In the latest book in the Crispin Guest Medieval Noir series, Crispin wakes up in a strange bed to find the woman he'd spent the previous night with, murdered. When Crispin is arrested, his apprentice Jack is left to handle the investigation for himself. It appears the dead woman was involved in a scheme to steal a relic. Then again, after Crispin is jailed, more women die in similar circumstances.

The Medieval Noir series in general is an excellent choice for those who like historical fiction and traditional PI mysteries. Crispin Guest is just another private detective (or in this case, Tracker), perpetually down on his luck, a pushover for a woman in distress, and with his own, private sense of honor. It just happens that the dirty city he lives in is fourteenth century London. All of the parts in this edition of the series are interesting and entertaining. Jack managing the investigation on Crispin's behalf. His budding courtship of the tavern owner's ward. Crispin's ongoing battle with the sheriffs. The eventual trap to catch the murderer. However, they don't quite come together in the end. Just as fiction has to be believable even if reality isn't, the different threads of a mystery have to be unified in a way that reality isn't. It was a worthwhile read, but a lesser entry. I hope to find Season of Blood more precisely constructed.

Overall: B-

This book is not the revolution. But, Caitlin Moran may have a good point when she suggests we treat female artists unfairly by expecting them to tackle every issue and perspective. And as far as it goes, you will find considerably more about politics, social issues, and how to make the world a better place here than you will in the standard Dave Barry anthology. At its heart, that's what we're dealing with here: a humor anthology. Yes, it has a considerable share of political humor, but it also has pieces about duffel coats, how nobody over the age of thirty actually wants to go out, and Benedict Cumberbatch. They've been collected over a period of several years, so some of them are already rather nostalgic. (One piece, only from just over a year ago, is already rather heartbreaking; about how suddenly Moran loves Hillary Clinton for giving us the image of a woman who could become the leader of the free world in her seventh decade of life.) The short transitions between each piece are sometimes awkward, but they're unnecessary, so just skip them and read the pieces themselves and the longer introductions at the beginning of each section. But for the pieces themselves, there are no misfires.

Overall: B

I received this book from the publisher through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program.

An exciting story about an early leader in abolition and women's rights, one who, for that matter, continued to support black male suffrage even after it became clear that women's suffrage was being sacrificed for fear that both could not pass at once. Far too few people can name more 19th century women's suffragists than Susan B. Anthony and perhaps Elizabeth Cady Stanton (maybe Sojourner Truth at a stretch, but passing familiarity with her is more likely to include only her status as an escaped slave and abolitionist). When I requested this book from ER, I didn't realize that it was a YA adaptation of a fuller length adult biography that had come out ten years before, and I didn't figure it out until I was halfway through the book and discovered a bookmark advertising the line of YA history books. Without knowing it was meant for YA, I found the prose a bit simplistic, but once I realized the intended audience, it made sense and the style seemed appropriate. I hope to have time to read the adult version, Revolutionary Heart, soon, but this was certainly worth reading once.

In a couple of weeks I'll be done with Notable Books reading for the year, so I'll be reading things I want to read and able to think of them not through the prism of whether they're notable or not, and posting here will start again (until I'm buried under potential 2018 Notable Books). But for now, here's the year in review:

​How many books read in 2016?

180

Fiction/Non-Fiction ratio?

Fiction: 102
Nonfiction: 67
Poetry: 11

Male/Female authors?

Male: 96
Female: 82
Multi-author, at least one of each: 2

Favorite books read?

Everything that I read by K.J. Charles and Courtney Milan, but particularly K.J. Charles's Society of Gentleman trilogy which is the most beautifully politics-heavy romance series ever. As in Publisher's Weekly complained about it.

Least favorite?

<i>Wanted, One Scoundrel</i> by Jenny Schwartz, which I read because I was in desperate need of steampunk suffragettes, but suffrage just turned out to be an excuse for the hero and heroine to meet and the steampunk had no impact on the plot until the last minute. It was your standard bad-guy-tries-to-force-heiress-to-marry-him plot.

Oldest book read?

<i>Jekyll and Hyde</i>, I think

Newest?

Virtually everything I read this year had just come out.

How many re-reads?

Just four, I think, Pub-Lit books I'd already read

Most books read by one author this year?

Probably K.J. Charles, although I'm not checking. Besides the Society of Gentleman trilogy, there was <i>Rag and Bone</i> and <i>A Queer Trade</i>

Any in translation?

Some I'm sure but it's hard to keep track when I'm not picking them myself 

How many of this year's books were from the library?

Twenty-two, I think, but it's hard to keep track when I read some from the library and received copies from the publisher later.

Book that most changed my perspective:

I don't know that any book really qualifies for this.

Favorite character:
Cyprian in the Society of Gentlemen 

Favorite scene:
The bit in <i>Futuristic Violence in Fancy Suits</i> where The Hyena is debating that alias, I think. There were lots of great scenes in that book

Most inspirational in terms of your own writing?
Probably <i>Her Every Wish</i>

How many you'd actually read again?
Probably around thirty? Most of the ones I picked myself


Maybe I'll do a general year in review later this week, maybe not.