You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion

New year, new list. And new series to explore.

(2023 list here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...)

Currently reading:
Currently listening to: House of Lies

Reading list:

(Cormoran Strike #7) ★★★★★

(Detective Karen Hart #1) ★★
(Detective Karen Hart #2) ★★
(Detective Karen Hart #3) ★★
(Detective Karen Hart #4) ★★★

I start with what I have left from 2023 - new series to be added as I start reading them!

Current Series:
Crime Series:
Wesley Peterson 2/27 read
Samuel Tay 5/7 read
The Brighton Mysteries 4/7 read
Chet and Bernie Mysteries, 9/14 read
DI Skelgill investigates, 9/18 read
D.C. Smith, 2/10 read
Detective Karen Hart, 4/8 read

Fantasy Series:
Gentleman Bastard 1/3 read

Other Series:
Space Team 1/13 read

Series killed in 2024:

Series abandoned in 2024:

Orphans:
The Running Grave (Cormoran Strike #7)


Orphans yet to be released [release date]:
Maxwell's Zoom (Peter Maxwell #21) - [14 June 2022, audiobook tbr 1 April 2024]
Where The Pieces Lie (DCI Logan #19) - [16 April 2024]

To be read soonish:

The Sweet Remnants of Summer (orphan, Isabel Dalhousie #14) (HC)
Mongkok Station (Samuel Tay #6) (ebook)
Who the Hell is Harry Black? (Samuel Tay #7) (ebook)
Next in Line (orphan, William Warwick #5) (audiobook)
Traitors Gate (orphan, William Warwick #6) (audiobook)
The Stellar Debut of Galactica MacFee (orphan, 44 Scotland Street #17) (HC)

I started a new series, Detective Karen Hart.

I had hoped for a nice police procedural set in the English countryside. What I got was a story about an incorrigibly stubborn DS whose documented thought processes often sounded like they came out of "Psychology for Dummies" or the agony aunt page of a cheap magazine. And of course she puts herself into danger near the end of the story - this is an overused plot device that has put me off reading cosy mysteries altogether.

The story was somewhat predictable, the writing style a bit simple for my taste, and at times a bit jolty.

I am not yet decided about continuing or abandoning this series.

When I posted the above, I was still in two minds about this new-to-me series. I thought that maybe I was being a bit hard on it, because the book I read immediately before Bring Them Home was The Running Grave (Cormoran Strike #7, brilliantly read by Robert Glenister!) and it would have been hard for any book to be following that one.

But - I gave the series another chance an started on book two, Where Secrets Lie. And now I can define better what irks me. It's that the author ignores the principle of "Show, don't tell!" and keeps telling the reader things, even repeating them constantly.

Another problem for me is the narration. I prefer male voices and the higher-pitched intonation used here for some characters is rather annoying. Not to mention the fact that the narrator apparently has a slight lisp.

So I guess I won't be continuing this series.

Book 3 was a bit better - not quite good enough to merit a third star, but keeping me interested enough in the ongoing story to read on.