Weekend Read July 28-29

This weekend I'm digging into Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner. The novel is a man-stabbed-and-murdered who-done-it mystery featuring Detective Manon Bradshaw. Put the tea on; this police procedural is set in the town of Huntingdon in England.

Weekend Read

Weekend

Early morning in the wine country. Beaune, France

After looking over the finalists for the 2018 Minnesota Book Awards, I plan to dip into Alice in France: The World War I Letters of Alice M. O’Brien by Nancy O’Brien Wagner. My dad's stepfather, Carl Waack, served in France during World War I. It must have been quite a shock for him to go from rural Wisconsin to fighting in the fields of France. He was nothing like Alice O'Brien, who was the daughter of a wealthy family. I never asked Carl about his military service -  my childhood memory of him is of someone who was very old and who didn't feel well - so it will be interesting to read about Ms. O'Brien.



   

What's Your Weekend Read?

Celine, by Peter Heller, has been in my to-be-read pile for a while now. Heller is the author of one of my all time favorite books, The Dog Stars (review here). Because I found The Dog Stars to be so amazing, I've set aside Celine to let the anticipation grow. But now the time to read it has come at last - hooray!

Also, did I mention how much I enjoyed The Dog Stars? Check it out if you need a weekend read.

What's Your Weekend Read?

Provence on a cloudy afternoon, 2013.

For the weekend I plan to dig into Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward, a book which won the 2017 National Book Award and which was highly praised this week at lunch with my book-reading friends. I'm looking forward to starting it.

Last night I stayed up late to finish reading Sulfer Springs, in which author William Kent Krueger shares his views on US / Mexico border issues by sending his protagonist, Cork O'Connor, to southern Arizona. Cork, a former sheriff in Minnesota, and his new wife, Rainy, are down on the border searching for Rainy's son, Peter. Peter, a recovered addict, left Rainy a garbled voice mail in which it sounds like he confesses to a murder; their subsequent efforts to talk to Peter on the phone fail. So it's off to Tucson and further south, with the standard border characters making an appearance (border patrol, drug runners, land grabbers, winemakers (yes, winemakers in Arizona), etc.). It was an entertaining read.

And speaking of wine, this weekend I also plan to find my copy of A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle. Mayle died earlier this month in France at the age of 78. I vividly remember the first time I read A Year in Provence. It was many years ago on a very hot Saturday afternoon in late August. I was midway through the book when Mayle's writing about the people of France, and the food and drink of the country, finally compelled me to head out to the grocery store for bread, cheese, olives, and a good bottle of white wine, all to enjoy while being entertained by his adventure in Provence. Now that was motivational writing. I enjoyed his other work through the years as well. Farewell Mr. Mayle. And thank you. 

Memorial in the New York Times, January 25, 2018

Recommended Reading: The Secret Place by Tana French

Looking for a good book for the weekend? Check out The Secret Place, another tale of the Dublin Murder Squad from Tana French.

In this outing, a new clue to an old murder falls into the hands of Dublin Detective Stephen Moran. The murder in question occurred on the grounds of St. Kilda's, an elite boarding school for girls; the victim was a 16-year old boy from a neighboring elite school for boys. Moran, who feels his career is stuck in the Cold Case squad, sees the clue as an opportunity to showcase his skills and possibly join the Murder Squad. The lead Murder Squad detective on the case, Antoinette Conway, sees the clue as an opportunity to solve the high profile case that is haunting her career. The pair have one day at St. Kilda's to effectively use the new information and crack the case open. Are the two detectives as wily as the teenagers they have to question?

The Secret Place is an entertaining read and my favorite Tana French book to date.  

Highly Recommended: Saints of the Shadow Bible by Ian Rankin

Inspector John Rebus is out of retirement and back on the Edinburgh police force in Saints of the Shadow Bible.  Returning to the job isn't easy.  On the one hand, the force has changed and finding a place for Rebus in the new order is difficult.  For example, he is now operating at a lower rank than when he retired, and people he used to supervise are now his superiors.

On the other hand, things one might have considered to be ancient history are getting dug up.  The police department's internal affairs investigators have begun looking into whether or not officers Rebus served with when he started on the job cut to many corners, or even committed murder.  Was Rebus involved? What does he know about possible police corruption?

What hasn't changed is that Rebus knows how to solve a case.  In between the internal affairs investigation and office politics, Rebus unravels an intriguing mystery that starts with a simple car crash and leads to bigger crimes with wider implications . . . and death.

This is a highly entertaining and absorbing police procedural.  It also weaves in interesting plot points concerning the upcoming vote in Scotland on whether or not Scotland should become independent and leave the United Kingdom.

Check out Saints of the Shadow Bible if you are looking for a great weekend read.

What are you reading this weekend?

This weekend I'm going to read Ian Rankin's Saints of the Shadow Bible. Rankin's past books featuring Edinburgh homicide detective John Rebus have been good, and Marilyn Stasio called Saints of the Shadow Bible a "terrific new procedural" in her New York Times column.  

So, that's what I'm into this weekend. You?

 

What are you reading this weekend?

I've finished reading Mohsin Hamid's excellent novel How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia.  If you are looking for a weekend read, check it out.  The story is cast as a self-help book and follows the life, loves, and ambitions of an unnamed man, living in an unnamed country, as he makes his way in a new world order. A lively, engaging, and memorable story.  I now intend to go back and read the author's debut novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

 

With that wrapped up, this weekend I'm turning to The Good Cop, which is the fourth installment in one of my favorite mystery series. The series is created by Brad Parks and features a protagonist named Carter Ross, an investigative reporter at the Newark Eagle-Examiner.  I love the tone of these books: mystery with a dash of levity.

That's what's on my reading agenda.  And you?