Current Non-Genre Reading III

[Randy M.]

In the Woods by Tana French

This is one of the most complex mysteries I've read in years, and a first novel, at that. Yet French's writing is fluid and engaging, time and again offering insight into place and characters that the first-person narrator sometimes seems unaware of. It's a deft and successful tight-rope walk.

Detectives Rob Ryan (our narrator) and Cassie Maddox, partners in the Dublin Murder Squad for a few years, take a case in Knocknaree, where Katy Devlin has been murdered; Devlin was a young girl and an aspiring ballerina who was becoming the pride of Knocknaree. Unfortunately, Knocknaree has troubling memories for Ryan, who grew up there: As a 12-year-old, he and two friends had gone to play in the neighboring woods and several days later he was the only one to be found, his sneakers drenched in blood, his T-shirt torn, and him in deep shock. His friends were never found.

Throughout the novel Ryan's experience and how he built his current persona after losing memory of his first 12 years, colors his perceptions and behavior. But the real meat of the novel is the portrayal of Cassie Maddox and their partnership as he becomes a sort of inadvertent Watson.

As the novel goes on, we see subtle hints of the supernatural, many believable characters including the parents, and a group of archeologists desperately at work on land on the edge of Knocknaree as a motorway is scheduled to pass through the land within a month. If you're in the mood for a dark story well told, I'd recommend this one.

 

[Westy]

Read Lethal Prey, #35 in the Lucas Davenport crime series by John Sandford.

A gruesome unsolved murder from over 20 years ago is resurrected when the sister offers a $5m reward. A good read on the whole, with occasional funny one liners from Lucas and Virgil, and the momentum effectively builds as they get closer and closer to the killer (revealed to the reader early in the book).

But the ending (if you could call it that) was pretty bad; no closure and very open ended; surprising. Many other reviewers thought so too. Anyway will read the next one as they're still always decent reads on the whole.

 

[blailock]

Read Lethal Prey, #35 in the Lucas Davenport crime series by John Sandford.

A gruesome unsolved murder from over 20 years ago is resurrected when the sister offers a $5m reward. A good read on the whole, with occasional funny one liners from Lucas and Virgil, and the momentum effectively builds as they get closer and closer to the killer (revealed to the reader early in the book).

But the ending (if you could call it that) was pretty bad; no closure and very open ended; surprising. Many other reviewers thought so too. Anyway will read the next one as they're still always decent reads on the whole.

I've got a lot of catching up to do. I've only read 9 of them.

 

[Westy]

I've got a lot of catching up to do. I've only read 9 of them.

Actually I've only read 3 - started in at 33!!

 

[suciul]

Finished Betrayal in Berlin by M Shew - opened it by chance and it took over my reading; excellent historical fiction; my Goodreads review:

Quite an entertaining novel written in a somewhat detached tone which nonetheless makes one keep turning the pages.

John Samson is working on his nuclear physics advanced degree in the mid 1920's when he gets an offer to continue his research at a prestigious Institute in Berlin which he accepts despite some misgivings about how he would be perceived as an Englishman in Germany not long after WW1 and its devastating aftermath for Germany. Approached by an intelligence officer, he reluctantly agrees to collaborate with the English embassy spies in Berlin and keep them abreast of any nuclear physics advances developed at the Institute that can be used for military purposes.

By chance, he meets an independent German girl of Jewish descent with whom he starts a passionate affair, while witnessing the beginnings of the rise of the Nazis and their attacks on Jewish people.

Unfortunately, his research is not going well and when more to assuage his ego and feel he is doing something useful after all, he volunteers to his British spymasters to follow a lead on some papers that were pulled from circulation, he gets into trouble, so the title of the novel...

Although his life and career seem to spin out of control, his experience in the new physics and some grudging help from the intelligence office lands him a career in an industry that is just at the beginning - aeronautics and radar and he restarts his life in England, steadily advancing during the next decade, while having ups and downs in his personal life...

And so it goes and we follow John in his life and career encompassing some of the more dramatic moments of the first half of the century....

Very good stuff - not really a thriller or a spy novel, more the chronicle of the life of someone who is involved on the "frontlines" of the tumultuous two decades 1925-1945.

 

[Randy M.]

Finished The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. Anyone with a liking for "Golden Age" British mysteries (mostly from between the world wars) would find this of interest. Taking the template of those mysteries, Osman fashions his slow reveals of the secrets surrounding multiple murders. Of equal interest to the murders, are the sleuths who are residents of Cooper's Chase, a retirement village. Ron is a former labor leader, Ibrahim a psychiatrist, Joyce a nurse, and Elizabeth, their leader, a former intelligence operative. These four are energized by the adventure of having someone murdered so close to them and feeling the police will not be adequate to the challenge, but Osman pulls off the neat trick of never letting us forget the current trajectory of their lives, the friends they've lost, the need for each other in order to feel alive.

On the whole, an enjoyable first novel.

 

[Ropie]

I'm off on holiday / new life adventure next week, and scanning my shelves for something to take on the plane I immediately went for one of the Iain Banks I have yet to read: The Steep Approach to Garbdale. Looking forward to starting this one

 

[kennychaffin]

The latest
Best Microfiction 2025 is out

Both in ebook and print…no kindle ebook though.

 

[Raf]

Finished "Byzantium" by Stephen Lawhead.

Aiden mac Cainnech is a young naive monk in an Irish monastery on the very fringes of Christendom. Chosen to be one of 13 monks to carry an expensive hand-scribed / illuminated manuscript to be delivered to the Emperor of Byzantium. The sole head of Christianity at that time. Before the ascendancy of Rome.

Along the way, young Aiden will become a slave, a Viking, an interpreter, a spy, again a slave, then an Ambassador to Kings and friend of the high court of the Saracens. Then finally a monk and eventually an Abbot to the first Christian churches in Denmark.

Really good historical fiction tale by an author more known for his fantasy offerings. He has another one along this line of history called "Patrick: Son of Ireland" that I'll get around to eventually.

 

[Ropie]

Finished The Steep Approach to Garbadale by Iain Banks. Very Banksian - a large and slightly dysfunctional family based in the Highlands of Scotland, with an old family business and some rather unpleasant buried family secrets. I found this one a bit dull at times because there's a lot of discussion about business takeovers and acquisitions, which is not generally an area of interest for me, but mixed in are some very nice character studies and a fairly poignant love story at the core. I enjoyed a lot of it but skimmed through quite a few pages too.

 

[faridjafarlee]

Guys, I'm new author in English language section let's say. I've just published my books in Amazon.

The New Renaissance: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FH525PBW
The Ninth Circle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FHMRBKBJ
Swamp of Phrases: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FHJ5FK6G
Ash of Pactarium: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FHGX74XG

All from science fiction category.
They'll be free some time, please read, and leave your reviews. Thanks a lot in advance !

 

[kennychaffin]

Guys, I'm new author in English language section let's say. I've just published my books in Amazon.

The New Renaissance: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FH525PBW
The Ninth Circle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FHMRBKBJ
Swamp of Phrases: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FHJ5FK6G
Ash of Pactarium: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FHGX74XG

All from science fiction category.
They'll be free some time, please read, and leave your reviews. Thanks a lot in advance !

This should be in the promotions section I think...

 

[Westy]

Read a couple of spy thrillers, Liar's Game by Jack Beaumont and An Inside Job by Daniel Silva.

Liar's Game is the third book from the ex secret service agent, and this one's a return to form (the second book wasn't as good). Intricately plotted and with extensive descriptions of tradecraft, it really kicks off when Alec de Payns' is disavowed and is on the run.

An Inside Job is the 25th Gabriel Allon book and it does show - a bit formulaic, plot elements and dialogue rehashed, not a lot of spark. Still readable though, and some of the detail on Leonardo's painting was interesting, but it's in stark contrast to the detail and pacing of Liar's Game.

 

[suciul]

Finished Allied Flames (The Knocknashee Story 6) by Jean Grainger (she is a master storyteller of Irish based historical fiction and I highly recommend pretty much all her series - depnding on what you are in the mood for as she has WW1, WW2, more contemporary stuff, the 50-60's, the wars of Ireland independence in the 20's... - I definitely plan to go to Ireland at some point and visit some of the paces in her novels ) and it was just awesome - opened it and just couldn't put it down until I finished it and it jumped to #2 for the year for now (though I expect Strength of the Few and Shadows Upon Time to be 2-3 by end year)

I may have talked about earlier installments, but the gist of the story is that Grace, a young polio stricken - though getting better as the series goes by with new treatments - Irish girl from the middle of nowhere on the Atlantic coast, serving as a substitute teacher at the local school under her fanatical (and nasty) older sister, writes a letter to St Jude to express her sorrows and throws it in a bottle into the ocean and somehow several months later it reaches the coast of Georgia and is discovered by Richard, a scion of a wealthy aristocratic family of the South who wants to be a writer and not a banker. They start writing to one another but fate (and then the war - although both US and Ireland are neutral in 1939) - keeps them from meeting for a while, though eventually Richard gets his wish and becomes a war correspondent and participates in the events of the fall of France, the Blitz, the fall of Singapore etc. After many tribulations when they finally get engaged, Richard is shot down over France where he was going as an embedded journalist with the Allied bombers and everyone thinks he is dead, though he actually parachutes himself and survives wounded and then later as a POW... And so it goes...

My Goodreads review:

Outstanding and the best in the series to date; twists, action, backstory - in one of the cool touches of the novel, Richard gets to meet Allen Dulles even if only tangentially, though recognizing the "better obey this guy or else" nature of the US chief spy in Switzerland at the time...

Opened it and just couldn't put it down until I finished it - superb ending also, and the series could have definitely ended there as the author planned before she decided to do a seventh book, which hopefully will do justice to this wonderful and uplifting series.

Highly recommended novel and series which has everything one wants in historical fiction - great characters, action, events, settings around the globe, romance and so much more

 

[Westy]

The Rush by Beth Lewis – set during the gold mining boom of the late 1800’s in Canada, it follows the story of three different women and how they come together to face adversity.

Very well written and it vividly portrays the male-dominated, hard life in a mining town, but also the strength the women need to get through the challenges faced. A good read.

 

[Ubergeek]

THE CARETAKER Ron Rush

This was my book group October selection .

A wife awaits the return of her husband from the Korean War but things don't quite pan out in the way we might expect .

A beautifully written short novel ( 250 pp )

It carries any emotional heft with well drawn characters and deals with themes of love , loneliness , PTSD , bigotry and how far people will go to uphold their skewed values .

Think I'll explore more of Ron's books .

Recommended .

 

[Randy M.]

The Red Right Hand by Joel Townsley Rogers (my GoodReads review)

This might be the best 1940's mystery I've read not written by Raymond Chandler. Dr. Riddle, driving back to N. Y. City from a failed surgery upstate, ends up on a side-road where his borrowed car stalls at the fork from the road onto an overgrown path. Later he finds at the time he was stalled and trying to restart the car, a madman is supposed to have driven at excessive speed past him with a man in his passenger seat who looks to be dead. And yet Dr. Riddle never saw the car or either man.

The doctor becomes part of the investigation and the narrator of this book as he tries to put the pieces together, to assure himself he hasn't had a fugue or is not insane and also to figure out who the madman is who has killed at least three people while the doctor has been there. And to do so before the killer finds him and the young woman whose fiance is the presumed dead man in the car. And, when a corpse is found, why is he missing his right hand?

The narrator's tone is one of a shaken man feeling desperate, and at times the story is nearly stream-of-consciousness, but never so much so it becomes difficult to follow. As expected, the culture was different then, so some attitudes may rankle current readers. But if you can get past that, this is a tense read with a somewhat convoluted, but surprisingly plausible conclusion.

(An aside: Not a bad read for Halloween.)

 

[Randy M.]

(most recent reissue)

Just finished The Fallen Sparrow by Dorothy B. Hughes. Young, idealistic American Kit McKittridge went to Spain to fight in the Spanish Civil War. He was captured and tortured (not closely described) for knowledge he had, but he managed to escape with his secret, a secret a certain little man in Berlin wants to know. Older in spirit, less idealistic, Kit is back in N.Y. City, looking to find whoever murdered his friend, the man who helped him escape. He’s certain it has something to do with his secret.

Published in 1942, and dedicated to Lieutenant Eric Ambler who, according to Hughes, wouldn't have a book coming out that year, it's a hard-boiled spy/mystery story. I've read Hughes' In a Lonely Place and Dread Journey. She wasn't as stylish as Raymond Chandler, but she was a good writer at the sentence level, and probably better than Chandler, except at his very best, on the level of story -- Lonely has become recognized as a classic of noir. Being a novel from the 1940s, it’s not surprising that the protagonist is male. Two narrative decisions are striking, though: First, Kit was broken by torture and fear, but has recovered somewhat. Throughout the novel, he flounders and miscalculates the behavior of others, sometimes seems on the edge of hysteria (I recall a critic mentioning that Chandler's Philip Marlowe often seems on the edge of hysteria; Kit certainly is), but keeps plowing forward. Second, Hughes weaves three young women around Kit, a narrative tactic which would be worth studying for beginning writers. Each woman has her secrets, may be duplicitous or innocent, calculating or lightweight, but each determines Kit’s actions or adds to his understanding of his situation at key points in the narrative.

Hughes packs a fair amount into a book that's 200 pages in old mass market pb format. The interactions between Kit and the women, and several other characters, are sharp and precise. There are a couple of phrases that are racist yet in a context that doesn't feel especially insulting. (And I know that sounds odd, but the character being described isn't demeaned by Kit or the other characters.)

My second '40 thriller/mystery in a month, both books I've owned for decades (this one was a reissue in 1979, and I recall buying it new) and which I wish I'd read decades ago.

 

[Randy M.]

I'm on a run of old mysteries. I just finished rereading The Nine Mile Walk, a collection of mystery stories by Harry Kemelman who, if remembered at all, is as the author of the best-seller, Friday the Rabbi Slept Late. Nine Mile contains the title story and seven others, all featuring Professor Nicky Welt, an English professor at a New England school. Kemelman does a nice job of suggesting what a university town is like, while giving Welt a variety of crimes to solve, usually by drawing conclusions from what he's told by his friend, the county district attorney, our narrator. Even when the paperback was published (1967; cost me a whopping $0.75), this type of puzzle story was fading away, the thought that society or life could be orderly enough for such detecting to work losing its grip on readers' imagination. I've found all of these stories entertaining, but the first, the title story, is striking: Welt says he can draw inferences from any sentence of a length of 10 or 12 or more words. His friend provides one, and the logical progression of Welt's inferences makes for engaging reading. Wikipedia has a link to the story in it's article on Kemelman, for anyone interested.

 

[Ropie]

We should rename this thread which mystery book are you currently reading?

Me, I found an old copy of Martin Amis's The Rachel Papers and picked it up (honestly nothing to do with the cover..) I saw the film decades ago and remember liking it. Typical Amis so far - it's brash, brittle and very British.