Maureen Henderson > Recent Status Updates

Too good to read fast because I know I'll really miss these characters when it's over. I'm getting toward the middle of the book, reading blockbuster moments handled with quiet understatement; we can feel these moments creeping up on us, but oh how satisfying when they arrive.

So far I'm thinking this might be tough to beat as my favorite read of 2023, and it's only January 9.

"The surest sign the dam was about to burst came in the form of an encrypted call, on the afternoon of January 4, 2017, from a number in the 646 area code. A New York cellphone. Glenn Simpson and his business partner at Fusion GPS, Peter Fritsch, had been getting their share of blind calls since Donald Trump's election."

Gripping. Fritsch and Simpson, former Wall Street Journal reporters...and the Steele Dossier.

So excited about beginning a long journey with this trilogy.

drop in the bucket

Page 1 of 1273. I blame Jessica Henderson for this. And the gorgeous BBC production. Here we go.

I nearly stopped reading at page 13 as I can rarely stick with books containing this level of violence. Most of the large cast of characters, I fear, will not be alive on page 688. But James is so good here at characterization and story, and at setting readers smack into Jamaica as it was from 1959 to 1991 that I simply have to know what happens to these people. Zipping through.