August 2017-What are you reading?

Reading Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie.

Still on a Margaret Maron jag; this time Shooting at Loons.

I am just starting a reread of the first Gervase Fen books, The Case of the Gilded Fly. I didn't much care for this when I read it 4-5 years ago but in general I love Edmund Crispin's books so it is time to try this one again.

Preparing to start Assignment in Brittany, by Helen MacInnes.

Magpie Murders was a clever page-turner.

Finished Cat Among the Pigeons. Still like the book.

Just finished Odd Numbers, also called Offline by Anne Holt. This is the 9th in the Hanne Wilhelmsen series, set in Norway.

I'm reading Black Dog by Stephen Booth. I've read the most recent books of most of my favourite series, so I'm trying to find new ones. Really enjoying this, so I think I've found a new series to follow.

Added How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny to my reading rotation.

Added How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny to my reading rotation.

Reading the 2nd book in the Amos Decker series, by David Baldacci The last Mile

>9 flips: This is a good series, and in my opinion only gets better.

Am a couple hundred pages into Snowblind in translation by Ragnar Jonasson. It's described as taut and terrifying and it is neither. The lead investigator is so immature and backwards its not believable. Are there really people like this these days? And the small town residents, many of which should be suspects, have vignettes and histories that don't invite suspicion. It's bland and flabby. For a writer who translated many Agatha Christie novels into Icelandic, the guy seems not to have learned anything from her. Sigh. Glad it's from the library.

Listening to the audiobook of A Caribbean Mystery, a Miss Marple book.

>13 Andrew-theQM: That's good to hear, I'm looking forward to read more.

Finished How the Light Gets In. Liked it.

The Deadfall Project by Brett James is a fast-paced spy thriller that, for an indie release, is decently self-edited, (only a very few issues with sentence syntax and word choices).

Grey Stark is an aging semi-retired CIA operative banished by the agency to France after a major operation he was running in Berlin went sideways. He's been cooling his heels in Paris since just before the fall of the Berlin wall. Now, as his wife is divorcing him, he gets an assignment that may just be an indication of his exile coming to an end. Before you can say, "Jason Bourne", Stark is up to his neck in trouble and on the run with everyone after him.

Plot-wise, there aren't too many surprises here but the fun is in the journey and I did find this to be an entertaining read. The whole thing is a bit cartoonish but moves along at a breakneck pace that doesn't give you much time to stop and nitpick the plot holes.

A quick and enjoyable 400 pages. I rated it an above-average 3 stars.

Finished two books this week: 1) The Funeral Boat by Kate Ellis, one in a decent enough crime fiction series with an archaeology aspect added in and 2) The Broken Teaglass by Emily Arsenault which was definitely a departure from standard mystery story fare, but quite intriguing nonetheless.

I'm reading The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter and it's excellent!

Added Before I Go by Leena Lehtolainen to my reading rotation.

The Good Daughter was awesome! Now I'm listening to The Other Girl by Erica Spindler. My first book by her.

Just finished His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet. Interesting structure to the book but a bit disappointing overall.

Starting Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon. I have read a few of the Commissario Brunetti before but I decided to start at the beginning and try to work my way through the series (but I find I often get distracted with some other book).

I'm reading the third Travis McGee novel, A Purple Place for Dying. It is highly entertaining.

>28 leslie.98: For some reason my collection of McGee books is missing that one - I look forward to hearing how you think it compares with others.

I just whizzed through the first Inspector Cockrill mystery by Christianna Brand - Heads You Lose. And heads were indeed lost as the corpses are found decapitated! Not as good as some of the later books in the series but still worth reading.

Just finished Need You Dead the latest book in the Roy Grace series by Peter James. Yet another cracking book in this great series. Read it through with hardly a pause.

I am reading Black Money, a Lew Archer mystery by Ross MacDonald. So far it is very good!

I finished listening to The Other Girl by Erica Spindler. This was my first time reading Spindler. Pretty good book. Ending not entirely a surprise and a few incidents of people acting stupidly in order to move the plot along, but overall pretty good. Tavia Gilbert did a great job with the narration.

I enjoyed Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore quite a bit. The library just came up with a copy of Magpie Murders for me, so that's next.

Finished Before I Go by Leena Lehtolainen.

>29 tottman: fyi: I finished A Purple Place for Dying last night. I found it quite entertaining, indeed.

Added After the Funeral by Agatha Christie to my reading rotation.

I am reading Mucho Mojo by Joe Lansdale.

Just finished Watching the Dark by Peter Robinson
This is the 20th in the series.

Thanks for the info >35 gmalo-lo:. Maybe I will see if I can get it from my library...

Finished After the Funeral. Enjoyed it.

I am reading Appleby's Other Story - this is a fairly late entry in the series; hope it stands up to the earlier ones!

Am pretty well sucked into House of Small Shadows which hits all of the right nouveau gothic notes -
* spooky house in the middle of nowhere
* mad woman in the attic figure
* childhood trauma
* abduction in heroine's past
* insanity in heroine's past (and present??)
* taxidermy
* old creepy dolls
* sinister housekeeper

I hope it ends as well as it's begun. My first book by this writer.

Omg and puppets! All kept in beds like a nursery.

Finished another older Rebus novel this week: Resurrection Man by Ian Rankin. I must have read too much Rebus lately-I found this one kind of boring.

i finished Magpie Murders and was a bit underwhelmed. The author's cleverness is front and center, and I didn't care enough about the viewpoint character to love the book. More in my reading thread if anyone is interested.

>42 flips: Oooh, I must put that on my wishlist. Thanks for the tip.

I'm just finishing Coffin Road by Peter May. Really enjoyed it, just like the other books I've read by May.

I am reading A perilous undertaking by Deanna Raybourn, the second in the Veronica Speedwell series. Veronica really reminds me of Amelia Peabody in a good way. Enjoying it very much so far.

Just started Full Black by Brad Thor

Just finished Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon, the first in the Commaissario Brunetti series. I have read some of them before but a friend reminded me what a pleasure they are and I decided to read them in order. While I wait for the library to get the next, I am back to the Cork O'Conner series by William Kent Krueger. Up to #7 Thunder Bay

I am rereading The Glimpses of the Moon, the only Fen book I haven't read in the past 5 years. Revisiting the first one reminded me of how much I enjoy Crispin's mysteries (except for that first one!).

Heading to library for An Air That Kills by Margaret Millar.

Having listened to a short mystery story on audiobook, 3 Truths and a Lie, I think that I have a new-to-me series (D.D. Warren) to add to my TBR.

Now I am reading another McGee book, Free Fall in Crimson. Only a few books left in this series!

Finished Thunder Bay by William Kent Kruger - I thought one of the best in the Cork O'Conner series and a departure from previous books. Now back to Donna Leon's Death in a Strange Country, #2 in the Commissario Brunetti series.

Just finished two: Deborah Crombie's In a Dark House and Lindsay Faye's Dust and Shadow. Both were good reads, but neither was the best I've read by that author.

I couldn't let summer end without visiting the Jersey shore with Fun House, the seventh book in Chris Grabenstein's Ceepak series.

>54 flips: I wish he'd write more of those, Joanne, but I think he's moved on. Sad!

I just finished Land of Shadows and will definitely look for the sequels. I like the first-person narrator, Lou Norton, very well.

Reading When the music's over by Peter Robinson.

I am currently reading The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding. I am about halfway through, and enjoying it.

I just finished One for Sorrow, a historical fiction mystery set in Constantinople during the time of Justinian's reign. I liked the setting and the protagonist, John, so I will probably read more in this series (this book is the first).

I started Blind Justice by Bruce Alexander, set in old-time London.

I finished The Dry by Jane Harper, set in Australia, during a time of severe drought. The drought shapes the current events of the story. Now back to more D. Leon and P. Robinson, and Magpie Murders.

>60 rabbitprincess: I love that series! Hope you do too.

I am reading a non-Appleby mystery by Michael Innes called From London Far.

I asked my mum to pick my next mystery read and she chose The Blackhouse, by Peter May.

>63 leslie.98: She chose well, I love that trilogy and it's off to a good start with The Blackhouse. Enjoy.

I have mainly been working my way through the Inspector Banks series by Peter Robinson

Aftermath (Book 12)
The Summer That Never Was (Book 13)
Playing with Fire (Book 14)
Strange Affair (Book 15)
Piece of My Heart (Book 16)
Friend of the Devil (Book 17)

Also read, The Templars' Last Secret Bruno, Chief of Police 10, by Martin Walker.
The Puzzles of Peter Duluth, by Patrick Quentin.

Have just started Camino Island, by John Grisham.

I have finished Fool Errant, one of those 'innocents caught up with villians' type thriller/suspense novels. I love that kind of book! This was a pretty good example of the type, though the innocent involved was a man rather than the more typical female.

>65 gmathis: Aftermath is my favourite in the Inspector Banks Series.

Just finished Home Fires by Margaret Maron. Love this series...forget the mysteries, her vivid descriptions of small town North Carolina are worth reading for themselves.

NEW THREAD: http://www.librarything.com/topic/268620