Tainted Trail by Wen Spencer

While searching for a kidnapped hiker in Umatilla National Park, Ukiah Oregon, an enigmatic tracker possessing remarkable heightened senses who had been raised by wolves, stumbles upon the legend of a young boy who mysteriously vanished in 1933, a story that may hold the key to his own hidden past. 

Well-written, unique and imaginative.

My only issue was that it's been a few years since I read the previous book in the series so it took me a while to remember what had gone before. 

Year One by Nora Roberts

They call it The Doom - a deadly pandemic that starts on a cold New Year's Eve in the Scottish countryside. There's something mysterious about the virus and the way it spreads. As billions fall sick and die, some survivors find themselves invested with strange, unexpected abilities. 

Lana, a New York chef, has the power to move things and people with her will. Fred can summon light in the darkness. Jonah, a paramedic, sees snatches of the future in those he touches. Katie gives birth to twins, and suspects that she has brought fresh magic into the world, along with new life. 

But The Doom affects people differently. Along with the light, a dark and terrifying magic will also rise. As the remaining authorities round up the immune and the 'Uncannies' for testing, Lana, Katie and others flee New York in search of a safe haven. The old world is over, and Year One has begun.

It was a bit scary and entirely believable with how quickly a virus starting in one place with one person could spread around the world.

A good book with great dialogue and world building but I'm not sure if I will read the next book. 

Murder and Mendelssohn by Kerry Greenwood

An orchestral conductor has been found dead and Detective Inspector Jack Robinson needs the delightfully incisive and sophisticated Miss Fisher's assistance to enter a world in which he is at sea. Hedley Tregennis, not much liked by anyone, has been murdered in a most flamboyant mode by a killer with a point to prove. But how many killers is Phryne really stalking?

At the same time, the dark curls, disdainful air and the lavender eyes of mathematician and code-breaker Rupert Sheffield are taking Melbourne by storm. They've certainly taken the heart of Phryne's old friend from the trenches of WW1, John Wilson. Phryne recognises Sheffield as a man who attracts danger, and is determined to protect John from harm.

Even with the faithful Dot, Mr and Mrs Butler, and all in her household ready to pull their weight, Phryne's task is complex. While Mendelssohn's Elijah, memories of the Great War, and the science of deduction ring in her head, Phryne's past must also play its part as MI6 become involved in the tangled web of murders.

Phryne is a beautiful, intelligent, wealthy and independent thoroughly modern Miss. She smokes, drinks, has casual sex and drives her cars fast (all this in 1929 Melbourne) – however she is very kind-hearted and always on the side of the underdog. Phryne has a knack for solving mysteries, using her resources and the talents of her extended household, family and friends.

I do enjoy this series.  It is such a fun read.

Sympathy Between Humans by Jodi Compton

On the streets of Minneapolis, Sarah has worked everything from vice to missing persons. But six months after the death of a small-town criminal in rural Minnesota, Sarah is still protecting the identity of a killer. And now a zealous D.A.’s investigator has come to town, determined to make an arrest. With her ex-partner half a world away and her husband in prison, only Sarah remains to face the consequences of last fall. Surrounded by colleagues who know her to be the suspect in a murder, Sarah keeps her demons at bay by involving herself in the troubles of strangers. Seventeen-year-old Aidan Hennessy was banished from his family by his father. Now Aidan’s twin sister is desperately searching for the brother she hasn’t seen in years. Although the case is out of Sarah’s jurisdiction, she sees a reflection of herself in the troubled, damaged family, and agrees to investigate.

As she probes into their tangled history, Sarah begins to realize that the mystery of the Hennessys runs deeper than it appears. Then Sarah’s lieutenant gives her a simpler assignment: Track down a doctor rumored to be practicing medicine without a license in a housing project. But in Cicero Ruiz, Sarah finds a tough, wounded survivor whose moral code challenges her own ideas about justice…and whose hard-won life would be destroyed by an arrest. 

Now juggling two very different cases, both requiring a delicate balancing act between professional honor and personal feelings, Sarah soon has even more at stake. Caught up in a cat-and-mouse game with the investigator who wants to end her career, crossing one ethical line after another, Sarah increasingly fears that a misstep on her part will end not only in her disgrace, but in the death of one of those she has promised herself to protect.

I didn't want to put it down and thoroughly enjoyed where this story went.
It was a different and excellent mystery.

A Secret Gift by Ted Gup

Sam Stone's grandson discovered Sam had been an anonymous donor of five dollar checks to some of the most needy people in Canton, Ohio in 1933. This is a true detective story.

Imagine for a moment working hard, paying bills promptly, and putting money regularly into the savings bank. Then suddenly you lost your job. There was no unemployment insurance. You go to the bank and find it closed with all your savings gone. You try to sell your belongings. Sometimes this will feed the family for a while. Once your furniture is gone, and your house repossessed, and you are living as a whole family without heat or a bed in a room somewhere. Five dollars sometimes gave people enough hope to save them from suicide. Sometimes it meant an orange and a pair of shoes.

Ted Gup found descendants of the people his grand father had helped. He even found one still living who could remember the help. He followed up every one of his grandfather's checks, a tremendous task in itself.

But equally important he learned that his generous life affirming grandfather was an illegal alien who loved his adopted country with fear and passion.

This is the story of a man with secrets and who despite his own fears and worries chose to help others during desperate times. I really enjoyed the small individual stories of the people Sam Stone helped during the Great Depression, but I appreciated more getting the chance to see the real effect that this period of time had on individuals. 

A very moving look into the very personal stories of the depression and how one man's generosity helped and gave a ray of hope to so many. 

The Tiger In The Smoke by Margery Allingham

As the word goes round that Jack Havoc, jail-breaker and knife-artist, is at large again, carving his way into more (or less) innocent lives, the hunt goes up for the Tiger in the Smoke and Albert Campion and Chief Inspector Luke draw a tight net round a man-eater loose in London's November smog. 

A well written, interesting, intricate mystery. Very much a product of it's time (late 1940's).

The Tea Chest by Josephine Moon

Kate Fullerton, talented tea designer and now co-owner of The Tea Chest, could never have imagined that she'd be flying from Brisbane to London, risking her young family's future, to save the business she loves from the woman who wants to shut it down.

Meanwhile, Leila Morton has just lost her job; and if Elizabeth Clancy had known today was the day she would appear on the nightly news, she might at least have put on some clothes. Both need to start again.

When Kate's, Leila's and Elizabeth's paths unexpectedly cross, they throw themselves into realising Kate's magical vision of London's branch of the newest and most delectable tea shop, The Tea Chest. But every time success is within their grasp, increasing tensions damage their trust in each other.

With the very real possibility that The Tea Chest will fail, Kate, Leila and Elizabeth must decide what's important to each of them. Are they willing to walk away or can they learn to believe in themselves?

I really enjoyed this book. A light hearted story with characters keep you interested. I enjoyed the bits about tea and the different ingredients and flavours. 

Dragon Bones by Murray Gunn

Dragon Bones' by Murray Gunn is a delightful read. A great escape to a faraway land.

Dressed in a traditional `gho', Murray blends colourful observations of local characters, their culture, cuisine, language and etiquette, globalisation and politics, with Bhutan's breathtaking scenery to transport you right into the heart of this secretive Himalayan kingdom.

Murray has a keen eye for the quirky aspects and contradictions in Bhutan life - some that have you laughing out loud, while others remind you of your own nightmares abroad. His candid narrative as he struggles to appease a somewhat dismissive wife, together with a plethora of shockingly un-Buddhist experiences, gives powerful insight into this believed-to-be Shangri-la.

A very enjoyable glimpse into life in a country I am unlikely to visit. I rather liked the way it was written, the short glimpses of day to day life. Murray is Australian, his wife French.  I was not at all surprised when their marriage didn't last.  She lied to him from the start and was way too needy (when it suited her) and manipulative.

Season of Salt and Honey by Hannah Tunnicliffe

Francesca 'Frankie' Caputo has it all figured out. She's finally going to marry the man she loves and then they will live happily ever after. But when a freak accident cuts her fiancé Alex's life tragically short, all of Frankie's future plans suddenly disintegrate.

Drowning in grief, Frankie flees from her overbearing Italian-American family, and escapes to an abandoned cabin owned by Alex's parents in a remote part of Washington forest.

As her heart slowly begins to heal, Frankie discovers a freedom that's both exhilarating and unsettling to everything she has always known for sure. So when her old life comes crashing back in, Frankie must decide: will she slip quietly back into her safe, former existence? Or will a stronger, wiser Frankie Caputo stand up and claim her new life? 

Disappointing.  The best thing about this book was the cover.  The heroine was insipid and annoying, the hero had the opportunity to be an interesting character but wasn't well developed.
Great cover.

Guilty Little Secrets by Connie Lane

Seduction has no limits when two people with secrets come together in a hot little town called Vegas.

The last place Special Agent Rosie Malone expected to find herself was in a clown suit in a back alley in Vegas. It was part of an undercover sting...until a guy named Mack started muscling in on her territory. The sexy male stripper may be making them swoon every night at the Silver Swan Casino, but Rosie’s no pushover. Except there’s something about the guy...something that goes beyond just another gorgeous bod. And Rosie needs some answers. Such as what Mack’s really after–and who in the world he is.

It’s bad enough having to resurrect his old strip routine to infiltrate a master criminal ring. Now Mack’s got a beautiful clown in his sights who’s making him hotter than a desert summer. She’s also the target of some nasty thugs, and Mack knows he has to move fast–even if it means revealing his true identity. But it’s going to take some pretty inventive thinking to convince Rosie she’s safe with him. Not easy when he and Rosie are being pursued across state lines, posing as newlyweds and trying to pretend they’re anywhere but in the deepest danger–and doing anything but falling in love...

Light, fluffy and rather silly.  The heroine was annoying and I would be very concerned if that was really how the FBI carried out an investigation.

The Reason I Jump by Naomi Higashida

Written by Naoki Higashida when he was only thirteen, this remarkable book provides a rare insight into the often baffling behaviour of autistic children. Using a question and answer format, Naoki explains things like why he talks loudly or repeats the same questions, what causes him to have panic attacks, and why he likes to jump. He also shows the way he thinks and feels about his world - other people, nature, time and beauty, and himself. Abundantly proving that people with autism do possess imagination, humour and empathy, he also makes clear how badly they need our compassion, patience and understanding. 

An uplifting, fascinating look into what is really going on in the mind of an autistic person. 

Nurses of the Outback by Annabelle Brayley

The work of a nurse is challenging enough, but when you add a remote location, the stakes are so much higher. Meet fifteen courageous people who have chosen to pursue careers in remote area nursing.

There's Anna, who is on duty in Georgetown as the fury of Cyclone Yasi tears through inland Queensland; Maureen in outback New South Wales, who faces everything from a snakebite to a helicopter crash; Aggie, who overcomes her demons to help young people in the Kimberley; and Catherine, newly graduated and determined to make a difference in the Gulf Country she and her rodeo-riding husband call home.

From some of the most remote places on earth, these stories bring the outback to life – we witness the harshness and isolation as well as the camaraderie of life in small towns in the middle of nowhere. These intrepid nurses manage everyday health care and life-threatening emergencies, patch up the local pets and fundraise for their towns. They are the heartbeat of their communities.

From Bidyadanga to Broken Hill, from Mount Isa to Marree, these tales are by turns moving and inspiring, full of gutsy feats and classic outback spirit. 

 A very interesting read about a varied group of people all over Australia. Their stories of how and why they ended up working remotely were fascinating.  

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

A story of a Civil War soldier, Inman, who turns his back on the carnage of the battlefield and begins the treacherous journey home to Cold Mountain to find Ada, the woman he loved before the war began. Meanwhile Ada struggles to make a living from the land her father left her. Neither Ada nor Inman knows if the other is alive. 

This is a beautiful, understated, unsentimental story of quiet longing, endurance, and transformation.

I loved the language, the descriptions of both countryside and people. You came to know the characters.

This is a book that will stay with me. 

Never Go Back by Lee Child

After an epic and interrupted journey all the way from the snows of South Dakota, Jack Reacher has finally made it to Virginia. His destination: a sturdy stone building a short bus ride from Washington D.C., the headquarters of his old unit, the 110th MP. It was the closest thing to a home he ever had.

Why? He wants to meet the new commanding officer, Major Susan Turner. He liked her voice on the phone. But the officer sitting behind Reacher's old desk isn't a woman. Why is Susan Turner not there?


What Reacher doesn't expect is what comes next. He himself is in big trouble, accused of a sixteen-year-old homicide. And he certainly doesn't expect to hear these words: 'You're back in the army, Major. And your ass is mine.'

I always enjoy Jack Reacher. Lots of action, a few twists and turns and in this one a touch of romance. I liked Jack's possible daughter and would have liked to have seen more of her. 

What Bloody Man Is That? by Simon Brett

Charles Paris is on the way up again, career-wise. He is offered several small parts in the play dreaded by superstitious theatre folk, who will not even speak its name: 'the Scottish play' - Macbeth. It's only in provincial rep, but you have to start (or re-start) somewhere.

The principals in the cast could hardly be more ill-assorted. Macbeth is played by George Birkitt, the TV game-show personality whom we met in Dead Giveaway. Lady Macbeth comes straight from Stratford: an intense young woman with Method in her madness. And Duncan is that notorious old ham, Warnock Belvedere, who feels that he is in the tradition of the great actor managers.

With such a cast, sparks are bound to fly. It's not long before death strikes in the night. And Charles Paris takes on the role of private eye... 

Dated. Not much about the mystery, more about the characters. 

A Surrey State of Affairs by Ceri Redford

Constance Harding's comfortable corner of Surrey is her own little piece of heaven. She lives in a chocolate box house complete with an Aga and a parrot, her bell-ringing club is set to dominate the intercounty tournament, and she is sure she can get her son, Rupert, to settle down if she just writes the perfect personal ad for him. Naturally, things turn disastrous rather quickly. And she's about to learn that her perfect home conceals a scandal that would make the vicar blush.

Her Lithuanian housekeeper's undergarments keep appearing in her husband's study and her daughter is turning into a Lycra-clad gap-year strumpet. As her family falls apart, Constance embarks on an extraordinary journey. From partying in Ibiza to riding bareback with a handsome Argentinean gaucho whose only English words are "Britney" and "Spears," Constance is about to discover a wider world she thought it was too late to find.

 At first I found Constance to be clueless and a bit annoying, but as I got into the second half she became less annoying....still clueless, but less annoying.

I liked the way the book was written as her blog entries.

Overall a charming, entertaining read. 

The American Lover by Rose Tremain

Rose Tremain awakens the senses in this magnificent and diverse collection of short stories.

Trapped in a London apartment, Beth remembers a transgressive love affair in 1960s Paris. The most famous writer in Russia takes his last breath in a stationmaster’s cottage, miles from Moscow. A young woman who is about to marry a rich aristocrat instead begins a torrid relationship with a construction worker. A father, finally free of his daughter’s demands, embarks on a long swim from his Canadian lakeside retreat. A middle-aged woman cares for her injured mother at Christmas. And in the grandest house of all, Danni the Polish housekeeper catches the eye of an enigmatic visitor, Daphne du Maurier. 

As usual with short story collections I enjoyed some stories more than others. 

My favourite was A View of Lake Superior in the Fall. It was about a couple in their 70's running away from home to their cabin on Lake Superior when their 42 year old daughter returned home to 'look after them.'

I prefer Rose Tremain's full length novels. 

The Affair by Lee Child

March 1997. A woman has her throat cut behind a bar in Mississippi. Just down the road is a big army base. Is the murderer a local guy - or is he a soldier?

Jack Reacher, still a major in the military police, is sent in undercover. The county sheriff is a former U.S. Marine - and a stunningly beautiful woman. Her investigation is going nowhere. Is the Pentagon stonewalling her? Or doesn't she really want to find the killer?

As usual with the Jack Reacher series an excellent read. It was interesting to see Jack's last case in the army and why he left the army. There were a couple of red herrings, but mostly it was Jack being Jack.

The bonus story at the end of the book was a great look at Jack's childhood. 
 

The Summer Book by Tove jansson

 An elderly artist and her six-year-old granddaughter while away a summer together on a tiny island in the gulf of Finland. Gradually, the two learn to adjust to each other's fears, whims and yearnings for independence, and a fierce yet understated love emerges, one that encompasses not only the summer inhabitants but the island itself, with its mossy rocks, windswept firs and unpredictable seas. 

Delightful, charming and marvellous.

I liked this bit: "In between times, she played cards with her grandmother. They both cheated shamelessly, and their card-playing afternoons always ended in a quarrel. This had never happened before. Grandmother tried to recall her own rebellious periods in order to try and understand, but all she could remember was an unusually well-behaved little girl. Wise as she was, she realised that people can postpone their rebellious phases until they're eighty-five years old, and she decided to keep an eye on herself."

Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child

Suicide bombers are easy to spot.
They give out all kinds of tell-tale signs.There are twelve things to look for.No one who has worked in law enforcement will ever forget them.

New York City.The subway, two o'clock in the morning.
Jack Reacher studies his fellow passengers.Four are OK.The fifth isn't.
The train brakes for Grand Central Station.

Will Reacher intervene, and save lives?
Or is he wrong?Will his intervention cost lives - including his own?

Fast paced and action packed.  It's not often Reacher is wrong, but in this one he gets it wrong.  Not a suicide bomber, a woman committing suicide.  The ending was slightly disappointing, you never do find out exactly what set off the whole sequence of events.

Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud

 In the mid-1960s, two girls, ages 5 and 7, travel with their mother from London to Marrakech. Also along for the ride are John, Mum's boyfriend, and Maretta, John's wife. 

Once the group arrives in Marrakech, John and Maretta split off, and Mum hooks up with various men and pursues spirituality. The children, meanwhile, want nothing more than to be normal--or at least not to be so embarrassed by their mother.

If you can put aside the inevitable, "What sort of a mother would take such enormous risks with her kids?" you can enjoy this charming, well-written book that seems to begin in the middle of the story and finish somewhere towards the end of the story. 

Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child

You do not mess with Jack Reacher.

He is as close to untraceable as a person can get. A loner comfortable in his anonymity and solitude. So when a member of his old Army unit finds a way to contact him, he knows this has to be serious.

You do not mess with the Special Investigators.

In the past the elite team always watched each other's backs. Now one of them has shown up dead in the California desert and six more are missing. 

Reacher's old buddies are in big trouble, and he can't let that go.

The action is nonstop, and as usual, Reacher (and company) make their own kind of justice to revenge the deaths of the lost members of their unit.  

Another excellent Jack Reacher story.

The Saffron Kitchen by Yasmin Crowther

In a powerful debut novel that moves between the crowded streets of London and the desolate mountains of Iran, Yasmin Crowther paints a stirring portrait of a family shaken by events from decades ago and worlds away. On a rainy day in London the dark secrets and troubled past of Maryam Mazar surface violently, with tragic consequences for her daughter, Sara, and her newly orphaned nephew. Maryam leaves her English husband and family and returns to the remote Iranian village where her story began. In a quest to piece their life back together, Sara follows her mother and finally learns the terrible price Maryam once had to pay for her freedom, and of the love she left behind. Set against the breathtaking beauty of two very different places, this stunning family drama transcends culture and is, at its core, a rich and haunting narrative about mothers and daughters.

A beautifully written poignant story about choices you make resonating throughout your life and the lives of your family.  It was difficult to read at times and I had to put it down and take a break for a while.  I am very glad I finished it.  A bittersweet ending.  I gave it 10/10.

Perfect People by Peter James

John and Naomi are grieving the death of their four-year-old son from a rare genetic disorder. They desperately want another child, but they realize the odds of their next child contracting the same disease are high. Then they hear about geneticist Dr Leo Dettore. He has methods that can spare them the heartache of ever losing another child to any disease. At his clinic is where their nightmare begins. They should have realized something was wrong when they saw the list. Choices of eye colour, hair, sporting abilities. They can literally design their child. Now it's too late to turn back. Naomi is pregnant and already something is badly wrong ...

A chilling story that I couldn't put down.  How much do you trust a stranger?  Should you play around with nature?  They went to the geneticist to have one gene changed on their future child, he gave them twins with lots of experimental changes.

Miss Chopsticks by Xinran

The story centres on three sisters from a poor rural family who move to Nanjing to find work. Their father's status in the village is reduced because he is only able to produce 'chopstick' daughters rather than 'roofbeam' sons, however the three girls prove their worth and more through their success in gaining meaningful employment, and earning much-needed cash, in the big city.

The individual girls' stories are all interesting and are based on individual true accounts of three girls from different backgrounds who moved to the city. The contrast between rural and city life in modern-day China are startling, and the girls' experiences in adjusting to modern city life are in turns poignant, funny, enlightening and sometimes sad.

The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Charlie is a freshman. And while he’s not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. Shy, introspective, intelligent beyond his years yet socially awkward, he is a wallflower, caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it. Charlie is attempting to navigate his way through uncharted territory: the world of first dates and mix tapes, family dramas and new friends; the world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite. But he can’t stay on the sideline forever. Standing on the fringes of life offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor.

A well-written coming-of-age novel about a socially awkward teen.
I enjoyed the way it was written as a series of letters to an anonymous friend.  

Plum Wine by Angela Davis - Gardiner

 The book is set in Japan during the 1960s and the two main characters are Barbara, an American, and Seiji, Japanese. There's a kind of mystery in that Barbara inherits a chest full of bottles of plum wine, each one bottled and labeled in a different year, from the 1930s onward. 

She meets Seijei, a potter, who volunteers to translate the papers wrapped around the bottles of plum wine.  Through the translated papers she discovers the life of Michi, a friend and fellow teacher, who left her the chest.  She finds out that Michi survived the bombing of Hiroshima, as did Seijei.

She falls in love with Seijei and has an affair with him. Something forbidden both by the school at which Barbara is a guest teacher and by Japanese culture.

I didn't like Seijei. He was weak, deceitful and manipulative.  The story was excellent. A masterfully told tale of love and loss.

The Last Girl by Michael Adams

It is Christmas day and instead of lolling around in a diabetic haze of too much food, too much alcohol and way more lollies than is healthy the world as we know it comes to an end. In a split second all humans become telepathic, the desire to be connected via smart phones and the internet has resulted in a massed mind meld. Instantly a person can hear what everyone else if thinking – what your husband really thinks of his gifts, your boyfriend is actually gay, the man flying your plane once trained as a suicide bomber and your wife is having an affair with your neighbour. But not just one person’s thought invade your mind, thousands of thoughts invade and you can’t shut them out, they can’t be turned off or put into sleep mode. You now experience car crashes, train derailments and plane crashes as well as the utter chaos and violence that break out around you. In a snap the whole world changes and information overload takes on a whole new meaning. Eventually the overload is too much and one by one people become catatonic, they go into shut down mode. But who wakes these people up before they starve to death, die of dehydration? There are survivors – people like Danby who can hear people – but can’t be heard. She is not alone, but not everyone is pure of heart, some survivors have an ulterior motive.

The Last Girl  is a 'end of the world as we know it' scenario the end of the world is not caused by nuclear holocaust, global warming, alien invasion or zombie/mysterious virus - it is our increasing reliance on computers and social networks that does us all in!

It was set in Sydney and the Blue Mountains.  

A really good read. I am glad I started it on a weekend as I had a hard time putting it down. 

Late Nights On Air by Elizabeth Hay

Harry Boyd, a hard-bitten refugee from failure in Toronto television, has returned to a small radio station in the Canadian North. There, in Yellowknife, in the summer of 1975, he falls in love with a voice on air, though the real woman, Dido Paris, is both a surprise and even more than he imagined.

Dido and Harry are part of the cast of eccentric characters, all transplants from elsewhere, who form an unlikely group at the station. Their loves and longings, their rivalries and entanglements, the stories of their pasts and what brought each of them to the North, form the centre. One summer, on a canoe trip four of them make into the Arctic wilderness (following in the steps of the legendary Englishman John Hornby, who, along with his small party, starved to death in the barrens in 1927), they find the balance of love shifting, much as the balance of power in the North is being changed by the proposed Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline, which threatens to displace Native people from their land. 

 Character and place driven story of a group of people who come together and share an experience.  I loved the descriptions of the Canadian wilderness.

A quiet, contemplative read. 

The Ocean at the End of The Lane by Neil Gaiman

It began for our narrator forty years ago when the family lodger stole their car and committed suicide in it, stirring up ancient powers best left undisturbed. Dark creatures from beyond this world are on the loose, and it will take everything our narrator has just to stay alive: there is primal horror here, and menace unleashed - within his family and from the forces that have gathered to destroy it. 

His only defence is three women, on a farm at the end of the lane. The youngest of them claims that her duckpond is an ocean. The oldest can remember the Big Bang.

Part fantasy, part horror and part coming-of-age tale, this bewitching story is a beautifully written adult fairytale. 

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

 Marie-Laure has been blind since the age of six. Her father builds a perfect miniature of their Paris neighbourhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. But when the Nazis invade, father and daughter flee with a dangerous secret.

Werner is a German orphan, destined to labour in the same mine that claimed his father’s life, until he discovers a knack for engineering. His talent wins him a place at a brutal military academy, but his way out of obscurity is built on suffering.

At the same time, far away in a walled city by the sea, an old man discovers new worlds without ever setting foot outside his home. But all around him, impending danger closes in.

Beautifully written story about 2 people during a war rather than a war story. Marie Laure protected and cherished since birth, was taught to cope in a dark and frightening world. Werner, an orphan, struggled to find his own way and not to succumb to the evil he was exposed to.

Not the ending I had hoped for, but a more realistic outcome. 

Picture Me Dead by Heather Graham

Ashley Montague is a rookie cop who discovers a body on the side of the highway in Miami. Her investigation leads her to Detective Jack Dilessio, an arrogant Veteran who is determined to exact revenge for a murder that happened years earlier. Together they're dragged into the dangerous world of drug trafficking, only to find that they're now fighting for their lives...and for each other. 

Twists, turns and red herrings abound.  I prefer her ghost hunter stories to her murder mysteries.

diamonds in the mud by Joy Dettman

Diamonds in the Mud and Other Stories is the complete collection of Joy Dettman's exquisite short stories.
We meet an old coot in a rusty ute who picks up a hitchhiker, a neighbour reaches across the language divide to lend a helping hand, a grave digger might just have saved a young man's life, an exhausted farmer's wife lusts after a china cup, Granny Jordan is losing her marbles and an author is troubled by rats under the floorboards. 

 I loved all of these stories. It was very hard to pick my favourite. I have narrowed it down to;
The Khaki Flannel Dress  - a young girl takes the opportunity offered by a flood to get rid of her hated khaki flannel dress

Scattered Cinders - a man who has lost  everything finds hope

Her Name Is Karli - a story with a lovely sweet ending

Summer Pink - a 100 year old lady gets the last laugh on her greedy descendants

Two Gifts For Annie - a really nice story about a deaf girl and the teacher who had faith in ner

Like a Lady  - a boy goes to buy a dog and is told the story of how the old man selling the pups found his original dog back in the depression

An Irresistible Bachelor by J R Ward

Jack Walker has given up his playboy status and, much to his Machiavellian mother's delight, become engaged to a wealthy socialite. Now mommy dearest can go ahead with her plans to make him governor of Massachusetts. But the best-laid plans often go offtrack, and in this case the cause of the derailment is art conservationist Callie Burke. The minute Jack lays eyes on her, he forgets everything, including his politically acceptable fiancee. He hires Callie to restore a recently acquired John Singleton Copley portrait of one of his ancestors and moves her into his mansion so she can work uninterrupted on the $5 million art treasure, but both Callie and the painting conceal secrets.

Well written romance with few surprises. 

Killbox by Ann Aguirre

Navigational grimspace "jumper" Sirantha Jax forms an army to defend colonists stationed on the outskirts of space from a legion of flesh- eating aliens.

Wonderfully complex characters and an exciting storyline. War has begun and March and Jax are fighting to save the universe and all who live in it from the Morgut (people eating aliens). Big decisions, lots of emotions and sacrifices. There are 2 more books in the series but I think I will stop here.   I've enjoyed the series and want to stop while I still do.

Haunted by Heather Graham

Matt Stone doesn't believe in ghosts. But there are those who are convinced his home, a historic Virginia estate that dates back to the Revolutionary War, is haunted. Pressured to get at the truth about some strange happenings at Melody House, he agrees to let Harrison Investigations explore the house.

But he isn't ready for beautiful, intriguing Darcy Tremayne. As a paranormal investigator, Darcy has learned to believe in the unbelievable. And she's given Matt fair warning: sometimes people don't like the skeletons she finds. She never dreamed that warning would apply to herself. For she's about to discover that Melody House holds much more than a simple mystery from the distant past. What it holds is a very real and lethal danger, one that will cast her into a struggle against the worlds of both the living and the dead. 

The mystery and ghosts were intriguing. I thought I had worked out the woman in white but was wrong. Likeable characters, but the romance didn't add to the story. Matt was rude to Darcy from the beginning and didn't believe in her.

Windfall by Rachel Caine

Leaving Las Vegas seemed like a great idea to Joanne Baldwin. But there’s no escaping her past - and there’s no time to recharge. The former Weather Warden’s powers are at an all-time low just as the clouds of war are gathering - and the biggest storm since Atlantis’s destruction is heading for landfall.

Joanne is exhausted. When not donning a rain mac and camping it up for the camera as a TV weather girl, she has to contend with a vengeful cop on her tail, her newly divorced sister moving in and getting caught in the middle of a supernatural civil war. Worst of all, her boyfriend in a bottle can’t stop draining her powers and is fast morphing from the Djinn of her dreams to the Ifrit of her nightmares.

As the agreement between the Wardens and the Djinn starts to self-destruct, Joanne finds herself forced to choose between saving her lover, saving her Warden abilities…and saving humanity.

I think I must have missed one in this series.  it took me a bit to work out what and what was happening.  It was one disaster after another, absolutely nothing went right for Jo.  Lets hope things improve for her in the next book, if I bother reading it.

Ghost Walk by Heather Graham

 Nikki DuMonde's newest employee is standing at the end of her bed at four o'clock in the morning begging for help. It's a joke, right? Besides, as manager of a successful New Orleans haunted-tour company, Nikki doesn't scare easily. But in the light of day, harsh reality sets in as a police officer informs her that Andy was brutally murdered—at the exact time Nikki swears the distraught woman was in her room.

No one believes her except for Brent Blackhawk, a paranormal investigator desperately trying to forget his tragic past. Half Irish, half Lakota—and able to communicate with the dead—Brent is used to living in two worlds. But when he realizes the ghost of a slain government agent is also trying to reach out to Nikki, he knows that she, too, must listen to the dead…if she wants to keep living. 

Interesting mystery with ghosts and a touch of romance. 

Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon away from life as a San Francisco web-design drone and into the aisles of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. But after a few days on the job, Clay discovers that the store is more curious than either its name or its gnomic owner might suggest. The customers are few, and they never seem to buy anything―instead, they "check out" large, obscure volumes from strange corners of the store. Suspicious, Clay engineers an analysis of the clientele's behavior, seeking help from his variously talented friends. But when they bring their findings to Mr. Penumbra, they discover the bookstore's secrets extend far beyond its walls.  

A mystery and a puzzle all wrapped up in a delightfully quirky book set in a bookshop.  10/10

Right as Rain by Tricia Stringer

 Mackenna Birch thinks she's met the man of her dreams while on holiday in New Zealand. Adam Walker is funny, kind and loving but he walks out on her, or so she thinks...

Hiding from a broken heart, Mackenna returns to the family farm in Australia. Then, out of the blue Adam returns. He’s made the trip Down Under to visit his sick grandfather and to track down Mackenna.

When he turns up on her doorstep to profess his love and find out why she ran out on him, Mackenna finds herself questioning his love for her... 

I found myself wanting to shake the mother for trying to arrange her children lives as she thought they should be rather than want the (adult) children wanted. 

I enjoyed the setting of the sheep station, brought back memories of our time in WA. 

An easy to read book.

Worth Dying For by Lee Child

There’s deadly trouble in the corn county of Nebraska . . . and Jack Reacher walks right into it. First he falls foul of the Duncans, a local clan that has terrified an entire county into submission. But it’s the unsolved, decades-old case of a missing child that Reacher can’t let go.

The Duncans want Reacher gone—and it’s not just past secrets they’re trying to hide. For as dangerous as the Duncans are, they’re just the bottom of a criminal food chain stretching halfway around the world. For Reacher, it would have made much more sense to put some distance between himself and the hard-core trouble that’s bearing down on him. For Reacher, that was also impossible.

Another action packed Jack Reacher adventure. 

In this one, Reacher blows up a good portion of the Nebraska plains, stops all the bad guys, saves the women and children about to be sold and even makes a few friends along the way. 

Always a quick, enjoyable read. 

Viscount Breckenridge to the Rescue by Stephanie Laurens

Determined to hunt down her very own hero, one who willsweep her off her feet and into wedded bliss, and despairingof finding him in London’s staid ballrooms, Heather Cynstersteps out of her safe world and boldly attends a racy soiree.

But her promising hunt is ruined by the supremelyinterfering Viscount Breckenridge, who whisks her outof scandal—and straight into danger, when a mysteriousenemy seizes her, bundles her intoa coach, and conveys her out of London.

Now it’s up to the notoriousBreckenridge to prove himself the heroshe’s been searching for all along . . . 

Another, enjoyable light read by Stephanie laurels.  I like the description of these books by someone else "an alpha male brought to their knees by a dainty female".

Doubleblind by Ann Aguirre

It’s not easy to tread lightly wearing steel-toed boots.

Sirantha Jax isn’t known for diplomatic finesse. As a “Jumper” who navigates ships through grimspace, she’s used to kicking ass first and taking names later—much later. Not exactly the obvious choice to sell the Conglomerate to the Ithtorians, a people whose opinions of humans are as hard as their exoskeletons.

And Ithiss-Tor council meetings aren’t the only place where Ambassador Jax needs to maneuver carefully. Her lover, March, is frozen in permanent “kill” mode, and his hair-trigger threatens to sabotage the talks—not to mention their relationship.

But Jax won’t give up on the man or the mission. With the Outskirts beleaguered by raiders, pirates, and the flesh-eating Morgut, an alliance with Ithiss-Tor may be humanity’s only hope.

Which has Jax wondering why a notorious troublemaker like her was given the job…

Love this series!! This book started out slow. The first half was mostly politics as Sirantha and her crew attempt to broker an alliance with the Ithtorian. But about half way through the book we get back into the action that makes this series such a great read. Looking forward to more of this series soon.