Review of The Call, by Yannick Murphy

Contemporary, Fiction Review, Literary, Starred Review 0

The Call

by Yannick Murphy

Harper Perennial, 2011. 223 pages.
Starred Review

It took me quite awhile to look at the back of this book closely enough to realize that Yannick Murphy is a woman. She gets the voice of a man, a veterinarian in New England, exactly right. Or at least what a woman thinks of as exactly the voice of a man, I suppose.

You’ll get the format of the book right from the start. Here’s how it begins:

CALL: A cow with her dead calf half-born.
ACTION: Put on boots and pulled dead calf out while standing in a field full of mud.
RESULT: Hind legs tore off from dead calf while I pulled. Head, forelegs, and torso are still inside the mother.
THOUGHTS ON DRIVE HOME WHILE PASSING RED AND GOLD LEAVES ON MAPLE TREES: Is there a nicer place to live?
WHAT CHILDREN SAID TO ME WHEN I GOT HOME: Hi, Pop.
WHAT THE WIFE COOKED FOR DINNER: Something mixed-up.

CALL: Old woman with minis needs bute paste.
ACTION: Drove to old woman’s house, delivered bute paste. Pet minis. Learned their names — Molly, Netty, Sunny, and Storm.
RESULT: Minis are really cute.
THOUGHTS ON DRIVE HOME: Must bring children back here sometime to see the cute minis.
WHAT CHILDREN SAID TO ME WHEN I GOT HOME: Hi, Pop.
WHAT THE WIFE COOKED FOR DINNER: Steak and potatoes, no salad. She said, David, our salad days are over, it now being autumn and the garden bare except for wind-tossed fallen leaves.

Yes, the story does get more complex, but always follows the same listing format. His responses about the items get much longer, waxing into many paragraphs. For example, here’s a section only a few pages in:

WHAT THE WIFE SAID AFTER DINNER: Whose sneakers are these on the floor? Who left the butter out? Whose books are these? Whose sweater? Whose crumbs? Can’t you clean up after yourselves? Don’t leave a wet towel on your bed. Flush the toilet. Can’t anyone flush the toilet? These papers will get ruined on the table in the kitchen. Do you want your papers ruined?
WHAT THE CHILDREN DID: Ran outside.
WHAT I DID: Ran outside. We went and looked for trees that would be good for raising my deer stand. There’s a hill and ridge below where a stream runs through. There are game trails going down the ridge. There is already a wooden deer stand there someone put up long ago where Sam could hunt from while I hunted from my tree stand at the same time. This would be a good place for my stand. I thought I could use my stand for other things other than hunting, too. I could stand in my stand at night and call to the owls. I could stand in my stand at night and look for the bright lights in the sky, the object moving quickly back and forth, but then I remembered there was a warning that came with my stand. The warning said never to strap yourself into the harness in darkness because you may make a mistake, you may not be able to see where your leg should be going through a loop. You could be strapped into nothing. Also, you may not see a rung as you’re climbing down the stand. Your footing will have no purchase. You will fall like a shot bird from a branch, head over heels to the forest floor heavily strewn with needles of pine.
WHAT SAM DID: Imitated me standing in the stand and falling out and landing with my head on a rock.
WHAT MY DAUGHTERS DID: Jumped on top of him as he lay with his head on the rock being me.
WHAT I SAID: Shhh, if you want to see something in the woods you have to be quiet.

Several themes develop. Those bright lights in the sky at night continue to dance around, until he’s convinced there’s a UFO overhead. He’s supposed to go see the doctor. But much worse is what happens when his son goes hunting for the first time, and the aftermath.

I had planned to turn this book back in because I hadn’t started it and my pile was too big, but when I read that first page, I couldn’t resist. There’s something so inherently funny about this understated way of looking at things, and the progression of his thoughts. Is there perhaps some superiority in thinking this must be exactly how a man thinks? Perhaps. But there’s a lot of humor, too.

And the story? There is one, and it’s a lovely one; a story about life and living it and enjoying every detail.

If you find this beginning irresistible, as I did, you will know that you need to read this book!

yannickmurphy.com
harperperennial.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/call.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of The Spellman Files, by Lisa Lutz

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Fiction Review, Mystery, Starred Review 0

The Spellman Files

by Lisa Lutz

Performed by Christina Moore

Recorded Books, 2007. 8 CDs. Unabridged.
Starred Review.

Izzy Spellman has worked in the family business since she was 12 years old. The family business is private detection. But they don’t really do glamorous murder cases. Their work tends more toward background checks and tailing people. Izzy is very good at those things.

Izzy was always something of a black sheep, even in their crazy family. But now that Izzy is 28 and her little sister is 14, she’d like to set a better example for Rae. Still, Izzy can’t resist doing a background check on a potential boyfriend, nor can she bring herself to tell him the truth about herself and her family. Finally, she decides if she ever wants to have a normal life, she’ll have to get out of the family business.

Surprisingly, her parents agree. But they give her one more case, a cold case about a boy who disappeared 15 years ago. However, when Rae disappears in the middle of the case, things get awfully serious.

I listened to this book on a car trip up to Philadelphia for PLA Biennial Conference, and when I got there, I got to meet the author and purchase the next book! On long trips, I love listening to books that make me laugh, and this book filled the bill beautifully. The mystery aspect was a tiny bit disappointing — this isn’t a puzzle-type detective novel. But taken for what it is, the story of a young woman with a crazy family trying to have a normal life, and not really succeeding, this book is a smashing success. Because, after all, who of us is really normal? But listening to Izzy’s story, you might start to think you are.

Big thanks to my co-worker Lynne for recommending this as a great book to listen to.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/spellman_files.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Blood Spirits, by Sherwood Smith

Adventure, Fantasy, Fiction Review, Paranormal, Starred Review 0

Blood Spirits

by Sherwood Smith

DAW Books, 2011. 488 pages.
Starred Review

It’s hard to talk about this book without saying too much about its predecessor. Yes, you definitely should read Coronets and Steel before you read Blood Spirits. When we left Kim, she had found out a world of information about her grandmother’s secret life. She’d been kidnapped more than once, she’d met long-lost family, and she’d gotten involved in political intrigue and fallen in love. She’d also discovered that she has the Sight, and she saw some truly strange things in the kingdom of Dobrenica.

But in the end, she decided not to get between the man she loves and his duty to his nation. She fled, expecting him to get married, and wondering if the traditional magic would happen and Dobrenica would disappear from the outside world.

Well, Dobrenica didn’t disappear. But Kim decided to get a teaching job and to try not to think about Dobrenica. But it doesn’t work, and then Kim has a strange vision of Ruli, her look-alike cousin, the woman who married the man she loves. Ruli is begging Kim for help. Kim decides to go to Dobrenica.

Her timing is bad. Ruli has just been found dead, and even Alec considers himself responsible for her death. Kim’s showing up then makes the case against him all the worse.

This story includes political intrigue, a murder mystery, and, yes, blood spirits threatening the kingdom. There’s more sword fighting (Kim is a skilled fencer.) and shifting alliances and even Kim’s grandmother faces her old love.

Here’s Kim talking to a Dobrenican girl and discovering she’s not the only one who sees strange things:

Tania refused to sit down, so I collapsed on the bed, as she said without preamble, “When I was little I talked to ghosts. Many ghosts. I see them all around, though most are silent and like fog. But my family, they thought I lied, to gain attention.”

I sat up again. “You talked to them?”

She brought her chin down in a single nod.

“But no one believed you?” I began to pull off my boots.

“No one but my sisters. Theresa because she loves the stories about ghosts. Anna because she knew I never lied.”…

“First, how do you talk to them, and second, what made you decide to tell me these things?”

“I do not know how I speak to them,” she said, her slender hands open as I reached for the wardrobe door. “It happened more when I was small. Rarely since. No one else could hear them. It was not always about things that made sense to me. As for why I’m telling you this, it is partly because of what you said when you came to the lens maker’s, but also because of this man.” She pointed at the wardrobe.

“What?” I jumped back as if I’d been electrocuted, leaving the wardrobe door ajar. “What man?”

She pointed. “He stands there, with a cigarette.”

Sherwood Smith is a master of the fantasy genre, and this book isn’t quite like any other. More swashbuckling romance. With vampires. And these ones definitely don’t sparkle.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/blood_spirits.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Beauty and the Werewolf, by Mercedes Lackey

Fairy Tale Variant, Fantasy, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

Beauty and the Werewolf

by Mercedes Lackey

Luna, 2011. 329 pages.
Starred Review

I’ve read all of Mercedes Lackey’s Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed each one. They aren’t fairy tale retellings. In some ways they’re fairy tale improvements. They tell us stories of people in fairy tale situations and show us those people figuring out how to come up with a happy ending, despite what the Tradition might want to push them toward.

That’s how magic works in the Five Hundred Kingdoms. The Tradition builds up around people in fairy tale situations and uses its power to point them into storybook lives. But that often doesn’t turn out nicely for the people involved. The books about these people are clever and funny and anyone who’s ever enjoyed fairy tales will find great satisfaction out of seeing how the characters foil tradition.

Beauty and the Werewolf starts out as a Red Riding Hood variant. Bella is taking some gifts to Granny, the local herb witch. In this story, the woodsman is the villain, not a man Bella likes at all. But when she’s attacked in the night by a lone wolf, the next day she is taken to his manor. It turns out that he’s a werewolf who was supposed to be secluded during the full moon. Now Bella must wait in his palace to see if she will transform into a wolf as well. And, of course, now she’s playing out Beauty and the Beast.

One thing I like about these books is how she picks and chooses elements, and sometimes leaves out the unpleasant ones. Bella’s stepsisters are sweet, if flighty. She gets to see her father through a magic mirror, and it does provide comfort. We even find out the story behind the invisible servants eventually. Bella’s the one who immediately thinks to have them wear armbands so she can tell where they are. (Well, duh! Mercedes Lackey brings practical thinking to these fairy tales!)

Bella’s smart, independent, and enterprising. We’re not surprised when she doesn’t wait quietly to find out if she’s going to turn into a beast herself. She’s not one to let the Tradition push her around. Once again, this is thoroughly enjoyable reading.

Harlequin.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Review of Death Comes to Pemberley, by P. D. James

Austenalia, Fiction Review, Historical, Mystery, Starred Review 0

Death Comes to Pemberley

by P. D. James

Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2011. 291 pages.
Starred Review

When I heard that a stellar and distinguished British mystery writer was going to tackle a mystery sequel to Pride and Prejudice, I knew I had to read it! I’ve read a lot of Jane Austen knock-offs and love them (see the Austenalia category), but not all the authors were ones I’ve heard of before.

I will confess that I’d never read a P. D. James book before this one. I’d long meant to, and saw a movie based on Children of Men, but have never quite gotten around to it. Still, I was surprised when I liked the Pride and Prejudice sequel aspects of this book more than I did the mystery.

Before I criticize, let me say that I loved reading this book. It was a delight, and I recommend it to all other Jane Austen fans. I’m going to point out some ways it wasn’t perfect, but it was still very very good and tremendously enjoyable. So please keep that in mind!

I do think I liked it more than Carrie Bebris’s Jane Austen sequels. In those, I didn’t really appreciate the paranormal element she brought in, and P. D. James did a better job imitating Jane Austen’s style. (Though I thoroughly enjoyed Carrie Bebris’s books as well.)

I admit I was delighted with her choice of victim and suspect. P. D. James brings back most of the important characters from Pride and Prejudice. The Prologue nicely sets the stage, and fits absolutely well with what Jane Austen said at the end of her book about how her characters’ lives continued.

A couple things I would have liked to be different:

Preparations for a ball at Pemberley are interrupted by a murder. Shucks. It would have been fun to get to read about a ball at Pemberley.

Georgiana is considering two suitors, but her choice is settled very easily. Some romance and romantic scenes and misunderstanding and revelation would have been nicely in the spirit of Jane Austen.

My biggest objection is that the mystery was not solved by our main characters. When all has been resolved, Darcy is simply informed of the resolution. Sure, we had some clues and some suspicions, but not really enough to solve the crime, and it ended up pretty much being luck that let the truth come out. I would have liked it much better if Elizabeth had solved the crime, coming up with the crucial information, or, next best, Mr. Darcy.

I also was kind of annoyed by an ending talk between Elizabeth and Darcy. They discussed things that they’d already cleared up at the end of Pride and Prejudice. This was unnecessary.

However, some things I loved:

She really got the spirit of the characters and the society. Without petty tricks like imitating Pride and Prejudice‘s first line.

She brought back so many characters from the original book. Even Mr. Bennett visits for awhile, just as Jane Austen mentioned he was wont to do.

She made the legal process at that time, with magistrates and the inquest and trial process, very clear and easy to understand.

Most of all, I felt like I was spending time with my beloved characters again. Definitely a treat for fans of Pride and Prejudice!

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of Gold, by Chris Cleave

Contemporary, Fiction Review, General, Literary, Starred Review 0

Gold

by Chris Cleave

Simon & Schuster, New York, July 2012. 326 pages.
Starred Review

Gold is perfect reading for before, during, and after the Olympic games. It’s a story of a long-time rivalry between Zoe and Kate, the two best women’s cyclists in the world, good friends both on the United Kingdom team. They were first scheduled to compete against each other in the 2004 games, then in 2008, but something happened each time so only one got the Gold. Now the 2012 games are approaching, and both are at the top of their form.

We learn their story as we follow the build-up to the Olympics. Their rivalry isn’t only on the track, and each have their own motivations, their own insecurities, their own inner demons. There’s also a little girl in their lives who has leukemia. They thought it was in remission, and little Sophie doesn’t want anyone to know when she’s feeling bad. But that’s not always a good idea.

I laughed that Sophie is absorbed with Star Wars and uses Star Wars to fight her leukemia, because in Little Bee Chris Cleave had a child who lived in his Batman costume. Super heroes and story do have a way of helping those who are powerless feel much more powerful.

Here’s Sophie thinking about her family:

She leaned her back against the wall and closed her eyes. That half a minute of talking with Ruby had wiped her out. It was good, though. Mum had seen it. Dad had seen it. That counted for an hour when they wouldn’t worry. After that she knew she would start to see the lines creeping back into their faces, and hear the sharp edge coming back into their voices, and notice the little sideways glances they shot at her while they pretended they weren’t looking. They would start to have arguments with each other, about stupid things like training hours and long-grain rice, and they wouldn’t even know why they were doing it. She would know, though. It meant that they were scared for her all over again, and she would have to do one of the things that made them forget it for another hour.

If you were in the car, you could kick the back of the seat. That made them annoyed, which was the opposite of scared. If you were in the house, you had more choices. You could answer back or be lippy, which made you seem less ill. You could do a drawing. You could hurry up the stairs and make a lot of noise so they noticed you doing it, even if you had to lie down on your bed afterwards for ten minutes. You could make it look like you’d eaten all your toast, even if you had to post it down your T-shirt and flush it in the toilet later. You could play boys’ games like Star Wars that had fighting and spaceships and made you look tough, even if you weren’t tough enough to ride a bike.

This book didn’t feel as momentous and weighty as Little Bee, but that’s a good thing. I’m not sure I could have handled that big an emotional punch. It was still a powerful book, and I definitely found myself thinking about it long after reading it. Gold explores motivation, competition, friendship, the search for excellence, and what makes a family. It definitely put me in the mood for the Olympic Games this year.

chriscleave.com
simonandschuster.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on an Advance Reading Copy I got at ALA Midwinter Meeting.

Review of Heir to Sevenwaters, by Juliet Marillier

Fantasy, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

Heir to Sevenwaters

by Juliet Marillier

A Roc Book (Penguin), 2008. 398 pages.
Starred Review

The Sevenwaters books showed all the signs of being a trilogy. So reading a fourth book feels like a wonderful bonus. Again, we’re looking at another generation of the people of Sevenwaters, in ancient Ireland. Again, the story has echoes of myths and fairy tales.

This book features Clodagh, the daughter of Sean and Aisling. She must go into the realm of the Fair Folk first to save her brother, then for the sake of the man she loves. This book is romantic and mythic and an incredibly good adventure. The worst thing about these books is how hard it is to stop reading them.

“Finbar made a little sound. My whole body stiffened in alarm. His voice was different; wrong. It was not the cry of a healthy, hungry baby but a curious, painful rasp. No normal child made a sound like that. Finbar must be sick. He was choking, he couldn’t breathe . . . I sprang up and hastened to the basket, my heart racing. I looked down, an image of my baby brother still fresh in my mind — the delicate fingers, the soft eyelids, the peachy skin and rosebud mouth. My heart gave a single thump and was still. Now I was cold all over. Finbar was gone. All that lay in his little bed was a curious jumble of sticks and stones, leaves and moss.”

Once again, despite the title, this is the story of a young woman. A young woman who has dealings with the Fair Folk, who is strong beyond her years, and who will risk everything for those she loves.

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Source: This review is based on a book I purchased from Amazon.com.

Review of Maisie Dobbs, by Jacqueline Winspear

Fiction Review, Historical, Mystery, Starred Review 0

Maisie Dobbs

by Jacqueline Winspear

Penguin Books, 2003. 294 pages.
Starred Review

A big thank you to Liz B of A Chair, a Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy for bringing this book to my attention.

This book is about Maisie Dobbs, a brilliant girl who was discovered studying on her own and sent to Cambridge by the upper-class family where she was serving. Now, between the wars, she is a Psychologist and Investigator. Her first case is to find out if a wife is straying — but ends up focusing on a Retreat for soldiers scarred in the Great War.

The middle of the book tells how Maisie got her start and how she interrupted her education to serve as a nurse during the war, and how she got her own scars.

Liz’s review is excellent, so I don’t have a lot to add. But one thing that was interesting to me was how much of the book paralleled another book I just read, The Return of Captain John Emmett, by Elizabeth Speller. Both were set about ten years after World War I, in England. Both involved a supposed haven for wounded or psychologically damaged soldiers. Both had things happen during the war that left lifelong scars to those involved. However, I have to admit that Maisie Dobbs is much more pleasant reading, and didn’t go into nearly as much detail about the awful things that happened during the war. The protagonist in The Return of Captain John Emmett is jaded himself about what he saw and just going through the motions of life. Maisie, on the other hand, has been through some awful experiences, but she is using her clever mind to help people and make things right. This book fits the description of a “cozy” mystery, while the other one had too much grim reality to fit that category. However, you do get the same feeling of what things were like after World War I, and how everything was poised to change.

I’ll definitely be reading more books in this series. Maisie Dobbs is someone I enjoy spending time with.

www.penguin.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of 1222, by Anne Holt

Audiobooks, Fiction Review, Mystery, Starred Review, Suspense 0

1222

by Anne Holt
read by Kate Reading

Blackstone Audio, 2011. Originally published in Norway in 2007. 9 CDs.
Starred Review

I’ve always loved a locked-room mystery. This one is a snowed-in mystery. And we’ve got even more classic feel with a train wreck starting it all and a paralyzed detective who thinks she is done with police work. But then one of the train passengers is murdered.

At first, I didn’t like the narration. She was reading the lines like a computer. But then I realized that former police detective Hanne Wilhelmson would talk like that. She’s withdrawn almost completely from people since the day when she got shot, the day that ended her career. And once I realized that was intentional, I enjoyed the narrator very much. I definitely wouldn’t have pronounced the Norwegian names correctly if left to my own devices, for a start.

The story is very atmospheric and brilliantly written. Hanne was traveling through the mountains to see a specialist about some additional difficulties. Due to ice, the train went off the tracks. Only the engineer was killed, and she describes the crowd’s reaction to the accident and how they are all brought to a hotel in the mountains and hunker down after the storm builds to hurricane force and they are surrounded by snow. That first night, one of them is murdered. Hanne is recognized as a former police officer, so against her wishes, she is asked to help solve the crime.

One thing I particularly liked: Hanne comments on how the hotel owner grows during the disaster, and the reader can’t help but realize how dramatically Hanne has grown, going from not wanting to speak to anyone to taking charge and solving the crime.

This book is gripping and fascinating and gives modern twists to classic mystery themes. I was listening to the last CD on the way to work and absolutely hated having to shut it off in order to be on time. That evening, I took the audiobook inside so I could finish without any further waiting.

This would have been fun to read during a winter storm — though perhaps that would have made me paranoid, since the book made you almost feel you were experiencing the blizzard yourself. If you want to cool off, this would be good summer reading! Chilling in more than one sense of the word. But with characters you enjoy watching rise to the occasion.

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library audiobook from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of The Ionia Sanction, by Gary Corby

Adventure, Fiction Review, Historical, Mystery, Starred Review 0

The Ionia Sanction

by Gary Corby

Minotaur Books, New York, 2011. 335 pages.
Starred Review

Here’s a second mystery set during the dawn of democracy in Athens. In this one, our hero Nicolaos is sent to Ephesus in Ionia to retrieve a letter stolen from a murdered man.

This book also begins with a dead body. The first line is still pretty striking:

“I ran my finger along one foot of the corpse, then the other, making the body swing with a lazy, uncaring rhythm.”

The proxenos for Ephesus in Athens (kind of the opposite of an ambassador; an Athenian with an interest in Ephesus who handles Ephesian business) has been murdered. A letter he received from Ephesus has been stolen. Nico has to go to Ephesus with a mission to find out what was in the letter. The murdered man’s son would like his father cleared of treason while Nico’s at it. And the woman he loves, Diotima, is now a priestess at the Artemsion in Ephesus.

This is no cozy armchair mystery. There are some gritty details and some sexual misadventures, but they do seem to reflect life in that time period. I had known, for example, that impalement was used to kill people, but I’d never before understood what a truly horrible form of death it was. The author explains in his note at the end that crucifixion was introduced later as a more humane alternative to impalement.

Nicolaos travels to Ephesus and Magnesia, where he meets the famed hero of Athens, Themistocles, who was later exiled as a traitor and now enjoys the favor of the Great King of Persia. There’s another death, and Nico has to figure out how they all tie together, as well as fulfill his commission from Pericles in Athens.

The mystery is the sort where you don’t necessarily have the clues to solve the case yourself, but you do enjoy the adventure of watching Nicolaos come to the solution, with lots of help from Diotima.

All in all, despite some moments that made me wince, this book gives a fun story, an adventure with lots of historical details and a strong dose of humor. Nicolaos is something of a bumbler. The more pleased he is with himself, the more confident he is, the more you can be sure he’s going to fail.

Since Nico’s visiting Persia, he naturally looks at their lives with the eyes of an Athenian. This makes an entertaining way of telling the reader the things that were normal in Athens. For example, one character convinces Nico that wearing trousers is a more comfortable way to ride a horse.

Reading the extended author’s note at the end of the book made me all the more impressed with it. Based on the historical record, everything in this book could actually have happened. As in the first book, The Pericles Commission, the list of characters at the front highlights people who are actual historical figures, about half of the list. My favorite, of course, is still Nicolaos’ annoying little brother, Socrates, though he only shows up at the start of this book.

If you read these books, you’ll never think of ancient history the same way again. The Athenian proxenos for Ephesus is murdered. Nicolaos goes to Ephesus to investigate. Highjinks ensue. Now I know what really happened.

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.