Mystery/Thriller Reading Friends discussion

Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree. I love the Legends & Lattes series and I highly recommend it for anybody who wants to read a nice cozy fantasy with no major stakes.

System Collapse by Martha Wells. Another fine entry in The Murderbot Diaries. Like L&L, this is another series I adore.

New Hope for the Dead by Charles Willeford. I'm only two books into the Hoke Moseley series and it's completely justified my doling out money every month for Audible.

New Hope is a bit odd because while it's a police procedural, solving crimes wasn't the chief focus of the plot. Instead, the multiple plot threads focused on Hoke's private life and his relationships. First, he has to find a new place to live since the Miami PD (in the story at least) requires their entire force to live in Miami. Hoke lives in a hotel in Miami Beach, which apparently is a separate city from Miami itself. Second, he has to deal with a sudden return to fatherhood after his wife dumps their daughters on his lap before moving to California. And finally, he has to help his new partner, Ellita Sanchez navigate major changes in her own life as well.

Aside from that, he, Ellita, and his old partner are assigned to try and solve some cold cases so their boss can get a promotion, while at the same time Hoke tries to solve the OD/possible murder of a junkie.

The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older. Read as the November pick for the Sword & Laser book club. It's an odd SF novella set in a future where the human race has been forced to abandon the Earth due to ecological destruction and now lives on a series of platforms ringing Jupiter. The plot revolves Mossa, an police inspector, enlisting the aid of her ex-girlfriend and university professor, Pleiti, to solve the mysterious disappears/possible death of one of her colleagues.

It took me a long while to get into this and despite being only 169 pages, it took me almost the entire month of November to finish it. The story itself was fine, but the "science" and locale were impediments. Basically, nothing about how humans are able to live on the platforms was explained and the reader just had to accept it. The pseudo-Victorian aesthetic was interesting, though.

Good looking month Jason, I also was thrilled to read the new Murderbot this month (System Collapse) and am eagerly awaiting the next book. I was happy to use an audible credit for it. :)
Your description of the Hoke Mosely series has me intrigued so New Hope for the Dead is on my tbr now - thank you!
And you are to be commended for sticking with the book club novella that took the entire month to read.
I was presented with the suggestion of Bookshops & Bonedust somewhere online, I think the audible home page and initially rejected it because of the cover. At your recommendation I will give it a try - thanks! (and for reminding me to check descriptions as well as look at the covers)

I too was intrigued by your description of the Hoke Mosely series. I'm going to look around for the first in the series, Miami Blues.

--edit. While poking around on the library website I saw that this was made into a movie starring a very young Alec Baldwin. I wonder if I saw it, I was a big fan of his back in the day.