Title: Scandal Takes a Holiday Author: Lindsey Davis File Type: Mobi Subject:Mystery:Historical Description:From Publishers WeeklyThe Rome of Vespasian and Titus comes to life in Davis's entertaining 16th entry in her popular ancient historical series (after 2003's The Accuser) featuring finder Marcus Didius Falco. The staff of the official government newspaper retains Falco when Diocles, the paper's gossip columnist, disappears while on a visit to Ostia. At the seaport, a cesspool of corruption, Falco follows up on rumors that pirates, supposedly put out of business by Pompey the Great decades earlier, are engaged in smuggling and a kidnapping racket. Utilizing his street smarts and well-earned cynical view of humanity, Falco moves in and out of dives and places of worship on the trail of a mysterious figure who acts as the middleman between the kidnappers and the victims' families. Disturbingly, some of the clues point to one of the detective's disreputable relatives. Longtime fans will enjoy the additional background on Falco's family, but first-timers, aided by a family tree and an introductory cast of characters, will be able to plunge right in. Unlike Steven Saylor in his Roma Sub Rosa series, Davis makes less use of the history of the time. While her deliberately modern colloquialisms (Go with the flow, man, Falco is told) take a little getting use to, they help maintain the light arch tone that also distinguishes these fun novels from Saylor's more serious tales. br Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. From School Library JournalAdultHigh School–In this 16th mystery set in the Roman Empire (76 A.D.), Falco investigates the disappearance of the official scandal columnist for the Roman Daily Gazette. When last heard from, the scribe had been leaving for vacation at Ostia. The private informer notes with typical irony that at first this assignment had all the signs of a nice little escapade that I could handle blindfolded, but he soon finds himself pursuing a bewildering and seemingly unconnected variety of leads that involve kidnappings, Mediterranean pirates, local dives, religious customs, a teenager's romance, and an outrageous funeral celebration. His independent inquiry is complicated somewhat by his helpful wife (a Senator's daughter) and their children, several other family members, and his best friend, a policeman. Falco and company are kindly, intelligent people who live in a brutal time; they survive with integrity intact through humor, loyalty to one another, and a tough acceptance of the inevitable. Readers might be daunted by lists of characters, maps with strange place names, Briticisms, or Falco's casually allusive narrative style, but those who persevere will be richly rewarded, becoming immersed in fascinating details of a distant time and place populated by recognizable human beings. Though this story can be read independently, the series is best read in order, beginning with Silver Pigs (Crown, 1991); the novels progress satisfyingly through Falco's life as they explore many far-flung corners of the Empire._–Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA_ br Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.

Title: Between Sisters Author: Kristin Hannah File Type: Mobi Subject:Fiction Description:From Publishers WeeklyDifferences between siblings couldn't be more extreme than they are in this overwrought feel-good novel by Hannah (Distant Shores), a tale about two estranged sisters. Meghann Dontess is a hotshot, well-to-do Seattle divorce lawyer in her 30s, entirely focused on her career. Her younger sister, Claire Cavenaugh, a single mom living in a backwater town in the Pacific Northwest, takes care of her five-year-old daughter and helps her father run his low-key lakeside resort. The half-sisters were raised by a neglectful mother, who finally abandoned them for Hollywood when she won a starring role in a science fiction series. Meghann was 16 and Claire was nine; Meghann had already essentially raised Claire herself, and after their mother left, she tracked down Claire's biological father. Sam Cavenaugh was thrilled to be reunited with Claire, but Meghann suddenly found herself motherless and sisterless all at once, and numbed the pain by pouring herself into school, college and career. Now she's horrified because Claire has recklessly fallen in love with a country singer whom she's about to marry. Their absentee mom suddenly steps in to get him a recording contract, but before there can be a happy mother-daughter reunion, Claire is diagnosed with a brain tumor. Only Meghann, with her worldly connections, can come to the rescue. The melodramatic plot is something of a stretch, especially when Hannah ties it all together with a happy ending. Some devoted fans will enjoy the sisterly bonding, but the broad-strokes characters will disappoint more demanding readers of women's fiction.br 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. FromHannah returns to a minor character, Meghann, from Distant Shores [BKL My 1 02], and explores her life in-depth as she and her sister confront the past in order to have a better future relationship. They share a bitter childhood and find it difficult to trust each other, but for Meghann it goes deeper as her inability to trust anyone leads to a dangerously promiscuous lifestyle. Both sisters feel betrayed by the other, and now lead very different lives. Meghann, a shark of a Seattle divorce attorney, has been in therapy for years. Claire leads a simple, small-town life, and now tells her sister that she's getting married. Meghann initially tries to save her sister from what she believes will be a disaster since she doesn't believe in love, only in prenups, but eventually she adopts a more positive attitude and takes the first step toward healing the rift. Then Joe arrives, a wanderer with his own issues. Change comes gradually but with such finesse that the reader will enter the characters' relationships and make them her own as Hannah transcends the mundane in this gratifying, five-hankie story. Patty Engelmannbr American Library Association. lt;