BLUE MERCY by Illona Haus

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

It's more than revenge. Ravaged by guilt, Detective Kay Delaney is reeling from an attack that resulted in her partner's death. Her only consolation is that serial killer Bernard Eales, who shot her partner, sits in Maryland's State Penitentiary awaiting what's expected to be a sure conviction. But when the prosecution's star witness turns up dead — and the body bears the same gruesome marks found on Eales's victims — Kay wonders whether the right man is about to stand trial. It's the fight of her life.

Partnered with her former lover, Danny Finnerty, Kay must confront the man who haunts her dreams — even if it means proving him innocent of three shocking crimes. As the body count rises, Kay embarks on a dark journey that will test her shattered courage, pit her against an unseen evil, and challenge her to unlock a killer's chilling obsession...before it's too late.

RATING:

Currently reading. Stay tuned for review............................

COLD GRANITE by Stuart MacBride

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

It's DS Logan McRae's first day back on the job after a year off on the sick, and it couldn't get much worse. Four-year-old David Reid's body is discovered in a ditch, strangled, mutilated and a long time dead. And he's only the first. There's a killer stalking the Granite City and the local media are baying for blood. If that wasn't enough, Logan also has to contend with a new boss, DI Insch, who doesn't suffer fools gladly and thinks everyone's a fool, and his own ex-girlfriend, the beautiful but chilly Isobel MacAlister, who also happens to be the chief pathologist. The only good news is WPC 'Ball Breaker' Watson, Logan's new guardian angel. The dead are piling up in the morgue almost as fast as the snow on the streets, and Logan knows time is running out. More children are going missing. More are going to die. If Logan isn't careful, he's going to end up joining them.

RATING:

I had heard so much about this author & anxiously anticipated this first read which did not disappoint -- excellent from the first page to the very last. Highly recommended & I look forward to reading more of the series.

JONATHAN STRANGE & MR. NORRELL by Susanna Clarke

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Centuries ago, when magic still existed in England, the greatest magician of them all was the Raven King. A human child brought up by fairies, the Raven King blended fairy wisdom and human reason to create English magic. Now, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, he is barely more than a legend, and England, with its mad King and its dashing poets, no longer believes in practical magic. Then the reclusive Mr Norrell of Hurtfew Abbey appears and causes the statues of York Cathedral to speak and move. News spreads of the return of magic to England and, persuaded that he must help the government in the war against Napoleon, Mr Norrell goes to London. There he meets a brilliant young magician and takes him as a pupil. Jonathan Strange is charming, rich and arrogant. Together, they dazzle the country with their feats. But the partnership soon turns to rivalry. Mr Norrell has never conquered his lifelong habits of secrecy, while Strange will always be attracted to the wildest, most perilous magic. He becomes fascinated by the shadowy figure of the Raven King, and his heedless pursuit of long-forgotten magic threatens, not only his partnership with Norrell, but everything that he holds dear.

RATING:

I had heard so much about Susanna Clarke's debut novel but had postponed reading it several times due to its voluminous size & my personal work schedule. I finally decided that the time had come to delve into her mystical world of English magicians and it proved to be an extraordinary experience. Clarke has successfully created a stunning saga rich with wonderfully drawn main and supporting characters as well as a story that evolves and holds your attention from page one to the last. Understandably, I can agree with the critics that this is truly a modern day masterpiece and it is a book to be savored to the very end. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

BLOOD ON THE TONGUE by Stephen Booth

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

It isn't the easiest way to commit suicide. Marie Tennent seems simply to have curled into a fetal position in the freezing snow out on Irontongue Hill and remained there until her body was frozen over. There's no one to observe her death but the foxes and the hares. Her body has bruises, though. Her death is tragic. Is it also suspicious? Marie's is not the only death the police have to investigate. What about the baby's body that is discovered in the burned-out hulk of a World War II bomber? And the unidentified man who is crushed by a snowplow? Snow and ice have left E Division depleted, and Detective Sergeant Diane Fry needs all the help she can get. But her colleague, Detective Constable Ben Cooper, is following a cold trail of his own. In the winter of 1945, a Royal Air Force bomber crashed on the same Irontongue Hill where Marie Tennent's body was found, killing everyone except pilot Danny McTeague, who disappeared with a large sum of money. Now his granddaughter, Alison Morrissey, has arrived from across the Atlantic to clear his name. As Fry and Cooper pursue their respective cases, they must also struggle to work together. Where there once was attraction, there now is distrust - and perhaps something more. Work comes first. . . but life can intervene in strange ways.

RATING:

Booth skillfully intertwines several storyline that overlap & connect in this third entry of his Cooper & Fry series -- richly atmospheric with colorful characterizations, it is an excellent police procedural that will not disappoint.

THE BURNING GIRL by Mark Billingham

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Some fires never go out ... Tom Thorne's got plenty on his plate when he agrees to help out ex-DCI Carol Chamberlain rake through the ashes of an old case that has come back to haunt her. Schoolgirl Jessica Clarke was lit on fire twenty years ago. Now, Gordon Rooker, the man Chamberlain put away for the crime, is up for parole, and it seems there's a copycat on the prowl. Or perhaps it's someone trying to right a serious wrong: Jessica Clarke was the victim of mistaken identity. The intended target was the daughter of a gangland boss, a woman who would grow up to marry the current leader, Billy Ryan ... Thorne quickly identifies a tenuous link between the two crimes, and past and present fuse together to form a new, horrifying riddle. One that involves more killings, violence, greed, and a murderous family with no values -- except gain at any price. When an X is carved into his front door, Tom Thorne realizes that fires, once thought to be out, continue to burn.

RATING:

I've been a huge fan of Mark Billingham's Tom Thorne series since his debut with SLEEPYHEAD so obviously I looked forward to reading the fourth installment with THE BURNING GIRL but unfortunately felt that this entry falls considerably short of the prior three. Billingham still succeeds in writing a wonderfully complex lead character as well as multi-dimensional secondary ones (Carol Chamberlain especially) but the main plot involving two gandland mafia families at war is predictable throughout -- the intertwining story involving "The Burning Girl" is a bit better but as a whole, the story lacks the intense edginess and plain creepiness that Billingham's other novels displayed so well. All in all, a disappointment but will hope for the best with LIFELESS, Billingham's next book.

A TRAITOR TO MEMORY by Elizabeth George

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

When Eugenie Davies is killed by a driver on a quiet London street, her death is clearly no accident. Someone struck her with a car and then deliberately ran over her body before driving off, leaving nothing behind but questions. What brought Eugenie Davies to London on a rainy autumn night? Why was she carrying the name of the man who found her body? Who among the many acquaintances in her complicated and tragic life could have wanted her dead? And could her murder have some connection to a twenty-eight-year-old musical wunderkind, a virtuoso violinist who several months earlier suddenly and inexplicably lost the ability to play a single note?" "For Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, whose own domestic life is about to change radically, these questions are only the first in an investigation that leads him to walk a fine line between personal loyalty and professional honor. Assigned to the case by his superior, Superintendent Malcolm Webberly, Lynley learns that Webberly's first murder investigation as a DI over twenty years ago involved Eugenie Davies and a sensational criminal trial. Yet what is truly damaging is what Webberly already knows and no doubt wants Lynley to keep concealed." "Now the pressure is on Lynley to find Eugenie Davies' killer. For not only is he putting his own career into jeopardy, but he is also attempting to safeguard the careers of his longtime partners Barbara Havers and Winston Nkata. Together, they must untangle the dark secrets and darker passions of a family whose history conceals the truth behind a horrific crime.

RATING:

One of George's most "ambitious" efforts with a 1,000+ page epic that is in my opinion about 200-300 too long. Despite the length issue, George still succeeds in creating a multi-layered story spanning over twenty years from the initial crime -- as always, it is exceptionally written prose with wonderfully detailed characterizations of a truly dysfunctional family & the people involved with them as well as growth & new revelations of the continuing cast (Lynley, Havers, etc.). Highly recommended!

THE HANGING VALLEY by Peter Robinson

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Visitors have been drawn to the beauty and serenity of the Yorkshire countryside. Some never leave — like the hiker whose decomposing corpse is discovered in a wooded valley outside the tiny village of Swainshead. It is the second such homicide to plague the region in recent years, and it is pulling investigating Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks into a dangerous mire of dark pasts, local power, and private shames. Because a shocking truth and a cold-blooded killer are waiting there ... and Banks is determined to walk into the valley of death to expose them both.

RATING:

Fourth in Robinson's Inspector Banks' series, a tightly written & thoroughly engrossing read with the last few pages chilling page turners. My only fault with the book was in fact the rather "abrupt" ending & felt an epilogue was needed. Robinson once again proves his mettle however as one of the best.

TEN BEST READS OF 2005

Another year has come to a close and I was very fortunate to read some wonderfully entertaining books over the year that you may read about here in my entries (and some not-so-great ones as well). Trying to pick ten best of the year is not easy but I decided to do so -- the ten chosen show a bit of diversity (from historical to present day, from the English countryside to the exotic Orient to the gritty streets of Boston) but any and all are highly recommended reading and will not disappoint.

TEN BEST READS OF 2005

(in alphabetical order by author)

Denial (Keith Ablow)

Lazybones (Mark Billingham)

The Angel of Darkness (Caleb Carr)

Rain Fall (Barry Eisler)

Well-Schooled in Murder (Elizabeth George)

The Treatment (Mo Hayder)

Darkness, Take My Hand (Dennis Lehane)

The Last Temptation (Val McDermid)

Dark Fire (C.J. Sansom)

Dissolution (C.J. Sansom)

The Shape of Snakes (Minette Walters)

____________________

Yes, technically there are eleven titles listed but C.J. Sansom's debut DISSOLUTION and follow-up DARK FIRE (probably the BEST book I read in 2005) had to both be included rather than one over the other. To read more about my thoughts on any of these "best of the best", please continue on through my journal for individual entries.

Here's to a wonderful, healthy New Year and continued Happy Reading!

A SUITABLE VENGANCE by Elizabeth George

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Award-winning author Elizabeth George gives us an early glimpse into the lives of Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, forensic scientist Simon Alcourt-St. James, and Lady Helen Clyde in a superlative mystery that is also a fascinating inquiry into the crimes of the heart. Lynley, the eighth earl of Asherton, has brought to Howenstow, his family home, the young woman he has asked to be his bride. But the savage murder of a local journalist is a catalyst for a lethal series of events that shatters the calm of a picturesque Cornwall village and embroils Lynley and St. James in a case far outside their jurisdiction - and a little too close to home. When a second death follows closely on the heels of the first, Lynley finds he can't help taking the investigation personally - because the evidence points to a killer within his own family.

RATING:

This was George's fourth book in the Lynley series and is a prequel of sorts as it's story tells of an earlier period before Lynley was paired with Barbara Havers (who pops up in a cameo role) and at a time when he was involved with Deborah Cotter and not Helen Clyde. While at times I felt this outing was a bit more romance novel oriented, George still does not disappoint with the mystery elements filled with so many twists and turns and surprises that you anxiously keep turning the page to read more.

THE LAST KASHMIRI ROSE by Barbara Cleverly

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

"It is 1922, in Panikhat, located on the plains fifty miles from Calcutta. In March of each of the past five years the wife of a cavalry officer in the Bengal Greys has met with a violent and terrifying death. One died in a fire, another by a cobra bite, the third from a fall, and the fourth victim drowned. Of course, they all might have been accidents, while the death of Captain Somersham's pretty young wife, who was found with her wrists cut, could be ruled as a suicide. Yet each of the memsahibs died in the manner she would have feared most." Only one link between the five cases points to foul, disturbing play. On the anniversary of the deaths small red roses mysteriously appear on the women's graves. With only a few days to go before the end of March and with faith in the new Western science of psychological profiling and the able assistance of an Indian police havildar, Naurung Singh, Joe Sandilands finds himself running a race against time and a serial killer who alone knows the recipient of the next Kashmiri rose.

RATING:

While the locale & setting takes a new twist on the traditional serial killer storyline, I found this an enjoyable but rather ordinary read nothing close to all the hype that was given the book (ie NEW YORK TIMES "Notable", etc., etc.). Sandilands is an appealing character and Cleverly definitely has style & flair in her writing so I'd read another in the series.