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The Hungry Detective Plan for 2021

Somethings I'm working on...

George Smiley

John le Carré, David Cornwell, passed away on December 12, 2019. At that point I had only read one of his books, his last, AGENT RUNNING IN THE FIELD. I have watched the Alec Guinness version of TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER SPY a number of times, and in real terms that series haunts me. It is unceasingly melancholy. There is a something special about a piece entertainment weather a book, a movie, or television show that can reach that deep sense of sadness and still be thrilling and wonderful. 

I started the year with CALL OF THE DEAD (1961), his first, and his first George Smiley. I look forward to the rest.

Billy Boyle

I take great enjoyment in the Progressive - Don't Be Your Parents series of commercials. One of the early ones was Dr. Rick gently asking a young man who is reading a book about submarines about who else reads books about submarines. In a resigned sigh the young man says "My dad..." Now funny enough, but that exchange is not what clinches the joke for me as being funny. It is the fact that the young guy is also wearing his Members only windbreaker inside the house.

I love wearing my jacket inside the house, Mrs. Hungry Detective comments constantly that I should take my coat off inside the house and for that reason I am going to starting reading James R. Benn's Billy Boyle books.

Slow Horses

If my interest in Crime Fiction has developed in a specific direction it has been to espionage. Mick Herron has been writing the Slow Horses series for over a decade and his latest, SLOUGH HOUSE was just released. It really spurred me to read this series with the anticipation of buying that new book.

One of the things that I have to embrace in the new reality of not having an overwhelming pile of books to read is the library. Just because I like a book does not mean I have to buy the book. This runs antithetical to how I have approached my reading interest in Crime Fiction going back to... ya know... forever. 

In the case of the Mick Herron it makes no sense to buy Book 6 when I am not likely to read it for several months. The only way to break old habits to create new ones.

Jackson Brodie

LEFT EARLY, TOOK MY DOG. Sometimes all it takes is a title. Five words to create an entire world in my head.

I don't read enough female authors, not by a long shot. Only Laurie R. King is in my regular cannon. I read Megan Abbott's first 5, all of them wonderful, and then none after. The same with Minette Walters. Read her first six, then nothing. My memory here is that I did not connect with THE BREAKER and never really considered reading the next book. I've read one Laura Lippman, WHAT THE DEAD KNOW, nothing else. This despite owning the first 3 Tess books in paperback, bought them at the time of release. Never read them.

Laura Lippman has a few to many books for me to tackle right now, but with Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie one images I could make a dent before we kick 2021 to the curb.

Classics

I have an odd notion to read a few of the classic I missed in High School or College. For some reason THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV is the hill I will die on for my desire to read the 'classics'. This despite not knowing until this moment that KARAMAZOV is a murder mystery!? Anyway knocking off a MOBY DICK or an ANNA KARENINA seems like a good way to spend part of 2021. Plus, I don't mind reading them over a long period of time while I'm on my normal bs.

Current Read
A MURDER OF QUALITY - John le Carré
 
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