Reading in the sun

Sometimes you just need a break and that was a good one.  I did read a bunch of books though.  "White Devil" by Justin Evans another literary mystery, present day, smart and I have to say pretty scary.  His descriptions of a jealous, possessive presence that has confused a student at Harrow with his former lover would be difficult to replicate onscreen.  The other thing, this spook is carrying a disease that kills.  That's coming in May.  I also read The Paradise Prophecy by Robert Browne, this is a July release and taps into Dan Brown territory except with a much more supernatural edge (think Angels and Demons - for real).  I enjoyed it but I am not going to rush out and read John Milton's Paradise Lost, the book that features heavily throughout the story.

PJ Tracy's second book Live Bait - I love this series.  Cop humour isn't always well done but the two leads Maggozi and Rolseth are great.  The continued association with Monkeewrench and Grace  MacBride works well and again even though I had figured it out, two twists at the end made the book for me.  Number three Dead Run is on order.

Typhoon, which is out in paperback introduced me to Charles Cumming, his writing rivals John Le Carre and Len Deighton both favourites of mine.  Set in Hong Kong on the eve of the 1997 handover to the Chinese and ten years later.  Rookie MI6 agent Joe Lennox catches the debrief  of a Professor Wang.  Joe thinks he's stumbled on a career making coup but it's stolen out from under him by CIA agent Miles Coolidge who also has designs on Joe's girlfriend.  When an older, wiser Joe is sent into China he's after a rouge operation called Typhoon, he uncovers a massive conspiracy with his old adversary at the heart of it. 

I'm just finishing Cubeology by Daniel Barko which is set in Australia.  It's about a bunch of college students, who are drawn together by a mysterious cube and a terrible accident.  Each student gains powers they have trouble controlling, the police are very suspicious of them and one of their group is currently in a mental hospital.  Help arrives in the shape of a mysterious stranger but then people start dying and the students will have to take on the master if they want to survive.  The book actually contains the game they use, but so far no magical powers have been forthcoming.  This reminded me a little of The Magicians by Lev Grossman but I like Cubeology better.

In writing news, I just cracked the magic 300, I reckon another week and I'll be looking at draft number 3.