Another urban fantasy contribution by Ilona Andrews, part of their Edge series which I find especially attractive. The Edge is a semi-magical no-holds-barred dumping ground that lies between the Broken, a land of shopping malls and ordinary unmagical lives like ours, and the Weird where powerful magic rules and those with the strongest magic and/or the most exalted lineage rule. Charlotte de Ney is an unequalled physician from the Weird who broke the cardinal rule of healers like herself, and so fled into self-exile in […]
Another tangled web of suspense by a true master
Lescroart has managed to produce another masterpiece of murder, corruption, and deceit in The Keeper, with the action this time centered around the character of Abe Glitsky in a brand-new role. Los Angeles prison guard Hal Chase’s wife has gone missing, and Hal—as the lead suspect in the as-yet unproven murder—hires defense attorney Dismas Hardy. It turns out Hardy’s wife had been the missing woman’s therapist and knows a few things about the marriage that she’s not allowed to tell. The tension ratchets up very […]
Kate Daniels’ world just keeps getting bigger and badder
Okay, so I’ve been reading this “urban fantasy” series the wrong way, I’ll admit. Picking up what’s available, in whatever order I can find them, and then moving on. But it’s not like this series is Game of Thrones or something, with story lines too dense and complicated to follow if you miss one. While it would be nice to read the Magic series from start to finish, I think I’ve managed to fill in the gaps as I read along. The plots are clever, […]
A captivating true 19th century Chinatown murder mystery
Frog Music is stuffed full of characters, humor, drama, sex, and tragedy. It sprawls across the stage in technicolor, a stunning contrast to Donoghue’s earlier book Room, which confined her two protagonists—and her readers–to a tiny claustrophobic space for much of the story. And yet Frog Music has carved an aching and tender place in my heart, just as Room did. Frog Music takes place in 1876 San Francisco, and is based on the true story of the murder of street denizen Jenny Bonnet, a […]