Bruce Holsinger

This one is good if you are in the mood for the family drama of some selfish rich suburbanites.

In Crystal, Colorado (very obviously meant to be Boulder) there’s going to be a new, free, super exclusive school for “exceptional learners” and the admission process turns the parents of all the potentially eligible kids into desperate people.

Focused primarily on four women who became friends when their babies took a swim class together. We learn about their kids, their troubled marriages, their careers and sometimes even the inner thoughts of an ex-husband who is riddled in debt, overly invested in U10 soccer and about to find himself with another ex-wife. There’s also one other family, a poor one, who happens to be the family who cleans the rich folks house (I wanted a lot more of that kid!) most of the women are REALLY unlikable, the men portrayed unflatteringly, but some (not all) of the kids are OK. A few of the kids do things that didn’t really add up for me but made for some good drama.

I don’t have kids but based on people I know in real life this really doesn’t seem all that far fetched to me.… (meer)

One night in the late 14th century, John Gower is called out to witness the discover of 16 bodies dumped in the public privy. It appears that they were murdered by a new invention - the handgun. Gower is asked to investigate what happened and, with the help of his good friend Geoffrey Chaucer, uncovers a terrible plot threatening the kingdom.

The plot of the book is rather weak and the writing style is disappointing as it jerks abruptly from one story thread to another. Although the threads are tied together at the end, the reader is left wondering what they are all about throughout most of the book. The main redeeming factor for the book is it's historical depiction of life in mediaeval London.… (meer)