Sunday Salon and Moon Called and Mistress of the Art of Death

A family of 5 + 1 working computer = little computer time for Susan. Add in:
a new leather sofa with a chaise = one woman, asleep on the chaise every night by 10, and you will understand why I haven't been able to post this week!!

The good news is, we are buying yet another computer for all the kids, it should be in by next week. So I will be able to be posting more often again.....if I don't make the mistake of sitting on my new chaise instead! The good thing is, we bought it so I would have a comfortable place to read, and it is lovely. So far in this past week I've read Moon Called by Patricia Briggs and I finished Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin today. I just get on my chaise, open my book, and read until I fall asleep. Literally. The sofa has a recliner at the other end, and that's where my husband relaxes into slumber. Every night. It's fabulous. So now the chair by the computer doesn't look quite so inviting as the chaise does........good for reading, bad for posting!

Moon Called by Patricia Briggs: Book One in the Mercy Thompson series.
This was a fantastic read. Several bloggers have recommended this book, and I had had it for over a year to read. So I finally pulled it down, wondering why I was avoiding it. The cover. I realized I didn't like the girl on the cover. Not that she is sexy, but that she doesn't look friendly. Kind of scary, actually. I'm happy to report that she is the opposite in the book. Well, frightening to others, but not us us, her confidantes in the story she is telling.

I really enjoyed this book on several fronts: Mercy is not part of the werewolf world, she is an observer of it, for though she understands all the rules having grown up in it, she can't be accepted because she's not one of them. She's a coyote, but not a skin-changer, she's a walker, which means she is able to change and remain conscious of who she is, whereas the werewolves become either wolf or man, but are not both at the same time. Coyote walker involves a magic found only on North America, and is not bound by the rules of faerie. How Mercy finds this out, and what she learns about herself, is one of the most interesting parts of the story. I also enjoyed very much the werewolves. They feel real. The changes at the full moon, the society they live under, the rules of co-existing with other fae and the human world, are all well-thought out and realistic. I also thought Samuel, the white werewolf who Mercy loved in her youth, very intriguing, even as a werewolf.

There is a mystery, about how werewolves are made which ends up to be more about Mercy's adopted werewolf clan and their plans to come out to the humans, but I preferred the romance angle - Adam the werewolf next door, Samuel the werewolf who first chose her to mate, and the possibility of a vampire 'friend.' Yes, there are vampires, trolls, gremlins, in this story too. I love how Mercy moves among them, learning more about them as she does, and about how they try to remain hidden among humans, right among us. It's very well-done.

Most of all, Mercy lives up to her name, but she's not a softie. There is killing in this book, some of it handed out by her, but it is life-or-death, and it's pure animal on one level. It is gripping reading, and I read it in a few days. I couldn't wait to get back to it! In fact, I am rushing out to order the next book at my local bookstore!

It doesn't have the depth Lonely Werewolf Girl had, for me, but then not many fantasy books do. Moon Called is an excellent first book in an urban fantasy world that I would dearly like to live in - though I would need a special skill of my own to survive! - and Mercy feels like a really good friend I'd like to have on my side. Highly recommended.



Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin is book one of the now called 'Mistress of the Art of Death' series. When it was published two years ago, I began hearing people talk about it almost at once. Last year by friend who is a bookseller recommended it. I gave it to my mother, who read it before I had a chance to, and she also raved about it. So when I picked it up 2 days ago, I was hoping I'd enjoy it. Well, not only did I read it in 2 days, but I stayed up until 2:30 and 3:00 am each of the last two nights to read as much as I could. Seeing as I'd fallen asleep so early in the week on my chaise, this was a miracle, but that's the weekend for me!! I know I can sleep in a little bit!

Where to start? This is the second book I've read lately that's set in medieval England, though this one is set in 1171 England, and Doomsday Book is set in 1348. It is as detailed and realistic as Doomsday Book, which was the first book I'd read so many years ago that really recreated medieval life for me. Mistress of the Art of Death stars Adelia Aguilar as a doctor of the art of death from Salerno, Italy. She is called to England by Henry the 2, who invites through a letter to ask the the King of Sicily to send Simon of Naples, a renowned investigator and also king's spy, who is the one to request a doctor of death to accompany him to England, to investigate the mysterious deaths of three children in the city of Cambridge. "Doctor of the art of death" really means a forensic investigator, a coroner, a medical examiner - these terms don't exist in 1171! - she examines the dead, and they talk to her.

Because this is 1171 england where women were at most midwives or herbalists, and they are not allowed to be doctors, she has to go as the associate of a manservant Mansur who is a Moor and can barely speak English who pretends he is the doctor, accompanied by the real investigator, Simon. It really is rather hilarious, these three in the beginning, because quite clearly Adelia is the doctor, and she is unable to hide that she cares for people. She is a doctor in Italy, has trained at the best school for physicians, so she has a valuable set of skills that allows her freedom to go through all levels of society no matter where she goes. Together these three try to find out in the medieval town of Cambridge what happened to the three children, which quickly becomes 4 victims after the story opens. This is a remarkable mystery because it does cover so much of medieval life and politics, all viewed from a foreigner's eyes, which of course we are also, removed as we are 900 years from that time. Franklin manages to work in the Jews and how they were treated at the time, the people of the Fens around Cambridge, as well as the two priories, the bailiff, the tax collector, and most of all, the people. None of it is boring, either. This is such an intriguing mystery.

The heart of the story is Adelia as she uncovers the truth about the murders, which are the most heinous and terrifying that I have encountered in a mystery series in a while. She also discovers things about herself and the people around her. She learns about love, even as she seeks justice for the dead by discovering what happened to them. The early autopsy scene is gripping:
When Sir Rowley didn't move, she turned and saw his look. Wearily, she said, almost to herself, "Why do they always want to shoot the messenger?"
He stared back at her. Was that what his anger was?
She came outside, brushing away flies. "This child is telling me what happened to her. With luck, she may even tell me where. From that, with even more luck, we may be able to deduce who. If you do not wish to learn these things, then get to hell. But first, fetch me someone who does."

She cannot perform an autopsy by cutting open the bodies, so she can only examine the exterior. The clues are there, and from beginning to end, this is a most satisfying mystery.

This is also satisfying in terms of characters, because by the end of the novel, I cared about all of them, from Adelia herself, to Simon her friend, Ulf the boy and his grandmother Gyltha, to Sir Rowley, and even the King of England plays a mesmerizing crucial part at the end of the book. This is well-written, a gripping, enthralling, mystery of darkness and light. Very highly recommended. Just make sure you have a few free evenings ahead of you or don't mind staying up late into the night to read it!.....

If you have read this book and reviewed it, let me know and I will add a link to your review here.

Tainted Blood - Arnaldur Indridason

Tainted Blood by Arnaldur Indridason is the first book in the Icelandic mystery series featuring Detective Erlendur. I first encountered Erlendur when I read Silence of the Grave last year. It's the second book in the series, but all I could find at the time. I can't say enough good about this series, since I have been hooked since Silence of the Grave. I am so pleased that Tainted Blood is as good.


The book starts off quietly, with the discovery of a body in a basement apartment. After that, the mystery slowly builds as Erlendur and his team try to discover why the old man was killed. Erlendur is fascinating. He is an older detective, with a failed marriage behind him and lost touch with his children when they were little. One child has gotten in touch with him when the book opens. She is almost a failure, exactly like he is, personally, and like him, is very intelligent. It's not that Erlendur is a social outcast, far from it. He is part of the new breed of detectives in current mysteries, where their desire to solve a mystery takes them to places that precludes being able to sustain deep relationships. It's like looking into the human heart affects people, as it surely must: " You think it won't affect you. You reckon you're strong enough to withstand that sort of thing. You think you can put on armour against it over the years and can watch all the filth from a distance as if it's none of your business, and try to keep your senses. But there isn't any distance. And there's no armour. No-one's strong enough. The repulsion haunts you like an evil spirit that burrows into your mind and doesn't leave you in peace until you believe that the filth is life itself because you've forgotten how ordinary people live. This case is like that. Like an evil spirit that's been unleashed to run riot in your mind and ends up leaving you crippled."
This is the longest speech in the book by Erlundur. When I read it, it got me thinking about how mysteries and detectives have changed from the beginning of the twentieth century to recent times. Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett had heroes who were single, who commented on life because they were outside of it. They could go where no one else who was 'ordinary' could go. Investigating mysteries - crime - assaults on people - meant that you couldn't engage in ordinary life after. For a very long time this continued through detective series and mysteries, although there were exceptions - Tommy and Tuppence Beresford from Agatha Christie, Nick and Nora Charles by the same Dashiell Hammett - which were foils to the theory, but because they were a team, the sense of loneliness was not part of their story as it is when the detective is single.

I admire both kinds of detective series - Tommy and Tuppence are part of two of my favourite Agatha Chirtie novels, N or M, and By the Pricking of my Thumbs, but I have a particular preference for the plumbing of the human heart, for the sense of righting a wrong that restores some sense of justice in the world. The single detective in particular stands for morality, and Erlendur is Iceland's contribution to this form of detective story. Even though he has a failed marriage, he does get along with his team - although when we finally meet his boss, it is hilarious how he undercuts him, so Erlendur is no pushover or hierarchical, by-the-books detective either. There is a great deal of intuition, that essential key to great detective work. There is also what I think is part of the Iceland character, the inheritance from the old Icelandic sagas, the idea of fate and gloom. How could a people live in darkness, and snow, for much of the year, and not be somewhat morose and gloomy? I like Erlendur. He is quiet, forceful, persistent, and human. I enjoy how he solves mysteries, with doggedness, and the desire to discover why. There are no car chase scenes, no mobsters, no city in peril here. Just a quiet mystery involving a man who turns out to be much worse, a monster, and the crime committed years ago still ripples through lives in the current day, as crimes do. These are contemplative books on human life, not shying away from the twists in human nature, and I am becoming a very big fan of this series. I have gone out and bought the next two (after Silence of the Grave) that have been translated, to read in the new year as my challenges end.

This is also part of my Orbis Terrarum challenge, so I've now read 5 books in this challenge.

You might think this is not a big change from reading horror, but for me it is. I was thinking over this week why it was, and the conclusion I've come to is that horror often is unresolved, whereas in most mystery books, there is a resolution, a restoring of justice, peace, the balance.

Next up: back to RIP3, and The House of Dr Dee by Peter Ackroyd.