Audiobook Review: A Longer Fall by Charlaine Harris

A Longer Fall
Author: Charlaine Harris
Narrator: Eva Kaminsky
Series: Gunny Rose (Book 2)
Publication: Gallery / Saga Press (January 14, 2020); Recorded Books
Length: 316 p.; 8 hours and 8 minutes

Description: #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris returns with “a gripping, twisty-turny, thrill ride of a read" (Karin Slaughter) in which Lizbeth is hired onto a new crew, transporting a crate into Dixie, the self-exiled southeast territory of the former United States. What the crate contains is something so powerful, that forces from across three territories want to possess it.

In this second thrilling installment of the Gunnie Rose series, Lizbeth Rose is hired onto a new crew for a seemingly easy protection job. She is tasked with transporting a crate into Dixie, just about the last part of the former United States of America she wants to visit. But what seemed like a straightforward job turns into a massacre as the crate is stolen. Up against a wall in Dixie, where social norms have stepped back into the last century, Lizbeth has to go undercover with an old friend to retrieve the crate as what’s inside can spark a rebellion, if she can get it back in time.

"Another winning series from a sure-bet author” (Booklist) Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse mysteries and Midnight, Texas trilogy) is at her best here, building the world of this alternate history of the United States, where magic is an acknowledged but despised power.

My Thoughts: This second book in the Gunnie Rose series finds Lizbeth working with a new crew and bringing a crate into Dixie. When their train car is bombed and attacked by people who want the case, Lizbeth manages to save it. However, one of the crew is dead and the rest including Lizbeth are injured. 

The case is stolen and the crew member guarding it has his throat cut. Lizbeth doesn't know what to do since only the leader knew who their client was but the reappearance of Eli Savarov gives her a direction to follow.

Eli was sent on this mission because he is under suspicion in the NRE. The fact that his father was a traitor to the tsar makes all of the rest of the family look suspicious. Eli is also searching for the missing crate since the HRE had sent it to support the efforts of Negroes to get more independence.

Dixie has regressed since the United States broke up. Segregation is back in full force and the lot of Negroes is not good. Lizbeth knew this because her best friend Galillee had fled Dixie to Texoma after being raped by the white man who employed her family. Lizbeth wants to see Galilee's parents to let them know how she died and to show them a picture of Galillee's new grandchild.

Lizbeth also finds that the mores of Dixie don't approve of a single, independent woman dressed in denim trousers and carrying guns. She and Eli pose as husband and wife to try to get around this, but the grigori are not very popular in Dixie either. 

This story is filled with action and intrigue. There are lots of plot twists and many characters of undetermined loyalties. All Lizbeth and Eli can do is trust in each other even though Lizbeth knows Eli isn't telling her everything. 

I liked the way the relationship grew between Eli and Lizbeth. I also liked the realistic way Lizbeth looked at the relationship. She knew it couldn't last since their lives were in two very different places. 

This is the second book in a four-book series. I'm eager to read the next for Lizbeth's further adventures. 

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: River of Fallen Angels by Laura Joh Rowland

River of Fallen Angels
Author: Laura Joh Rowland
Series: A Victorian Mystery (Book7)
Publication: Crooked Lane Books (January 10, 2023)

Description: Award-winning author Laura Joh Rowland is back with the seventh in her critically acclaimed Victorian mystery series in which Sarah Bain Barrett is pitted against a true-crime serial killer who may have ties to Jack the Ripper.

London, April 1891. When the severed torso of a woman washes up on the bank of the river Thames, London believes a serial killer from the past has struck again. Crime photographer and investigator Sarah Bain Barrett is on the scene with her friends Mick O’Reilly and Lord Hugh Staunton. This is their chance to solve a grisly cold case and deliver a monster to belated justice, with help from Sarah’s husband Detective Sergeant Thomas Barrett; her sister Sally Albert, an intrepid newspaper reporter; and Hugh’s psychologist, Dr. Joshua Lewes, who’s a pioneer in the new science of criminal profiling. But the opportunity brings troubles galore: Sarah and her husband can’t agree on what direction their inquiries should take. Barrett favors concentrating on two shady characters he knows from his days a a patrol constable in Whitechapel, while Sarah suspects the charismatic leader of a polygamous religious sect from which at least one woman has gone missing. Their discord threatens not only the investigation but their marriage.

To complicate matters, Sarah’s bitter enemy, Inspector Reid, is leading the police’s hunt for the killer they’re calling the Torso Murderer. Obsessed with the Ripper case and his own failure to solve it, he thinks the Ripper and the Torso Murderer are one and the same person—a notion that could steer the police investigation disastrously off course. Hot in pursuit of the killer, Reid is also hell-bent on discovering what Sarah and company have been hiding about the Ripper.

The Torso Murder case threatens to expose a dangerous truth, tear apart Sarah’s close-knit band of comrades, and send them to the gallows before they can put the killer out of action.

My Thoughts: Sarah Bain Barrett and her crew including her husband Detective Sergeant Thomas Barrett, Lord Hugh Staunton, and Mick O'Reilly are on the case again when Sarah almost steps on the torso of a woman while taking photographs. It is feared that a serial killer who has left a trail of women's body parts in the Thames is back in action again.

Spearheading the police investigation if Inspector Reid who is a long-time enemy of Sarah's. He's certain that she knows more than she's saying about the Jack the Ripper murders, which is true, but the truth coming out would mean that she and her partners would be in grave legal trouble. 

Reid is convinced that the Ripper murders and the Torso murders were committed by the same person and Sarah's sister Sally who has begun a new career as a reporter also believes this. Meanwhile, Sarah and Thomas have radically different ideas about how to pursue this new case and discover who the Torso murderer is which creates a lot of conflict in their marriage.

Hugh's new psychologist Dr. Joshua Lewes is a pioneer in the field of criminal profiling and is quick to share is favorite theories about this murderer too. Sarah is afraid that he might just be too perceptive about the various secrets she's hiding. 

This was an engaging and entertaining historical mystery set in London in 1891. 

Favorite Quote:

Sometimes I find danger thrilling and alluring -- a quirk of my personality. I seek it out, as if my day is incomplete unless I find a sleeping wolf to poke and wake up. I never feel more alive than when danger threatens.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: The Game Is a Footnote by Vicki Delany

The Game Is a Footnote
Author: Vicki Delany
Series: A Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery (Book 8)
Publication: Crooked Lane Books (January 10, 2023)

Description: Gemma Doyle and Jayne Wilson are back on the case when a body is discovered in a haunted museum in bestselling author Vicki Delany's eighth Sherlock Holmes Bookshop mystery.

Scarlet House, now a historical re-enactment museum, is the oldest building in West London, Massachusetts. When things start moving around on their own, board members suggest that Gemma Doyle, owner of the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium, might be able to get to the bottom of it.  Gemma doesn’t believe in ghosts, but she agrees to ‘eliminate the impossible’. But when Gemma and Jayne stumble across a dead body on the property, they’re forced to consider an all too physical threat.

Gemma and Jayne suspect foul play as they start to uncover more secrets about the museum. With the museum being a revolving door for potential killers, they have plenty of options for who might be the actual culprit.

Despite Gemma's determination not to get further involved, it would appear that once again, and much to the displeasure of Detective Ryan Ashburton, the game is afoot.

Will Gemma and Jayne be able to solve the mystery behind the haunted museum, or will they be the next to haunt it?

My Thoughts: Gemma is called in by her friend Jayne's mother when it is believed that Scarlet House - owned by the historical society - is haunted. Gemma doesn't believe in ghosts and determines that someone is playing pranks. The real question is why someone would do that. The building is in trouble; the pandemic has lowered revenues enough to jeopardize the ability to continue operation. 

But when one of the volunteers is found murdered after a supposed fall into the pigpen from the barn loft, Gemma investigates because her curiosity is aroused. 

There are a number of shady characters involved from the head of the historical society to an almost-obsessed volunteer to a man writing his doctoral thesis on farm families. Even more suspicious is the sudden visit from Gemma's sister Pippa who has some sort of secretive job with the British government.

And just to make things even more complex, Gemma's assistant Ashleigh has disappeared. She walked out on her job in the middle of a shift leaving the story empty and unlocked. 

This was another entertaining episode in this long-running series. 

Favorite Quote:

"Do I think Dave Chase was either shoved out of the hayloft door by an angry ghost or so frightened by such that he panicked and fell to his death in an attempt to escape? No, I do not."

"What do you think happened then?"

"I genuinely have no idea, Jayne. Not yet."

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook Review: An Easy Death by Charlaine Harris

An Easy Death
Author: Charlaine Harris
Narrator: Eva Kaminsky
Series: Gunnie Rose (Book 1)
Publication: Gallery / Saga Press; Reprint edition (October 2, 2018); Recorded Books
Length: 332 p.; 9 hours and 48 minutes

Description: From the beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse series, the inspiration for HBO’s True Blood, comes “a gripping, twisty-turny, thrill ride of a read” (Karin Slaughter, New York Times bestselling author) following a young gunslinging mercenary on deadly mission through the American Southwest.

In a fractured United States, a new world where magic is acknowledged but mistrusted, a young gunslinger named Lizbeth Rose takes a job offer from a pair of Russian wizards. Lizbeth Rose has a wildly fearsome reputation but these wizards are desperate. Searching the small border towns near Mexico, they’re trying to locate a low-level magic practitioner believed to be a direct descendant of Grigori Rasputin.

As the trio journey through an altered America—shattered into several countries after the assassination of Franklin Roosevelt and the Great Depression—they’re set on by enemies. It’s clear that a powerful force does not want them to succeed in their mission. Lizbeth Rose has never failed a client, but this job may stretch her to her deadly limits.

My Thoughts: In a dystopia set in a fractured United States, nineteen-year-old Lizbeth Rose makes her living as a gunnie. She lives in Texoma which was formed from Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and a part of Colorado. It is a lawless time with bandit gangs roaming the land,

After Lizbeth's crew is killed trying to bring a group of displaced settlers north, Lizbeth is hired by two grigori - magic-users from the Holy Russian Empire - to try to locate a man named Oleg Karkarov. Lizbeth needs the job and the money offered and takes the job even though she already knows the fate of Oleg Karkarov. She shot him dead when he returned to the area. After all, he had raped her mother when she was just sixteen resulting in Lizbeth's birth. 

As she travels with Ilya "call me Eli" Savarov and Paulina Coopersmith who are both wizards sent to track down this Karkarov because he's a descendant of Rasputin whose blood is the only thing about to keep Czar Alexi I alive. And if they can't find Karkarov, a direct descendant of his will do nicely.

However, there is another faction which doesn't want Eli and Paulina to succeed and who have sent other grigori to stop their mission by killing them. Luckily, Lizbeth has a bit of magic herself along with her prodigious skills with a gun to keep her clients and herself safe.

This was an excellent story with great worldbuilding. There were excellent descriptions of the people and places they saw as they hunted for Karkarov's brother and possible daughter. The story was filled with exciting magical battles and gunfights. It is also a romance of sorts since Eli and Lizbeth seem to be building a sort of relationship. 

Eva Kaminsky did an excellent job with the voices and pacing of this story. This is the first in a four-book series. I'm eager for more of Lizbeth's adventures.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: The Last Resort by Michael Kaufman

The Last Resort
Author: Michael Kaufman
Series: A Jen Lu Mystery (Book 2)
Publication: Crooked Lane Books (January 10, 2023)

Description: Margaret Atwood meets Raymond Chandler meets Greta Thunberg: Jen Lu is back on the case when the death of a lawyer sparks an even more intriguing mystery in Michael Kaufman’s second book in the thrilling series.

It’s March 2034, six months after D.C. police detective Jen Lu and Chandler, her sentient bio-computer and wannabe tough guy implanted in her brain, cracked the mystery of Eden. The climate crisis is hitting harder than ever: a mega-hurricane has devastated the eco-system and waves of refugees pour into Washington, D.C.

Environmental lawyer and media darling Patty Garcia dies in a bizarre accident on a golf course. Of the seven billion people on the planet, only Jen thinks she was murdered. After all, Garcia just won a court case for massive climate change reparations to be paid out by oil, gas, and coal companies. Jen is warned off, but she and Chandler start digging. Signs point to Garcia’s abusive ex, a former oil giant, but soon Jen turns up more suspects who have an even greater motive for committing murder

Soon Jen is in the crosshairs of those who will ensure the truth never comes to light, no matter the cost. She has to move quickly before she becomes next on the killer’s list.

My Thoughts: The second Jen Lu thriller starts with an accident on a golf course. Star environmental lawyer Patty Garcia is supposedly hit with a golf ball which causes her death. What first looks like a tragic accident soon looks like a murder...to Jen. 

Jen finds it suspicious the Garcia would die just after winning a case against Big Energy which could result in trillions for efforts to clean up the environment, and just a day before she announces that she is a candidate for president and thus receives Secret Service protection.

Jen and her bio-computer Chandler begin to investigate and soon turn up a number of suspects. The prime one in her opinion is Garcia's ex-husband James Culpepper whom she divorced because of domestic abuse. Culpepper was an oil executive who lost his job because of the scandal and has reinvented himself as an advocate for "wronged" men. In fact, he was supposedly in the middle of a live podcast when Garcia's accident occurred. 

But there are other suspects. Big Oil isn't happy with Garcia's court win and is even less happy when it learns that she may have discovered a document which would indicate that they knew that their products were causing climate change as early as the 1960s which would multiply the amount they have to pay in reparations catastrophically. 

As Jen searches for a copy of that report she finds that she's not the only one and finds that anyone who might know about it is on a hit list. 

This was an entertaining near-future thriller with interesting characters and a fast-paced plot. I enjoyed the extrapolation of current events to their possible future results. I liked the way Jen and Chandler work together. I enjoyed that some of the story was from Chandler's point of view and had his unique view of human beings.

Favorite Quote:

"I have no problem with women's independence," he intoned. "But don't you agree with me that it shouldn't be an excuse for turning the tables and constantly giving women an advantage in hirings? In promotions? And in everything else?"

Zach said, "Makes sense if you discount the fact that women still are second class citizens by just about any measure."

Jen said, "Pesky things, those facts."

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (January 2, 2023)

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.

It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week.  It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.

I will be combining my YA and adult reading and purchases on this one weekly roundup.

Want to See What I Added to My Stack? links to Stacking the Shelves hosted by Marlene at Reading Reality.

Other Than Reading...

Happy New Year Everyone! 

This was a nice, quiet week with lots of reading and record keeping. I wrote my monthly State of the Stack post, finished up my 2022 Reading Log on Google Sheets and set up my 2023 Reading Log. I caught up posting reviews on Amazon for released review books. 

I exceeded my Goodreads goal by reading 381 books this past year. I'm only about an hour or so from finishing my first book of 2023. Instead of changing my goal three or four times at Goodreads, I plan to set it higher to begin with. Maybe 350?

Something unusual...despite having Amazon gift cards burning a hole in my wallet, I didn't find any books I wanted to buy this week.

Yearly Reading Report

I read 381 books in 2022. The total number of pages (including the pages in audiobooks) was 131, 848. According to CAWPILE which rounds to the nearest hour, I listened to 1989 hours of audiobooks. Here are some of the category breakdowns noting that books can be in more than one category.

• 241 books owned
• 25 from the TBR Pile
• 141 review books
• 173 audiobooks
• 290 ebooks
• 106 rereads

According to LibraryThing, I added 542 books to my collection in 2022. 255 are still marked TBR. I added 162 review books and 155 audiobooks. 335 of my new books were for my Kindle. 

I have a total of 2475 books on my TBR pile including 48 review books. Just for my own record keeping, I'm counting books I added before 2022 as being from my TBR pile. My goal is to look for books I added in 2009 first when trying to find something to read when I have an open spot on my calendar since I still have bunches on LibraryThing marked TBR from that year. 

Read Last Week

If you can't wait until the review shows up on my blog, reviews are posted to LibraryThing and Goodreads as soon as I write them (usually right after I finish reading a book.)

• Balance of Trade by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller (Mine; Audiobook) -- Reread of the first Jethri book set in the early days of the Liaden Universe. I reviewed this one April 9, 2020.
• Trade Secret by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller (Mine; Audiobook) -- Reread of the second Jethri book. Here's my review from April 14, 2020.
• Fair Trade by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller (Mine; Audiobook) -- This is the third Jethri book. This was the first time I listened to the audiobook, but I reviewed the ARC on April 26, 2022.

• Lie to Her by Melinda Leigh (Review; January 17) -- The latest in the Bree Taggart series has her looking for a serial killer who wraps his victims' heads in plastic wrap. My review will be posted on January 11.
• A Love by Design by Elizabeth Everett (Review; January 17) -- Third in the Secret Scientists of London series reunites childhood sweethearts. She's trying to build a career as an engineer. He's now an Earl and social reformer. My review will be posted on January 10.

• Play Dead by David Rosenfelt (Mine since 9/15/22) -- Andy Carpenter gets sucked into an old murder case when he rescues a golden retriever from being euthanized. My review will be posted on January 7.
• Her Last Word by Mary Burton (Audiobook; Mine since 1/3/22) -- Romantic Suspense audiobook about a woman who comes home to make a podcast about the disappearance of her cousin fourteen years earlier. My review will be posted on January 14.

DNF

• All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham (Review; January 10) -- This one didn't work for me. It was too introspective and too focused on the feelings of a woman who has become obsessed with trying to find her kidnapped son. 

Currently

• Beyond by Mercedes Lackey (Mine; Audiobook)
• The Devil You Know by P. J. Tracy (Review; January 17)

Next Week

• Until We Touch by Susan Mallery (Mine since 3/31/21)
• Kris Longknife: Defender by Mike Shepherd (Mine since 10/13/22)
• Against the Currant by Olivia Matthews (Review; January 24)

• A Fashionable Fatality by Alyssa Maxwell (Review; January 24)
• Sweep of the Heart by Ilona Andrews (Mine since December)
• Exile, Texas by Rachel Caine (Mine since 3/20/22)

Reviews Posted

• Wild Sign by Patricia Briggs (Audiobook)
• Sleep No More by Jayne Ann Krentz
• Picture in the Sand by Peter Blauner

• The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi (Audiobook)
• The Last Exit by Michael Kaufman
• The Villa by Rachel Hawkins

Want to See What I Added to My Stack Last Week?

Review:

None

Bought:

None

What was your week like?

State of the Stack #136 (January 1, 2023)

 This is my monthly post which details progress made on review books. I want to thank the authors and publishers who have contributed their books. 

Read This Month 

Dates indicate the date the review was/will be posted. Links go to my review.

1. Vinyl Resting Place by Olivia Blacke (December 17)
2. Bookclubbed to Death by V. M. Burns (December 20)
3. Nine Liars by Maureen Johnson (December 20)
4. The Secret of the Lost Pearls by Darcie Wilde (December 21)
5. A Wicked Game by Kate Bateman (December 22)
6. Sleep No More by Jayne Ann Krentz (December 27)
7. Picture in the Sand by Peter Blauner (December 27)
8. The Villa by Rachel Hawkins (December 29)
9. The Last Resort by Michael Kaufman (January 3)
10. The Game Is a Footnote by Vicki Delany (January 4)
11. River of Fallen Angels by Laura Joh Rowland (January 5)
12. A Love by Design by Elizabeth Everett (January 10)

DNF

1. All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham (January 10)

Read Previously, Posted This Month 

Dates indicate when the review was posted. Links go to my review.

1. Death in the Margins by Victoria Gilbert (December 1)
2. A Hard Day for a Hangover by Darynda Jones (December 3)
3. Winter's End by Paige Shelton (December 6)

New This Month 

Date indicates when the book will be released. Links go to Amazon.

1. A Love by Design by Elizabeth Everett (January 17)
2. Against the Currant by Olivia Matthews (January 24)
3. Ruby Spencer's Whiskey Year (February 14)
4. When the House Burns by Priscilla Paton (February 14)
5. Dark All Day by Brenden Carlson (February 14)
6. Primer and Punishment by Diane Kelly (February 21)
7. The Sinister Booksellers of Bath by Garth Nix (March 21)
8. The Murder of Madison Garcia by Marcy McCreary (March 28)
9. Fateful Words by Paige Shelton (April 4)
10. I Know What You Did by Cayce Osborne (July 18)

All TBR Review Books

January

• Lie to Her by Melinda Leigh (January 17)
• The Devil You Know by P. J. Tracy (January 17)
• Against the Currant by Olivia Matthews (January 24)

• A Fashionable Fatality by Alyssa Maxwell (January 24)
• Promise Boys by Nick Brooks (January 31)
• The Second You're Single by Cara Tanamachi (January 31)

February

• Wined and Died in New Orleans by Ellen Byron (February 7)
• Of Manners and Murder by Anastasia Hastings (February 7)
• Every Missing Girl by Leanne Kale Sparks (February 7)

• Three Can Keep a Secret by M. E. Hilliard (February 7)
• Murder at an Irish Castle by Ellie Brannigan (February 7)
• Ruby Spencer's Whisky Year by Rochelle Bilow (February 14) 

• Dark All Day by Brenden Carlson (February 14)
• When the House Burns by Priscilla Paton (February 14)
• Primer and Punishment by Diane Kelly (February 21)

• Murder at Haven's Rock by Kelley Armstrong (February 21)
• Murder Served Neat by Michelle Hillen Klump (February 21)
• Cold Blooded Liar by Karen Rose (February 28)

March

• A Sinister Revenge by Deanna Raybourn (March 7)
• Standing Dead by Margaret Mizushima (March 7)
• What Have We Done by Alex Finlay (March 7)

• Royal Blood by Aimee Carter (March 7)
• Good Dog, Bad Cop by David Rosefelt (March 14)
• Red Queen by Juan Gomez-Jurado (March 14)

• Not That Kind of Ever After by Luci Adams (March 14)
• The Sinister Booksellers of Bath by Garth Nix (March 21)
• The Raven Thief by Gigi Pandian (March 21)

• Smolder by Laurell K. Hamilton (March 21)
• Bones Under the Ice by Mary Ann Miller (March 21)
• A Mansion for Murder by Frances Brody (March 21)

• The Murder of Madison Garcia by Marcy McCreary (March 28)
• Hotel of Secrets by Diana Biller (March 28)

April

• Fateful Words by Paige Shelton (April 4)
• Blind Spots by Thomas Muller (April 4)
• Downfall by Mark Rubenstein (April 4)

• An American in Scotland by Lucy Connelly (April 4)
• A Wealth of Deception by Trish Esden (April 18)
• The Lake House by Sarah Beth Durst (April 25)

May

• Viviana Valentine Goes Up the River by Emily J. Edwards (May 2)
• Playing It Safe by Ashley Weaver (May 9)

• A Novel Disguise by Samanta Larsen (May 16)
• The Poisoner's Ring by Kelley Armstrong (May 23)

June 

• A Botanist's Guide to Flowers and Fatality by Kate Khavari (June 6)
• Final Cut by Marjorie McCown (June 6)
• The Three Deaths of Willa Stannard by Kate Robards (June 20)

July

• A Cryptic Clue by Victoria Gilbert (July 11)
• I Know What You Did by Cayce Osborne (July 18)
• Not by Blood by Chris Narozny (July 18)