Sparrow by L.J. Shen

Sparrow by L.J. Shen -- 312 pages

Troy Brennan

Every southie in Boston knows that name. The son of a dead mobster. The heart throb with steel blue eyes. "The Fixer" who can make or break you in this city.

Oh, and my new husband.

Sparrow Raynes

That's me. No one seemed to remember my name up until he barged into my life.
But then he caged me.
Kidnapped me.
And killed every chance I had to runaway from the place where we grew up.
Put simply, Troy Brennan clipped my wings.

I have dreams, big ones, but I doubt he'd ever let me chase them. I have no idea why he'd decided to take me as his wife. But I do know this: pissing off this man will not do me any good. At all.

Tightrope by Amanda Quick

Tightrope by Amanda Quick - 309 pages

A man has just been killed by a robot in front of an entire audience during a demonstration.  Amalie is horrified at what she sees.  However, she's is even more horrified when the newcomer to town shows up at her bed and breakfast investigating the murder.  Matthias has ties to local mobster Luther Pell.  Now, to save her business before it fails from all the negative publicity, Amalie must work with Matthias to discover just what happened.

This is the third book in Amanda Quick's Burning Cove mystery series set in 1930s California.  It is also the first one to reintroduce her popular Jones family from her previous Arcane Society series.  I enjoyed the book.  I thought the mystery was well done.  The book did a good job of hiding the identity of the villain until the end.  I did find it strange that after all the Arcane Society books which wholly embraced the idea of psychics that this book did its best to downplay the idea -- never coming out one way or the other on whether it was true they existed or not.

Mobs, Mayhem & Murder, Tales from the St. Louis Police Beat by Tim O'Neil

Mobs, Mayhem & Murder, Tales from the St. Louis Police Beat by Tim O'Neil, 208 pages

By no means does this book include all crimes in the St. Louis area, but it does include some of the more widely known.  Having not been raised in St. Louis, I found the history of the mob presence in St. Louis fascinating.  This book not only looks at modern crime stories but some also from over a hundred years ago.  The cases are eerie and yet fascinating.  Tim O'Neil has been a reporter with the St. Louis Post Dispatch for over 30 years.  Many of the stories are pulled from these files, along with some fantastic photographs.  Stories of Paula Sims, the cousins being pushed from the Chain of Rock Bridge, and the Kirkwood city council meeting shooting are crimes that stand out in my mind.  Definitely a read for the fan of true crime!

Red Glove - Holly Black

Red Glove by Holly Black - 325 pages

After rescuing his brothers from Zacharov’s retribution and finding out that Lila, the girl he has loved his whole life, will never, ever be his, Cassel is trying to reestablish some kind of normalcy in his life. That was never going to be easy for someone from a worker family that’s tied to one of the big crime families—and whose mother’s cons get more reckless by the day. But Cassel is coming to terms with what it means to be a transformation worker, and he’s figuring out how to have friends.
Except normal doesn’t last very long. Soon Cassel is being courted by both sides of the law and is forced to confront his past—a past he remembers only in scattered fragments, and one that could destroy his family and his future. Cassel will have to decide whose side he wants to be on, because neutrality is not an option. And then he will have to pull off his biggest con ever to survive….

White Cat - Holly Black

White Cat by Holly Black - 310 Pages

Cassel comes from a family of curse workers—people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, all by the slightest touch of their hands. Since curse work is illegal, they’re all criminals. But not Cassel. He hasn’t got the magic touch, so he’s an outsider—the straight kid in a crooked family—as long as you ignore one small detail: He killed his best friend, Lila. Now he is sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat. He also notices that his brothers are keeping secrets from him. As Cassel begins to suspect he’s part of one huge con game, he must unravel his past and his memories. To find out the truth, Cassel will have to outcon the conmen.