Zorral Posted April 3, 2022 Share Posted April 3, 2022 Upon recommendation here I've begun Elsa Hart's Jade Dragon Mountain (2015) set at the turn of the 18th C in tropical Yunnan province, close to the Tibetan border. I got about 1/5th through last night before lights out, pulled in from the first sentence, the first character's narrative voice, the close noticing of detail in people and surroundings (he's a displaced librarian! my people!), and then all the other characters thereafter, and what goes on. I got to what I'm assuming will be only the first murder. And this is the author's first novel! If it remains this good -- and have no reason to suspect it will not -- woo -- it means there are more of this character to read. Thank you so much butterweedstrover! butterweedstrover 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted April 11, 2022 Share Posted April 11, 2022 (edited) The latest installment in C.S. Harris's Sebastian St. Cy Mysteries, When Blood Lies, has just been published. O la la, Paris and Vienna before Waterloo, and Sebastian's long evasive mother -- who may have pulled off her final evasion, the greatest of them all. My admiration for the author's incredible discipline to keep bringing us a book nearly every year continues to grow. She lives in New Orleans, and barely missed delivering the 2010 book that hurricane year -- getting When Shadows Dance in 2011; she's not failed to get out the books in the pandemic either. Edited April 12, 2022 by Zorral Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lady narcissa Posted April 12, 2022 Author Share Posted April 12, 2022 I'm reading that one right now. I ended up starting that one and holding off on the Donna Leon one because I wanted to know about you-know-who after such a long buildup. But yes, C.S. Harris is such a consistent writer. Not only does she keep this series coming out regularly, but she wrote some books with her husband and another historical fiction novel at the same time as this series. I had a chance to chat with her at a conference a few years ago and that was very enjoyable. Zorral 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lady narcissa Posted April 14, 2022 Author Share Posted April 14, 2022 Okay so I finished When Blood Lies, the 17th book in the Sebastian St. Cyr series by C.S. Harris. You only have to look at the dates in the book and location to know where you are headed - March 1815, France. Overall, it was a satisfactory read as all the books in this series have been. Not my favorite, however, and it does start dragging midway through the book. I mean we all know what is going to happen with Napoleon so there is no surprise on that front and its a bit waiting for the inevitable. Of course Napoleon is not the focus of the story, solving the murders are. But he does sort of distract and take away the focus from the main story. I found myself putting down the book and spending more time looking people and events up on the side than usual. And considering the entire series has been building up to a specific event in this book - a 17 book buildup is a lot of buildup! - that bit ended up being very disappointing. Spoiler I mean killing Sebastian's long lost mother off right off the bat like that. SO DISAPPOINTING!!!!! I wasn't hoping she'd show up and become a regular character but I felt so bad for Sebastian not getting more time with her. And that Hendon and Amanda knew where she was this whole time and didn't tell him? So randomly weird, that seemed like a bit of a retrofit. At this point I have decided not to care/worry about Sebastian's father so I don't go through anything more like this. But always glad to spend a few evenings wandering around with Sebastian and Hero as they solve murders and wander through interesting locations and learn some small bits of history I didn't know before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted April 14, 2022 Share Posted April 14, 2022 13 hours ago, lady narcissa said: considering the entire series has been building up to a specific event in this book - a 17 book buildup is a lot of buildup! - that bit ended up being very disappointing. Ya. Sigh. I suppose by now though t Spoiler here is nothing that could be revealed that could possibly top what we may have imagined having been pulled along by this now seeming McGuffin for 17 books -- particularly early on? I'm in a hurry to have the boys grow up and see what they will become and do! Spoiler Do you expect the new pregnancy Hero reveals at the end of this book will be a daughter? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Picked up the second of Elsa Hart's Li Du novel, The White Mirror (2016) from the library. Expect to be down with reaction to second covid booster this weekend, so a novel to read, and one to listen to while hallucinating (judging by my last two vax reactions), need to be available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted May 10, 2022 Share Posted May 10, 2022 Finished my 40th Agatha Christie book. Yay. (That'd be 23 Poirots, 5 Marples, 10 Stand-alones, and 2 Tommy/Tuppences). Ormond and Zorral 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted May 11, 2022 Share Posted May 11, 2022 Woot! As a fillip, to your accomplishment, my current novel is Death At Greenway (2021 UK. 2022 US) by Lori Rader-Day. This is an historical mystery set at Christie's vacation pile in Devon during the Blitz though it begins rather prior to the Big 1941 Events of the novel, in 1939. Christie and her work are frequently referred to, though her own appearance within the novel's events, brief. She and her husband had gone to live in London, he to work in the government and she in pharmacy, as their part of the war effort. Agatha Christie continues to ride ride ride! https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-293804-6 The Marquis de Leech and HoodedCrow 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted May 12, 2022 Share Posted May 12, 2022 Can I also note that it's a crying shame Christie didn't dabble more in Horror? She had far more talent for that than in the mediocre thrillers she kept putting out at various intervals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lady narcissa Posted July 8, 2022 Author Share Posted July 8, 2022 I've been reading a number of mysteries - most of them additional books in series I've previously started - so some more Donna Leon and Ann Cleeves and Tana French. As well as a reread of an Agatha Christie that is really the first one of her's I've reread as an adult and not enjoyed - The Moving Finger. And I read the first Jackson Brodie, Case Histories, mystery which i got after some recommendations in this thread. I enjoyed it and would continue with the rest of the series but for the off putting ebook pricing of the rest! I'll keep my eye out for special on them but I am not paying $10.99 - $14.99 for a not new ebook no matter how much I would like to read them. I see there was a tv series made based on them with Jason Isaacs so I got a bit of a chuckle when his character in the book had some thoughts on the Harry Potter series since Isaacs was in the HP movies. Zorral 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Castellan Posted July 20, 2022 Share Posted July 20, 2022 During COVID I went on some rereading binges, as I found it had been long enough since first read that it was worthwhile. I reread all of Elly Griffiths series centring on an archaeologist. I also found the MItchell and Markby series of village cosies by Ann Granger. I had read some of her Fran Varaday books around the time they came out and found them OK, and later her Victorian mysteries with a policeman and his wife which I liked (I didn't even realised it was the same author as the Fran Varaday series). The Mitchell and Markby are quite dated now but I liked them and just read the whole lot. So disappointing there can't be more! I am dependent on there being e-book versions now, as I never mastered reading glasses when there was an easier alternative, and that's how I found the Mitchell and Markby series. They were probably out of print or just not around when I was browsing in book shops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted August 14, 2022 Share Posted August 14, 2022 Now fifty Agatha Christies (26 Poirots, 8 Marples, 13 stand-alones, 3 Tommy/Tuppences). I was saving Curtain for this particular landmark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLastWolf Posted August 14, 2022 Share Posted August 14, 2022 6 hours ago, The Marquis de Leech said: Now fifty Agatha Christies (26 Poirots, 8 Marples, 13 stand-alones, 3 Tommy/Tuppences). I was saving Curtain for this particular landmark. Bah, I'm at 69 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted August 14, 2022 Share Posted August 14, 2022 12 hours ago, TheLastWolf said: Bah, I'm at 69 I don't think I'll catch that total - I'm limited by the stockpile of my local library, and the fact that the ones I haven't read are invariably ones from her last twenty years, when everyone thinks she wasn't as good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted August 15, 2022 Share Posted August 15, 2022 Bah. She not as good was better than most who were at their best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLastWolf Posted August 15, 2022 Share Posted August 15, 2022 4 hours ago, The Marquis de Leech said: I don't think I'll catch that total - I'm limited by the stockpile of my local library, and the fact that the ones I haven't read are invariably ones from her last twenty years, when everyone thinks she wasn't as good. I emptied my school library, but you'll see only my entry in most of them in the last 10 years and probably ten years to come. Reading is dying here. The ones which have entries were from wanna show they read too guys who returned it with pages unturned long after due date. 3 hours ago, Zorral said: Bah. She not as good was better than most who were at their best. Absolutely Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ormond Posted August 15, 2022 Share Posted August 15, 2022 14 hours ago, The Marquis de Leech said: I don't think I'll catch that total - I'm limited by the stockpile of my local library, and the fact that the ones I haven't read are invariably ones from her last twenty years, when everyone thinks she wasn't as good. Don't they have interlibrary loan in New Zealand? In the USA one really isn't limited by what is physically in one's local library because almost all libraries participate in interlibrary loan and can get you a copy from somewhere else in the country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Arryn Posted August 15, 2022 Share Posted August 15, 2022 My past 25 mystery reads or rereads*, if anyone wants feedback: *Black Cherry Blues, James Lee Burke *In the Morning I’ll Be Gone*, Adrian McKinty *Search The Dark, Charles Todd *Pronto, Elmore Leonard *The Keeper of Lost Causes, Jussi Adler-Olsen *Odds Against, Dick Francis *Dogstar Rising, Parker Bilal *A Journeyman To Grief, Maureen Jennings *Bad Debts, Peter Temple *Cliff Diver, Carmen Amato *Blue Lightning, Ann Cleeves *Darkness Take My Hand, Dennis Lehane *Sidetracked*, Henning Mankell *Dissolution*, C.J. Sansom *Cockroaches, Jo Nesbo *The Religious Body, Catherine Aird *Standing In Another Man’s Grave*, Ian Rankin *Flowers Over The Inferno, Ilaria Tuti *A Purple Place For Dying, John D. MacDonald *Two Bare Arms, Blake Banner *A Knife In The Fog, Bradley Harper *Lie In The Dark, Dan Fesperman *Cosi Fan Tutti, Michael Dibdin *Another Man’s Moccasins, Craig Johnson *Forty Words For Sorrow, Giles Blunt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLastWolf Posted August 16, 2022 Share Posted August 16, 2022 9 hours ago, James Arryn said: *Cockroaches, Jo Nesbo Fantastic one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hereward Posted August 16, 2022 Share Posted August 16, 2022 I can highly recommend the Wyndham-Banerjee series by Abir Mukherjee, set in 1920s Calcutta. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLastWolf Posted August 16, 2022 Share Posted August 16, 2022 (edited) 7 hours ago, Hereward said: I can highly recommend the Wyndham-Banerjee series by Abir Mukherjee, set in 1920s Calcutta. Speaking of Kolkata, Satyajit Ray's Feluda novels/stories (Desi Sherlock Holmes if you must) and Byomkesh Bakshi make for interesting reads in this genre. Prof Shonku if you need Cuthbert Calculus. Edited August 16, 2022 by TheLastWolf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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