Where My November Reads Took Me -Part 2

After Dial D for Deadman, I reluctantly left the world of Dan Deadman and returned to Earth. I landed in Siglufjörðurhe a quiet fishing village in Northern Iceland. Here I met Ari Thor Arason In Ragnar Jonasson’s Nightblind.

Nightblind – Rgnar Jonasson

Siglufjörðurhe is an isolated village only accessible via a small mountain tunnel. The small close-knit town is one where no one locks their doors. In Nightblind their world is rocked when a policeman is killed at a quiet house with a disturbing past.

The murdered officer was Ari Thór’s partner. Thor would have been on-duty the night of the murder but he had called out sick. Thor and the town’s former police chief are tasked with the job of unraveling the mystery. It’s complex mystery involving the compromised new mayor. Along the way the reader is also given glimpses of a psychiatric ward in Reykjavik where a patient writes about his confinement and the reason for it! read more

Where My November Reads Took Me – Part 1

So as I finished Still Waters book number 61 for 2018, I  thought of a way to recap my November reads. The setting for Still Waters is the Swedish island of Sandhamn. Which made me thinks of all the other places I visited in November via the books I read. So here are the first three books I read…….

No Defense - Kate WilhelmKate Wilhelm  – No Defense

Kate Whilhelm’s No Defense (54) was the first book I read in November.The book is the fifth book in  Wilhelelm’s Barbara Holloway a lawyer working out of Eugene, Oregon. Most of the action in No Defense takes place in the high desert region of southeastern Oregon. In the book Barbara must defend a woman accused of killing her husband and making it look like an accident. Of course the woman has “no defense”. The characters were good and the story interesting with a twisting ending! read more

Catching Up- What’s Been Happening – Part One

 An Attempt at Catching Up!
Ok so the question before me today is – “How do I get back to blogging again after taking a month or more off?” I think the way I need to do it is to first try to catch up with what’s been happening on my Life’s Safari over the last two months and then create some challenges for the rest of the year. Basically, there are maybe four aspects of my life that I blog about: the books that I read, the music that I listen to, the ways I attempt to turn back my biological clock and my family. My family blogging includes both my current family and my past family, I learn about through my genealogical research. Now I will attempt to catch up on all that’s been going on in a number of posts. Here’s a brief summary of what I hope to be writing about in those posts.
The Books I’ve Read
My 2018 Reading Challenge goal was to read 65 books. Currently, I have read 50 of those books. That means in order to reach my goal of 65 I need to average five books per month over the last three months of 2018. Well actually I need to read six in one of those months. The last book I have written about was book 46. Loner by Hildur Sif Thorarensen. It is the first book in her Oslo Mysteries series. You can read my review here. Two of the other books that I have read are from two of my favorite authors. The first book 47 was Desolation Mountain  by William Kent Krueger,while book 49 was Lost Creed from Alex Kava. The two other books I read were written by authors whose work I am reading for the first time. Book  48 was Caged by Ellison Cooper. While my most recent read, and book 50 for 2018, was Two Girls Down by Louisa Luna.
Caught Up- Needed Reviews and New Mini-Reading Challenges
Now I need to create some Mini-Reading Challenges for the coming months. Obviously the biggest reading challenge is to read 15 more books. But I have also created several challenges concerning the types of books I want to read. You can read about those challenges here. Over the next few days, what I need to do is review all the books I’ve read. Then see which Reading Challenge that book meets to ultimately see what types of books I need to include in those final fifteen books. I have now caught you up on the books that I have read. Hopefully, I will be posting reviews of each book over the next week. Along with a couple new mini-challenges I need to create to try to meet my various 2018 Reading Challenges!! Once again wish me luck!

Loner by Hildur Sif Thorarensen. Everything You’d Want in a Nordic Mystery!

NSo over the last several days,, after finishing Steve Hamilton’s Dead Man Running, I have finished two more books. The first was Loner by Hildur Sif Thorarensen. It is her debut novel and will be book #1 in the Oslo Mysteries series.

About Hildur Sif Thorarensen.

Hildur was born in Iceland but is currently living in Norway. Although, spending most of her adult years at the University, she’s been writing ever since she was a little girl and alongside Medical studies and a Master’s in Engineering, has also taken a year in Creative Writing. read more

Steve Hamilton’s Alex McKnight is Back!! Yeah!

Books From Two Favorite Authors – Steve Hamilton and William Kent Krueger Arrive!

Back in July, I wrote a post to both remind myself and to let readers know that books from three of my favorite authors were being releasedt in August. The three authors,whose books were being released on August 21st, were Karin Slaughter, William Kent Krueger and Steve Hamilton.

Thanks to the post I remembered to go to my library’s website and request the books. At the end of last week, the books from William Kent Krueger and Steve Hamilton became available. My hold position for the Karin Slaughter release is 47 of 57. I guess we see who the favorite is! Folks don’t know what they’re missing out on, by not reading Krueger and Hamilton. Of course it works out well for me because I get to read the books! read more

Michael Koryta’s How It Happened is a Winner!

How It Happened – Michael Koryta

LJ Roberts a friend on Goodreads always opens her reviews with the first sentence of the book being reviewed. I thought of her, when I started Michael Koryta’s latest book.

First Sentence: I’d never seen him before the day we killed him.

The Story

That statement comes from the confession of. Kimberly Crepeaux to the double murder of Jackie Pelletier and Ian Kelly in the Maine town of Port Hope. Kimberly gave her confession to FBI special agent Rob Barrett. Barrett had been assigned the case because of his interview skills. Additionally, he has past connections to Post Hope. Barrett spent his summers with his grandfather in the town and his former girlfriend reporter Liz Smith lives nearby. read more

An Update on the Books Read in May 2018.

So my last post was written and posted on May 26th. Since then I have started to write several posts. Then I get distracted, do something else and they never get posted! Maybe I can catch up by writing two posts. The first will be about the books I read in May and the second about my May runs.

I read five book in May. That brought the total number of books that I have read in 2018 to 26. My 2018 Reading Challenge goal is 65 books so I’m on pace to reach my goal.

My May Reads

The five books I read in May are: =&0=&by John Hart =&1=& C.J.Box =&2=& Louise Erdrich =&3=& – Gregg Hurwitz =&4=& – Stefan Ahnhem I didn’t do a lot of world traveling this month. =&4=&, which is set in Denmark and Sweden, is the only book that is set outside of the United States. Within the US, I traveled to North Carolina in The    Hush, Wyoming in The Disappeared, =&6=&is set in Minnesota. While =&3=& is mostly Set in California Evan Smoak does make a side trip to Alabama. Four of the five books are  books in a series that I currently read. They are:
The Disappeared - C J Box
The Disappeared – C.J. Box
=&10=& is book 18 in Box’s Joe Pickett series. And I do believe that I have read every one except one!  The series shows no signs of slowing down!  In this installment Joe is asked by the new governor to help on a case out of  Joe’s district. A wealthy English woman has vanished after leaving an exclusive ranch. A ranch where Joe’s oldest daughter Sheridan works. In addition there is a side story about two shady characters dropping off things to be burned in a lumber mills incinerator. Is that where the English lady ended up??
Hell Bent Gregg HurwitzHellbent – Gregg Hurwitz
=&3=& is book # 3 in the Orphan X series by Gregg Hurwitz. Evan Smoak is the Nowhere Man.  Before that he was a trained killer  working for a secret government agency. The agency took Orphan children, like Evan, and trained them from a young age to be elite killers. After many years as a killing machine Evan left and  became The Nowhere Man a man who helps people when they have nowhere else to turn.  Now someone wants to wipe out everybody associated with the Orphan Project particularly Orphan X. They attempt to get to Evan  through the man who trained him Jack Johns. The man who was the  only father Evan knew and Jack ends up dead. The hunted (Evan) becomes the hunter. And the question becomes who will survive!  
The Ninth Grave - Stephan AhnhemThe Ninth Grave – Stefan Ahnhem
=&14=&is the second book from Ahnhem featuring Swedish Detective Fabian Risk. However, the book is actually a prequel to =&15=& It chronicles the case  that lead Fisk to leave Stockholm and return to his hometown. In that case Fabian and his fellow officers were chasing a sadistic killer who not only kills their victims but removes their organs?  A fast paced page turner for me and I can’t wait for the next book! =&16=&
The Hush – John Hart
=&17=& is the second book written=&18=&by John Hart featuring Johnny Merrimon. The first was =&19=&So while The Hush is technically a sequel it just doesn’t feel like a series. At least not like the other series books. =&17=& picks up Johnny  ten years after the actions in =&21=&….from JohnHart’s website…

It’s been ten years since the events that changed Johnny Merrimon’s life and rocked his hometown to the core. Since then, Johnny has fought to maintain his privacy, but books have been written of his exploits; he has fans, groupies. Living alone in the wilderness beyond town, Johnny’s only connection to normal life is his old friend, Jack. They’re not boys anymore, but the bonds remain. What they shared. What they lost. read more

Don’t Look For Me – Mason Cross (Carter Blake #4)

Carter Blake finds people who don’t want anyone to find them. For the last six years he  has  been one of those people. The reason why, revolves around Blake’s last days in the secret organization  known as Winterlong. During those last days an American Senator was assassinated and Blake became the prime suspect. In those final days the  Blake contacted his girlfriend Carol Langford and told her that for her safety she needed to go into hiding, too. When she finally decided on that course of action, she sent Blake a four-word note – “ Don’t Look for Me” and for six years he hasn’t! read more

Reading Update and Ward Larsen’s Cutting Edge

So in my last post on Saturday (partially written Friday night) I outlined how I was going to tackle reading the eight books I have checked out of the library. At the time, I stated that I had already started two of the books: Cutting Edge from Ward Larsen and Dark Sky by Mike Brooks.

About Ward Larsen’s Books

Since then I have finished one of those Larsen’s Cutting Edge. Cutting Edge is a stand-alone book of which Larsen has written several. However, he may be best known for his two series books.

One series features former Israeli assassin David Salton and the other aircraft investigator Jammer Davis. Last year I read three out of the four books in the Slaton series. They were great. And I am looking forward to the next book in the series that will be release later in 2018. I started one of the Jammer Davis books but something happened and I abandoned the book but I do intend at some point to get back to it. read more

Tackling The Six Books On My March – April “To Be Read” Pile

The Six Books on My March – April “To Be Read” Pile

So my last post was Part 1 of  2 concerning my library “to be read” pile. Post 2 was to deal with the order I was going to read the eight books that I now  have out of the library. At the time I was already reading two books from the pile, Cutting Edge by Ward Larsen and Dark Sky from mike Brooks.

My plan was to read five or more books at a time and to list them according to the date I checked them out of the library. But like they say, “The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry“. So over the last several days I have spent most of my reading time with Ward Larsen’s Cutting Edge. As a result, I finished that book.  I will provide my thoughts on Cutting Edge soon  but the meantime, I want to get back to the books on my library TBR pile.  The last six books on my March-April “to be read” pile will be tackled as follows… read more