I really enjoy reading about this time period, and I'm always excited when a new piece is published about the Tudor family. I found parts of this mystery entertaining, but not necessarily interesting. The plot felt both stale and rushed, and by Chapter 17 I had it figured out. His book about Catherine de Medici was much better!

I really enjoyed this book! It was a well-written book by a Japanese author - evidently the book was released in Japan in 2005 but has only recently been translated to English and is scheduled to be released in February 2011 in the US. Evidently this author is the Japanese version of "James Patterson" so I was interested to read it. Let me tell you, I was not disappointed! After I established some familiarity with the Japanese names (which was a little difficult for me), the story fell together. Wonderful plot development at a pace just quick enough to keep me interested, but not so fast as to be rushed or unrealistic. There's a huge twist at the end that I never expected, and I will definitely be looking for other books by this author! (In English, of course).

As a fan of Rear Window, I was anxious to read The Girl in the Green Raincoat, and I was not disappointed. Although the climax was predictable regarding Carole coming back into the picture and at the same time Tess going into labor, I was pleased with the character development which can be challenging for a novella. I enjoyed the peripheral characters as well, particularly Lloyd and Crow, and Tess's father. I will be looking for more books by her, and got the impression that these characters have appeared in previous books by Lippmann.

I give this book 3 stars with great trepidation, because I absolutely love the writing style of Scott Spencer. His descriptive prose has no match with any current author that I've read. My hesitation with a higher rating stems from loss of plot momentum for the middle 50 of the book. As Paul grapples with his conscience and loses touch with reality, the book slows to an idle that endured way too long. I never learned enough about Will to be even remotely sympathetic to his death, and I found Ruby to be an over-indulged, slightly creepy child. Paul's character was well-developed and I enjoyed reading about his relationship with Kate. In the future, I might pick up another book by Spencer, once I'm able to forget how frustrated I was with this one.

C.W. Gortner's historical novel of Catherine de Medici was wonderful! Interesting and fast-paced, this tale was a well-written piece of a fascinating character in history. Gortner does a phenomenal job of portraying a very complicated era in French history and making it interesting to the reader. Catherine does, eventually, become a lovable character, and I felt great empathy for each of her losses and failures...and there were many. I recommend to any who adore historical fiction. Well done!