Books & Reading Thread 2025

mac said:
What's the jist of the novel Rob.
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From the blurb on Amazon:-

1660. Colonel Edward Whalley and his son-in-law, Colonel William Goffe, cross the Atlantic. They are on the run and wanted for the murder of Charles I. Under the provisions of the Act of Oblivion, they have been found guilty in absentia of high treason.

In London, Richard Nayler, secretary of the regicide committee of the Privy Council, is tasked with tracking down the fugitives. He'll stop at nothing until the two men are brought to justice. A reward hangs over their heads - for their capture, dead or alive.
 
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Tiamat’s Wrath by James S. A. Corey
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Eighth and penultimate book of The Expanse series sees the crew of the Rocinante and other major players being moved into position for the finale. If you’ve got this far into the series then you don’t really need me to tell you how good it’s been up to now If you haven’t tried it yet and enjoy epic space opera then give this a try (but start with book 1) as it’s been of a consistently good standard throughout and this instalment is no different. Just a shame there was no <spoiler>Chrisjen Avisarala</spoiler> in this one though. 4★'s



This Charming Man by C. K. McDonnell
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Second book in The Stranger Times urban fantasy series set in Manchester. Assistant editor Hannah returns from trying to sort out her divorce to find trouble in the office with Banecroft having fired the builders that were installing the new bathroom to accommodate the new living arrangements (read book 1). While explanations for this are underway they get interrupted by Doctor Carter requesting that they look into the death of a man who had burst into flame after jumping in front of a truck. He had pointed & very sharp over-developed incisors, was of pale skin, had elongated fingernails and was dressed in black. Seeing as vampires don’t exist, she wants to know where he came from.

A ragtag bunch of characters return for their second outing continue to provide a lightness of touch in what would otherwise be quite a dark story. Hopefully a couple more become series regulars with future cameos from Cogs and Zeke wouldn’t go amiss. While you do lose the freshness of getting to know a new set of characters in a second book, the author does a great job of bringing in some fresh blood (see what I did there?) while also bringing greater depth to the existing bunch. The humour is also a high point throughout the story and the occasional pages written for Stranger Times paper are still a delight. Fans of the Rivers of London series should find a happy home with this one too and this book even seems to have an homage to Aaronovitch’s world. An excellent sophomore entry to a fine new series and I’m looking forward to the third. 4★'s
 
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4. The Lincoln Highway - Amor Towles

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This story is set in America in 1954. 18 year-old Emmet Watson has been released from a work farm where he has served 15 months for involuntary manslaughter. His father recently deceased, the bank foreclosing on the loan for the family farm, Emmet wants to go to California, with his 8 year-old brother Billy, to start afresh. Billy however wants to go to San Francisco to find their mother who had left them, without explanation, some years earlier. However, before they set off, two fellow inmates, Woolly and Duchess, arrive at Emmet’s home with an alternative suggestion which would result in them heading to the Adirondacks, via New York, for a share of Woolly's trust fund. Emmet is not interested but before long, the four of them are heading to New York.

The story is told over a period of 10 days mainly from the perspective of the 4 main characters. They meet a number of other interesting characters and experience some adventures and mishaps along the way. The book put me in mind of Huckleberry Finn a little.

At 576 pages this is a long book, but I really got into it early on and completed it in a little over a week.

I thought that this was a terrific book, the best book I have read since Billy Summers last year.

Now for Act of Oblivion.
 
  1. Cunning Folk – Adam L.G. Nevill - 8/10
  2. Bad Apples – Will Dean – 7/10
  3. The Winter Road – Adrian Selby – 6/10
  4. The Dark Place – Damian Vargas – 9/10
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This is one of those “cop on the last day before retirement thrillers”, but it’s a little different from your average detective fayre, and all the better for it.

It’s set in 1970, in the Andalucía region of Southern Spain. Inspector Jesus Garcia, a police officer who tries to do his best and is still haunted by the things he had to do during the Spanish Civil War, is investigating the murder of a man and the disappearance of a youth. The boy happens to be the son of one of the community’s German ex-pats and the man was murdered at a villa belonging to a British man, Harry Blackman, who has recently moved to Spain.

Most of the story takes places over one day, with Garcia interviewing various people to try to get to the bottom of the crimes. But there are plenty of flashbacks – some to during the war where Harry was responsible for tracking down Nazis and then a few to events of the last few days and months where we find out what Harry and Liv, a Norwegian who has been helping him set up his new villa, have been up to. Throw in a shady British consulate official and the impending arrival of The Secret Police from Madrid, and you have a very good thriller.

It's a story that’s not flashy but very well put together. Early on I was thinking that Garcia was portrayed as a Spanish version of Columbo and within half a page, he was turning back asking just one more question! I thought the ending was sad but totally in keeping with Franco’s fascist regime, which of course was still in power in 1970.

I was thinking an 8, but this has enough about it that I’m happy to give it a 9. Looking at Damian Vargas’ other books, they all seem to be about “The Costa Del Crime”, which is something I’m not really that bothered about but given how accomplished The Dark Place is, I might give one go at some point.

Next up will be Act of Oblivion.
 
RobMCFC said:
  1. Cunning Folk – Adam L.G. Nevill - 8/10
  2. Bad Apples – Will Dean – 7/10
  3. The Winter Road – Adrian Selby – 6/10
  4. The Dark Place – Damian Vargas – 9/10
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This is one of those “cop on the last day before retirement thrillers”, but it’s a little different from your average detective fayre, and all the better for it.

It’s set in 1970, in the Andalucía region of Southern Spain. Inspector Jesus Garcia, a police officer who tries to do his best and is still haunted by the things he had to do during the Spanish Civil War, is investigating the murder of a man and the disappearance of a youth. The boy happens to be the son of one of the community’s German ex-pats and the man was murdered at a villa belonging to a British man, Harry Blackman, who has recently moved to Spain.

Most of the story takes places over one day, with Garcia interviewing various people to try to get to the bottom of the crimes. But there are plenty of flashbacks – some to during the war where Harry was responsible for tracking down Nazis and then a few to events of the last few days and months where we find out what Harry and Liv, a Norwegian who has been helping him set up his new villa, have been up to. Throw in a shady British consulate official and the impending arrival of The Secret Police from Madrid, and you have a very good thriller.

It's a story that’s not flashy but very well put together. Early on I was thinking that Garcia was portrayed as a Spanish version of Columbo and within half a page, he was turning back asking just one more question! I thought the ending was sad but totally in keeping with Franco’s fascist regime, which of course was still in power in 1970.

I was thinking an 8, but this has enough about it that I’m happy to give it a 9. Looking at Damian Vargas’ other books, they all seem to be about “The Costa Del Crime”, which is something I’m not really that bothered about but given how accomplished The Dark Place is, I might give one go at some point.

Next up will be Act of Oblivion.
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Downloaded for free on my kindle unlimited account.
 
Ian Rankin - A Head Full Of Headstones
Latest Rebus book with all the usual suspects involved. Clarke,Cafferty and Fox. Historical allegations of Police wrong doing which in light of recent events is quite ironic. Rebus gets caught up in the investigation and does his own digging but is also one of the accused. Its up to the usual Rankin standard but there is a big twist at the end.
Nearly finished Jarvis Cocker's Good Pop Bad Pop so will put something on about that soon.
 
Out on blue 6 said:
Ian Rankin - A Head Full Of Headstones
Latest Rebus book with all the usual suspects involved. Clarke,Cafferty and Fox. Historical allegations of Police wrong doing which in light of recent events is quite ironic. Rebus gets caught up in the investigation and does his own digging but is also one of the accused. Its up to the usual Rankin standard but there is a big twist at the end.
Nearly finished Jarvis Cocker's Good Pop Bad Pop so will put something on about that soon.
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I do like the Tartan Noir genre but I've never got around to reading Rankin yet. I do have the first 5 books on my tbr shelves having picked up a boxset some time ago. Just have a lot of other books sat on those shelves too and I never seem to pick it up for my next read. The feeling of needing to finish some series before starting another may be the justification.
 
JRockBlues said:
I do like the Tartan Noir genre but I've never got around to reading Rankin yet. I do have the first 5 books on my tbr shelves having picked up a boxset some time ago. Just have a lot of other books sat on those shelves too and I never seem to pick it up for my next read. The feeling of needing to finish some series before starting another may be the justification.
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There's a lot of Rebus to go at. William McIlvanneys Laidlaw books about the Glasgow equivalent are easily as good but there is only 4 of those and Rankin wrote the last of those taking notes of McIlvanneys before he died. That book is the best Rankin has wrote for years
 
Out on blue 6 said:
There's a lot of Rebus to go at. William McIlvanneys Laidlaw books about the Glasgow equivalent are easily as good but there is only 4 of those and Rankin wrote the last of those taking notes of McIlvanneys before he died. That book is the best Rankin has wrote for years
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The first of the Laidlaw books is also sitting on those shelves I mentioned.
 
Just started a new book and got me hooked after a couple of chapters

The Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham

A father and daughter living in the remote Appalachian mountains must reckon with the ghosts of their past in Kimi Cunningham Grant's These Silent Woods, a mesmerizing novel of suspense.
 
A Corruption of Blood by Ambrose Parry*

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Third in a series of historical mysteries set around the medical community of Edinburgh in the 1850’s. Sarah Fisher returns to Queen Street after an unsuccessful trip abroad and immediately finds herself embroiled in a baby trafficking mystery. Her usual investigative partner, Dr. Will Raven, seems pre-occupied with a new love that has sprung up in her absence so she might have to go it alone on this occasion. Meanwhile, Raven’s new love seeks his help for a childhood friend who stands accused of the murder of his father, one of the most prominent philanthropists around. Will their investigations cross paths and can they help each other out when they inevitably do?

The story combines real events and people and blends the fictitious parts in well to create an atmospheric tale that draws the reader in. It showcases a time and place where inequalities of class and sex were rife, where squalor was just around the corner from wealth and women were treated as inferior and were meant to know their place. The mystery elements are more than competently handled also with clues and red herrings inserted appropriately. A good continuation to the series. 4★'s

*Ambrose Parry is a pseudonym used by Chris Brookmyre & Masrisa Haetzman (a partnership in life as well as authorial duties)
 
Finally got around to in starting The Blade itself by Joe Abercrombi a quarter of the way through and am loving it the characters and can’t wait to see where the story goes..


Joe Abercrombie

Author Joe Abercrombie's list of books and series in order, with the latest releases, covers, descriptions and availability.
www.fantasticfiction.com
 
richardtheref said:
Just finished The Scar by China Mieville. 4/5. Took me almost 3 weeks to slog through this but well worth it. The best of his I have read so far.
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Thought the 1st book in the series, Perdido Street Station, was a tad better personally but The Scar certainly wasn't much of a comedown from there. Still have a couple of his works on my tbr shelf that I should get around to at some point.

waspish said:
Finally got around to in starting The Blade itself by Joe Abercrombi a quarter of the way through and am loving it the characters and can’t wait to see where the story goes..


Joe Abercrombie

Author Joe Abercrombie's list of books and series in order, with the latest releases, covers, descriptions and availability.
www.fantasticfiction.com
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Another author I should return to also but still need to add Red Country to my collection. Wasn't totally enamored with his YA trilogy but the other books of his that I've read I enjoyed quite a lot.
 
waspish said:
Finally got around to in starting The Blade itself by Joe Abercrombi a quarter of the way through and am loving it the characters and can’t wait to see where the story goes..


Joe Abercrombie

Author Joe Abercrombie's list of books and series in order, with the latest releases, covers, descriptions and availability.
www.fantasticfiction.com
Click to expand...
My favourite author and my favourite series.

Inquistor Glokta is my favourite character in any book, ever. In fact I don't think anybody writes characters as well as Joe Abercrombie.

If you like this, you are in for a treat. This trilogy, the three standalones that followed; a book of short stories set in the same world and then a new recent trilogy with some old characters and some new. All 10/10 quality.

I agree with @JRockBlues that the YA trilogy isn't as good as his other stuff, but it's not bad.
 
RobMCFC said:
My favourite author and my favourite series.

Inquistor Glokta is my favourite character in any book, ever. In fact I don't think anybody writes characters as well as Joe Abercrombie.

If you like this, you are in for a treat. This trilogy, the three standalones that followed; a book of short stories set in the same world and then a new recent trilogy with some old characters and some new. All 10/10 quality.

I agree with @JRockBlues that the YA trilogy isn't as good as his other stuff, but it's not bad.
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Robin Hobb her first 3 books are brilliant! I rarely reread books but her first three books I’ve read 3 times the only other books I’ve reread is the first three books of game of thrones!
 
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