Jane and Dan at the End of the World by Colleen Oakley

April 10, 2025

Jane and Dan at the End of the World by Colleen Oakley

Dan scores a reservation at the exclusive La Fin du Monde restaurant and takes his wife Jane to celebrate their wedding anniversary. But his timing is off, since Jane has decided that she is going to ask for a divorce over dinner (also maybe not the best timing). Not to mention that climate change activists have chosen that night to bomb the restaurant.

Quirky and fun, with a long-term marriage that turns out to be a romance after all. Recommended for readers who enjoy off-beat fiction like Nothing to See Here or Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC for review. 

Hard Time by Jodi Taylor

November 13, 2024

Hard Time by Jodi Taylor

The Time Police's three most unusual trainees, Luke, Jane and Matthew (aka Team 236, aka Team Weird) return for an adventure that requires their unique skill set. At least one corporation is running illegal time travel excursions for tourists, and the conventional methods used by the Time Police to apprehend the perpetrators have failed. So Commander Hays send out her unconventional team to do their thing.

As much as I enjoy the original Chronicles of St. Mary's series, I think I enjoy this spin-off series more. There is still the wacky humor and adventures of the disaster magnets of St. Mary's, but within a military setting. So far, not as dark as the original series became in later books, probably because of the three main characters here. Fans of sci fi with a strong shot of humor will enjoy the Time Police series.

The former Battersea Power Station, home base of the Time Police at some point in the future, silhouetted on the book cover

Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend by M. J. Wassmer

July 11, 2024

Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend by M. J. Wassmer

Dan and Mara are vacationing at a new island resort when the sun bursts. And not in a giant explosion in the sky, more like a pop and then broken egg yolk dripping down the sides of the sky, and then darkness. Not only are they trapped on the island, an athleisure-wear entrepreneur named Lilyanna (think Cruella DeVille dressed in Lululemon) who sounds like Dolly Parton has taken control of the resort - as well as the only plane on the island. But there is an observatory on the other side of the island, and the resident astronomer believes there is something strange going on - well, stranger than the sun exploding.

It's class warfare at a new luxury resort, where the rich people in building A take over all the resources and put the guests in buildings B and C to work for them. Except for Lilyanna and her head of security (boo, hiss), the characters might be clueless but they all have a lot of heart. BTW, this is the kind of thing that would happen to me. I suspected the answer about halfway through, but it was still a fun read. Recommended for readers who enjoy not-too-serious dystopian fiction.

Dystopian resort

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

The Lady from Burma by Allison Montclair

December 29, 2023

The Lady from Burma by Allison Montclair

Iris Sparks and Gwen Bainbridge operate The Right Sort Marriage Bureau. While they have their share of unusual clients, their most recent client is one of the strangest. She is terminally ill, and she wants Sparks and Bainbridge to find a wife for her husband, so that he won't be alone after she dies. But then their client is found dead in a wooded area. Suicide or murder?

The fifth mystery in the Sparks & Bainbridge series. The mystery is clever, but I have to say, I find Gwen and her crying and her ongoing tribulations, to be rather boring, and I wish the author would write her out of the series. I tend to skim over the parts about Gwen and the lunacy court, her interactions with her nasty in-laws, her unethical lawyers, the greedy board members at her late husband's company, etc. Everybody is out to get Gwen. Iris Sparks is a lot more interesting. 3 stars because of Gwen's constant weeping.

Coleoptera (beetle), which plays a part in the story

The Ferryman by Justin Cronin

April 19, 2023

The Ferryman by Justin Cronin

The country of Prospera consists of three islands: the main island of Prospera where citizens live, work, and play; the Annex, where support workers live, commuting back and forth to their jobs in Prospera; and the Nursery, the island where Prosperans are recycled to new existences. Although it seems to be Utopia for Prosperan citizens, not everyone is happy with this arrangement, and revolt is brewing among the residents of the Annex. Or is it?

The first 2/3 of the book is fabulous; I read it in a single day and could not put the book down. But the last third - not so much. We find out that the first 2/3 of the book is just a dream, a fantasy world created by the characters. Been there, done that, used to have the t-shirt (am I the only person who watched LOST or St. Elsewhere? Or the old TV show Dallas, where mercifully at least only one season was a dream? Maybe the author is figuring no one over 20 reads his books, so they've never heard of a dream sequence before). The it-was-all-just-a-dream is a copout when a writer doesn't know how to finish up a story in a satisfying manner. And there is more than one ending - what is this, choose your own story? Really disappointing after such a great start.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

The Instructor by T. R. Hendricks

March 10, 2023

The Instructor by T. R. Hendricks

Derek Harrington, a retired Marine who teaches survival skills, is hired by a fringe survivalist group to teach advanced military tactics in a remote wilderness area. The group's leader has promised to pay him $20,000 for four weeks' work, which will go a long way toward Derek's delinquent child support payments as well as the care home for his invalid father. It sounds too good to be true but he takes the job anyway. He warns a friend in the FBI of his suspicions about the group, agreeing to update the FBI weekly. As Derek teaches extreme boot camp tactics, he gradually realizes that the group leader's influence extends a lot farther than just living off the grid and staying under the government's radar.

I'm not big on spy/covert ops books (too much fighting, shooting, beating, screaming, killing, and rather complicated plots), so this one wasn't for me. Anytime people deliberately go off the grid, you know it's not going to end well. And yet people continue to do it. First book in a planned series. Fans of Jack Reacher as well as readers who enjoy spy books and plots against the government should enjoy this thriller.

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

Drunk on All Your Strange New Words by Eddie Robson

December 4, 2022

Drunk on All Your Strange New Words by Eddie Robson

Lydia Southwell is a translator for the Logi cultural attache, Fitzwilliam (not his real name, but as close as possible in English). Translating from English to Logi is exhausting and leaves the translator feeling drunk. After having a public meltdown, Lydia takes a short vacation home to England, then returns to New York to resume her duties. After a cultural event and banquet, Lydia wakes up the next morning to discover that Fitzwilliam has been murdered and that she is the prime suspect.

Confusing plot as conspiracy books often are. There are a lot of peripheral characters who are red herrings or have no bearing on the plot at all (like Lydia's brother Gil and his friend Rank), who are in the story briefly and then just fade away. It all turns out to be an elaborate set-up, a lot of the characters turn out to be actors, and there is actually just one person behind the murder. The reader is left wondering why. Overall rating: meh.

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

Sleepwalk by Dan Chaon

September 12, 2022

Sleepwalk by Dan Chaon

Will Bear (one of his many aliases) has lived off the grid for most of his adult life. He is a 50 year old man who basically does not exist: he doesn't have a regular job, home address, telephone, credit card, bank account, or even a Social Security number. All transactions are cash. He does jobs for a shady organization, mostly delivery cargoes, both human and inanimate, and he regularly doses himself with a variety of legal and illegal drugs. His closest relationship is with his rescue dog, Flip, who suffers from PTSD (so does Will). He is on a job to drop off a prisoner in Utah when he starts receiving calls on his many burner phones from a woman who claims to be his biological daughter. He tries to get rid of her but she persists, although he can't figure out how she found him or continues to trace him. But the more she talks to him, the more he believes that they are caught up in a much larger conspiracy.

Futuristic, dystopian, wonderfully paranoid, full of dark humor, and noir-ish. Will isn't a traditional noir hero, more of an antihero: he does questionable work, he gets involved with women he should avoid, he lives by his own code of ethics, he is loyal to his friends, he lives in a dark world. I enjoyed this offbeat novel very much (and yes, the dog is okay at the end of the book). I listened to the audiobook and the narrator had the perfect stoned-out hippie intonation.

Dystopia artwork (hero frequently has a dog in dystopian fiction)

The Burning Issue of the Day by T. E. Kinsey

August 15, 2019

The Burning Issue of the Day by T. E. Kinsey

When a young suffragette is accused of arson and murder, Lady Hardcastle and her faithful maid/companion Florence Armstrong are asked to investigate by one of her fellow suffragettes.  Working with Miss Dinah Caudle, their adversary in the previous title in the series, they uncover not just a plot to frame the suffragette, but a much larger plot to steal a shipment of South American gold.

I really enjoy the Lady Hardcastle/Florence Armstrong mysteries!  If you are a frequent reader of mysteries (especially cozy mysteries), the plot becomes fairly obvious about 2/3 of the way through the book.  But these are mysteries that you read for the characters and the dialogue, not an intricately formulated plot.  With each new book in the series, the reader learns more about Lady Hardcastle and Flo's backgrounds.  The only disappointment was that the Farley-Strouds appear only once - I do like Lady H.'s eccentric neighbors.

Another good thing about the series is author T. E. Kinsey's attention to historical detail, as noted in the afterword.  There really was a chapter of the WSPU in Bristol in 1910; there is a difference between suffragists and suffragettes; even the key to the cipher in the text is explained. 

This is a series that should really be read in order, beginning with the first title in the series, A Quiet Life in the Country.  The next title is due to be released in October 2019.