The Last Kingdom

I am a huge fan of Steve Berry’s Cotton Malone series.  Over the years I am always started by not only the twists that take place, but also by the skilled way in which Berry weaves together the story in a plausible and compelling way.

First, let me say that I thoroughly enjoyed Berry’s latest offering in the Malone series: The Last Kingdom. Berry is always able to weave tidbits of historical facts in his fiction which makes the story.

The story centers around the enigmatic King Ludwig II of Bavaria, from the house of Wittelsbach, who because of eccentricity was deposed in 1886 and three days later was found mysteriously dead from drowning.  Despite his massive building campaigns; Neuschwanstein Castle, Linderhof Palace, and Herrenchiemsee and his devotion to the composer Richard Wagner, he is remembered for his desire to find a last kingdom. Hence the title and premise of the book.

I enjoyed following Cotton through the great castles that Ludwig built as he chases the secret of the Last Kingdom to find the deed before the bad guys do.  To read a book of this nature one must suspend some logical belief, but I have always enjoyed that Berry is able to keep that to a minimum.  For whatever reason, he seemed to push the envelope a bit farther this time and there were a couple of incidents where one just had to throw up their hands.

Overall it was a very satisfying book, but definitely not one of the best in the series.  I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes historical fiction and mystery.

Louisiana Through My Lens --- Review

I received Louisiana Through My Lens through Net Galley.  It is a coffee table book with photography by Chad Guidry and the design by Yvette Naquin.  I chose the book because I will be taking a trip to New Orleans later this year.  While the book did not feature photographs from New Orleans it did exhibit some beautiful work taken in the bayous of Louisiana.

The only thing lacking from the book was more information about where and when the photos were taken.  I would have liked to know more about the pictures.   The other thing was Net Galley offered a disclaimer that the quality of the photos was not as good in my electronic copy as in the actual book.  For the most part I did not think that it dismissed the quality of the photos to any serious degree.  There were a couple pictures that seemed a bit fuzzy, and I don't think it fair to judge based on the digital copy.

Overall, I found it a very attractive book of photography.  I am not sure it is worth the list price of $35 for only 44 pages, however.