July 2022's Burgoine Reviews & Pearl Rule Reviews

Author 'Nathan Burgoine posted this simple, direct method of not getting paralyzed by the prospect of having to write reviews. The Three-Sentence Review is, as he notes, very helpful and also simple to achieve. I get completely unmanned at the idea of saying something trenchant about each book I read, when there often just isn't that much to say...now I can use this structure to say what I think is the most important idea I took away from the read and not try to dig for more.

Think about using it yourselves!

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A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings: A Year of Keeping Bees by Helen Jukes

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Entering her thirties, Helen Jukes feels trapped in an urban grind of office politics and temporary addresses—disconnected, stressed. Struggling to settle into her latest job and home in Oxford, she realises she needs to effect a change if she’s to create a meaningful life for herself, one that can accommodate comfort and labour and love. Then friends give her the gift of a colony of honeybees—according to folklore, bees freely given bring luck—and Helen embarks on her first full year of beekeeping. But what does it mean to ‘keep’ wild creatures? In learning about the bees, what can she learn of herself? And can travelling inside the hive free her outside it?

As Helen grapples with her role in the delicate, awe-inspiring ecosystem of the hive, the very act of keeping seems to open up new perspectives, deepen friendships old and new, and make her world come alive. A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings is at once a fascinating exploration of the honeybee and the hive, the practices of honey-gathering and the history of our observation of bees; and a beautifully wrought meditation on responsibility and care, on vulnerability and trust, on forging bonds and breaking new ground.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: After getting a new, longed-for position, Author Jukes finds that wanting and having are not the same sensation.

I sometimes think that life must be a bit like tessellation for some people. You take one shape and fit it to the next and they sit comfortably together—you don’t mind a bit of repetition because it’s what makes the pattern form. Life is not like tessellation for me. Sometimes the shapes don’t fit, or I don’t fit into them, or I’m looking at the patterns but they don’t feel real or right to me.

It's a key realization, and it leads to her keeping a beehive as a means to create value and meaning in her world.

A lot of people have compared the book to H is for Hawk, which read I very much did not like. It felt deeply hypocritical to me to read of someone's love for a wild thing as they're describing how they un-wilded it. Author Jukes does not un-wild her bees, as that's been done millennia ago. And her possession of a colony evokes some very good meditative thinking in her:

Here I am pondering impermanence, having just tasked myself with the responsibility of keeping something—with sustaining it. A colony is not a book or an archivable object and you can’t hold it in a glass cabinet or on a shelf. It is live and shifting and if this one doesn’t take to our little rectangular space it’ll be out of here faster than you can say swarm.

What makes the book less than a four-star, upper-heap read is that it's too long for how short it is. Cut some chapters, bring the philosophizing to some conclusions earlier, for example, and don't repeat the same ruminations, and there'd be another star up there. As it stands I can't agree with myself to overlook this stylistic and structural lapse to grow it over three-and-a-half smiling stars.

A Kindle edition copy is $13.99. (non-affiliate Amazon link)

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Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late.

I CHECKED THIS BOOK OUT OF MY LOCAL LIBRARY. USE THEIR SERVICES! THEY'RE ALREADY PAID FOR.

My Review: Yes, it was a sentimental Festival of Tearjerking. I enjoyed it immensely. And you probably would, too.

A Kindle edition is $14.99. (non-affiliate Amazon link) if your library's hold list is too long.

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Any Other World Will Do by Alex Lubertozzi

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: In a chance encounter on the overnight train from Paris to Barcelona, Vikram Bhat stumbles across a promising new recruit.

Miles Townsend, an 18-year-old kid running away from a past he’d just as soon forget, is drawn to the older Indian man, dazzled by Barcelona, and smitten with the Hotel Kashmir’s bartender, Anna de Wit, a Surinamese grad student with a genius for languages and Vikram’s first recruit.

Miles and Anna have no idea they’re being recruited. They have no idea that Vikram is neither an Indian nor a man, or that he’s a few thousand light-years from home. He has a lot of secrets, it turns out. But he means well. When a series of bad decisions reveals the fact that Vikram isn’t the only one light-years from home—and this other one does not mean well—Miles and Anna become unwitting ambassadors to Vikram’s world, a place where the locals haven’t got their shit together any better than the people of Earth.

A unique coming-of-age story, Any Other World Will Do is inventive, irreverent science fiction, a wry commentary on the primal urge to flee our troubles and the romantic way we remember the journey.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: The problem with writing SF when you don't read it is that you rehash clichés that just won't fly anymore. Not to mention that the twenty-first century climate is such that having a literal alien masquerading as a South Asian and getting away with it is...troubling.

The other planet, the one that isn't Earth, to which the two kids are persuaded to travel, is a stock reimagining of Earth-plus-some-stuff. This is not in and of itself a bad thing. After all, if Earthlings are to survive on it, and if the Tonshu natives are going to travel here and survive, they need to be similar. But the 2020s don't really support serious (message-driven, not purely brain candy) SF with mysterious instantaneous transportation between planets.

The writing isn't awful. It isn't good, either. It's unfortunate that reviews of glowing, gasping praise for it lead one to expect a better-than-average reading experience that is not available. That said, I finished it, so clearly it wasn't dreadful. For the Kindle price, not-dreadful isn't all that bad a bargain.

The Kindle edition is $2.99. (non-affiliate Amazon link)

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Afro Puffs Are the Antennae of the Universe by Zig Zag Claybourne

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: No one has time for your BS...but Captain Desiree Quicho and her crew of utter badasses surely don't. Got a universe to save. Again. Commandeer one piece of out-of-this-world tech and suddenly you have an evil billionaire and a corporate queenpin on your ass, factions scrabbling at the power grab to end all power grabs, and an ultimate AI bent on a rampage of healing.

All a captain wanted was a little chill time, a few tunes, and quality barbecue.

Woe to those blocking her groove.

Four women; One machine goddess; a Hellbilly, Saharan elves, the baddest Pacific Octopus this side of Atlantis... and Humanity's balance tilting toward its biggest unknown future.

THE AUTHOR GIFTED ONE TO ME. THANK YOU!!

My Review: I flat-out howled my way through this short, punchy, absolutely mad and manic story of what we all want to see...Right beating might...with women's place at the helm of the craft unquestioned, unfought-over, and unapologetically human. Which is to say, morally gray shading into gravity-well-colored. Even the Pacific Octopus.

Don't sit there staring, go buy a Kindlecopy for $4.99 and cheap at twice the price if you want a white-knuckle-speed trip through the Cosmos. (The link is a non-affiliate link.)

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The Day I Died by Lori Rader-Day

Rating: 3.25* of five

The Publisher Says: Anna Winger knows people better than they know themselves with only a glance—at their handwriting. Hired by companies seeking trustworthy employees and by the lovelorn hoping to find happiness, Anna likes to keep the real mess of other people’s lives at arm’s length and on paper. But when she is called to use her expertise on a ransom note left behind at a murder scene in the small town she and her son have recently moved to, the crime inevitably gets under Anna’s skin. Was the child kidnapped from his home by his own mother, trying to save him from his abusive father? Thirteen years ago, Anna did the same thing for her unborn son, now a troubled teen rebelling against the protected life she’s given him.

The local sheriff wants no part of Anna’s brand of hocus pocus, but he’ll do whatever it takes to bring his community and his office back under control. Anna is able to discern from the note that no one in the little boy’s family has been safe for a long time. And bringing him and his mother home could be the worst possible outcome for them.

A GIFT FROM A "FRIEND" WHOSE BIBLIOHOLISM RIVALS MY OWN. *FIST-SHAKE*

My Review: Domestic thrillers aren't always bad. This one is of the un-bad ilk. Anna's life hasn't been easy, or peaceful; it's been marred by violence from every man in it. Of course she has a son. But she's raised him in such a way that he's clear that interpersonal violence isn't an option.

So he runs away from her to find out why she's so het-up about this.

What happens, then, is an extended hunt for and unearthing of Anna's many wounds from source to cessation. Why I recommend it is Author Rader-Day's facility with characterization. I'm less enamored of her exposition and dialogue.

I turned in a slow circle, taking in the empty room. Something wasn't right. What was it? And then I saw. His backpack was missing from the table. "His backpack."

"What?"

"I don't know," I said. A shrill alarm began to ring in my ears, and I raised my voice to be heard over it. "I don't know."

"OK," Joe said. "Let's be calm. What about his backpack?"

"It's not on the table. It's always, always on the table." I thought of the pack's dense bulk, the thump it made when he set it down.

Now, let me be clear: This isn't bad writing. It's, um, uninspired, uninspiring writing IMO, but definitely not bad...the "pack" syllable repeated as often as it is, plosive and easy to hear, just works better as audio than visual. There is quite a bit of the writing that works as an ear-read or as film dialogue but not as visualization aid. It leaves me, the reader-as-cranial-filmmaker, without any room to decide things for myself. That's not my preference in reading. Hence my less-than-half-star over the base 3. Which, remember!, means "good!"

Get the Kindle for $9.49 because it's worth it for domestic-thriller fans. (non-affiliate Amazon link)

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Outlawed by Anna North

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: In the year of our Lord 1894, I became an outlaw.

The day of her wedding, 17 year old Ada's life looks good; she loves her husband, and she loves working as an apprentice to her mother, a respected midwife. But after a year of marriage and no pregnancy, in a town where barren women are routinely hanged as witches, her survival depends on leaving behind everything she knows.

She joins up with the notorious Hole in the Wall Gang, a band of outlaws led by a preacher-turned-robber known to all as the Kid. Charismatic, grandiose, and mercurial, the Kid is determined to create a safe haven for outcast women. But to make this dream a reality, the Gang hatches a treacherous plan that may get them all killed. And Ada must decide whether she's willing to risk her life for the possibility of a new kind of future for them all.

Featuring an irresistibly no-nonsense, courageous, and determined heroine, Outlawed dusts off the myth of the old West and reignites the glimmering promise of the frontier with an entirely new set of feminist stakes. Anna North has crafted a pulse-racing, page-turning saga about the search for hope in the wake of death, and for truth in a climate of small-mindedness and fear.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Imaginative, inventive, and insolent prose telling the oft-told tale of good soul gone bad. It's not a new trope or even take...woman blamed for problems she can't control, runs away, lives her best life among other like-minded women...but it's very well crafted and quite fun to read.

“The point is, you live like I did, you start being able to spot what makes some people sink and other people swim. There’s a quality, I don’t even know how to describe it—sometimes it looks like luck and sometimes it looks like skill and sometimes it doesn’t look like either one. But you have it, I saw it when I met you. You’ve made a lot of mistakes, but you’re a good bet. You’ll swim.”

–and–

“If they take you, keep your head up. Don't beg for your life. Don't confess to any sin. If you die without shame, the shame is all theirs.”

These women, cast out for failing to give birth, find their world is much bigger and much sweeter when they embrace freedom from expectations. Deeply, deeply relatable to this old queer gent.

Spend $8.30 on a Kindle edition. It's well-worth it at regular price. (non-affiliate Amazon link)

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Vanity in Dust (Crowns & Ash #1) by Cheryl Low

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: In the Realm there are whispers. Whispers that the city used to be a different place. That before the Queen ruled there was a sky beyond the clouds and a world beyond their streets.

Vaun Dray Fen never knew that world. Born a prince without a purpose in a Realm ruled by lavish indulgence, unrelenting greed, and vicious hierarchy, he never knew a time before the Queen’s dust drugged the city. Everything is poisoned to distract and dull the senses, even the tea and pastries. And yet, after more than a century, his own magic is beginning to wake. The beautiful veneer of the Realm is cracking. Those who would defy the Queen turn their eyes to Vaun, and the dust saturating the Realm.

From the carnivorous pixies in the shadows to the wolves in the streets, Vaun thought he knew all the dangers of his city. But when whispers of treason bring down the fury of the Queen, he'll have to race to save the lives and souls of those he loves.

I RECEIVED A REVIEW COPY FROM THE PUBLISHER. THANK YOU.

My Review: As with all fantasy novels, there's a 50/50 chance I'll resonate to the story harmoniously enough to enjoy the read; odds got us to 60/40 for QUILTBAG themed stories and higher still if there's a bisexual man.

We stalled at 60/40 and never got going again. All the sex is implied; the point of the world's sexual fluidity is played as increasing the sensual options of these decadent people; and in the end, the male MC goes back to his hetero roots. So, disappointments all around. There's also a certain glacial pace issue. There's also a dearth of evidence that a professional proofreader saw the MS (eg, "sooth" ≠ "soothe" nor "horde" substituting for "hoard"), which honestly bothered me quite a lot. Still, a read I'm not sorry I made time for.

A paperback is only $8.98 on Amazon. (non-affiliate link)

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The Last by Hanna Jameson

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Publisher Says: For fans of high-concept thrillers such as Annihilation and The Girl with All the Gifts, this breathtaking dystopian psychological thriller follows an American academic stranded at a Swiss hotel as the world descends into nuclear war—along with twenty other survivors—who becomes obsessed with identifying a murderer in their midst after the body of a young girl is discovered in one of the hotel’s water tanks.

Jon thought he had all the time in the world to respond to his wife’s text message: I miss you so much. I feel bad about how we left it. Love you. But as he’s waiting in the lobby of the L’Hotel Sixieme in Switzerland after an academic conference, still mulling over how to respond to his wife, he receives a string of horrifying push notifications. Washington, DC has been hit with a nuclear bomb, then New York, then London, and finally Berlin. That’s all he knows before news outlets and social media goes black—and before the clouds on the horizon turn orange.

Now, two months later, there are twenty survivors holed up at the hotel, a place already tainted by its strange history of suicides and murders. Those who can’t bear to stay commit suicide or wander off into the woods. Jon and the others try to maintain some semblance of civilization. But when the water pressure disappears, and Jon and a crew of survivors investigate the hotel’s water tanks, they are shocked to discover the body of a young girl.

As supplies dwindle and tensions rise, Jon becomes obsessed with investigating the death of the little girl as a way to cling to his own humanity. Yet the real question remains: can he afford to lose his mind in this hotel, or should he take his chances in the outside world?

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: First, read this:

“A lot of people confuse movement with progress," Dylan said. "I knew it was a bad idea but what were we gonna do, barricade them in? They weren't ready to face any kind of truth."

I leaned against the wall of the stairwell as Dylan got out his set of keys. The air in here was too thick, full of dust and last breaths. It stank. I hated the stairwell but of course the elevators weren't working anymore; hadn't worked for two months, not since that first day.”

–and–

The only meaning we might have left as a species—indeed, the only thing left that might matter, that might keep us motivated to get up in the morning—is in the small acts of human kindness we show one another, and in my compulsion to be helpful, useful, to keep things moving forward, I've mostly forgotten to be kind.

There aren't a lot of things more important than kindness. There are a lot of things more important than busyness. And it is on those two poles that Author Jameson hangs her The Last Policeman-meets-Fire on the Island multi-suspect crime story, one taking place in a post-apocalyptic Switzerland largely insulated from the nuclear fallout all around.

Jon, our American PoV narrator, is making his way in the pre-apocalypse world by staying busy and making himself useful. This means he doesn't spend the time with his (possibly now-dead) family that he should...so busy securing their future that he fails to be present today. The apocalypse, in The Fall, is a good old-fashioned nuclear one. That feels dated in 2022 but it was 2018 when the book came out, different times indeed. In any case, the fancy conference Jon's at saves his life, and that of twenty others. But what does that win us? A murder. And Jon, the busyness addict, uses his clawing need to stay active, to make stuff happen, to fix it! (Spoiler: He can't fix the victim's lack of life, which is what should matter most to everyone.)

While I get totally the desire to ratchet up the stakes in a story, this one's got built-in stakes that are unbeatable. If one is going to use murder to make things more tense, the motive had best be surprising and compelling. This one fell short on both metrics. But the honest and searching moral inventories that Author Jameson puts the characters through makes up for a lot of that. The propulsive writing wasn't matched, though, by a solid pace because of that shortfall. Where I expected to be utterly and deeply involved, I was instead a very interested bystander.

It's $12.99 on Kindle. (non-affiliate Amazon link)

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Kill For Me (Victor the Assassin #8) by Tom Wood

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Lethal assassin Victor lands in the middle of a Guatemalan cartel war in the latest nonstop thriller from the international bestselling author of The Final Hour.

Victor is the killer who always delivers...for the right price. And Heloise Espinosa, patron of Guatemala's largest cartel, is ready and willing to pay him just that to eliminate the competition--her sister. Heloise has been battling Maria for control of the cartel in an endless and bloody war. Now Victor decides who survives. An easy job if it weren't for the sudden target on his back.

Victor's not the only one on the hunt. Someone else has Maria in their crosshairs and will do anything to get the kill. In the middle of cartel territory with enemies closing in from all sides, Victor must decide where to put the bullet before one is placed in his head. His only chance at survival is to team up with the one person who may be as deadly as he is...

I RECEIVED AN ARC FROM THE PUBLISHER. THANK YOU.

My Review: You know how it's always the civil wars with the most casualties? You know why that is? Family hates with more passion than any other enemy. And Victor the Assassin has just taken a job to kill one sibling at the behest of another. (They're criminals. Don't stress.)

You don't often find series novels based around an amoral assassin that are simply unputdownable. This is one, though the pinnacle is still Tom Ripley. We're not up that high. But the story being told, with all its rage-fueled violence, is really shockingly...moral! The right things happen to the proper victims, the best thing that could ever happen being the end of this feud between crime-boss sisters and it does.

In a very unexpected way. Lots of fun to read, perfect for the beach, and written with a deftness that renders the experience invisible and effortless. (But *really* violent...so much so I was squicked a time or two, which is why it's not a higher rating.)

It's $9.99 on Kindle. (non-affiliate Amazon link)

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This space is dedicated to Nancy Pearl's Rule of 50, or "the Pearl Rule" as I've always called it. After realizing five times in December 2021 alone that I'd already Pearl-Ruled a book I picked up on a whim, I realized how close my Half-heimer's is getting to the full-on article. Hence my decision to track my Pearls!

As she says:

People frequently ask me how many pages they should give a book before they give up on it. In response to that question, I came up with my “rule of fifty,” which is based on the shortness of time and the immensity of the world of books. If you’re fifty years of age or younger, give a book fifty pages before you decide to commit to reading it or give it up. If you’re over fifty, which is when time gets even shorter, subtract your age from 100—the result is the number of pages you should read before making your decision to stay with it or quit.

So this space will be each month's listing of Pearl-Ruled books. Earlier Pearl-Rule posts will be linked below the current month's crop.

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The Poptart Manifesto by Rick Gualtieri

Rating: 2.5* of five, all for "Ajax"

The Publisher Says: What do umbrellas, mutants, dead plumbers, and of course Pop-Tarts have to do with each other? Nothing really. However, they're all things that the author thinks about...A LOT. Take a journey down this path and see how all of the above, plus a bunch of other topics, make their twisted sense to the author.

The Poptart Manifesto is 13 short stories of weird thoughts coupled with slightly out of the ordinary events that are sure to make you think. Or not. But they might, just might, give you a chuckle or two.

RECOMMENDED BY A FRIEND. I WANT THAT 99¢ BACK.

My Review: Tediously adolescent humor. Maybe I'm just an old picklepuss now, but I really expect more from someone whose SF series, The Tome of Bill, is best-selling and much beloved.

"The Poptart Manifesto," the title story, is just tiresome as this weedy dweeb waxes lyrical about the Pop-Tart to his girlfriend. "Cork Quest" reminded me, as the narrator searches for a corkscrew across the whole of Manhattan, that straight guys were never weaned. Seriously...breasts are there to feed babies. That's what they do. "Wedding Belles" was where I realized that, if things didn't turn around soon, I was gonna have to bail...guy shares room with hot girl, brags all over a wedding about it, and her boyfriend takes umbrage. Ha ha ha. "Ajax: Slayer of Trojans, Destroyer of Grease Stains" was better, a little redemption for the modest and the overlooked is always welcome. "The Epic Adventure of the Mighty Adventurers," however, swung the sledgehammer onto the last inch of the collection's coffin nail: Ready Player One meets Catcher in the Rye if written by P.J. O'Rourke. Tries for witty, achieves snarky.

I might've been less irked by the mismatch of my taste and the author's if he'd used a style sheet and hired a proofreader. "Then" ≠ "Than" ever.

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You'll Always Be White To Me: A Memoir by Garon Wade

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: Three years in to Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war, an abandoned baby ends up in the adopted arms of a white American couple living in a Colombo home that doubles as a CIA safe house. They take him on an extraordinary journey around the globe as he’s launched into the diplomatic world of ambassadors, UN workers, and international schools.

Each summer he returns to the bayous of his parents’ small-town Louisiana, as exotic to him as the golden South African savannahs of his early childhood. He’s curious to know this America, a country he may someday be a part of. But with sincere love comes racism wrapped in the drawling sweetness of his grandparents’ good intentions.

Garon Wade’s transcendent memoir is an international coming-of-age story that explores how the heart of an orphan grew to love a world that didn’t always love him back. You’ll Always Be White To Me asks us who we are, what our common humanity is, and if it’s possible to look beyond our color and find our way there.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: What a charmed life the author has led. He was likely going to be a casualty of the Sri Lankan civil war and had the incalculable good fortune to be whisked into a world of white American privilege by a pair of professional do-gooders. His parents were loving, kind, and above all good people. They prevented his life from descending into factional or sectarian strife; but more than that, they taught him what it means to be loved fully, deeply, and forgivingly.

I'm not going to read the whole book carefully because it's just too long. It needed to be 2/3 the size it is. Repetition of themes Is still repetition and it's very, very repetitive. His life is interesting for its beginning, and relatable for his queerness marking him out as another kind of stranger among the people he's found himself...but that ain't NOTHIN' compared to the Sri Lankan cultural bias he'd've faced! (I know some Tamil queer men online and there's nothing quite like a religious-nut culture to hate its queers.)

It's $9.99 on Kindle. (non-affiliate Amazon link)

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Kingdom Ascent (Tempest of Bravoure #1) by Valena D'Angelis

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: We live brave. We die free.

Darkness has fallen upon the golden kingdom of Bravoure. Once the beacon of an alliance uniting four races, Bravoure is now under the oppression of an elven prince from beneath the surface. Not even the prophecy, the one that foretold his demise in the holy fires of the Dragonborn, was able to stop him.

Ahna, a runaway mage, rises above the decades of grief and returns to the fight, joining the united soldiers of the Resistance. Despite her origins, she is accepted by these brave heroes who will never let their differences stand in the way of freedom.

She and the rebels embark on a covert mission to save the kingdom, but the past and the secrets she keeps will soon come knocking, and Ahna will face her demons as she faces the false king.

Tempest of Bravoure: Kingdom Ascent is the first book of the Tempest of Bravoure series.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Much is made, in other reviews, of the maps that begin this book. I agree; there is nothing like a map to make me feel the author's made a serious investment in their secondary world. I was very glad this story started on such a high note.

Ahna soon came to feel like every other embittered heroine in every other fantasy novel I've tried to read over the years. Her Scooby-group of friends, Kairen and David (Kairen's husband), are the relief from Ahna's darkness. The secondary world's well-enough built but, unless you're a big fan of fantasy quest novels, this one's not likely to ring your soul like a bell.

For the fantasy-loving crew, this woman-authored, woman-led series will ring bells all over. There are two more as of now. It's only $2.99 on Kindle, so the risk to your budget is low. (non-affiliate Amazon link)

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The Murder of Jeremy Brookes by Tony McFadden

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: McGinnis Investigations has been operating a small but successful shop in Campbelltown, an hour south of Sydney, for over a decade. Business has been what you’d expect in a sort of rough town in a sort of rough country, with an ever increasing circle of rough and tumble clients spreading the word that Dan McGinnis’ team could get the job done, but only above board.

Nothing shady, nothing illegal, frequently successful and frequently just skirting the line.

But nothing could prepare Dan McGinnis for the depths he would plumb when a wealthy Sydney surgeon visits his office and asks him to investigate her husband’s murder. Her husband, Jeremy Brookes, was legal counsel for the owner of a right-wing media empire.

The police say he was killed during a mugging gone bad. She thinks it was a targeted attack.

Crossing powerful media types, the real killer and two other cases that seem to be connected drag Dan and his team into the darker side of politics, money and corruption.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: What I hoped for: Inspector Hal Challis, Garry Disher's sleuth. What I got: Jimm Juree, Colin Cotterill's second, less successful, sleuth.

I expected the F-word, I expected the Aussie slang, I expected the sexism (the sleuth's an honest man yet never forget he's also an ex-footballer). I didn't expect the typos, the casual-to-the-point-of-caricature minor characters' characterization, or the very progressive political loathing for fake-news purveying hypercapitalists.

While I'm pleased by that last one, and resigned to the first three, the other two dragged a sure-fire four-star read down to three stars. I'm honestly gutted by this. I love Australian fiction. I look for it to be atmospheric. When I am balked by fixable failures, I am cranky. So here's me, cranky.

The Kindle edition is $3.99, but I recommend ordering the free sample before comitting to the purchase. (non-affiliate Amazon link)

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The Happier Dead by Ivo Stourton

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: In the very near future the rich are able to extend their lives indefinitely, but the price of eternal youth is one that they can get others to pay. A political thriller, crime novel and stunning SF story.

The Great Spa sits on the edge of London, a structure visible from space. The power of Britain on the world stage rests in its monopoly on "The Treatment", a medical procedure which can transform the richest and most powerful into a state of permanent physical youth. The Great Spa is the place where the newly young immortals go to revitalise their aged souls. In this most important and secure of facilities, a murder of one of the guests threatens to destabilise the new order, and DCI Oates of the Metropolitan police is called in to investigate.
In a single day Oates must unravel the secrets behind the Treatment and the long ago disappearance of its creator, passing through a London riven with disorder and corruption, where adverts are transmitted directly into the imagination. As a night of widespread rioting takes hold of the city he moves towards a final climax which could lead to the destruction of the Great Spa, his own ruin, and the loss of everything he holds most dear.

A political thriller, crime novel and stunning SF story.

I RECEIVED AN ARC FROM THE PUBLISHER. THANK YOU.

My Review: I gave up on p92.

There's nothing really *wrong* with the writing. There's nothing too terribly right with it, either. I think anyone who liked Brave New World or Altered Carbon would be okay with it. I found its Englishness wearing, the sheer and evident disdain for Muslims and Africans got on my tits (as they say Over There). It's like the US's homegrown Brad Thor and ilk with different targets.

I confess that I read the ending. It was as I expected, remembering I stopped reading on p92. I don't think that's a great recommendation, myownself, but there is a certain charm in knowing what the end of a thing will be before it arrives. I just am no longer in that place in my reading life. I want to be surprised (rare) or contented with the journey (far more frequent) to get where I expected to go. I was not contented and that is not fixable after a certain point.

It's $3.99 on Kindle. (non-affiliate Amazon link)