Mystery/Thriller Reading Friends discussion

Hi everyone. Had a good month of reading with a number of new to me authors. Here are my May reads:

Top Reads

The Coffee Trader
David Liss
Historical suspense novel set in Amsterdam in 1659. I thought the author did a great job with the historical details, the financial angle of the story, and the descriptions of the lives of the Portuguese Jewish community. Listened to the audio version which was narrated by the always excellent John Lee.

Amagansett
Mark Mills
A really good book. Well written with a vivid setting and time period. The plotting was smoothly done and the characterizations, from the leads to minor players, were quite realistic. Very impressive for a debut and I was not the only one who thought so since it won the New Blood Dagger in 2004.

Disappeared
Anthony Quinn
Set in a post Troubles Northern Ireland, this was a dark and atmospheric read. I was impressed with the writing, which was very descriptive but not overly so, and how the plot dealt with complex issues without getting bogged down.

Good Reads

Small Gods
Terry Pratchett
The Discworld takes on organized religion and philosophy in this entertaining entry. Great satire that was both funny and a bit pointed. This was another book set away from the normal locations though and I did miss all the usual regulars. Listened to the audio which was ably read by Nigel Planer.

Seven Seconds or Less: My Season on the Bench with the Runnin' and Gunnin' Phoenix Suns
Jack McCallum
A well done season with a team book. The Phoenix Suns of nearly a decade ago were entertaining but seemed snake bit when it came to the playoffs. It was nice to remember how good Steve Nash was though his body was a bit creaky even back then.

Eight Ball Boogie
Declan Burke
A pretty good debut crime novel set in Ireland featuring a freelance journalist who is a research consultant on the side. Dark humor mixed with violence and snappy dialogue were the main highlights though the plotting was a bit lacking.

Morgue Drawer for Rent
Jutta Profijt
Another enjoyable outing for my two favorite German crime solvers. While the plot was not the most coherent, the narration of the audio by MacLeod Andrews kept me highly entertained.

Burning Angel
James Lee Burke
I enjoyed listening to this entry in the series though I did think the plotting was not quite as focused as in previous books. The ending seemed a bit abrupt with many threads dangling. Dave and Clete are great characters and no one else does descriptive passages quite like Burke. The narration of the audio was performed by Mark Hammer whose voice was perfect for this series.

Sweet Reason
Robert Littell
Due to a slip of an administrative pen, the USS Ebersole is assigned to the war zone in Vietnam even though it is a leaky, rusting, undermanned WW 2 era destroyer. Depressingly realistic seeming though not without some dark humor provided by the wildly eccentric crew and their mostly incompetent officers.

Morvern Callar
Alan Warner
Morvern was definitely a unique character and parts of this book were fascinating but I think I would have enjoyed it much more if I had read the book back in 1995 and I could have more related to the " vast internal emptiness of a generation" that the author was supposedly probing according to the book jacket.

eh

Red Sparrow
Jason Matthews
I was looking forward to this book since I enjoy a good spy thriller and this won the Edgar Award for best first novel for 2013 but found it underwhelming. I thought the characters were pretty cartoonish, the plot seemed to take forever to go anywhere, and the author relied too much on the characters making stupid decisions to propel the action. The recipes that ended every chapter though were interesting and the narration by Jeremy Bobb was more than adequate.

Great variety!

I always enjoy seeing what you & Shomeret read as they're always so different from what I usually read.

Recipes in a spy novel, now that's a bit unusual!
Nice variety, Sandi. I may try getting your top three onto my tbr pile, Disappeared especially.

Great month, Sandi. Was Seven Seconds or Less the year the Spurs stole the series from the suns on a terrible call?

Good month!

Dan in AZ wrote: "Great month, Sandi. Was Seven Seconds or Less the year the Spurs stole the series from the suns on a terrible call?"

No, the book was set the year before when Amar'e Stoudemire missed almost the entire season with the microfracture surgery. It was still an interesting year since the Suns had so many injuries, had traded Joe Johnson to the Hawks for Boris Diaw, and really were not thought to be contenders.

Ann wrote: "Recipes in a spy novel, now that's a bit unusual!

Unfortunately the recipes were the best part of the book and I looked forward to each one because I was that much closer to the end.

I remember Steve Nash playing for the Dallas Mavericks. Just a little guy with lots of speed.

He improved a lot during his career. You don't win league MVP (playing with Phoenix) without excellent skills in all areas of the game. The last couple of years with the Lakers were an example of someone hanging on who should have retired, although this was mostly due to injury.

Entertaining summaries, as always, Sandi! You really mixed 'em up this month. Jutta Profijt is new to me and someone I'd like to pursue. James Lee Burke is always a rich treasure.

Carol and Sandi: I have the audio of Morgue Drawer Four in my tbr pile, it is book one I think. I started it a while back, the narration is fun. I think i picked it up after seeing one of your reviews, Sandi.
Carol/Bonadie wrote: "Entertaining summaries, as always, Sandi! You really mixed 'em up this month. Jutta Profijt is new to me and someone I'd like to pursue."

This just came in to the library. We'll see when I get to it.

Ann wrote: "Carol and Sandi: I have the audio of Morgue Drawer Four in my tbr pile, it is book one I think. I started it a while back, the narration is fun. I think i picked it up after seeing..."