Crown of Blood; Last of August; Devil's Advocate

I enjoyed Nicola Tallis's well researched book on Jane Grey, who was forced into becoming Queen of England after Edward died. She was a figurehead, used for her royal blood to keep Mary off the throne and England away from Catholicism. As we all know, it did not work, Mary took her rightful place on the throne, returned England to the Catholic Church, and ended up beheading Jane. I don't honestly think Mary wanted to kill Jane, but so many rebels were trying to use her or Elizabeth to dethrone Mary that she really felt like she had no other choice. Jane's life was short and tragic, but she never compromised her Protestant faith, and Tallis's book was engrossing without being obtuse.

So I was super excited to get the sequel to "A Study in Charlotte". I tore through "Last of August" and was...underwhelmed. It just seemed overly complicated and the romantic but not really together relationship between Charlotte and James seemed forced and silly. Sexual tension is fun and all, but now it's to the point where it's just slightly torturous to read. The book starts out with James visiting Charlotte's family home over the holidays. Her mother is ill and her beloved uncle Leander has disappeared. Charlotte's brother Milo seems unconcerned about Leander's strange disappearance, but he agrees to help Charlotte and James try to find him. They travel to Berlin because Leander was working undercover trying to bring down an art forgery ring. James is convinced Charlotte's ex-tutor, August Moriarty, is double-crossing them somehow, he just can't prove it. As usual, Charlotte is ten steps ahead of everyone else. It was fun switching to her POV towards the end of the book, and Cavallaro does that really well, but otherwise I was disappointed. I hope the third one is better.

After Fox Mulder's story, "Agent of Chaos", I read Dana Scully's story, "Devil's Advocate". I didn't like it nearly as much as "Agent of Chaos", although I liked Maberry's writing style better than Garcia's. It just seemed so unbelievable to me. I can totally buy the FBI having surveillance on a young Mulder, after all, Bill Mulder worked for the State Department and his biological father was the Cigarette Smoking Man. Fox was probably on their radar since the day he was born. But Dana Scully? Why? Why would they have an eye on her? It just seemed like a stretch. Also, Dana seems to have psychic abilities, she's having visions. Later she decides it was because she was on a hallucinogenic drug without knowing, but still. I don't know, the whole thing rubbed me the wrong way.