A New Year and a Book Review: Panic Attack

 Happy New Year one and all. I hope your holidays were warm and rewarding, despite the continuing challenge of Covid and its many variants. Perhaps this is the year it they will fizzle away and we can go back to normal living again. 

I mentioned before the close if the year I would have some good news to report. My second book in the Braga mystery series, Deadly Verse, will be published later this spring. I'll post more about it, closer to the date, but suffice it to say it takes place during "Braga Romana," the local festival in late May that celebrates Braga's Roman history. People dress up like Romans and all sorts of performances take place both on stages and plazas in various locations, as well as on  the street. Here are a couple of teasers:

                           

             

It's hard to believe we are already in mid-January! My husband and I enjoyed the holidays with very close friends here in Portugal - our first Christmas in Portugal, following our first anniversary in Portugal, following both our first birthdays in Portugal. (So 2021 was a year of "firsts" for us.)

Being book nerds, we spent a lot of the holiday period, except for our long daily walks, curled up with books. And since we read so many books, for awhile I'll be devoting both blogs ot some reviews. On my Victorian Scribbles blog, I'll be sticking mainly to the Victorian Era. On this one I'll review other assortments of good reads. Since I write mysteries when I'm not writing poetry or children's books, you can guess quite a number of these reads are mysteries.

So the first review I'd like to share is Dennis Palumbo's Panic Attack, a thriller that kept moving without let up until the very end. The plot that finally unravels is chilling in its implications and felt all too possible:

This is the 6th in a series that 
stars Daniel Rinaldi, the 
psychologist consulted by the
Pittsburgh police for victims of
traumatic or violent crimes. 

          The murder of a college mascot at a football game is the first in a series of what appear to be random killings. The intended victim’s panic attack is soon echoed by citywide panic as the killings continue. In the unfolding plot, a pattern emerges, suggesting the murders are not random at all. But what connects the dots? Despite a high body count, this is essentially a puzzle mystery with a myriad of twists and turns that kept me—and my husband—turning pages. 
          This was our first introduction to Daniel Rinaldi, the psychologist consulted by the Pittsburgh police to help victims of violent crimes cope with the aftermath of their experiences. Rinaldi becomes more than a consultant, however: His own inclination to find answers lead him to uncover a conspiracy chilling in its implications—and very relevant to today’s social upheaval. 

          It’s hard to get specific without giving the story away, but I found this a compelling read. The varied characters from different walks of life all seemed true to life. Descriptions of Pittsburgh were vivid and plunged a reader deeper into the story. The plot turns and the outcome were believable and suspenseful right up to the last. Not surprisingly, I’ll be shopping for more thrillers in this series.

If you are into mysteries and current events, I really recommend this book. Meanwhile, leave a line and tell me how your holidays went. Happy reading, and happy posting. 

 

A Few Last Fleeting Moments of Braga

These are mainly street events that captured our interest as we walked around Braga for three days. In addition to some street performers, there were locals all dressed up and walking around seeing the sights themselves. Then there were the school groups. Lots of them, although I only caught two of them here.

And a couple more performances of interest on stage. The first was dramatic. The second was a musical group.  I loved all the music that was going on.  

That ideal audience member performers appreciate!

I hope you've enjoyed these last scenes of Braga Romana. Which happenings

did you find the most interesting, performances or street scenes?

Braga Romana and Belly Dancing

       

      

A popular feature at the Braga Romana Festival is the belly dancing.  Last          

year when we went, we only saw one group                             perform. This year there was another group as well, a pair of dancers and two musicians. The first picture to the left is of the group we saw last year, Radiki, led by a cousin of the fadista (fado singer), Marisa da Rocha, we've been privileged to know. They danced to recorded music. The second picture is of the pair of belly dancers and their two musicians. They first danced solo and then danced together. We didn't see them last year, but then, so much was going on, we may have just missed them. Sadly, we didn't get their names. 

You might wonder at a connection between ancient Rome and belly-dancing. Well, it is thought belly-dancing (sometimes called "torso dancing") originated in Egypt, which was part of the Roman Empire, and spread to places like Turkey and Greece, also part of the Empire. So it merits inclusion in this wonderful festival, both historically, and for its beauty as an art form.  

It has an interesting history as depicting childbirth and being instructive for mothers-to-be rather than the rather provocative associations given it in cafes where patrons tuck money into a dancers bra. Here is a YouTube showing the beauty of this form of dance. This particular group is called Raksat Brazil, and they are performing in Dubai.

We were struck by how creative and graceful the performances we saw in Braga were. Enjoy the pictures below — first by Radiki, and then by the paired dancers. Each choreography was so unique, and again, so graceful:

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And then the other stage. 

First the lady in blue: 

Then the lady in red:

Then the two together:

 Don't you just love the costumes? And the use of the scarves?

Have you ever seen belly dancing? Do you enjoy dance performances? Modern? Ballet? Bollywood or the old Hollywood musicals? Hip Hop? Have you ever taken special dance lessons?

Roman Dancing Maidens at Braga Romana

As I mentioned in the earlier post about the military camp enactment, there were many performances going on all over the historic district (the main tourist center) in Braga. Many of them were dance performances. We especially liked this one: a beautifully choreographed dance in several sequences by four "Roman" maidens.

The dancing was accompanied by haunting music performed by three musicians who sang and played special instruments. The group's name is Dorahoag, and here is a YouTube site where you can hear the three men of the group play a very similar sounding piece of music. They create their own music in fusion with other music. Really wonderful.

Here you see two of the men from Dorahoag with a woman who is playing an instrument that — sadly — I can't name:

And then the marvelous dancers! You can see such grace in all their movements:

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There were other dance performances by belly dancers, which I will share in a later post.


How about you? Do you like dance performances? Do you like music that fuses more than one genre? What is your favorite music?