August SeriesCAT: Series set in a country/region where you do not live

This month we have the world as our oyster; that is, we have any part of the world except that in which we live! That's the only limit on this month's SeriesCAT: avoid the country -- or at least the region -- in which you live. Of course, this is an opportunity to "travel" as far abroad as you dare. And, if you're quite ambitious, perhaps this is a month for overachievement. Perhaps a few of us will read installments in series from more than one region of the world. I also have the feeling this will be a month in which several of us get ideas for new series to explore.

Have fun!



Adding some other details to the constraints:
It needs to be part of a series.
It needs to be set on Earth - either a real locality or a fictionalized but realistic one.
It can be set in any time in history.

I live in the Pacific Northwest of the United States so I will be traveling afield from there. I'm thinking about reading the next installment in Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series. Or the next Matthew Shardlake by C.J. Sansom, set in 16th century England. It might also be a good time to revisit Colin Cotterill's Dr. Siri series, set in Laos. Or one of Peter May's damp novels of the north of Scotland. The options are many!

I'm going to assume some additional constraints, that the book should be set in a real place on Earth in the present (i.e., not Ancient Egypt or a space ship). My book club is reading Educated by Tara Westover, set in the US, in August and I would also like to read The Great Passage by Shion Miura, set in Japan.

>3 Robertgreaves: Hmm, those are good additional constraints. I will say yes to the real - or realistic - place on Earth but I don't believe it needs to be in the present time.

And, of course, it definitely needs to be part of a series, so Tara Westover's memoir, though excellent, will not count.

I'm in Canada, but won't be reading anything set in the US. It's too easy to find them set in the US, so I want to go further.

Some options for me include:

- Blackout / Connie Willis
- The Boy Who Followed Ripley / Patricia Highsmith
- The Werewolf of Bamberg / Oliver Potzsch
- A Royal Pain / Rhys Bowen
- Wolf by Wolf / Ryan Graudin

>4 EBT1002: Aaaagggh For some reason I thought this was TBRCAT. Now I'm going to have to re-think this. In that case I think I might go for All the Little Liars by Charlaine Harris, set in the USA.

I have relatives that are going to be cruising the Norwegian fiords in August so I am going to mentally join them by reading When the Devil Holds the Candle by Karin Fossum. I am also going to be visiting Iceland with The Draining Lake by Arnaldur Indridason, England with Cold in Hand by John Harvey, and Germany with Snow White Must Die by Nele Neuhaus.

I'm in Canada and read an abundance of series set in the UK, so this challenge will be no exception ;) I'll use this opportunity to read another installment in JJ Marric's "Gideon" series: Gideon's Power, which is set in London, England.

I'll be reading Us Against You this month for book club. It is listed as Beartown #2 so I guess its a series. Looking forward to reading it as I enjoyed Beartown very much. Takes place in Sweden. I am in the US.

>6 Robertgreaves: Cracked me up, Robert. I thought you must be confused....
;-)

Like >2 EBT1002:, I immediately thought of Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series. Next up for me is Broken Harbor, so I might read that for this CAT.

I'm planning on reading Stealing Fire by Jo Graham, the follow-up to her Black Ships and Hand of Isis. The books revolve around Ancient Greece, Egypt, and surrounding territory. The first two books in the series were fantastic, and I honestly have no idea why it's taken me so long to get around to this one.

I'm planning on reading the two books I have left of Arnaldur Indridason set in Iceland - Into Oblivion and Reykjavik Nights.

So many options! I've got An Irish Country Wedding (#7), The Story of the Lost Child, last in the Neopolitan series, Al Capone Does My Homework (#3), and I just finished the delightful Plainsong and can't wait to read the next in that series. So, Ireland, Italy, and the US; I'm in Canada.

I have Slash and Burn by Colin Cotterill slated for my read for this month.

>11 christina_reads: That is my next one in the series, too, Christina, so perhaps I'll join you!

>11 christina_reads: >16 EBT1002: I'm hoping to read The Trespasser of the same series. Is this the last one? The Witch Elm doesn't show as part of this series.

>17 majkia: I believe The Witch Elm is a stand-alone, so The Trespasser is the most recently published Dublin Murder Squad book.

I'll be reading The Man on the Balcony by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. I live in the US and it's set in Stockholm.

I'm in Australia reading Lucia in London by E. F. Benson.

I'm listening to The Ice Princess, set in Sweden.

Ended up finishing Reykjavik Nights by Arnaldur Indridason one day early - fun to spend some time in Iceland again. Really need to actually visit there sometime.

Just finished The Three-Body Problem which is 31 in a series by Cixin Liu. It was my second reading of it and I got so much more out of it this time.

Cixin Liu is a Chinese Author. The book is set in China and starts with the cultural revolution. What would you do if you received a message from an extraterrestrial?

I am reading Precious and Grace by Alexander McCall Smith, set in Africa.

This afternoon I finished The Man On the Balcony by Maj Sjowall. It takes place in Stockholm and is the third book in the Martin Beck Mystery series.

I finished The Missing Guests of the Magic Grove Hotel, number two in the Ethical Chiang Mai Detective Agency series, which takes place in Thailand. The mystery is negligible, but the protagonist, an ethicist-nurse at a hospital, is adorable and the setting and Thai culture both play a role in the story.

I have started my month off with a visit to England with Cold in Hand by John Harvey. This was the 11th book in his series about D.I. Charlie Resnick and was an excellent addition to this favorite series.

I'm planning The Ghost Fields by Elly Griffiths, set in England, and Murder at the Lanterne Rouge by Cara Black, set in France.

Hmm, so I just finished Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James, the first in a planned trilogy. It's set in a fantasy version of Africa. Would this count? It's not a real place at all.

I'm currently reading Portuguese Irregular Verbs by Alexander McCall Smith, which so far is set in Germany and Switzerland.

I may read more than one for this challenge but I'm going to start with A Room Full of Bones by Elly Griffiths. It's next in the Ruth Galloway series which I have been wanting to return to for some time now.

More than one book is likely for me for this challenge, too, but I've started with Ngaio Marsh's Hand in Glove, set in England.

A Royal Pain / Rhys Bowen
4 stars

This is the second book in this series. Georgie is a cousin to the Prince of Wales, and is 34th in line to the throne. Unfortunately, she and her brother don’t have much money. Georgie has moved into the family home (castle?) in London, where she has had to learn life without a maid and servants. It hasn’t been easy for Georgie. Things get a bit more complicated when the queen asks Georgie to host visiting royalty from Germany; the queen hopes the German princess will catch the Prince of Wales’ eye. In any case, things take a turn when people seem to start dying around them.

I really enjoyed this. I think I liked it better than the first one (at least from what I remember, anyway). There are humourous, lighthearted moments in the books. Though I am not necessarily a fan of some of her rich friends, I do like Georgie, as she’s had to learn to be more self-sufficient.

I finished Der zweite Reiter which is set in Vienna in 1919. A very gritty mystery, well researched with an interesting investigating team. It is the first in a series and won a prestigious Austrian award, the Leo Perutz Prize. I'm looking forward to the next instalment.

Finished another book set in Iceland - Into Oblivion by Arnaldur Indridason as well as a Vicious Circle by C. J. Box set in Wyoming.

Finished A Pale Horse set in England.

I'm planning on The Sugar House by Antonia White, the third book in her Frost in May quartet, which is set in England.

My current read, The Seat of Magic by J. Kathleen Cheney, is #2 in a series set in Portugal.

I finished The Ice Princess, which was a solid start to a series and am now reading Death in Brittany. I want to move.

Set in Iceland, The Draining Lake by Arnaldur Indridason was another excellent entry into this series.

I had to switch to The House of Unexpected Sisters by Alexander McCall Smith. I was reading Precious and Grace but it started to seem familiar. I discovered I had read it for the 2017 Category Challenge!

I've been traveling quite a bit through books.

Aunt Bessie Observes by Diana Xarissa - Isle of Man
The Disappeared by C. J. Box - Wyoming

Serendipity - I had been on the library wait list for The Rosie Result since it was released. My turn came up and I've now started it. The protagonists are back in Australia and are dealing with their son's possible mislabel of being autistic. Still funny, but a more serious look at autism, the spectrum and how labels affect the labeled.

I finished Naughty in Nice which I enjoyed very much, and I promise Nice is not Niceville (which is where I live). :)

Cuatro días de enero is set in Barcelona in the dying days of the Republic; Franco's troops are just about to enter the city. Very bleak, but with a likeable main character.

I finished Nine Coaches Waiting which takes place in France.

Lots of fun reads for this month's prompt!

And I also finished the second instalment of the August Emmerich series set in 1920 Vienna on audio. Die rote Frau. Excellent narrator.

Read the most recent in the Royal Spyness series - Love and Death Among the Cheetahs by Rhys Bowen, most of the action is in Kenya.

Blackout / Connie Willis
4.5 stars

In 2060, time travel has been invented and is “regulated”. Historians are able to travel back in time to what they are studying, knowing that the laws of time travel will prevent them from changing anything, but they will be able to experience what they are studying first-hand! (I love this entire concept!)

Three historians are travelling back to 1940 in England. Polly is headed to London during the Blitz; Merope/Eileen heads to the countryside outside London, where she is able to work with and study some of the children who were evacuated from London. Mark is travelling back as an American reporter; he will also be outside London. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long for them to realize something has gone wrong, and they are having trouble getting back when they should…

The start of this one was a bit confusing, but what was going on (the historians were being shuffled about with regards to the dates they would be leaving and the exact places they’d be travelling to) was also confusing for the characters. As a reader, I was trying to remember some of the characters from previous books, the terminology of the time travel, and get back into how it all works.

There were a lot of characters to introduce, as well, with multiple historians going back in time. However, once things got going, they really got going, at least for me. I didn’t want to stop reading; I wanted to just keep going to find out what happened. I really liked some of the “contemps” (the contemporary people living in their time) – I especially loved the actor Polly met. Luckily, I had seen somewhere ahead of time that this book does not conclude; it is continued in the next book, so I’m going to want to get to that sequel fairly soon.

I just remembered that I need to add my completed book to the wiki so I thought I'd come by and remind others to do the same!
I did end up reading and enjoying A Room Full of Bones by Elly Griffiths.

>51 EBT1002: I really liked the ones that I've read from that series. I wonder if they would count as seaside cozies for next month.

>52 Robertgreaves: I enjoy this series as well. I have seen many comments on whether it qualifies as cozy, but for me it fits into the cozy section of my TBR...AND it certainly is seaside!

>52 Robertgreaves: Oh, good point! They certainly happen near the sea and they are cozy-ish!

>51 EBT1002: Thanks for the reminder, Ellen! I actually need to go back and add my reads for the last several months.

I read the second book in Alexander McCall Smith's new Paul Stuart series: The Second Worst Restaurant in France, which is set in rural France.

I finished the next in my Louise Penny journey, A Rule Against Murder Her mysteries take place in the area outside of Montreal, QB.

I have just concluded Collusion by Stuart Neville which is set in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Set in Norway, When The Devil Holds The Candle by Karin Fossum was an excellent thriller - dark, chilling and believable.

And I have also finished the third book in August Emmerich series, Der dunkle Bote. Fresh off the press, and I hope there will be more next year.

I've just finished The Ghost Fields by Elly Griffiths set in Norfolk, England. I'm really enjoying the series.

I tried to enter my book into the WikiThing but can't find the "edit" option. Any ideas?

>61 VivienneR: It's a good series. I'm going to read my next one for the September SeriesCAT.

>62 VivienneR: Wiki editing is down, apparently affected by security-tightening today.

I just read Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear. Although I have read other titles in this series, I had never read this first volume, which mainly goes into detail about Maisie Dobbs' background. She solves one mystery.

This month I've been enjoying Cherringham: A Cosy Crime Series. Set in Cherringham England.

>64 NinieB: Thanks, Ninie. I've just been reading about the hack over at Bug Collectors. Thankfully Tim and the crew are on to things quickly.

Reading Death in Focus by Anne Perry her newest series visiting Germany, Italy, France, and England

Last month, I had planned to read Hell Fire for this month's challenge and never started it. Instead what happened is that I read Crossing Places, and have systematically read that plus books 2-8 all this month. I had read the author's stand alone The Stranger Diaries and decided to try the Ruth Galloway series. I have enjoyed every one of them and it looks like I will finish books 9 and 10 this month or at least by the end of the holiday weekend as I am not going back to work until Wednesday.

I'm reading Jar City, set in Iceland.

I had to abandon Death in Focus after 18 chapters! It was just too gory for my tastes. The character did visit Italy, France, and Germany in those chapters.

>70 BLBera: Oh, that one is so good! I've been meaning to get back to Erlendur's Iceland!

>72 NinieB: I've heard so many good things about the series, I decided it's time to give it a try.