I love reading detective/mystery/spy type novels. I try to have one on the go all the time and at the end of my holidays I read a couple. The first two weeks of classes it has been harder to find extended time to read but I managed to read another.
David Baldacci’s The Fallen was a quick and engrossing read. It’s part of his memory man series about an FBI consultant who has suffered a traumatic brain injury and is blessed/cursed with an infallible memory. I like this character because he isn’t all hard-boiled and in control of things. And Baldacci’s pace is quick – no meandering for him. This one was particularly interesting because it was set near the Pennsylvania-Ohio border in a formerly booming mill town that is now struggling with both a devastated economy and the opioid crisis. I found it interesting to read while the debate (if you can call it that) over how to respond to our own crisis rages.
Louise Penny’s A Better Man was a much slower read but that’s because I never want them to end so I try to read them as slowly as possible. Last year when her husband died the publication of her annual Three Pines mystery was delayed for a few months but this year she was back on schedule, release the 4th Tuesday of August. I was at Chapters when they opened. Yes, I know I’m only supposed to count books I hadn’t just gone out to buy but this was bought with birthday money so it doesn’t count as a “bought” book. And yes I know that is a rationalization but I don’t care. To quote Jeff Goldblum “You can go a day without sex but try to go a day without a rationalization.” Extra points if you can name the movie.
I want to visit Three Pines. No I want to live in Three Pines. I would even endure Quebec winters to live in Three Pines. I want to be friends with Gamache and Clara and the whole village. I want to eat fresh baked croissants in the bistro and attend their little church. These are great mysteries but they are more than mysteries. These are books you want to live in, characters you want to know, conversations you want to be a part of. I can’t wait until the 4th Tuesday of August, 2020.
Ausma Zehanat Khan’s fifth book in her Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty series, A Deadly Divide, is very good. Also set in Quebec this book is about a mosque shooting. It was a tough read. It also deals with the political attempts to restrict religious symbols in public places and the increase in white supremacy activity. Her characters are complex and the plots intricate. I look forward to a sixth although I always feel like I’m battered and bruised by the end of them – even for murder mysteries they are dark.
Yesterday I finished Sara Paretsky’s Shell Game and I enjoyed it although I thought it could have moved quicker. This is her 22nd so I’ve been reading her for a long time. I like her characters, I like how she is allowing them to age. This one involves syrian refugees and the anti-immigrant climate of the US today. The story as it involved a murder and missing niece was great but there was a crucial sub-plot about stock manipulation and insurance fraud that was complicated. Since I only had time before bed to read this and I wasn’t drawing on a lot of brain power by the end of the day I mostly floated along the detailed explanations of off-shore banking and legal shenanigans.
60 Before 60 