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absolutely not! lol.
I have long enjoyed this historical mystery series set in Britain in the years between the world wars, and this novel is no exception.
The body of American from a wealthy family who served in the British forces in WW1 as a cartographer has been found in France in an excavation, along with other bodies from his unit. But his body shows signs that he was murdered before the shell hit. Do the letters from an English nurse in his possession hold any clues as to what happened to him?
Maisie Dobbs has been hired by his parents to discover the truth - but when the parents are themselves brutally attacked in London, it becomes clear that this will be a complicated and very dangerous case for Maisie to work on.
In addition, this will prove to be a time of great personal change for Maisie, and by the end of the book, her life will be changed forever...
While I really like most of the books I have read by this author, I have had reservations about her Huxtable series. I seemed to end up liking one of the members of each couple a lot more than the other, which lead to some dissatisfaction with each story.
In A SECRET AFFAIR I came to greatly like both members of the couple, flaws and all - so consider this the best book of the series.
Hannah is a very beautiful widowed duchess - viewed by society as an arrogant, frivolous, and promiscuous gold digger who married a duke old enough to be her grandfather for the money and social rank. While there is some vanity in her, the truth is quite different.
Constantine Huxtable is viewed as a brooding devil - and members of his own family believe that he stole from his mentally handicapped younger brother and debauched and discarded young girls from the neighborhood. While Con can be a stubborn and surly mule the truth is quite different.
This - like other novels in this series - is a story of perception vs. reality, and what lies behind the public masks the characters wear.
This is a biography of Velma Johnston, a woman better known as the main character in a children's novel (based upon her life) MUSTANG: WILD SPIRIT OF THE WEST written by Marguerite Henry.
Velma was born in a small town in Nevada in 1912. As a child she suffered from polio, which left her misshapen and in weakened health.
Nevertheless, she grew up to be a career women at a time when such a thing was quite unusual - and spent her life working hard and being the financial mainstay of her marriage to a rancher who had been disabled in a work place accident.
Velma and her husband Charley loved their ranch and loved horses - including the wild mustangs who lived near their ranch.
When she learned that the mustangs were being rounded up in cruel and hideous ways to be rendered into dog food, Velma devoted a lifetime to trying to save them.
The determination of this woman and her allies changed law to protect the wild horses - first locally, then in Nevada - then nationally. This probably protected the animals from extinction.
While this biography covers some of the same ground as the children's book, the real life Velma was much more complicated than the girl in the book. She was much stronger and independent, and could be the life of any party...
During his first speech as president Elect, Barack Obama mentioned a little old lady who had voted in the election - someone over a hundred years old who had lived through tumultuous times and great changes in the country.
This book is the life story of that lady.
Born an African American (but she prefers the term black) in 1902 near Nashville, Tennessee, Ann Nixon Copper has gone on to have a very long and rewarding life - filled with love for family and others - a life of public service filled both joy and sorrow (as her very longevity has led to her outliving some of her dearest).
And her grace and charm live on every page. She is a strong and loving human being who has faced her darkest times with hope and faith, and her story is a compelling one.
Tells of the champion gelding Funny Cide and his associated humans.
The parts of the book dealing strictly with the horse - his birth, early life, training, victories on the track, and medical problems - are all great reading.
With the exception of his trainer, the humans just were not as interesting for me. But I hate all of those human interest and hat stories that NBC has as part of their Derby coverage every year, too...
an omnibus containing these novels:
Art in the Blood
Fire in the Blood
Blood on the Water
The further adventures of Jack Fleming, private investigator, at the height of the Chicago Mobster Era.
While the historical setting is pretty cool (and the sort of thing I wish more fantasy writers would use), Jack just isn't tough or rough enough for my personal tastes in vampire books (where I prefer vampires to be monsters rather than gentlemen).
By the end of this omnibus he is showing flashes of turning uglier, but a little too little too late for me...
An omnibus containing three novels:
Bloodlist
Lifeblood
Bloodcircle
Jack Fleming is a former reporter who has just arrived in Chicago at the height of the Great Depression and the gangster era. He is also a fledgling vampire.
These three books detail his adjustment to becoming a vampire, his friendship with a private investigator named Charles Escott, his various battles and interactions with mobsters, and his romance with a beautiful jazz singer named Bobbi.
if I have a quibble with the books it is the lack of grittiness and violence, which surprised me given the time period and the setting. Jack might be a vampire - but he is a gentleman vampire, feeding on cattle rather than people...guess I just prefer my monsters to be a bit more monstrous...
This is a rather long historical novel/romance/fantasy set in both modern day Scotland and in the American colonies and Scotland at the time of the American Revolution. It is the seventh novel in the primary sequence (there is also a secondary sequence of related novels) of the Outlander series.
Long story short - for me it was one of the weaker novels in the series, and I will admit to being disappointed in it. The modern day stuff with Roger and Brianna and their children in Scotland was sort of dull - and the first several hundred pages set in the past with Claire and Jaime just sort of rambled around without much of a plot or a point. It all just seemed to be a set up to get them from North Carolina to the battle of Saratoga in New York.
Then, in the last fifty of a hundred or so pages, almost all of the plot (such as it is) development happened.
To be cut off with cliff hangers in both the past and present story lines. ARGH!!!
I really enjoyed this book, and am even now reading the author's previous novel Black Ships as a result.
Set in ancient Egypt at a major crossroads of history, it explores themes such as the responsibility of rulers, the duty to one's people and gods as opposed to acting on one's personal wishes, and personal sacrifice.
It is told primarily through the character Charmian, half sister and strong supporter of the last ruling Egyptian Queen, Cleopatra - at a time when Egypt is trying to remain independent from a growing Roman Empire.
The fact that we know what happened to the real figures of Caesar, Cleopatra, and Marc Anthony - and are glued to the pages anyway - shows what a well written novel this is.
