Skip to main content

I read 5 Books in a Row

As mentioned previously I am playing catch up with my TBR. One way to bring the list into some form of submission was to focus on one author to read all of the backlog. The logic is that I would become accustomed to the rhythms of the writer which in turn would allow me to read faster.

The author I was the biggest offender with is Stephen Booth. I own 5 books that I needed to read, from DEAD AND BURIED, the 12th in the series, to SECRETS OF DEATH his 16th Cooper and Fry novel. My thesis that reading a run of books would help proved to be true as I was able to get through all of the books in about 3 weeks.

Facilitating the quick read was the fact that DEAD AND BURIED, ALREADY DEAD, and THE CORPSE BRIDGE made a very strong trilogy. And in point of fact some of the best work of the entire series. I felt like Mr. Booth was really on a heater after some not so memorable reads leading up to DEAD AND BURIED. As a series reader, I am often daunted by the fact that starting a long-running series is impossible because the idiot side of brain insists I start from the beginning. On the flip side of this, I can think of no greater service to the Crime Fiction community than a website that would be dedicated to telling you where you could step into a series without the guilt that you will miss something in the proceeding books. As a start to this mythical website DEAD AND BURIED is the book I would point you to if you wanted to read Stephen Booth and felt overwhelmed to be looking at 18 books just to get to zero. Some are probably excited by having a long roster of books to read. Right now it fills me with increasing amounts of dread.

Frustratingly I am still in the hole to Mr. Booth. I have yet to purchase his 2017 and 2018 entries because for reasons that are a mystery to myself I only buy Mr. Booth in UK hardcover.

I'm on to the two Alan Furst books I need to read than a couple books from 2018, Mark Billingham's THE KILLING HABIT and Michael Connelly's DARK SACRED NIGHT.

Current Read: A HERO OF FRANCE - Alan Furst
To Be Read: 36

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Is it 'Aughts' or 'Oughts' - The Best of the Decade Pt. II

Better late than what quite possibly could have been never. I found the whole task of formulating and compiling this list to be not very enjoyable. Ugh. Not sure why this list proved laborious to produce. Holidays are not a good time for anything except opening gifts... like a 47" LG LCD television. Let's quit with the complaining and finish the list. If you started here you should go back to the beginning . 5 . DIRT - Sean Doolittle (2001) This was a real toss up for me. I could just as easily gone with the funny and brutal THE CLEAN UP. DIRT gets it by a nose because a lot of what I enjoy about Crime Fiction is discovery. THE CLEAN UP is a great book, one that you should read, but I knew it was going to be good going in. Mr. Doolittle is a terrific writer of human frailty. DIRT contains one of the great truisms of human behavior that we frantically keep secrets from our closest friends and family while just as equally hoping these secrets will be discovered and accepted. I ...

The Very Best of Mr. Michael Connelly - Part 2

My August 31 post of The Hungry Detective ranked all the non-Bosch books. This list returns to take on the larger task of Mr. Heironimous Bosch. 9 Dragons made its appearance right before the Indy B'Con, and try as I might... ok I didn't try that hard... I didn't have time to read it for inclusion in these rankings. As a quick aside I don't want to undersell any of the books at the bottom of the list. Mr. Connelly doesn't know how to write a bad book, but in my case there have been occasions where I have not connected with his work. 13. THE NARROWS - 2004 It is because I love THE POET so much that this book is at the end of the list. When Mr. Connelly is at his best his works has the precision of a watchmaker. THE NARROWS just felt forced and not worthy of the intricacy of THE POET. 12. BLACK ICE - 1993 Second book. Third read. I thought the story was pretty flat. It has been well over a decade since I read this book, but the story of Mexican drug runner...

Murder, Mayhem and the Return of Patrick and Angie

Back from Murder and Mayhem in Muskego IV . It was an ultimately very good weekend if not for a few hiccups. The original intention was to attend the mini-con with my sister who lives in Appleton. Alas, she caught one of the fifty or so colds she will have in the next three months. Everyone at The Hungry Detective office hopes she feels better, and we are already looking forward to attending the fifth installment with her next year. The second minor disappointment was the, I'm sure, entirely unavoidable absences of Duane Swierczynski and Harry Hunsicker . Bummer. (Ed Note. Duane's twitter feed notes a Christening... Cheers to that Mr. Swierczynski!) All of this is, of course, is weighted by the very wonderful news that Dennis Lehane , after taking the balance of a year off after finishing The Given Day, is writing a new book. And it is a Kenzie and Gennaro book. Woo-Hoo! In terms of my own education about Crime Fiction, Dennis is an important figure. I was reading a lot by the...