The Mystery, Crime, and Thriller Group discussion

K.B. wrote: "Reading Falconer's Judgement and The Excursion Train. When these are done, I'll be reading The Pillars of the Earth."

Enjoy The Pillars of the Earth - an epic read (the TV mini series doesn't do it justice).

Colette wrote: Enjoy The Pillars of the..."

I plan to. I've heard such good things about it.

Reading The Distant Echo.

I have about 20 pages left in Dont Blink which Im really enjoying. I dont know whether to start Faithful Place by Tana French or The Cave by Jose Saramago next. Any suggestions?

Just started The Pillars of the Earth

Just finished Intensity & Collusion
For some reason I just cant get into Koontz. Neville on the other hand is a beast. Collusion is a great follow up to The Ghosts of Belfast.

Just finished The Bookman's Promise and quite enjoyed. Starting Dark Fire, by C.J. Sansom, a medieval mystery.

Bill wrote: "Just finished The Bookman's Promise and quite enjoyed. Starting Dark Fire, by C.J. Sansom, a medieval mystery."

Bill, you are in for a real treat with Dark Fire. The Shardlake series is wonderful.

K.B. wrote: "Bill wrote: "Just finished The Bookman's Promise and quite enjoyed. Starting Dark Fire, by C.J. Sansom, a medieval mystery."

Bill, you are in for a rea..."

I enjoyed Dissolution very much and this one has started off nicely.

Marjorie wrote: "I already mentioned that I am on a Scandinavian mystery kick.

Recently finished Jar City by Arnaldur Indriðason, also When the Devil Holds the Candle by..."

I see both books are mid-series. Is this important? Do you have to begin with the first?

I had to laugh at your "almost unrelievedly grim." remark. My colleague has enjoyed Stieg Larsson and I'm trying to recommend other Scandinavian thriller authors however she can be very sensitive to 'grim' so every recommendation I give her is accompanied with a warning!

Hi everyone!

I just finished Capital Betrayl by William Bernhardt. That was a great book I just could not put down. And I have since started on Hot Six by Janet Evanovich.

Finished Aristotle Detective. Pretty good... will continue the series. Am now reading a novella by Andrea Camilleri called Un filo di fumo (a Line of Smoke, as in the smoke from a steam ship seen on the horizon). I don't think it has been translated into English, however.

Reading A Traitor to Memory Hooked me right from the beginning - always an auspicious start.

Well I just finished writing which was a lot of fun. Right now I'm reading a couple Agatha Christie novels. I just love her writing.

Fred wrote: "I found a new series by Steven James (The Bowers Files) The books are about a Patrick Bower, who is an environmental criminologist who employs geospatial technology which explores the time and plac..."

I'm reading The Pawn now also Fred (after seeing it recommended by several people). I'm enjoying it so far.

I'm starting Charles Finch's newest, A Stranger in Mayfair.

Just finished Left To Die. It was a good book but it got kind of bogged down in wordiness in the middle of the book. Still I picked up the next 4 or 5 in the series as I am very curious to see where the author takes it. Hopefully this will become another one to get hooked onto.

Last night I finally got started on Don't Blink. I can't believe I have fallen behind on getting to a Patterson book. Although I have no fears I will be through it in no time since it has started off in a very interesting fashion and I am curious to see how he is going to bring the stories together.

Fell off the book wagon for about a month and it feels way too good to be climbing back on...Oh how I have missed my reading time!

I'm taking a one-book-break from mysteries...reading The Weekend: A Novel...and have a Donna Leon waiting in the wings, calling my name.

"My spelling is Wobbly. It's good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places,"
Winnie the Pooh

Just finished Bad Blood and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Both were very good. Now on to either Moonlight Mile or Two for the Dough

Patricia wrote: "Just finished Bad Blood and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Both were very good. Now on to either Moonlight Mile or [book:Two for the..."

I was going to read the Moonlight Mile for the group read, but I didn't find the sample captivating enough to pay $13 for the ebook.

Donna wrote: "K.B. wrote: "Donna, I'm anxious to hear what you think of the Stefanie Pintoff book. I really liked it."

So far I am really liking the description of the time and place but I am not too far into..."

Hi K.B. I finished In the Shadow of Gotham and I really enjoyed it. It kept me guessing until the end. The mystery was very good and the description of the early use of profiling and the study of criminal psychology in police work was very interesting. I believe this is the beginning of a series and I look forward to the next one.

Enjoyed Hakan Nesser's "Woman With Birthmark" because of the neat use of an old pop gem and because the lead character isn't a gotta-save-the-world-tonight kind of detective. He keeps things in perspective. Posted some more thoughts here:

http://markhstevens.wordpress.com/

Woman with a Birthmark

Donna, it is the first in a series. Book 2 is A Curtain Falls. I enjoyed them both very much. Some aspects of the first book were better than the second and vice versa. There's a third one coming out next year. I can hardly wait.

K.B. wrote: "Donna, it is the first in a series. Book 2 is A Curtain Falls. I enjoyed them both very much. Some aspects of the first book were better than the second and vice versa. There's a thi..."

I read In the Shadow of Gotham for my in person book group next week and I am looking forward to hearing what everyone else thought.

Monica wrote: "I'm taking a one-book-break from mysteries...reading The Weekend: A Novel...and have a Donna Leon waiting in the wings, calling my name.

"My spelling is Wobbly. It's good spelling b..."

oooo, what Donna Leon is waiting impatiently to be read??

I finished
last night; and now have to choose my next one. Not sure yet what that will be, will choose at lunch break today.

Murder on a Bad Hair Day by Anne George and The Snowman by Jo Nesbo.
Both authors I haven't read before.The Snowman

Reading The Fifth Woman.

Well, I started today.

Thought I would try some light reading before I delve into another mystery / murder / thriller.

Rita wrote: "
Murder on a Bad Hair Day by Anne George and The Snowman by Jo Nesbo.
Both authors I haven't read before.The Snowman"

I love Anne Geroge's books. The characters are so much fun.

Lobstergirl wrote: "Reading The Fifth Woman."

I watched the Masterpiece Mystery version of that recently. I'm curious to know how well it compares to the book.

Bill wrote: "Monica wrote: "I'm taking a one-book-break from mysteries...reading The Weekend: A Novel...and have a Donna Leon waiting in the wings, calling my name.

"My spelling is Wobbly. It'..."

Bill, the awaiting Donna Leon is Friends in High Places. I'm the obsessive type and have to read all my series in order.

Monica wrote: "Bill wrote: "Monica wrote: "I'm taking a one-book-break from mysteries...reading The Weekend: A Novel...and have a Donna Leon waiting in the wings, calling my name.

"My spelling is ..."

I haven't read that one yet, Monica. I'm sure you'll enjoy though. Since you're that far along in the series, I'm sure you enjoy Donna Leon as much as I do..

K.B. wrote: "Lobstergirl wrote: "Reading The Fifth Woman."

I watched the Masterpiece Mystery version of that recently. I'm curious to know how well it compares to the book."

The book is better. I watched it as well and thought the MM version was awful.

Finished Alex Kava's Damaged and started Chuck Palahniuk's Haunted.


(Geeze...misspelled the last name and got the book title incorrect....teach me to type before coffee!)

T, was Damaged good? I don't think I've heard of that book. I just love hi books. Is this one as good as his others?

Karen: Damaged wasn't bad, but I just felt kind of let down at the ending....Florida, hurricane, Coast Guard, mysterious deaths.....I'm thinking Alex (it's a female) might have a new character to spin off or include more often, too....

As for Palahniuk, this is the first of his that I've read....did not realize he's from the Pacific Northwest. Brother disliked this book ("Haunted") and put it down....I haven't gotten far enough into it, but I'm not hating it and will most likely finish it.

(Now I have to go back and correct the misspelling of his name above - sorry!)

Kari wrote: "I finally finished Woman in White. I really liked this book but I found myself putting it down and reading other books. I think it was partly because I knew the ending."

A little long and somewhat repetitive, but I think it's the nature of a story published in episodes. I liked this one, but The Moonstone is even better. Have you read that one, Kari?

Barbara wrote: "Rita wrote: "
Murder on a Bad Hair Day by Anne George

I've finished it but haven't done my review yet. I really enjoyed it & will see if I can get some more by that author.

Started The Glass of Time last night. Big mistake. Now I want to keep reading rather than get to work. I've run across a few typos and think that Cox must have cringed when he saw them, because the writing is very good.

I just finished The Pawn by Steven James. It's not my favorite kind of book (being about a serial killer) but the plot was satisfyingly intricate and the book was well written.

I am currently reading Michael Crichton's The Lost World. It is so far pretty good, I guess not much action right away, but I guess when you're spoiled with frightening movies, the books seem tame, haha.

I've just finished Frederic Brown's Here Comes a Candle, an old noirish novel with a strange twist! I'm currently reading Agatha Christie's The Pale Horse -- it's so good to revisit these old books every now and then.

Agatha Christie has a place in late autumn/early winter; even those whodunnits set in summer read better when curled up against the chill.

I'm into an Anne Perry's Monk mystery in the form of Dark Assassin.

Sadly I live in Florida and we don't get much winter chill! Maybe I should take a stack of Agatha Christie novels to Seattle when I go for Christmas!

Nancy - you missed a big windstorm up here in the PNW yesterday - a good mystery to read by flashlight would be good, we're supposed to have a horrible winter!

I just got home from Seattle last Friday. I'm happy I missed that! My favorite reading time in Fl is during a thunderstorm -- and that's when I bring out the UK crime fiction. Fog would be a cool effect!

Could get snowed in here, this year...you know how we Seattleites can't handle snow in the city....tho we are supposed to have a vastly improved snow plan in place this year....

T wrote: "Could get snowed in here, this year...you know how we Seattleites can't handle snow in the city....tho we are supposed to have a vastly improved snow plan in place this year...."

I wonder what we would do here in South Florida if we had a snow flurry. The only time we see snow is when they make the artificial kind, or truck in the real stuff, for the winter holiday events. That's what I miss most of all living here. I miss winter. I miss cold weather. And I miss new snow and the incredible hush and sense of peace it brings with it. But I don't miss the gray slushy mess that it turns into!

One winter in Chicago would get that out of your system real fast. Lol.

T-- I was in the PNW the year they had the weird snowstorm. -- maybe 2 years ago? I was in Redmond and you couldn't drive anywhere. I got a lot of reading done.

KB: I agree. Rain paralyzes a lot of people here, so I can imagine what snow would do. I also love cold weather -- a rare commodity here in FL. Have we hijacked the thread???