It’s Thursday! It’s also less than two weeks until Christmas, so I don’t know if you’re reading, or shopping, or spending time with family. I know Rosemary probably won’t be joining us today since she has a full schedule, but she said she’d read everyone’s posts later. If you’re here today, welcome!
Let me tell you about a book I didn’t read. It was read to me instead. I watched PBS the other night, and they had a special production of “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” by E.T.A. Hoffmann. The Royal National Scottish Orchestra performed the music while Alan Cumming read the story. And, this isn’t the story you expect. I’m going to admit I’m a heathen. Forty years ago, I so wanted to see a ballet, and went to see “The Nutcracker” at Christmastime. I was so bored, and almost fell asleep. But, Hoffmann’s actual story provides all the background that is missing from the ballet. And Cumming is the perfect narrator for the story.
“The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” (German: Nussknacker und Mausekönig) is a story written in 1816 by Prussian author E. T. A. Hoffmann, in which young Marie Stahlbaum’s favourite Christmas toy, the Nutcracker, comes alive and, after defeating the evil Mouse King in battle, whisks her away to a magical kingdom populated by dolls. In 1892, the Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and choreographers Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov turned Alexandre Dumas’s adaptation of the story into the ballet The Nutcracker.
If you get the chance to catch this version of the story, I hope you try it.
What about you? What are you reading this week? I know many of you have books we can add to our TBR piles.
Oh gosh! Where is everyone? Usually plenty of posts to read by the time I get here. I don’t know about adding to anyone’s TBR pile as many of my choices came from this blog.
A Trace of Deceit (2019)
Spurred by a new book mention in the November Treasures closet from author Karen Odden, I read this second entry in her Victorian mystery series. It features a student artist, the murder of her art-forger brother and the Scotland Yard investigator assigned.
A valuable French painting is missing and the ownership is in question. The storyline was well presented, but the author tries too hard to include large quantities of background detail in the book. I found the lengthy inserts presumed the reader had little knowledge, yet deep interest.
Spirit of Steamboat (2013)
A charming, feel-good Longmire Christmas story by Craig Johnson (thanks Lesa). I now have the collection of short stories “Christmas in Absaroka County” on hold. As an aside, the company I worked for had a district office in Casper, WY so I was familiar with the bucking bronco logo, but never knew the story behind it.
The Unquiet Dead (2015)
The debut by author Ausma Zehanat Khan in what became the Rachel Getty and Esa Khattak series set in Toronto, Canada.
On one level a standard murder mystery, but on another, a complex story of loss, redemption, and the cost of justice. Set at the Scarborough Bluffs, Toronto with a backdrop of the Srebrenica genocide of 1995. The body of a man is found at the foot of the cliffs near his home. Esa Khattak, head of Community Policing has been sent to investigate the incident. I found very interesting and now have the second in the series from the library.
Broken Places (2018) Tracy Clark
Another series I missed until Lesa reviewed the latest earlier this year. Lesa gave high marks to the debut of Cass Raines and had a delightful author interview back in 2018. Some more catching up for me.
Snowing here again this morning. Nice to look at, even nicer to be retired. Started the Hillerman biography. Almost 100 pages in, he’s in Santa Fe, but still working as a reported/editor.
Yay, it’s Thursday! And we are near record warmth here one more time before the temperature crashes over the weekend. In two and a half weeks we’ll be leaving for Florida, so every day without snow is One Day Closer.
You know how it is when a book comes in from the library and then they get a second book? Ad the next day two more books? Well, that’s where I am this week, Not that I’m complaining, though if it was spaced out a little more it would be easier. Oh well.
Jackie just got the new Jayne Castle (Jayne Ann Krentz) book from the library, and the next day it was the new Nora Roberts. So I had to get the first in the series back so she could review it before reading the second int he series. And she has to finish (after saving it) the last Betty Webb book about Lena Jones, DESERT REDEMPTION. (She is not a fan of her Zoo series.) Also, let me add as an aside to your opening that she is a big fan of The Nutcracker.
What am I reading? I only read two books this week. I read Patricia Highsmith’s 1981 short story collection, THE BLACK HOUSE, and have one more of hers to read. I also got in two new Crippen & Landru collections of older stories: HILDEGARDE WITHERS” FINAL RIDDLES? by Stuart Palmer (they published an earlier collection of Withers stories nearly 20 years ago) and SHOOTING SCRIPT AND OTHER MYSTERIES by William Link & Richard Levinson (again, they’ve published earlier collections of theirs), the creators of Columbo and some great television mystery movies. And I got the second Helene Tursten collection about a very dangerous person, AN ELDERLY LADY MUST NOT BE CROSSED.
When I got those three novels back to back to back from the library, I started all three of them, which seems crazy. But I just wanted to get a feel for each before picking one to read. That one was James Kestrel’s Hard Case Crime book, FIVE DECEMBERS. It starts in Honolulu just before December 7, 1941, with cop Joe McGrady getting called to a particularly gruesome double murder, and doesn’t end until after the end of World War II. It takes McGrady to Hong Kong and Tokyo and, eventually back to Hawaii. It is noir and grisly at times, but Kestrel’s evocative writing gives a great picture of the time and place. Very good book.
The next one up (I’ve read nearly a third) is Andrea Camilleri’s final (sad) Insp. Salvo Montalbano book, RICCARDINO. Apparently he wrote this, intending it to be the final book, then revised it and published it a dozen years later (so it is set in 2004). Montalbano is annoyed to be awakened by a wrong number at 5 AM, only to find later that the caller (the title “Riccardino”) was murdered shortly thereafter. What makes this fun for long-time readers is the tie-in he provides to the long-running television series starring Luca Zingaretti. Salvo keeps running into people who think they know “him” from seeing the television version. He even gets a call from “The Author” wanting to discuss things. I’ll let you know how I feel about how it all ends next time.
This (I read the first couple of chapters) was the time travel book mentioned last week, SHE WOULDN’T CHANGE A THING by Sarah Adlakha, which I will be reading after the Camilleri.
I also downloaded (these are all library downloads) Ann Patchett’s new book of essays, THESE PRECIOUS DAYS. I really liked her first one and so far this is excellent too. I was particularly interested in her “Three Fathers” chapter.
I decided to give up on Val McDermid’s 1979 after 175 pages and return it rather than restarting it from where I left off before New Orleans. I so prefer her other books and was just not enjoying this as much. I’ll probably get back to it if I ever get a gap in my reading schedule.
Be safe out there and get your boosters!
Another April like day at my house again today. I think I’ve only worn my winter coat one day so far.
Two disappointing books for me this week.
THE MONTH OF BORROWED DREAMS by Felicity Hayes-McCoy. I usually enjoy my visit to Finfarran. In this one Hanna starts a film club at the library featuring the movie Brooklyn. Both Hanna and Jazz seem to be at odds in their life-Hanna with her relationship with Brian and Jazz with where she wants to be at this stage. For good measure there was also a storyline about a homeless boy from Dublin named Rasher. While the descriptions of Ireland were gorgeous as usual, something seemed to be a little disjointed in this installment. I felt there were almost too many storylines. The Rasher plotline didn’t seem necessary. Perhaps if I remembered more of the film Brooklyn or read the book, it would have made more sense to me. This was an okay read for me but not a great one.
Next I decided to pick up the second in the Jacqueline Frost Christmas Tree Farm Mysteriy. I read the first one and thought it fun. This one not so much. Holly White’s best friend is taken into custody for murdering her date from the night before after she was seen arguing with him. Despite many threats to stay out of it, Holly continues her efforts to clear Caroline’s name. I’ve decided I don’t like Holly very much and all the cutesiness of a town called Mistletoe was just too much Christmas for me this time. Nobody came off particularly likeable in this one. I will definitely be passing on the third book.
Sempre Avanti as the Lagina brothers say on The Curse of Oak Island. Perhaps my next reading choices will be better.
Jeff, we are getting our boosters on Monday. It took over 2 weeks to get our appointment. Another surprise considering how many are unvaccinated.
Happy Reading!
Don’t you hate disappointing books, Sharon? I wish you better luck this week.
I think the moral of the story with so many cozy mysteries is argue in private if you don’t want to have witnesses who will later insist you’re a murder suspect.
I have my booster!
Can we assume Rasher’s last name is O’Bacon?
Gosh Rick the book was so not memorable that I forgot Rasher’s last name already. But your O’Bacon made me laugh.
MM, I have the feeling the closer we get to Christmas, the fewer people we’ll have visiting on Thursday. That’s okay. Everyone needs a break. I just hope people show up again in January with lists of the books they read!
I’m so glad you enjoyed Spirit of Steamboat! As I said, it’s one of my favorite books, and I read it every Christmas season. I’m glad you picked up the other collection. I love Johnson’s short stories and novellas. It makes me feel good that you’re sampling some of the books you find here, from Treasures or recommendations or other readers.
I think that’s why I hate snow and winter. I’m not yet retired. Enjoy the fact you can stay home today!
Jeff, James Kestrel’s book has appeared on all kinds of Best of lists, as I’m sure you know. It’s weird, though. I hadn’t really heard anything about the book until it started to appear on those lists.
I loved the “Three Fathers” section in Pratchett’s book, too. Then, my other favorite essays involved books and the bookstore. Those come later in the book.
Your comment about 1979, though, makes me wonder if I should even bother trying it later. Probably not.
Heading to Florida again this year, I see. I know you missed it last year.
We did, and we are definitely concerned with the Governor’s attitude about vaccine and mask mandates. But we’ll be as careful as we can and try and eat outdoors where possible, It’s nice to be retired and have the ability to get away south for most of the winter.
What with the Kindles, we no longer have to take bags of books with us, and we can borrow Kindle books from our library here. In addition, Jackie got a Palm Beach County library card since we rented an apartment there, so we visited the local library weekly. Also, they have a HUGE collection of DVDs so we got to watch things we had missed. This year we are hoping to be able to watch Netflix and Amazon Prime shows while we’re there, as our landlady got a new television.
Enjoy the weather and the change, Jeff!
I’m worried about your traveling, but you know I’m very conservative and fearful about Covid. Be careful!
Lesa, Barbara is a McDermid fan, she read and really liked 1979.
Good morning. We’ve been walking in local parks and enjoying the warm weather while it lasts. We didn’t see the bald eagles this week but we saw a fox, geese and ducks plus a couple of our of season yellow sulfur butterflies.
I read a children’s graphic novel, GARLIC AND THE VAMPIRE by Bree Paulson. When there are rumors of a vampire moving into the castle above town the vegetable people volunteer garlic to deal with him.
A PLUS ONE FOR MURDER by Laura Bradford. A fairly standard cozy mystery where I never connected with the main character. I prefer her Amish mystery series.
KILLER REASEARCH by Jenn McKinlay. The latest in her book lovers mystery series featuring head librarian Lindsey Norris. When a body turns up during a mayoral race, Lindsey must determine if dirty politics or something else is behind the killing. I blew through this book because I didn’t want to put it down.
The other book that I couldn’t stop reading this week was THE SIXTH SPELL by Michelle M Pillow. A paranormal romance series featuring women in their 40s who come into unexpected powers.
Darn. I’m sorry to hear about Laura Bradford’s book, Sandy. I love her Amish books, too.
I’ve never seen a fox, but a lot of people around here seem to have seen them in the last year.
Good morning.
I listened to Never Fall for Your Fiancee by Virginia Heath. I really liked this one. It is a very entertaining romantic comedy. I enjoy books with witty banter between the characters and this had it. The supporting characters were also very funny. It is the first in the Merriwell Sisters series and I look forward to reading the next one.
I read God Rest Ye, Royal Gentlemen by Rhys Bowen. It is the latest in Her Royal Spyness series. It offered me what I was looking for…. all the feelings of Christmas along with a mystery. I liked the descriptions of the English Christmas traditions. I also like the sprinkling of historical fact woven into the story. I have read 1-8 in the series but skipped ahead to read this Christmas book. It was not a problem. I had a good foundation of the story line and characters. It is nice to see the character of Lady Georgiana mature with marriage.
Not sure if I will be able to check in next week. I have had a death in the family and have to make an unexpected trip to Florida. I am a bit nervous traveling the week of Christmas with Covid still rampant. I have had my booster shot and plan to wear my N-95 mask, so fingers crossed. If I don’t check in, I wish all of you who celebrate, the very best of the Christmas season.
Kathleen, I’m sorry about the death in your family. That’s always hard, but the holidays and COVID make it even harder. Travel safely.
I have Never Fall for Your Fiancee here, and I’m hoping to get to it. Like you, I enjoy witty banter. And, your comments make me even more eager to read it.
I have seen a fox on the side of the road once in my lifetime, somewhere in Indiana. I have seen the Nutcracker on TV when I was little and then at Butler College on stage, The costumes were pretty but I have had enough of it. My friend in California goes to see it every year.
No shopping for me. I am continuing to read the book about Leonardo das Vinci’s mother and lately she missed so much that she with the help of her father dressed as a man and took the old family horse to Florence. She found an enormous amount of freedom living as a man and running an apothecary shop. Her son introduced her as her uncle and she was invited to dinner with the de Medici family. Leonardo’s artwork is already so famous that he met and became friends with them. The de Medici family is amazing and their discussiones are fascinating. They the famour scholars and artists at their dinner table often,
I could go on and on but i am also reading a book by Anne Tyker. It has the ugliest cover of all my unread books. That is the reason why I am reading “If Morning Ever Comes”. A young man leaves his studies at Columbia Law School to go see his family at home. The family is a little weird or quirky and he has no idea of when he will be returning to school.
It reminds of when my cousin could not stand Haverford College and came to live with us for a few years so that he could go to I.U. extension. I can see some similarities.
I agree, Carolee. One viewing of the ballet was enough for me. But, this reading was wonderful.
That sounds like a fascinating book with all the history!
I like the music from The Nutcracker, but not the ballet so much, though I have seen it live once. I much prefer Swan Lake.
Good morning, everyone! I finished 6 books this week and decided not to finish one. Here we go”
AN EGGNOG TO DIE FOR by Amy Pershing, the second in the Cape Cod Foodie Mystery series has a Christmas theme. As a matter of fact, it’s Santa Claus who is murdered–the local town Santa, that is. It turns out he isn’t such a jolly fellow after all, and he’s been stirring up trouble with quite a few of the townspeople. Although law enforcement, including harbormaster Jason, is investigating the crime, Samantha Barnes is also on the case. A professional chef in a previous life, Sam now writes food-related articles and reviews restaurants, in addition to starring in some viral videos. But she’s the one who discovered the body, so she takes it upon herself to do some investigating of her own. It’s a trope of many cozy mysteries, and Sam does insinuate herself into some potentially dangerous situations, but I was rooting for her anyway. I think this is a delightful series, with interesting characters and a quaint New England setting.
THE GUEST LIST by Lucy Foley was our December book club selection, but I couldn’t make it past 30%, although I cheated by looking for spoilers online so I could at least join in the book club conversation. I found most of the characters to be either lackluster or way too over-the-top and the tone and plot of the book to be relentlessly depressing. But I would be remiss if I didn’t report that all five of the other book club attendees this week did enjoy the book. Different strokes, I get it!
After reading and enjoying all of Viola Shipman’s previous books, I was disappointed by the last one, The Clover Girls, but I found THE SECRET OF SNOW much more satisfying. Amberrose had taken the name Sonny Dunes when she left Michigan to become a highly-rated and popular meteorologist in Palm Springs, CA. Feeling responsible for the death of her teenage sister years ago, she rarely returned home, even to visit her widowed mother. But when, at age 50, Sonny was replaced by a virtual meteorologist and complained in a very public way, she found herself returning in disgrace to Michigan, the land of brutal 6-month winters. Offered a job at a TV station in her home town by a former classmate, Sonny had to deal with much humbler surroundings, not to mention a highly resentful coworker, and was forced to participate in some embarrassing (and sometimes potentially dangerous) local events. It looked like a recipe for disaster, but then things started to turn around. I enjoyed many of the characters, particularly Sonny’s feisty and hilarious mother and her coworker Icicle (obviously a nickname), a photographer who couldn’t see a bright future for himself. I also appreciated the focus on how snow can be an enriching, uplifting experience after all. A romantic relationship with an attractive man was pleasant, but underdeveloped. Overall, time well spent for me.
ABSENCE OF MALLETS. the ninth in the Fixer-Upper Mystery series has a particularly interesting theme and tight plotting. Contractor Shannon Hammer’s company is building 50 tiny homes for military veterans in need. She and Mac, her bestselling author beau, are living together, and Shannon’s sister Chloe, also a contractor and with a popular TV show, is home for a visit. Mac’s writers’ retreats have been successful, until a group of five authors who already know each other move in and immediately make nuisances of themselves. One of the group, an egotistical man trying to follow up his hugely successful debut with a second book, is annoyingly making videos of everyone and everything with his phone and pursuing a new friend of Shannon’s. When that friend is found dead, everyone suspects one of the retreat members, but there seems to be no evidence or motive. Then more mayhem breaks out, creating some life-threatening situations. I enjoy spending time with Shannon, a down-to-earth, knowledgeable character, and those in the small town where she lives.
Of the ten Christmas or holiday-adjacent books I’ve read so far this year, CHRISTMAS BY THE BOOK by Anne Marie Ryan is definitely the most heart-warming. Nora inherited a small-town bookshop years ago, and she loves her interactions with the townspeople. But when she learns that quite a few of them are dealing with devastating personal issues, she and husband Sam run a contest, asking the locals to nominate people in need to receive one of six books from the shop. There are many entries, with the winners chosen at random, and as the books were already wrapped, Nora doesn’t know who received which book. But the universe obviously picked the perfect book for each person, leading them to find ways to work through their own struggles. What they don’t know is that the bookshop will close soon due to financial woes. Even Sam doesn’t know, as Nora is afraid the news will further weaken his already damaged heart. Of course, the feel-good ending is life-affirming, as you would expect of a holiday book. I’ m glad I bought it so I can read it again next year!
A SCONE OF CONTENTION, the latest installment in the excellent Key West Food Critic Mystery series (second book this week featuring food critics!) by Lucy Burdette, finds Hayley and her new husband, Nathan, on their honeymoon in Scotland. But with Hayley’s octogenarian friend Miss Gloria in tow, with Nathan’s brother-in-law involving him in a days-long golf tournament, and with Nathan’s troubled sister Vera leading Haley and Miss Gloria on a tour of “thin places” in Scotland that will be the subject of her upcoming book, the newlyweds have little chance to be together. Miss Gloria’s ancestors are from Scotland so she is eager to see the sights, but Hayley is disturbed to find that others involved with the book are at odds over its intent, often quite contentiously. Add a near-poisoning, a tragic fall from a rotating boat lift, and another close call, and Hailey realizes she can’t get away from death just by leaving home. I enjoyed the local color, food, and history of Scotland and hope that Hailey and Nathan can get away for a real honeymoon in a future book, but . . . these are mysteries, after all.
I’m a big fan of Sutton Foster from her Broadway and TV roles. So I inhaled her interesting memoir, HOOKED: HOW CRAFTING SAVED MY LIFE, which points out how she dealt with difficult situations in her life. Cross-stitch, collage, painting, and especially crochet all helped her deal with less-than-supportive parents, the pressures of early success and resulting castmate hostility, the vicissitudes of her romantic life, and reproductive challenges. I was impressed by Sutton’s artistic abilities, and at the same time I was entertained as she described the highlights of her life in show business to date. It’s a short book, an easy read, but well worthwhile for fans of musical theater and TV dramedies such as Bunheads and Younger.
Margie, I always enjoy your comments about books. I’ve debated several times over the Sutton Foster one. I’ve never seen her TV shows, although I’ve seen her multiple times on Broadway.
Kate Carlisle does an excellent job with tight plotting, doesn’t she?
Most of all, I’m happy you enjoyed Christmas by the Book. Like you, I bought a copy so I can read it yearly.
We have tickets to see Foster with Hugh Jackman in THE MUSIC MAN next Spring. We saw him play Curly in OKLAHOMA at the National Theatre in London years ago,
Great! They kept moving my tickets around. Now, I have tickets in February and March, Jeff, when I originally had them for late spring.
Six books! In a week! How can you read so fast and how can you remember what you read? I am mystified.
Rick, that’s more than I usually read in a week, so I don’t know what to tell you. Maybe the books were shorter? The way I remember is that upon finishing a book, I immediately write my summary for Lesa’s blog. I’ve been doing that for a few years because since I am a fast reader, I don’t retain what I’ve read very well. That sometimes leads to reading a book more than once because I don’t remember reading it the first time. Also, this year I’ve started requesting ARCs from NetGalley, and those books have to be reviewed on that website. All of their Advance Reader Copies are in ebook format, so I often take advantage of the highlighting function on Kindle so I can remember important details from early in the book. I did notice that I have surpassed my usual 200 books a year already. By the way, I’m retired, so I have more time than others!
Maybe I missed it here, but for those that liked The Windsor Knot, I wanted to mention that SJ Bennett has a second book that was published in the UK in November as a Three Dog Problem (delightful cover). It’s not due in US until early next year as All The Queens Men. My library has on order, so I was able to place a hold.
Thank you, MM! I didn’t mention it because I don’t have a copy in my Treasures. It’s probably a more delightful cover in the UK. I’ll watch for it!
Definitely look at her webpage for the UK cover. Much better than the cover we’ll get.
On Friday night and Saturday we had a wild, severe wind and rain storm. Branches and trees down, power outages, the works. Surely not as bad as the storms across the Midwest, but worrying for us. I hope everyone affected by storms is okay.
I gave up on the 3rd Cubiak mystery a third in when something happened in it that made me close the book and send it back to the library. I’ll say no more, as another reader might not find it bothersome. I read THE SUMMER OF THE BIG BACHI and was disappointed. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but that wasn’t it.
I thought to try another Christmasy book and had an ebook of IT’S A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS, subtitled “Classics Reimagined”. It’s a collection of novelettes by a handful of authors updating classic Christmas movies. I read “A Fun, Old-Fashioned Family Christmas” by Julie Cantrell, “Miracle on Main Street” by Lynne Gentry and “500 Miles to Christmas” by Allison Pittman. They were fine, but I but found them somewhat disappointing and quit.
Still wanting to read holiday fare, I turned to CHRISTMAS IN ABSAROKA COUNTY by Craig Johnson, a collection of 4 Christmas season stories, in ebook. The stories are “Ministerial Aid,” “Slick-Tongued Devil,” “Toys for Tots,” and “Unbalanced”. This was a reread, and I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed that so much I decided to reread THE SPIRIT OF STEAMBOAT. I hadn’t read it in years and enjoyed it very much.
Now I’ve begun reading WHITE CORRIDOR, the 4th Bryant & May novel by Christopher Fowler. In addition, I have A SURPRISE FOR CHRISTMAS And Other Seasonal Mysteries, edited by Martin Edwards, a new entry in the British Library Crime Classics series. It has a dozen stories originally from the Teens to the Fifties, some of them I’ve read before, but will enjoy again, I’m sure.
I’m finally done shopping for the holiday, and mostly have the house decorated. The tree is up, and the cats are…investigating. Unfortunately, we were informed yesterday afternoon in separate emails that our two “big” presents for each other will not be shipped, let alone received, by Christmas! Bummmmmer! Well, off to Williams-Sonoma to try to find something.
Only one more Thursday At Lesa’s before Christmas! Will she have eggnog for us, I wonder?
Rick, we have had a bit of rain here recently, one night it was very hard and blustery rain. We had only sprinkles of rain today.
I hope you are enjoying your current reads since some of the earlier books you read did not work well for you. The Christmas stories by Craig Johnson sound good, I will have to download those to read for next Christmas.
Ah, eggnog. Now, I might have to do some shopping, Rick. I’ve been drinking hot apple spice tea lately, which tastes like the holidays to me.
As I said earlier, I love those Craig Johnson stories. And, The Spirit of Steamboat is a favorite.
That is a bummer that your presents won’t be shipped to arrive by Christmas. Darn.
I’m glad you didn’t have the winds of the Midwest, and I’m really happy you’re safe.
I am listening to Crying in the H Mart by Michelle Zauner and reading the Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osmen.
A lot of the end-of-year lists are mentioning Crying in the H Mart, Katherine. I’ll look forward to your comments next week.
Lesa, you just reminded me that I need to start putting my list together for you!
If you would, that would be great! I need to remind Jeff and Margie as well, and invite others. I’ll do that next Thursday! Thank you for reminding me.
We had another storm over the weekend. We needed it, but as usual,most of it went right into the ocean.
I know people from this state who are going to Florida because they have a lower case rate AND no mask mandate.
Every so often, I see a fox around here. Makes me glad I don’t raise chickens.
This week I read:
Betrayal by Dan Stratman; Third in a series which is supposed to be about an airline pilot, but in this one, his niece, who is really his stepdaughter, inherits a billion dollars from her French father,and that kind of sudden wealth rarely ends well.
Lethal Agent by Kyle Mills; Part of the Mitch Rapp series, but this guy making dad jokes is NOT Mitch Rapp. Maybe it’s time to put this series to bed.
Say It Was Murder by Stephen Mertz; Tough PI goes to the desert to check on a daughter involved with a cult. We all know where this leads.
The Sacrilege by John Maddox Roberts; Almost as soon as he’s back in Rome, Decius has someone trying to kill him. He’s to be a senator this year, and he tries to get to the bottom of things, and is in over his head before he even starts. Another good one in this series.
Glen, I’m glad The Sacrilege turned out okay because your other ones sound like duds.
I’ve read several Stephen Saylor Roman mysteries, but none by Maddox Roberts. Are they comparable?
Roberts is much more light-hearted than Gordianus, and his sleuth is part of the aristocracy. Despite the similar setting and characters, they are quite different. Lindsey Davis also writes a pretty good mystery series set in Ancient Rome.
I’m taking today to read a short story. Okay, a rather long short story – Project Dogway, a short story featuring the main characters in the Pampered Pets series from Sparkle Abbey.
That’s funny, Mark, because I’m reviewing a short story (only 28 pages!) tomorrow on my blog.
Mine was twice as long. 🙂
Reading Mrs Claus and the Halloween Homicide. Liz must have spent months coming up with clever names for her characters. Personally I think I could have fun doing better, but I am getting a “kick” out of the story itself. Well done and out of the ordinary.
I have those books, and I need to try the series, Carol Jeanne, because it does sound different.
I did not know about the Longmire Christmas book so I will be getting that. I have read and enjoyed SPIRT OF STEAMBOAT and may use my review of it for FFB in the next couple of weeks.
Current read is UNDER COLOR OF LAW by Aaron Philip Clark.
Way too warm here. Side effects from the J&J booster shot finally stopped. Scott had his brain wave test two days ago and we get those results and game plan going forward in early January.
Trying to not let this time of year drown me in grief again. And so it goes…
Hang in there, Kevin. I know it’s a rough time of year for you. I also know you had a number of positive things you posted last week. I know that doesn’t always help, but the short story does give you something else to think about.
Sending hugs.
Thank you….. I know a lot of folks have it way worse and I need to also shut my mouth and focus better on what is good these days.
Gave up on UNDER THE COLOR OF LAW. The deal to me is more of a sociology paper on what is wrong in LAPD and society as a whole than an actual novel. More power to the author, but I was bored and fed up so I quit sixty plus pages in to the read.
My husband now has retina surgery scheduled for his left eye in the last half of January. That won’t solve any of his current vision problems, but if he doesn’t get this repair it will get worse and he could lose his vision in that eye. He can now drive which is wonderful; the double vision problem only affects his reading and TV watching. He can read though and is getting more reading done lately.
This week I read RULES OF CIVILITY by Amor Towles. This was his first book, published in 2011. His second book was A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW, set in the 1920s, which I loved. This one is set in 1938 in New York, narrated by a young woman in her twenties. I liked it a lot, the characters are very well done.
I am still reading MURDER IN THE SNOW by Gladys Mitchell (also titled GROANING SPINNEY). I am doing it as a group read over 4 weeks, and I am in the third week of reading right now. Still liking the book, it is a very good depiction of the time (post World War II) and place (the Cotswolds in the UK). But parts of it are slow and repetitious.
Last night I started HIGH RISING by Angela Thirkell. Humorous British fiction from the 1930s. This is the first in a long series and I have read about 50 pages of 275 at this point.
Oh, Tracy. I hope this surgery goes well for your husband.
While I enjoy some of those earlier mysteries, such as Mitchell’s, I find others are repetitious as well.
Also hoping for the best surgery wise. Got to get that done.
I too hope for success with your husband’s surgery!
Thanks to all of you for the good wishes.