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.

[I. J. Parker]

I'm still reading Scandinavian. Just finished Hakan Nesser's WOMAN WITH BIRTHMARK. Like previous Nesser novels, this is an excellent police procedural and highly recommended.

[Karen from AustCrime]

I'm having a bit of a wade on the weird side with Nick Cave's The Death of Bunny Munro, whilst I also read Roger Rogerson's memoir The Dark Side. Just finished Denise Mina's Still Midnight which was absolutely fantastic.

[Suzanne]

I like Denise Mina a lot; I preferred the Glasgow trilogy to the Paddy Meehan series.
Now I'm reading Gelene Tursten's THE GLASS DEVIL. I like the fact that her police detectives seem like real people.

[Karen from AustCrime]

Suzanne - I've never quite warmed to the Paddy series as much as the Garnethill Trilogy either - so I hope you'd like Still Midnight also - love Helene Tursten incidentally :)

[Harley Sachs]

I'm reading "The Shanghai Tunnel" about a widow who moves to Portland, Oregon and discovers her husband was a crook. It's well constructed, so each scene ends with a tag that keeps you reading.
--Harley L. Sachs www.hu.mtu.edu/~hlsachs where you can read about my latest mystery, "The Lollipop Murder"

[HappyRuby]

I just finished Run A Crooked Mile by Janet LaPierre. I like her books. Now I'm on Wicked Prey by Sandford.

[Juri Nummelin]

Ellroy's Blood's a Rover. It's just not as thrilling as The Big Nowhere or LA Confidential. There's a mystery in the heart of the novel, but it's nowhere those two - which I think are his best. Interesting, though, that must be said. We'll see how the book moves along. I keep having trouble getting to read it.

[I. J. Parker]

Just tried another Denise Mina. Tossed this one also. I'm sorry, but I just can't cope with a world of criminally insane men killing and raping assorted drug-addicted or mentally disturbed women, and being let off a murder charge for lack of evidence so they can go and hunt down the women who accused them in the first place. But if you like a lot of violence and insanity, you'll find it.

[Suzanne]

I understand what you're saying. The violence level is on the high side. Maybe it's a Celtic thing; have you read Declan Hughes? Anyway, Mina grew up in a Glasgow slum and worked as a social worker before writing. No wonder her world view is on the dark side.

[I. J. Parker]

Yes, I think she works with the criminally insane. I fail to understand how people can write about something that's their daily life, but that's just me.
I believe I tried Declan Hughes and could handle that either. I do like Bruen, though.

[Suzanne]

The difference is that Bruen has a sense of humor, albeit a black one.

[I. J. Parker]

Make that "could not handle." And yes, that black humor is essential and very humanizing in Bruen's Irish novels.