A Tale of Two Murders

On the eve of the Victorian era, London has a new sleuth . . . In the winter of 1835, young Charles Dickens is a journalist on the rise at the Evening Chronicle. Invited to dinner at the estate of the newspaper's co-editor, Charles is smitten with his boss's daughter, vivacious nineteen-year-old Kate Hogarth. They are having the best of times when a scream shatters the pleasant evening. Charles, Kate, and her father rush to the neighbors' home, where Miss Christiana Lugoson lies unconscious on the floor. By morning, the poor young woman will be dead. (Summary from Amazon)

I was really excited to read this book and it was exactly what I wanted. It's based upon the real Charles Dickens (obviously) with some embellishments, ie he didn't really solve crimes (that I know of). I liked how his future wife and in-laws, and even his own family members were featured. His family and the Hogarth family are lovely and add some nice dimensions to the novel.

The mystery is different in that the one trying to solve it, doesn't really have access to everything he needs to. Dickens is considered middle-class, so him questioning people is harder than in most mystery novels. It does lead to some interesting interactions with Kate though, all of which are very cute.

I also enjoyed that Dickens had to balance his work with solving this crime, since most other detectives don't usually have that problem. No spoilers, but things start sadly and perhaps slowly with one death and then it just gets bigger than Dickens ever thought it would. There are some nice twists and turns, with nearly everyone not a Dickens or Hogarth seeming to be a viable suspect.

The one thing I will say, is don't google Dickens or Kate until after reading this. I learned from personal experience because I'm curious and was awfully sad. Real life is not as cute as novels, obviously, but I like the character of Dickens better than the real life version.

I received a copy from NetGalley.

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The Game of Hope

Paris, 1798. Hortense de Beauharnais is engrossed in her studies at a boarding school for aristocratic girls, most of whom have suffered tragic losses during the tumultuous days of the French Revolution. She loves to play and compose music, read and paint, and daydream about Christophe, her brother's dashing fellow officer. But Hortense is not an ordinary girl. Her beautiful, charming mother, Josephine, has married Napoleon Bonaparte, soon to become the most powerful man in France, but viewed by Hortense at the outset as a coarse, unworthy successor to her elegant father, who was guillotined during the Terror. (Summary from Amazon)

I love the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era, so I was definetly excited to read this book. It's very good and interesting. I loved learning about the same time, but from someone else's point of view. I knew very little about Hortense and her life, so it was great to learn something new. I also enjoyed learning more about Josephine and Napoleon's family, especially Caroline, she seems like a pistol of a woman. It was also sad knowing that Hortense's life doesn't go exactly how she wished.

This was the first book I've read by Sandra Gulland, however I'm ready to read more of her work. Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres, specifically when history is interwoven with fiction, like with this book. Plus, the back of the book is filled with more information that would send any history buff into a rabbit hole of googling.

I received a copy from First to Read.

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Daughter of War

Europe is aflame. On the Iberian Peninsula the wars of the Reconquista rage across Aragon and Castile. Once again, the Moors are gaining the upper hand. Christendom is divided.

Amidst the chaos comes a young knight: Arnau of Valbona. After his Lord is killed in an act of treachery, Arnau pledges to look after his daughter, whose life is now at risk. But in protecting her Arnau will face terrible challenges, and enter a world of Templars, steely knights and visceral combat he could never have imagined.

She in turn will find a new destiny with the Knights as a daughter of war… Can she survive? And can Arnau find his destiny? (Summary from Amazon)

Firstly, I did enjoy Daughter of War. Secondly, however, I was a bit miffed that the title and cover were a little misleading. It's not really about Titborga, who I thought it was going to be about, but about Arnau, her man at arms. Titborga plays a crucial role and the book is about her journey, but the focus is on Arnau. That's fine, but I had a certain expectation and I didn't get it. Perhaps in another book about this group of Templars. Thirdly, it also contains my new favorite line of dialogue; "How is your haranguing voice?" as well as a wonderful character in Father Diego. Trust me on that.

Anyway, the book is good and has a lot of detail. Titborga and another female Templar nun (that I won't name for spoilers), were real people, which makes for an interesting read, especially since I had never heard of female Templars. All of the characters were very fleshed out and felt like real people. You hate some, like others, and feel awful when things go badly. And things go badly, pretty quickly.

A lot of the book is not quite politicking, but a lot of political maneuvering and trying to reach out for help. Much of the fighting happens in short bursts and near the end. The violence isn’t toned down at all. It’s very true to real life, I imagine. So if that isn’t your thing, I suggest you skip this book. However, if you like historical stories with many real life overtones, then this is the book for you.

I received an uncorrected advance proof copy from NetGalley.

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The Awkward Squad

Suspended from her job as a promising police officer for firing "one bullet too many", Anne Capestan is expecting the worst when she is summoned to H.Q. to learn her fate. Instead, she is surprised to be told that she is to head up a new police squad, working on solving old cold cases.

Though relieved to still have a job, Capestan is not overjoyed by the prospect of her new role. Even less so when she meets her new team: a crowd of misfits, troublemakers and problem cases, none of whom are fit for purpose and yet none of whom can be fired.

But from this inauspicious start, investigating the cold cases throws up a number of strange mysteries for Capestan and her team: was the old lady murdered seven years ago really just the victim of a botched robbery? Who was behind the dead sailor discovered in the Seine with three gunshot wounds? And why does there seem to be a curious link with a ferry that was shipwrecked off the Florida coast many years previously?

Translated from the French by Sam Gordon (Summary from Amazon)

I really enjoyed this book. It reminded me of a British TV show called New Tricks, where a group of older men are off solving cold cases and getting into trouble.

The Awkward Squad, however, isn't just older men and women police officers. It's a French police squad of undesirables and people unable to be fired. This leads to some interesting characters from an officer believed to be a curse and another officer who wrote a series of famous books. All of the characters were really interesting and well fleshed out. They each had a distinct personality, but when working together as a whole unit, they meshed wonderfully.

Capestan, the leader of this rag tag group seems to have a hard time ahead of her, but she doesn't let this new job get her down. They start with some cases that have loose threads that need wrapping up. Soon, they are embroiled in murder, corruption, and more.

There were some lovely twists and turns and by the end, I was sad to leave this new team. Hopefully, there will be more, but if not, this was a lovely ending to a great story.

I received an uncorrected advance proof copy from NetGalley.

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Flotsam (Peridot Shift #1)

Captain Talis just wants to keep her airship crew from starving, and maybe scrape up enough cash for some badly needed repairs. When an anonymous client offers a small fortune to root through a pile of atmospheric wreckage, it seems like an easy payday. The job yields an ancient ring, a forbidden secret, and a host of deadly enemies.

Now on the run from cultists with powerful allies, Talis needs to unload the ring as quickly as possible. Her desperate search for a buyer and the fallout from her discovery leads to a planetary battle between a secret society, alien forces, and even the gods themselves.

Talis and her crew have just one desperate chance to make things right before their potential big score destroys them all. (Summary from Amazon)

I really enjoyed this novel. It's steampunk/sci-fi/fantasy which is a new combination to me, but it works really well. It took awhile for it to click for me, but once it didn't, I couldn't stop reading.

For me personally, the first couple chapters were a bit...much. There was a lot happening and lot of information being thrown at you and it's a bit overwhelming. However, once you just sink into the world that RJ Theodore wrote, it all becomes slick and amazing. The world is just fantastic and all of the lore explored is great.

The characters are fantastic and really well thought out. Plus, their interpersonal relationships are so interconnected and there is so much history that isn't explained until certain spots or at all. There are about three things that happen in the book that I never saw coming, which I won't tell you about, because spoilers.

I really, really want to read the next book in this series because I need to know what happens.

I received an uncorrected advance proof copy from NetGalley.

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Princesses Behaving Badly

Princesses Behaving Badly by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie

You think you know her story. You’ve read the Brothers Grimm, you’ve watched the Disney cartoons, and you cheered as these virtuous women lived happily ever after. But real princesses didn’t always get happy endings. Sure, plenty were graceful and benevolent leaders, but just as many were ruthless in their quest for power, and all of them had skeletons rattling in their majestic closets. Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe was a Nazi spy. Empress Elisabeth of the Austro-Hungarian Empire slept wearing a mask of raw veal. Princess Olga of Kiev slaughtered her way to sainthood. And Princess Lakshmibai waged war on the battlefield with her toddler strapped to her back. (Summary from Amazon)

History! Women! History about Women! Three of my favorite things!

I knew about some of the women mentioned in the book; Wu Zetian, Tomyris, Hatshepsut, Caraboo, and Christina. I knew a little about Wu Zetian from the video game Civilization V and Tomyris from the sequel Civilization VI. I knew a lot about Hatshepsut, the Egyptian Pharaoh. I even knew about Princess Caraboo from the 1994 film Princess Caraboo. It was an utter delight to to read about all the other princesses in this book and find out about their lives and even deaths. Princess Olga is my new favorite and I can only aspire to be that badass if the time comes. 

I read a few of the other reviews on Goodreads, and no, this book is not a serious history book. There are plenty of those. This book gives you enough information to make you learn something, but allows enough to be left behind that it makes you google them to learn more. (I did anyway.) I'd recommend this book for a budding historian, a history lover who perhaps doesn't know all of these AMAZING (EDIT: I mean amazing in the sense that they defied convention of the time, because there were some women who were not...amazing people) women, or even someone like me; an author who now has a whole multitude of new ideas floating around in my head. 

Luckily, if you want to know more and wikipedia is failing you, there is a bibliography at the end of the book that has plenty of material to keep you occupied for a long time. I know I'm going to check out a few of the sources and see what else I can learn about these astonishing, historical princesses.

I received a copy from NetGalley.

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The Alehouse Murders

The Alehouse Murders by Maureen Ash

A Templar treasure for mystery readers! 

An honorable-yet world-weary-Knight Templar solves the mysteries of Medieval England. 

After eight years of captivity in the Holy Land, Templar Bascot de Marins escapes with injuries to his body and soul. Now on a sojourn at Lincoln Castle, he hopes to regain his strength, and mend his waning faith-but not even the peace of God's countryside is safe from the mortal crimes of man. For what appears to be the grisly end to a drunken row is in fact a cunning and baffling crime. (Summary from Amazon)

Lately I have been into historical mysteries. It's probably because I love history, because I don't really enjoy contemporary mysteries. It started with Roger the Chapman (which is a series I shall be reviewing once I have all the books) and now I'm here with The Alehouse Murders.

What I liked straight off is that Bascot is not a "pretty". From what I've read so far, the solvers of crimes in the past tend to be monks, nuns, knights (ex or current) or travellers of some kind. They are usually undescribed, so the reader assumes they look normal (whatever that is), but not Bascot. We are told almost right away that he is missing an eye and it's not pretty. He also had a broken ankle that never healed quite right because Middle Ages medicine was garbage. He may not be old but he spent years being held captive and being a slave, so he is quite grizzled.

I also like his servant/surrogate son, Gianni, a boy he found in Italy. Gianni is quite useful in solve this mystery (and probably the others in the rest of the series). He's small and looked over by many people. Gianni also is protective of Bascot, so he makes sure his master is well taken care of.

The other characters in the book, at least two of whom are real people, are fleshed out and are all interesting. We see their points of views a few times throughout the book, which is unusual, but enjoyable.

Onto the actual mystery, in an unsurprising turn of events, there are four dead bodies found in an alehouse. From there, however, nothing is unsurprising. I won't spoil anything, but my word, what a ride. Nothing is as it seems and I found the murderer unpredictable. The best part is that even Bascot wasn't sure what was happening near the end. There are amazing twists and an undeniable sadness that permeates the book, since the murders hit home for many of the characters in the novel. 

The history of the era, around 1199 or a bit after, during the early reign of King John, is excellent. The Crusades are still in full swing, England still hates their new King, and politics is always at play. The setting of Lincoln is a new one to me, as these usually take place in London or in larger areas. I like that I can learn more about the area, while trying to solve a mystery. (Side note: I never solve one of the mysteries before the main character does.)

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves historical mysteries and would definetly read the rest of the series. I want to see what happens with Bascot and company while they try to solve more mysteries.

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