Unladylike Lessons In Love

Well, the title of this "Regency" novel certainly delivers on its promise: Lila Marleigh's behavior is anything but ladylike in this steamy romance.  Unladylike Lessons In Love (#1,151) by Amita Murray sucked me in with its promise of Regency-era romance and mystery.  Except for the fact that Amita Murray admits to consuming Georgette Heyer (the absolute Queen of Regency romances!) like candy when she was younger, I would have guessed she learned everything she knows about the time period from Bridgerton! (No wonder Julia Quinn's blurb is posted right at the top of the book's cover!).

The premise and the mystery involved were both enough to keep me reading, even though I skipped over the steamy bits (that was a lot of pages!).  But, oh! those bucketful's of anachronisms and twenty-first century slang reminded me firmly that context means nothing to this author.

Apparently this is the first of a series of mysteries featuring the illegitimate daughters of an Englishman stationed in India for many years, but brought up as English young ladies by his abandoned wife.  I won't be torturing myself any further.  If you want to know what the ideal is for this genre, read Georgette Heyer herself - she's never been out of print!

Murder Before Evensong - A Canon Clements Mystery

Murder Before Evensong (#1,150) by The Reverend Richard Coles is the quintessential British murder mystery.  It involves a small village in the countryside where the parish church is still firmly attached to the local lord's substantial estate.  Therefore, any and all murders occurring in the area are an affront to the lord of the manor.  Since the first murder takes place in the church itself, naturally the rector becomes involved.  As if Daniel Clements didn't have enough on his plate to start with!

Daniel's mother Audrey is now living in the rectory with him, and she's never been one to leave things alone.  To make things worse Theo, his actor brother, has just been given in role in a new TV series in which he will be playing a priest.  He can't see why Daniel won't let him tag along on even the most private moments of pastoral counseling.  And since he starred in a long-term cop series, he thinks he is qualified to sit in on the police investigation as well.  As other murders happen, Daniel slowly begins to discern a pattern that will lead to the discovery of the murderer's identity.

It's all quite entertaining.  If you know anything about Anglican or Episcopalian worship, you will delight in how spot-on the references are.  They should be, since the author is a priest himself, who has also had a number one hit single, and appeared on Strictly Come Dancing, the British version of Dancing With the Stars.  I hope there will be future entries in this promising new mystery series!

The Best Strangers In The World - Stories From A Life Spent Listening

Having listened to Ari Shapiro himself for a number of years on NPR, I was interested in picking up his book of essays, The Best Strangers In The World - Stories From A Life Spent Listening (#1,149).  I must admit that I heard his distinctive voice narrating as I read!  I quite enjoyed this collection, in which he reveals quite a bit about himself.

If you are a regular listener to NPR yourself, you will probably enjoy this book.  If your taste in media runs more towards Fox, find something else.  This book won't suit you.

Mistress of Bhatia House

I've been meaning to read one Sujata Massey's mysteries set in 1920s India, featuring Perveen Mistry, daughter of a Parsi lawyer, who has read law herself at Oxford.  Mistress of Bhatia House (#1,148) is the third entry in this series.  Perveen is struggling to find a place in British-dominated Bombay to practice law alongside her father, but neither society will cooperate, refusing to let her sit for the Bar in either England or India.  She does what she can as a solicitor, but she cannot be in a courtroom.

Perveen is present at a fundraising tea for a new Women & Children's Hospital at a prominent Indian family's home in order to bring her sister-in-law's donation in person.  While there, she witnesses a child's garment catch fire, and his ayah throw herself on the boy to smother the flames.  She is badly burned in this act of heroism, but the family is reluctant to allow Sunanda treatment or rest.  Perveen happens to be at the police station later when she sees Sunanda brought in chains from a police wagon.  She's been arrested, and the more questions Perveen asks, the murkier the situation becomes.  No one can find any trace of the man who brought the official complaint against her, and to Perveen's ears, the circumstances seem suspicious.  She winds up bailing out Sunanda and bringing her home to the chaotic Mistry household with its newborn baby and feuding parents.  

A suspicious death, an unspeakable crime, and a society at odds with itself all make for an intriguing blend of mystery and social injustices woven into a story unlike anything else I have read.  I will definitely be tracking down Sujata Massey's first book in this series The Widows of Malabar Hill (which won the Agatha Award) to delve further into the Bombay of a century ago.  If you are looking for an excellent new mystery series, put these books on your list!

Network Effect

Murderbot has to be one of my favorite literary characters.  Funny, because I almost never used to read science fiction, but my husband has persuaded me to dip my toes in those waters.  If all books were as good as Martha Wells Murderbot Series, that's probably all I would read these days.  #5 in that series is Network Effect (#1,147).

Murderbot is trying its best to settle into life with its group of humans in the Preservation after preventing an assassination attempt on its leader, Dr. Mensah.  Although it was kept quiet, Mensah has decided it  would be best for everyone to launch a mapping mission off-world, with her adolescent daughter, Amena, and one of her marital partners on board the vessel.  It's supposed to be a routine research trip, but of course, it doesn't turn out that way.  Their ship is attacked and Murderbot and Amena are kidnapped by a group of hostile and unknown aliens.  Dragged through a wormhole, Murderbot has no idea where they are, or why they were taken; it just knows that no one is messing with its humans!

As entertaining a read as this is, it is not a stand-alone novel.  Characters are reintroduced and earlier situations are brought into play here.  If you haven't read the earlier books in this series, you won't understand half of the action, so be sure to read those first.  One of my favorite series, and I know there are more to come!  Yay!

The Way Of The Bear

Anne Hillerman's latest Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito novel, The Way of the Bear (#1,146) is set in Utah's Bears Ears National Monument.  Jim Chee has been tasked by his new boss with meeting with a wealthy donor nearby who intends to give money to a memorial for Fallen Navajo Policemen.  While he's there, he wants to take advantage of a chance to advance his training in traditional healing with the elders at Navajo Mountain.  His wife Bernadette has just suffered a major disappointment in being passed over for a detective position with the Navajo Police, so Jim urges her to come with him to hike and soothe her soul with the beauty of the National Monument and its sacred sights.  

It seems a sunset hike can never be just a sunset hike for Bernie, as she falls into an unmarked trench along the trail.  She picks herself up with no permanent damage, but she can't say the same for the nearby petroglyphs: they have been vandalized in a way to suggest witchcraft.  On her way back to her truck, she is pursued and shot at by a couple of people in a beat up pickup truck.  That starts a train of events that will lead to both Chee and Manuelito becoming involved with murders and smuggled fossils from Bears Ears.

It's an engrossing mystery, set in a landscape I would very much like to see for myself.  If you're a fan of both Tony and Anne Hillerman, you won't want to miss this book.

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder

I've waited patiently for David Grann's latest non-fiction work The Wager: a Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder (#1,145) to appear on my Holds List ever since I heard him being interviewed about the book on NPR.  The story of these eighteenth-century British sailors is quite astonishing, not least because any of the men aboard The Wager made it home to England alive.

The Wager had originally set off from England as one of a small fleet tasked by the Government with a secret mission: to find and capture a Spanish galleon loaded with its annual shipment of silver, gold and other valuables before it could reach Spain.  The best prospect was to search the waters off the western coast of South America.  But the greatest danger on the voyage wasn't the Spanish enemy; it was the weather off Cape Horn, one of the most treacherous coasts of the world.  Unrelenting storms, winds and raging seas soon separated the British ships and The Wager found itself wrecked just off the shore of Wager Island.  The crew was already starving, and those that made it successfully onto the island found that there was virtually nothing there to eat.  Things went downhill from there...

Miraculously, years after the ships departed England, a ragtag group of survivors showed up in Plymouth, England with a wonderous tale to tell of their adventures.  All seemed to be going well until a few more years passed, and another group of survivors made it back to British shores with an equally miraculous, but totally contradictory tale of their survival.  What was the British Admiralty to do, except to court martial them all?  Seemingly having escaped death by drowning, starvation or capture by the enemy, were they to be executed for mutiny by their own British Navy?

David Grann has spun an amazing story out of the long-forgotten documents housed in the British archives.  The sensation of its time, the fate of the crew of The Wager has largely faded into the past until David Grann has shed new light on the consequences of her voyage.  It's a compelling read.