Lady Worsley's whim by Hallie Rubenhold

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Genre - Non Fiction


This story of an 18th century marriage is a cautionary tales about sex, scandal & divorce. Seymour Fleming was only eighteen when she married Richard Worsley. It was a marriage of convenience, & after the birth of a son & heir, Richard neglected his young wife, who ran wild with her friends & behaved indiscreetly with a number of young men. When Seymour fell in love with George Bisset, a friend of her husband, Richard seemed happy to accommodate the relationship & all three lived together. When the lovers eloped, however, Richard Worsley took his revenge. He sued his wife’s lover for criminal conversation, a legal way of separating from his wife without actually divorcing her & allowing her to remarry. The trial transfixed society, the newspapers & cartoonists of the day reporting on every scandalous detail. Neither party came out of the trial with their reputations intact. Richard escaped the gossip by travelling in Europe & Seymour dropped out of society altogether. This is a sad story of two young people hurried into marriage & suffering the consequences of incompatibility. Rubenhold has done a wonderful job piecing it together from contemporary documents & newspapers.

---- Reviewed by Lyn, Headquarters

Burn out by Marcia Muller

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Genre - Mystery


Sharon McCone is depressed & burnt out. She runs a successful private investigation agency in San Francisco, but her last job has left her wondering where her life is headed. She investigated sabotage at her husband’s private security, & was nearly blown up in the process. She heads to her ranch to heal her wounds & think about the future. While she’s there, she becomes involved in the search for a missing girl, the niece of Ramon Perez, who works at the ranch. The trail soon leads to murder & to a crime from the past, where her investigations frighten the murderer into trying to cover their tracks. Marcia Muller has created a great character in McCone, in a series which began in the late 1970s. Fast-paced action & lots of background about McCone, her family & friends, make this a good place to start in this long-running series.

---- Reviewed by Lyn, Headquarters

Read my heart by Jane Dunn

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Genre - Non Fiction


Dorothy Osborne & William Temple were lovers during the Civil War in England, separated by their families who wanted them both to marry rich partners. Their story is known because they wrote letters to each other for over 6 years before they were finally able to marry. Only the last two years of Dorothy's side of the correspondence survives. They had promised to burn the letters to prevent discovery but William couldn't bring himself to destroy Dorothy’s letters. Even when their families finally consented to the marriage, tragedy was never far away. One week before the wedding, Dorothy caught smallpox & nearly died. Her looks were ruined but William stayed beside her throughout her illness & they married & were devoted to each other for 40 years, although they were frustrated in their desire to have a family. Seven babies died at birth or soon after, & their two surviving children died young. The Temples created beautiful gardens at their homes in England & Ireland & also lived in Brussels where William was a diplomat. Dorothy had an almost equal role in his work as Lady Ambassadress & was even suspected of writing his letters for him. Apart from the great human interest of the story, this is an fascinating look at a period of civil war, Commonwealth & Restoration.

---- Reviewed by Lyn, Administration

Atlantis Prophecy by Thomas Greanias

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Genre - Mystery

Conrad Yeats, an astro-archaeologist, discovers his father’s tombstone holds the key to a centuries old warning and secret built into the layout and design of Washington DC. Major city monuments are astronomically aligned, and are about to come together with the stars at a pre-determined date by the founding fathers. Who foresaw that a powerful ancient organization, more powerful then the president will, at this particular point in time destroy America and raise an empire.

A Vatican linguist Serena Serghetti, helps Conrad to explore the hidden world under America's capital city, in a desperate race to save America. For if this plot is not stopped, not just the fate of America, but the fate rest of the world hangs in the balance. The shocking legacy that Conrad and Serena uncover has explosive implications for the human race and its future.


---- Reviewed by Tegan, Guest

T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton

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Genre - Mystery

In Sue Grafton’s latest Kinsey Millhone mystery ‘T is for Trespass’ Kinsey meets one of the most cunning, intimidating criminals she has ever met. It all starts when one of her elderly neighbours, Gus Vronsky has a bad fall, and Kinsey being the Good Samaritan helps find a nurse to care for him.

Everything seems to be normal when Solana Rojas is hired, and that’s exactly Solana wants. Before long, suspicions about Solana build up, forcing Kinsey to adopt some borderline illegal activities in order to get to the truth, and risk her life.

As well as trying to help Gus, she’s also finding it hard to track down a witness to a car accident who has something in his past that he wants to keep hidden.

I’ve being buying Sue Grafton’s alphabet novels right from the start; and it feels like having an old, familiar friend coming over to stay for a while. This is one of the best mysteries of hers that I have read, I have enjoyed it immensely. I hope you do too.

---- Reviewed by Nola, Guest