Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[ATDrake]

Finished The City of Blood by Frédérique Molay, 3rd in her Paris Homicide police procedural series starring Nico Sirsky, Unusually Young Chief of Police and His Team. This was another nifty case which made good use of Parisian place settings and cultural history, involving the archaeological excavation of an old experimental art installation which, of course, uncovers a few extra unintended additions. Plus a parallel emotional story for some of Sirsky's personal family situation as related to the assorted witnesses and victims in the case, which seems to have been going on for the past three books.

Recommended as another solid and enjoyable installment, with interesting police work trying to track down leads after such a long time, with, as usual, detailed explanations of French police procedure and laws. Apparently there's a rather specific statute of limitations on prosecution for murder over there. And also more detailed forensics stuff about how various biological evidence deteriorates to the point of unusability after assorted periods of time, so identification has to be done by other means, which were interesting to see in and of themselves. And the translated title actually has something to do with the plot this time around, even if it's still not as apropos as the original French one.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by Dngrsone

I have that queued up on my tablet... should I move it up the stack?

I have blown through half of it in two evenings. It is, at its heart, a murder mystery with a very high tech skin. I am enjoying it thus far.

[orlok]

Just started Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami. Intriguing start - think I'm going to enjoy this one.

[HarryT]

I've been away, so lots of time to read. A few books completed:

Dead Cert by Dick Francis.
His first novel. Very good detective story set in the world of English horse racing.

Nerve by Dick Francis.
Enjoyed the first so much that I immediately read his second novel. Also very good indeed.

Walking the Nile by Levison Wood.
Travelogue about the author's 4000+ mile walk along the entire length of the Nile. Very interesting.

For Kicks by Dick Francis.
Another horse-racing mystery. Excellent.

Gently By the Shore by Alan Hunter.
The second book in the "Inspector George Gently" series. Enjoyable murder mystery involving secret societies and revenge killings in an English seaside town.

Vicious Circle by Wilbur Smith.
The second book in the "Hector Cross" series (who must surely be one of the most unfortunate men around - his nearest and dearest have a regrettable habit of being murdered!). Enjoyable but violent thriller, as one expects from Wilbur Smith.

[Dylrob]

Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan - a novel about the aftermath of a steamliner striking an iceberg and sinking. It was actually written 14 years before the sinking of the Titanic, and yet Interestingly predicts many of its failings. That said, the actual story has more to do with theology. I find books like this to be an interesting time capsule into the thoughts of those living more than a century ago.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I've been away, so lots of time to read. A few books completed:

Dead Cert by Dick Francis.
His first novel. Very good detective story set in the world of English horse racing.

Nerve by Dick Francis.
Enjoyed the first so much that I immediately read his second novel. Also very good indeed.

Walking the Nile by Levison Wood.
Travelogue about the author's 4000+ mile walk along the entire length of the Nile. Very interesting.

For Kicks by Dick Francis.
Another horse-racing mystery. Excellent.

Gently By the Shore by Alan Hunter.
The second book in the "Inspector George Gently" series. Enjoyable murder mystery involving secret societies and revenge killings in an English seaside town.

Vicious Circle by Wilbur Smith.
The second book in the "Hector Cross" series (who must surely be one of the most unfortunate men around - his nearest and dearest have a regrettable habit of being murdered!). Enjoyable but violent thriller, as one expects from Wilbur Smith.

A new Audible UK account is finally enabling some of these early Dick Francis books for me. Quite enjoyable. And the associated UK Amazon account for the early eBooks that aren't available in North America.

[Dngrsone]

Finished Some Kind of Hero By S. J. Delos. As entertaining as the first of the series, thankfully without the explicit sex, but again similar problems with editing (or serious lack of proofreading): This time the painfully obvious was a scene where she is hugging her boyfriend from behind, but in the middle of the scene he is able to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.

Lots of dropped words, too. There is a third book in the works; I kind of wish the author would send me the galley just so I can point these things out before publishing...

Meanwhile, I have begun book 12 of the Foreigner series, Betrayer.

[MickeyC]

Just flew through Golden Prey by John Sandford and it was very good. A nail-biter all the way through.

[Cinisajoy]

Still reading I married a best seller by Shelia Hailey. It is a very good book except for chapter 16. She could have left those details out. I really didn't need a chapter on one of his affairs.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by CRussel

And the associated UK Amazon account for the early eBooks that aren't available in North America.

They all seem to be published by Penguin here. £3.99 at Amazon UK, which I consider a reasonable price.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by orlok

Just started Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami. Intriguing start - think I'm going to enjoy this one.

I am always so happy whenever I see someone starting a great Murakami read. Hard-Boiled was my very first read of his, and it always has a special place in my heart. My white whale is to read it in Japanese one day.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by HarryT

They all seem to be published by Penguin here. £3.99 at Amazon UK, which I consider a reasonable price.

Yes, they're all available at reasonable prices there. Not available in NA for any price in eBook format. Nor, in many cases, in Audible format either. Both are reasonably priced in the UK. And it's been way too long since I read these.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Started the audiobook of Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles for my commute and daily walk.

Started Mur Lafferty's new novel Six Wakes on my Kobo.

Still working on Lafferty, but finished Bradbury.

Now listening to The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion.

[ATDrake]

Finished Fatal Headwind by Leena Lehtolainen, 6th in the Maria Kallio series of retro Finnish police procedurals originally written in the 1990s. I thought this one would be a busman's holiday episode, where she solved a murder while on leave and vacation. But actually that bit was incidental, and it's more about her returning from an extended absence, with the accompanying changes to the workplace status quo (and the murder-solving), and ensuing personal growth as a result of that, and interacting with the case, which involves 90s-era extremist environmentalism and dodgy greenwashing business practices which, TBH, don't look like they've changed much in the past couple of decades.

Another solid installment to a good series (best read in order because while it doesn't exactly spoiler the whodunnits for previous cases, it does reference important suspect-eliminating details from some of them, one of which I have apparently completely blanked out of my mind to the point where I was wondering if I'd actually missed a book, but my records show that I've read them all up to this point). And now for May the Fourth (Be With You), on to the late Carrie Fisher's memoir of her Star Wars filming experience, The Princess Diarist.

[HaemishM]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I have to disagree. I've read most of Donaldson's books and I have enjoyed them.

Yeah, I didn't mean to imply that Donaldson's work was bad, per se, more a comment on how really rapey most of the male characters are in what I've read. It was bad enough that I just couldn't finish reading the book (I think it was the first Thomas Covenant one). It didn't help that I loathed every character - I find that there has to be at least one sympathetic character in a book for me to continue reading. If I just hate them all, I just do not enjoy the book. I had the same problem with Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead. Everyone was just irritating and unpleasant, and that was after I barely made it through Ender's Game for the same reason.