Book Review: Three Hands in the Fountain

Three Hands in the Fountain by Lindsey Davis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Falco and his good friend Petro find a decaying hand in the local fountain and stumble into solving a good ol' fashioned mystery. Three Hands in the Fountain is a return to what I like best in the Falco series--street characters and action set in the city of Rome with a misogynistic serial killer on the loose who has to be found before he kills again. Falco discovering bits of women's bodies in the aqueducts and trying to work out the psyche of the killer gives the story a rather modern flair. About the only thing that slow the story's pacing are long descriptions of the Roman water supply system itself. (Agreed it was quite an achievement, but can we stick with the characters and their emotions a bit longer, please? I'm not a civil engineer!) Helena Justina makes only token appearances and one hopes her role increases in later stories as their child grows up. Still, Three Hands in the Fountain is an enjoyable read for fans of the series.

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Book Review: A Dying Light in Corduba

A Dying Light in Corduba by Lindsey Davis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

We find Falco and his sweetheart Helena Justina right on the verge of parenthood in A Dying Light in Corduba, and somehow you know it's just not going to be easy for this pair. When Anacrites the Chief Spy is brutally attacked and another spy is killed, Falco finds himself going abroad to Spain to track down the culprits, discover a possible olive oil cartel, and check out the local Roman citizens who hold immense feelings of superiority. Falco wins the day eventually, but almost at the cost of his sanity and pregnant Helena's health. The setting and details in this installment are first rate, but whenever Falco leaves Rome the story pacing seems to suffer a bit, and the reader longs for the political intrigue and familiar characters at the palace and in the streets of the Aventine. Still, A Dying Light in Corduba is for the most part a fun read, and fans of the series will enjoy it.

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Excerpt Excitement!

In honor of the upcoming National Novel Writing Month (a.k.a. the "Nanowrimo Challenge"), each week I'll be posting an excerpt from each of my published works. This week's lucky excerpt comes from my first erotic release, A Middle Class Existence:

Sex, lies, and blackmail... Can they add up to "Happily Ever After?"

A Middle Class Existence
by Celine Chatillon
Available at eXtasy Books
(Also available in Kindle format)

When Riki’s "perfect world" is threatened she embarks on a plan of vengeance to take back what is hers from her husband's ex-boss, Morgan Fahr. She soon discovers that she revels in the feelings of power she has over men like Fahr through casual sex and seeks it out with a shady lawyer as well. But as her simple blackmail plot spirals out of control, Riki begins to realize the only way out could lead to murder.


“What is a nice girl like you doing in a racket like this?” He sat beside me as I straightened up and tucked the wad into my back jeans pocket.

“Making a living like everyone else, I guess.” I crossed my legs to remove a spike-heeled sandal. “Everybody got to eat. Everybody got to breathe. Everybody got to fuck now and then, too.”

A dark cloud traversed his features, but the storm quickly passed. He leaned back on the bed and folded his arms beneath his head, watching me unzip my pants with unadulterated lust.

“You shouldn’t use such crude terms. You’re much too young and pretty to be talking like a sailor. You remind me of somebody… somebody I met once. Now, who could it be?”

I shimmied out of my jeans then carefully folded and placed them by my jacket. Could he have remembered me from a company picnic? Or maybe those few times I actually came by the factory in the middle of the day to talk to Daniel about the kids? Did I have enough guts to bluff my way out of this situation if he did place my face and name together?

I turned around, facing him, and took a deep breath, filling out my black, lacy B-cup as much as possible as I peeled off my top. “Your Sunday school teacher perhaps?”

His gaze dropped below my chin. It worked. I wouldn’t have to worry about him studying my face too much. The man was going to explode if he didn’t get off soon.

He chuckled. “More like the little red-headed girl I snuck out of Sunday School with to make-out behind her father’s barn. Come on over here."


A Middle Class Existence
Available at eXtasy Books