Cocaine Blues

Cocaine Blues (don't let the title scare you) by Kerry  Greenwood is a delightful and adventure filled series starring the Honourable Phryne (pronounced Fry-nee) Fisher.  She can fly a plane and has worked in the Great War.  She left England and started her life over in Melbourne, Australia where she is now a lady detective.  The time period is the late 1920's.  There are a cast of characters that bring color and life to her adventures.  Bert and Cec, heavy men for Phryne and cab drivers, Dot her personal assistant and a host of other characters that are introduced later throughout the series. The Phryne character can be a little risque at times.  Readers who are sensitive to women choosing their own way of thinking may think twice before reading this series.  The books are lighthearted, fun and a quick read.  If you are looking for something to relax the mind between classes or other stresses in your life, then by all means try out this series by Kerry Greenwood.  Cocaine Blues is this first book in the series.

You can find this book by clicking on the links below:

http://www.murderbythebook.com/

http://www.amazon.com/

An Impartial Witness

An Impartial Witness by Charles Todd is the next book to A Duty to the Dead.  Here again we find Sister Crawford in the summer of 1917 on a short reprieve from the trenches in Paris.  She left a badly burned pilot who talked of going home to see his wife back in London.  He shows a picture of his wife to Bess. She finally arrives at a train station in London and sees a distraught woman that happens to be the pilot’s wife.  Murder finds Bess again and she is reluctantly involved in helping Scotland Yard solve a case and the secrets behind this pilot’s family.  The author again transports you back to the Great War and the devastation behind it in vivid descriptions.  I finished this book in a day and a half.  I recommend this book as well and can’t wait for the next Bess Crawford book.

You can find this book by clicking on the links below:

http://www.bluewillowbookshop.com/

http://www.murderbythebook.com/

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/

http://www.amazon.com/

A Duty to the Dead

A Duty to the Dead is a historical fiction mystery set during the Great War in Europe.  A nurse, Bess Crawford was on the Britannic (a hospital ship) and the sister ship to the Titanic when it hit a mine on November 21, 1916 and sank.  A lieutenant who was dying under the care of Sister Crawford asked her for a favor.  He wanted her to relay a message to his brother in England.  “I did it for mother’s sake.  But it has to be set right.”  With this in mind and her “duty to the dead”, Bess Crawford comes across many mishaps and shameful secrets and murder to deliver this message.  Charles Todd draws you into one of the world’s most deadliest and devastating wars and also into this soldier’s family secrets.  It’s hard to put this book down.  

Recommended author is Jacqueline Winspear who wrote the Maisie Dobb series.


You can find this book at Amazon.com by clicking on this link

http://www.amazon.com/Duty-Dead-Bess-Crawford-Mystery/dp/0061791768

You can also find this book at Barnesandnoble.com by clicking on the link below:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/product.aspx?r=1&isbn=9780061791765&cm_mmc=Shopzilla-_-Category-_-Title-_-9780061791765&mr:referralid=36518586-22b5-11e0-af68-001b2166becc