The Dragon Conspiracy (2015) Lisa Shearin This is the second book of the SPI files, and a fun romp. But is also has a few things that are quite different from other books in this genre. Such as this: Starting a romantic relationship with Ian and having it go bad would make our time at […]
Foxglove Summer (2014) Ben Aaronovitch When dealing with the law, having a mysterious past is contraindicated. I love this series so much. We return again to Peter Grant, police constable and apprentice wizard. He is still trying to deal with the results of the last case he worked–the one where his co-apprentice and friend Lesley […]
Night Shift (2014) Nalini Singh; Ilona Andrews; Lisa Shearin; Milla Vane Let me be clear from the start: I read only two of these stories. In fact, I was going to read only one story, Ilona Andrews’ story “Magic Steals” until I realized the next story was a Lisa Shearin SPI files story. I very […]
The Troubled Man (2009/2011) Henning Mankell translated by Laurie Thompson I’ve been in a mood lately where I don’t know what I want to read. I have several new releases I have been waiting for, but they just don’t appeal to me for some unknown reason. So I randomly chose The Troubled Man because I […]
Whispers Under Ground Audible version (2012/2012) Ben Aaronovitch narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith I am enjoying listening to this series so much. I tore through all the available books when I first came across the series, and have been waiting impatiently for the next book in the series, but the narration by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith is such […]
Outrage (2008/2011) Arnaldur Indridason translated by Anna Yates This is not Inspector Erlendur. Erlendur has taken a leave of absence, and no one knows where he is. Instead, the detective is Elínborg, a female detective who works with Erlendur. Because of crime–the murder of a rapist–Elínborg was a much better main character, since one would […]
Hypothermia (2007/2009) Arnaldur Indridson translated by Victoria Cribb Inspector Erlendur is given a suicide to clear—a woman who had been devastated by the death of her mother, and had a life–long obsession with death and any possible afterlife is found hanging in her summer home. Although there is no note, it is a fairly clear […]
Moon Over Soho: Audible Version (2011/2012) Ben Aaronovitch and Narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith It’s quite possible I’ve fallen a little bit in love with Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, for the way he reads Ben Aaronovitch’s Peter Grant books. The story is good–I thoroughly enjoyed reading it–but listening? Amazing. He is really good at the voices and the […]
Midnight Riot (2011/2012) Ben Aaronovitch narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith I’ve had audio books that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed before, but until now, I’d not had the experience of a reader making a book better. Kobna Holdbrook-Smith did that. He is amazing. He did various accents that made each character distinct and they all sounded different. Even […]
Dirty Magic (2014) Jaye Wells I desperately needed something distracting, so picked up Dirty Magic, read a couple chapters, wasn’t sure it was what I was in the mood for, but the next day picked it back up, and discovered it served admirably as a distraction. Kate Prospero spent her youth cooking dirty magic. She […]
Angelica’s Smile (2010/2014) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli “Ah Chief, Chief! Ahh Chief!” Catarella’s cry pretty much describes how I feel about this book. Ah Chief, how you’ve fallen. A strange series of burglaries has hit Vitaga. Burgulars break into a vacation home, gas the couple sleeping there, then, stealing the keys, return to […]
Arctic Chill (2005/2009) Arnaldur Indriðason and translated by Bernard Scudder and Victoria Cribb This is, I believe, the fifth book in the detective Erlendur series, and I continue to like Erlendur and enjoy spending time with him despite myself. Erlendur is a broken and often not very nice man, and there are many reasons to […]
The Draining Lake (2004/2007) Arnaldur Indridason translated by Bernard Scudder Lake Kleifarvatn is draining, and no one is quite sure why, but what they do know is that as it drains, things are being uncovered. In this case, one of the scientists discovers the body of a man who obviously had been killed and his […]
The Indian Bride (2001/2005) Karin Fossum translated by Charlotte Barslund This is another Inspector Sejer mystery, and I’ve found these books to be very hit or miss as to whether I enjoyed them. Luckily, this one was a hit. Gunder Jomann has spent his life alone, with few friends except for his sister Marie. An […]
London Falling (2012) Paul Cornell (Shadow Police) I started reading, and briefly thought I had entered in the middle of the story. I hadn’t. It was actually the beginning, but for the characters, they believe they are in the end game. Two cops working undercover to take down a crime lord, the DI running the […]
The Golden Egg (2013) Donna Leon I am starting, perhaps, to be disconcerted by how Brunetti and his family seem to have stopped aging. The first book was written in 1992, so twenty years have passed since that book, but time has not passed at the same rate for Brunetti. It’s most obvious with Chiara, […]
Broken Homes (2014) Ben Aaronovitch This is the fourth Rivers of London book, in which we find Peter Grant–son of a jazz man and an immigrant from Sierra Leon–becoming comfortable in his position at constable and apprentice magician. That’s not a common or even popular status in the London Force. His fellow apprentice, Lesley, is […]
The Dance of the Seagull (2009/2013) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli Alas, I’m now back to current on the Inspector Montalbano series, and I have no idea what I want to read next. The story opens with Montalbano seeing a seagull dive to the ground, do a strange dance, and then die on the […]
The Age of Doubt (2008/2012) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli On this second reading, I really didn’t like this story. The mystery was fine, but I knew what was coming, and I just kept getting madder and madder at Montalbano, not wanting him to make the mistakes I knew he was going to make. […]
The Potter’s Field (2008/2011) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli This might be one of my favorite mysteries in this series. A dismembered body is found in clay fields, the face beaten so as to hinder identification. A beautiful woman comes to the station, to report that she believes her husband may be missing. Mimi […]
The Track of Sand (2007/2010) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli This is another story that is not a particular favorite. Montalbano and Livia are still fighting (of course), but the book opens with a really horrible scene, the discovery of a dead horse by Montalbano. A horse that has been beaten to death. This […]
August Heat (2006/2009) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli This is not my favorite Montalbano story. This is the book where the relationship between Montalbano and Livia starts to fall apart. (It continues to fall apart for the rest of the series so far.) We also see Montalbano behaving in ways he’d avoided in the […]
The Wings of the Sphinx (2006/2009) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli Somehow, I managed to read this book and the one that comes before it out of order. Which was unusually problematic because events in the previous book–events involving Montalbano and Livia–had a tremendous influence upon events in this book. I remembered what they […]
The Paper Moon (2005/2008) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli The story opens with a woman–concerned that she has not heard from her brother–coming to report him missing. It hasn’t been long enough to declare him officially missing, but she convinces Montalbano to come with her, to see what signs are at his apartment. “Aahh, […]
The Patience of the Spider (2004/2007) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli This book picks up right after the events of Rounding the Mark. Monalbano has been on leave, recovering from being shot in the shoulder. Livia has come down to stay with him during his recover, so they get to argue in person, instead […]
Rounding the Mark (2003/2006) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli It finally happened. The corruption of the Italian government and system has finally gotten to Montalbano, and he has decided he no longer wants to work in such a system. But his morning swim changes everything, when he (literally) runs into a corpse. The first […]
The Smell of the Night (2001/2005) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli Ah, Chief! Chief! This is the book where Catarella truly takes on the personality he has for the rest of the series. It always amuses me how so much of what he says ends up sounding like gibberish. And it’s all good and […]
Excursion to Tindari (2000/2005) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli All murder mysteries are, at their heart, depressing. They tell the tale of how someone decided that the life of another human was disposable, and then act to snuff out that life. But the heart of this story feels even more depressing, somehow. Despite the […]
Voice of the Violin (1997/2003) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli This story is a turning point for Catarella. “(I)n a few days, some absolutely up-to-date computer will be arriving… He wanted each of us to give him the name of an officer we thought had a special knack for computer science. Which I did.” […]
Known Devil (2014) Justin Gustainis Stan Markowski is a Sergeant in the Occult Crimes Unit of the Scranton Police. His daughter and his partner are both vampires, but he doesn’t hold that against them. (He can’t, really, since it’s his fault they’re vampires.) It was believed that only goblins were affected by intoxicating substances (in […]
Evil Dark (2012) Justin Gustainis Stan Markowski is still on the supe squad in Scranton, still looking into crime committed by and/or against supernatural creatures, and this time a series of murders looks to be tied together, but the answer to cui bono is nowhere to be found. Like the first book, dark in the […]
Hard Spell (2011) Justin Gustainis (Occult Crimes Unit Investigation) Stan Markowski is a detective in Scranton’s Supernatural Crimes Investigation Unit. He works the night shift and works the cases that deal with supernaturals. My name’s Markowski. I carry a badge. Also a crucifix, some wooden stakes, a big vial of holy water, and a […]
The Snack Thief (1996/2003) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli This is the third Inspector Montalbano book. In the same morning, there is a shooting death aboard a fishing boat and a man found dead in the elevator in his apartment. (This is Sicily, after all.) Catarella plays a larger part in this book, though […]
The Terra-Cotta Dog (1996/2002) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli I was out of sorts yesterday and didn’t know what I wanted to read. Since I recently read Montalbano’s First Case, I decided I wanted to read some Andrea Camilleri–despite the fact that the first book in the series was loaned out to someone and […]
Montalbano’s First Case (2004/2013) Andrea Camilleri translated by Gianluca Rizzo and Dominic Siracusa I love Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Salvo Montalbano… well, let me clarify. I find him fascinating, but in person I think he could be unbearable if you irritated him. Which I most likely would. But I love reading about him. This is the […]
The Grendel Affair (2013) Lisa Shearin I came across this on a book blog–although I have absolutely no idea which one it was. It was an early review (the book was published on the last day of the year), and it looked intriguing, so I put it onto my wish list. A month or so […]
The Fifth Woman (1996/2000) Henning Mankell translated by Steven T. Murray This is the first Kurt Wallander I’ve read, and I wonder how I’ve gone so long without reading him before. This is almost the definition of police procedural, and what we see is something that looks like what we’d actually see in a police […]
The Shadow Pavilion (2009) Liz Williams There are certain people who are not happy about the changes The Emperor of Heaven is making. But you’d think plotting assassination would be beyond Celestial Beings. You’d be wrong. The assassin is a strange creature; a centuries old child of a demon and a human who lives Between, […]
Precious Dragon (2007) Liz Williams The third Detective Inspector Chen book finds Chen back at work, and, after having stopped a rampaging goddess in the previous book, Chen and Zhu Irzh must now suffer the attentions of the public, and, more specifically, the accolades of part of the government of Singapore Three. This, of course, […]
When the Devil Holds the Candle (1998/2004) Karin Fossum translated by Felicity David I just did NOT like this book. I ended up skimming, to find out what happened so I could move it. The story jumps back and forth in time and from point-of-view, from the woman who is the killer to the victim, […]
The Demon and the City (2006) Liz Williams I really do love this series. Chen and Inari are on vacation, so Zhu Irzh is–in theory–handling the supernatural cases in Singapore Three. In reality, the captain is giving him very small-time crimes, fearing (perhaps justifiably) that Zhu Irzh could cause more problems than he solved. So […]
Voices (2003/2006) Arnaldur Indridason translated by Bernard Scudder There has been a murder in one of the fancy hotels. A particularly nasty murder, with a man in a Santa suit, in a compromising position, stabbed to death. Inspector Erlendur and the rest of the police have been called in, but nothing is at it seems, […]
Silence of the Grave (2002/2005) Arnaldur Indridason translated by Bernard Scudder This is the second book I’ve read by Arnaldur Indri?dason, and the second in his Inspector Erlendur series. This mystery is also quite different from other mysteries I typically read, but also quite good. There are two parts to the story–the tale set in […]
He Who Fears the Wolf (1997/2003) Karin Fossum translated by Felicity David This is the second Inspector Sejer mystery, and once again, the story involves characters on the fringe, who are damaged or not normal. Errki has decided to leave the asylum/institute where he has lived after being involuntarily committed as a danger to himself […]
Snake Agent (2005) Liz Williams The Detective Inspector Chen series popped up as an Amazon ebook deal of the day, and I love this series so much I snatched them up as ebooks. (In my defense, my copies are all trade paperbacks.) Detective Inspector Chen is in charge of crimes that stretch into Heaven and […]
Don’t Look Back (1996/2002) Karin Fossum translated by Felicity David I started this book, then put it down, and then picked it back up multiple times. The book opens with a young girl being picked up by a strange man driving a van, and the idea that this young girl might die was just more […]
Jar City (2000/2004) Arnaldur Indridason translated by Bernard Scudder Inspector Erlendur is a detective inspector with the Reykjavik CID. He’s a divorced loner with a terrible relationship with his two grown children, both of whom have issues with drugs. The body of an old man is discovered in his apartment. It looks like a crime […]
Treasure Hunt (2010/2013) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli Things are boring in Vigata for Inspector Montalbano and the police, until an elder brother and sister allow their religious mania to push them over the edge. But even that event doesn’t hold Montalbano’s interest for long, which is probably why he allows a “treasure hunt” […]
Through a Glass Darkly (2006) Donna Leon I actually started this weeks ago, put it back down, and then took a long time to get back to it. Commissario Brunetti is asked, as a favor, to go out with Vianello, to help bail out an environmental activist (and friend of Vianello) who was arrested during […]
Blood from a Stone (2005) Donna Leon A young man–a vu cumpra–is assassinated on the streets a few days before Christmas. As always, Patta is up to his neck in the politics. And as always, this conflicts with Brunetti’s search for the truth and justice. Weirdly, I’d remembered part of the mystery, which is inherently […]