March, 2023 ~ What are you reading?

New month, new thread. Enjoy!

Currently in crime: Ratlines, by Stuart Neville.

So sorry to hear today of the death of Christopher Fowler his books about Bryant and May and the Peculiar Crimes Unit are a particular pleasure and it was on this thread that I found them. My thanks to fellow Crime Fiction lovers. One consolation is that i still have a lot of his books to read having only reached Bryant and May off the rails

Just picked up The Queen's Accomplice, a Maggie Hope mystery by Susan Elia MacNeal. I've missed about three in the sequence, but I'm not having any trouble catching up with the series storyline.

>3 Maura49: I know, right? I've been reading Fowler's books since 1992. Peculiar was a great Twitter handle for him to have.

Currently reading River woman, river demon by Jennifer Givhan for Together We Read. So far pretty good.

>3 Maura49: Oh no! Thanks for sharing that news. Will have to pick up a book in the series in tribute.

Finished River woman, river demon. I found it suspenseful. I liked the main character. I liked that the characters had varied backgrounds, including religious practices.

This book is part of the Together We Read program put together by Overdrive (the library ebook service) in the US.

Finished The Kremlin Conspiracy by Joel Rosenberg (3/5). Although published in 2018, it's like reading the current geopolitical headlines.

I just finished a NetGalley copy of Blow Up (Sophie Medina). Less excitement than the first two installments, but some great cases of characters struggling with how to do the right thing. Also The Last Mrs. Summers, another Lady Georgie cozy, which is extra fun because she's riffing on Rebecca.

Now reading A rattle of bones. Journalist Rebecca Connolly looks into a ten-year-old murder up in the Scottish Highlands. The person charged and jailed for the crime apparently wasn't the person who committed it.

I'm reading Wildfire Season by Andrew Pyper.
Pyper is in an interesting author because he flirts with horror but rarely falls into an overt monster, ghost, gore plot. Instead, he capitalises on our own mind's ability to conjure fear which usually makes for a thrilling read. His book Lost Girls did this magnificently.

In this book, nature is what we fear and how bad decisions can quickly escalate into adrenaline-pumped scenes where the outcome is far from obvious. Pyper's ability to describe characters haunted by their past or situation only adds to the thrill: this is not just an action-fuelled plot, it's full of psychological discomfort that keeps this reader on the edge of her seat.

Started the latest Walter Mosley book, Every man a king. A contemporary series, with a private investigator based in New York City. It doesn't matter much what Mosley writes, but I keep turning those pages.

I'm reading a cute culinary, cozy murder mystery called Killer Pancake by Diane Mott Davidson.

Added One, Two, Buckle My Shoe by Agatha Christie to my rotation.

Started a new one by Barbara Sjoholm AKA Barbara Wilson, Love dies twice. The protagonist is interested in a recent death and a past death -- of a mystery novelist whose books took place in medieval women's communities known as beguines. The story also discusses lesbian activism in the 1970s and '80s, including small presses and social experiments, plus people being in contact since then, and long term friendships, plus the life of freelance workers (the investigator is a translator). Not really slice-of-life stuff, but it's good to read about many kinds of people and not just the cops/private investigators that some books focus on.

Finished One, Two, Buckle My Shoe by Agatha Christie. Still a good comfort read. Added Buried in Secret by Viveca Sten to my rotation.

I've started The Cat Who Saw Red by Lilian Jackson Braun. This is my third in the series, and I've come to really enjoy them.

Yesterday I re-read Endless Night, by Agatha Christie. A classic.

I'm also having a bit of a revisit to Agatha Christie in my case, just finished The Body in the Library. I do love a Miss Marple.

I just finished one of Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series-All the Devils Are Here. I had grown a bit weary of this series so had taken a break for them for some time. However, I quite enjoyed this one-I'm thinking perhaps because it's not set in Three Pines and doesn't feature the usual characters from that village, so perhaps it's them I'm tired of reading about? Anyway, I'll try the next one in the series and see if my interest holds.

Finished Buried in Secret by Viveca Sten. Ran a little long. Added The Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter to my rotation.

NEW THREAD FOR APRIL: https://www.librarything.com/topic/349824