Kate Ellis
Wesley Peterson series
The Merchant's House
The Armada Boy
An Unhallowed Grave
The Funeral Boat
The Bone Garden
A Painted Doom
The Skeleton Room
The Plague Maiden
A Cursed Inheritance
The Marriage Hearse
The Shining Skull
The Blood Pit
A Perfect Death
The Flesh Tailor
The Jackal Man
The Cadaver Game
The Shadow Collector
The Shroud Maker
The Death Season
The House of Eyes
The Mermaid's Scream
These are lovely little light mysteries. They could be classified as police procedurals, but they don't quite fit the genre. The series is really about a friendship that started at university in an archaeology class: one man went on to be a journeyman archaeologist for hire, the other joined the police. In each book, they solve parallel mysteries. Wesley, the policeman, works in the here-and-now; his friend Neil Watson digs up his bodies and relies on much older evidence. The older stories help the reader to solve the modern mysteries. In some of the books, these parallel stories are a little contrived. However, over the course of the series, the lives of the two main characters unfold and that makes up for any gaps in the puzzles.
Sunday, February 26, 2017
O'Malley
Daniel O'Malley
The Checquy Files
The Rook
Stilletto
Cross the Australian Public Service with a cloak-and-dagger world of people with supernatural powers, add a dollop of Medici-style politics, and transplant everyone to England, and you are in the world of the Checquy. In the first book, we meet the main character, Myfanwy Thomas, in a park in London in the middle of the night. Apart from the clues in the letter in her pocket - "The body you are wearing used to be mine" - we know nothing about her, and neither does she. Great fun.
The Checquy Files
The Rook
Stilletto
Cross the Australian Public Service with a cloak-and-dagger world of people with supernatural powers, add a dollop of Medici-style politics, and transplant everyone to England, and you are in the world of the Checquy. In the first book, we meet the main character, Myfanwy Thomas, in a park in London in the middle of the night. Apart from the clues in the letter in her pocket - "The body you are wearing used to be mine" - we know nothing about her, and neither does she. Great fun.
Griffiths
Elly Griffiths
Ruth Galloway series
The Crossing Places
The Janus Stone
The House at Sea's End
A Room Full of Bones
A Dying Fall
The Outcast Dead
The Ghost Fields
The Woman in Blue
The Chalk Pit
It surprised me, looking at this list, to see how many books there are in the series. I'm always waiting keenly for the next in this series. Dr Ruth is an academic archaeologist at a relatively minor university in the north-east of England. She is called in by her favourite policeman to advise on human remains. The books include lots of archaeology, lots of stories about ancient Britain, and some good murder mysteries. Apart from Ruth herself, my favourite character is the irritating Cathbad, a born-again Druid who gets about in a long cloak and insists that the child in the later books isn't Kate but Hecate.
Ruth Galloway series
The Crossing Places
The Janus Stone
The House at Sea's End
A Room Full of Bones
A Dying Fall
The Outcast Dead
The Ghost Fields
The Woman in Blue
The Chalk Pit
It surprised me, looking at this list, to see how many books there are in the series. I'm always waiting keenly for the next in this series. Dr Ruth is an academic archaeologist at a relatively minor university in the north-east of England. She is called in by her favourite policeman to advise on human remains. The books include lots of archaeology, lots of stories about ancient Britain, and some good murder mysteries. Apart from Ruth herself, my favourite character is the irritating Cathbad, a born-again Druid who gets about in a long cloak and insists that the child in the later books isn't Kate but Hecate.
Herron
Mick Herron
Slough House series
Slow Horses
Dead Lions
Real Tigers
Spook Street
If you loved the British television series Spooks but couldn't really take it seriously, read these books. If you have ever wondered what would happen to trained spies who messed up on the job and wouldn't resign, read these books. These are not books about perfect James Bond types who kill without qualm or the kinds of thrillers in which the hero is beaten regularly but never suffers from concussion. The characters in these books are flawed: they drink, they insult each other, they are socially anxious. And yet - they save the day.
Slough House series
Slow Horses
Dead Lions
Real Tigers
Spook Street
If you loved the British television series Spooks but couldn't really take it seriously, read these books. If you have ever wondered what would happen to trained spies who messed up on the job and wouldn't resign, read these books. These are not books about perfect James Bond types who kill without qualm or the kinds of thrillers in which the hero is beaten regularly but never suffers from concussion. The characters in these books are flawed: they drink, they insult each other, they are socially anxious. And yet - they save the day.
Friday, February 3, 2017
Stabenow
Dana Stabenow
Kate Shugak series
A Cold Day for Murder
A Fatal Thaw
Dead in the Water
A Cold Blooded Business
Play with Fire
Blood Will Tell
Breakup
Killing Grounds
Hunter's Moon
Midnight Come Again
The Singing of the Dead
A Fine and Bitter Snow
A Grave Denied
A Taint in the Blood
A Deeper Slope
Whisper to the Blood
A Night Too Dark
Though Not Dead
Restless in the Grave
Bad Blood
Given my comments about this series in my first blog posting here, I decided to revisit the last five books in this series, to see if my opinion holds true. That's what I've been reading since my last post. Stabenow, Alaska-born, started this series in 1991, and the overarching stories of Kate Shugak span all of that time. The most recent in the series, Bad Blood, was published in 2013, and according to the internet (yes, yes, I know) Stabenow is working on "Kate21" now. Her pop culture references are time-true, so it is easy to date the stories from the internal evidence, but they aren't intrusive. It's a pretty good series, I am happy to report. There's lots of local colour, and if Stabenow doesn't give us quite as much information about the Inuit lifestyle as McGrath, she more than makes up for it with her knowledge of greater Alaska. The plots are twisty, the baddies horrible, the fights Kate gets into satisfying, and the characters of Kate's community are delightful. The Aunties, in particular, are fabulous.
Just as the characters evolve, Stabenow's writing becomes stronger and more confident as the series progresses. However, if you are going to take up with Kate, do start with the first one in the series. I think you'll want to spend as much time as possible in the Park.
Kate Shugak series
A Cold Day for Murder
A Fatal Thaw
Dead in the Water
A Cold Blooded Business
Play with Fire
Blood Will Tell
Breakup
Killing Grounds
Hunter's Moon
Midnight Come Again
The Singing of the Dead
A Fine and Bitter Snow
A Grave Denied
A Taint in the Blood
A Deeper Slope
Whisper to the Blood
A Night Too Dark
Though Not Dead
Restless in the Grave
Bad Blood
Given my comments about this series in my first blog posting here, I decided to revisit the last five books in this series, to see if my opinion holds true. That's what I've been reading since my last post. Stabenow, Alaska-born, started this series in 1991, and the overarching stories of Kate Shugak span all of that time. The most recent in the series, Bad Blood, was published in 2013, and according to the internet (yes, yes, I know) Stabenow is working on "Kate21" now. Her pop culture references are time-true, so it is easy to date the stories from the internal evidence, but they aren't intrusive. It's a pretty good series, I am happy to report. There's lots of local colour, and if Stabenow doesn't give us quite as much information about the Inuit lifestyle as McGrath, she more than makes up for it with her knowledge of greater Alaska. The plots are twisty, the baddies horrible, the fights Kate gets into satisfying, and the characters of Kate's community are delightful. The Aunties, in particular, are fabulous.
Just as the characters evolve, Stabenow's writing becomes stronger and more confident as the series progresses. However, if you are going to take up with Kate, do start with the first one in the series. I think you'll want to spend as much time as possible in the Park.
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