For some odd reason

I had never read the first two books in the Jonathan Stride series!  Which is kinda good because I was just able to enjoy them tremendously for the first time.  Immoral and Stripped.
These were simply excellent mystery/thriller/detective books, man.  Just awesome.  And Stripped has a character in it who was way before her time and I think that the way in which Freeman writes about her, Amanda, shows the beauty of this writer's character.  He dealt with gender and sexuality in such a Christ-like, decent human being way in this book.  Totally freaking awesome.  Love this series!

NOTHING against Mike Lupica

I just don't like Sunny Randall.  Blood Feud is the first Sunny Randall to be written after the death of Robert B. Parker.  So now all of his popular series are being continued.  I had wondered by Sunny wasn't among them from the beginning.  At times I did wish that she was, but now that I have reacquainted myself with her snarky ways, I think it might have been okay to leave Sunny where she was.  I never even liked it when she and Jesse got together. 
Mike Lupica was previously known to me as a YA writer, with a focus on sports so I was excited to see what he might do with Sunny.  And he did a great job of making Sunny Sunny.  So this is NOTHING against him.  I think he is a great writer.  I just don't like her!
Which makes me wonder...am I just like someone who judges a woman politician in a different way from the way in which I judge a man?  Do I not like Sunny for the same reasons why I love Spenser? 
Ashamedly, I THINK SO!  So I will continue to read the Sunny Randall books.  Because Lupica is a great writer and because RBP was, and always will be the Great RBP and I need to figure out why a man can be snarky and arrogant and annoying and I can LOVE him but when a woman is, I can hardly listen through the whole book!

Bottom line:  If you like Sunny, you will like this.  Lupica has done a great job of bringing her back to life.  If you didn't like Sunny, you will have the same issues and if you think you are having those issues because she is a woman, you might want to think about that a little more. 

Memories

I have talked about my old roommate, Nancy Lou before and how she would often talk about instances in her past and describe them as taking place, "in another life" saying that it was so long ago, it seemed like a wholly different life.  I get that now. 
In another life I was in the play production of Agatha Christie's Cards on the Table.  I had completely forgotten until I started listening to this, the fifteenth in the Hercule Poirot series.
I had probably forgotten not just because it took place in another life but also because my part was very, very small.  I was Mrs. Lorrimer's maid.  Yeah.  Not a big role!
In any case, this is my second Christie book and how I enjoyed it! 

My First Agatha Christie

Yes, I am not a fan of off-putting Briticisms.  Yes, I had tried to read this very Agatha Christie book when I was a kid, but I really needed a read and had nothing else and so I read Hallowe'en Party, the thirty-ninth Hercule Poirot book.  And it was SO funny!  Now I know someone died.  But it was funny.  It reminded me a lot of Columbo, which I loved, too.  I do want to read more and was glad that I read this in October!  Tis the season and all!  Loved it!I had seen a middle schooler reading it and asked her about it and other AC books and she just said she really liked them so I thought, well, maybe I am mature enough now! 

Oh Joe

I do like the Joe Gunther series.  I do.  I just don't like KGB stuff and international spy jazz and that was ALL Disposable Man was! 

Bellows Fall is Falling Down

But it is also building up.  Bellows Falls is number 8 in the series and yes, yes, another great one!  I don't know what it was about those few that didn't 5 star for me, but these last few really have! 

The Ragman

The Ragman's Memory was an excellent book, the seventh in the Joe Gunther series.  The title got me thinking about this poem.  I read it when I was working as a pastor and on a mission trip to DC with the kids and it stuck with me all of these years.
The poem has nothing to do with the book.
Anyway....this book was really, really good!  And so I am on to the 8th!

And Again!

The Dark Root, the sixth installment of the Joe Gunther series was VERY good and another 5 star.  This book dealt with the rise of Asian American gangs and addressed the racial discrimination that went along with it.  Again, I feel like Archer was writing ahead of his time when he addresses issues back in the 90s that, sadly are still issues today (see #5) but are now, at least getting better, more appropriate attention. 

Another One!

Fruits of the Poisonous Tree was VERY 5 star and ahead of it's time, I think.  This made me feel the way that I did about Death Masks in that it gave me a renewed sense of enthusiasm about a series.   There is no corpse in the book, as the author says in his foreword, because the murder that takes place here is rape.  I thought that was a powerful statement about the crime of rape.  And keep in mind, this was published in 1993.  Very, very, very good. 

Order Restored

Scent of Evil is the third in the Joe Gunther series and now I am back in order!  This one was okay, too.  I mean, good but not a four star.  Yet like I felt when I read Skeleton's Knee.  I liked it enough to go on the next! 

Out of Order

But not too much.   Just finished The Skeleton's Knee which I thought was the third book in the Joe Gunther series.  Turns out it is the fourth.  So now I am going to go back and read Scent of Evil.  Because I do enjoy these books and I like the character of Joe.  I mean his character, as in this morals and so forth, but I guess that also means I like the character-character of Joe, too!  While Skeleton's Knee seemed a little tedious for me, I think it was because it dealt with a time similar to The Risen and I was just so over that kind of pretension that I was happy that the characters were bad and died!

Trying It Out

I read Open Season with the hope that I had found a new series to love.  Joe Gunther is the guy and the series is by Archer Mayor.  It is set in Brattleboro which is a real town in Vermont and I don't know much about Vermont so it part was fun, too.
I really, really enjoyed this book so much.  I am trying out the second one, but I am not sucked in-- YET! 

Death

Death's Betrayal:  Transgressions:  5 and 9 is another couple of short stories from the book edited by Ed McBrain which is incredible!  These two stores were quite good.  Some day I do need to explore the books of Jeffery Deaver because I have enjoyed the short stories that I have read. 

Always

been a fan of Bill Pronzini's Nameless series, so it was a no brainer to download The Violated.  As much as I enjoy the Nameless books, I never expected to enjoy this stand-alone book SO much.  It was just an excellent, excellent mystery.  Great characters and a mystery that kept me guessing.  Dude I did NOT like the mayor!  But of course, we weren't supposed to like him!  What a weenie!  And what an apt title. 

Hieronymus Bosch

was a wacky painter.  I mean, this dude was doing his thing a WAY long time ago.  He died in 1516!  To the left is one of his most popular paintings.  I bet you have seen it.  It's The Garden of Earthly Delights.  Harry Bosch's full name is Hieronymus and, yes he was named after the painter.  The Wrong Side of Goodbye is the 21st in his series.  It was good.  I liked it a lot.  It did make me cry.  There was a story about Bosch remembering when Bob Hope and Connie Stevens did a USO Tour while Bosch was in Vietnam.  and Hope ordered his helicopter to land on the naval ship even though it was super dangerous to do so.  This just moved me to tears.  Then last night there was a PBS special on tv about Hope's USO tours.  I want to learn more about this.  I couldn't watch the show, so I need to try to catch it the next time it comes on.  I am not sure if it was this one or this one. 

More Birds

The Night Bird is the first in the  new Frost Easton series from oh that amazing Brian Freeman.  And even when he isn't writing about Minnesota, he can write, write, write a book that just sucks you in and in and in! 

Set in Minnesota

any book set in Minnesota is going to get you 4 stars right there, it seems.  And then any book with Virgil where he contemplates his God?  Yeah.  5 stars for sure.  That F%9king Flowers.  Deep Freeze, 5 stars it is.  Yet another reason to love October.  A new Virgil Flowers book to devour. 

This was something...

What You Don't Know was really, really, really darn good.  Really good.  I have no idea what is going on with the cover, however.  No idea.  I just know that this book made me want to keep on listening and listening and listening.  It is complex.  It is really, really good.
This is JoAnn Chaney's first book which completely blew me away and also made me sad because man, I want to read more from her.
This sentence from the book's description "The last victims of an infamous serial killer on death row may be the ones he didn't kill."  REALLY REALLY REALLY describes this book.
WOW.
The cover though?  As pictured here anyway?  Um.  I have no idea and I just don't think it fits. 

GREAT collection!

The Mystery Writers of America Presents The Blue Religion:  New Stories about Cops, Criminals and the Chase was a great book!  One I found after reading Face Off, which was good but not as good as this, to me, anyway, because I love police procedurals!  It is edited by Harry Bosch creator, Michael Connelly.  His contribution to the collection is especially good.  I liked Alafair Burke's story, too, even though it was one that was predictable, it was really, really good and so that says a lot.  I liked her writing a lot.  Paul Guyot has an especially great story.  Man, it was just so good.  I LOVE how his website describes him as "fair selling author!"  There were just so many GREAT ones here.  SO MANY.  And all of them were at least good.  Just a must-read!

Hard One

Books of short stories are hard to judge.  Some short stories are SO good and some are SO bad, sometimes.  Sometimes books DO have all awesome short stories.  But sometimes it is like night and day.  Face Off was like that for me. Had they been stand alones, there were, for sure, some that would have been 5 stars.  Sadly, had they been stand alones, even the one co-written by one of my most favorite authors, there would have been some .5s and 1s.  

As is my preference, the ones that took place in foreign countries and/or had political themes were less appealing.  The ones with a bit of paranormal were very appealing, as were the ones with hard-edged detectives.  Well now that I think about it, the one set in England, even though it had those off-putting Briticisms, was among my favorites, it was just that good.  Oh well!  Maybe this is one of those for which I should have broken up with individual stories instead of plowing through the ones that were just blah for me.  Some I had restart 7, 8 or more times!