August, 2021 ~ What are you reading?

New thread for the new month.

Just started A Familiar Sight, which came free with some sort of Amazon Kindle deal. Holding my interest so far, even though, like many other things I read these days, it warranted a cleaner edit than it got.

Was impressed enough by Max Allan Collins to undertake another disaster mystery: The London Blitz Murders. Learning a lot about Agatha Christie's backstories in the process!

Yesterday I finished Vultures in the Sky, by Todd Downing. It was a good setting, especially the train atmosphere, but I did feel it dragged a bit. Could have been me, though.

On to the penultimate installment of a great espionage series, Quiller Salamander by Adam Hall. Published in 1994, the location is the Killing Fields of Cambodia, the target is Pol Pot.

2 hours to go in the audio version of The Shadows We Hide by Allen Eskens - a bit formulaic, but it has heart.

I seem to be on a major thriller/mystery kick lately so may as well remember to post here this month:
Survival of the Fittest - the 12th Alex Delaware thriller was as expected - if you like the series, you will probably like it.
Faye Kellerman's Moon Music was weird (in a bad way) and seemed to take an easy way out via a supernatural route without really making it properly part of the story.
The Case of the Fenced-In Woman - the 81st Perry Mason novel, published after Gardner's death (and found among his papers) was a bit rough but enjoyable
Exit Strategy by Steve Hamilton, the second Nick Mason novel, is a good follow-up to the first one.

Next on the mystery/detective list: The Black Mountain - the 24th Nero Wolfe.

I have just fnished the first in a new series by Ann Cleeves. It is 'The Long Call' which I see Touchstones is not picking up. It features a Devon based detective, Matthew Venn and his husband Jonathan whose workplace is at the centre of the plot.
Venn has an interesting back story but for me the most vivid character was his colleague Jen, a single mother and an interestingly complex character.

The Black Mountain was annoyingly different from the rest of the series. Not bad per se but something was just off - and not only because of the changed setting.

On the other hand The Girl Who Died by Ragnar Jónasson was as well done as expected. I have minor gripes with it and it may not be a good idea to get your introduction to Ragnar Jónasson with this one but I liked it.

My most recent crime read was Ride the Pink Horse, by Dorothy B. Hughes, thoughtfully republished by American Mystery Classics.

Next up will be The Seven-Percent-Solution, by Nicholas Meyer.

I really enjoyed The Seven-Percent Solution -- just finished it this morning!

Am about 2/3 through The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman - pretty decent Gothic novel set in two time periods (1970s and 2000s) at a girls boarding school...secrets, lies and suicides.

Didn't love this one: The Killings at Kingfisher Hill by Sophie Hannah

After seeing Louise Penny mentioned a number of times in this forum, I decided to take the plunge and read the first book Still Life (apologies Touchstone wouldn't work) and I'm glad I did. It had it's flaws, but for a debut novel, I thought it was really good. I'll be continuing the series.

Just started The Last Supper by Charles McCarry, #4 in the Paul Christopher espionage series. Just finished Body by Harry Crews, out of the genre but does have one murder. In some circles it’s referred to as “Grit Lit.”

Getting reacquainted with Maggie Hope in Princess Elizabeth's Spy.

Currently reading The Conjure-Man Dies, by Rudolph Fisher.

I finished a fun "Golden Age" mystery, Death Blew Out the Match by Kathleen Moore Knight.

About 2/3 of the way though Billy Summers the latest from Stephen King. It goes where you think, then suddenly doesn't. I like it.

I have very much enjoyed the espionage thriller Under Occupation by Alan Furst
He has written an exciting story of a French writer who inadvertantly gets caught up in resistance activity and undergoes a series of increasingly dangerous missions. The writing is beautiful and the novel is relatively short which in this era of long, often bloated, books I enjoyed.

>20 Maura49: I've only read one of those Alan Furst spy novels, Midnight in Europe, and I, too, enjoyed Furst's writing very much.

Started The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny.

Finished Sister by Kjell Ola Dahl, ok, but slow. I usually enjoy slow, but this was not ‘my’ slow. Now reading his Faithless.

I’m also reading Louise Penny’s latest, The Madness Of Crowds.

I'm reading The Nancys by R.W.R McDonald which won the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel.

The boys are at it again - another trilogy starting in the long-running Pendergast series - Bloodless - set in Savanna, GA, he and Coldmoon have to solve a series of crimes featuring exsanguinated victims. It ties to D.B. Cooper as well and is apparently called the Leng trilogy. Remember him? I really want one about Aunt Cordelia as well.

I've just started In the Shadow of Vesuvius by Tasha Alexander 14th in her Lady Emily Ashton Series. Hoping this should be good as this is one is set up around Pompeii and covers the days leading up to the eruption in 79AD and a murder at the turn of the last century

Finished The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny. Didn't like this one as much as some of her others. Added The Moonlight Child by Karen McQuestion to my rotation.

Started The Busy Body by Donald E. Westlake, an early entry from this author.

NEW THREAD: https://www.librarything.com/topic/334901