Master of Evrington - Vanessa Blake

This is one of those classic Gothic romances that I've had on my shelves forever. Not remembering it, I decided to dust it off and give it a read.

Caro(line) is an orphan who is at the mercy of her uncle for her education. She's at the school with her cousin, but she's also teaching. When the cousin decides to elope with a middle-aged actor, Caro Syrup tries to intervene. That puts her in the path of Tony, a man of questionable reputation. The next day, the cousin falls sick, Caro Syrup has been seen with the alleged cad, and all the blame is on the orphan. Tony comes to her rescue, and eventually they fake an engagement to stop the wagging tongues of the neighborhood. Add in the deposed royal siblings from India, and we've got ourselves some tension!

Okay, so this book was weird. It didn't take long to read, since it was only 170ish pages, but the characters were...there. Caro Syrup stood up for herself maybe once, and then she felt bad about it later. She made some stupid decisions and wallowed in self pity. But that's par for the course with these books. Tony is working behind the scenes to get his young ward back in charge of his province, but I cringed a bit when I found out how. They were basically trading a tyrant's rule for Britain. Eep.

And then there's the awkward romance. These two don't spend enough time together on the pages for me to think the care about each other. Sure, Tony spends an hour each day teaching Caro Syrup Hindustani, but it's mentioned in passing, and I'm not sure just talking about two characters spending time together is enough for me to care if they end up together. 

The cousin was okay for a while, but then she developed feelings for Tony when she already knew Caro Syrup was in love with him. And what was up with throwing Jim in there as a deus ex machina? He just pops up and knows where Caro Syrup is being held? How convenient!

I think the main lesson any woman should take away from these books (if you ever read one) is don't be stupid, don't fall in love with someone just because they're nice to you, and definitely don't believe everything people tell you. Cripes!

The Master of Disguise - Antonio J. Mendez

Mendez was a pro in the art of disguise and exfiltration. He was active during the Cold War and was part of the mission that rescued six Americans in Iran in 1979. If you've seen the movie, Argo, then you know the story.

Mendez didn't just make fake passports. Whole legends were made for each subject. Paper trails don't just involve a passport. They had to disguise the person themselves, and they had to make sure every piece of paper would pass the current inspection process by the government they were dealing with at the time. Argo was a particularly involved process, where they created a whole production company and script for a movie. If you've never read/seen anything about it, I highly recommend you look into it. It was pretty cool.

Anyway, parts of this book were a bit slow. The pacing wasn't necessarily different, it just seemed like some of the sections were more interesting than others. Overall, I did like the book. It opened my eyes to something that was a lot more complicated than I imagined. It gets a Good Book! review, but it's not going to be for everyone. I think you're going to need to have a pretty healthy interest in the Cold War and the spycraft of the time.

Legionquest - Scott Lobdell and others

This is a collection of comics that tell the story of Legion...sometimes.

Legion is a character that fascinates me, but the summary for this one threw me off a bit. I didn't even see David Haller until halfway through the book. I'm not sure how the first half was related to the second, but I did enjoy the Legionquest storyline. I saw little details here and there that might justify the earlier comics, but overall, they just didn't seem relevant.

This one will get a Good Book! review from me, but the advertising was a bit suspicious. Poor David...

 

The Flying Death - Samuel Hopkins Adams

I picked this book up after learning this author wrote the short story that inspired the movie, It Happened One Night. I really like that movie, but the story Night Bus wasn't readily available. This book was in the public domain, so I was ready for a mystery. There will be spoilers in this review.

It starts off with a shipwreck. A man is mysteriously murdered, and a juggler comes under suspicion. More deaths follow, and the murderer may not be as straightforward. There's also some romance nonsense in there.

Here come the spoilers:

So I didn't look into this ahead of time, but I thought it was a mystery. Technically, I suppose it is. But as I was reading, it transformed from an engaging mystery to The Giant Claw. From out of nowhere, a Pteranodon is suddenly a character. I was hoping a human explanation would be the eventual explanation, but no. In the end, it really was a prehistoric dinosaur responsible for most of the deaths.

I had a real issue that bothered me. Why was this dinosaur just murdering people? Doesn't it need to eat? It killed a sheep, but it didn't take it to eat or anything. The explanation of where it came from was weird, but I just couldn't get past the whole "why isn't it eating anything?". There were just corpses everywhere.

Anyway, I was bummed with this one. The romances were strange, and the dinosaur murderer was weird. Even when they had a human murderer, he walked on his hands and that looked like bird tracks? Okay, sure. This book was disappointing, and I think it should be left to the dogfishes (a reference to a moment in the book).

A Place of Hiding (Inspector Lynley #12) - Elizabeth George

This was the last paperback I picked up on our trip to Half Price Books. The page count on this one was particularly intimidating. It's almost 800 pages, and I started it over Christmas break. At that time, the kids were here, so progress was slow. The book is also unwieldy, so I can't cozy up with it while I'm winding down for the night, so I wasn't able to blaze through it like I normally do. So, the time it took isn't a reflection on how good the book is.

Guy is headed down to the beach for his morning swim, but he doesn't return. Instead, he's been murdered in a gruesome way. The suspect is American, and she has connections with Deborah. Deborah's husband, Simon, is something of a detective, so when the suspect's brother shows up on their doorstep, they all head off to Guernsey to solve the mystery.

There are a lot of characters and a lot going on. Guy is a multi-layered character, and he's not an angel. The fate of a WWII museum dedicated to those who resisted the occupation of the island becomes important to the case as well as the unusual will of the dead man.

I picked this book up because the summary sounded interesting. When I saw it was listed as an Inspector Lynley, I was confused. The man was barely a side character. Upon further search, it seems that Simon is usually the side character. It's just a coincidence that I picked up one of the few books in the series that didn't have the Inspector as the main character.

Short note about Deborah. Man, she was irritating. She was a poo to Simon. She made some of the weirdest decisions, and then she'd blame him. For instance, she took a side trip before turning over evidence. This was evidence Simon had trusted her to take straight to the police. Instead, she took it to the suspects and all over town. That led to Simon getting reprimanded, which can harm his reputation. Understandably, he's upset. Deborah doesn't understand this. She's all huffy and indignant. And the crap she pulled at the end? Argh!

Okay, putting her aside, I did enjoy the mystery. Little clues were being revealed bit by bit, like an onion. What I'd like to do is read an actual Inspector Lynley. It seems like not only is Simon not the main character in the series, 800 pages isn't usual. The first book is A Great Deliverance, and it looks like it's on sale right now. It's only 430 pages, so I'd like to give it a shot. Hopefully, Deborah is nowhere to be seen. This book was really good, though and gets a Good Book! review.