Game On: Tempting Twenty-eight by Janet Evanovich

When Stephanie Plum is woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of footsteps in her apartment, she wishes she didn’t keep her gun in the cookie jar in her kitchen.  And when she finds out the intruder is fellow apprehension agent Diesel, six feet of hard muscle and bad attitude whom she hasn’t seen in more than two years, she still thinks the gun might come in handy.  

Turns out Diesel and Stephanie are on the trail of the same fugitive: Oswald Wednesday, an international computer hacker as brilliant as he is ruthless.  Stephanie may not be the most technologically savvy sleuth, but she more than makes up for that with her dogged determination, her understanding of human nature, and her willingness to do just about anything to bring a fugitive to justice.  Unsure if Diesel is her partner or her competition in this case, she’ll need to watch her back every step of the way as she sets the stage to draw Wednesday out from behind his computer and into the real world.   

Another good, fun Stephanie Plum story. She only blew up 2 cars this time, but there was another man trying to get into her bed.

8/10

The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club by Sophie Green

Books bring them together - but friendship will transform all of their lives. Five very different women come together in this Top Ten bestseller, set in the Northern Territory of the 1970s, by an exceptional new Australian author.

In 1978 the Northern Territory has begun to self-govern. Cyclone Tracy is a recent memory and telephones not yet a fixture on the cattle stations dominating the rugged outback. Life is hard and people are isolated. But they find ways to connect.

Sybil is the matriarch of Fairvale Station, run by her husband, Joe. Their eldest son, Lachlan, was Joe's designated successor but he has left the Territory - for good. It is up to their second son, Ben, to take his brother's place. But that doesn't stop Sybil grieving the absence of her child.

With her oldest friend, Rita, now living in Alice Springs and working for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, and Ben's English wife, Kate, finding it difficult to adjust to life at Fairvale, Sybil comes up with a way to give them all companionship and purpose: they all love to read, and she forms a book club.

Mother-of-three Sallyanne is invited to join them. Sallyanne dreams of a life far removed from the dusty town of Katherine where she lives with her difficult husband, Mick.

Completing the group is Della, who left Texas for Australia looking for adventure and work on the land.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I loved the list of world events for each year. The story is very much a taste of the Territory. I loved the line about the wet season meant that everyone was grumpy. So true!

9/10

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E Harrow

ACCORDING TO JANUARY SCALLER, THERE'S ONLY ONE WAY TO RUN AWAY FROM YOUR OWN STORY, AND THAT'S TO SNEAK INTO SOMEONE ELSE'S . . . 

In a sprawling mansion filled with peculiar treasures, January Scaller is a curiosity herself. As the ward of the wealthy Mr Locke, she feels little different from the artefacts that decorate the halls: carefully maintained, largely ignored and utterly out of place.

But her quiet existence is shattered when she stumbles across a strange book. A book that carries the scent of other worlds and tells a tale of secret doors, of love, adventure and danger. Each page reveals more impossible truths about the world, and January discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.

A story of layers. Told from a few different points of view and over different time scales. It all came together beautifully at the end.

8/10

Mayhem in St Malo by Jean Failler

Mary Lester is a French police lieutenant in Quimper, but she has been sent to Saint-Malo to investigate a beautiful young woman's death. The local superintendent concluded that the woman died of natural causes. Mary, who is both inquisitive and independent, thinks he is dead wrong. Not only that, but unless she takes decisive action, more lives may be lost.

It was an enjoyable, quick read. She was a bit slow to put the 3 missing persons cases together as relating to the murder so I got a bit frustrated with her. Overall it was good. I wouldn't go looking for more in the series, but if I came across them I would be happy to read them.

7/10

Night School by Lee Child

It's just a voice plucked from the air- 'The American wants a hundred million dollars'.

For what? Who from? It's 1996, and the Soviets are long gone. But now there's a new enemy. In an apartment in Hamburg, a group of smartly-dressed young Saudis are planning something big.

In the morning they gave Reacher a medal, and in the afternoon they sent him back to school.

Jack Reacher is fresh off a secret mission. The Army pats him on the back and sends him to a school with only three students- Reacher, an FBI agent, and a CIA analyst. Their assignment? 

To find that American. And what he's selling. And to whom. 

Jack Reacher stories are always so good. The story grabbed me from the start and I didn't want to put it down.

8/10

Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear

London, 1929. Joseph Waite is a man who knows what he wants. With his Havana cigars and Savile Row suits, he is one of Britain?s wealthiest men. And the last thing he needs is a scandal. When his eighteen-year- old daughter runs away from home, he is determined to keep the case aw ay from the police and the newspapers. So he turns to a woman renowned for her discretion and investigative powers ? the extraordinary Maisi e Dobbs. Immediately sensing the tensions pervading the Waite househol d, Maisie soon discovers that there are many reasons why Charlotte mig ht have left home. Instinctively Maisie feels that Charlotte is safe. Yet, suddenly, she finds herself confronting a murder scene.

This is my first Maisie Dobbs book and I was entertained and engaged and would happily read more in the series.

8/10

The Year of Living Danishly. by Helen Russell

When she was suddenly given the opportunity of a new life in rural Jutland, journalist and archetypal Londoner Helen Russell discovered a startling statistic: the happiest place on earth isn't Disneyland, but Denmark, a land often thought of by foreigners as consisting entirely of long dark winters, cured herring, Lego and pastries.What is the secret to their success? Are happy Danes born, or made? Helen decides there is only one way to find out: she will give herself a year, trying to uncover the formula for Danish happiness.

The author tried really hard to be witty and clever and didn't quite pull it off. An interesting look at being an ex-pat in a country we will never live in.

7/10

Three Gold Coins by Josephine Moon

One coin for love, one for marriage, one to return to Rome.

Two days ago, Lara Foxleigh tossed three gold euros into the Trevi Fountain. Now, she is caring for a cranky old man and living in a picturesque villa, half a world away from her home and the concerns of her loving family.

Soon, it seems as if those wishes she made in Rome just might be coming true, and she may even be able to help heal a fifteen-year-old tragedy.

Until Lara's past threatens to destroy everything she loves . . .

An OK read. Told from various point of view. and jumps around in time. No real surprises, no real thrills. Quick and easy read.

7/10

The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel

“Roanoke girls never last long around here. In the end, we either run or we die.”
"After her mother's suicide, fifteen year-old Lane Roanoke came to live with her grandparents and fireball cousin, Allegra, on their vast estate in rural Kansas. Lane knew little of her mother's mysterious family, but she quickly embraced life as one of the rich and beautiful Roanoke girls. But when she discovered the dark truth at the heart of the family, she ran…fast and far away.

Eleven years later, Lane is adrift in Los Angeles when her grandfather calls to tell her Allegra has gone missing. Did she run too? Or something worse? Unable to resist his pleas, Lane returns to help search, and to ease her guilt at having left Allegra behind. Her homecoming may mean a second chance with the boyfriend whose heart she broke that long ago summer. But it also means facing the devastating secret that made her flee, one she may not be strong enough to run from again.

A dark and twisted story of intergenerational incest. Couldn't put it down.

8/10

A Possible Life by Sebastian Faulks

Terrified, a young prisoner in the Second World War closes his eyes and pictures himself going out to bat on a sunlit cricket ground in Hampshire.

Across the courtyard in a Victorian workhouse, a father too ashamed to acknowledge his son. 

A skinny girl steps out of a Chevy with a guitar; her voice sends shivers through the skull.

Soldiers and lovers, parents and children, scientists and musicians risk their bodies and hearts in search of connection - some key to understanding what makes us the people we become. 

5 stories, all set in a different time and place, all linked in some way. Some by an old, cracked Madonna statue, some by being the descendant of a previous story. All brilliantly written, all drag you into each persons story. At the end of each story I had to go do something else for a while before I could start to read the next. My favourites were the soldier in the POW camp, and The Second Sister started out set in a Victorian workhouse. Both sound depressing but at the end were quietly hopeful.

9/10

Cain His Brother by Anne Perry

Genvieve Stonefield's husband Angus is missing when she seeks William Monk's help to find him. She is convinced that he has been murdered by his twin brother Caleb, a shadowy figure who lives in the slums bordering the Thames and has always hated his respectable businessman brother. Although worried about Hester Latterly's health as she nurses victims of a typhoid outbreak in Limehouse, and threatened by a personal scandal, Monk is determined to bring one of the most bizarre cases he has ever encountered to its conclusion.

It wasn't 2 brothers, it was one man with a split personality. A twist I didn't see coming. The descriptions of Victorian London are well done. You really get a feeling for the atmosphere.

7/10

Before The Frost by Henning Mankell

The leader of a religious cult in Guyana instigates a mass suicide. He succeeds in killing himself and his whole flock of worshippers, save one. 

In a wood outside Ystad, the police make an horrific discovery- a severed head, and hands locked together in an attitude of prayer. A Bible lies at the victim's side, handwritten corrections and amendments on every page. 

A string of incidents, including attacks on domestic animals, has been taking place and Inspector Wallander fears that these events could be the prelude to attacks on humans on a much greater scale. Meanwhile Linda Wallander, preparing to join the Ystad police force, arrives at the station. Showing all the hallmarks of her father - the maverick approach, the flaring temper - she becomes involved in the case and in the process is forced to confront a group of extremists bent on punishing the world's sinners.

A story of flawed characters. You usually read stories of police officers who are clever, kind and intuitive not rude, impatient and sarcastic. The later is probably much more realistic.

7/10

A Sea of troubles by Donna Leon

The murder of two clam fishermen off the island of Pellestrina, south of the Lido on the Venetian lagoon, draws Commissario Brunetti into the island's close-knit community, bound together by a code of loyalty and a suspicion of outsiders worthy of the Mafia. When the Vice-Questore's secretary Signorina Elettra volunteers to visit the island, where she has relatives, Brunetti finds himself torn between his duty to solve the murders, concerns for Elettra's safety, and his not entirely straightforward feelings for her. 

I always enjoy the descriptions of Venice. The ending left me feeling like there could be more to the story.

6/10

The Signature of all Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

Spanning much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the novel follows the fortunes of the extraordinary Whittaker family as led by the enterprising Henry Whittaker—a poor-born Englishman who makes a great fortune in the South American quinine trade, eventually becoming the richest man in Philadelphia. Born in 1800, Henry's brilliant daughter, Alma (who inherits both her father's money and his mind), ultimately becomes a botanist of considerable gifts herself. As Alma's research takes her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, she falls in love with a man named Ambrose Pike who makes incomparable paintings of orchids and who draws her in the exact opposite direction — into the realm of the spiritual, the divine, and the magical. Alma is a clear-minded scientist; Ambrose a utopian artist — but what unites this unlikely couple is a desperate need to understand the workings of this world and the mechanisms behind all life.

OH WOW!! Fantastic book. I couldn't put it down. A charming, compelling story superbly written.

10/10