Nevada Barr: The Rope **** ½

Amateur sleuth/Investigator/Action/Adventure

Prequel to the 16 book series with Anna Pigeon, a park ranger at various national parks in the USA

Library Journal: /* Starred Review */ The adventures of park ranger Anna Pigeon have filled the pages of 16 books, and now her legion of loyal fans can find out how her story began. After her husband's death in 1995, Anna leaves New York City to take a seasonal position at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. On a hike to explore the dry canyon lands around Lake Powell, Anna literally falls into a mystery. Fighting thirst and drug-induced delirium, she extricates herself from the dry well and begins to unravel the who and why of her tortuous ordeal. Barr's luxuriant depictions of desert landscapes with its colors and hues and details about Lake Powell's tourist population are interwoven into the narrative as an indispensable element of her popular series. Anna emerges from this canyon escapade as a strong, determined woman who plans to return to park service employment as a law enforcement ranger, stating that "more women should carry guns."
VERDICT Another awesome winner for Barr.

MBTB review: Many of Anna's actions in The Rope are puzzling, as she gets herself into some serious near-death situations, but I must remind myself, she is younger and far more inexperienced than we see her in later books. And she is grieving the recent death of her husband. I put this in my "Amateur Sleuth" category, since at this point in her career, Anna has had no investigator training.
An enjoyable, often edge-of-my-seat read.

Prequels seem to be all the rage. Recently I've read the prequel to Lee Child's Reacher series The Affair. Still on my "to be read list": the prequel to Steven Havill's series with Undersheriff Bill Gastner, One Perfect Shot.

They are an excellent way to start a series .... and for those of us who are already fans, prequels fill in some early background and give us a glimpse of the character before they accumulate all the experience.

First book: Track of the Cat

posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
Taken
by Robert Crais

Private investigator/Action/Adventure

Book # 15 with Elvis Cole and Joe Pike, a pair of Hollywood private eyes, in Los Angeles, California

Description: Hired along with Joe Pike to investigate the alleged kidnapping of a young law student, Elvis Cole goes undercover to infiltrate a ring of professional border kidnappers only to be abducted himself.

First book: The Monkey's Raincoat

Here are a few new mysteries that caught my eye.

Ann Cleeves: Silent Voices (2011)

Book # 4 with Vera Stanhope, a detective inspector in East Yorkshire, England

When DI Vera Stanhope finds the body of a woman in the sauna room of her local gym, she wonders, briefly, if for once in her life, it’s a simple death from natural causes. But a closer inspection reveals ligature marks around the victim’s throat-death is never that simple... Pulling her team together, she and colleague, Joe Ashworth, try to find a motive. The victim was well-liked, quiet, lived alone with her daughter and worked in social services. What possible reason could there be to want her dead? Things are never as they seem though and when another body turns up then Vera knows that if she and Joe don’t crack the case soon, someone else could be next in line... (Book description)

First book: A Crow Trap

* * *

Andrew Taylor: Anatomy of Ghosts (2010)

Historical, non-series

A tale set in eighteenth-century Cambridge finds bookseller John Holdsworth commissioned to investigate Lady Anne Oldershaw's son's mental illness, a deep melancholy tied to a woman's mysterious death and a secret society. NoveList
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* * *

Gordon Ferris: The Hanging Shed

Book # 1 with Douglas Brodie, a crime reporter in Glasgow, Scotland, in the 1940s

Hugh Donovan returns from war unrecognizable: mutilated, horribly burned. Hugh keeps his own company, only venturing out for heroin to deaden the pain of his wounds. When a local boy is found raped and murdered, there is only one suspect. Despite the hideousness of the crime, ex-policeman Brodie feels compelled to try and help his one time friend. (Book description)

* * *


Peter James: Perfect People (2011)

Non-series contemporary

John and Naomi are grieving the death of their four-year-old son from a rare genetic disorder. They desperately want another child, but they realize the odds of their next child contracting the same disease are high. Then they hear about geneticist Dr Leo Dettore. He has methods that can spare them the heartache of ever losing another child to any disease. At his clinic is where their nightmare begins. They should have realized something was wrong when they saw the list. Choices of eye colour, hair, sporting abilities. They can literally design their child. Now it's too late to turn back. Naomi is pregnant and already something is badly wrong . . . (Book description)

* * *

Tania Carver: The Surrogate (2011)

Book # 1 with Philip Brennan, a detective inspector in the Major Incident Squad, and Marina Esposito, a psychologist, in Colchester, England

Investigating a series of murders in which the victims have been pregnant women, Detective Inspector Philip Brennan sets aside his personal feelings to enlist the aid of his ex, psychologist Marina Esposito, to catch the killer. NoveList

posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
The House Sitter
by Peter Lovesay

British police procedural

Book # 8 with Peter Diamond, a homicide detective in Bath, England

Description: The corpse of a beautiful woman, clad only in a bathing suit, is found on a popular Sussex beach at the end of hot, sunny day. Apparently, she was murdered in full view of dozens of other holiday makers. Establishing the victim's identity is difficult but when it is finally learned that she was a Bath resident, Inspector Peter Diamond is called in.

First book: The Last Detective

Margaret Cannon, the Crime Fiction reviewer for the Globe & Mail released her list of top reads of 2011 back in December. The brief book descriptions are hers.

* * *

THE BEST 11 FROM 2011

I'll See You in My Dreams by William Deverell

Book # 5 with Arthur Beauchamp, a scholarly, self-doubting lawyer retired as a hobbyist farmer on Garibaldi Island, off the coast of British Columbia

The fifth and finest of the excellent Arthur Beauchamp series is a trip to Canada's not-so-fine past.

First book: Trial of Passion

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* * *

A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny

Book # 7 with Armand Gamache, Chief Inspector of the Sûreté du Québec, in the village of Three Pines, in southern Quebec

This tightly plotted story takes Quebec's Chief Inspector Armand Gamache to new heights. Penny's best ever.

First book: Still Life

## Related post: MBTB review of Still Life # 1
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* * *

A Death In Summer by Benjamin Black

Book # 4 with Quirke, a coroner in 1950s Dublin, Ireland

This Dublin-based novel (by John Banville writing as Black) is a master class on how to construct a mystery and create characters.

First book: Christine Falls
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* * *

Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante

A top surgeon, victim of dementia, may be a murderer. A marvellous debut.

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* * *

An Uncertain Place by Fred Vargas

Book # 6 with Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg, commissioner of police (chief inspector), in Paris, France

Commissaire Adamsberg goes to London and back in this brilliantly constructed mystery. The best Vargas.

First book: The Chalk Circle Man
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* * *

The Troubled Man by Henning Mankell

Book # 10 with Kurt Wallander, an inspector in Ystad, Sweden

The final novel in the great Kurt Wallander series is unforgettable.

First book: either Faceless Killers or the novella Wallander's First Case included in The Pyramid and Four Other Kurt Wallander Mysteries
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* * *

The October Killings by Wessel Ebersohn

Book # 1 with Abigail Bukula, a young black lawyer, and Yudel Gordon, an experienced Jewish prison psychologist, in Johannesburg, South Africa

Psychiatrist Yudel Gordon returns after 20 years. A terrific novel of the new South Africa.

* * *

Dead Zero by Stephen Hunter

Book # 7 with Bob Lee Swagger (“the Nailer”), a master sniper in the USA

Bob Lee Swagger goes to Afghanistan to stop a rogue CIA agent from assassinating a politician. One of the best action authors writing.

First book: Point of Impact
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* * *

The Affair by Lee Child
Action/adventure/investigator

Book # 16 with Jack Reacher, ex-military policeman in the USA

The backstory from Jack Reacher's days in the U.S. Army's military police, and the very best Reacher novel.

First book: Killing Floor

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* * *

Feast Day of Fools by James Lee Burke

Book # 3 with Hack Holland, a hard-drinking lawyer, Korean War POW, progressive Democrat, now a sheriff, in Texas

Western meets mystery as Sheriff Hackberry Holland tries to save lives on the Mexican border.

First book: Lay Down My Sword and Shield
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* * *

Field Grey by Philip Kerr
with Bernie Gunther, a German private eye who hates the Nazis, in Berlin, Germany, 1936-1947, and later in Argentina, Cuba, and elsewhere

Bernie Gunther fills in the gaps in his Berlin life. A superb historical novel, with dark edges.

First book: March Violets

posted by Sharon

Watch for the upcoming post Sharon's Top Mystery Reads of 2011

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
Trackers
by Deon Meyer

Booklist/* Starred Review */ In his seventh novel, the king of South African crime fiction outdoes himself, packing in enough plot to power three separate novels. . . .
Aside from masterfully juggling intricate plot details and ripping off some bloodcurdling action scenes, Meyer lays bare more ruthlessly than ever before the chaos that lurks beneath South Africa’s new identity as a playground for terrorists. And he throws into the bargain a chilling assessment of the average citizen’s hopelessly myopic worldview. Meyer has few equals when it comes to combining biting social critique and riveting action scenes.

Trackers is one of the non-series mysteries by Meyer, but features bodyguard Lemmer from Blood Safari and detective Mat Joubert from Dead Before Dying

The Body in the Transept
By Jeanne M. Dams

For Dorothy Martin, widowed American removed to the England she so loves, the Christmas service is painful enough. It is her first holiday without Frank. And stumbling over the body of Canon Billings does nothing to improve her mood. Of course, she does get to meet Chief Constable Alan Nesbitt, and a good mystery on a chilly English night does have some appeal…The Canon may be dead, but Dorothy Martin is very much alive and well. And sleuthing. (Book Description)

MBTB review: This is the perfect cozy mystery to curl up with as the weather turns cold and the nights are long. You can’t help but fall in love with Ms. Martin, the nosy busybody who desperately wants to move on with her life without her husband, make friends with the residents of Sherebury, and of course, solve the murder of Canon Billings whose body she literally falls over. The cast of characters are colorful and typical of a small town, but they are what make the novel. The mystery itself is light-hearted and fun. I will definitely being reading the second in this series, Trouble in the Town Hall

posted by Shiela

Anthony Horowitz: The House of Silk: a Sherlock Holmes novel ****

Publishers Weekly /* Starred Review */ The hype surrounding what’s being billed as the first pastiche ever officially approved by the Conan Doyle estate is amply justified in this authentic, if melancholy, recreation of the beloved Baker Street characters by the creator of the acclaimed Foyle’s War TV series. A year after Sherlock Holmes’s death (from natural causes), Watson takes up his pen one last time to recount a case they shared in 1890 that was “too monstrous, too shocking” to appear in print. The opening is prosaic enough. London art dealer Edmund Carstairs asks for the detective’s help. A shadowy figure in a flat cap, apparently an Irish-American thug bent on revenge, has surfaced near Carstairs’s Wimbledon home. When a murder follows, Holmes getting involved. The trail leads him and the good Doctor Watson to a powerful secret society known as the House of Silk.
Horowitz gets everything right — the familiar narrative voice, brilliant deductions, a very active role for Watson, and a perplexing and disturbing series of puzzles to unravel — and the legion of fans of the originals will surely be begging for Horowitz to again dip into Watson’s trove of untold tales.

MBTB mini-review: Complex, but true to the original Holmesian style. A great read on a winter afternoon.

Want more Sherlock Holmes?
MBTB Discussion Group Meeting: Sherlock and Friends (includes book descriptions and star ratings)

or check out our Sherlock and Friends book list, created in 2008.

posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
Three Day Town
by Margaret Maron

Book # 17 with Deborah Knott, district judge in North Carolina

Judge Deborah Knott and Sheriff's Deputy Dwight Bryant are in New York for a delayed honeymoon. January might not be the perfect time to visit, but they'll take it. The trip is a present from Dwight's sister-in-law, who arranged for them to stay in an Upper West Side apartment for one week. While in New York, Deborah has been asked to deliver a package to Lt. Sigrid Harald of the NYPD. Sigrid offers to swing by the apartment to pick up the box, but when they reach the apartment, they discover that the box is missing and the doorman has been murdered.

First book: Bootlegger's Daughter

J. Mark Bertrand: Back on Murder (2010) ****

American police procedural.

Book # 1 with Roland March, a Houston homicide detective, who went into a tailspin after his young daughter was killed in a car accident.

Summary: Roland March is a homicide cop on his way out. But when he's the only one at a crime scene to find evidence of a missing female victim, he's given one last chance to prove himself. Before he can crack the case, he's transferred to a new one that has grabbed the spotlight - the disappearance of a famous Houston evangelist's teen daughter. With the help of a youth pastor with a guilty conscience who navigates the world of church and faith, March is determined to find the missing girl while proving he's still one of Houston's best detectives.

MBTB mini-review: I recommend this new series to fans of Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series. Roland March is the loner detective pursuing a case that no-one else believes is even a case.

* * *

J. Mark Bertrand: Pattern of Wounds ****

Book # 2 with Detective Roland March

Summary: For Detective Roland March, his latest case has become personal. March doesn't know the young female who was stabbed to death, but he thinks he recognizes the crime scene. Nearly ten years ago, March gained national fame as the subject of a true-crime book. But now this crime scene bears eerie similarities to that one. And whispers begin to emerge that March may have put the wrong man behind bars. Worse, Houston may now have a serial killer on the loose. As more cases emerge that seem connected, and threats against March and those closest to him build, he must solve the case--rescuing not only the city but his own reputation as a homicide cop.

MBTB mini-review: I love the first person point of view. March leads us through every step of his thinking, through the police politics, his troubled marriage and trying to find the connections with the 10 year old case. Nicely readable.

Watch for # 3 Nothing to Hide coming in July 2012

Check out author J. Mark Bertrand's website

posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
The Gilded Shroud
by Elizabeth Bailey

Historical/Amateur sleuth

Book # 1 with Ottilia Draycott, a young companion to Dowager Lady Polbrook, in Regency England

Description: First in a new series that has the perfect mix of Regency murder and mystery. When the marchioness is found murdered at Polbrook mansion, the Dowager Lady Polbrook's new companion, Ottilia Draycott, finds herself in a house of strangers and every one of them a suspect. Only she can unmask and outwit a desperate killer and keep a Polbrook family secret buried.