And more books...

As the school year draws to a close, I find myself hungry for books to relax with, but too tired for essays and the like, so I usually go for historical crime novels,SF, fantasy and alternate history...

Here are the latest ones.

A Cruel Courtship, by Candace Robb, is the third book in her 'Margaret Kerr' series set in XIV century Scotland, (I haven't found the second yet), I must say I liked this one even better than the first.

La sentinella della città morta  (City of Gold and Shadows) by Ellis Peters is one of her Inspector Felse misteries.
Felse is a nice guy and the setting in an archeological dig is interesting, but I've no doubts that  Peters will be remembered by crime-novel lovers first and foremost for Brother Cadfael.

Another good candidate for best medieval sleuth, though could be Baldwin Furnshill, a former Knight Templar who is the main character of Michael Jecks series.
La miniera del Templare (A Moorland Hanging) is set in Devon in the mid XIV century (a nice counterpoint to Margaret Kerr) and offers an intriguing reconstruction of Medieval English life and a character that is struggling to fit in in the lay world after his order has been abolished and, for a wonder, is neither an eretic nor a fanatic. Only qualm (and it is a small one) if the translator wasn't mistaken, German Shepherd dogs are mentioned in the book, but they are a modern breed, not a medieval one.
Anyway this is just my perfectionist side speaking.  

Sviluppi nel caso del giapponese scomparso (The Japanese Corpse) by Janwillem van der Wetering has the Dutch police investigating the murder of a Japanese art-dealer, the trail will take our heroes all the way to Japan, meeting Chinese drug Dealers and a yakuza boss.
Characters are complex, interesting and very likable.

Carrie Bebris (a member of the North America Jane Austen Society), narrates the early married life of Mr. and Mrs. Darcy in Orgoglio e preveggenza  (Pride and Prescience, or a Truth Universally Aknowledged)It isn't just a sequel, though, mrs. Bebris involves the couple into a crime story strongly tinged with magic.
The dialogues ring extremely true, reading mrs. Bennet or mr. Collins is a joy, and  the beau monde of Regency times come alive again.

Luna Nera (Lunatic Cafè) By laurell Hamilton is part of a series set in an alternate Earth where undead and were-beasts mix more or less freely with humans, here the protagonist, Anita Blake has to deal with the disappearance of eight were-beasts.
Very light reading and with a not particularly good style, the series is nonetheless strangely addictive.

More Marion Zimmer Bradley with I cento regni di Darkover  (a Darkover anthology), Attacco a Darkover  (Traitor's Sun) and La luce della spada (Sword and Sorceress XIII) the last one is an anthology of Sword and Sorcery stories selected by MZB.

And last Il Signore della Magia ( The Magician) by Raymond E. Feist. A fantasy novel I bought on impulse, devoured in a few days and enjoyed hugely.
It's big because it needs to be, interesting, complex and well written, I also suspect it is one of the sources of inspiration for Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time.

Up to now:

23 books

8440 pages