Enter a Murderer

 Enter a Murderer by Ngaio Marsh  245 pp.

Inspector Roderick Alleyn is invited by reporter Nigel Bathgate to attend a performance of a play. In the play two characters fight over a gun which discharges. However, someone replaced the blanks in the gun with real bullets cause the real death of one of the players. It's up to Alleyn with assistance from Bathgate to figure out who in the cast and/or crew in the theater is responsible for the crime. I remember reading another Marsh/Inspector Alleyn mystery involving a theater but it concerned the "Scottish Play" of William Shakespeare. Marsh's mysteries are tightly woven, quick to read, and satisfying.

Witch Please

Witch Please by Ann Aguirre, 362 pages

Danica is a modern witch who uses her magical abilities to fix technology. She's been raised by her grandmother to shun relationships with non-witches, based in large part on the historically bad results of witch/mundane run-ins (hello Salem!). But when Titus, a non-witch baker, stops in Danica's shop to enlist her help with a malfunctioning oven, it's love at first sight. Can Danica balance her no-mundanes life with a relationship with Titus?

This is a fun slightly supernatural romance, where the stumbling blocks seem fairly believable (I don't think I had a single "but if you just talked to him, the problem would be gone" moment as I read it). It's quick, it's steamy, and yep, a lot of fun.

Aftermath

 

Aftermath by LeVar Burton (1997) 320 pages

The author, who is the same actor from Roots, Star Trek: TNG, and host of Reading Rainbow, wrote this in the '90s. In a way, he predicted a future America that would elect its first African American President in 2012, but within three short months the President was assassinated. Then a civil war over race in America collapses our society. This reminded me a bit of Stephen King's The Stand, which I've only read in graphic novel form, but this book has fewer characters. There are really four separate stories for three quarters of the book. Renee is a scientist who has invented a neuro-enhancer, and she is able to mentally call out for help when a rival scientist steals her invention and imprisons her. I wish the four characters' stories wove together sooner and that combining their skills to save Renee took more planning. As it is, it all wraps up in less than 50 pages and it doesn't seem like there is a great reason for each of the characters to be there. Still I mostly enjoyed the journey.

The Road

 The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2006) 241 Pages

In a mysterious post-apocalyptic world, a nameless father and son are traveling "the road", looking for a warmer place to live. The story begins directly before winter. The man and the boy have a single shopping cart which houses all their belongings, and a revolver with two rounds. There are no chapters to this book, and much of it is conversations between the boy and the man. This post apocalyptic world is full of dangerous people, all doing whatever they have to do (horrible atrocities) to survive. 

I loved this book in that it was heartfelt despite being incredibly dark. It is an ode to human ingenuity but also true compassion and kindness in the midst of horrors.

Psyche and Eros

Psyche and Eros by Luna McNamara (2023) 352 Pages

A retold story of Psyche and Eros, a budding love between human and a god. Psyche, a princess of Mycenae, who has been prophesied by the Oracle at Delphi to become a great hero in defeating a monster. Aphrodite wants to curse Psyche, who rivals her in beauty and because she does not honor the gods. Aphrodite sets up the curse with one of her Son's (Eros)  arrows. He agrees to use his arrow to curse Psyche. The curse is that whoever gets hit with the arrow will fall DEEPLY in love with the first person they see...but if they make eye contact with that person they will be ripped apart forever, and only left with horrid love-sickness. So Eros goes to hit Psyche with an arrow but grabs it the wrong way and ends up cursing himself and falling for..you guessed it...Psyche. He flees but instantly falls so deeply in love with her he can hardly stand it. Eros' friend Zephyrus, the god of wind, helps him out by whisking Psyche away to the seaside house he has secluded himself in. The catch is that they must not see each other, so Eros visits at night and proclaims that he is Psyche's husband. She is of course, extremely confused but they soon seem to become fond of each other's time nonetheless. If Aphrodite finds out about Psyche and Eros, she has vowed to destroy the thing he loves most. Psyche yearns to see who her husband is after many moons, and lights an oil lamp while Eros is sleeping, waking him up which destroys their house and rips them apart from each other. Eros becomes Aphrodite's prisoner under Mount Olympus. The rest of the tale is a journey of Psyche and Eros attempting to get back to each other...with the Trojan war myths intermixed as well. 

Overall I loved this book, a little slow in the beginning and a weaker ending than I would've liked but a solid read for Greek myth lovers.

 

The Night in Question

The Night in Question by Kathleen Glasgow & Liz Lawson, 401 pages

In this excellent sequel to The Agathas, super-smart Iris and former popular girl Alice team up to solve a decades-old mystery of a Hollywood starlet's untimely death, which somehow led to the assault of one of Iris and Alice's classmates. It had been a minute since I'd read The Agathas, so it took me a bit to remember who everyone was, but really, that's my only complaint about this book. The first book has been described as "Veronica Mars meets Nancy Drew," and I'd say that description still holds up here. A great sequel to a great book. Can't wait to read more of their adventures!

The Hunting Party

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley (2019) 327 pages

A group of friends from Oxford has been getting together to celebrate New Year's Eve for each of the ten years since graduation. The women are Miranda, who is glamorous and perfect; Katie, Miranda's best friend from childhood, who is an attorney and not at all glamorous; Samira, who used to be a hell-raiser, but is now a somewhat anxious mother of a baby. The men include Julien, Miranda's husband, who is into finance; Giles, husband of Samira; Mark, who may have an anger management issue; and Nick, a gay man who has brought along his partner Bo, an American. Emma, somewhat of an outsider, has been dating Mark for the past four years. 

Emma wants to become closer to the group, and she has gone all out in choosing the location for this year's reunion: a fabulous hunting lodge that is open for outside guests only a couple times a year. It's in a remote area of Scotland's highlands, cut off from most of civilization. Employees of the lodge are Heather; Doug, the gamekeeper; and Iain, who is the handyman.

As it turns out, a snowstorm hits on New Year's Eve. A guest goes missing, and is finally found dead outside in the blizzard. It's likely this person has been murdered. The police cannot get there until the weather clears, so the guests and employees must wait. Much of the story is told in Foley's usual - and effective - flashback style: we don't know for the longest time who it was that died. Everyone looks guilty, everyone has their personal demons, and many have made bad choices or said things that can't be forgotten. Another great book by Foley, with a large share of suspense.

Howl's Moving Castle

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (1986) 329 pages

I listened to the audiobook. I have not seen the animated movie yet. There are a handful of elements from The Wizard of Oz, like pieces of a puzzle, that are jumbled and rearranged to make this new fantasy adventure. Later in this story, I could hear in my mind Dorothy being asked, "Are you a good witch or a bad witch?" The main character Sophie is a young woman venturing out to find her fortune when the Witch of the Waste transforms her into an old woman. Sophie's self-image is a normal, everyday woman who is bored of making hats for a career, but it turns out she has magical abilities as well. She'll also find out if the rumors about Wizard Howl eating young girls is true. I should say that this is quite unique. There is no one single quest. The characters are trying to achieve many different things. From scene to scene I had no idea what was coming next. The author avoids many fantasy tropes. From slime, to Wales, to misfired spells, and tricky geography it gets pretty weird, but enjoyable. 

 

A Pirate's Life for Tea

A Pirate's Life for Tea by Rebecca Thorne, 444 pages

In this sequel to Can't Spell Treason without Tea, former queensguard Reyna and her "Mage of Ages" girlfriend Kianthe are back and finding more adventure, this time on water. Seeking info about some missing dragon eggs, Reyna and Kianthe stumble across a Robin Hood-esque pirate named Serina who has a complicated backstory with Bobbie, the constable tasked with arresting her. While the plot of this book involves a lot more back and forth — literally, as they sail up and down a wide, wild river — than the first book, and so isn't quite as tight, it's still an excellent second chapter in Reyna and Kianthe's story. I'll definitely be picking up the third book in this trilogy when it comes out!

(Bonus points to Thorne for the best dedication ever for a book. If I hadn't already been determined to read it, the dedication would have convinced me.)

The Song of Achilles

 The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (2011) 408 pages

There are so many books I have missed out on, this being one of them. I am so glad to have finally read it, as someone who has a fondness for Greek mythology. 

This is a retelling of The Iliad. A story told from Patroclus' pov, this story begins with a young prince who is exiled from his father's lands for killing another young boy. He lands in the care of another king, who fosters other young boys. Patroclus and the king's son, Achilles form and attachment and become companions. Achilles is also the son of the sea Goddess Thetis, who often shares her disapproval for the companionship between Achilles and Patroclus. The story continues throughout their boyhood leading into manhood, in which they discover feelings for one another. They train for survival over the course of years with the centaur Chiron until they are called away to fight in a war. Queen Helen has been kidnapped by Troy, and King Agamemnon calls all Greeks to fight for her honor and to return her to her king. Achilles has been prophesied to be the most famous warrior of all time, and joining the war is to begin him on this path. The rest of the book covers the struggles during the 10-year long Trojan war and how Patroclus grows and deals with the growing pride of Achilles.