Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Hi all. Here are my June reads:

Top Reads

All the Dead Voices
Declan Hughes
One of my favorite PI series though the plots are so intense that I have to spread the time out between each book to avoid becoming overwhelmed. I especially like the Dublin setting since most PI books I read are based in the States and found his treatment of the history of the IRA and the past violence quite timely since the Gerry Adams situation has been in the news recently.

Naked Prey
John Sandford
Lucas's first case with the BCA takes him to Northern Minnesota where the crime scene could be politically damaging but soon finds much more is going on in the seemingly quiet small town. I really enjoyed this entry in the series and was impressed that Sandford was able to create an 11 year old girl character that did not annoy me.

Good Reads

Lifeline
Gerry Boyle
Another fine entry in this series featuring a newspaper reporter formerly of the New York Times now working in small town Maine. I really like the main character and thought the plotting in this book was quite good.

Eva's Eye
Karin Fossum
While this was the first book written in the series for some reason the English translation was just recently published which made me assume it would be of lesser quality than the later books but that really was not the case. A good introduction to Inspector Sejer with the author's usual high quality psychological suspense.

The Mephisto Club
Tess Gerritsen
While I probably won't rank this book among the best of the series it did have its moments and I found it fairly entertaining. The plot was a bit out there for me and I thought Dr. Isles went off the rails a bit but Jane was her usual grumpy though clear-headed self and amid all the blood and evil there was a bit a of humor. Listened to the audio version read by Kathe Mazur who did a serviceable job.

A Death for Adonis
E.X. Giroux
A quite readable classic type English country house mystery with a bit of a twist. This was the first book in a series and I very much enjoyed the two lead characters and overall found the book well written.

Ten Plus One
Ed McBain
I thought this was one of the more entertaining entries in this long running police procedural series. A sniper is on the loose in Isola and Steve Carella and Meyer Meyer catch the case. A very intense page turner.

Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas
John Scalzi
Pretty lightweight but fairly amusing. Very dialogue heavy though which got a bit tiresome in the audio (he/she said seemingly every other word). The narration was performed by Wil Wheaton who was a perfect fit for the storyline.

A Dance with Dragons
George R.R. Martin
Still fairly enjoyable but there was quite a bit of filler material that I felt could have been cut which would have made it much better. I am worried about where this is all going to end, or if it even will, but am still going along for the ride.

Sharpe's Fury
Bernard Cornwell
Richard Sharpe and his Rifleman manage their usual entertaining exploits and the details of the Battle of Barrosa were quite interesting. Listened to the audio version which was narrated by Steven Crossley who was quite good and it was nice that the audio was dedicated to the usual narrator of the series, Patrick Tull, who passed away before this book was published.

Ok Read

The Map of Lost Memories: A Novel
Kim Fay
Ultimately a disappointing read. Set in 1925 with exotic locales such as Shanghai, Saigon, and Cambodia I thought this would be a can't miss for me but I found that the descriptions and writing style overwhelmed the plot and the characters did not engage me at all. Listened to the audio version read by Karyn O'Bryant whose voice just sounded too young for the material.

What comes below "ok read"?

I read some years ago, along with a couple of others in the series. They were all pretty good reads. Don't know why I never read any more.

Great list! I keep meaning to read Cornwell...

Barry wrote: "What comes below "ok read"?"


Luckily I have not had any one star reads in the past few years so have not had to come up with anything.

Quite a month. Naked Prey was one of my favs.

I'm tackling The Brothers Karamazov after having listened to a BBC radio adaptation and having studied the Wikipedia entry.

Barry wrote: "What comes below "ok read"?"

Throw-across-the-room-able.

Sandi wrote: All the Dead Voices
Declan Hughes
One of my favorite PI series though the plots are so intense that I have to spread the time out between each book to avoid becoming overwhelmed. ..."

What is it with those Irish writers? I could say the same thing about Tana French. So intense.

A Death for Adonis sounds intriguing also

Good month, and nice to know good things about the first Karin Fossum book, Sandi! I have enjoyed three others of hers, I'll have to seek it out.
I have a different John Scalzi book lined up for someday, it is also read by Will Wheaton. The Android's Dream. It will be my first. Your comments about The Game of Thrones #5 which looks like it is a bit parallel with the TV series, makes me wonder if I will ever get that far in the books (still haven't started the audio of the first one) maybe that ship has sailed...

Sandi, you have some authors I've never read and got me putting them on my list, especially Hughes, McBain and Boyle. Sounds like some great books.