Shield of Thunder / David Gemmell

 

4 out of 5 stars 

Halloween Bingo 2026

I read this for the A Grimm Tale square of my 2026 Halloween Bingo card.

This past summer, I reread The Odyssey. Now I kind of wish that I had also revisited The Iliad. This novel is set at the very beginning of the Trojan war. Mostly, when I think about this war, I think about the Trojan Horse, the great wooden horse which the Greeks used to sneak into the city of Troy. If Wikipedia can be believed, it is only briefly mentioned in The Odyssey, but receives fuller treatment in The Aeneid. I hadn't thought about it, but this event was at the end of a years long bloody war. Gemmell writes a gripping tale of this mythic event.

I was interested to compare Homer's version of Odysseus with Gemmell's. Homer depicts him as crafty, brave, and eloquent. Gemmell gives him the epithet the Ugly One and emphasizes his ability to spin heroic tales out of unfortunate events.

Despite my weariness with fantasy world battles, Gemmell roped me in with characters I truly cared about. I was once again pleasantly surprised by the significance of the women. Andromache is shown to be a woman of courage and intelligence. Kalliope is more impetuous but proves to be loyal and tough. Gemmell also creates two men who guide the reader through the Greek world which is unfamiliar to many of us. Kalliades and Banokles provided me with their viewpoints to all the action. They are sword brothers, but they couldn't be more different. Kalliades is a planner, intelligent and sensitive. Banokles is ruled by his desires for food, wine, and women. Late in the book, watching Banokles in charge of other men and watching him bumble his way to heroism was highly entertaining.

Some men are not brave or tough, some women have immense courage. Gemmell gives us real feeling characters that we can cheer for and sympathize with. Since characters are the way to this reader's heart, this book was a success for me. I'll look forward to the third volume.

The Midnight Feast / Lucy Foley

 

3 out of 5 stars 

Halloween Bingo 2026

I read this for the Closed Circle Mysteries square of my 2026 Halloween Bingo card.

Lucy Foley's writing is not to my taste, but this book is the October choice of my mystery book club. (Her novel The Paris Apartment was popular with members, so this one was added to this year's agenda.) She's very good at writing a whole bunch of unpleasant people, most of whom are concealing secrets. I don't need to like a character to care about them, but caring about this batch of entitled jerks was next to impossible for me.

There are three timelines: before and after the solstice and diary entries from 15 years earlier. The diary assists the reader to understand what transpires in the more recent entries. Foley switches narrators frequently, revealing their current motivations which are contrasted with their past behaviour. I gradually began to figure all the connections, and it was this mental exercise that kept me reading. This was hard on a reader who is usually all about the characters.

Things revolve around Francesca, owner of the Manor, entrepreneur, snob, actress, and queen of denial. She works hard to suppress reality, allowing herself to keep traveling down the path that leads to darkness. Foley led me along with hints about the ultimate event of the long ago summer. The trail of bread crumbs seemed so obvious….which should have alerted me that there was a surprise ahead. At the 60% mark, I thought I had it all ciphered. All I can say is keep your wits about you. I was fooled fair and square.

Alpha Night / Nalini Singh

 

3.5 out of 5 stars 

Halloween Bingo 2026

I read this for the Shifters square of my 2026 Halloween Bingo card.

Another paranormal romance to tempt me into reading for Bingo. I am rereading Singh's Trinity series in preparation for her new book, due at the end of November this year. Or at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I have read this volume once before but didn't review it. Understandable, as these books are pretty formulaic. The author, like me, seems to have a distinct preference for her Psy characters and has found many unique ways to fuck them up. In this one, Ethan Night can feel power pounding on his psychic shields and has learned to retreat into a grey half life to protect himself. Imagine his shock, at a conference for empaths, when the alpha wolf, Selenka, not only protects him, but is wounded while doing so. Having grown up under the jurisdiction of Ming Le Bon, master manipulator, Ethan has never experienced kindness or caring. He is bowled off his feet.

Selenka is equally unsettled, as she feels the mating bond slam into place with a Psy she doesn't know at all. She doesn't believe in mating at first sight, but her beliefs don't seem to matter. She is most dismayed to have found her mate, only to discover that he thinks he has Scarab Syndrome that will send him over the edge into self destruction. Plus, Ethan seems to be unnaturally devoted to her, which twinges her conscience.

This is a romance, so I knew as I picked it up where we would be headed. I think that's why paranormal romances are so effective during my reading slumps—I can count a happy ending while enjoying the journey to get there.

An Expert in Murder / Nicola Upson

 

3.5 out of 5 stars 

This isn't a vintage mystery, but it does feature Golden Age author Josephine Tey as a main character. I went into the novel expecting the author to write Tey as the primary (amateur) investigator. I was very mistaken. Instead, Upson has created DI Archie Penrose, close friend of Josphine's deceased lover. The two men were in the Great War together.

The war, although it is over, remains as a great influence in this mystery. The first murder, of a young woman who is a theatre enthusiast, seems to be completely unrelated. She is an adopted child, orphaned by the conflict, but how could that be blamed for her demise?

Archie and Josephine use their wartime experiences to inform the murder investigation. I admired how Upson structured the plot, dealing out clues gradually and distracting me with facts. She has obviously studied those Golden Age authors and learned a thing or two. If you are a devotee of Josephine Tey, you may be put off by her depiction (I have discovered that vintage mystery enthusiasts rarely appreciate a modern author using their darlings as characters). I have read a couple of Tey's novels, but I am not fan-girl enough to resent this. I enjoyed the novel.

Bound/Unbound / Ali Hazelwood

 

3.5 out of 5 stars 

Halloween Bingo 2026

I read this for the Romantic Suspense square of my 2026 Halloween Bingo card.

I am teetering on the edge of a reading slump and, strangely, romance novels (mostly paranormal romance novels) seem to be the antidote for me these days. I really enjoyed Hazelwood's Bride, so I happily put a hold on this volume of two novellas at my library.

They were good, light fun. Not on par with Bride IMO, but still entertaining. I would recommend reading Bound first, as characters from this novella have roles in Unbound. I am a big fan of vampire novels, although these beings prefer the term revenant in this fiction. There is enough of a plot beside the romance to keep things interesting (because let's face it, you know how a romance will end).

Thanks to Ms. Hazelwood for a slump busting book.

Certain Dark Things / Silvia Moreno-Garcia

 

2 out of 5 stars 

Halloween Bingo 2026

I read this for The Carpathians square of my 2026 Halloween Bingo card.

In every genre of books there is an unspoken contract between the writer and the reader. I go into a vampire story with certain expectations. This book felt like Moreno-Garcia was trying to mess with the contract, to give it a literary fiction version. Some genres are difficult to mix and in my opinion vampires and lit fic are like oil and water--it's very unlikely that they will coexist easily.

In this alternate Mexico, there are ten species of vampires and only one of them is the native Aztec version. The others have come to Mexico to avoid problems in their home countries and they have apparently formed gangs. Like gangs everywhere, they are violent and hostile. And, yes, I know most fiction shows vamps in families or clans, but these gangs feel altogether too human to me. Especially because they're all about the drugs. Okay, I get it—the drug cartels are like vampires, sucking the life out of Mexico. SMG slugged me over the head with it.

Two stars. It was okay.

The Story of Birds / Steve Brusatte

 

4.5 out of 5 stars 

I enjoyed Steve Brusatte's books about dinosaurs and mammals, but I got excited when I realized he had written about birds. This book melds two of my lifelong passions, birds and dinosaurs. My father used to tell me stories about my toddler years, when I vibrated with excitement when we heard owls calling and when I knew the names of “all the dinosaurs” by the time I was three.

Brusatte traces the evolution of the small coelurosaurs as they grew feathers and shrank, eventually morphing into what we now call birds. I haven't been concentrating on dinosaur research for the last decade, so there was a lot of new-to-me information. I used to teach the dinosaur section of docent training at our local zoo and really enjoyed keeping up to date. I hope to return to this habit.

Brand new to me was the section on fossil birds following the big extinction event that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs. This is a rapidly changing field of study and I am smitten. I haven't read Nature or The Journal of Evolutionary Biology for ages, but I plan to pay attention again.

Then there are the fossil birds that are more recent: the Elephant Birds, the Moas, the Terror Birds, etc. Plus birds like the Dodo which went extinct during historical times. I loved the chapter on flightless birds, especially the DNA studies and their classification. Penguins are a favourite bird family of mine, so I share an interest with the author's five year old son. Here, too, there was new information.

I can see where I will want to read this book again in the future to cement the new data into my aging brain. I will also pursue some of these topics with other books. I am so glad that I read this and remembered the pleasure of these pursuits. And of course I will continue to enjoy watching our surviving dinosaurs, our feathery bird friends.