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dec 2015 - sandi
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Wow, Sandi! That is quite a list, several great sounding books. I agree with your assessments of Rogue Lawyer and Playing with Fire. You visited quite a variety of settings and times in December!Sandi wrote: "Happy New Year!!!
Time off from work allowed me to enjoy more books this month. ."
Always enjoy your lists! Lots to choose from this month!
Great month Sandi, and you have some new to me authors that I'm going to make a note of. I also read Rogue Lawyer and Playing with Fire and you described them exactly as I felt too.
Good grief Sandi! Hope you stopped to eat and sleep. What a great list :)
Great summaries Sandi, and I want to go out and reserve all of your Top Reads immediately, they sound that good and right up my alley. Keep up the good work!
Mystery/Thriller Reading Friends
Books mentioned in this topic
Rogue Lawyer (other topics)Playing with Fire (other topics)
Playing with Fire (other topics)
The Lady in Black (other topics)
Watching the Dark (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Tess Gerritsen (other topics)Anna Clarke (other topics)
Peter Robinson (other topics)
Reed Farrel Coleman (other topics)
Ross Thomas (other topics)
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Time off from work allowed me to enjoy more books this month. Here are my December reads:
Top Reads
Martin Walker
A very good second entry in this series set in a small French village. There was a lot going on with the plot including arson, GMO crops, and a business deal that could change the village forever. The main character, Bruno, was just as smart and enjoyable as in the first book and the narration by Robert Ian MacKenzie was very well done.
Reed Farrel Coleman
Another excellent entry in this hard boiled PI series. Moe is a great character, the writing and plotting were very good, and the Coney Island setting was interesting. This book won the Shamus Award in 2008 for best novel.
Ross Thomas
Superbly written and plotted, this book about an election for the head of one of the largest unions in America had great characterizations, lots of dirty tricks, and political intrigue.
Aline Templeton
I have found this police procedural series set in rural Scotland to be consistently entertaining and this entry was no exception. I enjoyed the characters and their ongoing relationships and thought the plot was quite good.
Benjamin Whitmer
Very impressively written with a spare but powerful style this was a dark, grittily realistic, and violent (though not gratuitously) look at life, choices, and loss.
Good Reads
Sarah Ward
This was a decent English police procedural debut set in Derbyshire but not without some problems. The plot was actually quite compelling up until the end which was marred a bit by some actions that were not very bright. The characters though were a bit hit and miss with the women being better drawn and interesting while the men police officers were fairly bland and hard to differentiate.
John Grisham
Not great but not bad either. The book kept my interest pretty well and though sometimes the message that the author was seemingly trying to impart kind of overwhelmed the narrative I was fairly interested in the main character since he was highly competent at representing his clients. Listened to the audio version which was decently read by Mark Deakins.
Hal Needham
While this book will not win any awards for its writing, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the author's fascinating life. Born into poverty and with only an eighth grade education Hal had a strong work ethic that helped him succeed with every new venture he tried. Lots of details about stunt work (he seemingly came up with many new standards on ways to accomplish stunts), his directing successes with Smokey and Bandit and other action films, and his ownership of a NASCAR team.
Anne George
The Southern Sisters manage to trip across another body in this fun and engaging entry in the series. Perhaps not the best plotted of the books but Patricia Anne and Mary Alice are in top form. Listened to the audio version which was narrated by Ruth Ann Phimister who did a great job.
Nevada Barr
Adding to the usual formula of Anna being sent to National Park (this time the Garden Key in Dry Tortugas National Park) and finding an adventure, this book also had a historical aspect and wove in the story of the incarceration of the Lincoln conspirators. The historical plot was a bit better but both stories were pretty interesting and the narration of the audio by Barbara Rosenblat was to her usual high standard.
Molly Knight
I am by no means a close follower of baseball anymore and really only watch at playoff time but found this an entertaining look at the Los Angles Dodgers organization during the 2013 and 2014 seasons. My favorite part was the beginning and the details of the sale of the Dodgers but the in season parts were well written enough that I never became lost or bored.
Charles Olivier
A nicely done audio drama performed by a full cast. All the narrators did a good job and the story line was quite affecting.
Derek Nikitas
Once I became used to the rather tedious writing style (every scene change started and ended mid-sentence) employed by the author I found this to be a depressing though strangely compelling look at several damaged characters and the unintended consequences and violent outcomes that their poorly thought out choices lead to.
Peter Robinson
A well done addition to this English Police Procedural series. I have always liked Inspector Banks and have followed these books through his many changes. The plot was pretty interesting and having part of the action take place in Estonia helped keep things fresh.
Anna Clarke
This was a very engaging historical suspense set during the Victorian era. The writing was very sharp and kept the tension rate high throughout the narrative. I also liked the details of a large publishing house during that time period.
Tess Gerritsen
A good suspense tale. I thought the author did a good job combining the historical story with the contemporary one and the use of the music in the audio version was very well done. The narration was performed by Julia Whelan and Will Damron and both were top notch.