What are you reading

[Homers Double]

New Jack Reacher novel, Exit Strategy.

 

[Drago]

New Jack Reacher novel, Exit Strategy.

Just finished that one. One of the better Andrew Child collaborations.

 

[Pross]

Just finished that one. One of the better Andrew Child collaborations.

Yeah, felt a bit more old school Reacher.

 

[Dan Lotus]

Read them all back to back and learned a lot from the history of the time in the process. I was waiting for the next one and only discovered CJ Sansom died when we were discussing it on Cake Stop last year. I was a bit disappointed with the TV adaptation but my wife, who hasn't read the books. enjoyed it. I find it is generally the case that TV adaptations don't meet my expectations. It's the same with the Peter James Roy Grace books (I've just finished the latest one 'The Hawk Is Dead' which is based around Buckingham Palace and a bit more far fetched than usual I felt but Camilla is apparently a fan and suggested he write something based in London). The recent Thursday Murder Club adaptation was quite good other than the strange choice to change how things ended for Bogdan that is going to make future adaptations a bit odd.

Ah yes I do indeed recall that thread we had, and he had passed that very day or the day before so I recall :-(

The TV version I thought was a decent effort - Shardlake himself I thought was pretty good casting, I didn't quite buy Barak for some reason, but by the end he had grown on me a bit.
I suspect they needed longer, I think it was just four 50 minute episodes, so they had to cram a lot in, and probably cut a fair amount out.

I'm struggling to find stuff at the moment as I'm either up-to-date with my favourite authors or they have stopped writing. The series I've read my way through are:

Andy McNab's Nick Stone (and Tom Buckingham) books with no more apparently being made (and the last few not being great)
All the Reacher novels (that have gone downhill rapidly since Lee Child's brother started doing the writing)
Peter James's Roy Grace books (currently just started reading one of his others)
All the Michael Connelly stuff
All the Strike novels
All Richard Osman's stuff (Thursday Murder Club and the other one he did lately)
Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe and Starbuck books (I've tried some of the other stuff but couldn't get on with it).

I'm struggling to find replacements and I'm generally re-reading things so any suggestions are welcome. There's so much out there on Kindle or iBooks but with it being so easy these days to get stuff published I find myself wading through a load of terrible books with excellent ratings trying to find something new I get get into. Any suggestions based on the above welcome (I'm not a fan of sci-fi or fantasy stuff).

I'll give you a rough list of who I tend to read, but might not be your exact cup of tea, or coffee.

I too have read all the Reacher books, and agree they are not as good as they once were, but I still find them entertaining enough to read - I guess I am pretty invested in the character by now, incredible it is virtually 30 years old.

I have a few favourite authors (Most are detective based) that I try and rotate through, many are based in other countries as I find them somehow more fascinating that one centred around Stockport for example - no offence to Stockport or it's inhabitants.

Elly Griffiths - Ruth Galloway mysteries (Ruth works at a fictional university and helps the police with cases as she is a bone expert - this is based in Norfolk and Norwich which drew me to it, but it's actually pretty ok - my only complaint is that the books are too short for my liking)

Antonio Manzini - The author behind Rocco Schiavone, and this is set in Aosta right by where my brother lives (If you haven't seen the series I can't recommend it enough)

Philip Gwynne Jones - a series of books about a young consulate chap living and working in Venice (The author made the same move so a lot of it is personal experience I would imagine), pretty entertaining, many re-occurring characters.

Colin Dexter - The Inspector Morse series

Andrea Camilleri - The Inspector Montalbano series set in Sicily.

Michele Giuttari - Detective series set in Tuscany mainly

Donna Leon - Commissario Brunetti series - set in Venice - love her writing style, I feel like I know Venice despite never having been.
Quite a gentle series overall, and focuses a lot on his connections with his family and colleagues, a nice comfy and easy read.
I've read 29 so far, there are currently 34 books in total, but I suspect she will be stopping soon (She's 83 and lived in Venice for many years IIRC), which will leave quite a big hole for me, as she does churn them out.

David Hewson - The Nic Costa series. Police fiction set in Rome I think.
David Hewson - Pieter Vos detective series, set in the Netherlands iirc.
David Hewson also (And this is unusual I believe) was commissioned to write 'The Killing' books after the tv series had been made - all of them.
IIRC they are BIG books, ~600 pages, but they were all brilliant to my mind.

Martin Walker - Bruno Courreges, chief of police, south of France series
This started out pretty weakly I must be honest, but the storylines have improved as it has gone on, it's still not my favourite, but entirely readable.

Dick Francis / Felix Francis - Horse racing malarkey, and just finished one in fact. Started reading these probably when I was 10.
Generally a safe bet, some are better than others.

 

[Homers Double]

I felt the first time Andrew Childs cowrote with Lee he tried to imitate the latters writing style and it stood out quite badly

 

[Tashman]

Having watched ’Sharpes Company’ last night, & he was one of the actors in it
I was reminded of Terry Pratchett stating that he always envisaged a younger Pete Postlethwaite as Sam Vines

Now l’ve seen the above TV ‘film’ for the first time in years, l can imagine Sean Bean in that role

I'm just finishing the latest and have copies of them all. The previous one seemed a little ragged in comparison to the series but this one is back on track. I've loved Cornwell's books since I first saw Sharpe on TV many moons ago and sought out the source material. Bean is a reasonable Sharpe and supresses his Yorkshireness well. Spoiler - One of the few roles he actually survives too! Can only ever see Harper, Hagman and Harris as the TV characters now though.

 

[Accy cyclist]

I found, then paid a pound for this yesterday from a charity book shelf in a local supermarket.

I haven't started on it yet as my 'new year's resolution' will be to read books again. Starting with this one, after the festivities are over!😉

 

[wiggydiggy]

The Girl With All The Gifts - 10/10

I watched the film a while back, and didn't realise it was based on a book. As it happened the author wrote the book and the screenplay so there are only minor differences in the two for a change.

Set in the aftermath of a devasting plague, a team of scientists try to find a cure using children that appear to be asymptomatic - they are carriers, and display some behavioral changes - but are otherwise functionally normal (at least compared to the mindless 'hungries' that are eating everyone).

It's one of those books that I started, and didn't stop until I finished. One thing the book does over the film is it's able to give a first person's view of the characters, their thoughts and feelings. Theres only 5 main characters giving their view so it's pretty easy to keep track of their views.

 

[Accy cyclist]

I bought this one this evening from that charity book shelf in my local Tesco.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Bought this in the Wakefield branch of Waterstones, this morning

We’re off up to Cumbria, for a long-weekend, l’ll be taking it with me

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I’m just re-reading/enjoying this again at work
Yesterday, one of the HCAs saw it, & told me she lives on the street he was born on/lived for for his first 10 years or so!!!

 

[stephec]

I'm a big fan of James Holland's history books, and this one doesn't disappoint.

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

Just finished Professor Alice’s latest, mostly about the murky world of the first four centuries CE around the Med. Not something I knew much about. Completely fascinating.