A DESPERATE FORTUNE
Susanna Kearsley
Sourcebooks Landmark
April 7, 2015
A Desperate Fortune tells a dual story, one set in the present day and one in 1730's France among the Jacobite followers of exiled King James of Scotland. Sara Thomas is a computer programmer and amateur cryptologist who is hired through the recommendation of her cousin to break the code on a diary from the era. The writer of the diary is Mary Dundas, born at the "shadow court"of King James at Saint-Germain-en-Laye. She is the daughter of a Scots wig maker to the court and a French mother. When her mother dies her father takes her to live with her French aunt and uncle. He and his sons follow James into further exile.
The diary's owner insists that Sara go to France to work with the diary, a problem for Sara who has Asperger's Syndrome. Sara vastly prefers working and living alone but agrees to the conditions of the job. The first part of the diary is not encoded and Sara is able to break the coded sections to transcribe the story of Mary Dundas. Mary on the whole had a very happy childhood but feels the loss of her father and brothers and yearns for adventure. When her brother, Nicholas, comes to fetch her at last, she is overjoyed. But Nicholas has other plans for her. The Jacobites need her to pose as a man's sister; a man who is being sought by the British authorities. Mary can only see this as one more abandonment by her family, but agrees. So her great adventure begins in the company of an older woman, Madam Roy, the fugitive Thomson and their fearsome bodyguard, MacPherson. Mary is terrified of MacPherson but grows to trust him to keep them safe.
I must admit that I preferred the historical narrative to the contemporary but Kearsley is a master of the dual story line. I never felt annoyed by the switches as I sometimes am with this sort of story. Sara's Asperger's Syndrome and it's effects on her life make her much more interesting and accessible. It is a pleasure to see her open up, finding romance and permanent connections in France. But it is Mary and the wounded MacPherson that are the heart and soul of the story. Their slow growth into trust and love made this a very emotional and sometimes tearful read for me. Mary and Hugh MacPherson are characters I could follow into their future, but the story has to end and it does with a very satisfactory ending.
Susanna Kearsley's research into the period is as always extensive and meticulous. The early part of the book offers the most succinct explanation of the religious and political causes of the doomed Jacobite cause I have ever seen. The author's notes at the the end of the book bring further detail and a twist that I didn't see coming, so don't pass them by! I really had to "sleep" on this review but although the book can be slow moving, I think it surpasses The Winter Sea to become my new favorite Kearsley book.
Many, many thanks to Sourcebook Landmark and netgalley for an advance digital copy of A Desperate Fortune.
RATING- 5 Stars
THE COUNTERFEIT HEIRESS (Lady Emily #9)
Tasha Alexander
St. Martin's Minotaur
November 2014
It is 1897 and Lady Emily and her husband, Colin Hargreaves, are making preparations for their attendance at the premier social event of the season. It is Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year and the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire are hosting a masquerade ball in her honor. All is going as usual until Lady Emily is approached by a mysterious auburn haired man who addresses her with half of a line of Homeric poetry which Emily responds to with the line's finish. Rather than continuing the conversation he seems exasperated and quickly leaves. She is puzzled but diverted by another attendee who points out Estelle Lamar. Estelle Lamar is a very wealthy and mysterious world traveler who has not been seen in England or her native France for nearly two decades. When Emily in turn points Estelle out to her friend Cecile, she is outraged. Estelle was a childhood friend and this woman is not Estelle! Cecile and Emily confront her and the woman flees. The next day the woman is found murdered on the riverbank; her name is Mary Bradley, a failed actress and midwife. Colin is more concerned with the murder of Mary but Cecile is distraught over the impersonation. She has received letters from Estelle over the the years but is now afraid that something dire has happened.
The search for Estelle takes Colin and Emily to some of the darkest places in Paris as the mystery deepens. Told in alternating voices, that of Emily and the missing Estelle herself, with references to the works of Dickens, The Counterfeit Heiress is a fascinating story that kept me guessing until the end. Getting into the mind of Estelle was quite a journey and it's ultimate end very poignant. The Lady Emily series has been an on and off pleasure for me. I have enjoyed some of the books and others not so much, but I think The Counterfeit Heiress is the strongest since And Only to Deceive. I recommend it highly for the mystery and the history. If you are at all interested in the historical ball that begins the book there is a wealth of information and many photos by the famous photographer, Lafayette, to be found on the net.
RATING- 4 Stars
DANGEROUS AND UNSEEMLY (Concordia Wells #1)
K.B. Owen, Narrated by Becket Royce
K.B. Owen Books, Audible Audio
November 2014
I have read and listened to many mysteries (some with female heroines) set in Victorian Britain and was drawn to Dangerous and Unseemly because it was set in America in 1896. Concordia Wells is a professor at a women's college in Hartford, CT. At odds with her family, at least with her mother over her choice of career over marriage and motherhood, Concordia is contented with her busy life educating and shepherding young women. All is not well at the college though; money has gone missing and embezzlement is suspected. A series of malicious pranks lead to Concordia's discovery of the body of the college Bursar. The death is ruled a suicide but Concordia doubts the verdict. Then she suffers a great personal loss when her sister dies of a mysterious lingering illness. The way that her husband and his father handled the illness could only be suspicious and Concordia is determined to find out the cause.
Filled with multiple vivid characters, many of whom are not at all what they appear to be, Dangerous and Unseemly is both an engrossing mystery and a look at the plight of women of the era. Deemed to be unfit for anything other than marriage, any woman who did not walk that path was considered suspect and subject to great censure. I'd like to say that life was better for women in America than in Britain at the time but that would be wishful thinking. Concordia herself is a very likable character, at times impetuous but always intelligent and resourceful.
Becket Royce's narration is excellent. She is the very personification of how I imagine a well brought up and educated young woman of the time might sound. I particularly appreciated her handling of character voices with slight foreign accents which never veer into parody.I highly recommend Dangerous and Unseemly and hope that there will be more audios of the second and third books of the series. I received a code for a free download of the book from the author and narrator in return for an honest review.
RATING- 4.5 Stars
THE LIAR
Nora Roberts
Putnam Books, Brilliance Audio
April 14, 2015
Nora Roberts is an amazingly prolific author of more than one hundred novels and still counting. Her "In Death" series (written under her J.D. Robb pen name) is a must read for me and still going strong after more than forty full length books and novellas. They are much more gritty than her romantic suspense stand-alones and straight romances and probably more to my taste, but most of her books, especially the later ones are worth reading.
Shelby Foxworth's husband, Richard, was reported killed in a boating accident. The marriage was pretty shaky but Shelby stayed for the sake of her daughter, 3 year old Callie Rose. After Richard's death, Shelby discovered that he was a liar, a con-man, an adulterer and probably not even named Richard Foxworth. Left with a mountain of debt from their high-flying lifestyle Shelby sold everything she could and returned to her home in Tennessee. But someone seems to think that Shelby has something important and is determined to get it back. Shelby is faced with mending fences with her family and friends and building a life she can be proud of for both herself and Callie. Enter the handsome Griff Lott, contractor, new resident of Rendezvous Ridge,TN and polar opposite of Richard who thinks he is just the man to help her build that new life.
The Liar has all the marvelously realized characters that usually inhabit Nora Roberts' books. She has a admirable gift for characterization that she has honed over years of practicing her craft.The suspense is pretty thin as I had the plot figured out in about 60 pages. I have to admit that one of the attractions of her books is the sure knowledge that in the end everything will turn out all right. There's nothing wrong with a good escape read after all! In general, I listen to the audio versions of Roberts' books and January LaVoy did a great job of creating and differentiating the various voices. I did think that it was a bit long but overall, I enjoyed The Liar very much.
RATING- 3.5 Stars
DEAD WAKE: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
Erik Larson
Crown Books
March 10, 2015
Erik Larson's exhaustively researched account of the ill-fated last voyage of the Lusitania, sunk off the coast of Ireland on May 7,1915 brings to light an incident that has largely been shrouded in the mists of history. I think we all have heard of the Lusitania but it has been overshadowed by the popular fascination with the Titanic disaster of 1912.In 1915 World War I was in it's tenth month and German U-boats threatened to change the rules of war forever. For nearly a century the safety of merchant and passenger vessels was assured by a sort of unwritten agreement. Forces in the German Navy and government were agitating to ignore those rules,making any vessel under an enemy flag fair game.
The Cunard ship, Lusitania, was the "greyhound" of the line,holding the speed record for crossings between England and America. Captained by the extremely competent but uncharismatic William Thomas Turner, the Lusitania was considered to be unlikely to be sunk by a torpedo from a U-boat and protected by it's status as a passenger vessel. The luxurious Lusitania carried 1,959 passengers and crew, both famous and unknown with a record number of women and children. Of those passengers and crew only 764 survived. Despite a general warning issued by the the German government the Lusitania sailed from New York on May 1. Meanwhile in Britain, a group of code-breakers designated "Room 40" had succeeded in breaking German transmission codes and were able to track U-boat traffic with unprecedented accuracy. Using that knowledge in a productive fashion was hampered by political infighting and an obsession with secrecy however.
The first parts of Dead Wake are packed with detail about the great liner itself, shipboard life, and life aboard a U-boat. We learn much about many of the passengers, the captain and figures in both Great Britain and America, notably Churchill and President Wilson. While this was interesting to a degree I found much of it tedious. I can't quite see the relevance of Larsen's account of President Wilson's concurrent romantic pursuit of Edith Galt to the subject at hand for instance. Only in the immediate lead-up to the sinking of the ship and the disaster itself did I feel any dramatic tension and emotional involvement.
The Admiralty was quick to single out Captain Turner as a culprit but were unable to make it stick. Their knowledge of U-boat 20's movement could have been used to avert the disaster but the obsession with secrecy overrode all other considerations. Added to this was the indefensible policy of not going to the aid of survivors of U-boat attacks in fear of losing the rescuing ships; a policy which insured the loss of many more lives which might have been saved. To me it was just another instance of stupidity in a remarkably senseless war; a war that wiped out out an entire generation in Europe.
I have been a fan of Erik Larson's work since The Devil in the White City, but Dead Wake was a bit of a disappointment to me. I could not help comparing the emotional immediacy of Walter Lord's A Night to Remember and finding Dead Wake lacking. I do appreciate the strength of Larsen's research and conclusions and do recommend it to anyone interested in WWI and naval history. Thanks to netgalley.com and Crown Books for an advance digital copy.
RATING- 3 Stars
SKIN GAME (The Dresden Files #15)
Jim Butcher
Penguin Audio, Narr. James Marsters
May 2014
I don't really know why the audio version of Skin Game sat on my iPod for nearly a year before I got around to listening. Maybe it was because I listened to the first thirty minutes or so and couldn't get into it or more likely I found the dark turn that the three previous books had taken uncomfortable. It just doesn't get darker than the events of Changes, Ghost Story and Cold Days. I hated that Harry was forced by events and Mab, the Winter Queen of Faerie, to become the Winter Knight. Being the Winter Knight comes with both character changes and a very short life expectancy; neither of which I wanted to see for Harry. Most of my fears were allayed by Skin Game, and in the non stop style that has made The Dresden Files the best out there in Urban Fantasy.
Skin Game opens with Harry still on Demonreach, an island on Lake Michigan that serves as a prison for supernatural criminals and maniacs; some so ancient they have no names. Harry is the Warden of Demonreach but that is the least of his problems. He also has a psychic parasite that threatens to kill him and everyone he loves. Mab appears on the island with a job for Harry he can't refuse. The parasite will kill him "Alien" style in three days time but Mab will remove it if the job is successful. Too bad it involves a heist, no less than the Holy Grail, which is located in the Vault of Hades (yes, that Hades). The heist is masterminded by Nicodemus, Knight of the Blackened Denarius, millenniums old and entirely evil. Nicodemus and Harry have tangled before and Harry would much rather kill him than work with him.
The action is breathtaking as Harry struggles to fulfill Mab's word to Nicodemus while simultaneously thwarting the plot. Most of the usual gang are present; Murphy, Butters and Michael Carpenter play a large part. To my mind Waldo Butters and Michael Carpenter just about steal the book this time as they provide the most emotionally affecting moments. There are many changes in Skin Game but on the whole it ends on a much more positive note. I am now eagerly looking forward to the next Harry Dresden and to Butcher's upcoming Steampunk series.
RATING- 5 Stars for book and narration.
SHADOW STUDY (Soulfinder)
Maria V. Snyder
Harlequin MIRA
February 24, 2015
It's been about seven years since the last of the Study series featuring Yelena, magician and soulfinder, and Valek, second in command to the Commander of the land of Ixia. Valek is also an accomplished assassin and spy feared by all. The two are "heartmates" after a very bumpy start when Valek forced Yelena to become poison taster to the Commander under threat of execution. Ms. Snyder has written two other series in the interim (as well as a young adult series) but none have resonated with me as much as the Study series and I think that is true for many readers.
Shadow Study begins with an assassination attempt on Yelena as she is riding to meet Valek at their cottage.The two are kept apart for long periods of time by their respective duties, Valek to the Commander and Yelena as liaison between Ixia and her home of Sitia. Struck by a poisoned arrow, Yelena uses her healing abilities and thinks all is well when Valek is called back to duty early. Or at least as well as she can be after an assassination attempt! Over the years both she and Valek have collected enough enemies that they have no idea as to which one might be the culprit. The poisoned arrow has long lasting effects however and makes Yelena more vulnerable than she has ever been.
Told in the alternating voices of Yelena, Valek and their loyal subordinate, Janco, I particularly enjoyed hearing in the voice of Valek just how he became an assassin and the most loyal supporter of the Commander. Valek's story was lightly touched on in the earlier books but I could never understand how he remained so loyal to the Commander. It always seemed to me that the Commander was little more than a totalitarian thug, little better than the corrupt monarchy he overthrew. My opinion hasn't changed but I do understand Valek's motivations to a degree. Janco's voice and his attempts to cope with a new female character who has been partnered with him provide some welcome humor.
I would not recommend reading Shadow Study as an introduction to the world that Valek and Yelena inhabit. Even though Ms. Snyder weaves in enough information to refresh the minds of those who read the first three books it would be better to start with Poison Study, Magic Study and Fire Study. This return to much loved characters made Shadow Study very satisfying and I look forward to more books in this new series.
Thanks to Harlequin MIRA and netgalley for an advance digital copy.
RATING- 4 Stars
