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]

Didn't like Deon Meyer.  I got no sense of being in a foreign country.  Sounded pretty much like here.

 

Just finished Charles Todd, A LONELY DEATH.  This post-WWI series is well written and has a good protagonist.  It's well worth your time.  My personal irritation is with the device of Hamish, a dead soldier who lives on Rutledge's conscience and consciousness to comment (in broad Scots) on the investigations, not to mention occupying a seat in his car.  This has gotten old for me.  In this particular novel, which has very good pacing, the plots are ultimately a bit far-fetched.  Otherwise: heavy on gloom and doom.

[Suzanne]

Do you remember the string of emails naming male writers who wrote

interesting women?  I mentioned Todd.  Then I found out that Charles

Todd is a writing team, mother and son.  After about a dozen novels

in this series, they shifted to a new character.  When asked why, the

female writer said she was tired of Hamish, too.

[I. J. Parker]

That got a laugh from me.  Good for her!  Mother and son, I believe.  Thanks.

[Tim Scanlon]

I agree that SA didn't feel much like SA except for the racial divides and issues discussed. But then again, that was one of the reasons it felt very accessible.

Halfway through Sunset Express by Robert Crais. I like the wit he uses in his writing.

[Juri Nummelin]

I also read a Connelly, LOST LIGHT, which I liked quite a bit. Connelly is very professional and moves the story along very well, even though this is not one of his best. I like the sad melancholy moments Connelly puts throughout his books, though someone might say he overdoes it a little. After this I started Rick Mofina's SIX SECONDS, which is very different. Not my type of stuff exactly, but I wanted to try something different to end my holidays with. 

[Suzanne]

I enjoy Connelly, but you must admit that he writes the worst descriptions of sex in

current fiction.

[Wes Miller]

I read Dan Fesperman's LAYOVER IN DUBAI over the holiday break, which I found to be a great escape. Dubai is credibly and engagingly described--not just the glitzly sheen that tourists likely encounter never been myself), but also the lower strata and the society's more traditional classes and individuals. Also a much greater emphasis on well-rounded characters than I had necessarily expected when I picked the book up--definitely worth a shot if you're into travel mysteries and thrillers set in the corporate world.

[Karen from AustCrime]

Given it's been hot enough to melt bitumen in these parts since Friday, a lot of reading has been going on.

I've managed to catch up with:

(Locals:)  Shadow Show by Pat Flower (from the 70's), the new Peter Corris book Comeback and The Precipice by Virginia Dugan.  (Non Locals)  She's Never Coming Back by Hans Koppel, Little Star by John Ajvide Lindqvist and The Bombmaker by Stephen Leather (another old book that's been lurking here for years).

Currently reading the third Rowland Sinclair book by Sulari Gentill - Miles Off Course (another local).

[I. J. Parker]

Just returned Lindsey Davis's ALEXANDRIA half-finished.  It was an audiobook, though I'm not complaining about the performance.  The book itself is incredibly weak.  It's primarily an infodump taken from historical travel brochures for the city.  I've always suspected that Davis uses personal experiences (a vacation in Egypt) in her books.  There were two novels that featured remodeling problems with a bathroom.  This might be amusing, but ALEXANDRIA  is just horribly dull.

[Tim Scanlon]

Karen, I feel you on the heat. Even the airconditioning wasn't keeping up the past few days.

I finished Sunset Express by Robert Crais, really good. http://thetysonadams.blogspot.com/2012/01/book-review-sunset-expres...

Started Along Came a Spider by James Paterson on my brand new Kindle. So far not totally sure about Paterson. I bagged his later work that is farmed out and now his early work is not really coming up better.

[Jacqui Horwood]

I've started my very first Lee Child / Jack Reacher book - Bad Luck and Trouble. Not too bad. I can see why Jack Reacher would be such an appealing character to many readers. He's another variation of the 'down the mean streets etc etc' lone wolf theme. 

[Tim Scanlon]

I really enjoyed that one. Reacher is the lone wolf who does a lot of walking.