Crime, Mysteries & Thrillers discussion
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What is on your bed side table? 2023/2024
I enjoyed a beach side read with
Murder by the Seashore by Samara Yew https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Little Drummer Girl: 'Set against the backdrop of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict of the 1970’s, a terror group is bombing prominent Israelis in Europe to make the world listen and to ‘show the world Palestinian pain’. Enter Kurtz and his Israeli Secret Service team, racing against the military hawks at home to find a more incisive response than the reprisal bombing of another Palestinian refugee camp.'
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Started reading book 6 of the Bought the Farm mystery series Twas the Bite Before Christmas
byEllen Riggs
A little piece of horror for October!My review of Best of Luck by Jason Mott
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Steel's Edge by Ilona AndrewsFinishing up The Edge series on a strong note.
My Review -- https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
As we move further into Spooktober, I've read the last two stories from the Creature Feature Collection. I'm not a horror reader, but I've enjoyed getting a taste of how these authors write. Horror fans will enjoy them all.
My review of In Bloom by Paul Tremblay
My review of Best of Luck by Jason Mott
I am currently reading Nightcrawling for my October book club. I have contracted Covid round 2 though (first was July 2022) and despite being totally vaccinated I am immunocompromised so it has hit me hard. So I am not going to book club but I’d still like to finish it!
Murder by the Seashore by Samara Yew 🎧 2-StarsScarlett must not read many mysteries.
My Review
Christmas Presents by Lisa Unger 5-StarsThis Christmas the present is the answer to a cold case.
My Review
Starting out the week with
a Parfait Crime by Maya Corrigan https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Started on the Mitch Rapp books by Vince FlynnPlanning to read the first three books before making a judgment on the series
Book of night by Holly Black is physically on my nightstand. I fell off reading it cause I lost interest but I still plan on finishing it! im actively reading Come With Me by Ronald Malfi and it is sooo interesting! love so far!
I've been reading the following high-profile mystery, crime, and thriller new releases (or new in the UK market at least), focusing specifically on which books have the highest-quality prose, and gave each a mark out of ten. The Golden Gate 7
Saving Emma 4
BRIGHT YOUNG WOMEN BY JESSICA KNOL (can't find this one on GR, for some reason) 6
The Unexpected Hostage 8
The Longmire Defense 4
The Raging Storm 4
Rusted Souls 4
Reykjavík: A Crime Story 7
Everybody KnowsEverybody Knows by Jordan Harper 8
The Last Devil to Die 5
You'd Look Better as a Ghost 8
The Winter List 6
Tell Me Your Secrets 7
Overall, I felt the best-written of the lot is Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper.
If you think I've missed any especially well-written recent releases, please let me know!
(I'm not sure I'd be allowed to link to the criteria I used, i.e. my definition of best-written, so to be on the safe side I won't do so).
The opening to Everybody Knows:
Chapter One
MAE
The Chateau Marmont
Los Angeles burns.
Some sicko is torching homeless camps. Tonight they hit a tent city in Los Feliz near the 5. The fire spread to Griffith Park. The smoke makes the sunset unbelievable. The particles in the air slash the light, shift it red. They make the sky a neon wound.
Mae waits outside the secret entrance to the Chateau Marmont. She watches Saturday-night tourists wander Sunset Boulevard, their eyes bloodshot from the smoke. They cough and trade looks. They never thought the Sunset Strip would smell like a campfire.
Mae moves around the sidewalk like a boxer before the fight. Her face is sharp and bookish, framed in a Lulu bob. She wears a vintage floral jumpsuit. She’s got eyes like a wolf on the hunt—she hides them behind chunky oversized glasses. Nobody ever sees her coming.
She shifts her weight from foot to foot—these heels weren’t made for legwork. She put them on for a first date she canceled twenty minutes ago when she got the text from Dan. No big loss—the date was with a stand-up comedian she met on Bumble. Comedians on a date tend to treat a woman like a test audience, or like their shrink, or they think you’re a chucklefucker and they don’t even have to try.
Dan’s text had read HANNAH CHATEAU ASAP followed by the number for Hannah Heard’s new assistant. Dan’s text was cryptic per usual. The rules say keep as much as possible UNSAID.
The Chateau Marmont: the hippest no-tell hotel in the world. This shabby-chic Gothic castle slouching against the base of the Hollywood Hills. The way to the hotel proper is up a small winding road to Mae’s left. This secret entrance on Sunset leads straight to the grotto where the private cottages are. The unmarked door built into the white-brick wall is made of green cloth—someone could slash it easily and go marauding among the rich and famous. But no one ever does.
Chateau jobs tend to be messy. They tend to be drama. They tend to be a fucking blast. Hannah Heard increases the odds of all three exponentially.
I’m reading The Housemaid by Frieda McFadden. Just started it!
Carmen wrote: "I’m reading The Housemaid by Frieda McFadden. Just started it!"Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. If so then read the sequel The Housemaid's Secret
I am enjoying Edinburgh Midnight
by Carole Lawrence. It is book 3 in the series set in 1880 Scotland. I have enjoyed the previous two books. Love her description of Edinburgh and life at that time. I recommend you read them in order.
In the old days, we could drop our children off at the local playground because it was a happy place, right? Ray Bradbury's 1953 short story,
The Playground
is a good Spooktober read.
My review of The Playground
I had a lot of fun with
Barbecue Can Be Deadly by Ryan Rivers https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finishing up the week with
Mint Julep Murder by Carolyn Hart https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I am in the mood for an Agatha Christie book I am reading The Body in the Library
. This one is a Miss Marple book. Not too far in, but the writing is lovely and well paced.
My review of Murder in a French Village by Merryn Allingham
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Death at the Dance by Verity Bright is a light-hearted, kind of silly cosy that fans of Lady Swift will enjoy more than I (at the moment).
My review of Death at the Dance
I'm starting the week and ending the month with
Cheap Trills by Wendall Thomas https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Closing out the week with
Tulle Death Do Us Part by Diane Vallere https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I got more than I expected with Aussie author Alexander Thorpe's debut novel Death Leaves the Station. Western Australia, early 1900s, "Halfwell Station", a rural property, not a train stop. More Agatha Christie than 'outback noir', with humour to boot. Good read 😊
My review of Death Leaves the Station
The Last Six Million Seconds by John Burdett. Set in Hong Kong just before the Brits handed it over to China, it's a complicated and compelling and quite grisly murder mystery starring a half-Irish half-Chinese detective. Burdett's writing is graphic, his intimate knowledge of the colony (he lawyered there for years) is, for a lover of history, mesmerizing. Like most good writers, he is merciless with his characters. I wish his output was higher.
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Crime, Mysteries & Thrillers
Books mentioned in this topic
Welcome Home to Murder (other topics)Death of an Irish Druid (other topics)
The Sinister Sitcom Caper (other topics)
Ghost Story (other topics)
Murder in Bloom (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Catie Murphy (other topics)Rosie Sandler (other topics)
Ian Rankin (other topics)
Mark Billingham (other topics)
Adrian Hyland (other topics)
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This doesn't feel like a pure urban fantasy, but more like a crime caper overlaid with some fantasy elements.
My Review. -- https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...