Mystery/Thriller Reading Friends discussion

I had a good month of mainly catching up with various series that I follow. Here are my July reads:

Top Reads

Shadow
Karin Alvtegen
Dark and disturbing with highly dysfunctional characters and lots of secrets from the past, this was a well written look at fame, success, and family.

Collusion
Stuart Neville
A worthy followup to the previous book, The Ghosts of Belfast, this thriller was a bit more grounded in reality but still had a powerful if violent story line. I listened to the audio version which was read by Gerard Doyle who is one of my favorite narrators.

The Old School
P.M. Newton
A very good debut police procedural set in Sydney Australia during the early nineties. I found the sense of place and time period very authentic and found the plot, which included the police corruption investigations that were occurring and Aboriginal land rights, quite interesting.

Good Reads

Dead in the Water: A Marjory Fleming Thriller
A good entry in this rural Scottish police procedural series. I really enjoyed reading about a lead character who has a normal home life and a detective team that gets along for the most part. The plot involved a cold case which was very compelling though the other current day crimes were a bit less interesting.

Dressed for Death
Donna Leon
A well done mystery with an appealing lead character, interesting Venice setting, and a twisty plot.

Blood Is Dirt
Robert Wilson
This was a dark suspense tale set in West Africa featuring a troubleshooter/fixer who specializes in the retrieval of "extensively borrowed" money which sounds so much nicer than stolen. The plot was pretty complex and kind of veered off the rails a bit but the unique characters, sharp humor, and great descriptions of Africa made this an engaging read.

The Grind: Inside Baseball's Endless Season
Barry Svrluga
Adapted from a newspaper series this book looked at how the long baseball season affected the various participants of the Washington Nationals during the 2014 campaign. My favorite sections were about the wife of one of the team members, the scout who was on the road constantly looking for new talent, and the guys whose job it was to schedule the travel and logistics of the team throughout the season.

Long Day Monday
Peter Turnbull
Another good solid read in this no frills police procedural series set in Glasgow. Tightly written with only 180 pages and a fast plot, I always enjoy reading about the officers of the P Division.

Rough CountryJohn Sandford
Another entertaining outing for Virgil Flowers. I really liked the small town atmosphere and all the characters in this book especially the crazy gals in the country band. The actual mystery plot was perhaps not quite as suspenseful as usual but felt the writing was crisp with just the right amount of humor sprinkled in. Listened to the audio version which was read by Eric Conger who I am starting to appreciate more with each installment of this series.

The Counterfeit Agent
Alex Berenson
Not the best in the series but still entertaining enough on audio. John Wells and his former CIA co-workers are as interesting and fun as ever but I never really got into the plot. Listened to the audio which was read by George Guidall who gave his usual top notch performance.

Buried for Pleasure
Edmund Crispin
Oxford Don Gervase Fen, bored with academia, decides to run for Parliament but his attention is captured by various murders that have occurred in the seemingly quiet set of villages where he is canvassing for votes. I enjoyed this book mostly for the atmosphere and characters since the plotting was not nearly as good as in previous entries.

Disappointing

Heaven's Reach
David Brin
The final book of the second Uplift Trilogy but not really the conclusion I was hoping for. There were some decent sections but far too much of the time I found my mind wandering. I would have preferred a more focused look at the characters from the previous books and a more streamlined plot. Overall a really imaginative series with some really great ideas but a bit of a disappointing ending. The narration of the audio by George Wilson was stellar, as always, and helped me grind through til the end.

12 books! Great month, Sandi!!

The Old School sounds interesting, but I couldn't find it in the library or on Amazon.

Impressive month, Quite a variety! The next Virgil Flowers book will be out in October!

Dan in AZ wrote: "The Old School sounds interesting, but I couldn't find it in the library or on Amazon."

I read the Kindle version that I was able to check out from my local library's Overdrive catalog after I requested that it be purchased. I don't think the paper version was ever published here in the States.

I'll have to check Kindle books again.

Lots of good ones Sandi! Don't you just love catching up?

Dan: 'Or go to Australia to get a copy!
Dan in AZ wrote: "I'll have to check Kindle books again."
Nice month Sandi! Good looking audio books as usual!

Boy, you travelled all over the globe last month! Many interesting titles that I will look up. I can't wait to get to the next Virgil Flowers.