Kathy's (kmartin802's) 4th 2019 Thread

Here's the link to my first thread: January - March

Here's the link to my second thread: April - June

Here's my third thread: July - September

1. Poppy Redfern and the Midnight Murders by Tessa Arlen (320 p.) -- Poppy Redfern is a young air raid marshal in her small English village which is next door to a new American Air Force field. When two young women are strangled to death, suspicions immediately fall on the Americans. Poppy isn't so sure and, with the help of American Lieutenant Griff O'Neal, she looks for the real murderer.Interesting variety of characters and a nicely developed plot made this a fun historical mystery.

2. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (516 p.) -- Down on his luck detective Cormoran Strike is hired to find out if a supermodel's death was suicide or murder. Lots of suspense, great characters, great setting.

3. Tracking Game by Margaret Mizushima (320 p.) -- 5th Timber Creek K-9 has Mattie looking for relatives through Ancestry.com, Cole dealing with the effects of his ex-wife's depression on his daughters, two murders, and a tiger loosed in the high ranges of the Rockies. Great characters, great action.

4. Lost Souls by Kelley Armstrong (192 p.) -- Patrick brings Gabriel a case about a hitchhiking ghost in order to have an excuse to spend some time with a man who doesn't know he's his son. Gabriel is looking for a mystery to try to tempt Olivia and get back in her good graces. A simple ghost story turn into an encounter with particularly vengeful fae and forces Gabriel to revisit his troubled childhood.

Happy newthread!

5. Artifacts by Mary Anna Evans (289 p.) -- Mixed race archaeologist Faye Longchamp investigates a forty-year-old murder which she discovered while illegally digging for artifacts to sell so she could keep her home. I liked the way a number of different timelines were interwoven in this story. I liked the characters and setting.

6. Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers (170 p.) -- First Lord Peter Wimsey mystery finds Lord Peter solving the mystery of a body left in the bathtub of an unassuming architect and the disappearance of a Jewish financier. Unfortunately, they aren't the same man and in the course of the case Peter deals with a particularly conscienceless criminal.

7. Written in Red by Anne Bishop -- Reread

8. This Side of Murder by Anna Lee Huber (289 p.) -- First Verity Kent mystery. 1919; widowed Verity is invited to the engagement party of the man who was her husband's Sydney's best friend and best man at his island castle. She received a letter telling her she's find out about her husband's treason if she attends. She goes to investigate because she can't believe her husband was a traitor. She finds a castle filled with tension. The male guests had all served together in the same regiment as Sydney. Soon a couple of them are murdered and a storm and cut phone lines isolate them all. Not knowing who she can trust, Verity is trusting no one - including Sydney who had faked his death to find out who tried to kill him and is framing him for treason.

9. Murder of Crows by Anne Bishop - reread

10. The Princess Plan by Julia London (384 p.) -- 1848 - London. Nice historical romance/mystery. Eliza helps Crown Prince Sebastian solve the murder of his Private Secretary. They fall in love along the way hampered by her common background and his need to marry someone who can help his country.

11. Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop -- reread

12. Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer (304 p.) -- YA Science fiction; Steph and her mother have been on the run from her psychopath father since she was a small child. She and her mother move frequently from one midwestern town to another to keep under her computer savvy father's radar. Her only constant is her online life on CatNet and the friends she has made there. One of her friends is, unknown to them, a self-aware AI who is thinking about coming out to her friends on CatNet, When messing with the robot giving sexual information in health class brings the town to national spotlight and Steph's mother is hospitalized with a ruptured appendix, her father manages to track them down and it is up to Steph and her online friends to bring him to justice.

13. Marked in Flesh by Anne Bishop - Reread

14. Etched in Bone by Anne Bishop - Reread

15. Treacherous is the Night by Anna Lee Huber (321 p.) -- 2nd Verity Kent mystery has Verity looking for an old colleague in still war-torn Belgium after a medium at a seance claims to have a message for her. Verity is also trying to rebuild her relationship with her returned-from-the-dead husband Sydney. She needs to confront an old lover and a new flame too.

16. Scout's Progress by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller - reread

17. Mouse and Dragon by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller - reread

18. A Cowboy Like You by Donna Grant (304 p.) -- Report on Domestic Violence turned into a novel. Skylar flees her abusive boyfriend by heading back to childhood home where she is rescued by childhood crush and current sheriff Danny. However, the boyfriend and his enabling family aren't ready to just go away. From lawsuits for slander to kidnapping and attempted murder, the story had lots of actions. It also had characters who were stereotypes.

19. Whisper of Bones by Melinda Leigh (97 p.) -- Tessa and Logan investigate the death of an island contractor who had a lot of enemies and also find a clue to the disappearance of Tessa's friend Samantha - a cold case she and Cate Wilde have been working on.

20. Bred in the Bone by Kendra Elliot (86 p.) -- 4th Widow's Island novella focuses on FBI Agent Cate Wilde who is back on the island recovering physically and mentally from a gunshot wound and having her partner killed in front of her. She is distracting herself by looking into the disappearance of childhood friend Samantha who was last seen when the girls were fourteen. A hit-and-run death leads to the clues necessary to find out Samantha's fate. The story also concerns itself with Cate's future. Should she give up her job with the FBI to stay on the island and build a relationship with her boyfriend who is the island's only doctor or should she go back to the FBI?

21. Penny for Your Secrets by Anna Lee Huber (326 p.) -- 3rd Verity Kent mystery has her trying to find the murderer of a friend's husband and the killer of a colleagues half-sister. After investigating, Verity and Sydney come to believe that the cases are related and have something to do with a mysterious happening during the war. Meanwhile, Verity is trying to help Sydney and save her marriage.

22. Under Currents by Nora Roberts (436 p.) -- Excellent romantic suspense. Zane was abused as a child by his father but got away to his aunt after his father and mother were convicted of abuse and imprisoned. Years later, now a lawyer, he comes back to live in his home town. Darby McCray is also starting over in the same town after getting away from an abusive ex and the hit-and-run death of her mother. Neither is looking for a new relationship until they meet. Danger follows them back from Zane's father to Darby's ex and a local family that is trying some spousal abuse of its own. Great characters, great supporting cast, and a cute dog too.

23. Trust Me by Hank Phillippi Ryan (390 p.) -- Intense psychological thriller. Mercer Hennessy is grieving the deaths of her husband and daughter when her former editor approached her to write a book about a current court trial in which a young mother has been accused of murdering her own young daughter. Mercer takes the job and, convinced of her guilt, slants her book that way. When the young mother is acquitted, her editor asks her to host and interview the woman to write a book about the results. Very twisty and intense.

24. Just Watch Me by Jeff Lindsay (320 p.) -- A heist story that is anything but light-hearted. Master thief Riley Wolfe is looking for a new challenge. He decides to steal the crowning glory of the Crown Jewels of Iran while they are on display in New York City - because it looks like an impossible crime. And he's more than willing to use and/or kill any rich person who gets in his way. This was twisty and entertaining and Riley is an interesting character with some major flaws.

25. Dangerous Alliance by Jennieke Cohen (448 p.) -- YA Regency Romance/Mystery. When her older sister flees her abusive husband, Vicky needs to marry to keep the family estate out of his hands. Meanwhile, next door neighbor and childhood best friend Tom has inherited the destitute estate of his abusive father and is looking for backers to open a hotel. While Vicky is looking in London's Marriage Mart for suitors, both she and her family seem to be having a great many accidents. Someone wants her out of the way. Lots of plot twists and shady characters make this in interesting story.

26. Thin Ice by Paige Shelton (288 p.) -- First in a new series set in Alaska. Famous writer of thrillers Beth Rivers was kidnapped by a stalker. In her escape she was injured such that she needed brain surgery and was left with amnesia, killer headaches, and flashbacks. She runs to Alaska to hide and finds herself in a situation that is strange to her and right after there has been a suspicious death. Only the local police chief knows her secret identity. She's finds she's living in a halfway house for non-violent offenders from Juneau. The police chief convinces her to restart the local newspaper which hasn't been published since the former editor passed away. She wants to include the investigation into the death into the paper. She fears that her stalker will find her again even though her mother and the local police where she came from are on the case. Cliffhanger ending left her story hanging.

27. A Madness of Sunshine by Nalini Singh (352 p.) -- Romantic suspense set in the rugged West Coast of New Zealand. Anahera comes home to Golden Cove after the death of her husband in London. She feels betrayed by him and very angry with him because she meets his pregnant mistress at his funeral. She arrives home just in time for the disappearance of a beautiful and talented young woman which echoes the deaths of three female hikers when she was a teen. Will is the new police officer in town who has been put to pasture after a glowing career in a large city but who has taken the death of a witness and her child badly and is having anger issues. He is trying to get through life without feeling anything. I liked the mix of characters who were all sort of suspicious and who all had secret pasts. Ana's childhood friends have changed beyond what she could have thought and one of them is likely a serial killer. Great setting, great characters. I liked the slow-building romance between Ana and Will.

28. Dragged Through Hedgerows by Forthright (65 p.) -- Novella set in the Amaranthine world. Charles Cooper has come back home broken hearted at the ending of his marriage but with his two small children. Daroo-Fen both in the guise of mild-mannered lawyer Drew Water and wolf Beast befriends him which helps ease both of their loneliness.

29. Wicked Hour by Chloe Neill (352 p.) -- 2nd Heirs of Chicagoland. Elisa and Connor go on a road trip to attend a christening in Grand Bay, Minnesota, and find murders, strange and unknown beasts, and a pack that is very sick. They are trying to see what kind of relationship they can build given he's a werewolf and she's a vampire. Lots of action, lots of snark, and great characters.

30. Trace of Evil by Alice Blanchard (384 p.) -- Overly descriptive and with too many plot threads, this story introduces rookie Detective Natalie Lockhart who is following her father's footsteps in the police department. First up, she's assigned to have her try at a series of cold cases of the disappearance of nine homeless people as are all rookie detectives. But she soon gets the case of the murder of a fellow detective's school teacher wife. The wife is a friend of her older sister Grace. Then there is the disappearance of another homeless person also a former friend of her sister Grace. Throw in the beginnings of a relationship with her boss who was also a childhood friend and flashbacks to her oldest sister's murder and her own attack when she was a preteen and you have a very tangled plot that I gave up trying to unravel at 75%.

31. Wolf's Bane by Kelley Armstrong (272 p.) -- First half of a duology introduces twins Logan and Kate Danvers and puts them at a camp filled with other supernaturals where weird things are happening. Logan and Kate are going through some growing pains and losing some of the closeness that they had as children mainly because Kate isn't sharing what happened when she dumped her first real boyfriend who remains one of Logan's friends. At the camp, tensions are rising and neither Logan or Kate or their new friends Holly, Elijah, Mason, and Allan can figure out why. It looks like something is affecting the half demons who make up the majority of the campers and turning them against the vampire Mason and werewolves Logan and Kate. It was exciting especially the build up to the cliffhanger ending.

32. Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik (480 p.) -- Excellent! Lush and lyrical fantasy with a fairy tale feel and a Russian setting. Miryem is the daughter of a bad moneylender. To keep her family from starvation she takes over the family business even though it requires her to turn cold. Wanda is a peasant girl whose father owes a debt to Miryem's father and offers her service to Miryem to repay it. Irina is the neglected daughter of a duke's first wife. When Miryem gets in trouble with the Staryk for bragging that she can turn silver to gold, she has to take fairy silver and convert it to gold for him. She consults a jeweler who makes magical products with the silver to sell to the duke who uses them to make his daughter attractive to the Tsar. However, unknown to all but Irina, the Tsar is possessed by a demon who wants to consume life. Lots of well-realized characters who grow and change throughout the story and who have to make decisions at horrible costs.

33. Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers (288 p.) -- 2nd Lord Peter Wimsey mystery has him investigating when his brother the Duke of Denver is accused of murdering their sister Mary's fiance. Both the duke and Mary are lying about the events of the evening which makes it more difficult for Peter, Bunter and Parker to unravel the whole tangled tale. Great characters.

34. A Study in Sable by Mercedes Lackey (320 p.) -- Elemental Masters and Sherlock Holmes

35. Whiskey Sour by J. A. Konrath (290 p.) -- First Jack Daniels mystery nicely combines suspense and humor. Jack's having a bad week. She has insomnia, her live-in left her for his trainer, and a serial killer who calls himself the Gingerbread Man is leaving tortured young women in trash cans. With the "help" of some particularly incompetent FBI agents and her constantly-eating partner, Jack has to find the killer who seems to have a crush on her before he completes his murder spree.

36. Harbor for the Nightingale by Kathleen Baldwin (307 p.) -- 4th Stranje House novel is Maya's story. Maya is Anglo-Indian, despised by her stepmother, and feels abandoned by her father who sent her to Stranje House. She has an ability to use her voice to persuade and also hears other people's songs which illuminate their personalities for her. When the Prince Regent decides to make his own peace treaty with Napoleon despite counsel from his wiser advisers, Miss Stranje's students need to find a way to derail the meeting. Part of the plan has Maya being the fake fiance of Lord Kinworth who both fascinates and confuses her. Great setting, characters, and a fast-paced story with a nice amount of romance.

37. Cruel Fate by Kelley Armstrong (175 p.) -- Cainsville Novella centered around the release of Olivia's father Todd from prison after being acquitted of being a serial killer. Someone wants to have him convicted of the one murder he actually did commit and it is up to Olivia, Gabriel and Ricky to keep Todd out of prison.

38. Cold Magic by Kate Elliott (528 p.) -- First in a trilogy set in a Afro-Celt post-Roman Icepunk Regency setting. Cat Barahal is forced into marriage with a Cold Mage where she learns that most of what she believes about her family is not true. She has to learn about her past and real family, save her cousin, and escape the husband who has been ordered to kill her while trying to find allies in a world on the edge of revolution. Great story and wonderful world building.

39. Cold Fire by Kate Elliott (529 p.) -- 2nd in the Spiritwalker trilogy has Cat discovering her sire and being forced into service to him. She also finds Vai and their relationship flourishes until her father kidnaps him. Takes place in the New World mostly. Great worldbuilding.

40. Redshirts by John Scalzi (317 p.) -- Hugo Award Winning novel. Starts like a knockoff of Star Trek until the characters come to believe that they are actually a fictional television program and decided to go back in time to get the writers to stop killing them randomly. The three codas added heart and depth to what could have been just a slight, silly story.

41. Written in Red by Anne Bishop - Reread

42. Unspeakable Things by Jess Lourey (200 p.) -- Thriller set in the 1980s in small town Minnesota. The narrator is 12-year-old Cassie McDowell who tells about events with disappearing boys in her small hometown. Based on the author's recollections of the Jacob Wetterling case, the thriller aspect is overshadowed by Cassie's family troubles including her father who has unexplained rages and changes her older sister is going through.

43. The Woman in the Veil by Laura Joh Rowland (300 p.) -- 4th in Victorian Mystery series has Sarah Bain, Lord Hugh Stanton, and Mick O'Rourke trying to identify a young woman who was found nearly dead and with amnesia. Sarah's fiance Barrett has been assigned the case by his vindictive superior officer. They come up with three credible possibilities and have to investigate each but more murders happen and they are all being accused of committing them. Great setting. Interesting characters.

44. Murder of Crows by Anne Bishop (Reread)

45. The Vanishing by Jayne An Krentz (294 p.) -- First in new Fogg Lake paranormal suspense trilogy. Catalina Lark inherited paranormal powers from her family who was in Fogg Lake when the accident happened. She uses her skills to investigate crime scenes but was outed as a psychic after a recent case. Slater Arganbright suffered an attack by radiation that has changed his psychic powers. He's sent by his uncle to investigate a series of deaths of collectors of paranormal objects. He arrives just in time to find Catalina searching for her kidnapped partner. The two team up to solve both cases which are linked. I liked the characters and the banter between them.

46. There's a Murder Afoot by Vicki Delany (336 p.) -- Gemma Doyle and her friends from the US are in the UK to attend a Sherlock Holmes convention and have a short vacation. Their plans are derailed when Gemma meets an uncle she didn't know she had who is found murdered shortly after with her father standing over the body. She needs to prove that her father wasn't the killer while keeping her friends occupied elsewhere. Luckily she has the help of her older sister Pippa who works in some mysterious job for the British government. Fun setting and characters.

47. Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop (reread)

48. Marked in Flesh by Anne Bishop (reread)

49. Etched in Bone by Anne Bishop (reread)

50. A Perfect Eye by Stephanie Kane (210 p.) -- Art Conservator Lily Sparks is drawn into a murder investigation by an old flame which leads to all kinds of danger for her. Lots of info about art. Lots of suspects. Emotional tension too.

51. Lake Silence by Anne Bishop (reread)

52. Spitfire: A Livy Nash Mystery by M. L. Huie (300 p.) -- Livy Nash worked with the Resistance during WWII but is sort of aimless - drinking too much - now that she's back in England. When she is recruited by Ian Fleming's new spy network, she sees it as a chance to get revenge on the man who killed her lover and also to have some purpose in her life. Lots of adventure from this female James Bond. I really liked Livy.

53. A Longer Fall by Charlaine Harris (320 p.) -- 2nd Gunnie Rose story has Lizbeth hiring onto a new crew who is tasked with bringing a crate into Dixie. A train derailment and armed intruders who kill most of the crew and steal the crate leaves Lizbeth to find the crate and get it to its proper destination. Prince Ilya Savarov (Eli) is alos searching for the crate. Finding it might restore his family's reputation but rival grigori's and the power elite in Dixie don't want it found because the contents could cause an uprising among the Black population. Eli and Lizbeth rekindle a relationship which began in the first book but Lizbeth knows it has no future because of their different lives. Great characters, great world building.

Thank you for keeping me company in 2019.......onward to 2020.

You are hard to reach out to. I don't remember ever receiving a single response to any post I made here which is a shame, Kathy, because your reading is always so varied and interesting.

Thanks for your good wishes. I'm not sure how to respond to a post.