• The God of the Woods, Liz Moore
• Swordcrossed, Freya Marske
• I’ll be Waiting and Known to the Victim, Kelley Armstrong
• Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder, Kerryn Mayne
• The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley
• Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party, Edward Dolnick
• The Court of Miracles, Victor Dixen
• The Justice of Kings, Richard Swan
• This Girl’s a Killer, Emma C. Wells
• Onyx Storm, Rebecca Yarros
• You are Fatally Invited, Ande Pliego
• The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, Sangu Mandanna
• The Big Empty, Robert Crais

As you can see, I have had a LOT of time to read while I was off my feet. As far as I’m concerned, that was the upside to being in a wheelchair and then in a surgical boot. I’m hitting the high spots, here.

Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods is a really masterful writing class on moving back and forth between times and people in the same book. Two missing kids at a private summer camp, years apart, and the effect this has had on the town around the camp and the people who sponsor it . . . it’s a lot to handle, but Moore does it with the ease of a conjurer. A very good book.

Freya Marske’s Swordcrossed is a very superior m/m romance with some fascinating world building. Mattinesh Jay, heir to a family business, is trying desperately to conceal how badly his family needs the money it will gain when he marries the daughter of another mercantile house. She’s a friend and she’s wonderful, but Matti is really not enthused. He has to have a swordsman as his best man, and he hires a newcomer to the city, Luca. Luca is not who he seems, and as he gives Matti sword lessons, their relationship changes. I enjoyed this book from start to finish.

I’ll be Waiting and Known to the Victim are both by Kelley Armstrong. They are very different books. Armstrong is one of the most consistent writers around and one of the most willing to take chances. Waiting is a standalone about a woman with cystic fibrosis, who is with her husband when their car crashes and he dies. A bystander hears him tell her “I’ll be waiting for you.” Nicola becomes the target of mediums claiming to speak to the dead. She is not unwilling, but she maintains skepticism. She schedules a weekend retreat with a reputable medium, though it will be her last attempt. That weekend goes awry in a spectacular way. Known to the Victim sounds a big warning bell we should all heed. Amy has endured the ghastly murder of her mother, afterwards becoming an expert on domestic violence and its signs. Her podcast educates women to be more alert. Then a family member is accused of the same kind of crime, leaving Amy caught on the horns of a big dilemma.

Lenny Marks gets Away with Murder is not another female serial killer narrative, but an incredibly profound book with an intriguing heroine. Lenny Marks had a true hell of an upbringing, but she’s coping as best she can. Change is coming to her whether she wants it or not.

Kaliane Bradley’s The  Ministry of Time is not at all what I expected. It’s incredibly twisty and turny, alternately delightful and terrifying. A young ministry employee is hired to be the “bridge” for a person rescued from the past, a person who would surely have died. Commander Graham Gore has been grabbed from Sir John Franklin’s expedition to the Arctic in 1847. There are other bridges who live with charges from different times. I won’t try to describe the rest of the book plot, other than to say I devoured it as quickly as I could.

Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party was a great read. It’s a nonfiction treat about the discovery of dinosaur bones and its effect on religion. A great friend of mine gave it to me for Christmas, and she knows me well.

I met Victor Dixen in Spain. (I’m saying that just to feel cosmopolitan.) I was lucky to read his first book to be published in America, and just as lucky to get an advance copy of the second book in the series, The Court of Miracles. This novel, where vampires rule France with a tight fist, is absolutely baroque. The lowborn heroine is pretending to be a highborn noble, serving at the court of the vampire king. There are no relaxing moments in Dixen’s high-stakes (hah!) narrative.

The Justice of Kings is world-building at its finest. Vonvalt is a judge who can compel people to speak the truth. He travels from place to place to administer justice with his young scribe, Helena, and his knight, Bressinger. Vonvalt has a hard time believing that the justice system has fallen into disarray, but the three travelers learn the hard way.  If you are a science fiction buff, this is a book you shouldn’t miss.

Cordelia Black is a sort of anti-heroine, sure to win a  lot of women’s hearts or at least an enthusiastic “atta-girl.” Cordelia leads the ultimate secret life. She’s a pharmaceutical rep with a great friend or two, and she’s also a killer of bad men. Cordelia makes some good choices, and some really bad ones, but you can’t help but root for her because This Girl’s a Killer.

Like many, many people I read Onyx Storm (Rebecca Yarros’s latest) as soon as I could. And though I could tell I had forgotten some of the previous two books, I didn’t want to spare the time to do a necessary reread. Yarros has a great gift of storytelling. If you don’t know Violet Sorrengail, you’re in for a real treat.

Ande Pliego’s You are Fatally Invited was highly recommended to me by the staff of one of my favorite bookstores, and I was glad I heeded them. This book must have been a bear to write, because of the back-and-forth timelines and points of view. You have to pay attention, but if you do, you’ll enjoy this novel about a writer’s retreat (on an island!) gone terribly wrong. Or, if you’re the murderer, terribly right.

The Secret Society of Highly Irregular Witches simply reeks with charm. There’s no other way to put it. English witches are supposed to lead solitary lives away from each other, and they are all orphans. Mika, young and lonely, is offered a secret job taking care of three very young witches, as a sort of magical governess. She’ll find much more than a job at Nowhere House.

Robert Crais, one of the best mystery writers I’ve ever read, has a new Elvis & Joe book, The Big Empty. Crais is a master of dialog, so if you want to learn while you enjoy a great book, you should read all the Elvis Cole and Joe Pike books. You can’t do better.

BLOG:

I am in the middle of bureaucratic hell trying to get a copy of my birth certificate. I am learning a lot in the process, none of which I wanted to know. If you have ever tried to make your way through the maze, please wish me luck. I can absolutely prove I was born! My mistake was dropping my birth first name (also my mother’s) because I was never called that. If you have done this too, I hope you already have a good birth certificate, because this is about as much fun as wrestling alligators in a mud bath.

In more pleasant news, I submitted my short story for the anthology VALKYRIES, and after some very good editing on the part of Henry Herz, I am done with that. I’ve gotten back to work on my next book (new world, new protagonist), and I’m happily putting it all together.

I never realized what it treat it was to have two shoes that match until I got the green light to leave my walking cast in the closet. Yay!

In case you haven’t seen my Facebook posts, this year I will be at the Knoxville Book Festival, DragonCon, ThrillerFest, and Bouchercon. I hope to meet you at one of those, and I will gladly sign whatever books you bring. This is a bit more traveling than I had planned on, but I’m feeling better and will have a great time.

Charlaine Harris