What I'm Reading This Week (October 23, 2023)

 I read and reviewed three very different books last week and was lucky enough to enjoy each and everyone of them, so it was a good reading week. In the mix were a funny cozy sprinkled throughout with great characters, including a baby elephant (The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra), a novel that I was certain I had prejudged correctly for its first 80 pages until suddenly proven very wrong (Lone Women), and a very literary crime fiction novel (Intercessions). I'd have to search long and hard to find any three consecutive books I've read that are more different from each other than these three.

I replaced each of those with a new book and added an audiobook to the mix because I was in the mood for having someone read me a good story. I've begun reading two of the three I mentioned as possibilities last week:

I'm about 70% of the way through Stephanie Barron's final Jane Austen mystery, number fifteen in the series - and Jane is beginning to fade fast at this point. She doesn't have the money to see a "fancy" London doctor, and she realizes that her days are numbered. Still, she's in Winchester to help prove that her best friend's son is not guilty of murdering one of his schoolmates even though the boy is not trying very hard to defend himself. The novel is very much in the style of a Jane Austen novel, and Barron does a wonderful job of capturing Jane Austen's voice as first person narrator. 

Old God's Time is probably the most "cerebral" crime novel I've ever read. I hadn't realized that this one was longlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize before beginning it, but it's easy to see why it was. I'm eighty pages in, and it's just now getting to the point that a retired Irish policeman is being dragged back into an old cold case investigation. But the set-up is absolutely brilliant, with some very poignant observations on aging that are hitting way too close to home for comfort. I'm mentally working overtime on this one for sure. 

This is book six (to be published on December 5) of the Inishowen Mystery Book series, but I'm assured that it works well as a standalone. So far that's the case through the first twenty-five pages. This one jumped out at me because of its Irish setting and the big literary festival where the initial crime takes place. It features an Irish solicitor and her policeman boyfriend, but it opens with Benedicta (Ben) O'Keefe, the solicitor, having to make an unplanned visit to her elderly parents to find out why they suddenly seem to have taken in a houseful of strangers she's never heard of.

I was surprised that the audiobook version of Peter Heller's The Last Ranger was available for immediate library check-out. It is prominently featured in Bookmarks Magazine's brand new Nov/Dec issue, and it's turning out to be every bit as good as they said it was. The main character is a Yellowstone Park ranger who is thriving in the solitude of his job after unexpectedly losing his wife. But now he's dealing with a poacher who may also be involved in the attack on a female park employee, and he's decided to go rogue and become a vigilante - if you want something done right, to it yourself. That's the ticket.

Up next will most likely come a couple from this group:

Shutter is Native American author Ramona Emerson's 2022 debut novel about Rita Todacheene, a forensic photographer who "sees the ghosts" of crime victims when she's working the scene of a crime. Because she allows these ghosts to direct her efforts, Rita's photos often provide the perfect clues to break a case wide open for investigators. But when one outraged ghost takes control of Rita and leads her on a personal mission of revenge, Rita is forced to tackle the Albuquerque cartel head on. 

It's been a while again since I've delved into a science fiction novel, but Wick Welker's Saint Elspeth caught my eye a few days ago. It involves an alien invasion that unleashed the use of nukes against the invaders from several different governments. Earth 1, Aliens 0. But as you might expect, there are not a whole lot of livable space to be found on Earth now. Then one scientist and her team of investigators discover that the aliens are back, and they are living in what's left of California. Here we go again, Earthlings. What did we learn?

I don't have my copy of this one yet, but I hope it arrives sometime near the end of the week so that I can get on it. It involves a man with a traumatic brain injury that leaves him with almost supernatural puzzle solving skills. Now he's been called in as a police consultant on a case involving a woman who has been imprisoned for five years without speaking a single word. The woman has drawn a perplexingly complex puzzle that cops believe will answer all the questions about her crime, but they need outside help to solve it. Can't wait.

So that's what I'm looking forward to this week, best laid plans and all that nonsense. Have another great reading week, guys. Keep turning those pages and telling me all about it.