July 2019 ~ What are you reading?

Getting the new month started.

>1 seitherin: Thanks for starting the new thread!

I am still reading When Eight Bells Toll, by Alistair MacLean, and I've started a John le Carré novel on audio: The Mission Song, narrated by David Oyelowo.

Enjoyed this iTunes audiobook ~ 5 stars
No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency: BBC Radio Casebook: BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations by Alexander McCall Smith
(Vol. 1/eight mini-plays AMS wrote based on his long-running series)

and

Enjoying this library audiobook ~
Don't Let Go by Harlan Coben
(NJ 15 years ago ~ suicide-pact deaths or murders? ~ was a disappearance related to this event?)

>2 rabbitprincess: You're welcome.

I am very excited about Lock Every Door by Riley Sager- (finished and rated 5!)
I Know You Know by Gilly Macmillan - (finished at 4)
Looker by Laura Sims - (I hated this book).
I See You by Clare Mackintosh
Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths. Loving it so far.

I finished Dirty Laundry by Pete Hamill. This mystery was fun almost all the way through. Pete Hamill is a journalist, essayist, critic and occasional novelist who has been active since the 1960s. He's one of those classic New York City whiskey/jazz/boxing-loving/corruption-exposing writers in love with New York and its culture. A kind of Jimmy Breslin type, if that resonates at all with you. At any rate, Dirty Laundry was written in the 1980s and takes place in the Manhattan of the same era. I am, therefore, predisposed to like the book. Though I lived in New Orleans and then San Francisco during the 80s, as a Jersey boy, those days in New York are still a source of affection to me. Sam Briscoe, then, is a recently retired newspaper columnist who gets plunged into a world of danger and deceit by a frantic phone call from a former lover. Well, what other kind of world would be expect? This book is lots of fun until the very end, when the dread deus ex machina rears its ugly head in the final few pages. Hence my three star rating. But if you'd like an entertaining tumble through 1980s New York and also a visit to the Mexico City of those days, pick this book up if you ever stumble upon it at the Goodwill.

Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz, Promise Me by Harlan Coben and The Devil Colony by James Rollins and they all off to fantastic runs. Un-put-down-able!!

>6 lidacb:. I really loved The Stranger Diaries too!

I don't really know why I'm continuing on with this series. While it's not bad at all, none of the books so far have really grabbed at me, and there are so many other books I could be reading! But nonetheless, I shall probably finish the series now that I've got this far and they ARE all set in Edinburgh- a city I loved visiting. Perfect Silence by Helen Fields

Because I want to have two John le Carré novels on the go, apparently, I've started The Looking-Glass War.

Grabbed a copy of Beautiful Illusion from a little free library on my way to work a couple of weeks ago. Finally picked it up and blazed through the first half or so yesterday afternoon.

I'm reading Bad Axe County by John Galligan. Very interesting so far!

Enjoying this Audible/Kindle combo ~

The Dark Bones by Loreth Anne White

(Dark Lure series/Canadian police detective Rebecca North believes her father's suicide is suspicious/romantic suspense)

I just finished a cute little YA mystery that I plucked from the "please take and don't bring back" pile at the library: John Feinstein's Last Shot. Two eighth graders get caught up in a scheme to blackmail a player into blowing the national college championship basketball game. Feinstein name-drops lots of popular sports figures (Tony Kornheiser, Dick Vitale, Coach K) and gives us decent characters and plot. A fun, brief diversion for hoops fans.

I read a lot of crime fiction, but generally tend to prefer British writers - I find them to be generally more subtle and "clever" in their storylines. However my latest read We Were Killers Once by American writer Becky Masterman really grabbed my interest, probably because of the historical aspect of the story, involving the 1950's farmhouse shootings which Truman Capote wrote about in In Cold Blood, a book I read many years ago and which fascinated me.

Just finished The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax, by Dorothy Gilman, which is one of the few Mrs. Pollifax books that escaped my attention when I was first reading the series (about 20 years ago).

>17 rabbitprincess: I just read the first (Unexpected) of that series and was pretty underwhelmed. Do they change much?

I'm in the middle of The Travelers, another Bouchercon freebie, and it's pretty engrossing.

>18 Jim53: They follow a similar sort of structure, yes, so if you weren't crazy about the first one, the rest might not be to your taste either. I like the series myself when I'm in the mood for something light.

I have just finished reading Lethal White, the latest 'Cormoran Strike' book by Robert Galbraith. It was very long with a complex plot that demanded a lot of attention. However it was worth the reading and I do like the Strike/ Robin Ellacott dynamic.

Definitely a waste of a few hours of my reading time: The Favorite Daughter by Kaira Rouda-not a favourite to me.

Enjoying this OverDrive eBook (Alexa can read this to me) ~

Death by Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake by Sarah Graves

(Death by Chocolate Mystery, book #1/two friends in Maine open a bake shop)

Just started my ER book - The Nanny by Gilly Macmillan. Reminds me a lot of a Kate Morton book.

Not Quite Dead Enough by Rex Stout. Contains two novelettes written during WWII.

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

First Mistake by Sandie Jones
(England/suspense/involves a woman, her husband and her "best" friend/Brit narrator)

UPDATE: ****1/2

Finished Orphan X and Promise Me}. Awesome reads both. Now on to completing The Secret Soldier by Alex Berenson and Black Friday by Alex Kava

I just finished Canadian writer Louise Penny's novel Glass Houses and really enjoyed it. I've read all the previous Inspector Gamache novels and was actually getting a tad bit bored by this series, but this one has rekindled my interest. I've now requested the latest one from my library.

Continuing the adventures with Constance Kopp in Lady Cop Makes Trouble. Indeed she does! These are fun, light reads.

I zipped through Killjoy, a romantic suspense/thriller that I grabbed from the library's giveaway shelf. I plan to put it back.

I've plunged into Denise Mina's latest, Conviction. She's brilliant!

I'm a new member and love mystery and thrillers. I would love to join this group, but it's not clear to me how to do so. Can someone help me out there?

Back on to say I found the button to join. Thanks.

Next up in crime fiction for me is Whiteout, by Ragnar Jónasson, translated by Quentin Bates.

Deadly Meeting by Robert Bernard. Another obscure title and author that found me.

I'm reading knit one kill two by Maggie Sefton and Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Can't quite figure out if my latest read really fits into this category, though there were parts of it that definitely were thrilling and suspenseful. Wartime historical fiction, dysfunctional family, mental illness, and fantasy/fairy tales all woven together in what I thought was a really good story-a debut novel at that. The Boy Made of Snow by Chloe Mayer.

Added The Frame-Up by Meghan Scott Molin to my reading rotation.

>37 ted74ca: Well that sounds intriguing.

AUGUST THREAD: https://www.librarything.com/topic/309802