The time has finally come; the end of one of my favorite series. Sure it was a trilogy, but it was just so darn fun! The characters, the setting, the action, the plot; every element about the story was amazing. It was a great way to finish the series. Alan Cumming is once again narrating the story, and once again he does an outstanding job.

Alek and Deryn, I mean, Dylan are back for the second installment of the Leviathan Trilogy. Picking up directly after the close of Leviathan, Behemoth finds Alek and Dylan racing toward Istanbul in hopes of keeping the Ottoman Empire out of the conflict between the Clanker Germans and the Darwinist British Empire. Neither teen knows all of the other's secrets, but they have become friends. Their friendship is tested as Alek and part of his contingent escape the airship Leviathan and become caught up in the rising rebellion against the Ottoman sultan. In addition, Dylan struggles with her desire to tell Alek her true gender as she begins hoping he will see her as more than a friend.

I was a little hesitant about picking up Leviathan, because I wasn’t a fan of Westerfeld’s Uglies series. It didn’t grab my attention as much as I thought it would. I decided to pick up the audio for Leviathan, because my commute had just been extended by 40 minutes, and I discovered that Alan Cumming was the reader.

This list is another chunk of my giant list 'o detectives that I have been grueling over for the past few weeks. I would really like enough characters to do a true, more thorough list, but I'm not sure if it'll ever be truly complete. This one was actually a little harder to find characters, because there aren't as many in my opinion. TV detectives are plentiful, and I think that's because it's easier to solve a mystery in 30 minutes than it is for 2 hours. That way, more mysteries are solved, and it just seems more plentiful. But that's just me! Here are a few of me personal favorites:
 

 I decided to really change it up a bit and make a list of my favorite detectives. Now, I jotted down quite a few, but then I realized that I was missing even more. So, I asked around, and my little list 'o detectives quickly grew into a large (or, as I like to say, GINORMOUS!) list. Then I realized that I would need to break it down into sub-categories. Now, I will say that this is in no way the end-all/be-all of TV detective lists, but merely my opinion of who really stood out and made us tune in each week for more. So, without further delay, here's my list of favorite TV detectives!

I wanted to change it up a little read a classic mystery. I’m a huge Humphrey Bogart fan (as you can see), so I decided to read The Maltese Falcon, a role that he brought to life and made it into a classic. I have to say that I was impressed.

In Dark Road to Darjeeling, the fourth book in this series finds Julia thoroughly enjoying her honeymoon with her detective husband, Nicholas Brisbane, in the Himalayas, where her brother, Plum, and sister, Portia, show up unexpectedly with startling news. Portia’s former lover, Jane Cavendish, is convinced that her husband, Freddie, has been murdered in India.

Silent on the Moor- Deanna Raybourn

Fresh from a six-month sojourn in Italy, Lady Julia returns home to Sussex to find her father's estate crowded with family and friends— but dark deeds are afoot at the deconsecrated abbey, and a murderer roams the ancient cloisters.

Much to her surprise, the one man she had hoped to forget—the enigmatic and compelling Nicholas Brisbane—is among her father's houseguests… and he is not alone. Not to be outdone, Julia shows him that two can play at flirtation and promptly introduces him to her devoted, younger, titled Italian count.

I enjoy the occasional historical fiction; it doesn’t really matter what time period it takes place. However, I normally avoid Victorian fiction, I find it boring. This series has changed my mind completely. Deanna Raybourn has created a vivid world in which the reader can easily picture what’s happening and where the characters are. In the first installment, Lady Julia Grey is newly widowed, having just lost her husband to a life-long ailment. Her world is turned upside down when it is suggested that her late husband may have been murdered. Thus the mystery begins!