What are you currently reading?

[QualityBookReviews]

An open discussion on what everyone is currently reading. Make recommendations to others, discuss what is new, hot, bestsellers, anything and everything related to books and the authors.

[Thomas Grant Bruso]

At the moment, my mind craves mystery/thrillers. I finished "Creepers" by David Morrell (great read), and am currently reading "To Darkness and to Death," by Julia-Spencer Fleming (another winner). Next, I'd like to try "The Shimmer," by David Morrell. I noticed it this evening at the bookstore. Also, Gabriel Cohen's newest crime novel, "Neptune Avenue," is a page-turner. So many books, so little time.

[p-squared]

Just finished all three Keller "Hit" novels by Lawrence Block. Like Pringles you can't stop at just one. Only problem is, he stopped at three.

[Harley Sachs]

The risk in writing a series is that the author begins to repeat him/herself. thereby producing an echo and not something fresh. (I did a series of four mysteries in the Mystery Club series but discovered that the the little old ladies who solved the crimes were becoming something of a cabal and one prominent member was turning awfully vindictive and not very likable. I think you have to like your detective, however flawed.) Parker, for instance, seems to have fallen into a pattern and in the Spencer novels comes too much to rely on snappy dialogue between Spenser and Susan and Spenser and Hawk. Parket can dash those off in a wink, but they're no longer fresh. reader like series because they become attached to the fictional characters. They may even think they are real, a problem I started to have with the Mystery Club SOlves a Murder. I kept wondering what one of the characters was doing after the end of the book, and of course he wasn't doing anything, being imaginary. I had to write "IS" about what is real and what is not to purge myself of this delusion.
Harley Sachs www.hu.mtu.edu/~hlsachs where you can read about The Lollipop Murder.

[Suzanne]

Save your money by not buying comics; I'm told they're called graphic novels, but whatever they're called, they are not worth the time. I bought one by Ian Rankin just to see. Imagine no descriptive information and conversation limited to Twitter length. Awful, awful.

I am continuing to read Peter Robinson's series. Banks is a comfy hero, and all of his characters read true.

[I. J. Parker]

Robinson is very good.

[HappyRuby]

I'm reading The Price of Love by Peter Robinson. Short stories + novella. Just finished Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly Bosch traveled to Hong Kong in this book. I recently saw a slide show of Hong Kong and the area that Eric Stone presented so I had a good picture in my mind when Bosch was searching for a specific building.

[Toni Osborne]

I read some interesting novels lately

"Turtle Valley", by Gail Anderson-Dargatz This fiction spins a magical tale of mystery and romance, one whose characters are haunted by ghostly memories
“A Demon Awaits”, by C.J. West Mr West takes his readers on a wild journey with this sequel
"False Impression" by Jeffrey Archer We have all the elements needed to make this a pager turner: vicious murders, a tab of romance, clever double crossing and a shocking ending.
“The Templar Legacy”, by Steve BerryThis novel can join the many growing stories surrounding the legendary Knights and the secrets they withhold and guarded with their life for so many years.
"Taking Stock", by C.J. WestThis suspenseful fiction plunges the reader in a greedy financial world where people in power have no shame embezzling money.
"The Princess of Burundi", by Kjell ErikssonThe story is quite complicated and moves very slowly, somewhat sluggish at times.

I just started " The Alexandria Link" by Steve berry very interesting so far

[HappyRuby]

The Templar Legacy is the only one on your list that I've read.

[I. J. Parker]

I've been reading Scandinavion mysteries -- with indifferent results. THE REDBREAST by Jo Nesbro is an ambitions and long novel, tying together a current crime and the events of World War II. The constant shifting of POV and time in very short segments of narrative, to the point of breaking up individual events into several pieces, splinters the stories to such an extent that the effort of keeping things straight simply wasn't worth it.

The next book I tossed after starting, getting bored, and checking the ending (always a fatal move). It was Asa Larsson's THE BLACK PATH. I recall now not liking another book of hers. Between the boredom of the slow build-up and the excessive violence of the ending (a case of pornography of violence) this novel also has nothing to commend it.

[Harley Sachs]

There was a series of Swedish police mysteries written by a couple whose names I've forgotten. The series grew more and more bleak as the series progressed and as I recall, the author or authors committed suicide. I guess it doesn't pay to write stuff depicting despair if you risk becoming depressed in the process. there's a mystery lovers journal with each issue devoted to a specific locale and I had an essay in the Scandinavian issue. It was an in effect a bibliography of Scandinavian mysteries and authors. Unfortunately, the copy is back at my Michigan office or I coujld provide you with details. I've looked for some of the authors' forks in translation without any luck, but then my small town library in the pper Peninsula doesn't have access to a great deal.

[I. J. Parker]

That would be Sjowall and Wahloo. They were superb. I don't object to dark mysteries, just to poorly writen ones. :)

[Margot Renne Payne]

I quite liked the series Asa Larsson developed that included SUN STORM which won Sweden's Best First Crime Novel award. It was then followed by THE BLOOD SPILT and THE BLACK PATH. I thought the writing and character development were excellent. I agree the subject matter is dark--but definitely worth reading.