As I always do when I sit down to write my newsletter piece, I glanced over at Goodreads to discover I have apparently read all of two books so far this year. On the one hand, I feel like I’ve read more, but on the other hand, I honestly can’t remember what they were. Needless to say, the last few weeks have been a challenge and not particularly inspiring with regards to reading somehow. That said, there’s still lots to talk about from the end of 2019, so let’s dig in.
Sometimes there are books you are excited to read and devour instantly and sometimes you’re excited but somehow you bring them home and they sit for a bit. Such was the case with Anna Lee Huber’s An Artless Demise, book #7 in her ‘Lady Darby Mystery’ series. It was excellent as ever and an engaging read with some fairly high stakes for Kiera and Sebastian. Book #8, A Stroke of Malice, comes in trade paperback in April.
Vivian Shaw’s Grave Importance was one of my most anticipated reads in 2019 and the only disappointing thing about it was the discovery that it is the end of the ‘Dr. Greta Helsing’ series. This book focuses on a clinic that rehabilitates Egyptian mummies and brings into the narrative all the side characters you’ve come to love in this series. I’m sad to see it end but it’s sometimes nice to see a series end on it’s own terms before it drags out for too long. I’m anxiously awaiting news that she is working on something else.
There seem to be a lot of rules about what a person can pick as their book of the year and apparently picking the newest Sherry Thomas every year is against all of them. Which is all to say that I completely devoured The Art of Theft, book #4 in the ‘Lady Sherlock’ series because it was beautiful and wonderful and heartbreaking. A motley crew of Charlotte’s associates find themselves in France trying to steal a painting from a chateau and neither the journey, nor the conclusion, are what anyone expects. Murder on Cold Street, book #5, will be released in trade paperback next September and I already cannot wait.
I sat on Benedict Jacka’s Marked, book #9 in the ‘Alex Verus’ series for over a year. I enjoyed it, as I always do, but in the way of Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden books or Simon R. Green’s Nightside, the stakes just keep getting higher and higher without much sense of relief (or some of the levity which the series started with). I have Fallen on my To Read pile and book #11, Forged, looks to be coming late in 2020.
The Venn diagram of the reading tastes of my father, my sister Hannah, and I is oddly laid out, but I am usually willing to give something a chance if they both loved it. Given my father’s recent death it seems somehow fitting that the two books I’ve read this year were one’s that they both loved. Really, Daniel O’Malley’s The Rook was right up my alley right from the blurb on the back, but if you like espionage and smart modern fantasy, you cannot go wrong with this book. It is genuinely unputdownable and you will never want it to end. I didn’t love Stiletto quite as much, as the narrator was different, but it was still excellent. Rumours abound about a third book, but I’m not holding my breath.
My To Read pile continues to be less of a pile and more stacks of books scattered around the house. There are new additions, like Tasha Alexander’s In the Shadow of Vesuvius, Anna Lee Huber’s Penny for Your Secrets, and Will Thomas’ Lethal Pursuit as well as much older titles like Kelley Armstrong’s Deceptions. And I’m about to add a bunch more as I am eagerly awaiting Charles Finch’s The Last Passenger (Charles Lenox #13, but another prequel), Ben Aaronovitch’s False Value (Rivers of London #8), and Deanna Raybourn’s A Murderous Relation (Veronica Speedwell #5).