The Dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell
I’ve read three Henning Mankell books and each one has left me satisfied, like they are a step above the regular mystery read. I don’t know why I don’t do a deeper dive into his work. Dogs of Riga is another winner and it was inching towards a five-star rating before it fell apart in the last quarter. I’ll get to that. But let me begin by singing the praises of Henning Mankell. In this one, he has his main character spend most of his time […]
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
Nemesis by Agatha Christie
The ingenious website I Write Like has informed me on six separate occasions that my writing most resembles that of Agatha Christie, the best-selling author of all time, aside from Shakespeare and the Bible. Praise be! However, I have never read the First Lady of Mystery, as murders solved by someone other than Sherlock Holmes rarely appeal to me. Fortunately, on last week’s trip to the coast I came across Coalesce Bookstore, a shop packed to the rafters with volumes old and new. I left […]
Two can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus
I didn’t like the two leads (Malcolm and Ellery) and the whole book really showcases why a lot of true crime fans like Ellery suck. They don’t really care about the victims of a crime, they just want to play amateur sleuths and think they can find the guilty party. That said, there was not really anything suspenseful in this read. I was bored from beginning to end. Even though this is a Young Adult mystery novel, the actual mystery part should make sense and […]
Down the River Unto the Sea by Walter Mosley
This is the first Walter Mosley book I’ve read that didn’t feature his famed detective Easy Rawlins. I liked it, with some reservations. We’re introduced to Joe King Oliver, a former NYPD detective who was framed and now has to make a living as a PI, trawling the streets of New York. Mosley’s Oliver is similar to Rawlins: a man who has been wronged yet has faults of his own. Mosley is quite good at making one feel sympathetic to his male protagonists while also […]
The Final Country by James Crumley
This book inspired the title for the seventh episode of this season’s True Detective. When I finally finished Dave Halberstam’s wonderful-but-exhausting The Best and the Brightest, I decided to pick it up since it was the latest Crumley in my stack. And it might be my favorite. I’ve always liked the Milo books more than the Sughrue ones. There’s really no difference between the two characters; they’re both old, gruff alky war vets who function as ancillaries for the author. But for whatever reason, the three Milo books […]
I am Watching You by Teresa Driscoll
Sarah and Anna are best friends, excited to be done school, ready to blow off some steam in the city before they take their A Levels later that summer. Full of verve and vivacity, they catch the eye of Ella Longfield, a middle aged mom headed off to attend a florist’s convention. They also catch the eye of two handsome young men that seem very taken by the ladies, buying them beer, flirting and to the horror of Ella, sharing honestly that they had both […]
