It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This weekly meme is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

It has been very hot here over the past week. Autumn is just around the corner, but we're still experiencing temperatures of over 35°C and still no rain. Trapped inside with the air-conditioner and a stack of books, I had no option but to read and happily reduced my reading pile by three.

What I Read Last Week


Mortal Arts by Anna Lee Huber

"Scotland, 1830." Lady Kiera Darby is no stranger to intrigue--in fact, it seems to follow wherever she goes. After her foray into murder investigation, Kiera must journey to Edinburgh with her family so that her pregnant sister can be close to proper medical care. But the city is full of many things Kiera isn't quite ready to face: the society ladies keen on judging her, her fellow investigator--and romantic entanglement--Sebastian Gage, and ultimately, another deadly mystery. Kiera's old friend Michael Dalmay is about to be married, but the arrival of his older brother--and Kiera's childhood art tutor--William, has thrown everything into chaos. For ten years Will has been missing, committed to an insane asylum by his own father. Kiera is sympathetic to her mentor's plight, especially when rumors swirl about a local girl gone missing. Now Kiera must once again employ her knowledge of the macabre and join forces with Gage in order to prove the innocence of a beloved family friend--and save the marriage of another...


When Gods Die by C.S. Harris

The young wife of an aging marquis is found murdered in the arms of the Prince Regent. Around her neck lies a necklace said to have been worn by Druid priestesses-that is, until it was lost at sea with its last owner, Sebastian St. Cyr's mother. Now Sebastian is lured into a dangerous investigation of the marchioness's death-and his mother's uncertain fate. As he edges closer to the truth-and one murder follows another-he confronts a conspiracy that imperils those nearest him and threatens to bring down the monarchy.









Forget the Glory by Elizabeth Darrell (a.k.a Emma Drummond)

Captain the Honourable Rowan DeMayne has served for six boring years with the 43rd Light Dragoons in an isolated Indian outpost. He and his commrades-in-arms yearn for honour and glory in battle.

Mary Clarke, born in a barrack room and twice widowed at eighteen, yearns only to rise above her lowly destiny. To avoid a third marriage she takes on menial work in the fetid camp hospital, and there tends Rowan, who is suffering terrible wounds on return from a dangerous solo mission.

The long-awaited call to arms is cheered by the 43rd, but the war is in the Crimea, where they are to replace the lost Light Brigade. They must cross oceans and continents for the glory they desire, taking with them wives, children, furniture, horses, equipment and weapons. During this hazardous trek, Rowan is forced to compare his self-centred wife with Mary, a true daughter of the regiment.

Socially poles apart the pair are slowly drawn close by the demands of war and they have to face painful reality when they reach journey's end at the gates of Sebastapol.

Shirley by Charlotte Brontë

I did intend to continue reading Shirley after I'd finished Mortal Arts but things didn't go to plan and once again it has been abandoned. Perhaps I'm just not in the right mood for a classic.

What I'm Reading Today


Plague by C.C. Humphreys

London, May 1665. On a dark road outside London, a simple robbery goes horribly wrong - when the gentlemanly highwayman, William Coke, discovers that his intended victims have been brutally slaughtered. Suspected of the murders, Coke is forced into an uneasy alliance with the man who pursues him - the relentless thief-taker, Pitman. Together they seek the killer - and uncover a conspiracy that reaches from the glittering, debauched court of King Charles to the worst slum in the city, St Giles in the Fields. But there's another murderer moving through the slums, the taverns and palaces, slipping under the doorways of the rich. A mass murderer ..... Plague .......




The Girl in the Photograph by Kate Riordan

When Alice Eveleigh arrives at Fiercombe Manor during the long, languid summer of 1933, she finds a house steeped in mystery and brimming with secrets. Sadness permeates its empty rooms and the isolated valley seems crowded with ghosts - none more alluring than Elizabeth Stanton, whose only trace remains in a few tantalizingly blurred photographs. Why will no one speak of her? What happened a generation ago to make her vanish? As the sun beats down relentlessly, Alice becomes ever more determined to unearth the truth about the girl in the photograph - and stop her own life from becoming an eerie echo of Elizabeth's...

Hoping to Also Read This Week 

The Secret of Pembrooke Park by Julie Klassen

Abigail Foster is the practical daughter. She fears she will end up a spinster, especially as she has little dowry, and the one man she thought might marry her seems to have fallen for her younger, prettier sister.

 Facing financial ruin, Abigail and her father search for more affordable lodgings, until a strange solicitor arrives with an astounding offer: the use of a distant manor house abandoned for eighteen years. The Fosters journey to imposing Pembrooke Park and are startled to find it entombed as it was abruptly left: tea cups encrusted with dry tea, moth-eaten clothes in wardrobes, a doll's house left mid-play...

 The handsome local curate welcomes them, but though he and his family seem acquainted with the manor's past, the only information they offer is a stern warning: Beware trespassers drawn by rumors that Pembrooke Park contains a secret room filled with treasure.

This catches Abigail's attention. Hoping to restore her family's finances--and her dowry--Abigail looks for this supposed treasure. But eerie sounds at night and footprints in the dust reveal she isn't the only one secretly searching the house.

Then Abigail begins receiving anonymous letters, containing clues about the hidden room and startling discoveries about the past. As old friends and new foes come calling at Pembrooke Park, secrets come to light. Will Abigail find the treasure and love she seeks...or very real danger?

A Lack of Temperance by Anna Loan-Wilsey

 On the eve of the heated presidential election of 1892, Miss Hattie Davish arrives in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, a scenic resort town where those without the scent of whiskey on their breath have the plight of temperance on their tongues. Summoned for her services as a private secretary, Hattie is looking forward to exploring the hills, indulging her penchant for botany--and getting to know the town's handsome doctor. But it's hard to get her job done with her employer nowhere to be found...

An army of unassuming women wielding hatchets have descended on the quiet Ozark village, destroying every saloon in their path--and leaving more than a few enemies in their wake. So when their beloved leader, Mother Trevelyan, is murdered, it's easy to point fingers. Now that she's working for a dead woman, Hattie turns to her trusty typewriter to get to the truth. And as she follows a trail of cryptic death threats, she'll come face to face with a killer far more dangerous than the Demon Rum..