HOMICIDE IN HARDCOVER: A Bibliophile Mystery - Kate Carlisle

From the back of the book: A new chapter begins.....

Brooklyn Wainwright is a skilled surgeon. Sure, her patients might smell like mold and have spines made of leather, but no ailing book is going to die on her watch. The same can't be said of Abraham Karastovsky, Brooklyn's friend and former employer.

On the eve of a celebration for his latest book restoration, Brooklyn finds her mento lying in a pool of his own blood. With his final breath, Abraham leaves Brooklyn a cryptic meassage, "Remember the devil," and smiles as she takes possession of his priceless--and supposedly cursed--copy of Goethe's FAUST.

Brooklyn suddenly finds herself accused of murder and theft, thanks to Derek Stone, the humorless--and annoyingly attractive--British security officer who found her kneeling over the body. Now she has to make sense of the clues left behind by her mentor if she hopes to restore justice.....

****************************************

I made this my purse book as it meets the requirements, a story I wouldn't be hard-pressed to try to keep up between reading time and it must fit in my purse and not take up too much space. Cozies/Amateur sleuth books fit this bill nicely. Only this one, I wanted to spend more time with than I was getting. The characters are funny and smart or really slap the face mean. The career/artistry of the main character, Brooklyn, is a first for me. I am pretty sure I haven't read a book with bookbinding as the path any of the characters have wandered and this was a real treat. Seeing the love of the craft, the tools required, the people involved, all that jazz...but that never felt forced or overwhelmed the story. It was nicely in the background and moved the story and mystery along.

Brooklyn getting involved as the amateur sleuth was nicely done, too. Her friend, Abraham, was murdered and she was accused of the murder and she wanted to clear her name and find who actually killed her mentor and friend.

I loved Brooklyn's family and her background of commune living and Grateful Dead memories of her mother and father. I want to visit Dharma, the commune, and the winery that Brooklyn's dad operates with love and wisdom. And her mom is priceless and very spiritual and funny and warm.

Five fab peace out book beans......

ROAST MORTEM: Coffeehouse Mystery #9 - Cleo Coyle

From the back of the book: Clare Cosi, manager and head barista of the landmrk Village Blend coffeehouse, has perfected the pulling of steaming hot espresso. But can she keep New York's Bravest from getting burned?

When the firefighters of Ladder Company 189 pull Clare's friends out of a blazing cafe, she happily comes to their rescue. As a favor to the men, she visits their firehouse kitchen to teach them the finer points of operating their newly donated espresso machine. But more than their coffee turns out to be hot. Somebody's torching cafes around the city and firefighters are beginning to die in suspicious ways...

Believing the two events are related, Clare investigates, staking out a five-borough bake sale and sniffing out clues in the pizza joints of Brooklyn. When her detective boyfriend, Mike Quinn, is pulled into the fire of a false accusation, Clare is desperate to put out the flames. But will she be able to come to Mike's rescue before someone tries to extinguish her?

Includes recipes and coffee-making tips!

*************************************************

Smokin'! This is the best Coffeehouse/Clare Cosi yet! Most times a series will start to head south with nine on the shelves, but not this one. Each book is better than the last.

The mixture of the coffeehouses being torched brings Clare into the picture with credibility, which not all cozies can do with any sense of veracity. My favorites are the ones that do it in aces, and this one does it nicely roasted spades.

Okay, enough of the playing card euphemisms...

I liked seeing plenty of Clare and Mike's growing relationship as much as I liked seeing how well Clare gets along with Matt, her ex-husband and still business partner..and friend. They help each other out and the tension seems to have dissipated that was always near the surface in past books. Probably helped that Breanna, Matt's current fashionista wife, wasn't in the book except as honorable mention. Don't like her...there..it's said...

Learning more of Mike's past was enlightening. There is a rivalry between Mike Quinn the cop and his cousin Michael Quinn the firefighter, a rivalry in all things, including the attentions of Clare.

Defnitely plenty of twists and turns through the story and the 'Whaaaa..?!' moments were priceless and believable.

I was honored to have an email from Cleo Coyle not long ago asking if I'd like an advanced copy of ROAST MORTEM before it comes out on 3 Aug 2010. I emailed right back with a very composed, "Yes,yes,yes,yes...please!!" Okay, I was a wee bit giddy....sigh...there it is...

Five the girl is giddy and the book is smokin' fab beans and five diamonds to go with....

THE TAINTED RELIC: An Historical Mystery - Medieval Murderers, narr Stephen Thorne

From the back of the BOCD: THE TAINTED RELIC is five interlinked mysteries from some of the finest historical writers in the UK. Each brings his or her own characters t the tale, which spans over nine hundred years.

July 1100 and Jerusalem has fallen to the Crusader armies. Amid the ensuing chaos a priceless holy relic is entrusted to English knight Geoffrey Mappestone. But the relic is said to be cursed, bringing death and destruction to whoever possesses it. And down the ages the relic continues to wreak its havoc.

The Medieval Murderers are acclaimed authors Simon Beaufort, Philip Gooden, Susanna Gregory, Michael Jecks, Bernard Knight, and Ian Morson.

********************************

I listened to this at work and that might have been part of my not digging it as much as I could have. It took me a little while to get into the story and then to understand everything that was going on. I got that the relic was supposedly cursed and death followed in its wake. My issue was not following who was dying and it seemed like there were a lot of victims with each story. They died before I had a chance to know them or the people solving the crimes or the people doing the killing or even why the killing was occurring, except part of it was to get the relic back from whoever had it.

The only time I could truly understand the story was when it moved up to William Shakespeare's time. The story made me laugh and care about the characters.

All that said, I will be getting more of this series of books, especially KING ARTHUR'S BONES, the reason I started looking for this team of authors. I have a collection of Arthurian legend, saw this book in a review, put it on the WWBL and then found out there's a series of books by this team who call themselves Medieval Murderers. Very cool premise and still intriguing. I know not all books are for all people and I will likely get this as a handheld book to read and pay closer attention....and read it someplace without distractions..like work can be....silly work....

Three need fewer distractions beans....

INFINITE DAYS: Vampire Queen Book One - Rebecca Maizel

From the back of the book: After centuries of terrorizing Europe, Lena Beaudonte, with the the help of the handsome Rhode, has been able to realize the dream of all vampires--to be human again. Now, as a raven-haired, sixteen-year-old, Lenah believes her greatest challenge is fitting in at her new school. But the challenges have only begun. The vicious coven Lenah once ruled is threatening the new-found pleasures of her human life, including the one guy who makes her feel most alive, Justin. Can this ex-vamp survive in an alien time and place or will her past come back to haunt her...forever?
***********************************
What a lovely, dark, lush book this was to read. It would have found its way to Mt Git'r'Read even if I hadn't won it as an Early Reviewer from Library Thing.
There are two sides to Lenah Beaudonte, the vampire queen she was for 592 years..the very evil vampire queen...and the 16 year-old girl starting her life as a human at Wickham Boarding School. Maizel doesn't romanticize the past vampire Lenah. She rather matter-of-factly tells the story of Lenah's reign as a creator of her own coven of vampire men meeting her specific criteria to run rampant through the centuries feeding on the blood of humans.
This is interspersed with Lenah's present life. This is the part that I really enjoyed reading. Watching Lenah learn to be a human after almost 600 years, how to be a 16-year-old female in this modern time. Learning what pizza is, dancing to popular music, the feel of the ocean as she dives in, the feel of the sun on her skin, the texture of wood, the smell of paint on canvas as her friend Tony works on her portrait.
The romance of the story is bittersweet and reflects how young love can be when newly found. But it isn't filled with the angst that turned me off of the Twilight series.
This was a 'danger book' for me, the danger in that I did not want to put down...just one more page...oh..just one more chapter...I finished it quickly because of this 'danger'.
The buzz is out there, the buzz that makes people run out and buy this one when it comes out on 3 August.

Five listen to the buzz diamonds.....

Blooms on Sunday

More garden art, a dragonfly we found in Pickets , the neatest garden shop in Golden CO...sadly, the owner has retired and the shop is no longer open..but you can click on the link and see what treasures were in the shop
The reason we have the plants we have....gotta keep those bees happy or they will disappear and we really can't have that happen

A very happy coneflower/echinacea in the front berm

Russian Sage, DH's favorite of the garden beds..and mine...love the fragrance..and the bees go bonkers for the blooms

I am pretty sure this is prairie clematis..it's one my dad brought out in a cement pot he made

Double Rainbow...I swear, it's there!

Outside our house this evening...a little bit of rain...a lot of rainbow...

THE FIXER UPPER - Mary Kay Andrews, narr Isabel Keating

From the back of the BOCD: The delightful New York Times bestselling author returns with a hilarious novel about one woman's quest to fix up her house...and her life...

After a political scandal, fledgling lobbyist Dempsey Jo Killebrew is left almost broke, unemployed, and homeless. She reluctantly accepts to refurbish Birdsong, the old family place in Guthrie, Georgia .

But, oh, is Dempsey in for a surprise. "Bird Droppings" would more aptly describe the moldering Pepto Bismol-pink dump. There's also a murderously grumpy old lady who has claimed squatter's rights and isn't moving out. Ever.

Furthermore, everyone is Guthrie seems to know Dempsey's business, from a smooth-talking real-estate agent to a cute former lawyer who owns the local newspaper. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the pesky FBI agents who show up on Dempsey's doorstep, hoping to pry information about her ex-boss from her.

All Dempsey can do is roll up her sleeves and get to work. And before long, what started as a job of necessity somehow becomes a labor of love and, ultimately, a journey that takes her to a place she never expected---back home again.

*************************************************

There were times in the beginning and sometimes in the middle of the book where I wanted to reach in and smack Dempsey upside the back of the cranium for her naivete and lack of gumption, especially when it came to how she let her ex-boss and her father try to run her over.

But when Dempsey got her fire back...watch out! It was a sight to behold and I cheered.

It was a slow rather steady process of Dempsey getting her life back on track. Starting with the renovation of Birdsong. She took one step at a time, realized what she could and couldn't do or afford for the house. Along the way, Dempsey also learned that she was more than someone's daughter or fired underling. She learned from her contractor that she was capable of sanding cabinets and floors, painting walls, stripping wallpaper, and all that fun jazz.

She also found gumption in dealing with Ella Kate, the grumpy squatter in Birdsong. Of all the characters in the book, Ella Kate was my favorite. She didn't take any crap, but she did take furniture...

Anyway, once Dempsey found and got her intestestinal fortitude...she ROCKED!! There were some definite cheering going on from me, especially in some of the scenes towards the end of the book.

Five the girl found her rockin' fortitude beans.....

TONIGHT I SAID GOODBYE: Lincoln Perry #1 - Michael Koryta

From the back of the book: Investigator Wayn Weston is found dead of an apparent suicide in his home in an upscale Cleveland suburb, and his wife and six-year-old daughter are now missing. The police think the former Marine murdered them. Hping to exonerate his son, Weston's father hires PIs Lincoln Perry and Joe Pritchard.

Perry and Pritchard soon discover there is much more beneath the surface, including rumors of gambling debts, extortion, and ties to the Russian mob. But just when Perry and Pritchard believe they are making swift progress, a millionaire real-estate tycoon and the FBI advise them to back off of the investigation.

Then without warning, another murder suddenly forces them to change direction in the case as they uncover a trail of deadly twists--but the most shocking secret of all has yet to be unraveled.....

***************************************

I have read a few reviews here and there on this series and this author. I am glad I followed my instincts and bought this thriller and read it pretty much immediately upon its arrival. I had an agenda as I have been neglecting my thriller and suspense books on Mt Git'r'Read in favor of the cozies, UF, and other mysteries. That's not a bad thing, all the books have been pretty sweeeeet....but my dad is coming out in August and we trade thrillers and suspense between the three of us (Seester, Dad and moi) and I have been lax in the trading on my part.

SO...I read this, what turned out to be, superb thriller by this new-to-me author, Michael Koryta.

This book had me squinching my toes up and have some wildass dreams (it was my bedside book) of Russians chasing me in the pool and off of balconies. At least, in the dream, I had a bigass gun.

Lincoln Perry is a flawed character with an intriguing past of disgrace and looking to redeem himself, sort of. He and his partner, Joe, are good at what they do as private investigators. They are hired by the father of a presumed suicide victim. The father wants to clear his son's name and he thinks his son was murdered instead of having committed suicide. There is more to the case than meets the eye and all hell breaks loose.

Anything else will be spoiler city, so I will leave you with this...if you like a tightly honed, superbly written thriller that Lee Child called, "A terrific,first-class debut full of suspense, tension, tricks, and charm." Then this book is for you!

Five terrific, first-class beans.....

Books in the House Monday - 19 Jul 2010

From Barnes & Noble and the recommendation of Jenna (Imzadidragonfly)

From the author, a signed ARC of ROAST MORTEM, available 3 Aug...thank you for sending this Cleo!

Warehouse 13 Season One on DVD

Eureka Season 3.5

Blooms on Sunday - 18 Jul 2010

I love this color...DH got it for me during our vacation

One of my pretty echinacea

My favorite little xeric, agastache..the very fragrant foliage smells like bubblegum...
others smell like mint

Lovely little hot poker plant (thanks for the reminder Sherri...it's not bottle rocket like I keep calling it)...this is the happiest it's been since we plunked it here..it's been moved three times

BITCH FACTOR: Dixie Flanagan #1 - Chris Rogers, narr Peggity Price

From the back of the BOCD: Author Chris Rogers draws on her Texas roots to write the Dixie Flanagan series. Dixie, a former assistant district attorney turned bounty hunter, is legendary in Houston jails for capturing even the most hardened criminals after they've jumped bail.

Parker Dann has been accused of hit-and-run, killing 11-year-old Betsy Keyes as she walked to school one morning. When Parker sees the holiday break as a good time to jump bail, his lawyer calls Dixie to track down Parker before anyone finds out he's on the run. Once Dixie catches up with the fugitive, he's handcuffed in the back of her Mustang before he knows it. But he says that he didn't kill the girl, and claims to remember nothing about the accident. As more evidence surfaces, Dixie starts to believe him.

Rogers' start to the Dixie Flanagan series has been called "funny, clever, and entertaining" (The Washington Times). Narrator Peggity Price channels her inner bitch to voice sassy, tough Dixie.

*******************************************

I originally put this on my Recorded Books wishlist after listening to the superbly written Domestic Equalizers. This series is also fabulously narrated by Peggity Price....I wanted to hear more of what she'd voiced and looked her up on the audiobook site and found Chris Rogers and her creation of Dixie Flanagan. YAY! I'm not sure how long it might have taken me to find this fab thriller of a series otherwise. And I'd have missed out on some kind of cool bitch that is Dixie Flanagan.

Now, I say 'bitch' in the best possible way. Dixie is the tough investigator, smart, always gets her bail jumper...her methods are rougher than most and the bail jumpers are the ones calling her 'bitch'. I like her. She doesn't take any crap and she has the best dog, named MUD (Mean Ugly Dog).

The description of the book says that it's clever, funny and entertaining...it is...but it's also a thriller that had me skimming some sections due to the content. There were references of child abuse of the worst kind and I had a difficult time listening to those parts, so skipped them without losing the thread of the story.

I liked watching Dixie in action, especially her run-ins with her quarry, Parker Dann. It was a lot of back and forth sparks, suspicion of each other, and more prickly sparks.

Dixie likes mysteries in her reading, one of her favorite authors is Dick Francis (like me) and her favorite of his books is WHIP HAND (same as me), so that was an endearing aspect.

The suspects were all varied with truly grim motives each and plenty of twisted twists and turns...gripping as hell.

Five gripping as hell (and a dog named MUD) beans.....

IT HAPPENED ONE KNIFE: A Double Feature Mystery #2 - Jeffrey Cohen

From the back of the book: Comedy can be dead funny....

Elliot Freed couldn't be happier. His all-comedy movie theater, Comedy Tonight, is newly refurbished; things with his ex-wife are looking up; he's even willing to screen his projectionist's film debut. But what really has Elliot walking on air is hosting the legendary duo, Lillis & Townes, at a special showing of their classic comedy 'Cracked Ice'

Nothing can bring Elliot down---not a missing film, a bomb scare, or even a surly teenage girl. But when insinuations arise that one of his boyhood heros may have been involved in a Hollywood murder decades earlier, Elliot crashes to earth. He sets out to discover the truth--but he finds that he may beon the killer's hit list.....

************************************************

I loved SOME LIKE IT HOT-BUTTERED (review in link) when I read it in April. It's a fab title (and it's how I like my popcorn), so it immediately drew my attention when I saw it somewhere. Now for the author to grab me to keep reading the series, there has to be more than a pretty title. Jeffrey Cohen did it in spades with IT HAPPENED ONE KNIFE.

Poor Elliot...he's doing his projectionist a favor and shows Anthony's debut film...then is accused of stealing the film project. Elliot then invites his two heroes of comedy filmdom, Lillis & Townes, to a special showing of one of their hit films at his theater...and finds out that one of them may have committed a murder in the past.

Elliot decides he has to investigate both crimes and gets in all kinds of trouble around town, someone sends him an unpleasant gift, demolishes his bike, he might be dating his ex-wife...poor poor Elliot. I just want to reach in and give him a hug.

But he carries on and forges ahead, no matter that everyone tells otherwise..some a little more strongly than others and more forcefully.

And now I cannot wait to read number 3 in the series, A NIGHT AT THE OPERATION. It's in the B&N shopping cart and my next order to Cynthia at High Crimes...whichever gets sent first...now what's this that only three have been written..

Five please say it's only three books in the series so far beans....

SPRINKLE WITH MURDER: A Cupcake Bakery Mystery - Jenn McKinlay

From the back of the book: Cupcakes to Die For....Melanie Cooper and Angie DeLaura are finally living out their dream as the proud owners of the Fairy Tale Cupcakes bakery. Their first big order is a sweet deal, too---five hundred cupcakes for a fashion designer's wedding. The only sour note is the demanding bridezilla who insists on original recipes for the cupcakes.

When Mel stumbles upon the bride-to-be dead-by-cupcake, she immediately becomes the prime suspect. The police believe that a secret ingredient in the cupcakes caused her death. To save Mel and their business, the ladies need to find the real murderer--before the cupcake killer ices someone else.....

Includes scrumptious recipes

********************************

Ooooooo....the recipes in the back of the book...Mojito, Death by Chocolate, Tinkerbells, and, my favorite, Blonde Bombshell....if only for the recipes, get the book! What's even better is that it's a fab-ly written mystery with splendiferous characters. I love feisty Mel and even feistier Angie. The surrounding characters are nifty, too, especially the cupcake girls' best friend Tate, fiance (sorry, can't figure out the accent thingee for fiance) of the bridezilla fashion designer biotch Christie who (YAY!) bites it. I really wanted to reach inside the book and do a smack down on her. That's a well written bitch...just sayin'....

I was kind of leaning towards who I thought dunnit, veered away, came back, was right and was dandy with it. There's a pretty neat-o twist to the tale that was cool. Read it and find out.....

This book made being the passenger of last week's roadtrip way pleasant and highly bearable, didn't even look for the signs for the next rest stop on I-90, I was so into the tale. That's a good book and you'd know that if you've ever traveled with me.

Five nope don't need to stop it's that good beans.......

CROSSED BONES: Mississippi Delta Mystery #4 - Carolyn Haines, narr Kate Forbes

From the back of the BOCD: Best-selling novelist Carolyn Haines has earned a devoted following with her acclaimed "Bones" mystery series. In CROSSED BONES Southern belle and amateur sleuth Sarah Booth Delaney finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation with undertones of racism.

Zinnia, Mississippi divides along color lines when prominent black pianist Ivory Keys is stabbed to death in his own nightclub. The prime suspect is Scott Hampton, Keys' rich and white protege. Sarah is hired to prove Scott's innocence, but to do so, she'll have to navigate some treacherous waters. And she'll also have to do it while juggling three potential love interests.

Colorfully capturing the distinct appeal of Mississippi Delta country, Haines delivers a tale that Kirkus Reviews says "couldn't be more Southern if it were packaged with grits." Narrator Kate Forbes' down-home performance is the perfect complement to this lively mystery.

************************************

CROSSED BONES is now my favorite of the Mississippi Delta Mystery series. Granted it's darker than the ones I've listened to previously, but it still maintained the touches of humor and had the wonderfully written characters, especially Sarah Booth, Jitty, and Tinky who have become friends I've grown to love and look forward to hanging with each visit.

Another part that made it such a great listen is the blues music that threads throughout. I don't know when I started listening to and loving the blues, but it's been a huge part of my music collection (and part of what brought DH and I together). So that added magic to the listening of this book, too.

In the description from the back of the audibook, it says that this is an amateur sleuth mystery. I disagree. Sarah Booth and Tinky have moved way beyond amateur. They are proven private investigators with a fairly solid track record. And they get paid! Not amateurs any longer. If the series requires a label, it's a suspense mystery with humor tucked in.

Five not amateur anymore beans.....

Books in the House - Monday - 12 Jul 2010

A very good week for books in the house!!


Vacation book at the very cool B&N in Rochester MN:

THE ALEXANDER CIPHER - Will Adams, thriller, MPB (already read it!!)

Waiting for me when I got home from fab roadtrip:

From High Crimes Mystery Bookshop:

TONIGHT I SAID GOODBYE - Michael Koryta, MPB, thriller

THE MYSTIC ART OF ERASING ALL SIGNS OF DEATH - Charlie Huston, TPB, thriller

A BAD DAY FOR SORRY - Sophie Littlefield, TPB, mystery

Recorded Books from my wishlist:

THE LAST KING OF TEXAS: Tres Navarre #3 - Rick Riordan, BOT, mystery

BITCH FACTOR: Dixie Flanagan #1 - Chris Rogers, BOCD, mystery

THE AWAKENING: Darkest Powers #2 - Kelley Armstrong, BOCD, YA paranormal

THE TAINTED RELIC - Medieval Murderers, BOCD, mystery

From St Martin's Press:

INFINITE DAYS - Rebecca Maizel, ARC/TPB, paranormal (I've no recollection why I am getting this book, but I am uber happy I did)

Blooms on Sunday

Doing this week's Blooms on Sunday featuring the gardens in Rochester MN belonging to sister-in-law and brother-in-law...I had to back up about half a block to get the whole house in the camera frame I love this sunny guy peeking out from the daisies...

One of Deb's shade gardens....she did all of the landscaping herself less the tree planting

This is the coolest sweep of daisies...it's along her front walk

This garden is the corner in the back lawn...Deb started her landscaping here and moved out from there ...I love all of her ideas and flower choices...Deb has fun in her garden..kept finding new little treats for the eyes and senses

It's Friday and I am in SyFy Heaven...or Haven (and Eureka)!!

New show on SyFy channel!!! Haven was great!
And don't get me started on the very fab episode of my favorite show Eureka!

THE ALEXANDER CIPHER: Daniel Knox Book One - Will Adams

From the back of the book: Egyptologist Daniel Knox's lifelong fascination with Alexander the Great and his tomb, a fabled wonder of the ancient world, cold be the death of him. After construction workers excavating in Alexandria expose an ancient catacomb, Knox eagerly sneaks into the site. Among the relics, he finds clues that may solve one of the world's greatest mysteries: the last resting place of Alexander the Great.

An unconquerable warrior king, Alexander was the single most powerful man on the planet and thought to be a god. Now, nearly 2500 years later, the discovery of his tomb is within reach, triggering a deadly hunt for one of the most spectacular treasures of all time. But Knox is not the only seeker; others are after the prize, and they will kill to win it...

***************************

Whew! I now want to become an archaeologist and dig in the dirt and learn more about Alexander the Great...

There was a lot of backstory that I hope will be covered in the future books of this series. The explanations of Alexander and his demise were interspersed with a whole lot of action and people getting whacked and drugged and kidnapped while searching for the final resting place of Alexander. A good mixture for me to get me back in the thriller mode that I've been neglecting for, lo, these many months.

I could compare the style to a Dirk Pitt novel, but Daniel Knox actually feels pain and takes a while to get up from getting beat up. I've never had the feeling that Dirk ever really feels pain, but that's okay. I read the Dirk Pitt books for other reasons, mainly because I picture Matthew McConaghey as I read them thanks to the movie Sahara. Still working on who I cast as Daniel Knox....

Four treasure trove beans.....

MARK OF THE DEMON - Diana Rowland

From the back of the book: Cop and conjurer of demons, she's a woman in danger of losing control--to a power that could kill.

Why me? Why now? That's what Beaulac, Louisiana detective Kara Gillian was asking herself when a angelic creature named Rhyzkahl unexpectedly appeared during a routine summoning. Kara was hoping to use her occult skills to catch a serial killer, but never had she conjured anything like this unearthly beautiful and unspeakably powerful being whose very touch set off exquisite new dimensions of pleasure. But can she enlist his aid in helping her stop a killer who's already claimed the lives--and souls--of thirteen people? And should she? The Symbol Man is a nightmare that the city thought had ended three years ago. Now he's back for an encore and leaving every indication on the flesh of his victims that he, too, is well versed in demonic lore.

Kara may be the only cop on Beaulac's small force able to stop the killer, but it is her first homicide case. Yet with Rhyzkahl haunting her dreams, and a handsome yet disapproving FBI agent dogging her waking footsteps, she may be in way over her head....

**************************************

Now I typically don't dig on romance in my UF or paranormal, but I made an exception here. There is plenty of action, demons, and a hunt for a serial killer that made this a superb mixture of urban fantasy and police procedural, so a wee bit of HOT romance scenes didn't put me out at all. It probably also helped that Diana Rowland can write superb HOT romance scenes.

This was an excellent mixture of UF and a thriller with the hunt of a serial killer. Neither the paranormal story or the thriller mystery got lost to the other, the complemented the other. I am not sure I've read one like this before. And I really hope the next in the series, BLOOD OF THE DEMON, is more of the same.

What I dug even better was the ending...the WTF?? moment when the killer was revealed...whoa....did NOT see that coming at all and I liked that!

Five whoa beans.....

Bloom on Sunday - 4 JUL 2010

First blanket flower of the season

Gotta love that self-seeding cosmos

First sunflower bloom of the season..this is all from one crazy huge sunflower from a couple of years ago and we just let them go in the veggie garden

First echinacea bloom of the season