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Asti and Verci Rynax and friends have been taken into custody under false names with no legal charge. While they work out how to escape, their friends/wife/potential lover are given a job by Josie Holt, which they can’t possibly achieve – but it’s their only chance to get Josie’s help to rescue the ‘boys.’ While this is happening Asti and Verci and their friends have been split up in Quarrygate prison, still not knowing why they are there. It turns out that there is a deeper plot and Asti is inveigled into leading a team of dubious criminals to track down enemies of the state. Unfortunately the real villain of the piece is even nastier than the group they were sent after. This is twisty and gripping. Unfortunately the Maradaine novels (which I love) are not very easy to get hold of in the UK for reading on Kindle, so I’ve only read #1 (The Holver Alley Crew) and this is #4, so I’m missing the backstories of some of the characters. It didn’t spoil it for me because Maresca covers the essentials, but I do like to read a series in order. (Some of them now appear to be on audiobook only.) Asti and Verci are great characters, brought up by an unashamedly criminally clever father they have been well trained in the arts of subterfuge ad they can hold their own in any criminal company. Verci is particularly talented at gadget-making (which comes in very handy in this book). Asti, though lethal, has been broken by torture in his former career as a spy. Sometimes he can barely hold it together, knowing that if he lets that other Asti loose there will be terrible consequences. Both men are vulnerable in different ways, which makes for very interesting reading. Highly recommended, but start from the beginning of the sequence if you can.
Dec. 31st, 2023
St Mary’s is at war – with the local Women’s Institute, the Raffia Mafia. This year the Christmas jump isn’t illegal. It isn’t even at Christmas, but the honour of St Mary’s kitchen is at stake so Max, Peterson, Markham and Sykes, have one job, to travel to Restoration London and buy a selection of authentic Christmas Pies so that Mrs Mack can reverse engineer them and beat the WI at the next Christmas Fair. Unfortunately, it’s not as straightforward as it might be – well, of course, this is St Mary’s after all and the tea-soaked disaster magnets have been let loose again. This time, instead of Max, Markham is the narrator. He has cogent insights into the Bashford v Sykes relationship, especially as Angus (Bashford’s chicken) makes is a lopsided threesome, and Sykes has another serious admirer. I bought the audiobook immediately – ready for a new year listen. Highly recommended. New readers should start at the beginning to get full value out of this excellent series.
Absurdist humour. The team of sorcerers at Dawson, Ahriman & Dawson are looking for a new recruit to take over the job of supreme being of a world in an alternate universe. Maybe the fat bearded chap who knows a lot about reindeer and jingle bells isn’t the right candidate for the job. Or maybe he is. Dawson (both of him) is in debt to Ahriman. Mt Sunshine is a soft touch and has a bottomless purse which doesn’t (can’t) exist. Mr Teasedale has booked a team of demons for a specific job… And then there’s Harmondsworth who seems to manifest as a blue light or a flash Pentecostal fire. I should have expected this from Tom Holt, but it’s a long time since I read any of his books. I’ve been missing out. This is weird, surreal, quirky and fantastically imaginative.
Booklog 2023
Dec. 31st, 2023 01:44 amMy Booklog 2023
1. Lois McMaster Bujold: Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance – Vorkisiverse #18
2. Dennis E Taylor: For We Are Many – Bobiverse #2
3. Sebastien de Castell: Knights’ Shadow – Greatcoats #2 Audiobook
4. Ian McDonald: Luna – New Moon – Luna #1
5. Juliet E McKenna: Thief’s Gamble – Einarinn #1
6. T. Kingfisher: What Moves the Dead
7. Anne Lyle: The Dead Dragon Job
8. Peter McLean: Priest of Bones – War for the Rose Throne #1
9. Juliet E McKenna: The Cleaving
10. Lily Harlem: Lyon at the Altar – The Lyons’ Den Connected World
11. Julia Quinn (and others): The Lady Most Willing
12. Sebastien de Castell: The Malevolent Seven
13. Peter McLean: Priest of Lies – War for the Rose Throne #2
14. Tade Thompson: Far From the Light of Heaven
15. Peter McLean: Priest of Gallows – War for the Rose Throne #3
16. Peter McLean: Priest of Crowns – War for the Rose Throne #4
17. Lex Croucher: Gwen and Art are Not in Love
18. Elizabeth W Watkins: The Reluctant Baronet
19. W.A. Simpson: Tarotmancer
20. C. J. Archer: The Librarian of Crooked Lane
21. Rebecca Yarros: Fourth Wing – Empyrian #1
22. John Scalzi: Starter Villain
23. Patricia Briggs: Soul Taken – Mercy Thompson #13
24. Mat Osman: The Ghost Theatre
25. Jodi Taylor: The Good, the Bad and the History – Chronicles of St Mary’s #14
26. Liz Williams: Salt on the Midnight Fire – Fallow Sisters #4
27. Becky Chambers: A Closed and Common Orbit
28. Brent Weeks: Night Angel Nemesis – Night Angel #4
29. Zoe G Galloway: The Royal Matchmaking Competition
30. Paul Cornell: Human Nature – A Dr Who New Adventures Novel.
31. Ben Aaronovitch: Amongst Our Weapons – Rivers of London #9
32. Pierce Brown: Red Rising – Red Rising #1
33. Ursula LeGuin: The Lathe of Heaven
34. Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman: Good Omens
35. Karen Traviss: Hard Contact – Star Wars Republic Commando #1
36. Trip Gailey: A Market of Dreams and Destiny
37. V.E.Schwab: Gallant
38. David Gullen: The Blackhart Blades
39. Molly Harper: How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf - Naked Werewolf #1
40. Jade Linwood: Charming
41. Kari Sperring: The Book of Gaheris – An Arthurian Tale
42. T. Kingfisher: Thornhedge
43. John Scalzi: Agent to the Stars
44. Hannah Nicole Maehrer: Assistant to the Villain
45. Genevieve Cogman: The Dark Archive – Invisible Library #7
46. Audrey Harrison: An Inconvenient Ward.
47. T. Kingfisher: Illuminations
48. Martha Wells: Compulsory – Murderbot Diaries 0.5
49. Martin Duffy: Peg Leg Gus
50. Juliet E McKenna: The Green Man’s Quarry – Green Man #6
51. Lois McMaster Bujold: The Warrior’s Apprentice – Vorkosiverse #3
52. Patrick Stewart: Making it So – A Memoir
53. Jodi Taylor: White Silence – Elizabeth cage #1 Audiobook
54. Jodi Taylor: Dark Light – Elizabeth Cage #2 Audiobook
55. Jodi Taylor: Long Shadows – Elizabeth Cage #3 Audiobook
56. C.S. Forester: Lieutenant Hornblower – Audiobook
57. C.S. Forester: Hornblower and the Hotspur - Audiobook
58. Jim Butcher: Grave Peril – Dresden Files #3 – Audiobook
59. Diana Wynne Jones: House of Many Ways – Howl’s Moving Castle #3
60. Martha Wells: Exit Strategy – Murderbot Diaries #4 – Audiobook
61. M.R James: The Tractate Middoth
62. John Gwynne: Better to Live than to Die
63. Jasper Fforde: The Eyre Affair – Thursday Next #1
64. Elizabeth Moon: Sheepfarmer’s Daughter – Paksenarrion #1
65. Lois McMaster Bujold: Mirror Dance – Vorkosiverse – Audiobook
66. George R.R. Martin: Fevre Dream
67. Ellis Peters: Monk’s Hood – Cadfael Chronicles #3 – Audiobook
68. Ellis Peters: The Virgin in the Ice – Cadfael Chronicles #6 – Audiobook
69. Ellis Peters: Dead Man’s Ransom – Cadfael – Audiobook
70. Hilary Mantel: Wolf Hall – Audiobook
71. Jodi Taylor: Santa Grint – Time Police -- Audiobook
72. Jonathan Gash: The Judas Pair – Lovejoy #1 -- Audiobook
73. Marshall Ryan Maresca: The Quarrygate Gambit – Streets of Maradaine #4
74. Jodi Taylor: Christmas Pie – St Mary’s Short
75. Tom Holt: The Eight Reindeer of the Apocalypse