The Triumph of the West: The Origin, Rise & Legacy of Western Civilization by J.M. Roberts
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Yet another lovely book from Mr. Roberts. His smooth presentation makes this necessarily surface telling of the ENTIRE history of Europe quite palatable. It is, as is all his work, smoothly written, with a sly sense of humor that I find particularly appealing, The narration by Frederick Davison is excellent; now that I've gotten over hearing his extrordinarily plummy voice (which sounded terribly phoney at first) I've found listening to him to be very enjoyable.

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REVIEW: Historical Mystery

The Guardian Stones by Eric Reed
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

[2016] #1 Grace Baxter, WW2, rural Shropshire England, 1941. A tiny village, "odd" inhabitants, much darkness and sadness, mixed with a stalwart young woman and a tired and damaged Visiting Academic. Unsettled times and places indeed, especially so once the children begin to vanish... Interesting setting and characters, and a good plot, but a somewhat sketchy execution at times. Entertaining, but I had hoped for a bit more substance: 3-and-one-half out of five stars.

It's a society falling to pieces, falling into darkness, hurting all that come within reach, a truly diabolical - and unsettling - story; a darkly atmospheric thriller set at a time when all the world (at least in Europe) seemed to be falling -literally- to pieces. And the village of Noddweir most of all. Known (mildly) in Academic Circles for its standing stones, no-one appears to have investigated them in centuries, well, not "properly", that is. So Professor Carpenter comes to the village to look them over and perhaps excavate a bit, learn the history of the village, and The Old Ways and mores of The Locals. He gets more, finds more, than he had bargained for. He meets Grace, for one thing, and she's quite a handful, as are her family and friends. With no police in or nearby the village, investigating the odd - and then deadly - happenings as they escalate, falls to Grace, daughter of the former Constable. She has a far better grip on both reality and on the local mysteries both past and present, than does the putative Law officer sent to investigate.

The pacing is fairly good, and the plotting is very good, spiraling and twisting around several mysterious themes: missing children, robberies, possible sex crimes, a fire, a murder. Another murder. Another murder, or, maybe not. A missing adult, then another. A great set-up, in fact, and the denouement was sharply drawn and extremely dark. However:

There were many small things that distracted me from the flow of the story, particularly the use of very short chapters, each with a "thrilling hook!" meant to pull the reader on to the next bit. And the use of italics as a change in viewpoint for A Mysterious Observer was incredibly annoying as well. The short short chapters mixed with the multiple abrupt changes in viewpoint were terribly distracting, and never allowed me to actually "get into" the story. Unfortunately, those sorts of techniques are far overused in general these days, and remain "Pet Peeves" of mine. They broke any chance at a reading "flow" and didn't allow the developement of deeper emotional connections with Grace or the Professor, although the characterizations were generally good. I enjoyed the slight bits of personality shown, but they felt like chess pieces, not people in trouble.

This plot was strong, and *should* have been absolutely terrifying - all the right bits for that were present, but the ending was rushed, and not enough attention paid to what really matters most in this kind of psychlogical-based thriller story: we needed to fear for, hope for, Grace and/or Edwin, but all we were given were tiny glimpses into their selves; so many people died or went missing that it seemed as though Grace and/or Edwin would be next, and that this would have been just another chess piece so as to move The Plot along!

And there was, alas, yet another Pet Peeve of mine: The Big Twist was slyly and well-hinted at throughout the novel, but we were never led to believe that it actually *was* a possibility. It's potentially an enormously emotional and evocative ending and concept that ought to have ripped my guts out; when it actually arrived it was with a big "Ta-Da!!!" and only seemed thin, not truly horrifying. The revulsion and horror I ought to have felt at the denouement, the sadness and hurt I ought to have felt for the villagers that I had rather liked at times, seemed to have faded into pastel. This ought to have had a Technicolor strength of feeling.

BUT. Mary Reed and Eric Meyer ("Eric Reed") are superb writers, justly renowned for their many wonderful books. So perhaps I am grading too hard? It's true: I had *expected* something superb in this first-in-series, and what I read was good entertainment; that disappointed me rather. Yet, Grace Baxter is an intriguing character; I liked her. This series has many places it might go, many stones it might look under (sorry, couldn't help it), much darkness and upheaval in a world and at a time when nothing - and no-one - seemed secure. That holds promise.

[NOTE: not for the squeamish, a goodly amount of blood'n'guts, plus there are children and vulnerable elders in much fully described danger and then there's the particularly harrowing bits about a dog...]


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REVIEW: Mystery

Island Of Tears by Troy Soos
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

ISLAND OF TEARS, Troy Soos, 2001, #1 Marshall Webb, reporter, Rebecca Davies, social worker, NYC 1892. At the Opening Day ceremonies at Ellis Island, a reporter makes the acquaintance of a nice young immigrant girl and decides to follow her story as she adapts to life in America. When a few days later he finds she's gone missing, he tries to track her down.

I very much enjoyed this author's earlier, baseball-centric historical mystery series: smoothly written, funny, AND baseball! Plots were good too. (and one of them was about my beloved Red Sox). His writing here is even better, richly plush, almost Victorian in its depth and complexity. But heavy, and dark. Excruciatingly dark.

I suspect the plot is a good one; there are likely lots of twists and many interesting characters. But I don't know for certain, and won't, since I will not be finishing this book. I read fifty pages and, sadly, must consider it as "Did Not Finish". This is far too dark and, yes, grubby for me, too much ugliness and dirty streets and truly foul people. This historical mystery may be true to its setting, it may be an accurate representation of the period as well. But I did not enjoy reading about it in those fifty pages; the book has over 200 pages total. But that's just me. YMMV.

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REVIEW: Mystery

The Girl I Used to Be by April Henry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

THE GIRL I USED TO BE, April Henry, 2016. Stand-alone YA mystery/thriller; entertaining, fast-paced, predictable but very smoothly written and well-plotted, with no loose ends, an enjoyable read: 3.0/5.0

When she was three years old Ariel Benson saw her mother killed, and her missing father assumed to have done the deed and run away. Entering the fostering system, by age 17 she is on her own, capable and looking for the truth of what happened that frightening day so long ago, since she remembers very little about either of her parents. And now some of his bones have been found, and it becomes clear that he died the same day as her mother. Returning for his funeral she finds that with a changed name (a failed adoption by a long-ago foster mother) no-one seems to recognize her. To the little town where she had been born she is Olivia Rheinhart, and that no-one there questions it.

This is one of the implausible things that I actively dislike in mystery plots, where practically no-one "recognizes" a long-gone newly returned heroine who has changed so much that she can "pass" for somebody else, but it's smoothly done here, with only a bit of slight fudging to make things flow smoothly. But you will need to suspend belief that a girl who is repeatedly mentioned as looking very much like her mother did at the same age (17) and is now living in the same house, and spends most of her time in this small town asking questions about what happened is *not* going to be suspected as at least a relative of some sort? But the narrative flows along, and I went with it.

Ms. Henry also uses a technique that I abhor in adult mysteries but which works very well in a YA mystery: the device of very short, fast-moving chapters, each of which ends with a "thrilling!" hook. I'll grant that maybe YA readers tend to have shorter reading spans for plots, and are accustomed to, expect to have their stories rush along. Not often my favorite thing, but this was a very short read, and sped by before my slight annoyance was transformed into actual dislike.

April Henry can write very well. I enjoyed this quick read, possibly because I did not expect to be overwhelmed by complexity or a deeply twisted plot, and I wasn't. Yes there are decent twists in the plot, and the character revealed as the murderer in the last scenes is not sprung on us unexpectedly, for although we're not told much about him he *is* present in most of the group scenes of the novel. So it was fairly played. She could have given us a bit more about his background, though, but that's a small quibble.

Comfortable, fast-moving, well-structured and written, if this was promoted as an adult thriller I would have been PO'd; as a YA novel it was a very good thriller, 3.5 stars out of 5, and recommended for YA and those adults who just want a comfortable, quick read.

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REVIEW: Mystery

Death in the Off-Season: A Merry Folger Mystery by Francine Mathews
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

1994, #1 Merry Folger, third-generation police officer, Nantucket Island, New England. Cosy police procedural with an interesting case and a good plot, wonderful characters, will gladly try another.

Merry Folger works for her Dad, in the family business: she's a police detective, and he's the Chief of Police. Male detectives hate and/or envy her, even her Dad seems to think she can't do the job. Locals accept the family, the rich look down their noses at the locals, and the tourists don't seem to much care about the social strata on this small island. Merry is gorgeous and falls a bit for the Lead Suspect, brooding hunk old-monied Peter.

Sounds like a cutsey disaster, right? Sweet romantic fluff? Nope. Think Again.

Yes, Merry is beautiful but she's also smart and tough, with a realistic strength that comes from being part of a long established, well-respected, genuinely loving family. And the characters here are very well drawn, with good shadings and nice touches despite much of the writing seeming to be superficial at first look: Peter, whose black sheep no-good, high-flying big brother comes calling one night and dies in a cranberry bog on Peter's farm, and is found by the fragile Will, a young employee who has simply suffered far too much in his short life. Peter is fixated on his Lost Love who ran away with the brother years ago, and a reclusive schoolteacher is in love with him. There's more in this vein, but it's surprisingly woven in nicely and doesn't actually distract from the mystery plot:

Rusty the black sheep was once their powerful, wealthy and avaricious father's pride'n'joy - until he attempted "something" the family won't mention and got caught by Dad who not only disowned him but also turned him in to the goverment, so Rusty's been on the run for a decade. Killed immediately in the story, the plot centers on who and why, and Peter and his relations are not talking. We follow along with Merry as she works her way through what turns out to be a nicely twisted plot until the final denouement, as red herrings slide by and bits and pieces of clues surface and fade.

Over all this was well done, tidy, and interesting - I enjoyed it. And for a first novel (not just first-in-series) the flaws were minimal. But present, and that's why the comparatively low rating - for me - for a book I quite enjoyed. The ending was rushed, the "reveals" close to the end much too abrupt and portentous, without any real feeling for or about the current state of plot or character, got the feeling she knew she was coming to the end but still had a few "good bits" she simply HAD to put in! So she tumbled things down. Not bad, but not smooth - first-book-itis. The final "take-down' scene with the murderer is sketchy and too quick, not prepared for enough as well. We needed a bit more rounding out of that character and didn't get it. The feeling the murderer was only a chess piece was pretty clear, and that was disappointing, but not really bad.

And that's how I felt, ultimately, about this book: entertaining, pretty good, "not bad" for a first book, and will gladly read another in the series - I love what are for me "local" mysteries.

[NOTE: my indicator "cosy police procedural" means the lead is a working cop, but the slam/bam!!! quotient is low, as is the general blood'n'guts level. "Cosy" for me does not mean a book is sweet and "cuuu-yoote!!" in any way, it mainly means traditional format(s) of story and/or settings]

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REVIEW: History, Philosophy

Our Oriental Heritage: A History of Civilization in Egypt and the Near East to the Death of Alexander, and in India, China, and Japan from the Beginning to Our Own Day, with by Will Durant
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

First volume in Will (and later Ariel as well) Durant's enormous series STORY OF CIVILIZATION, this is nearly glacial in movement, very old-fashioned in its approach, and yet completely compelling and endearing, as well as enduring. Filled with a wide variety of "asides", footnotes (heck, even the footnotes have footnotes...), and sometime quite amusing little bits of story, hint, and twist, the overall writing is, while very (almost overwhelmingly) pedantic at times, enjoyable.

Best sampled in small sips, the overall narration here is very good, not too "precious", and made for a lovely way to end the day, as "this sort of thing" is the majority of books I read (listen to, usually) for a half- or an hour each night last thing before bed. It helps slow my brain, gives me something to concentrate upon that is interesting without becoming "too much!", kwim?

The hardcover or digital editions are, of course, a lot more fun, as they have pictures, albeit black and white, but many of the places visited by the Durants in the 1920s and 1930s and the pictures shown here are gone now. And far too many of the beautiful and/or interesting artifacts are destroyed as well. But the pictures as described via audio may still be found on the web, or via the Kindle edition of this (and possibly other formats or PDF-type documents). Yay, for technology!

BOTTOM LINE: Superb but slow beginning to a long, deservedly considered "classic" multi-volume work of history, sociology, anthropology, archeology, philosophic thought, and a bit of psychology too.

REVIEW: History

A History of Europe by J.M. Roberts
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Long audio book, beautifully written but terribly narrated, alas. Best listened to in small bits as the reader has the most a-NOY-ing accent I've ever heard in an audiobook reader! I eventually got accustomed to him - there are over thirty hours worth of book - but for a while there, geesh...!

Otherwise this is actually a comparatively quick/short history of the entire continent; must admit, Mr. Roberts wasn't shy about tackling big subjects, was he? Enjoyed the fast pace and his rather sly writing - there's definitely humor here, both deliberate and otherwise (thanks to the narrator). The narrator uses an incredibly "posh" voice that cannot be real, simply must be affected in this day and age - he generally sounds as if he's auditioning for a Noel Coward play circa 1932 - that stilted sort of overly-"plummy" emphasis that the earliest sound actors in films used - it was terribly popular then as a shorthand for "upper class" but not now.The funny thing is I usually enjoy that sort of accent, just not one so, um, lavishly laid on, as it were... YMMV. I certainly hope he was just "having us on"...

2017 reread:
seem to have acclimated to narrator, enjoyed very much!