The Bone Collection by Kathy Reichs

Dr Temperance Brennan thought she’d seen it all until she came across Bones in Her Pocket in the foothills of North Carolina.

Down in the Everglades Tempe investigates Swamp Bones­ – a grisly discovery in the stomach of an eighteen-foot Burmese python.

In the heights of Mount Everest a frozen corpse means Bones On Ice.

And First Bones gets under Tempe’s skin with the untold story of her first case and her decision to become a forensic anthropologist.

All the stories were ok, but nothing as good as her usual full length novels.  The bits about the number of people who die on Everest and how their bodies are left there was interesting.

7/10

Fortune and Glory: Tantalising 27 by Janet Evanovich

When Stephanie's beloved Grandma Mazur's new husband died on their wedding night, the only thing he left her was a beat-up old easy chair... and the keys to a life-changing fortune.
But as Stephanie and Grandma Mazur search for Jimmy Rosolli's treasure, they discover that they're not the only ones on the hunt. Two dangerous enemies from the past stand in their way-along with a new adversary who's even more formidable: Gabriela Rose, a dark-eyed beauty from Little Havana with a taste for designer clothes. She's also a soldier of fortune, a gourmet cook, an expert in firearms and mixed martial arts-and someone who's about to give Stephanie a real run for her money.
Stephanie may be in over her head, but she's got two things that Gabriela doesn't: an unbreakable bond with her family and a stubborn streak that will never let her quit.
She'll need both to survive because this search for "fortune and glory" will turn into a desperate race against time with more on the line than ever before. Because even as she searches for the treasure and fights to protect her Grandma Mazur, her own deepest feelings will be tested-as Stephanie could finally be forced to choose between Joe Morelli and Ranger.

Stephanie Plum continues to entertain. Two wrecked cars, a mammoth explosion, a fun treasure hunt and quirky characters.

I don't think she should have to choose between Morelli and Ranger, why can't she have both?

7/10

Sex With Kings by Eleanor Herman

Throughout the centuries, royal mistresses have been worshiped, feared, envied, and reviled. They set the fashions, encouraged the arts, and, in some cases, ruled nations. Sex with Kings takes us into the throne rooms and bedrooms of Europe's most powerful monarchs. Alive with flamboyant characters, outrageous humor, and stirring poignancy, this tale of passion and politics chronicles 500 years of scintillating women and the kings who loved them.

Curiously, the main function of a royal mistress was not to provide the king with sex but with companionship. Forced to marry repulsive foreign princesses, kings sought solace with women of their own choice. From Madame de Pompadour, the famous mistress of Louis XV, who kept her position for 19 years despite her frigidity, to modern-day Camilla Parker-Bowles, who usurped Diana, Princess of Wales.

The successful royal mistress made herself irreplaceable. She was ready to converse gaily with him when she was tired, make love until all hours when she was ill, and cater to his every whim. Wearing a mask of beaming delight over any and all discomforts, she was never to be exhausted, complaining, or grief-stricken.

Financial rewards for services rendered were of royal proportions - some earned up to $200 million in titles, pensions, jewels, and palaces. Some kings allowed their mistresses unlimited political power.

But for all its grandeur, a royal court was a scorpion's nest of insatiable greed, unquenchable lust, and vicious ambition. From the dawn of time, power has been a mighty aphrodisiac. With diaries, personal letters, and diplomatic dispatches, Eleanor Herman's trailblazing research reveals the dynamics of sex and power, rivalry and revenge, at the most brilliant courts of Europe. Sex with Kings is a chapter of women's history that has remained unwritten - until now.

Full of sex and drama. An interesting read about Royal mistresses and how their roles changed from 1066 to Charles and Camilla.

8/10

The Woolgrower's Companion by Joy Rhoades

Australia 1945. Until now Kate Dowd has led a sheltered life on Amiens, her family's sprawling sheep station in northern New South Wales. The horrors of war have for the most part left her untouched. But with her father succumbing to wounds he's borne since the Great War, the management of the farm is increasingly falling on Kate's shoulders. 

With only the sheep-rearing book The Woolgrower's Companion to guide her, Kate rises to the challenge. However, the arrival of two Italian POW labourers unsettles not only the other workers, but Kate too - especially when she finds herself drawn to the enigmatic Luca Canali. Then she receives devastating news. The farm is near bankrupt, and the bank is set to repossess. Given just eight weeks to pay the debt, Kate is now in a race to save everything she holds dear.

An enjoyable read but not one that I couldn't put down. The racism and sexism was so blatant and very noticeable. The setting on a sheep station in rural NSW was very familiar and well described.

8/10

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Famous artist Alicia Berenson shoots her husband in the head five times and then never speaks again.

Five years later, forensic psychotherapist Theo Faber must find a way to get Alicia to talk if he wants to treat her. Only then can he unravel the shocking events of that tragic night five years before....

Oh wow!  Great read with a twist I didn't see coming.

10/10

When God Was A Rabbit by Sarah Winman

The story is based over time in Cornwall and New york. It concerns a young girl Elly and her idolised older brother, Joe, who is the only person to realise that his sister has been sexually abused. Joe's reaction to this shows his passion and determination to protect his sister from their neighbour. Their loving but flakey parents are bilissfully unaware. Elly's best friend is the product of a dysfunctional family, and eventually she vanishes from Elly's life. The novel changes timescale into the future and adult lives, and does so seamlessly. Joe is gay and lives in NYC. Elly is still his adored sister. Then Joe is involved in the 9/11 tragedy. Fear, relief and then a different kind of terror invade their lives. It is a book about relationships and love, about what can remain locked inside and how love can bring it to the surface.

A celebration of all that is enchanting, ordinary and exceptional. I really enjoyed this book.

“Memories no matter how small or inconsequential are the pages that define us.”

10/10

The Birdman's Wife by Melissa Ashley

Artist Elizabeth Gould spent her life capturing the sublime beauty of birds the world had never seen before. But her legacy was eclipsed by the fame of her husband, John Gould. The Birdman’s Wife at last gives voice to a passionate and adventurous spirit who was so much more than the woman behind the man.
Elizabeth was a woman ahead of her time, juggling the demands of her artistic life with her roles as wife, lover, helpmate, and mother to an ever-growing brood of children. In a golden age of discovery, her artistry breathed wondrous life into hundreds of exotic new species, including Charles Darwin’s famous Galapagos finches.
In The Birdman’s Wife, the naïve young girl who falls in love with a demanding and ambitious genius comes into her own as a woman, an artist and a bold adventurer who defies convention by embarking on a trailblazing expedition to collect and illustrate Australia’s ‘curious’ birdlife.

It was interesting to learn about John Gould's wife and her painting. She worked so hard while producing child after child (terrible times to be a woman)

I enjoyed it while I was reading it, but it didn't call to me to pick up and keep reading. Very slow paced and a bit too much detail on the killing and skinning of birds, some of which were already rare.

6/10

Under The Cold Bright Lights by Garry Disher

Since Alan Auhl came out of retirement the young detectives call him a retread. Some days he feels like one. Cheaply slapped together. Just about guaranteed to wear down quickly.

But he does things his own way and gets results—even if his cases are a bit colder now.

Like the skeleton that’s just been found under a concrete slab. Or the old farmer, dead five years, whose daughters still don’t believe it was an accident. Or the doctor who’s murdered two wives and a girlfriend and left no evidence at all.

Auhl will stick with these cases until justice is done. One way or another.

The justice one way or another is for the cop to kill the baddie if he can't get him through legal means.

I really enjoyed this Aussie murder mystery. This one was set in Melbourne and outer rural areas. I'll be looking for more by this author.

8/10

Dregs by Jorn Lier Horst

Chief Inspector William Wisting is an experienced policeman familiar with the dark side of human nature. He lives in challenging times for the Norwegian police force, meeting them with integrity and humanity, and a fragile belief that he can play a part in creating a better world. Dregs begins with a police report giving the place and time of the discovery of a training shoe washed up on the sand, containing a severed foot. Soon a second shoe is washed up, but it is another left foot. What is the explanation for this? Has there been some kind of terrible accident at sea? Does it indicate the killing and dismembering of two victims? Is there a link with the unsolved mystery of a number of disappearances in the Larvik area in recent months? In this gripping police procedural, Wisting gradually gets to the bottom of the mystery with the help of his all too human colleagues and his journalist daughter, Line.

A good, well paced mystery with clues given all through the story but it not all coming together until the end. There was a twist at the end, but it made sense.

7/10