This
is two quarters of book reviews since I missed the winter edition
still plugging away on the Outlander series.
The
Fiery Cross
by Diana Gabaldon - Book 5
of the Outlander series.
The further adventures of Clair and Jaimie and Brianna and Roger.
It's the autumn of 1771 in North Carolina and the drums of war are
starting to beat with certain factions of the colonists rising up and
protesting. After the Gathering of the Scots that have emigrated to
America, Jaimie, the recipient of a large grant of land from the
governor, is called upon to form a militia from among the settlers
that Jaime is responsible for and to help put down the rebellion.
Jaimie treads a thin line between seeming to support the Crown and
not doing any real damage since he knows who will win this particular
war. Other things happen, life on Fraser's Ridge, a wedding at River
Run, an apparent murder that all the pieces don't fall into place
until the end, a tragic incident that has a life changing effect on
Roger, the continued hunt for the pirate that raped Brianna and the
actual unexpected confrontation, the return of Ian and when the
author is advancing the story or character development it's a good
read though I find myself skipping over overly descriptive passages
and pages because she seems determined for every one of these books
to be 1,000 pages.
A
Breath Of Snow And Ashes by
Diana
Gabaldon – book 6 of the Outlander series. A gang of thugs is
robbing, killing, and burning the cabins of settlers in the back
country, Claire gets kidnapped by said gang of thugs wanting the
stash of whisky and has to be rescued (again), Claire makes ether and
performs an appendectomy, the rebellion that was fomenting is
breaking out in violence between the Whigs and Tories with the
Highland Scots being pressured to fight for the King, an epidemic
sweeps through the Ridge and Claire almost dies, Roger decides he's a
minister, Jaimie is sent as Indian Agent to get the local tribes to
fight on the side of the Crown, Brianna sets out to bring running
water to the house and makes matches, Jaime declares for the
revolution, Fergus and family move away from the Ridge, a murder in
the garden of which Claire and Jaime are accused, Claire once again
needs to be rescued, Brianna is kidnapped by the pirate, an early
battle of the Revolution, Brianna and Roger and the kids return to
their time, and the big house burns to the ground.
Had
to stop and read something else.
News
Of The World by
Paulette Jiles - Captain Jefferson Kidd, a man turning 72, veteran of
three wars and ex-printer with a full life, family behind him drifts
through Texas in the years after the Civil War making his living by
giving readings from various newspapers in the small towns and
settlements, entrance fee a dime. In Wichita Falls he agrees to
return 10 year old Johanna, a recently recovered captive of the Kiowa
who was adopted into the tribe for four years and has completely
forgotten her previous life with her parents and younger sister who
were killed in the raid in which she was taken, to family near San
Antonio, a 400 mile journey through lawless territory. Kidd takes her
under his wing, protecting her and teaching her English and how to be
white as these children that are taken by the Indians always return
irrevocably changed. The story is their developing relationship as
they begin to depend on each other while he tries to prepare her for
her new life as they travel across the state for Johanna's fate is
ultimately in Kidd's hands. This is a wonderful little read, short at
210 pages, small size, thick paper, and I totally recommend it.
Stormy
Weather
by Paulette Jiles - tomboy Jeanine, her father's favorite, tags along
helping him, getting him home, covering for him. Jack Stoddard,
itinerant oil field worker, dragged his family, his wife and three
daughters, all over Texas chasing after oil strike after oil strike
looking for work during the depression years. An oilfield exposure to
bad gas ends his life and leaves his family to continue without him.
Jeanine and her older sister Mayme, her younger sister Bea, and their
mother Elizabeth return to Elizabeth's abandoned family farm, their
only assets some cash and their father's racehorse. Elizabeth gambles
their money on a wildcat oil well, Mayme gets a job and Bea goes to
school, while Jeanine keeps the farm, brings it back to life only to
face having to leave it as would, inevitably, her older sister and
her mother. When Bea suffers a terrible accident, Janine sells the
race horse, Smoky Joe, and enters into a partnership of sorts with
the man in order to pay for her sister's medical care hoping that
Smokey Joe be the answer to their dreams and problems.
Back to Outlander.
An Echo In
The Bone by Diana Gabaldon – book
7 of the Outlander series and more of the same outrageous
stuff...kidnappings, leaping off boats onto other boats, getting
conscripted into the Continental Army, etc.
Written In My
Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon –
book 8 (and last) of the Outlander series and more of the same
outrageous stuff but they all end up back on Fraser's Ridge and live
happily ever after. So glad to be done.
Cut And Run
by Mary Burton – Texas Ranger Mitchell Hayden drives out to the
Hill Country to meet with an informant, Jack Crow, only to find he
had been tortured and killed. A few days later his FBI agent daughter
Macy shows up and finds a burner phone in her father's hiding place
and begins to check out the three addresses listed in the maps app,
the first a secluded ranch house that appears to have three graves in
the back yard. After visiting the second address, a bar named Second
Chances, she is brutally run down in a hit and run. When Medical
Examiner for Austin, Faith McIntyre, visits Macy in the intensive
care unit she discovers that Macy is her unknown identical twin. Thus
starts the investigation into Jack Crow's death and the ones that
follow as they uncover the past abduction of young women, raped and
impregnated for the babies perpetrated by people close to Faith. It's
a race against time to find the truth before Faith herself is
targeted and to rescue the fourth and last young woman before she
gives birth.
Make Me
by Lee Child – a Jack Reacher novel, Jack has stepped off the train
at a dot on the map of a town in the middle of 10,000 acres of
nothing but wheat fields named Mother's Rest. Thinking it was an
interesting name for a town which must mark an event that happened on
the wagon train trail west he sets out to explore the town and find
the marker that explained the name of the town. He didn't find
anything and no one in the town seemed to know why it was named thus
but what he did find was ex FBI private investigator Michelle Chang
looking for her missing partner after receiving a call from him for
back-up. Unaware that every move he has made has been watched and
reported on, Reacher with nothing to do and nowhere to go decides to
stay and help Chang either find her partner or find out what happened
to him. So begins their investigation which leads them to Los
Angeles, Chicago, Phoenix, and San Francisco barely ahead of the
effort to make sure they don't succeed before returning to Mother's
Rest for the showdown with an organization that operates through the
Deep Web.