My Fathers' Daughter by Hannah Pool

Hannah Pool, a journalist for a British newspaper, was born in a small Eritrean town called Keren in 1974. Placed in an orphanage in Asmara, Eritrea's capital, shortly after her birth she grew up believing her mother had died in childbirth with her father dying shortly afterwards. When she was roughly six months old, malnourished and suffering from chicken pox, she was adopted by David Pool, a British academic, and his American wife, Marya. At the time, David was teaching at the University of Khartoum and Marya was doing voluntary work with some nuns.

Marya died when Hannah was four and briefly went to stay with some friends in Norway before moving back to England with her dad. By the time she was twenty, David was lecturing at Manchester University, with Eritrean politics among his areas of expertise. When Eritrea won its independence from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, the guerrilla fighters he'd got to know in the 1970s had become government ministers. David was among the people invited over for the celebrations and, on impulse, went looking for the orphanage in Asmara. Not only was it still standing, it was still being run by the same nun - Sister Gabriela - who'd arranged Hannah's adoption.

Several months after David's return home came the bombshell : a priest David had spoken to at the orphanage wrote a letter with the news that not only was Hannah's biological father still alive, she also had at least one older brother. "My Fathers' Daughter" tells the story of Hannah's trip back to Eritrea to meet her 'natural' family for the first time. 

Ghost at Work by Carolyn Hart

Many years ago Bailey Ruth Raeburn and her husband died on their cabin cruiser during a storm, and now the both reside in heaven. As lovely as eternal life is, Bailey wants to be more useful so she decides to see if she can join the Department of Good Intentions. She is recruited on the spot and sent down to earth to help someone who has just got into big trouble. That someone is Kathleen Abbott, a pastor’s wife; she has just discovered a body on her porch and is wondering what to do. There are rules for the heavenly emissaries but Bailey hasn’t any time to be trained, so all she has is a copy of the rules in her hot little hand when she arrives. She manages to break most of them in her first few hours on the job.

It doesn’t take Bailey very long to find out that the victim, Daryl Murdoch, is not quite the upstanding citizen and dedicated church member he appears to be. It seems there is a rather long list of people who have good reasons to want Daryl dead; including Kathleen and her pastor husband, Bill. Bailey slowly begins to narrow the suspects down and the suspense builds amongst the laughs until all is revealed at the end.


A very enjoyable cozy with a twist. Great, fun read.

The Last Templar by Michael Jecks

The Knights Templar: They had all joined taking three vows: poverty, chastity, and obedience…for they were monks: warrior monks, dedicated to the protection of pilgrims in the Holy Land -- until stories spread by an avaricious king who wanted their wealth for his own destroyed the order. There was one knight, however, who escaped the stake, vowing justice as he watched his innocent brothers die.

Simon Puttock has not been bailiff of Lydford Castle long in this year of 1316, when he is called to a nearby village to examine a burned-out cottage and the dead body within. But it is the newly arrived knight, Sir Baldwin Furnshill, who discerns the deceased was no victim of a tragic mishap; he was, in fact, murdered prior to the blaze. Simon would be well-served by accepting further assistance from this astute, though haunted and secretive stranger. For a second fatal burning indicates that some harsh evil has invaded this once-peaceful place, and its hunger has yet to be sated."



By page 10 I was thinking about whether to continue reading this. I am glad I did. It was a good mystery with likeable characters. It could have done with a better editor. 

The Sign of the Book by John Dunning

Book dealer and sometime private investigator, Cliff Janeway is sent, by his lover and partner, criminal defense attorney Erin D'Angelo, to the mountain town of Paradise, Colo., to look into the murder of Robert Marshall, a mysterious figure with a massive collection of signed first editions. But the connection to Erin extends well beyond Marshall's library: the victim was Erin's first real love, and his wife, Laura (who confessed to the crime when she was found at the scene, covered in blood), was her former best friend. 


 A tightly wound mystery with likeable characters balanced with sufficient action and suspense

Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris

When Harper Connelly was 15 she struck by lightning. She survived the experience but she soon discovered that she had developed an unusual ability. She is now able to locate bodies and see how the victims died, although in the case of foul play she cannot identify the killers.


 A sceptical anthropology professor, Clyde Nunley, has discovered a detailed list of all the burials’ in a historic cemetery in Memphisthe graveyard along with the corresponding causes of death. He decides to test Harper’s skills by asking her to come along and deduce what each grave inhabitant died of.

Excited at the thought of exposing her as a fraud, the professor lead Harper from grave to grave, he gets increasingly upset as she correctly guesses the sex of the inhabitant and how they died. He is delighted when Harper appears to get the last one wrong – she says there is a new body in the grave – on top of the original inhabitant. His delight soon comes to an end when she is not only right, but it turns out to be a missing 12-year-old girl, Tabitha Morgenstern, whom Harper failed to locate in Nashville on a case a year or so earlier.

Harper becomes a suspect and is told not to leave town so she and her travel companion, Tolliver, set out to solve the murder and free their name. They soon find out that Tabitha’s parents are now living in Memphis – and are expecting another baby. The next day a 3rd body turns up in the grave – Professor Clyde Nunley.


I enjoyed this instalment in this series. I like the way Harper and Tolliver's relationship is slowly changing.

A very enjoyable read. 

Grave Secret by Charlaine Harris

Harper, who can not only locate bodies but also deduce the cause of death, and her stepbrother, Tolliver Lang, are summoned to Texas by members of the wealthy Joyce family, who are looking for answers behind the death of their patriarch, Rich. But when an act of violence threatens the pair, Harper realizes that the circumstances behind Rich's death may have ties to her own troubled childhood in nearby Texarkana. Further complicating matters, Tolliver and his drug addict father, who's recently been paroled, have an uneasy reunion that stirs up long-buried memories about the unsolved disappearance eight years earlier of Harper's older sister, Cameron.  


A good installment in the series.

There were a couple of things that bugged me though. In this book Mariella is older than Gracie, but in the previous book Gracie was older than Mariella. The other thing is Harper and Tolliver's relationship with Mariella and Gracie seems to have suddenly changed in that now they see their little sisters sometimes, in the previous book they only phoned them.

Now I want the next in the series.

Who Killed Camilla? by Emma Darcy

Hollywood's hottest property, Camilla Page, had just wrapped up the shoot of her lastest movie and she's chosen an exclusive Barrier Reef island resort as the setting for her surprise wedding to Australian camera man Jimmy Ryder- a man hell bent on riding the gravy train that's come his way..... 


 I enjoyed this book. Lots of twists and turns to keep you guessing.