Books Completed in August 2026

 The Painted Queen, Elizabeth Peters & Joan Hess
Elizabeth Peters (in real life Barbara Mertz) had just begun to write her latest Amelia Peabody novel and had a partial manuscript and an outline written when she passed away. In 2017, after Joan Hess had been asked to finish the manuscript, with help from an Egyptologist, this book was published. I was crazy about the Peabody books and bought it the moment it came out.

And am ashamed to admit that it took me this long to read, due to family health crises, other real-life interruptions, and just plain other books coming up--and perhaps just a little fear that a Joan Hess-completed Amelia couldn't be as good as a total Peters authorship. I wasn't totally disappointed; the story cracks with action, Nefret is back to her normal self (after a disastrous first marriage to the odious Geoffrey Godwin), and everyone is back (this is one of Peters' "fill in" novels after actually completing the Emersons' saga in Tomb of the Golden Bird) including David and the indomitable Fatima. They are back at Armana, and what they seek is the famed painted head of Queen Nefertiti, which has vanished and already dozens of fake versions are being produced.

SPOILERS (if there can be spoilers on a nine-year-old book): But, I thought the idea of Geoffrey's five maniac brothers all having the name of famed assassins (apparently this was their mother's idea) and being taken down in the same fashion as the person they're named after was absolutely absurd. If this was Peters' notion—I'm sorry, it took me out of the story. The ending is also rather abrupt.

 Grammatically Correct, 2nd edition (Writer's Digest Books), Anne Stilman
I saw this, passed it up, and then drove back out to get it. One of the best books on grammar and writing I've ever seen, with examples from actual published books rather than invented examples to show you how its done. I learned all this stuff years ago and still took notes. A valuable edition to any writer's library.

 Album of Dogs, Marguerite Henry
I've wanted this book ever since I read Album of Horses. Marguerite Henry talks dogs? And with 23 full-page color drawings (as well as sketches) by Wesley Dennis? Count me in. But it was out of print.

Until recently. Yes, it's as beautiful as I expected, even if I'm not the age for it any longer.

 Sisters in Crime, edited by Marilyn Wallace
Another booksale find and another good collection of crime short stories written by and mostly featuring women protagonists (the first story was about a man and a teenage boy, which I didn't quite like so much, and the story about the man trying to write the perfect sentence was just plain strange). The second story is a corker, though, about a female cop's first time at a crime scene. Best yet, there are stories from Gillian Roberts (the Amanda Pepper mysteries), Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels (the same person, author Barbara Mertz), Sue Grafton, and even a V.I. Warshawski story by Sara Peretsky.

 Amazon to Zodiac: 101 Scientific Curiosities Across Time and Space, Barry Evans
Mix science and history and you have a book I love! Everything from our past—Neanderthal man, anyone?—to space exploration, and everything in between: Galileo and his moons, ancient maps, insomnia, the long history of anti-vaxxers, the Latin—and Runic—alphabets, Otzi the iceman, the Number of the Beast (is it really 616?), and more.

Reading the table of contents again makes me just want to re-read this.

 The Western Star, Craig Johnson
Thirteenth in the Longmire series, this is a flashback story to when Walt was a newly-appointed deputy to Absaroka County Sheriff Lucien Connally, unsure that he really wanted to be in law enforcement and smarting from a recent argument with his new—and newly pregnant—wife Martha. He and Connally board a train on the annual sheriff's junket, the cars pulled by the vintage steam engine "Western Star." Somewhere along the way one of the sheriffs is murdered, and Walt is suspected of the crime after someone knocks him out at one of the stops, making it look as if he ran away.

So, this is a Longmire mystery, and y'all know Walt is innocent—the fun is in watching his dogged pursuit of the truth, and figuring out how the crime was done, especially after the dead man's coffin turns up empty. It's also enjoyable seeing him as a young man just back from his service in Vietnam, and as an inexperienced husband and father-to-be. Yes, Henry Standing Bear shows up!

 Writers of the 21st Century Series: Robert A. Heinlein, edited by Joseph D. Olander and Martin Harry Greenberg
A series of nine essays about Heinlein's works. My favorite was the first, because it addressed the juveniles, which have always been my favorite (my first Heinlein was Have Spacesuit, Will Travel). Another chapter addresses Stranger in a Strange Land, the book I had to buy behind my mother's back because she objected to the description of it as "an underground classic."

While the essays address different aspects of Heinlein's books, there is a clear emphasis in several of them about Time Enough for Love and Lazarus Long. Also discussed are the Future Histories, politics and social Darwinism, and lots about sexuality, since "Woody" takes up a good deal of discussion. Glad I bought it, even if a couple of them dragged.

 The Adventure of the Plated Spoon and Other Tales of Sherlock Holmes, edited by Loren D. Estleman
Some Holmes pastiches are great, this one is just okay, but then I found it at a book sale and didn't expend much money on it. It contains some stories I'd already read, like Doyle's own parody of his Holmes stories, and an effort by J.M. Barrie. There are some interesting bits, including Holmes on the Titanic, where he meets Jacques Futrelle, who created a 19th century "Sherlock" nicknamed "The Thinking Machine." One doesn't even involve Holmes, but is about a man who solves a mystery ala Holmes. The titular adventure has Holmes teaming up with the American action detective Nick Carter. Good for some hours of amusement, but not top-notch pastiche.