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This starts off a different tone to the series. It's the face of evil with heavy middle ages and history which delighted me. A lot of religious references and arcana. Wow even Louis and Angel figure in here more prominently. I have to tear myself away from this to do other things!!!

The monsters come out now! The strange and the creepy. It always surprises me. Oh and our hero is on a health regime and dining guy and I always map out where Charlie eats around Portland —Coffee by design, Sapporo on commercial street, Calabash cigar café—Bintliff's has the best breakfast menu that I'm hankering to try. Angel and Louis make their long awaited appearance and I'm giddy!

I was in a book slump after Sam Hell and lo and behold forgot about my bumper book of Connelly's Charlie Parker! Such prose and wonderful to be back in Maine and an intriguing crime mystery. Another cult tinged work. It's always interesting to Google images of coffee by design, Portland farmers market, Victorian House and a lot more detail of life in Maine.

It's a hard start but becomes beautiful as you read onwards. I couldn't put it down now...

The threads are coming together but are you ready to see the weave? It takes a bit of sharpness to see how it all comes together and balistreri is that someone! Amazing. I missed mentioning the other member of his cop team —mastroianni! So far so good...will there be justice?

Book two. The novel takes a different turn. Michele is now head of department with an affable team that I love. Piccolo, Corvu, and Coppola and other questionable characters in the hierarchy. I love the chess game of Italian politicking and reasoning to solve the case. Quintessentially Italian. I wonder if all the dots will connect...

An informative and poetic book!! This is required reading for those living in Australia, planning to hike or walk around Australia, or want to live there. Gammage illustrates how the Australian Aborigines managed the land. Once you understand how they are masters of the fire, you can easily see how they have intimate knowledge of a large swath of land, plants, and animals. Astonishing work!

Shockingly good. Raw and unfiltered view of the politics in Rome. This is what a good read constitutes: the blemished history of war and post war in Italy, the flawed reasoning in Italian procedurals due to the politicking and manoeuvring of the police, the misogyny yet also the feisty women fighting these off...it's no wonder nothing but also everything can get done only if you have the stomach for politics.

This is what a strong brainy female character should be—Chess playing lawyer with a mystery to solve in front of her. Hard to tear myself away from this!

It's been fun learning about how people sleep and arranging who they sleep closely with. People switch depending on what happened during the day, if they got into fights or had a good one. I finally reach the point when food and travelling to other camps!! Food is finally mentioned but glossed over.

Just the first few pages in the introduction, it's already five stars for me for several reasons: easy writing (not academic-lese), precisely hits on the strength and point of doing anthropology (I'm looking at all the artificial decolonial bs floating around), heavy and clear on the central cultural concept of kinship on the Walpiri, clear on the book outline and making sense of the multitude of stories that follows

I stopped because the whole thing slowed down for me and got distracted with shiny new books! By this part three, it's all tedious step by step work but somehow after like four books, I can still slot right back at it. I'm almost at the end and hopefully I'm over my boredom that I can finally finish. Maybe.

Last two thousand pages. There was a long lull with the government officials which didn't interest me until it went back to the scientists. Back to exploring. The tempo has returned. I had lost a bit of hope. Can't wait to finish!

I'm really really happy we're back to science!! I thought the critics had won and it would go downhill but my impression increased with the discussion of intelligence and the mission to search for the Yrr!

It was a good thing part two closed with science and scientists. I enjoyed Anawak's return to Nunavut and the cultural details with the summer moving. I'm surprised about the diamond mining in the sea. The government storyline just took too much momentum away from the sciemtific solutions!

Part one was fabulous but part two is such a bummer! I don't need government and military interference. Sadly, they usurped the science story and now we're at the dumb politicians controlling the message. Flat. The pacing has slowed to molasses and I cannot wait for Johanson and co. To investigate the Yrr once again. Can we manage with a dumb US president and his cabinet. Only General Li has some brains.

Finally, the strands are woven together. It came at a great cost. Secrecy kills. We know that from the Chernobyl and this is the intelligence and scientific community version. Still, Johanson needs more proof...

I spent an hour just getting through the tsunami. Understanding it's source of power from the seabed. If not for things to do, I'd probably continue to part two! Life gets in the way of reading for sure!

I'm now a marine biologist but also an oil engineer. Never have I learned about the nature of ocean life and oil extraction in Norway and the costs to the seabed. Lots of facts here, that oil extraction is only limited to the continental shelf. Beyond that is a mystery but undersea exploration and exploitation is on its way. With unknown consequences. I really like Sigur and Lund and I'm gripped by the tsunami.

Incredible! I'm loving it. The TV series brought me here and I love both versions. Granted this one goes much deeper into the science and frankly I'm now a marine biologist with a specialty in cetacean animals. So rare to have real science in sci-fi. I thought I would be disappointed but I will finish this! It doesn't go into an eco sermon but it demonstrates the consequences via science. Excellent work!

I can already tell this is a five star read. Really great to be back in NYC, museum of natural history, old gang is back together....this is keeping me up.

So far, compelling! Things are moving fast! Gripping now.

Gripping now! A nuanced story about a Maori cop and practices. It's a complex historically situated backdrop to post colonial life and dilemmas in Auckland. A great police novel choice if you're looking for an international read. I wish I didn't have anything else to do today!

Done with formulaic crime thrillers. This is fresh and great. Now on the lookout for international detectives. Lots of history here.

Met the adversary and the story now features the villain and the protagonist. I'm pretty sure without the villain the story would continue to work because the detection of Risk is solid. His partnership with Dunja is excellent. Love to have these two work on the case!!!

Just when I thought I had given up on Scandinavian crime, I'm trying this new author. The start sounded like the typical bloody start but now that I'm deep into it, I'm enjoying it. The cop has a family for a change and a solid supportive team. Now I'm glued. The location is the star of this book. Happy to see both Swedish and Danish police teams battle it out.

Bravo for juggling a lot of likeable characters and avoiding plot armour. Really surprised and enjoying the round the world trip. If only I don't need to work.

Bumped up back to 5 stars. There's a lot of complications that makes this more interesting than usual. It's not necessarily a flat cookie cutter cast filled with stereotypes. Some but not all. Too bad work gets in the way!

The plot morphed into a surprisingly predictable yet still shocking turn. I know I complained earlier but this next plotline is different and creative. I'm now back to loving it. Too bad work gets in the way of reading...oh and I have another book club book!!

I've been enjoying a plain old thriller. None of the usual government one. A hero that bleeds. However, the author had to dampen it by revealing a typical villain. It was going very well. I like Victor though.