Review: Strange Pictures

Strange Pictures by Uketsu
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An excellent and original mystery/thriller. I have no idea why I had this in my wish list, but I'm really happy I did.

A multi-part mystery novel involving several crimes, where the clues are all in the pictures (be sure to consult them). This is how a detective novel should be. You have the clues, so how long will it take for you to figure everything out?

If you find this book, pick it up.



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Review: Nobody’s Fool

Nobody’s Fool by Harlan Coben
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Fast-paced, intricate, suspenseful and overall smart plot. Another great Harlan Coben, and in fact one of my favorite of his.

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Review: The K Team

The K Team by David Rosenfelt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fun new series with familiar characters


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Review: Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee

Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Absolutely excellent. This ends up being a book about a trial for a murder committed in a church at a funeral, so not to much a whodunnit as a whydunnit. In exploring why, this ends up being a story about Harper Lee, Truman Capote, the South and its race relations (and to Kill a Mockingbird), to the attorney Tom Radney (defending the murderer in this case, but having defended the person killed for many others). But in the end, it also becomes a book exploring why Harper Lee never wrote a book about this trial, which she went to investigate, and took copious notes for, just as she had done for Truman Capote in helping him write In Cold Blood.

It's also somewhat infuriating to read about "To set a watchman". She wrote that book prior to "To Kill a Mockingbird", but never wanted it published. However, when her new agent took over from Lee's sister, she decided to publish it, and it is unclear as to whether Lee agreed to this or not.


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Review: Win

Win by Harlan Coben
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fun to have a Harlan Coben book in the Myron Bolitar universe starring Win.


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Review: Play Dead

Play Dead by David Rosenfelt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Always refreshing and fun to read Andy Carpenter mysteries. I look forward to the next one.


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Review: Mrs. Pollifax Pursued

Mrs. Pollifax Pursued by Dorothy Gilman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Jumping around between suburbia, infiltrating a circus and flying off to an invented African country seemed like a bit too much for one book about a middle-aged white-haired detective.

2.5 stars

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Review: Dead Center

Dead Center by David Rosenfelt
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was perfect as a light mystery novel. I forgot how much I enjoyed the Andy Carpenter series. Dry New York (New Jersey) humor combined with a fast-paced detective novel, keeping things up in the air until the end. I admittedly sort of figured out who the killer was early on, but I still enjoyed it. 

4.5 stars

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Review: L'arte del fallimento

L'arte del fallimento by Andrea Fazioli
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this more than I remember enjoying his other books. I'll have to read more by him. 

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Review: Quell'estate di sangue e di luna

Quell'estate di sangue e di luna by Eraldo Baldini
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Excellent book. The suspense lasted a while, in a crescendo, and when the action hit, at first I thought it was weird and far-fetched, but in the end it turned out quite good. A juxtaposition of people doing well in a completely unknown location (the moon and space), while others are having disaster occur on land they've known for generations. 

I look forward to reading more by Baldini (and Fabbri).

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Review: The Clairvoyant Countess

The Clairvoyant Countess by Dorothy Gilman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A pretty fun book if you're looking for a break from intense or complicated/serious books. More than an overarching mystery, this has a series of small adventures, sort of like different sitcom episodes. 

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Review: Thale's Folly

Thale's Folly by Dorothy Gilman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm not sure why I thought this would be a murder mystery. It's not really even a mystery. Still, I'm glad I read it. It's a feel-good story, but done well. 

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Review: Lost

Lost by Michael Robotham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.25 stars. Kept me guessing throughout and kept me interested for the most part. 

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Review: A Quiet Place

A Quiet Place by Seichō Matsumoto
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I think I enjoyed this story more than "Inspector Imanishi Investigates" by the same author, although that one was made more interesting by the details of various parts of Japan and the different accents. 

This was originally published in 1971, and in many ways it shows. The pace is rather slow, and the people unremarkable. On the other hand, it is a glimpse into Japanese life in the late 60's/early 70's, with a mysterious death and its aftermath thrown in the mix. What's not to love?

4.5 stars

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Review: Orkney Twilight

Orkney Twilight by Clare Carson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

For a mystery/thriller, nothing really happens until page 140 or so (and even then only in fits and starts until the end).

For a book about Orkney, it mentions quite a few locations and their ties to the Vikings, but otherwise not much at all. In fact, the closest person we meet to a "local" is actually a Norwegian fisherman.

Otherwise I found it a book with odd, not very plausible, characters. Maybe it's just a different mentality or something, but they seemed at times brilliant and at times extremely dull-witted. I understand the father and daughter had issues, but when an obvious international spy makes death threats to you and your father, why not at least mention it to your undercover cop father to get his take? But maybe that's just me.

Too bad, I was looking forward to a book about Orkney, and a mystery novel at that.

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Review: A Noise Downstairs

A Noise Downstairs by Linwood Barclay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A fun book, decent- to fast-paced, with enough red herrings to keep me interested and guessing. Although it ended up being a tad far-fetched for my taste.

Still, I think I will read other books by this author.


3.5 stars

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Review: The Girl from Venice

The Girl from Venice by Martin Cruz Smith
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a light and quick-paced novel taking place in Italy at the end of WWII. All things that rank favorably for me. Unlike other reviewers, I didn't find the talk about fishing and boating at all boring. I found it pretty fascinating in its own way, and it was pretty much the sum of character development.

Which brings me to the issue I had with this. The characters just seemed odd for some reason. I felt like I had stumbled in halfway through the book or something. They kept saying and doing things that seemed odd, with no real explanation. This included Cenzo, the protagonist, when dealing with them. Why does he feel he can say this and that to one person and not another? Why does he go to this person's house and not the other's? It all just seems to be quite random. Maybe I need my hand held more or something, but there you go.

Anyway, 3 stars in all, since I enjoyed Cenzo, his fishing, and his friends back home.

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Review: Il ladro di ragazze

Il ladro di ragazze by Carlo Silini
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

All in all a good historical novel, with interesting twists and turns, taking place in the 1600's between Mendrisio and Northern Italy.

It did drag on at certain points, however, and could probably have been around 100 pages shorter (there were some tangents and meanderings that didn't seem to add anything to the story).

3 stars, but since it's so difficult to find historical novels taking place in Ticino, I'm bringing it back up to 4 stars.

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Review: La briscola in cinque

La briscola in cinque by Marco Malvaldi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nice, short, fun book, with enough twists and turns to keep it interesting, although the main point was the Tuscan conversation, especially with the old guys in the bar. Recommended for all those who miss Tuscany. I will be checking out the others in this series.

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Review: Lady Audley's Secret

Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So I figured out what Lady Audley's Secret, guessing that maybe something that is obvious to the reader of today might have not been so to the pre-Sherlock Holmes reader of the 1860s. And then it turned out I was wrong, and what I thought was the secret was nothing but a ruse, and it seems that the reader of today (at least, this reader) can still be tricked by the writer of the 1860s.

Regardless, this has quite a few interesting aspects: murder, bigamy, detective work (not at a Sherlock Holmes level, but interesting nonetheless), insanity, etc. But I appreciated the (slight) nuance regarding the villain the most. You don't empathize per se, but, well, you'll see.

A bit slow at points, but all in all a good find.

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