Category: Reviews

DOG DAYS by John Levitt

published ACE, November 2007, paperback. Reviewed by Lyn McConchie. I picked up the second and fourth books in this series on a recommendation. I liked them so much that I left a comment on the author’s site and with great generosity, he sent me the first and third in the series. I’m told that the …

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THE ATTENBURY EMERALDS by Jill Paton Walsh.

Published paperback H&S 2011. This one was a book for my birthday. The giver knows that I’ve always loved the work by Dorothy Sayers, and that I now enjoy the continuance of the Lord Peter Wimsey books by Jill Paton Walsh, hence the arrival of this one. And again it’s a very good book. Walsh …

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Cowboys and Aliens (novelization) by Joan D. Vinge.

paperback published by TOR Books, August 2011. This book was another not bought, but, in this case, given to me. The author very kindly sent me a copy and I put it aside for a couple of weeks until I could read it in one uninterrupted sitting. Which I did, becoming so engrossed by halfway …

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CRAZY by William Peter Blatty

paperback from TOR Books, published October 2011. Another book where i didn’t just stroll into the bookshop and buy it. This one was a gift from my TOR editor (Jim Frenkel) who kindly sent me a copy when I said I’d really like to read it. (having seen the blurb elsewhere.) And basically if you …

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STRANGE MYSTERIES 4 published Whortleberry Press, February 2012.

Reviewed by Steve Johnson. I like a good mystery, and I like short stories, so I was looking forward to this anthology since Lyn said I could review her author copy and that meant reading it first. It’s funny how tastes differ. Lyn makes a small pencil mark on her anthologies, alongside the stories she …

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RIVER MARKED by Patricia Briggs

Hardcover, published march 2011, Ace. 6th in the Mercy Thompson series. This book came courtesy of a competition. No, it wasn’t the prize, but I did the competition, received a $100 as one of the winners, and promptly used the cash to buy a couple of yearned-for hardbacks. I love serendipity. Again this book is …

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PIRATE KING by Laurie R. King

Hardcover, published Bantam 2011. reviewed by Lyn McConchie. I received this as a Christmas present, with delighted me as I have always enjoyed this sequence of King’s work. Pirate King is the eleventh in the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series by the author. This one is a lighthearted romp with Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance …

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Strange Valentines anthology

published by Whortleberry Press, January 2012. trade-paperback. Reviewed by Steve Johnson. This is a nice little book, well presented, attractive cover, competently edited, and with mostly well-chosen stories. A couple were weak, notably The Bouquet, which was more a slice-of-life than a real story (remember beginning, middle, end, actual plot?) slightly clumsy, and rather too …

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Deadfall by Lyndon Stacy

paperback, published Arrow Books in 2004. Reviewed by Lyn McConchie. Yes, I recently purchased this book full-price, but that was for a reason. Three months earlier I raided one of our charity shops and discovered two Lyndon Stacy softcover (tradepaperback) books for 50c each. At that price how can you lose? I bought both books, …

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City of Whispers by Marcia Muller.

Hardcover – Grand Central publishing – October 2011. Reviewed by Lyn McConchie. The next few reviews that I’ll be putting up have something extra. Recently I was talking to a friend who gaped at my personal library (about 7,500 books) and asked if I’d bought them all? How could I afford them? The answer to …

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