What are you reading? Do you recommend it? Showing 1-50 of 2,323

[Beth]

I'm past the halfway point of THE FRACTAL MURDERS by Mark Cohen, and I'm really enjoying it. It's slowly paced, so you can savor the characters, the humor, and the good writing. What are you reading or have just finished, and would you recommend it?

[J.R.]

I just finished THE TURNAROUND by George Pelecanos. Highly recommended. This was the first of his I've read. I'll definitely be looking for more.

[Jen]

J.R., Pelecanos is wonderful. Enjoy his other work. The works I'd most highly recommend that I've read recently are Chris Grabenstein's John Ceepak series. I won a copy of HELL HOLE, which is the fourth in the series. So, I went back and started at the beginning and just started blowing through the first three. They are ALL fabulous. Looking forward to getting to HELL HOLE. A littel before I started Grabenstein I read A CARRION DEATH by Michael Stanley. Also an outstanding crime fiction mystery!

Right now I'm reading THE BIG O by Declan Burke. Very funny plot, but I could probably do without such crass characters - personal taste. I'm also listening on audio to BLEEDERS by Bill Pronzini. This is my first "Nameless Detective" novel and I'm LOVING it!

[Kay]

I just started reading Left To Die by Lisa Jackson. So far, its pretty good.

[Patricia]

I just finished Daughter of Deceit by Patricia Sprinkle and yes, I would recommend it.

Pat R.

[Karen]

Right now I am reading a submission called SECRETS TO DIE FOR (99% certainI will publish it) and it is awesome. It is by a new author named L.J. Sellers.

Her first book THE SEX CLUB was amazing. I read it recently and I couldn't put it down. It is tough, it is emotional, it is intriguing. And don't be fooled by the title, it is NOT erotica.

I would recommend it to everyone.

[Patricia]

I did a book review on The Sex Club and it is an excellent book with a good message. I look forward to reading anything written by L. J. Sellers.

Pat R.

[Rob]

I just finished reading Dead Hunt: A Diane Fallon Forensic Investigationand definitely recommend it if you like forensic science books. The lead character is a forensic anthrolopologist who works as the head of a museum and a crime lab. Not the best in the series (That would be One Grave Too Many, her first). Highly enjoyable reads.

[Melissa]

I just finished Too Close To Home and really liked it. Like all of Linwood Barclay's books, the characters are so real and the situations believable. There is always a bit of suspense and a decent mystery plot. He's one of the authors that I look forward to his latest release.

[Deb]

I'm reading The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz and can't put it down. So funny and fresh!

[Michelle]

I just finished her second, and loved them both. Great fun- they really do read fast, I think because sections of them are written as screenplays.

[Liz]

The last mystery I read was the Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard. It was great. A nice historical setting and the mystery was goo as well.

[Spuddie]

I'm in the midst of a "Hard Case Crime" book, Little Girl Lost by Richard Aleas. So far I'm enjoying it. At the opposite end of the spectrum, I just finished one of Victoria Thompson's 'gaslight' historical mysteries, Murder on Marble Row, which is decidedly cozier. Enjoyed that too! (My tastes are many and diverse. LOL)

Cheryl

[Melissa]

The Spellman Files are fantastic. The third one is due out in March. They are a must read!

I'm reading Unzipped by Lois Greiman. It's pretty good so far. Funny lines and decent characters.

[Suziqoregon]

I just started #3 in Julia Spencer-Fleming's Clare Ferguson/ Russ VanAlstyne series - "Out of the Deep I Cry". I've really enjoyed the first two in the series and this one has me hooked already.

[William]

I am reading "Infected" by Scott Sigler. So far it's definitely much more a thriller than a mystery, but I am digging it. I'm only about 15% through it though, so it is very possible for it to change course.

Recommended thus far.

[Nick]

I'm reading through the Robert Crais books, just finished The Watchman. It was good, but his first, The Monkey's Raincoat, was fantastic. I also liked Voodoo River a lot.

[Christine]

Ooh, I loved this series. I keep hoping to hear that Julia Spencer-Fleming has a new book out.

[Jen]

Nick, if you haven't read L.A. Requiem, I highly recommend that one. I am a certifiable "Craisie" and L.A. Requiem is probably my favorite of the Elvis Cole series. Of course RC can do absolutely no wrong with me...I love all his books, but L.A. Requiem is groundbreaking in the crime fiction genre!

[Libby]

I loved LA Requiem too, mostly because of the dual POVs from Elvis and Joe Pike. Loved knowing more about Pike... but not too much more (I don't think The Watchman, which did the same thing, was quite as successful... maybe TMI this time?)... Anyway, it was because Crais mixed third person with first person so seamlessly in LA Requiem that I decide to try the same thing. (gulp). The result should be out sometime in 2009.

[Patricia]

Currently reading Asking for Murder by Robert Isleib and I would recommend it.Just finished The Renegades by T. Jefferson Parker and it was great.

[Nick]

Somebody - please read Carol Lea Benjamin and comment. She is so incredible. My two favorite are Fall Guy and Without a Word. Her characters are perfect, including the gentle pit bull Dashiell and her main detective Rachel Alexander. New York is always a character in the novels as well. Once you read one of her books, you'll read them all - I promise.

[Susanna - Censored by GoodReads]

Just finished The Tainted Relic: An Historical Mystery last night.

It was quite good, and I would recommend it if you like medieval mysteries, or historical mysteries in general.

[Kathy]

I am reading Death of a Cozy Writer by G.M Malliet. I am really enjoying this book, a wonderful English manor mystery in the tradition of Agatha Christie. G.M Malliet is an author on Goodreads, and I won this book in a Goodreads give-away. I consider myself lucky indeed.

[Beth]

Okay, I finished THE FRACTAL MURDERS by Mark Cohen and really enjoyed the book, and I'm now reading GHOST RIDERS by Sharyn McCrumb. It's more a historical novel than a mystery novel (most of her other books are mysteries), but she's one of my favorite authors and I'd recommend almost anything she wrote, including this book.

[Patricia]

THE AUTHOR IS ROBERTA - Sorry about that!

[Andrea]

I'm currently reading The Skull Mantra by Eliot Pattison. The detective is a former official from the Chinese government who has been sent to a labor camp in Tibet as an inmate. It's a good complex story with lots of details to sink your teeth into and a remarkable portrayal of life in Tibet under communist Chinese rule. The characters are nuanced and well developed.

[Bow]

I just finished this new book by a new author. It was great, faster paced but a very smooth read. Letters by M.G. Marsh i heard about it from a myspace friend it was a little hard to find but i got it off bn.com. You should not miss this book.

[Booktrix]

i just finished CAPITOL REFLECTIONS - i work with the author and loved the book. he's a new author and the book has a unique premise.

It's a novel but it’s a story that could just as easily be taken from the pages of a newspaper. According to the author, “the names of some of the good guys are appropriated from friends of mine ... The bad guys, however, are not based on any living person. That said, I believe that with sufficient greed and lack of morality, someone could perpetrate a conspiracy along the lines of the Capitol Reflections.”

given that the plot could come from tomorrow's headlines, it's definitely worth a read! it'll make you think about GMOs too!

[Susan]

I recently read Travel Writing by Peter Ferry, which was terrific. Ferry writes about how a guy named Pete Ferry who teaches in a high school outside of Chicago and does some travel writing is changed by seeing a very pretty girl get killed by driving into a lamp post.

[Spuddie]

I'm reading a historical mystery at the moment, The Difficult Saint by Sharan Newman, which is in the middle of her Catherine LeVendeur series. So far I'm enjoying it a lot. I also just started The Historian (finally!) so will be tied up with that for quite awhile I imagine.

Cheryl

[Sandy]

The last mystery I finished was Hold Tight by Harlan Coben, which I liked very much. It was very cleverly written. I've liked all the books I've read by this author.

While waiting for my next mystery arrive in the mail, I've read Dombey and Son by Dickens and Light in August by Faulkner. Both excellent.

[Laura]

Spuddie, have you ever read any book by Josephine Tey, like The Daughter of Time?

[Suziqoregon]

I'm about halfway through Echo Burning by Lee Child. Jack Reacher is one of my favorite characters. This one is the 5th in the series.

[Patricia]

I love the Lee Child books. I think I am just one behind in the series. I need to catch up.

I just finished Silent Cry by Marta Stephens and now I'm reading her second book The Devil Can Wait.

[Sandy]

Yes, I have read her books, but Daughter of Time is the only title I remember. I "think" I read a book by another author in which that book helped a bed-ridden detective solve a crime. Does that sound familiar to anyone?

[Kelly H. (Maybedog)]

Nick, I like Carol Lea Benjamin, too. She's also the author of a good dog-training book about taking in a shelter dog.

I'm currently reading Flashback by Nevada Barr. It's double-layered with a mystery in the present and a separate mystery in the past. I think all of her books are well written and interesting. My fave is probably Blind Descent, which takes place in a subterranean cave, probably because I'm horribly claustrophobic which gives the story an additional chill factor.

[Melani]

I'm reading The Naming of the Dead by Ian Rankin and loving it!

[Liz]

I too love Lee Child books, but am woefully behind. Currently I am reading The Emperor of Ocean Park. Beautifully written and a pretty good mystery besides.

[John]

I'm in the middle of An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear (unabridged audio) - the Maisie Dobbs series is terrific for those love historical fiction (inter-war years) along with a mystery.

[Rosemary]

John, I couldn't agree more. Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series is outstanding. Some years ago I was assigned to write a review of her second book, Birds of a Feather, for Mystery Scene Magazine, and fell in love with her writing, sharing it with family and friends, who were smitten, too. Then, the great independent bookstore, Murder by the Book, brought her to Houston to speak at a book and author luncheon. Winspear is every bit as charming and interesting as her novels.

[Patty]

I'm reading "The Hanging Man" by David Skibbins. This is the fourth book in his tarot card mystery series. I read the first book based on recommendations from DorothyL and was surprised how much I enjoyed it. The protagonist is a bi-polar, former weather-underground member, fugitive from the law and tarot card reader. The stories are a lot of fun, the cast of characters are well-drawn which make a great way to spend some time.

[David]

I just listened to the audio of THE MONKEY'S RAINCOAT. Although the reader had a somewhat more immature-sounding voice than I would have liked, the book itself was a great debut. I had read later Crais' Elvis Cole novels and it was nice to go back where it started.

[David]

I just finished HEAD GAMES by Craig McDonald, read by Tom Stechschulte. It was an outstanding read of a thoroughly enjoyable black-comedy adventure. It requires a macabre mind to combine Orson Welles, Marlene Dietrich, "W" during his college days, and the head of Pancho Villa into a story, and McDonald does it with panache. Highly recommended.

[Lawriter]

I am reading excerpts from ON THE GRIND by Stephen J. Cannell. It's his new Shane Scully novel.So far the excerpts are very good, Shane is gettin' kicked off the LAPD for, what looks like, police corruption. The excerpts are at http://www.onthegrindbook.com/, there also videos. The book comes out in January 2009, so I'm lookin' forward to it.

[*Nan*]

I am reading Salvation in Death by J.D. Robb and I have to say that this one isn't as good as some of the others in the series. This is the newest book and I hope that the newer books don't start going down hill like some of the authors I have read in the past.

[Kay]

I agree, I just finished reading it a couple of days ago and I was disapointed in it also. I sure wasn't as good as the other books in this series.

[Pamela]

I'm cracking open The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo today after work.

[Susanna - Censored by GoodReads]

I'm reading Belladonna At Belstone by Michael Jecks at the moment. I started it last night, and it is good so far. It is set at a nunnery off of Dartmoor in 1321, where someone has murdered one of the novices.

[Kathy]

I'm reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. It's an excellent read in bringing the tragedy of 9/11 up close and personal in the story of a boy whose father died in the twin towers. Although fiction, it seems so real.