Review of "The Dying Light: A Detective Matthew Venn Mystery" by Ann Cleeves

 

 

In this 4th book in the 'Two Rivers' series, Detective Inspector Matthew Venn investigates the deaths of two teenage girls. The book can be read as a standalone.

*****

It's summer in North Devon, and residents and tourists are looking forward to MillsFest, a two-day music festival that features local bands and sells beer and alcohol.



A couple of attendees will be seventeen-year-olds from London: brunette Hannah Armstrong and blonde Lottie Cauldwell.



The girls just completed their A-Levels, and drove to Millscombe to spend a few days at Tide House - a vacation home owned by Hannah's family.



The morning after the festival, Detective Inspector Matthew Venn gets a call from Detective Sergeant Jen Rafferty, the duty detective. Jen reports, 'We have a body and a missing young woman at a fancy holiday home out at Millscombe. The owner is a politician called Paul Armstrong, who turned up this morning with his wife and two young sons. Armstrong's daughter and her friend arrived Friday morning. The Armstrongs found the friend drowned in the pool and the daughter disappeared."



Matthew meets Jen in Millscombe, a tiny hamlet that features a pub called the Fisherman's Arms, the Brennan farm, and a few scattered houses, including Tide House. Paul Armstrong explains they found Lottie in the pool, and he and his wife Cath fear their daughter Hannah was kidnapped, perhaps for ransom or political reasons.



Things are even more dire than that because Hannah's body is found in the woods below Tide House. This sets off a murder investigation led by DI Venn, whose team includes DS Jen Rafferty and Detective Constable Ross May.



Interviews with family members reveal that Lottie and Hannah met at a private school in London and became friends. The detectives also learn Hannah had a boyfriend in Millscombe, a lad named Jake Brennan whose parents own the Brennan farm - a working farm that hosts the music festival and rents out glamping pods.



When the investigators trace Lottie and Hannah's activities in Millscombe, they learn the underage girls tried to buy alcoholic drinks at the Fisherman's Arms and were refused. Lottie made a big fuss and antagonized the owner. Then, over the weekend, Lottie engaged in other mischievous behavior.



The detectives also learn that an American couple renting one of the glamping pods on the Brennan farm, Geoff and Karen Kinzalow, have a daughter Elizabeth who went to school with Lottie and Hannah.



The murder investigation moves along very slowly since the detectives speak to the same people again and again; key persons make themselves unavailable; and almost everyone either lies or withholds information.

In the meantime, Matthew Venn and his husband Jonathan Church have a personal concern. Jonathan is an adoptee who's found his birth mother, and they've arranged a meeting via email. Both Jonathan and Matthew are apprehensive about the reunion and its possible aftermath.



The 'Two Rivers' novels are character studies as well as mysteries, and it's interesting to see the changes in the protagonists' lives.

DI Matthew Venn was brought up in a religious sect called the Barum Brethen, which shunned him when he lost his faith, and estranged him from his parents. Matthew's father died, but he's now partly reconciled with his mother, who knows Matthew is gay, and that his husband Jonathan is part of his life.



DS Jen Rafferty is a single mother who was struggling to raise teenagers Ella and Ben, do her job, and have time to party. Ella is now off to university; Ben is in the sixth form; and Jen doesn't party so much as enjoy an evening glass of wine with her musician neighbor.



DC Ross May had inflated ideas about his abilities, and chafed at being assigned (what he considered) boring, mundane police duties. Ross has now learned to interview witnesses and no longer complains about routine assignments. Ross might have matured because of potential fatherhood, since he and his wife Mel are trying to have a baby.



The story moseys along to a conclusion that will get the best of most armchair detectives. I enjoyed the novel, but became irritated with the detectives' snide thoughts about 'rich people', 'educated people', 'successful people', 'well-spoken people' and so on. What's wrong with being

 smart and doing well?

I had a digital copy of the novel as well as the audiobook, narrated by Jack Holden, who does a fine job.

Thanks to Netgalley, Ann Cleeves, Macmillan Audio and Minotaur for ARCs of the book.

Rating: 3 stars 

Review of "Queen of Shadows: Throne of Glass Novel #4" by Sarah J Maas

  

In this 4th book in the 'Throne of Glass' series, Celaena Sardothien avenges some wrongs and prepares for the upcoming war against the forces of evil.

*****

Celaena Sardothien - the former assassin for King Havilliard of Adarlan - returns from Wendlyn a new woman.



She's accepted her identity as Aelin Ashryver Galathynius, Queen of Terrasen; she's embraced her fae heritage and learned to use her fire power; and fae warrior Prince Rowan is bonded to her by a blood oath.



Aelin finds things much changed in Adarlan's capital city of Rifthold, where King Havilliard has his court. The former Captain of the Guard Chaol Westfall is a fugitive and fomenting a rebellion against the king;



Aelin's cousin, former General Aedion Ashryver, is in the dungeons, scheduled to be executed for collaborating with Chaol;



and Prince Dorian is being forced to share his body with a Varg demon that controls Dorian's thoughts and actions. Humans harboring Varg demons have a black collar around their neck or a black ring on their finger, neither of which they can remove.



Some things in the kingdom are still the same. Magic is banned, and the king's troops - many of whom harbor Varg demons - are kidnapping and killing people.

Aelin has an ambitious agenda:

To rescue Aedion before he's executed;

To retrieve her Amulet of Orynth, which was stolen by her former assassin master, Arobynn Hamel;

To get revenge against Arobynn for torturing and killing her boyfriend Sam;

To restore magic to Adarlan;

And to gather allies for Terrasen.



To accomplish all this, Aelin must form alliances with former friends and enemies. These include Chaol - her former lover, whose troubles have made him angry and combative; and Lysandra - a courtesan who was Aelin's hated rival in Aerobyn's menagerie.



The immortal warrior Prince Rowan is Aelin's most valuable asset, and Aelin and her allies spend their time planning, scheming, fighting, killing, rescuing, and so on. Aelin's ultimate goal is to collect all three Wyrdkeys, so she can save Erilea from the evil forces that threaten it. One Wyrdkey is hidden in the Amulet of Orynth, and the other two are in the possession of King Havilliard and Duke Perrington, who are using the Wyrdkeys for nefarious purposes.



To fulfill her ultimate agenda, Aelin must depose King Havilliard in Rifthold.....



.....and destroy Duke Perrington and his associate Vernon Lochan in Morath.



Duke Perrington is a formidable enemy. He's arranged for the ferocious, bloodthirsty Ironteeth witches to be his aerial warriors, and provided them with wyverns (flying dragon-like creatures) and training grounds at Morath. Perrington and Vernon are also using Ironteeth witches to breed special babies.



The Ironteeth witch Manon, leader of he Blackbeak Clan, is training the witches at Morath.



All the Ironteeth are bred to fight and kill, and they're happily anticipating the battles ahead. Manon starts to have doubts, though, when she meets Vernon's niece Elide - a servant who's forced to wear chains on her legs;



and when the truth emerges about the Perrington/Vernon breeding program.



Things get interesting when Aelin and Manon - who are on opposing sides - meet, have a vicious battle, and go on from there.

As the story moves forward, the women in the novel (Aelin, Lysandra, Manon, and Elide) bravely show their mettle; and the men (Chaol, Aedion, Prince Rowan) do their part as well.

For romance fans, love blooms between Aelin and Prince Rowan; and Chaol and city guard Nesryn. I could have done without these scenes, but some readers probably like them.



By the end of the novel, there's been death and destruction; advances in Aelin's agenda; and important revelations. I look forward to seeing what happens next.

Rating: 3.5 stars 

Review of "Elder Race: A Science Fiction/Fantasy Story" by Adrian Tchaikovsky

  

This novella is a sci-fi/fantasy story about a futuristic anthropologist and a princess determined to stop a demon.

*****

Long ago, a strife-plagued Earth sent out generation ships to find suitable new homes for humanity. Some of the voyages were successful, and colonists settled into new habitats.



When Earth recovered and developed new technologies, humanity returned to space, to see how their ancestors had got on. Nyr Illim Tevitch is an anthropologist second class of Earth's Explorer Core, stationed on Sophos 4 to 'observe and report back' but NOT to interfere. Making his home in the Tower of Nyrgoth Elder - located on a mountaintop - Nyr has mostly hibernated through the years, waking up occasionally to look around and report via satellite.



In truth, Nyr hasn't scrupulously observed the non-interference rule. He admits, "I may have breached various non-contamination regulations, in respect of the locals here, but then the outpost itself, while remote, isn't exactly invisible, and they came calling. And I was curious, and I was lonely, and there was nobody around to to tell me to keep to the rules."

So when Astresse Regent came a-knocking long ago, asking for help against the warlord Ulmoth, Nyr assisted Astresse and fell in love with her.



Nyr and Astresse defeated Ulmoth, but Nyr knew he couldn't remain with Astresse. Before returning to his tower, though, Nyr vowed to assist Astresse's family should trouble arise again. And the time has come to deliver on the promise.

Lynesse (Lyn), the fourth daughter of the Queen of Lannesite, has become concerned about a demon terrorizing and destroying the outskirts of Lannesite.



Lyn is aware of the promises made by 'Nyrgoth Elder in the tower', so she makes her way up the mountain with her companion Esha Free Mark.



The women tell Nyr about the demon, which Nyr thinks has some biological explanation, like a microbrial disease. Nyr has difficulty communicating with the women because there's a disconnect between the culture of modern Earth and the limited knowledge on Sophos 4. Modern Earth is a cutting-edge technological planet, and Nyr sports all sorts of bells and whistles. Conversely, the colonists on Sophos 4 - who started out with a scientifically-advanced culture - reverted to a medieval-type society.

Thus Lyn and Esha think Nyr is a wizard who can do magic. Nyr tries to convince them otherwise, but in Sophos 4 language, 'scientist' is synonymous with sorcerer - so saying "I'm a scientist" doesn't do the trick. Regardless, the threesome set off to deal with the demon.



Along the way, Nyr, Lyn, and Esha encounter all kinds of danger, including miscreants attacking Nyr; Esha being infected with a flesh-eating fungus; Lyn being assaulted by a confused robot left over from the colonists' early days; and more.



To add the drama, Nyr is hiding a secret. Nyr suffers from clinical depression, which he manages with a Dissociative Cognition System (DCS) that masks his negative feelings. At night, Nyr must release his pent up emotions, and his weeping and sobbing lead the women to think he's fighting off an invisible supernatural enemy.



Nyr, Lyn, and Esha continue to search for the entity plaguing the land, but they can't find it until they're helped by a thief named Allwer, who's offered a royal pardon for his assistance. Along the way, the foursome encounter a horrible creature that looks like a conglomeration of rodents. This 'monster' proves something is very wrong on Sophos 4, and the adventurers have to fix it.



This leads to an explosive and satisfying climax.

I've read some of Adrian Tchaikovsky's science fiction novels, and the 'Elder Race' sci-fi/fantasy mash-up has a different vibe. That said, Tchaikovsky's signature 'futuristic creatures' - radically transformed Earth animals - make an appearance. So that's fun, but I'd like to see Tchaikovsky think up some REALLY radical aliens.

I prefer hard sci-fi, but the book held my attention and I'd recommend it to fans of the genre. The sequel to 'Elder Race' is 'Engines of Reason'.

Rating: 3.5 stars 

Review of "Artifacts: A Novel of Art and Suspense" by Natalie Lemle

 

Author Natalie Lemle is a writer and art world professional who founded the firm art_works, which helps corporations and private individuals build and manage collections of contemporary art. In this novel, Lemle uses an accusation against a museum to highlight aspects of archaeology, looting of archaeological sites, cultural heritage, illegal sales of historic artifacts, criminal involvement, government complicity, and more.

Now on to my book review.

*****

It's 2022 and Lena Connolly, a trusts and estates attorney at a New York law firm, is asked to assist on a cultural heritage case. Lena is told the firm is representing Fordham University, whose museum is accused of housing looted art.



The main item in contention is a dichroic glass cup with figures of Cupid and Psyche. Italian authorities claim the cup was illegally excavated and exported, and they want it back.



Lena's fluency in Italian makes her an asset on the case, as does her summer volunteer work on an archaeological dig in Orbagne, Italy in 2004. At the time, Lena was an undergraduate at Columbia University, with an interest in archaeology.

The story toggles back and forth between 2022 - when Lena is working on the lawsuit against Fordham, and 2004 - during Lena's time on the Orbagne site.



The Orbagne dig involves the excavation of La Villa del Frutetto, an ancient Roman villa with a surrounding farm and orchard. The project has two co-directors: a French professor named Cyrille DuPuy - whose archeology seminar Lena took at Columbia University;



and Piettro Botti - an Italian archaeologist.



On the dig, Lena describes removing wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of backfill from her assigned trench; using a trowel to excavate pottery shards; being thrilled at the emergence of a fresco with a vivid red top; documenting ancient finds; etc.



The 2004 chapters also include extensive discussions of Roman archaeological sites as well as Roman history, architecture, aqueducts, mythology, poetry, and literature - all peppered with Italian phrases as well as Greek and Latin derivations of words.

As examples:

⛩️ ⛩️ Lena recalls her first conversation with Cyrille DuPuy at Columbia University: "My dig, he said, is in the mountains. Near the Petit-Saint-Bernard Pass - that is, where Hannibal made his crossing with the Carthaginians. We will discuss the archaeology of this region starting with the age of Augustus." And Lena thinks, "I knew about the Punic Wars, about Hannibal charging over the Alps with his elephants - but I knew nothing about ancient life in those mountains: the stone monuments the Romans went on to destroy and replace with their amphitheater, villas, and temple to Jupiter."


The foundation of the Roman temple to Jupiter near the Petit-Saint-Bernard Pass

⛩️ ⛩️ Looking at a poster of 'The Feast of Achelous', Lena thinks, "Every time I look at it I see something new: a shell in the lining of the cave walls; a detail in one of the ancient vessels on the ground; a new facial expression on one of the figures facing Achelous the river god, who gestures to the water where his lover Perimele has been turned into an island by Neptune so he can hold her in an eternal embrace."



⛩️ ⛩️ Learning that a Roman mansio (stopping place for rich travelers) has a "fanum" dedicated to the goddess Epona Augusta, Lena observes, "I looked it up and learned it was the etymological root of the word profane. A fanum was a Roman temple built over a Gallic sacred place. Something that was profane was not sacred, because it was "pro" - outside of - a "fanum."

I felt like I was getting an education along with a novel.

Getting back to the story, while Lena is working in Orbagne she falls in love with Giamma Piromalli, a handsome Italian who's working on his PhD in art history. Lena is disturbed to learn Giamma's father has ties to the 'Ndrangheta (the Calabrian mafia), reputed to be ruthless men who loot archaeological sites, traffic in stolen antiquities, and traffic cocaine. It later appears the 'Ndrangheta may have been implicated in stealing and selling the dichroic cup.



That's not the only trouble in Orbagne. There's minor looting before the dig begins; there's friction between the co-directors; and Cyrille DuPuy disappears one morning, and no one seems to care. Lena goes to the police about her former professor, but they refuse to take a report and tell her to go to the French authorities. Cyrille's disappearance still haunts Lena twenty years later, and she uses Italy's lawsuit against Fordham as an excuse to return to Orbagne and look around.



In the chapters set in 2022, the accusation against Fordham gives Lena the opportunity to familiarize herself with matters surrounding art theft. Buying and selling antiquities (or donating them for a tax break) involves issues of provenance, export licenses, due diligence, ownership, ethics, cultural heritage, historical preservation, art repatriation, and so on.

For instance:

⛩️ ⛩️ "The book 'Art Crime' by John Conklin stated that art theft was the third-largest area of international crime, after drug smuggling and arms trading...the plundering of ancient sites for artifacts comprises nearly 90 percent of all art theft transpiring in the world today."

⛩️ ⛩️ Speaking about art donations, an expert says. "Ever since the tax code was changed...I've been advising my clients to donate valuable artworks within their lifetime in order to reap maximum benefits....My client with the Limoges enamels, for example...reduced his tax bill by 60 percent the year he donated to the Frick."



⛩️ ⛩️ Referring to cultural heritage law, an attorney says, "My team won a case a few years ago, brought against an art dealer who was implicated in selling Nazi-looted paintings to some oil family in the fifties...The case fell under government enforcement and compliance. The court was determined not to have jurisdiction. The claims were dismissed."

Once again, I felt like was learning a good deal.

The suspense aspects of the novel are augmented by issues in Lena's personal life.

To illustrate:

⛩️ ⛩️ Lena had a terrible childhood with a (now deceased) mentally ill mother and absent father; Lena is now completely estranged from her father and won't even speak to him.

⛩️ ⛩️ Lena's older sister Jinny is pregnant, which causes Lena angst. Lena observes, "When she told me about the pregnancy...I was only thinking about nature versus nurture, and inheritance, and of Jinny and I cowering on the beige living room couch in our childhood home during our mother's paranoid tirades."

⛩️ ⛩️ Lena is close to her best friend Lakshmi, whom she met in her Columbia archaeology seminar. The women spend time together, speak on the phone, confide in one another, and so on. This appears to be the most positive relationship in Lena's life.



All this helps round out the novel.

I liked the book's historical and technical details, and didn't mind looking up the meaning of the many Italian phrases. On the other hand, some of the book's suspense elements are murky and confusing. That said, I enjoyed the story and recommend it to readers interested in the subject.

Thanks to Netgalley, Natalie Lemle, and Simon & Schuster for an ARC of the book.

Rating: 3.5 stars