RogerBW's Blog

Thirsty Meeples July 2024 31 July 2024

Back to the boardgame café.

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The Postscript Murders, Elly Griffiths 30 July 2024

2020 mystery, second in the loose Harbinder Kaur series. An old woman is found dead by her care vistior. Nothing unexpected about that. Except that there's a threatening note tucked into the book she was reading, and she had a business card as a "Murder Consultant"…

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Annie Bot, Sierra Greer 29 July 2024

2024 science fiction. Annie is a companion bot: getting dinner ready each night, cleaning the flat, and of course sex. But something seems to be going amiss.

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The Weekly Challenge 279: Split and Sort Strings of Letters 28 July 2024

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved more string manipulations. (Note that this ends today.)

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Séance For a Vampire, Fred Saberhagen 27 July 2024

1994 fantasy, eighth in Saberhagen's loose Dracula series. We're back with Sherlock Holmes as he investigates what seems at first to be a simple spiritualist fraud.

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The Fallen, Ada Hoffmann 26 July 2024

2021 science fiction, second of its series. Productivity Hunt wasn't expecting to be a reality-bending revolutionary, but it turns out she's one of the more functional of the band…

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Neighbourly Games 22 July 25 July 2024

More gaming with some nearby friends.

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The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, Silvia Moreno-Garcia 24 July 2024

2022 fantasy. In the wilds of Yucatán in 1891, Doctor Moreau conducts his experiments, and a minimal household staff looks after him. But his funder wants to see results.

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Desperation in Death, J. D. Robb 23 July 2024

2022 romance/SF/mystery; 55th novel of J. D. Robb's In Death series (SF police procedurals). Two girls escape from a "school" for sex slaves…

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McCone and Friends, Marcia Muller 22 July 2024

Short mystery stories from 2000, in Muller's series about Sharon McCone, private investigator in San Francisco.

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The Weekly Challenge 278: Reverse the Sort in Strings of Words 21 July 2024

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved decoding a string format and partially sorting characters. (Note that this ends today.)

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The Twisted Ones, T Kingfisher 20 July 2024

2019 fantasy/horror. Melissa, or Mouse, goes to rural North Carolina to clear out her dead grandmother's house. But it turns out that she had secrets, and some of them outlived her…

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Shadow Magic, Patricia C. Wrede 19 July 2024

1982 fantasy. Kidnapped from the family stronghold, Alethia is going to be instrumental in saving the world.

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Plan For the Worst, Jodi Taylor 18 July 2024

2020 science fiction, eleventh in the Chronicles of St Mary's series (time travel). A jump to see the Princes in the Tower changes everything…

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A Curious Beginning, Deanna Raybourn 17 July 2024

2015 historical thriller, first in a series. Veronica is a foundling, now in 1887 left alone in the world by the death of her "aunt". But soon her house is ransacked and a benefactor is murdered…

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Off the Rails, Christopher Fowler 16 July 2024

2010 police procedural mystery/horror, eighth in the Bryant and May series. The murderer-for-hire Mr Fox has escaped from custody and vanished from his previous life. But when a woman is killed by being pushed down the staircase at King's Cross, is this more of his work?

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The Serpent Sea, Martha Wells 15 July 2024

2012 fantasy, second of its series. Moon and his adoptive court have returned to their old home, but there's a problem…

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The Weekly Challenge 277: A Strong Count 14 July 2024

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved word hunting and integer combinations. (Note that this ends today.)

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Summer Stabcon 2024 13 July 2024 - 4 comments

Back to the Masonic Hall for a warm and soggy weekend.

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Titanium Noir, Nick Harkaway 12 July 2024

2023 science fiction. In a mostly-recognisable near future, Cal is a police contractor who smooths the way in cases that involve Titans, the super-wealthy subjects of the life-extending drug T7. So when a Titan commits a dodgy-looking suicide, he investigates…

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Claws and Contrivances, Stephanie Burgis 11 July 2024

2023 fantasy romance. Rose Tregarth is a born organiser, and being lodged with her cousins after her parents' ruin and death hasn't been too bad for her. But now valuable dragons are appearing at random in the neighbourhood, and the Mysterious Sinister Neighbour is getting involved…

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Yesterday's Spacemage, Timothy Ellis 10 July 2024

2018 SF. Thorn wanted to be a Battle Mage, but then things got complicated.

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A Question of Time, Fred Saberhagen 09 July 2024

1992 fantasy, seventh in Saberhagen's loose Dracula series. A girl has gone missing near the Grand Canyon, and it's nothing like that simple.

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Caitlyn Morcos, Interplanetary Marshal Service, M. H. Questus 08 July 2024

2020 SF. The two top-ranked new Interplanetary Marshals go to Delta sector, where crime is out of control…

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The Weekly Challenge 276: Frequency Day is Complete 07 July 2024

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved combinations and counting. (Note that this ends today.)

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Now You See Them, Elly Griffiths 06 July 2024

2019 mystery, fifth in its series. It's eleven years later, and the mods and rockers are threatening Brighton. But also a schoolgirl has gone missing…

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The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics, Olivia Waite 05 July 2024

2019 Regency romance. Lucy Muchelney has lost her lover to a socially advantageous wedding, and her brother has no time for her interest in astronomy (fired by her late father). One of father's correspondents is looking for someone to translate a French astronomical treatise…

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An Uninvited Corpse, Blythe Baker 04 July 2024

2021 historical mystery; third in Baker's Anna Fairweather series (1920s amateur detection). Mrs Montford is having her portrait painted. At the end of the session, she sends Anna after the painter to change an appointment; Anna's just in time to see him stabbed in the street.

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The Outside, Ada Hoffmann 03 July 2024 - 1 comment

2019 science fiction, first of a series though it stands well on its own. Yasira Shien's reactor design destroys a space station and kills a hundred people. But the gods give her a chance to redeem herself…

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The Night Raven, Sarah Painter 02 July 2024

2017 urban fantasy, first of a series. Lydia Crow's parents got out of the magical Crow family business, and she went further, to Aberdeen to work as a private investigator. But now she's back in London and her Uncle Charlie definitely wants her back in…

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Mage-Queen's Thief, Glynn Stewart 01 July 2024

2023 SF novella, part of an ongoing series. Kiera Alexander, thrust before she was ready onto the throne of Mars, needs children to carry on a particular set of magic-wielding genes, but would really prefer a husband she actually likes too. Barry Carpentier is a failed mage turned shuttle thief, and it turns out the Queen's ship has a really interesting prototype shuttle on board…

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