The Savage Detectives by Robert Bolaño
The Savage Detectives is a lot. Being my second Bolaño doorstopper of the year, I assumed I knew what I was in for. I was way off. This was a far more challenging read than 2666. It had its rewards and I’m glad I stuck with it. But I needed to take a break halfway through, at the risk of putting it aside for good. I’m glad I did because the plot is not the most important thing going on here. This can possibly be considered a […]
In The Presence of the Enemy by Elizabeth George
Not too much to say except how much I loved this one. George focuses not on Lynley in this one, but also Havers for a good portion. We have a shocking crime and a reveal that I didn’t see coming. There is some poor Deborah stuff going on, but it’s not all encompassing like it has been in the last few books. “In the Presence of the Enemy” follows a tabloid journalist (Dennis Luxford) who is told that unless he prints the truth about his […]
A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
CBR11bingo: Classics Have you ever gotten super into a television show in its second or third season, so you went back to watch it from the beginning so you could see what you missed, and then realized, “Huh. If I’d actually tried watching this from the pilot episode, I might not have been so interested”? (I’m looking at you, X-Files.) A Study in Scarlet is sort of like that. Few works of literary fiction have spawned as many retellings, homages, and–dare I say–fantasies (and now […]
The Scandal at Bletchley: A Hilary Manningham-Butler Mystery (#1) by Jack Treby
Cbr11bingo Summer Read The Scandal at Bletchley * is the first in what promises to be a fun mystery series featuring an unorthodox detective. Sir Hilary Manningham-Butler is a former employee of Britain’s spy agency, MI5, now married conveniently if not happily to the daughter of a wealthy industrialist. In October of 1929, as the world’s stock markets are on the verge of collapse, so is Hilary’s life. It is discovered at a weekend reunion of some MI5 veterans at Bletchley Park that a murderer is […]
Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand
Who knew the world of photojournalism was so fraught with peril!? This book sucked me in, which I did not expect at all. I saw this on a list of suggested books for Veronica Mars fans, perhaps because both protagonists are cynical, blonde women? But while Veronica has her issues, she has nothing on Cass Neary. I don’t know really how to describe this. Yes it is a murder mystery but it’s really more of a thriller, involving a washed up, drug addled photographer sent from Manhattan […]
A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
I read this for the first time a few years back*, in between books of “The Men who Hate Women”. Also, oddly enough, I finished it while we were on our way to This is the Place. (Please don’t ask me to explain This is the Place. You either know or you don’t: suffice to say that there is a tie-in to A Study in Scarlet, however loose).
