Ruth's First Christmas Tree

It is Kate's second Christmas and Ruth wants her to have a proper Christmas with a tree.  Unfortunately Kate and Flint the cat knock the tree down while Ruth is visiting with her friend Cathbad in the kitchen.  Frustrated, Ruth sets the tree aside.

The following evening Ruth asks Cathbad to babysit for her while she attends a friend's Christmas party.  He mentioned that their friend, who is the curator of the local museum, is ill.  Cathbad also indicates the reason why he thinks their friend is ill.

At the party Ruth finds the something that is the reason for the illness.  She returns home to find that Cathbad and Harry, father have set up the tree for her.  Author Elly Griffiths has written a neat little, short Christmas mystery, which will bring a smile to the reader's face.

Abattoir Blues

DS Winsome Jackman has been called out to an abandoned hanger where a hiker and his dog have discovered what looks like blood, bits of bone and what looks like brain matter on the floor inside the hanger.  Meantime, DI Annie Cabbot, and DC Dougal Wilson are busy investigating a stolen tractor and a possible missing person.

DCI Alan Banks returns early from his holiday and brings the two teams together later in the day to discuss the cases.  Is there any chance of the two cases being connected since there do seem to be some coincidences.

The following night the caravan of the friend of the missing person goes up in flames; a definite case of arson.  Shortly after that the body of that friend is found when a van crashes over a cliff.  Are the cases tied together?  The post mortem indicates that the victim was likely killed in an abattoir.

More and more, the evidence seems to point towards the two incidents being tied together.  Now, the team has to gather further evidence, protect potential witnesses and shut down an international smuggling ring.  Once again, author Peter Robinson has put together another excellent who dun it with a few surprises along the way.  A book the reader will find hard to put down.

The Girl from Ithaca

Paris has taken the beautiful Helen from Meneleus, despite all the Greek leaders having committed to helping Meneleus should anything happen to her.  Odysseus has tried to get out of his commitment to Meneleus to fight the Trojans.  However, by trickery he is forced to participate in the war that Agamemnon has been planning to take to the Trojans.

Shortly after this, Odysseus' young sister, Lady Neomene, is tasked with providing company to Iphigenia, Agamemnon's daughter, prior to her marriage to Achilles.  The Greek army is shocked when Agamemnon sacrifices Iphigenia to the gods.

An attempt to get Helen back by peaceful means, fails.  It is to be war.  The Greeks land outside Troy and force the Trojans inside their walled city.  Meneleus suggests a duel with Paris, the winner taking Helen and the gold she had taken from Sparta.  Paris is easily beaten and he flees to the city, so Hector and Ajax fight to an honourable draw.

As the years pass during the siege of Troy, Agamemnon seems to begin to lose control of the armies.  In order to gain everyone's confidence, Agamemnon insists his blacksmith marry Io, and threw a big celebration in honour of the wedding.  Now, buoyed by confidence, the Greeks prepare for another battle with the Trojans.

And thus ends the first installment in the story of the Trojan war, taken from the perspective of the sister of Odysseus.  A good, quick read by author Cherry Gregory.

The Celtic Dagger

Detective Chief Inspector Alistair Fitzjohn has been forced to forego his planned vacation because of a murder at the University of Sydney.  A very sharp instrument has been used to stab Dr. Alex Wearing.

Wearing's brother, James, is informed of the death of his brother just after he had been informed that three artefacts they had borrowed for a conference were missing.  When he goes to his sister-in-law's home she shows him one of them.  Later, when he returns to his office, he finds a second artefact, a Celtic dagger and its sheath.  When Fitzjohn shows up moments later he informs him of the missing artefacts.

James is later informed by a shady character that he knows that James' wife's death wasn't an accident, but rather she was intentionally run down.  He provides James with pictures, which James takes to Fitzjohn.  James also discovers that his brother was being blackmailed.  He passes this information on to Fitzjohn.

More violence will ensue before this mystery is solved.  Although this is called a "Fitzjohn Mystery", it seems that author Jill Paterson has made James Wearing the true protagonist of this murder mystery.  A quick read.

Lifetime

Annika Bengtzon's home has just been fire bombed, but fortunately she and her two children have escaped.  She goes to her friend Anne's home, but in a fit of spite, Anne turns them away.

At the same time a well known police officer. David Lindholm, has been killed in his home, his child kidnapped and his wife, Julia, is catatonic as a result.  She is also the prime suspect.  Nina Hoffman, Julia's best friend is the first officer on the scene.  Nina is shocked to hear from DI Q that her friend had resigned from the force recently and not told her.  Q wants her to question her friend.

Annika has been assigned to look into the killing because she had done a piece on the two policewomen earlier.  However, her life is unravelling before her eyes.  The insurance company is holding back payment on her house while the arson investigation is ongoing and her husband has left her for another woman.  She is also a potential suspect for the arson to her house.

As Annika investigates David, she comes to the realisation that Julia may not be guilty of his murder.  Will Annika be able to prove her innocence without endangering herself and her children?  How can she do it.  Once again, author Liza Marklund has written an excellent thriller.  This is a book, which is hard to put down.

All the Light We Cannot See

In the early 1930s in Paris, a very young Marie-Laure LeBlanc has lost her sight and is slowly learning how to get about without it.  In Germany, orphan, Werner Pfennig is interested in radios and how they work.  He is unlike other boys his age who are more interested in being soldiers in the new order.  Werner and his sister, Jutta, secretly listen to a radio that he has built learning about a larger world, while Marie-Laure learns by touch, and sound in the museum where her father works.

By late 1939 Parisians begin to live in fear of a German invasion.  In June of 1940, Marie-Laure and her father flee Paris ahead of the advancing Germans.  They end up in Saint Malo.  Meantime, Werner is taken from the orphanage and inducted into the Hitler Youth, his instinctive knowledge taken advantage of.  But due to losses on the Russian front, Werner's age is advanced on paper by two years, and he finds himself suddenly a soldier in the Wehrmacht.  A soldier who knows how to triangulate radio signals.

In August of 1944 the war comes to Saint Malo.  Marie-Laure and her great-uncle Etienne help the resistance by broadcasting a series of numbers on a secret radio set he had built many years before.  Werner is also sent to Saint Malo, to search for a radio broadcasting on behalf of the resistance.

Author Anthony Doerr has woven a tale that draws one deeply into.  Although the chapters are short and revert back and forth between the two main characters, at no time does the story seem disjointed.  I was unable to put this book down.  It was a very good read.

Anti-Soviet Activities

Pyotr Kirov and his KGB partner Bogdanov have been assigned the task of investigating The Great Jewish Antibiotics Ring.  However, the fraud squad gets to Victor Gusev, the main suspect, first.  He is shot before he can be interrogated.  In the hospital he begins to vomit blood.   Upon examining the vomit and blood, Kirov discovers diamonds.

Later, after Gusev dies, the doctor who worked on him reveals that she had administered him some of the antibiotics he had in his possession.  Kirov wonders if these might have killed him.  Their source seems to be Bulgaria.  Bogdanov discovers that the drug operation could be a GRU operation.  Why would the GRU be involved?

Kirov an d Bogdanov discover that the antibiotics are made in Bulgaria, so Kirov travels to Sofia to investigate further.  Upon his return, he is questioned by another security force as to why he had been to Sofia.  He also finds out that perestroika may not be all that it is cracked up to be as jobs are on the line.

In this sequel to "Farewell to Russia", author Jim Williams takes the reader down the path that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union and what would inevitably become another corrupt regime.  A good read.