Summer Knight - you really don't want Faeries at the bottom of your garden!

Harry Dresden, Chicago's very own crime fighting wizard is back for his fourth adventure in Summer Knight. And this time, it's very, VERY personal. We find Harry in a bit of a slump ... he's broke, has no work and is spending all his time trying to find a cure for his girlfriend, who was infected by the Red Court of Vampires in the last book. And as if that wasn't bad enough, he is called before the White Court of Wizards to answer charges of murder, which, if proven will mean his execution! Into this mix come the Faeries, a notoriously tricky bunch of creatures who have a knack of getting exactly what they want at everyone else's expense. The Winter Queen "hires" Harry to find out who murdered the Summer Knight - the Summer Queen's right-hand man - and clear her own name in the process. It's an offer he cannot refuse and he gets to work, enlisting help along the way from Chicago PD's Murphy (his very human friend) and the Alphas (the local werewolf pack). Harry gets himself, and those around him, into a series of increasingly dangerous scrapes as he works the case while trying to stay alive ... oh, and then there's the small matter of saving the world as we know it! The action comes thick and fast as do the surprises and witty dialogue. More of Harry's back story is revealed, which helps to create a more rounded character. Author Jim Butcher has certainly hit his stride with this series and these books are becoming a guilty pleasure for me ... combining crime and fantasy fiction in a most satisfying way. I thoroughly enjoyed the audio edition,  which is excellently narrated by James Marsters, who brings a world weary sarcasm to the proceedings that hit just the right note. Roll on book number five!

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 448 print pages.
Price I paid: £5.84.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio download; unabridged MP3; ebook.

The Hare With Amber Eyes - a slow burner

Some books grip you from the very first paragraph and others are slow burners. The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance definitely sits in the latter category. When the author,  Edmund De Waal, inherits 264 netsuke from his great uncle Iggy, he becomes curious as to how this collection found its way into his life. As he starts to trace their history, his investigations reveal the lives of the owners too ... and so an inheritance of objects becomes an inheritance of his family. And what a family ... his ancestors were the Ephrussi family - who originally came from the Ukraine but found fortune in wheat and later banking in Odessa. They spread out to Paris, Vienna and Tokyo. Their wealth allowed them to indulge in beautiful things, and so the netsuke collection was born. Over the course of a tumultuous century, which saw an explosion of anti-semitism, this Jewish family went from the highest high, to the lowest low, having to up sticks and leave everything behind to escape with their lives. The story of how the netsuke collection was preserved is amazing. As one of the world's leading ceramic artists, the author unsurprisingly imparts the intrinsic beauty of the netsuke to the reader with great skill, a skill which carries over into his descriptions of place and time. We are on the same journey as the author, following each and every discovery which opens the door a little more into the lives, loves and troubles of his ancestors. The reader cannot help but be drawn into the Ephrussi family dramas as they unfold. The story becomes so absorbing that as you go further and further into it, you find it harder and harder to put down. It seemed to take me ages to get going, but once I was a third of the way through, I was hooked. I can heartily recommend this book to anyone who loves history, family or art.

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 354 print pages.
Price I paid: £0.20 from a church fete.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio download; ebook.

Kafka on the Shore - charmed and bewildered in equal measures

I have been putting off this blog in order to try and decide what I really think about Kafka on the Shore ... and even though it's a week since I finished it, I'm still debating it in my head. This, I suspect, is a good sign, in that the book is certainly staying with me ... unlike some others I could mention! It is certainly a novel that makes the reader work hard, REALLY hard. Set in present day Japan, we think we are journeying with 15-year-old Kafka Tamura, who is in the act of running away from home where he has been miserable and unloved by everyone, especially his father. But then, we come across the reporting of, and investigation into, a school outing during the 2nd World War, where a class of young children fall unconscious in the forest on a field trip. Mysteriously, all of whom wake up unharmed except for one boy whose life will never be the same again. We switch back to the present and follow the progress of Kafka as he tries to find his sister and mother who left when he was four, and about whom his father has made a terrible prophesy. Alongside this, we meet Nakata, an old man who is not very bright but who can speak to cats, and uses this unusual ability to make a little bit of money finding lost cats for their owners. Nakata, it turns out, is the boy from the forest. The lives of these two characters becomes intertwined, although they never actually meet. Will Kafka find his mother and sister, and if so, can he stop the prophesy from coming true ... but more worryingly, does he want to stop it from coming true? Haruki Murakami has created magical passages that are a joy to read - I particularly loved Nakata and all that he did. However, there are also sections that are tough going in terms of both subject matter and style. There are sequences of philosophical meanderings that I sometimes felt were a bit laborious, but then anyone who has been reading these blogs knows I'm an action-oriented girl at heart! And while I wanted to root for Kafka, and I often did, I also wanted to slap him, and slap him hard! I could not quite believe some of the things he did and it left me disappointed on the odd occasion. As the book progresses, it becomes increasingly surreal and if you fight this, you may become both disorientated and disgruntled. I very nearly did, but made a conscious decision to let myself go with the flow to see where we ended up. My personal preference would have been for a more definitive ending ... but maybe that is why the book has stayed with me, as I ponder what happened next to the characters that I had invested such a long time with. Certainly a challenging book, but worth the effort.

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 505 print pages.
Price I paid: £5.99.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio download; ebook.

Child of the Mist - nothing to tax the mind too much

I have been a bit poorly for the last week or so, which has meant that my levels of concentration have been a bit on the low side. And so I found myself plumping for a historical romance that I hoped would be entertaining but which wouldn't require too much energy. I found Child of the Mist, by Kathleen Morgan, to be such a book! Anne is the eldest daughter of the Chief of the MacGregor Clan who have been involved in a bitter feud with the Campbell Clan for many years. Anne is a healer, and as such is in danger of being burned as a witch. She almost comes to grief one day, but is saved by a handsome Campbell and returned to her home. After yet another raid, and in an effort to end the feud and save his Clan, Anne's father comes up with a proposal to handfast his daughter to Niall, the son and named successor of the Campbell Chief. Of course, Naill turns out to be the self-same man who had previously saved her. Things do not go smoothly, as there is a traitor is in the midst of the Campbells, who is determined to take power for himself and keep the feud going. The budding relationship between Anne and Niall is beset with misunderstandings, prejudice and pride. Will they ever get together and will the traitor be discovered and dealt with ... I think we all know the answer to that one! I did, kind of, enjoy this book, which is light and packed with incident. It is incredibly predictable and the characters are ones that we have all seen before, and some of the dialogue is totally unbelievable, as well as wierdly trying to be Scottish ... verra, verra being a prime example. It is the first of a series of books, and I won't be seeking them out, unless maybe I am really ill again and just need something to take my mind off things without having to strain myself in anyway shape or form. There are better historical romances out there - anything by Jean Plaidy for instance - that I'd seek out before diving into the mist once again.

My STaR rating: TWO.

Length: 336 print pages.
Price I paid: free.
Formats available: print; ebook.

One Shot - Jack Reacher in fine fettle!

For some reason of late, I have become a bit of a slow reader. I never seem to find the time to have a really good run at a book ... there are always other things to do! Then, at night, snuggled up in bed, I reach for my latest tome, then only manage a couple of pages before I slump into dreamland. So, that explains the blogging gap between my last review and One Shot, by Lee Child. This is the ninth outing for ex-military policeman, Jack Reacher, and this is the book they based the Jack Reacher film on, which starred Tom Cruise. We open with an apparent random shooting which leaves five dead on the street. The sniper leaves behind such a wealth of evidence that he is quickly picked up and charged. He says almost nothing except "Get Jack Reacher for me." Of course, Reacher being Reacher, he is not an easy man to find. However, when he sees a news report about the shooting and recognises the name of the man accused, he heads to the scene and presents himself as a witness for the prosecution. He and the accused man have a past! And so begins an investigation which blows apart what was supposed to be a "slam dunk" of a case. It is not clear who can be trusted and Reacher has to fight against his desire to see this man finally brought to justice for his past crimes and his overriding search for the truth! As usual, the action goes along at breakneck speed leaving plenty of casualties in its wake. This is a book that hits you squarely between the eyes and leaves you a little dazed from start to finish ... but in a totally enjoyable way. It is brutal at times, but Reacher is a compelling character in which intelligence and street smarts are delicately balanced with his basic instinct for survival at almost any cost. It's always best to remember that he never gives up, and that if you cross him, you do so at your peril! There are plenty more Reacher books to dive into, and it won't be long before I don my swimming costume once again and take the plunge.

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 496 print pages.
Price I paid: Free, borrowed from local library as an ebook.
Formats available: print; abridged audio CD; unabridged audio download; ebook.

Dr No - Bond vs Giant Squid!

Bond is back from the dead! At the end of his previous adventure, Bond had been poisoned and it looked like it was lights out for 007. Apparently, Ian Fleming had indeed planned to kill him off, but the world wanted more. And so, Bond made an almost miraculous recovery and is put back on duty in what M thinks should be an easy case of finding one of their missing employees in Jamaica. However, far from a nice holiday in the sun, Bond discovers that there is something very wrong going on. He ends up on a small island owned by the eponymous Dr No, which purports to be a highly profitable guano producer, but that, of course, is a front for something far more deadly. Bond is really put through the mill and ends up doing battle with a giant squid ... those suckers get everywhere! As is usually the case, the book is full of details ranging from the author's beloved Jamaican landscape to the types of guns and the food and drink consumed. Oh, and the love interest is a capable local girl (Honeychile) who inevitably falls under his spell, which I can only put down to his pheromones, which must be strong enough to fell elephants, because he seems almost devoid of charm in this outing. If you are a fan of James Bond, you will love this, but if you haven't read any of the previous books, I wouldn't start with this one, which I feel lacked a little something. Overall I would say this is a good holiday reading ... there's plenty going on but you don't have to tax your brain too much.

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 336 print pages.
Price I paid: free, borrowed from library as an ebook.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio download; audio CD; ebook.

Warriors of the Storm - bring on the shield wall

The deeply flawed Lord Uhtred of Bebbanberg is back in Warriors of the Storm, the 9th book in The Last Kingdom series. My favourite pagan warrior may be starting to feel his age as his body aches and he is definitely getting slower, but his cunning mind and burning ambition remain undiminished. The book opens with Uhtred still holding Mercia on behalf of his former lover, and daughter of King Alfred, Aethelflaed. However, a formidable opponent gets the jump on him in the form of Ragnall Ivarson, a fierce Northman who has joined forces with the Irish and is making a bid for the kingdom. Despite the threat, neither Aethelflaed, nor her brother Edward (ruler of Wessex) seem to want to take their forces north to confront him. Uhtred grows increasingly frustrated, and decides to take action when he hears that his daughter, who is married to Ragnall's brother, is in peril. And we all know by now that when Uhtred gets the bit between his teeth there is going to be a shield wall and plenty of blood ... This was the first of this series that I have read in audio format, and I was a little worried that the voices of the characters I already had in my head might not match the narrators interpretation of them, but my fears were unfounded. Excellent work by Matt Bates brought the story to life and in no way interfered with "my" characters .... which is just as it should be. This latest instalment is a superb addition to the series. Bernard Cornwell is a writer who deserves all the plaudits he receives. Great characters. Breakneck action sequences. Entertaining dialogue. Oh, and a bit of history too. Highly recommended to anyone who likes their heroes fierce, loyal, and a little bit bonkers too! It should come as no great surprise to anyone who has been reading this blog that Warriors of the Storm was a winner for me! Roll on the next adventure, which is titled The Flame Bearer and is due to be published in October 2016.

My STAR rating: FIVE.

Length: 368 print pages.
Price I paid: zero, borrowed from library via OneClickAudio.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio CD; unabridged audio download; preloaded digital audio player; ebook.