One hundred years of bad blood between the Alaskan villages of Kushtaka and Kuskulana come to a boil when the body of a young Kushtaka ne’er-do-well is found wedged in a fish wheel.
Sergeant Jim Chopin’s prime suspect is a Kuskulana man who is already in trouble in both villages for falling in love across the river.
But when the suspect disappears, members of both tribes refuse to speak to Jim.
When a second murder that looks suspiciously like payback occurs, Jim has no choice but to call in Kate Shugak for help. This time, though, her Park relationships may not be enough to sort out the truth hidden in the tales of tragedy and revenge.
Each volume is named after a part of Dante‘s The Divine Comedy. The volumes become progressively longer due to his stay being longer and longer at each prison in which he was confined.
Volume 1: Belmarsh: Hell
This book, written under the nom de plumeFF 8282, documents Archer’s introduction to the prison system.
He was to spend the first 22 days and 14 hours in HMP Belmarsh, a double A-Category high-security prison in South London. Although Archer spent less than a month there, Belmarsh is described as a real hell-hole. Despite this, many of the inmates are extremely kind to him and regale him with anecdotes, which he duly records.
One such prisoner apparently spoken of is the inspiration to one of his short stories from Cat O’Nine Tales, “It Can’t Be October Already”.
On the other hand, some of the information Archer learns in his three weeks at Belmarsh is extremely disturbing, and he makes great play of imagining that the then Home Secretary, David Blunkett, ought to be reading it and asks for his attention.
One theme is the fact that some inmates are thrown into cells for first time offences even though the cellmate is a hardened criminal or murderer and/or drug addict.
No One to Trust (2002) by Iris Johansen is a kinda dumb, easy to read, fast paced thriller.
The story follows Elena Kyler, a trained military sniper and assassin on the run from Rico Chavez, a ruthless Colombian drug lord and the father of her five-year-old son.
Desperate to keep her son from being raised in Chavez’s image, she turns to Sean Galen, a mysterious and capable operative.
Together, they flee across the country, facing a trail of murders and a final showdown as they realize there is truly “no one to trust”.
A nix is a water creature of Scandinavian folklore which can transform into many shapes.
It’s often depicted as an aquatic monster that takes the shape of a gray, horse-like creature with inverted hoofs.
The Nykur often appears on the lakeshore, with half its body in the water, and looks to be quite tame to its unsuspecting victims. It tries to lure them into the water.
I passed by on the road on a dark, rainy, windy day — surprised to see the horse in the water.
In the lake of Sørvágsvatn/Leitisvatn, this statue was unveiled November 2017.
Local sculptor and artist Pól Skarðenni built it.
Of course this is only one of many myths of Iceland and the Faroe Islands.
Rough Justice is a legal thriller by Lisa Scottoline.
Published 1997, it serves as the third book in her popular Rosato & Associates series, which centres on a dynamic, all-female law firm based in Philadelphia.
Criminal defense attorney Marta Richter is just hours away from securing an acquittal for her client, Elliot Steere, a wealthy real estate mogul on trial for killing a homeless man in what he claims was self-defense during a carjacking.
However, right as the jury leaves to deliberate, Steere lets slip the chilling truth: he is completely guilty and completely unrepentant.
Infuriated by the manipulation, Marta turns against her own client.
She races against the clock to uncover the evidence needed to convict him before the jury returns a “not guilty” verdict. To help her search, she recruits two young associates from the local firm Rosato & Associates—Mary DiNunzio and Judy Carrier.
The 2025 debut novel by Rachel Paris — See How They Fall — is a hit.
Personally, I’m not a fan of rich people behaving badly.
Some of the actions taken by characters are inexplicable.
When Skye married into the wealthy Turner family, she thought she was entering paradise. But now, several years later, she remains uneasy amid the opulence of her husband’s world, struggling with her own secrets and working to maintain a normal life for their young daughter, Tilly.
Skye’s delicate balance is undone when the family patriarch, Sir Campbell Turner, dies suddenly and an illegitimate heir comes forward to stake his claim in the luxury goods empire the old man leaves behind.
Everyone loves this quirky little town about 2 hours by bus from Triana. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site.
In fact, Albania is a tourism hotspot in 2026. Berat had 50,000 tourists a year a decade ago. Today it’s 1 million.
BUT I recall when Albania was off limits to tourists. During the repressive communist regime of Enver Hoxha (1944–1985), Albania became one of the most isolated “hermit states” in the world.
Enver Hoxha was a totalitarian dictator who ruled Albania with extreme repression, paranoia, and isolationism from 1944 until 1985. He closed all churches & mosques, for example.
Like Trump, he wanted his name everywhere — including on this mountain seem from Berat. BUT in 2012 the first two letters were swapped to spell NEVER as part of an art project by filmmaker Armando Lulaj.
Brilliant.
Berat is much more than just “the city of a thousand windows“. There are NOT a thousand windows. That’s a marketing tag line that started as a language misinterpretation — but stuck. 😀
Detail of the beautiful houses of the illuminated historical city of Berat in Albania
There’s a great hostel. I paid 12 Euro / night ($14) including breakfast. Sweet.
Berat was +45C recently, the highest temperature ever recorded.
SO I decided to climb up to Berat Castle in the cooler evening. It’s open 24 hours / day as families still live there.
Interior of the bridge of the illuminated historic city of Berat in Albania, UNESCO, the city of a thousand windows
Next day I climbed the slope opposite Berat Castle, Gorica Hill.
This is St. Clementof Ohrid, celebrated here for creating Cyrillic scripts — the alphabet confusing me so severely while traveling in the West Baltics. 😀
At night, everyone walks the lake front. ESPECIALLY when it was 35C+ during the afternoon.
I stayed at an entertaining hostel here. Mama and a litter of brand new kittens.
I signed up for a half day tour which would get me up to the giant crucifix. Sadly, the cable car has been out for months. BUT it did get me to a great day hike in nearby Matka Canyon.
Rick McCharles 