Read Recently -- April -- the last books
Sea Change: a Jesse Stone novel by Robert B. Parker
A woman's body washes up on Paradise Docks, having been in the water a while. No one has reported her missing, she's carrying no ID, and she may or may not have been murdered. By sheer luck, the cops learn her identity when it turns out that a sailboat she had rented a month ago was returned to the wrong rental company docks. The owner still had her drivers license.
It seems she was a rich daughter from Florida. What brought her to Massachusetts? And how did she die? As Jesse tries to answer these questions, and deal with the usual crap in his relationship with Jenn, his ex-wife, he also has to deal with the chaos caused by Race Week, which brings yachting enthusiasts from all around the world to Paradise.
The story deals with a lot of sex (and lies, and videotape, now that I think about it), and with rich people involved you know there's going to be deviance (I suspect that in the real world, rich people who aren't celebrities probably don't have much deviant sex, or at least not much more than the rest of us). And that's where Parker, who is a great romantic and a believer in true love between one person and one other person begins to get on my nerves. It isn't anything I can really point to; it isn't even necessarely that he's ragging on stuff I'd care to defend, but he's really bugging me and I'm starting to think that this series is going downhill fast.
Oh, and the conclusion to the mystery may be triggering for some people.
Mildlly not recommended.
Hidden Truth by Dawn Cook
Sequel to First Truth, this volume finds Alissa and Strell living at the Hold, under the watchful eyes of the mad Keeper Bailic, who killed Alissa's father and tricked the masters out of the keep. He also has the book First Truth, a work of power that calls to Alissa to possess it. But Bailic believes that Strell is the Keeper-in-training, and only careful trickery keeps him from finding out the truth and using it against them. Alissa is taking surreptitious lessons from the last Master of the Hold, Talo-Toecan, as well as listening in on Strell's lessons, to insure that someone can do the magic he is supposed to be learning. Talo-Toecan has given his word not to harm Bailic, nor to enter the hold or seize First Truth. All of our heroes are trying to find a way for him to break that vow, or to render it superfluous.
The situation is complicated by the arrival on the scene of Lodesh, the long-dead-but-somehow-still-living last Warden of the city of Ese'Nawoer. Lodesh quickly develops strong feelings for Alissa. Bailic intends to use the spirits of Ese'Nawoer to rule the Plains and Hills. If he can open First Truth . . . or if he realises he can get Alissa to open it for him.
This is a solid sequel, with the same strong characters as the first book and a tenser situation. It suffers only from the fact that it is a sequel; if you haven't read the first book you shouldn't read this one, as you won't be able to understand the situation. And you must read this one to read the third in the series, and so on. Still, recommended.