January reads

A good month of reading to open the year. Difficult to choose between Dead To Me by Cath Staincliffe and The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino for read of the month, but I'm going with the latter for the cleverness of the plot and excellent denouement.

From Doon With Death by Ruth Rendell ***
The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino *****
Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell ***.5
Dead To Me by Cath Staincliffe *****
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak ***
Let The Dead Speak by Jane Casey ****.5
Cemetery Lake by Paul Cleave ***.5
All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr ****
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly ****.5
Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter ****.5

January reviews

An interesting month of travelling round fictionally in January, visiting the US, Russia, Turkey, New Zealand, Italy, Norway and England. My read of the month was A Gentleman in Moscow, a wonderful tale about an aristocrat indefinitely confined to a hotel post-revolution.

Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch ****
The Bird Tribunal by Agnes Ravatn ***
Blood Curse by Maurizio de Giovanni ***
Death on Demand by Paul Thomas ****
Deep Waters by Barbara Nadel ****.5
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles *****
The Sugar House by Laura Lippman ***.5

January reads

A fairly slow reading start to the new year.  My book of the month was Harry Bingham's Talking to the Dead.  A great lead character and it's a series I imagine I'll be catching up with over the next couple of years.

The Malice of Waves by Mark Douglas-Home ****
The Harbour Master by Daniel Pembrey ***
Talking to the Dead by Harry Bingham ****.5
Deep Down Dead by Steph Broadribb***
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen ****
Invasion Rabaul by Bruce Gamble ***.5

January world tour

I've been on a mini-world tour in January visiting Colombia, Finland, Poland, Germany, South Africa, Japan, United States, Australia, Egypt and Norway.  Certainly one of best reading months, with plenty of variation in the story lines as well as settings.  My stand out read was 7Days by Deon Meyer, closely followed by To Steal Her Love, Galveston, and A Small Town in Germany.  

Dregs by Jorn Lier Horst ***.5
The Ghost Runner by Parker Bilal ****
Peepshow by Leigh Redhead ***.5
Galveston by Nic Pizzolatto ****.5
Parade by Shuichi Yoshida ***
7Days by Deon Meyer *****
A Small Town in Germany by John Le Carre ****.5
Entanglement by Zygmunt Miloszewski ***
To Steal Her Love by Matti Joensuu ****.5
The Informers by Juan Gabriel Vásquez ***

January reads

A quite slow month of reading and an even slower month of writing reviews.  In the end I managed six books.  Usually there's quite a bit of variation in my assessment, but oddly I scored them all at three and a half stars except for Malla Nunn's Let the Dead Lie, which is my book of the month.  And on reflection I think that's fair; they were all decent enough reads without being something special.  Hopefully the pressure at work will now drop and I can get back to usual business.  There should be three reviews this week as I finally finished a book I've been reading for a while and then shot through two more between Thursday and Sunday. 

My Soul to Take by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir ***.5
A Dark Song of Blood by Ben Pastor ***.5
Enter a Murderer by Ngaio Marsh ***.5
Red Bones by Ann Cleeves ***.5
Buffalo Jump by Howard Shrier ***.5
Let the Dead Lie by Malla Nunn ****

January reading

My sense of January was that it was a very good month of reading.  I'd happily read other books by all of the authors listed below.  My pick of the month is Aly Monroe's Icelight (in a close run race with Diggers Rest Hotel).  I usually don't start in the middle of a series, but I'm glad I did in this case and I've every intention of catching up with the first two books.  It was definitely a January kind of book, set in London in the winter of 1947.

City of Heretics by Heath Lowrance ***.5
Diggers Rest Hotel by Geoffrey McGeachin ****.5
Liar Moon by Ben Pastor ****
Icelight by Aly Monroe ****.5
Go With Me by Castle Freeman ****.5
The Devil I know by Claire Kilroy ****
Broken Dreams by Nick Quantrill ***
The Silver Stain by Paul Johnston ****
I Hear Sirens in the Street by Adrian McKinty ****

January reads

I'm surprised to find that I read 8 books in January. It felt like I'd done a lot of reading, but that it was mostly coursework and exams. Looking down the list it was a good month. My read of January goes to The Cold, Cold Ground by Adrian McKinty, closely followed Storm Front by Jim Butcher.

The Cold, Cold Ground by Adrian McKinty *****
The Eighty Five Billion Euro Man by Donal Conaty ***
The Dead Detective by William Heffernan ***
Black Sheep by Arlene Hunt ***.5
Storm Front by Jim Butcher *****
Devil's Peak by Deon Meyer ****.5
In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B Hughes ****
White Nights by Ann Cleeves ****

January reviews

January didn't feel like a great month of reading. Nothing totally blew my socks off, but The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson was superior fare and was my read of the month. And Peeler by Kevin McCarthy gets a notable mention as a good, solid, entertaining read. I actually read three other books during the month, but I've been slow to right up the reviews due to general busyness.

Black Diamond by Martin Walker **.5
Tilt-a-Whirl by Chris Grabenstein ****
The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson ****.5
Gun Monkeys by Victor Gischler ***
Orchid Blue by Eoin McNamee ***
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson ***.5
Peeler by Kevin McCarthy ****

January reviews

A slow month of reading, especially in the latter half of the month. It's been a while since I read only one book in a week. Last week I read none but my own whilst I tried to deal with other things. I'm slowly making my way through Havana Fever by Leonardo Padura at the minute, so that'll be the next review up. My book of the month. Hmmm. I'll go with Via Delle Oche.

Dead Set by Kel Robertson ****
Up in Honey's Room by Elmore Leonard **
The Fugitive Pigeon by Donald Westlake ***
Via Delle Oche by Carlo Lucarelli ****
Shinjuku Shark by Arimasa Osawa **
Isle of Joy by Don Winslow ****
The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley ****