Book Review 22-01: Confessions of a English Opium-Eater by Thomas de Quincey

 With the war against opiates going on now, some of my viewers might ask, "Tim why are you reading a book about an opium addict?" My response is that I'm also reading the book Ruler of the Night by David Morrell. It is the third novel in the Thomas de Quincy series. In that series Thomas and his daughter are helping Scotland yard detectives solve mysteries in Victorian England where thy're tracking down serial killers that are doing gruesome murders in the London area. There are several parts of Morrell's series that refer parts of this book.

This book me a while to read, even though it's a short book. It is a non-fiction memoir about de Quincey's addiction habits and how bad it got over the years. Some parts are easier to understand than others since it talks about dreams he had caused by his addiction. This book was written in the 19th century give the reader a view of pre-Victorian through the eyes of an opium addict.

If you want to read this book you can download it for free in various formats from Project Gutenberg at: https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/2040

If you are interested in reading the David Morrell's series, you can purchase them from the following sites in various formats:

Amazon: 

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=thomas+de+quincey+series+david+morrell&i=stripbooks&crid=1PJQER5LMC9N7&sprefix=%2Cstripbooks%2C101&ref=nb_sb_ss_recent_1_0_recent

Barnes & Noble: 

 https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Thomas%20de%20Quincey%20series%20David%20Morrell/_/N-8q8

Tim's Rating: 3.25 Stars

Check this site periodically for more book reviews.

Resurrection and changes to this blog.

 I have made a decision to make this my only reading blog. I am going to try adding more of my thoughts and try to write better reviews of of the books I read. I will still include download and/or purchase links for the books and am going to the star ratings for the books

Book Review 21-03: The Secret Adversary

      The Secret Adversary was the second novel written by Agatha Christie. First published in 1922, it was the first book in the Tommy and Tuppence series. Tommy and tuppence were playmates when they were little and had been friends ever since, but lost touch after the end of World War 1. a couple years later they run into each other in London, both broke and unable to find jobs. The jokingly form a business called Young Adventures to perform jobs that would earn themselves some money. Upon leaving each other and agreeing to meet the next day, Tuppence is approached by a gentlemen to come see him at his business the following morning. Tuppence didn't care for the looks of this gentleman but goes and sees him at a shabby looking office. During that meeting The name Jane Finn comes up and the gentleman gets nervous and hands her some money and asks her to come back the following morning. When she arrives the next day, the office is deserted. Because of that, she and Tommy decide to post a listing in the newspaper looking for information on Jane Finn. They get a response asking to see a Mr. Carter at a certain address. When they arrive, Tommy recognizes Mr. Carter from army intelligence. Mr. Carter contracts them to search for Jane Fin and to also look out for the organization of men that are trying to create problems in the british government, which the original gentlemen was part of and whose leader goes by the name Mr. Brown. Tommy and Tuppence start the search for Jane Finn not knowing what type of danger they would run into.

     This book is full of action in it and it keeps the reader guessing it who is Jane Finn and Mr. Brown up until the end of the book. I do want to and will read more books in this series.

Tim's rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

(Four out of five stars)

Links:

     You can download this book in various formats from Project Gutenberg at http://gutenberg.org/ebooks/1155.

PS-21-01: Project Stratemeyer Update

       I have read all of the books through The Rover Boys in the Air which is the sixteenth book in the first Rover Boys series by Arthur M. Winfield (Edward Stratemeyer). There are four books left in this series. After I finish those four books, I will post my review and thoughts of the series as well as the books in the series and possibly a brief synopsis of each.

Book Review 21-02: The Moon Rock

      The Moon Rock is a locked room mystery by Arthur J. Rees, first published in 1922. Robert Turold is a man who's been obsessed most of his life to gaining a title that had been in his family history and went into abeyance centuries before and is close to obtaining it until he is found dead in his residence that is in a house on top of the coastal cliffs in Cornwall. The house was locked at the time of his death were his family members, servants and his trusted doctor. First believed to be a suicde, it is later belived to be a murder. The search for his murderer takes place in Cornwall and the London area. Which one these killed him?

     To tell you the truth, this book was confusing to me at first, but then after the murder takes place, it gets interesting. This is the first book that I've read by this author and will read more by him in the future.

Tim's rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

(Four out of five stars)

Links:

You can download this book in various file formats from Project Gutenberg at:  http://gutenberg.org/ebooks/12509.

Book Review 21-01: The Mischief Maker

      The Mischief Maker was written by E. Phillips Openheim and was published in 1913. Sir Julien Portel was the foreign minister for England whose career ended abruptly when a woman that he had known for years managed to get him to write her an intimate letter and she gave it to her political hungry husband who made it public which brought demands for his immediate resignation. Disgraced and not having much money, he goes to Paris where he is approached by people from a couple different factions that are trying to get him to work for them and betraying England. Being a true patriot of England and curious he just sees what they want him to do where they wine and dine him, one even trying to get him to go on a mission for them that would get him out of Paris for a period of time. He refuses to accept working for either he stays in Paris where he discovers places where the common man in Paris frequent and learns to understand them. He is then approached by an old friend with a a way he can earn money while hitting back against those organizations.

     I had selected this book for satisfy a prompt for the March Mystery Madness readathon, but it turns out not to really be a mystery, but more of a political/espionage thriller. But I also like reading that type of story, I kept reading and am glad I did as it has plenty of action in it.

Tim's rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

(Four out of five stars)

Links:

If you're interested in reading this book, you can download it in various formats from Project Gutenberg at: http://gutenberg.orhttp://gutenberg.org/ebooks/8878g/ebooks/8878

Starting Up Again

      2020 was a bad year in most peoples opinion chiefly because of the COVID-19 pandemic. A lot of things were neglected that year including this blog. Being concerned with relatives that contracted COVID-19 during the year and my own health problems, I didn't read as much as in previous years. Whenever I finished reading a book I would tell myself to write a review in one of my blogs, but I kept putting it off and I would and I would with the next book.

     Well, I'm stopping putting that off beginning now. I am currently reading three books for March Mystery Madness that I'm trying to finish by the end of the month. two of them are in the public domain which I will post reviews for them in this blog. The other one that I'm reading not in the public domain, so I will post reviews for them them in my other blog, World of Sleuths. You will see everything in them that I have put in my other blogs, but might have a different layout.

So keep watching over the next week for the reviews.