What Fiction are you reading this week, May 23, 2021?

[hermetic]

Book crazy.



Troubled Blood, still, but the end is in sight! Next up, Greenwood by Michael Christie. A "generational saga that charts a family's rise and fall, its secrets and inherited crimes, and conflicted relationship with the source of its fortune -- trees." I am really crazy about trees.

Now listening to The Mangrove Coast written by Randy Wayne White in 1998. The last one, Sanibel Flats, was pretty good. There was lots of fun stuff about the Mayans in it. But, being from 1990 it definitely felt dated.

What books are you crazy about this week?

[Glorfindel]

1. I'm almost through with "The Guardians" by John Grisham

Typical Grisham fare, but it's eminently readable and holds one's interest. I'll probably read some classic science fiction next.

[hermetic]

4. That does sound good

The Guardian Ministries is a small nonprofit that accepts possible innocence cases and travels the country fighting wrongful convictions and taking on clients forgotten by the system. Noble work.

[efhmc]

2. Just finished The Splendid and the Vile,

Trevor Noah’s Born A Crime and now A Time for Mercy and Requiem for A Mezzo.

[hermetic]

7. A cozy: Requiem for A Mezzo

"In the third installment of her cozy mystery series, Carola Dunn charmingly recreates bohemian post World War I Chelsea, where the unconventional Daisy Dalrymple is up to her fashionable bob in temperamental artists--one of whom is a cunning killer..."

[efhmc]

9. I love these for nighty nighty audios at bedtime.

Forgot to add Magpie Murders. Not very impressed so far. Highly recommended and is now a PBS series?

[hermetic]

11. I love Anthony Horowitz novels

Good old "Atticus Pund." I think you might find that one gets better as you go along. I'm still on a waiting list for Moonflower Murders, his most recent. Looks like the PBS show won't come out until next year.

[efhmc]

24. Just realized that you were asking for fiction and two that I listed are NF.

The Splendid and the Vile and Born a Crime. Sorry.

[bahboo]

3. love RWW Doc Ford series...

especially the earlier ones. Like most series, they start to fall off a bit later, but till some good ones. Reading Parishioner by Walter Mosley. Really good so far...but dark...

[hermetic]

5. And I love Mosley

Great minds and all that. Right?

[MuseRider]

6. Finished listening to

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir LOVED it. The narrator was interesting and I likely would have read it entirely differently so, I would guess this is the way he wanted it? I do not know how all that works.

Re listening to Lisey's Story since the remake is coming out on Apple TV. I do not know if Apple TV ever shares with others so I may not see it but this new version is narrated by Mare Winningham and I like it.

[hermetic]

8. I want to listen to that one, too

Sounds like fun.

I don't know anything about Apple TV and I had never heard of Lisey's Story, but now I see it's a Stephen King novel. So, that would be worth a listen, as well.

[SheltieLover]

10. Still looking for new cozy series

:-/

[hermetic]

12. Carola Dunn?

We're just talking about her up above. She's got 80 some books out.

[hermetic]

20. How about Elly Griffiths?

14 Ruth Galloway Novels.

[TexLaProgressive]

13. "Prayer for the Dead" an Inspector Tony McLane mystery by James Oswald

Listening with Scottish voicing.

[hermetic]

15. Oh my

I really must find this series. :A search for a missing journalist uncovers the scene of a carefully staged murder. In a sealed chamber, deep in the heart of Gilmerton Cove, a mysterious network of caves and passages sprawling beneath Edinburgh, the body is discovered in a seemingly macabre ritual of purification."

I tell ya, I would give up the secrets of the kingdom in a heartbeat if someone asked me for them with a Scottish accent.

[TexLaProgressive]

29. I hope you can hry the audio book.

The only problem I have is the murderer speaks, the volume is low and a bit difficult.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

14. One Second Per Second by S. D. Unwind.

Interesting time-travel novel.

Also rereading On the Beach

For non-fiction I'm reading the biography of Eleanor Roosevelt by David Michaelis.

[hermetic]

16. Self-published?

Found only one reference to an ebook by Unwin on Usenet. Does sound good. "I thoroughly enjoyed it – a terrific Time romp that takes a hefty mallet to the Butterfly Theory and leaves it splattered in the road. Really good read."
- Rob Grant, creator of the Red Dwarf television series.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

18. Yes, it was independently published.

I tend to avoid such, but this one is pretty good so far. Doesn't have any egregious spelling errors, seems to have been properly edited. A lot will depend on how it ultimately ends. I've read far too much fiction, especially mysteries or supposed thrillers have have a decent starting premise, but then will be loaded with enormous plot flaws, factual errors, and stupid endings.

I'll try to remember to post how I like the ending.

[Polly Hennessey]

17. Just started, The Lantern Men by Elly Griffiths.

[hermetic]

19. Oooh, a ghosty story

Also listed as a cozy.

[The King of Prussia]

21. One of my favourite series

It's not really ghosty, though.

[hermetic]

23. The description I read says

the village is said to be haunted by the Lantern Men, mysterious figures holding lights that lure travelers to their deaths. Close enough.

[The King of Prussia]

27. Well I can't saay anything without spoiling it

[Polly Hennessey]

28. Ruth Galloway is a forensic archeologist teaching

at Cambridge. She is writing a book on Neolithic stone circles. Most of her work takes place in North Norfolk. She is often called upon to help when human bones are found. The Lantern Men are supposedly creatures who use strange lights to lure people to the marshes/bogs where they disappear. You could say they are historic attempts to try and explain lights that occur in the musty/misty bogs. The story is really about a serial killer, Ivor Marsh, who lures young women into his van and ...... well, you know the rest. The Lantern Men are an historical oddity of the region. The legend adds local color. The book and characters are compelling and interesting. Oh, and definitely not a Cozy mystery.

[The King of Prussia]

22. "Beast in View" by Margaret Millar

Really creepy. Margaret Millar doesn't get mentioned much these days, but she was a terrific thriller writer. No idea if she's still in print.

Quite a literary week. Went to the James Herriot museum. Very impressed with it. Plenty for the fans of the books and both TV series. Here is the great man's statue.


https://postimg.cc/hfGWN5Zr

[hermetic]

25. Nice. He has his pup in arms

Is that the museum there, behind? Thanks for the visual.

Millar, sadly, passed in '94 but a couple of her books have be republished since then. Some of the real old ones, from the 40s, might be harder to find now.

[The King of Prussia]

26. Yes. The statue is in the garden of "Skeldale House"