I finished Icerigger by Alan Dean Foster, which I first became aware of through a blog review, though I don’t recall which blog. I enjoyed it. It’s nothing literate or thought-provoking, just a fun SF novel about a group of people who get stranded on an ice world, and their struggles to survive, get along, and find a way to somewhere civilized enough to allow them to get off the world and back to their lives. Good characterization, good world-building and nice doses of action and humor. It turns out to be the first in a series, though it could be read as a stand-alone. I’ve found a used copy of the second book.
I then felt in the mood for a British mystery, and spotted a Chief Inspector Henry Tibbit novel in my TBR stack, so I snapped it up. I love Patricia Moyes books, and it’s always a pleasure to come across one I haven’t read. This one is A Six-Letter Word For Death and, at the halfway point, I’m enjoying it very much.
Barbara just finished John Sandford’s current Prey series novel, Golden Prey. She’s not sure what she’s going to read next, she’ll see what’s on hold or pause at the library.
So how about you?
What have you been reading?
By the way, I’ll be posting some garden pictures Wednesday, for those who may be interested.
Tip the Wink 
I love Patricia Moyes books, too, but I have read them all so I have to settle for rereading them. Which I always enjoy.
I finished a book by Val McDermid, The Distant Echo. Liked it a lot. I am now reading Their Finest by Lissa Evans (title in the UK is Their Finest Hour and a Half and I like that title much better). I am enjoying the book.
Tracy, I’m pretty close to having read them all, but find there are a few left I haven’t gotten to. I’ll be reviewing this one for my Friday Forgotten this week. That’s not a new McDermid, is it?
You are correct that the Val McDermid is older, from 2002 or 2003 I think. I read reviews of the most recent book in the Karen Pirie series (Out of Bounds), so I decided to read The Distant Echo, which was sort of the first in the series, which I had on my TBR pile for years.
Read the new John Connolly-A Game of Ghosts. I know his books tend to border on the horror genre but this one was a bit too much for me. Not my favorite Connolly. Also read More Alive & less Lonely, a book of essays by Jonathan Lethem which I enjoyed a lot. Glad to see he is a big fan of Thomas Berger, a much neglected writer. Now in the middle of Howard Linsky’s The Search-good so far. The new Michael Connolly comes out Tuesday. That will go to the top of my tbr pile. Just got the blu ray of Their Finest from Netflix. Haven’t watched it yet.
I’m pretty sure Barbara has that Connolly on her hold shelf at the library, and she probably won’t be put off by it, as you were, as she reads some gruesome stuff. But then you had no problem with that Nesbo book, and she did, so who knows?
Grusome doesn’t bother me, it was more the supernatural element taking over the plot that bothered me.
Ah. That may be a problem for Barbara as well.
Love Patricia Moyes.
And yes, Thomas Berger is a forgotten writer. I used to look forward to his books.
Have you era a book by Moyes lately, Patti? Might she be a good author for your book club?
I’m reading my first Repairman Jack novel, THE TOMB, by the prolific F. Paul Wilson. Great Summer read! Our 50th High School Reunion has many events this week so we’ll be busy with those.
I haven’t ever gone to a reunion, either high school or college. I intended to go to the 5 year high school, but something came up (car trouble, I think) and didn’t get there. Then it seemed too long in the past, or too far away, or something. I don’t think I missed much. After ten or twenty years we’re not at all the same people we were in high school.
The Tomb was a good one. Speaking of Val McDermid, as Tracy was, I’m reading the MATCHUP anthology, and enjoyed the McDermid-Peter James story (“Footloose”), grisly though it may be. Also the Lee Child-Kathy Reichs collaboration. I’m also reading, and very much enjoying, the second Woods Cop anthology by Joseph Heywood, HARDER GROUND.
Last week I read THE ACCOMPLISHED GUEST by Ann Beattie, mostly set in Maine or Key West, where she lives. Also YESTERDAY’S KIN by Nancy Kress, which caught my eye after a Big Idea post on John Scalzi’s blog. She has since expanded the novella into the first book of a trilogy.
Another was ALL SYSTEMS RED by Martha Wells. And I finished the Saki collection as mentioned.
Biggest excitement was the arrival of the latest collection of the late Ed Hoch’s Dr. Sam Hawthorne stories (the fourth) from Cripple & Landru, ALL BUT IMPOSSIBLE.
Other current reading : THE LATE SHOW by Michael Connelly.
You got that Heywood pretty quickly, Jeff. Dod your library have it? I have it here but haven’t cracked it yet. I don’t think I’ve read anything by Ann Beattie. Glad you got your computer fixed.
I know I answered this earlier but it isn’t here, so if it turns up twice… .
Anyway, for the second time – my library had an ebook copy and it was available, which is how I got it so fast.
I apologize, now I remember you did say that last week.
I gave Icerigger 4 stars. Good read
Yep. I have the 2nd in the series coming.
Both Foster and Moyes are great choices, Richard. I only wish moyes would have been even half as prolific as Foster.
George, I’m a big fan of Repairman Jack. Like Jack Reacher and Charlie Parker, Repairman Jack prefers to take the battle to the enemy rather than sit around twiddling his thumbs. I read several years ago that Wilson was thinking of taking the character into graphic novels but I haven’t heard anything since.
As for me, this week I finished Edgar Rice Burroughs’ THE BANDIT OF HELL’S BEND and read a further western of his, THE DEPUTY SHERIFF OF COCHISE COUNTY. Both typical Burroughs, relying heavily on coincidence, but both would have made decent B-movie westerns.
The Robert B. Parker-thon continues. From Parker, I read HUGGER HUGGER, which takes Spenser to Georgia to investigate attacks on race horses. Better than the average in the series. Spencer continues in Ace Atkins ROBERT B. PARKER’S LULLABY and ROBERT B. PARKER’S KICKBACK, one about a young girl who feels the wrong man had been convicted for her mother’s murder, the other dealing with crooked judges lining their pockets by sending kids to privately-run jails. Both were better written and more fleshed out than Parker’s work. Michael Brandman’s ROBERT B. PARKER’S DAMNED IF YOU DO is the third (and last) Jesse Stone book by Brandman. Brandman, who worked on the Jesse Stone television movies (and also wrote several of them) knows Parker’s character well and brings the character closer to the TV version — with the exception of giving Stone a cat, rather than a dog. After this book, Reed Farrel Coleman took over the series; I have one of those in the chute
My FFB this past week was L. Frank Baum’s THE WOGGLE-BUG BOOK, an interesting, non-PC offshoot of his Oz books..
I also read WONDER WOMAN: ODYSSEY, VOLUMES 1 & 2, two graphic novels written by J. Michael Straczynski & Phil Hester, which take WW into a strange world where her life and early history have been wiped out. Someone — some thing — is determined to wipe Amazons from the earth. Can Diana stop it? (SPOILER: Of course she can.) An interesting series that became somewhat less confusing as one read further into it.
Coming up is Stephen King’s unfinished THE PLANT and an old Ralph Milne Farley SF novel, and whatever else might look bright and shiny.
Looking forward (with both jealousy and admiration) to the pictures of your garden.
Enjoy your week.
I also wish Moyes had written more. I have read/heard about Repairman Jack for years but haven’t tried one. It’s possible Barbara read one, but I’m not sure, and she’s not here to ask (at 24-Hour Fitness, 5 mornings a week). As I commented on your blog, that OZ book is one of my un-favorites. Ralph Milne Farley? Was it one of is Radio Man or Radio Planet stories? That S. King, is it a botanical plant, or an object planted somewhere?
I’m doing the garden pictures in good part due to your request, my friend.
The Farley is THE RADIO MAN, the first one in the series, I believe. The PLANT is a botanical one, hopefully not found in your garden, Richard.
Richard, I’d pick any novel with a cover like the one on “Icerigger,” and I enjoy reading them too.