Stray by Rachel Vincent

The Blurb On The Back:

There are only eight breeding female werecats left ...

And I’m one of them.

I look like an all-American grad student. But I am a werecat, a shape-shifter, and I live in two worlds.

Despite reservations from my family and my Pride, I escaped the pressure to continue my species and carved out a normal life for myself. Until the night a Stray attacked.

I’d been warned about Strays – werecats without a Pride, constantly on the lookout for someone like me: attractive, female and fertile. I fought him off, but then learned two of my fellow tabbies had disappeared.

This brush with danger was all my Pride needed to summon me back ... for my own protection. Yeah, right. But I’m no meek kitty. I’ll take on whatever – and whoever – I have to in order to find my friends. Watch out, Strays – ‘cause I got claws, and I’m not afraid to use them.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Although the world-building here is careful and well thought-out, the same cannot be said for characterisation. With Faythe, Vincent has mistaken physical strength for character strength and the result is someone who is a narcissistic, petulant ninny and certainly not someone I’m in a hurry to read more about.

In The Teeth of the Evidence by Dorothy L. Sayers

The Blurb On The Back:

All that was left of the garage was a heap of charred and smouldering beams. In the driving seat of the burnt-out car were the remains of a body ...

An accident, said the police.

An accident, said the widow. She had been warning her husband about the danger of the car for months.

Murder, said the famous detective Lord Peter Wimsey – and proceeded to track down the killer.

This is vintage Sayers, a collection of her finest crime and detection stories.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

There isn’t enough Wimsey in this for my tastes, but it’s still an interesting read and a must for Sayers fans.

Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers

The Blurb On The Back:

It was a body of a tall stout man. On his dead face, a handsome pair of gold pince-nez mocked death with grotesque elegance.

The body wore nothing else.

Lord Peter Wimsey knew immediately what the corpse was supposed to be. His problem was to find out whose body had found its way into Mr Alfred Thipps’ Battersea bathroom.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Quintessential reading for Sayers fans with a touching demonstration of the effect that the War had on Wimsey.

The Scandalous Life Of The Lawless Sisters by Philip Ardagh

The Blurb On The Back:

In the murky underworld of nineteenth-century London, certain questions needed to be asked.

Just why was the Bishop’s cake laced with dope?

Exactly which little Lawless sister was giving orders from the big chair?

What was so triumphant about Grandpa George’s loins?

Who might have ended up as sausage meat?

And what, precisely, was the dreaded “Umbrella Treatment”?

The answers lie between the covers of THE SCANDALOUS LIFE OF THE LAWLESS SISTERS, a tale of murder, robbery, betrayal and the unlicensed use of an electric garter.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The only bad thing about this book is the price, which doesn’t make for a cost-effective read. That said, Ardagh’s humour is deliciously dry and I found myself chuckling for the 30 minutes it takes to finish the story.