Review: Red City

Red City by Marie Lu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It’s easy to look at Marie Lu’s adult debut and think it might still be more teen friendly at the start, since we begin by following our two protagonists Sam and Ari from a very young age when they were both immigrant children in Angel City (the DC Comics-like alternate Los Angeles of this book). But it becomes very clear, very quickly, that once we we move into their grown up lives, they really do deal with grown up concerns.

Review: The God and the Gumiho

The God and the Gumiho by Sophie Kim
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Set in the fictional Korean city of New Simsi, somewhere in the middle ground between the human world and the underworld, in 1992, is this combination of romantasy and mystery. Not really the cozy kind, but it’s a fast paced combo of love story and bizarre murder, following two figures from Korean folklore secretly pitted against each other despite their growing feelings - a fallen god serving as a grumpy cop, and a once murderous fox spirit now serving as a grumpier coffeehouse owner (and ironically, the first thing we know about her is that she hates the smell of coffee.) Unsurprisingly, this one proved to be a very fast read, done in one sitting.

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Review: A Peculiar Combination

A Peculiar Combination by Ashley Weaver
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I recently found the fifth (and final) book in this series on the new book shelf at my new library, and luckily they had the entire series upstairs in the mystery section. This book introduces us to Electra “Ellie” McDonnell and her family of master thieves, who get caught on a heist during the Blitz…except it’s an important test posed by Major Ramsey, who needs a safe cracker of a certain skill level to liberate important documents for the war effort. This one takes place in the early days of WWII, but it feels quite relevant to now, focusing not only on the effort to foil the Nazis, but also to foil the enemies domestic as well as foreign. I’ve already got the remaining four books in the series waiting in the wings, but I have a few more books to read first before I move on to Electra’s second story…

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Review: Three Bags Full

Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It’s a pretty dark story overall, with a bit of surprising blood, but it also feels cozy since it’s a mystery from the point of view of a very concerned flock of Irish sheep. They’re smarter than your average livestock, thanks to George the shepherd actually reading to them (and flying in the face of all the anti intellectuals these days who discount the power of reading.) I first saw the sequel to this book at the library in my new hometown, and thankfully they had this first book in stock as well so I could try it out. Imagine my surprise when I find out that there’s a film adaptation planned for next year, with Oregon-based director Kyle Balda (from Illumination Studios) helming the project, and Craig Mazin of all people writing the script. This could be an interesting one to see in theaters for sure…

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Review: A Steeping of Blood

A Steeping of Blood by Hafsah Faizal
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hafsah Faizal concludes her second duology in grand fashion, shifting away from the tea and the Six of Crows heistery in favor of saving Ceylan, among other nations, from the dreadful colonization efforts from the Ram and the East Jeevant Company. In that respect, this book plays out with a bit of inspiration from Pirates of the Caribbean, with vampires instead of undead sea monsters. And as the story wears on, an Arawiyan artifact comes into play, revealing the true depths of the Ram’s ambitious colonial depravity. It’s a bittersweet ending to this series to be sure, but it wouldn’t be a grand drama of tea and blood otherwise to bid it a proper ave atque vale.

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Review: Her Deadly Game

Her Deadly Game by Robert Dugoni
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I first picked this book’s sequel up in Vancouver without realizing it was the second in the series, but since I was about to move to Beaverton, I decided instead to place both books on order there. Funny that this ended up being one of my first library books in Beaverton, and it name drops my new hometown. Not the first time Dugoni’s done that…well, sort of, since one of the early Tracy Crosswhite books takes place in a fictional Washington town that’s based on White Salmon, and I didn’t live there, but I worked there. But this book, the first Keera Duggan legal thriller, largely takes place in Tracy Crosswhite’s Seattle (Faz being one of a few of her colleagues to cameo as courtroom witnesses), and while the actual case is a bit of a twist in a very downer way, it’s the family drama - the hella Irish family drama - that keeps me more invested and ready to start on the sequel right away.

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Review: A Dead Draw

A Dead Draw by Robert Dugoni
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Robert Dugoni’s latest Tracy Crosswhite story wouldn’t be out of place on Rizzoli & Isles, as it’s highly reminiscent of Rizzoli facing off against her age old nemesis the Surgeon and his Apprentice. Except this time, it’s largely the Apprentice analogue, Erik Schmidt, getting out of prison on a technicality, allowing him to pose a serious threat to Tracy’s family and her old hometown of Cedar Grove. Especially a singular young woman named Lydia, who is autistic, but no less gutsy for it. It’s not the first time Dugoni has written an autistic character in the Tracy Crosswhite series, but this time I’d say he did a better job. Though Lydia’s “infomercial” stimming walks the fine line of stereotype, in his notes at the end, Dugoni acknowledges that he’s spoken to autistic people who appreciated his depiction of the spectrum, and how he feels a certain commonality with our community due to his own disability as a stroke survivor. It’s too bad I moved out of Vancouver, because I know he’s scheduled to visit as a guest of the local library this weekend, and I could’ve told him my thoughts in person too.

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