After I finished Ian Rankin’s Let It Bleed (Friday’s FFB), I started on a fantasy novel, Plague of Shadows by Howard Andrew Jones. I’m about a quarter way in, but decided I wanted to read more mystery instead. So I finished Crimson Snow, a winter setting short story collection edited by Martin Edwards. I enjoyed it a lot and recommend it.
Then I continued my catch-up on William Kent Krueger’s Cork O’Connor series, with Tamarack County. There are two plots running side by side, one the disappearance of the wife of a retired Judge, the other a threat to Cork’s son, or perhaps his girlfriend, by running off the icy road into the lake. These events seem unconnected, but as we mystery readers all know, they tie up later in the book. Though I thought the plots wandered a little, I enjoyed the book. The ending left some things up in the air, so I went straight on to the following book, Windigo Island. I’m just starting it today.
Barbara finished Black Lands by Belinda Bauer, suggested by the article in the current issue of Mystery Scene. She liked it well enough that she’s requested the next book from the library.
Now that she’s got it back from the library (having turned it in as it was due and not renewable), she’s finishing up Michael Connelly’s The Wrong Side of Good-Bye which of course she’s enjoying a lot.
Next up is Night School by Lee Child.
So how about you?
What have you been reading?
Tip the Wink 
This week I read Talking to the Dead by Harry Bingham, Warlock by Oakley Hall and High Noon a nonfiction book by Glenn Frankel. Loved Warlock and High Noon. Talking to the Dead was good but not great. Am now reading the new Adrian Mckinty Sean Duffy novel, Police at the Station and They Don’t Look Friendly.
I finished Lily Brooks-Dalton’s GOOD MORNING MIDNIGHT which intrigued me after I read a review that said it was a cross between GRAVITY and THE ROAD. I’d say the book is more optimistic than either of those–although “optimism” isn’t really the word for an end-of-the-world novel. A space ship, with six astronauts who have been exploring the moons of Jupiter for several years, suddenly loses all contact with the Earth. Meanwhile, an Arctic research station is evacuated, an old scientist stubbornly insisting on staying behind even though he knows this is his last chance to leave. After the plane takes off, he discovers a young girl has b en left behind. How these two plots are connected takes place over the course of the book. It’s beautifully written with some lovely descriptions of nature, space, and sky. The ending was the tiniest bit obvious, but overall I liked the book.
Michael Gilberts short stores about spies. Can’t think of the title but TracyK recommended it. Also MY BEAUTIFUL WORLD by Sonia Sotomayor, which I highly recommend.
Another week, another Reacher, this time 61 HOURS. This time Reacher hitches a ride on a tour bus which eventually crashes near an isolated South Dakota town. It’d winter and the town has a dead body and a vicious motorcycle gang threatening them. To add to the mix, there’s a dangerous Mexican drug lord, Russian gangsters, and an abandoned, secret government site whose purpose is unknown.
I also read another Robert B. Parker novel, this time featuring P.I. Sunny Randall, SHRINK RAP. This was the first Sunny Randall novel I’ve read and she’s even more irritating than Spenser or Jesse Stone. A manipulating psychiatrist is stalking his ex-wife and Sunny is hired as her bodyguard. More of a soap opera than a suspense novel. Meh.
Definitely not meh was Megan Abbott’s YOU WILL KNOW ME, the story of a young gymnastics star and the effect that the hit and run of an acquaintance has on her family and their inner circle. A penetrating look at family, obsession, and misplaced values. Highly recommended.
Also read was another Asimov/Greenberg anthology (this time with Joseph D. Olander, rather than Charles G. Waugh), 100 MALICIOUS LITTLE MYSTERIES. This thick instant remainder draws heavily on EQMM and AHMM and is chock full of twisty little stories, most of them “the biter bit” type. Nothing heavy here, just a whole lot of amusing, light reads.
I also read three graphic novels: BATMAN: HONG KONG (placing the Caped Crusader in a strange territory against a Chinese Triad), ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN BY BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS, VOLUME 1 (which introduces Miles Morales as the new Spider-Man), and SUPERMAN: ESCAPE FROM BIZARRO WORLD (a tiring collection of stories about the tiring Bizarro Superman — a character only the writers and DC staff could love; it reminds me of a movie that everyone involved thought was clever and funny while it was being shot, but turned out to be leaden and dull when released).
I wasn’t really awake when I got up Sunday morning and sprang forward two hours instead of one. later that day I had to reset the clocks again — properly this time. In my heart of hearts I really wanted to set the clock back a few years years when life was just a bit simpler. Oh, well…
I hope your circadian rhythms survived the weekend, Richard.
Great minds think alike! Just like Steve, I’m reading Police at the Station and They Don’t Look Friendly. by Adrian Mckinty, his just published new Sean Duffy novel, I spent last week reading
THE GENE: AN INTIMATE HISTORY By Siddhartha Mukherjee, a brilliant book. But, at 600+ pages, it was a Big Fat Book!
I have the McKinty book on hold for when we get back.
MR. CALDER AND MR. BEHRENS and GAME WITHOUT RULES are the two Michael Gilbert collections about said spies that I know, Patti. Both are excellent, as are most Gilbert stories.
By coincidence, I got an email from the library that they downloaded the Edwards collection to my account, and I plan to start it today. I did read another 17 stories this week, a dozen by Saki and the rest by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
I read two more library downloads: LET’S EXPLORE DIABETES WITH OWLS, the latest collection of essays by David Sedaris; and Richard Bradford’s RED SKY AT MORNING (a reread) after Bill Crider’s recent review. I enjoyed it as much as the first time around and appreciate anew what an excellent job they did with the 1971 movie adaptation, which followed the book very closely.
Besides the stories I’m reading the next Slough House/Slow Horses book by Mick Herron, THE LIST. This one is called a novella, though it could also be characterized as a short novel. I like these books about MI5.
Replies will be sparse today, I’m heavily preoccupied with things medical.
Deb – I might try that one.
Patti – I love Gilbert’s short stories.
Jerry – Barbara suggested that Reacher, but reading your description, I’ll skip it.
Jeff – Cool that you can get a download from your New York library and read it in Florida.
Just started Visions of the mutant rain forest and am enjoying so far
Richard, Martin Edwards’ “Crimson Snow” is on my list. I have read one other mystery, “All the Lonely People,” by Martin which I liked a lot.
these are all old stories, Prashant, he’s is just the editor.