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.

[Kemosabe]

Yes, IJ, totally embarrassingly stupid. I've given up trying to figure out how they get published.

[Barbara C. Johnson]

A judge was going to decide the abortion issue.  A group of female doctors kidnapped the judge and implanted a womb in him, to see if he liked carrying an unwanted fetus.  The bet was that the judge would end up pro-abortion.  That, in short, was the plot.  I forget the name of the author and the title of the book.  Anyone remember those details?

[I. J. Parker]

No.  But I see that stupid plots thrive.

[Barbara C. Johnson]

I found the book interesting . . . a clever way to approach a controversial subject.  A friend borrowed it and then never returned it.  I should have written down the title and the author's name.

[Karen from AustCrime]

Just finished the latest Lachlan Fox thriller by James Phelan - Red Ice (first one in the series for me), now I'm just starting Bold Blood by NZ author Lindy Kelly which is set in and around the eventing world... which is, I think, a first for me.  Can remember plenty of horse-racing settings, but never eventing!

[Joy Calderwood]

Karen, I know of one classic mystery that culminates in an event meet: BRAT FARRAR by Josephine Tey. This is well worth reading for everything, not only the special setting. The only thing it lacks is blood -- and I'm fine with that!

[Karen from AustCrime]

Aaaa - thanks Joy, I'll have to get to that one.  I think it's the only Tey I've not read yet.

[I. J. Parker]

Ruth Rendell, PORTOBELLO:  This is not the Wexford police procedural series, but rather one of her psuchological novels.  It is a crime novel, since it involves crimes and criminals.  The British term is looser than our "mystery" or "detective novel" and serves the genre well.  PORTOBELLO is very good, as most of Rendell's books are reliably excellent. The title refers to the London area surrounding the famed Portobello Road, haunt of avid antiques hunters.  The character all live there but come from different classes and have separate lives until events link them together. Several of them have psychological quirks of various types. Rendell's interest is in what makes people act the way they do, frequently in ways designed to lead them toward catastrophe.

 

[Jacqui Horwood]

I'm reading 'Six Suspects" by Vikas Swarup - he wrote 'Q&A' which then became the movie 'Slumdog Millionaires'.  This is an interesting, quite dense book that is as much about 'who shot vicky rai' as it is about Indian society, corruption and the caste system.  The central premise is about the shooting of a corrrupt son of a corrupt billionaire at a big party.  Six suspects all armed with guns are found at the party and the book takes us through the lives of the six and how they came to be at the party.  I'm about four-fifths of the way through the book and I'm dying to found out whodunnit!

[I. J. Parker]

Sounds good!  Thanks.

[Tim Scanlon]

Currently I'm reading The Hunt for Atlantis by Andy McDermott. I love his fast paced style of action. Silly fun.

Also just finished Peace Warrior by Steven L Hawk, a new indie writer. Worth checking out.

[David DeLee]

Sounds like a good read, Tim. I just finished reading Robert Crais' The Sentry. Great fun. Im now a third of the way through Tess Gerritsen's The Sinner. Really enjoying it.