Deck The Halls

Just finished and blurbed The Priest, it's by a new author Gerard O'Donovan and if you like Tana French you're going to love O'Donovan.  Out in March full review then.  I am currently trying to get finished before Christmas,


Redbreast by Jo Nesbo, which is cracking so far and I don't see it letting up.

The Trigger Episode by Tom Straw, this guy wrote both Nikki Heat books and although I'm only a couple of chapters in I'm enjoying it.

Finally
Secrets of People Who Don't Get Sick, an impulse buy, the blurb intrigued me. 25 cures people swear by. These provide measurable health benefits and can be backed up by scientific studies.

I'm also about to tempt fate by writing the blurb for the back of my book jacket and the acknowledgements for the inside page.

As this is the last post of 2010 I'd like to thank all of you for your comments, tips and store based discussions.   We'll  have more in 2011.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Fated by S. G. Browne

Continuing the idea that Greek Gods and even Angels walk amongst us like a kind of cosmic police force, Fated take the concept and runs with it.  Fate, Destiny, Chance, Karma, Truth, Justice etc all immortals walking around in man and woman suits all working for the man upstairs, who prefers to go by ‘Jerry’

Fate who goes by the unlikely name of ‘Fabio’ isn’t allowed to interfere in the lives of his humans, isn’t allowed to push them onto Destiny’s path (she won’t thank him for increasing her workload) and he sure as hell can’t fall in love in with a human.  Fabio thinks the boss won’t notice as he’s buried in paper work and getting ready for his next ‘act of Jerry’ but Jerry is omniscient after all.

I’ve been laughing out loud at some of the characterizations in Fated, Destiny’s a slut, Truth has magpie tendencies, Sloth’s a narcoleptic, Karma likes to get drunk in restaurants, speak of the Devil has a whole new meaning and Death has changed his name to – get this – Dennis.  Fated is an indie band kind of a book, a word of mouth recommendation.

Top Ten Books of 2010

Looking at the list there's a little more non-fiction than there was two years ago and that's not a bad thing. 

The Bricklayer by Noah Boyd
Good Thief's Guide to Vegas by Chris Ewan
Packing For Mars by Mary Roach *
Blind Descent by James M. Tabor *
Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg
God of the Hive by Laurie King
Warlord by Ted Bell
Sleeperwalkers by Paul Grossman
Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson *
The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley

* are non fiction.

Thoughts on The Priest

So far this arc ticks all the boxes, set in Dublin (love Irish crime stories), police procedural (check), creepy serial killer(check), start of a series (check), breakout talent (check).  Out in March full review then.

Reading, Re-writes and a plea for an arc

Just finished reading Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse, Winged Obsession by Jessica Speart and I'm about to start The Priest by Gerard O'Donovan - new writer looks great. 

The feedback on my second draft ms for Thunderball was good I've made a list of suggested changes and whittled it down to about 10 pages worth which doesn't sound much but when one line says re-write this entire scene I'm looking at about another three months worth of work.

Finally if you are reading this and you work for Harpercollins I'm putting this out there.  There is an arc for the new Noah Boyd novel, Agent X. I know the store had one but it vanished before I got a chance to get my hands on it.  I loved The Bricklayer and I really, really want to read Agent X before February.  If you can help get in touch. 

So far I like Wolf Hall

Wolf Hall - I was reluctant to start it but so far I'm enjoying it.  Of course I know the he = Cromwell trick.  I can see how it could drive you nuts trying to figure out who he was but still.  Also forgot how good Stella Rimmington is - Dead Line is modern day, spy stuff, mainly set in London and Scotland, a shadowy entity is out to blacken Syria's name and disrupt peace talks taking place in Gleneagles Scotland.  Liz Carlyle and the boys and girls at MI5 are out to stop them with the help - or hindrance - of MI6 and the US embassy in Grosvenor Square.  Rimmington - as I know from her first Carlyle novel - doesn't tell stories with everything neatly tied in a bow at the end so I'm letting this one unfold.

Officially done it

Done it!

Nano is done for another year, I can't verifty my word count until tomorrow but it currently stands at 50,402 and still going up.

Starting Wolf Hall today and then for a treat the new Stella Rimmington.

Thougts on The Dreamseller

Ever read a book that everyone says is fantastic 'you have to read it' and at the end you don't get it, the message doesn't resonate for you.  True story, I read the Alchemist by Coelho many years ago back in England all my girl friends loved it, I thought there must be something wrong with me so I read it again - and still nothing.

I read an excerpt of The Dreamseller by Cury (out in Feb 2011 full review then) in that excerpt which you can read online - just google Dreamseller - an academic is about to throw himself off a skyscraper in Manhattan when this mysterious unkempt stranger talks his way onto the roof and using the sociology professor's training against him picks apart his arguements and saves his life.  When I was reading the arc, key points resonated with me, we - as a society - do worship money and celebrity, we standardize beauty and pigeon hole people by religion, ethnic group or sexual orientation and live our lives at one hundred miles an hour.  Our academic establishments squash critical thinking and turn out predatory machines instead of people capable of rational thought.  I get it, I'm inspired by it. This may be fiction but it is also great social commentary.

Nano = 22310

It was nuts but we coped

Last night was what I'd like to call our official pre Christmas rehearsal.  Two events both well attended at completely different ends of the scale.  One event brought out some extremely hot firefighters, hey I can look, and flirt - a little.  The other was the new Jonathan Stroud, in the kids room.  I had the pleasure of meeting Jonathan, he was charming and happy to chat and just hang out with Rachels 1.0, 2.0, Kim and myself and I think we may have scored him skiing lessons on his next trip to Park City.

I've posted a link to Aimee Bender's nano peptalk - it's about tangents and how going off on them while writing can be good thing.

http://www.nanowrimo.org/node/3874221

Speaking of nano my score = 18575

Broken - Karin Fossum

Fossum writes dark tales so I knew what I was getting into but this isn't an entry in the Inspector Sejer series.  A female author ( possibly Fossum ) suffers a break-in but the burglar isn't out to steal he's out to persuade for he is a character standing in line waiting for his story to be told.  The author names him and begins to tell  his story but no story moves on without drama and that ingredient comes in the form of a fragile young heroin addict who plants herself in the character's life and may drag him down with her.

I'm still scratching my head, trying to work out if this is Fossum showing us her process and as a writer myself a long line of blank characters waiting patiently in all weathers outside my front door would scare the bejesus out of me.

Nano = 14684

Layover in Dubai

Finished this last night - I have to say, Dubai, the Emirati and the favours that make the world go round for them (wasta) are the reason I kept reading.  Now I'm onto Broken by Karin Fossum the premise being that an author wakes up to find one of her characters - they queue up in her yard - has jumped said queue and broken into her house.  He talks her into naming him and telling his story and that's as far as I've got.

Nano score = 8037

5232

Today's word count from nanowrimo-land.

My strategy this year is to use the laptop - write somewhere for a couple of hours - then come home and do other stuff while the battery recharges and then write for another hour or so.  Reading has slowed a bit though.  Finished the Le Carre over the weekend, one of the characters - Hector - is like an older wilier version of George Smiley.  I also finished The Dead Detective by Heffernan which comes out next year.  I've got a taste for police procedurals at the moment it seems.

Nerves

Sleep - I hate you.  I've been cramming my days full so that I don't have to think about my looming deadline.  Nov 1st - no not Nanowrimo! - that's when I get to see the copy of my ms, and know what edits I'll have to make.

So last night I had a horrible dream, my editor ( a bloke - my editor is a lady) gave me back the manuscript and the pages were bleeding, letters dripping onto the floor.  The he balled up the pages one by one and threw them at me, saying in this horrible soft voice, ' it's crap, it's crap'  

Now the idea lingers, and I have to ask myself why am I doing this?

The answer, because I thought it would be fun and don't get me wrong the writing part is fun.  So I'm going to silence my snide inner critic, work my myself to sleep and not eat cheese tonight.

Thoughts on Day of Honey

Memoirs are not normally my thing but this one - wow!  It's not out until next year (February) but it is a great read and so topical right now - even as I'm writing this the cauldron of middle east politics is still threatening to boil over.  Good books inspire emotions, and this one did (mostly anger at two countries who really should have learned about persecution and a certain US politician's comments about witnessing the 'birth pangs' of a new middle east have a whole new meaning when shells are flying past your kitchen window) but it also inspired something else, suspense.  In war we lose people, some we know, some we love but loss is generous, likes to make sure we all get some.  Now from real life to spy life, "Our Kind of Traitor" Le Carre's new one.

Swedish is the new black

In mystery that is, Swedish writers are being taken up like catnip.  In Red Wolf, Liza Marklund's protagonist, journalist Annika may not be altogether likeable but you can't help sticking with her throughout her investigation.  For me the glimpses of Sweden that you get - even the everyday details - are a bonus.  The story gets woven around messy lives, Annika and the others aren't perfect, they have affairs, they lie their way into people's lives, they put their career ahead of everything else, they drink, they identify and attack their rivals and squabble about who's picking the kids up from school.  They make mistakes - lots of them.  Red Wolf comes out in February 2011.  Full review then.

November approaching

Regular readers will know that November means NanoWrimo.  If you've never done it before it goes a little like this.  Starting Nov 1st you have all month to produce 50,000 words, of unedited novel.  You don't have to punctuate, self edit or even use capital letters just get the words down on the screen.  It doesn't cost you anything - although they welcome donations and it's a great way of taking an idea out of your head therefore freeing up space for more.  If you cross the finish line - great! and you can spend the rest of the year editing.  If not, there's always next year.  This will be my fourth nano, the book that came from the first took three years and multiple edits.  If you feel like you need a challenge visit http://www.nanowrimo.org/

I'm going to try and blog during nano, which I normally don't but we'll see how it goes.  This morning the arc for Red Wolf by Lisa Marklund arrived, I do love a good Swedish mystery.

Uprisings for the Earth : Osprey Orielle Lake

We all know about global warming, the green revolution, recycling and renewable energy and here most people yawn, plug in their mp3 player and go back to sleep.  ‘Our government or our scientists will save us,’ they say, ‘that’s why I voted for them.’

Lake doesn’t feel that way, her message and it’s a timely one is that we need to re-acquaint ourselves with the planet we’re currently polluting to death. 

Civilizations much older and - I would say - wiser than ours revered the land, shared a deep connection with it.  Our generation treats the planet like an all-you-can-eat buffet and we're about to get the bill.

Lake isn’t saying that we should tear down our cities and go back to living in caves, she’s suggesting that we are the solution to our own problems. Individually or in small groups we can come up with solutions that big business can’t or won’t implement.  Her argument is persuasive, her words poetic, her stories compelling.  

Further reading

Blessed Unrest by Paul Hawken

Biomimicry by Jane Benyus

Hot Flat and Crowed by Thomas Friedman

The Great Turning by David Korten

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

A Beginners Guide to Acting English

Shappi Khorsandi is an Iranian comedienne and this is a memoir of her life in Iran and then London after her father had to flee with his family.  I'm more fascinated by the small details than the big story the description of family, Shappi's multiple uncles, trips to the baths, the food, the parties, their attitude to animals, how everyone, even poor people have a maid.

The attitude of my countrymen (not all of my countrymen) to an Iranian family - calling them Pakis made me cringe at the ignorance.  It's funny in parts but I'd recommend it more for the cultural aspects.

To Fetch a Thief - Spencer Quinn

Chet's back!  The canine part of the Little Detective Agency and his human, Bernie, are back on the case.  Peanut the elephant has vanished into thin air along with his circus trainer Uri.  Bernie and Chet happily drop a divorce case which could turn sticky for Bernie when Popo the clown hires them to track man and pachyderm  down.

Soon Bernie is asking questions, dodging baseball bats, animal rights activists, corrupt cops and puff adders while generally messing things up with Suzy his on/off reporter girlfriend.  And Chet? apart from his diet of slimjims, donuts and doggie treats, naps and plenty of running. Chet gets a lead on Peanut and finds an elephant out for revenge.

On the Menu

This weeks serving of books includes, the new Chet and Bernie - To Fetch a Thief by Spencer Quinn, A Beginner's Guide to Acting English (not a new title but I'll review it 'cos it came out in UK), for bookclub The Lost City of Z and finally my guilty pleasure of the week Naked Heat by Rick Castle:-)

I have also started the second of my blog strands which I'm hoping leads to debate not flamage
http://mysterygirlwantstoknow.blogspot.com/

When a bookseller says 'jump'

Especially when that bookseller is the wonderful Wendy Foster Leigh and she didn't tell me to jump.  Less than a week before we left for Singapore I got an e-mail from Wendy, 'a lady in her book group has a daughter in Singapore and we should try and meet up' So after a couple of backwards and forwards e-mails between myself Wendy, Elaine Davis and daughter Christy we arranged to get in touch the day after we arrived in Singapore.

After a text and a couple of phonecalls we arranged to meet Christy and Regan (her hubby) at the ticket wickets at Little India tube station but at City Hall interchange Christy came up to us, she'd figured that two Gaijin (foreigners) one with red hair could only be me and Chris.  We went to a barefoot restaurant called Lagnaa in Little India, best indian food I've had since we left UK. It was a fun evening. 

Warlord, Ted Bell

Can the Warlord save the Royal Family?

MI6 operative Alex Hawke puts aside his grief to hunt down a vengeful killer targeting the British Monarchy.  The killer known only as ‘Pawn’ has struck twice in the last thirty years claiming the lives of two beloved royals and has carried out countless attacks on the cabinet and even Windsor Castle.  Hawke is convinced that the motive for the original killing will lead them to the Pawn but the Pawn has an insider planted in Hawke’s group and they're about to initiate the move Pawn takes Kings.

Using a blend of real events, blistering action and global threat Bell takes Hawke to new heights and sets up the next book in the final pages.

Read. Blog. Read. Repeat

Today I'm back in the saddle, I actually finished Notes from the End Times the day before we left but it's out now so here's a brief review.

When I reviewed Daniel Pinchbeck's 2012 The Return of Quetzlcoatl a couple of years ago I wrote

"2012 won't be the end of the world just a change of mindset less material and more spiritual"

Notes from the End Times is a series of articles Pinchbeck has written since.  Reading them cover to cover you do find a little repetition but there is a message worth noting, I went and checked out the Evolver.net website as a result.

Now I'm reading Fated by S.G Browne and I also completed the first blog post on my travel strand http://mysterygirlontour.blogspot.com/

The Mind’s Eye, Oliver Sacks

A person can lose a limb and compensate with prosthetics but what if what you lose – or gain comes from your brain?  Sacks gives us a neurological casebook of his patients and one case that’s very personal – a melanoma in his right eye.

We have the female concert pianist who can’t recognize objects any more but with her eyes closed can reproduce past performances.  The vital woman whom a stroke rendered speechless and the experience while frustrating has enhanced her life.  The writer who overnight lost the ability to read, yet he can still write.  And Stereo Sue, she’s seen in mono all her life and suddenly the whole world is like a magic eye picture. Every one of these patients is inspiring. They don’t have physical scars, but they’ve lost mental processes that we take for granted. (Published end of October)

Bandit Love, Massimo Carlotto

If you like your noir Mediterranean, with an extra side of grit then Massimo Carlotto is for you.  Marco “The Alligator” Buratti inhabits a world of thieves, informants and cut-throats.  He thought he was leaving his past behind but it just came back and grabbed him by the throat. 

Forced to investigate a narcotics theft when his partner’s girlfriend is snatched, Buratti  finds himself caught in the middle of a Mafia standoff between Italians, Kosovars and Serbians.  Buratti and his cohorts are going to have to bring on the mayhem to get the quiet life they feel they deserve but as Buratti finds it never ends - no matter whose side you’re on.

Entangled – Graham Hancock

This fantasy thriller is set in two time periods.  Present-day Los Angeles and back in the time of Neanderthals with two tough teenage female protagonists, Ria, a skilled hunter, whose simple act of kindness throws her into the jaws of a prophecy and brings her to the attention of a demon and Leonie, spoilt party girl with some traumatizing emotional scars. Her parents have just tried to have her committed because she’s about to spill the beans on a family secret.  Leonie and Ria are brought together to defeat the demon Sulpa but he’s not going down without a fight.

Hancock’s rather bloodthirsty battle scenes are not for the faint of heart but there are enough twists and turns to keep you turning the pages.  First in a trilogy.

Sleepwalkers, Paul Grossman

Berlin, 1932.  Willi Kraus, Kriminal Polizei Inspector, holder of the iron cross, Jew.  Willi’s latest case is disturbing in the extreme, a young woman who seems to have been experimented on before her death.  Soon there’s a surgeon in the frame, but he may have been framed.  Willi wades through the glitz of Berlin, ignoring the warning signs.  The Nazi party is bankrupt they can’t possibly win the upcoming election and he’s a proud German who has nothing to be afraid of.

Willi focuses his attention on a hypnotist whose volunteers keep sleepwalking away into the night.  While the country sleepwalks towards a new genetically pure Germany.  The dawn of the Third Reich. 

Hello October

I know things have been quiet on the blog because I've been travelling.  To celebrate our 10th Anniversary we've been in Singapore and Hong Kong.  I'm starting a couple of extra blog strands.  I'm going to try my hand at travel writing http://mysterygirlontour.blogspot.com/ (first posts when my jet lag has worn off hopefully tomorrow.  Reviews for October coming up.

One book leads to another

The new Oliver Sack's book - Mind's Eye (October) has a story about Howard Engelman a Canadian writer who woke up one day not able to read a thing, he could still write though.  Engelman used his condition in a novel called Memory Book and that's what I'm reading right now.  It's not new but knowing the guy's history it's a fascinating read.  The editing process was a particular challenge he had to get people to read passages to him and make the edits that way.  The story in case you feel like checking it out Benny Cooperman a PI comes round in hospital, unable to remember how he got there.  Slowly with the help of cops and his girlfriend he pieces together his shattered memory but will whoever tried to kill him succeed this time?

I also bought Stephen Lawhead's new book - the first time I've bought a book because I've seen a trailer for it!  I'll review that soon. In the meantime I just completed the second draft of my second book - that's kind of been taking up my time in the last few weeks.  It's going out for comment today.

Pic

Nose now very firmly back to the grindstone - but I wanted to share a pic of the mystery room display from last weekend. Bear in mind that this is only the top shelf and hubby took it on his IPhone.  Oh and I just discovered Carol O'Connell which is why I haven't blogged that much this week.

The Mullah’s Storm, Thomas W Young

Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan. A routine prisoner transport until the C 130 comes under rocket fire and crashes during a snowstorm. Charged with holding onto the prisoner - a controversial Muslim cleric - until they can be airlifted out, the two surviving crew members, navigator Major Parson and translator Sergeant Gold play a deadly game of hide and seek against an enemy sworn to destroy them. This authentic ripped-from-the-headlines thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat.

The Shadows In The Street, Susan Hill

Hill’s Simon Serrailler mysteries not only give you a police procedural with a thoughtful protagonist they also reflect the Cathedral town of Lafferton and the many characters you find roaming its streets. They show you the consequences for those touched by or suspected during a police investigation.

Dr Cat Deerborn, Simon’s sister is still in mourning for her beloved Chris. Her stepmother Judith is helping as best she can. There’s a rift brewing in the Cathedral community, Steven Webber, the new Dean and his pushy wife Ruth want to sweep away centuries of tradition and transform Lafferton Cathedral from high church to happy clappy.

Abi Righton, a local prostitute trying to make good reports another working girl missing and when that girl turns up dead and others follow Simon is called back from sabbatical. Could the killer be a disgruntled punter, a violent ex-boyfriend with form, or Looney Les the librarian whose efforts to help the prostitutes put him on the police radar. Then Ruth Webber goes missing. Simon’s team are running out of leads, the press are turning hostile. What Simon needs is a stroke of luck but it may be luck laced with tragedy.

Thoughts on The Mind's Eye

Reading The Mind's Eye by Oliver Sacks. After Warlord I needed a metaphorical bucket of cold water and this is it. Published in October, Sacks documents some fascinating case studies, but the one I can't get out of my head is a chapter called 'man of letters'. About (or should that be aboot) a Canadian writer who woke up one morning unable to read a word. He could see letters but they made no sense to him.

My idea of hell.

Weird thing is he could still write, he just couldn't read what he'd written but if he traced the letter in the air with his finger or his tongue he could work out the word(s).

Calendar Girl

A few months ago Jen Northington - late of King's English now living and working in New York - suggested a book blogger's calendar and now it's a reality.

Click on the title of this post to go straight to the site and see the fun book bloggers can have with a pile of books and a camera. Don't worry it's all in the best possible taste.

It's an 18 month calendar and all the proceeds go to FirstBook which is a charity that gives books to children in need www.firstbook.org

Thoughts on Warlord

Finished it yesterday and have been trying to write a blurb for it since then. Lets just say that I'm sure some people will be offended by this book because it does detail two actual deaths, one was murder the other a tragic papparazzi-fueled accident and there's several acts of vandalism and arson. Bell has blended fact with fiction, even fictionalising people like HRH and the Queen. This book is big over 500 pages - it won't feel like that when you're reading it. To me it felt real and it's a scary picture that Bell paints. All I can say is that the next writer to take over the James Bond franchise - if it isn't Bell - had better pull their socks up. Alex Hawke could take James Bond with one hand tied behind his back.

Still reading

As I've said before sometimes life intrudes on my reading and this week was definitely no exception.

Warlord by Ted Bell - comes out in November and to say the plot moves like an express train with no brakes is an understatement. Going to be a busy week, we've got the drive-through premiere of Mockingjay on Tuesday morning and also the marketing people will be around at the end of the week so lots of tweaks going on in the mystery room.

The Murder Room, Michael Capuzzo

I've heard loads of really good reviews for this. Before we go any further this is non fiction - what we classify as true crime. It is about the formation of the Vidocq Society a group of real life crime solvers - they come from every agency and country you can think of and they are the top experts in their field. They meet with one aim - to solve cases that have gone 'cold'. I'm still in the first part of the book - how three men brought the whole thing together. Fleischer, Bender and Walter are complete opposites but together they are formidable. So is this book. Michael Capuzzo's book reads like fiction - never dry, always compelling and the only reason I put it down last night was that little thing called sleep.

Reading and Writing stories

Sorry folks, been a busy week. My current read is Eighteen Acres by Nicolle Wallace - the eighteen acres in question is that big white house on Pennsylvania Avenue. We have a woman president, her female chief of staff and a journalist who just happens to be having an affair with the first husband. So far so good.

I do have orders in for Daniel Pinchbeck's new one and one called Fated which if it's a good as the pitch will do very well.

This week saw me attend my first Utah wedding reception (congrats to Rachel and Joey) and also gave me a great example of corporate nannying which is so going in the next book. Let me set the scene for you, certain US companies want a lean workforce - literally. Basically you give them a sample of your blood and from that, your blood pressure and your height and weight and they tell you everything you're doing wrong. In my case I'm proud to say it wasn't much and one of those values -cholesterol - has been adjusted downwards by big pharma so we're all borderline high (more people to scare onto statins). But to earn credits me and the other half have to participate in a healthy eating plan (he's doing stress relief) which means I have to write down everything I eat. As I said I can really have some fun with that - fictionally speaking as it's no fun in the real world.

Speaking of fiction, I'm holding steady around the 1300 mark on Authonomy. Now that may not sound like much but I started at 3000! Still enjoying my time on that site and I've found and backed some gems.

From the 'Research' File

When I write about a place in order to capture it I have to go there. Which is why I use places I've lived in or know like the back of my hand. Cheaper and god knows I can't just wheel the company jet since we don't have one. Now I have a much easier alternative courtesy of the folks at Google. Yep, Google Earth and Google Maps my two new best friends. I know most of UK thinks that these are invasions of privacy but to a writer they are solid 24 carat genius. In streetview you can walk across Hyde Park to the front of the Albert Hall - not in realtime - there are webcams for that which I'll get to in a minute. But you can see the area, the people, shops, architecture it gives you a feel for the place you can pull up directions, tube maps, and webcams.

Yesterday afternoon I wasted a good part of my writing time watching London Bridge, Covent Garden, The Millenium Bridge and Cardiff Bay (bloody Torchwood!)all streaming live on four separate screens on my laptop from a coffee shop in SLC. Cool!

Thoughts on Sleepwalkers

Reading this book is like watching a train wreck - you can't look away. Set in 1930's Berlin, it's about a Jewish detective in the lead up to Hitler taking power and even though you know the outcome you have to keep reading. Out in October.

Moscow Sting, Alex Dryden

Former KGB Colonel Anna Resnikov holds the key to a mole who has planted himself right at the heart of the new Russian government. Anna knows the mole’s identity.He helped her to deliver her dying husband Finn to the British Embassy in Berlin bearing a note ‘You betrayed him in life. Honour him in death.’

Finn warned his MI6 masters about Putin’s new Russia now his warnings are proving true. Everyone’s looking for the mole code named ‘Mikhail’ and someone’s about to spring a trap. With MI6 and the CIA snapping at her heels, Anna is snatched up by Cougar, a private US defense contractor. They want ‘Mikhail’ and the price is Anna’s son Little Finn.

Good Thief’s Guide to Vegas, Chris Ewan

Charlie Howard, mystery writer and part-time thief hits Vegas.

Nobody messes with Charlie's friend Victoria, especially not Vegas illusionist Josh Masters. Keen to teach him a lesson, Charlie performs his own brand of magic, making all the money vanish from the safe in Josh's suite while trying to ignore the naked redhead floating face-down in his Jacuzzi. Now the magic man has done a disappearing act and the owners of the Fifty-Fifty hotel and Casino think Charlie and Victoria were part of the team helping Josh cheat at roulette. If Charlie and Victoria can't banter their way to Josh or the money in the next forty eight hours, Charlie's going to to have to rob a Casino - the Fifty-Fifty.

New August Releases

Finished Shadows in the Street and now I'm having trouble putting down Sleepwalkers by Paul Grossman, set in 1930's Germany 1932-33 to be exact. Students with a passing nod at history will know what that means and the protagonist is Jewish. As I said hard to put down. Enjoy the new august releases

The Anti Gene Hunt

I was watching Ashes to Ashes last night in the multiple commercial breaks reading Susan Hill's new one and it occurred to me that Susan Hill's Serrallier is as far from Hunt as you can get. They are both dedicated policemen but that's where the similarity ends and that's why both of them are so interesting. Hunt is this chauvanist dinosaur the roughest of rough diamonds who wouldn't think twice about resorting to rough stuff but there's a heart lurking under all that bluster. Serrallier is an artist, cultured, a little tortured and I doubt if Hill will ever marry him off because he wouldn't suit marriage. But both are utterly compelling - and the reason? They're written that way.

Thoughts on Packing for Mars

I am a huge fan of Mary Roach, I have copies of Stiff, Spook and Bonk so I've been expecting great things from Packing for Mars. I wasn't disappointed, Roach turns her writing to the minutiae of space travel less Houston we have a problem, more Houston we have a fungus.

As usual she dives head-first into her subjects which run from the evolution of NASA's 'food' to experiencing weightlessness (I'm jealous I've always wanted to do a zero g flight) to why sex in space wouldn't work (gravity is your friend people) It is - as she points out - possible to visit space without ever leaving the ground, but only in simulation.

Packing for Mars is whitty, packed with facts and laced with Roach's trademark humour. PFM will be out soon.

The drought is over!!

Oh boy, look at all these arcs! Sleepwalkers by Paul Grossman, Book of Thieves by Richard Doetsch and and the one I've been searching for the last couple of months Packing for Mars by Mary Roach.

Weird little story attached to that one, it never stays in one place you'd think the thing had legs. It's out in August so I'd better get my skates on. So this afternoon I will be reading Packing for Mars out on the deck with my feet immersed in a paddling pool full of ice. Ahhhhhh!

Speaking for the Dead for a worthy cause

So you’re a successful published author but after a certain amount of time some of your early back catalogue has gone out of print and the rights revert to you. What do you do with them? If you’re Paul Levine – you take full advantage of the e book revolution and give all the proceeds to charity.

Levine’s first Jake Lassiter novel 'To Speak for the Dead' – first published 20 years ago - is now out in e form and if you’ve never read him before this is a good way to get caught up before his new Lassiter novel comes out next year. Plus every penny goes to The Four Diamonds Fund – Levine's pet cancer charity.

You can tell a lot about a character by their dialogue and Paul had the novel idea of interviewing his creation - here’s an excerpt

Paul: Then let’s talk about you. Have you changed much in the 20 years since “To Speak for the Dead” was published?

Jake: You tell me. I don’t carry a Blackberry, an I-Phone, Pre, or a purse. You won’t find my mug on My Space or Facebook. I don’t have a life coach, an aroma therapist, or a yoga instructor, and I don’t do Pilates.

Paul: So you’re not exactly trendy?

Jake: I’m a carnivore among vegans, a brew and burger guy in a Chardonnay and paté world. I open the door for women and walk next to the street in case a horse and buggy jump the curb.

Paul: Do you have a philosophy of life?

Jake: I try to do the least damage possible. I never park in the handicapped space or toss gum wrappers on the sidewalk. I help little old ladies cross the street, and sometimes, tall young ones, too.

Having read the full interview I went straight to the site and bought my copy – as a pdf – heaven knows I’ve read enough manuscripts on-line since I’ve been on authonomy.

If you want to discover a series that some say is better than Grisham and do your good deed for the day then head over to

http://www.paul-levine.com/content/jake-lassiter.asp

Thanks to Nicole for pointing me at yet another good legal series.

Beautiful Malice, Rebecca James

Katherine Patterson, the new girl at school, so aloof, mysterious. Alice Perrie, bright, beautiful, she doesn’t respect boundaries and she’s always the center of attention. Alice seeks Katherine out and as their friendship deepens, Katherine shares her secret with Alice but Alice has her own secrets, her own agenda. The Boydell sisters won’t leave Katherine alone and the worst is yet to come

Rainy days and Wednesdays

Yesterday gave me not one - but two arcs. Graham Hancock's fantasy thriller Entangled and Susan Hill's new one The Shadows in the Street. Hancock, known for non fiction books like Fingerprints of the Gods has turned his hand to fiction. I started reading this this morning and I'm still going. Susan Hill is in my view in the same territory as the legendary PD James so that one was a no-brainer.

Thoughts on 'Where Good Ideas Come From'

Just finished Steven Johnson's new one, found in the arcs cupboard last Friday night. Yes it's non-fiction and he's the guy who wrote Ghost Map and The Invention of Air. Published in October it's about yes 'where good ideas come from' but also how they stick around and grow and evolve into - in some cases - unexpected forms. How mistakes can be a good thing and why eureka moments are a lot rarer than you'd think, they're more like hobby hunches simmering in the brain of the scientist, writer, doctor, etc. Johnson also shows us how some institutions are idea factories and others are set up to squelch ideas, which can cost lives.

Before work this afternoon I'm going to the online water cooler to join a chat with Tana French about Faithful Place.

Update 13.07pm - the chat was 1.30 Eastern Standard oops! but here is the link to the replay

http://us.penguingroup.com/static/pages/publishersoffice/subcontent/watercooler.html

The triple threat

Not every writer can handle different genres but John Connolly straddles them with ease, his fiction - Book of Lost Things, sci-fi - The Gates and the Charlie Parker series - mystery/thriller with more horror than I would normally read are all excellent. Yes folks I just finished The Whisperers. Here's the review.

PI Charlie Parker has just got his license back. Hired by Bennett Patchett to investigate the suicide of Patchett's son Damien. Parker discovers a pattern of suicides all leading back to the Stryker C unit, a looted museum in Iraq and an artifact from the cradle of civilization that could make Pandora's box look like a picnic hamper. Parker's looking for answers, the Collector and a man called Herod seek the artifact or could it be a prison.

Not only is this a first class thriller, it has some interesting things to say about how returning soldiers are treated especially when the injury isn't visible to the naked eye.

Re-reads #1

During arc droughts - like now - I turn to my own shelves, not all of these are still in print and not all are available in the US but these are my top ten re-reads.

Fury - Colin Forbes - A spy thriller, one of his best because he wove in the real life death of his wife.
Good Omens - Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett - Comedy version of the Omen - still makes me laugh out loud.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson - no explanation necessary.
Death of An Expert Witness - PD James - my first PD James, read so many times the binding has come adrift.
Silverstone - Bob Judd - A formula one racing thriller.
Thunderball - Ian Fleming - like your Bond more Daniel Craig than Roger Moore - this one's for you.
Notes from a Small Island - Bill Bryson - Bryson's book on his time in England.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K Rowling - I'm re-reading the lot.
Trading with the Enemy - Charles Higham - difficult to get hold of and not an easy read.
Eating Up Italy - Charles Fort - food writer takes Vespa to Italy.

arcs with everything?

I was talking with a friend last week and she commented that I haven't posted much recently. She's right but it's not because of a lack of good books, there are a couple I'd love to get my hands on - including Barry Eisler's new one Inside Out but for whatever reason we didn't have an arc for it and now we have one copy left in the store.

Sad News

I first met Kelly Wells at a staff meeting and I was impressed by how smart, well-read and nice she was. We worked together a lot and we used to joke that Kelly practically lived at the store. When she left us everyone at TKE was sad but now we're sad all over again. Kelly has gone to that great library in the sky, where I'm sure she'll be wandering the aisles, stopping to pull out a book absorbing it and going on to the next one and the next. I learned a lot from her, she was a friend and colleague. R.I.P

All Quiet on the Wasatch Front

Haven't written for two weeks! Will remedy that tomorrow once I've set the house to rights. I am still reading though and the current book on my shelf - The Watchers by Shane Harris - comes with a caveat. Do not pick this book up unless you want to educate yourself on the subject of government surveillance - ignorance is bliss after all. Harris has a good handle on his subject, he went and talked to the architects of the system 'the watchers'. This reads like fiction but oh boy it is not. I now know more than I ever needed to about wire-taps, data mining, IDC, NSA etc and why a serving US President with alzheimers is not a good thing.

In other news one of my galley grab requests arrived - The Whisperers by John Connolly which I can't wait to read.

7/8 Update on The Watchers, I'm split down the middle on this one. I understand the need for more data to track terrorists but the misuse of that data or even the numerous false positives such a system can generate mean that it needs to be carefully regulated and that removes the teeth from the watchdog. I also have a new acronym for the mode US politicians - doesn't matter if they have an R or a D next to their name - use and it's not SUABC (Stand Up And Be Counted) Instead they use CYOA or FE (Cover Your Own Ass or Forget Everything)

Faithful Place - Tana French

Frank Mackey now a dedicated undercover cop but Mackey carries a scar. He’s carried it since the day he left Faithful Place in the dead of night. A scar shaped like the girl he was going to elope with that night, the girl who never showed. Rosie Daley.

All this time Frank’s been thinking of Rosie, living in England probably married with kids, wanting nothing to do with a loser like him. I mean who’d want to get involved with the Mackeys?

Then one day Faithful Place pulls him back, a suitcase belonging to the Daley’s is found stuffed up the chimney and Frank has to get his head around the fact that Rose may never have left Faithful Place at all.

Poolside #1

I'm about half-way through The Mullah's Storm, not as gung ho as I thought it would be. It's difficult to achieve the balance of page-turner, bone chilling cold and giving both sides a fair hearing especially when lying outside in 100 degree heat. I'm also trying to get hold of Bullet Magnet by Mick Flynn, I read an article on him in yesterday's Daily Mail and I finally caved and bought the new Torchwood books - still my guilty pleasure.

Mullah's Storm and Myth - busted

The arc of "The Mullah's Storm" was waiting in my box at work yesterday. I already had my eye on it but it's good to know that the keeper of the arcs knows my taste in thrillers.

Oh and just to clear things up the mythical idea of our staff sleeping in the store - isn't true. But we don't just turn the key and go home either. We have to leave the place, neat, tidy and ready for the next day's morning shift and that takes balance, concentration and a heck of a lot of paper work.

Blind Descent

I watched John Stewart's interview with James M Tabor yesterday - he's the author of Blind Descent - and made a note to check and see if we had any copies at the store. He's going to be here next weekend (so we have tons) and I'm away! But I did manage to get hold of the arc - a small consolation.

Update : I'm only a few chapters in. Wow this is intense, in the first few pages it lists how many ways you could lose your life underground and shows you what happens to the reckless and unprepared. Cave exploration - another thing I won't be trying in the near future...

New Look

Every couple of years I change the look of the blog, but while I tweaked the colours Chris found the background. It's a little busier than I'm used to, it's on trial for the next month. Finished and blurbed Moscow Sting will have to raid the arcs cupboard tonight for more.

How violent is violence?

Yeah that's an unusual question but it came up on Friday when customer A talked customer B out of buying a book because she (customer A) had heard that it was pretty violent - she hadn't read it mind you - she'd just heard. If I had been customer B I would've listened to her and bought the book anyway because I like to make up my own mind and I know my tolerance is pretty high. Having said that violence against people in fiction I can read but against animals - that's where I stop reading. You kill an animal you lose me as a reader - I'm just saying.

I can count on the fingers of one hand the times I've gone past something like that. Of course customer B didn't buy the book but the thing that really got to me was that she'd specifically come in looking for that book but negative female peer pressure put her off. So my question again - how much violence can you take before you say 'ok that's going too far' I look forward to chatting with you at the counter.

Stings, Authonomites and Indie next list

Loving Moscow Sting by Alex Dryden - an up-to-the minute spy thriller with an almost cold war feel to it. I also wish to rave about Authonomy - but I can't go into details. There are some cracking reads on that site but they are the intellectual property of those unpublished authors and it isn't my place to air their plot ideas.

And - how cool is this? last Friday I learned that my review of Crashers made it into July's Indie next list! Click the title link, then scroll down to see the entire list.

If you're ever in SLC for 36 hours...

Click the title for a link to the NYT article or paste the following into your browser.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/travel/06hours.html

6/9 last night had a very interesting chat with a chap who read the NYT article and came to find us.

Midweek and not much madness

Started reading Black Rain by Graham Brown yesterday, a thriller set in and around the Amazon. Black Sun, the follow-up comes out in August and I want to be caught up ready to read it. Fans of Matt Reilly or Andy McDermott will love this. I also have the arc of Elizabeth Brundage's A Stranger Like You to blurb.

Mr. Peanut, Adam Ross

David Pepin loves his wife Alice but he can’t help fantasizing in his writing about her death. Alice is convinced someone is trying to kill her and suddenly bang! Alice is dead and David’s the prime suspect.

Unwrapping this conjugal conundrum is a trio of NYPD homicide detectives. LB Jeffries, crippled in the line of duty, overshadowed by wife Lisa’s celebrity. Lars Thorwald, who thought he had a happy marriage until Anna decided to teach him a lesson. In charge of the investigation Detective Sam Sheppard a man whose first life was destroyed by infidelity and murder.

Who killed Alice? Only Mr Peanut knows the answer to that one.

(NB The Shepherd Case is a true story, a colleague of mine who read the arc already knew about the case - I came to it fresh - and while she enjoyed the book she didn't love it because of that.)

Private, James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

When you can afford the best, you go ‘Private’. Run by former Marine pilot Jack Morgan, these gifted investigators aren’t bound by the rules of law enforcement. Despite their top-notch methods and equipment Private doesn’t take every case that comes their way. Right now the team are juggling serial murder, a scandal that could rock the NFL if it ever got out and the investigation into the death of one of Jack’s closest friends.

These stories play out against the backdrop of Hollywood glitz, political ambitions, mafia, coke dealers, rehab centers and an evil twin brother thrown in and Jack keeps being pulled from his nightmares by a voice on the phone telling him ‘you’re dead, Jack.’

But he’s not dead – not yet.

The Ice Princess, Camilla Läckberg

As ten year olds living in the tiny seaside town of Fjallbacka Alex and Erica were closer than sisters but Alex became withdrawn and the pair drifted apart.

By thirty five Erica is a single successful author of biographies and Alex is a married gallery owner, dead in a frozen bathtub, wrists slashed.

Alex’s parents refuse to believe she would take her own life and Erica and local detective Patrik Hedstrom start asking questions. Something in the Ice Princess’ past holds the key to her death. Once the pieces start to come together Hedstrom uncovers a long-held secret so deeply disturbing that it continues to poison the lives of everyone involved. Read this in one sitting - with the lights on.

Crashers, Dana Haynes

Cascade Air 818 left Portland on a routine flight to Los Angeles, it never arrived. Now pieces of 818 litter the Oregon countryside, and this was just a dress rehearsal.

In LA a group of Irishmen have blipped the FBI’s radar, they’ve also drawn the attention of a retired Mosad agent because they seem to know a lot about demise of flight 818.

Back in Portland the NTSB go team swings into action, unaware that there’s only 72 hours left until a ruthless opportunist crashes another plane to order. Fast, topical and downright scary, this is also a fascinating glimpse into how any airplane crash is investigated.

Crackers coming in June

Finished Poet Prince last night - Kathleen McGowan sheds a whole new light on the Medici family. I want to go to the Uffizi to experience those paintings the same way her characters do and she has an interesting take on religious fanaticism ie it's bad whoever your God is.

As I will be laptop only for the next couple of days here's a selection of new books coming in June, Crashers, Ice Princess and even a James Patterson! Enjoy.

Poet Prince and Bandit Love

The third in the Madgalen Line series, Poet Prince, no arc so this one's on loan. Bandit Love is an arc due out in October which I thought would be set in Mexico but it takes place in Italy. Still finding my feet with Authonomy I've got 21 books watchlisted!

Forget Monday!

Yesterday could've been Friday the 13th as far as my luck goes. Managed to finish The Passage, very post-apocalyptic. The washing machine died on me (getting a new pump motor) and my laptop froze up and then wouldn't turn off, in the end I pulled the battery out which reset the bios (who knew) So this is the start of the week as far as I'm concerned.

Malice and Passages

Finished Beautiful Malice, a creepy psychological thriller set in Australia, will review it here when it comes out in September.

I'm reading the arc of Passages by Justin Cronin at the moment, it's huge which frankly scared me but I'm several chapters in now and it's shaping up nicely.

My virtual book

The blog may have been quiet for the last couple of days but the book went live on Authonomy yesterday and I've been getting some great feedback. Click on the link above or here
http://www.authonomy.com/ViewBook.aspx?bookid=21600 if you want to read it.

Oh and I'm not reversing my position on e-readers, you can't download books from the site on kindle/nook or Ipad you have to read them electronically from your laptop. You have to sign up to comment or to back a book but it's free and as you'll see there's a world of talent out there that's just waiting to be discovered.

If you can keep your head while all around are losing theirs and blaming it on you...

Finished Running Dark, pulls faster towards the end, very topical with the Somali pirates angle, coming in July. Boom by Mark Haddon is middle reader about a couple of little English kids who discover two of their teachers are well - a little odd. Beautiful Malice by Rebecca Richards and The Glass Room by Mawer I'm in the middle of right now. The reason for all this doubling up? I have - as usual - bitten off far more than I can chew. I'm working on a short story for the Waterstones competition and since signing up to Authonomy I've put two books on my official shelf - both incomplete and I'm getting ready to upload my first one to the site next week - it's a good way to get feedback from complete strangers. Oh yeah and the mystery menu I've been working on - see 'Linking Series Together post from Feb' is now in its second draft so that has to be edited. Still better busy than bored.

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - the movie

Last night I went to see The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo at the Broadway. All I can say is - go and see it. Who cares that the whole thing is in Swedish that's what subtitles are for. It's as close to the book as you can get in 2hrs 30mins. The cast were outstanding (Lisbeth and Blomkvist especially) and although certain scenes had me squirming in my seat - yes they kept those in - all I can say is that the coming US version has some huge shoes to fill....

5/12 No no no!! IMDB has Brad Pitt down to play Blomkvist. Oi Pitt No!!!

Thoughts on Good Thief's Guide to Vegas

One of my favourite handsells at the store is the Good Thief's Guide series and I was lucky enough to get a preview copy of the new one. Think of it as a trip to Vegas without shelling out for the air fare and the gambling kitty. Charlie manages to get himself into some old school Vegas trouble and Victoria's hiding a secret which isn't going to help his case. Fast, funny and packed with colourful characters and Charlie's tradecraft. Comes out in August - full review then.

I'm officially up for anything this week

No routines, no plans, ask and you'll probably receive - read 'Boom' by Mark Haddon? - I'm all over it. Sign up to Authonomy and put 5 books on my watchlist - done. 3day Canadian novel competition in September (and not actually in Canada), sign me up! Short story competition in UK yes - but I'm checking how eligible I am for that one. I'm still reading "Running Dark" - which shares some of "Private's" DNA and the arc of Good Thief's Guide to Vegas is on it's way from Minotaur and this is only Tuesday.

Wha?

It's been snowing today and the Patterson book (Private - coming in June) was so easy to read, almost 400 pages smooth as silk. Great airplane book, providing your flight is only a couple of hours long!

Two arcs, request for a partial and authonomy.com

James Patterson's new one - called Private and Running Dark by Jamie Freveletti. Warm glow over the partial and I've discovered this cool site which has loads of unpublished authors' work called Authonomy.com. Run by HarperCollins it's an attempt to shake up the submission process. As if I didn't have enough to read:-)

Septimus didn't suck

and Stephen Chance wrote three more - two of which Septimus and the Minster Ghost and Stone of Offering are headed my way. The strange thing is that even when I started re-reading the book none of it came back to me. Our tiny library back home only had the first book and it never occurred to me that there might be more in the series. So when the next two arrive I really will be reading them for the first time!

Thoughts on Faithful Place

Just finished Faithful Place, Tana French's new one. Again set in Dublin but this delves deep into the families that live around Faithful Place. Frank Mackey the undercover cop who ran Cassie in the last book turns out to be all too human and wait until you meet his family. Some of them could give the Borgias lessons. Faithful Place is out in July - full review then.

The Hypnotist, M.J. Rose

Lucian Glass, in this life a rational FBI agent still haunted by a death he couldn’t prevent. But while his current investigation takes him across the world it seems his past lives in Persia and Ancient Greece have caught up with him. Since an unexplained mass hallucination and a near-death experience both of which took place in Vienna, Agent Glass has the mother of all headaches and a constant need to draw the faces of women he’s never met. In an attempt to maintain his sanity he goes undercover at the Phoenix Foundation and allows himself to be hypnotized.

In the meantime the modern day Persians are determined to reclaim their property, a once magnificent statue bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Agent Glass’s cases are about to collide head on.

God of the Hive - Laurie King

Following on from last year’s ‘Language of Bees’ King continues her tale. Arrest warrants are still out for Mary Russell, her husband Sherlock Holmes and young Damian Adler. Their forces are split with Holmes and a badly injured Adler going to ground on the continent while Mary and Adler’s young daughter crash land in the life of an eccentric former war veteran in the Lake District. But worse is to come, in London someone close to Holmes and Russell has gone missing, presumed dead which isn’t good news for Inspector Lestrade as he was the last man to see that person alive. Drawn back to a capital he hardly recognizes Holmes senses a changing of the guard. A new order is struggling to be born and it wishes to wipe out any traces of Holmes’ London including Holmes himself.

Bits n' Pieces

Finished Let the Great World Spin - so I can attend bookclub with a clear conscience. I liked the stories but the link between them, the tightrope walker, I want to know more about him.

Hubbie cancelled his trip - an hour before they re-opened UK airspace - ouch! So my plans have changed. Originally I was going to use the next couple of weeks to hammer out the faults in Tball - my lovely reading team have submitted their comments on that first draft and they all found the same five plot holes and made some excellent suggestions. I can still work on rewrites just not until 2am!

Thank you all for your in-store comments and e-mails about gmail. I feel less of an idiot now and I will always save my queries in plain text from now on.

In All My Sad Dreaming - John Caulfield

A noir thriller set against the stunning backdrop of South Africa's Cape Town. Captain James Blake, barely recovered from an attack which should have killed him, staggers from his hospital bed into the investigation of a bizarre murder of a Cape Town lawyer. Was it the law that got him killed or a musical feud?

Blake is having trouble maintaining his grip on reality while he wrestles with air-tight alibis, black widows, superstitions, buxom Thai mail order brides and possible perversions to the course of justice. An intriguing thriller that doesn't go the way you'd expect.

Septimus - hunted down

I've tracked down a copy of Septimus and the Danedyke mystery by Stephen Chance - used - because it went out of print years ago. Right now a copy is winging its way from Oregon to here. Septimus please don't suck!

On the arc front I finished Mr Peanut and am about to start the first of the South African based mysteries.

I play Russian Roulette with Gmail

Still reading Mr Peanut while sending out submissions. Got a request for a partial out of this morning's batch and that leads me to a question. Does anyone else have trouble with Gmail? Most of the time it behaves but (and this is huge,) on one of the queries it scrunched up the paragraphs and stripped out most of the punctuation reducing my carefully edited query to something akin to the scribblings of a two year old. So is anyone else playing russian roulette with their gmail or is it just me?

I have the new Tana French arc, The Faithful Place. I'm dying to read it, but have to blurb two others first. Oh and I have to re-read Septimus and the Danedyke Mystery. It's old, may even be out of print. We were discussing books we couldn't put down while I was visiting England and this one looms large in the printout of my library habits. Thing is I can't remember reading it so I want to know if this book has stood the test of time of course first I have to get a hold of a copy.

212, Alafair Burke

It began the night of May 27th. A 911 call to a shooting at one of New York’s most prestigious buildings the caller – an anonymous woman. NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher focuses on the building’s owner and ends up with a free night in jail for contempt of court.

While continuing to work the shooting, Hatcher and her partner Rogan catch the case of two female college students. One slain in her own apartment, the other hospitalized with stab wounds. When the survivor vanishes from her hospital bed, Hatcher and Rogan discover a connection between her and a high class escort murdered the same night. The detectives set about untangling a web of blackmail, corruption, scandal and murder before the killer they’re hunting takes out the last vital witness.

Angelology

The Angelology of the title is the study of Angels but not the heavenly host depicted in renaissance paintings. These beings are sons of the fallen angels, the Nephilim. As evil as they are beautiful interbreeding with humans has diluted their power they seek the means to purify their race once and for all. Their story spans generations from war-torn France in the thirties to present day New York and a tiny convent on the Hudson which contains a treasure so important to both sides that between them Abigail Rockefeller and Mother Innocenta of St Rose's Convent conspired to keep it safe. But on the eve of the new millennium, the Grigori family have discovered the significance of the convent and only the Angelologists and a handful of sisters stand in their way.

Refreshed and Recharged

My first day back and in between all the little things that help me re-adapt to life in good old SLC, like snow shoveling (I kid you not - it may be April but there was a wedding cake tier's worth on the ground this morning) and of course the quick trip out in the car chanting 'drive on the right, drive on the right' I've been keeping up with my reading.

Whilst we were away I read 'Locked Rooms' by Laurie King, been on my to-read pile for ages and like all King's Mary Russell novels well worth picking up. Wrote a short story and put a bunch of ideas down for my next nano project in November. I wasn't planning to come back with any books - except a copy of the The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest which came out in paperback the same week we left and was therefore sold out - everywhere. The best laid plans however got completely shelved and I got Angelology and Gone - the new Mo Hayder both in paper. Finished Angelology on the plane yesterday. Review to follow. For now will be reading and blurbing Mr Peanut by Adam Ross and Not Untrue and Not Unkind by Ed O'Loughlin.

Last post for March

I'm torn, really looking forward to our trip but so many good books and I can't finish Angelology before we leave. Where I'll be they only have dial up so even though I'll have my laptop the only thing I can use if for is writing - and that's great. I also have Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest and the next Chase/Wilde book Covenant of Genesis to read on the plane. See you in April.

One book consumed in a single sitting

Read the arc of 'God of the Hive' by Laurie King yesterday. It won't be out until late April at the earliest. This is a follow on from 'The Language of Bees' and rather than being completely narrated by Mary Russell this one switches between her narrative and third person which normally I find very distracting but not in this case and before you ask, no, I don't normally sit down and spend the day reading but yesterday post-dentist-visit it was the only safe option.

Once a Spy by Keith Thomson

Drummond Clark is an old man with early stage Alzheimer's. But Drummond hasn't lost any of his edge as his son Charlie is about to learn, daddy's a retired super spy, a national hero and a fly in the ointment of his protégé’s arms dealing business. When Drummond's apartment is blown up the pair are forced to go on the run and Charlie gets scattered glimpses of his real father, while evading some of Dad's old friends. Thomson delivers a funny, suspenseful, thrill ride that you'll have trouble putting down.

It never rains.....

it pours - last night I came across 'Once a Spy' by Keith Thomson - no arcs but enough copies that I could check it out. We had a chap come in last night who mentioned that TKE is one of the top 8 independent book-stores in the country I'm still digging around for a link to that article.

Good way to spend an 'hour'

Blew through the arc of 'Wrong Number' while waiting the 'hour' my glasses are still taking (don't ask!) Can't wait to read 'God of the Hive' the new Laurie King - apparently the ending is a discussion point. And...I got one of the copies of the UK version of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest but I'm going to try and save that for the plane next weekend.

Club J v Fun

No arcs yet this week, so for bookclub I'm reading 'Let the Great World Spin' by Collum McCan and for fun The Reincarnationist by MJ Rose. Also submitted my first two blurbs direct to Indiebound. I'm running an extra shift tonight so hope to sift through the arcs on my break.

This weeks menu - Chilly, Western and Paranormal for dessert

Finished the Lackberg - talk about putting ice in your veins - I hope they translate her other books as well. Not a pulse pounding thriller but very atmospheric and the ending didn't disappoint. Next up is the new CJ Box and one called Illyria by Elisabeth Hand.

The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag, Alan Bradley

Flavia de Luce, Bradley’s pint sized sleuth is back and her new case has strings attached. Porson’s Puppets have come to town, their van broke down but the Vicar is always one to take advantage so Rupert Porson and his lovely assistant Nialla are co-erced into putting on a show for the inhabitants of Bishops Lacey and Flavia is drafted by the Vicar to help out.

During the show there’s an electrifying murder witnessed by the entire town, including Inspector Hewitt. Flavia is determined to help the Inspector solve the crime and there are a myriad of suspects and motives along with a shoal of red herrings. Ex assistants, pregnant lovers, a vengeful Vicar’s wife, land girls, and a former POW who is courting Flavia’s sister. Flavia continues to tread the fine line between supersleuth and budding criminal mastermind with ease.

The Spellmans Strike Again, Lisa Lutz

The fourth – and final – installment finds Izzy still working for Spellman investigations, still with ex-boyfriend #12 and still getting into all sorts of trouble – in the name of justice of course. Her cases are piling up, garbology, a possible long con, lost Wednesdays, missing items from Spellman HQ, Rae’s fake boyfriend Logan Eagle, Darius Merriwether and if that isn’t enough on Izzy’s plate, mommie dearest, Olivia is blackmailing her into 1 lawyer date a week. There’s also a pregnancy to be kept quiet, 2 marriages, a death, several incarcerations and some cringe worthy Spellman Sunday dinners. Life with this dysfunctional family of private eyes is anything but boring.

Nothing lost in translation

I'm currently reading the arc of The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg, a Swedish author. Lackberg is huge in Sweden but this is the first time they've translated one of her books into English. It's about a writer who finds herself investigating the death of a childhood friend. Two things drew me to it, one - the cover (yeah I know, covers) Second and most important the publisher decided to use Steig Larsson's translator.

Update 4/21 - the translators are not the same but Ice Princess is still great.

Thoughts on The Lonely Polygamist

We have Brady Udall coming to the store in May and everyone who has read this loved it. There will be so much buzz for this book that I don't have to post a review. I do however have a few observations. I'm all for live and let live but every Polygamist much be permanently knackered. First you need the organisational skills of a four star general to co-ordinate the houses, the 18 kids and which of the four (or however many) wives gets to spend the night with hubby. Second there's the jealousy factor, I can't imagine sharing Chris with anyone else but one wife must through a combination of bribery and wiles become the favourite and that must royally tick the other wives off. Funny and sad in equal measure and so not my usual book but this is 'say yes week' and I'm glad I did. The book is published in April.

Vienna Secrets, Frank Tallis

Vienna 1903, a city struggling with cultural and religious identity, a melting pot of wealth and grinding poverty and a powder keg in the wrong hands. Inspector Reinhardt involves psychoanalyst Dr Max Leibermann after two men are murdered on church grounds, their heads literally torn off their shoulders. Locals are whispering that the devil or some older superstitions are responsible.

Reinhardt’s enquiries establish anti Semitic ties between the victims and he sends Max to interview Barash, the powerful leader of the city’s Hasidic community. Could the murders be politically motivated or have the Hasidim summoned a protector they cannot control. Max doesn’t think he much time left to find out.

A rare opportunity and say 'yes' week.

The rare opportunity was the chance to get a book talk from a rep and long time friend of the store. Normally the only people meeting with reps are the book buyers. I'm now in a queue for Glob-ish, the EO Wilson novel(!) and yes it's great, Packing for Mars by Mary Roach (she of Bonk, Spook etc) I did manage to snag an arc of The Lonely Polygamist by Bradly Udall and The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg.

Say 'yes' week is a way of stepping out of my comfort zone, the rules being if I can do said activity without relying on someone else to get me there I'll do it. For instance Monday, I was voice talent without a net, Tuesday I put the above book talk over a dental appointment (it was a cancellation - and a bit of a no brainer) Who knows what the rest of the week holds, I don't and I'm okay with that.

Tearing through 'Crashers'

I found Crashers by Dana Haynes in our stock of arcs - published in June. It's topical, fast and downright scary and to think I'm going to be on a plane in a month's time! It's about an NTSB go team dealing with the aftermath of a deadly crash and then learning that they only have 72 hours to work out what caused said crash and stop it from happening again.

Linking series together

Since I've been assigned to look after our mystery section and recently finished re-reading 'a whole new mind'. I'm working on a piece of hopefully creative marketing. Most mystery readers have a favourite sub genre, noir, light, books you read in one sitting, medieval, war,whodunnit, psychological etc. It got me thinking and I'm working on a way to string similar series together - a sort of further reading list but on steroids. Your feedback would be a great help. Tell me your favourite mystery series and then liken it to a drink. E.g

Evanovich - Cappuccino,
Mankell/Larsson - Vodka,
McBain, Mosley, O'Connell, Pareksky - Bourbon

See where I'm going with this?

Comments through the usual channels.

Juliet Naked

Hornby isn't an author I've read a lot of. About a Boy was the last title of his that I read but in the spirit of bookclub I picked up a copy and finished it yesterday. It's a fun read, full of whit, humour and observations on celebrity and the obsessive nature of the internet. Here's a quick summary.

Annie spent 15 years in a dull seaside town organizing Duncan and handling his obsession with Tucker Crowe, a sensation in the 80's because of the album Juliet. According to the purists a journey of his relationship with Julie Beaty. Annie likes Tucker's music but disagrees with Duncan over the singer's latest work - a stripped down version of the album entitled Juliet, Naked. Annie posts a review of the album on the fan site and gets an e-mail from the reclusive Tucker and once Annie digs deeper she has an 'Emporer's new clothes' moment about the genesis of the album that made Tucker famous.

MJ Rose

Finished the arc of The Hypnotist this morning. Last in a trilogy (why do I always seem to find series at the end?) Sufficiently engaging that I'm going to have to check out the first two books. I'm assuming Rose is an artist or has taught art. This book comes out in May, as usual full review then.

Update 2/8 - the three books are not a trilogy - they can be read in any order and there's more to come.

The kiss of death

My current pet peeve is publishers putting the first book in a series out of print while the series is still active

Case in point - the first of the Bryant and May series, Full Dark House. I could've hand sold a couple of copies of that yesterday but on further investigation - in indie world - our suppliers can't get it. Reason - in big red letters OUT OF PRINT and I'm all for getting hooked on a series in the middle but not everyone wants to do that.

update 2/6 so we can still get FDH as a trade paperback hopefully we can keep one in stock to sell the whole series.

49Up

Being sans hubby for a week I have fully embraced the idea of Netflix instant streaming - and yes this is going somewhere. 49Up showed up on my documentary queue. We were made to watch the original 7Up at school. The saying goes 'give me a boy until he is seven and I will show you the man'

Every 7 years film maker Michael Apted goes back to the same group of kids. At seven they were rich kids at prep school, poor kids from the east end, several kids in a children's home. The two standouts for me were the boy who wanted to be a jockey (Tony?) and the girl who wanted to work in Woolworths. Apted documents the twists and turns they lives have taken. Jackie - the want-to-be shop assistant made the most impression on me because she told Apted she hated doing the films. She said that to be wrenched out of your comfort zone every seven years as a form of entertainment was emotionally draining. It got me thinking, how would my own life measure up to that and would I have the raw courage this lot have shown in allowing themselves to be shown warts and all. How honest would I be? How honest would you be? Think about it.

Picked up an arc of The Hypnotist by MJ Rose yesterday. I've read one of her earlier books Flesh Tones but that was a couple of years ago. I also put a yes please sticker on the new Sebastian Faulks, A week in December.

The literary murder mystery

I could argue that all murder mystery/thrillers should be literary but with long descriptive passages you often lose the impetus that keeps you turning the pages. Vienna Secrets - due out in April - doesn't have that problem. Well written - of course - but evocative too. Vienna is one of my favourite travel destinations and when I've read a book that conjures up Vienna it makes me want to go back and get lost on its streets all over again. Thinking of the Prater, Stefans Dom, Lipizzaners and Sacher Torte right now.

Heresy, S J Parris

A sixteenth century historical whodunit based on the real life adventures of Doctor Giordano Bruno of Nola. Bruno, ex-communicated from his faith for the heinous crime of being caught reading Erasmus on the privy has been on the run from the papist inquisition for years. He arrives in England only to be recruited into the service of Queen Elizabeth I.

Bruno – attached to a royal party - travels to Oxford University ostensibly to debate Copernican theory. His real mission is twofold, to investigate whispers of a Catholic plot against Elizabeth and to track down an ancient heretical text rumoured to be in Oxford.

Before Bruno can begin his investigation, a series of murders shakes Lincoln College to its foundations and the murderer seems to be pointing Bruno towards the answers he seeks. But Bruno will learn to his cost that Oxford is full of secrets and betrayal.

Tooth and Claw, Nigel McCrery

A detective’s worst nightmare is a serial killer who never kills the same way twice and leaves no overt links between his crimes. DCI Mark Lapslie is handed the high profile case of a murdered television newsreader despite his protests. Lapslie thinks that his superiors are trying to force him into early retirement by using his rare condition – synethesia – against him. In Lapslie’s brain sound equals taste, smell equals sound and so on. But Lapslie, ably assisted by Sergeant Emma Bradbury could be the only one who can link this murder to a string of other unsolved killings and a jealous colleague is about to let that slip to the media. Can Lapslie catch the sick killer, before one of his team becomes the next victim.

The Bricklayer, Noah Boyd

Steve Vail aka Bricklayer. That’s his trade not his codename. After an abortive career in the FBI in which he proved his efficiency at catching bad guys and his complete disregard for the red tape that makes the bureau run, the FBI were happy to see the back of him.

Now they need him.

A ruthless group of extortionists are targeting the FBI. The bureau keeps trying to hand over the money but their agents keep dying and the price for preventing the next murder keeps rising. With the body count at three civilians, and one agent and another awol with $2 million in ransom money they call Vail in to track down their missing agent. Vail knows it’ll all end in tears but for now the suits at the bureau are having to play by his rules and Vail always gets results. Clear some time on your schedule once you start reading this you’ll find it hard to stop.

212 - Alafair Burke

Never read her before but she writes the kind of twisty NYPD mysteries I can really sink my teeth into. She doesn't overstate the violence. To paraphrase Shakespeare the case's the thing. Comes out in April - full review then.

Freedom tm

When I read 'Daemon' last year - it cried out for a sequel. Freedom tm (as in trademarked) is it. All the characters from the previous book are back but instead of fighting the Daemon they've joined it. Corporate America is trying to hack into the Daemon to gain control of the people and even the government. Dead computer genius Sobol (yes dead, you'll have to read the first book as it's too much to explain here) gives former Detective Pete Seebeck a quest, to find the 'cloud gate'. If he succeeds then humanity has won it's freedom from the Daemon. Failure means humanity is doomed. If you are a fan of massively multiplayer online gaming or know someone who is they will love this book. The tech, the concepts Suarez uses are all top notch.

On a side note, yesterday I finished my first full draft of the second book, it's going out for comment this week.

Bryant and May on the Loose

At the close of 'The Victoria Vanishes' the Peculiar Crimes Unit were thrust into limbo by the scheming Home Secretary despite solving the case. Now the band is back together again, stumbling over a murder close to London's gateway to Europe a vast development project that doesn't need any adverse publicity with the 2012 Olympics fast approaching. The Home Office require PCU's unique talents but there's a catch.

No computer access or official recognition, rented premises that leak -and may have been used for devil worship - and worse no working toilets. PCU are hunting a killer who has steeped himself in the myths and legends surrounding the King's Cross area and the Old St Pancras Church. The re-formed PCU must have the case solved by the end of the week. It's a question of what will get them first, the killer, the home office or pneumonia.

Bryant and May will return in 'Off the Rails' next year.

My most surreal moment of the year so far

As mentioned in the previous post, our first big event of the year was last night and after all the books had been signed we - the staff - went up one at a time and introduced ourselves. Audrey was saying to our manager that she should start with Christopher Eccleston. Me being a huge Dr Who fan I jumped in and we had an very interesting chat about David Tennant, Steven Moffat and whether Matt Smith is going to be any good as the new Doctor.

Earlier in the afternoon I defended Heat Wave by putting one of my name bookmarks in our remaining copy. We all think that Castle or rather his stunt double Nathan should come and do a booksigning.

I have the two arcs I was after, 212 and Freedom tm - the follow-up to Daemon, plus one I requested from the publishers called Vienna Secret by Frank Tallis and I'm closing in on the end of my second manuscript.

Audrey Niffengger comes to town

Big night tonight - we've got Audrey Niffenegger coming I'm hoping I get the chance to hear her read...

Started reading 'Bryant and May On the Loose' yesterday just as good as the others in the series and several times I laughed out loud. Fowler's mysteries are deliciously complex and unlike many I read I don't try and solve the case in my head as I'm reading. I know that at the end things will make sense and it gives you an insight into the darker side of London.

Follow me

I already have google analytics set up on this page but blogger have added this cool 'follow' tool. So if you want to have your smiling face on my blog - now you can.

Monday Roundup

Netherland done and dusted - will save my comments for book club as the title has been out in paper for ages. Read the Nikki Heat book in one sitting, good story, nice pacing, I think 'Richard Castle' should write another one. Also reading Birdman - the first of Mo Hayder's Jack Caffrey books - gritty would be an understatement. I read an interview with Hayder the other day and the following excerpt made me laugh out loud

"While staying with my brother at our father's farmhouse in the south of France, we had a competition to see who could read the most of Ulysses before he/she lost the will to live. I won at 96 pages. Victorious, I threw the book out of the window and nearly killed the neighbor, who'd been in dispute with my father for years over a boundary. Sorry, I'm a heathen, but I believe nearly killing that irritating git was the greatest contribution Ulysses ever made to the human race."

There are a couple of arcs I want to get my hands on but they haven't been assigned yet. 212 by Alafair Burke and the follow up to Suarez's Damon. Oh and I picked up a copy of the new Bryant and May - Bryant and May on the Loose by Christopher Fowler.

Random musings

Finished Heresy - out next month. I'm no historian - as some of you know! but this felt like a pretty accurate portrayal of the period. I am so glad I wasn't around back then when reading the wrong books was a crime and religious persecution was brutal and guaranteed to reunite you with your chosen deity - and that was the men. Women were treated more like end-tables than human beings. Grrr.

Now I have to read Netherland for book club.

In between arcs

I used my bonus this week to buy the following, 2010 Guide to Literary Agents, Drive by Daniel Pink, Birdman by Mo Hayder and - guilty pleasure Heat Wave by 'Rick Castle'

Drive, Daniel Pink's new book is a study of what motivates us and it is a fascinating read. Anyone who enjoyed his Whole New Mind will lap this up. Nearly finished the last Spellman arc, I will be sorry to see the back of Izzy and I hope that Lisa Lutz can come up with another set of unique characters for her next series whatever that may be.

Thoughts on The Bellringers

The Bellringers by Henry Porter (goes by the title The Dying Light in UK see previous post for the review) is one of those books that stays with you long after you've finished it. It goes around in your head, what if, what if. Suppose the government was beholden to a business magnate and allowed him to plant software in all government systems that mined the data about every person in the country and deduced their actions and fined or punished them accordingly using the police as their visible arm. You may be reading this shaking your head thinking oh she's really gone off the deep end this time but I haven't I'm being realistic.

Did you know that in the UK alone we have enough CCTV cameras to plot the route of your night out from your front door into the pub or club or house and back home again. Not all speed cameras have license plate recognition but on the major arteries and especially in the capital they do. Most of our transactions are computerized. That dullard Brown - the parachuted in UK prime minister - is about to bring in an ID card system and he's pushing for those intrusive body scanners at UK airports. All in the name of 'safety'. Porter points out in his afterword that he's just theorizing but all the measures and the tech he talks about in Bellringers already exists. While we were in UK the Daily Mail reported on a heavy handed group of police who confiscated the cameras of members of the public at the Christmas Day church service at Sandringham in Norfolk. Click on the title link above for the story, makes you think doesn't it....