Enquiry
by Dick Francis (1969)
When Kelly Hughes rides the favourite into second place, he gets penalised. Not only has he lost the race, but also his licence, as the Jockey Club suspends him – believing he threw the race.
Only he knows that the problem lay with the horse’s performance, not his own. Suspecting he was framed, Kelly sets about finding out how it was done, and then who might have done it.
Not the best of his books. This lacks the action of others.
Avenger
by Frederick Forsyth (2003)
Ricky Colenso travels to Bosnia to volunteer as an aid worker. A few weeks later, he disappears and is never heard from again. A family grieves and is offered little hope–the killer has vanished.
Along comes Attorney Calvin Dexter (Avenger).
There is no doubt that this is well written. The prose flows easily and the author gets his characters and setting across vividly.
But there is so much back-story here it gets tiresome. Significant portions of the narrative are in the past. And each character, as they are introduced has their own background.
There is a story here, probably of novella length. But I got so fed up with all the background and lack of pacing I gave up after getting 2/3 of the way through.
2024 Books in Review
Total words read: 2.3 million words. (The equivalent of 30 novels lower than the usual average of a book a week)
Total Titles: 39
Comprising
10 Short Stories
4 Novelettes
7 Novellas
18 Novels (8 were over 100k words)
Books of the Year:
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
The Fey
The Series I started but did not finish
The Many Worlds of Albie Bright
Christopher Edge
Shark Heart
Emily Habeck
Forfeit
by Dick Francis (1968)
When reporter Bert Checkov falls to his death, his colleague James Tyrone thinks he can prove it was murder. But there’s no such thing as a sure thin.
This early story has an unusual amount of sex for a thriller. It takes some time to establish the characters and ramp up the tension. It’s not until the third act that the action takes place and we get what is expected from a Dick Francis book.
A Bad Spell in Yurt
(Daimbert #1)
C. Dale Brittain (1991)
The kingdom of Yurt is the perfect place for someone who graduated from the wizards’ school. Daimbert, newly hired Royal Wizard of Yurt, senses an evil spell at work. But who could be responsible?
A familiar setting for a rather ordinary story of a Wizard, Demon and Dragon. It’s the writing that keeps you in the story, being more about palace intrigue than an action adventure.
But it is too long at 100k words. Edited down to novella size would have improved the pacing and added to interest for the next in the series.
The Brokered Convention
Nick Harlow (2016)
Time for a political story, given that the USA elections as three weeks away.
When the incumbent President who is a stone cold lock for re-election suddenly drops out due to health reasons at the last minute, both political parties are thrown for a loop. With the ultimate prize up for grabs, all sorts of candidates scramble to throw their hats in the ring.
It’s an interesting read, especially as the author would have written the book before the 2016 Trump elections.
Most of the characters are the one dimensional type you would be expecting from politicians. There are shenanigan and tricks from everyone. But the main difference between this and reality, is that in reality politicians pay for lying.
MisSpelled
by T. H. Leatherman (2008)
This book is so obscure I couldn’t find a decent version of the cover.
Evan skips across to fairyland. To get back home, he has to complete three quests for the queen of the elves. Each quest is a near-impossible task to defeat fearsome beasts or overcome impossible odds. The chance of Evan succeeding is just like a fairytale, Grimm.
It’s a fish out of water story of a human in a new realm, coping with the inhabitants and completing quests. Tonally it’s similar to the Kevin J. Anderson “The Dragon Business” books. A bit silly, well written with a few jokes, but not exceptional.
The Kirilli Matter
(Qavnerian Protectorate #1)
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
When the investigation of a brutal murder scene points to terrifying suspects, Augusta Kirilli must find a way to protect her family’s secrets and discover their meaning.
Set in the world of the Fey, this is a Detective Mystery, but with magic. While it is a stand-alone novel, some knowledge of the Fey series helps, although to some extent it predetermines events.
Most of the book alternates a third person narrative from the two side of events. And while there is an explanation of the murder, it leaves open more questions than it answers.
The Reflection on Mount Vitaki
(A Story of The Fey)
By Kristine Kathryn Rusch (2022)
Professor Kyra Row Kirilli feels the pull of the mysterious reflection on the mountain that lies across the Forbidden Valley. Even her husband, with his knowledge of magic, cannot provide an answer. Kyra must embark on a journey to the source herself-a journey no one ever survives.
Set long before the original books (but somehow in a more technologically advanced age) in Fey series,
It’s a trip up a mountain, then down again !
A Fatal Twist of Lemon
(Wisteria Tearoom Mysteries #1)
By Patrice Greenwood (2012)
When Ellen Rosings’s Victorian tearoom opens, the President of the Santa Fe Preservation Trust is murdered.
Enter Detective Tony Aragon: attractive and unsympathetic, with a chip on his shoulder that goes beyond the murder investigation.
Is the murderer one of her honored guests, or the ghost rumored to haunt the building?
Will Ellen solve the mystery, is she Miss Marple ?
Well, no she is not much of a detective. That’s left to the police and the possible love interest, Detective Aragon. Told in first person, Ellen moves through the collection of possible suspects, dispensing food and advice. It’s well written prose that keeps you there, despite what’s happening (or not).
In the end she gets tangled up in the discovery of the murderer, but she doesn’t have much agency and infrequently moves the story forward.
So a nice cup of tea of a read.
