Investigators - Ancient and Modern - Mystery Series Group Read

This group has been reading mystery series since 2015. We have read books set in different places around the world and this year we are going to add a time element to our reading. We will be reading the mystery/suspense/thriller series Inspector Huss that features police detective Irene Huss. There are eight books in this series and the group will be reading the first four in the series in 2023. (the schedule follows in the next post.)

The other new series for 2023 will take us into the ancient world with the Marcus Didius Falco series that is set in Ancient Rome. This series features Informant Marcus Didius Falco in a mystery series that extends to seventeen titles with the promise of more to still be published.

This year we will also be finishing up, or catching up, with the last three novels published in the Bruno Courrages series. We read the first thirteen books in the series in the previous years and will only read the last three in 2023.

Finally, we will end the year with the latest entry in the Guido Brunetti series that will be published in June 2023.

This schedule keeps us reading the newest entries in our current series and allows us to expand our reading with two new series.

We will alternate reading from the two main series and so will be reading a book by a different author each month. If you don't want to read books by one of the authors you can just join us for the ones that you do want to read. We are a small group and we don't keep numbers or force people to read all of the books. If you are interested in this book list for 2023 come join us.

Here is out schedule for 2023.

January 2023 - Detective Inspector Huss by Helene Tursten - book 1 in Irene Huss
February 2023 - Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis - book 1 in Marcus Didius Falco
March 2023 - Coldest Case by Martin Walker - book 14 in Bruno Courreges
April 2023 - Night Rounds by Helene Tursten - book 2 in Irene Huss
May 2023 - Shadows in Bronze by Lindsey Davis - book 2 in Marcus Didius Falco
June 2023 - To Kill A Troubadour by Martin Walker - book 15 in Bruno Courreges
July 2023 - Torso by Helene Tursten - book 3 in Irene Huss
August 2023 - Venus in Copper by Lindsey Davis - book 3 in Marcus Didius Falco
September 2023 - Chateau Under Siege by Martin Walker - book 16 in Bruno Courreges
October 2023 - Glass Devil by Helene Tursten - book 4 in Irene Huss
November 2023 - Iron Hand of Mars by Lindsey Davis - book 4 in Marcus Didius Falco
December 2023 - So Shall You Reap by Donna Leon - book 32 in Commissario Brunetti

I put in a hold for Detective Inspector Huss. I'm first in line, and it should be in within a couple weeks.

I have a copy of the first Inspector Huss book at home in Tuscaloosa and will start it as soon as I get back, which is tomorrow. I don’t have copies of any of the rest of the books in this series and my local public library doesn’t have them either. That means that I will be placing Inter-Library Loan requests for those when the time comes to read them.

I am looking forward to this year’s reading. We are reading regularly from 3 different series that focus on three different kinds of detectives and that should make the monthly reading diverse enough to keep it fresh and interesting for all of us. If you wish to do so, please post the link to this group read on your individual threads, but as I have said in the past, it doesn’t matter to me how many people join in, or if they choose to only read certain authors or certain books that is fine too. I like the comments about the books and like to see what others have to say about these books.

I don't know the Davis and Walker series, but I'm well up on the Tursten, and I won't reread them this year. I may do a catch-up sprint on the Walker. And I've read the first 19 Brunetti entries. I'll see where I am when you read the latest.

>6 ffortsa:
Happy to see you lurking or joining - either one is fine. Lindsey Davis has two mystery series that are set in Ancient Rome. We are going to be reading the Marcus Didius Falco series. Her other series features a woman named Flavia Albia. I have found the Martin Walker series featuring Bruno, the Chief of Police, to be great fun and very interesting. There is lots of descriptions of food and wine of the Dordogne region of France and some readers find those to be just over-the-top. One critic described the series as an excuse to provide lengthy descriptions of how to cook the French regional way. I thought that was funny as I love the descriptions of the food and wine and the regional traditions that are centered around that food and wine.

I also think that Walker does a good job of describing the modern tensions between the increasing tourism and immigration to the region and trying to maintain the traditions of the area that are the things that attract tourists and immigrants. Bruno is much more tolerant of that situation than is Guido Brunetti in the Donna Leon series. It is clear from reading that series that Guido regards the tourists as simply overrunning the city and turning it into a caricature of itself. I would happily encourage you to read either series. I like them both and am looking forward to the two new series that we are going to be reading this coming year.

We are going to start out the year reading Detective Inspector Huss by Swedish author Helene Tursten. This is the novel in which we will be introduced to Irene Huss, the creation of author Helen Tursten. Here is a short introduction to Irene Huss and her creator, Helene Tursten.

The following information is from the Encyclopedia of Nordic Crime Fiction by Mitzi M. Brunsdale

Tursten was born in 1954 in Gothenburg, Sweden. She is a trained as a nurse and dentist. She was forced to retire from her dental practice after she was diagnosed a rheumatic disease. She started translating medical articles and then began writing crime novels, publishing her first one in 1998. Tursten drew on her husband's six years as a policeman for her female protagonist. That protagonist is Irene Huss.

Huss is a middle-aged Detective Inspector in the Gothenburg Police Department's Violent Crimes Division, is happily married to a successful chef, a capable mother of twin teenaged daughters, and a judo expert. Tursten feels "One could say that Irene Huss is so ordinary she becomes extraordinary." Swedish crime literature now often includes female characters in positions of responsibility, but "they still have had to struggle to get and keep their positions. Dealing with resentful colleagues is a thread running through nearly all the Swedish mysteries written by women." Iren Huss manages those professional tensions better than most of her fictional sister-investigators.

In 1999 after the publication of her first Irene Huss novel, Tursten insisted, "I did not write about a whiskey-drinking loner. I really do not like it when female heroes perform as well as their male predecessors in crime - boozing, cursing..." She later recalled that except for Maj Sjowall who wrote with Per Wahloo, "we didn't have any women to redress the balance (in perceiving Swedish society). So I decided to write the kind of books that I wanted to read myself - books that reflected different viewpoints."

>8 benitastrnad: Thanks for the introduction to Tursten. As I posted, I've been reading her for a while, and I thoroughly enjoy her home life as well as her police work. Walker is new to me, and I will gladly add him to the rotation!

>9 ffortsa: Welcome to the group read! I think you'll enjoy Walker!

Now that the month has started, I have to find my copy of Inspector Detective Huss. I thought I knew just where it was, but it isn't there. I remember seeing it before I left for Christmas, so I know it is in my house. I think I put it someplace I could pick it up easily when I got back here in January. (Well, that didn't work well.) So, on Saturday, I will be hunting for it, and another book I need to read for my Book Club. I can't find either of them - or my office keys. I haven't lost my office keys in 30 years. It would be a shame to lose them when I am 60 days from retiring.

>11 benitastrnad: I need to finish a book club read by tomorrow when we meet. I should be able to finish it this evening. I'm also hoping to finish an audiobook today. I'm still awaiting arrival of the ebook from the library.

I just picked up Detective Inspector Huss and I noticed that it has the same translator as the Fjallbacka series we finished a couple of years ago!

Looks like we are all on the same page. I still haven't found my copy, so that means that this weekend I will be cleaning my car out from top to bottom. I checked with my mother and this book isn't where I usually stash books while at home and doing reading. Like my office keys, I have no idea where this book is. If I don't find it Saturday I will be placing an ILL request.

I finished Detective Inspector Huss last night. I liked it overall. Even though Irene is the title character, she shares the spotlight with the rest of the investigative team. The glimpses of her home life are about what Donna Leon provides for Brunetti - enough attention to make them well-rounded characters without disrupting the momentum of the plot. The writing is a little awkward and choppy in places, but it could be the translator getting used to the author's writing style. We saw that with the Camilla Lackberg series we finished a couple of years ago. In fact, four of the first five Lackberg books had the same translator as this series, and I think the writing in the first book in this series is better than the writing in Lackberg's first book.

I am thinking about subscribing to MHz Choice through Amazon Prime. Several of the series we've read are available on this channel with English subtitles. Brunetti, Fjallbacka, and now Irene Huss.

>15 cbl_tn:
I didn't know that about the Irene Huss series. I know that Tursten is a very popular author in Sweden so it doesn't surprise me that they would have made the series into a TV show. I purchased the Brunetti series, in German, for my sisters family. My brother-in-law and niece speak German and my sister is taking German (at the college level now) so I thought that they might like the series so they could sharpen up their language skills. Of course, if they need to, they can always look at the subtitles. I haven't asked my sister if they have looked at them yet.

I think there are lots of series books out there that our TV and movie makers could be making into quality productions but they just aren't. You would think that they would be looking at best seller lists and thinking about that.

My library copy arrived yesterday so I plan to get started on it soon. I want to finish one that I can finish either tonight or tomorrow first. Then I'll get started either tomorrow or Monday.

I finished reading Detective Inspector Huss today, but will wait a few days to let all of you know what I thought of it. I did like this book, even though I thought I wouldn't. I have had this book on my bookshelves since 2012 and kept putting off reading it because I thought it was going to be one of those psycho thrillers that was all blood and guts. To my surprise it wasn't.

>18 benitastrnad: I'm nearing completion--if not tonight, then tomorrow night.

I did read Walker's Bruno, Chief of Police about a week ago. It's the first in a modern police procedural series (cellphones exist!) that introduces Bruno and the town of St. Denis. There's lots of description and a good deal of food, and I gave in to the details of life in a small French town that doesn't necessarily want Paris or the EU cramping its style and traditions. I was also interested to read about the history of war in the 20th century as well as the Algerian colonial situation.

But it didn't quite work for me the way Donna Leon's books do. Not sure why; it might be that as the first in a series, it contains a lot of introductory material that slows it down. I'll probably circle back to the series at some point.

>20 ffortsa:
There are some people who don't like the Bruno, Chief of Police series because it spends too much time on life style. However, there are many others who like that very aspect of the series. The web site for Martin Walker is very popular and features the recipes of the food talked about about, and more information about the wine, cheese, and other food of the region.

I enjoy the series and have found that it gives a different perspective on current French culture and thinking about current topics unique to them. The perspective on history is also from a different point-of-view, and makes an American audience rethink some events and how they are presented in our history. Things might be viewed differently from another country and culture.

I also think that the series gets better as it goes along. Not so much background. Or it could be that the reader gets more invested in the characters as they read more?

I also think that the Guido Brunetti series is much more intellectual. It is also written by an American and so the tone of the novels is more in tune with American readers. I also think it makes a difference that the series is written by a woman. I think that is the main reason why the tone is different than the Martin Walker books.

There are lots of mystery series out there, so if one doesn't work for you there are other series that will. We are shifting gears this year and reading several different series so maybe there will be one that fits better.

I said I was going to wait to write a bit about my impressions of Detective Inspector Huss by Helene Tursten and since there are only four more days in the month I am going to put in my thoughts about this first book in the series. There may be spoilers so beware if you don't like those.

I had done a bit of research on Helene Tursten before starting this series and so I knew it was not going to be the voyage into the dark as much as some of the Swedish Noir books that I have read. It isn't, and I appreciate that. Sometimes I just can't take the vivid descriptions of violence and gore that is done to women and children. I like to read mysteries but I am not as much a person who likes psycho thrillers. The Camilla Lackberg series that we read a few years ago was just about over the limit for me. This series is not, and I am happy to write that.

Many of the scenes in this novel felt real to me. The scenes in the departmental meetings were realistic and the sexism displayed by several of the characters felt real. Many women would be able to identify with these situations. The only parts of the novel that didn't feel real to me were the ones with Sylvia. She was the one character that never felt like a genuine person to me. She was a caricature, but I thought was because she was another red herring. But put simply, that character just didn't work for me and was not very well developed. On-the-other-hand, Charlotte was very well written and her character was totally believable. As the novel said, she was both cunning and a good actor. Most often, that is a deadly combination - as it was for several of the characters in this novel.

This was a fairly standard police procedural with a nicely plotted murder mystery. I figured out who had done it, but ended up only being half right. I am not sure that the mystery needed the addition of the Hell's Angels.
I thought it was going to be the red herring of the mystery, but then it wasn't.

It is not as introspective as I thought it might be. At first I thought it was going to be more like the Guido Brunetti series, and it feels like it wants to be - but it isn't quite there. It will be interesting to read more books in the series and find out what direction the author takes the books. I also liked the addition of the Irene's family into the novel. The parts where her daughters were unwittingly involved in the take down of the suspects felt real and were described in a manner that conveyed the confusion that bystanders often say that they feel when caught in these situations.

I have a feeling that this series is going to get better. This was the author's first novel and I am sure that the writing will improve. I have read both of the Little Old Lady books written by this author and from them I know that she can write humor and can give her characters lots of personality. I did notice some awkward phrasing in this novel, but I can't tell if it was the translation or the actual writing and can only say that I am sure that all of this will improve as the series moves along.

I also want to comment on the cover. I read a paperback edition published by Soho Crime and I thought the cover was nicely done. I liked the plain simple blocks. One block of black, one of light blue, and one with a photo in it. That type of cover was a template for many of the Soho Crime paperbacks 20 years ago and I liked that design. I was sorry when Soho stopped using it. It was a badge and made the Soho mystery's easily recognizable. It was like the Nike Swoosh. It was a trademark in the book aisles. Oh well - all good things come to an end, and Soho hit the refresh button on that style of cover and I got over it.

Speaking of Soho Crime - I generally like the mysteries that they publish. I find them a reliable publisher of the kind of murder mystery I like to read.

I am looking forward to reading more of Irene Huss' adventures as a detective.

>22 benitastrnad: I agree with everything you said! This is a promising start to a series, and I'm curious to see where it goes from here.

>22 benitastrnad: I mostly agree with your assessments. I think I would not have continued reading this book and dropped the series completely if we weren't doing the group read. By doing the group read, I'm giving Tursten a "second chance" by moving to the next in series. I had a very difficult time staying interested enough in the book to read more than a chapter at a time until the last few. (Granted--they were long chapters.) I doubt Tursten will ever pull me in like Martin Walker and Donna Leon, but I dare her to do it! ;-) If reading it continues to be a chore for me after the 3rd in the series, I won't continue with the Huss books.

We have two days left in January and most of us are ready to move on to our next book. It is also a new series. Not new in publishing terms, but new this group and new to me. I checked and I have read nothing by Lindsey Davis in the past, so for me we will have a new series and a new author.

The book for February will be Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis. This is the first book in the Marcus Didius Falco series. The series is set in Ancient Rome during the reign of the Emperor Vespasian. That dates the setting to the years 69 to 79 C.E. The book was first published in 1989. That makes it one of the older series that this group has read. (to date the Tony Hillerman series is the oldest.) It was first published in the U.K. by a small subsidiary publisher that was owned by Macmillian. The first book was quickly followed by the publication of the second book and both books became high selling mysteries. The books were then published in the U.S.

I have a paperback copy of the book and it was published by St. Martin's press and carries the imprint of Minotaur Books. This copy also has an extended Introduction written by the author. The author says that she had a hard time convincing any agents or publishers that a mystery series set in Rome in the 1st Century would sell. Publishers and agents did not think there was an audience for such books. I smirked when I read that - clearly there is an audience because this group choose to read it. So there is interest. We will soon see if the quality of the writing is as good as our interest in the setting.

Since Davis started writing full time she has been very prolific. There are 20 novels in the Marcus Didius Falco series. In 2010 Davis retired Falco and his companion Helena Justina and moved the action to their daughter Flavia Albia and there are 11 novels in that series. If it turns out that we like this mystery series there are plenty more in the cupboard for us to read.

Daivs suffered from Keratoconus since she was a child. Keratoconus is a degenerative eye disease that results in a continuous thinning of the cornea. Davis had a corneal transplant that saved her eyesight and on her web page and in her public appearances she advocates for people to sign up to be donors.

Davis contracted what was thought to be a mild case of COVID 19 in August of 2021 and in September of that year was hospitalized because of the effects of that disease. She has recovered, but continues to be a victim of Long Haul COVID which had curtailed her public appearances. She has now resumed her public appearances.

Davis hosts a Read Aloud or Read Along event on the second Tuesday of the month. This is held on Zoom. The first for this year was on January 10, 2023. The second is scheduled for February 14, 2023 7:00 PM UK time. (There is a six hour time difference between London and the Central Time Zone in the U.S. - that would mean that 7:00 PM UK time would be 1:00 PM CST) To participate you have to register. Here is the link to do that.
https://www.lindseydavis.co.uk/news-events/

Davis has a very nice author's web page and it appears to be kept up-to-date, so if you want to know more about her here is the link to that page. https://www.lindseydavis.co.uk/

I am reading several other books right now, two from Inter-Library Loan that are due back on February 16, 2023, so I will be reading this book, but it will be after I finish these two books. I am not picky about spoilers so if you want to discuss the book on this thread - go ahead and do so. You will likely pique my interest in the series even more than it is now.

Happy reading everybody!

>24 thornton37814:
I think that reading 3 books in a series is more than giving the author a chance. I went into this series with a great deal of trepidation because most Scandicrime novels are very gory and downright scary for me to read. I thought this was going to be more of the that kind of novel. I can honestly say that I was very surprised - and pleased with the novel.

I read alot of mysteries in the half hour before I turn out the lights and go to sleep and I DO NOT like to turn out the light having just read gruesome descriptions. This book was not that way and so I am feeling very charitable to Helene Tursten.

Has anyone listened to the Davis book? There are audio copies available at my library, but the texts are all spoken for, at least right now.

>27 ffortsa: I thought about getting the audio book from my main library, and I may change to it at some point, but I'm starting with the ebook version from a different library.

>25 benitastrnad: I have enjoyed Lindsay Davis's books for many years and do appreciate an author who maintains an up-to-date web page. They are rare in my experience.

>27 ffortsa: Well, I can report the audiobook is fun to listen to. I'm about 7 chapters in.

>30 ffortsa: I agree! I'm in the middle of chapter 8.

>30 ffortsa: >31 cbl_tn: Obviously I need to look for the audiobook the next time instead of the ebook.

>32 thornton37814: I really enjoyed the narrator. I finished the book yesterday.

I finished reading Silver Pigs on Monday and I can say I really enjoyed it. I didn't fully understand parts of the plot and so had to go read the Wikipedia entries on Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian. Then the entry on the Roman Senate paying particular attention to the section of the Senate under the Emperors. That did help me to understand a bit more about what was going on. I think this was a good choice for a mystery series and I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series. From what I have read about Lindsey Davis, she spends a great deal of effort in developing minor characters and I wonder what she will do with several of the people introduced in this book?

I'm way behind on the Bruno series, so I'll use this month to catch up a little. I'll also read the next Lindsey Davis book early, because I was able to get it on audio from the library today (you might check out my rant about audiobooks from the library on my thread).

It is March 1, 2023 - I am fully retired! They changed my status at the library today to that of Retired Faculty! It is also time for us to move to our next book.

This month we will return to the familiar world of Bruno Courreges and the Dordogne region of France. Our book for the month is Coldest Case by Martin Walker, the fourteenth book in the series. I am headed for the library this evening and will check the book out today to start reading. I am looking forward to reading about all the food, wine, and parties in which Bruno and his friends are involved.

>36 benitastrnad: Congratulations on your retirement! I hope you enjoy all the things you've been looking forward to doing now that you're not tied to a work schedule.

>36 benitastrnad: Congratulations on your retirement and happy sleeping in.

I finished reading Coldest Case today. I read it first thing this month because I am heading back to Kansas and didn't want to take a library book with me on the trip. As always I enjoyed this mystery and the glimpse into Bruno's life. The most interesting part of the book was in the Acknowledgement section. The author spends some time talking about the Occitan language. I had no idea that the Dordogne region spoke Occitan originally instead of French. The methods used by the French Government to suppress the use of Occitan sounds much like the methods used by the English in Scotland and Ireland, and those of the USA and Canada with regards to indigenous languages. I found this information surprising because I have always thought of France as French speaking, except for Brittany, Provence, and Languedoc, but to learn that Occitan was spoken in a much wider area of France than I thought was a surprise.

The Acknowledgements section was full of fun bits of information. It also states that the German language cookbooks based on the food in the Bruno series, won the Frankfurt Book Fair prize for Best French Language Cookbook of the last twenty years. What! There is a Bruno cookbook? I knew that there was a Brunetti cookbook based on the Brunetti series, but a Bruno book was news to me. Now I am going to have to see if I can hunt it down.

>40 benitastrnad: I am in WorldCat this afternoon so I looked it up. The English title is Bruno's Cookbook and it will be released in November 2023, just in time for Christmas!

Can we wait that long? I might be tempted to try and wade through the German or French versions.

>39 benitastrnad: The acknowledgements weren't read on the audiobook so I appreciate this. I didn't know that part about the language.

>40 benitastrnad: A Bruno cookbook sounds wonderful. Like >41 cbl_tn: I may have to get it for my own Christmas present! I'd be tempted to try the other languages, but I think I'd appreciate it more in English.

>43 thornton37814:
I have noticed that some recorded books read the Acknowledgements and/or Author's Notes and some don't. Just as some read footnotes and some don't. I think that is one of the hazards of listening to a book instead of reading it. Even if I listen to a book, I try to have a hardcopy of it close at hand just so I can check on some things. I also like to check maps and that is one of the big reasons why I don't listen to nonfiction. I think I just miss out on so much of the paratext of the book and those are things that I need to fully understand what the author is trying to say.

I finished listening to The Coldest Case last night. I thought it was one of the more interesting cases in the series. However, Bruno is beginning to strain credulity. What would happen to St. Denis if Bruno wasn't around to tell everyone what to do and when and how to do it? He would seem more human if he exhibited an occasional flaw. Doesn't he ever burn toast?

>45 cbl_tn:
Or have a dish that didn't turn out to be wonderful and tasty? I noticed that there was teasing of the British guy about his cooking, but none of Bruno.

In Bruno's defense, he does seem a bit desperate when it comes to women. Remember in a previous book when he has the affair with a suspect and it does come back to bite him. But, not seriously, and that strained credulity a bit for me.

This last Wednesday on the PBS program "Secrets of the Dead" the program was about Prehistoric Women and their place in the prehistoric societies. Several times the prehistoric sites all over France were discussed and three of the sites in the Dordogne were part of that presentation. One of them was the overhang cave that has been featured in the Bruno books. It was exciting because I recognized the name of Les Eyzies and the cave that was mentioned in the books. The program featured some great animations and those also reminded me of how impressed Bruno was with the way the animations and the reconstructions brought the people and their lives to life.

Our book for April will be book 2 in the Inspector Huss series by Swedish author Helene Tursten. Night Rounds is the second book in the series in publication order, but was not translated into English until 2012, which makes it book 5 or 6 if you go by English publication date. By some fluke, my local public library has Night Rounds and I will be checking it out as soon as I get back to Tuscaloosa.

This novel involves the murder of one nurse, the disappearance of another, and the appearance of a nurse who died 60 years previously.

I have found myself wondering how it is that this year we are skipping around geographically and historically in our reading. It does keep things interesting.

I've just borrowed the Tursten book on audio, thought I'd give it a try that way. And I just realized I've just completed the May entry! Looking forward to other people's comments.

eta: I've read a lot of Tursten, but not this one. Interesting enough, although it was pretty easy to figure out the villain.

I've finished Night Rounds. I liked the unusual setting in a private hospital. I think the author is still trying to find her stride, and the pacing isn't quite right. This book has a different translator, and it seems to flow a little better.

I think the story line about Nurse Tekla being Dr. Lowander's mother really doesn't serve a purpose. It's not a motive for the murder, and it's not really a red herring, either, so why include it?

I hope Jenny's rebelliousness isn't going to be a pattern in the series. Jenny isn't going to learn from her mistakes if Irene keeps shielding her from the consequences.

I am reading Silver Pigs now, and I really like it. Falco is a likable character. The setting is really interesting, both time and place. Of course I knew who Nero was, but I will look up some more background. It’s a good mystery, but not too gruesome. Hope to finish the book in time to be able to start the second book in May!

I also finished Night Rounds. I thought the translation a little rough in some places and figured that was because it was a different translator and because it is always true that some things in one language don't translate well into another language. I also think the author is still working on finding her style and flow. It was an interesting story with plenty of red herrings. It was a fun book, with lots of insights into the Swedish culture - like the idea of private hospitals and how common they once were. I think we Americans tend to think of Europe as one big monolithic socialized medicine area, but the reality is that many countries have many different permutations of state supported medical care.

I am always amazed at how much I learn about countries by reading mysteries.

>51 EllaTim:
I really enjoyed the first book in the Falco series as well. I am looking forward to reading the other entries in the series.

>52 benitastrnad: How much you can learn about countries by reading mysteries! I couldn’t agree more, one of the reasons I liked Falco.

It is May 1st and I want to do a little wrap-up of Night Rounds. If anybody has any comments regarding this mystery novel feel free to go ahead and post them.

This novel is the second in the Inspector Huss series to be published in Sweden. However, it was not published in English (and therefore in the U.S.) until 2012. By the time this novel was translated and published in English the Inspector Huss series was already fairly well known to English readers, so I was surprised to find that the translation was a bit rough in places. The plot for this novel was that of a standard police procedural. It is clear that the reader is getting a better picture of how the team of police detectives works. Who are the quiet, get-the-job-done types, who are the troublemakers, and how the Swedish police system works.

There were a couple of things that stood out to me in this novel and both of them are cultural/society things. This novel was originally published in 1999 and it gives the reader a good idea of how men and women worked together twenty years ago. It is easy to forget that in 1999 women were still newcomers to police work and integrating them into the teams was still taking place. Tursten has provided us with a good window into that process, that by now (2023) we may have forgotten. Another aspect of this, is that we see how a police unit functions day-to-day. In one scene in the book, one person is out because his whole family, including him, has the flu. This has an effect on who in the unit is assigned to do which job. The conflict with the one rude man who makes remarks to the pretty female detective creates situations at the workplace that have to be dealt with. Has I read this book, it struck me that Tursten is making an effort to show us how these units deal with the mundane real-life daily situations. These are often skipped over in many other detective series. Perhaps this is why this series has found a following over the years?

I also noticed the development of the supporting cast for Irene Huss. Her family life is taking shape for me, as well as her professional life. The people that she works with on her team are taking on distinct personalities as are the members of her family. Irene's family life is also changing. Her husband is making an effort to change the family eating habits and Irene isn't sure that she likes that. Irene now has teenage daughters who are finding their own identities and she is unsure of how to proceed with this.

The two things that I have described are some of the reasons why Tursten gets classed as a women's fiction author. I am not sure that I like that tag, as I tend to want to believe that authors are authors and I find the use of the term authoress, silly and borderline offensive. However, in thinking about the two novels in the Inspector Huss series that we have read so far, I have noticed a distinctive slant in the presentation of the mystery that, given the time in which these two books were written would have been unique.

The book that we will be reading in May is the second book in the Marcus Didius Falco series - Shadows in Bronze. This book was first published in 1990 and I had a hard time finding a copy of it in any of the local libraries available to me. I ended up placing an Inter-Library Loan request for it, which I received last Thursday. Because it has a limited checkout time, I will be reading as soon as I can get started on it.

In this installment Falco is sent on an assignment for the Emperor Vespasian that takes him out of town. His journey to Naples, Capri, and Pompeii, gets him away from Helena Justina and involved with grain shipments into Rome. But then Helena Justina appears and Falco has all kinds of things to deal with that include Helena.

I had a good wander through Lindsey Davis' web site this morning and found all sort of interesting things to spend time reading. (One thing retirement has already taught me, is that my home laptop is a big time suck!) She is still doing her Tuesday read alouds. I thought it would be interesting so I registered for this, as it will be at 1:00 PM on May 9, 2023. Retirement allows me to be where I can listen at that time, so I will do so and let you guys know how it goes.

Here is the information regarding that event in case any of you might be interested in joining. I am not sure what she will be reading, but she will be reading aloud.

Listen with Lindsey 2023: Our reading aloud sessions will continue, normally on the second Tuesday of the month. These are on Zoom; you don’t need it installed but for security reasons you must register. You can register here:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUpcOuprzwpHdUzbX7V1cJDJxXyAp_WHUuH

then you will receive a link for joining in, which should allow you to attend one or all. For copyright reasons these sessions will not be recorded so I’m afraid they won’t be available afterwards.

This year’s next readings will be at 7.00pm UK time: 11 April (Fatal Legacy), 9 May, 13 June, 11 July, 8 August, 12 September, 10 October, 14 November*, 12 December.

*March and November, if outside the UK time zone please check whether your summer time/daylight saving matches the UK change.

>56 benitastrnad: Listen with Lindsey sounds fun. If only I could hear! I did re-read Shadows in Bronze back in November, so I'll probably not revisit it this month. But I'll be back for Copper.

I have started reading Shadows in Bronze and am enjoying it. There is lots of snarky wordplay in this book, and I suspect that there is lots of snarky commentary on the history of Rome as well. I am probably not well versed enough on that history to pick up on all of it, but what I do know I find funny. Today I was giggling a bit while I was reading. This is a welcome change from all the heavy duty stuff I have been reading lately.

>52 benitastrnad: I wouldn’t say private hospitals used to be very common in Sweden- we’ve had publicly funded healthcare since at least the 1600s, and publicity funded hospitals since the 1800s. There always existed private institutions, of course, but they were (and still are) limited to the big cities where there were enough rich people who could pay for the care. The big masses would go to the public hospitals.

>59 PawsforThought:
WOW! Publicly funded hospitals since the 1600's! That is impressive. Thanks for that information. Of course I would have been impressed if Sweden had publicly funded health care since 1950. Sometimes, I just don't understand what people in the US are thinking.

>60 benitastrnad: Keep in mind there weren’t very many hospitals back then, and they were probably more similar to what we’d call a doctor’s office today. Combined with some beds for palliative care. Not exactly top of the line medical care.

I finished reading Shadows in Bronze today and I have to say that this book provided me with giggles aplenty. I thought the book was overly long, but it was filled with humor and that Falconian sarcasm. This book also provided some great insights into Roman family life and Roman Civil Law. Both of these things are not generally a part of the books that are written about Rome. I found the little tidbits about marriage and family life were very informative and allowed me to see how people lived and what the government did or didn't do for them. Some parts of the book were simply over-the-top. Like the part about Falco doing the trick riding around the track at the Circus Maximus. The scenes there made me wish whole heartedly that the Circus Maximus was still intact and that we were able to see it. It must have been intimidatingly impressive.

I found this amusing passage in the book (in my copy it is page 313). "I planned the best route I could round the southern side of the Palatine, thought it meant clambering through the grounds of Nero's Golden House. The Golden House was in limbo - too extravagant for the Flavians - so I found a whole convention of surveyors crowding the lake area, trying to decide what our respectable new Emperor should do with it. Vespasian himself had a grand idea that this prime site should be returned to the people, the Flavians' gift to Rome for all posterity ... So here were the designers, about to wish on us a fifteen-year construction site for their new city amphitheatre. The last thing I wanted as I struggled to reach the Camillus house was having my way impeded by a swarm of dreary architects in peculiar-coloured tunics, planning yet another forgettable Imperial monument. It strikes me the happy Roman mortar mixer who developed the use of concrete has a lot to answer for."

The book I have is a hardback and in the back of the book there are MAPS!!!! One of those maps is of the ancient Roman city showing the sites of famous places along with the ancient names of the streets and main roads. The site of the "forgettable Imperial monument" in that passage is what we know of as the Roman Coliseum! I laughed out loud when I read that passage and then looked at the map to see what the author was talking about. 2,000 years later I am so glad that particular "Imperial Monument" is still standing, and in fact is now undergoing major repairs. It makes we want to shout "Long Live the Flavians!" - except for Domitian, who was a "forgettable Imperial monument."

I read a hardcopy of this book that I had to request through Inter-Library Loan. It was an original 1990 edition and I was pleased to see that the book was quite well worn. It had an old date due slip in the front and it had been checked out 9 times before 2000 - the date of the last stamp in the book. However, I think it has been checked out more often than that as it has a well broken in spine. Just for kicks, I am going to write my return date on the date due slip when I take the book back to the library.

I kept thinking, while I was reading this book, that this series would make a great TV series. It has the right mix of action, humor, romance, and serious history that would make it a success.

>62 benitastrnad: OMG I've never seen a hardback of a Marcus Didius Falco book and was going by random maps of ancient Rome - most 150-400 CE. I will so have to find a copy! I kind of know where the Palatine, Aventine and old Forum are, but it gets really vague after that.

Most likely I won't be on Librarything until after June 1, so I thought I would go ahead and remind all of you about our book for June. It is To Kill A Troubadour by Martin Walker. This is book 15 in the Bruno, Chief of Police - Bruno Courreges series. This book was published in August of 2022 and lots of libraries have a copy of this title so it shouldn't be hard to find. The short version of the Booklist review says this about the book.

When a musician’s new song hits a political nerve, he finds himself in the crosshairs of Spanish nationalists’ ire, and it’s up to Bruno to track down the extremists who seem ready to take deadly measures, in another delightful installment of the internationally acclaimed series featuring Bruno, Chief of Police.

“As usual, Walker concocts a satisfying dish featuring an intriguing lead character who moves through enviable settings and enjoys wonderful meals while tracking down criminals.”—Booklist

The Amazon blurb has a more detailed description of the plot. As usual I am sure that food and descriptions of the local culture will be found in abundance in the book.

I will be spending most of June 1st driving to Kansas City to eat a meal with my nephew. We will be celebrating his birthday and his new job at Lidia's of Kansas City. This is one of Lidia Bastianich's restaurants and I have been looking forward to sharing this feast with my nephew since he announced his new job last month. He will be moving to O'Neil, Nebraska and that will be lot longer drive away from Kansas City than is Munden, so we are going now to celebrate his June birthday and this new job.

>64 benitastrnad: Have a great trip!

I have already started the audio of To Kill a Troubadour and I'm about 2/3 through the book. I will likely finish it this weekend. I am more interested in the subplot featuring Florence than the main plot.

It has been a long time since anybody posted on the thread! I am not sure how long it takes for a thread to go dormant, but this might be close.

I got behind on my reading in June. I spent longer in Kansas with my mother than I thought I would and so didn't have our June book with me. I just finished reading To Kill a Troubadour today and as always enjoyed my journey into the food, wine, cooking, and culture of the Périgord with Bruno. This was book 15 in this series and I have to say that this book was not really a murder mystery. However, it was a thorough walk through of the daily life of a policeman in the small towns in France. I also liked the little foray into the spy culture of modern Europe. The book also helped me to understand a bit better how much effect those "fake" news social media postings have on the world. I don't have a Facebook page, now What's App, no Tik Tok, no Instagram, so I just don't get why they are so effective at turning peoples minds into mush. This book helped me understand that a bit better.

As a side note - the new Bruno book for 2023 will be published in late August. Amazon has it titled as Chateau Under Siege. It will be book 16 in the series and we will be reading it in September.

It is now time for us to start reading our book for July. It is Torso by the Swedish author Helene Tursten. It is the third book in the Inspector Huss series. Here is the blurb about the book from Amazon.

Part of a human torso washes up on a beach near Goteborg, Sweden. (the Swedish name for the city is Goteborg, but most of us will know it by the English spelling of Gothenburg.) It is so mutilated that gender is only established by DNA testing. A similar crime, now several years old, remains unsolved in Denmark. Detective Inspector Irene Huss is dispatched to Copenhagen to liaise with police there in pursuing the killer. Then a third corpse is discovered. This time it's identified. She is a girl Detective Huss knew; she was asked by the girl's mother to locate her missing daughter. The next victim, the son of the woman heading the Copenhagen crime squad, is also known to Huss. She fears the killer is tracking her, killing people with whom she is connected. There is even a chilling suggestion that he or she is one of her colleagues.

I did not want to purchase this book so placed an Inter-Library Loan request for it on June 24, 2023. It still has not come in. I will start to read it as soon as it gets here, but that won't be today. More likely, it will be the end of the week. I usually do a bit of research in WorldCat to see how easy it would be to get the book, and this time I didn't have time to do that either. Part of the fun of getting ILL books is seeing what libraries the come from. Shadows in Bronze came from Colorado State University, so I wonder where this one is going to come from?

I enjoyed the previous two books in the Inspector Huss series, but the blurb seems to make this book more like the grotesque murder mysteries of many of the very popular ScandiCrime series by other authors. I am not a real fan of that kind of murder mystery, so I will find it interesting to read this one and try to gage the direction that Tursten is taking the series. I don't consider myself squeamish, but in the case of some of the Nordic Noir series, I think they are just over-the-top with describing the death throes of many of the victims. I can do without that in my life. I guess I prefer my murder mysteries to be rather bloodless and perhaps more clinical in description than what some of the series I have read want to write. Now that I think about it that does make me squeamish.

Happy reading of Torso and let us know what you think of the book when you finish it.

>66 benitastrnad: Vox has an interesting piece on why TikTok is so popular, having to do with choice fatigue, among other things. I myself don't use it, but I do tend to retreat when choice fatigue hits.

I was able to download Torso from the library. Although I've read it before, it will be nice to take it on vacation with me this weekend. I skipped June because I'm nowhere near that part of the Bruno series.

I was just pursuing lists of books that are going to come out in the next three months and discovered amongst the list Wandering Through Life: A Memoir by Donna Leon. It will be on sale on September 19, 2023. Here is the Amazon blurb.

The internationally bestselling author of the Guido Brunetti mysteries tells her own adventurous life story as she enters her eighties

In a series of vignettes full of affection, irony, and good humor, Donna Leon narrates a remarkable life she feels has rather more happened to her than been planned.

Following a childhood in the company of her New Jersey family, with frequent visits to her grandfather’s farm and its beloved animals, and summers spent selling homegrown tomatoes by the roadside, Leon got her first taste of the classical music and opera that would enrich her life. She also developed a yen for adventure. In 1976, she made the spontaneous decision to teach English in Iran, before finding herself swept up in the early days of the 1979 Revolution. After teaching stints in China and Saudi Arabia, she finally landed in Venice. Leon vividly animates her decades-long love affair with Italy, from her first magical dinner when serving as a chaperone to a friend, to the hunt for the perfect cappuccino, to the warfare tactics of grandmothers doing their grocery shopping at the Rialto Market.

Some things remain constant throughout the decades: her adoration of opera, especially Handel’s vocal music, and her advocacy for the environment, embodied in her passion for bees—which informs the surprising crux of the Brunetti mystery Earthly Remains. Even as mass tourism takes its toll on the patience of residents, Leon’s passion for Venice remains unchanged: its outrageous beauty and magic still captivate her.

Having recently celebrated her eightieth birthday, Leon poignantly confronts the dual challenges and pleasures of aging. Complete with a brief letter dissuading those hoping to meet Guido Brunetti at the Questura, and always suffused with music, food, and her sharp sense of humor, Wandering through Life offers Donna Leon at her most personal.

I finally got my copy of Torso from ILL last night. I will start reading it tonight. It is longer than I expected. My copy has 341 pages and it is small type. It is the same size as a trade paperback, so it won't be one of those books that I have to turn lots of pages.

I laughed when I picked up the book. It is a hardback copy, but like most university library books, the dust jacket has been removed. Since I did my deep dive into the concept of paratext, I think that removing the dust jacket is definitely stepping into the realm of mutilating a book. When I picked up the book and started to thumb through it I noticed that the spine of this book has been broken in three places! It appears that this is one university library book that has been read many times.

>67 benitastrnad: Actually, the Swedish name for the city is Göteborg, not Goteborg. Ö is not the same letter as O. In this particular case it’s obvious what is meant, but in some other words it makes a huge difference (bok = book, bök = a mess, a bother).

>70 benitastrnad: I finished The Torso yesterday. It really should have a warning on it. Hope it's not to gruesome for you.

>72 ffortsa:
I finished reading the novel last night and you are correct. This one is much more gruesome than the previous books in the Inspector Huss series. It seems to me that there was a dark side to these murder mystery thrillers that started coming in the late 1990's. I noticed it first with the Anna Pigeon series by Nevada Barr, but it seemed to really take off with the Lizabeth Solander series by Steig Larson. I am not sure that I like it.

I also noticed with this novel, that it is very much a product of the time before the Internet and the World Wide Web. (though there is cell phones in this one.) It was published in 2000 and so this would not have been part of the culture then as it is now.

I also noticed that the gay culture was depicted as shocking and at first I thought that attitude was very jarring to my 2020's sensibilities. Then I realized that back in 2000 this culture would have been very exotic to most readers and in fact would have seemed like a foreign culture. I made me stop to think how things have changed a great deal in 20 years. It also made me wonder if this novel wears well with the changing times. I did not find it offensive in its depiction of the culture. I just found it very conservative. It made me stop and think about my life span and how I have changed and accepted things now that I would not have done in the past.

I very much like the character of Irene Huss and I like the way the author has written the supporting cast. This makes the series interesting for me to read, but I don't like the blood and guts approach. This will make me cautious in my approach to the future novels in this series.

I usually wait until the end of the month to write that kind of analysis of the book for the month, but I am leaving this morning to drive back to Kansas. My brother-in-law died suddenly and the funeral for him will be next week. It is highly likely that I will not be on LT much in the next two weeks, as my entire family is gathering in Munden Kansas for this funeral, so I posted my thoughts early. I should be back on here regularly around August 1, 2023. So if you don't hear from me before then - don't worry. I am still here and still with the group.

I just got this month's book. I don't know if I'll finish it this month or not, but I'll try. I really wanted it in audio, but neither library had it in that format--digital or CD.

>74 benitastrnad: sorry to hear about your brother-in-law. Sudden loss can be disorienting. Condolences to his immediate family as well.

>74 benitastrnad: I'm sorry for your family's loss.

>74 benitastrnad: I'm so sorry for your loss.

I just finished The Torso and I'm still processing it. Some random thoughts... The translation seemed a lot smoother. It's a different translator than either of the first two books, I think, so I'm not sure if the improvement is due to the translation, to the author's development, or a combination of the two. It pushed the boundaries of my comfort zone with the graphic details, but I was able to eat lunch or dinner while reading it and it didn't give me nightmares. I like the supporting characters that surround Irene, especially Hannu, and I'm glad we learned more about him in this novel.

Irene has a habit of lying to get herself out of serious trouble, and I don't like that aspect of her character. I also didn't like that she contemplated an affair with one of the policemen she met in Copenhagen without any apparent feelings of guilt. As a wife and mother in what seems to be a stable and happy family unit, why wouldn't she have mental reservations about having an affair?

I finished it by the end of the month, but I'm still not a fan. I did not like the ending.

I never read Shadows in Bronze back in May because it was not available before I left for a conference. I may try to read it. I wish it were available unabridged in audio, but all our library has is a 2 hour 39 minute BBC full dramatization version. I had so much trouble getting into the first one in print that I think I'm going to try to listen to this abridgement of the second before trying this month's work. I may not get the full effect, but it will at least be partial.

>81 thornton37814:
In general, I think that the BBC dramatizations are very well done. Last Christmas I listened to the 12 part dramatization of The Dark Is Rising and thought it great. In fact, I recommended it to one of our student teachers to use for a series of lesson plans on a book for 5 grade.

All of you may recall that I signed up to the "Listen to Lindsey" monthly reading done by Lindsey Davis. (See post 56 for the link). I still haven't 'listened." Last month I had it on my calendar but I got the wrong time. I thought it was at 7:30 PM but it was at 1:30 PM. I had forgotten about the time difference between the U.K. and the U.S. (I know - stupid) I do intend to listen to it on August 15. That will be the second Tuesday. i did learn that once you sign up for the session, an e-mail reminder with the link is sent to you the day before the broadcast.

I am having lots of problems with my internet connectivity while I am here in Kansas. My mother has contracted Shingles and Tuesday night I had to take her to the emergency room. (the pain from the Shingles was so intense, neither she nor I could deal with it.) That means that I will be in Kansas for much longer than I anticipated. I am going to have to request the book through ILL and will take longer. Never fear, I will be joining you.

The book for August 2023 is Venus in Copper by Lindsey Davis. The book was first published in the U.K. in 1991 and was not published in the U.S. until 1993 by Crown publishers.

This installment in the series begins in the late spring of 71 C.E., soon after the events in the previous book Shadows in Bronze. As in Shadows in Bronze the continuing relationship between Falco and Helena is part of the book. This book focuses on the daily life of Rome and in particular deals with the housing crises that the city of Rome continues to experience as the city grows and grows and ...

So far this series is the one that I am liking the best out of the new series we are reading this year. It is good entertainment for me, and I am learning much about how Rome functioned. I like that aspect of the series. For instance, in the first book Silver Pigs, I learned that Roman citizens traveled around Europe much more than I thought they did. Of course, the average citizen probably didn't, but clearly anybody connected with the Roman infrastructure could move about throughout the empire fairly easily. Big surprise for me.

I started looking for a used copy of this book a month ago. We have several really good used book stores in the Tuscaloosa area and I was sure that I would find one. Not so. I have not found a single copy of the earlier books in the Marcus Didius Falco series in any of these book stores and have had to place ILL requests for both of them. Since I am in Kansas at present and not likely to be back in Tuscaloosa anytime soon, I am going to go to the local public library today and see if they can place an ILL request for the book for me. This is a small county public library in a county with a total population of 4,500. ILL requests are made through the regional state library system and I am not sure how long it will take to get an ILL request through them. Watch this thread, for reports of how that goes. If it will take longer than two weeks to get here I will just order a used copy from one of the online sources. However, like many of you - I like to use my library resources and so will purchase a copy only as a last resort.

Used copies of this title seem to be readily available, so I wish all of you happy reading when you get your copies. From whatever source you can find - BBC productions included.

I am also surprised by the number of posts that we have been making regarding our reactions to the books. We are ahead of where we were last year in posts for this group. I enjoy reading your comments and reactions so keep posting them. I am also glad for your suggestions for series as I have found some great reading material. Of course, there are some I like better than others, but these are certainly entertaining and enlightening titles in many ways. Even the ones, I don't particularly care for.

This week is the county Fair week here in Republic County Kansas and I went to the Fair last night with my sister. It was 4-H night and we watched the style show and saw the big awards given for the clothing events. Today is the Beef judging (swine was yesterday) but I did not make it through the 4-H projects exhibits so will do that this evening.

I entered two knitted items in the Open Class Needlework judging and won a Best of Fair for my intarsia knitted shawl. I thought my intarsia knitted stocking cap would win that prize, but it got a blue ribbon and nothing else. However, winning that was a pleasant surprise.

Happy reading everybody.

>84 benitastrnad: Benita, is there anywhere online where we can see your prizewinning knitting?

>84 benitastrnad: Congrats on your fair wins! I don't think my county has a fair--at least I've never heard of one. The next county over does have one. I might consider submitting a cross-stitch piece in the future.

>85 ffortsa:
I don't have any way to get pictures onto a computer. I can take pictures with my cell phone, but cell phone doesn't have internet access so it is hard to do. However, my picture will be in the Belleville Telescope because of my Best of Fair win. I may get the ladies at the yarn shop in Gadsden to take one and post it on the shop's web site, but you will have to wait until I get back to Alabama. That will possibly be around August 23.

>84 benitastrnad:
Attendance at the Fair was high this year, but entries in the Open Classes were down. So were 4-H entries. The county is losing population so that explains the drop in entries. I have lots of cousins who are in 4-H and FFA so they did their best to bolster entry numbers, but there still weren't very many. I had two cousins who entered kolaches in the Czech Club baking contest and they won their categories, but there weren't many entries. I may have to get busy and enter next year.

My ILL request for Venus in Copper just came in today. I will pick it up tonight and shouldn't have much of a problem getting it read soon. There is still almost a week left in August and these books move fast. Especially if I spend a couple of afternoons at the swimming pool.

My local public library doesn't have the brand new Bruno book in, so I picked up the book of short stories that is part of this series instead. Bruno's Challenge & Other Dordogne Tales was sitting on the shelf, so I grabbed it. If I can't get the newest book, I will read this one instead.

Our book for September is the newest entry in the Bruno Courreges series - Chateau Under Siege. This book was just released yesterday, August 29, so it may be hard for us to get. My local library does not have it out on the shelf yet, and when I asked about it, I was told it was not even in the library. They do have it on order, but it is not in the building. The book Bruno's Challenge was on the shelf, so I grabbed that one and will read it instead. It is a compilation of many of the short stories that Martin Walker posts on his web site. So far they have been enjoyable and will give me my Bruno fix for awhile. I will come back and read the newest one when I can. I suspect that it may be a month or two as this series has proved popular.

Here is the short blurb about Chateau Under Siege straight from the page on Amazon. When an actor in a local play is attacked during a performance, Bruno must learn whether it was an accident, a crime of passion, or an assassination attempt with implications far beyond the small French village

If you can get the book - happy reading.

well, Venus in Copper was engaging as usual with these books. I listen to them because the narrative voice is so much fun.

On to Bruno. I'm WAY behind the crowd here - just ordered the third title from the library and will listen to it on my walks this week..

>91 ffortsa:
I am glad that you are enjoying the Marcus Didius Falco series. I have fun with them as well. I am going to start reading Venus in Copper tonight. It just came in through ILL a few days ago and I plan on devoting the weekend to reading this book.

I decided to listen to Black Diamond to give my eyes a break, but I don't like it on audio as much as I liked the Didias Falco ones. Different styles, different degrees of description, etc. Still, it was a nice listen. Bruno is a bit more physically active in this one, beaten up, rescuing people in a fire, etc. And there's woman trouble. But it's mostly about truffles. I don't think I've ever had real truffles. Must add that to my list.

>93 ffortsa:
Before this series is done there will be lots of food and wines that you will want to try!

>88 benitastrnad: I read all the Falco books several years ago and enjoyed them all. You are in for a treat if you continue with the series. I was disappointed that Lindsey Davies did not continue with the series beyond book 20. I have read some of the Falvia Alba (Falco's adopted daughter) books but did not find them as much fun.

I finished reading Venus in Copper late last night and loved it. This series is so much fun to read. I learn so much from this series about the social and cultural life of Ancient Rome so I do plan on continuing to read these books. I learned what a Turbot is. That entire scene in the book was much fun and I suspect will be significant in some future volume of the book.

I had hopes of getting to listen to Lindsey read this month, but that is not going to happen. It falls on Tuesday night September 12 and that is the night that my Wine Club meets. Listening to Lindsey will have to wait until October.

>96 benitastrnad: The turbot scene was a howl. I agree.

I finally got the times straightened out and did a session of the "Listen With Lindsey." This is Lindsey Davis reading from one of her books for one hour on Zoom. This is a practice that she started at the beginning of the COVID lockdown and, due to its popularity, has continued. I signed up for it back in March and due to one thing or another just didn't make the connections. Yesterday I did and at 1:00 PM Central Daylight Time I got to hear Lindsey Davis read from her book Vesuvius by Night. This book is connected to the Marcus Didius Falco and the Flavia Albia series, but is not part of either one of them. This book is currently out-of-print but Davis announced at the beginning of the read and at the end that this book and the entire Flavia Albia and Marcus Didius Falco series is going to be reissued in paperback and in recorded book form. The first books will be released in October. She was sure of the date for the release because she had just recorded her new introduction for the recorded versions.

The reading itself was fun and Davis is a good reader. She explained that the reason she was reading from that book was because one of the regular listeners had requested it. AND, because it was being released along with the other books in her series. (good advertisement)

There were approximately 75 people listening and at least one of them was from the US. It is no surprise tat most of the listeners were from the UK, but there was a woman from Baltimore. People did not mute or shut off their video at the beginning, although once Lindsey Davis started reading she muted everybody. From the appearance of those attending this reading, I would guess that most of the listeners were retirees, like myself!

I logged in about 12:30 PM so I got to hear all the pre-reading chatter. It was clear that many of the listeners were regulars and knew each other from previous readings. The Baltimore woman had just recently returned from the UK where she had done a train and railroad tour of Yorkshire and part of Scotland. She spent lots of time in Durham and Newcastle where she went to several railroad museums. The reason she was into the railroad thing was that she serves on the board for the B&O Railroad Historical Society here in the US and 2025 is the 200th anniversary of the founding of the B&O. The UK Rail societies celebrated their 200 anniversary several years ago and she was there to learn how they did it. This same woman had attended one of the literary archeology workshops that Lindsey Davis does periodically to Roman and Celtic Britain sites. She named dropped the fact that she had lunch with Lindsey Davis while she was on her trip earlier this year to Yorkshire and she did so because they were acquainted due to her attendance of the workshop. (for more about these workshops, check out the Lindsey Davis website.) That was an interesting conversation prior to the reading.

There was a bit of technical difficulty when Lindsey first started - nobody could hear her - but that was straightened out. Lindsey made the announcement about the book release and then started reading. She read for exactly one hour from the time she started - that was about 10 minutes after the scheduled start time of 1 PM. At the end of the reading she again announced the new releases and then took questions or comments about the reading. In many ways it felt like a book club meeting at that stage, rather than just a simple reading. I will say that Lindsey Davis was gracious and didn't seem to mind the discussion or the questions that were asked, both vocally and in the Chat box.

It was an interesting experience, and I will try to sign up to do it again. It was an enjoyable two hours and I would recommend that you try it - if you have the time or the inclination. Most certainly look for the reissued books and maybe getting your hands on a recorded version of the books won't be so hard.

I'm not loving the Falco series. I'm glad some of you like it. I've decided to skip the months with Falco. I'm not super happy with the Tursten one, but I can tolerate it. I love Bruno and Brunetti! I've got an estimated wait of 9 weeks on the Martin Walker one.

It is SpookTober (October) and all the blowup Halloween decorations are out in the yards here in the USA. Therefore, it is appropriate that our mystery for October is Glass Devil by Helene Tursten. This is book 4 in the Irene Huss series by Tursten. This novel was published in Sweden in 2002 and the English translation was published in 2007.

As in the previous novel in this series, Huss travels to another European country. In this case, she is off to England. Here is the blurb for this title.

The principal of a high school telephones his friend, Inspector Andersson of the Göteborg Crime Police; one of his teachers failed to show up for work. To Inspector Irene Huss’ surprise, on the basis of this vague complaint her boss drives out with her to a remote cottage in snowbound southern Sweden to investigate. There they find a body, its head blasted by a rifle. Teacher Jacob Schyttelius has been murdered. When they go to break the news to his elderly parents, Pastor Sten Schyttelius and his wife, they find the couple dead in their beds, each shot between the eyes. Upside-down pentagrams have been drawn in blood on their computer screens. The only surviving member of the family is a daughter, now residing in London, but she is too distressed to be interviewed. Is the killer a member of a satanic cult? Is it the parish treasurer, rumored to have been embezzling church funds? Or one of the assistant pastors, tired of waiting for a promotion? Perhaps the attractive blonde who sings in church and practices witchcraft? Irene Huss has a hunch that the answer lies in England, and she travels there twice to discover the reason for this triple homicide.

It took a long time to get the previous novel Torso from our Inter-Library Loan department so I requested this title Glass Devil 10 days ago. Surprise, Surprise! It came in on September 26th. (That was fast for books by this author.) Since I finished my book earlier this evening I will start reading it tonight. It is a nice coincidence that the word "devil" is in the title. That makes it a good title for October.

I look forward to hearing what all of you have to say about this entry in the series.

I remember Glass Devil, having read it twice! I'll use the month to catch up on some of the Bruno titles.

The difficulties in getting some of these older titles in a series has been on my mind a bit this last year because it has taken me so long to get some of theme through our ILL department, which is normally fast and efficient. Part of the problem is that the are older copyrights and part of the problem is that they are popular. The previous Helen Tursten book came to me through ILL and the book was falling apart. It had a broken back in three places and the frontispiece was the only thing holding the book together. The Date Due slip indicated that it had been checked out many times since it was published in 2006. Public Libraries would weed a book that was in that condition. Fortunately, academic libraries don't. They tend to keep books around for ever. Even if they are in bad shape. However, when I checked out Torso from our circulation desk, I asked that they make a note in the record that the book was falling apart when I checked it out as I didn't want to be charged for returning a damaged book. Glass Devil is in much better shape. Practically new.

In the Listen with Lindsey reading that I participated in last month, she mentioned that the Marcus Didius Falco series was started in the late 1980's. Her second Roman series Flavia Alba was started in 2013 and became very popular quite quickly. This popularity has driven the demand for reprinting the earlier novels because they are so hard to come by. The Marcus Didius Falco series was never released in a recorded version and that will be rectified with this new printing.

I know that the Tony Hillerman books are also going to be reprinted and done in recorded versions for the very same reason. That makes me shout Huzzah! because these older series will get a whole new audience.

>103 benitastrnad: That's odd about the Falco series. I've listened to the first three or four titles over the last couple of years. Are they new recordings?

>104 ffortsa:
They are new and there is a new recorded introduction done by Lindsey Davis. She talked a little about her experience with doing the recording in the studio in her "listen with Lindsey" Zoom meeting. The books are a new printing and they also have new covers. The addition of the new introduction makes these a new edition, thereby extending the copyright coverage dates, and, of course, attracting new readers.

>105 benitastrnad: Hm. I've really loved the ones I've already listened to. I'd better watch the reader name on the next one.

>106 ffortsa:
There was an update on the Listen with Lindsey read aloud that was on October 10, 2023. It turns out that it is going to be a long time before there will be a recorded version of the Marcus Didius Falco series available in the U.S. The reason is that the U.S. publishing company that has the rights to this series sold the recording rights to a second company. Apparently the negotiations for the release of the new recorded version did not go well, so there will not be a U.S. release of the new recorded version of this series in the U.S. Ms. Davis did not elaborate on what went wrong, but she said it was a real "cock up" and that for the time being her new publisher was dropping the U.S. release. She said that she had hopes that eventually the new version would be released in the U.S., but not any time soon.

It is getting close to the end of October and I have finished reading Glass Devil. I enjoyed this entry in the Inspector Huss series. In many ways it was a more conventional murder mystery and just the kind of mystery that I like. I had feared that Tursten was taking the series into darker areas than I like to read, but that was not the case with this novel.

There was much more in this novel about Irene's daily life and gradually the author is bringing in other characters of the police squad and fleshing them out to the reader. I like that. I also liked the idea of Irene traveling to London in this book. I also liked the travel to Copenhagen in the previous book in the series. This bit of sleuthing in other cities in Europe gives me a sense of what it is like to live and work in the fabled cities. That sense of travel without traveling is what I like about reading these mysteries set in other countries.

I am looking forward to reading the next title in this series - in the new year

>107 benitastrnad: Oh dear. I don't know of a way to get the British recordings.

>109 ffortsa:
I should clarify. I am talking about the new version of the Marcus Didius Falco series. I think that the old recorded versions will still be available. It is the new version that won't be available in the U.S. until they get the copyright details worked out.

As I understand it, the only difference between the new and old versions is that the new version has introductions to each book written by Lindsey Davis. This new introduction, or Forward, allows the entire book to be called a new edition and so it does not affect the previous copyrights. However, in the case of the new recorded version, they have a new narrator who does all of the books in the series, so they wouldn't have the same narrator as the old recorded versions.

The new version of the series is now united under one publisher, instead of several, as was the case with the old series. The new series has new covers and the new introductions along with the title united under the new publisher. I noticed that the book I am currently reading in the series is published by Mysterious Press when the previous ones were published by Minotaur and one of them was published by Crown. I didn't catch who the new publisher when Davis was telling about it in the last Listen with Lindsey. I will listen closer during the November reading.

To add to the problems the copyright laws are not the same in the U.K. as they are in the U.S. I think that is the major problem right now. Davis also said that when the books were first published in the U.K. in the late 1980's they were moderately popular in the U.K. and barely noticed in the U.S. It took almost ten years before the series built up a fan base in the U.S. I am guessing that since Davis is now in her 80's that all of these new editions are an effort to get her estate cleaned up and more managable.

>110 benitastrnad: Thanks for the update. I haven't found any further audio recordings past the ones I've already listened to (3, maybe 4). If the recorded versions show up, I'll give them a try if I haven't already supplied my inner voice to the physical product!

In a few hours it will be November 1st and time for us to jump back into the distant past and into the world of Marcus Didius Falco. We will be reading book 4 in the series Iron Hand of Mars by Lindsey Davis. In this novel Falco goes to Germania on a mission for Emperor Vespasian. The year is 71 C.E. and Germany is still largely unsettled and unexplored. The book was originally published in 1992 in the U.K. and in 1993 here in the U.S. We really are reading an ancient book. This novel is 30 years old! I found that it was reviewed in School Library Journal and deemed suitable for YA readers as an adult novel for YA's.

Here is the Publisher's Weekly review of the novel.

In A.D. 71, the Emperor Vespasian sends his reluctant agent Marcus Didius Falco to Germany to bring a rebel chieftain into line and to find a missing legate whose battle-worn legion had surrendered him to a druidic sorceress. In his fourth appearance, after Venus in Copper , the worldly-wise, ever - entertaining Falco journeys up the river Rhenus, encountering hardships and danger, including murder, and resolving puzzles of politics and commerce. In Roman Germany, Falco's military experience in Gaul and his knowledge of historic Gallic battles will help him deal with fort intrigues and the mysterious ways of the forest tribes. His travails in Upper Germany are as much physical as cerebral; indeed, he saves his company from a wild aurochs in a last-ditch leap that recalls ancient Greek bull-dancing practices. Accompanied in part by his lover, the high-born Helena Justina (who has caught the eye of Vespasian's son Titus), and aided by her brother Camillus Justinus, an untried but courageous young officer, Falco stays alive, accomplishes the Emperor's mission and holds on to his girl--feats as accomplished as Davis's seamless blending of humor, history and adventure.

Amazon lists this one as being available on Audible so I hope that you can find the audio recording of this book. I placed an ILL request for it and it was here waiting for me when I got back from my latest trip to Kansas. Since it is cold here this week I intend to spend lots of time in my house reading. This book will be one of those that I will be charging through in the next few days.

>112 benitastrnad: It was available in e format at the second of my three libraries.

Since it is November it is time for us to start thinking about what we want to read for next year - 2024 is coming up and we need to decide if we want to continue as a group or quit. We will also need to think about what we would like to read for next year.

We are ready to read the following titles in these series.

Inspector Huss - book 5 - Golden Calf - there are 6 more books in this series
Guido Brunetti - book 32 - So Shall You Reap - this is the latest book published in this series so when we read this one in December we are caught up with the series. It is highly likely that there will be a new Gudio book in 2024 but there is also Leon's memoir that was published late this year that we could read.
Bruno Courreges - book 16 - we are caught up with this series. I am sure that there will be a new one in 2024 but I don't find it listed anywhere. The Bruno Cookbook will be published in 2024, but I can't find mention of a mystery for this series.
Marcus Didius Falco - book 5- Poseidon's Gold - there are 15 more books in this series.
Longmire - This group caught up with the Longmire series back in 2017. The last book we read for this group in this series was Western Star. There are now 6 new books in this series so perhaps we could go back and pick these up this year.
Guido Guerrieri there was a new one in this series that was published in 2021. It is the final one in the series and is titled Measure of Time.

There are lots of new series that we might want to start but I thought these would give you an idea of where we are in the series that this group has been tackling over the years.

The first question I have for all of you is do you want to continue with this Mystery Reading Group or quit? Once we decide if we want to continue on we can then start thinking about what we want to read.

Think about it and post your answers to this question here.

I'm for continuing! I am enjoying both Falco and Irene Huss so I'm happy to continue those. I have continued to read the Longmire books and I'm all caught up except for the one that was just published in September. If others aren't caught up and want to add it to the group reads, I would be happy to join the discussion!

I'm happy to continue, and I'll try my best to catch up on the series I'm way behind on. As it happens, I just downloaded the Didius Falco title from the library! So for this month, at least, I'm in synch.

I am all for continuing the Falco and the Huss series as well. I am caught up with the Longmire - except for the one that came out in September. I will read it as soon as the number of holds for it at the library is less. Probably later this winter.

Do we want to limit it 2024 to Falco and Huss?

>117 benitastrnad: We have 6 books left of the Irene Huss series so we could complete it next year if we just read the two series.

I did a mockup of the reading schedule for 2024 if we do the two series - Marcus Didius Falco and Inspector Huss. this is what it would look like with two bonuses thrown in.

January - Tursten - Golden Calf
February - Davis - Poseidon's Gold
March - Johnson - Longmire Defense
April - Tursten - Fire Dance
May - Davis - Last Act in Palmyra
June - Tursten - Beige Man
July - Davis - Dying Light in Corduba
August - Donna Leon - Wandering Through Life: A Memoir
September - Tursten - Treacherous Net
October - Davis - Three Hands in the Fountain
November - Tursten - Who Watcheth
December - Tursten - Protected By Shadows

There is supposed to be a new Brunetti book published in July 2024, so by the end of the year it should be readily available for us to read. Let me know what you think of this reading list for 2024.

I know I won't continue with the Falco series as I quit reading it. I just didn't enjoy them (as I remembered from one previous attempt to read from the series). I tolerate the Huss series but it's not a favorite. I'm behind though so I may need to catch up a bit. I didn't participate in the Longmire series so I probably would not read it. I do want to read Leon's memoir though.

The Iron Hand of Mars by Lindsey Davis

As usual, I listened to the Simon Prebble recording, which was great. But I wished I'd had the text version with maps (I would hope) and the various names. Not quite as confusing as a Russian novel, but I had to pay close attention.

Nevertheless, a terrific book. I loved the quotes from Tacitus at the start of each section. It reinforced the historical foundation of the story. Falco and others spend a lot of harrowing time across the Rhine in free Germany, and the history of the Roman defeat is always on their minds.

>121 ffortsa:
I read the book and there were maps in the front! They were so helpful and they included the Roman name of the town as well as the modern name. I could follow Falco as he traveled up the Rhone and then the Rhine river. It really made it clear what an influence Rome had on modern Germania. I also added several places to my to-be-visited list. I just have to see the Roman ruins in Trier. I went to the Roman Museum in Cologne twenty years ago and found it fascinating, but also hard, because the Museum cards were only in German and my German isn't very good.

I had no idea that Nijmegen was a Roman town either. All this was just fascinating to me.

I also finished reading Iron Hand of Mars and thought it was the best book so far in the Marcus Didius Falco series. I got totally sucked into the story and found myself still reading at 1:30 AM one night. I also spent three hours one afternoon buried inside of Wikipedia reading about the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. The Romans called it the Varian Disaster. It was the worst defeat ever recorded by the Roman Army.

It seems that the exact location of the battlefield was in doubt for 2,000 years. It was a running battle and probably took place over 2 1/2 days. The total number of casualties was between 16,000 - 20,000. Three entire legions were annihilated. Including all their commanders. The location of the final stage of the battle was finally located by Tony Clune. Clune was a British Army Tank Commander stationed with his Tank Corps at Osnabruck, Germany. He was interested in archeology and had a metal detector. He consulted with the German archeologist for the area and together they decided that a ridge located about 20 km northeast of Osnabruck was a good spot to hunt for coins and Roman artifacts. Clune discovered Roman coins, in abundance and most importantly, sling shot stones that were Roman military standard in 1987. Based on his discoveries, Wolfgang Schulter, the Osnabruck District Archeologist, began major excavations in 1989.

Clune continued his search throughout his lifetime and followed the trail of Roman coins like he was following Ariadne's thread. Using this method he and the state archeologists mapped the trail of the battle and even located some of the remains of the German fortifications used to channel the legions into the trap set for them, and were able to figure out where the legions were first ambushed and where the final massacre occurred. After Clune's service in the British army ended he retired and returned to Osnabruck to live. He died there in 2014.

I thought it was very fitting that a retired Army officer from the last great empire, was the one to discover the battlefield because one of the points in the novel is the fact that Rome honors her dead soldiers. There was a sense of reverence and awe when Falco and friends stumbled across the battlefield.

There is now a museum at Kalkreise. It is called the Varusschlacht (Varus Battle) Museum and Park Kalkriese, and was opened in 2012. There are some nice pictures of the museum and the surrounding area on the Kalkriese Museum web page.

Here is the link to the Museum web page. I found it interesting to wander through the short pages.
https://www.kalkriese-varusschlacht.de/en/museum-park.html

I also found the architect of the museum's web site and thought it was very interesting.
https://www.gigon-guyer.ch/en/project/archaeological-museum-kalkriese/

This museum and park might be a good place to go on your next visit to Germany.

>123 benitastrnad: So interesting.

>123 benitastrnad: Or my first! Thanks so much for all that information. I had heard about the Roman disaster before this, but this book made it so visceral! I could feel myself in the forest with Falco, and by inference the Roman soldiers that died there. I will look for the paper book so I can look at the maps as they relate to the story, instead of Googling on my phone as I read along.

I spent most of this afternoon looking through book reviews in Publishers Weekly and came across this review that I thought all of you might want to see. Here it is.

Bruno’s Cookbook: Recipes and Traditions from a French Country Kitchen
Martin Walker and Julia Watson. Knopf Cooks, $40 (272p) ISBN 978-0-593-32118-8

Mystery writer Walker (To Kill a Troubadour) joins forces with his wife, food journalist Watson, to share a vivid collection of recipes inspired by the Perigord region of France, where Walker’s Bruno Chief of Police mystery series takes place. Throughout, the authors immerse readers in the series’s fictional town of St. Denis by sharing anecdotes (“Bruno devised this terrine to make use of the Perigord’s other famous treasures: prunes and walnuts,” they write of the duck, pork, prune, and walnut terrine) and even including a short story featuring Bruno. They showcase the diversity of fresh ingredients Perigord has to offer in a red onion tarte tatin, gratin of mussels with parsley and garlic, chicken braised in wine with roasted grapes, and fig frangipane tarts. The authors also share fascinating historical and cultural context, noting that the pot roast chicken Henri IV–style was inspired by the French king who declared that everyone in France should have chicken every Sunday. Home cooks should take note that while all the recipes offer straightforward instructions, some dishes, such as the six-hour leg of lamb with garlic and cream sauce, won’t come together quickly, and others, like flambéed langoustines, require advanced cooking techniques. Still, series fans and ambitious home cooks will find plenty to savor. Agent: Caroline Wood, Felicity Bryan Assoc. (Nov.)

It is now December 1st and time for us to move on to our last book for this year. It is So Shall You Reap by Donna Leon. It is the newest Commissario Brunetti book. It is book #32 in the series. I can't believe there have been that many as I am never bored with this series. My public library has this book in its collection and it is available, so tomorrow I will be there to check it out. I can't believe it, but there are no holds on it and it is on the shelves! I hope that all of you are as lucky in getting this book.

Here is the blurb from Amazon about this book.

On a cold November evening, Guido Brunetti and Paola are up late when a call from his colleague Ispettore Vianello arrives, alerting the Commissario that a hand has been seen in one of Venice’s canals. The body is soon found, and Brunetti is assigned to investigate the murder of an undocumented Sri Lankan immigrant. Because no official record of the man’s presence in Venice exists, Brunetti is forced to use the city’s far richer sources of information: gossip and the memories of people who knew the victim. Curiously, he had been living in a small house on the grounds of a palazzo owned by a university professor, in which Brunetti discovers books revealing the victim’s interest in Buddhism, the revolutionary Tamil Tigers, and the last crop of Italian political terrorists, active in the 1980s.

As the investigation expands, Brunetti, Vianello, Commissario Griffoni, and Signora Elettra each assemble pieces of a puzzle—random information about real estate and land use, books, university friendships—that appear to have little in common, until Brunetti stumbles over something that transports him back to his own student days, causing him to reflect on lost ideals and the errors of youth, on Italian politics and history, and on the accidents that sometimes lead to revelation.

#32 of the Brunetti. Wow. I'm poised to read #21. Well, I'll catch up some day.

>128 ffortsa:
yep. the group has been reading Brunetti for a long time. I just read that number 33 will be published in July of 2024. Leon's memoir will also be published in 2024. She's a busy author.

>127 benitastrnad: I snagged it off the shelf here at our university library. I'll try to get to it soon. I do enjoy the Leon and Walker books. The others we added this year--not so much.

>130 thornton37814:
I think that the Leon and Walker books are much lighter in tone. I like the addition of a sense of place. I get that somewhat from the Tursten novels, when Irene talks about Sweden and the things that Swedes do, but it isn't as much a part of the books as it is with the other two.

I also like the Falco books. I am learning a great deal about life in ancient Rome and so am getting a greater sense of why Europeans would have called it the Dark Ages after Rome fell. Europe certainly was a different place after 250 CE.

We will finish with the Tursten series next year so keep your eye out for a new series.

I had a surprise when I went to the library this afternoon. Chateau Under Siege was there! I snagged it and hope to get it read before I leave for the holiday trip to Kansas. When I get it read, I will be caught up with all of you on the Bruno series.

I set up the thread for the 2024 group read. Here is the link.
https://www.librarything.com/topic/356261

We will be starting out with book five in the Inspector Huss series.

Go ahead and post any thoughts you have about the Guido Brunetti book on this thread.

I finished So Shall You Reap and as always really liked it. I have found myself looking forward to finding out what piece of classic Greek or Roman literature Guido will be using to guide his thought process in each one of these mysteries. This time it was Pausanias, a Greek geographer from the second century CE. The book hound in Guido has been looking for a copy of one of this author's volumes and he finally finds it in a used book shop in Venice. It provides the ground philosophy of Guido's investigation.

I was curious about Pausanias and so had to look up the Wikipedia article and read about him. Here is the link to that page.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pausanias_(geographer)

There seems to be some controversy about the accuracy of Pausanias as a geographer. However, it also seems that modern archeological research has born out the fact that Pausanias was fairly accurate in his descriptions and locations of things in the Greece of his time.

This was certainly another entertaining entry in this series and I hope that Leon writes many more.

I am curious about what caught your interest while reading this book?

I finished the Brunetti book this evening. I liked this one and thought it was solid. I never really questioned my early idea of who the perpetrator was. There were not many red herrings. Of course, we weren't given access to everything going on in Brunetti's brain either, so there was always room for suspicion. I'm sad the sale of the palazzo failed and that the garden remained in that state. Of course, the dog didn't seem to mind.

>135 thornton37814:
I can say that I have learned much about Italy and Venice from the Brunetti series over the years. I had always thought that I wanted to visit Venice someday, but now think that I don't want to add to the hoards of tourists visiting that city each year. I may go ahead and get there, but you can be sure that I won't do it on a cruise ship!

It is now January 1, 2024 and time for us to roll over to the new thread. Here is the link to that page.
https://www.librarything.com/topic/356261#n8329876

I am sorry to have to say goodbye to the Brunetti and Bruno Courreges series. We are caught up with both series, so from now on we will only be reading the newly published books in the series. Both authors, Donna Leon and Martin Walker have new titles in their series to be added in 2024 so we will be reading them in the future. Both have provided series have provided me with many hours of delightful entertainment and knowledge acquisition.

Come on over to the new thread and we will finish reading the Inspector Huss series and get deep into the middle of the Marcus Didius Falco series in 2024.