Reading in August

August was the first month in a while that I strayed from reading crime fiction. This month I read one book from my Classics List, Passing by Nella Larsen, and a military fantasy, The Black Company by Glen Cook. I have already reviewed The Black Company. With its emphasis on war and violence (although not much graphic description of such), I was surprised to have liked it so much.


Passing by Nella Larsen was published in 1929 and was one of only two books by this American author. It is the story of two childhood friends who meet up again by chance in Chicago. Both are light-skinned African-American women who can pass for white. Clare Kendry continues to live in Chicago and has married a white man who does not know that she has Negro blood. The couple have a daughter. Irene Redfield is married to a black doctor; they live in Harlem with their two young boys. Later, Clare wants to continue her friendship with Irene, and Irene resists.

Both women are interesting people, but the novel focuses on Irene's life, her reactions to Clare, and how the continuation of their friendship affects both of their lives. The story was different and for me it was an eye-opening picture of the black community in Harlem in the 1920's.




The crime fiction novels I read were:

• The Case of the Restless Redhead by Erle Stanley Gardner
• See Also Deception by Larry D. Sweazy
• From Russia With Love by Ian Fleming
• A Lonely Place to Die by Wessel Ebersohn

August was a lovely month of reading. There was not a bad (or even mediocre) book in the bunch. There were two crime fiction books I rated my favorites for the month...

I absolutely loved From Russia With Love. The movie has always been a favorite and the book is a lot like the movie, but even better.

See Also Deception was the 2nd book in a great series by Sweazy.  It has two big pluses for me: a strong woman in the lead role and an interesting setting in time and place (1960's North Dakota).

On this 3rd day of September, I am in the middle of a short story anthology, Grifters & Swindlers edited by Cynthia Manson. And also reading another book from my Classics List, The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham.

Reading in May and Crime Fiction Pick of the Month

In May, I read five books, and four of them were crime fiction. I read one book that fits in the fantasy genre: The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett. Pratchett's book was very enjoyable, although it took me a while to get into it. It was the first book by this author that I have read. I will save further thoughts on that for a full post.

The crime fiction books I read this month are:

• Fast Company by Marco Page
• The Guns of Navarone by Alistair MacLean
• Background to Danger by Eric Ambler
• Diamonds Are Forever by Ian Fleming

I suppose if I am pressed to pick a crime fiction favorite from this month's reading it would be Background to Danger. It is a typical spy thriller by Eric Ambler, with the innocent bystander being pulled into a conspiracy unawares. A bit more thrillerish than the other books by Ambler that I have read.

But truly, of the crime fiction books that I read, The Guns of Navarone and Diamonds Are Forever are right up there, only a smidgen below Background to Danger. All of them are adventurous thrillers that entertain.

This has been a year of wanting to do new projects related to reading. I would love to read more graphic novels and understand more about that format. But I already have a lot of "projects" going and I know I can't handle too much. So that one will have to wait.

I had planned to read a lot more short stories this year and I haven't done well with that. I enjoy short stories when I read them, but they don't call to me and I am not good at picking up one here or there to read. I do have an anthology I am planning to read this summer for a Friday Forgotten Books special edition (Grifters & Swindlers edited by Cynthia Mason).

Another personal project is to read all the Smiley books by John le Carré, and I am doing fine with that. I am reading The Honourable Schoolboy right now, almost 2/3 done with this 600 page chunkster. And liking it a lot.

And the most recent project is to read the James Bond books (and watch the associated movies). Also doing fine with that. That one is easy. The  books are different from what I remember, but they are engaging reads with great pacing. Never a dull moment. I was inspired by Moira at Clothes in Books, who has read and posted about Casino Royale through Goldfinger so far. I started with Live and Let Die in March and have read one a month so far. Tonight we will be watching our DVD of the film, Diamonds are Forever, with Sean Connery.

Reading in April 2016

In April I read seven books; six of them were crime fiction. The seventh book was True Grit by Charles Portis, a novel of the American West set in the years following the Civil War, the early 1870s.

The six books of crime fiction I read were:

• The Defection of A. J. Lewinter by Robert Littell
• Call for the Dead by John le Carre
• Trouble on the Thames by Victor Bridges
• Sweet Silver Blues by Glen Cook
• The Big Clock by Kenneth Fearing
• Moonraker by Ian Fleming

Of the six crime fiction books, four can be categorized as spy fiction. Two of the spy stories (Trouble on the Thames and Moonraker) were more adventurous and not so bleak as the other two (The Defection of A. J. Lewinter and Call for the Dead). April was a great reading month, with a lot of variety, even with the preponderance of spy fiction.

Sweet Silver Blues by Glen Cook  is a cross-genre book, combining fantasy and a detective novel. It is the first novel in a series of fourteen books, written between 1987 and 2013, so I would say the series has been fairly successful. Glen Cook has written many books of science fiction and fantasy, but he is most well known for his Black Company fantasy series.

True Grit by Charles Portis, published in 1968,  was one of my favorite reads of the month. This type of book is not one I would normally read. In early April, when we decided to get a copy of the 2010 film adaptation, I decided I wanted to read the book first. (I had never seen the adaptation starring John Wayne and Kim Darby.) So I quickly acquired a copy of the book and read it almost as soon as it arrived.

If you are not familiar with the story, this is from the summary on the back of my edition:

True Grit tells the story of Mattie Ross, who is just fourteen years of age when a coward going by the name of Tom Chaney shoots her father down in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robs him of his life, his horse, and $150 in cash. Mattie leaves home to avenge her father's blood. With the one-eyed Rooster Cogburn, the meanest available U.S. Marshal, by her side, Mattie pursues the homicide into Indian Territory.

My favorite crime fiction read of the month was The Big Clock by Kenneth Fearing, published in 1946. I had seen the movie starring Ray Milland and Charles Laughton within the last few months, and after reading the book we watched it again. Both book and movie are good but there are significant differences. The book has an unusual narrative structure; each chapter is told from the first person point of view, but there are several narrators. Most of the story is told from the point of view of the main character, George Stroud, but several other characters narrate at least one chapter.

The Crime Fiction Pick of the Month meme is hosted at Mysteries in Paradise. Bloggers link to summary posts for the month, and identify a favorite crime fiction read for the month.

Reading in March and Pick of the Month

These are the crime fiction books I read this month:

• Minute for Murder by Nicholas Blake
• Blind Goddess by Anne Holt
• The Looking Glass War by John le Carre
• Billion Dollar Brain by Len Deighton
• Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming
• Frozen Assets by Quentin Bates
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre

The good thing is I read seven books this month and I enjoyed all of them. The bad thing is I have done a post for only one of them. I am way behind on review posts.

This month was primarily a month of spy fiction. I had begun my project of reading all the Smiley books by John le Carre, and I read the fourth and the fifth novels in March. The Looking Glass War was grim but Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was wonderful.That got me in the mood for more spy fiction. I continued reading the Nameless Spy books by Len Deighton with Billion Dollar Brain and I read the 2nd James Bond book by Ian Fleming, Live and Let Die.

All of these spy thrillers have been adapted as films or TV shows. Shortly after I finished the book, we watched Billion Dollar Brain with Michael Caine. We have started watching the BBC TV mini-series, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, which we have seen before multiple times, but remember little about. After that, we will watched the film version with Gary Oldman for the first time. Live and Let Die with Roger Moore will be watched in the next week or two; I cannot say if I have ever seen it before. I prefer the Bond films with other actors as Bond. But I am sure it will be fun and worth watching.

Minute for Murder by Nicholas Blake was my book for the Crimes of the Century meme (hosted by Rich at Past Offences) for the year 1947. The year for April is 1945, and surprise, I picked a spy thriller.

The remaining two books were set in Nordic countries. In February I read What Is Mine by Anne Holt, a book which had been on my TBR pile for about nine years. That was the first book in Holt's Vik and Stubo series. (I have not reviewed that one either.) Anne Holt is Norwegian and her books are set in Oslo. I decided I wanted to go back and read her first novel, Blind Goddess, the first book in the Hanne Wilhelmsen series. I did not find it nearly as good as What Is Mine, but it was her first book, and I know that the Hanne Wilhelmsen series is very well thought of, so I will be reading more of both series.

I also read Frozen Assets by Quentin Bates, an author who was born in England but lived and worked in Iceland for many years. His Officer Gunnhildur series is set in and around Reykjavik. The best thing about this novel for me is the main character, who is a single mother with a teenage daughter and a grown son.

March was the third and final month in the TBR Triple Dog Dare. For three months I only read books from my TBR piles. I read a total of 20 books, although I don't know if I can truly count the three Rex Stout books in January. They are rereads but I always planned to reread them... again and again. The best part was that I did not buy any new books during those three months.

The Crime Fiction Pick of the Month meme is hosted at Mysteries in Paradise. Bloggers link to summary posts for the month, and identify a favorite crime fiction read for the month.

This month it is easy to pick a favorite: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre. It was everything I hoped it would be and more.

Reading Summary for February 2016

I read a wide variety of books this month but the total was not very high. Not that this is a competition but I do usually like to read at least five or six. I have lowered my goal at Goodreads this year to 52 (to make more room for reading short stories) so four or five a month is a good average, and I did meet that.

I did read one graphic novel, The Secret Service: Kingsman.

Summary at Goodreads:

A British secret agent feels guilty about never spending time with his deadbeat sister and takes his wayward nephew under his wing after he's arrested in the London riots. The boy is heading straight for a jail cell until his uncle steps in and tries to give him a new life, training him to be a gentleman spy.

It was an interesting concept, but there wasn't a lots of depth. I will be watching the movie adaptation and then reviewing them together.

Now for the four crime fiction books I read this month:

Web of Deceit by Katherine Howell

Although this is the sixth book in an eight book series, this is only the third book by Howell that I have read. I read the first two books, Frantic and The Darkest Hour. (I liked all three of them.)

From a post at Petrona:

In one sense, the books are police procedurals, as Detective Ella Marconi and her colleagues investigate the crime that forms the basic plot of the book. In another sense, the books are “slice of life” dramas about the city’s paramedics, given great authenticity by the fact that the author was a paramedic before she became a full-time writer.

Maxine also mentions the pacing in the books, which is the element that drew me in when I read the first book. And I forgot to mention that Howell is an Australian author and the book is set in Sydney.

13 at Dinner by Agatha Christie

13 at Dinner is the seventh novel featuring Hercule Poirot. It was first published in the UK in 1933 as Lord Edgware Dies. Poirot is approached by the well known actress, Jane Wilkinson, to mediate for her to convince her husband, Lord Edgware, to give her a divorce. She states very openly that things would be much better for her if he was dead. A couple of days later, Lord Edgware is murdered. The rest of the book has Scotland Yard Inspector Japp and Poirot following leads to discover the murderer.

This was not my favorite Agatha Christie book but it was still very entertaining. Hastings narrates the story and there are lots of interesting characters. My full review here.

What is Mine by Anne Holt

This is serial killer book about the abduction of children, not the kind of book I normally seek out. And, to tell the truth, I don't know if I knew the subject when I bought it (10 years ago).  But, even so, I liked the book a lot. I liked the way the story was told, and I liked the characters. The setting in Norway is also a plus. So this one was a winner for me.

What is Mine was the English language debut of Anne Holt, a Norwegian author, and the first book in the Vik and Stubo series. Several novels in the Hanne Wilhelmsen series were published prior to this one in Norway, and most of the books in both series have now been translated into English and published in the US and the UK.

Kissing the Gunner's Daughter by Ruth Rendell

This was Ruth Rendell's fifteenth Inspector Wexford book, and it has a very good reputation. Based on reviews I had read, I had very high expectations, and unfortunately was disappointed. Not to say that this was a bad book; we are talking about Ruth Rendell here. As usual, Ruth Rendell is a good storyteller and very adept at creating interesting characters. Except for the policemen, the characters were not very likable, but that is fine. My full review here.

The Crime Fiction Pick of the Month meme is hosted at Mysteries in Paradise. Bloggers link to summary posts for the month, and identify a crime fiction best read of the month.

My pick this month is What is Mine by Anne Holt. I will be reviewing it soonish, but for now you can check out Bernadette's review at Reactions to Reading and Rebecca's review at Ms. Wordopolis Reads.

Reading in January 2016

This has been another wonderful month of reading. It was a good mix, with some older books and a couple of newer books, some sci-fi, and some espionage fiction.

The Crime Fiction Pick of the Month meme is hosted at Mysteries in Paradise. Bloggers link to summary posts for the month, and identify a crime fiction best read of the month. 

These are the crime fiction books I read this month:

Blood Will Tell by George Bagby 

Black Orchids by Rex Stout
The Mountain Cat Murders by Rex Stout
Pashazade by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
Three Doors to Death by Rex Stout
A Red Death by Walter Mosley
A Murder of Quality by John le Carré
The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carré

Half of my reading this month was vintage mysteries, written in 1950 or before.

• Blood Will Tell (1950) is an Inspector Schmidt novel and George Bagby is the narrator of the novel and the author. George Bagby is a pseudonym used by Aaron Marc Stein, who also wrote mystery series under his own name and Hampton Stone. He wrote over 100 mysteries from the 1930s through the 1980s. I read many of the Inspector Schmidt novels in my younger years and it was fun to revisit this one.
• The rest were by Rex Stout and were all rereads.  The Mountain Cat Murders (1939) is one of Stout's non-Wolfe mysteries, has a female protagonist, and is set in Wyoming. Very different from the Nero Wolfe series and I enjoyed it very much. (Most Rex Stout fans are not as kind as I am to this novel.)
• Black Orchids (1942) collects two novellas, "Black Orchids" and "Cordially Invited to Meet Death." Both appeared in The American Magazine before being published in book format. These two stories are longer than most of Stout's novellas.
• Three Doors to Death (1950) contains three novellas: "Man Alive" (1947, 70 pages); "Omit Flowers" (1948, 70 pages); and "Door to Death" (1949, 55 pages). I remember all of them fondly, but in all cases I did not remember who did it, so they were especially fun reads.

I finally read the 2nd book in Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins series, A Red Death. Easy Rawlins, first met in Devil in a Blue Dress, is now a landlord, but masquerades as a handyman and lets his associate Mofass manage the apartment buildings for him. He also does "favors" for people, finding missing persons or solving minor crimes in his neighborhood. Easy is targeted by an IRS agent because he has not reported the income that led to purchase of the buildings. That leads to him becoming a spy for the FBI and from there things get very complicated.

I read two books by John le Carré, the second and third books he wrote. Both featured George Smiley, but in A Murder of Quality he functions as a detective in a setting unrelated to espionage.

In The Spy Who Came In from the Cold he is in the background and the spy of the title is Alec Leamas. We recently picked up the Criterion Blu-Ray edition of the film adaptation of The Spy Who Came In from the Cold with Richard Burton. I haven't ever seen the film and I want to watch it as soon as possible. Thus, I rushed to read the book before watching the movie. I loved the book but I found it depressing.

Last but not least is Pashazade. The story starts with the investigation of a murder, but the chapters skip back and forth in time, sometimes a few days, sometimes going back years in flashbacks. The setting in the present time is El Iskandryia, a North African metropolis in an alternative future where "the United States brokered a deal the ended World War I and the Ottoman Empire never collapsed," as described on the back of the book. So this is an alternative history, sci-fi, coming of age thriller, and just my cup of tea. This is the second book I have read by Jon Courtenay Grimwood, and it confirms what I discovered with the first one: I love the way he writes. I was alternately confused and delighted and sometimes had no idea where the story was going, but I loved the journey.



In truth, almost all of the books I read this month would be in contention for top read, but I will narrow it down to two. I ended the month with one of my favorites, The Spy Who Came In from the Cold. It is a shame I waited this long to read it, but on the other hand, it was well worth the wait and not a disappointment. The other favorite is Pashazade, and I was glad that it also lived up to my expectations.

Crime Fiction Reading in September

In September I read six crime fiction books. Five of those books were by authors I had read before; one book was the first novel by its author. All six were a pleasure to read. Thus, it was a very good reading month.

The books I read were:

From Bruges with Love by Pieter Aspe
King and Joker by Peter Dickinson
Ask for Me Tomorrow by Margaret Millar
The Con Man by Ed McBain
In Bitter Chill by Sarah Ward
Ghost Hero by S. J. Rozan


Amazingly, I have reviewed almost all of the books I read in the last month. (That means that there are several from August that still have not been reviewed.) The only book that I read in September and that I have not reviewed is Ghost Hero. That book is the latest in a series about two private detectives based in New York's Chinatown. As often happens (to me) in a series, this later book was not as much to my liking as the earlier ones, but many reviewers preferred it over previous entries. Review coming soon.

It is easy to decide on my Crime Fiction Pick of the Month for September. Although King and Joker is one of my all-time favorite books, I don't think the crime fiction element is the best part. Thus, I would choose In Bitter Chill by Sarah Ward as my Pick of the Month.

In Bitter Chill has everything I look for in a mystery novel. I love a good police procedural, but I want more than just an investigation. I was interested in the characters and they were believable. The reader sees the story from the investigator's viewpoint but also gets a picture of the lives of those affected by the crime. And the story is told without excessive violence. On top of all that, the writing pulled me into the story from beginning to end.

Here are a couple of reviews for In Bitter Chill that came out after I posted my review:

• Bernadette at Reactions to Reading
• Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise

The Crime Fiction Pick of the Month meme is hosted at Mysteries in Paradise. Bloggers link to summary posts for the month, and identify a crime fiction best read of the month. Check out the link here to see the other bloggers' picks.

Reading in July and Crime Fiction Pick of the Month

July was a very good reading month for me. The total was lower but the quality was very high. I  read a total of six books. My usual reading is crime fiction but this month I included a science fiction novel, Under the Dome by Stephen King. This was a huge book, over 1000 pages, but it was well worth the time I spent on it. Review to follow soon.

I also read a combination cookbook / memoir: Sacramental Magic In A Small-town Cafe: Recipes And Stories From Brother Juniper's Cafe by Peter Reinhart. I have had this book a long time, and I cannot remember when or why I bought it, nor why I took so long to read it. The author is very enthusiastic about the recipes developed at the cafe and expresses spirited opinions on the proper way to cook chili and barbecue dishes. I enjoyed it because it covered some of my favorite foods: chili (with beans), barbecue, and cole slaw. Peter and his wife were involved in this effort as part of a religious community, and he also talks about this spiritual element in his cooking and sharing food.

Moving on to the crime fiction books I read this month:

Concrete Angel by Patricia Abbott
Skeleton in the Grass by Robert Barnard
Don't Lose Her by Jonathon King
Die with Me by Elena Forbes

I enjoyed every book I read this month and they all had their strong points. But it is very easy to pick a favorite. Concrete Angel by Patricia Abbott was a great reading experience, and I am sure it will be on my list of best books I read in 2015.

This is the story of a mother and her daughter and their destructive relationship. The story is told mostly in first person by Christine, daughter of Eve Moran. She tells the story of her mother's mental illness and evil behavior, and her own life as a result of being manipulated by her mother for most of her childhood. The events are set in and around Philadelphia in the 1960s and 1970s. I have never been to the state of Pennsylvania, but I did live through those decades and the depiction of the time period seemed very authentic to me.

In the opening chapters, Eve kills a man and insists on treating it as an accident; and then proceeds to let Christine, at twelve years of age, take the blame. From that point on, Christine relates the background of Eve's problems, how her parents met and married, and how Eve's mental problems and behavior mold Christine's life. Thus this book has elements of crime fiction, but it is primarily a character study and the study of a very dysfunctional family.

The Crime Fiction Pick of the Month meme is hosted at Mysteries in Paradise. Bloggers link to summary posts for the month, and identify a crime fiction best read of the month. Check out the link here to see the other bloggers' picks.

Reading in June and Pick of the Month

In June, I read a total of nine books. My usual reading is crime fiction but this month I included a fantasy novel, The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin. I had never read anything by Le Guin, and I will be finishing the rest of the Earthsea Trilogy and looking for other books by this author.

I also read a non-fiction book covering an area I always enjoy reading about: grammar and words. The book is Woe is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English by Patricia T. O'Connor. I agree with other reviews, the subtitle is silly. The book is not written for grammarphobes, which would be those afraid of grammar. Reactions on Goodreads were mixed, but I found it enjoyable. I especially liked the sections dealing with similar words and which is correct to use in various situations. Words, spelling and grammar are not usually a problem for me, but I did learn things from this book. Two years ago I read Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language by the same author. That one was superior; it talked a lot about how word usage changes over time.

Crime fiction books I read this month:

Hope by Len Deighton
The Ways of the World by Robert Goddard
Death of a Ghost by Margery Allingham
Johnny Under Ground by Patricia Moyes
See Also Murder by Larry D. Sweazy
Susannah Screaming by Carolyn Weston
Peril at End House by Agatha Christie

It is hard to pick a favorite this month. There were no duds in the group, and several were very, very good. But I will go for a book by one of my favorite authors: Hope by Len Deighton. That book is the eighth in a nine book series about Bernard Samson. I have loved every book in the series.

The Crime Fiction Pick of the Month meme is hosted at Mysteries in Paradise. Bloggers link to summary posts for the month, and identify a crime fiction best read of the month. Check out the link here to see the other bloggers picks.

Reading in May and Pick of the Month

In May I read six books, five mystery novels and one book of short stories in the science fiction genre. My reading included three books written by Canadian authors, as I was working hard to complete thirteen books by Canadian authors before the end of the 8th Annual Canadian Book Challenge on June 30th, 2015.

The mystery novels I read in May are:

Ride the Pink Horse by Dorothy Hughes
Tainted by Ross Pennie
Partners in Crime by Agatha Christie
Trouble in Triplicate by Rex Stout
The Case of the Dotty Dowager by Cathy Ace

The book of sci fi short stories was Callahan's Crosstime Saloon by Spider Robinson. Robinson was born in the US but has lived in Canada since 1973 and has dual citizenship in Canada and the US. The other two books I read for the Canadian Book Challenge were Tainted, which I have reviewed, and The Case of the Dotty Dowager, which has been published in the UK but will not come out in the US and Canada until July 1, 2015.

My Pick of the Month is Rex Stout's Trouble in Triplicate. Trouble in Triplicate (1949) collected three of Rex Stout's novellas featuring Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin.  I found that all of these novellas were strong in plot and full of interesting characters. Each has some relationship to World War II, although only one of them takes place before the war ends. 

The Crime Fiction Pick of the Month meme is hosted at Mysteries in Paradise. See this month's post for links to other Picks of the Month.

Reading in April and Crime Fiction Pick of the Month

I finished the month of April having read more books than I expected. In the first 13 days of April, I finished only two books. In the remaining 17 days of the month, I finished an additional seven books. For a total of 9 books in April.

My usual reading is mysteries, but I did include one non-fiction book in that group: Your Flying Car Awaits: Robot Butlers, Lunar Vacations, and Other Dead-Wrong Predictions of the Twentieth Century. The subtitle of the book implies that it focuses on ridiculous predictions and how wacky they were. Many of the "failed" predictions were actually not so wacky. The author put the predictions in the context of the time and who was making the prediction, and where possible explained why the prediction did not pan out. It was an interesting and educational read.

These are the crime fiction books I read this month:

A Shilling for Candles by Josephine Tey

White Heat by M. J. McGrath

Wall of Eyes by Margaret Millar

Accounting for Murder by Emma Lathen

G is for Gumshoe by Sue Grafton

Where Memories Lie by Deborah Crombie

The Dark Side of the Road by Simon R. Green

Double Indemnity by James M. Cain

I enjoyed all of my mystery reads this month, and especially the ones from the Golden Age period. For my favorite book this month, I will pick A Shilling for Candles, the second mystery novel published by Josephine Tey, and the second book in the Inspector Grant series. I re-read this book for the Past Offences Crime Fiction of the Year Challenge for 1936 and I enjoyed it so much I want to re-read all of her mysteries. Inspector Grant is a wonderful character, but there is a secondary character in this mystery who is especially interesting. That is Erica Burgoyne, the seventeen-year-old daughter of the Chief Constable.

The Crime Fiction Pick of the Month meme is hosted at Mysteries in Paradise. See this month's post for links to other Picks of the Month.

Reading in March and Pick of the Month

In March I read nine books, eight mysteries and one non-mystery novel. My reading included three books written by Canadian authors, although only two of them were set in Canada. Another mystery (The Hanging Shed) was written by a Scottish author and set in Scotland after World War II.

The non-mystery was Life After Life by Kate Atkinson and that was a very lovely book. The edition I read was about 525 pages but I sped through it. 

Once again I have reviewed very few of the books I read this month. I am learning to live with this, because I don't think that situation will change anytime soon. 

The end of March ended my participation in the Double Dog Dare TBR Challenge hosted at James Reads Books. The goal was to read only from the TBR pile for those three months. My rules allowed me to read some ARCs that I had committed to in 2014. In January, February and March, I read a total of 20 books from my TBR piles. 

These are the mystery novels I read in March:

A Killing at Cotton Hill by Terry Shames
Officer Elvis by Gary Gurick
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
Cast a Yellow Shadow by Ross Thomas
Murder on Location by Howard Engel
The Hanging Shed by Gordon Ferris
The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny
Death Was the Other Woman by Linda L. Richards

It is easy to pick my favorite crime fiction read for the month.  It is The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett. I loved every word of it. I thought I would find it too hard boiled, and I think that is why I put off reading it for so long. I could have been biased by my love for the film adaptation (the 1941 version with Humphrey Bogart). 

Reading in February 2015 and Pick of the Month

I started out the year reading nine books in January. In February I slowed down and read six books. Somewhat intentionally, but partly because work is a bear and my mind needs to rest more at night. Two of the books were non-fiction and four were mystery novels.

Guide to Writing the Mystery Novel by Barbara Gregorich is described thusly at Goodreads: "For those contemplating writing a mystery novel and those who have written one or more but are looking for fresh and invigorating insights into the approach, Guide to Writing the Mystery Novel provides an overall view of how to think like a writer in general and a mystery writer in particular." I have no plans to write a mystery novel but I am interested in the process, so when the author asked me to review the book, I agreed. It was an enlightening read and enjoyable too. Review to come soon.

What Makes this Book So Great by Jo Walton was also enlightening and enjoyable, so it was a good reading month for non-fiction. I love books about books and I have enjoyed reading some of Jo Walton's books. This book gathers a selection of Walton's posts at Tor.com between July 2008 to February 2011. The majority of those posts are about re-reading fantasy novels. But there are some wonderful pieces included here about reading in general. A review will follow (sometime).

These are the mysteries I read this month. Only two of them have been reviewed here. I still have reviews from December and January to catch up on.

Dancing with the Virgins by Stephen Booth

Cookie's Case by Andy Siegel

Murder in the Raw by William Campbell Gault

Too Late to Die by Bill Crider

I had a difficult decision picking a favorite between Murder in the Raw (1955) and Too Late to Die (1986). The two books were written about 30 years apart but there are some parallels between them.

Both books feature male sleuths with few hangups and fairly normal lives. OK, Brock Callahan is a former professional football star and he is setting up as a PI in Beverly Hills, California, but still he is a decent guy trying to make an honest living. The authors do a great job of evoking a sense of place. Too Late to Die features Dan Rhodes, who is up for reelection to the job of Sheriff of Blacklin County, Texas. The action takes in several small towns in that area. Each book is the first in a series and I am eager to continue reading both series. So both of the books will share the honor of Pick of the Month.


The Crime Fiction Pick of the Month meme is hosted at Mysteries in Paradise. You can go HERE to see other posts and choices for favorite crime fiction reads.

Reading in January and Pick of the Month

January was a good reading month for me, both in numbers and in quality. I also started working on some of my goals for the year.

The 39 Steps was my book for the 1915 crime fiction of the year challenge (hosted at Past Offences). It also started me on the path to reading a book for every year between 1915 and 2015. Moira at Clothes in Books suggested this approach to the Books of the Century challenge, rather than starting at the beginning of the 20th century, which sounded much too challenging to me. The second book I read this year -- As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust -- was published in 2015. A nice start to the year.

Another goal was to get back to reading mysteries by Agatha Christie, and my first for this year was The Secret of Chimneys. This was the first time I had encountered Superintendent Battle. I read three books by Canadian authors, finally making a dent in my goal of reading 13 Canadian books between July 2014 and June 2015 for the 8th Annual Canadian Books Challenge. These books were: As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust, The Calling, and The Wandering Soul Murders.

I am currently participating in the TBR Double Dare Challenge at James Reads Books. In that challenge I am aiming to read only from my TBR mountain of books through the month of March 2015. I had no problem with this in 2014, and I found it very fulfilling. The only book I read this month that wasn't from my TBR pile was As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust, which was an ARC from NetGalley. That category was my exception but only if I had committed to the books before January 1, 2015. Unlocked and Lock In were both purchased late in December 2014, and I like to stick with books that have been in the piles longer than that. But that does fit the definition of the challenge and I was hot to read those books and I needed a Sci Fi book for the 2015 Sci-Fi Experience hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings, which ended January 31, 2015.



Oh my goodness, I almost forgot. I read two short stories, one by Roald Dahl and one by Ruth Rendell, for the Deal Me In 2015 short story challenge at Bibliophilopolis. I am very happy that I joined that challenge.

I also love reading mystery reference books. This month I finished Paperback Confidential: Crime Writers of the Paperback Era by Brian Ritt. I enjoyed this book and expect to refer back to it again and again. I plan to review this book, but just in case it takes me a long time to get to it, here is a description from the Stark House website:

132 profiles of the men and women who wrote the books that became the backbone of the Pulp and Paperback Era from the 1930s through the 1960s. Each profile contains details about the author's life and explores key works, with special attention paid to series characters. Also covered are screenplay and teleplay work, as well as movies based on the authors' stories. 

The books I read this month (with links to reviews):

The 39 Steps by John Buchan
As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley
Villain by Shuichi Yoshida
The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie
Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden’s Syndrome by John Scalzi
Lock In by John Scalzi
The Calling by Inger Ash Wolfe
Paperback Confidential: Crime Writers of the Paperback Era by Brian Ritt
The Wandering Soul Murders by Gail Bowen



The Crime Fiction Pick of the Month meme is hosted at Mysteries in Paradise. You can go HERE to see more summary posts for the month and choices for favorite crime fiction reads.

This month, it was easy to narrow it down to one novel as my favorite crime fiction read this month. That novel is Lock In by John Scalzi. This is a thriller set in the near future. I have liked other books by this author in the past, and he did not disappoint me this time. 

Books Read in December and Pick of the Month

December was a good month for reading but not so good for reviewing. Still have five books from this month left to review... and I do like to review all of the fiction I read.

Even though now it seems like 2014 and December are long gone, I also like to keep a record of what I have read in each month ... so here's my list for December:

December Heat by Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza
The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville
A Late Phoenix by Catherine Aird
Rest You Merry by Charlotte MacLeod
The Darkest Hour by Katherine Howell
Firecrest by Victor Canning
Holiday Homicide by Rufus King
Salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino
The Teleportation Accident by Ned Beauman

The Crime Fiction Pick of the Month meme is hosted at Mysteries in Paradise. You can go HERE to see other posts and choices for favorite crime fiction reads.

Most of the books I read last month were very good, so again it is hard to pick a favorite. I think I will split my choice between December Heat by Garcia-Roza and The Ghosts of Belfast by Neville. Both books were fairly dark, but they were different from most crime fiction I read and they are both set in locales I am unfamiliar with.