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.

[charlie ness]

Just finished (IN 1 DAY ! ) "Hardcase" by Dan Simmons. -Best crime thriller in a while. -Now started reading his second, "Hard as Nails" . -I highly recommend these books, although the writer is generally a 'sci/fi' writer and apparently wrote only 4 crime novels .

Some of my regular favorites are (NOT in order) John Stanford, Lee Child, Robert Crais, Richard Stark, Robert Parker, C J Box, Mark Billingham, Elmore Leonard, Stuart Pawson, Patrick Lennon, Ian Rankin, Stephen Leather, William Kent Krueger  - -and about fifty more-

After I finish "Hard as Nails", "Raylan" is waiting - - and I'm STILL looking forward to Jon Loomis's next - when's it coming Jon ?

Happy reading folks -

[Tim Scanlon]

Raylan is quite good. If you are a fan of Justified you'll recognise some of the storylines.

http://tysonadams.com/2012/03/04/book-review-raylan-by-elmore-leonard/

[Brian Hoffman]

I bought one of those reprints at Barnes & Noble on the cheap shelf with John LeCarre's first three novels.  I'm on the first one Call for the Dead.

[charlie ness]

I kept trying Le Carre but could only be 'gripped' by a few of his books, mainly the Smiley ones. Found some quite boring, in  particular 'Gardener of Panama' and 'Russia House'.

In that genre I much prefer Len Deighton. -If you haven't read 'Funeral in Berlin' or 'The Ipcress File' , I would highly recommend those.  (To digress a little, Michael Caine was superb in those movies as Harry Palmer, a British Army spy in the Cold war. -I think his last years movie "Harry Brown" was  a believable reprise on Harry Palmer as a retiree -(highly recommend this movie also)

[Suzanne]

Alan Furst's THE WORLD AT NIGHT.  His characterizations are superb.

[Richard Krauss]

I've started LISTENING WOMAN by Tony Hillerman. Excellent as usual so far!

[I. J. Parker]

Hillerman is great.

[Karen from AustCrime]

Just finished After the Darkness - second thriller from Honey Brown and particularly good.  Now reading The Frankston Serial Killer by Vikki Petraitis.

[I. J. Parker]

Finished Arne Dahl, MYSTERIOSO.  Another Scandinavian with a very likable and interesting protagonist.  However, while this sets out to be a police procedural, it quickly becomes a serial killer thriller with all the plot weaknesses of that genre.  The killer has too many weird quirks, uses an unblievable m.o., is psychologically unconvincing, shows up the special task unit as incompetent as they rush hither and yon without preventing other killings, and thus suffers from a bad plot.  It's a rare serial killer thriller that rises above that sort of nonsense. 

[David DeLee]

While flying to Japan I read Elmore Leonard's PRONTO, a Raylan Givens novel. While in Japan, I read a Tess Gerritsen's Rizzoli & Isles book, THE KEEPSAKE and for the plane ride back I picked up a Japanese crime thriller called THE DEVOTION OF SUSPECT X written by Keigo Higashino.

[I. J. Parker]

And how were they?

[David DeLee]

PRONTO -- I found the dialogue sharp, funny, distinct and typical Leonard. I found the plotting and actual story, long winded, meandering and tedious. Enjoyed the Raylan Givens short story (more a novella) FIRE IN THE HOLE much better. This should have been a novella IMO.

KEEPSAKE was great. Im a big Gerritsen fan.

And Im enjoying THE DEVOTION OF SUSPECT X. An interesting cat and mouse story set in modern day Japan where you know who did it but get to see as the two sides try to outsmart each other. Overall, all good.