As usual, Sedley excels at bringing the Middle Ages to life. Even though there’s not much mystery here, Roger’s latest...
Not even the company of a beautiful woman can turn dangerous Paris into a romantic destination for Roger the Chapman.
Just returned from a hair-raising trip to Scotland (The Green Man, 2008), Roger the Chapman is unhappy when Spymaster Timothy Plummer calls him to Beynard’s Castle and insists that he travel to France in the guise of husband to manipulative Eloise Gray. His orders are to discover whether King Louis is planning on marrying his son to the daughter of the Duke of Burgundy rather than Princess Elizabeth of England. To make matters worse, Roger is tasked by Richard, Duke of Gloucester, to find an Englishman living in Paris who may have some information concerning the paternity of Richard’s dying brother. Is Edward the rightful King of England or a bastard? Together with Eloise, Roger reluctantly sets off accompanied by the spy John Bradshaw, and Phillip Lamprey, a recently widowed friend, posing as servants. Aware that investigations in London have left a trail of dead bodies in their wake, Roger becomes suspicious of fellow travelers Will Lackpenny, Robert Armiger, Armiger’s much younger wife and her brother, a cook at Beynard’s Castle who vanishes overboard on the trip to Calais. Arriving in Paris, Roger does his best to complete his dangerous task despite his lack of French; difficulties with Eloise and Phillip; and danger lurking in every fetid alleyway.
As usual, Sedley excels at bringing the Middle Ages to life. Even though there’s not much mystery here, Roger’s latest adventure will certainly hold the interest of the faithful.Pub Date: May 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-7278-6745-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Severn House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2009
A comic-book thrill ride with the added appeal of bear shifters falling in love.
Bear shifters battle their attraction and awkward flirtations while trying to stop a criminal focused on terrorizing young shifters.
Annette Garsea is one of the hardest and most dedicated caseworkers at the Interspecies Placement Agency of Minnesota, a foster care system for shifter species. It’s her job to find homes and resources for at-risk shifter youth and children. At times, her work brings her within close proximity of private investigator David Auberon. Both are bear shifters with an obvious connection, but Annette thinks she’s too busy for a relationship, and David can’t seem to say more than five words to Annette before getting tongue-tied. It takes a shifter baby in grave danger to give the two bears the nudge they need to graduate from strictly business to something way more than friends. Davidson’s (Deja New, 2017, etc.) trademark goofiness, over-the-top action scenes, and fierce heroines are all accounted for along with a memorable cast of characters, though her books can be an acquired taste for readers who prefer their shifters growly and full of angst. David is a sweetheart with a long-standing crush on Annette; in his mind, she’s way out of his league. He’s also supportive and completely comfortable letting Annette shine as the fearsome mama bear. The pair are wonderfully matched, whether they’re watching each other’s backs in the midst of danger or being two utter cornballs once they let their feelings show. There's some of the cadence of old Hollywood banter in how they speak and what they say—except they can both shift into huge bears. Despite more serious themes like homelessness, kidnapping, and violence, it’s very much a Marvel movie–type paranormal romance with all the action and none of the detailed, gruesome bloodshed.
A comic-book thrill ride with the added appeal of bear shifters falling in love.Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4926-9701-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Too much psychobabble, technobabble, and envirobabble, yet the appeal of the young sleuths (smart, funny, tough) almost...
A cunning serial killer plays devilish mind games with his would-be captors—and what else is new?
Not much. Well, he does have this penchant for pluralizing. That is, he grabs his young women in pairs. Why pairs? He uses corpse one for the planting of clues sufficient to allow law enforcement—if law enforcement is astute enough—to find corpse two alive. “Eco-Killer,” he’s been tabbed because in addition to his passion for gamesmanship, he seems to have an ongoing love-hate relationship with the environment. From Georgia, scene of the first killings, we shift to Virginia, where Special Agent Mac McCormack of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has been on the case from the outset. He’s been directed to Virginia by a barrage of enigmatic phone calls from someone who claims to know how the serial killer’s sly and twisted mind works. In Quantico, a training ground for FBI agents as well as for US Marines, Mac meets fledgling feebie Kimberly Quincy, daughter of former agent Pierce Quincy, famous throughout the service for his legendary exploits as a profiler. When the Eco-Killer strikes again, Quincy and his p.i. partner Lorraine Conner, mainstays of the series, (The Next Accident, 2001, etc.), are called in to consult, but the case really belongs to the captivating Kimberly and hunkish Mac (with their bods for sex and brains for high-powered detecting). Convinced there’s a chance to save a life if they can manage to solve the killer’s puzzle in time, the two desperately seek clues from botanists, biologists, entomologists, and a variety of other analysts. Something from here, something from there, and at last they can make the guess that plunges them deep into Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park, where the game plays out to a fiery end.
Too much psychobabble, technobabble, and envirobabble, yet the appeal of the young sleuths (smart, funny, tough) almost saves the day.Pub Date: July 15, 2003
ISBN: 0-553-80252-6
Page Count: 325
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2003
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