May 2018 ~ What are you reading?

Finished Peril at End House by Agatha Christie and started The Air Raid Killer by Frank Goldammer.

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

J is for Judgment (Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries, No. 10)
by Sue Grafton

(Kinsey finds out she has a family in this episode/I plan to sample this series from time to time)

To Play the Fool by Laurie R. King - #2 in the Kate Martinelli series. Not bad. A bit too detail oriented, but it's ok.

I finished Murder on the Blackboard, the 3rd Hildegard Withers book. It was a lot of fun!

Finished listening to Duel to the Death by J. A. Jance which was ok. Jance is always fun, but this story was only ok.

I'm still reading Reaper: Ghost Target by Nicholas Irving and A J Tata. I think my next listen is going to be Fade to Black by David Rosenfelt

I'm listening to the audiobook of Blue Monday. This is my first Nicci French!

started this library Playaway audiobook ~

The English Wife: A Novel
by Lauren Willig

(1890s/Europe and a home on the Hudson River in NY)

I think this book fits this category: The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian

Harbour Street, by the always good author Ann Cleeves

Great read: I See You by Clare McIntosh

Just picked up a cozy for lunchtime eye-candy: Arson and Old Lace.

Today I started -- and finished -- Bitter Water, by Gordon Ferris, the second in his Douglas Brodie series.

I just started another mystery anthology featuring writers such as Rex Stout and Ruth Rendell - Ellery Queen's Napoleons of Mystery. It looks like I'm the only one on LT that has the book listed. Ellery was the first mystery series and the reason why it's my favorite genre.

Finished The Air Raid Killer by Frank Goldammer.

Reading two rather different mysteries: Devil in a Blue Dress, by Walter Mosley; and L'Affaire Saint-Fiacre, by Georges Simenon.

Striker by Clive Cussler

Striker by Clive Cussler
Isaac Bell Adventure #6
3 ⭐️

1902 Pittsburg and W Virginia coal mines were a hotbed of activity. Isaac Bell was sent in undercover to search for radical union saboteurs causing mayhem in the mines. What he found instead was corporate greed versus the working man. And he found a formidable opponent in a former Van Dorn detective, a man personally trained by Van Dorn himself. The chase leads Isaac up and down the Ohio River and to Chicago and back again to coal mining country. I found the first half of the book tedious. However, by mid book, it picked up the rollicking pace of a typical Cussler novel.

I finished the 2nd Francis Pettigrew (& 5th Inspector Mallett) book by Cyril Hare - With a Bare Bodkin. I found Hare’s setting in this one very amusing (a satire of WW2 British bureaucracy, it’s set in the Bureau of Pin Control and has a subplot about black market trading in pins!) and the mystery was very good. I thought that I had figured it out but not so!

The Alexandria Link by Steve Berry
Cotton Malone mystery
3 1/2 ⭐️

Cotton Malone is a retired US State Departmentagent. He runs a rare book shop in Copenhagen, Denmark. However, things change drastically when his shop is burned to the ground and his teenaged son is kidnapped. The only thing that will save his son is finding the lost Library of Alexandria. Hidden in the library is historic Biblical fact which could threaten Israel and many Arabic nations. Cotton teams up with his ex-wife, Pam. Following a quest to the library is not a simple task. Secret Service, Massad, and another clandestine group are hot on his heels.

I have been reading this book on and off for 2 years. Lots of tiny details and twists and turns, which I wasn’t in the mode to deal with again. But, now that I finished, it was a decent entry into the Cotton Malone series. There are a few references that date the book, but nothing that hurts the storyline.

I'm in the middle of No Colder Place, the fourth of SJ Rozan's Lydia Chin and Bill Smith series. Since it's an even-numbered entry, it's Bill's turn to narrate. Quite good so far.

Enjoying this library audiobook ~

Wedding Cake Murder (A Hannah Swensen Mystery)
by Joanne Fluke

(cozy series/bakery owner/tons of recipes/sampling this
series again ~ nice change of pace)

Just started Playback which is the last Marlowe novel by Raymond Chandler.

I have reread Look to the Lady by Margery Allingham. It has been many years since I have read the Campion books and, while I enjoyed it, I have come to feel that there is something about Allingham's mixture of mystery and adventure/thriller/what have you that doesn't quite work for me.

While waiting for my Anne Perry Early Review win for (sigh) March, I'm revisiting the elder Pitts at Traitor's Gate.

> leslie.98- Having just read one of Allingham's late books, The Beckoning Lady I know what you mean . It was sometimes hard to work out what was going on. I don't mind having to concentrate hard when good writing demands it but her style can be over intricate and obscure.

Preparing to start Oblivion, by Arnaldur Indriðason. I've been hoarding this last of my unread Erlendurs for quite a while.

Finishing this OverDrive audiobook ~

Then She Was Gone: A Novel
by Lisa Jewell

(missing person, psych thriller from across the pond/British narrator)

The Rozan was excellent. I just received my ARC of Hank's new standalone, Trust Me. That's up next.

I am currently reading The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley. It is the first Crumley book I have read and I am only about 100 pages in, but already very impressed.

Added The Day of the Dead by Nicci French to my reading rotation.

About 50 pages into The Defense by Steve Cavanagh. Eddie Flynn, former con man and hustler and burned out lawyer, is forced to take on an impossible case to defend a Russian mobster who is holding his daughter hostage. A lot going on here, but so far I like it.
>29 Dr_Flanders: I am a big fan of the late James Crumley. I think I have read all his books.

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

After Anna
by Lisa Scottoline

(courtroom drama/this year's stand-alone tale from a favorite author)

The Moth Catcher by Ann Cleeves. Good reading, as usual, from this author. This was one of her Vera Stanhope series.

Trust Me was wonderful. Letting my brain recombobulate before starting anything else.

This book, which I really liked, IS crime fiction, but much more too. A Thousand Cuts by Simon Lelic

Just finished Snowblind by Ragnar Jonasson

Started this library audiobook ~

Tangerine: A Novel
by Christine Mangan

UPDATE: debating pulling the plug on this book.

Working on Death at the Selig Studios, an April Early Reviewer Release.

Just finished The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie. I liked it a lot. I won't say that I loved it. It was the first thing I have ever read by Agatha Christie, and I think that I will read the next Poirot, though I might not be in too big of a rush to do so.

I thought I'd read all the books in Gail Bowen's Joanne Kilbourn mystery series, but I had missed this one: The Endless Knot. Pretty good read, though I still can't make myself like the main character-she always is just too perfect!

Sorry, wrong group.

I finished my next Rex Stout book - Trouble in Triplicate, 3 novellas (hence the title). Then the audiobook edition of Strangers on a Train caught me up - very good but quite different from the Hitchcock movie!

Finished The Defense by Steve Cavanagh. Wont win any awards for prose style, but a rollicking good legal thriller. Starting the next in the series The Plea.

Celebrating a long weekend (in Cornwall) with Will Thomas, Barker & Llewellyn...Hell Bay--a happy find at a used bookstore.

Just started The Outsider by uncle Steve and it’s pretty good so far - 50 pages in.

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Finished The Day of the Dead by Nicci French. Good read.

Johnny Get Your Gun, a Virgil Tibbs book by John Ball. A great listen from YA Sync summer program.

Starting Mystery in the Channel, by Freeman Wills Crofts; and Truth Dare Kill, by Gordon Ferris.

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

As Time Goes By: A Novel by Mary Higgins Clark

(apparently, this is one of the latest books in a long-running
cozy series)

I just finished reading Captains Outrageous by Joe R. Lansdale. It was worth reading if you are a fan of the Hap & Leonard series, but I was a little disappointed with it overall. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't that good either in my opinion. I'd still recommend the series to anyone who likes that sort of thing.

Presently reading the British thriller Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner

The Venetian Betrayal by Steve Berry
#3 Cotton Malone Adventure
4 ⭐️s

Cotton Malone is a 48 yr. old retired operative of the US government, who owns a rare book store in Copenhagen, Denmark. Doing a favor for his friend Henrik, he is almost killed in a Museum fire. A museum that holds a coin commemorating Alexander the Great. Upon being saved by Cassiopeia Vitt, he finds that this was part of a bizarre string of thefts and fires all over Europe. He agrees to to help Cassiopeia solve this problem. He is drawn into an adventure that reaches into Venice and further into a new Eastern nation run by a woman obsessed by Alexander the Great. Why is she swatching for the resting place of Alexander? Steve Berry does not disappoint with this wild quest centered thriller. Lots of twists, turns and very fast paced.

Finished The Plea by Steve Cavanagh, a fast-paced, action-packed legal thriller featuring Eddie Flynn con-man, hustler and now lawyer. Plenty of twists and turns. I thought it was even better than Cavanagh's debut novel The Defense.

June thread - http://www.librarything.com/topic/292023