The Mystery, Crime, and Thriller Group discussion

Just finished The Woodwitch by Stephen Gregory. Mushrooms, impotence, and Wales.



https://www.valancourtbooks.com/the-w...

I just finished The Passenger by Daniel Hurst

An excellent book to spend a Sunday afternoon with. Here's my three star review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Murder at Mallowan Hall by Colleen Cambridge

Very cute and enjoyable English cozy about a murder at Agatha Christie's home. We are introduced to Phyllida Bright, the likeable housekeeper who is our stand-in for Jane or Hercule. Clearly this is the first of a series to come. A fun, easy-to-read mystery.

Patty wrote: "Just finished The Woodwitch by Stephen Gregory. Mushrooms, impotence, and Wales.



https://www.valancourtbooks.com/the-w..."

I haven't yet read that one, but I really loved his The Cormorant -- such a good book.

My review of The Complaints by Ian Rankin, the 1st Malcolm Fox mystery. Very entertaining. 4 stars

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Starting the first book in the Leithen series The Power-House by John Buchan

My review of The Maid by Nita Prose

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Christine wrote: "I finished my 8th book"

Good start for the year Christine. 🌞

Nancy, I guess I’ll be buying another book! Stephen Gregory is a new name to me, and as it is and always will be, I’ll need to buy all of his books.

Patty wrote: "Nancy, I guess I’ll be buying another book! Stephen Gregory is a new name to me, and as it is and always will be, I’ll need to buy all of his books."

I get it.

The Darkness Knows by Arnaldur Indriðason

In this first book in the 'Detective Konrad' series, the retired detective looks into a very cold case.

Good police procedural. 3.5 stars

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Butterfly Garden and listening to Teo Kinds Of Truth

The Wild Bunch: Gods, Guns and Gangs by John H. Sibley

Sibley postulates that violence may be an inherent characteristic of human beings, as shown in movies like Sam Peckinpah's 'The Wild Bunch.'

Interesting conjecture. 4 stars

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Laura

Read Beatle Wives: The Women the Men We Loved Fell in Love With
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I just finished listening to The Plea

A well done legal thriller. My four star review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I finished my 9th book

I’m currently reading We Were Liars. I know it’s not a mystery or thriller. I just wanted to take a break from this genre. But just a few days ago, I finished my first book for my reading goal. It’s called Girl, Taken by Blake Pierce (book #2 of FBI Ella Dark).

I am currently reading The Things They Carried. Stories about Vietnam from a soldier who survived it. Its honest and raw about the brutality and ugliness of the war and what those soldiers had to endure. It has hit me in the feels more than once. I hate politics even more after hearing how this young man almost ran to Canada because he didn't want to be drafted into fighting a war he didn't believe in. Most of them were only 17 or 18, their whole lives ahead of them. Only to be shot down or blown up. It's so brutal.

Finished by Ruth Ware. Really good! Never read a thriller in this setting before and it definitely has a tense and claustrophobic feel to it. Enjoyed the plottwist, the discovery of who-dunnit very much! Did not see that one coming!

4 stars

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Jackie wrote: "I am currently reading The Things They Carried. Stories about Vietnam from a soldier who survived it. Its honest and raw about the brutality and ugliness of the war and what those sol..."

One of the great story collections in which the stories work off each other so it's not quite a novel but still more than the sum of its parts, like Winesburg, Ohio or even The Martian Chronicles.

Not Vietnam related, but appropriate for the themes of this site, In the Lake of the Woods which is one of those books, for me, that seems better in memory than it did on first reading. I should reread. (Maybe someday.)

Nearly halfway through The Bat, and enjoying it

Jackie wrote: "I am currently reading The Things They Carried. Stories about Vietnam from a soldier who survived it. Its honest and raw about the brutality and ugliness of the war and what those sol..."

That is a great book. I also loved his Going After Cacciato, which I highly recommend.

Randy wrote: "Jackie wrote: "I am currently reading The Things They Carried. Stories about Vietnam from a soldier who survived it. Its honest and raw about the brutality and ugliness of the war and..."

Actually, in In the Lake of the Woods, the Vietnam War is central to the story.

So obviously I need to reread it. Anyway, I appreciated how O'Brien played with what's real and what's imagined, and the creepiness of it from someone who may or may not be a murderer.

Finished reading Darkness, Take My Hand

by Dennis Lehane

My Review

Read Mercy Street
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Finished Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Starting The Order by Daniel Silva

Such A Quiet Place

Finished the action packed Overwatch by Matthew Betley

SacredEvil

A Good Year
A little bit of horror fo r Christmas.

3 of five stars. Read my review below.



https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Sacred Evil

I enjoyed reading The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe and rate it a solid 4 stars. It is a revisionist history of the middle ages in Europe, sometimes called The Dark Ages. My review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
It was a GR giveaway.

The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont

In real life, author Agatha Christie 'vanished' for eleven days in December, 1926. This book is a fictional treatment of that incident, told by woman who stole Agatha's husband.

Good imaginative story. 3.5 stars

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I don’t know how I feel about this one yet.
The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante

Starting today Reading Behind Bars: A True Story of Literature, Law, and Life as a Prison Librarian by Jill Grunenwald

I finished the last of the Anna Pigeon series by Nevada Barr. I didn't read them in order, but that wasn't a problem. Good entertaining reading though

Finished reading Breaking Point

by C.J. Box

My Review

Started and finished The Embezzler (1940) by James M. Cain late yesterday. Have you ever picked up a book, made your way to page 12 and then realized you know exactly what's going to happen from that point on? That was this book.

I finished my 10th book

The Order by Daniel Silva

Read The Trees
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... and
starting Greenwich Park

Finished A Woman Made of Snow by Elisabeth Gifford

www.goodreads.com/review/show/4264946247

Finished The Bat, started Cockroaches

Christine wrote: "The Order by Daniel Silva
"

Silva writes good thrillers. 😃

Once again I stayed up well into the wee hours to finish reading Whisper by Chang Yu-Ko. Liked it, didn't love it but I will say it got my heart racing at times.

The Man That Got Away by Lynne Truss

Constable Twitten #2, probably best to read the series in order. This is the further adventures of the too-smart-for-his-own -good Constable Twitten in Brighton England in 1957 involving a wax museum, a night club, gold bricks and death by candy (I think taffy). Very cute, sort of English Keystone Kops, but I could never believe the characters were close to real people. 3 stars.

Finally, a believable psychological thriller. The Younger Wife

My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

My review of Butcher Pen Road by Kris Lackey

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...