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Readingomnivore Reviews

DEATH ON THE HIGH LONESOME is the second book in Frank Hayes’s Sheriff Virgil Dalton mystery series set in Hayward and Hayward County, somewhere in the Southwest. It’s a bit odd to have such a genuine sense of place without a specific (New Mexico?) location. The book was published in 2015.

Deputy Jimmy Tillman crashes his brand-new cruiser when a woman’s body falls onto it from an interstate overpass. There’s no identification on the body and no food in her system; she’s so dehydrated that she was most likely hallucinating when struck by a semi and propelled off the interstate. But who is she and what was she doing there? Meanwhile, Velma Thompson reports her husband Charlie missing; the elderly owner of the High Lonesome Ranch has not returned from the ranch’s high country where he’d been looking for cattle missed in the spring roundup. When Velma is found dead on her front porch, the toxicology report on her body reveals sedatives in her system, not a natural death. Virgil and his deputies determine that the body from Tillman’s cruiser entered the interstate from the High Lonesome. What’s going on up there?

Many of my comments on DEATH AT THE BLACK BULL pertain to DEATH ON THE HIGH LONESOME. Characterization is strong, with an appealing group of believable law enforcement professionals. Major characters, especially Virgil, Tillman, and Virginia, are dynamic and the series emphasizes relationships, so it’s more important than usual to read it in order. Hayes weakens Virgil’s integrity by having him sleep with two different women in short order. He gives more of Virgil’s back story as a half-blood (his mother being full-blood White Mountain Apache) and his complicated dealings with the Haywards. Many characters are tangential to the plot.

The plot is police procedural format with apparently unconnected events that turn out to be part of a larger whole. For an experienced reader, Hayes telegraphs the identity of the villain and the general motive. The mystery element in DEATH ON THE HIGH LONESOME feels secondary to Virgil’s personal life, with several plot lines unresolved.

DEATH ON THE HIGH LONESOME is solid. (B)
 
DIE LIKE AN EAGLE is the latest book to date in Donna Andrews’s Meg Langslow mystery series set in Caerphilly, Virginia. It was published in print and e-book formats in 2016.

Biff Brown may be the most detested man in Caerphilly, Virginia. He’s used intimidation and dirty methods to take over the new Summerball baseball program. As league president he makes up the rules as he goes along; as coach of the Caerphilly Stoats (7-8 year olds) and the Caerphilly Yankees (11-12 years olds) he stacks his teams to win, even hiring his half-brother Shep Henson as the only umpire for the league; he uses parents’ fear that he will retaliate against their sons to keep them in line; it’s obvious he’s misusing league funds. As head of Brown Construction Company, he is involved in at least a dozen lawsuits where he has sued or been sued by former clients whom he defrauded. Meg has to deal with him in both roles. She’s Team Mom for twin sons Josh and Jamie’s Caerphilly Eagles team, trying to get things organized for opening day ceremonies. As executive assistant to Randall Shiffley, mayor of Caerphilly, she’s in charge of supervising Biff’s contract for restoration of the town square; she’s chased Biff by phone, mail, e-mail, text, and in person for six weeks to no avail. Then on opening day, Meg finds Shep Henson shot to death in the port-a-potty at the ballpark. Shep and Biff are almost identical in looks. Was Shep killed in mistake for Biff, or as himself? Orl did Biff get rid of a potential witness against himself?

To keep a long-running series fresh, the major continuing characters must reveal new facets of personality or back story to engage the reader. Unfortunately, Meg and her family have gradually solidified. Biff Brown is by far the best developed character in DIE LIKE AN EAGLE because, despite his obnoxious criminal behavior, he reveals to Meg his love for baseball and the reasons behind his handling of the Summerball program. In contrast, Meg ignores common sense and warnings from family, friends, and police to make a TSTL visit to the ballpark that puts herself in danger from the killer.

The killer remains unforeshadowed until that final confrontation. While clearly one of Biff and/or Shep’s activities precipitated the murder, no specific details point to either the killer’s identity or to the specific motive. I feel short-changed.

Sense of place, once so strong in the series, is largely missing. Southern ambiance, the Southern story-telling voice, Southern attitudes are now generic middle American.

DIE LIKE AN EAGLE isn’t a bad book; it’s just a t falling away from the standards of the earlier books in the series. (B-)
 
MIDNIGHT CRYSTAL is the third book in the Dreamlight Trilogy written by Jayne Ann Krentz under her Jayne Castle pseudonym used. It’s set on the psi-rich planet Harmony, settled some two hundred years before by colonists from Earth. It was published in 2010.

The Jones and the Winters families aren’t the Montagues and the Capulets, but the problem between them date back to the seventeenth century on Old Earth. They had worked together to create the Arcane Society to document and to study psychic abilities, including ways to enhance psychic powers. Nicholas Winters developed crystals that caused a mutation in his genes manifest in occasional direct male descendants, mutations that cause multiple talents to emerge producing a dangerous sociopath, a Cerberus who must be killed to protect society. Only the Burning Lamp he created, worked by his descendant and a woman who can control dream light, can stop the process. Sylvester Jones used alchemy to produce a potion to do the same enhancement of psychic talent, with much the same effects. Descendants of both came through the energy curtain to settle Harmony, but the families went separate ways after working together to defeat outlaw rebels in the Era of Discord. The Winters family became Guild men, ghost hunters who worked underground where their psychic powers could handle the psi-energy; the Jones family stayed with the Arcane Society, bringing and maintaining most of the Society’s records to Harmony. They are intensely suspicious of each other.

Adam Winters is the new head of the Frequency City Ghost Hunters Guild, brought in to clean up its corruption; he’s already experienced attempts to kill him, and he’s having dreams and hallucinations that indicate he may be developing new talents. Is he a Cerberus in the making? Marlowe Jones, an off-the-charts dreamlight talent, is the new, first-female head of Jones & Jones, the private detective agency associated with the Arcane Society, which has the Burning Lamp in its museum vaults. When the lamp is stolen, Marlowe and Adam must work together to find the Burning Lamp, not only to save Adam’s sanity but to stabilize the deteriorating mirror maze that generates the psi-power left behind by the Aliens. Should the maze go critical, all the above-ground Aliens ruins in the four city states, as well as the catacombs and the bioengineered underground jungles, would be destroyed, devastating Harmony.

MIDNIGHT CRYSTAL presumes knowledge from the first two books in the series. It seems to be pulling together story lines begun earlier. It involves multiple layers of criminals and criminal activities, with the genuine Cerberus hidden in plain sight. I like that Gibson, Marlowe’s dust bunny, has a more important role than comic relief.

Adam and Marlowe are attractive protagonists, each with believable baggage despite their psychic abilities. As usual, there’s no doubt that they will fall in love, have great sex, and end up in a Covenant Marriage (unbreakable). There are way more characters than strictly necessary. It’s not always clear who’s associated with whom. Gloria Ray serves no essential function in the plot, but she’s presented first as the mistress of Hubert O’Connor, then of Douglas Drake, and finally in the very next paragraph, of O’Connor again. Which?

MIDNIGHT CRYSTAL is more nuanced than later books in the Harmony series. (B)
 
Lory Lilian’s RAINY DAYS is a fan fiction variant on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It was published in e-book format in 2016.

Elizabeth Bennet is out for an early morning walk after being confined to Longbourn for several days by heavy rains. She meets Fitwilliam Darcy, out for a morning ride. It’s cold, late November and, when the rain begins again, they are forced to shelter together in a fishing cottage some distance from Elizabeth’s home. Their conversation settles any doubt on Darcy’s part that he means to marry her; his explanation of some of his background with Wickham and his apology for his careless words at the Meryton assembly remove much of Elizabeth’s resentment toward him. After several hours, they are able to return to Longbourn, where Mr. Bennet decides not to demand that Darcy marry Elizabeth for having compromised her. They enjoy themselves at the Netherfield ball. Darcy destroys Mr. Collins’s preposterous idea of marrying Elizabeth. Mrs. Bennet’s hysteria sends Jane and Elizabeth to the Gardiners in London, where Darcy’’s courtship of Elizabeth, their engagement, and their marriage proceed apace.

I dislike RAINY DAYS. The book is much longer than the story warrants, with all stages of the evolving relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy padded with long passages of soft-core porn. On more than one occasion they are alone in a bedroom, on a bed, engaging in heavy petting--Elizabeth’s orgasm is implied. It’s unclear whether they had intercourse the night before leaving London for Longbourn to make final weeding preparations. While I believe that Jane Austen meant for Elizabeth and Darcy to have a happy marriage with a satisfying sex life, I doubt she ever intended that it be portrayed kiss by touch by stroke. WAY too much information!

Despite all the ranting and raving about Darcy’s family never accepting Elizabeth, there’s no more than token resistance, which Elizabeth quickly overcomes when she impresses Darcy’s aunt Lady Ellen Matlock, wife of the Earl. Lady Ellen’s approval and sponsorship guarantee Elizabeth’s acceptance by the Ton. Darcy, the Earl, and Lady Ellen tell off Lady Catherine de Bourgh and dismiss her from their homes. Bingley grows a backbone and demands appropriate behavior from his infuriated sister Caroline or else her departure. After forcing him to marry Lydia, Darcy, Colonel Fitzilliam, and Elizabeth herself put Wickham firmly in his place. Lilian uses Austen’s characters, but they are much more twenty-first century in behavior and attitude than early-nineteenth century.

What I dislike most is the change in Elizabeth Bennet. Darcy explains enough of his history with Wickham for Elizabeth to understand Wickham’s deliberate blackening of Darcy’s character, Georgiana tells her about Ramsgate, yet Elizabeth continues to believe Wickham’s allegations about Darcy’s supposed mistress, the famous actress Miss Ashton, and to take Wickham’s digs at her to heart. She repeatedly misinterprets Darcy’s reactions; she needs constant reassurance that he loves her, she’s worthy, he’s eager to marry her, he’ll get along with her family, ad infinitum. She’s made into a naive wimp.

My evaluation of RAINY DAYS is not objective. I don’t like post-modern interpretations of either William Shakespeare or Jane Austen. (D)
 
Diana Souhami’s true crime MURDER AT WROTHAM HILL was published in 2012. It begins at Wrotham Hill, near what is now West Kingsdown, Kent, on 31 October 1946, when a passing lorry driver sees a woman’s shoe on the side of the road. In the austerity following World War II, he stops to investigate--if there’s another shoe, maybe they’ll do for his wife. Instead he finds the body of Dagmar Petrzywalski, who’d been strangled. Chief Inspector Robert Honey Fabian of Scotland Yard becomes the officer in charge of the case; he and his team quickly identify lorry driver Sidney Sinclair, born Harold Haggar, as the killer. The course of the investigation, Sinclair’s multiple statements, his trial, conviction, and execution are all detailed.

Souhami makes much of the criminal career and life choices of Harold Hagger, who seems in modern terms a sociopath, whose convictions began long before he suffered what was probable traumatic brain injury when he was severely injured in 1926 when he leaped from a moving train while being transported to prison. She implies that the verdict of first-degree murder was too severe. She seems fixated on middle-aged Dagmar Petrzywalski’s virginity and untreated fibroid tumors.

My problem with MURDER AT WROTHAM HILL is that it moves from the backgrounds of both victim and killer discussed in tedious detail, to sociology of life of the poor in pre- and post-WWII Great Britain, to the inappropriateness of the M’Naughten Rules in most cases, to the lives of the police officials and executioner Albert Pierrepoint, to the atrocities committed at Belsen for which Nazi workers who were “just doing their jobs” were executed, to responsibility for humane treatment of animals being slaughtered for food. Souhami covers so much territory that there’s no sense of resolution, and I don’t know her objective in writing the book.

There are no notes to sources for particular pieces of information. The acknowledgements contains some discussion of sources, mostly newspaper stories and memoirs of the official participants. There’s no separate bibliography.

I’m not assigning a grade, even though I read the WHOLE book, but I DO NOT recommend MURDER AT WROTHAM HILL unless you enjoy ambiguity and frustration.
 
LADY CARPATHIAN AND THE BENNETS is Perpetua Langley’s novella variant on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It was published in e-book format in 2016.

Lady Carpathian, a distant relation, has corresponded with Mr. Bennet for many years. Widowed and childless. she descends on Longbourn, determined to sponsor Jane and Elizabeth Bennet and Charlotte Lucas for the Season in London. In her set of intimate friends, three unmarried young men need wives: Charles Bingley, Lord Hampton, and Fitzwilliam Darcy. She provides appropriate wardrobes, introduces the girls to the Ton, and enjoys their social success. Bingley and Jane quickly fall in love but Caroline Bingley lies and drives them apart. Elizabeth overhears Caroline and Darcy talking about the Bennets’ social unsuitability; infuriated, she condemns him when he tries to explain and apologize. After a serious fever, Lady Carpathian follows physician’s orders to recuperate in the country, returning to Longbourn where her influence benefits the entire family. Lady Carpathian attends the assembly at Meryton, as do Darcy and Bingley. Darcy has bought Netherfield Park and brought Bingley with him after telling him of Caroline’s treachery. The appointed lovers are soon betrothed.

The plot premise of the Bennet girls meeting Darcy and Bingley in London during a successful season negates much of Darcy’s perceived discrepancy in their social status. The Gardiners, the Phillipses, Lady Catherine and Anne de bourgh, George Wickham--none are part of LADY CARPATHIAN AND THE BENNETS. Caroline’s banishment to live with a cousin in Northumberland is satisfying. The epilogue implies that everyone lived happily ever after, but the conclusion seems rushed with many unresolved personal issues between Darcy and Elizabeth

Langley changes both Elizabeth and Darcy. Darcy is more socially inept than Austen makes him: dour, uncommunicative, humorless. It’s only by his kindness toward Lady Carpathian during her illness that he reveals his true character. Elizabeth is a hothead, sensitive to spoken or implied criticism, who flares up without considering if her perception is correct. What bothers me most is the rapidity with which Elizabeth and Darcy become engaged. After Bingley and Jane are betrothed, Elizabeth makes an opportunity to talk to Darcy privately, where each confesses faults and mistakes; he proposes and she accepts. There’s no courtship, no evidence of permanent change in either.

Two anachronistic items bothered me. One has Lady Carpathian’s physician treating her fever by having her eat moldy Stilton cheese, with Elizabeth anticipating future discovery of the medicinal value of molds. The other is Mrs. Bennet’s mantra, taught to her by Lady Carpathian to “calmly carry on”, a rephrase of the WWII slogan of “Keep Calm and Carry On.”

LADY CARPATHIAN AND THE BENNETS has many four- and five-star reviews on Amazon, to the point that I wonder if I read the same story. I find it average at best. (C)
 
SURVIVORS WILL BE SHOT AGAIN is the twenty-fifth (!) book in Bill Crider’s Sheriff Dan Rhodes mystery series set in Clearview, Blacklin County, Texas.

Rhodes is trying to enjoy a day off while the crime scene in Clearview is relatively quiet. The only significant problem is a number of break-ins and thefts in the southern part of the county. When he’s called to a break-in at Bobby Bacon’s B-Bar-B ranch, he discovers the body of Melvin Hunt, a local man who’s suspected as the thief. He’s been shot twice and apparently been dead for a couple of days. Search for evidence on the ranch turns up a neatly fenced, irrigated marijuana patch guarded by a hungry five-foot alligator. As Rhodes pokes around in Melvin’s activities, Melvin’s best friend Riley Farmer’s body turns up near a similar marijuana guarded by a huge alligator snapping turtle. Rhodes concludes that thefts, murders, and marijuana are all connected, but who’s involved?

An important element of the Dan Rhodes series is Crider’s creation of a believable, if quirky, group of continuing characters: the deputies, especially Ruth Grady and Buddy; dispatcher Hack and jailer Lawton; wife Ivy who insists that Rhodes eat healthy, at least most of the time; Jennifer Loam, who persists in embarrassing Rhodes on her A Clear View of Clearview Web site by making him look heroic. Lead characters in SURVIVORS WILL BE SHOT AGAIN’s various crimes are well-drawn.

Crider’s skilled use of limited third person point of view carries much of Rhodes’s characterization and much of the setting. “Now Rhodes came to a place he recognized. It didn’t have an official name, but when he’d been a kid everyone had called it the Deep Hole. It wasn’t really very deep, but it was deeper than the rest of the creek, and it had been a good place to fish. Rhodes remembered that once when he was four or five, not long before the family moved to town, his father and several other men decided to seine the hole. Rhodes hadn’t been allowed in the water, but he’d been allowed to stand on the bank and watch. The men came up with some fine big bass and catfish in the seine, and there had been a fish fry that night for everybody within a radius of several miles. The men put mealed filets of fish into wire mesh baskets, tossed in some hush puppies and lowered the baskets into big black kettles of boiling oil. They brought the filets and hush puppies out hot and crisp, and Rhodes could still remember the taste. He’d never eaten better fish than that, or better hush puppies, either. But he remembered even more than the food was that one of the fish in the seine had been a grinnell*, a long, odd-looking fish, almost prehistoric in appearance. Rhodes had never seen one before, and he’d never seen one since, but he sure remembered that one.” (94-5) If Blacklin County, Texas, doesn’t exist on maps, it seems a real place.

Crider plays fair in presenting the clues as Rhodes uncovers them, though he doesn’t always show all of Rhodes’s reasoning, so conclusions are satisfying. Plots generally open with a series of seemingly isolated incidents that, as Rhodes goes about his traditional procedure of poking about and asking questions, turn out to be part of a bigger pattern. SURVIVORS WILL BE SHOT AGAIN is another good read. (A-)

*also known as bowfin or mud pike
 
Christina Morland’s A REMEDY AGAINST SIN is an e-book variant on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It was published in 2016.

It opens on Darcy and Elizabeth’s wedding night. Married after a short, tumultuous engagement, Elizabeth is not in love with her husband. She practically has to seduce Darcy, who’s awkward and unromantic. Their marital activities are WAY too much information. Elizabeth is caught up in the “Madonna-whore” dichotomy about her sexuality.

Based on the title, perhaps I should have anticipated this. I find the first chapter so off-putting that I have no intention of finishing it. No grade.
 
“Darcy and Eliizabeth: Behind Pemberley Walls” is Mary Lydon Simonsen’s short story variant on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It was published in e-book format in 2016.

Fitzwilliam Darcy, still hurting over his rejected proposal to Elizabeth Bennet at Hunsford, arrives home at Pemberley just ahead of the Gardiner party on their tour of Derbyshire. He’s not willing to see Elizabeth but, when he explains to his butler and confidant Jackson his complicated relationship with her, Jackson suggests this unexpected visit may offer a chance to change Elizabeth’s feelings. While the party admires the portraiture in the gallery, Jackson and Darcy station themselves in a hidden passageway where Darcy can overhear their conversation. Mrs. Gardiner’s detailed questioning reveals Darcy’s proposal and Elizabeth’s changed opinions on both George Wickham and Darcy. Mrs. Gardiner ignores Elizabeth’s desire to leave Pemberley, as does Mr. Gardiner who’s enjoying the discussion of fishing. Mrs. Gardiner sends Elizabeth and Darcy on a private walk through Pemberley’s woodland, where a frank talk about Darcy’s separating Charles Bingley and Jane soon removes any lingering doubt about Darcy and Elizabeth’s future.

The plot device of having Darcy able to overhear, and of Mrs. Gardiner to draw out the information Darcy needs, seems too pat, even in a short story. Otherwise, a quick, pleasant read. (B-)
 
Paul Charles’s FAMILY LIFE is the second in his mystery series involving Inspector Starratt of the Donegal Garda, who studied for the priesthood and did very well for himself financially as a finder and dealer for classic cars before joining the police. It was published in 2009. Because the series is character driven, it is best read in order.

As the title implies, FAMILY LIFE is as much about family dynamics as murder. In the Sweeney family, father Liam wants the prosperous family farm kept intact. To insure that, he’s drawn a will leaving it to his youngest child Joe, who’s the farmer. Oldest son Thomas is a solicitor, son Ryan is a marketing expert for the Waterfront Hall in Belfast, and daughter Teresa is housewife to her lesbian lover Sheila Kelly; they are divided in their ideas for the future of the farm. Thomas’s wife Mona, also a solicitor, has a developer who’s willing to pay €11.8 million for the farm, with Joe against any division or sale. Then Joe’s drowned body turns up, and Inspector Starratt must find the killer, almost certainly a member or cohort of the Sweeney family. Meantime, Starratt’s dealing with building a relationship with Maggie Keane, his first love from twenty years before, and her three children.

Good police procedurals involve a believable team of individuals who, for better or worse, must work together to identify criminals and to discover evidence. Charles has created such a team, from Starratt’s boss Major Cunningham, through his legman Sgt. Packie Garvey, young constables, and pathologist Dr.Samantha Aljoe. FAMILY LIFE adds gung ho new recruit Romany Browne who’s full of himself. It’ll be interesting to see how Browne adjusts. Charles mostly uses limited third person point of view, giving readers a chance to form their own conclusions about Starratt.

Sense of place is strong. Charles is skillful at using setting to illuminate character. “Starratt needed to go down this road though it might be nothing more than a dead end. The problem with dead ends in Donegal, however, was that first you start out on a grand road, and then, at a wrong turn, the grand road tended to narrow down a bit but was still solid enough, and then as you continued along didn’t you only notice that the odd bit of grass was growing here and there in the middle of the road, and next the tarmac gave way to solid scree, and then more solid chunks of grass in the middle where wheels had feared to tread, and then a solid dirt track. Next the branches of the trees and bushes started to bear down on you more and more, and then a few pot holes, and there before you knew it you were in a soft sand track where only a Massey Ferguson would be safe. By then it was too late. You found yourself stuck and about to have a very difficult time getting back to solid ground. But all the time you were travelling down this road, you kept hoping, thinking, praying, that a better, more solid track lay around the next corner.” (171-2)

Plot is well constructed with appropriate foreshadowing, a variety of suspects and motives, and a Christie-type grand reveal, since there’s little hard evidence against the killer. My only caveat about the plot is a medical one. At about 11:30 PM, Joe’s drugged, unconscious body must have been banged about as it was moved; he did not drown 6until about 2:30 AM. Shouldn’t bruises on his body be detectable on autopsy?

FAMILY LIFE makes me look forward to the next one in the series. (A-)
 
ELIZABETH, DARCY, AND ME is Georgina Young Ellis’s novells variant on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It was published in e-book format in 2016.

The major change from the original story is Ellis’s use of two first person narrators. One is Christopher Jones, nineteen-year-old groom and sometimes confidant to Charles Bingley. He advises Bingley to look for a wife outside of London, setting up Bingley’s renting Netherfield and meeting the Bennets. The second narrator is middle Bennet daughter Mary who prides herself on her good sense; she wants her father to recognize her scholarship, which she pursues to further her goal of writing. Between them, they report all that’s happening at Netherfield and at Longbourn. Otherwise the plot seems unchanged.

I’m giving up on ELIZABETH, DARCY, AND ME at forty percent. It is thoroughly anachronistic in interaction between the gentry and the servants. Mr. Collins pouring out his outrage at Elizabeth’s refusal of his proposal to Mr. Bingley’s groom (who’s totally unknown to him) is highly unlikely. A strange symbol--a square with a question mark in the center--turns up frequently, a minor but annoying editing problem. The writing style is juvenile, using simple declarative sentences in subject-verb-object order almost exclusively.

I don’t mind the introduction of Christopher Jones, though he’s not much developed. What does offend me is the change in Mary Bennet, the original middle child striving for learning and accomplishments to define her place in the Bennet family of girls. She’s unperceptive and self-satisfied but generally likable. Ellis makes her into a self-righteous, snobbish, presumptuous eavesdropper who deliberately places herself to overhear Elizabeth’s conversation with Wickham. At a dinner given by the Lucases, she seats herself at the piano as the first entertainer without being asked; she flares up at her father when he interrupts her planned music program. Mary goes so far as to advise Elizabeth about her attitude and conduct toward Darcy; she chooses a course of books for Elizabeth to read to improve herself. This is simply TOO MUCH.

ELIZABETH, DARCY, AND ME makes me wonder if I read the same story as the reviewers who gave it four and five stars. I certainly can’t recommend the one I read. No grade because not finished.
 
MISS DARCY’S SECRET LOVE is Cheryl Bolen’s novella variant on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice; it was published in e-book format in 2016. It’s the second book in her Pride and Prejudice sequel novellas.

Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet are now happily married. Georgiana Darcy has made her debut to Society and received eleven marriage proposals during the Season. Unfortunately, the men are all more in love with her dowry than herself, but Georgiana fears disappointing her family by not yet being engaged. She asks that Lord Hampton be invited to Pemberley, planning to accept him if he proposes again, despite her always having been in love with Robert Farrington. The youngest brother of the Earl of Fane, Farrington is a captain of Dragoons in the Peninsular War who grew up on the neighboring estate with Georgiana as his constant companion and playmate. He’s come home to get his brother’s consent to his marrying a Spanish noblewoman, but when he meets Georgiana after four years’ absence, he’s quickly convinced that she can’t be allowed to marry the unworthy Lord Hampton. Georgiana, however, mistakenly thinks Hampton the family’s preference. Much soul-searching ensues before all comes right.

.This is a pleasant, unsurprising sequel, with the introduction of two interesting men in Hampton and Farrington. Hampton is a handsome champion sportsman, a charmer, a liar, and an inveterate gambler, noted chiefly for breaking the bank at faro at White’s Club. His attitude about himself corresponds to Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s self-assessment. His main interest is Georgiana’s £30,000. Farrington only slowly realizes he’s in love with Georgiana and doubts she can prefer a solider with £400 per year to an Earl, so he’s hesitant about offering for her.

Minor editing problems include homophones (bridal / bridle) and word choice. Bolen occasionally has Mr. Collins use terms that would never meet his high-flown standard of expression, even though he is even more ridiculous than in the original.

Two things bothered me about MISS DARCY’S SECRET LOVE. The first is purely physical. With Hampton and Farrington both showing off their riding skills to impress Georgiana, Farrington takes a bad fall that dislocates his shoulder and bruises him all over when he hits the ground. After Darcy puts his shoulder back in the socket, Farrington immediately gets back on his horse to ride home; after riding back to dinner at Pemberley that night, he plays the pianoforte beautifully to accompany Georgiana’s singing. Despite his being a tough soldier, and based on my experience with a dislocated elbow, this doesn’t ring true.

The major problem for me is the change in Georgiana. In the canon, Georgiana is naive, shy in the extreme, and preoccupied with her music and drawing. Bolen makes her into a tomboy who fishes, shoots, and rides (albeit side saddle) better than most men. She’s self-confident and sees through Hampton’s pretensions. It seems out of character that Bolen’s Georgiana would not talk frankly with Darcy and Elizabeth about her lack of feeling for Hampton, especially since she’s daily exposed to their happiness in a marriage based on love. Of course, this would prevent most of the angst that is the main component of the story. (B)
 
ONE LAST LESSON is the first book in Iain Cameron’s police procedural series featuring Detective Inspector Angus Henderson of the Sussex Police. He’s been there only three years, leaving Scotland in the wake of publicity over shooting a suspect while working undercover; he was exonerated in the killing, but it cost his sobriety and his marriage. Sussex is his second chance. ONE LAST LESSON was published in e-book format in 2014.

Henderson is officer in charge of the investigation of the rape / murder of Sarah Robson, a second-year business student at Lewes University. As he and his team investigate, they discover Sarah had been a model for a pornography website set up by her professor Jon Lehman, Law professor Alan Stark, and local crime lord turned property developer Dominic Green. Is she a random victim, is her affair with Lehman behind her death, or is one of the website’s clients involved? The body of a second victim Louisa Gordon shows up, also a student at Lewes, also a model for the academic.babes website, with an identical modus operandi. While the police concentrate on the university and the website, Dominic Green concludes that someone from his past is out for revenge; he mounts his own investigation using more direct methods. Who will be the first to identify the killer?

My major problem with ONE LAST LESSON is its lack of focus, often the case in first novels as the writer establishes the framework for the series: characters, point of view, setting, everything required to tell the story. The number of characters exceeds those necessary to carry the story, with many no more than names with a factoid or two of characterization. Individualization, especially of Henderson’s team members and bosses, is needed. Henderson himself is a conventional man, not much given to introspection: “...he opened the file and knew he needed to get out of his head any prejudices, legal shortcomings, and small-town sensibilities about the porn industry before he started, otherwise there wasn’t a cat’s chance in hell he could examine the evidence in front of him with any degree of objectivity. Never having worked in Vice, he didn’t know or hadn’t seen the negative effects of the porn merchants’ activities at first hand, but he possessed a deep seated resentment of anyone who exploited women and could never respect a person who amassed a fortune without working bloody hard to earn it, or someone who stole it off the back or the efforts of others.” (129) Point of view shifts between major characters with only spotty development.

Setting is the area around Brighton in Sussex with a move to Portugal in pursuit of the killer. Cameron does not take full advantage of either locale, so sense of place is minimal.

The plot meanders, with several faux climaxes before Henderson and his team finally do identify the killer. Moving his apprehension to Portugal only prolongs the story; the conclusion is rushed and unsatisfying. Dominic Green is on the loose with his enforcers taking the blame for the kidnap and GBH on one of his suspected enemies; Stark is still a respected professor, apparently untroubled by the University over academic.babes and sexual exploitation of his students. Despite their crimes, other miscreants completely drop out of the story. I don’t like loose ends. There’s also an important question of admissibility of evidence discovered when, without a search warrant, DS Waters “accidentally” enters the killer’s room and discovers the two victims’ personal effects.

ONE LAST LESSON, as written, is average at best; however, some characters, including Henderson and especially DS Gerry Hobbs, show promise. I’ll probably read the next book to see how Cameron progresses. (C)
 
Leenie Brown’s HER FATHER’S CHOICE is the second novella variant of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice in the Choices series. It is available in inexpensive e-book format, but it gives no publication date.

Mr. Bennet decides that Fitzwilliam Darcy is the ideal match for his favorite daughter Elizabeth. Elizabeth still resents Darcy’s comment at the Meryton assembly and believes the lies about his treatment of George Wickham, and she refuses to consider changing her attitude. Confident that she will come to love Darcy, confident that Darcy already cares for her, Mr. Bennet therefore conspires with Sir William Lucas to compromise Darcy and Elizabeth, forcing them to marry. This is accomplished at the ball at Netherfield when Darcy and Elizabeth spend time in the library reading to escape the heat and clamor of the ballroom, but alone together. Aunt Phillips discovers them, raises a cry, and the situation is set. Darcy is pleased to preserve their honor by marrying Elizabeth, and he refuses to allow her to cry off, even when he discovers that Mr. Bennet had trapped him. During their brief engagement, he’s open and honest with Elizabeth, revealing his real character, and she quickly realizes she loves him. Their brief engagement occupies the remainder of the story.

HER FATHER’S CHOICE is a warm cozy read. The betrothed couple face only token resistance from Darcy’s Fitzwilliam relatives. Elizabeth proves herself able to defend herself against Miss Bingley, her gossipy cronies, and the Earl of Matlock himself. Mrs. Bennet puts Lady Catherine de Bourgh firmly in her place with her knowledge about her and Lord Matlock’s biological father (NOT the previous Earl). It’s pleasing to see Mrs. Bennet as more than an attention-seeking hysteric. Brown’s Mary Bennet has depth and common sense missing from the original Mary, making her much more appealing.

While HER FATHER’S CHOICE follows the “compromise” scenario of the early nineteenth century, most attitudes are much more modern. Colonel Fitzwilliam, for instance, plans to sell his commission and become a furniture maker. Brown says that Fizwilliam will leave the Army when his term is up in a year, but didn’t officers serve for life unless they were cashiered or sold their commissions? Lady Sophia Rycroft, Matlock’s sister and Darcy’s favorite aunt, supports education and more autonomy for women. Darcy’s butler in London is referred to more than once as “Mr. Daniels,” not period usage for a servant, even a long-serving, much appreciated one.

HER FATHER’S CHOICE is one of the better fan fiction variants. (‘A-)
 
IN THIS BRIGHT FUTURE is the fifth book in Peter Grainger’s series featuring Detective Sergeant David C. Smith (“DC”) of the Kings Lake Police. It’s available free through Kindle Unlimited; no publication date is given. The series is best read in order.

DC Smith is on two weeks’ medical leave to recuperate from surgery to repair a bad knee when he’s approached by Diarmuid Kelly, the son of Catriona O’Neill Kelly. Smith had known the O’Neill family some thirty years before, in 1985 when he’d been a captain in British Military Intelligence deep undercover as Stuart Reilly in Belfast. His assignment was to infiltrate the IRA and discover plans for future attacks. When his cover was blown, he exited Northern Ireland on two hours‘ notice and never returned or again had contact with the O’Neills. Catriona’s youngest brother Brann O’Neill disappeared that night, his body never found; Aidan Quinn, the younger brother of IRA cell leader Lorcan Quinn, was found shot to death the next morning, the killing attributed to the UDA (Ulster Defense Association). Kelly asks Smith to find out where Brann O’Niell is buried, so his family can bring him home for Christian burial. Reluctantly acting from guilt and obligation, Smith returns to reopen the past, dependent on information from men who’ve hated him so long and aware that the deaths of Brann O’Neill and Aidan Quinn are inextricably linked.

William Faulkner said, “The past is never dead. It's not even past.” Few places exemplify this more than Northern Ireland. Grainger uses the Belfast locale and continued fallout from the Troubles as the basis for IN THIS BRIGHT FUTURE, perhaps a more ironic than literal title. “The wall across Alexandra Park was built in1994, long after his own time, commencing on the day of the first official IRA ceasefire. Smith read that through twice to make sure that he had not misunderstood. No, he had not--in fact, this was one of a number of such constructions known as ‘peace walls’. Inevitably he found himself taking the idea apart and then he stopped. It seemed blindingly obvious to him that if you have to build a wall to keep the peace, you’re not actually keeping the peace--you are simply keeping the warring sides apart--but here, in Belfast, such contradictions become, have become over the many centuries, some upside-down version of normal... The path took him then to a gate in the wall where he was able to inform himself of later developments in the peace process. Seventeen years on, someone had decided that the two halves of the park--strikingly similar in most respects in that they both had trees and grass--might be rejoined on an experimental basis. The gates would be opened for limited periods. Catholics would be able to go south into the park, and Protestants would be able to go north...into the park. Quite what happened if one was on the wrong side when the ranger closed it at three o’clock each afternoon was unclear.” This atmosphere of uncertainty pervades the story.

The plot in IN THIS BRIGHT FUTURE is different from the earlier books in the series because Smith’s investigation, with one brief exception, does not involve his professional colleagues. He’s on his own, dependent on his memory, his ability to read people, and his planning skills to elicit the information the O’ Neills need. There are two major surprises involving Smith’s actions in Belfast all those years ago, though a thoughtful reader may anticipate one or both. Grainger draws the plot to a satisfying conclusion while leaving open the possibility of renewed IRA interest in Smith.

Characters are believable, though more numerous than strictly necessary. The story lines could be tightened, but IN THIS BRIGHT FUTURE is praiseworthy. (A-)
 
DESIRES is E. A. Batten’s 2015 e-book entry in fan fiction based on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It makes major changes to the original story.

Orwell Darcy is the heir apparent to Pemberley, the estate of his first cousin Fitzwilliam Darcy, so long as Fitzwilliam has no son. Orwell Darcy’s father had been George Darcy’s younger fraternal twin. Orwell grew up believing the twins had been switched at birth, which means that he, not Fitzwilliam, is the rightful owner of the estate. When Fitzwilliam decides to marry, Orwell uses George Wickham to attack, beat, and stab him to death; Wickham leaves Fitzwilliam for dead in woods near the village of Meryton. He’s found by Elizabeth Bennet, whose prompt action saves his life. Realizing that the intent had been Fitzwilliam’s murder, Mr. Bennet and Dr. Jones keep his presence at Longbourn secret while he recovers. Fitzwilliam has no identification and, when he finally awakes from coma, remembers nothing. As “William Darkes,” he’s come to know and love Elizabeth; as soon as he recovers his memory to know he’s not committed to another, he proposes and, on promise of a long engagement in which to get to know each other, is accepted. Then Fitzwilliam must deal with Orwell and his henchmen. The second half of DESIRES covers his and Elizabeth’s engagement and wedding.

Ir’s almost as if two novellas were shoved together to make a novel, there’s so little connection between the two story lines. All the physical action is confined to the first section. Orwell Darcy is a total villain--a wastrel, rapist, and gambler who deliberately caused the death of his younger sister when a child himself. He’s quick to move in on Pemberley when Fitzwilliam goes missing, fully intending to compromise Georgiana into marriage so that he can keep her £30,000 dowry. George Wickham in DESIRES is a cat’s paw for Orwell; he wants Georgiana and her dowry for himself, but he’s firmly under Orwell’s control. He doesn’t become involved with Lydia. It’s satisfying that both get what’s coming.

In the engagement / marriage sequence. Elizabeth much impresses Darcy’s relations, especially Colonel Fitzwillitam who soon falls in love with Jane Bennet. Bingley does not take Netherfield until shortly before Darcy’s wedding and, by then, Jane returns the Colonel’s feelings. Lady Catherine descends on both Longbourn and Darcy House, where she’s unpleasant but harmless. She has a servant follow Darcy for an extended period during the engagement, but the only action she takes is to send Mr. Collins to Longbourn to break up the marriage or to lose his church. Caroline Bingley is so deluded about marrying Darcy herself that Charles Bingley deliberately conceals Darcy’s engagement. She throws total hysterics and must be bodily removed from the church at Meryton when she hears the banns read. She costs Bingley Darcy’s friendship. The gossip about her behavior exiles them from London and Bath to the wilds of Yorkshire, a fitting punishment for Caroline.

DESIRES has an interesting premise in the Orwell Darcy story line, but as the plot is constructed, the second half of the book falls flat by contrast. A thorough edit to integrate the story lines could improve the overall impact. Ignored possibilities include Mr. Wickham, Sr., who’s still alive and steward at Pemberley, and Lady Catherine’s doing something based on her having Darcy followed. Eliminating tangential characters and combining the plot functions of others could focus the plot. So I’m giving DESIRES two grades. Potential (A); as written (C)
 
BUM STEER is Ben Rehder’s 2015 e-book addition to the Blanco County (Texas) mystery series featuring John Marlin, a game warden who occasionally helps out Sheriff Bobby Garza with major cases.

BUM STEER opens and closes with Blanco County red-necks Red O’Brien and Billy Don Craddock at the blackjack tables in Las Vegas with a $142,000 bet on the line. Action then flashes back to some three weeks before, when April Thornton is found gored and crushed under the body of Rodney Bauer’s Red Brangas bull, who’s been shot in the head. She had been with Shelby Roach, Red’s cousin, also a smalltime criminal. Roach is scared of April’s brother Knox Thornton, a major criminal dealing in meth and “disappearing” a witness before his trial; he tells Thornton that April had been with Red when she died. Thornton goes after Red. Another story line involves the discovery of $46,000 in a set of suitcases pawned at Bobo Baldwin’s shop. Who knows about the money, and how can Bobo keep it?

As with many police procedurals, as investigations continue, separate incidents come together to form an integrated whole. Marlin and Gilchrist confront Thornton more through happenstance than by focused investigation. I can’t say more without doing a spoiler. BUM STEER is choppy as Rehder switches focus between characters to show simultaneous action in different places, and changing viewpoints does not add much characterization. I dislike the ambiguous ending. The humor so enjoyable in the earlier books is largely absent, as is the sense of place.

Red and Billy Don play major roles in BUM STEER. Billy Don differs from earlier books in the series; he’s more perceptive, the wizard at blackjack who’s trying to parley their pig bounty money (see HOG HEAVEN) into a fortune. Red’s the leader of the two. “The only other idea he’d had was one they’d already discussed--take the cash and head for Vegas, whether they went by train, truck, bus, or overpriced plane tickets. But there was something cowardly about that, too, so it didn’t set right with Red. He’d never run from trouble before, except on those occasions when it was the best option.” (119) As for John Marlin, he’s as much involved with Special Agent Lauren Gilchrist of the Texas and South-western Cattle Raisers Association, who’s in Blanco County to investigate April Thornton and the bull’s deaths, as he is with the investigation itself. She’s his college girlfriend.

I’m disappointed in BUM STEER. It’s not up to the calibre of the earlier books in the series. (C)
 
Renata McMann and Summer Hanford’s A DEATH AT ROSINGS is part of their long running series of Jane Austen fan fiction based on Pride and Prejudice. It was published in e-book format in 2016.

A DEATH AT ROSINGS opens just after Fitzwilliam Darcy and Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam leave, Darcy hurt and bitter over Elizabeth Bennet’s refusal of his botched marriage proposal. Lady Catherine suffers a heart attack and dies before morning. Anne de Bourgh knows she needs help in managing the estate and in learning to stand up for herself and demand the authority of her ownership. To that end, she summons her cousins back to Rosings and invites / demands Elizabeth Bennet become her companion and mentor. Elizabeth agrees to stay for a time out of a desire to be of help. Anne’s bad decision about immediate payout of Lady Catherine’s bequests to the servants and tenants leads to a mass exodus, leaving Elizabeth to learn to run a large house with no servants and Darcy to muck out stables so that the few farmers left can get crops planted. Seeing each other daily, both out of their accustomed roles, gives time for reflection about their past behavior and for more accurate assessment of the other’s character. Anne invites Kitty to Rosings and while there, Kitty receives Lydia’s letter about eloping from Brighton with George Wickham. Darcy, Mr. Bennet, and Colonel ‘Fitzwilliam descend on Brighton to join Colonel Forster and Lieutenant Pratt to rescue Lydia. After Elziabeth accepts Darcy’s second proposal, he tells Charles Bingley about his interference and incorrect assessment of Jane Bennet, leading to Bingley’s proposal and Jane’s acceptance.

The premise for A DEATH AT ROSINGS leaves a woman’s authentic property rights under early nineteenth-century law unclear. Still, the circumstances arising from Lady Catherine’s death are realistic. Certainly they provide Elizabeth and Darcy with a chance to know each other under trying conditions. Like Austen, McMann and Hanford use letters to convey activities happening elsewhere.

However, there are some difficulties. One problem is modern attitude. Darcy not only has a married valet but gives him paternity leave when a son is born; Elizabeth insists on equity in pay between the tenants and servants who remained loyal to Rosings and those hired in desperation at higher wages. It’s unlikely that Anne, Elizabeth, and Mrs. Jenkinson themselves sew by hand all of Anne’s mourning wardrobe instead of ordering clothes from a modiste in a nearby town.

Characters change from the Austen originals. Lady Catherine is unbelievably generous in her bequests to servants and tenants. Colonel Fitzwilliam is unhappy in the Army and takes frequent verbal shots at Darcy. Anne is inconsistent, insisting that she means to direct Rosings herself and ignoring Elizabeth’s advice, but then disappearing into her room to have Kitty read to her while Elizabeth has to hire servants and to see the house runs smoothly. Anne shows definite traces of Lady Catherine’s imperiousness on occasion and condescends to Kitty, Mary, and even occasionally to Elizabeth in her self-perceived superiority. Elizabeth hangs onto Darcy’s interference with Bingley and Jane’s relationship long after he’s explained his reasons, with a flareup over it after both couples are engaged.

DEATH AT ROSINGS’s premise is good, but development is only moderate. (B-)
 
Ralph E. Vaughan’s MURDER IN THE GOBLINS’ PLAYGROUND features Detective Chief Inspector Ravyn of fictional Hammershire County. It was published in e-book format in 2016. I hope it is the first of a series.

Hammershire County, especially the small village of Ashford, is a perfect example of William Faulkner’s dictum, “the past isn’t dead, it isn’t even past.” Time out of mind, villagers have known the nearby Red Cap Woods and the megalith at its center, the Goblns’ Playground, as the haunt of the Lord of the Woods and his otherworldly cohorts. Now the village is divided over Oscar Lent’s proposed development of the Woods, with firm opposition from the believers, especially hree women known collectively as the Weird Sisters: meat butcher Marion Stone, librarian Lillian Nettle, and postmistress Dylwyth Mayhew. Each has reared a foundling in the ways of the Old Religion. Marion brought up Gwen Turner, Lillian raised Allan Cutter, and Dylwyth nurtured Raymond Smith. Ravyn becomes involved when Cutter is killed, followed swiftly by the murder of Oscar Lent. As the investigations continue, Ravyn and his legman Detective Sergeant Leo Stark, a new transfer from the Met, discover that Cutter had been searching Red Cap Woods for something. What, if anything, do the murders have to do with the disappearance over twenty years ago of Douglas Trentmoore, who lived in the woods? Murder of Smith, Stone, and Mayhew follow before Ravyn puts the case together.

Essential in a good police procedural is a believable investigative team. Vaughan creates an interesting duo in Ravyn and Stark. Both are individuals with enough quirks and problems to be authentic, each still sorting out his idea of the other. “Ravyn seemed to Stark just another by-the-book stick-in-the-mud plodder, but there were times when an idealist shone through. Twice in the past three weeks he had seen Ravyn stand firm against the Superintendent, each time on behalf of some yob Ravyn felt had been hauled in unjustly. The thing was, Stark reflected, in each instance Ravyn had ultimately been proved correct. He had asked around, quietly of course, because he had no grasp yet of the politics of the Stafford CID... What he got from his discreet inquiries was a mass of conflicting opinion... Ravyn was either the greatest detective since Sherlock Holmes, or he was an utter ponce who kept his job only by remaining on the good side of the Chief Constable. There were only two things everyone agreed upon. One was that anyone partnered with Ravyn either went on to much better things or out of the service entirely. The other was that no one wanted to be partnered with Ravyn.” (22-3) I look forward to seeing this relationship develop.

The plot is almost “last one standing must be the killer,” with the identity and the motive foreshadowed enough that neither is a surprise. Other problems include occasional errors in word usage (for example, “ley” and “lay”). Is the developer’s name meant to be “Dent” as first given, or “Lent”? The folklore sometimes overwhelms the murders.

Vaughan is skilled in using history to emphasize the setting, which is almost another character, and to reveal character: “...the lane curved away from the village toward the Old Pike. It was a narrow black strip barely wide enough for two cars passing. There was no traffic. The last time it had been a route of any import, riders on horseback passed each other on the left to keep the right hand free, either to offer in friendship or to swing a sabre. Given the temperaments and driving habits of modern motorists, Ravyn considered how little had changed over the centuries.” (118)

MURDER IN THE GOBLINS’ PLAYGROUND shows good potential for a successful series. (B+)
 
THE COMING OF AGE OF ELIZABETH BENNET is Caitlin Williams’s 2016 e-book variant on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

The Bennet women are about to leave their home for good. Mr. Bennet died unexpectedly in 1809, and Rev. Hogarth Collins, his cousin and heir, turns Mrs. Bennet and her daughters out of Longbourn forthwith. She and the three younger girls will live in a cottage in Meryton in genteel poverty; Jane will reside with the Gardiners in London; fifteen-year-old Elizabeth will be in the care of a friend of her father’s, Mr. George Darcy of Pemberley. She runs away to avoid separation from her family, so Mr. Darcy leaves his son Fitzwilliam to recover her and to bring her to Derbyshire. Unfortunately, it takes two days, during which Lady Emma Balcombe, who has every reason to hate Darcy (he refused to propose to her, then ended her liaison with George Wickham) observes Elizabeth in his room. Lady Emma writes to her friends of the Ton to spread the story, including the salacious detail of blood on Darcy’s sheets. Scandal rocks London, the more so because of Fitzwilliam Darcy’s reputation as a stuffy prig. The only possible way to put down the gossip--he and Elizabeth must be married at once.

This is the point (fifteen percent) at which I’m giving up on THE COMING OF AGE OF ELIZABETH BENNET. Even granting their youth (Darcy has recently finished University, so he’s in his early twenties), neither comes close to the Austen original. Darcy is self-righteous, judgmental, totally conscious of his own superiority and the inferiority of everyone else, and vocal only about his dislikes. His pompous pronouncements are those of his aunt, the esteemed Lady Catherine de Bourgh. He’s depressed in the aftermath of dealing with major scandal caused by Wickham’s profligate behavior in London and feels guilty about having introduced Wickham to Society as if he belonged in its elevated ranks. Darcy has a thin mustache and wears exotic waistcoats.

Elizabeth is both physically and emotionally immature. Darcy tells Colonel Fitzwilliam of the absurdity of marrying a woman who looks more like a twelve-year-old. Elizabeth’s running away is unplanned. She has less than £5, no destination in mind, and believes that a haircut and a suit from her father’s childhood will let her elude pursuers. She manages to get herself roughed up and robbed, but Darcy saves her from probable rape. I can’t imagine Austen’s Elizabeth acting so foolishly. Williams has her out-Lydia the original Lydia.

No grade because not finished.
 
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