Inspector of the Dead

                                      "Story that I've read before"......



Inspector of the Dead by David Morrell.


Series: Thomas and Emily De Quincey  (Book 2)
Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Mulholland Books;(October 11, 2016)
ISBN-10: 0316323950




Amazon Review:

Legendary thriller writer David Morrell transports readers to the fogbound streets of London, where a killer plots to assisinate Queen Victoria.

The year is 1855. The Crimean War is raging. The incompetence of British commanders causes the fall of the English government. The Empire teeters. Amid this crisis comes opium-eater Thomas De Quincey, one of the most notorious and brilliant personalities of Victorian England. Along with his irrepressible daughter, Emily, and their Scotland Yard companions, Ryan and Becker, De Quincey finds himself confronted by an adversary who threatens the heart of the nation.

This killer targets members of the upper echelons of British society, leaving with each corpse the name of someone who previously attempted to kill Queen Victoria. The evidence indicates that the ultimate victim will be Victoria herself.


This is the second of 3 books by David Morrell the used Thomas De Quincey as the main character. (one more to go)

This trio of books, if you like murder and detective work, are really great reads!  They never slow down and you don't figure them out until close to the end.. even then he can surprise you. And if you read these books you might become interested in the "real" Thomas De Quincey. If you do you can find books by him on Amazon.



#VentureForth2020

Murder as a Fine Art

Murder as a Fine Art by David Morrell.


Series: Thomas and Emily De Quincey (1) (Book 1) 

Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Mulholland Books; First Edition edition (May 7, 2013)
ISBN-10: 0316216798




Amazon Review



A brilliant historical mystery series begins: in gaslit Victorian London, writer Thomas De Quincey must become a detective to clear his own name. 

Thomas De Quincey, infamous for his memoir Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, is the major suspect in a series of ferocious mass murders identical to ones that terrorized London forty-three years earlier. 

The blueprint for the killings seems to be De Quincey's essay On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts. Desperate to clear his name but crippled by opium addiction, De Quincey is aided by his devoted daughter Emily and a pair of determined Scotland Yard detectives. 

In Murder as a Fine Art, David Morrell plucks De Quincey, Victorian London, and the Ratcliffe Highway murders from history. Fogbound streets become a battleground between a literary star and a brilliant murderer, whose lives are linked by secrets long buried but never forgotten.



This is a reread.

And, I had forgotten how good this book is!  Wow.  I remember the first time I read it and talked to my friend Catherine Russell and said , " what a great character Morrell had come up with using an Opium Eater".   The she informed me that Thomas De Quincey was a real person!!!  That news blew me away!  He is a great character for this book!  (and 2 others that follow). 

The book has everything.  Old Victorian London, street people, beggers, the police department, murders, and plenty of mystery!

Oh, and if you think the authors name sounds familiar... he also wrote the Rambo books that were made into movies.  FYI.

Books at Home

Books at Home hosted by Reading in the Wilderness.



Another shelf full of books.. imagine that!  Of all of these there is only one in there that I've read... that would be "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee".
From left to right (in case you can't read them all):

1.) Will Rogers by Richard M Ketchum.

Marvin Pipher review: 

This book is a joy to read not only because of its subject, Will Rogers, but also because of the manner in which his story is told. Most biographies that I have read have struck me as somewhat impersonal. That is to say: the authors told their stories as an outsider might see them with few, if any, intimate details. But this biography is different, and that makes it rather extraordinary and quite unique. As I was reading the book, for example, particularly in the early chapters, those concerning Will's family history and early life, I sensed that this author truly loved the man about whom he was writing. (And, I must say, "who wouldn't?") It was almost as if the book had been written by a member of Rogers' own family or by a very close personal friend. The book was that intimate and personal, and I was captivated.
As for the subject of the book: I can't imagine a more interesting, entertaining, or remarkable man to read about than Will Rogers. He was an expert with the lasso, a circus performer; wild west show attraction; vaudevillian; stage performer; star of the Ziegfeld Follies and Ziegfeld Frolic for nine years; a silent movie actor; motion picture star; humorist; newspaper columnist; author; world traveler; friend of the high and mighty; and, most importantly, a humble humanitarian who never lost sight of the fact that he was just another man in God's creation. I doubt if there was ever a man, woman, or child that Rogers ever met who didn't like him. And, as he said, he never met a man he didn't like.
Will was also a Cherokee Indian who was part Irish and part Scottish, but who turned out to be American through and through. This is all the more remarkable when one considers that he was born in the Indian Territory, which later became Oklahoma, in 1879 and was born into a family which, along with the rest of the Cherokee Nation, had a long history of abuse at the hands of the white man. One would think that with that history Will might easily have become a bitter and resentful man. But strange as it may seem, Will Rogers went on to become the quintessential American and the most beloved American of his time. How he did that and how he lived his life are the subjects of this book. And it is an inspiring story which should be read by every American man and woman, and especially by every child during his or her formative years.
My advice to any reader who wants to learn about this truly great American and wonderful human being; wants to learn more about American history or the history of American entertainment; or simply wants to teach his children how better to live their lives, should beg, borrow, or steal a copy of this book, or as a last resort get a copy from the library. I think you'll truly enjoy reading it and, in the process, will learn more than you can imagine about the real world in which we live, for what Rogers had to say in his day is just as timely today as it was back then.
 
2) Irish Americans by Jay P Dolan.

Amazon Review:

Jay Dolan of Notre Dame University is one of America's most acclaimed scholars of immigration and ethnic history. In The Irish Americans, he caps his decades of writing and teaching with this magisterial history of the Irish experience in the United States. Although more than 30 million Americans claim Irish ancestry, no other general account of Irish American history has been published since the 1960s. Dolan draws on his own original research and much other recent scholarship to weave an insightful, colorful narrative. He follows the Irish from their first arrival in the American colonies through the bleak days of the potato famine that brought millions of starving immigrants; the trials of ethnic prejudice and "No Irish Need Apply;" the rise of Irish political power and the heyday of Tammany politics; to the election of John F. Kennedy as president, a moment of triumph when an Irish American ascended to the highest office in the land.
Dolan evokes the ghastly ships crowded with men and women fleeing the potato blight; the vibrant life of Catholic parishes in cities like New York and Chicago; the world of machine politics, where ward bosses often held court in the local saloon. Rich in colorful detail, balanced in judgment, and the most comprehensive work of its kind yet published, The Irish Americans is a lasting achievement by a master historian that will become a must-have volume for any American with an interest in the Irish-American heritage.
 
3) Red Bones by Ann Cleeves.

Amazon Review:

When a young archaeologist discovers a set of human remains, the locals are intrigued. Is it an ancient find—or a more contemporary mystery? Then an elderly woman is fatally shot and Ann Cleeves's popular series detective Jimmy Perez is called in. As claustrophobic mists swirl around the island, Inspector Perez finds himself totally in the dark.
This series is the basis for the hit BBC show Shetland, starring Douglas Henshall, which attracted over 12 million viewers in its first two nights on the air.
 
4) The Last Stand by Nathaniel Philbrick.

Amazon Review:

Nathaniel Philbrick, author of In the Hurricane's Eye, Pulitzer Prize finalist Mayflower, and Valiant Ambition, is a historian with a unique ability to bring history to life. The Last Stand is Philbrick's monumental reappraisal of the epochal clash at the Little Bighorn in 1876 that gave birth to the legend of Custer's Last Stand. Bringing a wealth of new information to his subject, as well as his characteristic literary flair, Philbrick details the collision between two American icons- George Armstrong Custer and Sitting Bull-that both parties wished to avoid, and brilliantly explains how the battle that ensued has been shaped and reshaped by national myth.
 
5) The Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly.

Amazon Review:

New York socialite Caroline Ferriday has her hands full with her post at the French consulate and a new love on the horizon. But Caroline’s world is forever changed when Hitler’s army invades Poland in September 1939—and then sets its sights on France.
An ocean away from Caroline, Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teenager, senses her carefree youth disappearing as she is drawn deeper into her role as courier for the underground resistance movement. In a tense atmosphere of watchful eyes and suspecting neighbors, one false move can have dire consequences.
For the ambitious young German doctor, Herta Oberheuser, an ad for a government medical position seems her ticket out of a desolate life. Once hired, though, she finds herself trapped in a male-dominated realm of Nazi secrets and power.
The lives of these three women are set on a collision course when the unthinkable happens and Kasia is sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious Nazi concentration camp for women. Their stories cross continents—from New York to Paris, Germany, and Poland—as Caroline and Kasia strive to bring justice to those whom history has forgotten.

6) Helen Keller by Dorothy Herrmann.

Amazon Review:

Dorothy Herrmann's powerful biography of Helen Keller tells the whole story of the controversial and turbulent relationship between Helen and her teacher, Annie Sullivan. Herrmann also chronicles Helen's doomed love affair, her struggles to earn a living, her triumphs at Radcliffe College, and her work as an advocate for the disabled. Helen Keller has been venerated as a saint or damned as a fraud, but Herrmann shows her to have been a beautiful, intelligent, high-strung, and passionate woman whose life was transformed not only by her disabilities but also by the remarkable people on whose help and friendship she relied.
 
7) Empire of the Summer Moon:  by S C Gwynne

Amazon Review:

Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches.
Although readers may be more familiar with the tribal names Apache and Sioux, it was in fact the legendary fighting ability of the Comanches that determined when the American West opened up. Comanche boys became adept bareback riders by age six; full Comanche braves were considered the best horsemen who ever rode. They were so masterful at war and so skillful with their arrows and lances that they stopped the northern drive of colonial Spain from Mexico and halted the French expansion westward from Louisiana. White settlers arriving in Texas from the eastern United States were surprised to find the frontier being rolled backward by Comanches incensed by the invasion of their tribal lands.
The war with the Comanches lasted four decades, in effect holding up the development of the new American nation. Gwynne’s exhilarating account delivers a sweeping narrative that encompasses Spanish colonialism, the Civil War, the destruction of the buffalo herds, and the arrival of the railroads, and the amazing story of Cynthia Ann Parker and her son Quanah—a historical feast for anyone interested in how the United States came into being.

8) The Terror by Dan Simmons.

Amazon Review:

The men on board HMS Terror have every expectation of triumph. As part of the 1845 Franklin Expedition, the first steam-powered vessels ever to search for the legendary Northwest Passage, they are as scientifically supported an enterprise as has ever set forth. As they enter a second summer in the Arctic Circle without a thaw, though, they are stranded in a nightmarish landscape of encroaching ice and darkness. Endlessly cold, with diminishing rations, 126 men fight to survive with poisonous food, a dwindling supply of coal, and ships buckling in the grip of crushing ice. But their real enemy is far more terrifying. There is something out there in the frigid darkness: an unseen predator stalking their ship, a monstrous terror constantly clawing to get in.When the expedition's leader, Sir John Franklin, meets a terrible death, Captain Francis Crozier takes command and leads his surviving crewmen on a last, desperate attempt to flee south across the ice. With them travels an Inuit woman who cannot speak and who may be the key to survival, or the harbinger of their deaths. But as another winter approaches, as scurvy and starvation grow more terrible, and as the terror on the ice stalks them southward, Crozier and his men begin to fear that there is no escape.
The Terror swells with the heart-stopping suspense and heroic adventure that have won Dan Simmons praise as "a writer who not only makes big promises but keeps them" (Seattle Post-Intelligencer). With a haunting and constantly surprising story based on actual historical events, The Terror is a novel that will chill you to your core.

9) I, Ripper by Stephen Hunter.

Amazon Review:

I,Ripper has three narrators (more like 2.1). The Ripper himself has kept a diary, whose entries constitute half of the narrative. He is being pursued by an Irish journalist (nickname: Jeb) whose memoir constitutes the second half. There are also a few letters from a London prostitute, written to her mother. Their function in the story is unclear until the story’s end.
While the voices vary they are all late 19thc voices and the novel is filled with references to contemporary culture and practices. Hunter tosses off the word ‘mudlarks’, e.g. These are people who sift through the detritus of the Thames when the tide is out. His command of these details is very impressive and the number of slips can be counted on one hand.
The conclusion of the story is most impressive, as Hunter draws all of the individual threads into a single, blockbuster conclusion and subjects a villainous character to a fate that is not just appropriate but also anticipated, metaphorically and psychologically, throughout the novel.

10) Crazy Horse by Mike Sajna.

Amazon Review:

This poignant book sheds new light on the life and death of one of the greatest Native American leaders.

11) The Wind Won't Know Me by Emily Benedek.

Amazon Review: Publishers Weekly

Public Law 93-531, the Navajo-Hopi Settlement Act passed by Congress in 1974, set off a chain of events that has brought misery and uncertainty to thousands of Native Americans, has thus far cost the federal government more than $40,000,000 and has caused litigation that continues. Calling for the partition of tribal lands, the law involved the relocation of members of both tribes. The land dispute is seen as a struggle over cultural values between the sheepherding Navajo and the farming Hopi who also use the land in religious ceremonies. Benedek, who covered the story for Newsweek, details the background of the two million acres in question, profiles the tribes, assesses the Relocation Commission as incompetent and corrupt and describes the roles played by bungling bureaucrats and lawyers who have garnered huge fees from the proceedings. Focussing on events of 1985-1986, this account exemplifies government intervention at its worst.

12) Theodore Roosevelt for the Defense by Dan Abrams.

Amazon Review:

ABC News legal correspondent and host of LIVE PD Dan Abrams reveals the story of Teddy Roosevelt’s last stand—an epic courtroom battle against corruption—in this thrilling follow-up to the New York Times bestseller Lincoln’s Last Trial.
“No more dramatic courtroom scene has ever been enacted,” reported the Syracuse Herald on May 22, 1915 as it covered “the greatest libel suit in history,” a battle fought between former President Theodore Roosevelt and the leader of the Republican party.
Roosevelt , the boisterous and mostly beloved legendary American hero, had accused his former friend and ally, now turned rival, William Barnes of political corruption. The furious Barnes responded by suing Roosevelt for an enormous sum that could have financially devastated him. The spectacle of Roosevelt defending himself in a lawsuit captured the imagination of the nation, and more than fifty newspapers sent reporters to cover the trial. Accounts from inside and outside the courtroom combined with excerpts from the trial transcript give us Roosevelt in his own words and serve as the heart of Theodore Roosevelt for the Defense.
This was Roosevelt’s final fight to defend his political legacy, and perhaps regain his fading stature. He spent more than a week on the witness stand, revealing hidden secrets of the American political system, and then endured a merciless cross-examination. Witnesses including a young Franklin D. Roosevelt and a host of well-known political leaders were questioned by two of the most brilliant attorneys in the country.
Following the case through court transcripts, news reports, and other primary sources, Dan Abrams and David Fisher present a high-definition picture of the American legal system in a nation standing on the precipice of the Great War, with its former president fighting for the ideals he held dear.

13) Bury My  Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown:

Review on Amazon

Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2001
If you only read one book about Native Americans in your life - read this one! This book belongs on the required reading list of every American student. However, it will never happen because the truth hurts too much. The world's greatest watchdog of democracy, has a past that is so shameful, that it cannot be taught in American school. However, there is more to this book than the accounting of the many injustices inflicted upon America's first inhabitants. The readers of this book will be astonished to learn that Native Americans have always been a very intelligent and generous race; a race of people that only wanted to live in peace and enjoy the fruits of this land. I dream that some day America will discover the values of Native America lifestyles and belief systems. Read this book, be saddened by the past, learn of a great race and be inspired by a noble and gracious people. Then we can truly become the greatest nation in the history of mankind!

(I have read this book and I always tell anyone with any interest in Native American to read this.)

These books have been waiting..and waiting but that's because there are more shelves with books I haven't read yet!  I have no doubt I will get to as many as possible.  ... and add books along the way !

Footnotes: A Journey Round Britain in the Company of Great Writers

A gift that was given to me

Summer reading under the guise of Venture Forth..and as A Gift Given to me.

Footnotes: A Journey Round Britain in the Company of Great Writers by Peter Fiennes.

Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Oneworld Publications (January 14, 2020)
ISBN-10: 1786076292


Amazon Review

‘The premise of this book is simple, or that is what it seemed when I started.’

Peter Fiennes follows in the footsteps of twelve inspirational writers, bringing modern Britain into focus by peering through the lens of the past.

The journey starts in Dorset, shaped by the childhood visions of Enid Blyton, and ends with Charles Dickens on the train that took him to his final resting place in Westminster Abbey.
From the wilds of Skye and Snowdon, to a big night out in Birmingham with J. B. Priestley and Beryl Bainbridge, Footnotes is a series of evocative biographies, a lyrical foray into the past, and a quest to understand Britain through the books, journals and diaries of some of our greatest writers.

And as Fiennes travels the country, and roams across the centuries, he wonders:
‘Who are we? What do we want? They seemed like good questions to ask, in the company of some of our greatest writers, given these restless times.’


 This was and interesting book! Catherine Russell gifted me this book knowing I like Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens, both who are talked about in this book.. or I should say "Trip around Britain.

Even though I didn't know many of the writers I enjoyed the "trip"! The author was quite clever in that he'd travel where the writer had gone during their lifetime.. he'd describe the area quite well and then explain how it would have looked when the author was there around 1188 , during the 1600's and 1800's depending on the author he was following at the time.  I like the historical times and what things looked like then and now so it was a good read!

I number of interesting tidbit showed up about Wilkie and Dickens that I didn't know .. some were even humorous!  All in all I did enjoy the book very much... maybe you would too??
 

#VentureForth2020 .  Enjoy your summer reading!