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Winter 2019 Preview

I enjoyed writing a seasonal preview of new Crime Fiction. One supposed that I could delve back into my post history to see that last time I did it, but that would be sad. Less sad, more happy in 2019.  Anyway, the following are books that piqued my interest.

This list is built off the back of Fantastic Fiction and more or less covers the time until March/April.

THE NEW IBERIA BLUES - James Lee Burke - OUT NOW
Latest and, no doubt, greatest by the best working American author. My plan is to read all of the JBL I have on my shelf this year, thus catching up on an author I have been behind on for nearly a decade.

MURDER AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM - Jim Eldridge - 3/19/2019
Second in the series from this author. The first was released just this last November, and a third coming this Summer. I'm a sucker for Brits and cool looking covers. Check and check.

THE KILLER COLLECTIVE - Barry Eisler - 2/1/2019
I read the first 4 or 5 John Rain books. I drifted away from the series when the author took a break from the series and alas I am unlikely to return to it. Still, if you are looking for a satisfying adventure/thriller series you would do well to pick up these books.

THE BLACK ASCOT - Charles Todd - 2/5/2019
Book 21 of Ian Rutledge. My goodness! Another series I read a couple books of and then abandoned. I wonder if Rutledge still speaks to the 'Ghost' of a fallen WW1 comrade? I liked this series, but the first book was very difficult to obtain. I remember that was one of those hypermodern books that spiked quickly in price. It was a different time for me as a reader of Crime Fiction and if I couldn't own it I looked elsewhere quickly.

THE LAST ACT - Brad Parks - 3/12/2019
Here is an author I always I wanted to read. Brad Parks came along when I was reading a fair amount of new authors and finding them all to be terribly mediocre or depressingly just fine. I could not suffer another disappointing read. Which obviously says more about me than Mr. Parks. 

DIARY OF A DEAD MAN ON LEAVE - David Downing - 4/2/2019
I'm in my late 40's now so I like WW2 and spies and books about WW2 spies. Mr. Downing's books cover these bases. I think of a lot of authors I would love to take up and Mr. Downing, and in particular his Station Series, is one of them. The setting is one that I enjoy a great deal, and the only author in my current roster writing something similar is Alan Furst, who general takes a minute in-between books. The other guy is James Benn. I had a bookstore that stocked the first 4-5 books in the Billy Boyle series. Alas, I only picked up the first. 

Currently: THE CORPSE BRIDGE - Stephen Booth
To Be Read: 37

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