Head On by John Scalzi
Started: 10/12/19
Finished: 10/21/19
Sequel to Lock In, same issues with dialogue, but otherwise a good story and a good book.
mystery
Lock In by John Scalzi
Started: 10/2/19
Finished: 10/9/19
I like John Scalzi’s books. I haven’t read them all, but I’ve read most of them, and I’ve really liked the vast majority. They’re not perfect – the problem I run into is that all of the characters sound the same way. The dialogue, while on the one hand can be pretty realistic, is basically the same book to book. It feels like every character is a stand-in for the author – smart, an essentially good person, heavy on the snark. HEAVY on the snark. It’s amusing, and his stories are all good, entertaining, fast-paced. I like that his characters tend to have healthy and happy family relationships (it’s a nice change from all the death and orphans and drama I get in nearly everything else I read), but they all talk the same.
So I get stuck on that sometimes.
Dressed for Death by Donna Leon
Started: 5/25/19
Finished: 6/1/19
Commissario Brunetti series book 3. I think I see what Jo Walton meant when she said this series was about integrity. Brunetti solves the mystery, but the ultimate bad guy doesn’t get punished (or not for the right thing). If there’s a larger character arc, I wonder if Brunetti will go through a depression.
Death in a Strange Country by Donna Leon
Started: 5/19/19
Finished: 5/24/19
Book 2 of the Brunetti mysteries. Like the first one, the mystery gets solved, but the resolution isn’t entirely satisfying, for me or for our detective. I think I like that.
Tragedy at Law by Cyril Hare
Started: 4/30/19
Finished: 5/4/19
I went back and read the first of the Francis Pettigrew mysteries. If I had read this one first, I wouldn’t be interested in reading any more. First of all, Pettigrew is barely in it. Certainly not a main character. Second, the murder happens in the last 10% of the book. No exaggeration. And one of the suspects only got introduced a chapter ahead of it. I MIGHT try the third one before I decide about the series, but I’m not in a hurry.
With a Bare Bodkin by Cyril Hare
Started: 4/26/19
Finished: 4/29/19
Because Jo Walton liked it, I gave it a try. This is the second of the Francis Pettigrew mysteries, set in England in early WWII. Pettigrew is a lawyer, everyone is pretty isolated, and the murder doesn’t actually occur until the second half of the book. Entertaining, but odd.
Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys
Started: 4/19/19
Finished: 4/24/19
I was hesitant to start this one because I kept getting hung up on the Lovecraftian parts of the book reviews, and the whole unknowable-horror-tentacled-monster thing is what keeps me away from Lovecraft. The other parts of the book reviews (the solid writing, flipping Lovecraft’s whole bigotry thing, the found family theme) are why I read it anyway. Final thoughts: good story, good characters, hardly any tentacles.
Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon
Started: 4/14/19
Finished: 4/17/19
The first in a series of mysteries set in Venice that I picked up because Jo Walton says they’re wonderful and I trust her. For some reason she recommends starting with book 2 (she’s on book 22 (!) and the author is still alive), but I started with book 1 because what kind of monster do you take me for?
I enjoyed it, even though this was one of the more disturbing motives – definitely not a cozy mystery. Maybe Jo Walton’s recommendation about starting with book 2 was a typo.
The Skeleton Takes a Bow by Leigh Perry
Started: 3/23/19
Finished: 3/25/19
Book 2 in the Family Skeleton series. Still fun.
The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss
Started: 3/17/19
Finished: 3/21/19
First in the Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club series, we have Dr. Jeckyll’s daughter teaming up with Holmes and Watson in 1890s London to find the murderous Mr. Hyde and get the monetary reward because poor Miss Jeckyll is dead broke. The book is being written by a character we don’t meet (in the narrative, anyway) until much later in the book, but we know she’s writing it right away because the other characters have conversations with her about the narrative, within the narrative. It’s loads of fun.
Update: NOPE. It started out fun and interesting, but the writing style got really irritating (although not the interruptions from characters – that was still mostly fun). It’s full of exposition, all tell and no show, and it’s all happening in the dialogue, which makes the dialogue really clunky and painful to read. It’s a pity. I really wanted to like this book.
Baking Bad by Kim M. Watt
Started: 2/22/19
Finished: 3/1/19
A cozy mystery set in present-day England with dragons. It’s cute, it’s lightly humorous, it set up a lot of background stuff so I’m hoping for a full series (there’s one sequel, Christmas-related), and even though the whodunit part wasn’t that hard to figure out, I still very much enjoyed it.
The Problem of the Missing Miss by Roberta Rogow
Started: 1/31/19
Finished: 2/3/19
I’m not sure what this book is expecting of me. Sometimes the tone is light and comic, with a gruff old man harrumphing about his companions, and then the plot will get into sex trafficking and the abuse of young girls and it’s serious and disturbing, but in a light, comic tone…? It’s the first in a series about Charles Dodgson and Arthur Conan Doyle teaming up to solve crimes. I wanted to like it more than I did.
A Skeleton in the Family by Leigh Perry
Started: 1/30/19
Finished: 1/31/19
Supernatural mysteries! I’m a sucker for those, and this detective has a skeleton friend helping. Light, fun, and better written that I expected. It’s nice to be pleasantly surprised by the writing sometimes.
A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro
Started: 10/5/18
Finished: 10/10/18
A Sherlock Holmes story told in the present day boarding school, with teenagers for Holmes and Watson. Lots of fun, first in a series.
And Then There Were (N-One) by Sarah Pinsker
Started: 6/12/18
Finished: 6/13/18
Good novella, great premise. Sarah is invited to a convention where the only members are Sarahs from other universes. One of them turns up dead. Which one, when they’re all so much alike? And which one of the Sarahs is capable of murder?
Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
Started: 5/26/18
Finished: 5/28/18
A girl at a remote boarding school is determined to solve a decades-old mystery about a disappearance from that very school. Fun read, but only the first in the series is out. The first book does NOT wrap everything up neatly. You’ve been warned.
Warcross by Marie Lu
Started: 4/27/18
Finished: 4/29/18
Random girl is chosen to compete in a worldwide video game tournament AND find out what shady dealings are going on behind the scenes. A little meh. I’ve heard good things about the Legend trilogy by the same author, so maybe this one just didn’t grab me.
The Trespasser by Tana French
Started: 4/20/18
Finished: 4/26/18
Newest Tana French Dublin Murder Squad novel! ‘Nuff said. I love the prickly detectives on the Murder Squad.
Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews
Started: 4/20/18
Gave up: 4/20/18
It’s urban fantasy, or maybe paranormal romance, or maybe both. I like that genre (duh), but I just didn’t care about this one. Couldn’t get into it. There’s one series like this that I heard was really good starting with the second book, but I can’t remember if it was this one, and Twitter wasn’t able to help me when I asked. So I gave it up. There are lots of other books in the sea.
Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty
Started: 1/2/18
Gave up: 1/4/18
Clones. I like clone stories, and this one is also a murder mystery in space, but it’s a first novel, and the writing feels like it. Good story, but the writing is getting to me. Update: NOT a first novel, so that excuse is gone. Couldn’t handle the writing, and I put it down without finishing.