Tag Archives: mystery

The Seer

Book Review of The Seer, by Jordan Reece

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The SeerI picked up a copy of Jordan Reece’s The Seer when it was free on Amazon.

Description from Goodreads
Detective Laeric Scoth is good at his job, but he’s also an ass. And Jesco Currane has just gotten stuck with him on the most frustrating case of their careers. 

When the body of a courier is discovered in an alley, Jesco is called in to assist with his seer skills. All he has to do is touch the clothing of the deceased to identify the killer. But the victim has been stripped naked, and the only evidence at the scene is a timepiece. The people he sees within it have nothing to do with the murder, yet they must be related to the case. 

Chasing down leads with Scoth lets Jesco see another side of the surly, if handsome, detective. But as their feelings for each other grow heated, so does the investigation. Someone doesn’t want them to know who killed the courier . . . and plans to add them to the death toll if they don’t stop pursuing it.

Review:
I really quite enjoyed this. It has a sedate, slightly formal pace but it’s really very sweet. Though it’s more of a mystery with romantic elements than an actual romance. (All the sex scenes are fade to black, for example.)

While none of the characters are deeply sketched, I felt I knew them well enough. I also adored the side characters, Gaven and Tammie especially. I enjoyed the seer mythos, though I would have appreciated a little more information on the world and the existence of psychic abilities. The mystery was sufficiently mysterious and the ending satisfying.

I enjoyed the writing, but it could have done with a tad more editing. It wasn’t bad; there were basically just enough errors for me to notice. But all in all, I call this one a win.

Book Review of A Duty To The Dead (Bess Crawford #1), by Charles Todd

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Duty to the DeadI borrowed an audio edition of Charles Todd‘s A Duty to the Dead from my local library.

Description from Goodreads:
The daughter of a distinguished soldier‚ Bess Crawford follows in his footsteps and signs up to go overseas as a nurse during the Great War‚ helping to deal with the many wounded. There‚ serving on a hospital ship‚ she makes a promise to a dying young lieutenant to take a message to his brother‚ Jonathan Graham: “Tell Jonathan that I lied. I did it for Mother′s sake. But it has to be set right.” Later‚ when her ship is sunk by a mine and she′s sidelined by a broken arm‚ Bess returns home to England‚ determined to fulfill her promise.

It′s not so easy‚ however. She travels to the village in Kent where the Grahams live and passes on to Jonathan his brother′s plea. Oddly‚ neither Jonathan‚ his mother‚ nor his younger brother admit to knowing what the message means. Then Bess learns that there′s another brother‚ incarcerated in a lunatic asylum since the age of 14 when he was accused of brutally murdering a housemaid.

Bess rightly guesses that the dying soldier′s last words had something to do with the fourth brother. Because the family seems unwilling to do anything‚ she decides that she will investigate. It′s her own duty to the dead.

Review:
I found this entertaining enough. Bess was a clever, good hearted soul who was willing to stick her nose in all the places it doesn’t belong and I enjoyed her. I found the writing clear and readable and the plot engaging. I especially appreciated that despite opportunity and a female lead it never became a romance.

The murder was rather easy to figure out, but it kept me interested until the end to see if I was right. I did feel a little slighted at the end.  It’s a bit of a reveal and run. None of the people who deserve it get their true comeuppance (at least not on page) and the reader never even sees them even be confronted. But all in all, I was pleased.

**As an additional plus, I notice there is a Goodreads giveaway running for a copy of the book (at the time of posting).**

 

Book Review of Déjà Dead (Temperance Brennan #1) by Kathy Reichs

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Deja DeadCurious about the series that spawned the TV show Bones I borrowed Déjà Dead (by Kathy Reichs) from my local library.

Description from Goodreads:
Dr. Temperance “Tempe” Brennan spends her days in the autopsy suite, the courtroom, the crime lab, with cops, and at exhumation sites. Often her long days turn into harrowing nights.

It’s June in Montreal, and Tempe, who has left a shaky marriage back home in North Carolina to take on the challenging assignment of director of forensic anthropology for the province of Quebec, looks forward to a relaxing weekend.

First, though, she must stop at a newly uncovered burial site in the heart of the city. One look at the decomposed and decapitated corpse, stored neatly in plastic bags, tells her she’ll spend the weekend in the crime lab. This is homicide of the worst kind. To begin to find some answers, Tempe must first identify the victim. Who is this person with the reddish hair and a small bone structure?

Review:
I used to read a lot of these sorts of forensic thrillers, but I guess my tastes have changed as I’ve aged, because now I read them and can’t help but notice that it’s a whole genre basically dedicated to the death and mutilation of women and I’m just so very very over it.

Other than the fact that the vast, disproportionate majority of victims in books like this one are female I also struggled through Déjà Dead in other areas. I found it dry and a bit on the slow side. There are a lot of technical info-dumps as Temperance talks to various professionals. I thought Temperance did an amazing number of truly stupid things. She was bordering on To-Stupid-to-Live territory. I thought it unlikely that the police would allow her to come along with them as they did. I thought the book’s attempt to be edgy by including prostitutes and such just came across as stereotypical. And the book is quite dated (which is not really something it can be faulted for, but still bothered me a bit).

I did really appreciate that Temperance and the detectives were all older people. It’s so refreshing to find professionals as experts in their fields who are written as actually old enough to have earned their degrees and the requisite experience to become experts. Not to mention having and dealing with true adult problems. I liked the anthropology. I liked the characters; even the jerks had their moment of redemption. I liked that it’s set in Quebec. So, in the end, I’m gonna call this a so-so read and not make any effort to continue the series, but also not boycott it or anything.