The Book Plank

Thieves’ Quarry by D.B. Jackson, Thieftaker Chronicles #2 Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay, September 28, 1768 When one hundred sailors of King George III’s Royal Navy are mysteriously killed on a ship in Boston Harbor. Ethan is thrust unto dire peril. For he-and hot Boston’s premier thieftaker, Sephira Pryce - is asked to find the truth behind their deaths. City Sheriff Edmund Greenlead suspects conjuring was used in the dastardly crime, and even Pryce knows that Ethan is the better equipped to contend with matter of what most of Boston considers dark arts. But even Ethan is daunted by magic powerful enough to fell so many in a single stroke. When he starts to investigate, he realizes that the mass murderer will stop at nothing to evade capture. And making his task more difficult is the British fleet’s occupation of the city after the colonias’ violent protest after the seizure of John Hancock’s ship. Kaille will need all his own magic, street smarts, and a bit of lu...

Two years ago, something terrible was unleashed in an Australian mining town called Broken Hill. Thousands died.   Few people know what really happened. Emily Ruff is one of them. She belongs to an elite organization of ‘poets’: masters of manipulation who use language to warp others to their will. She was one of their most promising recruits until she made a catastrophic mistake: she fell in love. Wil Parke knows the truth too, only he doesn’t remember it. And he doesn’t know why he’s immune to the poets’ powers. But he knows he needs to run. As their stories converge, the past is revealed, and the race is on   for a deadly weapon: a word. Because the poets know that words can kill... I encountered Lexicon early in January, that it was published this summer by Mulholland Books, the crime and thriller imprint of Hodder and Stoughton and from what I could make up from the back of the book it just struck me head on. This synopsis holds a lot of promise. The po...

Every year at an exclusive private boarding school in New York state, the graduating students uphold an old tradition – they must swear an oath of secrecy and leave behind a “treasure” for each incoming senior. When Duncan Meade inherits the room and secrets of Tim Macbeth, he uncovers evidence of a clandestine romance, and unravels the truth behind one of the biggest mysteries in the school’s history. How far would you go to keep a secret? Sometimes I come across a book that makes it hard to write a review and to put your finger on. The Tragedy Paper is one of those books for me. It is not your standard Young-Adult fantasy, no swashbuckling action or the likes but it is fascinating and captivating story. Also it is the author’s, Elizabeth LaBan, first book. The Tragedy Paper blends literature and a journey of discovering yourself into one classic love-story. Whenever I put the book down to do something else I immediately got the urge to pick it up again and find out what woul...