This is the 4th book from the lawyer turned murder mystery author who’s one of the hottest writers working today.
Stand alone.
I would call it good, not great.
The premise is interesting. The ending quite good.
A young, law student infiltrates an Innocence Project group, volunteers trying to prove prisoners were wrongly accused.
BUT she has her own agenda related to a crime 20 years earlier. It’s slowly revealed.
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An intriguing book title:
How to Travel the World for Free: One Man, 150 Days, Eleven Countries, No Money!
Published 2013, this is an entertaining read.
Author Michael Wigge must be a charmer in person.
… 25,000 miles—from Berlin to Antarctica—without any money!
Join Michael Wigge as he immerses himself into fascinating subcultures, rides with Amish farmers in old-fashioned buggies, sleeps on the street with the homeless, and, with the help from alternative lifestylers, learns to nourish himself with flowers.
Wigge had only 3 concerns during his travels: How do I get some food? How will I get to my next destination? Where can I sleep?…all without money!
This unusual travel diary combines adventure with humor and contains surprising revelations about when money is really needed—and when it’s not. A must-read for every travel and adventure fan!
With a Mind to Kill is the 3rd Bond book by Anthony Horowitz — the only author approved by Ian Fleming’s estate to continue the 007 series.
It is M’s funeral. One man is missing from the graveside: the traitor who pulled the trigger and who is now in custody, accused of M’s murder – James Bond.
Behind the Iron Curtain, a group of former Smersh agents want to use the British spy in an operation that will change the balance of world power. Bond is smuggled into the lion’s den – but whose orders is he following, and will he obey them when the moment of truth arrives?
Horowitz is a good writer and the plot is as absurd as Fleming.
In this one the master spy is resigned to retire — IF he survives this one final assignment.
Bond is tired.
related – Guardian review
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Death at La Fenice (1992), the first novel by American academic and crime-writer Donna Leon, started the internationally best-selling Commissario Brunetti mystery series, set in Venice, Italy.
I read it while in Tuscany.
Slow paced. Brunetti flawed. I’m enjoying the books. Five, so far. And I’ll read more.
A world-famous German opera conductor has died at La Fenice, and Commissario (Detective) Guido Brunetti pursues what appears to be a murder investigation without leads.
wikipedia
There was a German adaptation of the book.
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In fact, Donna Leon is an American who lived in Venice for decades.
She wrote the first book as a lark. When successful, she wrote dozens more.
Brunetti and his family don’t age. Each book uses 1990s technology. No mobile phones, for example.
Her books have been translated into many languages — but NOT ITALIAN. 😀
She’s convinced her Italian friends will be more critical if they could read them in their first language.
Typical Christie. This was her 1941 book.
A group of people ALL could have been the killer.
The surprise ending seemed to cute and complex (to me) to be believable.
Hercule Poirot takes a holiday in Devon.
During his stay, he notices a young woman who is flirtatious and attractive, but not well liked by a number of guests.
When she is murdered during his stay, he finds himself drawn into investigating the circumstances surrounding the murder.
wikipedia
Peter Grainger is still the best author I know who doesn’t have a Wikipedia page.
That’s surprising since his fans are fanatics for his books.
His murder mysteries are different. Slow paced. Very little violence, sex, or profanity.
Detailed police procedurals.
The mystery is secondary to the relationships between characters. For example, in this 2020 book there’s a charming love story between a blind musician and Detective Sergeant Christopher Waters.
“He might be a nobody, but he was their nobody and their first case.”
The new Kings Lake Central murder squad is about to spend its first morning on team-building exercises and reviewing cold cases when the call comes in that the body of one of the city’s rough sleepers has been found in a shop doorway.
It happens, someone says, he isn’t the first to die on the streets and he won’t be the last, but the story the new team begins to uncover is far from routine. …
Amazon
The Wayward Pines Trilogy (2012–2014) is a mystery/thriller/science fiction novel series by American author Blake Crouch.
It follows U.S. Secret Service agent Ethan Burke as he unravels the mystery surrounding his unanticipated arrival in the small town of Wayward Pines, Idaho, following a devastating car accident.
The novels are Pines (2012), Wayward (2013), and The Last Town (2014).
In 2015, the novels were adapted into the television series Wayward Pines. …
For me the 2nd book in the series was not as good as the first. Though it does have the kind of cliffhanger ending that made me put book #3 on hold at my library.
Ethan Burke is now surprisingly the sheriff, seemingly in the confidence of Dr. Pilcher who runs the mystery town.
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London, 1887. Ending at the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. Her 50th anniversary.
This is a lightweight but entertaining read about an adventurous young woman who’s thoroughly modern in her outlook to life.
After burying her spinster aunt, orphaned Veronica Speedwell is free to resume her world travels in pursuit of scientific inquiry—and the occasional romantic dalliance.
As familiar with hunting butterflies as with fending off admirers, Veronica intends to embark upon the journey of a lifetime.
But fate has other plans when Veronica thwarts her own attempted abduction with the help of an enigmatic German baron, who offers her sanctuary in the care of his friend Stoker, a reclusive and bad-tempered natural historian.But before the baron can reveal what he knows of the plot against her, he is found murdered—leaving Veronica and Stoker on the run from an elusive assailant as wary partners in search of the villainous truth.
Amazon
Yrsa, born 1963, is an Icelandic author.
My Soul to Take is the 2nd book in her Thóra Gudmundsdóttir series.
Perhaps my last. Too many characters. Too complicated.
The killer revealed in a way that would not impress Agatha Christie.
Like the first book, the plot sounded interesting.
In the mystical Snæfellsnes region on Iceland’s west coast – at a New Age health resort in a renovated farmhouse – the body of a young woman is discovered, savagely beaten, with pins inserted into her feet.
Thóra Gudmundsdóttir, lawyer and single mother of two, has been retained to represent the resort’s owner and prime suspect.
But a fresh corpse is not the only abomination Thóra encounters here – for local legend says this place is haunted, and a bizarre series of inexplicable occurrences soon suggests it is so.
As Thóra digs deeply into the farm’s past, she unearths a shocking history of evil and depravity, and her once-solid view of reality begins to waver.
But a second murder, shockingly similar to the first, pulls Thóra back to earth by making two inescapable truths abundantly clear: the killer she seeks is very real and is not finished yet.
… first novel in the Poirot series set at least partly in the courtroom, with lawyers and witnesses exposing the facts underlying Poirot’s solution to the crimes.
The title is drawn from a song in Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night. …
One reviewer remarked “it is economically written, the clues are placed before the reader with impeccable fairness, the red herrings are deftly laid and the solution will cause many readers to kick themselves.” …
wikipedia
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Rick McCharles 