Mystery Lovers! discussion

What mystery are you reading at the present time?

I am reading through various Sherlock Holmes stories, I just finished "The Sign of Four". Classic.

I just finished Blood Memory by Greg Isles...it took some time to get into it, and the underlying themes of alcoholism/drug abuse and pedophilia are hard to read about...but it was a good book if you're in the right mood.

I just finished The Rabbit Factory by Marshall Karp on the way into work. It was a pretty good one - and reminded me of the feel of Tilt-a-Whirl by Chris Grabenstein. Sort of irreverant, funny, hardboiled male protagonist who solves a crime and offers a lot of observation about current society and particularly family connections in modern America. A feel-good read.

Next up in the car CD player is To Kill A Mockingbird, which I have never read and whose title sounds like a mystery title at least :)

I'm reading Chill of Fear (2nd in the "Fear" series) by Kay Hooper. It's really good, if you like the paranormal/psychic aspect.

I'm reading Bangkok Haunts by John Burdett- great story, I really like the characters and the crazy voice- he has a way of showing you your asumptions about the world, and then showing you why they are BS. This is the third of the Bangkok stories, and so far they are getting better. The motives of the bad guys- not the usual motives of greed, revenge, etc. He gets into some twisty human psychology.

I'm reading Raiders of the Lost Corset by Ellen Byerrum. I'm rather disappointed in it. I thought it was going to be witty and fast-paced. Instead, it's slow moving and just not quite good enough or witty enough. I am going to finish it, because I want to know the answer to the central question in the book.

The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie.

I just started Garnethill by Denise Mina, and it's absolutely fantastic. It had me up late & up for work an hour early trying to sneak in some extra reading time.

I just started Ngaio Marsh's "Death in Ecstasy" last night.

I'm partway through 'Split Second' by Alex Kava. Her first book 'A Perfect Evil' was full of great suspense and this one is good too. I've got her latest one on hold at the library and was going to read the rest of the series before picking it up, but just realized it's not part of the series! I'll still read the rest of the series because they're a fast read.

I'm reading Susan Isaacs' Past Perfect, which falls in the "charmingly self-deprecating amateur sleuth" camp, with a lead character who is an ex-CIA analyst who now writes a spy thriller TV series and gets a mysterious call from her past. It's not one for the ages by any means, but Isaacs takes what could be a rote sort of genre exercise and makes it lively and rich.

I'm reading Nancy Martins Blackbird Sisters series. I'm up to the fifth one. Fun quick reads.The mysteries are tied up nice at the end.

I just finished reading Colin Cotterill's 'Thirty-Three Teeth', the second in the Dr. Siri series. These books take place in Laos after the Communist takeover in the 1970's.

I didn't think I would like these books but I'm really enjoying them. The characters are engaging and likeable. The plots have a sort of mystical aspect to them. The next in the series is 'Disco for the Departed', even the title are intriguing.

I am reading Lean Mean Thirteen by Janet Evanovich. She is such a funny writer.

I just finished "Odd Thomas" by Dean Koontz which, for me, falls in between mystery, fantasy and just plain weird.

I also recently finished "The Thirteenth Tale" which was fascinating. My only wish is that I could have read it more quickly--within a couple of days rather than over the course of a month. I got caught up in some personal stuff and had to set it aside half-way through. That ended up ruining some of the suspense of the book. I imgaine that it is quite haunting if read practically straight through.

I just finished Duplicity Dogged the Dachshund by Blaize Clement. I really like the main character in this series.

I'm reading Havana Bay by Martin Cruz Smith having just finished Red Square. I really like his Arkady Renko character.

I read Garnethill and loved it! She also wrote at least one and maybe two sequels to it, and has now a new series.

Nearing the end of "Suspicion of Madness" by Barbara Parker. The story has held my interest from the beginning - has kept me on my toes. It has also touched my heart, since it involves a young man who has emotional issues and has been accused of murder (which I am not wanting to believe he has committed, even though he has confessed).

Should finish this evening. Will let you know about my next one.

Bett
Florida

Thanks for your post. I will see if I can find this one. I really do enjoy the paranormal/psychic.

Bett
Florida

Starting Devices & Desires by P. D. James today. There is a review on our Goodreads site, and I will give you my view as I go along. Think it is going to be a good one.

Bett Walker

I found after reading my first P. D. James book, that it was so enjoyable that I went looking for all by P. D. James and read them in order. I now re-read some from time to time.

Just finished reading the first two Samantha Kincaid mysteries by Alafair Burke. It took me awhile to get used to her writing style. She's pretty factual and sometimes too lengthy in her descriptions of the legal aspects involved in arrests, trials, etc. and uses lots of acronymns (wore my brain out!). But once I dealt with that, I decided I liked her story lines and will continue on. (She doesn't compare to her dad, James Lee Burke, however. His descriptive writing is amazing!)

About halfway through the newest Bed & Breakfast cozy by Mary Daheim: Scots on the Rocks. It's better than the previous ones.
I've read Blaize Clement's "pet sitter" series and can recommend them.
Recently finished the latest Annie Kincaid art mystery Brush with Death, which was pretty good as well.

Hi, I'm new! I just finished And Only to Deceive by Tasha Alexander. It had a lot of promise, but it fell flat for me. I had pegged the bad guy and the hero who seems like a bad guy about 20 pages in. But fun in its own way.

Completed "The Collectors" by David Baldacci today.

While I thought this book was well written, it is not the kind of book I enjoy.

"In Wash, DC, where power is everything and too few have too much of it, four highly eccentric men with mysterious pasts call themselves the Camel Club. Their mission: find out what's really going on behind the closed doors of America's leaders."

David Baldacci is the author of eleven previous consecutive New York Times bestsellers.

I'm reading Stephen J. Cannell's Three Shirt Deal. Shane Scully has to choose between saving his marriage, having an affair with a sexy detective or freeing an innocent man from jail: http://www.threeshirtdeal.com/

I am reading an ARC of "In the Key of Death" by Robert S. Levinson. Yes, there is a bit of a relationship there (he's my father). The book is coming out this summer. So far I am loving it, when the kids give me a chance to read more than one page at a time.

Deborah

P.S. I put down a Nancy Packard to read Dad's book. I'm hoping Nancy won't mind. :)

Just finished "Cache of Corpses" by Henry Kisor. Fun to read about the U.P. and I'm interested in checking out what looks like the previous two stories in the series.

Does nobody on goodreads read Stephen King? I'm currently 30 pages from the end of "Duma Key," and loving it.

And to Ellis, try "The Darkest Night of the Year" by Koontz. He's not one of my favorites, but I do love his sardonic humor, and the book was (in my opinion) a better story than the "Odd Thomas" novels.

And Bett, LOVED "Devices and Desires" (and anything by P.D. James)

I recently read The Thirteenth Tale too and I really liked it. I've tried to get a few of my neighbors to read it and they said they couldn't get into it. I'm glad to see someone else thought it was a good book.

I have read all three of Koontz's Odd Thomas books. I love these books and am always surprised at how Koontz writes these with such a different voice/style then all of his other books. The first one is the best, but the other two are good as well.

Wondering if anyone has read any of the mysteries by an author named G.M. Ford? I have read the first two books in his older series who's main character is Leo Waterman. Waterman's a PI in Seattle who has befriended several homeless men who he uses as "operatives". There is some good humor in the books and the mysteries have kept me guessing up to the end. He has another series as well and I was just looking for some feedback.

I've gotten my sister-in-law, who lives in Singapore, hooked on the Bangkok series. I took her the first in the series when I went to visit; she recently returned to the states and took the other two back with her.

I just finished The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo- set in Norway, present day and WWII- really edge of the seat sort of story and brilliant writing- I liked it so much.

I'm midway through GUN MONKEYS by Victor Gischler. He is a great chaos and mayhem thriller author, where the protagonist is as morally decrepid as the "bad" guys, but has a great sense of humor and no fear. Bullets fly, people die.

I just finished reading Tony Hillerman's The Shape Shifter. It was a very good read. You can see my review on my blog

bloodstainedbookreviews.blogspot.com/

Presently I an reading Voices by Arnaldur Indridason which I am enjoying so far and Calling The Dead by Marilyn Meredith

I finished Shape Shifter recently as well and also give it a good recommendation!

I am just finishing "The Memory Game" by Nicci French, and just starting on "The Cold Dish" by Craig Johnson. "The Memory Game" has been a kind of strange, mid-life crisis, brooding mystery. I am looking forward to getting into "The Cold Dish." I read "Kindness Goes Unpunished" by Johnson first (which was the 3rd book in the Walt Longmire series) and can't wait to get back to the beginning.

I am reading "Curse of the Pharaohs" by Elizabeth Peters. I just finished "Crocodile on the sandbank" also by Peters. This is her Amelia Peabody series. I enjoyed Crocodile very much and am enjoying the second one. A good read if you like a little humor in your mystery.

I just finished The Blue Nowhere, and I liked it much better than the other Jeffery Deaver book I've read, The Bone Collector, not only because it had less "gruesomeness" but also because it was so related to my interests, being a retired software engineer. And the constant twists as to who is currently suspected of being the villains, Phate and Shawn, really keep the reader guessing. I also like the fencing that goes on between the hacker hero helping the police and the hacker villain, as they try to one-up and fool each other.

This book was published in early 2001, which meant that Deaver probably researched and wrote it in the late 1990s. And since it was about the computer industry, in which innovations are so rapid, I would call it historical fiction. It was written in the days before Amazon, Ebay, Myspace, Facebook, Second Life, Yahoogroups, Skype, YouTube, iTunes, and oh, so many more companies and applications that have totally changed the Internet and how people use it. Jeffery Deaver did get the computer facts mostly right for the time period in which he set the novel, though he stretched what could be done by hackers on the net--for his story purposes--especially toward the end.

So, I found the book fascinating and a nice stroll down memory lane...

I just finished Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear. Maisie Dobbs, investigator, starts out with a simple case of a rich man's missing daughter but is soon swept up in two murders and an apparent suicide. I enjoyed the book. It is a thoughtful, intesting book and the mystery was interesting. I am on the waiting list at the library to get the first book in the series titled after the main character.

I just finished reading Graham Greene's The Third Man. I'm a fan of Carol Reed's film adaptation starring Joseph Cotton and Orson Welles, but this was my first time encountering the original story. I really enjoyed it and was surprised by how closely the film followed the events and dialogue of the book. If you want a taut mystery/thriller that wonderfully captures the complexities of postwar Vienna, this is a great choice!

I am part-way through set in Iowa during the Great Depression. So far, fascinating. The social and cultural history and the writer's style have got me hooked as well as the mystery.

I finished reading Shutter Island and I'm in awe. And now I know why people love that movie, gotta watch it now. Great thrill, mystery and suspense, all rolled into one. A must read.

I'll tell you something that blocks me from picking up contemporary whodunits (or crime books of any kind, really). Its that I find myself tending not to care very much as to what happens to anyone in the modern world. Anyone else feel this way?

Its probably just the result of my residing in NY which is so dense and oppressive with obnoxious, annoying, scummy POS everywhere I turn.

But --simply put--its hard for any author writing today--weaving stories of gory murder, slaughter, or calamity-- to make me feel worry or concern or sympathy for their fictional victims. I'm too close to the stench of miserable humanity to feel anything poignant about it all. Let slip the dogs of war, I don' care.

If I lived 'out in the sticks'--then the safety and well-being of current-day citizenry would 'become abstract' once more-- and I'd then be able to indulge in armchair fantasies where they are risked/saved from risk. I'd get the entertainment factor back.

But not right now. If there was another terrorist strike where thousands of people perished...I'm betting my reaction would be to shrug it off. I feel more sorry right now for the ones we've already lost; but those folks were not part of this current cellphone and Kindle culture we have going on right now. Today's electronic-addicted imbeciles, I really could care less how many of them perish and the more horribly they die, the better I'd probably like it. Harrumph! Lemmings to the sea. That's muh rulin

I just finished American Assassin by Vince Flynn. Author is very good in building an atmosphere.

And now I will read Kill Shot by Vince Flynn.

I really recommend this book and all series.

Does anybody read Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay?