Two Envelopes And A Phone > Recent Status Updates

It’s very good. It’s a bit like the 87th Precinct novels, but of course British Police Procedural with heart, not USA Police Procedural with heart and Hawes. Any British novel like this after Lonely Magdalen by Henry Wade probably owes a little to that novel, and a few other early birds. Anyway - these Gideon books most feel like the 87th Precinct books with multiple crimes and detective teams.

The stories can be enjoyable and frustrating at the same time. Odd writing - odd ideas and outgoing vibes. As I was reading The Fork River Space Project over the last day or two, and struggling with its frustrating delights, I thought "Okay, this novel is almost exactly like reading Patricia Anthony. Strange to read them at the same juncture.". Coincidentally similar authors.

I've read Gideon's Month, I've read Gideon's Week. Time just keeps shrinking, compressing... down to one Day. And the first in the series!

Courtney, at work, liked this one. And besides that, it's supposedta be good. I don't know how scary , or even if scary. Soon to know.

I had no idea what this would be like, or about, going in…and it is complete opposite to what I had inferred from merely the title. But I like what I’m getting; it’s a bit like Craig Nova, mixed with Robert Charles Wilson.

Almost done. Big revelation right where I’m stopping - unless it is a feint of some sort. Anyway, I’ll have to wrap this up tomorrow morning, as I’m just too tired. This has been a great read, though. My summer focus on JDC may be ending…but I will return to him in the not too distant future.

Well, I've only been able to snack on little bitty pieces of it, but later today I will dive into a large portion, and I'm anxious to do so. The premise is fascinating - the situation Darwent and Caroline Ross find themselves in, as their fates have unfolded in unexpected directions. Darwent is in a weird and precarious legal position, while Caroline is having an opposite reaction to the twist in her life...

Continuing to make time for some picks off a list of "neglected" SF works, most of them seeming to be from the 1970s and a bit far-out. Motorman and Quake were interesting...let's see what's up at Fork River...

Loads of fun - I love everything about this one. Plus, I was hoping it would fit Spooky Season more than it looks like it does. And it does! Promotes jitters, for sure. Ignore that “amusing” blurb they stuck on the latest cover…I can think of a better word.

Loved Chapter One - more later. I'll be reading 3 books by PAT, for a 'Horror and Creepy Mysteries' reading project, and on the Horror side of things, 3 novels by my favourite Horror writer Ramsey Campbell. Admittedly, some of the Mysteries I've selected don't look all that creepy, but I would say that any Murder Mystery sort of sneaks in...and I'm going to do a lot of the 'wimpier'-looking ones before October hits.

This will be the last book I read for a summer reading project I called ‘John Dickson Carr and Friends’ - turned out to be 14 JDC novels, and 16 novels by other Mystery writers who wrote over the same decades, 1930s to 1960s. I have a new appreciation for Carr, and how consistent he was…and his ‘competition’ have acquitted themselves admirably. This highly rated Historical Mystery will close things out.

A slight Ramsey Campbell’s Obsession vibe, but certainly cutting its own path. Been a while since a Horror novel subjected me to Ouija Board antics - always creepy - and we’ll see how deer figure into this (be they flesh, or…).

I dunno - when you set up a TBR of 30 books to cover about three months, certain books just want to be read faster than others. Covers, titles, looks different than the last book from the list that I read…just personal preferences and idiosyncrasies. This sounds a little less hardcore and visceral than the barn-burners I Iaunched my Horror and Creepy Mystery reading with…but then again, who knows. Could rip me up…

O-kaay! That one ranks very high, on my list of “plot twists I did not see coming!”.

I like it. It's very early-1980s police-procedural - clearly from the same era as something like Ice by Ed McBain, but more in the Scott Turow style - but I love Lynne, our lead character. Once I discovered the specific political backdrop, I was a bit leery - I often read to escape world news - but I find I've settled in, and the book has a weird timeliness...on at least two counts...