Minnesota Setting!

As soon as I see Minnesota, I am IN, you betcha!  I randomly came across Nils Shaprio and read the first three.  I hope there are more to come!  Matt Goldman is quite the writer! 

One Crazy Summer

it has been.  For everyone I am sure.  And I am behind on my reading, and VERY behind on updating my blog.
I am sure so many are disappointed!
So I am going to do a little catching up!
First of all, I am thrilled to get even deeper into Michael Koryta.  I have just finished his Lincoln Perry series.  And while Mr. Perry isn't one of my most favorite detectives, Koryta writes a great mystery.  I just personally don't think Perry is a guy with whom I would hang.  Not like sweet Virgil or crazy Stone or smart-butt and smart-mind Lucas.
I read a non-Perry Koryta book If She Wakes along with The Prophet  and Those Who Wish Me Dead and really enjoyed them, especially TP.  Looking forward to more books from Mr. Koryta!

 

  

The Older I Get

I think I get a little more prudish!  A Time to Scatter Stones is a novella by Lawrence Block starring the very cool, incredibly likable Matthew Scudder.  One of my favorite detectives!  The only thing I didn't like about this was the sex.  I don't mean it in a judgement way.  It wasn't dirty or offensive to me, indeed, there are no details.  It just isn't my thing and kinda bored me.  But otherwise, a very good mystery.  And I do love Scudder.

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. 

Ace is Ace

Yes, Ace Atkins has done it again.  Robert B. Parker's Old Black Magic is the forty-sixth Spenser book and I am again very thankful that Parker's family found Mr. Atkins and that Mr. Atkins agreed to carry on the Spenser stories.  My only sadness about this one was that Hawk wasn't there!  Other than that, this was perfection!