Private Down Under by James Patterson

I love a thriller that keeps me guessing and Private Down Under is just such a novel! When Private is celebrating their opening in Sydney a young man wanders into the proceedings and promptly dies. He's been tortured and it looks like the Triads are responsible but why? Also a string of grisly tortures is taking place of young, wealthy women. What's the motive? Is a serial killer one the loose?
I love the character of Darlene, she kind of reminds me of Abby on NCIS. The man with the plan, Craig is a complex and engaging character that always gets his man, if I may be so cliche, but will he solve the link between the victims in time to save another woman's life or will his meddling cousin, a police officer with a vendetta against him, ruin his chances?

The Reluctant Queen by Geraldine Evans

I really enjoyed this book. I think the writing style could use a little polish but that's just nit-picking really. This was an exciting telling of Mary Tudor and her struggle to just have a happy life away from courtly intrigued. First she is shipped off to France to marry the elderly King Louis who is kind to her but soon dies. She has to fend off the unwanted attention of his step-son because she loves another. When she gets wind that her brother, King Henry, might be plotting another royal match she convinces her love to marry her. Eventually she wins Henry's forgiveness for defying him but her life is far from peaceful. She just wants to have a family and be happy without court politics but her husband and her brother seem determined to drag her into it.
Mary is a remarkably resilient and free-spirited character who loves her family madly but keeps her principals even in the face of her brothers infidelities and betrayals, her husbands ambitions and her willful daughter. One of the best Mary Tudor books that I have read.