Monday, July 29, 2019

Monday's Memorial Moment: Anarchy by Olivier Bosman


Detective Sergeant John Billings is a Quaker. He sees God in everyone and takes other people's suffering to heart. He is an honest and hard working man who has risen swiftly through the ranks to become one of Scotland Yard's youngest detectives. But in his private life he struggles with the demons of loneliness, morphine addiction and homosexuality.

Summary:
​The year is 1894. Europe has been suffering from a series of Anarchist terror attacks, the latest of which was the bombing of a Parisian textile mill which killed thirteen people. The perpetrators of this act - the seven Hirsch Brothers - are believed to be on the run in London. Billings, Flynt and Clarkson are called in by Special Branch to help locate them. But the investigation goes spectacularly wrong. One by one, the Hirsch Brothers are found dead and the police have no idea who is killing them.


Anarchists, terrorist, or something more personal?  When the missing Hirsch brothers keep turning up dead suddenly a case of anarchy is looking much more personal.  Once again Olivier Bosman throws DS Billings headlong into a case that goes horribly wrong.  Has he taken one too many wrong turns finally?  For that you have to read yourself but trust me, it is well worth the time to find out.

I absolutely love this series, there is something about Billings that you just want to wrap the poor guy in a bear hug but it's going to take more than that to keep him safe.  On the personal side, he's finally opening his heart up to his true nature, reluctantly but still more than he ever has before.  Will he find happiness now that he's exploring his heart?  You have to read that for yourself but I love how each entry brings him into himself more and perhaps not "risk" the consequences but he's not letting the fear completely shut him off from his heart.

As much of a history lover that I am, I have to admit 1890s England is not my area of knowledge short of what I've seen in films and read in fiction which I know is not always an accurate portrayal of the time.  For that reason, I can't say with 100% certainty to the author's stick-to-it-ness of the era but I'm going to guess it is pretty real from what little I do know and that makes Anarchy even better.

The mystery, the romance, the history, all of these aspects makes Anarchy a great read and another great installment to the DS Billings Victorian Mysteries series.  If you are new to this series I highly recommend reading it in order.  Yes, each entry has a new case but as I already touched on DS Billings grows into accepting himself more and more with each book.  The friction between him and his superior, the friendship between him and his partner, all these things continue from one case to the next making the personal side of each book flow better having read the previous ones.  After the ending of Anarchy I can't help but fear Billings may suffer a few setbacks but then again it might serve as the kick-in-the-pants he needs to show him what's important.  Either way I can't wait to see where Olivier Bosman takes his character next.

RATING:


Saturday's Series Spotlight
Part 1  /  Part 2  /  Part 3


Author Bio:
Born to Dutch parents and raised in Colombia and England, I am a rootless wanderer with itchy feet. I've spent the last few years living and working in The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Sudan and Bulgaria, but I have every confidence that I will now finally be able to settle down among the olive groves of Andalucia.

I'm an avid reader and film fan and I have an MA in creative writing for film and television.


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Anarchy #4

Series

Review Tour: What Lies Beneath by RJ Scott

Title: What Lies Beneath
Author: RJ Scott
Series: Lancaster Falls Trilogy #1
Genre: M/M Romance, Mystery
Release Date: July 16, 2019
Cover Design: Meredith Russell

Summary:
In the hottest summer on record, Iron Lake reservoir is emptying, revealing secrets that were intended to stay hidden beneath the water. The tragic story of a missing man is a media sensation, and abruptly the writer and the cop falling in love is just a postscript to horrors neither could have imagined.

Best Selling Horror writer Chris Lassiter struggles for inspiration and he’s close to never writing again. His life has become an endless loop of nothing but empty pages, personal appearances, and a marketing machine that is systematically destroying his muse. In a desperate attempt to force Chris to complete unfinished manuscripts his agent buys a remote cabin. All Chris has to do is hide away and write, but he’s lost his muse, and not even he can make stories appear from thin air.

Sawyer Wiseman left town for Chicago, chasing the excitement and potential of being a big city cop, rising the ranks, and making his mark. A case gone horribly wrong draws him back to Lancaster Falls. Working for the tiny police department in the town he’d been running from, digging into cold cases and police corruption, he spends his day's healing, and his nights hoping the nightmares of his last case leave him alone.


RJ Scott doing mystery . . . when I heard her newest release was going to be a mystery I just knew I had to read.  Yes, I know it's an RJ Scott book so that alone made this a must for me but a mystery? That was like adding another layer of icing on top of an already chocolate frosted cake.  Mystery may not be her most-visited genre but whenever she's had it within her stories it has always been extra yummy.  What Lies Beneath, the first part of her new Lancaster Falls Trilogy, is nothing short of brilliant.

Before I delve into the story I should mention that though I wouldn't label the ending a cliffhanger it does continue into the next entry and as Lancaster Falls is a trilogy I'm going to go out on a limb and say the second one will continue into the third one(that's just my guess).  I'm only mentioning this because not everyone likes the waiting period between continued storylines so if that is you then you might want to hold off reading these till the trilogy is complete but trust me you will definitely want to read it so be sure and mark it towards the top of your TBR list.

Now on to Beneath.  Talk about a perfect set up: an author having trouble beginning the finale to his trilogy so his agent finds him the perfect place to buckle down and create, he goes for walk with his dog, finds a skull, meets a cop, and eventually stumbles into a new direction for his already established trilogy.  What's not to love?  Chris the author and Sawyer the cop are not exactly what I would call opposites but their not two peas in a pod either. 

Chris may have internal struggles with his writer's block but his sort-of carefree attitude has a lot more to do with his rambunctious dog, Kota, and his determination to have a drink with Sawyer the cop.  There's only a few scenes between Chris and his agent on the phone but its enough to get a feel for their relationship and I don't know if either would call the other a friend but I think it reads as a definite friendship which doesn't always come when a book has author/agent scenes, more times than not its contentious bordering on contract-tearing-up so this was a nice aspect to be added to Chris' character.  When he starts doing a little research on his own in regards to the case and tidbits he's heard in the small-town-grapevine I was afraid of where it might lead but once again Miss Scott didn't go where I thought and it was a pleasant change of pace.

As for Sawyer, well its pretty obvious something bad happened with his time as a cop in Chicago that helped him come home.  Small towns often mean small crimes which as someone who grew up in a small town can be perfectly true but that also means when a skull is found its big news.  A skull found anywhere should be big news but lets face it, in larger cities its really only a blip that will most likely fall into the hands of the cold case division.  With Sawyer he's been in the big city so he's able to deal with it better than most would but everything that goes with the big cases have made his already existing nightmares bigger and more personal.  Watching the pair navigate the newness with the mystery and their individual struggles really adds to their likability and the realism of the characters.

As for the mystery, I won't say any more than it starts with a skull, some bones, and the possibility of who they might belong to.  If you want to more, and you definitely will, you'll have to read for yourself because this is a spoiler-free zone.  Chris and Sawyer are a delight and I know that sounds odd to say in a murder mystery and it'll sound even odder when I use the word "fun" to describe how much I loved What Lies Beneath but it is fun and entertaining with just enough dark and disturbing mixed with romance and heat to make this an all-around reading gem.  I have my theories and I can't wait to get a hold of book two to see if my theories are on track or if I have to come up with completely new ones.

One last thing I need to add and thank RJ Scott for: I loved the size and feel of Lancaster Falls.  I can't say all books because obviously I haven't read every book out there but in my personal reading experience, when an author writes about small towns they tend to go either the route of less than 500 or about 5000, yes both those populations are small towns but I grew up in a town that until the 1990 census was only a village, despite the fact that we were the county seat it took hitting 2500 that made a village into a town.  I don't recall a population number actually given(I could be wrong, I might have just missed/forgotten it) but Lancaster Falls reads more like where I grew up and for that I thank you, RJ because it just made the story more real for me.

RATING:



Author Bio:
USA Today bestselling author RJ Scott writes stories with a heart of romance, a troubled road to reach happiness, and most importantly, a happily ever after.

RJ Scott is the author of over one hundred romance books, writing emotional stories of complicated characters, cowboys, millionaire, princes, and the men who get mixed up in their lives. RJ is known for writing books that always end with a happy ever after. She lives just outside London and spends every waking minute she isn’t with family either reading or writing.

The last time she had a week’s break from writing she didn’t like it one little bit, and she has yet to meet a bottle of wine she couldn’t defeat.

She’s always thrilled to hear from readers, bloggers and other writers. Please contact via the links below.


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