a certain justice

Commander Adam Dalgliesh and his team have been called upon to solve another murder, in this later book in P.D. James' series of mysteries featuring the detective. A Certain Justice was first published in 1997, a few years after James was created Baroness James of Holland Park. She died just about 10 years ago, well into her 90s.

The format follows that of some of her other Adam Dalgliesh mysteries, that is the story focuses on the people surrounding, involved in, or otherwise impacted by the murder. This sets the stage, allows us to get to know the people involved, and typically the murder victim, prior to the deed. The deed itself is not shown to us, so we must work alongside Dalgliesh and his team while they try and sort it out.

James does a good job, and its clear why she's so popular. Lots of her books have been made into movies and television shows, including one of this book, in the UK. There are a fair number of English terms that may hang up American English readers, but that's pretty typical I think and context clues certainly help in most cases, but there are some things that just don't come across; Is that a clue or lunch they're taking about?

Some of the more complicated words have to do with the law and the courts. We're all familiar with what a barrister is, and that they wear wigs in court, and what robes? A gown? Not sure what those terms are. That doesn't prevent a good read however. 

the chemist

I've never read Stephenie Meyer before, and I don't think I've seen any of the various movies and television programs (?) made from her earlier, sexy vampire books. I think I have that right, the Twilight phenomenon seemed to have taken over the world for 10 or so years, and weren't they all young and make-outey? Like a bitey 90210 or something?* Whatever. The Chemist is not that.

I picked up a hardcover copy of The Chemist at, you guessed it, a used book sale at the library. I don't remember if it was my library or one of the libraries I visited at work. I think it was the latter. This book, published about 10 years ago, is a spy thriller. The main protagonist, a molecular biologist, referred to as a chemist for short, has had to learn to become self-sufficient in order to protect herself, and in the years she's had to live this way, she's developed a skill set that will really be put to the test when the threat escalates. That's the premise of this one. It does read a lot like a movie script. I'm not sure what it is about some writers, but the it may be something about scene setting, and brevity or efficiency of the prose that keeps the story moving forward? I may have said this about Andy Weir, or at least I was thinking it, but that maybe because he and Meyer have had movies made from their books.

The main protagonist is a great character, who takes advantage of the fact that adversaries will underestimate her, because she's a woman, because of her small stature, and because they don't understand what she can do with her skills. She uses this to maximum advantage, and it always satisfying to see someone laugh her off, and then get beat. It was also fun to watch this character grow outside her comfort zone as the pressures of what she is up against grow, and develop in ways she wasn't anticipating. This was a fun read.

 

* Didn't see that either. 

 

 

book that wouldn't burn

Yes, I've changed gears. After learning that Samantha Shannon has book 6 of her Bone Season series due out next year, and who knows when book 7 will be out (or if there will be more!) I decided to swap over to Mark Lawrence's Library Trilogy. I bought book 2 at some point at a used book sale, and didn't realize it was the second in a trilogy until I got home and cracked it open to read. So I borrowed book 1 from the library; The Book that Wouldn't Burn. I haven't read any of Mark Lawrence's stuff before and this was pretty good. The story arc is built around a library, that in the point of this story, seems to have been developed thousands of years ago, but a much more advanced society than the current one, but the reasons for that may be that the culture the present story takes place in is either new to the library or is possibly a newer culture that is developing after some post-apocalyptic event, or something. Its a little vague, but I wouldn't tell you what it was here in any case as I try to avoid spoilers.

The library itself reminds me a little of the library in Asimov's Foundation Series, but only in its abstract, font of all knowledge, people in service of the library vibe that story gave me, at least as far as I can recall. its been a while!

I actually finished this a few days ago, and I've been working on book 2. Its a smaller volume, so I don't think it will take me too long before I go grab book 3 from the library. I guess this probably fits into the fantasy genre, but there are also SciFi aspects to it as well, and it also reads a little like historical fiction, but that may be because the culture in which this takes place is slowly transitioning from edged weapons to firearms, and the customs, dress, architecture, societal norms, nobility etc. seem to reflect a historical era.

The writing is pretty tight, and there are some interesting twists and loops that creep in that I wasn't expecting, and some others I could see coming, but I think I could see them because Lawrence wanted me to. 

mask falling

Paige Mahoney is at it again. The Mask Falling is the 4th book in the 7-book Bone Season series by Samantha Shannon. In the dedication, Shannon notes that this is the middle book. I guess I didn't realize how many there were when I started, as I've probably mentioned in the past. The 6th book has been announced, and just recently revealed it's cover art on Shannon's website. That book is due out early next year. The 7th book? Who knows. And will Shannon decide that she needs an 8th to really wrap things up? I know, sorry, but... maybe. it's like, art, and stuff

Paige Mahoney is, of course, the main protagonist in this series, and you just can't keep a good woman down. After making serious and significant inroads on the UK battlefront, Mahoney has decamped to Paris for the majority of this installment. Many of the same characters we met in the first 3 books still appear, but many for only short periods, or mentions, as they are still in England. This book does take the overall story arc onto a more global stage, with implications mentioned for Portugal and Spain as well, altho we don't visit those places. Perhaps a foreshadowing of some future book's setting?

The series framework is a kind of sawtooth shaped story arc or increasing tragedy, conflict, or obstacle,  which ratchets up the tension, and when resolved drops the anxiety back down again for a beat, before the next thing comes along that needs to be overcome. The seem to come pretty regularly (hence the sawtooth analogy) in large part because the Mahoney character runs toward trouble rather than away. Its in her DNA to fight injustice and oppression and putting herself in harms way not only comes naturally, but appears to be her preferred modus operandi. i'll just let it eat me, and cut my way out from the inside *

So would I recommend that you read this series? Its not really SciFi, and its not Swords & Sorcery. Magical Realism? Is that even a thing? Maybe just call it Speculative Fiction. If you like that kind of thing, with some clairvoyance and some rebels-against-the-evil-empire action then you'll probably enjoy this series. You could wait until she's done, so you don't have to hang around waiting for the next installment, but some folks like that, so, you do you!

 

* That's not an actual quote from this book, but a trope we've all seen a number of times. I just read the exact thing in the book I'm reading right now. Which is NOT, by the way, the next book in this series.

 

 

 

song rising

The Song Rising is the third book in the Bone Season series by Samantha Shannon, which I am currently cracking through. However, as I said in my last post--written when I was about halfway thru this book--it looks like there is another volume coming next year. Maybe that's it, or...

I read the American hardcover, from my local library, and it appears that the English versions may have different cover art. Who knows why that happens, but I assume its because the American affiliate of the British publisher thinks that a different cover may do better in the US? Not sure, but I don't think this cover is it, chief. If you click on the image you can get a better look at it. or click on the annotated detail below for even more complainin' It looks to me like they've either assumed that because this series sells so well that they don't need to try all that hard--and if that was the case, why not just go with the UK cover art? Okay maybe there is a rights thing or agreement that obligates the cover art to be different. Or, maybe because sales are good, whoever was in charge gave it to their teen (tween?) who is really, like, talented in art class? I mean, look at the flames... yeah, click right in there and take a look.  They just wiggled the stylus around on their iPad. And the reflections on the crown? A crown that doesn't look anything like any crown described in the books, by the way. What? Is that the only reflective spot on this shinny metal object, and are those little bits of flame skipping across the front of the image too, or are those rust stains on a domed glass cover over the center part? What's that for? Jacket Design David Mann, images from Shutterstock, by the way. yes, i'm looking at you And why, you may ask, have I written an entire, long and rambling paragraph about the cover art? Simple: because it stinks. Its embarrassing. Do better Bloomsbury USA.

This book is shorter than the first two at 363 pages (including the backmatter*) so I worked through it pretty quickly, and just before I sat down to write this review, I checked at the library to see if they had the next volume, The Mask Falling, on the shelf, and they do, so I'll probably pick that up today. The Song Rising was pretty good, but perhaps not as good as the first two. It definitely moved the story forward, and there are a few good moments, but it did feel a bit like a connection between the beginning of the story and the end, if you know what I mean.

It didn't suck, or I wouldn't be going to get get book 4 later today**, but not great either. What did suck?The cover. Did I mention that? Look at it!

 

Maybe its fan art of the One Ring put together with clip art of a crown. Jacket designer is listed, but no artist is named, hmm. Is this an AI image? I can't get over it. They used Shutterstock; just do a search on Shutterstock for 'flaming ring' and you get a hundred images*** that look better than this.

 

* Backmatter includes a glossary and acknowledgments.  The frontmatter includes some maps, a listing of the Mime Order, and a prelude.

** Update: I started this yesterday, on Saturday, and didn't make it to the library. Today is Sunday and by the time I finished what I was doing, the library is closed again, so maybe tomorrow. 

*** My search turned up 47,000+ images, and most of the images on the first page were better that what they did here. 

**** Yes, I know that a double asterisk is as far as you're supposed to go when using typographic symbols for footnotes. Depending on who you ask, you could go to a double asterisk before changing symbols.† Here is the list of what seems like the commonly accepted order:

Asterisk (*) - Shift-8 

Double asterisk (**) - Shift-88 

Dagger (†) - Option-T on Mac

Double dagger (‡) - Option-Shift-7 on Mac

Section mark (§) - Option-6 on Mac

Parallels (||) - Shift-Backslash-Backslash

Octothorpe (#) - Shift-3

Pilcrow (¶) - Option-7 on Mac

 

† The UN actually allows up to fours asterisks, and then they follow with dagger (or Obelisk), double dagger (or Diesis) and Section mark (or Silcrow). That's it. Their standard is no more than seven footnotes using symbols, if you have more than seven footnotes, you should be using numbers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

mime order

The Mime Order is the second book in what Samantha Shannon refers to as a 7-book series known as the Bone Season series, after the first book. Two of the installments are novellas, which sound like they may or may not be critical to the overall story arc. My guess, based on nothing other than what I know--and that is limited to their titles and the fact that they’re novellas--is that they are based on background material Shannon prepared in the writing of the main books in the series.* Here’s my thought process: The Bone Season is Shannon’s first book, and it sounds like she is self-taught, and has been writing since adolescence. So, her editor gets ahold of The Bone Season draft and says, hey (I speculate, wildly) what’s all this exposé about the main character? Let's cut all this out. Then, said editor runs across all this background material that Shannon has stuffed in between the chapters which is presumably a pamphlet written by a supporting character, and says, hey (again) let's cut all this out.

Those cuttings are the raw material spun up into the two novellas. How’d I do? Maybe Samantha Shannon will read this and respond… that was me waiting.

Book two picks up after the events of the first book, but the end of the first one wasn’t so much of a cliffhanger, as the end of this one is. When I got to end of this one, I logged on to my local library and put a hold on the third book. I mean, come on, it was like, her hair was on fire and 14 people in the room had just pulled knives and started to run and then…

Tune in next week for another excited episode of…

Shannon’s work is fun to read. After reading The Bone Season a while ago, I also read some of her other stuff, so I had a pretty good feeling that going back to this series was going to work out okay. So far so good. As I write this, I’m almost halfway through book three; The Song Rising. Shannon has created an interesting alternate universe in a future London, which connects to another dimension (?) called the aether which is also where spirits of the dead go, and the folks that can connect to the aether are, as you might expect, called clairvoyants. But the aether has inhabitants of its own, and what are they exactly?

Love, anger, oppression, rebellion, friendship, justice, solitary, prejudice, class warfare, and communing with spirits (and other things) is all mixed up in this fast moving, and action-forward series. I get the feeling that when I’m getting close on the one I'm reading now, I’ll be reserving the next one at the library too. If and when I do, I’ll let all six of you know.

 

* So if you looked up the link above on the Main Series of books on Shannon's website, you may find that there is a placeholder for another book called The Moth Reborn, which is due next year. So I guess that makes it 8-books... Nope, wait, there is another novella on her website called The Dawn Chorus, so 9? But wait, the other book** I talked about coming from background material isn't listed on her site, so maybe we're back down to 7, or I guess 8 with the upcoming book? yeah, I'm confused too

** The other 'novella' from background material isn't a novella, its a 50 page pamphlet called On the Merits of Unnaturalness. My thoughts about its origins hold however, and I guess I'll add The Dawn Chorus novella mentioned immediately above to that group of edited out material, altho that novella fits between The Song Rising (reading now) and the next book, The Mask Falling.

 

 

spellbook of katrina van tassel

The Spellbook of Katrina Van Tassel: A Story of Sleepy Hollow may be the first book by Alyssa Palombo, but I guess I can check that. nope, she wrote a few other things before this  Maybe she’s too young to remember the Tim Burton movie "Sleepy Hollow" from 1999 with Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane and Christina Ricci as Katrina Van Tassel but she is certainly aware of Washington Irving's short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" from 1820, and she's a big fan. I don't recall the Tim Burton movie that well, but it came out in 1999, and I'm guessing she was a kid then. "Sleepy Hollow" was more of a murder mystery with spooky ghost tie-ins, a la Scooby Doo.

The spellbook in the title is just about the only place you'll find a spellbook in this novel. I get the creeping suspicion that someone (editor, publisher ?) suggested the title, or at least that part of it. Van Tassel does keep a diary, and I guess she may have scribbled the ingredients for an herbal tincture that her friend, the healer, gave her, but I'm not sure that makes it a spellbook. Certainly not enough of a spellbook to name a novel after. oooo, maybe this is the spellbook? nope

Otherwise, this book was okay. I thought Palombo may have been a little more detailed during the sex scenes--which showed up a little more frequently--than she needed to, which gives the whole story an little bit an Historical Romance* vibe. Van Tassel is a strong female lead, and does what she needs to do to stick up for herself in a time and place where women aren't typically given the opportunity to stand up for themselves. Palombo set this book in Sleepy Hollow, of course, but at an earlier time period that other interpretations. Washington refuses to run for a second term, and John Adams takes over as the second president during this story arc of this novel.

 

* See my note about 'bodice ripper' romance novels and the associated footnotes and links on this recent post.

 

 

lying game

 

The Lying Game is by Ruth Ware, and English author who brought us The Woman in Cabin 10. I saw this book at my library's book sale and because I thought the Cabin book was good I picked this one up.

The book cover, which is similar to the illustration shown here,* also notes that this book was featured in a book club with Reese Witherspoon's name on it. I'm not sure what that means, I didn't know she had one, and this book is from 2017, although the paperback was probably printed a year or so later, and I'm not sure if Witherspoon still has a book club or not. Looks like she does and it looks like the club features books by women authors, so good on you Reece.

Not only is this book written by a woman, it focuses on the story of four women, that have know each other since their high school days at a boarding school near the coast, not too far from London. The story is about friendship, secrets, and lies, and how they shapes the young women in the story into the adults they become, and what it means when part of their youth, that they may have been hoping would stay in their past, catches up with them.

Its tightly written, with tension, mystery, and an interesting look at the things we share, and the things we don't. Ware did a pretty good job with this one too.

 

* Mine looks like this; the badging is different. 

 

 

eye of the needle

Eye of the Needle is a Ken Follett World War II novel from 1978. I picked this up from the book sale at the Bigelow Free Public Library in Clinton, MA. The Bigelow is a pretty little library built with Guastavino vaults about 100 years ago. It was built with funding from the Andrew Carnegie Foundation, and opened in 1902. The library director gave me the thumbs up on this book, and altho I've read Follett's cathedral stories, I haven't read any of his spy thriller work (or maybe anything else he's written?)

Anyhoo, this is a well paced, inspired by reality kind of thriller, and it certainly checked off all the boxes for me. It was exciting, believable, seemingly well researched, tense, and in some cases brutal, and in other cases sad, and still others, sweet. The story is set mainly in the UK, toward the end of WWII, with glimpses of what was happening in Germany at the time, or at least what Follett speculated could have happened based on the information we do have, both about the events in the UK and Germany. He comes right out and says up front that we all know the results, but it was close there for a while, and while we don't know all the details something like this could have happened. I'm paraphrasing. because I didn't want to get up and get the book

 Its crazy to imagine that in 1978, the world was much closer to the end of WWII, than we are now to 1978. Follet wrote this just 30 or so years after the end of the war, and its getting close to 50 years since he wrote it. The story holds up however, probably because its set in an earlier period and it seems that Follet was careful to avoid modern terms and lingo in his writing (at lest to my eye.) This is James Bond without the tuxedos. Its gritty, and the story is wrapped up in everyday life, and the struggles of people living through a war, and doing the best they can in crummy circumstances.