Finished THE HARLEQUIN

Though many of the authors I read do this very well, Laurell K Hamilton is about to best for sustaining a story climax for what seems like days.  And there you are, late at night, having to read to the finish no matter what you have to do tomorrow.  However, unlike some of my authors, her books don't start with her getting clobbered--there is usually some humor to make us believe the book will be a bit lighter than usual...don't be fooled!  A very long night is ahead.

I have now started book #9 of the Phryne Fisher Mysteries, Raisins and Almonds.  A man walked into a bookstore owned by a single woman and fell to the floor dead shortly afterward.  He and the owner were the only people in the store at the time and poison is suspected.  So, of course the police charged the shop owner.  Phryne is hired by the shop owner's landlord to find out the truth.  Set between the two world wars in Austrailia.

Finished WARLEGGAN (Poldark #4)

I am getting seriously tired of George Warleggan!  He reminds me of the villains in The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End.  I think I have now caught up to where the TV show is.

I have now started reading The Harlequin, an Anita Blake vampire hunter novel by Laurell K Hamilton.  This is the 16th book in the series; I have read them all.  Malcolm, the very power master vampire who heads the vampire church has come to Anita to tell her of something that terrifies him.  He asks her to pass the information on to Jean Claude without telling her what it is!  But, Jean Claude knows right away and says telling her would get them both killed.

Read the first 100 pages of ALEXANDER HAMILTON

Included in this section are Alexander's tragic childhood growing up in the Carribbean, his passage to America, his college training and his growing partisanship for independence.  I have chosen to read this book in sections merely because it is cumbersome to carry around and my hands need a break.  It is quite readable, though it is a well footnoted scholarly biography.  I will be back.

 I have now started Warleggan, the 4th book in the Poldark series by Winston Graham.  So far, Caroline and Dwight are tip-toeing around each other, knowing they are very attracted to each other but also that they are from different worlds and Caroline's family would frown on such a match.  George Warleggan is sniffing around Elizabeth, though she is of course married, and she reveals to Ross that she had been wrong--she had never really loved Francis.

Finished THE UNHOLY

All of the books I have read by this author are supernatural romance/ thriller/ mysteries.  Only once can I remember a ghost being evil...all the other times they have been helpful.  In this book I met the most precocious (powerful) ghost I remember so far.  The motive of the perpetrator was pretty convoluted, as one of the protagonists points out.  As usual a very enjoyable and readable book.

I have now started Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow.  It is readable and interesting, but it is long and at some times dry, so I will probably divide it into sections to read.  So far I am reading about his parents' history and his childhood.  The laws at the time being so anti-women caused him to bear the label of "bastard" throughout his childhood and, to people who knew his history, all his life..

Read another quarter of BY BLOOD WE LIVE

I am now 3/4 of the way through this and may have found a new author to check--Lilith Saintcrow.  I really enjoyed her story in this book--very noir and very P. N. Elrod (who I adore.)  I will check her out.  The vampire stories have a kind of sameness to them which is why I'm reading this in sections.  Who would think I'd ever get bored by vampires???

I have now started The Unholy, the sixth of the  Krewe of Hunters books by Heather Graham.  These are fun ghost stories in which the ghosts are usually helpful.  The story opens with a murder in a special effect workshop and a very friendly ghost of Humphrey Bogart.  What fun!