Got Mysteries?

[Chuck Stromme]

I love a good mystery. Read 'em all the time. How about these authors for a start:

Boris Akunin
James Lee Burke
Michael Connelly
Nelson DeMille
Martin Cruz Smith

Each of these authors delivers a great mystery as well as something more that elevates his work into another category that I can't quite describe. MysteryPlus? Maybe it's simply insight into the human condition. Whatever it is, these authors have it for me.

I admit to reading lesser popular mystery writers too. I like John Sandford for a quick and entertaining read. Back in the day I loved John D. MacDonald (the Travis McGee series) and Donald Hamilton’s Matt Helm series. Great entertainment return for minimum time invested.

Are you hooked on mysteries but too embarrassed to admit it? How do you make it through long plane trips? Come out of the mystery closet and tell us what you like and what you're reading now.

Me? Not a mystery right now but an alternate history by Harry Turtledove.

Chuck

[Chuck Stromme]

You have a to-read pile? Both of us do, too. I guess the acorn doesn't fall too far from the old oak tree. I've had to go to a to-read bookshelf, or at least two shelves of one. It's a luxury that pleases me very much. I wonder if anyone else here has a to-read pile, or worse.

If Nelson DeMille is pot-boiler he's a darn good pot-boiler author. Edythe bought us his latest, The Gate House. It's on the top T-R shelf. It's the sequel to The Gate House, which was an unsettling read for me. I'll never forget one line from it: "Evil is seductive."

[Stephanie Southerland]

I haven't read anything new lately, but I really do love Tony Hillerman's Navajo Detective series. I was so sad to learn he died recently. No more adventures of Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn. The crime stories are suspenseful but I really enjoy the way he takes you into the culture and landscape of the Navajo people in Arizona.

[adrienne oyler]

I don't know if it is worse or not but I have a small library of to-read paperbacks in the motorhome. Jim put some shelves in one of the back closets so the books couldn't roam around when we were on the road. Most of the books are mysteries, some SiFi more not. I have read a couple of Burke's books and you are right about his writing abilities.

I am reading a new to me author by the name of Wilbur Smith. I started reading The Seventh Scroll and got about half way through but it kept referring to the previous book in the series in ways that intrigued me enough that I had to find it. I found River God in a small used book store. I have finished about a third of it and it was worth it. One is set in present day and the other is in ancient Egypt.

Adrienne