Mystery/Thriller Reading Friends discussion

I had an excellent July though am off to a slow start with August. Too much Olympics and I finally bought a tablet so I could e-read and setting everything up has been more of a time suck than I expected.

Here are my July reads:

Top Reads

Lost Light
Michael Connelly
Another great entry in this series. It is so nice to actually read a best-selling author who is not afraid to keep a series fresh. Using the first person POV, instead of the third like in previous books, really helped flesh out Harry's character plus I enjoyed the tip of the hat to the detective who lives on the other side of the ridge.

Gone Girl
Gillian Flynn
Another well plotted, twisty, psychologically disturbing book from Gillian Flynn who is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. The audio version's dual narration by Kirby Heyborne & Julia Whelan was perfectly suited to the structure of the story and added to the suspense.

King Suckerman: A Novel
George Pelecanos
This book expertly mixed lots of violence, drugs, music, movies, basketball, and other pop culture references from the 1970s in with both over the top characters and others that were extremely realistic.

Purge
Sofi Oksanen
A chilling and sometimes graphic story of both the Soviet occupation of Estonia and the criminal enterprises that flourished after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Dream Team: How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, and the Greatest Team of All Time Conquered the World and Changed the Game of Basketball Forever
Jack McCallum
Very interesting and enjoyable look back at the Dream Team. Lots of in depth interviews with all the players really helped flesh out the narrative and the conversational style of the writing made it an extremely fast read.

Over Time: My Life as a Sportswriter
Frank Deford
I've always been a great admirer of Frank Deford's work. His long pieces in Sports Illustrated along with his movie reviews of sports films were always my favorite parts of the magazine. He can really turn a phrase and this memoir was full of interesting anecdotes from his sportswriting career and his thoughts on the greats of his profession.

Good Reads

Zoo Station
David Downing
While this started slowly and the writing seemed a bit workman-like the suspense kept building and I really came to care about what happened to the various characters in this story set in 1939 Berlin.

The Rose Rent
Ellis Peters
Cadfael must sort through a thorny mystery involving a young widow and the house she rents to the monks for the yearly price of a single rose. Listened to the audio version read by the always professional Nadia May.

Condition Purple
Peter Turnbull
Strong characters and brisk plotting made this no frills police procedural, set in Glasgow during the late eighties, a worthwhile read.

The Rook
Daniel O'Malley
An enjoyable supernatural thriller with a really interesting heroine and a nice mix of both humor and suspense. I listened to the audio version which was expertly narrated by Susan Duerden.

A Place For The Wicked
Elleston Trevor
A good tension filled read that explores friendship and guilt.

The Sisters Brothers: A Novel
Patrick deWitt
While this book did not live up to the great cover art it was a fairly entertaining modern take on the Western genre. Listened to the audio version read by John Pruden who did a good job with the first person narration.

OK reads

My Happy Days in Hollywood: A Memoir
Garry Marshall
More of a time passer than a must listen. The author glosses over any bad times and does not have a bad word for anyone he ever worked with so he comes across as a great guy but not the most exciting. The audio was read by Garry Marshall and after I got used to his accent I enjoyed his narration.

A Catskill Eagle
Robert B. Parker
Not one of my favorites in the series. A bit longer than most of the previous books with a pretty much straight ahead thriller type plot which was not to my taste. The banter between Spencer and Hawk kept me reasonably entertained but Susan started to wear on my nerves. Listened to the audio version read by Michael Prichard who gave his usual steady performance.

Sandi: Good month! Congrats on the new tablet - what did you get?
I love being able to e-read on various devices, and of course to continue to listen to audio books. I have been thinking about trying out using the Fire for listening to audio books I have downloaded in the car (because the screen for maneuvering is so much larger than my phone's).
Good to know that the Gone Girl audio version is stellar. I am so backed up I won't get to it for a while, but will remember!
Sandi wrote: "I had an excellent July though am off to a slow start with August. Too much Olympics and I finally bought a tablet so I could e-read "

Susan ALWAYS wears on my nerves, Sandi!! LOL

Ann wrote: "Sandi: Good month! Congrats on the new tablet - what did you get?
I love being able to e-read on various devices, and of course to continue to listen to audio books. I have been thinking about try..."

I got the Google Nexus and was able to download the Overdrive App with no problem and checked out a book pretty easily. I also put the Kindle app on since I have accumulated around 50 free books. The Goodreads app works pretty well if you just want to read but I think posting would be tedious.

Melodie wrote: "Susan ALWAYS wears on my nerves, Sandi!! LOL"

She had never bothered me until this book. This was the first time I had come across her strange eating habits and her conduct throughout this book drove me insane.

Good month, Sandi. Lots of variety.

Sandi wrote: "
She had never bothered me until this book. This was the first time I had come across her strange eating habits and her conduct throughout this book drove me insane.
..."

What, you have a problem with someone taking an hour to eat a lettuce leaf? Picky! ;-)

I'm with you on the Olympics time sync. Glad to see you multi-tasked with the book about the Dream Team. This year's team is entertaining but not sure they will be book-worthy.

Sandi wrote: "I had an excellent July though am off to a slow start with August. Too much Olympics and I finally bought a tablet so I could e-read and setting everything up has been more of a time suck than I e..."

Lots of good reading for you.