November Reads

Where has the month gone? Not as many as usual. Lots of travel and being busy at work affected my reading time. Excellent books marked with asterisk.

Andrew Taylor, Blood Relation (William Dougal series)
*SJ Rozan, Absent Friends (see blog entry below)
Robert B Parker, Melancholy Baby (Sunny Randall series)
*Erin Hart, Haunted Ground (see blog entry below)
*Erin Hart, Lake of Sorrows (see blog entry below)
*Andrew Taylor, The Sleeping Policeman (William Dougal series)
Nora Roberts, Northern Lights (see blog entry below)
Carolyn G Hart, Letter from Home
*Andrew Taylor, An Air That Kills (DI Thornhill series)
Andrew Taylor, The Mortal Sickness (DI Thornhill series)
Maeve Binchy, Night of Rain and Stars
Andrew Taylor, The Lover of the Grave (DI Thornhill series)
Sharon Duncan, The Lavender Butterfly Murders (Scotia MacKinnon series)
James Swain, Sucker Bet (Tony Valentine series)

Catching up: October reads

Just for the record, my list of books read in October...excellent ones marked with an asterisk:

Keith Ablow, Murder Suicide (Dr Frank Clevenger series)
Deborah Adams, All the Hungry Mothers (Jesus Creek series)
Pamela Thomas-Graham, Orange Crushed (Nikki Chase series)
Dicey Deere, The Irish Village Murder (Torrey Tunet series)
*Sujata Massey, The Pearl Diver (Rei Shimura series)
David Rosenfelt, Bury the Lead (Andy Carpenter series)
Janet LaPierre, Old Enemies (Port Silva series)
Janet LaPierre, Baby Mine (Port Silva series)
Janet LaPierre, Keepers (Port Silva series)
*Laura Lippman, By a Spider's Thread (Tess Monaghan series)
Andrew Taylor, Waiting for the End of the World (William Dougal series)
*Sarah Stewart Taylor, Mansions of the Dead (Sweeney St. George series)
Deborah Adams, All the Deadly Beloved (Jesus Creek series)
Deborah Adams, All the Blood Relations (Jesus Creek series)
*Andrew Taylor, Our Father's Lies (William Dougal series)
*Andrew Taylor, An Old School Tie (William Dougal series)
*Tess Gerritsen, Body Double (Rizzoli/Isles series)
*Kate Wilhelm, The Unbidden Truth (Barbara Holloway series)
*Andrew Taylor, Freelance Dance (William Dougal series)

Catching up: September reads

And my September ones...excellent ones marked with an asterisk:

Perri O'Shaughnessy, Presumption of Death (Nina Reilly series)
Perri O'Shaughnessy, Unlucky in Law (Nina Reilly series)
*Margaret Maron, High Country Fall (Deborah Knott series)
James Grippando, Hear No Evil (Jack Swyteck series)
Alex Kava, One False Move
*JA Jance, Hour of the Hunter
*Jincy Willett, Winner of the National Book Award
JA Jance, Kiss of the Bees (sequel to Hour of the Hunter)
Deborah Adams, All the Great Pretenders (Jesus Creek series)
Deborah Adams, All the Crazy Winters (Jesus Creek series)
Deborah Adams, All the Dark Diguises (Jesus Creek series)
*Judith Guest, The Tarnished Eye
Janet LaPierre, Children's Games (Port Silva series)
Janet LaPierre, Cruel Mother (Port Silva series)
Janet LaPierre, Gradmother's House (Port Silva series)
*KJ Erickson, Alone at Night (Mars Bahr series)
*Steve Hamilton, Ice Run (Alex McKnight series)
*Adrian Tomine, Summer Blonde
Joanne Harris, Jigs and Reels (short stories)
Susan Wittig Albert, An Unthymely Death (China Bayles short stories)
GH Ephron, Obsessed (Dr Peter Zak series)

Nora Roberts, Northern Lights

As I don't care for romance novels, I don't usually seek out Nora Roberts. I tried the "In Death" series she writes as JD Robb and found it kind of silly, but last year sometime I had heard lots of good things about her book Birthright, which was being talked about as if it were a mystery, probably classed as "romantic suspense" but more of a mystery plot with some sex scenes than the In Death books, which seemed to me to be sex scenes with some plot....Anyway, Northern Lights is one of her newest ones, also in this romantic suspense/mystery category.

This one takes place in a little town called Lunacy, Alaska, where a Baltimore police detective named Nate has fled, escaping his failed marriage and problems on the job after his partner was killed. A man who was thought to have taken off voluntarily is found dead; he has been frozen solid in a cave rather than off avoiding his family for the last 16 years. When someone commits suicide and leaves a note claiming responsibility for the old murder, Nate is one of the few people who doesn't buy it. He of course solves the case, wins the girl, and all that. But it was an enjoyable read, with lots of quirky characters and snappy dialogue, and yes - it is a Nora Roberts, after all - some steamy sex scenes.

Absent Friends, SJ Rozan

When Dennis Lehane abandoned Patrick and Angie to publish a standalone, many people despaired, but then quickly forgave him for straying from the series after reading Mystic River. Same thing here with Rozan. At first, I was disappointed when I learned the new book wasn't a new entry in the Bill & Lydia series. What a fool I was to feel that way.

Absent Friends is one of the best books I've read in a long time. There is a mystery element, actually a couple of them, and the story unfolds via a series of flashbacks. The characters are richly developed. The plot is complex, and I could go into detail about what's it about, but what it's really about is how we navigate love and loss, face or shirk responsibility, and how we define or misunderstand what it means to be a hero.

In addition to all that, the portrayal of life in the aftermath of 9-11 was riveting and heartbreaking. The epilogue, which is related to the theme of the book, although not related to the plot in a concrete way, was stunning.

When I finished the book, I put it down, mostly because I needed to get a kleenex to wipe away the tears, but I couldn't bear to be apart from it. I literally held the book to my chest and cried awhile, for all the absent friends in all our lives.

Erin Hart, Haunted Ground and Lake of Sorrows

I had Haunted Ground checked out from the library last fall, but couldn't get into it for some reason. Had no trouble this time. And was really glad to have the follow-up - hopefully just book #2 in a new long-running series - sitting there ready to dive into.

Haunted Ground combines a present day mystery with a historical one. I was fascinated with the research done to identify the dead woman in the bog, and what a sad tale. Lake of Sorrows also uses this combination timeline approach, although in this case the historical case is only a few decades old, rather than centuries removed.

Good characters, interesting settings in Ireland, and an interesting blend of forensic, archaeological, and historical mystery.

Here we go....

Have been meaning to do this for quite some time, and now finally have jumped in to the blogosphere. A day off from work, the perfect time to start a new project instead of finishing up some others!

Why am I here? I keep a written journal of all the books I read and then end up typing it all up to share with online friends. It would be much easier to just do it online in the first place.

So, we're off.