Shakespeare's Rebel by C.C. Humphreys
I'm sort of surprised I finished this book, as I am not a fan of the Earl of Essex, and I almost put it down anyway when the story opens with the hero coming off a month-long drunk. Yawn.
But I persevered, and John Lawley is a fun character to follow around, in spite of all the insane and oftentimes suicidal decisions he makes. The author does a good job with the place and the time, London circa 1599 and all the attendant paranoia that consumed the population at that time. Elizabeth is robust, Robert Cecil weasely, and the ensemble cast whether real or fictional strut and fret their hour upon the stage with vigor.
Recommended for anyone who likes historical novels, Shakespeare, or swordfighting. You'll even find out what a swashbuckle is.
# Permanent link to Shakespeare and swordfighting. Also whiskey. A lot of whiskey.
“It’s blue! Or maybe green. Red, I remember, it was red!”
True story: Guy walks into the Poisoned Pen Bookstore. He’d left his book on a plane. He couldn’t remember the title. He couldn’t remember the author. He couldn’t remember what the book was about. He could remember that the cover was red. And Barbara Peters? Found it for him. If anybody knows the provenance of…
Read more “It’s blue! Or maybe green. Red, I remember, it was red!”
“Like what?”
At the same time the Grosdidier brothers were settling on a command structure at home, they were willing, nay, eager to assert their independence abroad. There were a few years when Park rats had only to see the Grosdidier brothers coming in one door to exit immediately out of any available other. Their quadranarily sequential…
In 1390, however, Sultan Bayezid began his conquests in Asia Minor. His Muslim troops were unwilling to fight their co-religionists, whom, anyway, they could not loot with a clear conscience...
# Permanent link to Altogether the most efficient account of a six-hundred year empire I’ve ever read.
The bootlegger’s friend.
“Windsor Canadian. The bootlegger’s friend. Retail price in Anchorage, seven-fifty a bottle. Retail price in a dry village, a hundred bucks easy.” “Yeah.” The bottle dropped to the table, next to the gun. —“Nooses Give,” a Kate Shugak short story Only in e. On Amazon.com, Amazon.uk, Amazon.au, iTunes, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo.
Dana’s Kedgeree
It is a scene repeated over two thousand times a year from Icy Bay to Kodiak, from summer, when the sun never sets and the volume of ship traffic in SWAPA’s service area triples…
It is a scene repeated over two thousand times a year from Icy Bay to Kodiak, from summer, when the sun never sets and the volume of ship traffic in SWAPA’s service area triples, to winter when Knik Arm and Valdez Arm fill with ice. SWAPA pilots are responsible for the safe delivery to the…
In the Morning I'll be Gone by Adrian McKinty
The third in McKinty's trilogy (following The Cold Cold Ground and I Hear the Sirens in the Street) featuring peeler (aka Royal Ulster Constabulary police detective) Sean Duffy in Northern Ireland in the early '80s, a fraught and dangerous time of Maze Prison hunger strikes and IRA bombings and then, of course, the murder cases Sean must work and solve. None of them ends very satisfyingly for him but this is a three-book flash photo of the time that you will not be able to forget, with walk-ons by historical figures like Gerry Adams, Ian Paisley, John Delorean, JFK's nephew Joe Kennedy and even Margaret Thatcher.
This book builds the trilogy to a big finish, in which Sean is required to solve a cold case murder to stop an IRA assassination. The most horrifying moment is reserved for a quiet conversation at the end that makes you realize how bittersweet the title really is. Well worth reading.
# Permanent link to How hard could it be to police Northern Ireland during the Troubles? Answer: Pretty hard.
