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.

[Tim Scanlon]

I've been eying off The Sentry. Amazon keeps recommending it to me. I'll have to check out some of his stuff next.

[Susan]

A friend gave  me a copy of WADING HOME, by Rosalyn Story. It's of particular interest to me since it is set in post-Kartrina New Orleans, where I used to live. This is a novel that features an African-American jazz trumpet player, who seeks his missing father after their home was flooded by the storm and the levee breeches. The author is a violinist with the Fort Worth Symphony.

[Karen from AustCrime]

JF Bad Moon Rising by Sheila Quigley and JS The Small Hand by Susan Hill (which is flagged as a mystery / ghost story).

[Steve Anderson]

Old Flames by John Lawton. Historical crime/espionage set in Cold War Britain in the 1950s. Inspector Troy just doesn't fit in, but he's right in the middle of it all. It's my kinda deal. I can't get enough of Lawton (just don't tell Charles McCarry) ;) Also, it's a nice contrast to Ken Bruen's Once Were Cops, which I recently finished. 

 

 

[I. J. Parker]

I'm reading Lawton's FLESH WOUNDS now.  Will report when done, but dear God, how many ways can a single protagonist commit adultery with promiscuous women (old flames) and incest with his own sister?  The crimes to be investigated recede into the background as couples meet, separate, and rejoin in different configurations involving criminals, suspects, and highranking politicians. This is indeed a different kind of police procedural.

[Steve Anderson]

I.J.,

 

There's not that level of promiscuity in this and the first one I read, Black Out. I'm starting from the beginning of Lawton's series, so it sounds like Troy's relationships do degenerate somewhat. As for the first two, I will say they are probably more mystery/espionage than procedural, the former being more down my alley. Thanks for the headsup -- I'll know what I'm getting into.

[Susan]

Someone gave me a copy of James Patterson's Roses Are Red, so I decided to read it. Have never been a fan of his, but good grief, this reads like an outline of a novel. Serious events take place in 2 sentences. Alex Cross's daughter has a brain tumor, removed in hospital, goes home, no muss, no fuss.

 

Okay, I should have known better, right?  But here's the thing I don't understand: This was a MAIN SELECTION of The Literary Guild and the Doubleday Book Club. Couldn't those slots be reserved for more deserving authors??

 

 

[I. J. Parker]

You know, I've been wondering about that same sort of thing.  My guess is that best-selling authors are promoted most heavily towards book clubs etc. by their publishers.  The fact that they garner many sales also helps book clubs consider them worthy.  Perhaps book clubs need to specialize so that not only Patterson's books and their ilk are in all the book clubs. 

[David DeLee]

Just finished reading a couple of short stories in a regional anthology called Thin Ice published by Level Best Books. The first of note was "The Bank Job" by Bev Vincent, winner of the Al Blanchard Crime Fiction Award and "A Good, Save Place" by Judith Green, which was nominated for the Edgar Award for best short story this year. Both good reads. I'm looking forward to reading the rest.

[I. J. Parker]

I finished John Lawton, FLESH WOUNDS.  Having already commented earlier, I can only add that it was a disappointment, partially because of the unlikely bedroom antics of the protagonist with 4 middle-aged married women and his own sister.  The other problems I had dealt with the plot (a lot of senior police officers get blown up by bombs and various other men are tortured and murdered without a whole lot of rationale) and the irritating way the author uses both last names and first names at different times for a very large cast of characters. I stayed confused for most of the book.

[Steve Anderson]

I.J., thanks for the update. I'm starting at the first of Lawton's books, but it looks like things get a little loose and disorganized down the line. Good to know. Looks like yours was the last in the line chronologically.

[Percy Blok]

Sea Change by Jeremy Page

 

Just finished: Child of God, Cormac McCarthy

                      Odd Thomas, Dean Koontz