I’ve been super busy in real life, but have squeezed some reading in including these four mysteries.

The Drowning Man, I just finished today and I really enjoyed it.  I didn’t want to put it down until I finished.  Ruiz is fished out of the Thames more dead than alive and he can’t remember anything about the events that led up to him clinging to a buoy trying to stay alive.  As he works his way backwards with the help of his friend Joe, he uncovers clues connected to a closed case involving the murder of a child in which the body was never recovered.  This had lots of twists and turns and was quite exciting right up until the end.  Although the resolution was what I expected at the start, it was quite a journey to get there.  Really enjoyed reading this and will read more in this series.

A Scream in Soho is one of the British Library Crime Classics.  This involves WWII, London during the time of blackouts, German spies abound and aristocracy  fleeing from the continent seek shelter in London.  A murder occurs and DI McCarthy must solve a case where nothing and no one is who they seem, not even the victim.  I will admit to not being a huge fan of WWII era stories, but the characters and the mystery here was quite compelling and I ended up quite enjoying it.

The Stages was an excellent read from among books with a protagonist on the Autism spectrum.  Similar in some aspects to “The Curious Incident…”  but I really thought this was much better.  Daniel Peters is a leading translator of Soren Kierkegaard’s work.  He works for an institute under an ex-girlfriend, who was his one and only love.  When she is murdered and a new work of Kierkegaard’s goes missing, Daniel must solve her murder to clear his own name.  The writing here flowed and story moved along evenly.  Daniel’s frustrations and thoughts come through clearly and feel authentic.

The Retreat involves an author, Lucas,  with writer’s block, who goes to a retreat with the intent of getting past it.  Once there he meets his fellow author’s, who have their own sets of problems, and his hostess, who holds dark secrets.  Mysterious happenings throw doubt and suspicion around liberally.  Lucas becomes determined to solve the mystery involving Julia and her daughter Lilly and finds himself and others at the Retreat in danger.  This was a decent thriller but I think the red herring was  too heavy handed to be misleading.