Current Reading

[Craig Larson]

I read and enjoyed thoroughly Craig Johnson's third Walt Longmire mystery, Kindness Goes Unpunished. Normally, I don't like it when a series I read largely for the settings moves, as this one does, replacing Wyoming with Philadelphia for most of the action. But I think it works here, as Johnson gives us an outsider's/visitor's glimpse of a city that is both welcoming and threatening. Still, I can't help but hope the action returns to Wyoming next time out.

Next up was What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman, which I read in one long setting yesterday (Wednesday, May 2). It's another of her standalones, which alternate with the Tess Monaghan books, and it's another winner. I love all the imbedded cultural references--to toys, movies, and other ephemera--that ground the book in its time period (largely the late 70s and early 80s). The story is a complex one which compelled me to keep reading until it was all worked out.

Now reading T. Jefferson Parker's Storm Runners, yet another winner from Parker. He's a writer I tried a long time ago and just couldn't get into, but ever since his Edgar-winning Silent Joe, Parker has been on my must-read list. I'm in the early going so far, but this is a complex novel that involves the unusual subplot of a meteorologist who is also a rainmaker and how her secret formula brings her afoul of the almighty Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. It's an excellent book--gripping and page-turning--and I know I'll be racing through this one, too.