1007. The Valley of Fear (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Dust jacket illustration -- not sure if this is for the first edition

Synopsis:
The Valley of Fear is the final Sherlock Holmes novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The story was first published in the Strand Magazine between September 1914 and May 1915. The first book edition was published in New York on February 27, 1915.

The plot of the novel is based very loosely on the real-life activities of the Molly Maguires and, particularly, of Pinkerton agent James McParland. The novel is divided into two parts: in the first, Holmes investigates an apparent murder and discovers that the body belongs to another man; and in the second, the story of the man originally thought to have been the victim is told.

My rating: 4 stars

Publication information:

• Publisher: George H. Doran Company (UK)
  
• Publication date: 1915

970. The Riddle of the Third Mile (Colin Dexter)

Synopsis from Amazon:
Inspector Morse isn't sure what to make of the truncated body found dumped in the Oxford Canal, but he suspects it may be all that's left of an elderly Oxford don last seen boarding the London train several days before. Whatever the truth, the inspector knows it won't be simple--it never is. As he retraces Professor Browne-Smith's route through a London netherworld of topless bars and fancy bordellos, his forebodings are fulfilled. The evidence mounts; so do the bodies. So Morse downs another pint, unleashes his pit bull instincts, and solves a mystery that defies all logic.

My rating: 3 stars

954. Berlin Game (Len Deighton)

Synopsis from Amazon UK:
The first novel of the trilogy introducing Bernard Samson and the rest of the bickering, in-fighting intelligence community in which he is a much put-upon member. After five years of desk work, Bernie finds himself ordered back into the field.

My rating: 4 stars

949. Take a Chance on Me (Susan Donovan)

Synopsis from Amazon UK:
For animal behaviourist Emma, romance has been at the bottom of her daily "to do" list since making it through a messy divorce. But everything changes the day gorgeous Thomas Tobin walks into her office with a quivering Chinese Crested canine - and that charming smile of his.

My rating: 2 stars

My review: Stupid. Stupid writing. Stupid characters. Stupid plot.

939. The Wench Is Dead (Colin Dexter)

The Oxford Canal

Synopsis from Amazon:
It is only to entertain himself in the hospital that the impatient Inspector Morse opens the little book called Murder on the Oxford Canal. But so fascinating is the story it tells--of the notorious 1859 murder of Joanna Franks aboard the canal boat Barbara Bray--that not even Morse's attractive nurses can distract him from it. Was Joanna really raped and murdered by fellow passengers? Morse believes the men hanged for the crime were innocent. Now, in one of the most dazzling investigations of his career, Morse sets out to piece together the shattered past, hoping to expose the shocking truth about the Barbara Bray--and a beautiful wench who is journeying towards her death.

My rating: 5 stars

My review: My favorite Inspector Morse book.

928. Perfectly Incompatible (Kathryn Anne Dubois)

Synopsis from Barnes & Noble:
Michael Mulcahy, successor to a long line of NYC cops, has learned enough from his brothers' mistakes to know that Libby Crowne Vandermark, a fellow FBI agent and former debutante from the Upper East Side, is all wrong for him. He just needs to slake his relentless lust for her. This undercover operation, where they pose as a married couple at a "second honeymoon" spa, is the perfect excuse to do it.

Libby can't believe she's stuck with Neanderthal Mulcahy. Having grown up with three chauvinist brothers and a dominant father, she goes out of her way to avoid men like him. If she can just keep her eyes off him while they're together, every day and night, she'll get through this.

But the spa is not what it seems. And it turns their struggle to torture. Until they realize just how perfectly incompatible they are.

My rating: 4 stars

912. Secret Services (Margrett Dawson)

Synopsis from Amazon:
Take an adventurous virgin, add a handsome spy, and stir with a dash of treachery. Let the mixture bubble in a hothouse atmosphere of sexual dalliance and danger. Lady Gillian Christie considers herself a thoroughly modern young woman in London. She has a job and her own flat in town, but at twenty-two she is still a virgin. A reporting assignment sends her to a country estate for the weekend to find out about a mysterious game -- a perfect opportunity to find a bed partner and delve into the mysteries of love. The game turns out to be more than she expected, and she is soon involved in a bargain with a handsome undercover agent who will trade what he knows about love for her help in foiling German spies.

My rating: 4 stars

909. Satisfaction (Thea Devine)

Synopsis from Barnes and Noble:
They were adventurers and the closest of friends -- until the day Hugo Galliard deserted Edmund Renbrook in South Africa, robbing him forever of his diamonds, his woman, and his future. Now, years later, a son and daughter will meet to settle the score, using every bit of sensual cunning at their disposal ….

Lujan Galliard has cut quite a swath through the gambling dens and whorehouses of London. But at least he's an honest rakehell, unlike his father who masquerades as a gentleman while gazing at Jancie as if she were a ripe piece of fruit for the taking. Not that Lujan believes for a moment that the girl is an innocent come to care for his dying mother. The only way to uncover her scheme -- and thwart his father -- is to seduce and marry her. But a taste of what he hungers for proves more tempting than Lujan can resist…and soon, he wants Jancie body and soul ....

Blinded by vengeance, trapped by uncontrollable passion, two lovers have become pawns in a dangerous game of sin and secrets, and the only way out is to surrender to a love neither is ready to trust ....

My rating: 4 stars

893. Last Bus to Woodstock (Colin Dexter)

Synopsis from Amazon UK:
The death of Sylvia Kaye figured dramatically in Thursday afternoon's edition of the "Oxford Mail". By Friday evening Inspector Morse had informed the nation that the police were looking for a dangerous man - facing charges of wilful murder, sexual assault and rape. But as the obvious leads fade into twilight and darkness, Morse becomes more and more convinced that passion holds the key ....

My rating: 3 stars

887. Last Seen Wearing (Colin Dexter)

Synopsis from Amazon:
Valerie Taylor has been missing since she was a sexy seventeen, more than two years ago. Inspector Morse is sure she's dead. But if she is, who forged the letter to her parents saying "I am alright so don't worry"? Never has a woman provided Morse with such a challenge, for each time the pieces of the jigsaw start falling into place, someone scatters them again. So Valerie remains as tantalizingly elusive as ever. Morse prefers a body -- a body dead from unnatural causes. And very soon he gets one ....

My rating: 3 stars

885. On the Prowl (Kimberly Dean)

Synopsis from Amazon UK:
Slinking through shadows. Slipping through open windows. Jimmying locks. Talia Sizemore hadn't intended to become a thief, but what a rush her secret identity is! The more she steals, the more she craves the danger and the exhilaration. Her newborn freedom encourages other liberal tendencies and soon she's pushing the limits of her sexuality to keep experiencing the same highs. The situation only gets hotter when a bull-headed detective starts investigating. Riley Kinkade has set his sights on the New Covington Cat Burglar, and Talia can't help but squirm as he closes in on her. The man's smart, observant and extremely imposing. He's also the sexiest thing she's ever seen. He's out to get her, but she finds herself wanting to be caught. Her desire for him is absolute. He's watching her every move, but still, she can't stop stealing. There's something incredibly arousing about being bad right under the good detective's nose. As the frequency of her thefts increase, so do his thorough searches of her home and person. Once he gets his hands on her, watch out! This is one sexy cat and mouse game that is guaranteed to spiral out of control.

My rating: 4 stars

789. The Dead of Jericho (Colin Dexter)

I enjoyed the show better than the books.

Synopsis from Amazon:
He meets her at a suburban party. They share a flirtation over their red wine ... and he doesn't see her again. It's the old familiar story for Morse. Then one day he just happens to be in Jericho, where Anne Scott lives. Nobody's home -- and Morse should know since her door is unlocked and he takes a quick look inside. Only later does Morse learn that the lady was at home, just not alive. The jury's verdict at the inquest is death by suicide. But that doesn't sit right with Morse, and he embarks on his own investigation into the tangled private life of a lovely woman, all the while feeling his own remorse of what might have been ....

My rating: 3 stars

757. A Zoo in My Luggage (Gerald Durrell)

Synopsis from Amazon:
Fans of Gerald Durrell’s timeless classic My Family and Other Animals will love this hilarious tale, which finds him as an adult still charmed by his beloved animals. A Zoo in My Luggage begins with an account of Durrell’s third trip to the British Cameroons in West Africa, during which he and his wife capture animals to start their own zoo. Returning to England with a few additions to their family — Cholmondeley the chimpanzee, Bug-eye the bush baby, and others — they have nowhere to put them as they haven’t yet secured a place for their zoo. Durrell’s account of how he manages his menagerie in all sorts of places throughout England while finding a permanent home for the animals provides as much adventure as capturing them. For animal lovers of all ages, A Zoo in My Luggage is the romping true story of the boy who grew up to make a Noah’s Ark of his own.

My rating: 5 stars

711. The Music of the Primes (Marcus Du Sautoy)

Bernhard Riemann

Synopsis from Amazon Canada:
In 1859, German mathematician Bernhard Riemann presented a paper to the Berlin Academy that would forever change the history of mathematics. The subject was the mystery of prime numbers. At the heart of the presentation was an idea that Riemann had not yet proved but one that baffles mathematicians to this day.

Solving the Riemann Hypothesis could change the way we do business, since prime numbers are the lynchpin for security in banking and e-commerce. It would also have a profound impact on the cutting-edge of science, affecting quantum mechanics, chaos theory, and the future of computing. Leaders in math and science are trying to crack the elusive code, and a prize of $1 million has been offered to the winner. In this engaging book, Marcus du Sautoy reveals the extraordinary history behind the holy grail of mathematics and the ongoing quest to capture it.

My rating: 5 stars

My review: A very good review of the Riemann Hypothesis and the implications of a proof. Technical enough for mathematicians but not so abstract that it cannot be understood by laypersons.

707. The Sign of Four (Arthur Conan Doyle)

Synopsis from Amazon UK:
As a dense yellow fog swirls through the streets of London, a deep melancholy has descended on Sherlock Holmes, who sits in a cocaine-induced haze at 221B Baker Street. His mood is only lifted by a visit from a beautiful but distressed young woman Mary Morstan, whose father vanished ten years before. Four years later she began to receive an exquisite gift every year: a large, lustrous pearl. Now she has had an intriguing invitation to meet her unknown benefactor and urges Holmes and Watson to accompany her. And in the ensuing investigation which involves a wronged woman, a stolen hoard of Indian treasure, a wooden-legged ruffian, a helpful dog and a love affair even the jaded Holmes is moved to exclaim, "Isn't it gorgeous!"

My rating: 4 stars

Publication information:

• 1890
• Spenser Blackett
• London
  
• Red cloth with black lettering & designs
  
• Black endpapers
  
• Issue points:
• Contents page reads '13' instead of '138'
• 'wished' shows as 'w shed' on page 56

701. The Greatest Lover in All England (Christina Dodd)

Synopsis from Amazon Canada:
Rosie survives as a street thespian by pretending she is a boy and staying one step ahead of the law, but when she has to play Sir Rycliffe's wife in an arranged marriage, his kisses threaten her composure.

My rating: 2 stars

690. The Provincial Lady in Wartime (E. M. Delafield)

Air raid shelter in a Tube station

Synopsis from Amazon UK:
World War 2 has begun, and the provincial lady must cope with gas masks, evacuated relatives, and canteen service.

My rating: 5 stars

686. The Lost World (Arthur Conan Doyle)

Cover of first edition

Synopsis from Amazon UK:
Headed by the larger than life figure of Professor Challenger, a scientific expedition sets out to explore a plateau in South America that remains frozen in time from the days when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Seemingly impossible to penetrate, this lost word holds great danger for the four men, whether from fiendish ape-men or terrifying prehistoric creatures.

My rating: 5 stars

Publication information:

• 1912
• London
• Hodder & Stoughton
  

676. The Waterworks (E. L. Doctorow)

Broadway at 42nd Street in 1880

Synopsis from Amazon:
The narrator, an elderly newspaperman named McIlvaine, recalls the bizarre events surrounding the disappearance of one of his paper's best freelance writers in 1871. Martin Pemberton was the son of Augustus Pemberton, a brutal, cunning man who had made a fortune as a war profiteer, then died, leaving his family mysteriously penniless. Martin was convinced he had seen his father alive, in a coach in the company of other old men; then Martin vanished. McIlvaine interests the municipal police, in the person of odd, incorruptible Captain Edmund Donne, and together they ferret out a weird scheme in which aging millionaires have paid the brilliant, cold-blooded Dr. Sartorius to preserve their lives in a state of suspended animation.

My rating: 3 stars

674. Scandalous Again (Christina Dodd)

The Card Players by Paul Cezanne, 1895

Synopsis from Amazon:
Lady Madeline de Lacy, one of the most powerful women in England, is struggling to hold her family together following her gambler father's catastrophic loss at cards. When she learns that he has gambled away her hand in marriage and is planning to stake her most precious heirloom in the Game of the Century, she takes drastic action. She switches places with her cousin and companion, Eleanor, and heads to The Game disguised as a companion herself. Eleanor, in turn, agrees to see Madeline's new fiance and break the engagement. Madeline is accustomed to running her life and the lives of those around her, so posing as a lady's maid proves to be a challenge, especially when she discovers her former fiance, Lord Gabriel, at the party. Now she must maintain her ruse even as she's drawn to the man she jilted four years earlier.

My rating: 2 stars

My reviews: Disliked the main characters.