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Originally Posted by ATDrake
Finished two mystery/suspense by Lillian Stewart Carl. They were ostensibly in separate settings (one series, 1 non), but had very similar elements, with each having a female American academic with psychic sensitivity being paired up with an initially skeptical male UK police detective to solve a mysterious historical artifact-related murder and hopefully prevent any more.
Looking at the other books I have from her and the blurbs for her other non-series books, it looks like that sort of cross-Atlantic UK-philic murder-solving relationship is kind of her writing kink. Well, write what makes you money happy.
Anyway, I rather liked The Secret Portrait, 1st in the Jean Fairbairn series, which was offered free during Read an e-Book Week, and Time Enough to Die, a standalone which I got from Fictionwise during a coupon sale for approximately $1.35, enough to consider picking up the rest in the Fairbarn series and maybe Carl's other non-series mysteries when next she has a backlist e-book sale and they're offered at $1.50 or less again.
TSP was more fun, with an eccentric American millionaire who's taken his Bonnie Prince Charliephilia to ridiculous (and therefore suspicious) extent, and a fairly clever who-actually-dunnit. TETD actually had a digging-up-and-recreating-Roman-Britain setting which I actually liked more (and bonus redheads!) but was a bit more serious and the whodunnit, while fairly decent, didn't quite unfold with the same panache.
Medium-to-high-ish recommend if you like history/antiques-based amateur/professional tag-team sleuthing murder mysteries with race-against-the-killer elements and a touch of academia. They're nothing really special, but pleasantly enjoyable, and the price was certainly right.
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Okay, now I have to check these out. I thank you, but my TBR mountain doesn't!
I'm reading Murder Under Cover, the 4th Bibliophile mystery by Kate Carlisle, and Foggy Mountain Breakdown, an collection of short stories by Sharyn McCrumb. I'm actually re-reading FMB, I read it years ago but it just came out in ebook so I had to grab it. And of course once it was on my reader I couldn't resist just a few sentences to refresh my memory...and I'm sure you can guess the rest.