Swamp Sniper / Jana Deleon

  

3.75 out of 5 stars 

You never know when someone might start shooting.

This series is silly fun, but you do have to be in the right mood for it. After a couple of disappointing fantasy novels, I was ready for a bit of slapstick and Keystone Kops-like mayhem. I do recommend that you leave a good gap between books, or you will become bored with the repetitive nature of the humour. After all, how much longer can I giggle at Ida Belle refusing to wear her glasses? Or Gertie's kamikaze boat driving? Or Fortune having to hoist one of them into a tree or over a fence?

Fortune is supposed to be keeping a low profile in Sinful, Louisiana. She knows the rules—number one, do not get attached. That's already blown out of the water. She has discovered other women with military background (Gertie and Ida Belle) who are now her co-conspirators. Her friend Ally is thankfully younger, but has no idea of Fortune's true profession. Now she has been adopted by a cat. The ties to Sinful just keep increasing.

What makes Fortune a bit twitchy is her relationship with Deputy Carter LeBlanc. She knows that he has to do his job, whether that makes him happy or not. And she feels bad lying to him. What I don't think she has considered yet is that she can't be part of the Sinful Ladies Society anymore if she hooks up with him. The rules state that members must be single or widowed for at least 5 years. Carter is definitely interested and she can tell that he's pained each time she lies to him. Feeling guilty was the last thing she expected.

Although Swamp Team 3 is available and I'm tempted to plunge on in the series, I think I will pause instead. It's been three months in between books 2 and 3, and that has worked well for me. So maybe this fall I'll grab book 4.

I've been off a bit since I've been in Sinful. The residents here are not nearly as predictable as terrorists.

Vallista / Steven Brust

 

3 out of 5 stars 

Book number 536 of my Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Project

Brust takes a very basic idea and somehow builds a novel around it. Vlad is entreated by the youthful Devera, “Please help me, Uncle Vlad.” There's something odd going on, so Vlad follows her into a large building, where she promptly disappears. Now the doors where he entered will no longer open, the house is huge, and nothing makes any sense. Vlad is basically in a magical escape room.

People show up occasionally or Vlad stumbles upon them during his exploration of Precipice Manor. Devera appears from time to time, assuring him that “future Devera" recruited him to help her escape from the structure. I have to give it to Brust, my description sounds dull as dust, but he manages to make it intriguing.

Precipice Manor is like a circus fun house. Hallways run all over the place but often lead nowhere. The rooms seem to move and change. There are mirrors everywhere. Whenever Vlad finds an exit to the outside, he will mysteriously find himself back indoors. He encounters many people and asks as many questions as he can, despite receiving confusing answers. It appears that he is not only walking through the space of the manor, but also through time. It’s confusing, but this is Vlad Taltos and he doesn't give up.

Vlad doesn't get as much time to make smart alec remarks and his familiar, Loiosh, doesn't have much to do in this book. If you're into sword play and exotic travel, this novel may frustrate you. It is more of a thought experiment. However Vlad Taltos is rarely boring and I found that I followed the answers that he arrived at and felt a sense of satisfaction when the puzzle was solved.

The Pirate King / R.A. Salvatore

 

2 out of 5 stars 

Book number 535 of my Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Project

I needed a book about a swordsman for a reading challenge, so I decided to read the next Drizzt book in my SFF project. Accordingly, Drizzt wields Twinkle and Icing Death (his scimitars, even though they sound like cake decorating tools) on behalf of Captain Deudermont and the town of Luskan against the Wizards who control both the city and the pirate forces all along the coast.

I've lost my taste for fantasy battles so I was less than enthusiastic about this plot line. At the beginning of the book, Drizzt and his halfling chum Regis set out from Mithril Hall to travel to Icewind Dale to check in with Wulfgar. They stop in Luskan to visit their friend Deudermont and feel obliged to help his cause. My major complaint is a severe lack of Drizzt during many, many pages of writing--he's MIA for much of the first half of the novel, just showing up to make reasonable comments on the aims of the battle. It's largely a fight between wizards, not swordsmen, so the absence of the dark elf is understandable if disappointing. I found myself wishing that they had stayed on track for Icewind Dale.

At last, fifty percent of the way through this very long novel, Drizzt and Regis head out for Icewind Dale. Unfortunately they do not linger there--it's back to Luskan for more tiresome battles. At at least Drizzt gets to twirl those scimitars! OMG, this was a long feeling book, but at least the second half seemed to go a bit faster. I'm uncertain whether I can abide any more of this series, but I will surely not read any more of them this year.

Diamond Mask / Julian May

 

3.5 out of 5 stars 

Each time I read this series, I see entirely different things and I wonder how I missed them before. It's been 5 years since I last read this volume and it was almost like it was the first time, I had forgotten so much. This time through, I found myself much more impatient with May's psychobabble—all the jargon invented for her mentally talented main characters. I was painfully aware of how much of it there was. I was also a little wearied by all the geological detail in the final chapters.

The main story (at least to my mind) involves the maturation of both Jack and Dorothea, with the added bonus of their struggle against Fury and Hydra. There is an awful lot of political padding around it, though, something I was less inclined to tolerate this reading. I note my previous experience was in 2020, during the Covid lockdown—what else did I have to occupy my time? If I read this series again (which I suspect is a strong possibility), who knows how I will feel or what I will fixate on? May certainly writes a convoluted tale. And then drops a bomb in the last sentence.

I will attempt to keep up with my resolve to read Magnificat this month, to finish up this rereading cycle. It also seems to be largely purged from my memory banks, so I will go into it with a clean slate. As for this book, I would move my rating down to 3.5 stars for this run through.

Mindful of Murder / Susan Juby

 

4 out of 5 stars 

***2025 Summer: Murder Across Canada***

British Columbia

This book is an intriguing mixture of the serious and the hilarious. Susan Juby obviously has a well developed sense of humour, which she deploys just enough. Her characters are wonderful, very reminiscent of Thomas King's in The Back of the Turtle or Sufferance. To my way of thinking, that is a huge compliment.

Our Buddhist butler main character, Helen Thorpe, is trying not to be unhappy about her current task. Her friend and former employer, Edna, had asked her to oversee a kind of test for Edna's younger relatives to see which one would be best suited to take on the management of her rather eccentric lodge after Edna's death. Helen is comforted by two of her butler classmates who insist on helping her.

The characters who really stand out are the young man that Helen hires locally as an assistant (Nigel) and Edna's great nieces and nephews, who are all seemingly entitled assholes, each in their own obnoxious way. They are deliciously horrible, but we get to know them better along with Helen, as she guides them through the classes they must take: flower arranging, dance, and meditation.

Helen has questions about Edna's death. The police have ruled it suicide, which is completely unlike the Edna that Helen knew. But Helen would prefer to leave the investigation to the professionals, at least until she has accumulated enough doubts to truly concern her.

It's wonderful to watch the three close butler friends work supportively together, as Nigel says, “Butlering the shit out of everything.” I also enjoyed Nigel's evolution from a useless young man to a guy with aspirations. Of course I appreciated watching Helen's reluctant but thorough investigation. Juby chose a perfect perpetrator in my opinion. I will definitely read more of Helen Thorpe's adventure.

Deadly Appearances / Gail Bowen

 

4+ out of 5 stars 

***2025 Summer: Murder Across Canada***

Saskatchewan

I have to hand it to Gail Bowen, she writes a great mystery. I love her amateur investigator, Joanne Kilbourn, a widow who is still re-finding her footing in the world. Normally, I avoid books that centre on politics, but I was drawn into this one despite myself. The opening chapter plunged me into the circumstances surrounding the death of a newly selected party leader and the aftermath. I was hooked because the human relationships predominated, not the political ones. The author very carefully avoids naming the party that Joanne has worked for, although one comment about a past Prime Minister pretty much nailed her party affiliation for me. I wonder if I'm right?

When a politician is murdered, there are a plethora of suspects. This was a refreshing mystery in large part because it didn't follow the police investigation. Joanne has an interview with the detective in charge early in the novel, but doesn't hare off to conduct her own research, despite the fact that she is a suspect. Instead, she deals with the death of her friend, her daughter moving out to go to university, friends moving away, and finding a new focus for her energy and her life. I find this much more believable than running out to “find the murderer,“ as happens in so many mysteries. What Joanne does decide is to write a biography of her friend—she is researching his life, not his death.

Bowen gets the Prairie details just right, knowing that Saskatchewan residents are fondly/dismissively called “stubble jumpers,” the prevalence and influence of Bible colleges, and the prominence of Ukrainian-Canadians in Western Canada. She has lived and taught in Saskatchewan long enough to know. If her prose is any indication, she is an awesome teacher and a woman who would be fascinating to have coffee with.

This is a riveting mystery, extremely well written and it blew me away. There are many more books in the series and I wouldn't be surprised if book two finds its way into my reading queue soon. If you like mysteries, I highly recommend it.

And Then Is Heard No More / Raye Anderson

 

***2025 Summer: Murder Across Canada***

Manitoba

3.6 out of 5 stars

It's a bit odd to be reading a book about winter in cold, snowy Winnipeg while seeing a beautiful summer day outside my Calgary window. I may not live in Manitoba, but any Canadian prairie dweller will recognize the weather that RCMP officer Roxanne Calloway has to deal with: icy streets, low temperatures, blinding snow, and impassable roads.

The old adage says to write what you know and Anderson knows Manitoba and theatre, so a mystery set in a professional theatre company in Winnipeg was a natural fit. My library didn't have the first book featuring Roxanne, so I can only judge by its description—the first murder victim in that novel is part of the local music scene. Obviously the arts are a subject of expertise for the author.

Anderson also makes use of issues that we all know plague our law enforcement agencies, like rampant sexism, among other biases, and the general belief of some officers that they are somehow exempt from the law that they are supposed to enforce. When a second murder occurs within Winnipeg city limits, Roxanne gets saddled with Cooper Jenkins, a city cop, who calls her Foxy Roxy, contradicts her at every turn, assumes he's in charge of the investigation, and eventually gets brained by a woman that he has been interrogating a little too aggressively. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

All in all, I felt the writing was solid. Anderson didn't waste words, she got right to it. She didn't over explain, just let the reader see what Roxanne saw. She planted believable red herrings, gave us a complicated plot, and wrapped things up while still leaving some questions in my mind. I love that—I don't want everything tied up neatly with a bow on top. Life isn't like that. I can't say that I'm desperate to read further in the series, which is just as well, since this is the only book that my library has.