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.

[Tilda Endeavour]

Currently reading A Knife for Harry Dodd, by George Bellairs. He's a prolific writer with a huge back-list of books. This one is one of his classic English-detective Inspector Littlejohn mysteries, and it's brilliant. Highly recommended, I can't believe I didn't know Bellairs before now.

[Julian Donn]

Just finished John Grisham's new book, "Gray Mountain".

A good read with Grisham back on his environmental vandalism by big  business track.

Not much court room drama unfortunately and the ending leaves us a bit up in the air as to future events.

[Atlanta Jackson]

Hi.

At the moment I'm reading a crime/thriller/supernatural book I found on Amazon kindle by Heidi Cieciura. http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&a....Anyone read it before? I'd never heard of this author until now. I've only just started it but it's quite interesting. Tried it because of it's 5 star reviews; usually I only stick to authors I've read before.

[I. J. Parker]

Peter James NOT DEAD ENOUGH.  British police procedural. It's ok, though the writing isn't as good as it might be. This one in audio. The book I'm reading is FATAL FROST. This is a novel written by someone else to continue the Frost series of R.D.Wingfield who has died. It's a respectable job, though unfortunately this is a cleaned up Frost without the dirty jokes and silly pranks and offensive language. Sigh! I miss Wingfield's humor.

[Suzanne]

Yrsa Sigurdardottir's MY SOUL TO TAKE - alright, but not terrific.
William Ryan's HOLY THIEF - in Stalin's time and place, police procedures are pretty much the same. Author's depiction of everyday life then is very good. I've ordered the second of four books in this series.
Archer Mayor's CHAT - it's nice to read another Mayor. I really like the character's empathy for people, even for some of the bad guys.

[I. J. Parker]

Robotham is always excellent. I'll have to keep my eyes open for both.

[I. J. Parker]

Lee Child, THE HARD WAY.  I like Lee Child. His are the only thrillers I read.

[Susan]

Just finished reading A Time For War, by Michael Savage. I picked it up at a library booksale, didn't know the author was a right-wing nut. There was a story in there somewhere, but there were too many political rants, bashing the liberals, the US government, anyone not ultra conservative. Not to mention his main character spouting scripture every so often and appealing to god to get him out of a jam.  If you see a novel by Michael Savage, beware!

[Jed Power]

He's a national radio talk show host. Savage is about as far-right as you can get and still be allowed to make millions through the media. And if you listen to AM talk-radio in the USA nowadays, that's saying something! Most of these hypocrites are worse than Archie Bunker. In addition to hating everything that Archie did, they also would like to do away with unions, Social Security and Medicare. All three of which the character Archie supported on All in the Family.

[Susan]

Didn't realize, until I read the back cover blurb that he did a talk show. I never listen to AM talk radio, far too vitriolic for me. And yes, he's way worse than Archie Bunker. The only one who comes close to him is Ann Coulter. haha I'm sure you know who she is.  

[Karen from AustCrime]

I'm currently nearly at the end of The Son by Jo Nesbo and from there Bad Blood by Casey Kelleher and a local true crime book - Bent by James Morton and Susanna Lobez. Probably. I'm easily distracted...

[Diane Donovan]

I read a LOT of crime novels, from whodunnits and gumshoe detective to edgy mystery/thriller combinations - as such, I am pretty picky: I want my action well-done, my plot fairly unpredictable, and my characters solid. Add enough twists and I'm there 'till the end.

That's why I enjoyed Irene Woodbury's style, and wanted to recommend her latest, which I just finished reading (the first one I've read from her), A Dead End in Vegas.

Dave is about to go to the airport to pick up his wife, who has been in Phoenix for a week at a teachers' conference, when he gets the phone call: it's the Las Vegas police - and she's been found dead in a casino hotel room. 

Tragedy often comes in 'threes', and thus what follows is a virtual onslaught of deaths and discoveries that rock Dave's world as his wife's death shatters other lives and, like a house of cards, causes more falls in return, from a terrible accident to a best friend's marriage cracked apart by grief.

 

As Dave comes to find out about his wife's secret life, her passion for an Internet stranger, and the illusions of his own world, he becomes increasingly involved in a hunt that comes full-circle to probe his family, friendships and psyche. 

Now, if you're expecting a light 'whodunnit' type of mystery filled with entertaining twists, then A Dead End in Vegas might not be your cup of tea. Its intent is to wind emotional impact and high drama into its saga and it packs this into chapters steeped in tones of inevitability and despair as readers learn just how deeply poor decisions affect every life involved. 

As seems inevitable with all good reads, the ending arrives all too soon. It feels abrupt: like the reader's been led down a garden path of complexity only to have everything snap to logical attention within a few short chapters. But that can be said of many a good book where readers might wish for as long and drawn-out an ending as in the rest of the book. Sometimes it's just hard to say 'goodbye'.

 

Pair gritty psychological depth with an investigation of illusion and what this does to everyone in a circle of love and you have a gripping narrative that is recommended not so much for light 'whodunnit' readers, but for those unafraid of getting their hands and thoughts 'dirty' with wrenching emotional twists and considerations of romance, appearances, and, ultimately, a different kind of love.