Investigators - Ancient and Modern - Mystery Series Group Read

This group is reading series mysteries. This year we are going to continue to read in our two current series and add a couple of bonus books to the list. The series we will be reading in are the Irene Huss series, set in modern day Sweden, and the Marcus Didius Falco series set in ancient Rome.

In 2023 the group read the first four titles in the Irene Huss series. This is an eight book series and so in 2024 we will read the last four in the series.

The group read the first four titles in the Marcus Didius Falco series. There are a total of twenty books in this series and our group will read books five through nine in the series in 2024.

Our bonus titles will be the latest in the Longmire series, and we will read the Donna Leon memoir that will be published in 2024.

We will use the continuous thread format in 2024 that we have used in the past. At the end of each month I will post the upcoming title for the new month. If you haven't finished a title by the end of the month, don't fret. Since it is a continuous thread it won't matter, but do take the time to let us know what you thought of the book.

So let's get started on a year of adventure and mystery with all of these series and authors.

Here is our reading list for 2024.

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

This schedule allows us to finish the Inspector Huss series, catch up with Longmire and read the Donna Leon memoir. It is going to be a fun reading year.

Hop on Board! folks and enjoy the ride.

Our first book for 2024 will be Helene Tursten's book number five in the Inspector Huss series. We return to the life and adventures of Detective Inspector Irene Huss - jiujitsu champion, mother of teenage twin girls, and investigator on Göteborg Murder Squad returns to our reading list with Golden Calf.

Three men have been shot in one of Göteborg's most fashionable neighborhoods, sending Irene Huss and her colleagues on a goose chase through a tony world of expensive cars and fancy homes. All three victims seem to be tied to one person, the glamorous dot-com darling Sanna Kaegler-Ceder, but Sanna isn’t talking, even when her own life seems to be at stake.

My library didn't have this book so I had to place an Inter-Library Loan request for it. It took about two weeks to get to me, so you might have some problems getting this book. I have started reading it and so far it is good. I hope to have it finished in a week but I won't spoil things for you until the end of the month.

I'm not interested in continuing with either Tursten or Davis, but I'll join you all for the Leon memoir. I wasn't part of the group when you all read Longmire, so I'll skip that one.

Ah, I'm well ahead of this program in the Tursten series, and somewhat ahead in the Davis, so I'll use the next few months to catch up on the Leon and the Walker series. This will not be painful.

I finished the audio of The Golden Calf this evening. It was the first one available in audio format from my public libraries, and I really enjoyed it in that format. The reader had an American accent but used the Swedish pronunciations for names and places. There are a lot of things I like about this book, but the ending was a bit of a letdown.

I finished Golden Calf and thought it a run-of-the-mill mystery, but good enough that I will keep reading the series. Mysteries are my brain candy so it doesn't really matter to me if they are good or just mediocre. I find it interesting that the last three books we have read in this series have portions of the novel where some of the action is in a different city in Europe. One was in Copenhagen, one in London, and this one was in Paris. Irene is becoming a world traveler. Each of these settings involve working with the police in each of these cities and Tursten has definitely given each detective policeman a different personality type. It will be interesting to see if she continues with different cities in the future books we will be reading in this series.

Today is the first day of February and time to start a new investigative novel. This month we return to the ancient world of Marcus Didius Falco with the fifth book in this series Poseidon's Gold. I have to confess that I have already read this one. I had to request it from Inter-Library Loan and since I was leaving Alabama on December 15 and it would have been due back before I plan on returning to Tuscaloosa, I read the book in a hurry before I left. I won't report on it for a week or so: that should let all of you get a good start and therefore, won't allow me to spoil anything for you. As you get this novel read, be sure to report here what you think of it.

Happy reading folks!

>8 benitastrnad: It's been so long that I remember naught!

I finished Poseidon's Gold this afternoon. It's my favorite of the Falco mysteries that we've read so far. I liked that Falco stayed in and around Rome for the most part in this one, that we get to know his extended family better, and that Roman politics isn't front and center as it has been in most of the other books up to this point. I've always been partial to books with a treasure hunt plot.

I also liked this book. I found that I couldn't put it down and read it for long periods of time. Falco has a great family and I enjoyed getting to know his father. I hope his father appears in more books. I also liked the revelations about the relationship that his parents have. I am also finding the descriptions of daily life in Rome to be very interesting and so informative. Some parts of that daily life are so modern. I think it just proves that there is nothing new under the sun.

Sometimes fiction and real life intersect. This afternoon I was on my way into town and I had one the local Nebraska NPR station. The program was "The World" with the afternoon host Carolyn Beeler. The woman's voice I heard had a French accent and she was talking about Russian disinformation campaign's. It turns out that Bruno and his colleagues in the Périgord are right in synch with real world happenings. Today the French Government revealed that they have caught Russia red handed in orchestrating several disinformation campaign's aimed at the French government and the EU. The official that was being interviewed sounded like she had been reading one of the Bruno Courreges books! I wasn't surprised by the revelations because I have just finished reading book 16 in this series A Chateau Under Siege and I know that Martin Walker worked as a foreign correspondent in Russia. Elements of disinformation campaigns have been part of the plots of several of the Bruno books. I wonder where Walker dug up those plot lines? :-)

Here is the link to the story in case you want to listen to the entire interview and learn what the French government is going to do about it.
https://theworld.org/media/2024-02-13/france-says-russia-behind-disinformation-c...

I am on my way back to Tuscaloosa and one of the first things I will do is go to the library and pick up Craig Johnson's latest Longmire book - Longmire Defense. It will be March tomorrow and I will be just in time to start reading this book.

I know that several of you have already read this book, so that should give you a month to catchup with your other reading. :-)

One of the things that impressed me about Poseidon's Gold was all of the descriptions of daily life in ancient Rome. It is easy to look at this civilization as monumental and that is all. By monumental, I mean that the things left behind by this civilization are amazing and to just stop there. It is easy to forget that millions of people lived in this civilization. They had houses, jobs, and families, so just how did they live? This book gave me some insight about the facts of daily live in Rome, so I really enjoyed that part of this novel.

Hello! I just started the Marcus Didius Falco series and am currently listening to the second book, Shadows on Bronze (narrated by Simon Prebble)— so I’m not quite there yet for the February discussion. But I hope to be caught up and ready for May’s book!

Thank you benitastrnad for steering me over here! I’m looking forward to reading, listening and sharing! 🙂

ETA: I just dug up Falco: The Official Companion (by Lindsey Davis) from my stacks! I had started the MDF series 8-10 years ago and got this-- but then didn't crack it for fear of spoilers.

Oddly, I don't remember much of what I did read of the series, but that's not a reflection of the author's writing, more likely of where my reading brain was at in those days.

>15 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Oh, interesting. I'm not far enough into the series to want it now, but later...

I started listening to Longmire Defense today and it is narrated by George Guidell. Not my favorite narrator, but I will listen to it anyway. The hardcopy of the book is always checked out of the library so I will make do with the recorded version.

>17 benitastrnad: I started listening today as well. I do most of my listening in the car, and sometimes I have trouble hearing/understanding George over the road noise.

>18 cbl_tn:
That is my complaint about him as a narrator. I have to turn up the volume so loud that I am sure that people think I have one of those boom-boom cars! I also think he slurs is words too much and sometimes with place names that can be a problem. I want to know how to pronounce those names. When he narrates I generally get the hardcopy so that I can check what I heard with the print version.

How odd. I'm close to the end of Another Man's Moccasins on audio, by Guidall, and I'm loving the narration. I deliberately left it at the original recording speek because I like his cadence.

To be fair, the audio for Another Man’s Moccasins was published in 2008 whereas The Longmire Defense audio was just published last year. Over 15 years, you have to expect a voice to age. I mean he’s 85-years old now!

It is April 1, 2024 and time for us to concentrate on a new book. We are returning to Sweden and the world of Inspector Irene Huss. The book for this month is Fire Dance. It is book 6 in the series. This novel was published in Sweden in 2005 and translated and published in the US in 2014. Here is the Amazon blurb about the book.

Detective Inspector Irene Huss hasn’t seen Sophie Malmborg for over fifteen years, but she’s still haunted by the strange young ballerina’s role in the fire that killed her stepfather. Why had she refused to speak to Irene and the other case workers? Could an eleven-year-old—even one as disturbed and aloof as Sophie—truly be capable of setting her own house on fire? Irene’s questions resurface when Sophie, now a young adult, disappears, and the charred remains of a dancer are found in an abandoned warehouse. Irene has a startling realization that could shed light on the case that has been lingering in the back of her mind since the beginning of her career.

I had a hard time finding a copy of the book and had to place an Inter-Library Loan request for it. I thought it would take a long time to get here, but to my surprise it came in less than a week from the University of Pennsylvania Libraries. Now all I have to do is crack it open and start reading.

Let us know what you think of the book. I am looking forward to hearing your opinions and reactions.

I started reading The Fire Dance last night. My public library's ebook collection has a copy.

I listened to Longmire Defense for last months book. I had planned to read it, but the print copy of the book was always checked out, so when the recorded version of it was in the library I grabbed it. I listened to it while driving back to Kansas. I was in my mother's van and the level of road noise in that vehicle is very high. In order to hear the narrator (see discussion above) I had to have the volume on almost as load as it would go. This would have been much easier to listen to if I had waited and listened to it in the house in the evenings, but once I got interested in it, I didn't want to put it on hold for when I arrived in Kansas.

I always like the Longmire mysteries and this one was no exception. I loved the historical plot line and liked the fact that we get to see a piece of Walt's early life. The resolution of the mystery seemed far fetched to me, but it was action packed and had an ending I liked, so I am going to forgive Johnson for this one. Johnson gave us several new interesting characters that could have come to the rescue just as easily as the one that did and been more plausible, but all's well that ends well.

I also liked that this was less of a thriller and more of a mystery. This was a Longmire that I really liked and wanted to read more about.

I'm ahead of the group on the Irene Huss series, but way behind on Longmire. Maybe I'll have some time to catch up.

I finished reading Fire Dance by Helene Tursten today. I liked this mystery novel. It was a very straightforward police procedural. I read it in three days. It was perfect for the reading mood I was in. I had to get this novel through our Inter-Library Loan and it came really fast from the University of Pennsylvania Library system. I checked and most of the novels in the Irene Huss series that I have read have come through ILL and most of those were from UPenn. They must have some kind of collection of mysteries or maybe of Swedish authors, but whatever it is, I am thankful for it because the books get here fast. I won't say anything more about this novel until later in the month when the rest of you have had a chance to read it.

It is funny how Swedish food has been appearing in my life in recent days. Food plays a big part in the novel Fire Dance and this morning when I was watching the Create TV shows, America's Test Kitchen came on. The featured recipe was for Kanelbullar. These are Swedish Cinnamon buns. When the hosts were introducing the recipe they talked about Fika. Fika in Sweden is when you sit with your family, friends or colleagues, and take a coffee or tea, often with something sweet on the side. This is exactly what Tursten was describing when Irene went to visit the elderly Aunt in this story. (She was also the Guardian in the dance.)

As soon as I heard the introduction to the recipe all kinds of things began to click with me, so I sat down at the computer this morning and did some reseasrch. Fika is often part of the story in the Irene Huss novels. They are never described as such in the novels, but it appears to me that this is a fact of life in Sweden - sort of a little siesta, but with food and coffee and for a much shorter amount of time. It seems to me that this lack of understanding about Swedish life might be part of a translation problem. How would you describe the concept of Fika without disturbing the flow of the novel? It would be very hard to do, so it is one of those things that gets left out. However, the concept of Fika is important to how Irene does her investigations. Fika is one of those things that gets lost in translation.

Now that I know about it, I am going to watch for it in future novels.

It is now April 29, 2024 and time for us to switch books and authors. In May we are going to be reading Last Act in Palmyra by Lindsey Davis. This novel is set in a series of lesser known cities of the far eastern reaches of the Roman Empire. Falco and Helena are once again serving Vespasian and trying to make enough money to marry. In Falco's case he is gathering intelligence about the city states of the Far Eastern borderlands of the Roman Empire because at the point in time when the book starts, these cities are not yet incorporated into the Empire. Falco has a cover story in that he is trying to find the long lost adopted daughter of an associate of his father's. The trail leads them to the deserts of Syria, Judea, and Palestine. As a cover story, Falco and Helena join a traveling troupe of actors and entertainers where Falco will get to exercise his poetic writing chops. Can he write? We will see as he once again journies to the far ends of the Empire in Vespasian's service.

The name Palmyra is the Latinized/Greek name for the ancient city of Tadmur. The Greek name Palmyra is believed to be an iteration of the name Tadmur. It is also believed that both names have something to do with the palm trees that were an outstanding feature of the oasis on which the city was built.

It is interesting to note that there was a huge ancient spring in the vicinity of the city that provided drinking water and for a huge bathhouse built by the Emperor Diocletian. This spring dried up in 1994.

I am anxious to read this novel because I didn't have a clue that the Roman's had acting troupes that ranged around the Empire. This should be a fun mystery to read.

I just finished binging the first five books in this series (books #3-5 in April!) and started book #6 about 20 minutes ago. I'm listening to this series (narrated by Christian Rodska or Simon Prebble) and a little annoyed that Audible is removing them from the Audible+ catalog on 05/03. Since I'm not going to be able to to listen to 13+ hours of audio over the next couple of days and I don't have a credit available (AND it's not in my library system), I bit the bullet and paid for the dnload. It's only about $12.50-- so not a bad deal!

I last read Last Act in Palmyra in 2015 but honestly, I only vaguely remember something about a traveling acting troupe, a water organ and, looking up Palmyra only to discover that it had then just been recently destroyed by IS. 😢

Anyway, since I have only finished the first chapter, I don't have much to add other that when I picture Thalia in my mind, I imagine Zhora (played by Joanna Cassidy) from Bladerunner!

UPDATE: I finished listening to Last Act in Palymra (Marcus Didius Falco #6; by Lindsey Davis; narrated by Simon Prebble)! This isn't a review per se, just a comment on something I loved, something I found interesting and, a question that's been running around in my head... None are spoilers so you can read on if you are so inclined 😊

My favorite scene is the one where Falco is in his tent, laid out drunk while Helena is outside talking about him. There are other more dramatic, perhaps even more emotionally precarious scenes in this story; but this one had heart.

The thing I found interesting is that even though the Roman Empire was in ascendancy, Greek literature, art & academics were greatly respected. The Decapolis itself was a Greek Hellenistic confederation of cities under Roman Rule-- not a circuit of Roman cities that had inherited Greek traditions.

And finally, my question: Would Booby Canavale make a good Marcus? Feel free to discuss 😂

ORIGINAL POST: 05/01/2024
UPDATE: 05/10/2024

I thought I would post my reviews here of the last two MDF books you have covered this year:

Poseidon’s Gold (Marcus Didius Falco #5; by Lindsey Davis; narrated by Simon Prebble) - A cozy historical mystery set in motion when Marcus is accused of having killed a centurion he has been seen recently arguing with. Marcus is drawn in to the legacy of his late brother’s schemes, missing statues, suspected fraud, the volatile relationship with his father and, his love for the strong-willed Senator’s daughter, Helena. The plot is solid and the peeks into the auction and art houses of Ancient Rome are interesting— though perhaps the overly detailed descriptions of furniture in every room of every place the characters move through might seem a bit tedious. There is a short history lesson showcasing Vespasian’s role in Judea and subsequent rise to power but the story shies away from court intrigue and runs through the streets and taverns of Rome. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Last Act in Palmyra (Marcus Didius Falco #6; by Lindsey Davis; narrated by Simon Prebble) - A court spy and rival of Marcus Didius Falco sends Marcus into what is now known as Syria where his cover and mission are quickly made clear to have been blown. Stranded with Helena in the desert region of the Hellenistic Decapolis, Marcus takes up with a traveling theater company as its playwright while also on a search for a missing hydraulis player and for a murderer of one of the acting company’s actors. Once again, the author tries to over a lot of ground— straining the credulity of the plot(s), larding the story with an excess of characters and locales, and laying in as much research as possible. But to her credit, Ms Davis does paint vivid depictions of the settings and create dynamic characters. So far this series has been a bit uneven, wavering between 3.0 and 4.0 stars for each book. I’ll be generous with this story and tip it to 4.0 if only because of what seems like a throwaway scene (Marcus lies drunk in a tent while Helena talks about him outside) actually demonstrates the author’s ability to portray emotional depth without dropping into melodrama (of which there is plenty later). ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

I’ll be away next week on vacation— so I’ll catch up with you in a couple months with MDF #7 🙂

UPDATE: I've had time to sit with this awhile and I'm actually knocking this down to 3.5 stars from the original rating of 4.0. The previous book in the series, Poseidon's Gold is a solid "4" , and despite the heartfelt scene I described above, the whole of the novel is not quite as good as the fifth book in the series.

ORIGINAL POST: 05/20/2024
UPDATED POST: 05/26/2024

Here it is - the 8th day of the month and I just realized that I hadn't posted the opening post for our next book. So here it is.

It is now June and we are moving on to, or back to (whichever works best for you) book 7 in the Irene Huss series. Beige Man by Helene Tursten will be our book for June. Here is the Amazon blurb for this entry in the police procedural series from Goteborg, Sweden.

Göteborg, Sweden: The high-speed chase of a stolen BMW takes a chilling turn when the two police officers involved witness a gruesome hit-and-run. When they finally recover the abandoned vehicle, search dogs are unable to trace the thieves, but they do uncover an entirely different horror: the half-naked corpse of a young girl in a nearby root cellar. As Detective Inspector Irene Huss and her colleagues struggle to put the pieces together, they discover the man whose car was stolen—a retired police officer—is none other than the victim in the hit-and-run. Could it be a strange coincidence? Or is something larger at play? Meanwhile, the hunt for the girl’s killer leads Irene into the dark world of sex trafficking. An international criminal has arrived in Göteborg, and he’ll stop at nothing to expand his sinister operation.

I also have two announcements to make regarding some of our series books.

This last week I discovered that book 33 in the Guido Brunetti series by Donna Leon will be published on July 9, 2024. It is titled A Refiner's Fire.

First Frost by Craig Johnson is book 20 in the Longmire series and it is in local bookstores as of May 28, 2024.

If we decide to continue reading together these two books will have to be on our 2025 list. But you don't have to wait that long. You can see if your local library has the new Longmire and then in July you can read the new Guido book. There is always lots to look forward to in the mystery genre.

I am behind on my reading for this group. I'm just now reading May's book, Last Act in Palmyra, and The Beige Man is up next. I should catch up soon!

>33 cbl_tn:
You will enjoy both books. The one on Palmyra made me dig into some of the history of that part of Syria. I ended up reading about the ISIS destruction of Palmyra and other archeological sites. I also listened to Lindsey Davis read live on Zoom on June 11. In the discussion after the reading the talk turned to archeology in the Roman Empire and wouldn't you know it, Palmyra came up. Davis told us that the destruction at Palmyra has turned out to be worse than was thought and it is only now being talked about in the UK, to any great degree. She said that the destruction is terrible and it is doubtful that any of the buildings destroyed will ever be reconstructed or even stabilized due to the political situation in that part of the Middle East.

I do agree with the consensus of the quality of Last Act in Palmyra. It probably isn't the best book in the series but it was enjoyable reading with not a whole lot of violence.

Since it is the last day of the month I am going to let all of you know my reactions and thoughts regarding Beige Man by Helen Tursten. I enjoyed reading Beige Man but don't think it was the strongest book in the series. It was a very reflective novel and I am not sure I liked that in a murder mystery. I like the way the author brings the domestic life of Irene Huss into the series. This clearly shows that what is going on in her life has a direct bearing on how she does her job as a police inspector. It is clear that Huss's life is changing. Her daughters are growing up and she and her husband are soon going to be empty nesters. What is happening to her husband effects her life and happiness. Death was also a theme in this novel. Irene finds her mothers partner dead in his apartment and she also has to make end-of-life decisions about her dog. These domestic events are also played out in her professional life with the miscarriage of her colleagues baby and in the fact that even people who worked with the murderer didn't know him and had no clue what his life was like. Irene reflects, at various times, in the book about how that could happen.

Since it is the last day of June it is time to move to our new investigative novel for July. The new book is Time to Depart by Lindsey Davis.

Having returned from the far eastern edge of the Roman Empire, our hero, Marcus Didius Falco is back in Rome for book 7 in the series. In this book Falco and his old army buddy Petro have a new crime, or series of crimes, to unravel. Added to the criminal element is life as usual. Falco and Helena are looking for a new apartment and Falco and Petro's friendship faces pressure from the various factions involved from the Emperor on down to the local Prefect, putting pressure on their relationship. Will politics crack their long standing friendship?

I had trouble getting this book, so had to place an ILL request for it. The novel was originally published in 1995 in the UK and in 1996 in the US. It was reissued in 2008, but given the pressures for shelf space in many public library collections it may be hard to find. If you can't do ILL requests the cheapest place would be to look for it in the online used book sources.

As always let us know your reactions to the novel by posting here.

RE: Time to Depart

I listened to this the last three days of June, before I realized it would be June's book.

Maybe I wasn't in the mood.

This episode takes place entirely in Rome, where a violent criminal mastermind has been sentenced to exile on pain of death. Petra and Marcus are among the officials there to see him off. Strangely, significant criminal activity, including murder, increases after he sails, and the duo spend a lot of time and energy trying to figure out who has taken his place. In the meantime, Marcus has been ordered to find out who among the various cohorts, including Petra's, are corrupt, which puts him on a collision course with Petra, Helena is definitely pregnant, a deaf infant is found in the trash, and fFalco's landlord and washerwoman have planned a ludicrous marriage.

There were too many Roman names for me to keep track of on audio - maybe it reads better in print.

I'm just starting this today, also in audio (narrated by Simon Prebble). Good to know about the multitude of names. I had a similar issue with Last Act in Palmyra to the point where there time I just sort went along knowing it would sort itself out by the end. Maybe knowing about all the names will help me going in...

I have been reading these novels and in the front of each book is a list of the characters and their relationship to Falco. This is probably another case of sometimes the hardcopy is better than the recorded copies.

I also found the explanation of the title to be very interesting. It was in the first pages of the book where Falco explains that a Roman citizen can only be executed by the Emperor. That is why there is "time to depart" for convicted criminals and that time is a loophole that Emperor's can use to send some people into exile rather than create martyrs that the public might hold against the Emperor.

The last two books in this series Last Act in Palmyra and Time to Depart have had lots of resonance with me due to the biblical links in them. This one, Time to Depart has Pauline connections. The Apostle Paul opted to go to Rome to be tried by the Emperor rather than the courts in Asia Minor and Palestine. I never really understood why he did so. Those two paragraphs at the beginning of this novel cleared up his reasoning for me. Since he was a Roman citizen he could only be executed on the orders of the Emperor. My guess is that he didn't think the Emperor, at the time would bother with a lowly person like him. He probably thought that he would have "time to depart."

>39 benitastrnad: The biblical links were my favorite part of Last Act in Palmyra.

I finished listening to Time to Depart (narrated by Simon Prebble) last weekend and finally have a moment to put down a couple random thoughts:

• I dnloaded a cast list from Wikipedia and only referred to it once to make sure Balbinus, on his second mention was who I thought he was. Surprisingly, I didn't need the list overall and was able to track everyone throughout the narrative.
• I like the mysteries that are set in Rome more than the ones where Marcus hits the road: The author isn't trying to cram in so much new research-- which spawns too many subplots and gets a little overwhelming at times. Also, I like the familiarity of the spaces and people described as it makes it easier to focus on the plot.
• The plot itself is pretty solid in this installment of MDF's adventures. It is one that could be transposed to any number of different settings/eras and work.
• The last time we hear the words "Time to Depart" is so corny/over-the-top that I actually snorted a laugh and rolled my eyes a bit!
• The consequences/hardships of excommunication were unexpectedly downplayed. Maybe it was more severe as a form of punishment for Kings in the Medieval Church but certainly I can't imagine trying to live somewhere outside of civilization to be a lesser hardship than imprisonment. Moot point, I guess.
• Vespasian as a skinflint totally checks out with the historical record, limited as it is (basically Suetonius's account in Twelve Caesars. Maybe not the most credible source but it looks like it's really the only one we have. Also note that it takes just few minutes to read the chapter on Vespasian. Kind of sobering to realize that this guy was a Caesar of a Great Empire and that's all we've got. Well, that and the Coliseum!)
• Just noticed that the first five books in the series have a metal in the title and the next three have "ending" words. After that, there are three with numbers in the title but then I can't discern any pattern at all.

I also finished Time to Depart this weekend and enjoyed it a great deal. I did wonder how Davis manages to place all of the sites into a map of ancient Rome. Her descriptions of Rome in that time period are amazing. I wonder if historians have actual ancient maps of the city?

>42 benitastrnad: Speculation here: But since so many of the major buildings still stand (see the cityscape at the 2:00-minute mark of this video: https://youtu.be/7f9bJub82kQ?si=eXLb_6IdcG-hAdKf&t=120 ), historical records refer to certain events (e.g., the fire that raged during Nero's reign, construction projects during Vespasian's rule, etc.), and archaeological digs reveal so much, it's probably not too difficult to extrapolate what a working model of the city looked like in 72 CE?

There are pictures of Lindsey Davis tromping around Rome in sensible shoes along with her editor and others in Falco: The Official Companion where I suspect she got well-oriented as to the layout of extant antiquities. She also indicates her long-standing interest in archeology -- in the workhouses and slums in addition to the Forum as such.

I did find this interesting bit about what is considered the best map: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/map-rome-history-lanciani-art...

:-)

ETA: Just spent a ridiculous amount of time jumping down the rabbit hole of "archaeological finds Rome city" on YouTube! I wanna go see IRL! 😂

I am a bit late this month in introducing our August book. I have been on the road for most of the last ten days and am trying to get caught up here in Kansas.

The book for August is a switch-up from our usual reading fare. We are not reading a mystery but instead we are going to read a memoir - Wandering Through Life: A Memoir by Donna Leon. Leon will be 82 in September and thought it was time to publish her memoirs back in 2023. She has lived an adventurous life and I am sure that this memoir will be an interesting book for us to read. My local public library did not have this book in the collection so I ordered a new copy from Amazon. It was $15.00 so it isn't all that expensive. I am sure that it will be available in many of the usual used online book sources, and there is also Inter-Library Loan. I hope to get started on this book later this week. It isn't long - 208 pages so it will be an easy read for August.

Here is the blurb from the Amazon page.
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.

>44 benitastrnad: I didn't get my hold in quickly enough. I'm #4 on 1 copy of the audio book. Only one of the libraries had it--and the only easily accessible format was audiobook. They have an available print book, but it would require a trip into Knoxville to retrieve it and another to return it. Maybe if I'm lucky some of the others will defer it so I get it more quickly.

>45 thornton37814: I am #1 on that one copy. How quickly I get through it depends on if I have to start another audiobook before this one becomes available. I'll finish it as soon as I can.

>46 cbl_tn: I just didn't feel like doing two trips to Knoxville if I can avoid them. I could have it sent to somewhere other than downtown where the print is at. I haven't kept up with the other reads this time so I'd be fine waiting until next month or October, if necessary. I just wasn't enjoying the Falco and Huss series. This was the one I intended to read, but I just got out of the habit. I suppose I could get Ami to try ordering it via ILL. I think she's working next week. It may be too new for some to send, but it might be just old enough to be off the new book shelf for many.

>47 thornton37814:
I believe that Wandering Life was published in September of 2023 - if that helps with the ILL question.

>48 benitastrnad: It really depends on when a library acquired it. A lot won't loan it for 6 months. If they purchased it in 2023 (and hopefully most did), I should be okay.

I have a general question that I didn't see answered when I went looking back through past years' posts: How do you decide on which series to tackle next?

I was just curious as I see that two of the series are pretty much wrapping up this year.

>50 Tanya-dogearedcopy:
We have a discussion in November where members of the group nominate series. This year we had two ongoing series - Marcus Didius Falco and Inspector Huss. Then there was a new Longmire novel, and the Donna Leon memoir. These were catch up titles from series that we had previously read and caught up with the author, so we decided to go ahead and keep up with them.

You are correct in that we will be finishing the Inspector Huss series this year and so we will be looking for a new series to start. There is also a new Longmire and a new Guido Brunetti, both published this year that we will likely add to next years reading list.

I finished reading Wandering Through Life: A Memoir by Donna Leon. I came into this book with certain expectations and for the most part they weren't met. The book is not a memoir in the way that most readers would be expecting. It is really a series of essays. The tone of this book is rather light-hearted and flippant and it makes me wonder if that is they way Leon is in real life. The essays about her early life certainly make her appear to be less than serious and to just wander through life without care or worry. I found that surprising because her Brunetti novels are so serious and tackle very serious subjects. This book/memoir didn't do that. The essays about the cruise ships and the over running of the city of Venice by tourists seemed like they were written by a cranky elitist. The essay about her love of bees was a complete contrast to most of the others in that it expressed true wonder and passion. The most interesting and outstanding essays were the ones about music and her love of that medium - especially for the composer Handel and for opera. It is there that a reader gets a sense of the depth of her passion, understanding, joy, and obsession with that art form. It is these essays that draws the reader into her life and gives them an understanding of what makes her tick.

>52 benitastrnad: I think I liked it better than you did. I listened to the audio version, and the reader suited Leon's tone. I was really interested in her experiences in Iran and Saudi Arabia. I have a friend and former coworker who lived in both of these countries at about the same time as Leon did.

>52 benitastrnad: >53 cbl_tn: The audiobook has just arrived a couple days ago. I'll probably finish my current audiobook Tuesday since tomorrow is not a work day. I'll get to the Leon book after that. None of my libraries had a print or e-book version so I'm stuck with the audiobook. It sounds like I may be better off with the audio. Did the print version have photographs?

>54 thornton37814:
There were no pictures in the hardback version of the book. Aside from the cover phot and the official portrait inside the back flap of the dust jacket.

It is now September 1st and time for a new mystery. In the selection for this month we will be returning to Goteborg Sweden and be reading the eighth book in the Irene Huss series. It is Treacherous Net by Helene Tursten. Here is the Amazon blurb about the book.

It’s May and the snow has hardly melted in Göteborg, Sweden, but things are heating up quickly for Detective Inspector Irene Huss in the Violent Crimes Unit. The body of a teenage girl is found in the woods, naked and horrifically scarred. Then there’s the mummified body that is discovered bricked up in a chimney on a demolition site, not to mention the city’s ongoing problem with gang violence. With the sudden influx of cases and one detective out on maternity leave, everyone is stretched thin. To make matters worse, Irene feels more than a little intimidated by the new superintendent, Efva Thylqvist, who uses her sex appeal and smooth talking to bend the predominately male staff to her will. Then a second young girl is found, wearing what appears to be the other half of the sexy lingerie set recovered near the first body. Fearing the two cases are linked and that the killer may strike again, Irene and her colleagues embark on a desperate hunt that takes them deep into a shadowy world of anonymous online predators and insecure teenage girls on a deadly quest for affirmation.

I have already run into a little trouble with this book. My local library (in Alabama) has the book listed in their catalog, but when I went to the shelf to get it, the book was not to be found. So I went to the desk, but our local library no longer has a circulation desk so I was sent to the reference desk. They looked at the catalog and said it should be on the shelf to go to the shelf and check again. It still wasn't there. So I went back to the circulation person at the non-existent circulation desk. A different person was there and he went with me to the shelf. It was not there. He called the reference desk. Then he ended up calling the cataloging department. They told him the book had been withdrawn from the collection. So I ended up getting it from Inter-Library Loan. I hope it is there and waiting for me when I get back to Alabama. I won't be starting it for a couple of days but it won't take long for me to read this one and I am anxious to read about how a woman becomes head of the Violent Crimes Unit.

I read this Tursten story last year, which will give me time to catch up on some other series.

It is now October and time for us to start a new mystery novel. We will be reading Dying Light in Cordoba by Lindsey Davis. In this novel we will be returning to the world of Rome in the 60 CE's. Here is the Amazon blurb for this novel, book 8 in the Marcus Didius Falco series.

Inimitable sleuth Falco is back with a vengeance. One night, a man is killed and Rome's Chief Spy left for dead. This leaves no one except Falco to conduct the investigation. Soon he is plunged into the fiercely competitive world of olive oil production. Political intrigue, an exotic Spanish dancer, and impending fatherhood all add to Falco's troubles.

Happy mystery reading everyone.

I will be reading the book for November this month because I left my copy of Dying Light in Cordoba in Kansas. I will be back there in time to vote in November and the house here will be cleaned out and empty by October 25, so I decided I wasn't going to kill myself getting a copy of the book. I will just wait until I am back in Kansas. I do like this mystery series and plan to read the book - in November.

As usual, if you have comments to make about this month's selection post them here. It won't bother me to read spoilers.

I just finished listening to A Dying Light in Corduba (Marcus Didius Falco #8; by Lindsey Davis; narrated by Simon Prebble) 🙂
I loved the story for its humor and ability to evoke a sentimental moment. The author’s research was well integrated into the story and is a factor in how immersed I became in that world.

But there were a couple things that annoyed me: The rather large number of characters that needed to be kept track of. I found a list online so I was able to sort things out rather quickly if I got lost; but it is worth mentioning if you listen to the audio edition. The other item was the resolution to the mystery. It made sense, but at the same time felt more like conjecture than a true answer. And it didn’t feel like something that the reader could figure out on their own.

Still, it was pretty solid entry in the run and I do plan on continuing with the series 🙂

>61 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I did have the character list problem listening to the audio. Somehow the character list seemed much longer than in other books, or the names much more similar.

>62 ffortsa: I think it was all the fathers and sons and daughters... and then a couple of nicknames thrown in there... and then two dancers! I copied the list of characters onto my iPhone's Notes app and referred to it as needed. It seems the number of people is longer when Falco is on the road which sort of makes sense as his life in Rome is somewhat circumscribed by the court, his apartment and Helena's place... Oh, and the stroll across town to look at and comment on the buildings and roads!

The only other time I've needed to keep track like this is when I'm reading Shakespeare's Histories! Though in that case, it's usually family tree.

I am now back in Kansas and will be picking up Dying Light in Corduba quite soon.

I read Who Watcheth in October because I had it in Tuscaloosa and finished it. It is the book for November and is book 9 in the Inspector Huss series by Helene Tursten. I will refrain from making comments about it for a time and let you guys get started in it first. Here is the Amazon blurb about this book.

He watches the women from the shadows. He has an understanding with them: As long as they follow his rules, they are safe. But when they sin, he sentences them to death.

A woman is found dead in a cemetery, strangled and covered in plastic. Just a few days before her death, the victim had received a flower, an unintelligible note, and a photograph of herself. Detective Inspector Irene Huss and her colleagues on the Violent Crimes Unit in Göteborg, Sweden, have neither clue nor motive to pursue, and when similar murders follow, their search for the killer becomes increasingly desperate. Meanwhile, strange things have been going on at home for Irene: first the rose bush in her garden is mangled, then she receives a threatening package with no return address. Is Irene being paranoid, or is she next on the killer’s list?

>61 Tanya-dogearedcopy:
I noticed that there were many many characters in Last Act in Palmyra as well. The comment about it being a story where Falco is on the road might be the cause of the long character list made sense. If he is moving around he is going to have contact with more people and they will need names. The problem with all that is that a reader then has to figure out if they are important to the resolution of the mystery or not.

I find myself reading these Falco novels for the tidbits and insights about Roman history that they are providing me. They are helping me to create a better picture of what was going on in the entire Roman world, than what I had known about previously. They have caused me to put theFirst Man in Rome series back onto my reading radar.

I still haven't found my copy of Dying Light in Corduba. I simply can't imagine where I put it. I am sure it will turn up, but I am also sure that I probably won't get it read this year.

This group needs to start thinking about whether we want to continue on, and if so what series we might want to pick up. We have options. There are lots of international mystery series out there and there are many U.S. series we could start.

With our December book we will be completing the Inspector Huss series by Helene Tursten. Tursten has a different series that is a police procedural that could be a possibility for our 2025 reading. Embla Nystrom Investigations. There are three books in this series. Here is the Amazon Blurb for that series: Helene Tursten's explosive new series features Detective Inspector Embla Nyström, a sharp, unforgiving woman working in a man's world. When one of her peers is murdered during a routine hunting trip, Embla must track down the killer while confronting a dark incident from her past.

This might be a good short series to use in between other series we might want to read.

In the Marcus Didius Falco series we will have read the first 8 out of the 20 novels in this series. Are you interested enough in this series to continue reading them? I have enjoyed them and will continue to read them, even if I am having trouble finding them right now amidst all of the boxes. Let me know what you think about this series and continuing on with it. Lindsey Davis has ended the Falco series with 20 books, so there won't be any new ones to come in the future. She does have the Flavia Albia series that has 13 books in it. It is an ongoing series with additional titles being added almost yearly.

Donna Leon has a new addition to the Guido Brunetti series. It was published in July and is titled A Refiner's Fire. I would like to add this to our 2025 reading list, if we choose to continue with our little group.

Martin Walker also has a new addition to the Bruno Courreges series. (We call it the Bruno, Chief of Police series, but LT has other ideas.) The new book is titled Grave in the Woods and it was published in September of 2024. In addition there is a new another new title that will be published in July of 2025 titled An Enemy in the Village. That would give us two books of Walker's series that we could read next year.

Craig Johnson also has a new Longmire novel. It is a short one and is based on one of his Christmas stories. Tooth and Claw will be released in November of 2024. The group has not read novel 20 in this series. First Frost was published in May of 2024. Book number 21 in the series Return to Sender will be published in May of 2025.

A few years ago there was talk in this group about reading the Inspector Kaldis series. There are 13 books in this series set in Greece and this series sounds interesting. The first book is set in Mykonos and the second in Athens, and the third one on Patmos. It appears that they move around to various locales in Greece. This might prove interesting for us to read. Here is the Amazon blurb for that series: a series of "thoughtful police procedurals set in picturesque but not untroubled Greek locales" (The New York Times), revealing the wildly lucrative dark side of an internationally renowned Greek island playground for the world's rich and famous, those battling for control of its vices, and the innocents affected by it all.

Let me know if you are interested in continuing this group, and if so, what series you would like to drop or add. I did a short mockup of what a schedule for the year (2025) would look like if we continued with the series we already have started.

January - First Frost by Craig Johnson
February - Three Hands in the Fountain by Lindsey Davis
March - A Refiner's Fire by Donna Leon
April - Two For the Lions by Lindsey Davis
May - Grave in the Woods by Martin Walker
June -
July -
August - Tooth and Claw by Craig Johnson
September - One Virgin To Many by Lindsey Davis
October -
November - An Enemy in the Village by Martin Walker
December - Ode to a Banker by Lindsey Davis

This order can be changed around to allow for rotation of a new series.

>66 benitastrnad: I read A Dying Light in Corduba. It was OK, but not the best in the series.

>67 benitastrnad: I am enjoying the Falco mysteries and I'm happy to continue them next year. I also like the idea of catching up on the new titles in the series we had caught up on.

I'm enjoying the Irene Huss series, but I'll be ready for a different author next year instead of another series by the same author. I've read the first book in the Inspector Kaldis series and I really liked it. I would be happy for an excuse to read more books in the series. It looks like it will be easy to get from the public library.

>68 cbl_tn:
I am also interested in the Inspector Kaldis series. It would be a change of pace from the Tursten books.

Yes to everything. I have some series that I have to catch up on, but welcome all new authors.

I've read a couple of the Kaldis series books. I liked the later one in the series well enough to say I'd be willing to give the series a try. I suspect the first one was just where the author had not hit his stride with the series yet.

OK. we will give the Inspector Kaldis series a try in the coming year and go back and pick up the new titles in our other series. That would make our 2025 calendar look like this. I put the Longmire book first because that title was just too good for a January title to pass up that opportunity to be a bit seasonal. Likewise for putting the Alaska book by Johnson in December. Cold for the start of the cold season. If that is too cutsey for all of you just tell me and I will change up the order when the we start the new year in January.

January - First Frost by Craig Johnson
February - Three Hands in the Fountain by Lindsey Davis
March - A Refiner's Fire by Donna Leon
April - Two For the Lions by Lindsey Davis
May - Murder in Mykonos by Jeffrey Siger
June - Grave in the Woods by Martin Walker
July - Assassins of Athens by Jeffrey Siger
August - One Virgin Too Many by Lindsey Davis
September - An Enemy in the Village by Martin Walker
October - An Aegean Prophecy by Jeffrey Siger
November - Ode to a Banker by Lindsey Davis
December - Tooth and Claw by Craig Johnson

I wanted to mention that the third Inspector Kaldis book is also called, Prey on Patmos, JIC you have trouble tracking it down under 'An Aegean Prophecy' :-)

If your bookstores (bricks-and-morter and/or online) and/or library systems are showing a low or non-existent inventory for this series or a specific title, you can order direct from the publisher, The Poisoned Pen (https://poisonedpen.com/).

ETA: Argh! The publisher was out of the first book! So much for being the last resort! I've ordered it from Amazon but I suspect that they are pulling inventory from the publisher as well. If I don't get a copy by the New Year, I'll get one from one of the second-hand vendors.

The New York Public Library has the Jeffrey Siger, to my surprise. I hope they still have it when I need it in May!

And just a note to say I did read Who Watcheth this month. Typical Tursten with her adversarial outlook on men and women in her society.

I've read the first and third Siger books and doubt I'll re-read them. The third was definitely better than the first. It had the usual "first book" problems. I read the Donna Leon when it arrived at our library so I won't re-read it either, but I should be able to discuss it. I wasn't in on the original Craig Johnson read so I was behind when you all resumed it and didn't join in those. I may go ahead and pick them up as I'm probably familiar enough with the series that I can go from both ends. I'll read the second Siger if I can get my hands on it at a library or through ILL. I'm all in on the Martin Walker ones.

OK, I know this is a First World Problem, but still...

I started reading Protected by Shadows today. I don't think it will take long for me to get this one read.