Book review: From Dead to Worse

Title	From Dead to Worse (Southern Vampire Mysteries, Book 8)
Author:	Charlaine Harris
Rating
Tags	paranormal, fantasy, vampires, telepathy, werewolves
	Great book in a great series by Charlaine Harris. Sookie Stackhouse is a telepath. She can't read vampires, and has a hard time reading shapeshifters... and that's why she likes being around them, though by this time she is learning to control her telepathy better. In this entry in the series, she has to deal with wars among the vampires and the weres, and finding a new relative who is important to her.
Publication	Ace Hardcover (2008), Edition: 1, Hardcover, 368 pages
Publication date	2008
ISBN	0441015891 / 9780441015894

Book review; Digging to America

Title	Digging to America: A Novel
Author:	Anne Tyler
Rating
Tags	fiction, adoption, cultures
Your review	This is the first Anne Tyler book I've read, and it is one of my bookclub's choices. It is about two families who meet while waiting for the arrival of their baby daughters adopted from Korea. One family is American, one family is Iranian-American, and the story is about the interaction of the families. The characters and their finteractions are quite ralistic; for example, two women wind up with what niether of them want becasue they are too polite to say what they do want.
Publication	Ballantine Books (2007), Paperback, 304 pages
Publication date	2007
ISBN	034549234X / 9780345492340

Book Review: Bitten, by Kelley Armstrong

Title Bitten (Women of the Otherworld, Book 1)
Author: Armstrong, Kelley

Rating ***
Tags werewolves, fiction, series

This book is a good one, but it has one of those protagonists you just want to shake and say, "Wake up!" to. She acts often immaturely, thoughtlessly, in ways that will hurt herself and others. Human, in other words.... although this character is more than human, she's a werewolf.

The story is well-plotted, but I think I would have liked it better if it were shorter. About two-thirds of the way through I got tired of it, but not enough to stop reading it.

I will try the later books in the series. The author held my interest well enough I'll give her another try.

Publication Plume (2004), Paperback, 448 pages
Publication date 2004
ISBN 0452286034 / 9780452286030

Book Review: Prayer for the Damned

Title	A Prayer for the Damned: A Mystery of Ancient Ireland (Mysteries of Ancient Ireland featuring Sister Fidelma of Cashel)
Author Tremayne, Peter	Peter Tremayne
Rating
Tags	fiction, historical_mystery, ireland, fidelma
Your review	This is the 17th in Tremayne's Sister Fidelma seires set in 7th century Ireland. Tremayne is a pseudonym of Peter Berresford Ellis, a Celtic scholar who has published over 80 books total, many on Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and Cornish studies. He uses his scholarly understanding of Ireland to good effect in creating Fidelma's world. Fidelma is a religeuse and a lawyer. At the time, the professionally religious were still allowed to marry, although the Roman church was moving towards banning it. The setting for Prayer for the Damned is the fromal marriage of Fidelma and Eadulf, with whom she has been investigating cases for years. As Fidelma is sister to the King of Cashel, one of the five kingdoms of Ireland, the nobility of Ireland comes to the wedding. Unfortunately, the happy event has to be put off as a bishop is found murdered. Tremayne conveys fascinating tidbits of information on ancient Ireland, not always gracefully. The characters are interesting, and the plot is good. The series seemed to me to get rather plodding in some volumes, but this particular entry in the series is back to full strength. Recommended.
Other authors 1
Publication	St. Martin's Minotaur (2007), Edition: First Edition, Hardcover, 320 pages
Publication date	2007
ISBN	0312348339 / 9780312348335

Book review: Smoke and Ashes

Title	Smoke and Ashes (The Smoke Trilogy, Book 3)
Author Huff, Tanya	Tanya Huff
Rating
Tags	fiction, paranormal, vampires, wizardry
Your review	Now this is more like it. I wasn't that fond of the second book in this series, but with this third book Huff is back to work that I really like. I don't think the second one was a bad book, but just not my kind of thing. This one reminds me of why I'm so fond of Huff as a writer... she creates great characters and good plots. She doesn't cheat. Her books always have a logical consistency. For example, her Blood book (the Vicky Nelson series) that dealt with werewolves created a werewolf pack that combined human and wolf social structure that made sense. In this volume, the main character, Tony Foster, gets caught up with a 3500 year-old woman who currently works as a stunt woman. She's immortal because a demon made her that way. The demon seems to be trying to use her to come through to this world from his own dimension, and Tony and the stunt woman have to stop him from sending demons through and causing the end of the world.. Lots of fun.
Other authors 1
Publication	DAW (2007), Edition: Reprint, Paperback, 416 pages
Publication date	2007
ISBN	0756404150 / 9780756404154

Book review: Medicus, by Ruth Downie

Title	Medicus: A Novel of the Roman Empire
Author Downie, Ruth	Ruth Downie
Rating
Tags	fiction, historical mystery, roman britain
Your review	Medicus is Ruth Downey's first novel, and if she continues this good she'll have an excellent writing career. It is set in Roman Britain in the year Trajan died and Hadrian takes over, which makes it AD 117. Gaius Petreius Ruso is a doctor serving at a Roman army hospital in Deva (later Chester) . He winds up buying a British slave girl from a slave trader who was abusing her. She, of course, winds up turning his life upside down. Meanwhile a couple of girls at the nearby bar/whorehouse have shown up dead, and somehow everyone things that Ruso is investigating the murders - possibly including the murderer. Nice characters, a decent plot, gives a nice sense of time and place. Recommended.
Other authors 1
Publication	Bloomsbury USA (2007), Hardcover, 400 pages
Publication date	2007
ISBN	1596912316 / 9781596912311

Book review: Bad Blood by Linda Fairstein

Title	Bad Blood: A Novel
Author Fairstein, Linda	Linda Fairstein
Rating
Tags	fiiction, mystery, series, linda_fairstein, alexandra_cooper
Your review	This is the ninth in the Alex Cooper series by Linda Fairstein. Fairstein was the head of the sex crimes unit in the DA's office in New York City for 25 years, leaving to concentrate on her writing and to be a media consultant on sexual violence and domestic abuse for the major networks. Her character, Alex Cooper, is also the chief prosecutor for the sex crimes unit, and many of the minor stories in the books are based on real cases Fairstein has been involved with. This background gives great authenticity to the series. More than that, Fairstein loves and knows the city of New York so well, and each book tends to focus on some fascinating aspect of the city, such as the time Edgar Allen Poe spent there, the art world, the Metropolitan Opera House, etc. In Bad Blood, the story revolves around the New York City subterranean world, the fragile water system. the subways, and all the underground world worked by sandhogs The plot is excellent, the settings incredible, particularly the closed City Hall subway station I sometimes get tired of the character of Mike Chapman, the policeman Alex works most with, but it wasn't a bother in this book. It was an excellent entry in a good series.
Other authors 1
Publication	Pocket Star (2007), Edition: Reprint, Mass Market Paperback, 480 pages
Publication date	2007
ISBN	1416521518 / 9781416521518