E-book bargain (Albert)

The Last Chance Olive Ranch (China Bayles Mystery)I have blogged on this author before.  I have read and enjoyed every book in this series.  I love the characters of China, the lawyer turned herb shop owner; Ruby, new age person; McQuaid, a former cop and China’s love interest and the many others who live in Pecan Springs, Texas.  This book in the series is currently an e-book bargain.  The books are best read in order but you could buy this and eventually catch up with it.  There are many novels in the series.

Book Bargains (Cleeves and Hannah)

Raven Black: Book One of the Shetland Island QuartetWhite Nights: A Thriller (Shetland Book 2)The Mystery of Three Quarters: The New Hercule Poirot Mystery (Hercule Poirot Mysteries) by [Hannah, Sophie]

I think that Ann Cleeves writes smart, absorbing mysteries with recurring characters that I am always happy to spend time with.  These two novels are part of the author’s Jimmy Perez mystery series, which are set on the island of Shetland.  There are currently seven books in the series and the eighth will be coming soon.  I read these a while ago but highly recommend them.   Each currently costs $2.99 for the e-book edition.  Please note that there has also been a Shetland TV series starring Douglas Henshall.

On Raven Black:

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Set in the remote Scottish Shetland Islands, Cleeves’s taut, atmospheric thriller, the first in a new series, will keep readers guessing until the last page. Det. Insp. Jimmy Perez investigates the murder of teenage Catherine Ross, found strangled on a snowy hillside shortly after New Year’s. While the police and citizens alike are quick to lay the blame on local eccentric Magnus Tait, who was not only the last person to see Catherine alive but also the prime suspect in the disappearance eight years earlier of another girl, Perez has his doubts. He’s soon drawn into an intricate web of lies as he unearths the long-buried secrets of everyone from a roguish playboy to Catherine’s only school friend. Cleeves, winner of the CWA’s Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award (formerly the Gold Dagger), masterfully paints Perez as an empathetic hero and sprinkles the story with a lively cast of supporting characters who help bring the Shetlands alive. When the shocking identity of the murderer is revealed, readers will be as chilled as the harsh winds that batter the isolated islands.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
On White Nights

From Booklist

Everyone is a bit mad during midsummer in the Shetland Islands, they say. Detective Jimmy Perez (making his second appearance, following last year’s Raven Black, in what Cleeves bills as the Shetland Island Quartet) is unsettled with the prospect of a new romance. Meanwhile, Perez’s love interest, an artist, is a shambles at the prospect of having her work exhibited for the first time at a local gallery opening. But these small anxieties pale beside the spectacle of a man who falls to his knees, weeping, in front of a painting at the exhibit. This same man, a tourist, is later found hanged in a fishing hut, his face obscured by a clown mask. Cleeves knows how to do eerie—from the clown mask motif that moves disturbingly throughout the novel, to her depiction of the rough beauty of the Shetland Islands, and all the way through her plotting, which mixes the disturbingly dreamlike with the realistically grotesque. Gripping from start to finish. –Connie Fletcher
As to Sophie Hannah, she has been updating the Hercule Poirot mysteries with the permission of the Agatha Christie estate.  Today, you can place a pre-order for the e-book coming out in hardback in August.  It will cost just $4.99.  A blurb is below.
“We Agatha Christie fans read her stories–and particularly her Poirot novels–because the mysteries are invariably equal parts charming and ingenious, dark and quirky and utterly engaging. Sophie Hannah had a massive challenge in reviving the beloved Poirot, and she met it with heart and no small amount of little grey cells. I was thrilled to see the Belgian detective in such very, very good hands. Reading The Monogram Murders was like returning to a favorite room of a long-lost home.”
— Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl

A gentle book for children (Coehlo)

This is a short, sweet and lovely picture book about a young girl’s love for her grandfather and the memories that they build together. The grandfather’s death is gently implied in the story; the reader watches as his granddaughter is sustained by her memories and his gifts to her. The illustrations are appealing and warm. This book is a good one for parents to read to young children who are coping with loss. It is a gentle and affirming story.

#IfAllTheWorld #NetGalley

Pub day post (O’Keeffe)

I adore this series which tells the stories of women of many talents. The books are short but detailed and factual with appealing illustrations. Georgia comes to life as a young girl who loves art and moves away from home to become an artist. Her love of city architecture, the appeal of looking at things up close and her deep appreciation for the southwest all shine through. Plus, the reader learns about Alfred Stieglitz. A great series for parents and children to share. These books provide role models for dreaming children.

For very young detectives and their grownups (Selznik and Serlin)

This is a completely adorable very, very beginning chapter book for young readers and those who enjoy sharing books with them.  Baby Monkey is on the case…except that he needs to get his pants on first.  The illustrations around his efforts to get dressed are delightful!  The text is repetitive in a way that preschoolers love and find soothing.  All cases are happily solved.  Adults will marvel at the illustrations, especially the ones that show Baby Monkey’s office at the beginning of each investigation.  Highly recommended!

If you liked And Then There Were None and enjoy WW II Intrigue, try this (Macneal)

I have read and enjoyed all of the books in this series, starting with Mr. Churchill’s Secretary.  Maggie Hope is a resourceful, smart and spunky protagonist who takes great, and possibly foolish, risks, in order to help with the war effort.  In The Prisoner in the Castle, Maggie has been exiled to an island where agents who pose a risk to security are secretly being housed.  Over the course of Maggie’s stay on the isolated and claustrophobic island, life goes on with one big exception…Maggie’s  fellow agents are being killed at a rapid, daily rate.  Why?  What danger do they present?  Who can be trusted?  How will the murderer be stopped?  Will Maggie survive or could this be the end of the series?  You will need to read the novel to find out.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a fun read in an enjoyable series.

#ThePrisonerInTheCastle #NetGalley

Pub Day Posting (Gentill)

This is the first, but will not be the last, book that I read by this author. Her novels are now being published by the wonderful Poisoned Pen Press, a great place to find new authors and series.
The Rowland Sinclair mysteries take place in the 30s and Rowly reminds me of that great thirties sleuth, Lord Peter Wimsey. He is an artist who is surrounded by his communist leading friends including the lovely Edna, a sculptress. This novel picks up where the prior one ended with the group escaping from Germany at a time when the Nazis were rising and brutal. They come to England where they try to alert the government to upcoming perils and to solve the mystery of an upper class man who is found dead. Subsidiary figures abound including H.G. Wells and Evelyn Waugh.
I truly enjoyed this novel and recommend it to fans of historical mysteries. I look forward to reading more. Thanks for this one, Poisoned Press and NetGalley.

Pub Date Posting on Harriet Tubman

This is a praiseworthy entry in a praiseworthy series for young readers and their families. This short story about Harriet Tubman belongs in school and home libraries.

Slavery is not an easy subject to write about; it takes genuine skill to talk about the topic in a way that can help young readers to understand something unthinkable. The author does this factually and simply as she tells Harriet Tubman’s story is in an inspiring way. As always, in the Little People, Big Dreams books, the illustrations augment the story nicely. Add this to your collection.

The Paris Spy (Macneal)

The Paris Spy: A Maggie Hope Mystery by [MacNeal, Susan Elia]I blogged on this book in June 2017.  The review may be found in my archives.  I enjoy the Maggie Hope series and am currently reading the author’s soon to be released next book courtesy of NetGalley.  The Paris Spy is an e-book bargain today at $1.99.  You can catch up and then, later this summer, read The Prisoner in the Castle, the novel that I am currently enjoying.  If you like WW II mysteries with a female protagonist, the series could be for you.