Haven’t gotten much reading done since I have been back from vacation, but I did finish these three.  Death of An Expert Witness by P.D. James is the sixth Adam Dalgliesh novel.  This one concerns the staff and security forces of a forensics lab.  It has the appearances of a locked room mystery except in this case a “locked lab facility”.  Dalgliesh has to sort through a plethora of suspects with varying motives for dispatching the unlikeable, but pitiable Dr. Lorrimer.  I have been reading my way through the Adam Dalgliesh series and I would have to say of the ones I have read so far this was not may favorite.  A decent mystery but somehow the characters fell flat for me, particularly the “whodunnit”.  I do plan on continuing with the series, I just think this particular one was a miss for me.

It Happened One Wedding by Julie James was an impulse buy at Barnes and Noble.  I sat down and started reading it in the store and decided to pay for it and bring it home to finish.  I would say that this was an okay romance/chick lit.  The characters were a little silly at times but I think that is about par for these summer read type books.   I will say that perhaps I didn’t take as much away from this book as other readers due to the fact that it is book 5 in a series and I didn’t read the others.

No Man’s Nightingale by Ruth Rendell is this month’s read over at the Kindle English Mystery Club.   I am very torn about this book but I don’t really feel that it would be fair to rate it negatively for a couple reasons.  The first, it is number 26 in a series and I have only read number 1 (which I also remember not enjoying).  This is probably why the sleuth, Wexford, felt flat to me.  I am sure there is a great deal of build up for his character over the series.  The second is simply that I had a headache when I pushed through this so maybe it was just me.  It certainly seemed like I should have enjoyed it. I read a great deal of British crime novels and police procedurals, so I am not really sure why this didn’t work for me.

The book contained two mysteries and they bob and weave not letting you know until the end whether they are connected or not.  I found one mystery much more interesting than the other, but both were resolved satisfactorily.  Ruth Rendell is certainly a renowned novelist and her books are held in high regard, so I am going to be neutral on this one.