The books I read in 2017
Update: discovered I had unintentionally duplicated a couple of reviews (for Daniel Silva and Tami Hoag) — grr! cut-and-paste. And mis-spelt Tony Healey’s name. Corrected now and saved in italics
Last year I blogged about all that I had read in 2016 and for me, it was a nice way to reassure myself about my reading habits and to refresh my memory about what grabbed me and, more importantly, what didn’t.
So here’s 2017 winding up and I’m going to make this a new tradition.
The list below is based on the month in which I finished the book and the notes are those I made in my journal as I finished each book: immediate reactions, unedited. The genre classification is simplistic since many of these books could be classified across genres, but it serves. My tastes continue to run to thrillers (crime or otherwise) — 33, SF & Fantasy —21, Mystery — 14 and a smattering of others. As always, a sprinkling of re-reads in here.
January 2017
- Podkayne of Mars — Robert Heinlein [SF]
Delightful, whimsical commentary on humanity, politics, people and life. And a rattling good SF yarn too. Great voice from the narrator.
2. No Way Out — Joel Goldman [Thriller]
Non-stop action, a good, believable first person narrative voice, reliable travel reading.
3. American Gods — Neil Gaiman [Fantasy]
A re-read in anticipation of the Amazon TV series. Much better on the re-read. Weird and wonderful, macabre and marvellous, bizarre and beautiful. One of those novels one will periodically re-visit.
4. Play it as it Lays — Joan Didion [General]
A hard, crisp little gem, each gleaming facet cut with an acid-drenched scalpel.
5. The Deep Blue Alibi — Paul Levine [Thriller]
Light-hearted romp with some clever wordplay and naughty anagrams. Not much of a mystery or crime or legal shenanigans but enjoyable nonetheless.
6. On the Run — Gordon Dickson [SF]
Brisk read — ‘’Golden Age” SF with a sharply realised future and a weirdly, spiritual Buddhist-like ending. Allegorical but not ‘beat-you-over-the-head’ so. (Awful lot of typos though, like a pirate scanned copy).
February 2017
7. I Am Crying All Inside and other stories — Clifford Simak [SF]
Classic Golden Age SF treasure trove! Brings back memories of Crispin’s superb anthologies.
8. Stop the Presses! — Robert Goldsborough [Mystery]
Another Nero Wolfe story in the new post-Stout series. As before, a couple of false notes when compared to the originals, particularly in the depiction of Goodwin, but overall, very enjoyable and comfortable, like Wolfe’s bachelor residence.
March 2017
9. The Bourne Identity — Robert Ludlum [Thriller]
Re-reading this after maybe 30 years. Overall, it still stands up nicely despite the outdated technology of 3 decades ago. But I think the movie is an improvement: a more believable plot — an internecine CIA war against a rogue operation plays better than the book’s Carlos fixation, which is barely believable; ditto for the action sequences; and frankly, the love story in the novel is ridiculous from start to finish — the movie’s plot line of Bourne bribing a desperate girl to drive him is much more believable than what happens in the book.
10. Cling — Jeff Menapace, Kim Bravo [SF]
Started off as a promising post-apocalyptic dystopian novel but quickly devolved into a Mad Max type action thriller with none of the SF hooks explained. Entertaining read nonetheless, but could have been so much more (e.g. Hugh Howey’s Wool trilogy).
11. The Schirmer Inheritance — Eric Ambler [Thriller]
It’s amazing how Ambler can take an exceedingly simple storyline — almost a non-story — and turn it into an interesting and entertaining read, paced gently yet never flagging and ultimately satisfying.
12. The Lost Concerto — Helaine Mario [Thriller]
A curious thriller — while full of the usual thriller twists and pace, the language is strangely elegant almost poetic, seemingly better suited to more serious fare. It works well though.
13. Call for the Dead — John le Carré [Thriller]
Outstanding! His style is deceptively simple, even casual at times, but his observations are razor-edged and his moral compass acknowledges human frailties with compassion, explaining but not excusing. And with all this he keeps up the pace and the mystery and lifts the curtain on the spy’s tradecraft, allowing the reader to feel as if one is privileged to be privy to all of this while safe in one’s armchair.
April 2017
14. Year Zero — Rob Reid [SF]
When I started this I thought Douglas Adams was alive and well. But as I ploughed through it, I found it polemical (particularly when dealing with the music industry) and even bitter at times. Adams always seemed to have a jaunty and optimistic air about his writing even when the world was being demolished for an inter-galactic bypass. He was scatty and batty and more inventive. This one often felt forced and strident. But an honourable effort, so 3 stars.
15. The Kill List — Frederick Forsyth [Thriller]
About 10 or 15% through I was ready to brand this as a boring sophomoric paper on sensational terrorists and conspiracy theories regarding government black ops. Then it picked up nicely and ended with me wanting to give it 5 stars! Good guys who are always good and great at what they do, villains who are unrelentingly uni-dimensional and suckered into being beaten, lots of infallible tech, computer geniuses in attics, governments and government departments that work together and do it well. This was a fairy tale but a fun one.
16. The Crooked House — Agatha Christie [Mystery]
Not one of her ‘great detective’ ones but a nice mystery with the usual successful red herrings and a satisfying denouement.
17. A Criminal Defense — William L. Myers, Jr. [Thriller]
A decent legal and crime thriller. Some stilted writing, particularly when trying to ‘flesh out’ the protagonists with a background and emotional state — should’ve stuck to the thriller bit — but overall fast-paced, a quick read and as I said, a decent read despite the over done Roger Ackroyd finish where everybody ended up being guilty of something or the other.
18. Mystery Mile — Margery Allingham [Thriller]
Entertaining even if more Victorian (or Edwardian) crime thriller than murder mystery. Atmospherically melodramatic in the old English tradition. Campion is an entertainingly eccentric hero and the writing is quite Wodehousian. Same school as Crispin.
19. Ladies Bane — Patricia Wentworth [Mystery]
Nice, cosy, melodramatic Victorian mystery. Miss Silver doesn’t seem to do much deducing but it’s a satisfactorily atmospheric piece, nonetheless — a very English mystery.
May 2017
20. The Man in the High Castle — Philip K. Dick [SF, well, sort of]
PKD is one of the weirdest writers going and this book is more so. His ideas are exceptional, the execution more weird than wonderful. The book sort of gets going around the 60% mark then fizzles again, getting bogged down in an excess of metaphysical melodrama. And the stream of consciousness writing in a sort of translated Japanese-English argot is both bewildering and baffling if at times beautiful. Yet, this could make a good TV series or even movie if you cut out the pfaff and stuck to the kernel of the story (much as his other adaptations were treated). Now let’s see the Amazon series!
21. A Murder of Quality — John le Carré [Mystery]
Outstanding as always! A straightforward murder mystery with no espionage motif. Le Carré is quite at home as is Smiley, turning his keen eye to the artificial and arbitrary distinctions that divide British society into classes almost as rigidly as a caste system. And he can evoke them with a simple offhand phrase like “pencils in the outer pocket”, or by the affectations of a character’s speech. He is also devastating at showing how a set of behaviours can be viewed with admiration by some and yet be rooted in base, even evil, motives. And of course, the murder itself, the red herrings and the unraveling is satisfactory in the extreme!
22. Morte (War with No Name) — Robert Repino [SF]
Hmm. I have mixed feelings on this one. Interesting concept well executed but some things about the religious fervour didn’t quite make sense in the context of the novel. Or may be it made too much sense. And having Mankind triumph in the end felt like a bit of a cop out. Shades of Animal Farm and Silverberg’s two volume epic on the ants (Winter’s End?)
23. Memory Man — David Baldacci [Thriller]
Dead tree book after ages! Superb crime thriller, good writing and great plotting — actual howdunnit and whodunnit entertainment.
(Started in Mumbai airport & finished in the skies over Europe.)
24. Inferno — Dan Brown [Thriller]
Reliable Dan Brown masti. I’m surprised the movie got such terrible reviews but maybe all the twists and complex motives were tough to translate to the screen. And even the Da Vinci Code movie was disappointing compared to the book. (On the Abu Dhabi — US leg in the skies over Europe. Another dead tree book — 2nd in 24 hours.)
25. Beach Lawyer — Avery Duff [Thriller]
Almost gave this only 2 stars then decided to be generous with an additional star. The language was so bloody irritating! Self-consciously staccato and hip and with it. “He jammed down the alley.” “He booked towards the fence.” And it’s not a typo for “looked”. The plotting was also a bit over the top with too many self-conscious (that word again) twists as if the author felt, “Ok, it’s page 100, need another twist.” Meh.
26. Way Station — Clifford D Simak [SF]
Marvellous. Obviously written in the shadow of the Cold War and quite evidently coloured by the fears and traumas of the Doomsday Clock standing at a couple of minutes to midnight. But a marvellously evocative imagining of a peaceful, collaborative galaxy that could nevertheless be torn apart if sentient beings (and not just humanity) lose touch with the spiritual core that (ought to) drives life. And never a dull moment despite the inevitable philosophical interludes.
27. Hope’s Peak — Tony Healey [Thriller]
Satisfying serial killer thriller. Despite a slight sag in the middle and a weird paranormal twist with a victim’s daughter who can ‘see’ details when touching a corpse, it ended up as a nice fast crisp crime thriller.
June 2017
28. Anathem — Neal Stephenson [SF]
Definitely my ‘book of the year’ and merits a detailed review. So…
The first Neal Stephenson tome I read was Cryptonomicon. It was not an auspicious start. I found it very well written, but also bloated, self-indulgent and often incoherent. For example, there was an entire chapter devoted to something as banal as a cup of coffee. It (the chapter as well as the coffee) had nothing whatever to do with the story or what passed for a plot. And while I enjoy my morning cuppa joe, this divertissement did nothing to endear to me to the slog that was reading this door-stopper.
Given my antipathy to this novel, it surprised me when I impetuously clicked on the Amazon link to download this other offering from Stephenson to my Kindle. That it was on sale for the princely sum of $1.99 (thanks to bookbub.com’s emailing list) probably helped.
I also liked the title. The single word sounded intriguing and portentous. It had undertones of ecclesiastical grandeur and shades of malevolence in the way it rolled off the tongue.
(Side note: don’t underestimate the power of a great title.)
However, it lay gathering virtual dust in a corner of my Kindle while I summoned up the nerve to wade into what promised to be another weighty slog. Stephenson seems to be the kind of author who packs into a single novel what others would spread out across a trilogy, at the least.
I finally started Anathem when I was due to be travelling for a month. I felt that the enforced absence of a daily routine would in some way compel my attention to the book: there would be less cause for distraction and I would have plenty of airport and airline time to immerse myself in the novel.
I cannot pretend that this is a fast, pacy read. Stephenson takes his time setting up the stage and easing the reader into this alien yet strangely familiar world. Actually, for me, that was the real charm of this story.
This is a work of prodigious imagination that is rooted in very familiar tropes from our own world and both the strangeness and the familiarity is evoked by the very clever use of language.
Stephenson has created words that sound as if one has encountered them before, so although he takes his time to explicitly explain them, one can infer their meaning pretty accurately. In the science fiction world where authors try to take the reader into a completely alien environment, too often they try too hard in coining new words that make no sense to a reader and end up being hard to remember and relate to.
Anathem has no such problems. I loved the way Stephenson plays on existing words to create new ones that evoke meanings in the reader’s mind that are close to what the author intends yet sufficiently different to provoke curiosity and wonder.
For example, “Saunt” as a title invites a relationship to “Saint” but is supposed to be a corruption of “Savant”. “Apert” seems like an abbreviation of “aperture” and refers to a period when the cloistered students are allowed to mingle with those outside the monastery — so apt! The monasteries themselves are referred to as “concents” which is close enough to “convent” and “concentration” (not as in gulags, but rather as in close study) to make immediate sense.
The culture and social life of this planet, Arbre, (it’s unclear for a long opening spell whether this is supposed to be Earth in a post-apocalyptic future or some other planet altogether) is wonderfully described and detailed and seems both perfectly logical in our modern context and yet quite alien from life as we know it. There is just enough history and background introduced and alluded to to make this place and culture intriguing (and worthy of many prequels in the hands of a lesser author).
And finally, the narrator, Erasmas (again a reasonably familiar name with familiar connotations but with a small twist) and his friends and acquaintances are wonderfully real people with all the foibles and quirks of real people (even if, as we discover along the way, they’re not exactly ‘people’ like you and me).
The narrative tone is a mix of well-judged humour and exposition (occasionally over-detailed but never boring) interspersed with action pieces. All of it comes together very nicely and when the inevitable advent of aliens occurs it is with a wry twist and an unusual perspective on interstellar travel (not interstellar per se, but no spoilers).
All in all, thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding.
29. The Book of the Dead — Robert Richardson [Mystery]
Decent effort even if the denouement was a little clumsy. But nice writing and good entertainment all around.
30. The Unlikely Spy — Daniel Silva [Thriller]
Outstanding! A little sprinkling of le Carré and a generous helping of Follett/Deighton/Forsyth. Very enjoyable and action-packed war thriller.
31. A Journal of Sin — Darryl Donaghue [Thriller]
A 2 star crime novel, really. Not much of a mystery or clues or deductions or ratiocination. Just an inept constable who makes inexcusably bad judgment calls and a salad of characters one can’t really relate to. And too many typos in the form of abrupt changes of sections in a chapter such that it takes a few sentence re-reads to figure out that this is a new part of the storyline. And one completely arbitrary chapter in the middle that jumps into a first person narrative without warning and makes little sense. And then the first person narrator never returns. Weird.
32. Invasive — Chuck Wendig [SF]
More techno-thriller than ‘real’ or ‘classic’ SF. Michael Crichton in full misanthropic doomsday mode. Fast-paced and snappy. Perhaps too much so to be really thought-provoking but a good read.
July 2017
33. Soho Dead — Greg Keen [Thriller]
Superb! The actual plot, clues etc. were all very well, but the real gem was the writing: sardonic PI meets Brit humour and understatement. Plenty of laugh-out-loud and re-read-to-savour-the-phrase moments.
33 & 34. Parable of the Sower / Parable of the Talents — Octavia Butler [SF]
Classic Butler — as I’ve come to recognise her style. Message-laden but still enjoyable and a deceptively simple style. From what I’ve read of her works, Butler is a reliable ‘soft’ SF writer dealing more with social and cultural commentary, typically in dystopian situations, rather than in ‘hard’ SF. And her commentary is always unflinching in dealing with racist and sexist issues. Very readable.
In this one, Butler completes the story of the woman who founded the movement that propelled humanity to the stars via a religious, religion-denying movement. She became larger than life, messianic, to her followers, yet lost her own intimate relationships with her family. A familiar story in real life, but Butler tells it well and sympathetically and the reader can identify with all sides of the tale — no easy, clearcut answers in dealing with these situations and an insight into what makes a leader tick.
35. The Dogs of War — Frederick Forsyth [Thriller]
What a dreary read! 2 stars and I feel great sorrow in having to award this paltry number to a usually reliable writer. 99% of the book reads like a cross between an accounting manual and a process manual on buying illegal arms and shipping them all over the globe. Bo-o-o-ring. There is a little twist in the tale (tail: on about the last 3 pages), but it is way too little, way too late.
August 2017
36. A Man With One of Those Faces — Caimh McDonnell [Thriller]
I can’t pretend to be able to pronounce the author’s name, but he’s going to the top of my ‘want-to-read’ list. This is an outstandingly funny crime novel with great characters, lines and a plot that crackles along. Sample description of a particularly vile flatulence episode: ‘it smelled like something had crawled up his arse and died of cabbage’. Glorious!
37. Lonesome Road — Patricia Wentworth [Mystery]
Delightful, cozy English mystery with a house full of suspects and the redoubtable Miss Silver at the centre. This time though, she’s attempting to prevent a murder rather than solving one. No matter, it’s still a great read.
38. The Girl with the Pearl Earring — Tracy Chevalier [General]
Outstanding! A little gem of a book purporting to tell the story of the model in Vermeer’s famous painting. A fascinating portrait of middle class and not-so-middle class life in Delft in the 17th century and a strange ‘love’ story. Painstakingly imagined, exquisitely detailed and beautifully wrought, quite like one of Vermeer’s paintings.
39. The Black Widow — Daniel Silva [Thriller]
Great read! Daniel Silva has become my go-to thriller writer for intelligent, well-written, action-packed novels. As I’ve thought before: a touch of le Carré sprinkled on top of a tastier Ludlum. In fact, after recently re-reading The Bourne Identity I’m revisiting my original opinion of Ludlum as the last word in a particular genre of thrillers. I think it needs to be Silva.
40. The Continent of Lies — James Morrow [SF]
A curious book. At the start, I was unimpressed and indeed quite put off by the invented words (so dear to SF authors) to explain strange concepts. They seemed stilted and contrived, quite unlike say, Neal Stephenson’s Anathem (a recent read). And the style was quite florid and overdone. And the allegories and metaphors seemed strained and sophomoric. However, about halfway through, the story developed decently and I would end up awarding it 3 stars. A bit grudgingly.
41. The Daughters of Cain — Colin Dexter [Mystery]
Wonderful! Morse is a flawed protagonist, which I always find disconcerting — Holmes was flawed but in a reassuringly superhuman kind of way. Morse is much less so, quite a specimen, in fact, but also a guy who’d be infuriatingly fun to hang out with. The mystery itself is strange. Seems open-and-shut pretty soon, but the red herrings are wonderful and the final unraveling is unexpected and nicely twisted. Erudite writing and some very clever turns of phrase that makes this a rewarding read. I particularly relished the sign on a low beam: Duck or Grouse.
41. Night Judgment at Sinos — Jack Higgins [Thriller]
This felt like a classic Alistair Maclean offering, as if Higgins was channeling him: lots of sea-borne (and undersea) adventure, laconic alpha male with a secretly heroic past, stunning love interest, nighttime assault on an island, derring-do and betrayal and deaths and triumph: the usual thoroughly enjoyable melodramatic thrilling adventure.
September 2017
42. Body Double — Tess Gerritsen [Thriller]
Decent airport reading — 3 stars. Pretty formulaic serial-killer police-procedural stuff with some slightly tiresome diversions into emotional entanglements and love interests — not convincing. Precious little deduction or mystery (as with most serial killer novels) but overall, as I said, decent.
An unexpected bonus was the inclusion of a short story featuring the same two protagonists (a pathologist and a cop, both ladies) that was actually more enjoyable than the novel. Probably because it featured some actual deduction and mystery — a serial rapist and his wingman and their subsequent murders — albeit (spoiler!) of the Murder on the Orient Express type. But crisply told and entertaining.
May be worth checking out the TV series based on these two (Rizzoli & Isles).
43. Think of a Number — John Verdon [Thriller]
Outstanding! Hands down the best serial killer thriller I’ve ever read. It’s a genuine mystery rather than just a bunch of gruesome thrills (which is usually all that SKTs end up being) and the mystery is John Dickson Carr calibre, which is very high praise in my book. JDC updated for the 21st century and with a police procedural grafted on. Great protagonist and memorable supporting cast add to the fun. I also like the way the mystery elements keep unfolding over a little over half the book. And another winner, for me, is that the story is told almost entirely from the main detective’s point of view, which is refreshing. Too many SKTs spend too much time on diversions into how the SK does the deed and his relish for it, which is just a cheap thrill. This book focuses on the mystery and the red herrings and is the better for it.
44. The Siamese Twin Mystery — Ellery Queen [Mystery]
Classic Ellery Queen with obscure clues, a life-threatening situation, a couple of murders, the unflappable Inspector and the abstracted Ellery all making for a delicious read.
45. Ballistic — Mark Greaney [Thriller]
Well, certainly action-packed if fairly over-the-top. Lots of barely believable fighting prowess together with an unbelievable ability to be wounded and keep on keeping on. The sort of stuff beloved by Hollywood and which makes for an entertaining 90 minute movie. This book could have ended at about four different places in the story and been none the worse for it, but it didn’t and so it ably served its purpose of keeping one absorbed on a five-hour flight. Readable if not believable.
46. The Scarlatti Inheritance — Robert Ludlum [Thriller]
A much better novel than Bourne Identity (which hasn’t aged well), this is set in pre-WW2 times and is almost entirely a flashback albeit an entertaining one. This couldn’t have made a good movie without changing it about considerably, so naturally it makes a quite decent book.
47. A Legacy of Spies — John le Carré [Thriller]
Has to be the finest living author in the English language (and if you include those who’ve passed on, then there’s only PGW for company, albeit of a very different sort). This book is a fine return to the ‘glory days’ of Smiley and the Circus, in fact, harking back to the book that started it all: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Vintage le Carré in more ways than one; his ear for dialogue and his use of flashbacks is unparalleled as is his wry spot-on skewering of a person/class/mannerism with a single unerring turn of phrase. Brilliant.
48. Full Dark House — Christopher Fowler [Mystery]
Abandoned. Been a while since I’ve done that. This book had promise but the execution of that was very confusing and it seemed to try too much. Couldn’t decide whether it was a mystery or a gothic horror story or a police procedural. Ended up being totally confused and confusing. The back-and-forth between the past and the present didn’t really work for me either.
49. The Deep Blue Goodbye — John D. MacDonald [Thriller]
Sturdy, serviceable crime noir, like most of MacDonald. It’s a softer, more human & philosophical thriller than Cain or Chandler, but satisfying in its own way.
50. Beacon 23 — Hugh Howey [SF]
Superb! Howey is one of the most reliable SF authors I’ve encountered. Every one of his increasing opus is eminently readable, thoroughly enjoyable and fascinatingly thought-provoking. He nicely straddles the boundaries between hard SF and character-oriented stories. Beacon 23 is a great addition to his bookshelf and its original structure as 5 short stories is in the time-honoured SF tradition of serialising a novel. Great stuff from a funny if foul-mouthed first-person protagonist including PTSD, alien wars, alien pets, aliens, bounty hunters, space-faring, a love interest and sort-of-believable science, with a satisfying wrap up at the end.
October 2017
51. The Camel Club — David Baldacci [Thriller]
Reliable action thriller full of bad guys, secret government organisations, superhuman good guys, guns, bullets, bombs and more. Exactly what you need on a flight & a layover.
52. A Taste for Death — P.D. James [Mystery]
Wonderful. James is such an evocative and discerning writer. The pace and the people are as important as the crime but they are never subordinate to the crime and the mystery. I particularly like the care James takes over describing each room & its furniture: it sets the atmosphere and background and no other mystery author does quite as successfully. So English yet so universal, so human.
53. When They Come For You — James W. Hall [Thriller]
Fast-paced action thriller that reads like a Hollywood movie, cutting from locale to locale with totally unbelievable but thoroughly enjoyable heroines, allies and villains indulging in equally unbelievable and enjoyable shenanigans. Lots of blood & thunder. Perfect airport reading, though I read most of this in train stations and on the Ave between Barcelona & Madrid.
54. A Case of Conscience — James Blish [SF]
A small yet great book, exploring first contact, Christianity, alien thought, dogma, politics, human frailty, cupidity & stupidity and doing all of this while telling a rattling good yarn.
55. A Season in Hell — Jack Higgins [Thriller]
Superb! A nice twist was the bad guy being a step ahead of the good guys throughout and then another special twist on the identity of the villain. Full of action, blood & thunder, capable hero with a dark past but a golden heart, beautiful lady out for revenge finding herself, efficient intelligence agents, friendly assistants on both sides of the law and so on. All the usual tropes in fact, but the perfect read 30,000 feet in the air when you want to stay awake (in the air from Munich to Mumbai).
56. The Gaugin Connection — Estelle Ryan [Mystery]
Excellent with a truly novel, interesting protagonist / heroine, a highly functioning autistic. Great first person narrative even if the plot is a bit drawn out and unnecessary prolonged. And the narrator throws a refreshing light on our ‘normal’ human interaction.
November 2017
57. The Best of All Possible Worlds — Karen Lord [SF]
Well, colour me stumped. This started off as a psycho-socio study of alien-human/alt-human interaction a la Ursula K le Guin but ended up as a Mills-and-Booney pulp romantic, albeit between a smart human woman and a Spock-like logical alien/alternative human. However, there was enough soft SF to avoid a complete meltdown into goo and the narrator’s tone for the most part was endearingly human. So 3 stars where it could have been 5 or 1.
58. High Heat — Richard Castle [Thriller]
Thoroughly enjoyable! Gets into the skin of the TV show so perfectly that it’s like reading a couple of episodes. Great wise-cracking harmonies between all the characters and a taut believable plot.
59. Dreaming the Beatles — Rob Sheffield [Non-fiction]
A love song, an ode to the music. A stingingly funny bunch of essays in no particular order that examines the appeal of this timeless music. Written by an obvious fan, for fans. Loved every word of it.
60. Death at the President’s Lodging — Michael Innes [Mystery]
Wonderfully complex and erudite yet entertaining. Would’ve enjoyed it even more if I didn’t have that crappy viral fever throughout the read.
61. The President’s Daughter — Jack Higgins [Thriller]
Reliable as always. A strong go-to thriller writer in the Alistair Maclean mould.
62. The 9th Girl — Tami Hoag [Thriller]
Superb, gritty cop procedural / serial killer / regular murder thriller. Great read on your travels.
63 to 65. The Budayeen Cycle Trilogy — George Alec Effinger [SF]
When Gravity Fails — Every bit as outstanding as I remembered it to be. Chandler meets Gibson in a brilliantly evoked future.
A Fire in the Sun — Two in the Budayeen Cycle trilogy. So far an excellent continuation of the saga of Marid Audran the punk loner now part of the patronage system of Friedlander Bey. A great sequel. Our hero changes subtly over the two books yet retains enough of his first self to continue to be interesting and enjoyable. The writing is as sharp & noir as ever and the supporting cast is vivid and memorable. All in all, a great series so far.
The Exile Kiss — And the trilogy ends. Consistent with the changes in the character of the lead protagonist so in that sense, great. But lacking somewhat in the biting wit and mordant sarcasm of the earlier two. Also a bit sloppier plotting. Ratiocination & deductions were never hallmarks of this series, but the writing elevated it to Chandler-esque proportions. This one was more serious and less fun.
66. Contract: Snatch — Ty Hutchinson [Thriller]
Superb! Incredibly fast-paced yet believable (despite the usual near superhuman qualities of the heroine). Great action-packed read!
December 2017
67. The Long Divorce — Edmund Crispin [Mystery]
Outstanding as always! My admiration for Crispin grows with each novel I read. Not only is his plotting tight, but his mastery of the language is positively Wodehouseian and I love the way he sprinkles esoteric words like eupeptic and whilom and inchoate while still contriving not to sound pompous. And his little diversions of descriptions and situations are delightful and warrant many a re-read (which is why every Crispin book takes me longer to read than its pages would seem to warrant). Lovely.
68. In Farleigh Field — Rhys Bowen [General]
Quite a decent WWII meets Downton Abbey story. I’d hesitate to call it a thriller because in many ways the pace is leisurely, there are too many diversions into mildly steamy romance and there’s not much in the way of mystery: the premise of sending a message via a parachutist seems a mite convoluted. But all in all the evocation of wartime Britain as it affected a subset of society — the Downton crowd — is entertaining and well-written.
69. Legacy — Greg Bear [SF]
Well, not as hard a slog as I feared. Having said that, Bear is a ‘hard’ SF author and Arthur C. Clarke he ain’t, so the detail tends to be much more and the concepts more esoteric and so can overwhelm the reader at times. Legacy reads something like Charles Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle might; the emphasis is heavily on biology and the potential strangeness of hypothetical alien life and what constitutes sentience. As a 20th century novel, there’s also the obligatory bout of social speculation about humanity is going to evolve in its relationships and emotions and attitudes — not much, as it turns out. But all in all, a decent read and spurs me on to the next in the series (though I still hesitate when tackling doorstoppers).
70. The Great Santini — Pat Conroy [General]
Fascinating, completely NSFW novel about the eponymous hero, who is quite obnoxious but the sort of person you want to learn more about. Sort of like rubber-necking a train wreck. His family should be more dysfunctional than they are: judging from Santini’s behaviour they should all be basket cases, suicide cases or homicidal maniacs- or all of the above. That they’re not is testament to Conroy’s skills in writing, depicting a picture of family harmony quite at odds with the father’s lunacy. And yet, it’s this lunacy that gives the Marines their famous fighting edge, and defines this strange yet normal family. Conroy is a passionate and vivid writer and keeps you engrossed despite the general grossness depicted. A great read and a great insight into the US military upbringing, Southern culture, racism, teen angst, family life, school life, first love…
71. Wobble to Death — Peter Lovesey [Mystery]
Great read! In fact, I liked this better now than I did 40 years ago. Solid ‘period’ detective mystery set in late 19th century London. And a wonderful depiction of a weird sport (reincarnated as ultra marathons now).
