World Mysteries and Thrillers discussion
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What are you reading now?
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Sharon, Moderator
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Aug 11, 2015 01:26PM
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In the Woods by Tana French I enjoyed reading this book and give it 4.5 stars(rounded up to 5). Two murder squad detectives are assigned to the murder of a 12 year old girl. One of them is Adam Robert Ryan. He was one of 3 twelve year old children that went missing 20 years before in the same woods as the murder scene. He was found holding on to a tree, while the other two were never found. He now goes by "Rob" to keep his identity hidden. No one on the squad knows except for his partner, Cassie. He tells her during the investigation. This is a suspenseful mystery with an ending like a Greek tragedy. I like the author's use of language and her comments on Irish life. Examples:
P.2 "The wood is all flicker and murmur and illusion ."
p.8 "...in much of Ireland the fifties didn't end until 1995...'
p.13 "... lobotomized bugger..."
p.80 "Irish politics are tribal, incestuous and furtive, incomprehensible even to many of the people involved."
I've enjoyed two (so far) mysteries by Louise Penny, set in Quebec. Penny manages to juggle several plot lines, seemingly effortlessly. The protagonist, Inspector Gamache, is refreshingly stable, understated, and intuitive. He can also be forceful when he needs to be, without resorting to violence. The title I just finished is "How the Light Gets In." Susan
The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson I enjoyed reading this book and give it a solid 4 stars. It is the first book in the series. Walt Longmire is the Sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming. He has a 3 and 1/2 person department. Absaroka is not an actual County in Wyoming, but there are Absaroka mountains. I like the author's use of language, p.45"The aspen trees... were a bright butter..." He has captured the flavor of life on the high plains. He gets a call from a sheepherder who has found a body. He asks the location of the body and is about to hang up and head out when the caller says:'Hey, Shuuriff? Dad says for you to bring some beer, we're almost out." I did not realize who the murderer was until almost the end. There are some laugh out lines in this book. The TV series Longmire is based on this series and is pretty faithful to the books.
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Isn't the series fabulous! Bought them all and read in order and made me want to return to beautiful Quebec. Enjoy her themes, characters and locations so much. Enjoyed reading this series thoroughly.
A tip, if you are on Facebook follow her. She is very chatty and active and it's really great following the progress of the writing of a new book or PR.
Have the new one on pre order and keen for it.
As it is both daunting (and impossible) to keep up with all the newest great reads, I took a bit of a break and went back to two of my all time favourite authors, Donna Leon and Martin Walker, to catch up with their characters. Such a nice holiday! But there are some fascinating new titles, from Japan, England, Norway and Australia, among others, waiting in the wings. Happy reading!
Imay be going back more to murder/mystery thriller type books as they are often a far quicker read!Currently reading A Morbid Taste for Bonesby Ellis Peters. I read some of these books a few years ago. I'm thinking reading the first in the series would be a good idea to get all the background info. & so far it has been!
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Currently reading A Morbid Taste for Bonesby Ellis Peters. I read some of these bo..."
My husband and a friend read this series many years ago and they loved it. We also really enjoyed the series with Derek Jacobi. Enjoy....
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Ten years ago I read the Brother Cadfael mysteries in one fell swoop, and not in any particular order, but that would have been an added pleasure. Did you know that Ellis Peter was one of the author Edith Pargeter's noms de plume?
Linda wrote: "Ten years ago I read the Brother Cadfael mysteries in one fell swoop, and not in any particular order, but that would have been an added pleasure. Did you know that Ellis Peter was one of the autho..."Yes but I didn't realise she had more than one nom de plume! I thought if I keep enjoying this book, I might see if I can get something under her real name.
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith...
She was a fascinating lady with quite a few series
The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection my review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... 4.5/5For the Dignified Dead my review 4/5 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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Others on my TBR: 'Conquered City' by Victor Serge--a narrative of intrigue during the Bolshevik revolution; (not to be confused with Richard Sorge, Stalin's spy in Tokyo); 'The Beetle' by Richard Marsh--a lurid story of a Pharaoh's curse; 'Pages from the Goncourt Journals' by the mysterious Goncourt Brothers; 'The Sleepwalkers' by Hermann Brosch; 'The Eighth Circle' (pulp noir) by Stanley Ellin; 'That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana' by Carla Emilio Gadda...
hardcore is how I roll -- original texts whenever possible
Another review The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon My wife and I both enjoy this series very much. This book has Precious Ramotswe and her associate Detective, Grace Makutsi, solving mysteries in a gentle manner, with kindness and humanity. Grace reveals that she is pregnant, has her baby and comes back to work. The mysteries solved are who is spreading malicious rumors about The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon and a question of identity in an inheritance.
This is not a book/series for people who want to read about murders and gun play, but more about people and Botswana. A solid 4 out of 5 stars.
Well we got the authors covered thanks to Feliks, but now we need more from the readers which we have been lacking input, any ideas?
The messages by Thomas, about thrillers lacking in gunplay, remind me that James Bradley wrote a wonderful thriller set in 19th century London, called The Resurrectionist. It's about anatomy, dissection and body snatching. Call me old fashioned, but I thought it was great writing and a great story. Anybody else come across anything else by this author?
Brian wrote: "The messages by Thomas, about thrillers lacking in gunplay, remind me that James Bradley wrote a wonderful thriller set in 19th century London, called The Resurrectionist. It's about anatomy, disse..."I haven't read anything by him.
Deb wrote: "Chasing Justice"That's a tough cookie to figure out and implement. What I do in one of our sister groups is to put books published the current month on our currently-reading. This would be hard to do only the current authors on Amazon would be on this. It's easy in the other group because all the current books need to be translated. But in this group only established authors seem to be in the current classification. Felix what would you suggest, right now the currently-reading has been on for maybe two or three months?
I just finished "The Promise" by Robert Crais and it's terrific.Robert CraisThe plot twists are ingenious and some scenes will have you chuckling or saying, "Oh yeah!" I've read RC's books since The Monkey's Raincoat came out and I look forward each year to his next release. It took him two years to get The Promise out but it was worth the wait. Almost all of his main characters from the past few years play a role in this one. Elvis Cole, Joe Pike, Scott James and Maggie the K9 (who has become one of my favorite characters).
If you haven't read Robert Crais before I strongly suggest you begin with The Monkey's Raincoat. It will hook you so thoroughly you'll want to read all his books and discover all the wonderful characters that inhabit the Elvis Cole/Joe Pike universe.
Happy reading.
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Downloaded it a couple of years ago and never got to it and now with all the news of the film Carol and articles on Highsmith I am keen to read too....
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I just finished Bangkok Tattoo by John Burdett. It was an intense read, centering around the sex trade in Bangkok interlaced with police corruption, anti-terrorism concerns, CIA, immigration/repatriation issues, sex tourism, Japanese yukuza gangs, transvestites, and, tattoo artistry. Burdett hit all sorts of topics all while keeping the two main characters, Detective Sonchai and Chanya, headed toward their eventual union. So, while I started out enjoying what I thought would be a window into Thai culture, by the end, I was wondering how embellished and over-stated it was. I was glad to see in the Author's note that in his own experience, the Thai sex trade is not that noticeable in Bangkok if you are a tourist there and that most Thais are devout Buddhists and that he has not personally run across police corruption while in Thailand. I felt this was a different, more raw book than his first. The writing, character development and plot were all entertaining but I didn't enjoy it as much as his first book--probably the topic was off-putting because the main focus was on the sex trade which is bothersome to me since inherently that is an exploitive industry and yet Burdett seemed to imply that most Thai girls who do participate in it, do so by choice, gain financial freedom for themselves and their families and seemly enjoy it, or at least, are happier than other people around the world who are involved in it. I don't know enough about this to know if this is true but I am not sure I buy his theory. He may be right, but again, I don't know.
Also, the plot had so many twists and turns that in the end, I wasn't sure if Detective Sonchai solved the crime or who actually did--was it because Colonel Vikorn sent him certain places? Or because he was following Chanya? Or because the CIA showed up to help?
In the end, I think I did perhaps learn something about the Thai culture but I am skeptical as to how realistic the setting was.
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I'm confused as to what you're referring to a few messages above. What exactly are you trying to implement or wish-was-implemented?
Some kind of book update? I'm in the dark. If you can explain what feature this is you have in mind, I will certainly give it some attention and see if it's 'do-able'
Anyway back to mysteries. Mysteries don't show up that frequently in my TBR lists because I'm always doing historical research for my own writing. But I did finish the Stanley Ellin noir (mentioned above) and found it wonderful. Ellin was a two-time Edgar winner and it really shows. It was a smashing noir yarn I picked up from him.
'That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana' --on the other hand--is a wildly convoluted and difficult mystery from 1930s Italy. Its practically a work of Dada or surrealism only nominally passing for a mystery. Wonderful for its rich language (keep a thesaurus nearby) and fascinating glimpses into Italian culture and psychology. But the densely woven, textured world here basically takes the place of coherent plot. Just a bizarre reading experience, only for die-hard fans of strange books.
Season of Fear by Brian Freeman, the sequel to his book The Bone House
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by Tracy Chevalier (Goodreads Author)
A drama of a pioneer family on the American frontier and a celebration of trees! Sounds strange but as with most of her books she takes a topic and really expands it. I love trees and am really enjoying the book so far.
Feliks wrote: "Hi Ken (and everyone)I'm confused as to what you're referring to a few messages above. What exactly are you trying to implement or wish-was-implemented?
Some kind of book update? I'm in the dark..."
It's nothing that is needed to be done, trying to explain another group.
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Gentlemen & Players (2005)
Different Class. April 2016.
These two are quite different....from an article I read, based on her own experience teaching earlier.
Quite different from her usual books, which I enjoy. She writes a nice mix of time periods and especially enjoyed the various books set in France. Then there was the chilly Blueeyedboy ( 2010)!!
I just finished reading Steve Anderson's latest book - Rain Down. As with all of his books, it was very good.Rain Down
The Burying Place by Brian Freeman..........awesum
I just finished "From Russia With Love" and to my pleasant surprise, it was fabulous! 
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What! What do you mean you 'just' finished it?!? Shame on you!
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Just finished The Dogs of Riga, my first venture into Nordic Noir (if that's what it's called.) I'd tried to watch one episode of the Wallander series on PBS years ago and found it depressing, but Wallander is compelling to read. I think you have to get inside his head to appreciate him.
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Read the Wallander books from the beginning to end, keen for the next. Loved reading MANKELL....miss him. Liked many if the stand alone books too.
The filmings of Wallander over the many years vary greatly. The writer wrote many many more treatments for the 90 min series they made with K Hendrikson than there are books. That series is my favorite too. But the early ones are still okay and many like the British series with Branaugh. I would too had I not read and watched the originals for a couple of decades.
IMHO Henning Mankell developed and expanded Kurt Walkander and his daughter and colleagues beautifully in the books and as with all series, they read with more meaning and character development when read in order. Enjoy.
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Outsider in Amsterdam my review, 4.5/5https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Strange Things Done my review, 4/5
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Night Stalker my review, 4/5
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I'm reading a riveting noir thriller set in Thailand "BRANNANS RUN" Its noir and evocative and has an awesome twist in the middle. Spare time and money well spent !
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Reading "Grey Mountain" by John Grishman
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