This will be my last post for this year. Always such a busy time of year even when we can't really go anywhere it seems.
For our December Mystery Book Club (MBC) this year, our theme was mysteries with a Christmas theme. Usually we have a wonderful pot luck, book exchange and just share our favorite books for the year. Luckily we have been able to meet virtually but we missed our usual festivities.
Here are the Christmas themed mysteries and our favorites from 2020.
There is actually three books. One is a hardcover. The larger book is two paperbacks in one. When you turn it over, it is another book.
In The Cage Where Your Savior Hides and A Lind of Forgotten Blood by Malcom Mackay.
About: Saviours: (Two Novels in One)
An unlicensed private investigator fights crime and corruption in a Scottish city, burdened with a history that is compellingly different from the one we think we know. SAVIORS is two novels in one volume, a thrilling new series by award-winning author Malcolm Mackay.
Darian Ross is a young PI struggling against his family legacy (father in prison, criminal brother) in the independent kingdom of Scotland. In earlier centuries, when the Scottish empire stretched all the way to Central America, Darian's home city was one of the country's busiest trading ports. But Scotland is not what it was, and the docks of Challaid are almost silent. The networks of power and corruption are all that survive of Challaid's glorious past.
In In the Cage Where Your Saviors Hide, Darian takes the case of the fascinating Maeve Campbell: her partner has been stabbed. The police are not very curious about the death of a man who laundered money for criminals, but Darian's innate sense of justice and his fascination with Maeve irrevocably draw him into her world, where no one can be trusted.
In A Line of Forgotten Blood, Police Constable Vinny Reno--both a friend and a valuable contact for Darian's unlicensed PI firm--is desperate for help in finding his missing ex-wife, and clearing his own name. A thread of a clue leads to one of Challaid's oldest, wealthiest banking families, the Sutherlands. But pulling one thread can unravel a whole tapestry, and soon things are moving too fast for even the most powerful people to control.
Fortune Favors the Dead by Stephen Sportswood - A Pentecost and Parker Mystery Book 1
About: [Fortune Favors the Dead has] razor-sharp style, tons of flair, a snappy sense of humor, and all the most satisfying elements of a really good noir novel, plus plenty of original twists of its own.”—Tana French
A wildly charming and fast-paced mystery written with all the panache of the hardboiled classics, Fortune Favors the Dead introduces Pentecost and Parker, an audacious new detective duo for the ages.
It's 1942 and Willowjean "Will" Parker is a scrappy circus runaway whose knife-throwing skills have just saved the life of New York's best, and most unorthodox, private investigator, Lillian Pentecost. When the dapper detective summons Will a few days later, she doesn't expect to be offered a life-changing proposition: Lillian's multiple sclerosis means she can't keep up with her old case load alone, so she wants to hire Will to be her right-hand woman. In return, Will is to receive a salary, room and board, and training in Lillian's very particular art of investigation.
Three years later, Will and Lillian are on the Collins case: Abigail Collins was found bludgeoned to death with a crystal ball following a big, boozy Halloween party at her home--her body slumped in the same chair where her steel magnate husband shot himself the year before. With rumors flying that Abigail was bumped off by the vengeful spirit of her husband (who else could have gotten inside the locked room?), the family has tasked the detectives with finding answers where the police have failed. But that's easier said than done in a case that involves messages from the dead, a seductive spiritualist, and Becca Collins--the beautiful daughter of the deceased, who Will quickly starts falling for. When Will and Becca's relationship dances beyond the professional, Will finds herself in dangerous territory, and discovers she may have become the murderer's next target.
They sound really good. Included in the box was a pair of funny circus socks, a cold brew coffee and a bottle of nice olive oil. I am enjoying this surprise every few month during this trying time.
Today I forgot a webinar I really wanted to take part in because of this same old day to day routine. I forgot what today was I guess even though I got a reminder email yesterday and I talked about the webinar yesterday. All the days are running together it seems. Luckily there is a recording.
I hope you have a good holiday and here's to a better New Year!
