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Lovely thriller that pulls no punches on the striking inequality and corruption in Pakistan while also navigating a story about a stolen mummy. Features a strong femme protagonist. Really enjoyed the descriptions of people & the city of Karachi. Made me want to visit Pakistan!

None of the characters were interesting by 23%.

Don't ask questions or think to hard about things, just enjoy the ride. It's a fun and unique "magic is real" story with a good (and needed) twist about halfway through.

A unique and well written revenge-ish story of a very unique life. Dealing with crushing sadness and how life is lived when you feel you have nothing to lose. Though the book is more heist-y than sad.

Fun story that moves at a good pace but gets a little out over it's skis at the end.

starting this immediately after Jitterbug Perfume gave me such tonal whiplash and my reaction within the first couple pages was “oh, this is Boy Fantasy.” I’ve read a lot of Boy Fantasy in my time, and it’s not a bad thing—just not something I would generally seek out myself. I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would in those first couple pages (and straight up just enjoying it, period), and I’m curious enough about where this series goes to have added the next book to my TBR.

New book on the If Books Could Kill podcast!

John Chenneville wakes up in a Union Army field hospital after being unconscious for months due to a serious head wound. He returns home only to find out his sister has been murdered while he was a soldier. The murderer appears to be a local deputy, so the sheriff doesn't seem inclined to do anything about it. John swears revenge, and thus begins a multi-state chase via foot, horseback, and boat. Along the way John meets a young female telegrapher but he is resolute on revenge instead of love.

The story is made by lots and lots of details about life on the post Civil War road that illustrate both his personality and what life was (presumably) like for an unattached veteran at the time. Additionally, the narration by Grover Gardner has just the right amount of gravelly old gentleman in it for the story.

new vocabulary: colliery

a coal mine and the buildings and equipment associated with it.

Making an effort to get a few pages read every week.

So this was overall enjoyable, but if you're thinking of reading it due to being touted as a "retelling" of Greek myths with some spice sprinkled through, just skip it. The names and the places are the only part that really have to do with Greek mythology. This could have easily just been skinned over with a different world and felt the same. Even the power struggles are pretty minute. Definitely over-hyped, but I've read worse. I'll be continuing with some of the books just to see how they measure up.