Just published and in from the library is The Devil of Delphi by Jeffrey Siger. I’ve been waiting for it for a few months, as Siger is a favorite author.
This is the seventh book in the series, and I’ve enjoyed all of the others, so I’m glad to have this one in hand and eager to start it today.
I finished the first in a series set in 16th-century Japan: The Claws of the Cat by Susan Spann, which I enjoyed though it did drag a little midway. I’ll read the second in the series, but not right away, instead waiting until I have the yen (oops) for another historical mystery.
I set aside The Hog’s Back Mystery by Freeman Wills Crofts as I was having trouble concentrating on multiple books. I’ll get back to it later. I also finished up my reading of the Holmes canon. I have several Holmes story collections awaiting my attention, but I’m taking a break from the Baker Street consulting detective for a little while.
Barbara finished the original Swedish publication dates, so this is book five.
Last time I mentioned she was going to read a novel by Craig Russell next, but that has been set aside for the Mankell, and the new Siger, which she also got from the library yesterday, and she expects The Oregon Trail, an American Journey to come back from the library any time now.
How about you?
Have you read these books or authors?
What are you reading?
Tip the Wink 
Hello Richard, I’m currently reading a collection of Ed McBain’s non-87th Precinct stories and I might review one or two of these shortly. I plan to read Henning Mankell (for the first time).
Prashant, I hope you’re feeling a little better, I know your had a loss. After not enjoying three McBain 87th Precinct novels, I’ve decided to give up on him. There are just too many other books to read! Mankell is one Barbara likes, I’ve not tried any. They may be bleak.
Richard, I finished THE HAUNTED STARS by Edmond Hamilton, an interesting example of the “mature” Hamilton’s SF. I also read the first volume of the Peter Straub-edited AMERICAN FANTASTIC TALES, a volume somewhat misleadingly subtitled “Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps” — two of the stories, one by Charles Brockden Brown and the other by Washington Irving, predate the Poe entry by up to thirty years. A good selection of the familiar and the unfamiliar: 44 stories carrying the genre through to a 1939 Robert Bloch tale.
BRADBURY SPEAKS: TOO SOON FROM THE CAVE, TOO FAR FROM THE STARS is a collection of 37 short essays, in parts a tad repetitivebut still sparkling because of Bradbury’s joyous enthusiasm; as always, he speaks not to the part of us that never grew up, but to the part us that never lost the childlike sense of wonder.
Rounding off the week’s reading was SHOWDOWN by the pseudonymous “Luke Adams,” the fourth (and final) book in a short-lived paperback western series — a book that could never have been a Spur contender, but one that I enjoyed. Also capping off the week was a collection of Roald Dahl stories, TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED, a tie-in to the 1979 television series.
I’m currently reading an earlier book by Edmond Hamilton, A YANK AT VALHALLA, written in 1940 — a true gosh-o-gee-whiz, pulpish science fantasy where the action (and the imagination) never let up. After that, who knows?
Enjoy your Columbus Day/Indigenous Natives Day! It’s going to be a beautiful one here.
Jerry, I’m in the midst of starting the Siger and the library keeps coughing up more stuff, so when I’ll get back to reading things from my own shelves, I don’t know. I have tried Hamilton, but wasn’t thrilled, except for the Ginger Star books, or was that someone else?
Richard, the Ginger Star books were by Leigh Brackett, Hamilton’s wife. Hamilton wrote the Starwolf trilogy around the same time.
Ah, that’s right. I have them here but was too lazy to look for them.
I got a free copy of THE DEVIL AT DELPHI at the Raleigh BOUCHERCON. Free books were everywhere!
We figure we saved a coup,e thou by not going, so we could afford to buy the book, but got it from the library instead. Good thing, Barbara’s Soc Sec will stay flat and her Part B will go up so we take a pay cut here.
Read a very interesting novella by Del Stone Jr called “The Seedling,” about a man who learns he can travel through time on the day he is told by the Dr. that he is dying.
Sounds interesting, that plot line could go in a lot of directions.
Sorry you couldn’t make it to Raleigh. I did get a number of new books at the con but they are packed in the back of the car and will have to wait until we get home Friday to see what I have. One is the new J. D. Rhoades hardback, which I got signed along with the others I brought. I told Siger how you met him and recommended his books and he signed mine.
Don’t think I finished anything what with the trip. I’ve been reading Kevin Wilson’s novel The Family Fang and his collection Tunneling to the Center of the Earth.
Relax and enjoy your journey. Plenty of time to list out the books after you’re home. I’m enjoying the Siger, but am again having some eye problems, as I did 18 months ago or so, so I’m reading on the iPad until new glasses can be obtained. I’ll probably need cataract surgery in a year. I have ebooks with scaleable fonts to keep me going, but may need to switch to audio books for a while.