I am really not thrilled with this new WordPress format and it seemed to have turned me off of keeping up with my blog. I am now deciding I should just bite the bullet and make myself get comfortable with it. I actually haven’t read that much because I have been working on lots of things for work instead, but I will put in the few books I’ve finished.

The Z Murders is a classic and my edition is one published as a British Library Crime Classic. This is more of a thriller centering on the mysterious Z and a cross country chase aimed at finding the damsel in distress, before the killer strikes again. Temperly is an extremely lucky protagonist, he’d have to be to follow this killer’s trail. Not much in the way of clues the reader can figure out, most of the novel is a chase scene. The killer’s motives and plan are quite a bit unbelievable but still this was an enjoyable read from the writer of Mystery in White.

The Long and Faraway Gone is a look back at 1986 for the original crimes. This was book centers on two survivors of cold case crimes twenty five years later. They are entangled as the two crimes occurred close together in Oklahoma City. Wyatt, the lone survivor of a bloody massacre, and Juliana, whose sister completely disappeared, are both looking at the past and trying to understand what happened and why. The novel explores the impact crime has on those it touches, long after the original event. This was an okay read for me and when I flipped it over and say the author is a screenwriter, that made sense to me. It seems to me it would be a better movie than a book.

A Place of Execution is by Val McDermid and has many rave reviews. It covers a span of time from the early 1960s to the 90s. A child disappears in the 1960s and years later the crime is being looked at again. First, this book was longer than it needed to be to tell the story, over 400 pages. It seemed repetitive in places and the ending was what I assumed fairly early on. This was a disappointing read.

Night Dogs is a novel I have been reading about for a while. It is touted as extremely realistic for police work at time, mid 1970s and the place, Portland Oregon. I think it was a little much for me. I have a hard time reading about animals being hurt, in pain, or killed and there is quite a bit of that in this book. I will have to admit to skimming some of it because of that. The story was interesting but I wouldn’t really say I enjoyed the book. Probably a good read for someone who wants realism with lots of grit from that time period.

The Reluctant Detective is the first in the C.T. Ferguson PI series. CT is fresh off the plane from getting in big trouble in China, working as a hacker. As the son of a wealthy and influential “old money” family, this does not go over well. His family more or less force him to use his skills for good by becoming a pro-bono PI. From there, the novel takes off. Well paced and almost a fun read as C.T. has a self deprecating sense of humor. His first case appears to be a simple adultery case but ends up of course being so much more, with danger galore. I enjoyed this and would read another in the series.

I watched Bridgerton, along with many other people I know and picked up the first couple books in the series. Some changes from the series, but still light fun romance reads. The stories revolve around the Bridgerton family, marriages, titles, and scandals.

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These are the first two books from the Bitter Roots series. The protagonist is Zac Waller, a police dispatcher who is more than what meets the eye. There is a new mystery in each book so you can read them as stand-alones. There is a little something of everything here, mystery and murder, police work, characters from the community, family drama, and a pinch of romance. Light mystery read but very enjoyable.

Thanks to the blizzard that wasn’t, I read this today: 

The protagonist, Gaby Mortimer, is a married TV presenter with a very privileged life style, house cleaner, nanny, expensive house, and hedgefund manager husband.  On her morning run she falls over a body of a young woman and that begins the mystery, who is she, what is her connection to Gaby (or from Gaby’s perspective “to Gaby’s house”).  At some point the police investigation starts to focus on Gaby and she begins to investigate to save her life, her marriage and her career.  Through the investigation, Gaby meets Jack, a journalist, who helps push both  the story line and the investigation forward.  Gaby and Jack follow the trail of the dead young woman looking for connections.

I liked most of this book, even though I found a couple things odd.  Gaby’s relationship with her new nanny for one, how can you live with someone and not really know them at all? ehhh.  The plot was well paced and well thought out until the end.  I really found the ending a little off putting. I would have bought into it more if the book was written in third person or told as flash backs rather than in the present tense.   I can’t say anything more without writing a spoiler.