2018 50 Book Challenge

[Steve B.]

20. Missing You- Harlan Coben

Centers around a 40 year old female cop whose police office father was murdered at the same time her fiancee left her 18 yrs ago. She sees the fiancee on an online dating site and 500 pages of genuine thriller ensue. Many twists of plot, captivating. I literally couldn't put it down and stayed up WAY past my bedtime to finish it.

Couldn't recommend it more highly.

 

[California Dreamer]



5. The Rehearsal


An exceptional book - especially as a debut novel by Eleanor Catton. The novel opens with the 17 year old sister of the main character being caught in a sexual relationship with her music teacher.

This is the novel immediately before her Booker-winning effort, right?

 

[Foxhound]

1. Paper Towns - John Greene
Something quite easy to read, I enjoy coming of age novels. I got through it rather quickly, but enjoyed it nonetheless.

 

[LonerMatt]

This is the novel immediately before her Booker-winning effort, right?

Yes - a few years before. I haven't read the Luminaries, so no idea how it compares.

 

[clockwise]

Clockwise counting 04/50: Ian Rankin - Hide and Seek (1990)

A young drug addict is found dead from an apparent overdose but there are various signs pointing to a possible murder. Rebus, who since the previous book has been promoted from Detective Sergeant to Detective Inspector, untangles a criminal conspiracy among some people of Edinburgh's high society. Rebus is an interesting character and the police procedural moves along at a fast and entertaining pace.

Clockwise counting 05/50: Arnaldur Indridason - Silence of the Grave (2002)

An Icelandic mystery about the discovery of a shallow grave on a building site, horrible domestic abuse and a long forgotten murder. Detective Erlandur is another of these troubled policemen who will not give up until the truth is found. This is the second in the series and it's pretty good but probably one notch below Ian Rankin and two notches below Sjowall / Wahloo.

Clockwise counting 06/50: Lionel Davidson - Kolymsky Heights (1994)

Many years ago I read and enjoyed Davidson's first novel, The Night of Wenceslas
This was his last novel, written 34 years after his debut, but definitely of similar quality. When it comes to adventure / espionage / classical thrillers, Davidson must be one of the best. This novel is set in and around a secret Russian research station in Siberia and has one of the most unlikely main characters I have yet come across, Johnny Porter, a Canadian Native American linguistic genius with a James Bondish ability to navigate his way through danger. Exciting and entertaining.

 

[clockwise]

Clockwise counting 07/50: Guy Saville - The Afrika Reich (2013)

A blurb / review on the cover is from The Economist and says that the book is "a rich and unusual thriller, politically sophisticated and hard to forget". I guess that is all true in some sense but it's actually not that good. It's thrilling in the way of an action movie with lots of explosions, lots of killing and unbelievable narrow escapes, not just as a climax at the end of the book but the whole way through. It's 1952 and in this alternative history Germany won the war and controls most of Africa. Ex-mercenary Burton Cole and a group of similar characters are hired to assassinate the German governor of "the Afrika Reich". The Nazis are as evil as can be imagined and there is a personal vendetta involved in the story as well. Entertaining for the moment but somewhat juvenile despite the politically sophisticated touch.

Clockwise counting 08/50: Simon Mawer - The Girl Who Fell From the Sky (2012)

I have read a couple of Mawer novels before, The Glass Room and The Fall, and they have been very good indeed. The stories have a bit of cheesy nostalgia and the pulling of heart strings but Mawer is a good writer and the stories certainly hold the readers' attention and want to say something about humanity. This novel, which was also published under the name Trapeze, is about a young and extraordinarily brave female spy, the half French half British Marian Sutro, who parachutes into Nazi occupied France with a secret mission. An exciting read but not a standard thriller, more a story about life choices under extreme circumstances. Highly recommended.

 

[Steve B.]

21. The Black Echo Michael Connelly

The first book to contain the exploits of Hieronymous (Harry) Bosh, Detective. In this episode he is still with the LAPD, and is assigned a homicide whom he recognizes as a fellow tunnel rat from Vietnam. Under the watchful eyes of LAPD's IAD (Internal Affairs Division), and a joint task force with the FBI, he proceeds to solve the case.

Sorry- no more clues- it would give away the book, which is excellent.

I'm going to read all of these in order to catch up to Micky Haller's latest, which is a joint effort with Bosh, on the Kindle.

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]



21. The Black Echo Michael Connelly

The first book to contain the exploits of Hieronymous (Harry) Bosh, Detective. In this episode he is still with the LAPD, and is assigned a homicide whom he recognizes as a fellow tunnel rat from Vietnam. Under the watchful eyes of LAPD's IAD (Internal Affairs Division), and a joint task force with the FBI, he proceeds to solve the case.

Sorry- no more clues- it would give away the book, which is excellent.

I'm going to read all of these in order to catch up to Micky Haller's latest, which is a joint effort with Bosh, on the Kindle.

Are you reading these or eating them Steve?

5 The Waking Engine by David Edison This is a very odd book. First I find it hard to define the category of the narrative its not SciFi per see its, not Gothic or Cyberpunk. Its definitely not Apocalyptic lit as there is definitely no rapture forthcoming. Its a take on Death and Reincarnation but not the usual premises to quote one character 'when you die its just the first step. You wake up someplace else in your flesh in your clothes, ( well would want to avoid a major wardrobe or sartorial malfunction at your funeral then) older or younger but still you.'

The problem for the characters concerned is that after countless lives you can opt out with True Death but it appears that is no longer an option and no one knows why.To make matters worse the central character who has arrived in the city of the un dead with his navel intact. This creates quite a conundrum for a strange assortment of characters who all have competing agendas as for Cooper he's just trying to come to term with the circumstances of his questionable new life. The narrative flows at an interesting pace, its literally very bent. Somehow i don't think it fits the mantle of New Weird however its very entertaining and amusing to read.

 

[clockwise]

Clockwise counting 09/50: Elena Ferrante - My Brilliant Friend (2011)

An absolutely superb reading experience, I don't hesitate to say that My Brilliant Friend is one of the best novels I have ever read. It's the story of Elena and Lila, two friends who grow up in 1950s Napoli amidst poverty, violence and dreams of a better future. These two girls who are best friends are both intellectually and emotionally "brilliant" but their different personalities as well as circumstances lead them onto different life paths. This is the first in a series of Ferrante's Neapolitan novels and I very much look forward to the continuation.

Clockwise counting 10/50: Pierre LeMaitre - Alex (2011)

This is one of those publishing phenomenons of recent times which has been compared to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. It's a sadistic story about a mysterious girl who gets kidnapped and tortured but, as we read on, the victim changes into perpetrator and it takes a few twists and turns before the abnormally short Police Commandant Camille Verhoeven arrives at something close to the truth of this most unusual case. Exciting and unpredictable but a bit too brutal for my taste.

 

[California Dreamer]



Clockwise counting 10/50: Pierre LeMaitre - Alex (2011)

Did you read Irene first? For some reason they published Alex in English first, and screwed up the first book as a result.

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]



Did you read Irene first? For some reason they published Alex in English first, and screwed up the first book as a result.

I read the first two books but third was far too graphically brutal and misogynistic for my taste. Gave up on it and took it back to the library.

 

[LonerMatt]

1. Hicksville
2. Slaughterhouse 5
3. Firefight
4. Snow Leopard
5. The Rehearsal
6. Lagoon

6. Lagoon

Nnedi Okorafor writes about Lagos - aliens visit and the city goes wild. Often pegged as a new voice in SF/fantasy this is the second book of hers that I've found cliche, dull and boring from start to end. I would not recommend this to anyone.

 

[Steve B.]

22. The Black Ice- Michael Connelly

Detective Bosh breaks up a Mexican cartel supplying a new, exotic drug into the U.S. market. He also exposes a group of dirty cops. And gets the girl in the end.

Great noir stuff!

 

[clockwise]



Did you read Irene first? For some reason they published Alex in English first, and screwed up the first book as a result.

No I didn't read Irene and now I don't really have to.

 

[Steve B.]

23. Radigan Louis L'Amour

A range war between 2 men with about 5 hundred head of cattle and clear title to the land they're on in New Mexico. A band of rustlers and usurpers with a false deed ride up from Texas with 3,000 head and try to run them off the land. Radigan wins and gets the girl.


One of the better L'Amours I've read.