I’m all messed up as to what day it is this week. I wrote a review post to put up today, at which point I realized it’s Thursday and time for “What Are You Reading?” I’m sorry! I almost missed the most important day of the week.
I am heading to Mom’s today for just a couple days, meeting up with my sister, Christie, who was sick the last time I was home. And, we’re going to try to plan a short family trip for next month.
In the meantime, it’s almost midnight. I just finished the book I’m reviewing on Friday, Simon Brett’s A Nice Class of Corpse. It’s the mystery that introduces Mrs. Melita Pargeter, widow of a thief. She’s a shrewd, perceptive woman who takes on the investigation of a couple suspicious deaths and a robbery at a seaside retirement home. Since I’m reviewing it tomorrow, I’ll just say it’s a delightful mystery, and Mrs. Pargeter is a wonderful character.
What about you? You all had the chance to read about my New York trip the other day. What have you been doing? What are reading this week?
Loved reading about your NYC trip!!!!!
Have a good visit with your family.
Adding yet another terrific read to my list after a long dry spell.
Apostle’s Cove is the twenty-first book in William Kent Krueger’s Cork O’Connor series.
I have followed this series since book one – Iron Lake.
While I have enjoyed everything Kent Krueger has written, this particular book helped me remember all the reasons I fell in love with his Cork O’Connor series back in the very beginning. The writing, the setting, the characters – all beautifully written with such heart that I was sad for it to end.
Description from NetGalley
The New York Times bestselling Cork O’Connor Mystery series—a “master class in suspense and atmospheric storytelling” (The Real Book Spy)—continues with Cork O’Connor revisiting a case from his past and confronting mysterious deaths in the present.
A few nights before Halloween, as Cork O’Connor gloomily ruminates on his upcoming birthday, he receives a call from his son, Stephen, who is working for a nonprofit dedicated to securing freedom for unjustly incarcerated inmates. Stephen tells his father that decades ago, as the newly elected sheriff of Tamarack County, Cork was responsible for sending an Ojibwe man named Axel Boshey to prison for a brutal murder that Stephen is certain he did not commit.
Cork feels compelled to reinvestigate the crime, but that is easier said than done. Not only is it a closed case but Axel Boshey is, inexplicably, refusing to help. The deeper Cork digs, the clearer it becomes that there are those in Tamarack County who are willing once again to commit murder to keep him from finding the truth.
At the same time, Cork’s seven-year-old grandson has his own theory about the investigation: the Windigo, that mythic cannibal ogre, has come to Tamarack County…and it won’t leave until it has sated its hunger for human blood.
Hello everyone. Not much to report from here. The most exciting thing I did was take out everything in my upper kitchen cupboards and rearrange it all, with the goal being to have all my mugs in one place so it would be easier to choose which one to have my tea in on any given day. I have far too many mugs but I love them all. As satisfying as it was, it hardly compares to going to the theatre in New York City for the weekend!
I’ve been meaning to ask two things.:
– Since January I’ve been keeping an eye out for the re-release of books by the family of Bill Crider. Do you know if that’s happened yet? I can find no mention of it over here.
– Can anyone in the U.S. tell me what grits are? I often come across a recipe that calls for them but it’s nothing I can find here. Unless it goes by another name as well?
One book this week:
THE MUSEUM DETECTIVE by Maha Khan Phillips
This book is many things – an archaeological mystery, a crime thriller, a tale of ancient history/myths, a story of family relationships and loss, plus a healthy dose of politics and corruption in Karachi, Pakistan.
Dr. Gul Delani is a respected curator at the Museum of Heritage and History, and an expert in archeology and ancient civilizations. During a drug raid in a remote part of the country Gul is summoned to the scene because a mummy was found there in a cave. Her expertise is required because the body was mummified in the Egyptian way, and yet all signs point to it being a princess from ancient Persepolis, making this a truly extraordinary discovery, potentially worth untold amounts of money.
As Gul works on this case it begins to seem – although how can it be possible – as though it’s in some way connected to the disappearance three years ago of her beloved niece. Gul digs deeper and is warned off by various means, but she’s determined to get to the bottom of both mysteries even though there are very few people she can fully trust.
Up until about a third of the way through I got bogged down a bit with all the names of ancient gods and how they were all related, and it started to feel a bit like a history textbook; but then the story began to move along at a brisk, tense pace and I certainly picked up my reading pace as well since I was invested in it all by then.
I learned a bit about the mummification process while reading this book (some of it not for the faint of heart) so between that and all the gods it was an education plus a good read. Interestingly, the story was inspired by real events that took place twenty five years ago in Karachi.
Your New York trip sounded fabulous. I’ve jealous. I have a friend who lives there but has no interest in theater at all. So, while I’ve visited him a couple of times, I didn’t go see any shows on Broadway. But they do tour to LA fairly regularly. For example, I’m going to see the Harry Potter play in just over a week. Looking forward to seeing how they pull that off on stage.
Last week, you said I should have talked a little about Malice. Honestly, I was tired and it was late when I was posting last week. So, delayed a week, here you go. 🙂
Thursday night before the official start, I co-hosted a discussion of The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman. Dorothy Gilman was the Malice Remembers author. I’m a huge fan – it’s where I got Carstairs. I thought it went really well. We had 30-40 people there, which is great for a pre-start event. I think we would have gotten more had it not been Thursday night; I had multiple people tell me they already had plans for Thursday night when they heard about it. Anyway, the group was split pretty evenly between those who have loved the series for years and those who just found it but planned to read more. Learning that people have just discovered the series makes me so happy. And the discussion went well with people jumping in to share their thoughts. My co-host and I could have talked about the series just the two of us.
The rest was a blur. I had dinner Friday with some friends who live in the area and lunch Saturday with another friend and his wife. I felt like I didn’t really get to talk to a bunch of people. But I did get some nice time talking to others. You know, the usual convention stuff.
As for what I’m reading right now…I’m about a third of the way into WHAT COMES AROUND, the thirteenth and final (sob!) Zoe Chambers Mystery from Annette Dashofy. She’s next year’s Guest of Honor at Malice. It’s fabulous! It’s the culmination of an ongoing subplot for the last several books, and I’m loving it. Of course, her books are usually hard to put down, but this seems like more of a struggle than most.
Peter and I are still in Romania, now in the northeast seeing magnificently painted late 16th century churches that are part of convents and monasteries. The religious paintings cover every inch of these churches inside and out. The style is somewhat “primitive,” for lack of a better word, but creative, colorful, and striking. The three convents we’ve seen so far also have lovely gardens with lilacs in full bloom, and nuns in their all-black habits are hoeing and raking the flower beds. We are very much in another world.
I’m still typing on my phone with one finger, so I’ll only mention one author, Robert Jackson Bennett. About a month ago I asked if any of you could recommend a good fantasy, and someone–I’m so sorry I can’t remember who it was– suggested THE TAINTED CUP by this author, which I have read on this trip and enjoyed so much that I’m already reading the sequel, A DROP OF CORRUPTION. Please acknowledge yourself, dear recommender, because I’m very grateful to you!