Because I blogged about the Albany Book Fair (tremendous fun) on my usual day, I will do my review of my most recent books now.

The first book I read was John Dedakis’ Bullet in your Chamber.

I unfortunately read this series out of order so I already knew something terrible had happened. I had to go back and fill in. Really excellent, but pretty dark.

Lark Chadwick, finally happy in a relationship, comes across a plot to blackmail one of the president’s advisors into pressing the president into approving a drone law. There were so many possible murderers, it was hard to identify the guilty party. Several deaths later, and problems in Lark’s relationship, make for a captivating read.

Lighter but still fascinating was This Enemy Town by Marcia Talley.

I am gradually reading my way through all the Hannah Ives mysteries. In book 5, another cancer survivor asks Hannah to help with the naval academy’s production of Sweeny Todd. Feeling she cannot refuse, Hannah agrees. While there, she sees Jennifer Goodall, the woman who’d accused Hannah’s husband of sexual harassment and almost destroyed both his career and their marriage. Hannah confronts her and when Jennifer’s body is discovered, Hannah is arrested as the prime suspect.

I did not see the final twist coming and I am now on to number six.

I took a break from mysteries and read Skinwalker by Faith Hunter.

It came up on my Amazon feed as something I might enjoy. And I really did. Jane Yellowrock is a vampire hunter in a world when the ‘vamps’ have been outed and are now part of the human world. A rogue vampire is terrorizing New Orleans, draining humans and vampires alike.

Well-written and full of action. It reminded me of the Thomas Perry Jane Whitehead mysteries with a badass woman, except with an added paranormal aspect. Another series I will continue reading.

Finally, I began reading a nonfiction book by Matthew Green: Shadowlands; Britain’s Lost Cities and Vanished Villages.

Although I haven’t finished this, I read the first chapter and was immediately hooked. Skara Brae is an old old village, estimated as about 5000 years old, so older than the Egyptian pyramids and older than Stonehenge, in northern Scotland. A severe storm in 1850 washed away the sand from a beach and revealed this neolithic village on the shore.

I have seen this village on a pre-pandemic trip to Iceland. On the way home, we stopped in Kirkwald, a very northern town. From there, we took a bus to Skara Brae.

It is a village of little stone huts. Repeated storms have continued to wash away the sand and also, unfortunately, one of the houses.

Although it was the beginning of July, it was COLD.