to live with her aunt. When they get there and find her murdered and Jacob in gaol, they set out to find out the real culprit. They are taken in by beggars, helped out by the town head raftsman, and lured into complacency by an Italian nobleman.

This is another riveting tale of 17th century Bavaria, with all the medieval skullduggery any reader could hope for!



514 pages

The Dark Monk by Oliver Potzsch

In this  the second book of the 'Hangman's Daughter' series, the hangman of Schongau, Bavaria and his daughter solve yet another murder mystery. The priest of the local church is poisoned, and clues lead them to the Knights Templar, a group of monks that dominated Europe three hundred years before.

What they find leads them to believe that the Knights hid a large treasure in this region when they were being decimated by the King of France. The local priest finds out about it when some work is being done on the church. He writes two letters about what he has found, and suddenly a sinister monk turns up in town, and the priest dies.

The hangman and his daughter follow the clues and the monk all around the region, looking for the treasure and the murderer. Set in the mid-1600's, this is a dark tale of murder, torture, and deprivation.


516 pages

The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Pötzsch

Historical Fiction set in Bavaria in the 1600's, this is the first novel in the Hangman's Daughter series. Jacob Kuisl is the official town hangman in Schongau, Germany. As hangman, he must torture anyone accused of a crime in order to get a confession.

It was a dark age in which witches and devils were believed to cause most ills visited upon humankind. And those accused were usually tortured until they confessed, in which case they were killed by the hangman, or until they died from the torture.

Then children begin to be killed, and his friend, the midwife, is accused of killing the children through witchcraft. Jacob, his daughter Magdalena, and Simon, a young surgeon, believe she is innocent, and set about to find the killers. While Jacob is frantically trying to find the real killers, he is forced to torture the midwife, or lose his job.

In the meantime, Magdalena and Simon, while helping the hangman in his quest for the truth, are falling in love, although it
is illegal for them to marry; although hangmen are necessary, they are
also untouchables, and can only marry within the society of hangmen.

The author is descended from a family of hangmen, and has done a lot
of research into that period of time. The books have been translated from
German. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but it isn't for the faint of heart.



448 pages