Mystery/Thriller Reading Friends discussion

The Recovery Agent by Janet Evanovich. Took a chance and listened to this on Libby and was surprised that I actually enjoyed it. I did get the vibe that maybe this was written in a way to make it easily adaptable as either a movie or a show. Just the dynamics between the characters and the dialogue scream "adapt me!" I was also surprised by the lack of sex because it seemed like it was going to happen, that Evanovich was building towards it, but it never happens.

I'm glad, honestly. Sex scenes in books make me uncomfortable, lol.

3.75 stars.

The Trilisk Ruins by Michael McCloskey. I don't know what took longer: The Sacramento Kings making it the playoffs or me finally finding this book. Way back in the mid-00s, ads for this book (and its sequels) ran on a webcomic I read. I really dug the covers, but never bought the books because they were ebooks and I didn't have any way of getting them at that point. I also forgot the titles and author's name, so that didn't help. I finally stumbled across this book while browsing for space operas on Amazon.

Then got it off Google's ebook store because it was free there, lol.

It was...okay. The writing wasn't great, but I'm chalking that up to it being the author's first published work. It could also have used the hand (or rather, pen) of a professional editor too.

3 stars.

Grave Peril by Jim Butcher. Third book in the Dresden Files. I started it back in January, but didn't finish it until this month because I fell out of the mood to read it for a bit...then blew through it in a week.

4 stars.

The Woman Who Married a Bear by John Straley. Audiobook. This is basically just a book of prose wrapped in the thin, threadbare clothing of a mystery novel. Straley spends the majority of the book writing very nice sentences that for the most part, have nothing to do with the main plot, which itself is pretty basic and uninspired. I honestly feel like he wanted to write a totally different novel and just tacked the mystery on to it so it would get published.

3.75 stars.

The Dispatcher by John Scalzi. Another audiobook. Narrated by Zachary Quinto (aka Siler from the TV show "Heroes", and Spock from the Star Trek reboot movies), this novella is one of the shortest audios I've listened to at like 2 1/2 hours (give or take). But what it lacks in length, it makes up for in story.

So imagine if all of a sudden when a person died, instead of going to either up to the pearly gates or down to somewhere slightly warmer, they disappear and reappear in their bed, alive. That is the premise of The Dispatcher: people come back to life when they die. But not everybody. The caveat is that only people who are murdered comeback. So if you die by suicide, natural causes, or in an accident, you're dead.

So needless to say, this changes things a bit. Dispatchers are people whose job (literally, an actual job) is to commit legalized murder in order to save a life. If a person is near death, a Dispatcher can and is obligated to kill them.

I think I'm going to binge the rest of the series next month.

3.75 stars.

Summer Knight by Jim Butcher. Dresden #5. I started this the same day I finished Grave Peril and read it in a week. This is my favorite of the series so far.

Things aren't going good for Harry. He's obsessed with (view spoiler)[finding a way to undo his girlfriend Susan's vampirism (hide spoiler)] and neglecting everything else to the point of being on the verge of homelessness. He's also dealing with the fallout of accidentally sparking a war between the vampire Red Court and the White Council of Wizards, the latter of whom are seriously considering handing him over to the former in order to end the war. If that wasn't enough, the queen of the Winter Court of Fae wants to hire him to find out who murdered the Summer Knight and stole his mantle of power. If he does, the Court will grant the Wizards safe passage through their territory, a huge advantage that could turn the tide against the vamps.

Oh, and he has to do this in a matter of days or else he'll be handed over to the Red Court, and a war will break out between the Winter and Summer Courts of Fae that could have dire consequences for the Earth and mankind.

Poor Harry never catches a break, LMAO.

4.5 stars.

Nice month Jason! I always enjoy Jim Butcher and John Scalzi. The Dispatcher was a favorite.

I enjoyed the Dresden series. He brought us in to his world slowly, book by book.

The Dispatcher sounds really interesting! I'll have to look that one up.

Carol, Jason: on audible John Scalzi occasionally does some interesting options, two versions with two different narrators for the same book. The Lock In series is an example with Will Wheaton and Amber Benson both narrating Lock In and Head On. You choose which one (or both).

Oh, how I love Harry Dresden! Since there aren' t any new Harry books to read I just picked up one by Butcher's son. Hope it's good!

Butcher's son sounds intriguing. I'll be looking forward to what you say about it.

Melodie, let us know about the book by Jim Butcher’s son; that’s interesting. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...

Son of Butcher. Sounds like its own book.