January 10, 2008 at 12:18 am · Filed under Book Reviews, Historical Fiction, Mystery and Suspense
124. Death of a Stranger by Anne Perry (Historical Mystery) 352 p.
It’s been years since I read A Breach of Promise, but Anne Perry is as talented a writer of historical fiction as I’d remembered. I can’t say William Monk is my favourite of her protagonists, but I like his wife, Hester, quite a bit, and as far as I can tell Anne Perry isn’t capable of writing a bad book. Actually, aside from the fact that I really couldn’t care less about Monk or his mysterious past, I enjoyed Death of a Stranger quite a bit.
When Monk was young, he worked for a while in the railway business before the trial, conviction, and death in prison of his mentor (whom he is convinced was wrongly accused) led to his joining the police. An injury sustained on the job caused amnesia, from which he is still not fully recovered. He knows the most pertinent details about himself, but many incidents from his past life still elude him. When a young woman asks him to look into a railway company, Monk finds many of his memories returning. Unfortunately, the memories he regains seems to point to some wrongdoing on the part of his mentor, or even himself.
Meanwhile, Monk’s wife Hester is running a refuge for prostitutes in Coldbath Square. Trained as a nurse in the Crimea, Hester is able to provide simple medical assistance to women who aren’t able to afford a doctor (and whom a respectable doctor might be reluctant to treat.) When a rich gentleman is found murdered in a local brothel, his family forces the police to come down hard on the area. As business declines, Hester’s patients begin to worry about their livelihoods—and even their lives, since many pimps prove less than understanding about the drop in revenue.
Not a bad novel at all, although my indifference to Monk as a character means this series will never be one of my favourites. I was also a little annoyed by the coincidence of the two plot threads coming together in the end. It’s a common construction in mystery novels with two protagonists who don’t work together to solve cases, and one that I pretty much always dislike. I also thought Monk was an incredible idiot in this book; I saw one incident from the plot coming a mile away, while Monk didn’t recognize it for what it was even after it had happened. Aside from all that, though, it’s still a book well worth reading, even if it isn’t the Anne Perry novel I would recommend.
Books read: 124
Pages read: 36,826
Tags: 2nds Challenge, 50 Book Challenge 2007, Anne Perry, William Monk
January 1, 2008 at 12:00 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Children's Literature, Favourite Books, Historical Fiction, Mystery and Suspense, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
117. Skybreaker by Kenneth Oppel (Juvenile Historical Fantasy) 340 p.
Matt Cruse returns in this sequel to Airborn. Having found the money to enrol in the Air Academy, he’s on his first training cruise when the ship spots the legendary Hyperion, an airship rumoured to be full of treasure and assumed lost by most. Still aloft, she floats at 20,000 feet, much higher than humans can safely go in ordinary airships. Matt and his friend Kate team up with the inventor of a new type of airship, a skybreaker, modified to allow high-altitude travel, and go on a quest to find and salvage the Hyperion.
Skybreaker easily lives up to the promise of Airborn. Far more intelligent and less narrow in scope than the average adventure story, it still delivers an exciting plot and a cast of very engaging and believable characters. Kenneth Oppel is rapidly becoming one of my favourite children’s authors. One of my favourite things about him is the way he makes his characters individuals. All four protagonists see in the Hyperion a way to satisfy their needs, but in different ways. Even Kate, who being fabulously wealthy needs very little she doesn’t already possess, has the opportunity to make discoveries that may earn her the respect of the scientific community, something that as a young woman she is automatically denied.
Books read: 117
Pages read: 34,724
Tags: 2nds Challenge, 50 Book Challenge 2007, Kenneth Oppel, Matt Cruse
October 12, 2007 at 12:56 am · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Historical Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror, Young Adult Literature
107. Rebel Angels by Libba Bray (Young Adult, Historical Fantasy) 548 p.
2nds Challenge
I’m glad to say that Rebel Angels not only lived up to its prequel, A Great and Terrible Beauty, but also whet my appetite for its sequel, The Sweet Far Thing, due out on Boxing Day.
In A Great and Terrible Beauty, Gemma Doyle witnessed her mother’s murder, was sent to an English boarding school, and discovered that she had the power of an ancient circle of priestesses known as the Order. Now, she finds that the enemy she thought defeated is still very much alive, that a friend she thought dead is not entirely gone, and that a London Christmas, despite all its glamours, may not be so wonderful after all.
Also, Kartik’s back. After Gemma, he’s my favourite character, and I only wish the two had more interactions. I was also glad to see that Gemma’s brother Tom improves a bit on closer acquaintance; Rebel Angels reveals some details about him that make him a more sympathetic character. Ditto for Felicity: the revelation about her was one I only saw coming a page or two ahead of time.
I’m quite pleased with Rebel Angels; it looks like Libba Bray is well on her way to creating a consistently brilliant series of YA historical fantasy novels.
Books read: 107
Pages read: 31,882
Tags: 2nds Challenge, 50 Book Challenge 2007, Gemma Doyle, Libba Bray
August 5, 2007 at 10:01 pm · Filed under Books Etc
I wasn’t going to do anymore challenges, but…everyone else is doing them! And they seem like fun (she says now.)
The first of my new challenges is the 2nds Challenge: 3 books by authors you’ve only read once before, October-December 2007:
- Rebel Angels » Libba Bray: This is the sequel to A Great and Terrible Beauty, which is a very impressive YA novel.
- Skybreaker » Kenneth Oppel: The sequel to Airborn, an exciting YA fantasy adventure set in an alternate Victorian age where blimps are the primary means of long-distance travel.
- Death of a Stranger » Anne Perry: I read A Breach of Promise many, many years ago, and I’ve never quite forgotten it, so when I was looking for something absorbing and undemanding at my aunt’s house, I was immediately drawn to her shelf of Anne Perry’s Victorian mysteries.
A few other ideas (in case I can’t wait and end up reading one the three before the challenge begins):
- Post Captain » Patrick O’Brian: I read Master and Commander some time ago, and this has been sitting in my TBR pile ever since.
- Thomas the Rhymer » Ellen Kushner: I love Swordspoint a great deal, but haven’t got around to reading any of her other books yet.
- A Thousand Splendid Suns » Khaled Hosseini: The Kite Runner is one of my favourite books, so I may read this if I can get my hands on a copy from the library.
- Such a Long Journey » Rohinton Mistry: I love his book of short stories, Tales from Firozsha Baag, a great deal, and many people have pushed me to read some of his novels.
- He Drown She in the Sea » Shani Mootoo: Cereus Blooms at Night was one of my favourite assigned novels in high school, so I’m interested to read another novel by Mootoo.
- The Wars » Timothy Findley: Not Wanted on the Voyage was the other assigned novel that I loved in high school.
- Who Do You Think You Are? » Alice Munro: I wasn’t thrilled with Lives of Girls and Women, but it wasn’t bad, and Who Do You Think You Are? is such a quintessentially Canadian thing to say that I absolutely have to read the book.
- Half of a Yellow Sun » Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: I loved Purple Hibiscus, and my dad owns this one, so I could easily read it for the challenge.
- Mollie Peer » Van Reid: The first novel in this series, Cordelia Underwood, was quite funny and charming, so I’m excited to read this second novel.
- Palace of Desire » Naguib Mahfouz: The second novel in his Cairo trilogy. I read Palace Walk and loved it, so now I’m back for seconds.
Tags: 2nds Challenge, Book Lists
