Martin Limón -  The Wandering Ghost

Signed Copies Avalible 

JB Recommends:
Martin Limón’s books are a marvel of complexity. With The Wandering Ghost again features the 8th Army Criminal Investigators George Sueño and Ernie Bascom. These two Army cops are not MPs and, to a degree, are cops more that Army cops. They deal with all the crimes that normal cops would but in a far more Byzantine world. 

First of all, they have the military bureaucracy to navigate, then the political maze of American/Korean choreography, the social interactions of the two cultures and then they have the criminal mind to deal with. The novels are like a chessboard with four dimensions and that is the fun of them: through George’s narration, you are taken through this world with them, as they attempt to untangle the unsolvable.

In this book, The Wandering Ghost, puts them in more foreign territory than usual, as they’re sent north to look into the disappearance of the only female US MP in the demilitarized zone, an area governed by an entirely different part of the Army, one that doesn’t want them around. Black-marketeers, sexual politics, cultural politics, and murder. Martin’s books are reliably entertaining, educational and exceptionally well crafted.

Laurie R. King - Touchstone

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Fran Recommends:

This stand-alone is one that will stay with you for a while. Set in England after World War I, Harris Stuyvesant is a member of Hoover’s Investigative Bureau in search of a bomber who has been terrorizing the United States.  Stuyvesant is certain he knows who the culprit is, but he has no actual proof, hence his trip to England.  In trying to get closer to his suspect, Stuyvesant meets a noble family, a snake of a government official, and the man who is the Touchstone.

Fans of the Mary Russell series are acutely aware of how meticulously researched Ms. King’s books are, and she proves herself yet again here.  We’re thrown into a London on the verge of a massive Strike that will cripple the City and may very well prove the downfall of the ruling class.  There are Reds and Bolsheviks and Anarchists galore, you can almost smell the coal in the air mingling with cigarette smoke and horse sweat. 

Most of all, though, there are the people.  Stuyvesant is driven by things that have happened in his past and to his family.  Bennett Gray is a hugely sympathetic character, shell-shocked and on the verge of suicide, dulling his pain with alcohol.  Aldous Carstairs is immediately unlikable, but in his own way, he is doing what he believes is best, and he doesn’t much care who gets hurt.  Lady Laura Hurleigh and her best friend, Bennett’s sister Mary, are women fighting for a cause.  Richard Bunsen is determined in his goals and will use whatever methods are available to him.  These are real people with passions and hopes and blind spots that make them a part of you.  You know these folks. 

It will come as no surprise to anyone that I loved this book; I’m extraordinarily fond of all of Ms. King’s works.  If you haven’t read her before, this is an excellent place to start!

Sara Paretsky - Bleeding Kansas

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Gretchen recommends: 

Not a mystery, however, a fantastic read.Set in the Kaw River Valley outside of Lawrence, KS (where Sara grew up) - this is a story of feuding families - with the feud going back generations.  We are introduced to the Grelliers, Fremantles, and the Schapens, with not only information from the present, but also from the past with diaries that Abigail Comfort Grellier had written about her journey to Kansas and setting in the valley. 

A “stranger” from - gasp! - New York arrives to live in the dilapidated house where one of the families had grown up.  Not only is she from the east, but she is rumored to be a Wicca lesbian.  Quell Horror! 

This begins the shake-up of the town, from the religious conservative crowd who want her gone, to the current Grellier family who is trying to be more tolerant.  As Susan Grellier befriends the new woman, she begins branching out in her self-expression – participating in naked fire dances and protesting the war.  The impact trickles down to her own two teenagers, to her husband, to the rest of the town.
 

This is a rich story, family drama, religious conservatives, the culture of mid-west farmers and the rest of the world.  Highly Recommended

Don Winslow -  California Fire and Life

Gretchen recommends:

And on another note – as I am often behind everyone else in reading - I’ve just (almost) finished reading my first Don Winslow. OKAY, if you haven’t read him, you have to stop what you are doing and get with it!

I am reading California Fire and Life and am told that the rest are just as amazing. Jack Wade is a claims investigator and former arson investigator for the Orange County Sheriff department. He is called in to examine a suspicious fire in millionaire Nicky Vale’s house. Discovers the dead wife and the suspicions begin. Nicky Vale used to be Daziatnik Valeshin in Leningrad – his story adds to the mix…

Great details about all the properties of fire and arson investigation. Witty, hilarious, sharp, spot-on writing. Absolutely amazing. Too bad I have other things to do with my life.

Janet Evanovich - One For The Money

Condition - Book - Very Good / DJ - Very Good 

New York: Scribners, 1994. First printing. Hardcover.

1st in series, minor shelf wear, one jam to corner of spine, in protective mylar dj cover.

Stieg Larsson - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Condition - Book - Very Good / DJ - Fine

New York: Knopf, 2008. First American edition. Hardcover.

First in the trilogy. Tail end of spine has a very faint roll and tail edges of boards have light shelf wear. DJ has faint shelf wear. DJ in mylar cover.