I’m a sucker for horror fiction and that was very good novella
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I’ve recently read a few books
“Guilty Minds” by Joseph Finder. A PI is hired to help prove that a scandal about a judge isn’t true, and goes on to discover the origin of the story. A decent story, enjoyable.
“A Winter Grave” by Peter May. Set in a mixture of present day and in 2050 after a major weather event, a body is found in ice and a detective is sent to figure out how it got there. A possible accident at a nearby nuclear power plant may be the cause, but the detective starts to encounter resistance to his work by some who would prefer it to be covered up. Another good story, I generally enjoy stuff by Peter May.
“Still Life” by Val McDermid. Karen Pirie of the cold case unit is called in to investigate the discovery of a skeleton in a VW Camper parked in a garage after the owner of the garage is knocked off her bicycle and killed. At the same time she’s looking into an art fraud. Again, a good story by another author I like.
I’ve just finished “The Match” by Harlan Coben. A man enters his details into a DNA matching web site and gets a match with a relation he didn’t know he had, but turns out to be linked to a reality TV star who has just gone missing, and a series of murders linked to web trolls and a shadowy band of vigilantes. A decent story overall, I thought.
I’ve just read “The Best Revenge” by Stephen White. A convicted murderer is released from death row by some new evidence found by an FBI agent after an anonymous tip-off, but encounters some hostility when he is released from prison. He starts to see a psychologist who is also seeing the same FBI agent, and becomes conflicted as their stories start to intertwine.
A good story, I enjoyed the book, I think I’ve read one or more from the same author but a long time ago.
A Promised Land - Barack Obama
I’ve just finished “The Secret of Cold Hill” by Peter James. An artist and his wife move into a newly built house on a new development being built on the site of an old manor house, and fairly quickly things start to go wrong, the locals aren’t welcoming and their only neighbours aren’t very nice. It’s a ghost story, and I must say that if I’d realised that I wouldn’t have bought it. As such I can’t say how good it was, because I just don’t read that genre. I bought it on the strength of the author who also writes the popular police series featuring Roy Grace, which I very much enjoy. So, not for me, but might be good for someone who likes that kind of thing.
I’ve started another of his non-police ones now, let’s hope this doesn’t go the same way.
I’ve just read “I Follow You” by Peter James. A surgeon becomes obsessed with a young woman that he meets by chance, and starts to plan a future for them together even though she’s preparing for the birth of her child and dealing with the effects of an operation on her husband, which was performed by that surgeon. Surgeon gets more and more obsessed and starts to take drastic action.
I liked this more than the previous one, not least because there weren’t any ghosts in it. I did wonder whether these were novels that he’d written prior to getting into his stride with the Roy Grace series, but the references to apps and other modern stuff suggests that isn’t the case, so I’m surprised they are so different. I’ll probably stick to the more well-known series in future. though.
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Just finished Irene by Pierre Lemaitre. Good read, but I liked the previous book from the series, Alex, a lot better.
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I’ve just read “The Cold Moon” by Jeffery Deaver. A serial killer is targetting seemingly-random victims but leaving a particular type of clock behind with each, and Lincoln Rhyme and the team have to try to track him down, at the same time as quietly looking into a possible case of police corruption which may or may not be linked. A decent story, as these always are.
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“The Revenge Plot” by Jackie Kabler.
Imagine this: one Monday morning, you arrive at your working place to find it completely locked down. All company signs are gone, the key locks have been changed, and your boss isn’t answering his phone. After a couple of freaking days, you discover he wasn’t who he said he was. You land a new job, but you get fired after just a few days. At this point, you might start to think: “What the hell have I done to deserve this?” Perhaps, just perhaps, something you’re not particularly proud of…
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^ Sounds interesting. Have you read any Linwood Barclay? Quite a few of his have a similar structure - something mundane that turns out to not have been true from the beginning, with the rest of the novel unravelling the background to it.
I don’t know him, but I sure will look into it. Any suggestions?
Just wrapped up “The Visual Handbook of Building and Remodeling” by Charlie Wing — a must-read for anyone in the construction or remodeling space. It’s packed with detailed illustrations and up-to-date building code info. Super helpful as a reference for both pros and serious DIYers.
Sorry, I meant to respond to this before, and it makes me realise that it’s so long since I read one that I need to recap before I can name any. I had a look on his web site and it’s a bit rubbish - I was hoping there would be a synopsis to remind me which are the better ones that I’ve read.
I recently finished “The Skin Collector”, another Lincoln Rhyme novel by Jeffery Deaver. A killer is tattooing people with poison, and the team struggle to figure out how he’s picking the victims, then he strikes closer to home. Another good story, enjoyed it.
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I just finished Frontera Sur by Guillermo Parvex, a Spanish-written book that relates the story of a man who left Concepción, a city 30 km away from where I live, that was destroyed by an earthquake in 1835.
He crossed the border from what was then Chilean territory into Mapuche territory, home of the Indigenous people, and began a new life among them, even though they were looked down upon by the descendants of Spanish conquerors, and outsiders, or winka, were generally not welcome.
It describes how slowly the relations between those two peoples deteriorated and why today we’re still footing the bill for what was done back then.
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I’ve recently read “The Unwilling” by John Hart. A man is released from prison and comes home to visit his brother, where he isn’t welcomed by his parents. They spend some time together, but then the man is framed for a murder by another prisoner who has a lot of money and power, just to get him back in prison. A strange story, but told well.
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I was on a cruise recently and got through three books…
Long Shadows by David Baldacci is about a FBI consultant and his new partner who are sent to investigate the murder of a federal judge and her bodyguard in her home. Typical Baldacci easy read with the usual odd jumps in plot but overall satisfying.
Burner by Mark Greaney is about an retired/burned deep cover agent who gets drug back into the life to try and save a whistleblower who has information regarding the deep state and the black money that Russia uses to influence US politics. It was an enjoyable read, though a bit on the edge of being annoyingly cliche - think James Bond meets Jason Bourne meets Mission Impossible. This is a series that I may read again when I need a complete escape from reality.
The Maze by Nelson Demille is about a wounded former NYPD Homicide/Federal ATF task force member with a target on his back/PTSD (they never really clarified) who reunites with a former fling to solve a series of murders in a beach town. This book was highly annoying in that I hated it but couldn’t stop reading it, though by the end it was as much “I’ve gone this far, might as well finish” as anything to do with the book. It’s written in first person stream of conciousness with a main character who’s a racist, mysoginistic jerk, the book is predictable in the end result but gets there in jarring, unearned manners. Frustrating as all get out…do not recommend. Still annoys me almost a month later…
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I’ve just finished “The Herd” by Emily Edwards. Two families with children have different views on whether they should be vaccinated, with difficult consequences. By the time I was about a third of the way through this, I almost gave up because it just seemed to be two fairly well-off families with different views. I pushed on with it because I don’t like giving up on stuff, and it got going a bit later on, but not my type of thing really.
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I’ve just read “The Detective” by Ajay Chowdhury. A detective starts working with a murder case, one of the founders of a tech company is murdered just before the company is about to be sold for a massive amount of money. Things get complicated when another founder is killed, some of the founders have a background in the military, the company is producing secretive software that can be used by intelligence agencies, and some much older bones are found at the site of the first body dump. I enjoyed it, I’ll definitely look out for more of the series.
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Yeah, that’s exactly how Ocean feels — like drifting through someone else’s dream. It’s not for everyone, but if it clicked with you then that’s what matters. Sometimes those surreal reads stick with you more than the straightforward ones.