The Shape of Water (1994) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli
After stumbling upon The Fencing Master several years ago, I overcame my reluctance to read books that had been translated into English. I’d somehow gotten it into my head that translated books were literature and my experiences with literature have not always been the best.
Never [...]

Through a Glass, Darkly (2006) Donna Leon
I’ve been trying to slowly read–to savor–Donna Leon’s Commissario Brunetti books. However, being home sick I’ve read through several in the past couple days, and having finished Through a Glass, Darkly have only one published paperback left. (There are a couple of books that were not republished in the [...]

Friends in High Places (2000) Donna Leon
Apparently, Donna Leon’s Commissario Brunetti books are not being published in the US following European copyright dates. Friends in High Places has a European copyright of 2000, but was published in the US only recently. Not that this particularly matters in the grand scheme of things, as the Brunetti [...]

Blood from a Stone (2005) Donna Leon
In Donna Leon’s fourteenth Commissario Guido Brunetti book, a vu cumpra is shot down on the street by hired assassins. Brunetti is (eventually) called to the scene, and attempts to unravel why a man selling fake handbags was shot in cold blood on the streets. The more Burnetti tries [...]

White Corridor (2007) Christopher Fowler
Once again the Peculiar Crimes Unit is in danger of being closed. After Raymond Land decided to close the until for a week’s vacation, a member of the unit is found killed, while Bryant and May are on their way to one of Bryant’s spiritualist conventions.
With Bryant and May out [...]

Harbingers (2006) F. Paul Wilson
The tenth Repairman Jack novel things are beginning to come to a head as finds Jack at odds with the entities that have wreaked such havoc in his life.
Abe is still trying to find a new identity for Jack, and a way for him to reenter society. But Jack himself is [...]

Doctored Evidence (2004) Donna Leon
A querulous old woman is killed in her apartment, and suspicion automatically falls upon the maid. Scarpa closes the case, but when Brunetti comes back into town, new evidence–that Scarpa wants to dismiss unheard–comes to light.
This book is not just about discovering who killed a nasty old woman and why, it [...]

Uniform Justice (2003) Donna Leon
I really like Commissario Guido Brunetti. I like his sense of justice and fairness. I like his intelligence and wit. And I like his wife. In fact I think I wish I was Paola.
A boy is found dead in the local military school, and it’s immediately filed as a suicide. [...]

Cast in Fury (2008) Michelle Sagara
Let me get this out of the way: I hate this cover. The scene seems to be a depiction of events from the last book, Kaylin does not once wear a dress–especially a dress that horrific–in this book, and the bracer is so badly photoshopped onto her arm her elbow [...]

Precious Dragon (2007) Liz Williams
The third Detective Inspector Chen novel, it seems as if recent activities have brought Chen and Zhu Irzh to the attention of authorities, and they are charged with escorting the emissary from Heaven, Miss Qi, through Hell.
Meanwhile, an old woman arranges the marriage of her only daughter, and soon after is [...]

Fatal Remedies (1999) Donna Leon
I started Fatal Remedies immediately after I finished A Noble Radiance, wasn’t sure about the direction the story was taking, and then picked it up again today, as I have a whole stack of Guido Brunetti books waiting to be read.
What I was unsure about was how things were going to [...]

Crisscross (2004) F. Paul Wilson
Jack is still in the Repairman business, despite the fact that Gia doesn’t like the way she never knows if he’ll return safely from his fix-it jobs. And with Gia’s pregnancy (Despite the fact this is a multi-book pregnancy, Gia is only at 20 weeks. She might be pregnant for years [...]

A Noble Radiance (1998) Donna Leon
The Commissario Guido Brunetti series continues with A Noble Radiance. A body is discovered in a field that has lain fallow for several years, and from the ring found with the body, it is likely that the body is that of a young man who had been kidnapped two years [...]

The Man with the Golden Torc (2007) Simon R. Green
Eddie Drood is a field agent for a family that knows more secrets than anyone else, and has magical and mechanical powers that would make mages and mad scientists drool in envy. Unfortunately for Eddie (known on the streets as Shamus Bond) there’s trouble in [...]

Quietly in Their Sleep (1997) Donna Leon
This was a rather strange story in comparison to the previous books. Brunetti is given only a vague idea that there might be something untoward happening in a nursing home–a home that is run by the same man as the home in which Brunetti’s mother resides. It is this [...]

Acqua Alta (1996) Donna Leon
In Acqua Alta we return to two of the characters that Guido met in the first mystery, Death at La Fenice. Brett Lynch is beaten in the doorway of her own apartment. When Guido discovers what has happened he goes to her hospital where he again meets Flavia Pitrelli, with whom [...]

Death and Judgment (1995) Donna Leon
In two seemingly unrelated incidents, a truck goes off a cliff, killing the driver and his unexpected cargo of lumber and women. And months later, in Venice, Commissario Guido Brunetti is given the investigation of the murder of a prominent local loyal, whose unblemished record is enough cause for suspicion [...]

Death in a Strange Country (1993) Donna Leon
The second Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery (how I managed to read the third book instead of the second in two different series within a week is beyond me) finds Guido awakened to come down to a canal as a body was found in the water. The stab wound [...]

The Nymphos of Rocky Flats (2006) Mario Acevedo
Michael was actually the one to pick this up, and was also the first to read it. When he finished it, he said it was funny, and that he thought I would like it.
Well, it is funny. And I did like it. But I didn’t love it.
Felix Gomez [...]

Dressed for Death (1994) Donna Leon
The second third Commiario Guido Brunetti mystery, Dressed for Death starts with the body of what is assumed to be a prostitute found behind a slaughterhouse in Marghera. The case falls to the Mestre police department, however due to a series of unfortunate events, they have no detectives, so Brunetti [...]

Tooth and Nail (1992) Ian Rankin
In some ways, 1992 doesn’t seem that long ago to me. But reading this book, it seems a lifetime ago. Tooth and Nail was written in 1992, it many of the little things in the book made it feel old to me: the lack of cell phones, the smoking, little [...]

Gateways (2003) F. Paul Wilson
In this seventh Repairman Jack novel, Jack receives a call from his brother, saying their father is in the hospital in Florida, and Jack needs to go down to take care of their father.
While there, Jack must discover not only what placed his father in the hospital, but why. And he [...]

Dancing with Werewolves (2007) Carole Nelson Douglas
I picked this book up, then let it languish on the shelf for awhile. Primarily because something about the cover bugged me, although I can’t put my finger on exactly what it is. But I decided to pick it up, and was in for a surprise. This book was [...]

All Together Dead (2007) Charlaine Harris
It’s been awhile since I read a new Sookie Stackhouse story. They’re now published in hardback first, and as much as I enjoy her stories and her writing, I don’t much care for hardback books. I also wasn’t sure they were worth $25.
So I placed it on pre-order for [...]

White Night (2007) Jim Butcher
I’ve been reading the Dresden Files series for awhile now, even when Harry was annoying the crap out of me, by being incredibly stupid and obtuse. But the books got better, and Harry got smarter, and the stories have been getting better ever since.
When Murphy calls Harry to come look at [...]

Madhouse (2008) Rob Thurman
I’ve been eagerly awaiting Madhouse for months. I have loved the previous Cal Leandros books, and couldn’t wait to read more about Cal and Niko.
Although I enjoyed this book as much as the previous two, I was very unhappy with the last three paragraphs. In fact, I’d recommend reading the entire book [...]

Legacies (1998) Paul Wilson
The second Repairman Jack book takes up an undetermined time after the events of the first book, Tomb. The indeterminate time is most likely due to the fact that there were 15 years between the two books.
When a local AIDS clinic where Gia volunteers is robbed, she convinces Jack to take [...]

Silent in the Grave (2007) Deanna Raybourn
To say that Silent in the Grave annoyed me would be a vast understatement. This book had tons of high recommendations, and I cannot for the life of me figure out why.
First, the heroine, who is supposed to be intelligent, tends towards sheer idiocy. Sure, she’s well read and [...]

Death at La Fenice (1992) Donna Leon
Guido Brunetti is vice-commissario of police in the Venice, and a good detective as well. When a world famous maestro is found dead in his dressing room, from what seems to be cyanide poisoning, Guido is immediately pressured to find the killer, lest Venice receive bad press.
Although I guessed [...]

Knots and Crosses (1987) Ian Rankin
Knots and Crosses is the first John Rebus mystery. John Rebus is a Detective in the Edinburgh police force, who is not doing a very good job of getting over his divorce, or his time spent in the special forces. When someone starts kidnapping and murdering young girls, the [...]