January, 2023 ~ What are you reading?

Happy New Year!!

Currently reading In Bad Company by Viveca Sten.

Happy New Year! I am not currently reading any CT&M books, but I have *a lot* planned for this year. My resolution is to be better about posting them here.

Just finished Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier. My last book of 2022.

Happy New Year!

I've just finished Hiver arctique by Arnaldur Indridason (Arctic Chill), a dark procedural to undercover the death of a 10 year-old boy.

Happy New Year!
Just finished Jennifer McMahon's The Children on the Hill. Four wonderful Christmas gifts to read - Desert Star, The Bullet That Missed, Forsaken Country, and Girl, Forgotten.
Happy reading everyone!

I have finished French for Cats and The Lost World and am reading Cold Enough for Snow, the inaugural winner of the Novel Prize.

I just finished The Family Game and am starting The Last Party today. Happy New Year!

Finished In Bad Company by Viveca Sten. This one dragged on and on compared to some of her others.

Next up in crime for me is The Widow of Bath, by Margot Bennett.

Just finished my first Dr Ruth Galloway novel The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths and really enjoyed it. It's set in Norfolk which is an area I enjoy and the characters seem quite human, with all the foibles that can have, without being one of those haunted types. I shall be reading more, but for the time being have moved on to the latest Lucas/Virgil novel Righteous Prey by John Sandford.

>10 bobbyl: I love the Ruth Galloway series.

I'm not reading a mystery/thriller at the moment, but I do start the year in the midst of several series that I'll be getting to once in a while throughout the year:

Jupiter Jones: I've read two of the five books in this fun, obscure series written in the 1940s by a writer named Timothy Fuller. These are light-hearted murder mysteries starring Jones, an amateur sleuth in the Thin Man tradition.

Travis McGee: I've got 14 books to go still in this famous series by John D. MacDonald

Parker: I've got a whopping 16 books to go still in this guilty pleasure series of crime novels starring Parker, a psychopathic anti-hero. The series is written by Donald Eastlake under the pseudonym Richard Stark

Giff Speer: I've got 3 books left to read in this 9-book series, an obscure set from the 1960s and 70s by Don Tracy. Speer is a government agent turned private eye.

Penn Cage: I've only read two books of this well-known 7-book series of door stoppers by Greg Iles.

Sugawara Akitada Mysteries: I'm up to the fourth book of this series that takes place in 14th-century Japan. The writer is I.J. Parker. There are a whopping 21 books in this series, but I'm probably going to stop after I read the fourth book, fun as they are.

Happy 2023 reading, everybody!

>12 rocketjk: I read the whole Travis McGee series a few years ago. I just love them. And I liked the Penn Cage series as well, though I found it to be a bit uneven. I've never heard of Jupiter Jones or Giff Speer, so I'll have to check those out!

>13 rosalita: "I've never heard of Jupiter Jones or Giff Speer, so I'll have to check those out!"

Both are very obscure, and the only reason I ever heard of them is that I love to buy old pulp paperbacks or vintage era mystery hardcovers. Every once in a while I pull one off the shelf and actually read it. Occasionally you end up learning about some forgotten old mystery series that way.

Into the last hour of Solace House by Joy Ellis - it's the latest in the Jackman & Evans books that are all part of the Audible Plus catalog. Creepy and interesting crimes/case, but iffy policework.

>14 rocketjk: Good to know! When I first saw Jupiter Jones, my mind flashed to a beloved middle-school mystery series, The Three Investigators before I realized you were talking about something completely different. :-)

A friend handed off a couple of titles by Robert Whitlow, an author I haven't tried. So I'm up for Trial and Error and Relative Justice.

>11 rosalita: I do like a new series to me that I've enjoyed, so many lovely books to catch up on :-)

Hi! Not currently reading any C T &M, always up for suggestions though! Currently reading one of my "Christmas" books, "The Revolution of Marina M.: A Novel" by Janet Fitch. She is a new author to me, excited to see how the book is. :)

About half way through An Advancement of Learning by Reginald Hill, number 2 in the Dalziel/Pascoe series. Each chapter begins with a meaningful quote from Sir Frances Bacon’s The Advancement of Learning from that memorable year 1605.

I've started reading A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny. Besides loving Penny, I've been particularly looking forward to this one as I was a university student in Montreal when the shooting occurred.
I'm finding it a more enlightening read than anticipated: Penny is such an atmospheric writer and while it's helping me process this event and understand its impact in a much more holistic way, it made me realize just how my very narrow experience and understanding of it was.

Finished The Widow of Bath, which I found disappointing. The culprit is revealed on the last page and I didn't think it was something the reader could have guessed... unless I missed it.

Next I'm off to fictional France with Maigret et le corps sans tête, by Georges Simenon. What a great title.

My first mystery of the year is Malice at the Palace, one of Rhys Bowen's Lady Georgie series of cozies. I find these to be great fun and excellent for bedtime reads. I've started The Bishop's Wife, but so far I'm sort of trudging along; it might end up as a DNF.

>24 Jim53: My first thought when I saw the title of your book was "setting a mystery during a brawl at an NBA game sounds intriguing!" Then I realized it was a real palace. :-)

>23 rabbitprincess: very guillotine-like ;-)

I’m nearly finished with Elly Griffiths’ very fun, Bleeding Heart Yard.

>25 rosalita: That's a great reaction. Long time no see; hope you're doing well.

I am rereading Multiple Exposure, the first in Ellen Crosby's mystery series featuring photographer Sophie Medina, in anticipation of a new entry in this series this spring.

Turned back to Robert Crais after an aborted start with a James Crumley book. The Forgotten Man is a later Elvis Cole gem, set in my favorite and familiar city, Los Angeles.

>28 Jim53: I am doing well, thanks for asking! And I've finished a mystery to boot: The Bone Is Pointed, the sixth book in a very interesting Australian series.

Read 2 so far:
Kate Shackleton's First Case by Frances Brody and The Rising Tide by Ann Cleeves. Both good.

I'm reading The Cabinet of Dr. Leng by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. I love the Pendergast novels!

I finished Strawberry Shortcake Murder, the second book in the cozy series featuring cookie baker Hannah Swensen.

Jumped back into familiar territory with Eric Ambler and his 1974 novel “Doctor Frigo” (no touchstone here). It begins in the French Antilles and ends up in an unnamed “coffee country” in South America.

Death at the Seaside by Frances Brody. Another in the Kate Shackleton series.

Finished DeMille's The Maze (VERY disappointing) and started The Furies by John Connolly - with high hopes.

I'm reading La fille de papier by Guillaume Musso, a thriller where the character from an author's book lands into his lap. She tries to get the author to finish the book so that she can get back to her fictional life (it's very meta :P)

>37 Cecilturtle: That sounds interesting. Sadly, my local library doesn't carry it, so my curiousity will have to wait a bit.

I just started the most recent Rebus novel, A heart full of headstones.

Picked up a random library ebook to start, so am now starting a search in the woods for the five-years-missing guy in Lisa Gardner's One step too far.

I still haven't started the Maigret I was intending to read, but I am reading The Gun Seller, by Hugh Laurie. I last read this in 2007 and remember very little about it, but I'm still counting it as a re-read for my personal challenge.

>39 karenb: Okay, that started out interesting but turned into a cat-and-mouse thing. Picked up the paper library book due next, Scot in a trap. Thanksgiving at the Last Ditch Motel, where sometimes the past comes back to, um, die in the next room.

New thread: https://www.librarything.com/topic/348213