Finished SUN BORN

Wonderful as usual and it even has a sequel with many of the same characters!  Bless the Gears and all authors in this time of forced Corona Virus imprisonment,

I am now about to start The Hexed, another Crew of Hunters book by Heather Graham.  These ghost stories are fairly formulaic, but each is set in a different place, many of which I have visited.  The ghosts and the murders gives each a special atmospheric vibe unto themselves.

Finished AS TIME GOES BY

Though quite readable, this book didn't really have a lot of action or suspense.  It is essentially a courtroom drama (talky), a main plot that Alvira and Willie Meeham are not much of a part of.  They had a satisfying subplot, but were not as integral to the book as I'd wished.  Though not a real "thriller" like most of Clark's works, this is interesting and absorbing.

I have now started Sun Born, the second of the Cahokia, People of the Morning Star trilogy.  Just a few short months after the havoc wrought in the first book, another enemy is back in Cahokia with conquest in mind.

Finished EXCEPT THE DYING

Yes, I now have another series of books to work my way through as we work our way through the TV series on Ovation.  I very much enjoyed this book.  I think the end was a bit of a cop out because we'd only met one of the culprits once and the other we never met until we knew what he was about.  But the environment (winter Toronto in 1895) seems very realistic and the characters are quirky and fun.

I have now started As Time Goes By by Mary Higgins Clark and hurray! it is another Alvirah and Willie mystery.  It looks like it is going to be about a young woman looking for her birth parents, but, knowing MHC, I am sure there will be murder and mayhem in there somewhere.

Finished THE TURN

I see this as Kim Harrison's love letter to her Hollows fans.  And I loved it.  Of course, I knew what it would be about (any Hollows fan knows what "The Turn" was.  Yet, it did start slowly.  I don't know why...I should have been anticipating what I knew was coming next, but the first 150 pages were pretty slow.  But, I didn't quit, I knew what was coming, and Harrison delivered!  This was an excellent explanation of what had started it all and gave us a chance to touch base with some characters we know from later (in the time line) books.  There are still unanswered questions, however.  How do our main character's lives unfold from here?  The going will not be smooth...

I am now about to start Except the Dying, the first Murdoch mystery.  We first discovered this back when Dish included the Ovation channel free.  The series was called "The Artful Detective" then.  These mysteries are set at the turn of the last century in Toronto.  The world was teetering on the edge of modern forensics, automobiles, telephones, sound recordings and rudimentary film.  Then we lost it the show--it just disappeared from Dish.  Now, we are subscribing to Ovation but only when we are in Florida where we have Xfinity.  This is the book series that the tv series is based on and we are looking forward to it.

Finished OF LOVE AND EVIL

Unusually short book for Anne Rice.  Ostensibly it is a ghost story with some history of how European Jews were treated during the late 15th Century.  Of course, we had THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.  But she found an event that actually happened to build the story around.  But mainly this is a discussion between modernist ways of looking at religion and traditional views.  This is Anne Rice...guess which wins out...

But, as usual I enjoyed being surrounded by the author's narrative style and rich environment.

I have now started The Turn:  The Hollows Begins with Death by Kim Harrison.  It is a prequel to her Rachel Morgan series which I have read all of and was very sad to come to the end of.  This is set before "the turn" with an elven protagonist, and Trent Kalamac is also in the action.  I'm looking forward to it.

Finished MAGICAL JUSTICE

From the god's capricious sense of justice to the magic of everyday people, places and things enchanted which is often not that capricious and closer to what we humans consider justice, but not always. This series is beautifully illustrated and very readable.  The stories are presented like they actually happened, therefore not compromising anyone's belief system.

I am now about to start the next book in the series, The Lore of Love.

Finished A COLUMN OF FIRE

Set in the 16th century ranging from just before the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and just after, the action switches between France and England and introduces motivated and strong characters, heros, sheros, and villains, but almost all of them at least partially sympathetic.  We are still in Kingsbridge (but also in London and Paris) where the great cathedral--built in Pillars of the Earth--and the bridge (built in World Without End) are located, but now Europe is embroiled in screaming controversy--and sometimes outright war) between Catholics and Protestants.  Much action and romance.

I have now started Of Love and Evil by Anne Rice.  I always relax into Rice's lush prose and lovingly described world.  Now having just left Ken Follett's 16th century, I jump back a century to the time of Michaelangelo, Raphael, and Pope Leo X and we are in Rome.  Toby, the hit man turned angel's assistant, must now help a deserving young man deal with a ghost or evil spirit which is haunting his home and poisoning his friends and neighbors to believing he is a witch.