Billy Boyle:A World War II Mystery

Another free Amazon book. It started a little slow mainly because I found the main character a Southie Boston cop who has benefitted from nepotism hard to relate to. But the secondary characters were very enjoyable and the twists and turns of the mystery on top of the history of WWII England pre D-Day made the pace I wanted to read at speed up. I don't know that I'll read any more of these, but it is a unique setting for a mystery series.

The Black Book

The next Rebus. Good as always. Not much more to say except I wish John could find a woman that would understand him and his work. I guess it leads to the question, can certain people ever be happy?

Killer View

The second Walt Fleming Sun Valley mystery. This was even better than the first novel, and best of all ended without petering out like the first one did. The fleshing out of Sherif Walt was needed and appreciated. The main story was interesting and peppered with enough twists and turns to keep the story moving. While I won't run out and read Killer Summer right away, I do look forward to it.

Strip Jack

The 4th Rebus novel returns to Edinburgh and introduces us to The Pack, a very interesting and entertaining group of school friends from Fife and their foibles. Rankin does a great job of giving us just enough personal information about Rebus and those he works with and the mystery of the week. Another enjoyable read, and I look forward to the next.

Roseanna

Another new mystery series for me. These center around Martin Beck, a Stockholm based detective. I found these in the wake of the Millenium series also set in Sweden. This book started very slowly, but by page 30 I couldn't stop reading. I'll definitely keep Martin Beck in my crime fiction rotation.

Killer Weekend

This is the first of Pearson's mysteries centered around Sun Valley and Sheriff Fleming. Having been to Sun Valley and Ketchum for my 5th anniversary I was intrigued to read a series set in a place I have such fond memories of. Unfortunately the setting was better than the overall plot and a particularly gaping plot hole near the end, but when I'm looking for another fluffy mystery, I'll pick up the rest of this series.

By a Spider's Thread

Back to Tess Monaghan, though with a little Nancy Porter from the previous novel thrown in for good measure. This was a great page turner. Back and forth from Baltimore to the Midwest, from the present to the past. Only Tess's personal life was out of order in this novel, and hopefully that will resolve in the next.

Tooth and Nail

Inspector Rebus goes to London in the 3rd novel. I'm still very much enjoying this series. I like Rebus and his family members and this novel does a great job of dislocating Rebus while he continues his usual task of solving murder mysteries. On to the 4th!

Knots and Crosses, Hide and Seek

Another book I can attribute to Scotland. While in The Elephant House we saw Mr. Rankin mentioned and so looked him up upon our return. This is the first Inspector Rebus novel written in 1987. I enjoy reading about police work that's not loaded with DNA and cell phone records, so I very much enjoyed this and the next Rebus novel, Hide and Seek.

I look forward to following Inspector Rebus progress through the next couple of decades.

The Last Place

Back to Baltimore again. Very Tess focused. Less of the supporting cast. But a good story.

Resolution

And so the story ends for Maureen O'Donnell. And it ends satisfactorily with ends tied up, but not in a predictable, saccharine way, but rather with the twists and turns and danger and excitement a Novel of Crime should include. I'll miss Maureen and her Glasgow, but I'm looking forward to seeing what else Denise Mina has come up with.

In a Strange City

Back to Tess Monaghan and Baltimore. This was a really good one centering around Edgar Allen Poe and his Visitor. And Tess actually had healthy relationships. Yea Tess!

New Orleans Mourning

And yet another female detective mystery series, though in fairness, this is a female policewoman story. I love New Orleans and this was a fun read. Mardi Gras plus Blue Bloods makes for an enjoying read. And I learned how to pronounce Treme in time for the new HBO series.

Murder in the Marais

Paris, Nazis, hidden collaborators and murder. What more could you want? Actually I wanted it to be a little less stilted. I kept hoping that it would turn out this was a French writer and a poor translation, but no. Nevertheless, I'll probably read at least the next in the Aimee Leduc series given my Francophilia.

The Sugar House

And back to Baltimore with Tess Monaghan. I think this might be my favorite of the novels. It did a great job of blending the characters I've grown to love and care about with an interesting mystery or two. I'm looking forward to continuing on with Tess, Crow and the rest.

Exile

Part 2 of the Maureen O'Donnell trilogy. This time Maureen, her brother Liam and her friend Leslie find them tangled in a story that not only involves their native Glasgow, but travels to the Brixton section of London. Maureen is a most unlikely detective, not to mention unpaid. But her shrewdness and resourcefulness make her very sympathetic, not to mention her own underlying personal issues. I look forward to finding out how Maureen resolves those issues as her story winds up in the next book.

The Bookman's Promise

Well, it turns out a crime solving former cop turned book dealer is a concept that wears thin by the third book. Once again Cliff Janeway is on the move. Why the crimes can't just come to Denver, I'll never know? And once again there's another woman, one who seems to fancy herself a Lauren Bacall to Janeway's Bogey judging from the dialogue which annoyed me to death. The concept was pretty good, but the execution of this book was lacking. I'm not sure if there's a fourth book, and I'm not sure if I care.

Garnethill

A novel of crime set in Glasgow Scotland, a city I've never read about, Denise Mina paints a vivid set of characters and places as they ostensibly look to solve the crime that occurs in chapter 2. While the crime itself was gory, I'm glad that the novel didn't focus on that. Mina plays with a potentially unreliable narrator in a way that makes you question, yet hope, that our heroine, Maureen O'Donnell is in fact more together than you fear she is. I look forward to reading more of Mina's work.

The Sweetness At The Bottom Of The Pie

A delightful debut mystery in the vein of a Miss Marple, well if Miss Marple were only eleven years old. Set in the 1950s Sweetness has all the hallmarks of a good suspense story complete with unexplained deaths, but with none of the grit that infests most modern mysteries. Nancy Pearl put it perfectly, " it's gore-free, very funny in places, nicely written, not too sweet (despite the title) and narrated by a real charmer."

In Big Trouble

The 4th Tess Monaghan moves from Baltimore to central Texas, and Lippman does a great job inhabiting a new city. I love how poor Tess regularly bemoans her inability to instantly navigate new streets of in distinct contrast to her innate knowledge of her beloved hometown. But best of all, best, best of all, is that Crow is back. That's all I'll say because he's at the heart of the novel, but Crow is back. Yeah! I can't wait to see what happens to Tess next.