That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis is the third novel in the Space series. We are on earth with Ransom fighting against the N.I.C.E. who want to bring an end to mankind as we know it.  Not my favorite book of this series but good overall.   My rating:

Plot summary

The story is set in England of the mid 1940s (”vaguely after the war”), in the small university town of Edgestow, centered around a young university don Mark Studdock, a fellow of Bracton College at the (fitional) University of Edgestow, and his wife Jane (née Tudor), who is working on her graduate degree in poetry.

The National Institute of Coordinated Experiments (”N.I.C.E.”), a scientific and social planning agency, furtively pursues its program of the exploitation of nature and the annihilation of humanity. The Institute is secretly inspired and directed by fallen eldila, whom they refer to as “macrobes”, superior beings. Their takeover of Edgestow and its surrounding area is a case in point of the manner in which they use human pride and greed to get what they want. After the N.I.C.E. would achieve its ends, the earth would only belong to the “macrobes”.

Set against the N.I.C.E.’s operations is a small resistance group led by Dr. Elwin Ransom, who following his journeys to Mars and Venus, is now directed by the good eldila there, as well as those of Mercury, Saturn, and Jupiter. These eldila, previously blocked from accessing Earth, “the silent planet”, are now unhindered, as that silence had first been breached by Weston and Devine when they left the earth to travel to Malacandra (Mars) in Out of the Silent Planet. Ransom’s group consists of humans and animals living in unity and harmony, in stark contrast to the division and political maneuverings within the N.I.C.E.

The story begins with Jane thinking about her troubled marriage over breakfast while casually glancing at a photograph in the morning newspaper. The picture is of a man named Alcasan, a criminal just guillotined in France, which Jane recognizes as the man in a dream she had the night before. In her dream she saw him in a prison cell with a man with a pointed beard and pince-nez glasses. She then sees this man twisting off Alcasan’s head. She is frightened by the dream, and after visiting with her friend Mrs. Dimble, is persuaded to seek help from psychologist Grace Ironwood at the St. Anne estate. Ironwood informs her that she is not insane but receiving clairvoyant visions, but Jane initially refuses to accept this. Ironwood asks Jane to report any further visions, and Jane returns home to Edgestow.

Meanwhile Mark, a professor of Sociology at Bracton College, has been recruited into an inner circle of fellows, known as “the progressive element”. He finds out from his colleague Curry that he obtained his fellowship through the recommendation of Lord Feverstone (later revealed to be the shady finacier Devine, who first appeared in Out of the Silent Planet). Feverstone is also associated with the N.I.C.E. After the “progressives” see to it that the college approves the sale of Bracton land including Bragdon Wood to the N.I.C.E., Mark enthusiastically accompanies Feverstone to the N.I.C.E. headquarters at Belbury for what he believes is a position at the Institute. Feverstone flatters him, and Mark is initially optimistic about his future, but is perplexed by the vagueness of his interview with Deputy Director John Wither. He only confirms that he might actually work in the N.I.C.E. through conversations with an Italian professor Filostrato and the head of the N.I.C.E.’s institutional police force, Miss “Fairy” Hardcastle. He finds that his work with the N.I.C.E. would have nothing to do with his academic training as a sociologist but instead would make use of his persuasive writing skills to plant N.I.C.E. propaganda in local papers (now mostly under N.I.C.E. control). He finds himself accepted into the “library circle”, seemingly the inner political circle at Belbury. The circle reveals plans for staging a riot in Edgestow in order to cement N.I.C.E. control of the area, and Mark begins his efforts for the propaganda campaign.

After experiencing further visions, Jane returns to St. Anne, where she meets the rest of the group. She also meets for the first time with the director, Ransom, who explains more about his organization and the N.I.C.E. as well as her role, but does not yet admit her fully into the group, especially as her Mark is unaware of her association with them.

Meanwhile, Wither and Hardcastle now try to pressure Mark into bringing Jane to Belbury, as they are aware of her clairvoyance, and intend to use her for their own purposes. They reveal that they have his lost wallet, which they say was found in the vicinity of Mark’s colleague Dr. Hingest, who was murdered by the N.I.C.E. a few days before during his attempt to leave the institute (an event which Jane also saw in a vision). As Mark has no alibi to clear himself of the murder, he begins to realize he is trapped. He is also brought to the severed head of Alcasan, who is represented as the actual “head” of the N.I.C.E. Filostrato believes that the head is being kept alive purely by his scientific devices, where blood and air are pumped through it, but it is actually a mouthpiece of the evil eldila that control the N.I.C.E. Frost, who brought the head to Belbury, has opened himself to be possessed by these eldila as well.

It is upon Jane’s return to Edgestow in the midst of the riot that the N.I.C.E. almost succeeds in capturing her. Jane is unable to make her way to her home, and is arrested by Miss Hardcastle and the institutional police and taken to a basement room for interrogation. Hardcastle attempts to get Jane to reveal where she has been, intending to ascertain Ransom’s base, and resorts to burning Jane with a lighted cheroot cigarette. Fortunately for Jane, Hardcastle’s car stalls in the middle of the riot as they are trying to take her to Belbury, and they abandon her. Jane is rescued by Arthur Denniston and his wife, and they take her to live at the St. Anne estate. Jane finds that her friends, Dr. Cecil and Mrs. “Mother” Dimble are now staying there with the Dennistons, Ivy Maggs, Grace Ironwood, Dr. MacPhee, and “the Director” Elwin Ransom. They are all that stands between Logres, the good and ‘true’ England, and the N.I.C.E. Ransom still suffers from the wounded heel that he sustained on Perelandra (Venus) when he defeated the diabolically controlled Weston in Perelandra. He is now the “Pendragon“, the inheritor of the role ofKing Arthur, and he is allied with the good eldila. By her association with the St. Anne group, Jane begins to rethink her non-Christian lifestyle.

Mark determines to leave Belbury. He runs away on foot to the nearby village of Courthampton where he takes a bus to Edgestow. He finds his flat deserted, Jane not having been there in some time, but he finds a letter addressed to Mrs. Dimble. Mark then makes his way to the village of Northumberland to see Dr. Dimble to find out where his wife is. Dimble sees Mark but does not let him know where Jane is. He lets Mark know that Jane is a part of the resistance to the N.I.C.E. Mark leaves Dimble’s office only to be arrested by the police for the murder of Dr. Hingest.

Mark is conveyed by the police to Belbury and confined to a cell, and realizes that the N.I.C.E. may have him killed for his disloyalty. It is then that he begins to set himself against the N.I.C.E. Frost wants to fully initiate Mark into the Institute, but Mark is disgusted with Frost’s cold inhumanity. Frost wants to condition Mark into what Frost believes to be “objectivity”. Mark is taken to a room beyond the room of the severed head where he is exposed to pointlessly broken and off-center patterns in a controlled environment decked with horrible, blasphemous,surrealistic paintings. The effect on Mark instead is that he reaffirms to himself the natural and the normal in opposition to the perversity of his surroundings.

One of Jane’s visions in the course of the story involves an old man lying in an underground vault. Both Ransom and the N.I.C.E. know that this is the wizard Merlin of Arthurian legend who “sleeps” in such a place beneath Bragdon Wood, recently acquired by the N.I.C.E. A race develops to acquire Merlin with the hope of making use of his powers. While the N.I.C.E. is forced to search the entire wood, Ransom’s group is aided by Jane’s recollections of the area from her visions. She also has seen that Merlin has awakened. On a windy and rainy night Ransom sends Dimble, Denniston, and Jane out to Bragdon Wood to find Merlin. The N.I.C.E. also has three teams looking for him at the same time. Jane and her companions find an abandoned camp of a vagabond tinker in a dingle in Bragdon Wood. They then encounter a wild, old, bearded horseman, who rides away before they are able to communicate with him. While this is going on the N.I.C.E. succeeds in apprehending a frail, naked, old man, whom they lodge in another room at the Institute. The wild horseman meanwhile makes his appearance at St. Anne’s, and is revealed to be the true Merlin. After questioning Ransom and finding him to be the Pendragon, Merlin, who identifies himself as Merlinus Ambrosius, is readily compliant, and is found to be the perfect agent of the good eldila to destroy the N.I.C.E.

Comically, the man the N.I.C.E. has acquired is actually the vagabond tinker, whom they mistake for Merlin. The tinker takes advantage of the first class care he receives at the hands of the N.I.C.E. and remains silent despite Wither’s attempt to communicate with him in Latin. Mark, during breaks from his conditioning with Frost, is ordered to keep watch on the strange guest with whom he forms a secret understanding.

Wither and Frost believe that in order to communicate with their “Merlin” they have to secure someone who can speak in a Celtic dialect. They take out an advertisement for a linguist, which is answered by the real Merlin disguised as a Basque priest. Merlin hypnotizes the tinker to speak in an unknown language, which Merlin in turn appears to interpret to Wither and Frost in Latin. In this way Merlin gets Wither and Frost to believe that the tinker is Merlin, and has Wither give them a tour of Belbury.

Frost, in the meantime, wants to complete Mark’s initiation, so he takes him into the “objectivity room” where a large crucifix has been placed in the center. Frost then orders Mark to stamp on it and degrade it. Mark demurs with the argument that such an action would affirm the reality of Christianity, which the crucifix represents. When again ordered to desecrate the crucifix, Mark curiously responds, “It’s all bloody nonsense, and I’m damned if I do any such thing.”^[3]

Merlin accompanies the false Merlin to the Institute banquet at which the director of the N.I.C.E., Horace Jules, gives a speech. During this speech the Curse of Babel falls on him and all present, causing confusion and mayhem. Jules is shot and killed by Miss Hardcastle, who in turn is killed with many others when Merlin releases the Institute’s captive animals (a tiger, an elephant, a wolf, a snake, and a bear among others) into the hall. In the ensuing carnage only Wither, Straik, Filostrato, Frost, and Feverstone escape.

The end of Wither, Frost, Filostrato, and Straik is quite bizarre. Wither and Straik force Filostrato to the severed head room where they strip, worship the head, and behead Filostrato. Wither then stabs Straik to death and is himself killed by a bear that apparently destroys the severed head as well. Frost later comes into the room with gasoline, and mechanically sets himself and Belbury on fire under the total control of the evil eldila.

Merlin helps Mark, the tinker, Tom Maggs, and Mr. Bultitude the bear escape and directs Mark to St. Anne’s. He then disappears from the narrative. From four vantages the destruction of Edgestow by blasts and earthquakes is portrayed: St. Anne’s, Mark’s, Feverstone’s, and Curry’s. Curry determines to go to London to be at the center of the re-establishment of Bracton College. Since he was made the provisional governor of Edgestow subsequent to the riot, Feverstone tries to return. He gets part way there from Belbury in a car that is driven wildly across country. When he gets to Edgestow, he perishes in an earthquake that engulfs the town.

The St. Anne group celebrates the victory over the N.I.C.E. with a dinner served to the women by the men. Since Ransom can only be cured of his injury in the place where it occurred, he will once again be taken to Perelandra. His departure is not shown, but the reader is informed that a new Pendragon will be installed. Ransom bestows a blessing on his associates before they retire for the beautiful evening that is strangely transformed from a wintry one into a summer one. The St. Anne estate comes under the influence of the various eldil of the solar system, including Perelandra, the eldil of Venus, who stays after the other good eldila have left. She presides over the reuniting of the couples: the jackdaw and its mate, Mr. Bultitude the bear and his mate, who had presumably killed Wither and destroyed the severed head, Tom and Ivy Maggs, and Mark and Jane Studdock. Ransom tells Jane that when she and Mrs. Dimble were preparing the lodge for Tom and Ivy Maggs and she saw a curious vision of a beautiful woman and dwarves, reminiscent of a painting by Titian, she was actually preparing her own bridal bower for herself and Mark. Mark is invited into the lodge by a vision of the beautiful woman where he undresses and is later joined by Jane, who, when she sees Mark’s shirt hanging out of the window, knows that only he could be there.

Perelandra by C.S. Lewis is the second novel in the Space series.   We visit Venus or Perelandra and the tempting of Eve is the garden of Eden is replayed there with  My rating: 

Plot summary

The story starts with the philologist Elwin Ransom, some years after his return from Mars at the end ofOut of the Silent Planet, receiving a new mission from Oyarsa, the angelic ruler of Mars. Ransom is to travel to Perelandra (Venus), where is located a new Garden of Eden and a new Adam and Eve, to oppose the diabolically-inspired human physicist Professor Weston, who has been sent to corrupt the Eve figure. He is transported in a boxlike vessel seemingly made of ice, which contains only himself.

Ransom arrives in Venus, which he finds to be an oceanic paradise. One day is about 23 Earth hours, in contrast to the (roughly) 24 and 25-hour days of Earth and Mars. The sky is golden and very bright but opaque. The sun cannot be seen; hence the night is pitch black with no stars visible.

Strange, mythical creatures roam the planetary sweet-water ocean, which is dotted with floating rafts of vegetation. These rafts look like small islands, and actually have plant life growing on them and animals living on them; however, having no tectonic foundations, they are in a constant state of motion. A single mountain, called the Fixed Land, exists on the planet.

Ransom quickly meets Tinidril, the Queen of the planet; a cheerful being who soon accepts him as a friend. Unlike the inhabitants of Mars in Out of the Silent Planet, she is human; this is said to be the preferred form assumed by civilized animals as a result of the manifestation of the story’s God, Maleldil, in that form. She and the King of the planet, who is largely unseen until the end, are the only human inhabitants and are the Eve and Adam of their world. They live on the floating rafts Ransom has seen and are forbidden to sleep on the “Fixed Land”.

The rafts or floating islands are indeed Paradise, not only in the sense that they provide a pleasant and care-free life (until the arrival of Weston) but also in the sense that Ransom is for weeks and months naked in the presence of a beautiful, also naked woman without once lusting after her or being tempted to seduce her.

The plot thickens when Professor Weston arrives in a spaceship and lands in a part of the ocean quite close to the Fixed Land. He at first announces that he is a reformed man, but appears to still be in search of power. He pledges allegiance to what he calls the “Life-Force”, and subsequently shows signs of demonic possession. Weston finds the Queen and tries to tempt her into defying Maleldil’s orders by spending a night on the Fixed Land. Ransom, perceiving this, believes that he must act as a counter-tempter.

Well versed in the Bible and Christian theology, Ransom realises that if the pristine Queen, who has never heard of Evil, succumbs to Weston’s arguments, the Fall of Man will be re-enacted on Perelandra. He does his best during day after day of lengthy arguments illustrating various approaches to temptation, but the demonic Weston shows super-human brilliance in debate (though when “off-duty” he displays moronic, asinine behaviour and small-minded viciousness) and moreover appears in no need of sleep.

With the demonic Weston on the verge of winning, the desperate Ransom hears in the night what he gradually realises is a Divine voice, commanding him to physically attack the Tempter. Ransom is highly reluctant, and debates with the divine (inner) voice for the entire duration of the night. A curious twist is introduced here; whereas the name “Ransom” is said to be derived from the title “Ranolf’s Son”, it can also refer to a reward given in exchange for a treasured life. Recalling this, and recalling that his God would (and has) sacrifice Himself in a similar situation, Ransom decides to confront the Tempter outright.

Ransom attacks his opponent bare-handed, using only physical force. The Tempter, unable to withstand this despite his superior abilities of rhetoric, flees, whereupon Ransom chases him over the ocean, both riding the backs of giant fish. During a fleeting truce, the ‘real’ Weston momentarily re-inhabits his body, and the conversation between himself and Ransom displays Lewis’ horrific vision of Hell, wherein the damned soul is not consigned to the pain of flames, but is absorbed and “digested” by the Devil, eventually losing her personality completely.

While Ransom is distracted by his horror and his feelings of pity and compassion for Weston, the demon takes control of the body, surprises Ransom, and tries to drown him. The two continue the chase and enter a subterranean cavern, where Ransom seemingly kills Weston and having done so searches for a route to the surface. Weston’s body, horribly injured but still animated by the Devil, follows him. When they meet for the last time in another cavern, Ransom smashes Weston’s head with a stone and consigns the body to volcanic flames. Slightly prior to this point, Weston had begun to lose his humanity and began acting more like a mandrill, and resembling like a balding orangutan. He also at some points acts like a cat.

Returning to the planet’s surface after a long travail through the caverns of Perelandra, Ransom recuperates from his injuries, all of which heal fully except for a bite on his heel which he sustained at some point in the battle, which continues bleeding for the rest of his life.

Ransom meets the King and Queen together with the Oyéresu of Mars and Venus, all of whom celebrate the prevention of a second biblical “Fall” and begin to create their utopia. The story climaxes with Ransom’s vision of the essential truth of life in the Solar System, and possibly of the nature of God: strongly paralleling the journeys of Dante in the Divine Comedy.

His mission accomplished, he returns, rather reluctantly, to Earth to continue the fight against the forces of evil on their own territory.

Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis is the first novel in the Space series.  An excellent novel with amazing visualizations, it makes you really want to visit Malacandra.  My rating:

Plot summary

The story begins with Dr. Elwin Ransom, a professor of philology at a college of the University of Cambridge, on a hiking trip in the English Midlands. Being refused lodging in the village of Nadderby he must travel into the night the six miles to Sterk. He comes to a small, isolated cottage, the home of a woman and her mentally challenged son, Harry. The anxious woman thinks Ransom is Harry and runs into him as he comes toward the cottage. She implicitly declines to accommodate Ransom, but tells him about where Harry works, the Rise, the small estate of Professor Weston. She also speaks of a gentleman from London staying there, Mr. Devine, whom Ransom discovers to be his former schoolfellow, a person whom he “cordially disliked.” Despite the woman’s doubt that Ransom would find lodging, he decides to go there anyway, assuring the woman that he will see to it that Harry is sent home.

When he gets to the front door of the Rise, Ransom hears shouting and struggling inside. When he goes around back, he sees Weston and Devine trying to force Harry to go with them on an interplanetary spaceflight to Malacandra (Mars). Ransom intervenes in the struggle, and Devine sees him as a better prospect than Harry for what he and Weston have in mind. With Weston’s grudging consent Devine offers Ransom a drink and accommodations.

After enjoying what he thinks is his nightcap, Ransom loses consciousness. When he awakens shortly thereafter he realizes that he has been drugged. He tries to escape but is subdued by Weston and Devine. When he again regains consciousness he finds himself in a metallic spherical spacecraft en route to Malacandra. The wonder and excitement of such a prospect relieves his anguish at being kidnapped, but Ransom is put on his guard when he overhears Weston and Devine deliberating whether they will again drug him or keep him conscious when they turn him over to the inhabitants of Malacandra, the “sorns“, as a sacrifice. Ransom, who has been put to work as cook and scullion, secrets a knife and plans to escape when he gets the chance.

Soon after the three land on the strange planet, Ransom gets his chance to run off into the unknown landscape. He wanders around, finding many differences between Earth and Malacandra, in that all the lakes, streams, and rivers are warm; the gravity is significantly less; and the plants and mountains are strangely tall and thin.

Ransom later meets a civilized native of Malacandra, a hross named Hyoi. He becomes a guest for several months at Hyoi’s village, where he uses his philological skills to learn the language of the hrossa and learns their culture. In the process he discovers that gold, known to the hrossa as “sun’s blood”, is plentiful on Malacandra, and thus is able to discern Devine’s motivation for making the voyage thither. Weston’s motives are shown to be more complex; he is bent on expanding humanity through the universe, abandoning each planet and star system as it becomes uninhabitable.

The hrossa honor Ransom greatly by asking him to join them in a hunt for a hnakra (plural hnéraki), a fierce water-creature which seems to be the only dangerous predator on the planet, resembling both ashark and a crocodile. While hunting, Ransom is told by an eldil, an almost invisible creature reminiscent of a spirit or ghost, that he must meet Oyarsa, the eldil who is ruler of the planet. He refuses the summons, as he wishes to proceed with the hunt. Hyoi, after killing the hnakra with Ransom’s help, is shot dead by Devine and Weston, who are trying to find Ransom. Ransom is told by Hyoi’s friend (another hross named Whin) that this is the consequence of disobeying Oyarsa, and that Ransom must now cross the mountains to escape Weston and Devine and fulfil his orders. On his journey, Ransom finally meets a sorn, as he long feared he might. He finds, however, that the séroni are peaceful and kind. Augray (the sorn) explains to him the nature of Oyarsa’s body, and that of all eldils. The next day, carrying the human on his back, Augray takes Ransom to Oyarsa.

After a stop at the dwelling place of an esteemed sorn scientist, wherein Ransom is questioned thoroughly about all manner of facts about Earth, Ransom finally makes it to Meldilorn, the home of Oyarsa. In Meldilorn, Ransom meets a pfifltrigg who tells Ransom of the beautiful houses and artwork his race make in their native forests. Ransom then is led to Oyarsa and long awaited conversation begins. Through the conversation Ransom finds out that there are Oyéresu (the plural) for each of the planets in our solar system; in the four inner planets, which have organic life (intelligent and non-intelligent), the local Oyarsa is responsible for that life. The Oyarsa of Earth, called Thulcandra (”the silent planet”) by the Malacandrans, has turned evil and has been restricted to Thulcandra by Maleldil, the ruler of the universe. Ransom is ashamed at how little he can tell Oyarsa about Earth and how foolish he and other humans seem to Oyarsa. While the two are talking, Devine and Weston are brought in guarded by hrossa, because they have killed three of that race. Oyarsa then dissects their characters and beliefs.

Oyarsa tells Weston and Devine that he would not tolerate the presence of such creatures, but lets them leave the planet immediately, albeit under very unfavourable orbital conditions. To Ransom, Oyarsa offers him the option of staying on Malacandra. He decides he does not belong there, perhaps because he feels himself unworthy and perhaps because he yearns to be back among the human beings of earth. After a difficult return journey, the space-ship makes it back to Earth. Weston and Devine do not further molest Ransom, perhaps realizing that if Ransom were to try to expose their villainies, no-one would believe him, since there is no corroboration for the story. To prevent further intrusions in Malacandra, Oyarsa has caused the ship to disintegrate shortly after landing.

Ransom himself half-doubts whether all that happened was true, and he realizes that others will be even less inclined to believe it if he should speak of it. However, when the author (Lewis) writes him asking whether he has heard of the medieval Latin word “Oyarses” and knows what it meant, he lets him in on the secret. Ransom then dedicates himself to the mission that Oyarsa gave him before he left Malacandra of stopping Weston from further evil.

Eye Contact by Cammie McGovern was a good murder mystery with the main witness being a child with severe Autism.  My rating:

Plot summary

When Cara is called in to her nine-year-old son Adam’s school one afternoon, she tries not to expect the worst. Because Adam is autistic, Cara—a single mother—has spent many hours with his teachers, principals, and guidance counselors discussing her son’s development, and it isn’t unusual for Adam to throw a tantrum at school that would necessitate her presence.

But today is different. Adam is missing, and he hasn’t been found in any of his usual hiding places. He broke a rule (which he never does) and disappeared during recess, presumably having left school grounds. When the police find him later that afternoon, Cara is stunned to find out that Adam—who has no friends at school to speak of—was in the woods behind the school with a fellow student. Her name was Amelia Best, and she was found dead, stabbed in the chest.

The community is thrown into crisis, with parents fearing for their children’s safety and teachers at the local schools doing their best to help their young students cope with this tragedy. Cara is convinced that Adam can help the police solve this murder, but he has retreated back inside himself after the incident, despite recent signs of improvement. Though Detective Matt Lincoln is skeptical about Adam’s ability to aid the investigation—child witnesses are difficult enough, but what can he do with one who won’t even speak?—Cara refuses to give up on her son, who has become her entire life since the death of her parents in a car accident. She tries in vain to get him to participate in his usual communication games and finds it difficult just to get him to look at her. Willing to take a risk in order to bring Adam around, she agrees with a local schoolteacher that an older boy’s companionship might help and invites Morgan over to visit.

Morgan, an eighth grader at the local middle school, has some troubles of his own: while he isn’t autistic or developmentally disabled, he attends classes with a special group at his own school, which he refers to as “the group for kids who have no friends.” He faces constant tormenting from bullies at recess, and though he likes the teacher of his special group, Morgan doesn’t share a bond with any of his classmates. It is clear from the start that he is harboring a terrible secret of his own. When Morgan meets Adam, Cara is shocked when Adam speaks his first voluntary phrases since the murder. As the two boys begin spending more time together, Adam offers his own clues to Cara that are difficult to decipher but might be important to locating the killer. But Morgan’s secret, as well as some old friends from Cara’s past, threatens to obscure the path to the truth behind Amelia’s death.

As Cara and Detective Lincoln draw closer to the resolution of this awful crime, Cara is forced to come to terms with the consequences of decisions she has made—including the choice she made as a young woman not to include Adam’s father in his life—and realizes she is not alone in her pain and isolation. In order to get to the murderer and bring Adam back to her, Cara must find it in her heart to forgive and be forgiven. Cammie McGovern’s Eye Contact is a heartrending portrait of a mother’s relationship with her son and a psychological thriller that keeps the reader guessing up to its final pages.

Skylark DaQuense by E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith is the last book . A good conclusion to this Space Opera series.  The very end was not my favorite since the entire series centered on Seaton and Crane and it all ends with DuQuesne going off to start his own empire.  My rating: 

Skylark of Valeron by E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith if taken in perspective as it was written in 1934 is an amazing piece of imaginative fiction.  You just have to get past that Seaton and Crane are flying around the universe and into the fourth dimension, they build space ships in a day and they talk about the ‘Ether’.  My rating: 

Plot summary

Our hero families are in deep space when they are attacked by the intellectuals. Inorder to survive the attack they rotate into the 4th demention and are captured. They must make it back to 3space and find their way home. Unfortunatly they find themselves hopelessly lost but are able to save another race and make their way home!

Skylark 3 by E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith if taken in perspective as it was written in 1930 is an amazing piece of imaginative fiction.  You just have to get past that Seaton and Crane are flying around the universe using vacuum tubes and relays faster than the speed of light. This one focuses on the dreaded Fenachrone who want to take over the galaxy.   My rating: 

Plot summary

In this exhilarating sequel to The Skylark of Space, momentous danger again stalks genius inventor and interplanetary adventurer Dr. Richard Seaton. Seaton’s allies on the planet Kondal are suffering devastating attacks by the forces of the Third Planet. Even worse, the menacing and contemptuous Fenachrones are threatening to conquer the galaxy and wipe out all who oppose them. And don’t forget the dastardly machinations of Seaton’s arch-nemesis, DuQuesne, who embarks on a nefarious mission of his own. Against such vile foes and impossible odds, how is victory possible?

The Skylark of Space by E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith if taken in perspective as it was written in 1928 is an amazing piece of imaginative fiction.  You just have to get past that Seaton and Crane are flying around the galaxy using vacuum tubes and relays. My rating:

Plot

The novel begins with the accidental discovery, in a Government laboratory in Washington, DC, of a form of clean power that holds the promise of space travel. The hero, Dr. Richard Seaton, uses this power to build first a flying belt and then an interstellar spaceship.

When his government coworkers do not believe him, Seaton acquires rights to his discovery from the government and commercializes it with the aid of his friend, millionaire inventor Martin Crane. A former colleague, Dr. Marc DuQuesne, joins with the unscrupulous World Steel Corporation to try to steal Seaton’s invention.

The Door to December is another interesting book by Dean Koontz.  A nine year old girl has been taught how to leave her physical body and eventually kills all of her captors.  Not my favorite Koontz book but a good book.  The Door to December is the physic trigger she thinks about for hours in a sensory deprivation tank which allows her to leave her body.  As with My rating:

Plot Summary

Melanie was three when she was kidnapped. She was found when she was nine, wandering the streets of Los Angeles. Melanie bears a secret, but she cannot bring herself to reveal it. Her mother and the police need her help in order to stop a series of killings. But what made her stop talking? And in her sleep, what is she whispering about? What is the Door to December?

Relentless is a thriller by Dean Koontz.Not my favorite Koontz novel, the bit at the end with the dog jumping from one place to anther instantly by himself and the time reversing was just a bit over the top for me. Seemed like he could have come up with a better ending. My rating:

Plot Summary

Cullen “Cubby” Greenwich has just released his sixth novel, One O’Clock Jump which is generally well received in the literary community. However, Shearman Waxx, considered to be a preeminent literary critic, writes a scathing, albeit somewhat inaccurate review of Cubby’s latest work.

Against the advice of his wife, a children’s book author in her own right, Cubby attempts to gather some information about his new nemesis. Cubby learns that he and the critic share a favorite dining locale. Accompanying Cubby to the restaurant is his six year old prodigy son, Milo. A chance encounter in the men’s room foretells the ensuing chaos when Shearman Waxx simply utters “Doom.”

Receiving a fortuitous call from a fellow writer who had previously endured a similar slandering at the hands of Waxx, Cubby is told of the horrific manner in which the writer’s family was murdered. The writer encourages Greenwich to abandon his home and flee.

Set into motion are a series of violent events, beginning with the destruction of the Greenwich home. All members of the family, rescued pup Lassie included, flee to the presumed safety of a friend’s real estate investment project. When their moves are quickly countered by the escalating psychopathy of their pursuer, it becomes evident they need to seek armament and information.

The family seeks refuge with Penny Greenwich’s apocalypse-fearing family who conveniently have fortified an underground bunker and stocked it with a cache of weapons. Not content being forced into the role of reclusive prey, the family embarks on a journey of discovery to determine who it is they’re dealing with and what can be done to stop him.

Their journey takes them to the hometown of two former artists in an attempt to digest the brutality with which they and their families were dispatched. Along the way, the family counters the rising tension and ever-present shadow of death with bits of sarcastic humor and Milo, by engrossing himself in his scientific projects.

The story continues to follow the Greenwiches through a series of tense and suspenseful events as they search for clues into the past of their tormentor and seek to discover his hidden motives.

Dark Rivers of the Heart is a thriller by Dean Koontz.  Another Koontz book with a dog, this one named Rocky who plays a major part in the novel.  A very good story, some of the technology at the very end seems a bit much for the apparent time frame but overall a very good thriller. Roy Miro and his girlfriend is the strangest pair I have ever seen.My rating:

Plot summary

Spencer Grant is a man with a tainted past and a lovable dog, Rocky, who together embark on a quest to find a life in a woman named Valerie Keene, whom he meets in a nightclub. Grant and his dog come back to the club later to find out that the woman is late for work.

When Grant attempts to find her at her home, a SWAT-like team bombards the place, sending Grant into confusion. Grant is now determined to find Valerie.

He searches for her in Las Vegas and is pursued by a secret government agency who are also looking for Valerie. He gets caught in a storm in the Nevada desert and is injured. He is rescued by Valerie and she helps Spencer’s injuries.

Meanwhile Roy Miro, a high ranking official in the agency, is the main antagonist who has been looking for Valerie for months. He and the agency use a satellite to find Spencer and Valerie’s location in the desert. Roy and some agents get into a helicopter and corner them into a shopping center.

Spencer and Valerie take hostage a helicopter and fly out of Nevada to Colorado to visit the house Spencer had his childhood in. When Spencer was 14 years old he heard a noise in the night and went out to the barn in the backyard to investigate. Inside the barn he found his father torturing a woman and Spencer found a gun and non-fatally shot his father. His father was later sent to a mental hospital. Roy takes Spencer’s father out of the hospital and flies to the Colorado house to confront Spencer and Valerie.

Spencer’s father shoots Roy in the barn, which only paralyzes Roy. Spencer then fatally shoots his father while he and Valerie leave the barn. They use a satellite heat beam to disable the other agents while leaving the house and starting a new life together helping a resistance group against the government agency.

Sword Song is the fourth book in the Saxon Stories series by Bernard Cornwell. An interesting although sometimes gory novel about the Danes in England in the 9th century.  My rating:

Plot summary

Uhtred is still trapped by his oaths to Alfred, however his old ‘friend’ Haesten sends him a message that the dead have a message for Uhtred. Skeptical, Uhtred goes to consult this messenger from beyond the grave, who tells him he will be King of Mercia. Torn between his oaths to a King he dislikes and the Fates that tell him he will be King, he allows Haesten to introduce his Norse allies Sigefrid and his brother Erik.

It is only when a priest is about to be crucified that fate take a different turn. Uhtred recognises his old comrade at arms, the Welshman Father Pyrlig. After tricking Sigefrid into fighting the priest who is a fearsome fighter himself, Uhtred and Pyrlig leave with Uhtred promising to return. However he knows his oaths hold him and is called on by Alfred to take back London for Earl Aethelred of Mercia from Sigefrid and those with him who have gathered as a horde, desiring to gather fighters and strike into Wessex.

By stealth Uhtred’s seaborne assault works and the defenders of London are caught out in the open as they sally forth to confront Aethelred larger attacking army. Wedged between what was their safe London refuge and the Saxons in front of them and Uhtred force behind, the Norse are defeated. A particularly cruel blow is struck by Osferth (Alfred’s son) who leaps from the walls onto Sigefrid and injures him in such a way as to leave him crippled.

Sigefrid, Erik, and Haesten retire to East Anglia and fortune smiles on them again when Aethelred mounts a seaborne raid on their hurt forces. However they stay too long amongst their enemies after initial success and in the process, Aethelred manages to lose his wife, Aethelflaed.

Alfred is distraught at the threat to his daughter and is willing the ransom her from his foes. Uhtred is sent to negotiate the price and terms with Sigefrid. Whilst in their camp he learns that Erik and Aethelflaed have fallen in love, whereupon Erik and he plot to spirit her away from her captors; all without either of their leaders knowing what they plan.

The battle in the mouth for the inlet where the Vikings have holed up is as desperate as they come, with it often being none too clear who is fighting for whom. This climax to the narrative is fought over marshland, waterside, on ship and across ships. Erik is killed by Sigefrid, but Uhtred and his crew quickly gain victory over Sigefrid’s own warriors, and Sigefrid himself is killed by Osferth. Aethelflaed is rescued and the story ends with Uhtred taking her back to her father.

The Lords of the North is the third book in the Saxon Stories series by Bernard Cornwell. An interesting although sometimes gory novel about the Danes in England in the 9th century.  My rating:

Plot summary

876 – 878: Uhtred of Bebbanburg makes his way back to his native Northumbria in the hopes of regaining his father’s fortress. He arrives to find formerly Danish held Eoferwic (York) has been conquered by Saxons and agrees to escort a Danish family north to safety. Along the way he encounters Sven the One-Eyed, his old enemy, and frees the Danish King Guthred of Cumbraland from slavery. Uhtred supports Guthred’s bid for power against the rival factions of Northumbria, including his uncle Aelfric who now rules Bebbanburg. He becomes the commander of Guthred’s household troops and advisor, and falls in love with Gisela, Guthred’s sister, before being cast into slavery himself. After two years spent chained to the oar of a Danish trading ship, Uhtred is rescued on the orders of King Alfred by his friends Ragnar and Steapa. They return to Northumbria where he and Ragnar enact brutal vengeance upon their enemies Kjartan the Cruel and Sven. The novel ends with Uthred’s duel against the Danish earl Ivarr Ivarsson in order to secure Guthred’s claim to the throne of Northumbria.

The Pale Horseman is the second book in the Saxon Stories series by Bernard Cornwell. A fantastic although sometimes gory novel about the Danes in England in the 9th century.  My rating:

Plot summary

876 – 878: Uhtred, bored with the peace between Alfred and the Danish king Guthrum, goes off raiding into Cornwall. He comes across a settlement ruled by the British king Peredur, who hires Uhtred and his men to fight an invading Danish force led by Svein of the White Horse. Uhtred and Svein however ally to kill Peredur and pillage his settlement, and Uhtred carries off Peredur’s wife, the shadow queen Iseult. A monk named Asser who was at Peredur’s court witnesses the betrayal and escapes toDyfed in Wales. Uhtred and Svein then sail up the coast to Land’s End where they part ways. Svein goes to Cynuit, where Ubba was killed previously, and Uhtred to the coast of Wales where he raids a ship laden with treasure. He returns to his estate and pious wife Mildrith, using his hoard of treasure to build a great hall and relieve his debt to the church.

The Witan summons Uhtred to an audience with King Alfred in Cippanhamm, where he is accused of using the king’s ship to raid the Britons with whom Wessex is at peace based on the testimony of Asser, who has made his way to Alfred’s court, and wrongfully accused of attacking the Cynuit abbey on the false testimony of the warrior Steapa Snotor, who is loyal to Uhtred’s enemy Odda the Younger. To settle the dispute, a fight to the death is ordered between Uhtred and Steapa. During the duel, Uhtred carries only his sword, Serpent-Breath, whereas Steapa is fully armoured. The duel is cut short when Guthrum’s Danes attack and the crowd is scattered. Uhtred, Leofric, and Iseult hide in the fields until nightfall when they enter Cippanhamm and free their friend Eanflæd at the Tornake Tavern. The four of them wander for a few weeks until they reach the swamps of Athelney. As they enter the marsh, Guthrum himself attacks Uhtred. Uhtred makes a fighting escape onto a boat that carries him, Leofric, and another passenger to an island within the swamp. The passenger insists that Uhtred should have left a Danish warrior alive, and turns out to be King Alfred himself. Uthred becomes Alfred’s bodyguard and for a few months they hide in the swamp until enough men have joined Alfred’s army. They then fight at the Battle of Ethandun and Alfred takes back Wessex, with Uhtred being instrumental in the death of Svein of the White Horse. However, during the battle, Leofric and Iseult are both killed.

The Last Kingdom is the first book in the Saxon Stories series by Bernard Cornwell. A fantastic although sometimes gory novel about the Danes in England in the 9th century.  Being of Danish heritage I found the novel and the series fascinating. My rating:

Plot summary

866 - 876: Osbert is 10 years old and the second son of Ealdorman Uhtred, Lord of Bebbanburg in Northumbria. Danes raid Bebbanburg and Ealdorman Uhtred’s first son, also called Uhtred, is killed and his body desecrated after he is sent out to scout the raiders. Osbert is now the oldest son of Ealdorman Uhtred and is re-baptised Uhtred. Ealdorman Uhtred seeks to avenge his son’s death. He is killed during the failed attack on Eoferwic (York) and Uhtred is captured by Earl Ragnar the Fearless of the Danes during the battle. Ragnar, intrigued and amused by the boy’s attempted attack during the battle, retains him in his household. Uhtred’s uncle, Ælfric, takes Bebbanburg and the title of Ealdorman for himself although Uhtred is the rightful heir.

Uhtred describes his life among the Danes, moving to the country with Ragnar and his men, working like a slave and fighting with other boys, slaves and Danes alike. Uhtred befriends Ragnar’s son Rorik and has many clashes with one boy in particular, Sven, son of Kjartan, a shipmaster in Ragnar’s small fleet. One day, Ragnar’s daughter, Thyra, is kidnapped by Sven out in the woods, and he tries to convince her to touch him sexually. Uhtred charges Sven from hiding, taking his sword and chopping into his thigh. He then slashes at Sven’s side. Uhtred, Rorik, and Thyra make an escape back to Ragnar’s hall where they each recount the tale to Ragnar. He is offended and deeply angry. He proceeds to Kjartan, and crushes one of Sven’s eyes with the hilt of his sword.

Uhtred then goes Viking across East Anglia, and participates in the conquering of Mercia, East Anglia, and the invasion of Wessex. He is kidnapped by a priest, Beocca, a family friend. He then escapes from Wessex and joins Ragnar again.

Uhtred enjoys life with the Danes but flees after Kjartan kills Ragnar in a hall-burning. Uhtred hopes to escape the assassins of Kjartan by sending out the lie that he died. Uhtred then joins King Alfred in Wessex. There he learns to read and write, and sails with Alfred’s fleet of 12 ships against the Danes. Seeking to take command of the fleet, he gains it on the condition that he marry the orphaned Wessex girl Mildrith. After doing so, he takes part in a siege against Guthrum, and is among a group of hostages exchanged when the Danes and Saxons agree on peace. Staying with the Danes in the city over winter he meets Ragnar the younger, son of Earl Ragnar, the man who adopted him. When Guthrum breaks the peace and murders the Saxon hostages, Uhtred is saved by Ragnar’s son, and tells him of Kjartan’s betrayal. He then escapes to find his wife. She was taken by Odda the Younger, another Wessex ealdorman (earl or noble), to the north. There he fights in the battle at Cynwit, where Uhtred finds himself fighting against Ubba Lothbrokson’s Danes. The book ends with Uhtred fighting in a shield-wall and killing Ubba.

Cold in the Earth is a mystery novel by British author Ann Granger.  This is #3 in the Mitchell & Markby Village series.  My rating:

Plot summary

To Meredith Mitchell, marooned in a dusty London flat, the Cotswolds seem like a haven of peace and tranquillity.  But Chief Inspector Markby has a rather different view of his native area, as he witnesses the bulldozing of one of his favourite boyhood haunts to make way for yet another housing estate.  And when a man’s body is found buried in the foundations of one of the plots his outlook turns even grimmer.  The only cheering prospect on the horizon is Meredith’s forthcoming visit.

The dead man however remains a mystery: the labourer who dug up his body has disappeared and the farmers whose lands abut the burial site are little help.  Charming, eccentric Mrs Carmody treats Markby, whom she has known since he was a boy, with fond familiarity and Mrs Winthrop at the neighbouring farm is happy to supply him with tea and scones but gives little else away.  The time has come for someone with a different perspective to see what they can glean.  And Meredith, blessed with an uncanny ability for ferreting out the truth, seems the obvious candidate.

A Season for Murder is a mystery novel by British author Ann Granger.  This is #2 in the Mitchell & Markby Village series.  My rating:

Plot summary
It is with some trepiditation that Meredith Mitchell returns to the Cotswolds: the Bamford district holds memories that, to put it generously, are bittersweet, and Christmas is a difficult time to find oneself a stranger in a new area.  Yet she receives a kindly welcome, in particular from her old acquaintance Chief Inspector Markby and from her new neighbour Harriet Needham, a striking redhead with whom Meredith immediately feels a certain kinship.

But Meredith has barely got to know her neighbour when Harriet is involved in a shocking – and fatal – accident at the Boxing Day Hunt.  Witnesses to the death are plentiful, for the incident occurred in Bamford’s crowded market square, and many are adamant it’s a case of murder.  Chief Inspector Markby is inclined to agree, although he suspects the guilty party is not the most obvious one.  Before long Meredith Mitchell begins, reluctantly, to think he might be right …

They Came to Baghdad is a mystery/thriller novel by Agatha Christie.  This is another novel of standalone characters not part of a series. My rating:

Plot summary

A secret summit of superpowers is to be held in Baghdad, but it is no longer secret, and a shadowy fascist group is plotting to sabotage the event. Things get complicated when enthusiastic young tourist Victoria Jones discovers a dying secret British agent Henry “Fakir” Carmichael in her hotel room, his last words – “Lucifer…Basrah…Lefarge” – propel her into investigation. “Lucifer” refers to the mastermind, Victoria’s false lover Edward, who is behind the plot. “Basrah” refers to thecity where certain documents where handed to certain people. “Lefarge” turns out to actually be “Defarge” and is a reference to a Charles Dickens character; it is a clue to where the aforementioned documents can be found.

An interesting comparison can be made between the romance themes of this novel and The Man in the Brown Suit, which is also primarily an adventure novel, rather than a straight whodunnit. In that book, the exciting, mysterious young man that falls into the heroine’s room ends up as the romantic hero. In Baghdad, an exciting, mysterious young man also falls into the heroine’s room, but he is disposed of, as is the other exciting, mysterious young man that the heroine has followed to Baghdad. A more conventional and staid archaeologist ends up as the romantic hero; Christie herself was married to archaeologist Max Mallowan by this date.

Destination Unknown is a mystery novel by Agatha Christie.  This one is not a repeating character novel but a self contained set of characters.  An interesting look at the thoughts about possible Soviet infiltration of the west. My rating:

Plot summary

Hilary Craven, a deserted wife and bereaved mother, is planning suicide in a Moroccan hotel, when she is asked to undertake a dangerous mission as an alternative to taking an overdose of sleeping pills. The task, which she accepts, is to impersonate a dead woman to help find the woman’s husband: a nuclear scientist who has disappeared and may have defected to the Soviet Union. Soon she finds herself in a group of travellers being transported to the unknown destination of the title. Her will to live may have returned, but has it returned too late?

Postern of Fate is a Tommy and Tuppence novel and the last novel written by Agatha Chrisie.   My rating:

Plot summary

Now in their seventies, Tommy and Tuppence move to a quiet English village, looking forward to a peaceful retirement. But, as they soon discover, their rambling old house holds secrets. Who is Mary Jordan? And why has someone left a code message in an old book about her ‘unnatural’ death? Once more, ingenuity and insight are called for as they are drawn into old mysteries and new dangers.

N or M? is a Tommy and Tuppence mystery novel by Agatha Christie.  My first reading of a Tommy and Tuppence novel.  Not as good as a Hercule Poirot novel but a good read and a I thought that the childrens books were a good hiding place for the spies.  My rating: 

Plot introduction

After the outbreak of the Second World War and many years after they worked for British intelligence, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford feel useless and sidelined. When Tommy is approached to go undercover once more, however, Tuppence decides to join him on his mission whether she is wanted or not.

The duo begin a search for a German agent who may have infiltrated British command. Another British agent that was following these Germans left a cryptic message on his deathbed: “N or M. Song Susie”. Grant knew that “Song Susie” stood for Sans Souci, a hotel in Leahampton, and N and M were two German spies, one male and one female. Tommy is to go to Sans Souci to investigate whether N, M or both are at the hotel and to figure out their identities.

The plot of the book is filled with many plot-twists and an action-packed denouement.

Book #14 in the Cadfael series by Ellis Peters. My rating:

From Library Journal
Little peace is to be found in England in the year 1142 as civil war continues to rage. The effects of the violence reach even into the cloistered world of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul. Richard Ludel, the father of one of the abbey’s students, has recently died of wounds received in battle. His ten-year-old son, also called Richard, has now become Lord of Eaton. Richard’s formidable grandmother, Dionysia, wants the boy released from the abbey’s custody, where his father placed him, into her own. She has contracted a child marriage for young Richard that will gain the Ludels control over a large neighboring estate. No one is exactly what they seem, and more than one character has a past that bears closer examination. Add to this several subplots and a large amount of political intrigue, and you have a great story. Although Brother Cadfael is more an observer than an actor in this work, bodies and red herrings pile up in a satisfying way before all the puzzles are solved.

Earthborn is the fifth and last book in the Homecoming series by Orson Scott Card.  For a while I was not sure that I would like it since it was a completely different story line except for Shedemei from the rest of the books in the series but in the end it was good.  My rating:

Plot summary

Five centuries after the conclusion of Earthfall, there is only one original colonist from Harmony: Shedemei, who now wears the Cloak of the Starmaster (a device that links her to the Oversoul). After hundreds of years, the descendants of Nafai and Elemak have built cities and towns – yet never forgetting the enmity between the two brothers. After hundreds of years, the Oversoul still has not achieved its original purpose: to find the Keeper of Earth, the central intelligence that alone can repair the Oversoul’s damaged counterpart at Harmony.

But now, the Keeper has once again begun to spread its influence. Heeding the dreams below, Shedemei has decided to return to Earth.

The last book in the Homecoming saga marks a departure from the style and storyline of the previous four. All of the characters from the previous novels (except Shedemei) are long dead. The central conflict between Nafai and Elemak is represented in their descendants, but takes a back seat in this book. The focus is on the struggles within the descendants of those who followed Nafai. The king of Darakemba (an empire founded by the Nafaris), his children, and his advisers, along with the high priest of Darakemba, his children, and his converts, provide the main actions in the story.

The Witness for the Prosecution is a short story by Agatha Christie.

Plot

Leonard Vole is arrested for the murder of his elderly friend Emily French, a woman who depended on his advice in managing her money. Because Emily made him her principal heir, not aware that he was a married man, things look bad for Leonard’s defense. But the final blow comes when his wife, Romaine, agrees to testify, not in Leonard’s defense, but as a witness for the prosecution.

In a much-celebrated plot twist, it turns out that Romaine was in fact working to free her husband all along. By first giving the prosecution its strongest evidence and then arranging for new evidence to come to light that discredits her testimony, it is more likely that Leonard will be acquitted than if she was simply a defense witness. It is then revealed that Leonard actually did kill Emily.

The Mystery of the Blue Jar is a short story by Agatha Christie.

The Mystery of the Blue Jar

Jack Hartington, a young man of twenty-four years of age, is something of a golf addict and consequently has taken a room at a hotel near to Stourton Heath links in order that he can practise for an hour each morning before having to take the train to his dull city job. One morning he is disturbed in mid-swing when he hears a female voice crying out “Murder! Help! Murder!”. Running in the direction of the cry he comes across a quaint cottage outside which is a young girl quietly gardening. When questioned, she denies hearing the call for help and seems surprised at Jack’s story, referring to him as “Monsieur”. Confused, he leaves her and hunts in the surrounding area for the source of the cry but in the end gives up. The evening, he looks through the papers to see if any crime has been reported and follows this action the next morning – a day of heavy rain which cancels his practise routine – but finds nothing.

The next day, the strange occurrence of two days earlier is repeated at the same spot and the exact time. Also, once more the girl outside the cottage denies hearing any such sound and sympathetically enquires if Jack has suffered from shellshock in the past.

The third day, he hears the cry again but this time doesn’t let on to the girl that this is the case when he passes the cottage and instead they discuss her gardening. Nevertheless he is intensely troubled by these occurrences and notices that at the hotel breakfast table he is being watched by a bearded man who he knows to be called Dr. Lavington. Concerned that his sanity is under attack, Jack invites Lavington to join him for a few holes the next morning and the doctor agrees. When the cry is repeated Lavington denies hearing anything. The doctor discusses Jack’s possible delusions and they talk of the possibility of some sort of psychic phenomena. He suggests that Jack go off to work as usual while he investigates the history of the cottage.

Back at the hotel that night, the doctor tells him what he has learnt: The present occupants, who have been in situ for just ten days, are an elderly French professor with consumption and his daughter but a year ago and several tenants back were a strange couple called Turner who seemed to be afraid of something and who suddenly vacated the premises early one morning. Mr Turner has been seen since then but no one seems to have laid eyes on his wife and the doctor, although arguing against jumping to conclusions, theorises that Jack is receiving some sort of message from the woman.

A few days later, Jack receives a visit from the girl at the cottage who introduces herself as Felise Marchaud. She is in terror as, knowing of local gossip that the cottage is haunted, she has started to have a recurring dream of a distressed woman holding a blue jar. The last two night’s dreams ended with a voice crying out in the same way as Jack heard on the links. Jack brings Lavington into the discussion and Felise shows them both a rough watercolour she found in the house of a woman holding a blue jar as in her dream. Jack recognises it as similar to a Chinese one bought by his uncle two months ago which coincides with the date one of the previous tenants left the cottage. Lavington suggests bringing the jar to the cottage where the three of them will sit with it for the night and see what happens. As Jack’s uncle is away he is able to obtain the jar and bring it as requested and Felise recognises it as the one from the dream. Lavington switches off the lights in the sitting-room and the three of them sit in the darkness at a table on which the jar is placed. After a while of waiting, Jack suddenly starts to choke and falls unconscious.

He wakes up in a copse near the cottage in daylight to find out from his pocket watch that it is half-past-twelve in the afternoon. He gets no answer at the cottage and goes back to the hotel where he finds his uncle – newly arrived back from a continental trip. Jack tells him of the events prompting a cry of outrage from the old man: the blue Chinese jar was a priceless Ming piece and the only one of its kind in the world. Jack rushes to the hotel office and finds that Lavington has checked out but has left a mocking note for Jack from himself, Felise and her invalid father, saying that their twelve hours start ought to be ample.

The Fourth Man is a short story by Agatha Christie. My rating:

Summary

Canon Parfitt manages just to catch his train on time for a night journey. In his first class carriage he is reacquainted with Sir George Durand, a famous lawyer. A third man in the carriage introduces himself as Dr Campbell Clark, an eminent physician who is an expert on conditions of the mind. There is a fourth man with them who appears to be asleep.

The three other men, confessing to various degrees of insomnia talk through the journey. Their conversation covers the idea that a body can house more than one soul and Dr Clark cites the case of a French girl called Felicie Bault. She was a Brittany peasant who, at the age of five, lost her parents when her father in a drunken rage strangled her mother and he was then transported for life. She was taken into the care of a Miss Slater, an English woman, who ran a charity orphanage in the area. Felicie was slightly backward and brutish-looking and Miss Slater had an uphill task to teach her the rudiments of reading and writing. In later years she had one maid’s job after another due to her perceived stupidity and laziness. Suddenly, at the age of twenty-two, a change came over her. Following a mental illness she split into three or four distinct personalities. The first was the continuation of her known self but the second was cultured and educated, able to play the piano and speak two foreign languages. The third had the second’s education but also knew of the coarser side of life and the less respectable side of Parisian society. The fourth seemed dreamy and pious but was suspected to be the third putting on an act. The change in the personalities occurred after a severe headache and a deep sleep and left her with no recollection of the other personalities. The end of the story came when she was discovered dead in bed one morning, somehow having strangled herself with her own hands.

At this point, the fourth man in the carriage laughs and joins in the conversation. He speaks with a foreign accent and tells them that Felicie’s case in inextricably bound up with that of another girl called Annette Ravel. The two girls and the man himself – Raoul Letardeau – were together at Miss Slater’s orphanage. He was a witness to the bullying hold that Annette had over Felicie that included an incident when Annette seems to have successfully hypnotised Felicie into carrying out an act of which she had no memory. He also saw how much Felicie hated Annette. The latter was an ambitious girl who determined to become a famous dancer in Paris. Raoul left the orphanage when work was found for him that took him abroad for five years. Returning to Paris he saw by chance a poster advertising Annette as singing on the stage and met her in her dressing room. She seemed to have achieved her ambitions but Raoul witnessed the unmistakable signs of consumption and two years later he returned to Miss Slater’s orphanage where Annette had retreated, plainly dying but refusing to believe so. Felicie was also there, serving as a maid, as hateful of Annette as ever but still bullied and humiliated by the ruthless woman who seemed to have a strange hold on her.

Annette died soon afterwards. When Raoul returned six months later he was told by an amazed Miss Slater of the first symptoms of Felicie’s abnormal personality changes. He witnessed one of these and also heard Felicie speak of Annette, “taking…the clothes from your back, the soul from your body” and she was plainly in some terror of the dead girl. Nevertheless, she knew that she had strong hands – should she wish to escape…

The other three are amazed to hear the story and Raoul emphasises how much Annette longed for life – her life. The doctor had previously said that the body was a residence for the soul and, as Raoul points out before he leaves the train, if you find a burglar in your house, you shoot him…

S.O.S was a short story by Agatha Christie. My rating:

Summary

One rainy night on the Wiltshire downs, the Dinsmead’s evening meal is interrupted by a stranger.  Mortimer Cleveland interrupts their life when his car breaks down and he seeks shelter.  Cleveland is a psychic researcher, who immediately senses that something is wrong; he detects murder in the air.  Can he save the victim before it is too late?

This is from what could be called Christie’s collection of stories with a supernatural theme.

The Red Signal by Agatha Christie is a short story. My rating:

Summary

A dinner party is taking place in the London home of Jack and Claire Trent. Their three guests are a Mrs Violet Eversleigh, the famous psychiatrist Sir Alington West and his nephew Dermot West. The talk turns round to precognitive abilities and premonitions which Sir Alington is dismissive of, believing them to be both coincidences and situations that are talked up after the event. Dermot is not so sure and describes such feelings as having a red signal – “danger ahead!” – and tells one story of near-death in Mesopotamia when he avoided being murdered by an Arab servant. What he does not tell the group is that he is experiencing the red signal tonight at the dinner party.

He ponders who could be the source of danger, his thoughts moving to his love for Claire Trent, a feeling that he constantly suppresses in view of the fact that Jack Trent is his best friend. Coming out of his reverie, the conversation has turned to madness and the dangers of suppressing delusions. Sir Alington looks pointedly at Claire Trent who is visibly disturbed by this talk.

One of the purposes of the evening is to meet a medium who is there to conduct a sitting. She does so and warns one of the people in the room not to go home as there is danger there.

The party breaks up and Sir Alington asks Dermot to accompany him home to Harley Street before going on to join his friends at the Grafton Galleries. Once inside, he tells his nephew that he knows of his infatuation for Claire and not to give into it. He disapproves of divorce and speaks of a history of insanity in their family and his suspicions of homicidal mania. The discussion becomes emotional and Dermot utters a threat to his uncle, one which is overheard by the manservant, Johnson, as he brings in drinks.

Going to the Grafton Galleries, Claire tells Dermot that his feelings for her are shared and because of this she wants him to go away. He asks her to join him but she refuses.

Going back to his flat, Dermot is once again assailed by the feeling of danger and, to his astonishment, finds a revolver hidden in a bedroom drawer. There is a knock on the door and Dermot opens it to the police. The feeling of danger makes him tell the police that he is Milson, his own manservant, and the police tell him that his “master” is wanted for the murder of Sir Alington who was shot dead earlier that night after being overheard arguing with his nephew. The police search the flat, find the revolver and decide to leave an officer there in case West “comes back”.

Dermot escapes from the flat through the kitchen window while supposedly getting drinks and quickly bumps into Jack Trent who gets him away to his own house. He locks himself in a room with Dermot, produces a gun and then insanely confesses to the murder. Sir Alington recognised his condition and was at the dinner party to assess his true mental state. Dermot assumed that his uncle was speaking of Claire who was actually assisting Sir Alington in his diagnosis. She now also assists the police gaining entry to the house and the locked room. Jack shoots himself before they can take him.

Earthfall is the fourth book in the Homecoming series by Orson Scott Card.  The group travels from Harmony to Earth with lots of problems on the way.  My rating:

Plot summary

The children of Wetchik are ready to board the starship Basilica and embark on their journey from the planet Harmony back to the origin of humanity: Earth. However, the rivalry between Nafai and Elemak promises the journey will be anything but peaceful. Each faction already has hidden plans to prematurely awaken from the long hibernation, to have the upper hand when the landing occurs. The children become pawns in their parents’ power struggle – valuable potential adults that can strengthen each faction. But the Oversoul is ultimately in control, having uploaded a copy of itself into Basilica’s central computer, so that it can monitor the ship at all times.

After landing on Earth, the fragile peace wrought onboard is merely a mask for the turmoils of passions that boil beneath. Not only do the colonists have to deal with the split, there are also the mysteriously symbiotic alien races that have evolved on Earth since humanity’s departure. The quest to understand the Angels (giant bats) and the Diggers (giant rats) that were foreshadowed in the dreams is not an easy one.

The focus throughout the course of this novel begins to drift away from the original generation of characters in order to delineate the passage of time. The factions that developed among the original generation have now spread to their children, through no fault of the children themselves. Nafai finds himself and his “Nafari” living and working primarily amongst the angel people, whereas the “Elemaki” associate much more closely with the diggers. It is this dissociation that eventually breaks nearly all the bonds — literally, for Hushidh and Cheveya– between Nafai and his older brother, Elemak. As Elemak’s rage and hatred for Nafai grow, he ingrains such feelings into his family and the digger people, laying the foundation for war.

After the death of Volemak the Nafari migrate northwards away from the landing site to found a new nation.

The Ships of Earth is the third book in the Homecoming series by Orson Scott Card.  The group travels through the desert and finally reach their final destination on Harmony.   My rating:

Plot summary

The focus is on the struggles between the pioneers to establish a new social order now that they have left Basilica. The new society is opposite to that of the previous societies – male dominated instead of female dominated, monogamous and lifelong marriages instead of the yearly contracts of Basilica.

The struggles between the characters ultimately come down to the struggles between Nafai and Elemak, two sons of Volemak. Nafai leads the faction who have faith in the Oversoul, while Elemak leads the faction who want desperately to return to the civilization of doomed Basilica. Both are ostensibly under the leadership of Volemak (and not Rasa, as they had been in the city).

The settlers, after years of traveling, finally arrive in a land lost in ancient times which holds the secret of the Oversoul. Also many children are born, all in their preparation for the ultimate journey to Earth.

The book offers an interesting justification of the social structures of the Hebrew tribes in Genesis, all while the originally powerful female characters gradually succumb to the new hierarchy of “men” and “wives.” Only one character – Shedemei, the brilliant geneticist, thinks about this problem.

The focus in on the group dynamics of the new tribe as they journey where the Oversoul guides them.

Prophetic dreams abound, mostly involving giant rats and bats (”diggers” and “angels”). The Oversoul discovers itself.

The Call of Earth is the second book in the Homecoming series by Orson Scott Card.  In this one General Moozh takes over Basilica. My rating:

Plot summary

The book focuses on several key events that happen after Nafai, Elemak, Issib, Mebbekew, Zdorab and the father Volemak leave for the desert. Elemak has a dream from the Oversoul, foretelling Volemak’s sons going back to the city of Basilica to get wives. The sons proceed to Nafai’s and Issib’s mother, Rasa, who is attempting to keep order within the city. However Hushidh, a raveler under Rasa’s care, makes the disastrous mistake of severing the ties between Rashgallivak and his men, leading to widespread riots across the city.

At the same time, General Moozh, leader of the “Wetheads” nation (Gorayni), is attempting to conquer cities around Basilica. He sees a strategic chance, and taking only 1000 soldiers, marches across the desert to conquer the city. He arrives in time to help the local city guard quell the uprising, and slowly begins taking control of its affairs.

The remainder of the book deals with Nafai and his brothers’ (Elemak and Mebbekew, who had come) attempts at finding wives. In the end, they are all forced into a house arrest along with Rasa, where Elemak takes Eiadh as his wife, Mebbekew takes Dol, Nafai takes Luet, the waterseer, with Rasa and Hushidh deciding to come as wives for Volemak and Issib, respectively. Shedemei (a Basilican geneticist) is dragged along with enough plants and animals to populate the future earth with new species, also as a wife to Zdorab.

The ending comes when Moozh decides to marry Hushidh to politically tie himself with the city. Hushidh’s original mother arrives to stop the ceremony, since Hushidh is actually the daughter of Moozh. Nafai’s party is escorted out of the city with the women and supplies for the camp.

Moozh ends up conquering the “Wetheads” he had been working for, while his Basilican second-in-command defends the city against the rival nation, Potokgavan. In the end he is killed during an invasion and Basilica falls, scattering the citizens to various other nations and cities on Harmony. Earlier in the book, the Oversoul had revealed the purpose of this dispersal was to force people with a strong connection to it to breed with people who had a weak connection, and so delay the eventual time when the Oversoul loses control of the people of Harmony.

The Memory of Earth is the first book in the Homecoming series by Orson Scott Card.  A very good start of a series with a very intriguing concept.  After earth destroys itself in an apparent nuclear war the remants of humanity create a computer that slightly controls the people of a new planet to stop the descendants of humanity from destroying themselves. My rating:

Plot summary

Humanity has lived for 40 million years on a planet called Harmony, after leaving an Earth that has been destroyed by human conflict. In order not to repeat the mistakes that led to the destruction of civilization on Earth, a computer, known as the Oversoul, was left as guardian of this planet.

Its main mission was to prevent humans from developing technologies that could make wars a global affair. For that, humans were genetically modified so they could communicate with the Oversoul. The Oversoul uses this connection to make humans severely uncomfortable when thinking about forbidden technologies. However, after this long time the Oversoul is beginning to fail, and it chooses a group of humans to return to Earth in search of the Keeper of Earth, in the hopes it will be able to find a way to maintain power over the people on Harmony.

To this end the Oversoul recruits Volemak, father of the protagonist of the story, Nafai. Nafai and Issib, his brother, begin to try and defy the Oversoul’s capability to override thought. Through this they learn of the danger that it is in. Nafai begins hearing the Oversoul’s voice in his mind. The first book focuses on the family’s eventual betrayal, the taking of the Index, and the downfall of the man Gaballufix, who had been planning to ally the city of Basilica, the home of the main characters and the setting of the first half of the book, with a malignant nation.

Nafai, Elemak and Mebbekew, his older half brothers, Issib and his father Volemak are eventually forced to leave the city. They come back to retrieve the Index of the Oversoul, which allows them to communicate with it directly. Because of Nafai’s careless blunders and miraculous successes, Elemak, Nafai’s oldest brother, begins to hate him, a theme that will play out throughout the rest of the saga.

Under the Western Acacia is book #5 in the Ramses Series by Christian Jacq. My rating:

Product Description
The Golden Age Two glorious decades of peace and prosperity have come to pass in Egypt, and an older, wiser Ramses now prepares for the sunset of his reign. With his second wife, Iset, by his side, he must insure Egypt’s future by renewing an old treaty, and choose one of his two sons to someday rule in his place. But old conflicts die hard, and the Hittites’ price for lasting peace is high. Their demand: Ramses must forsake his queen and take their princess for his bride. And as a new generation of dark forces reignites unrest, Ramses readies himself for what may be his greatest-and perhaps final-battle.

Going Postal is book #33 in the Discworld series.  My least favorite in the Discworld series so far. My rating:

Plot

Moist von Lipwig is a skilful con artist. Nevertheless, he is confined to a cell in Ankh-Morpork and scheduled to be hanged, having stolen a total of AM$150,000. He is saved when his own death is faked and Lord Vetinari offers him a choice: he can walk out of the door (and fall to his death), or he can become Postmaster of the city’s run down Post Office. Lipwig chooses the latter, hoping that a chance to escape will present itself. Lipwig’s first and last escape attempt is thwarted by a golem named Mr Pump, previously called Pump 19, who delivers Lipwig back to the office of the Patrician.

With great reluctance, Lipwig takes up his duties, only to find things are even worse than he had presumed. The Post Office has not functioned for decades, and the building is literally full of undelivered mail. Two eccentric employees remain: the aged Junior Postman Groat, and Stanley, a pin-obsessed boy who was raised by peas. They are more concerned about following the Post Office Regulations than seeing the postal system restored. There’s also a Post Office cat, Mr. Tiddles, but it is even more set in its ways than its owners. Lipwig learns that within the last couple of months, while he was waiting to die in his prison cell, a whole string of newly-appointed Postmasters have met their own deaths in the Post Office building. Lipwig eventually discovers that most of the men were killed by failure to safely interact with a “ghost reality” which overlays the physical structure in the Post Office. A wizard at Unseen University explains to him that this phenomenon is caused by the fact that words have power, and masses of them are currently crammed into every available inch of space in the Post Office.

Passing a cruel and dangerous test conducted by the few surviving members of a secret order of postmen, Lipwig “officially” becomes Postmaster, and also learns that the Post Office was once a very efficient operation. Its downfall was when the trans-dimensional letter-sorting machine, created by the infamous inventor Bloody Stupid Johnson, became so highly tuned (owing to Johnson’s substitution of 3 for pi in its design) that it was sorting letters before they were written, along with letters which might have been written, but weren’t.

Lipwig introduces postage stamps to Ankh-Morpork, hires golems to deliver the mail, and finds himself competing against the Grand Trunk Clacks line. He meets and falls in love with the tough, chain-smoking golem-rights activist, Adora Belle Dearheart, and the two begin a relationship by the end of the book. Dearheart is the daughter of the Clacks founder John Dearheart, though the company was taken away from her by tricky financial manoeuvring. Because of this, she still has useful contacts amongst the clacks operators.

The unscrupulous Clacks chairman, Reacher Gilt, sets a banshee assassin (Mr Gryle) on the Postmaster, but only manages to burn down much of the Post Office building. The banshee dies when he gets flipped onto the space-warping sorting machine. Lipwig makes an outrageous wager that he can deliver a message to Genua faster than the Grand Trunk can. “The Smoking Gnu”, a group of clacks-crackers, sets up a plan to send a killer poke into the clacks system that will destroy the machinery, halting the message that Lipwig will race against. Lipwig talks the Gnu out of it, and opts for a more psychological attack on the Grand Trunk, leaving the semaphore towers standing. This plan succeeds. Gilt is soon arrested and find himself confronting the Patrician. Offered a job or exiting the room, he ends up walking through a very specific door – the very pit that Lipwig avoided.

The Lady of Abu Simbel is book #4 in the Ramses Series by Christian Jacq. My rating:
Product Description
Ramses must make the decision of treaty negotiation with the Hittites, a formidable foe. But military matters pale in comparison to matters of the heart, however, as Ramses decides to build temples honoring his wife, Nefertari.

The Battle of Kadesh is book #3 in the Ramses Series by Christian Jacq. My rating:

Product Description
To save Egypt from the Hittites, Ramses II must face the might of their powerful army, whose weapons are vastly superior to Egypt’s own. How can Ramses prepare himself for the battle at Kadesh when the health of his beloved wife, Nefertari, is failing rapidly?

The Temple of a Million Years is book #2 in the Ramses Series by Christian Jacq. My rating:

Product Description
The second title in the fictional biography of Ramses II, a sequel to “The Son of the Light”. Ramses is about to be crowned and faces a fight to hold onto his throne. Can the building of the Temple of a Million Years really help to vanquish his enemies, visible and unseen?

The Son of the Light by Christian Jacq is the first book in the Ramses Series. My rating:

Product Description
Ancient Egypt comes alive in this eagerly anticipated new series that’s breaking sales records in Europe! Ramses, Vol. I: The Son of Light recounts the thrilling story of Ramses, the legendary king who ruled Egypt for more than 60 years. Chosen by the pharaoh Seti, the 14-year-year-old Ramses sets into motion a tapestry of royal intrigue, treacherous plots, and romantic adventures that will keep readers spellbound and hungry for more.

The Narrows is  #10 in the Harry Bosch series.  Another good book in this series. One thing in the ending didn’t seem quite ‘right’, having Terry McCaleb go to a hospital under a fake name seemed like a stretch.   My rating:

Plot summary

While investigating the death of ex-FBI profiler Terry McCaleb at his wife’s request, Bosch begins to suspect that notorious serial killer and ex-FBI supervisor Robert Backus, aka The Poet, presumed dead, may have murdered McCaleb. Digging deeper, Bosch follows a lead to Las Vegas that brings him into contact with the FBI. Meanwhile, FBI agent Rachel Walling, who was at one time Backus’s protege in the FBI (as McCaleb had also been) and who has been exiled by the FBI to South Dakota for four years for her role in The Poet investigation, is the subject of messages sent by Backus to the FBI. As Bosch and Walling are both outsiders to the main FBI investigation, they eventually join forces. The novel shifts points of view, cutting from Bosch’s first-person commentary to the third-person perspectives of Walling and Backus. Bosch meets a neighbor whom he later discovers (in the book The Closers) to be Cassie Black, the main character of Void Moon, and he begins a relationship with Walling. He also accepts an offer from his old partner Kiz Rider to rejoin the LAPD under a new chief of police, as a homicide detective in the Open-Unsolved group within the department’s Robbery-Homicide Division.

In the end, Bosch and Walling bring The Poet to justice by chasing him into the concrete channels of the swollen Los Angeles River in L.A., where he drowns while Bosch barely survives. His death is confirmed this time, as opposed to The Poet where he was merely presumed dead. However, the relationship between Bosch and Walling falls apart in the end when Bosch learns that the FBI had discovered that Backus had nothing to do with McCaleb’s death but had withheld the information from him. In fact, McCaleb had killed himself in a manner to make his death look accidental, as his heart transplant was failing, and he did not want to burden his wife and children with the crippling expense of additional medical procedures.

City of Bones is #8 in the Harry Bosch series.  Another good book in this series. My rating:

Plot Summary

On New Year’s Day, a dog digs up a bone in Laurel Canyon outside of Los Angeles. The dog’s owner, a doctor, recognizes the bone as human and calls it in to the police. Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch takes on the case together with his colleague Jerry Edgar and after investigating the matter further, a shallow grave containing the bones of a child, is discovered. Bosch can’t let go of the case, a case that brings back memories from his own childhood, and starts an investigation. The only clue that he has to go on is the skateboard buried on the same hill as the remains of the child. The body turns out to have been a 12-year old boy that has been buried 20 years earlier. To solve the murder, Bosch has to dig through records of cases involving disappearances and runaways dating far back in time. In order to try to solve the crime, Bosch has to chase down possible witnesses and suspects from near and far. After 20 years time, a lot of the details once remembered about the disappearance of the boy are blurred and leads Bosch fumbling in the dark. At the same time, a female rookie named Julia Brasher joins the department. Even though Bosch has been warned not to fall for a rookie, he does and this leads to further complications, both inside and outside of the investigation.

A Darkness More Than Night is #7 in the Harry Bosch series.  This is a very different version of the Bosch series it is mostly from the point of view of a former FBI agent Terry McCaleb.  Bosch becomes a suspect for a while. My rating:

Plot summary

Terry McCaleb and Graciela Rivers have married and have an infant daughter named Cielo, and McCaleb’s fishing charter business is running full-time on Catalina Island. Nevertheless, sheriff’s deputy Jaye Winston brings McCaleb a file involving a murder scene filled with exotic elements and asks McCaleb to take a look at it, as the police have gotten nowhere. As McCaleb analyzes the clues, they seem to point straight toward Harry Bosch himself, whom McCaleb knows from a previous investigation before his retirement. Bosch is currently a key witness in a separate high-profile murder case involving a movie director, and author/reporter Jack McEvoy, who wrote The Poet, is covering the case.

After McCaleb alerts the police to Bosch’s probable involvement, Bosch goes to Catalina himself to challenge McCaleb’s work and to ask him to re-examine the evidence. Based on a parking ticket that McCaleb finds, he concludes that Bosch may have been set up by the director in order to discredit his evidence in the court case, but the key evidence in proving that is a post office surveillance tape that was in the process of being erased, and from which nothing usable can be recovered.

Nevertheless, Bosch and McCaleb pretend that they have recovered something from the tape, and the real killer in the second case (an ex-cop that handled security for the director) then targets and almost kills McCaleb. Bosch saves McCaleb and captures the ex-cop, while killing his younger brother. In return for not being charged with felony-murder in his brother’s death, the ex-cop turns over evidence implicating the director in the frame of Bosch, and the director agrees to plead guilty to murder in a plea bargain seen by only McEvoy (who got a tip from Bosch) among the reporters. However, McCaleb realizes that Bosch was around to save him only because Bosch knew all the details of the potential frame, which Bosch had lied about to McCaleb, and McCaleb breaks off any renewed relationship with Bosch as a result. Bosch then “baptizes” himself in a plan for a fresh start.

Angels Flight is #7 in the Harry Bosch series.  Eleanor Wish leaves Bosch during this case. My rating:

Plot summary

Detective Bosch finds himself yet again in charge of a case that no one else will touch. This time his job is to nail the killer of hot shot black lawyer Howard Elias. Elias has been found murdered on the eve of going to court on behalf of Michael Harris: a man the LAPD believes guilty of the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl. Elias had let it be known that the aim of his civil case was not only to reveal the real killer but to target and bring down the racist cops who beat up his client during a violent interrogation. Bosch is going to have to take a long hard look at some of his colleagues in a post-Rodney King Los Angeles Police Department that is rife with suspicion and racial hatred.

Book #5 in the Harry Bosch series.   In this one Harry meets Eleanor Wish again in Las Vegas and at the end of the book they actually get married.  My rating:

From Publishers Weekly
From the opening bars, when the body of Tony Aliso is pulled from the trunk of his Rolls Royce Silver Cloud on Mulholland Drive, to the final grace note on a Hawaiian beach, Connelly has crafted a jazzy, funky, roller coaster of a book. The return of maverick L.A. homicide detective Hieronymous (Harry) Bosch (from 1995’s The Last Coyote) is cause for rejoicing. The Aliso murder quickly embroils Bosch and his new team (Kizmin Rider, a young black female officer on the rise in the department; veteran Jerry Edgar; and their boss, Lieutenant Grace Billets) in a Byzantine tangle of Las Vegas mob money, Hollywood filmmaking and police politics. The plot rushes headlong into deadends and deadfalls, repeatedly reorients and tears off in a new direction. Never known for tact, the single-minded Bosch is soon hotfooting through an acronymic snakepit: the LAPD’s OCID (Organized Crime Investigation Division); the IAD (Internal Affairs Division); the LVPD’s OCU (Las Vegas Police Department’s Organized Crime Unit); the FBI. Not only does each organization claim a piece of the action, but each also wants a piece of Bosch.

Thud! is book #34 in the Discworld series.  Another good Vimes book. My rating:

Plot

As the book opens, a dwarven demagogue, Grag Hamcrusher, is apparently murdered. As ethnic tensions between Ankh-Morpork’s troll and dwarf communities mount in the buildup to the anniversary of the Battle Of Koom Valley, Lord Vetinari convinces Commander Vimes to interview a vampire applicant to the Ankh-Morpork City Watch. The new recruit, Lance-Constable Salacia “Sally” von Humpeding, along with Sergeant Angua and Captain Carrot, is attached to the investigation surrounding Hamcrusher’s death.

Meanwhile, Corporal Nobbs and Sergeant Colon begin an investigation into the theft of the fifty-foot painting, The Battle of Koom Valley by the insane artist Methodia Rascal, from a city museum. Most of the populace believe the painting holds clues to a treasure hidden in Koom Valley. Nobbs has a new girlfriend, the exotic dancer Tawneee; Nobby first caught her eye when slipping an IOU into her garter. Other subplots involve the tension between vampires and werewolves (Sergeant Angua and Lance-Constable Van Humpeding), and the presence of Vetinari’s auditor, A.E. Pessimal, in the Watch House.

A recurring element in the book is Vimes’ race to get home every night by six o’clock to read the book Where’s My Cow? to his infant son (’Young Sam‘, named after his father), no matter what. Another is the game Thud, which first appeared in Going Postal; the game, which is a symbolic replication of the Battle of Koom Valley, requires the player to learn to think as both sides.

Vimes finds himself pressured by Lord Vetinari to solve the murder quickly, before inter-species war erupts in Ankh-Morpork. Vimes and Sergeant Angua visit the dwarves’ under-city mine, where a nervous dwarf named Helmclever draws a mysterious sign in the spilled coffee on his desk. Vimes’ particular brand of omnidirectional anger sends him veering off into the mine, where he cuts himself, he supposes, on a locked door. Later, he convinces the deep down dwarves to allow Captain Carrot to be the “smelter” who looks for the truth of the murder.

When Carrot tries to find that truth, however, he is shown a body that was mutilated after death, and a confusing patch of clues. Angua discovers that a troll really was in the mine at the time of the murder, much to the consternation and fear of the dwarves who claimed a troll did the killing. This troll turns out to be Brick, who is a gutter troll of the lowest sort, addicted to anything beginning with “S” (such as most troll drugs, which all have names like Slab, Scrape, Slice, Slide etc.) and who becomes the protege of Sergeant Detritus.

Angua and Sally soon discover four more bodies in the mine, dwarves clearly murdered by other dwarves. One of these dwarves used his own blood to scrawl yet another mysterious rune on the back of a door in the mine — a door that Commander Vimes cut himself on the other side of. The Deep Downers flee for the mountains, taking the talking cube they found at the bottom of Methodia Rascal’s well, and the painting of Koom Valley. As a parting shot, they invade the Vimes mansion and attempt to murder Lady Sybil Ramkin and Young Sam. The two survive unharmed, thanks to the fighting talents of Vimes and the family butler, Willikins.

Vimes, along with family and several members of the Watch, travels to Koom Valley. He believes he is pursuing justice, but an astute troll king named Mr. Shine and a bright young grag named Bashfulsson know that Vimes is carrying the Summoning Dark, the quasidemonic entity that wreaks vengeance on dwarves who have done evil in the sight of other dwarves. Vimes acquired the Summoning Dark when he touched the cursed door in the city mine, but his own internal watchman proves stronger than it is. As the Commander discovers, the real secret of Koom Valley is that trolls and dwarves did not intend war, but died together, friends, not enemies, in the deluge that ended the first battle. The ancient troll king and dwarf king were found in a deep cavern, preserved by centuries of dripping stone, playing a game of Thud. As the book ends, the tomb of the dead trolls and dwarves is opened to the public, in the hope that the two races will learn to end their centuries of animosity.

Pictures of Perfection by Reginald Hill was a book that I could just not get into. Not sure why, but I just did not find it that interesting. My rating:

Kirkus Reviews:

Called down to placid Enscombe the day before the quarterly Day of Reckoning to investigate the disappearance of Constable Harold Bendish, Yorkshire coppers Andrew Dalziel and Peter Pascoe (Recalled to Life, 1992, etc.), joined by Pascoe’s old friend Sgt. Edgar Wield, find an enchanted village teeming with Brueghelian life – and some secrets worthy of Hieronymous Bosch. Just before vanishing, Bendish had been seen in flagrante on the grounds of Enscombe Old Hall, whose squire, old Selwyn Guillemard, seems oblivious to the clandestine affairs of his pipe-smoking granddaughter Gertrude (Girlie) and his churlish great-nephew and heir-apparent Guy. The new vicar burns for dazzling painter Caddy Scudamore despite his vow of chastity and her indifference; so does art reviewer Justin Halavant, whose home has been broken into, along with waspish Edwin Digweed’s bookstore and stuffy Dudley Wynant’s post office (twice). After watching the postman run his van off the road to avoid a flock of sheep, Pascoe adjourns to the Morris Men’s Rest, whose gossipy landlord fills him in on generations of Enscombe history, before heading over to Intake Cottage to question survivalist Jason Toke about illegally killing a kingfisher. It all seems innocuous enough – or it would, if the book hadn’t opened with a bombshell in the form of a flash-forward to the Day of Reckoning that jerks all these petty intrigues into terrifying focus. Hill’s dazzling frame-tale, in fact, gives his impossibly complex network of subplots a backbone that makes his story both powerfully affecting and massively entertaining. Altogether the finest English village mystery since The Nine Tailors.

Blue Shoes and Happiness is book #7 in the The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. Another simple and interesting tale of life in Botswana. My rating:

Plot summary

Mma Ramotswe is asked to investigate a cook who is being blackmailed, and a doctor whose nurse believes he is doing something illegal. She discovers the identity of the blackmailer, who is a newspaper agony aunt abusing the confidences of her correspondents, and forces her to stop. The doctor is selling generic drugs at the full cost to his patients, and she causes him to be reported. During the investigation she becomes more aware of her excess weight and its health risks and even tries to diet, but decides the most important thing is to be herself and happy.

Mr Polopetsi, the new employee, is happy in his work but still struggles with poverty and hostility from relatives due to his spell in prison. He wants to help Mma Ramotswe, his mentor, with detective work, and when superstitious fears disturb staff at a local game park, it is he who discovers the cause: an injured hornbill, believed to bring ill luck. He removes it, but it dies, and he fears he has lost Mma Ramotswe’s trust, but is relieved and grateful when she shows faith in him after all.

Mma Makutsi fears her engagement to Phuti Radiphuti is over after a misunderstanding about feminism, but all is explained and, in the process, Mr J.L.B.Matekoni gains a comfortable new chair which will make him happy too. She begins to appreciate how her fortunes will change with her marriage, and indulges her passion for impractical shoes with a new blue pair, even though they do not fit very well.

A Hat Full of Sky is #32 in the Discworld series. In this one Tiffany Aching really becomes a witch in her own right. I really enjoy the Nac Mac Feegles. My rating:

Synopsis

A Hat Full of Sky revisits the young witch Tiffany Aching, who is preparing to leave home and learn witchcraft. Working with Miss Level to learn the use of plants, Tiffany becomes worried by a mysterious presence in the cottage. It turns out to be Oswald, an ondageist^[1] which is a sort of reverse poltergeist, a spirit that is an obsessive cleaner. She takes dislike to her studies, finding the work of the witches to be thankless, dull and pointless. They work long hours helping the sick, young or elderly who are not self-sufficient.

A hiver, a mysterious and dangerous creature, enters Tiffany’s mind causing her to abuse her powers of magic. It is explained that the Hiver does not change the way she acts, merely allows her to do what she would do without a conscience. Her fellow witches are worried by Tiffany’s strange behavior and try to bring her back to herself.

The Nac Mac Feegle arrive to help Tiffany and, along with Miss Level, enter Tiffany’s mind in order to drive off the Hiver. With the help of Mistress Weatherwax, Tiffany traps the Hiver and learns its true purpose, which is to seek shelter from the world, where it is aware of everything, or, as Tiffany calls it ‘opening your eyes and opening them again’. Tiffany eventually leads it to Death where it finally crosses the desert to the afterlife.

At the end of the novel, Tiffany returns to her home to take the place of her grandmother as witch for the people. A witch’s hat is very important, because it lets other people know that you are a witch. However through the story it is revealed Tiffany does not need the traditional hat that she had been wearing as the sky forms her hat.

Monstrous Regiment is book #31 in the Discworld series. It would seem that everyone in the Borogravia army is a woman. My rating:

Plot summary

The story is based in Borogravia, a highly conservative country whose people live according to the increasingly psychotic decrees of its favored deity, Nuggan. The list of “Abominations Unto Nuggan” include Borogravia’s neighboring states, resulting in little Borogravia having a particularly bellicose nature. The uncertain whereabouts of Nuggan leads the inhabitants of Borogravia to deify their Duchess, to whom they pray instead.

The protagonist of the tale is Polly Perks. Polly’s brother Paul is missing in action after fighting in the Borogravian army, so she sets off to join the army in order to find him. It is established that Paul is not all together in the head; he follows orders well enough but needs a bit of mothering, which Polly has filled in with for most of her life.

Women joining the army are regarded as another “Abomination Unto Nuggan”, as is much of life itself. To ensure her entrance into this male-only institution, Polly decides to dress up as a man (women doing so is also an Abomination Unto Nuggan) and starts calling herself Oliver, taking her name from the folk song Sweet Polly Oliver. While signing-up she meets Corporal Strappi and the corpulent Sergeant Jackrum. Despite her apprehensions regarding Strappi, she confirms her intent to enter the army by “kissing the Duchess”; that is, she kisses a painting of the noble. There is a shortage of troops, so a Vampire named Maladict, a Troll, and an Igor are also allowed to join up. Gradually, Oliver discovers all is not well or good in the army. The remainder of the book is about her struggle to come to terms with this new world, and to find her brother.

The Wee Free Men is book #30 in the Discworld series. We meet Tiffany Aching for the first time and the very funny Nac Mac Feegle and its the the only book where Death does not make an appearance! My rating:

Plot summary

A young witch named Miss Tick and her toad arrive on the chalk. She feels that something is not right, not that there is another witch there, which is impossible (chalk supposedly is among the softest of stones, and witches need hard rock to grow on). So she decides to find out what’s going on.

She is right. The Queen of the Elves (see Lords and Ladies) has another attempt at invading the Discworld, by stealing children and infesting dreams.

With the help of the Wee Free Men, the Nac Mac Feegle, 9-year-old Tiffany Aching finds out that her grandmother used to be the witch of the Chalklands, and that she has inherited the trade. When her baby brother is stolen, Tiffany and the Nac Mac Feegle enter the elves’ world to steal him back.