#13...2012

Ill Will by J.M. Redmann
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

ILL WILL by J M Redmann


#7 in the “Micky Knight” series......

Micky Knight is a Lesbian PI...a “dyke dick”....and, this time around, she’s tackling the Health Care System......post Hurricane Katrina....in the shambles of New Orleans

Besides dealing with shady Contractors...she’s dealing with shady Health Care Providers....Snake Oil salesmen of the first water, who have “science” as a back up..

The thing is, Micky’s lover is a Doctor....with a recent Cancer diagnosis....I think you see where this is going...Micky has to fight for what’s right...and, fight for the Love of her Life....Lesbianism ain’t easy...even in The Big Easy!!...especially in this case..with Evil Doctors and HIT MEN on the loose

My first Micky Knight was THE INTERSECTION OF LAW & DESIRE....from there i was hooked!

There is much emotionalism here....as there would be, if your lover was ill....get over it...they’re women...Jeesh

Read the series....J M Redmann/Micky Knight Rock!!!

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#18...2012

Only One Life by Sara Blædel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The very idea of Honor Killings...that the recalcitrant actions of one person could lead another family member to commit murder......boggles the mind. Even though our society seems to have lost all concept of Shame and/or Honor...the thought of Murder for Honor makes me blench. Not to mention the fact that, according to this book, most Honor Killings are perpetrated my members of the Extended Family...those living outside the country where the Killing took place..

All of which is Nice & Good.......except , in the case of this book, Honor Killings are a matter of Police Procedural...and Journalistic Hubris


.....and so it goes

Louise Rick is caught up in another Honor Killing case, after being.sourced out to the town of Holbaek...where a Jordanian immigrant girl’s battered corpse is discovered...awash in a cold sea. Enter Dicta Moller....dead girl’s best friend (and aspiring Model....she’s got the Looks)..the Linchpin of this story.....

Be Warned: Teen Angst abides in this story (in a rather Wooden manner)....as does Rape-by-a Family-Member

After much back&forth.....with Samra’s family (the Jordanian girl)....and the whole Honor Killing thing....and Dicta (Teenage Slut).....I was left with a “let down” feeling...mainly because the whole tone of the Narrative is dry-as-dust (but, I’ll chalk that up to the translation)...or full of excess characters (Camilla-the-Journalist was present..to remind the reader of the previous novel....CALL ME PRINCESS..????)....and the fact that Samra's murder had nothing to do with Honor Killing...just Family Hubris.....and teenage ambition

The denouement wasn’t unexpected..just Slow on Arrival..

My second read by Sara Blaedel......it was better than CALL ME PRINCESS....but still too busy, in ways that didn’t keep the story moving.....

I like this woman’s stories...just wish they had more life..in the translation

*****This was a Net Galley*****

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#15......2012

City of Women by David R. Gillham
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

1943 Berlin becomes the setting for a real tear jerker of a Soap Opera....Sex is everywhere, both the rough sort and the solo...but no one is happy. Sigrid is busy with her dead end job and Life with Mother-in-Law..while hubby is fighting on the Eastern Front. She makes the acquaintance of a little snippet, who works as a Mother's Helper in their Apartment Building...who subsequently involves Sigrid in the Savory business of hiding Jews from the Nazis...Sigrid drowns her sorrows in Sex....first with a nasty Jew (with a nasty history)...then with a suave, yet crippled, soldier man. No one is happy, or satisfied....

I would have enjoyed the story more if Sigrid had had more "character"...all of her whingeing became tedious...and her air of martyrdom rang false

However, as a Beach Read for the Depressive Set..this wasn't half bad

3 Stars

***this was a Net Galley***

#17......2012

Quarantine by John Smolens
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

What happens when a viral epidemic strikes a seaport in Massachusetts.....1796? the social, political, and economic aspects...

some characters are "Dickensian", in that they are caricatures...but the story doesn't suffer for their existence (perish the phony "French" though)

Very atmospheric....i could almost smell the salt-tinged sea air.....and the smudge pots from the Pest House

Sometimes too much "nobility" in these savages (I mean, the constables rip off the apothecaries, and then try to sell the much needed drugs back, to the doctors...through a Third party...Sounds downright Contemporary to me)

In no way an Earth Shaker..this is a good story, well told. The Authors' Note at the end gives the book's provenance...and that's a good story as well


*****this review could change/improve*****

**this was a Net Galley**