What Fiction are you reading this week, December 11, 2022?

[hermetic]

Just started reading L.A. Requiem by Robert Crais, an Elvis Cole, Joe Pike mystery. Crais has written over 20 novels and is highly acclaimed but my library only has 3 of them so I'll take what I can get.

Listening to The Last Equation of Isaac Severy by Nova Jacobs, a literary mystery about a struggling bookseller in Seattle whose recently deceased grandfather left behind a dangerous equation for her to track down--and protect.

What books did you get for this week?

[cbabe]

1. Stacey Abrams romance

Not my cup of tea. Anyone else try them?

https://www.bet.com › article › 4iv76e › 3-romance-novels-written-by-stacey-abrams-set-for-reissue

3 Romance Novels Written By Stacey Abrams Set For Reissue

May 5, 2021 But prior to her success in politics, Abrams wrote romance novels. Now, the romance writer turned politician turned organizer is giving people a chance to get their hands on a copy of her past ...

https://www.glamour.com › story › stacey-abrams-is-a-published-romance-novelist-and-her-books-are-fabulous

Stacey Abrams Is the Author of Eight Unapologetically Hot Romance ...

Dec 3, 2020 And Stacey Abrams, under the pen name Selena Montgomery, has published romance novels. Eight of them, to be exact. Not a self-published passion project, not a well-kept blog, but...

…

Also Robert Crais rocks. Elvis or Joe?

[hermetic]

2. I haven't read any of Abrams' novels.

Then, I'm not much of a romance fan, unless there's a good mystery involved. Or humor.

I've only just started the Crais book so I like them both so far. I can see, though, that they are different and I think I might end up preferring Elvis since he's not an ex cop. Just a guess. Time will tell.

[yellowdogintexas]

3. I just finished "A Richer Dust Concealed"

It's a strange book that really takes a while to hook you in but I am glad I finished it.

A gripping historical mystery thriller you won’t be able to put down!
This is a tale that spans four centuries, revolving around the fabulous Most Holy Cross of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. This priceless artifact is buried in Cyprus in 1570, to hide it from the invading Ottoman Turks.

An Italian squire named Girolamo Polidoro is witness to the secret hiding place of the treasure, the beauty of which is forever burned into his mind. Polidoro leaves a diary in Venice, the end of which is a coded message of the cross’s whereabouts.

An English code-breaker comes across the diary in 1915 but dies in Gallipoli before he can crack the secret. And all the while the mysterious Venetian ‘Council of Ten’ has also been searching for the cross.

When John, one of six young back-packers, buys a book in Rome in 1992, he has no idea of the danger he has just put himself and his friends in. A treasure hunt begins, but will the Council of Ten allow it to continue?

For those who find history fascinating A Richer Dust Concealed will hook you with its ingenious plot and meticulously researched content. Mystery and puzzle solving fans will also love this timeless and intricate tale. Throw in a believable slow-burning romance (with just a dash of sex) and wonderfully described locations and this book is a true gem. It’s Dan Brown meets Donna Tartt: the perfect intelligent page-turner.

It takes a while to get rolling but when it does it moves. I think the author should have edited the coding descriptions a bit better.

Just started: Society for Paranormals The Complete Series a 10 volume set

It's Jane Austen meets Lara Croft in this delightful cozy mystery romp through Victorian Africa.

Armed with Victorian etiquette, a fully loaded walking stick, and a dead husband, Miss Beatrice Knight arrives in the small colonial town of Nairobi desperate for a pot of tea and a pinch of cinnamon.

This collection brings together for the first time, all 10 books in the Society for Paranormals cozy mystery series in which a paranormal detective refuses to let danger, death, and unsolicited suitors inconvenience her in colonial Kenya. Welcome to a cozy mystery series concerning Victorian etiquette, African mythology, and the search for a perfect spot of tea.

I just started this; I was looking in my Kindle library for something a bit lighter to read and stumbled on this one. I think it is going to be quite a bit of fun.

• Miss Knight and the Ghosts of Tsavo

• Miss Knight and the Automaton's Wife

• Miss Knight and the Mantis' Revenge

• Miss Knight and the Fourth Mandate

• Miss Knight and the Nandi's Curse

• Miss Knight and the Spider's Web

• Miss Knight and the Stones of Nairobi

• Miss Knight and the Wedding Killer

• Miss Knight and the Throne of Death

• Miss Knight and the Poacher's Catch

If you enjoy historical mysteries, adore Victorian steampunk, appreciate British humor, or would love to experience adventure in colonial Africa, download Society for Paranormals: The Complete Series to start your supernatural safari today.

[hermetic]

7. Some real winners there

All sound really enjoyable.

[The King of Prussia]

4. "From Devon with Death" by Stephanie Austin

#3 in the series set in Ashburton. Pleasant enough cozy. Next up I might read a seasonal mystery.

Currently watching episode 3 of the Gamache adaptation. MY opinion - dreadful.

[hermetic]

6. Oh dear

How sad. Oh well...

And you have a tale of "Ashburton’s mythical blood-drinking demon." That sounds like fun.

I was wanting to do a seasonal mystery but time is quickly running out and it looks like I'm not going to get to one. Maybe next month.

[Polly Hennessey]

8. On the Gamache adaptation, I think I agree with you.

Yet I continued to watch.

[bahboo]

5. Hell of a Book, by Jason Mott....

about a third of the way in. Very interesting concept, and often very funny...and tragic. Don't know if it's a helluva book, but is a very good one thus far...

[hermetic]

9. Sure sounds like one

While this heartbreaking and magical book entertains and is at once about family, love of parents and children, art and money, it's also about the nation's reckoning with a tragic police shooting playing over and over again on the news. And with what it can mean to be Black in America.

[Number9Dream]

10. 3/4 through "The Cat of the Baskervilles" - by Vicki Delany

Thanks for the thread, hermetic.

(Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery #3)

Another 'cozy' mystery by this author which I'm enjoying. She has a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor which I like.

[hermetic]

11. Neat

Those sound like great fun. My library has several so I will for sure be checking them out. Thanks.

[japple]

12. I just started reading Barbara Kingsolver's book,

Unsheltered. It's okay so far. I also downloaded a freebie by Janisse Ray, The Woods of Fannin County which is based on a true story set in my neck of the woods.

Thanks for hosting the weekly thread, hermetic. Now that the elections are over with, I hope to spend much more time reading.

[hermetic]

13. Haven't read that one

"UNSHELTERED is the compulsively readable story of two families, in two centuries, who live at the corner of Sixth and Plum in Vineland, New Jersey, navigating what seems to be the end of the world as they know it. With history as their tantalizing canvas, these characters paint a startlingly relevant portrait of life in precarious times when the foundations of the past have failed to prepare us for the future."

Sounds pretty timely.

Yay reading!!

[TexLaProgressive]

14. A Mersey Killing Mersey Murder Mysteries Book I Brian L. Porter

This is fun, switching from 60s Liverpool to more modern.

I've read a couple of the Masters and Greed series by Douglas Clark. The intrigues of the mysteries are interesting but I suppose it's the times. Women are always described from their sexual attractiveness. One they called Plum Bum, comes to mind.

[hermetic]

15. Ferry Cross the Mersey

There's an oldie. Stirred up a little memory there.

Sounds like some good tales, don't mind the pun....(tails?)

Good to see you. Was just thinking about you this morning, hoping everything is okay in your life. So thanks for stopping in.

[TexLaProgressive]

16. Maybe I'm too woke

It's just every time Clark has his cops interview a woman it's like the creeps who would scope every females' body rating them on a scale.

I'll continue to read Masters and Green. I just thought I should mention this because I see it as a downside.

Now, Mr Porter is different. He has a very competent woman detective sergeant, Issie, as an important character.

[hermetic]

17. Oh, I agree

I also find it creepy and will not be adding them to my to-be-read list. I will look into the Porter books, though.

Wanted to tell you, you should check out the latest Rebus book, Heart Full of Headstones. Rankin, as usual, gives us very timely and realistic events to ponder. Then the ending is:

[TexLaProgressive]

18. Thanks for the Rebus tip.

I was telling a friend who practiced law in Edinburgh that my impression of that city as cold wet and windy came from novels. He said, "Rankin."

[hermetic]

19. I tell ya

I follow a couple of Edinburgh photography pages on facebook and that's how it usually looks. Of course now it's all covered with snow. I love the rare shots where the sun is shining.

I kind of have a thing for Scotland as it's where my great grandparents came over from in early 1900s and then their daughter married another Scot. So I'm almost pure Scot.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

20. Snap by Belinda Bauer.

She's an amazing writer, and I'm hesitant to say anything about the novel since I'm not very far into it. I might hide behind "Things are not what they seem". I've read several of her books, and they've all been amazing, as this one is so far.

[hermetic]

21. Sounds great!

A twisty, masterfully written novel that will have readers on the edge of their seats, SNAP is Belinda Bauer at the height of her powers.

Must read. Thanks!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

23. It's amazing. I have just finished it, and I'm sorry my library doesn't have all of her books.

I guess it's back to inter-library loan. Which is actually wonderful, and I use so much that the local inter-library loan person and I am on first-name basis.

This is a lot of why I love libraries. I will say that several decades ago, when I was more affluent, I purchased almost all of my books. And honestly, I only read a fraction of them.

Then I got divorced, moved to another part of the country, had a reduced income, and re-discovered the joys of the public library. A very different selection of books. And a far larger selection of books than I saw at the bookstores, even the very large name bookstores. Especial in terms of older books. Perhaps more to the point is that I can get whatever books I want from the library. If my own library doesn't have it, I might suggest a purchase. Otherwise, interlibrary loan. What I love about IL is seeing where the books come from. Right now I have one that comes from the Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, NY. Wow.

[hermetic]

24. That is great, about your library

I have just had a great library experience myself and will tell about it tomorrow.

My library can get me books from other libraries in the state, but not out of state. So, that's quite interesting.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

26. People here have occasionally reported that their

library charges some kind of a fee for interlibrary loan. There's probably some cost with getting the books moved, and some library systems aborb that cost themselves, others don't.

Sometimes it takes a long time for a book to get to me, but always worth the wait.

[CrispyQ]

22. I'm almost finished with Michael Connelly's "The Law of Innocence," a Lincoln Lawyer novel.

My first Connelly book. We watched the movie & the TV series & I thought both were very good. This book is later in the series. It's a fast paced, plot driven novel with a likable main character, although not a lot of character development with any other characters. Still, the story has been quite enjoyable & I'd read another one.

This morning, I was looking for a list of the series & found this page on Good Reads.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/1583752.A_J_Stone

AJ Stone, who has a few novels of their own, has a slew of "Series Reading Order" books. Their only available in Kindle format & don't cost anything, but they are a list of other author's books & the order in which to read them. I found the whole concept interesting, but kind of odd, too. Some notable authors covered are Stephen King,

That Last Equation book sounds interesting.

[hermetic]

25. I'm a big Connelly fan.

Thanks for the info about Stone.

It is interesting but I think it would be better on paper than audio. Just my opinion, of course.