This was one of those weeks when I was a little distracted and my attention jumped from book to book, almost like flipping channels on a TV. I’ve started a lot of books, most of them good, but finished very few. Anyway, here’s what’s been happening this week and what’s up next.
The older I get (and I’m already quite old), the less willing I am to continue with a book that isn’t working for me. I’d rather set them aside and read something else. This week, I set two books aside, not because they were terrible books but because i didn’t have the appetite for them. The book I did finish this week made up for the other two. It was original, dark and surprising.
I set ‘The Killing Season‘ aside about a quarter of the way through. There wasn’t anything wrong with the book, I’m just too old for it.
I read ‘Fear University‘ last year, and enjoyed it. It was an Urban Fantasy novel with a few new twists and a compelling main character. It a little dark, fairly action-packed and filled with intrigue, violence, hormones, haunted pasts and relentless tension. ‘The Killing Season‘ had a lot of similarities but there were key differences that led to me setting it aside.
The plot had a more Young Adult feel to it with a focus on who is attracted to whom, building new friendships and figuring out how to resist the wishes of authority figures and get away with it.
The point of view of the story flipped between our tough outcast heroine and her nicer, softer, well-connected friend. This didn’t work for me partly because the best friend was a mix of naive, loyal and intensely committed that I found hard to swallow and partly because it reduced the tension in the narrative.
The first quarter of the book lacked tension. It was a rehash of the history and an introduction to the new environment. In the first book, our heroine was fighting for her life almost from the first page. In this book, she was sitting on the sidelines, with all the violence happening off-screen and largely unreported. Without the tension and the violence, all I was left with was something that felt like a teen version of intrigue and angst.
‘Tell Me How This Ends‘ is a very sad story. Actually, two very sad stories, both of them believable. Both women have events in their past that have caused lasting harm. Annie is dying of cancer. She’s alone at the end of her life with no one to tell her story to.. Henrietta is a little out of step with the world. She’s leading a constrained, lonely, disatisfying life, marred by a deep rooted guilt The two are brought together when Henrietta takes a job helping terminal patients to produce a ‘Life Story’ to leave behind. Henrietta sees the task as one requiring organisation, discipline and the proper use of templates. Annie, to her own surprise, discovers that it’s a way of unburdening herself of long-supressed memories of what happened to her younger sister decades earlier.
Despite the gloomy set-up, I foud myself wanting to see if / how these two women could help each other.
‘Tell Me How This Ends‘ is often described as ‘uplifting’. That wasn’t my experience of it. Perhaps I set it aside before I reached the uplifting part. Even so, I found it to be a sad book that I could only read a little at a time. I’m sure my experience of the book was shaped by the fact that, for me, this wasn’t historical fiction. I remember what England was like when Annie, now in her sixties, was a teenager. Her grim descriptions of the silent but relentless oppression of everyday racism and misogyny were a reminder rather than a discovery.
I was intrigued by the premise of the story. Telling the story by alternatiing between Annie’s and Harriet’s point of view worked well. The passages where each woman recalls her memories were vivivd. Yet there wasn’t the intimacy I’d expect. I was too conscious of the mechanics of the plot and not deeply enough immersed in the present-day experiences of the women.
‘You’d Look Better As A Ghost‘ (2023) redeemed my reading week. It was dark, compelling, honest and surprising. It took me inside the head of Clair, a life-long serial killer. It showed her as being neurodivergent in a way that allows, even invites her to kill. She’s low on empathy and has had to work on her insight in order to pass as an ‘ordinary person‘. Claire experiences , ost ‘ordinary people’ as odd and unattractive but some cross a line and do things that trigger her need to kill.
This is a brutal, angry, violent, disturbingly real story. I think it may have been too real for the publishers to describe it honestly. It’s promoted as a ‘darkly comic thriller‘. I don’t think there was anything comic about it. Describing this as a comedy seems like a way of distancing the reader from the raw emotions in the book: rage, grief, pain. the hunger to kill. If this book were about a man doing what Claire is doing, no one would think it was funny. Perhaps it’s a form of misogyny that Hannibal Lecter is seen as a scary monster but Claire gets labelled as quirky and comic?
The plot was much more complex than I’d expected. Despite being a resourceful, efficient killer, Claire is often in jeopardy as unexpected events upend her plans.
Two things made the book exceptional: that Claire was stuggling to cope with her grief for her recently deceased father and the vivid, disturbing memories of her childhood with her vicious mother.
I bought five books this week. One book continues an FBI series. Three of them start new-to-me series: an Icelandic Noir, a time trave mystery and a cozy supernatural mystery. The fifth book is the second novel by Joanna Wallace.
Raised by a family of survivalists, FBI agent Mercy Kilpatrick can take on any challenge – even the hostile reception to her homecoming. But she’s not the only one causing chaos in the rural community of Eagle’s Nest, Oregon. At first believed to be teenage pranks, a series of fires takes a deadly turn with the murder of two sheriff’s deputies. Now, along with Police Chief Truman Daly, Mercy is on the hunt for an arsonist turned killer.
Still shunned by her family and members of the community, Mercy must keep her ear close to the ground to pick up any leads. And it’s not long before she hears rumors of the area’s growing antigovernment militia movement. If the arsonist is among their ranks, Mercy is determined to smoke the culprit out. But when her investigation uncovers a shocking secret, will this hunt for a madman turn into her own trial by fire?
‘A Merciful Truth‘ (2017) is the second book in the eight-book series about FBI Agent Mercy Kilpatrick. I’ll be reading the first book this week, but my wife’s already read it and given it the thumbs up, so the second one is now on the shelf.
RIcelandic sisters Áróra and Ísafold live in different countries and aren‘t on speaking terms, but when their mother loses contact with Ísafold, Áróra reluctantly returns to Iceland to find her sister. But she soon realises that her sister isn’t avoiding her…she has disappeared.
As she confronts Ísafold’s abusive, drug-dealing boyfriend Björn and begins to probe her sister’s reclusive neighbours, Áróra is led into an ever-darker web of intrigue and manipulation. Baffled by the conflicting details of her sister’s life and blinded by the shivering bright midnight sun of the Icelandic summer, Áróra enlists the help of police officer Daníel, as she tries to track her sister’s movements and begins to tail Björn – but she isn’t the only one watching….
‘Cold As Hell‘ (2015) is the first book in the five-book Áróra Investigation crime thriller series set in Iceland. I like the idea of Icelandic Noir with an amateur sleuth. I’m hoping that this will become a comfort read series for me.
Ali Dawson and her cold case team investigate crimes so old, they’re frozen – or so their inside joke goes. Most people don’t know that they travel back in time to complete their research.
The latest assignment sees Ali venture back farther than they have dared before: to 1850s London in order to clear the name of Cain Templeton, the eccentric great-grandfather of MP Isaac Templeton. Rumour has it that Cain was part of a sinister group called The Collectors; to become a member, you had to kill a woman…
Fearing for her safety in the middle of a freezing Victorian winter, Ali finds herself stuck in time, unable to make her way back to her life, her beloved colleagues, and her son, Finn, who suddenly finds himself in legal trouble in the present day.
Could the two cases be connected?
I stopped following Elly Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway series a while ago. I like her writing but I was beginning to go off the people. I’ve had two of her newer books, ‘The Locked Room’ and ‘Bleeding Heart Yard‘, in my TBR pile for a couple of years now. I was reluctant to add another to the two already waiting to be read but reluctance was replaced with, ‘That I want to try’ when I saw that the premise of ‘The Frozen People‘ was a police Cold Case team solving old crimes by going back in time. It’s a fun idea. I want to see what Elly Griffiths does with it.
TNora never believed in ghosts until one popped up asking for her help. And she never believed in witches…until she discovered she was one.
Now trapped in the quaint supernatural town of Eastwind, she must learn the ins and outs of her powers before she gets herself killed.
When she stumbles on a murder in the greasy kitchen of an all-night diner, all wands point to Nora the newcomer as the prime suspect.
With the help of her bacon-obsessed canine familiar, a too-hot-to-be-true waiter, and the spirit of the deceased, Nora’s only chance at clearing her name is to serve up the real killer on a silver platter. Is justice on the menu or will the guilty party dine and dash?course.
‘Crossing Over Easy’ (2018) was a whimsical acquisition. It was short, cute and free. Perfect for a car ride. And it’s the first book in a series. I’ve listened to the first few chapters and I’m undecided. The set-up could be fun but the start of the book feels like it’s trying too hard. I’m hoping it will settle down to quiet, absurd fun.
Things haven’t been going well for Beth. Her husband has left her for one of her friends. Her fellow school mums judge her for swearing too much and not shifting the baby weight. And now she’s stuck in A&E after her son fell off the climbing wall on the first day of school.
In fact, things haven’t been going well for Beth since Charlotte died – her best friend, a favourite at the school pick-ups and the only person to ever run an interesting PTA meeting. But after being hit by a car while on an ill-timed evening jog, Charlotte is no longer there to help Beth pick up the pieces of her increasingly difficult life.
That is, until Beth discovers that Charlotte left her toddler alone in the house during that fatal run. The Charlotte she knew would never do something so irresponsible, and suddenly Beth is questioning whether Charlotte’s death was really an accident. With a newfound purpose and a glass of wine in hand, it’s time for Beth to uncover what really happened to her best friend. And what better place to start than the circle of chatty school mums, who can’t be as perfect as they pretend. But which of them is hiding something? Beth’s determined to find out… once she’s put the kids to bed, of course.
I bought ‘The Dead Friend Project‘ (2024) as soon as I finished Joanna Wallace’s debut novel, ‘You’d Look Better As A Ghost‘. This one sounds more like a comedy than the first book but I’m expecting something with some depth to it.
This week, I’ll be reading books from three thriller series. One is about an outside-of-the-mainstrean FBI agent, one is a Nordic noir set in the Arctic Circle and one is a comedy about a CIA assassin hiding from a death threat by living undercover in Sinful, Louisiana. FBI agent, one is a Nordic noir set in the arctic circle and one is a comedy about a CIA assassin hiding from a death theat by living undercover in Sinful, Lousiana.
FBI special agent Mercy Kilpatrick has been waiting her whole life for disaster to strike. A prepper since childhood, Mercy grew up living off the land — and off the grid — in rural Eagle’s Nest, Oregon. Until a shocking tragedy tore her family apart and forced her to leave home. Now a predator known as the cave man is targeting the survivalists in her hometown, murdering them in their homes, stealing huge numbers of weapons, and creating federal suspicion of a possible domestic terrorism event. But the crime scene details are eerily familiar to an unsolved mystery from Mercy’s past.
Sent by the FBI to assist local law enforcement, Mercy returns to Eagle’s Nest to face the family who shunned her while maintaining the facade of a law-abiding citizen. There, she meets police chief Truman Daly, whose uncle was the cave man’s latest victim. He sees the survivalist side of her that she desperately tries to hide, but if she lets him get close enough to learn her secret, she might not survive the fallout….
I was looking for a new American mystery series to follow and I came across ‘Echo Road’ (2024) written by Kendra Elliot and Melinda Leigh, which brought together their two detectives Mercy Kilpatrick and Bree Taggert. The book got good reviews but I decided that I’d like to get to know each of the detectives before bringing them together. I’m starting with ‘ A Merciful Death’ (2017), the first Mercy Kilpatrick book, because it was published first. Next week I’ll read ‘Cross Her Heart‘, (2020), the first Bree Taggert book. If I like them, I’ll read one of each series a month through 2025.
At the end of a deadly bear hunt across the wilderness of Northern Sweden, the successful hunters are shaken by a grisly discovery. Across in Kurravaara, a woman is murdered with frenzied brutality: crude abuse scrawled above her bloodied bed, her young grandson nowhere to be found. Only Rebecka Martinsson sees a connection.
Dropped from the case thanks to a jealous rival, she now stands alone against a killer who brings death to young and old, spawned by a horrifying crime that festers after 100 years on ice.
‘The Second Deadly Sin‘ (2012) Is the fifth of the six Rebecka Martinsson books. I’ve enjoyed all of the books so far and I’m looking forward to this one. In the Christian tradition, the second deadly sin is greed. I wonder how much empathy Larsson will spare for the greedy.
In the two weeks CIA assassin Fortune Redding has been hiding in Sinful, Louisiana, she’s been harassed, poisoned, and shot at…and that was the easy part. But now she’s about to face her biggest challenge since setting foot in the tiny bayou town.
When mayoral candidate Ted Williams is murdered, everyone is surprised. Ted was a blowhole and a Yankee, but those usually weren’t good reasons to kill someone. When Sinful Ladies Society leader Ida Belle becomes the lead suspect in the crime, Fortune knows she’s got to solve a murder and save one of the only friends she’s ever had. But as the investigation begins, more and more secrets surface, and Fortune realizes that sometimes nothing is as it seems.
And when faced with the most terrible of truths, even the strongest break.
‘Swamp Sniper‘ (2013) is the third Miss Fortune book. I’m curious to see if Jana Deleon can continue to deliver the anarchic humour that made ‘Louisiana Longshot‘ and ‘Lethal Bayou Beauty‘ so much fun. The tone of this series reminds me of the Stephanie Plum books. I hope it doesn’t slide into the ‘Haven’t I already read this?‘ feel of that series.
Mike Finn's Fiction 