Walking by Night by Kate Ellis

Walking by Night by Kate Ellis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fifth intriguing mystery in the atmospheric Joe Plantagenet police procedural series

Taking a short cut home beneath the ruined abbey in the centre of the city, a teenage girl reports stumbling across a body. She also claims to have seen a mysterious nun-like figure watching her from the shadows. But during the subsequent search, no body is found. The girl’s inebriated state and her troubled history make the police skeptical of her story, and only Detective Inspector Joe Plantagenet is inclined to believe her.

Then a woman is reported missing, and Joe finds himself caught up in a complex investigation involving a production of The Devils at the local Playhouse. Could the play, with its shocking religious and sexual violence, have something to do with the woman’s disappearance? And is there really a connection with the tragic death of a young nun at the site many centuries before? Nothing is as it first appears.

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I was very happy to get the chance to read the latest book in the Joe Plantagenet series. I have never read a book in the series before, but I have read a book in Kate Ellis's Wesley Peterson series and I loved that book. So, I was looking forward to reading this book very much. I liked Joe Plantagenet, he was an interesting character and the fact that he was supposed to have become a priest instead of a cop (Just like Hathaway in Lewis the TV-series) was intriguing. The story was interesting. I kind of narrowed it down to a couple of suspects towards the end, but I didn't figure out exact who the killer was before it's revealed.

I liked this book very much and I have owned the first book in this series and I'm looking forward to reading that one!

I received this copy from the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review!

#BookReview The Witch of Painted Sorrows by M.J. Rose @mjrose @AtriaBooks

The Witch of Painted Sorrows by M.J. Rose
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Possession. Power. Passion. New York Times bestselling novelist M. J. Rose creates her most provocative and magical spellbinder yet in this gothic novel set against the lavish spectacle of 1890s Belle Époque Paris.

Sandrine Salome flees New York for her grandmother’s Paris mansion to escape her dangerous husband, but what she finds there is even more menacing. The house, famous for its lavish art collection and elegant salons, is mysteriously closed up. Although her grandmother insists it’s dangerous for Sandrine to visit, she defies her and meets Julien Duplessi, a mesmerizing young architect. Together they explore the hidden night world of Paris, the forbidden occult underground and Sandrine’s deepest desires.

Among the bohemians and the demi-monde, Sandrine discovers her erotic nature as a lover and painter. Then darker influences threaten—her cold and cruel husband is tracking her down and something sinister is taking hold, changing Sandrine, altering her. She’s become possessed by La Lune: A witch, a legend, and a sixteenth-century courtesan, who opens up her life to a darkness that may become a gift or a curse.

This is Sandrine’s “wild night of the soul,” her odyssey in the magnificent city of Paris, of art, love, and witchery.

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I have for a while now wanted to read an M.J. Rose book. The stories in the books have intrigued me and I love the covers for them. I was quite glad when I got the chance to read this new one.

I was quickly drawn into the story of this book about courtesans, witches, possessions, and passion. It was an intriguing story and very beautifully written. Sandrine starts out as a young woman in mourning for her father and for her failed marriage, but as the story progress she changes, she starts to paint and it consumes her. But as she learns more and more about her family's story about La Lune, the famous courtesan she slowly starts to lose herself to La Lune. Was La Lune a witch? A woman desperate to live again century's after her death? Sandrine's grandmother tries everything to keep her from the house, from painting. Everything that has to do with La Lune, but Sandrine is in love and love is the very thing that La Lune feeds on...

As I read on I soon got a feeling of doom about the ending. I just knew that this book couldn't end happy and the ending was...let's say I really want to read the next book in the series!

In the end, I just want to say that I’m I enjoyed reading The Witch of Painted Sorrow very much and I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the books in this series and other books that M.J. Rose has written.

Shadow Ritual by Eric Giacometti

Shadow Ritual by Eric Giacometti
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Two murders, one in Rome and one in Jerusalem brings detective Antoine Marcas and special agent Jade Zewenski, the head of security of the embassy in Rome together. Jade's friend Sophie is killed by three blows to her upper body. Her shoulder, her neck, and her head. In the same day, a man is killed in the same way in Jerusalem.

Zewinski is in no way pleased about working on the case with Marcas. She doesn't like anything that has to do with Freemason and Marcas is a member of the group. But as they work together they slowly starting to open up to each other.

They discover that the sect Thule is the ones behind the killings, and the sect has a deep hatred for anything Freemason and it seems that Thule is after an ancient Freemason secret.

This is my kind of book. A fast-paced adventure with secrets and mysteries and of course an evil old sect. I enjoyed reading this book very much. It was especially nice to have the main characters non-Americans. It feels like the hero in adventure's books often are American and it was nice to have both main characters, French. It was also great to have a female character that's tough and capable of taking care of herself. Even when she's about to be tortured. By the way, this book has a really nasty torture scene. It was also very fascinating learning more about the Freemasons, I didn't know they accepted female member, I thought it was an all boys club.

This was book two in a series of ten books and I'm looking forward to reading the rest if they get translated into English.

Race to Tibet by Sophie Schiller

Race to Tibet by Sophie Schiller
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My earliest memory of Tibet is probably reading Tintin in Tibet and years later I saw Seven Years in Tibet. So when I saw this book I just knew that I had to read it. Tibet is a country that iI find fascinating and I would love to visit it someday. But for now, I will be content my reading books about it.

The French explorer Gabriel Bonvalot sets as a goal in this book to be the first European person to visit Lhasa, the forbidden city in Tibet. Traveling with Bonvalot is also Prince Henri d'Orléans, whose father wants him gone from the country for a year since Henri has once again got his name in the newspaper, in a bad way. Along the way, Camille Dancourt joins the group. She is traveling to Tibet to search for her husband who went missing there. Bonvalot didn't want her to travel with them from the beginning, but she was quite determined to go there with or without him. So in the end, he yields. This will be an adventurous journey, filled with dangerous but also memorable encounters and experiences.

One thing that I thought about reading this book that I really never thought so much about before (I think) is how obnoxious we Europeans are when it comes to other people that have a different culture than we have. I feel that Bonvalot journey is very much like a small invasion of Tibet. Bonvalot wants to be the first European to visit Lhasa no matter what the people in Tibet feel about it and he will do anything to get there, for instance bribing people. Also, no one was willing to sell a horse to them so they stole one. How wrong isn't that? But they were quite desperate, it's a hard country and no matter how prepared they were, it still didn't go so well. But I still felt quite often that forcing their way into the country was wrong.

Sophie Schiller has written an interesting book. Even though I sometimes felt annoyance with the Europeans superior attitude I still wanted to know if they would get to Lhasa and would Camille find her husband?

The only drawback for me was that even though the book was good it wasn't a great read. There was something missing for me. It can be that I really didn't connect with the characters. But I liked reading it and I would recommend it.

The William Shakespeare Detective Agency: The School of Night by Colin Falconer

The William Shakespeare Detective Agency: The School of Night by Colin Falconer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

William Shakespeare has just arrived in London and his cousin isn't too fond to have him staying at his place. But William has dreams, he doesn't want to be a glove maker. He wants to be an actor. But all the theaters are closed because of the plague so he needs to find a job. Luckily for him, he gets a job after saving Lady Elizabeth Talbot. All he needs to do is find her husband Henry Talbot. How hard can it be?

This book was quite entertaining to read. I love historical mysteries and I just couldn't resist a book about William Shakespeare cousin with the same name. It was interesting to follow William Shakespeare as he searched for Talbot's husband and I was actually surprised how it all turned out. It was also nice to have the other William Shakespeare, the famous one, showing up in the story now and then. It wasn't a thick book, so it wasn't many red herrings, but it was a pleasant read I want to read the next book in the series.

The Stonehenge Letters by Harry Karlinsky

The Stonehenge Letters by Harry Karlinsky
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

What if Alfred Novel beside the usual prizes also had a "secret" prize for whoever could explain the origin of Stonehenge?

A psychiatrist stumbles over some letters from Nobel laureates with explanations for Stonehenge when he is researching why Freud never got a Nobel Prize.

Harry Karlinsky has really written a book that feels like it could be real. It really feels like reading a thesis and I had to double-check to see that this was fiction. Just to be sure. LOL I mean it sounded ludicrous, but hell, who knew.

The problem I had with this book was the thesis feeling. It made it very dry to read. The part of the book I liked best was actually the biographical part, getting to know the basic fact about Alfred Nobel, Marie Curie, Teddy Roosevelt and Rudyard Kipling. The whole Stonehenge part, the letters from the Nobel laureates was the dry part that and that was, unfortunately, since that is kind of the point of the book.

But it was interesting to read and I would very much read more about Alfred Nobel.

Thank you Edelweiss for providing me with a free copy for an honest review!

The Dead Key by D.M. Pulley

The Dead Key by D.M. Pulley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I found it amazing that you could just shut down a bank and leave everything as it is for twenty years. That was a very interesting idea for a book. We get to follow Iris in the present time as she tries to unravel the bank's past and we also get to know Beatrice that worked at the bank in 1978, the year that the bank closed down. Slowly the mystery starts to unravel....

I liked the book, but I also find it sometimes a bit slow paced, not that it became boring. But it never really got me totally engrossed into the story. It was more my own willpower to read than the story that sometimes kept me going.

But still it was interesting. I wanted to know how it all came to be that the bank closed down. But I had some problems with the main characters. I just couldn't connect to either of them. Sometimes you like one character better when it is two different storylines, but in this case, I just felt that both just didn't get to me. Frankly the character that was most interesting was Maxine, Beatrice's friend.

It got a bit exciting towards the end when everything came together, but I was a bit disappointed about the ending. I turned the last page and that was it and I felt a bit let down.

But all and all it was a good read, the book was well written and the concept felt new.

Shadows Have Gone by Lissa Bryan

Shadows Have Gone by Lissa Bryan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Carly and Justin and the rest of the community seem to be safe for the moment. Marcus and his gang are all dead. But it seems that there is still a threat to them, a man from Justin's past...

This is the first book in the series that I have read and I'm a bit surprised how is it was to get into the story and to get to know the characters even though the book seems to pick up precisely where the book before left off. Carly and Justin and the people in the community they are living in are all survivors of a terrible virus that have killed off most of the human race. They are doing the best to live in a world that is just a shadow of itself. Gone are all the comforts of the modern world. But at least, they have in this little community each other and they will fight for it.

My plan was to read the previous books before I read this one, but the time ran out. It's funny how months to read books suddenly can disappear and suddenly you only have days left. But it was as I started before easy to get into the book and I immediately got caught up in the story and it wasn't that hard to begin to care for the characters and hoping for their survival. The ending was a bit nerve wracking I must admit, I never thought that the story would take that turn especially when you think about how they all had fought for a future. But it was a good ending.

This was a really good dystopian book and I'm looking forward to reading the books before this one.

Thank you Netgalley and The Writer's Coffee Shop Publishing House for providing me with a free copy for an honest review!