No Cure for the Dead by Christine Trent

I recently read No Cure for the Dead by Christine Trent. This was interesting to me because the main character is Florence Nightingale. You know her. The founder of modern nursing. I have always been interested in biographies in addition to mysteries. I am fairly familiar with Florence Nightingale, being a nurse. Nurse's Day is celebrated every year on her birthday, May 12. Graduating nurses still recite her pledge. 

This book is the first book in Christina Trent's new Florence Nightingale Mysteries.



Here's what it is about: 

"When a young nurse dies on her watch, Florence Nightingale must uncover the deep-hidden secrets someone will kill to keep buried.

It is 1853. Lady of the Lamp Florence Nightingale has just accepted the position of Superintendent of the Establishment for Gentlewomen During Temporary Illness in London. She has hardly had time to learn the names of the nurses in her charge when she suddenly finds one of them hanging in the Establishment’s library. Her name was Nurse Bellamy.

Florence’s mettle is tested by the dual goals of preserving what little reputation her hospital has and bringing Nurse Bellamy’s killer to justice. Her efforts are met with upturned noses and wayward glances except for her close friend and advocate inside the House of Commons, Sidney Herbert. As Florence digs deeper, however, her attention turns to one of the hospital investors and suddenly, Sidney becomes reluctant to help.

With no one but herself to count on, Florence must now puzzle out what the death of an unknown, nondescript young nurse has to do with conspiracies lurking about at the highest levels of government before she’s silenced too."

My thoughts: I liked the book. Lots of twists and turns, well written, keeps you interested. I recognized several of the background information is based on fact. Florence was from an affluent family, expected to marry well and be wife, had a suitor who waited and waited and waited for her. But Florence chose to become a nurse and train others to be professional nurses. She did serve as superintendent at the Institute for the Care of Sick Gentlewomen as her character in the book does. Many of the other names and characters are also based on fact. Also the description of women who called themselves nurses in the mid 1800's is accurate. Not exactly the cream of the crop. Here are the rules for nurses in 1887, probably highly influenced by Florence Nightingale.

In addition to caring for your 50 patients, each bedside nurse will follow these regulations:

1. Daily sweep and mop the floors of your ward, dust the patient’s furniture and window sills.

2. Maintain an even temperature in your ward by bringing in a scuttle of coal for the day’s business.

3. Light is important to observe the patient’s condition. Therefore, each day fill kerosene lamps, clean chimneys and trim wicks.

4. The nurse’s notes are important in aiding your physician’s work. Make your pens carefully; you may whittle nibs to your individual taste.

5. Each nurse on day duty will report every day at 7 a.m. and leave at 8 p.m., except on the Sabbath, on which day she will be off from 12 noon to 2 p.m.

6. Graduate nurses in good standing with the director of nurses will be given an evening off each week for courting purposes, or two evenings a week if you go regularly to church.

7. Each nurse should lay aside from each payday a goodly sum of her earnings for her benefits during her declining years, so that she will not become a burden. For example, if you earn $30 a month, you should set aside $15.

8. Any nurse who smokes, uses liquor in any form, gets her hair done at a beauty shop or frequents dance halls will give the director of nurses good reason to suspect her worth, intentions and integrity.

9. The nurse who performs her labors [and] serves her patients and doctors faithfully and without fault for a period of five years will be given an increase by the hospital administration of five cents per day.

I found it very interesting how the author took so many of Florence's factual life and turn it in to a good mystery. I am looking forward to the next in the series. 

Featuring on Friday - Dean Mayes

This Friday I am featuring Dean Mayes.

 I was first introduced to Dean I 2015, through a "read and review" site. I think Dean is a pretty interesting person. He lives in Adelaide Australia. That in itself is interesting to me. He is an ICU nurse. I am a nurse also,(although I don't do clinical nursing anymore). He has a family. How does he find time to write books?

His third book, The Recipient was soon to be published. Being a psychological thriller with a medical story background, I jumped at. I quickly became a fan. (You can read my post on the The Recipient and also an interview with Dean in earlier posts. 7/28/15, 5/17/16). His fourth book, The Artisan Heart, is coming out in September. 



About Dean:
"When he emerged in 2010, Adelaide based Intensive Care Nurse and author Dean Mayes, had almost given up on the prospect of ever being published. by then in his 30's with several abortive writing attempts under his belt, Dean believed he had missed his opportunity. But Dean had an idea for one last story he wanted to tell and, rather than allow it to wither and die in his imagination, he decided to blog it instead.

Quite unexpectedly, Dean's blog took off and after a chance encounter with Canadian based publisher Central Avenue in mid 2009, Dean's dream like tale about a young man who discovers he has taken on the memories and dreams of a complete stranger, became his first novel. Dean was signed to an initial two year contract and in 2010 "The Hambledown Dream" was published. The novel has since gone on to receive global attention and critical acclaim.



Dean set about penning a follow up novel that was not merely a repeat performance and in 2012 "Gifts of the Peramangk" a powerful Australian family saga. Chronicling a dysfunctional Aboriginal family in the struggle streets of Adelaide's suburban fringe, "Gifts of the Peramangk" has been described as significant literary achievement. In October 2013, it was nominated as a finalist in the prestigious EPIC Awards for contemporary fiction.



Dean's third feature length novel, a psychological thriller set in Melbourne called "The Recipient", showcased his ability to cross genres and deliver a taut and gripping tome about a heart transplant patient who discovers her organ donor was a murder victim - and that the murder remains unsolved. 



Dean is currently editing his fourth novel, a return to his romantic roots, called "The Artisan Heart", which is scheduled for a September, 2018 release."

Dean is an excellent writer. Don't each of those books sound intriguing? His writing flows really well, and it's easy to read.

The Artisan Heart is coming out in September, 2018. Here is what it is about and a trailer for it.















"Hayden Luschcombe is a brilliant paediatrician living in Adelaide with his wife Bernadette, an ambitious event planner. His life consists of soul-wrenching days at the hospital and tedious evenings attending the lavish parties organised by Bernadette.

When an act of betrayal coincides with a traumatic confrontation, Hayden flees Adelaide, his life in ruins. His destination is Walhalla, nestled in Australia’s southern mountains, where he finds his childhood home falling apart. With nothing to return to, he stays, and begins to pick up the pieces of his life by fixing up the house his parents left behind.

A chance encounter with a precocious and deaf young girl introduces Hayden to Isabelle Sampi, a struggling artisan baker. While single-handedly raising her daughter, Genevieve, and trying to resurrect a bakery, Isabelle has no time for matters of the heart. Yet the presence of the handsome doctor challenges her resolve. Likewise, Hayden, protective of his own fractured heart, finds something in Isabelle that awakens dormant feelings of his own.

As their attraction grows, and the past threatens their chance at happiness, both Hayden and Isabelle will have to confront long-buried truths if they are ever to embrace a future."

Doesn't that sound really good? I have preordered it. Here is a link to the trailer and the chance to win a prize package! A signed copy of The Artisan Heart, a $50 gift certificate and a copy of "The Sound of Letting Go" 2016 studio album by Swear and Shake - the musical inspiration for the book.

http://www.deanfromaustralia.com/2018/06/book-trailer-premiere-artisan-heart-by.html

Here are some other links if you would like to check out more about Dean; Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter and Central Avenue Publishing.

I can't wait for The Artisan Heart! 

https://www.facebook.com/DeanMayesAuthor/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3337737.Dean_Mayes

https://centralavenuepub.wordpress.com/2018/02/07/sneak-peek-the-artisan-heart/

Benjamin Forrest and The Lost City of Ghouls by Chris Ward

I talked about Chris Ward last week and I read his book The Man by the Sea. I wanted to share his third book in the Edinifinium series, The Lost City of the Ghouls. 

I had a chance to read this book, although I haven't yet read the first two. I wouldn't say you have to read the first two, but probably would be good to do. I wasn't lost in reading the story, but I do want to know how it all started.



Here's what it's about:

"At the end of everything ... there is a new beginning.

Benjamin Forrest and his friends witness their first triangulation, a ceremony for Endinfinium High's graduating pupils, where they can choose whether to remain with the school or make their own way in the world. Three brave pupils opt for adventure, but when, a few weeks later, one is found wandering in the Haunted Forrest, pursued by dangerous ghouls and babbling about a lost city, Benjamin and his friends are thrown into their most dangerous situation yet.

For the Lost City of the Ghouls is coming ... and it will stop at nothing to destroy Endinfinium High once and for all."

The first two books are:

Benjamin Forrest and the School at the End of the World
Benjamin Forrest and the Bay of Paper Dragons

My thoughts:  If you like YA fantasy, this would be a great summer series.  Harry Potter meets Disney. There is lots of action and suspense as all fingers point to Benjamin to save his friends before the Lost City of Ghouls lands at Endinfinium and turns everyone into ghouls!. Beware - a big cliff hanger at the end (as Chris Ward is really good at), leaving us wanting the next installment NOW. 

The first two books are on my TBR list. I am reading some books that aren't mysteries lately. I have just been exposed to so many good ones of other genres lately. :)

( I received a free copy and voluntarily provided this review).

Featuring on Friday - Chris Ward

This week I am featuring Chris Ward.

I was introduced to Chris through a read and review site. He had written several books in other genres and wanted to try his hand at a mystery. He sent out two chapters a week for those that signed up to read his latest creation. It was a work in progress so we had to wait until the next week for the next installment. He is really good at cliff hangers so it was hard to wait. It turned out great! I have since read a book in another genre that Chris wrote and really liked it also. (I will post about it soon).
Talk about something for everyone...



About Chris:

"Chris Ward is a native of Cornwall, England, but currently lives and works in Nagano, Japan. He is the author of The Tube Riders Trilogy, The Man Who Built the World and Head of Words, as well as numerous short stories and collections.

He spends his time snowboarding, writing, playing guitar in his rock band, Steampunk Unicorn (www.reverbnation/steampunkunicorn), and generally having too much to say about just about everything."

His most recent series, which introduced me to Chris, is the Slim Hardy Mystery series. Book one is The Man by the Sea and written under the pen name of Jack Benton. It is described as a psychological thriller. I have read this book and really liked it. I wrote about it in a previous post. Chris is currently working on Book Two in the Series, The Clockmaker's Secret. 



"John "Slim" Hardy, heavy drinker and disgraced soldier turned bumbling private detective, is hired to investigate Ted Douglas, an investment banker who slips out of work every Friday to visit a desolate cove on the Lancashire coast. There, he walks to the shore, opens an old book, and begins to read aloud.

His wife thinks he's having an affair.

Slim thinks he's insane.

The truth is more incredible than either could imagine.

The Man by the Sea is the sensational debut novel by Jack Benton, a classic story of love, betrayal, murder, and intrigue." 


The Tube Riders - Dystopian Science Fiction four book series

"Beneath the dark streets of London they played a dangerous game with trains. Now it is their only chance for survival... Britain in 2075 is a dangerous place. A man known only as the Governor rules the country with an iron hand, but within the towering perimeter walls of London Greater Urban Area anarchy spreads unchecked through the streets. In the abandoned London Underground station of St. Cannerwells, a group of misfits calling themselves the Tube Riders seek to forget the chaos by playing a dangerous game with trains." All five star reviews!"

Benjamin Forrest: Endifinium Series. Three book series, YA



School at the End of the World, Bay of Paper Dragons, and Lost City of the Ghouls.
From Book One: 

"At the end of everything ... there is a new beginning.

Benjamin Forrest wakes up on a strange beach. Two suns shine in the sky, and a couple of miles out from the shore, the sea drops off the edge of the world.

Where is he? How did he get here? And most importantly, how can he get home?

As he begins to encounter the unusual characters of Endinfinium, he finds himself at the centre of a battle for a secret world, one in which he will play a decisive role …"

Tokyo Lost Series - three book series.





"At first Miyu can't stand Jack, the spoiled delinquent from Britain sent to college in Japan to keep him out of trouble.

Then her ailing father dies, leaving behind a mystery which turns everything she knew about herself on her head.

Pushed into an uneasy alliance with Jack, together they travel from the seedy underbelly of Tokyo to the rice fields of Nagano, searching for the truth about Miyu’s mother, who abandoned her sixteen years before." 

Tales of Crow - 4 book series also set in Japan



From Book One: 
"For Jun Matsumoto, a school trip to the remote study camp of British Heights is hardly his idea of a good time. Akane Yamaguchi, the love of his life, hates him, and he’s rooming with Ogiwara, the school bully.

Things get even worse when most of the students become violently sick, and Jun and a handful of survivors are left cut off from civilization as the snow closes in. Soon the power has gone off, and a strange, birdlike creature begins terrorizing the guests.

As the students group together with the other remaining guests, suddenly their understanding of danger turns on its head.

There are creatures out in the woods, and they’re hungry for human flesh…

They Came Out After Dark is the first in Chris Ward's Tales of Crow series, an exciting blend of horror, fantasy and dystopian science-fiction with a heavy dash of black humour."

Chris has also written some standalones and short stories. Whew!

Here is his website. He has a readers group and you can sign up to read and review for him. I really enjoy his newsletters and his books. He likes to receive questions and feedback.

http://www.amillionmilesfromanywhere.net/