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]

Michael Connelly, BLACK BOX.  I'm no Bosch fan, but I really liked this.  Connelly has a great plot that hangs together, is current, and has wide appeal. Well done!

[I. J. Parker]

Not so well done is an item I have in my car as an audio book.  This is a collaboration by Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini (husband and wife team). It's ahistorical set at the end of the 19th c. in San Francisco. All I can say, Pronzini's chapter are loaded with cliches, and Muller's are stiff, genteel, and boring. Will not stay with this one.

(As an aside: though I do not usually read either author, I'm aware that both are successful authors. I'll never understand how these things come about.)

[Suzanne]

I read two Pronzini books a long time ago; they were cliché-ridden as well. 

[Suzanne]

I've just finished Olen Steinhauer's THE TOURIST.  I am a big fan of his; I thoroughly enjoyed his series about

the police detectives in Eastern Europe between WWII and the fall of USSR.  THE TOURIST is a spy story; the

main character is a CIA agent who becomes embroiled in action/counter-action/etc.  I believe there are four

books in this series; I've ordered THE NEXT EXIT on my Kindle so I won't have to wait to start it.

 He really is as good as le Carre.

 

[I. J. Parker]

Steinhauer is very good on atmosphere; not so good on plot. 

[Suzanne]

After enjoying THE TOURIST, I read two books by Kevin Wignall, PEOPLE DIE, and FOR THE DOGS, also written from the viewpoint of professional killers.  Because I found all of them enjoyable, I thought I had better jump back over to the viewpoint of the police.  Just started John Harvey's GOOD BAIT.  I've never been disappointed in a Harvey novel.

[I. J. Parker]

Neither have I.  Harvey is tops!  Also an exceptionally good writer:  Michael Robotham. I have one of his in audio in the car

.  He writes amazingly well.

[Dale Kutzera]

Patterson's "NYPD Red"  or at least co-written by him.  The killer is interesting, but the detectives on the case are sort of cyphers.

[Tim Scanlon]

Yeah, I'm not a fan of the co-written Patterson thrillers either, Dale.

I'm currently reading Luther: The Calling by Neil Cross, who also writes the TV show. Brilliant so far. My last read was my friend (Facebook counts, right?) Zoe Sharp's first Charlie Fox novel, Killer Instinct. Well worth getting your hands on a copy, had me up far too late finishing it. 

[I. J. Parker]

By coincidence, I have two novels by two of the greats on hand at the moment: Henning Mankell THE MAN WHO SMILED and Ian Rankin's STANDING IN ANOTHER MAN'S GRAVE. By another coincidence, both are books where the authors resurrect their original protagonists. However, it's no coincidence at all that both novels are excellent, as strong as their best. As for the protagonists: Wallander is back after a lengthy recovery froma mental breakdown after having shot someone (in Sweden apparently the State pays for more than a year's vacation if necessary), and Rebus works cold cases as a civilian adjunct. The idea of the wounded warrior returning to battle is an attractive one in either case.

 

Highly recommended.

[Suzanne]

Michael Connelly also brought Bosch back to review cold cases.  A happy solution in all three

authors.

[I. J. Parker]

Yes, indeed.  I forgot about Bosch.