Top books of 2012

It's that time of year again, these are in
no particular order
NF = non fiction
SF = sci fi
YA = young adult
Everything else is mystery

The Rook by Daniel O'Malley SF
Dublin Dead by Gerard O'Donovan
The Yard by Alex Grecian
Drift by Rachel Maddow NF
Luther The Calling by Neil Cross
The Key by Simon Toyne
Quiet by Susan Cain NF
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein YA
Hand for a Hand by T Frank Muir
Black Fridays by Micheal Sears
Garment of Shadows by Laurie King

Honourable mention

Paladin Prophecy by Mark Frost YA

Apologies for the formatting, using a new app. Any mistakes will be fixed in post production. Happy New Year

Too Bright To Hear Too Loud To See, Juliann Garey

Studio exec Greyson Todd is bipolar, a fact he’s successfully managed to hide from the industry because they don’t let people with ‘that disease’ run multi million dollar movie studios.

Greyson recounts his life before and after the night he left his wife and child and embarked on an odyssey that gave full rein to his bipolar nature. An odyssey that led to the ECT treatment he’s currently undergoing. A twelve shock program that might make him whole again or burn what remains of him away completely.

Blessed Are Those Who Thirst, Anne Holt

Oslo is in the grip of a heatwave and a crimewave.

Hanne Wilhelmsen, half-buried under a stack of cases finds connections between a series of brutal assaults on young Norwegian women and the weird ‘Saturday night massacres’ which most of her department consider to be a sick prank. Someone is going down for their crimes, permanently.

The Valley of Unknowing, Philip Sington

When the Berlin wall went up it may as well have frozen East Germany in time. No one speaks out against socialist ideals because state security has informers everywhere. Life is hard, and dirty and short if you get caught saying the wrong thing.

In this choking climate Bruno Krug, author of The Orphans of Neustadt falls for Austrian music student Teresa. He is also reading a manuscript as a favour to his editor. This work has no title or author and not only is it disturbingly good, but it echoes Krug’s earlier book.

When the person Krug thinks is the author dies suddenly Krug has the book smuggled to the West where the book and Krug’s protégé take on a life of their own. But who really wrote The Valley of Unknowing? How many more lies and betrayals will it spawn?

and talking of real books

Two I recently bought. Mr Penumbra's 24 hour book store by Robin Sloan. I read a chapter and bought the book on the strength of that. It's the story of a down-sized web designer who ends up working the graveyard shift at the aforementioned bay area bookstore. It soon becomes clear that this is a bookstore with a difference, brilliant!

A Question of Identity by Susan Hill, the latest Simon Serrailler mystery, this was a no-brainer because I love this series and Hill's plotting and characters are outstanding. The rest of the books I'm reading aren't out until next year Ghostman and Dark Tide are the standouts so far. I'm halfway through Deborah Crombie's Sound of Breaking Glass.

I have been working on T'ball a lot too, I basically had to throw out a lot of the story because it was no longer relevant after the cuts we made to Rollover but things are coming together now. I should have a draft ready soon after Christmas.

The e-reader revisited

Regular readers of this blog will know my views on e-books but to recap, reading is a sensory experience, the feel of the book in your hand, the sound of the pages turning, that new book smell. However, it isn't always possible to get a physical arc and I have been reading electronic arcs since March. I dabbled with google e books because some customers wanted to use TKE to buy their e-books.

In the last month there has been a massive shift in all the indies favour, we've started selling Kobos. As one of the 'kobo team' I've had to learn how to use the devices, and it hasn't been too painful an experience. I can now talk a prospective customer through the basics and do set up, instead of genius bar, think bookworm bar and you're halfway there.

I like the device so much that my Thursday co-worker and friend Jamie and I have joint ownership of one. She uses it to buy books and borrow from the library, I use it for reading arcs. I'm embracing new tech while standing by my principles for reading real books.

Hand for A Hand, T. Frank Muir

St Andrews Golf Club in bonny Scotland, the last place you’d expect to find a body part. But there it is in a bunker on the seventeenth green, a hand clutching an envelope addressed to Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Gilchrist. The note contains a single word MURDER. More messages follow and Gilchrist has a horrible suspicion that he knows the identity of the next victim. Only the last time he played a hunch he got it wrong but if he’s right the consequences will destroy him.

The Ghostman commeth

I am supposed to be working on ms number two, instead I'm elbow deep in Ghostman, a debut novel by Roger Hobbs, oh my god it's good.

The reason I'm not doing Nano this year...

Finished the new MJ Rose (coming May 2013) loved it. Read an arc on cat whispering (required reading if you have a cat(s)) I’m in the middle of Speaking from Among the Bones, the newest installment in the Flavia De Luce series which comes out in January, and due to the perils of shelving I just started the first in the Bruno series by Martin Walker.

Today I’m concentrating on Tball

Oh and one more thing.Many congratulations to Chris and Jo Ewan on the birth of their little girl Jessica! I'm dying to read Safe House but will have to wait until November.

Thoughts on ‘Seduction’

Don’t panic I haven’t gone all romance novelist on you, Seduction is the title of the new MJ Rose novel. As regular readers of this blog will know, I love Rose’s novels, they engage me, tweak my imagination and lead to some fascinating bookstore conversations. The one that sticks with me being the comment a visitor (not a regular) to the store made after I’d told her how much I liked the last book (Book of Lost Fragrances)

She said, “you don’t actually believe in that stuff do you?”

That stuff being reincarnation. I told her I didn’t disbelieve it, and that after reading ‘fragrances’ I’d gone on to read about the perfumer’s art, the new bio of Cleopatra, several books based in France, what I now refer to as a book cascade.

So the book cascade from Seduction? So far it includes other works by Victor Hugo or a biography of the man and Celtic Myths and legends from the Isle of Jersey.

Monday roundup

Loads of writing (and rewriting) over the weekend. I finished A Foreign Country and I think I like Cumming's stories more with every book.

I also read an arc of Sweet Tooth by McEwan, loved it. Especially fond of the descriptions of civil servants during the 70's muffled up in coats, hats and mitten while running secret agents. Having been a junior civil servant, (Inland Revenue, we called it International Rescue) and working in a drafty old building that was once used to house mental patients I can relate to some of those scenes. And look out for Millie Trimmington-nice pun.

Have set myself the target of ten pages of Tball today so I'd better get cracking.

Phantom, Jo Nesbo

Harry Hole never intended to return from Hong Kong. And he certainly didn’t want to go back into police work but family makes you funny that way.

Oslo hasn’t changed for the better, there’s a new drug on the streets known as ‘Violin’. Oleg, the closest thing Harry has to a son has admitted to shooting a dealer, and Harry wants to know the truth. His investigation into burners, ukranians, mules and killers with long sharp knives leads Harry to a showdown, maybe his last.

Stonemouth, Iain Banks

Just your average Scottish town, Stuart grew up here, fell in love, almost married Ellie, made it out by the skin of his teeth. Almost ignited a gang war…

Now Stuart’s back, just for the weekend mind and he had to get permission from the head of the Murston gang just for that. He’s here for a funeral, hopefully not his own.

The Woman Who Died A Lot, Jasper Fforde

More wonderful lunacy from Jasper Fforde. After an almost successful assassination attempt by the downright nasty Goliath corporation, (See One of Our Thursdays is Missing) Thursday Next is hired as Swindon’s Chief Librarian.

This isn’t as cushy a job as it sounds> For starters she’s got to deal with homicidal nuns (some of them male!), death threats from Jolly Hilly of the Enid Blyton supporters group, a mega budget of 300 pounds and 67 p and the threat of being replaced by an army of Goliath financed Thursday clones (known as day players).

Oh, and Swindon is due for a serious smiting at the end of the week from a very ticked-off deity. To top it all off Thursday gets involved in the search for DRM or Dark Reading Matter. Regular Fforde lovers will lap this up, if you’re new to Thursday’s adventures, start with The Eyre Affair.

October? Already?

New picks for October, include more from Thursday Next (or is that Nexts?), Scottish crime from Iain Banks and latest in the Harry Hole series, Phantom. I'm currently reading Charles Cummings' A Foreign Country and thoroughly enjoying it.

Checking in

Back to T'ball this morning after a wonderful weekend where I did zero writing but laughed so hard that it actually hurt. I did however-in between giggles, fab food and a healthy dose of Zen (the Rufus Sewell variety)-read the first in the Kincaid/James series by Deborah Crombie, called A Share in Death, quick read, well plotted has a real country house feel, not a cozy. So now I have a feeder series that I can work my way through.

Thoughts on Spillover

Editing is done-for now. I'm in the middle of the arc for Spillover, non fiction by David Quammen. It's a real life scientific detective story about viruses that spillover from animals to humans, the term Quammen uses is zoonosis. Spillover comes out in October, and I've been on the list for this arc for two months! It makes you realize the many saves that the CDC and virologists around the world make, we only get screaming headlines about SARS and H1N1 but have you ever heard of Hendra? or Marburg? or the scientist who stuck herself with a needle containing Ebola, and lived.

Quammen paints a scary but fascinating portrait of the viruses, those that track them and develop life saving vaccines and the conditions that have to exist for the virus to jump from animal to man.

I'm also reading Frozen Heat by 'Richard Castle'

And back in the horrified fascination category What's the matter with Kansas by Thomas Frank. (I'm trying to educate myself for the upcoming election even though I'm not allowed to vote)

Black Fridays, Michael Sears

Weld Financial have a problem, the SEC is sniffing around one of their junior traders, the late Brian Sanders so they hire former trader Jason Stafford as a consultant, just to check that their man is clean.

Stafford, having paid a two year debt to society is only too happy to help them. He’s just managed to part his autistic five-year-old son ‘the Kid’ from Angie, Stafford’s beautiful but crazy ex-wife and this job is the first step on his path to responsible fatherhood.

Stafford’s experience helps him to see patterns in the market and he’s seeing a pattern all right, the type that leaves bodies in its wake and the FBI in his face. At first Stafford refuses to help them but when his son is snatched he’ll risk his freedom and life to save him.

Garment of Shadows, Laurie King

1924. Mary Russell is missing in Morocco. She wakes up in a small room with blood ingrained in her nails and a memory full of holes. Her skills have not deserted her though, she's in the city of Fez, although she still has no idea how she came to be there.

Fez is home to a rich blend of spies, bandits, diplomats, guides, merchants and some old friends. Lying as it does so close to a bubbling civil war front which many European interests are keen to meddle in, a still-recovering Mary and her husband Sherlock Holmes attempts to piece together her missing hours and the bearing they may have on peace talks in the region.

Luther, The Calling, Neil Cross

A madman wants the oxygen of publicity and DCI John Luther wants him off the streets permanently in the prequel to the TV series.

Luther is a good copper, intense, driven, his marriage is falling apart around his ears and his dark side is starting to show. He’s not on the take he just metes out justice his own way. With a double murder to solve and a killer with a massive pool of possible victims, Luther’s going to have to bend the rules to save a little girl’s life.

The Paladin Prophecy, Mark Frost

Will West has a secret, but even he isn’t sure what it is. His parents move around like country like fugitives and they’ve drilled it into Will to fly under the radar, keep your abilities hidden don’t stand out. But Will messes up, aceing a test that gets him all sorts of attention.

An elite prep school offers him a scholarship, he’s pursued by men in big black SUVs and suddenly he’s alone, a fifteen year old with no home, no family, an unwilling player in a game with global consequences. Can the Center protect him against the Paladin Prophecy?

September

Lots of writing and very little reading this week. Here are my reviews for September, enjoy.

Princes and Fobbits

I loved The Little Book by Seldon Edwards but assumed it was a one-off. So I was startled yesterday to see a brand new Edwards title. The Lost Prince takes up pretty much where the first book ended. Eleanor Puttnam returns from Vienna, with three precious items, the most important one (considered by Sigmund Freud to be the ravings of a madman and by Eleanor to be a blueprint that will create a dynasty) predicts two world wars, and other fixed points in history.

The blueprint starts to unravel when Eleanor's protege perishes in the first world war. He was a key part of her plan. Has history been changed by her actions? So far (I read a bunch on my break last night) this is a worthy follow-up.

Another title I've heard a lot about but haven't seen an arc for-until yesterday-is Fobbit, a dark (this is a guess) comedy set during the Iraq war. I plan to read this over the weekend.

Year Zero by Rob Reid

This just came out, I didn't see an arc of it but it is so-far funny enough to make me laugh out loud in several places and public guffawing is something I tend not to do because people instantly label you 'crazy'. It definitely has a little touch of Douglas Adams about it.

Earth is of course in danger from aliens but not because of a hyperspace bypass. This time it's the biggest case of copyright infringement since the big bang. You see aliens love earth music-from TV theme tunes to heavy metal and everything in between. And they owe the inhabitants of planet Earth money, several universes worth. Our hero, Nick Carter (no, not the back street boy) is a New York copyright lawyer, low on the food chain and a few months away from termination. But through a hilarious mistake he ends up with alien delegations beating a path to his door. Nick is all that's standing between us and certain annihilation, well him and 'the nine Guardians'

Thoughts on Hand for A Hand

It's a good job that thriller writers only exercise their imagination on the page. They only plot heists and murders, they don't carry them out.

The arc I got superglued to over the weekend is Hand for a Hand by T Frank Muir, a police procedural where the investigating detective is the target (it says that in the blurb so I am not giving anything away)

Most writers use the 'detective gets pulled into the case, killer becomes obsessed with detective (in this case the detective is usually female) Muir takes his character, DCI Andy Gilchrist, by the throat and hits him, hard and then he hits him some more. Sharp, fast paced. I'm hoping the St Andrews area has more crimes for Gilchrist to solve.

12.21, Dustin Thomason

On the second week in December a deadly insomnia hits Los Angeles. Prion researcher Dr. Gabe Stanton and his team are quick to figure out how the disease spreads but powerless to contain it. Could the answer lie in a black market artifact recently smuggled across the border from Guatemala?

Cast out by the CDC after a disastrous failed attempt to cure the disease Stanton teams up with Chel Manu, a curator at the Getty Museum and one of only a handful of descendents of the old Maya civilization to attempt to translate the pages of the artifact as the state is placed on lockdown.

According to the Mayan calendar the world ends on December 21st 2012. . .

Off The Grid, P.J.Tracy

The Monkeewrench crew are a team member short. Grace MacBride was last seen sailing into the Florida sunset with retired FBI agent John Smith and honorary members Magozzi and Rolseth are tracking murderous people traffickers in Minneapolis. Then Grace turns up on Magozzi’s doorstep and all hell breaks loose.

Who is killing bad men before they can carry out unspeakable acts? What is the significance of Halloween this year and will it be explosive? Monkeewrench is on the run, with John Smith, heading for a violent showdown on a remote Indian reservation and not everybody’s coming back alive.

Sentinel, Matthew Dunn

‘He has betrayed us and wants to go to war’ is the message that sends spartan agent Will Cochrane deep into the heart of Russia. His contact has one final piece of advice, ‘Only Sentinel can stop him.’

Will finds himself working with Sentinel, the first product of the spartan program and the man he may well one day become. The pair hope to stave off an attack that could leave the rest of the free world reeling but they may both have been compromised. This action-packed sequel to Spycatcher will have you turning the pages long into the night.

Dreamland, Adventures in the strange science of sleep, David K Randall

When the author went from sleep-talking to sleep injuring himself, his long-suffering wife sent him to a sleep clinic. Here they diagnosed a problem but admitted to having no idea how to fix it.

Feeling cheated by science Randall set out to learn more about sleep and why we need it. What he discovers will surprise you and like Randall you may learn to start treating shut eye with more of the respect it deserves.

Hollow Man, Oliver Harris

Nick Belsey is a good detective but his career like his finances are in the red. That’s when Nick contemplates the unthinkable, taking on the mantle of Alex Devereau, a recently deceased financial snake charmer with a project that has the City salivating.

He takes the plunge into the rented fiction of Alex’s life but is unable to stop investigating a case that seems a little off. What he uncovers could change London irreversibly, it could also put him in the path of sniper’s bullet.

New for August

Yes, I know it's still July but barely and there's lots of good stuff for August, including a clever police procedural about identity theft, one apocalyptic read from one of the co-authors of The Rule of Four. The new P.J. Tracy, new Matthew Dunn (he wrote the brilliant Spycatcher) and a fascinating non-fiction on the science of sleep. Enjoy

Help! Someone superglued me to a book

Sometimes, a title will elbow its way into my stack of to-be-reads. Hand for a Hand by T. Frank Muir is one of those, I suffered missing time over the weekend because of it. Comes out in November, full review then.

A New York state of mind??

One of the things I love about being an indie bookseller is that when a recommendation sticks you get people coming back wanting to read more of what you like. I love to chat with these customers because they can recommend new authors to me and also a chance comment can spur me on to do a bit of research.

In this case mysteries set in New York. I came up with a few on the spot but, just like last year when I researched mysteries set in Chicago none sprang into my mind. Now I have not only a serious amount of new (to me) reading material but for the next update of the mystery menu a section entitled 'Cosmos' or 'Appletinis' All of these authors have books set in NY

SJ Rozan

Jean Zimmerman

Walter Mosley

Amanda Cross

Lawrence Block

Linda Fairstein

Tim McLoughlin

Jed Rubenfeld

Caleb Carr

Harlen Coben

The founding of a new tradition

Just back from my first ever writers weekend. The main thing I learned is that the weekend or however many days away is what you make it. Lay down some ground rules before you go, we did.

Most important fact, a change of scenery inspires creativity. I wrote more in the last few days than I have in the last month. I averaged roughly ten pages a day (that doesn't sound like much but when two pages a day is what you usually manage...)

Don't forget to take regular breaks, a quick hike or a run across to the general store or even a tea break will do.

Get up as early or late as you like. Ditto going to bed.

A minimum of one bottle of wine per guest. If you have dietary requirements bring what you need as well as stuff to share with the others. Oh and lots and lots of chocolate.

Stay in contact but don't be ruled by your devices.

Take a notebook and a pencil so that you can still write while your laptop recharges.

Name the Mystery Character #1

This is the first in a weekly (hopefully) quiz. All I need from you is the name of a character. To be fair, the character will be from a three book plus series. The first person to comment with the correct answer will get their name printed on the blog. Who knows if we get enough people I might start providing prizes but that's down the line.

This character was an NYPD homicide detective.

He was retired to the Catskill mountains by his wife.

His first case in print involved an X. Arybdis

Disclaimer, this competition is not run in junction with King's English. It is just a bit of fun for all you mystery buffs.

Updated Mystery Menu coming your way

Those of you who have seen the mystery menu in TKE's mystery room will know that it is sore need of an update and it's just had one! New authors, new categories, being printed as we speak. It will also have monthly specials on the back. This month's are Paris Directive, The Key and Skeleton Picnic.

I have been writing my little cotton socks off which is why there haven't been many posts, but I do want to do at least a couple a week because the reading is good at the moment people.

Hypnotist follow-up The Nightmare by Lars Kepler great sophomore book! Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd (the arc finally came my way), Alif the Unseen (Arabic hacker, present day, currently half way through, little bit Potter-esque).

I also want to do a mystery character quiz. I'm testing this out and I would prefer answers on the blog rather than in the store but whatever makes you happy. I will give you three clues, every Monday (apart from the first one which follows this post) and you have to use your massive mystery knowledge to name the character. I'm thinking there might be prizes down the line if we get enough people taking part. Oh and this is a mystery girl exclusive, I'm doing the quiz, not TKE. Disclaimer will follow every quiz.

Let the Devil Sleep, John Verdon

Tinnitus, withdrawal, the constant need to be armed. Dave Gurney’s wife can see him pulling away from the world. He needs something to engage his mind, draw him out of himself which is just what Connie Clark gives him. Her daughter Kim is doing a TV show for the RAM news network. The project, titled The Orphans of Murder has Kim interviewing families of murder victims. She has picked a sacred cow in the law enforcement community The Good Shepherd Murders. Ten years ago blanket coverage of the case catapulted RAM to the top of the media ladder, cemented many professional reputations and destroyed more than just the victim’s families.

Against his better judgement Gurney agrees to Kim hiring him as an advisor. The Good Shepherd was never caught and when Gurney starts to investigate the house of cards that the FBI calls a case he does more than raise the ire of the FBI, he awakens a killer.

Broken Harbor, Tana French

Mick ’Scorcher’ Kennedy has the best solve rate in all of the murder squad and he doesn't go for the easy cases-but this one could prove his undoing. The family have been attacked in their own home on an exclusive but unfinished housing development now known as Brianstown.

Scorcher can remember when it was Broken Harbour an isolated, but beautiful strip of land dotted with caravans, close to the sea, loaded with memories Scorcher thought he’d buried forever. On the face of it this seems to be an open and shut domestic, but both Scorcher and his wet-behind-the-ears partner Richie sense that this is going to be a tough one.

Was someone stalking the family? Why does the house have holes knocked in the walls and baby monitors everywhere and what’s with the mantrap in the loft?

Scorcher and his partner not only have to contend with hostile witnesses, but interference from family and colleagues. They’re just a rookie mistake away from getting busted back to traffic division and to save his case Scorcher may have to sacrifice his most prized possession.

Thoughts on 12.21

So according to the Mayan calendar we don't get Christmas this year (kidding!) Of course there are going to be multiple books on the subject, fiction and non. 12.21 is an interesting take. Thomason (co-author of The Rule of Four) has taken the end of the Maya civilization and used it as a catalyst for the predicted end of the world. Not the collapse itself but what caused it in the first place. He does a good job of re-creating an ancient Mayan civilization through the chapters in the Codex. The love story was a bit out of left field but the solution was plausible. Full review when the book comes out in August.

Thoughts on Hollow Man

Anti heroes are a complicated bunch. Driven, flawed creatures, usually men, who have been used up and spat out by the system. Police anti heroes are the most complicated off all. If you ever get the chance to see the brilliant "Between the Lines" Neil Pearson's Det Superintendent Tony Clark embodies the career copper set to self destruct. (First two seasons are the best, three went off the rails a bit)

In fact Clark came to mind as I was reading Hollow Man. Although Hollow Man has the detective making some questionable choices for less than noble reasons, he can't stop being a copper. He can't stop investigating even though it could end his career and even his life. Hollow Man is out in August full review then.

Thoughts on Let the Devil Sleep

The third entry in John Verdon's series featuring retired NYPD homicide detective Dave Gurney publishes in July. I finished it yesterday. Full review when it comes out but one of the subjects that Verdon uses to great effect is the 24 news media. He does a great job of skewering them, showing how they ramp up the fear factor and turn even the most honest project into trash. Gurney is still developing especially after the damage he suffered in the second book.. I love thrillers that don't go where I think they're going, with some ingenious plot twists and leaps of logic that Holmes himself would be proud of Verdon hasn't lost his touch. Can't wait for the next one.

Old Hollywood glamour combined with serious substance

FH-SS ever heard of it? No? If you even know who Hedy Lamarr was you'd have been one up on me until a few days ago. Hedy was a legendary Hollywood beauty, an actress and an inventor. She filed a bunch of patents including one for the aforementioned FH-SS which stands for frequency hopping spread spectrum used in most mobile devices. I was fascinated by the concept of a actress whose ideal night doesn't involve falling out of a nightclub, or crashing their car whilst intoxicated. Hedy had an engineer's brain and this is a fascinating story.

Into the darkest corner by Elizabeth Haynes

If you liked Before I go to Sleep you'll love this. Catherine Bailey falls for Lee Brightman-hard. He is gorgeous, attentive has a mysterious job but there's no such thing as perfect as Catherine discovers to her cost. Fast forward three years. Cathy may have changed her name and location but Lee still haunts her. Cathy's rampant OCD is slowly coming under control and then with one phone call Lee is back and Cathy is convinced he can find her anywhere. He may already have done...

The Key, Simon Toyne

Liv Adamsen took away more than amnesia from the Citadel in the holy city of Ruin. She and the other survivors of the night they uncovered the brotherhood’s darkest secret have been locked away in a mental institution, under police guard. Meanwhile a plague has ravaged the Sancti, all but one are dead. In Vatican City an order goes out to silence Liv and her friends. Can they escape and fullfill the mirror prophecy or will the church and it’s desire for the holiest black gold in the world destroy them.

A worthy page-tuning follow-up to Sanctus.

The Yard, Alex Grecian

Victorian London is a brutal place, and though the reign of Jack the Ripper is at an end the floodgates never seem to close on murder. 

Twelve Scotland Yard detectives are drowning in case files and now a madman is targeting them. For newly arrived Inspector Day his first case is solving the murder of his predecessor. Day finds an unlikely ally in Dr Bernard Kingsley, the Yard’s pathologist who is also dabbling in the infant science of ‘forensics’. But with a killer picking Day’s colleagues off one-by-one they’re running out of time.  

Niceville, Carsten Stroud

Niceville is a quiet Southern town-if you’re just passing through. Even then you might feel that something is just plain wrong about the place, an undercurrent of weird running through the middle of all those normal looking people.

People just vanish in Niceville, there one minute-gone the next. The town has its troubles too, the residents are still in shock from a violent bank robbery. Someone is e-mailing lies and porn to local residents and may live to regret it. On hi-tech Quantum Park a nerd has blackmail on his mind and looming over the entire town, the bottomless waters of crater sink, full of an ancient malice that was there long before the plantation town was founded.

Unhappy Accidents

Amazing how life can be right side up one minute and upside down the next. Due to my husband doing a barrel roll in a jeep/atv thing (it had a roll cage and he was wearing a helmet) I've not written or read a thing since Tuesday afternoon. My nursing skills however are top notch - I can bathe and dress a wound in two minutes flat.

A few June reviews for you and I'm right in the middle of Into The Darkest Corner. It comes out June 5th - read it with the lights on and the doors locked!

Time to get out the Raymond Chandler mug

Today is Thunderball day, I've pulled it off the back burner and intend to get the first fifty pages firmed up. That sounds like a big job but it will mainly be editing. There will be lots of coffee involved hence the Chandler mug.

I have been reading, Sentinel, Matthew Dunn, Let the Devil Sleep, John Verdon, Off the Grid, PJ Tracy all reviews coming, all are excellent.

Quiet by Susan Cain

Are you an extrovert or an introvert? I did the test in Susan Cain’s fascinating book and it confirmed what I already knew I’m an introvert, a creative introvert in an extrovert candy shell. Cain discusses the quiet strength of Rosa Parks, takes us to an amped up Tony Robbins seminar and the hallowed halls of Harvard Business school. She shows us that despite appearances you can find introverts in all walks of life. 

Great thinkers, Einstein being a classic example, never had a brainstorming session. Nothing groundbreaking has ever been created in face to face committee and cramming workers together in open plan offices or kids in open plan pods actually stifles creativity. Cain even includes some strategies for supporting your introvert child and helping them to develop and grow their gifts. As an introvert good at faking extroversion I didn't feel quite so in need to after reading this.

Bookstore Life

So we're at the front desk, discussing books and I was talking about Quiet by Susan Cain (review follows) and one of my colleagues laughs at my 'introvert in an extrovert candy shell' comment

"You're the red M&M," he says.

Still laughing at that one (thanks Nathan and Wendy)

What Dies in Summer, Tom Wright

I did what I did and that’s on me. Jim and his cousin L.A were both runaways in a sense. Jim’s stepfather kept mistaking him for a punching bag and L.A. won’t talk about her reasons for arriving on their Grandmother’s doorstep with nothing but the clothes on her back.Now they’re safe, until the pair stumble across a dead body in a field. Jim knows her face she’s been haunting his dreams for weeks. Wright’s coming-of-age tale of young love and murder in a small town, plays out over a long hot ‘70s Texas summer. His characters pull you into their world, and Jim’s calm resilience will resonate long after the last page.

Midnight in Peking, Paul French

An English schoolgirl’s brutal murder sends shivers through the besieged city of Peking. 1937, the Japanese are poised to invade and a body is found at Fox Tower. The victim Pamela Werner was one of the privileged foreign community and the daughter of a former consul. Two detectives one Chinese, one British attempt to solve the crime, obstructed by British officials, silent Americans, frightened Chinese and their own officers. A true story of murder in a city teetering on the edge of destruction.

Lucky Bastard, S.G Browne

Meet Bay area PI Nick Monday (not his real name). Nick’s true talent is luck, because for the right price Nick can give you the kind of luck to take to Vegas or the slightly less potent kind to ace that job interview. A simple handshake and your luck walks away with him. With a talent like that it doesn’t pay to advertise but somehow Nick has the Chinese mafia, Tuesday Knight (both of them) and a murky government agency all clamouring for his services. Nick could up and leave town if the Feds weren’t threatening his twin sister. Is Nick’s luck about to run out or worse turn into bad luck?

code name verity

I read this young adult novel on the plane to UK, twice.

Wein's book is a brilliant tale of female friendship and heroism, but it also gives the flavour of 1940's Britain.

In the world of the SOE nothing is ever as it seems.

‘Verity’s’ mistake was simple and will probably cost her her life. In occupied France in WWII capture is an allied spy’s worst nightmare and faced with imprisonment and torture by the Gestapo ‘Verity’ chooses instead to confess, buying time by spinning out her knowledge of British codes and ciphers while telling the story of her unshakable friendship with Maddie the pilot whose wrecked plane lies in a field a few miles away. ‘Verity’ has a purpose, she wants her words to survive even if she doesn’t. As soon as you finish this tale of brave Brits and evil Nazis you will have to read it again to unlock its secrets

WBN and stealthy signings

So yesterday I picked up my books for WBN, we had a launch party. The local newspaper came and took pics and interviewed us. It was a right giggle. Also as a result of reading The Key (the arc-book is out in June), follow up to Sanctus, I liked Simon Toyne's page on facebook. How cool is this, he's going into places that carry his book and doing a stealth signing. Then he posts the details on fb. I plan to go and look in the little bookshop in Steyning to see if he's managed to sign one in there.

Also 'liked' Laurie King so I'm getting a whole new view of Japan.  Now time for a bit more writing before I start my shift.

World Book Night-coming soon!

April 23rd is world book night in the US. It was a huge hit last year when it happened in UK so this year is the first time it is happening over here. A lot of TKE staff have signed up as 'givers' and I'm proud to say I'm one of them. We have a reception for givers this coming Thursday and then on Monday 23rd I will be at the Beans & Brews at 791 E 3300 S from 5pm to 8.30pm (or whenever the books have been given away) I could tell you what I'm giving away 20 copies of but that would ruin the surprise (hint I love mysteries). Come over and find out:-)

Did it finally happen?

Did I finally fall out of love with Scandinavian mysteries? The last one I was assigned I fell on with the usual gusto but. . .I couldn't get into it. Things kept pulling me out of the story and yesterday afternoon I admitted defeat and put it down. Don't get me wrong, anything by Adler-Olssen, Nesbo, Kepler, Holt, Lackberg I will still happily read but this one left me-pardon the pun-cold.

On the plus side, I'm reading a nf book about the science of sleep, which is funny and informative in equal measure. I'm also playing catch-up reading Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman, I loved Mr G so I'm going backwards as the title suggests this is about Einstein and his theories of time. Also on the time theme, Chicks Dig Timelords which is a series of essays by women who are fans of Doctor Who (note to self find out what squee is)

Eyes spinning like slot machine reels.

Finished reading Chasing Magic, think I need a bit more background so I've ordered the first in Stacia Kane's series (this was number 5) Ghostbusters meets Escape from New York is how it was pitched. Also finished Garment of Shadows, the new Laurie King, intrigue in 1924 Morocco, loved it, comes out in September. The Key is great I should have that finished by tomorrow comes out in June and in looking for the release date I just found out that the new Matthew Dunn title 'Sentinel' will be out in the Summer so will have to track that down.

One major headache was reading all of the above on a tablet, I really am an old fashioned girl when it comes to my reading material.

Thoughts on Drift

All I can say is read it. Maddow throws into sharp relief the unmooring of the US military to go and fight wars without disturbing the civilian way of life here in the US. She doesn't play favourites she doesn't blame D's or R's. And she offers some solutions. One caveat don't have anything breakable nearby although she includes humour some of the facts will make you want to throw the book at something.

There was life before arcs??

Reading the new arcs for Laurie King, Garment of Shadows. Chasing Magic by Stacia Kane (I liked the cover) and The Key, Simon Toyne's follow up to Sanctus. I am also reading Drift by Rachel Maddow. I don't watch her show, but she was interviewed by Jon Stewart and the first chapter had me laughing and cringing in equal measure.

On the ms front the tightening is complete, I just have to solve Rollover's my coat squared equation and print out the sixty pages and that's another step climbed. By the end of today I should be able to see my desk again.

Thoughts on Luther, The Calling

I'll say it now, when I see the words TV tie in it makes my heart sink into my boots because with only a few rare exceptions (one of them being the Nikki Heat books by "Richard Castle") they are written more as a marketing tool, the characters are 2D at best.

I am pleased to say that Neil Cross's Luther prequel also falls into the rare exceptions category. Cross created the TV series so he knows the characters inside and out. And he answers a question which I asked when Luther first appeared on screen, dangling a man over the side of a building to get information and then sending him to meet his maker. What had the man done to warrant such a reaction? Cross gives us a story that answers that question, explains Luther's marriage woes and his penchant for throwing away the rule book to get a result and takes us right to the grab-you-by-the-throat opening of the BBC America series. Full review when Luther, The Calling is published in September.

Thoughts on The Yard

In this era of forensic this and CSI that it would be easy to believe that the police have always had this crime solving toolkit. Not so and that's just one of things I liked about The Yard, not only is it set in a time when the police were ridiculed for their spectacular failure to catch Jack the Ripper but unless someone saw a murder take place they had no way of knowing who the killer was. Enter Dr Bernard Kingsley, pathologist but interested in concepts such as fingerprints, and traces of fibres on a dead man's clothing. The idea of bobbies travelling in pairs, the concept of informants all carefully woven into a cat and mouse game between a killer and Inspector Walter Day.

One more thing Alex Grecian doesn't come from England yet he conjures up the Victorian monster that was London in all its filthy glory.. Full review in June.

Sacrilege, S.J. Parris

Renegade philosopher monk Giordano Bruno (Heresy, Prophecy) returns for a third outing. A hooded figure is following Bruno around London and when he confronts this stalker he is pleasantly shocked to find that it is Sophia Underhill-the disgraced daughter of an Oxford fellow.

Sophia is accused of murder in Canterbury and Bruno-who still carries a torch for her-agrees to help clear her name. On his arrival he discovers that the Queen’s enemies are well entrenched here and Sophia’s husband may have been involved in a cult that reveres the bones of St Thomas a Beckett. Soon Bruno is fighting for his life, and he can’t put his faith in anything especially the English justice system.

Last Will, Liza Marklund

Annika Bengtzon just got the newspaper scoop of the century but she can’t write a word about it. Key witness to a murder at the prestigious Nobel prize ceremony because the killer stood on her foot, Annika can only watch as terrorism is blamed and arrests made. She feels that the assassin known as the Kitten didn't miss her target and the answer lies in the life of the dead woman and the world renowned Karolinska Institute. Too blinkered to register a friendship turning toxic and with her personal life collapsing around her, Annika pursues the story to the exclusion of all else, including her marriage.

Vanishers, Heidi Julavits

Julia Severn is ill, she works in a run-down carpet store in New York and takes so many pills that if you shook her she’d rattle. Her doctors can’t find anything wrong with her. The last time she was healthy was over a year ago when she was stenographer to the famed physic Madame Ackermann, Julia wasn’t such a slouch in the physic department herself and while the illness and the medications may have blunted her gift her sense of humour remains more-or-less intact. To get better Julia must become one of the ‘vanished’-people who have chosen to absent themselves from their own lives. But whilst recovering she comes across a wayward heiress, a conniving widow and a noted academic all involved in the hunt for a controversial French filmmaker who has some surprising links to Julia’s own mother Elizabeth. ‘Vanishers’ is a paranormal dramedy with surprising depth.

New For April

March was busy, April hopefully not so much. Here are a few new releases. Enjoy. Comments at the bookstore or via e-mail.

Currently reading The Yard by Alex Grecian a first novel set in London around the end of the reign of Jack The Ripper when Scotland Yard's murder squad was only twelve officers strong. Full of historical detail this moves at a pretty fast clip.

Two books I bought pretty much sight unseen are AngelMaker by Nick Harkaway and How to Think like Leonardo Da Vinci by Michael Gelb. We have a short break coming up but after that my act will be well and truly gotten together.

Deep Zone, James Tabor

Soldiers are getting sick in Afghanistan, normally treatable bullet wounds are somehow becoming infected by a virulent mutation of the ACE virus. It has a 90% kill rate and it’s spreading. Desperate to keep a lid on the virus and the story the White House puts together a team of scientists to pursue the only known cure, but there’s a catch. First off the cure only grows at the bottom of the Cueva de Luz-a supercave, deep in the Mexican jungle. Secondly the ‘sickness’ was man-made to make some people a lot of money and those people don’t want their potential profits to go to waste. Deep Zone is part medical mystery, part Washington power struggle and part race against time in a cave where it’s not only the sudden drops that could kill you.

Dublin Dead, Gerard O’Donovan

DI Mike Mulcahy now heads up a small team of drug squad officers but they need a big score or the axe of budget cuts will fall on his fledgling department. Their current investigation-the seizure of a massive drugs haul off the Cork coast-has stalled and that’s when his old flame Siobhan O’Fallon-star reporter and author of a book about her ordeal at the hands of ’the priest’ the previous year-crashes feet-first back into his life. She’s fleshing out one hell of a story involving a missing girl, money laundering, rumours of a Columbian hit man on the loose in Europe and a trail of broken bodies all somehow tied to the death of an Irish property developer. But Siobhan’s mental scars aren’t fully healed and this story could blow up in her face-with both barrels.

The Professionals, Owen Laukkanen

It started out as a joke, just like the degrees they’d struggled to earn. Snatch rich targets all over the country and make the spouse pay a sixty grand ‘finders fee’ for a safe return. Two years in and they’re a well-oiled machine until they kidnap the wrong man…

Now the law wants them behind bars and the mob wants them dead. Will anyone survive?

The Book of Lost Fragrances, M.J. Rose

An ancient perfume commissioned by Queen Cleopatra; with the power to recover past lives and link souls together. Its just a myth? Isn’t it? 

Days before the his holiness the Dalai Lama is due to visit Paris, TV host Jac L’Etoile’s brother Robbie goes missing; gone too is the artifact he discovered whilst cleaning up the wreckage of his father’s perfumers workshop, shards of pottery, covered in ancient markings and infused with a scent Robbie’s nose isn’t sensitive enough to detect.  Also heading for Paris is a group of hand-picked Chinese art students outwardly loyal to their government but carrying multiple hidden agendas.

Jac flies home from New York to search for her brother and her childhood illness returns with a vengeance; she’s having flashbacks of Ancient Egypt and older France. Hot on her heels is Dr. Malachai Samuels in search of another memory tool, one the Chinese government is desperate to acquire at any cost.  Jac will soon learn she is one half of a love story that transcends time; and leaves tragedy in its wake.

Leap Day Post

Haven't blogged for a while because 'Rollover' has kind of taken on a life of it's own. People are talking about it like it's already been published. I  had an e-mail from one of my ace tighteners in which she told me that she was going to read 10 pages before bed just to get a feel for it - and ended up reading the whole thing (first thirty pages).

If you haven't read Neil Gaiman's American Gods I would highly recommend it. We are doing this for bookclub and I got the chance to listen to an interview he did just after the book was published. He talked about ideas and characters coming to life in your head and I can relate, after all if the characters aren't alive to you how can you convince readers that they are worth investing in?

Anyway here are a bunch of new titles coming in March.

Trifecta!

Bumper crop of arcs crammed into my box yesterday, James Tabor the guy who wrote Blind Descent (NF) has written a thriller Deep Zone-looks good. I don't know anything about Frank Peretti but the arc of Illusion sounds right up my alley from the blurb and who doesn't love a prequel to the awesome Luther series. Neil Cross I think I love you.

Trail of the Spellmans, Lisa Lutz

After a ‘disappearance’ of two years that inquisitive family business Spellman Investigations is back and if Izzy doesn’t back away from a certain ‘chinese wall’ she could find herself out of a job. But first she’s got to find out why her mum Olivia is having someone else summarize her bookclub books and falling asleep in class while trying to learn Russian. Why Albert Spellman is muttering about ETAs. Her sister Rae has been kicked out of brother David’s house and is currently residing in a tree on the Berkeley campus. Coincidentally David’s daughter Sydney is say ‘banana’-a lot. 

Izzy has her own problems apart from a plethora of cases that seem to be falling on her shoulders, boyfriend Henry Stone wants everything she doesn't-marriage followed by children. And Izzy’s got a new drinking pal-Henry’s mother Gertrude. This is all building up to a Spellman family thanksgiving that starts at Category 1 and ends up as a full-blown Category 4. The Spellmans are back and better than ever.

The pleasures of completion.

 Wow, did a whole bunch of things yesterday morning that didn't involve reading or writing. Including breakfast out, a double circuit of the park and a ton of housework (not fun but it has to be done) Then I settled in for an afternoon working on T'ball and suddenly it hit me, the beginning still sucks (mightily) So I'm busy fixing that today. I also found the time to read and comment on a bunch of blogs that I've let slip.

Done!

Yesterday, I completed the re-write by re-reading and printing out. Today I got my teeth into Broken Harbour, the new Tana French book. I think this could be her best yet.

No Mark Upon Her, Deborah Crombie

Did Olympic hopeful Rebecca Meredith drown by accident or was it murder? 

Superintendent Duncan Kincaid soon learns that ‘Becca was a high flyer in the Metropolitan police force and his bosses want this case put to bed before the media crawl all over it.  There’s even a convenient ex husband with no alibi but Kincaid doesn’t like to have his investigation second guessed and with the help of his wife-Inspector Jones-and members of Project Sapphire he uncovers multiple motives for murder and a suspect who could end his career; and it seems that not all ‘Becca’s secrets died with her.

Revisions Revisited

The Rollover revisions have been taking up a lot of my time recently and I hope to have it completed this week which means that I turned it around in a month. I am still reading though, two books which are getting a fair bit of press are Mr G by Alan Lightman and The Fear Index by Robert Harris. I loved them both but never saw the arcs.

Budapest Noir, Vilmos Kondor

Greed and selfishness lie at the heart of this atmospheric tale. Pre-war Budapest is keeping crime reporter Zig Gordon in stories so when he gets a call to a crime scene in the red light district it doesn't bother him -at first. The circumstances however do. A Jewish prayer book is a strange thing for a supposed prostitute to have and the other item she was carrying is even more perplexing. The crime reporter wastes no time in tapping sources to get a story. He’s blocked at every turn by some very powerful people but that just makes him keep digging...

(N.B published end of Jan)

Two arcs and plot shuffle

Two arcs on the go at the moment The Professionals which despite its Swedish sounding author is set in the US and Niceville also set in the US (the deep south to be exact) and I am loving them both. Now though, working on another rewrite of Rollover and this one only needs about 6 or 7 adjustments but two of them are big enough to cause ripples throughout the rest of the book so this morning I'm playing plot jigsaw, take an event which is too close to the end and make it historical and nearer the beginning, wish me luck!

The Rook by Daniel O'Malley

Dear me, the body you are wearing used to be mine...


How would you feel if your first memory was a soggy London park surrounded by dead people-wearing gloves. You would be even more confused if the old you knew this was coming and had been preparing for it for months. That's what confronts Myfanwy Thomas who-before her memories were wiped-was one of the most able administrators of Her Majesty's Supernatural Secret Service, a Rook. Will forearming Myfanwy help her to avoid impending doom? Should she really have listened to that duck?

That's really all the premise you need, O'Malley has created the love child of Hogwarts, Torchwood, Dr Who and Monty Python, I really hope there's more where this came from.

Reading 'Rook'

Regular readers will know I've been banging on about this book since November. I'm reading it right now and it does not disappoint! Today is a writing day or I would be deep in it right now. Lets just say that fans of Harry Potter, Dr Who, Torchwood (first 3 series), Monty Python should go out and buy this book right now. You'll love it. Full review shortly.

Thoughts on Lucky Bastard

SG Browne has some very inventive ideas, and in this his latest novel - coming in April - the hero -Nick Monday- is a luck poacher, he shakes your hand and your good luck vanishes with him. Of course luck poachers don't advertise but they can be co-erced by either money or threats a twin sister who refuses to use her 'gift' . So Nick gets involved with Chinese mafia and a vengeful set of twins while maintaining the front of a PI business. The idea that luck both good and bad has to be processed out of the poacher before it can be given (mostly sold) on to someone else gives plenty of laughs at Starbucks' expense and I'll never look at a paper coffee cup quite the same way again. Quirky (you know me I love quirky) and fun.

Bloodland, Alan Glynn

Jimmy Gilroy was a journalist, now he’s stuck writing a fluff book about a dead celebrity but while Susie Monaghan was a national obsession she was also the perfect distraction. Though the helicopter crash that killed her is old news to Jimmy, suddenly he’s being courted to write a heavy-weight political memoir instead. Then a drunken admission from his new subject drops a puzzle in his lap that whets his journalistic appetite and takes him right back to Susie. And then it hits him Susie wasn't the only victim. Suddenly, Jimmy becomes a problem for the shadowy international group of investors, politicians and mercenaries who thought their secret was dead and buried three years ago off the Donegal coast.

Before I forget

Top 10 books of 2011

Before I go to Sleep

Agent X

SpyCatcher

I am Half Sick of Shadows

Keeper of Lost Causes

In The Garden of Beasts

Good Thief’s Guide to Venice

Betrayal of Trust

Map of  Time

All Cry Chaos
Hypnotist (honorable mention)

Hello 2012

Wow, we've been back nearly two weeks and I've just managed to re-establish a decent routine where writing and reading are concerned. Actually had no problem with reading, since my last post. I've read the following Dead Simple and Perfect People both by Peter James, Confession by Charles Todd, Agent 6 by Tom Robb Smith. Currently reading arcs of Sacrilege by SJ Parris and Lucky Bastard by SG Browne.and tackling Les Miserables for book club (!)

I'm dying to read The Rook by Daniel O'Malley, couldn't get hold of an arc so the hardback will be in by the time my Friday shift rolls around.