From Publishers WeeklyThe chill of Michigan's Upper Peninsula doesn't cool the action in Edgar-winner Hamilton's expertly paced seventh Alex McKnight novel (after 2005's Ice Run). On an unusually frigid Fourth of July night, the retired Detroit cop and his sometime partner, Leon Prudell, save three men from a boating accident in Lake Superior's Waishkey Bay. But the men return to accuse their rescuers of stealing a locked box off the boat, and Alex discovers that they're squeezing members of the Bay Mills Indian reservation for government-financed prescription painkillers. As Alex closes in on the dealers, he narrowly avoids death. Meanwhile, his long-distance girlfriend, Ontario police officer Natalie Reynaud, goes undercover in Toronto to ferret out an illegal arms dealer. When she pays Alex a surprise visit at his Paradise, Mich., cabin, their operations intersect with tragic results. Plot turnarounds and double-crosses ensure a startling conclusion. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistHamilton, who received the Edgar Award for his first mystery, A Cold Day in Paradise (1999), is now on his seventh installment in the series starring private eye Alex McKnight, who works as a cabin curator and sometimes private eye in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. McKnight has a familiar backstory for a private eye: he is a one-time cop with a troubled past (in McKnight's case, the trauma of having his partner killed). Hamilton, however, uses McKnight's break from his former life as a way of exploring his character's efforts to escape despair and find some semblance of meaning. He found at least some of that meaning in the last adventure, Ice Run (2004), in the form of a tentative love affair with a female cop. This time the action shuttles between McKnight's attempts to stop a prescription pain-killer drug ring in Paradise, Michigan, and his girlfriend's assignment to Toronto as an undercover gun dealer. Hamilton's gamble of putting the most exciting action offstage with the girlfriend pays off big-time here. Hair-raising suspense with poignant characterization. Connie FletcherCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Views: 59
For decades, Pamela Kaufman has entertained a loyal readership with the mesmerizing and often hilarious adventures of Alix of Wanthwaite, madcap medieval beauty. In Shield of Three Lions, the unflappable Alix braved the crusades dressed as a man to spar with the king of England over her birthright. Banners of Gold saw her taken hostage, drawn into a web of international politics, and entangled in the heartstrings of three different men. Now, The Prince of Poison finds Alix homeward bound at last, with a half-royal child in tow and an angry monarch on her trail.
Set amidst the pomp and savagery of twelfth-century Europe, the Alix of Wanthwaite trilogy renders a glorious mishmash of ruffians, peasants, troubadours, murderers, pretenders, barons, princesses, and popes in charming and disarming detail. Alix’s bawdy, free-wheeling narration wickedly lampoons historical notables like Richard the Lion Heart and Eleanor of Aquitaine, spinning the historical novel in a fresh direction.
This guide is designed to enhance your group’s discussion of Alix’s escapades in The Prince of Poison.
**From Publishers Weekly
This brisk if jumbled historical romance concludes the author's trilogy about Lady Alix of Wanthwaite, a 13th-century English noblewoman whom trouble seems to follow. Most pressingly, King John, the prince of the title, believes Lady Alix to be carrying the bastard son of his dead brother Richard the Lion-Hearted—i.e., the rightful heir—so John marks her and her unborn child for death. After biting the king's member at the climax of a highly improbable but winningly bawdy opening chase scene, Alix, who narrates, escapes back to England with the help of Norman Jews and has the baby—a boy, natch. Unfortunately her legal husband and true love, the Scotsman Enoch, has thought her dead, and remarried, and John is soon back on the trail of Alix and son Theo. Alix and Theo are separated, and John eventually tracks Theo down. John does not relent, but Alix has connections, and Enoch is never completely out of the picture. Kaufman, who lives in L.A., mixes sound historiography and vivid dialogue with implausible events; this follow-up to Banners of Gold gets good mileage out of genre conventions. *(Apr.) *
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
About the Author
Pamela Kaufman is the author of Shield of Three Lions, Banners of Gold, and The Book of Eleanor. She lives in Los Angeles. Views: 59
Crimes are rare in Singapore, but when there's a crime that has the police baffled, it is Inspector Zhang that they turn to. From locked-room mysteries to murders disguised as suicide, Inspector Zhang is able to draw on his experience as a detective along with tricks he has learned from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. See if you can solve the crimes before the inspector the clues are there! Views: 59
SUMMARY:
Tea. Sympathy. Revenge. The Sisterhood Has Their Own Style Of Justice. The women of the Sisterhood know life isn't fair, but that doesn't mean they have to like it-or let it pass. Instead, these best friends share their joys, troubles, triumphs, heartaches and one collective mission: to right wrongs and bring justice where it is desperately needed. Even reeling from loss of one of their own, the Sisterhood is always prepared to rally behind a new friend. For years, Paula Woodley has suffered the broken bones and shattered self-esteem caused by an abusive marriage. But what can she do? Her high-profile, Washington powerbroker husband is not a man to be crossed. Or so he thinks. The Sisterhood may not be an organization found in any of his memos, but he's about to take a meeting with them-and they'll be setting the agenda... Views: 59
'My mother is scraping a piece of burned toast out of the kitchen window, a crease of annoyance across her forehead. This is not an occasional occurrence. My mother burns the toast as surely as the sun rises each morning.''Toast' is Nigel Slater's award-winning biography of a childhood remembered through food. Whether recalling his mother's surprisingly good rice pudding, his father's bold foray into spaghetti and his dreaded Boxing Day stew, or such culinary highlights as Arctic Roll and Grilled Grapefruit (then considered something of a status symbol in Wolverhampton), this remarkable memoir vividly recreates daily life in 1960s suburban England.Likes and dislikes, aversions and sweet-toothed weaknesses form a fascinating backdrop to Nigel Slater's incredibly moving and deliciously evocative portrait of childhood, adolescence and sexual awakening. Views: 59
After his younger brother dies under suspicious circumstances, Hugh Castle, Earl of Monnow, demands justice. He was the target, not his innocent brother, and he’s determined to find the elusive killer. Unfortunately, his plans go awry and danger awaits him in the grand halls of Ormsby, the Castle ancestral home. Views: 59
Mason LaVerle is a young man on a mission--a mission to save his people's way of life. Mason was raised in a tiny, isolated Montanan sect, the church of the Aboriginal Fulfilled Apostles. But the Apostles face a dwindling membership, so Mason is sent on an outreach operation to bring back converts--specifically brides. As he discovers shopping malls, fast food, and faster women, the forces of faith and the forces of America collide, leading Mason to the brink of missionary madness.From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 59
There are those who do terrible things in this world, and those who simply watch. Charlie would do neither. Imprisoned, his only release is through his own destruction—or through Aggie Durand. Sweet as a kiss or a rescued child, she is the one dream he does not dare desire. As an agent of Dirk & Steele, she could be his salvation. Today, Charlie's dream is waking. Views: 59
Carol, the heroine of Cock, is extremely dissatisfied with her married life. Realisation that her husband Dan is not the man for her has come too late and insult follows injury as Dan’s drinking problem gives way to an obsessive fervour for Alcoholics Anonymous. One evening while Dan is out, Carol discovers something entirely unexpected about herself that leads her into rather twisted and distinctly uncharted waters ...On the flip side, there is Bull. John Bull is a man’s man. A rugby player, a drinker. He’s also about to wake up to something of an anatomical surprise, a surprise that his doctor seems to be much more interested in than is entirely proper ... Views: 59
Lydia Netzer, the award-winning author of Shine Shine Shine, weaves a mind-bending, heart-shattering love story that asks, "Can true love exist if it's been planned from birth?"Like a jewel shimmering in a Midwest skyline, the Toledo Institute of Astronomy is the nation's premier center of astronomical discovery and a beacon of scientific learning for astronomers far and wide. Here, dreamy cosmologist George Dermont mines the stars to prove the existence of God. Here, Irene Sparks, an unsentimental scientist, creates black holes in captivity. George and Irene are on a collision course with love, destiny and fate. They have everything in common: both are ambitious, both passionate about science, both lonely and yearning for connection. The air seems to hum when they're together. But George and Irene's attraction was not written in the stars. In fact their mothers, friends since childhood, raised them separately to become each other's soulmates.... Views: 59
From Publishers Weekly In this jaunty blend of mysticism and theoretical physics, Australian grad student August Seebeck, who discovered in Godplayers (2005) that he was part of a superhuman family battling implacable cyborgs for control of multiple, interlocking realities, feels frustrated and bewildered. None of his alleged siblings will tell him exactly who he is, why the K-machines are their enemies, what the rules of the conflict are and, generally, what the blazes is going on. As the action bounces from one time, character or universe to another, confusion multiplies. And then there's the underlying question of whether anything in any universe is real or whether everything is part of a super video game. Inspired by Roger Zelazny's Amber series, Broderick keeps the style light, mixing wonderful panoramas with puns and goofy sight gags. Toward the end, August does start putting things together, gathering plenty of momentum to propel readers into the next chunk of this dazzling SF saga. (Apr.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From In the sequel to Godplayers (2005), August Seebeck is still wandering through Wonderland, armed with a mysterious, devastatingly powerful vorpal implant (and yes, there is a Jammerwock) and an intense desire to get some straight answers out of his cagey newfound relatives about the Contest of Worlds, his role in it, and their opponents, the K-machines. It seems the contest isn't entirely as it seemed, and neither is the woman August loves. There are betrayals and confusion and misdirection every time August starts to get closer to the truth, or even to asking the right questions. His quest to discover the reasons behind his pivotal role in the contest is a trip down the rabbit hole to doors that don't exist, exotic siblings, and even more exotic locales. It's a fun story, full of galaxy-spanning adventure and intrigue, that incorporates a perspective on that currently hot concept, technological singularity. Broderick also continues his homage to humorous sf masters Roger Zelazny and Fritz Leiber as he seamlessly constructs the story he has to tell. Regina SchroederCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Views: 59
