The Hungry Detective

Curious occurrence that both books are written as flashbacks. I could not reconcile why this was the right time tell these stories this way. Still, both have The Hungry Detective's strongest recommendations.   CRY BABY - Mark Billingham Mr. Billingham is a closer. Which is to say that he knows how to bring to bare the weight of all that has come before in a book's closing moments. In the case of CRY BABY the closing moments certainly calmed some general qualms about why a flashback story now, especially as a milestone book, Mr. Billingham's 20th. There must be something there, right? There is no acknowledgement in previous books, no cryptic references to the events in previous books about this story. Regardless of this semi-frustrating structure, CRY BABY is great, and Mr. Billingham has not missed in quite some time.   A PRIVATE CATHEDRAL - James Lee Burke "I'm talking about the acknowledgment of mortality, and not the kind that slips up on you in hospice or on th

It has been a long while since I read a first novel. [ Editor's Note: Long time since you enjoyed one too. ] But as the pile shrinks I have dipped my toe back into the waters of the first timer. FIREWATCHING by Russ Thomas falls into that category. While RIVIERA GOLD falls into the opposite as I have been reading Ms. King for over 20 years at this point. Additional, it is nice to read exclusively 2020 releases. And because of this, 2020 will be the first year I would feel comfortable to post a 'Best of' list in December. Even the act of starting that post with a list of potential books has been fun. FIREWATCHING - Russ Thomas Late last year and into the early part of 2020 I listened to a podcast that, impart, dealt with the production of television show. One of the podcasters is a producer/show-runner of a television show and he gamely detailed the ups and downs of that adventure. One of the things he talked about, in detailing the shows writing process, was that you leave