Mini reviews

What with one thing and another, I have seriously fallen behind on doing reviews of the books that I've read, so, in an attempt to catch up, here are a few mini-reviews. 

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A Room Full of Bones (Ruth Galloway, #4)

by Elly Griffiths

I have been very much enjoying reading Elly Griffiths' series featuring forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway. This one is set in Norfolk where the Smith Museum is preparing to open a coffin containing the bones of a medieval bishop. but when Ruth arrives to supervise, she finds the dead body of the curator Neil Topham beside the coffin. Moreover, it was not a natural death and it seems related to other recent uncanny events in the area. Not to worry though; Even though DCI Harry Nelson has fallen ill (another of those uncanny events), Ruth and her druidic friend Cathbad are on the job!

My rating: 3 stars

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Blue Wolf in Green Fire

by Joseph Heywood

This is another series I'm enjoying reading. It features Upper Michigan Conservation Officer Grady Service and is the second entry in the series. In this one, there are ongoing protests by a group of animal rights activists. The protests appear, at least on the surface, to be related to a double murder at a wolf lab which resulted in the release into the wild of a rare "blue" wolf. Service must defend his hallowed Mosquito Wilderness and the wolves that live there against poachers out to bag that "blue" wolf.

My rating: 3 stars

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Independence Square

by Martin Cruz Smith

I have long loved Smith's series featuring Detective Arkady Renko. This is the tenth in the series and I haven't found a clunker in the bunch. This one is a bit different from the others in that it has an autobiographical factor. We learn that Detective Renko is being diagnosed as having Parkinson's Disease, which in fact the author of the series has. It makes the story particularly personal. Also, there is a current affairs aspect as the story unrolls against the backdrop of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Arkady is determined not to dwell on his illness and he throws himself into work, searching for an anti-Putin activist who has disappeared. The activist, Karina, is the daughter of an acquaintance of his and he meets and falls for Karina's roommate, Elena, a Tatar from Ukraine. Complications abound!

My rating: 3 stars

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Beyond That, the Sea

by Laura Spence-Ash

This one unfolds against the backdrop of World War II. In 1940, a working-class couple in London makes the difficult decision to send their eleven-year-old daughter Beatrix to America for her safety. She will live with a family there for the duration of the war. Bea is scared and angry at being sent away from home but arriving in Boston, she meets her new family, Mr. and Mrs. Gregory, and their sons, William and Gerald and they simply fold her into their world. It is a more affluent world than the one she was used to back in England, but Bea soon becomes fully integrated and the Gregory family becomes more natural to her than her birth family.

My rating: 3 stars