March 2018 - What Are You Reading?

Starting the new month off. Still working on The Walls by Hollie Overton and Faithful Place by Tana French.

I am reading The Switch by Elmore Leonard which is part of a collection by the Library of America that I have been reading through. Just started The Switch, but it is fun so far.

I am listening to the audiobook of Deja Dead -- so different from the TV show Bones!

Just got Death of an Honest Man by MC Beaton. Don't like her Agatha Raisin but just love Hamish Macbeth-have read them all. Also got The Grave's a Fine and Private Place.
My favorites are mysteries set in different places around the world.

I'm finishing off The Silence of the Lambs as I try to reread the entire Hannibal series.

Reading Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz. A book within a book.

about halfway through Sunburn by Laura Lippman. Oh she's a master of the craft.

>6 perennialreader: I just bought Magpie Murders the other day, but I haven't started reading it yet. I'd be interested to hear how you like it.

>8 Dr_Flanders: I'm only a few pages in but intriguing so far.

downloaded this OverDrive/Kindle eBook that Alexa will narrate for me ~

Murder, She Wrote: Skating on Thin Ice
by Jessica Fletcher/Donald Bain
Mysterious “accidents” begin to happen and it looks like the intent is to cause
serious injuries at the rink where skaters are training.

I sample this cozy mystery series from time to time.

I finished the 4th Dr. Thorndyke book, The Mystery of 31 New Inn. I continue to like Thorndyke and Jervis but thought that the solution to this one surprisingly obvious.

I'm about 2/3 done with Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart. I am enjoying it more than I expected, which makes me happy as I know this is the first in a series.

enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

Anatomy of a Scandal: a Novel
by Sarah Vaughan
(scandal amongst Britain’s privileged elite ~ he said/she said legal thriller)

I'm reading Blood on the Tongue, a Cooper and Fry mystery by Stephen Booth.

Finished Faithful Place by Tana French. Enjoyed it.

Adding (Dublin Murder Squad, Book 1) by Tana French into my reading rotation.

I finished Touch by Claire North. It's sort of a paranormal thriller. I liked the premise, but the ending fell flat for me.

I finished Game of Mirrors, a late Inspector Montalbano book. I had the Kindle edition but listened to Grover Gardner narrate the audiobook -- he does such a great job with this series! So the Kindle book was mostly used to look at the notes by Stephen Sartarelli, the translator (he does great notes which are unfortunately not included in the audiobooks).

Now I am listening to Suzanne Toren narrate In the Bleak Midwinter...

Finished The Walls by Hollie Overton. Meh.

I'm reading and enjoying The Caveman's Valentine by George Dawes Green.

starting this library audiobook ~

Look for Me (D. D. Warren)
by Lisa Gardner

(a favorite Boston-based female detective series)

I’m well into Jane Harper’s newest - Force of nature.
with Australian Federal Agent Aaron Falk from The dry which l loved.

Just started You Belong to Me by Colin Harrison. Different 3rd person sections dealing with the different characters. Not in far enough to form an opinion.

Finished Blood on the Tongue, by Stephen Booth, and am now starting Someone to Watch Over Me, by Yrsa Sigurdardottir (translated by Philip Roughton).

>7 Bookmarque: She really is. I loved that book. The way her words flow is mesmerizing.

>8 Dr_Flanders: I really enjoyed Magpie Murders. I didn't figure out the first murder but had a pretty good idea about the second one. I haven't read this author before but will read more of his work.

Just finished the thrilling Last Light by one of my fav crime writers, CJ Lyons. Very good start to a new series featuring former FBI agent, Lucy Guardino, now working for a private investigation company dealing with closed cases. This author has the skill to write compelling action while developing authentic characters.

Enjoyed another one in Canadian writer Anne Emery's Collins and Burke series. This one was Obit

Just finished a British police cozy called The Case of the Missing Letter by Alison Golden. A quick, light read in a unique setting.

In a dramatic change of pace from Icelandic crime, I'm now reading Bertie and the Seven Bodies, by Peter Lovesey, the second in his "Albert Edward, Prince of Wales" series.

Added an uncorrected proof of The Affliction by Beth Gutcheon to my reading rotation.

enjoying this OverDrive/Kindle eBook that Alexa narrates for me ~

Hell on Wheels (Black Knights Inc.)
by Julie Ann Walker

(romantic-suspense/unsanctioned, undercover ops team/first in a series I plan to continue)

Staying in England with The Incredible Crime, by Lois Austen-Leigh, a British Library Crime Classic set in Cambridge.

I just finished the 3rd Inspector Mallett, Suicide Excepted though Mallett had an unusually small role! Very good.

Just finished Full Black by Brad Thor. It was everything I expected and more. Crackling with action and intrigue and surprisingly twisty. Next up, one of my go to authors, the always dependable never disappointing John Sandford. This time it's Buried Prey.

Just started listening to Snowblind by Ragnar Jonasson.

started this library audiobook ~

Night Watch: A Novel (Kendra Michaels)
by Iris Johansen

(psychological thriller/#4 in one of my favorite series books)

Finished In the Woods by Tana French. A little too talky. Liked Faithful Place better.

After a couple of duds that went on the DNF pile, I've started Borrowed Time which is safe. I never met a Robert Goddard I didn't like.

Reading the first in a new series (new to me, anyway) called Murder in Adland by Bruce Beckham. I'm enjoying it, but the author has so many ethnicities and British regions and has dialects for all of them. Scots cop, Spanish doc, Midlands, London, Welsh, Polish - they do all sound different, that's for sure, but it's a little distracting to read.

Finished The Affliction by Beth Gutcheon. Waste of time.

Reading Death on the Riviera, by John Bude. While the book is indeed set on the Riviera, there hasn't been any death yet, and I'm almost done the book.

I've picked it up and put it down half a dozen times, but I think I may finally finish A Morbid Taste for Bones, the first Cadfael mystery.

I finished another Nero Wolfe - The Silent Speaker.

Currently in the middle of Karin Slaughter's The Kept Woman for my neighborhood book club. 500+ pages in MMPB!

>41 rabbitprincess: The death showed up on page 176. That's way too far in for the book to have Death in its title.

Started two more mysteries today: a British Library Crime Classic called Somebody at the Door, by Raymond Postgate; and the sixth Martin Beck mystery, Murder at the Savoy, by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö (translated by Amy and Ken Knoespel).

Just starting Girl waits with gun by Amy Stewart.
Seems a lot of people have liked it.

46- I thought that one was a lot of fun! I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

Let Me Lie
by Clare Mackintosh

I finished a Golden Age mystery, Green Shiver. It's a shame that I discovered this new-to-me author by reading his last book first!

Next up will be A Loyal Character Dancer…

Just finished Chop Shop by Tim Downs... this is the second of the Bug Man series... I have read a couple of the series before years ago and liked they. This one, however, was not a book to like. The plot was easy to guess, the good guys were very naive, could not get into the book, ( cheeky dialogue aside). I doubt I will search for another.

Just started Baldacci's The Fix another Amos Decker series book. Devouring this book at a fast rate... much better than Chop Shop

enjoying this library audiobook ~

If I Run (If I Run Series)
by Terri Blackstock

(Book #1/Christian, romantic suspense/new-for-me author)

I'm about a quarter into Anne Perry's 2nd Monk mystery A Dangerous Mourning and not sure if I'm loving it (yet).

Spent a rainy Sunday finishing this thriller, which was just sort of "all right", but not terribly bad by any means. It's Always the Husband by Michele Campbell

Picked up Don’t cry now by Joy Fielding (on my shelf for years). Half way through & l think l know who did it.

I finished The Fix. Overall it was a pretty decent crime/mystery. Some might think it is a bit slow and repetitive but you won't find me complaining. What you are doing is following the methodical mind of "Memory Man" Amos Decker. This book adds to his character and even shows it slightly evolving compared to other books in this series.

A good book and fast read for 80% of the text. I did not care for the ending and how it got there but I would definitely read another in this series if it came along.

I reread Farewell, My Lovely -- it didn't wow me the way it did on my first reading but it is still much better than the 1940s film version with Dick Powell!

They messed about with the story quite a bit in true Hollywood style. However I am one of those who prefer Dick Powell's interpretation to that of Humphrey Bogart ( The Big Sleep) I felt that he got under the skin of the character very well.

Death's Half Acre begins with an Easter Sunday, thought I'd enjoy it over a (slightly) longer weekend.

>58 Maura49: I did like Dick Powell in that role - such a change from his musicals! And I retain a vivid memory of how he played the scene when he has been held in the 'sanitorium' drugged :) But the plot makes more sense in the book (Hollywood having removed much of the "objectionable" aspects as indeed they did in The Big Sleep as well, leaving giant plot holes).

I'm now reading A Loyal Character Dancer, the 2nd Inspector Chen book. And in audiobook, I am listening to A Beam of Light, #19 in the Inspector Montalbano series.

I just started The Ides of April for a book club. The first-person narrator, a 28-year-old widow in first-century Rome, keeps telling us she's a badass, but I'm still waiting to see it in action.

My last read for March was a disappointment as I've enjoyed other books by this author. This one was Every Last Lie, by Mary Kubica. Kind of boring and I didn't feel any connections to the characters.

I am currently reading works by authors that are new to me. I have always been a great fan of Brad Thor, Vince Flynn, and Stuart Woods. Give me a book with a hero that is quick to deliver and a villain that will stop at nothing. These are essential. Then throw in a sexy lady or two and I am set. Now as for new authors, I am currently reading "Bishops War" by Rafael Amadeus Hines. So far it is delivering everything that I enjoy in a book. It looks like it will be given a grade of 4 stars.

I'm reading Lamentation by C .J. Samson. It's very good.

>65 flips: Lamentation is certainly on my wish list to read but it is still too new to show up in the used bookstores. I am glad Sansom continued his "Shardlake" series

I just finished Michael Connelly's novel A Darkness More Than Light. I have to rate this book as one of his best so far if that is possible.

You have to read this series in order. This book clears up some loose ends from The Last Coyote. If you did not read that book a good portion of this story won't mean much sense at times.

Quite a thriller and includes ex-FBI profiler Terry McCaleb who is asked to use his talents as a profiler to help solve a bizarre murder. No Spoilers here... but you won't put this book down.