I was introduced, through film, to Harold Evans during this year’s Hot Doc film festival here in Toronto in the fantastic documentary Attacking The Devil: Harold Evans and the Last Nazi War Crime. I was stunned to learn about this journalist and editor, not to mention all the stories he’d been involved in over…
Category: The Book Shelf
The King of Shanghai (2014) – Ian Hamilton
The seventh adventure for Ava Lee Feels like a transitional tale which makes sense, as our favorite forensic accountant and debt collector is in a bit of transition herself. Mourning the loss of Uncle, she has formed a new company, Three Sisters with Amanda and May Ling, and are looking for new business ventures…
The Two Sisters of Borneo (2014) – Ian Hamilton
Book 6 in this highly addictive series starts fairly joyfully for our heroine Ava Lee, debt-collector and forensic accountant. She is attending the wedding of her half-brother Michael to Amanda Yee. But, as so happens in her world, moments of happiness come few and far between when there is a case heading her way. It…
The Scottish Banker of Surabaya (2013) – Ian Hamilton
These books just keep flying by, and I dug into number 5 with the same gusto that I tackled the other ones, and found myself on a darker adventure than the previous tales. This time around, it is Ava Lee’s mother, Jennie who approaches the forensic accountant and debt collector, to please help a group…
The Red Pole of Macau (2012) – Ian Hamilton
Things get personal for Ava Lee in this, the next installment in Ian Hamilton’s highly addictive series. Following, once again, on seeds planted in the previous novel, or novels in this case, Ava finds herself in a brutal hunt for her family’s money, as she travels to Hong Kong and Macau to help her…
The Wild Beasts of Wuhan (2012) – Ian Hamilton
The Wild Beasts of Wuhan is the next novel in the Ava Lee series by Ian Hamilton, and once again, I am flying through this entire series. Very shortly I imagine I will be emailing everyone I can to beg and plead for the next book, after I’m during those that are currently published….
The Disciple of Las Vegas (2011) – Ian Hamilton
I’m so glad that when I bought the first Ava Lee novel, I had the next one on my bedside table ready to go, because as I mentioned in the previous post, I am reading these voraciously. I haven’t been devouring books this quickly since my introduction to the Expanse novels! Picking up just…
The Water Rat of Wanchai (2011) – Ian Hamilton
I don’t remember the last time I read a book so voraciously as I did this first in a series of novels from Canadian author Ian Hamilton. The Water Rat of Wanchai, preceded in this edition by the novella The Dragon Head of Hong King, we are introduced to Ava Lee, a forensic accountant….
Consider Phelbas (1987) – Iain M. Banks
I’d heard lots of things about the Culture series, a collection of Sci-Fi novels by Scot author Iain M. Banks, and as June and the next Expanse novel still seems a ways away, I decided to dive into the first book and see what the hoopla was about. At the center of the tale…
The Road to Oz (1909) – L. Frank Baum
It’s time to go back to Oz, and it had to happen sooner or late. This is the fifth book in the Oz series, the fourth featuring Dorothy, and it ends up being her most disappointing trip yet. Happily, she arrives in Oz this time without having to go through a natural disaster first, and…
The Mind Reels 