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]

I like Robotham a lot.  Will have to check on Billingham.

[charlie ness]

I'm sure you will like Billingham, IJ, -an excellent writer with very good plots and believable characters. 

I've had a really good week, readingwise !  Finished two of the best books I've read in a while and only discarded one disappointing one. -The good first - -

'Force of Nature' by C J BOx - this is his 12th featuring the laconic, easygoing  Joe Pickett and finally gives some of the answers about his mysterious friend Nate. -This is Box's best so far in my opinion, and will be even better  if you've read the earlier Joe Pickett books.

'Stay Close' by Harlan Coben was my other 'best' for the week  -  a great murder mystery with many twists and surprising turns. Like many of you, I'm sure, I always try to guess the 'bad guy' - and was way off in this one.   - Highly recommended - 

Surprisingly I can't seem to 'get into' Harlan's Myron Bolitar books - but consider his stand alone novels among the best I've ever read. - Am  I unusual or weird in that regard ?

[Tim Scanlon]

I just finished Leah Giarratano's Vodka Doesn't Freeze the other day. Great read. Definitely one for crime fans. My review here: http://tysonadams.com/2012/05/12/book-review-vodka-doesnt-freeze-by...

I'm now reading Chris Ryan's The Increment.

[Suzanne]

One to avoid:  Giles Blunt's 40 WORDS FOR SORROW.  Standard practice in crime novels is to infer the violence done to the victims by describing the corpse.  In this book, we are "treated" to the torture directly.  There are

four missing people.  When I hit the second torture scene, I had had too much voyeurism.  Furthermore, the

"hero" in the piece is a police detective who had embezzeled funds from an arrested criminal to send his

daughter to study art at Yale graduate school.  No moral compass to this book.  I retreated back to my tried and true authors:

Ian Rankin's THE IMPOSSIBLE DEAD - am getting to like his new main character, internal affairs detective Rob.

Michael Connelly's THE DROP - back to his good form.

Ake Edwardson's SAIL OF STONE - a moody piece more concerned with the detective's development than the crime.  Liked it, though.

Brad Parks' THE GIRL NEXT DOOR - former newspaper journalist continues to write about what he knows.  This

is his fourth, and all are good.

Olen Steinhauer's YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON - almost a novella, a writing exercise in the difference between what you know and what you think you know.  Fine author.

Marco Vichi's DEATH IN AUGUST - a new writer for me, a nice puzzle solved by a likable Italian policeman.

Next on my list are two "Dorothy Sayers" books.  One was finished from her notes, A PRESUMPTION OF DEATH, and a new one, THRONES, DOMINATIONS, written by the same author.  Hoping for the best here.

[I. J. Parker]

Nice analysis.  Thanks.  I've liked both Edwardson and Steinhauer. Will try Vichi.

[Susan]

I like Olen Steinhauer too. Ian Rankin? Not sure. Have you read his Blood Hunt?  In the first chapter, there is a riveting scene of a hunted man who eludes his pursuers. Very tense. Very well done. But then, five pages later, you find out it's only an exercise. He wasn't really in danger from the pursuers at all. I found this very very annoying. Felt like I was duped. The rest of the book was well written and interesting enough, but I never quite got over the deception in the beginning.  Wondering  if anyone else has read the book and felt this way? 

[I. J. Parker]

I can't remember if I read it or not.  Rankin has branched out into a type of spy thriller that's not entirely my cuppa.  And Rankin was never my favorite.  I like only one of his novels extremely well, and that's the one where Rebus is in London.

[I. J. Parker]

William Kent Kruger, THUNDER BAY.  Nice title.  Nice book.  All about love and Indians and the country on the Canadian border.  With a couple of murders thrown in.  :)

[I. J. Parker]

Charles Todd, AN IMPARTIAL WITNESS.  A Bess Crawford mystery.  A break from their male protagonist series, but in the same historical time frame.  Bess Crawford is a British Army Nurse who investigates several murders during convenient breaks from front line duty.  The book is mainly noteworthy for the irritating busybody Sister Crawford and the far-fetched coincidences that put her in all the right places.  I couldn't finish it.

[charlie ness]

I also finished 'Thunder Bay' recently.    I read  it's two followers 'Heaven's Gate' and 'Vermilion Drift' this week. All very good books. 

I'm currently halfway through  a very good spy type thriller 'Even' ,  by British writer Andrew Grant. This is his first novel, written 3 years ago and is quite gripping so far 

[Tim Scanlon]

Suzanne's post reminded me that I need to read some of my Connelly TBR pile. So I started reading Black Ice, looks like another of Connelly's good works.

Also finished Chris Ryan's The Increment this weekend: http://tysonadams.com/2012/05/18/book-review-the-increment-by-chris...

[I. J. Parker]

Started THE GIRL WHO KICKED A HORNETS' NEST.  The fact that I waited till I noticed it on the library shelf proves my lack of interest in Larsen's trilogy.  So far, the book lumbers along wordily, with many repetitions of facts already given earlier. Not interested in the male protagonist at all, and "the girl" is out of commission at the moment.

A typical case of an artificial hype best seller.