December, 2022 ~ What are you reading?

Welcome to a new month of reading.

Still reading A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny.

It feels like I've been reading The Ink Black Heart forever and I'm only about 1/3 of the way though. It's a very long book and they've been getting this way lately in the Cormoran Strike/Robin Ellicott books. Mostly I don't mind, but this one is getting tedious.

It's a combination of things, but mostly that they're going about their investigation in a stupid way. They think because they see a person without a phone or something in their hands that they can't also be tweeting or posting to other social media at the same time. Duh, there are apps that you can use to stack up and schedule your tweets to drop at any time, all day, while you're off fishing or whatever. Oy. You'd think Ms. Rowling or her cadre of assistants would know this.

Second she's prone to setting similar scenes to illustrate a particular point over and over and over. I wonder if she forgets she's writing for adults and not children now. I got it already, JK!

Started A Little White Death by John Lawton, a new-to-me author. Beginning chapters very reminiscent of John le Carre.

>1 seitherin: Heavens! I hadn't seen a new Penny arrived! Must run to the bookstore!

>1 seitherin: & >4 Cecilturtle: Just in time for the new TV show, Three Pines.

IMDB link

>5 AHS-Wolfy: There is already a TV version of this with the actor who plays Inspector Lyndley in the lead. I'm a little doubtful with a Molina version.

Finished A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny. This one is really dark, but, as always, an excellent read.

Just finished Overture to Death, by Ngaio Marsh.

I have two books going at the moment The Swarm by Frank Schatzing (an eco thriller) and Wolf of the Plains by Conn Iggulden which is a historical novel about Genghis Khan.

Just started Under color of law by Aaron Philip Clark. It's a contemporary police procedural featuring a black second generation detective, so I'm trusting it won't be all about how it's okay for cops to break the rules and/or suspects. (That trope never looked great, and since George Floyd it's been something of a red flag, unfortunately.)

This is my second in the Qwilleran, Koko and Yum Yum series, The Cat Who Played Post Office by Lilian Jackson Braun. I'm definitely enjoying it and look forward to others which I have piled up in my library.

Quickly got through Mia P. Manansala's third Tito Rosie's Kitchen book, Blackmail and bibingka. In this book, three friends have moved to town to take over a local winery, and their newer products include Filipino flavors, which they learned in Florida.

This one takes place in December, fittingly, including special holiday treats. The ube crinkle cookies are presented as ordinary (just as I am about to make my first batch, too). The holiday version is I think mango & pandan, but alas she doesn't give a recipe for those.

I always enjoy the novels in the Kate Shackleton mystery series. Just finished the 6th one: Death of an Avid Reader by Frances Brody

I'm reading Heirs and Graces, from Rhys Bowen's Lady Georgie series. Always light and fun, perfect for bedtime. I just finished and reviewed Deborah Crombie's new one, A Killing of Innocents, on NetGalley. I gave it 4.5 stars--really good stuff.

Just finished The Blood Tide, by Neil Lancaster, which is book 2 in the DS Max Craigie series.

In the middle of Seattle & also Mt Ranier with a homicide cop and a psychic travel agent in Flight risk, by Cherie Priest. Starts out with one missing person and one body part (not the same people), so I'd probably consider it more mystery than anything. Includes possible romantic interest and a pretty good dog. Fun so far.

The library finally got to me in the queue for Louise Penny's new one, A World of Curiosities, which I'll start this evening.

Just starting The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, a nice cozy for the onset of winter. My edition is a rather tattered and water damaged one, so it’s a rescue read. Happy holidays, everyone.

Finished The Sleeping and the Dead, by Ann Cleeves.

I finished Snow Country by I.J. Parker, the third entry in Sugawara Akitada Mysteries series. Akitada is a low-level nobleman in 11th-century Japan who's become known, in the series' first two books, for his ability to solve murders and annoy his superiors. Now he's been sent to be the governor of a far northern province where the emperor's authority is but barely acknowledged and a powerful warlord holds sway instead. Akitada's job is to get this situation in hand. He is accompanied by his wife and by his two loyal lieutenants, Tora and Hitomara. Soon, as will happen in murder mysteries, there is a murder. Then the bodies begin accumulating. Plus there is the problem for Akitada of asserting his imperial authority. These books have been fun all along, and I will say that in this third book the quality of the writing has gone up a notch, both in terms of the sentence-level work (many fewer cliches, for one thing) and the the plotting.

A Dance With Death was under my tree! Ready to spend my time off catching up with Barker and Llewellyn.

Ready for the next installment in the Verlaque and Bonnet series, The Mystery of the Lost Cézanne, by M. L. Longworth.

Added Hide by Tracy Clark to my rotation.

I just finished the latest in Ian Rankin's Rebus series: A Heart Full of Headstones. I've long been a Rankin fan and I've read all the Rebus novels, but I must say than I think Rebus is getting too weary and old, and I'm a bit tired of him, too. I think it's time this series wraps up.

Been catching up with Peculiar Crimes Unit as it is about to be dismantled, finally, in London Bridge is falling down. I love that the action centers around three older women who are underestimated by most people, though the book starts with the death of one of them.

I've picked up Hiver arctique (Arctic Chill) by Icelandic author, Arnaldur Indridason - it's glum with the opening murder of a 10 year-old boy, but the writing is good and emotions are dealt with tactfully. Definitely a reflection on mounting racism in Iceland (written in 2005).

>24 ted74ca: I know why Rankin came back to Rebus and I missed him but in some ways I wish he had left him where he was after Exit Music and maybe just make him show up as supporting or occasional character in another series or 3.

>27 AnnieMod: Great idea, I agree with your suggestion!

Another Kate Shackleton mystery read today: Death in the Dales by Frances Brody

Finished Hide by Tracy Clark. Enjoyed it.

New year, new thread: https://www.librarything.com/topic/347125

Just managed to finish another book before midnight Dec 31 and it was a good one. The Good Turn by Dervla McTiernan