Who Are You Taking To Bed? (READERS wanted)

[Sandra Ruttan]

I just finished Carol Anne Davis's Sob Story. Davis is a new (to me) author who writes intense psychological thrillers.

Now, I'll be reviewing it for Spinetingler anyway, and I don't want this to be about reviews anyway. This is about gut reactions. I had a bit of trouble taking the mental shift into this book at first, I think because of what I'd been reading around the time, so I put it down, cleared my head with something else, then picked it back up. And couldn't put it down. I'm a slow reader and I just picked it up again yesterday - now it's done. It kept me turning pages way after my bedtime last night.

So, reading anything good these days? Last book that had you sitting up half the night chewing your nails?

Up next for me: Adrian McKinty The Bloomsday Dead

[Stephen Blackmoore]

The last one that had me sitting up at night was Sara gran's "Dope". Amazing book. Remarkably well done.

Right now I'm in the middle of Anthony Neil Smith's "The Drummer", another great book.

[Jennifer Jordan]

THE DRUMMER was tight!

If you loved DOPE, definitely seek out CLOSER, CLOSER. Creepy and brilliant.

[BrianLindenmuth]

I wrote a review of Come Closer. Gran has very quickly become one of my favorite writers. Its the creepiest damn book that I have read in a long time. I'm just finished Dope recently. She also consistently writes great endings. http://www.fantasybookspot.com/node/1293

[LC Fraser]

Slay Ride by Chris Grabenstein. I could not put it down.

[Sandra Ruttan]

Kathy, I'll have to check out that Coben book. I'm hearing great things about Laura Lippman's latest, but haven't read it yet. I'm still working through the Tess backlist, and haven't read Baltimore Blues yet.

The Davis book is a psychological thriller. Davis really understands disorders, from eating to sexual. There's a good chunk of the book from the criminal POV so it's definitely a dark read. (Guess I should have said that?)

(And I only claim to be 105!)

Stephen, Kevin bought me a copy of Dope last week. I'm looking forward to it.

Haven't read Chris Grabenstein yet either.

[Karen E. Olson]

When I really get going on writing a book like I am now, I have to suspend all crime novels and delve into my other obsession: Tudor England in the 1500s. Right now I'm reading Jane Dunn's Elizabeth and Mary, about those two famous queen cousins. It takes their lives and shows them concurrently. Fascinating stuff.

[Julie Morrigan]

Karen, I'm so not a fan of the royal family, but I love Elizabeth and Mary and their lives. If you fancy mixing fact and fiction, Philippa Gregory gets stuck into Henry VIII and his antics with The Other Boleyn Girl. The only thing like that I've ever read, but it was canny good. Antonia Fraser's 'Six Wives...' is also good stuff, and she's written at least a couple of books (because I have them) on Mary. My books on Elizabeth are by Anne Somerset and David Starkey rather than her, however. Enjoy your reading! (Must look out for the Jane Dunn book...)

[Karen E. Olson]

Hi Julie, I've actually gotten into arguments about this whole Phillippa Gregory thing. I just can't read fiction about these people. Fact is so much more interesting. There really is no need to make anything up!

I have read Antonia Frasier's books, and David Starkey. My fav is a great book called Divorced, Beheaded, Survived, a feminist view of the six wives. Check it out.

[Julie Morrigan]

I will, deffo. I always feel so sorry for the cousins who lost their heads - I'm particularly interested in the take on them. And I know what you mean about the fact/fiction thing, but there's a wee bit of me wonders just how different things might have been if Elizabeth and Mary had actually met. (Mind you, if my memory serves, there is at least one book detailing that scenario, and I've managed to not need it... hmmm.)

[Vincent Holland-Keen]

I was going to reply to this topic until I read the bit in brackets.

...


Oh, okay, I'm reading 'The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril' by Paul Malmont. Most of the book is characters indulging in introspective exposition, but now I'm near the end the pace has picked up and things are actually happening in each chapter.

Before that I read John Connelly's 'Book of Lost Things', where things happened in every chapter and which was consequently much better (and much easier to keep on reading too).

[Russel McLean]

CAD's books work well. Shrouded (her debut) was nicely creepy, dealing as it did with necrophelia (sp, I know). She's also one of the few true crime writers who works for me. Despite the naff title, I really liked Couples Who Kill; she has a nicely detached psychological perspective, avoids the horrendous hyperbole of most true crime and manages to make you think more about these crimes than just a gut reaction to their brutality.

Some books take a couple goes to get. The Strangler by Landay didn't work for me first time I picked it up. Second time, yeah, it worked. Brilliantly.

[Mike Stotter]

Russ

Agree with you about Carol Anne's work. I've read her from the go get, including her series ...Who Kills. We've a interview with her over at the Shots website (plug) http://www.shotsmag.co.uk/interviews/2007/c_davis/c_davis.html

Interested in why you thought The Strangler worked the second time around. I'm not nit-picking on that title, but I'd have thought that if the book didn't grab the first time, what made you pick it up again?

And as to the original question, it's Mike Marshall's THE INTRUDERS for me.