Spider Woman's Daughter - Anne Hillerman

Some five years after the 2008 death of her father, author Tony Hillerman, Anne Hillerman continued her father’s Leaphorn and Chee series with Spider Woman’s Daughter. The novel was well received and even won the prestigious 2014 Spur Award for Best First Novel from the Western Writers of America in addition to earning its spot on the New York Times Best Seller list. What I find most striking about the novel, however, is the decision that Hillerman made practically to kill off Joe Leaphorn in the very first chapter of the very first book she added to the long-running series. After being shot in the head, Joe Leaphorn spends more than half of Spider Woman’s Daughter in a coma, and even by the end of the novel he can still barely communicate with others for more than a few seconds at a time. Leaphorn, although he is a secondary character in the story, is still very much a presence but he seems well on his way to becoming a Navajo legend — someone more often than not spoken of in the past tense. (And, from what I understand, Leaphorn continues to be very much a secondary character in the novels that follow Spider Woman’s Daughter.)

For whatever reason Hillerman decided to take this approach to her father’s beloved Joe Leaphorn character, this is very much a novel belonging to two other Navajo cops: Sergeant Joe Chee and his wife Bernadette (Bernie) Manuelito. Primarily tasked with solving the attempted assassination of Leaphorn, even though Bernie is “officially” off the case because she witnesses the attempt on Leaphorn’s life, the couple makes an interesting team as they follow leads all over New Mexico. 

Joe Leaphorn is not a man without enemies. Over the course of his long career as a Navajo Nation Police Officer, Leaphorn has intimately touched the lives of numerous families living on Navajo land — not always in a positive manner — and the list of potential shooters who might want to avenge some perceived family slight by killing Leaphorn is not a short one. Even though Cree and Manuelito themselves grew up on the reservation and understand the sacredness of family ties and confidences there, they find it difficult to get anyone to talk to them about the attempt on Leaphorn’s life. But, they keep pulling on threads and, soon enough, it is not only people on the reservation who are getting nervous. 

Anne Hillerman has written a good story here, one that mystery fans, especially readers already familiar with the book’s main characters, are certain to enjoy. My only quibble with Spider Woman’s Daughter - and it is a pet peeve of mine — is that the author falls into that old cliché near the end of the novel of having the villain of the piece confess gleefully, and in great detail, to everything that’s only been hinted at before. This kind of confession always seems to happen when the bad guy is on the verge of killing the only cop that knows the whole truth, and that’s what happens here…paragraph after paragraph of confession even though every reader knows the villain is in for a big surprise. Call it the “James Bond Surprise,” if you will.

Bottom Line: Spider Woman’s Daughter is very good, and it has rekindled my desire to read the whole Joe Leaphorn series that her father began in 1970, Anne’s additions included. I especially enjoyed the insights into contemporary Navajo Nation life and traditions that Hillerman so seamlessly includes with the core of the story, and I look forward to reading more of her work.

Anne Hillerman

Random Notes Triggered by The Worst Marketing Email Ever (Penzeys Spices)

This is going to be one of those posts where I bore you with a few random thoughts. It's just turned out to be that kind of day, as I wait to leave for my regular appointment with the retina specialist who monitors my macular degeneration "progress." 

But what really put me in a bad mood this morning - other than the already scheduled doctor-visit - is the email from Penzeys Spices I found in my inbox. We have been buying Penzeys spices for years, depending on our local Houston store for shopping until we recently took to buying the spices over the internet because of all the COVID-19 restrictions. Not once in all those years did I wonder about the political views of the people who run/own the company; I simply did not care in the least.

Then today, there's an email in my inbox marketing some special deals on a few interesting spices. It was only when I opened the email and read the body of it that I discovered a rant berating the "stupidity" of Republicans and EVERYTHING about them and their "misguided" conservatism. There was bullying, name-calling, and derision all wrapped up in one condescending, self-righteous rant that was semi-disguised as a "humorous" sales pitch. I cannot understand why a company that depends on a loyal customer base for its very survival (especially right now) would ever take such an approach? And now, Bill Penzeys is going to have to find someone to replace the sales he will no longer make to me...after all these years. Good luck to him, because "marketing genius," is a title he will never be able to claim after this fiasco.

I try really hard to ignore political differences and just get on with my life. But people and companies, like Bill Penzeys and the little spice company he runs, that work so hard to divide us for their own personal profit do not deserve a place in my life. And Mr. Bill no longer has one. "Oh, no!" Mr. Bill.

On a happier note, I'm doing a lot of reading right now even though I'm not finishing many books. A quick check this morning tells me that I'm well over halfway through several books, but I still keep dipping into the rather high stack of physical books on my desk to start new ones. That happens to me at least once a year, so I'm not surprised, but I think it's time to re-focus on two or three of them before starting another new one (something that is easier said than done when I'm in this mood). 

Among the books I'm particularly enjoying right now is Anne Hillerman's Spider Woman's Daughter, which is I believe the book in which she took over her father's long-running Joe Leaphorn series. Anne cleverly has Leaphorn shot in the head and hospitalized at the very beginning of the novel so that she can focus more on Cree and Bernie Manuelito (husband and wife Navajo cops) as they try to catch Leaphorn's would-be assassin. Hillerman revisits the Leaphorn "legend" in conversation as others work the case on his behalf.

Robert E. Lee and Me by Ty Seidule, a man who grew up in the shadow that Lee still casts in the old South, makes a compelling case that the South lost America's Civil War, but that it won the subsequent peace.  Siedle believes it is time to set the record straight about what he calls "the myth of the Lost Cause" and why the war was all about slavery and nothing else. I didn't grow up in the old South like Seidule, but I did grow up in a Confederate state, so I understand how difficult writing a book like this one must have been for its author. 

The Likeness is Tana French's second Murder Squad book and the third of her books that I'm now familiar with. This one has a highly unlikely premise that I'm willing to play along with, but it takes French just over 100 pages of set-up finally to start the plot moving in the direction promised on the book jacket. I can imagine that many readers give up well before French finally remembers that she is writing a crime novel and not a character study of the book's three main good-guy characters. Whew...

In addition to these three, I'm still reading short stories from the Wastelands compilation (9 of the 34 stories still to go), and dipping in and out of others like:

Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel by Carl Safina. I can't even remember how or where I heard about this one, but it is one I just couldn't resist, especially after seeing this  cover. The jacket explains the book's goal this way: "The similarity between human and nonhuman consciousness, self-awareness, and empathy calls us to reevaluate how we interact with animals...ultimately a graceful examination of humanity's place in the world." I can't wait to get deeper into this one.

I've also started listening to the audiobook version of Bill O'Reilly's Killing Crazy Horse while dipping back in to Leslie-Ann Jones's John Lennon biography, The Search for John Lennon, and wondering how in the world I can work in Val McDermid's The Skeleton Road and S.A. Cosby's Razorblade Tears before they are due back in the library on August 20. And, of course, I've read the prologues or first chapters of several of the books on Native Americans that I gathered up on the trip and from the library when I got home last week. Those keep calling me to pick them up.

This is not necessarily one of those cases of "too much of a good thing," but it is getting dangerously close to being one. Now I just need to READ...

Winter Counts - David Heska Wanbli Weiden

David Heska Wanbli Weiden’s Winter Counts is largely set on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota where Virgil Wounded Horse offers a measure of justice and revenge to crime victims who are ignored by both their own tribal council and local law enforcement officers. In simple terms, Virgil is the local enforcer — and he is good at his job. 

It is, of course, impossible not to compare a novel like Winter Counts to those of writers like Craig Johnson, Tony Hillerman, Anne Hillerman, C.J. Box,  and others who cover much of the same territory. The good news is that David Heska Wanbli Weiden’s debut novel proves that he can hold his on with the best of them. Several members of the club have, in fact, endorsed Winter Counts because of its authenticity, cultural insight, and riveting storytelling. Of all of them, I think that C.J. Box put it best:

“I’ve been waiting most of my life for this book without realizing it. Winter Counts is a knowing, authentic, closely observed novel about modern-day Lakotas that rings absolutely true, warts and all. The sense of place is breathtaking and raw. It’s a hell of a debut.”

Now, I don’t know about you, but I usually don’t give much credence to author blurbs, figuring that they are more often than not just another case of two writers scratching each other’s back. But now that I’ve read Winter Counts for myself, I could not agree more with the blurbs splashed all over the novel’s back cover. 

Virgil Wounded Horse, who as a kid was badly bullied by some of the same people he sees every day on the reservation, knows what it’s like to feel helpless and afraid. That is probably one of the reasons he is always ready (and why he enjoys doing it) to give an unforgettable beating as final warning to those who would otherwise not suffer a thing for their crimes on the reservation. But then Virgil’s nephew Nathan overdoses on the suddenly available heroin he was given for free at the reservation school and nearly dies. Game changer…now it’s all very personal and it’s going to take more than an “unforgettable” beating to satisfy the intense anger that Virgil Wounded Horse is filled with.

With the help of Marie Short Bear, his ex-girlfriend, Virgil tracks the dealer to Denver, but that’s where things get complicated enough to limit his options. Virgil learns that the man he is looking for is only the link into the reservation for some other very powerful people looking for a new market for their product — and that much more powerful men than him are already looking for a way to put the heroin dealers out of business. Unfortunately, Nathan is about to become a pawn in a scheme that could easily get them all killed.

Bottom Line: Winter Counts (winter counts were the Lakota calendar system) is a genuine thriller, one of those coming-of-age stories in which the kid nearing adulthood will be lucky to survive the process. Weiden is one heck of a storyteller, and it’s hard not to tear right through this one. But the novel is so much more than that. Weiden is himself an enrolled citizen of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, and he has filled Winter Counts with cultural insights and history that combine to make it all seem terribly real. His explanation of how and why both the American and Tribal legal systems all too often fail Native Americans is a heartbreaking one. Fiction, though, often spreads the truth more readily than nonfiction accounts of the same situation. Perhaps that is the best thing about books like Winter Counts and Craig Johnson’s more recent Daughter of the Morning Star. Read novels like these and tell your friends about them. Maybe someone will finally listen.

David Heska Wanbli Weiden

(My thanks go to Cathy at Kittling Books for tipping me off to this one back in April with her review of Winter Counts.)

On Reading Plans and How They Can Change in an Instant

I feel myself all of a sudden going off on a new reading tangent. The trip out West we just completed saw me coming home with five new books that I picked up in a couple of the bookstores I visited in Wyoming and South Dakota. Not too surprisingly, the books that caught my eye all have a western twist to them, and I even spent the afternoon in the library today picking out a few other similar books. 

Only two of the books I bought are novels, but they fit well with the nonfiction titles I picked up on the trip and at the library:

I've read a couple of the Leaphorn and Chee novels, but I've not read one written by Anne Hillerman since she took over the series. I'm hoping that this series, especially if I go back and pretty much start over at the beginning, will take up some of the slack I feel while I'm waiting for the next Longmire novel from Craig Johnson to be published. The settings are similar enough to make that happen, and I'm hoping that Anne's writing comes close to measuring up to Tony Hillerman's.

I'm only vaguely familiar with C.J. Box's work, but I've recognized the name for a long time, which only makes it even stranger that I've never read one of the man's novels. There are over twenty Game Warden Joe Pickett novels now, and this one from 2015 is pretty far down the list. Depending on my reaction to Endangered, this may well end up being a series I will spend more time reading from in the future. Its Wyoming setting is certainly a big plus for me.

Now for the nonfiction I bought:

I've been fascinated by Buffalo Bill Cody for years, especially with his showmanship and the way he managed to bring such a complicated wild west show all over the country - and the world - the way he did. I've often wondered what his personal relationship with the Native Americans in the show was like...and what they felt about being killed off in every show they appeared in. Our day in the Buffalo Bill Center in Cody, Wy, only reinforced my curiosity. I hope that Deanne Stillman's Blood Brothers has some of the answers I want.

I'm a big fan of Tom Clavin's nonfiction, so when I saw his name on the cover of this Chief Red Cloud biography, I jumped on it. Red Cloud is officially the "only American Indian in history to defeat the United States Army in a war." The government actually ended up suing for peace almost entirely on Red Cloud's terms, and for a few years he and his people were allowed to live in peace with very little interference from the army and the settlers wanting fresh starts in the West. 

Those old-time outlaws like the James Gang, the Daltons, Billy the Kid, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, etc. have intrigued me since I was a kid growing up on black & white westerns on television and in the movies. Butch Cassidy spent a lot of time hiding out in a couple of the states we just visited (if all the road signs are to be believed, anyway), and this biography promises to be "The True Story of an American Outlaw" that I want to know more about. It should be fun.

In addition, this afternoon I came home from the library with these:

• Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West by Hampton Sides that is billed as "A Magnificent History of How the West Was Really Won - A Sweeping Tale of Shame and Glory."
• A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn: The Last Great Battle of the American West by James Donovan - self-explanatory
• The Comanche by T. Jensen Lacey - this is one book in a 14-book YA series in which each book concentrates on one of fourteen "major Native American tribes."
• The Real West (companion book to the Legends and Lies television series) by David Fisher - this one separates myth from fact in the lives of many of the key figures of the day
• Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause by Ty Seidule - After initially avoiding this title when it was first published (and even before that), I think I'm finally ready to read this one.

This is not my reading plan for August, but I hope to get at least two or three of these read along with the other books I've already chosen for the month. I love being sidetracked a couple of times a year, and this looks like one of those times.

Notes from "The Secret of Great Mystery and Suspense Fiction" (The Great Courses) - Part 1

I finished The Great Courses class called "The Secret of Great Mystery and Suspense Fiction" the other day, thirty-six lectures that totaled close to nineteen hours in all. At first I skipped around a bit, but after I started watching the lectures in the order in which they are numbered, their interconnectedness made it easier to understand the evolution of mystery and suspense novels as it was being presented by the lecturer. I highly recommend the course to anyone who has access to it; it is well worth the time required.

Whenever a name, a book, or a concept was new to me I made a few brief notes that I want to share here, partially for my own record-keeping, but mostly in hopes that some of you might discover a new author by scrolling through the names and comments shown below:

Mystery milestones:

• Father of Detective Fiction: Edgar Allan Poe
• Mother of Detective Fiction: Anna Katherine Greene
• Author of First Detective Series: Ebenezer Gryce
• First Fictional American Detective: Amelia Butterworth novels begun in 1878 by Anna Katherine Greene

Relating to Other Early Fictional Female Detectives:

• Harriet Vane - created in 1930 by Dorothy L. Sayers
• 1972 novel Private Eye by P.D. James
• Kate Delafield - first lesbian detective - created by Katherine V. Forest in 1984 when she began the Kate Delafield series

Important Contributors to Native American Mysteries:

• Linda Hogan: Mean Spirit - 1990
• Sherman Alexi: Indian Killer - 1996
• Mardi Oakley Medawar: Murder on the Rez
• Tony Hillerman

Some Groundbreaking European Mystery Writers:

• Ferdinand von Schirach: German author of The Collini Case
• Bornhard Schlink: German author of the "Self Trilogy")
• Jakob Arjouni: German author of Kismet and Brother Kamal
• Carlo Emilio Gadda: Italian author of That Awful Mess on Via Merculana, the "anti-detective novel" written in 1957
• Leonardo Sciascia: Italian author of the Sicilian novels The Day of the Owl (1961) and Equal Danger (1970)
• Andrea Camilleri: Italian author of The Shape of Water and the Inspector Montallbano series
• Manuel Vasquez Montalbon: Spanish author of An Olympic Death and the Detective Pepé Carvalho books

Notable African-American Mystery Writers:

• Chester Himes: 1950s writer of "absurd" mysteries set in Harlam
• Barbara Neely: author of the Blanche White novels
• Walter Mosley: prolific author best known for his Easy Rawlins novels
• Valerie Wilson Wesley: writer of the hardboiled "Hayle novels" such as When Death Comes Stealing
• Attica Locke: author of the "Jay Porter novels" set in Houston

Notable American Latino Mystery Writers:

• Rolando Hinojosa: author of novels such as The Valley (1973), Fair Gentlemen of Belkin County, Korean Love Songs, Partners in Crime (1985), and Ask a Policeman in addition to the Rafé Buenrostro detective novel series
• Rudolfo Anaya: author of the Sonny Bacco four-book series
• Lucha Corpi: Eulogy for a Brown Angel (a Detective Gloria Demasco book), Cactus Blood, Crimson Moon, and Death at Solstice
• Hector Tobar: The Tattooed Soldier

These notes cover about half of what I jotted down while watching the lectures. I plan to prepare a second post that will cover "Nordic Noir and Mystery," "Latin American Mysteries," "Japanese Mysteries," "African Mysteries," and "Women Mystery Writers." In the meantime, I hope you find something here that leads your mystery reading in an unexpected direction or two.

Course Lecturer David Schmid

Michael Crichton Dead at 66

Michael Crichton died today from cancer-related causes, something that will surprise most fans of his books and movies. This, as far as I can tell, was a very well kept secret.

Crichton, a man who literally stood out in a crowd because of his unusual height of six feet, seven inches, will be remembered most prominently, of course, for the great success of Jurassic Park, both in book form and as a huge movie. But there was a lot more to this man. He earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School and spent some time teaching at both Cambridge University and MIT. He was a brilliant man who helped develop a type of "disaster novel" that is still very popular in print and on film.

He will certainly be missed.

My first thought upon hearing of Crichton's passing was how strange it is that it has happened again: a series of three, seemingly related, deaths within a very short period of time. First it was Tony Hillerman, than Studs Terkel, and now Michael Crichton. This is one of those old wives' tales that seems to prove itself true two or three times a year.

Favorite Mystery Writers of Library Thing Users - So Far

The Library Thing website continues to amaze and amuse me to the point where I find myself spending at least a few minutes on the site every day of the week. It’s the kind of website that becomes more valuable as a user gains more and more familiarity with all the ways to mine it for useful information.

For instance, I noticed a Group thread just before Christmas that was started by a simple question: “Certainly while some authors should have stopped writing after the sixth book, others have been able to continue to write, book after book, and still write top-notch mysteries. What long-running series would you recommend?”

I’ve read mysteries on a regular basis ever since, as a teenager, I discovered Conan Doyle and Rex Stout and fell in love with the concept of “series fiction.” Over the years, of course, I managed to read all of those Sherlock Holmes and Nero Wolfe books and moved on to more modern series that continue to grow. And I’m always on the lookout for new writers who maintain the tradition started by writers like Doyle and Stout, so I found this to be an interesting question. From the numerous responses to the question, I have learned of a few mystery writers that were still unknown to me, have had my opinion of a few others confirmed, and found myself disagreeing with the way that others were rated by the respondents. This is what I found and the list I've put together based on the responses:

1. Michael Connelly - was most-mentioned and his Harry Bosch series was consistently praised (I’ve been meaning to read Connelly for several years and never seem to get around to him.)


Connelly was followed by a group of writers, old and new, who received unanimously high marks from everyone who mentioned them:

2. Reginald Hill – Andy Dalziel series

3. Robert Crais – Elvis Cole and Pike series

4. John D. MacDonald – Travis McGee series (one of those series that I read at least 20 years ago and I wonder if they would measure up on a re-reading to the good memories I have of them)

5. James Lee Burke – Dave Robicheaux series (a series that I’ve kept up with almost from the beginning and one that is wonderful if read in the order in which the books were written because Dave’s character develops as we watch the story of his life unfold)



Members of this second group were also highly rated but not mentioned as often as those in group one:

6. Ian Rankin – John Rebus series (A series that I’ve just started to dip into recently)

7. Elizabeth Peters – historical mysteries using Ameila Peabody or Jacqueline Kirby

8. Dennis Lehane – Kenzie and Genarro series (Lehane seems to have abandoned the series but I think it’s still his best work)

9. Lawrence Block – Matt Scudder series (haven’t read these in a while for some reason)

10. Walter Mosley – Easy Rawlins series (a really good series set in 1950s-1960s Los Angeles and I find this still to be Mosley’s best work)

11. C.J. Box – Joe Pickett series

12. Raymond Chandler (maybe the best of them all, in my opinion)

13. Tony Hillerman – Navajo series (have read a few of these but not really a fan)

14. Anne Perry – William Monk or Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series (Have read some of the Pitt books but am a little bit put off by Perry’s personal history, I think)

15. Ed McBain – 87th Precinct series (great series but prefer the longer books that come later in the series)

Next came a group that all had their fans but were not as often mentioned:

16. Margaret Yorke (have found that her characters and plots to be a little spookier and more realistic than indicated by the dust jackets of her books)

17. P.D. James (have read some of her work but not really a fan)

18. Peter Robinson

19. Jane Hadden – Gregor Demarkien series

20. Archer Mayer – Joe Gunther series

22. J.A. Jance – J.P. Beaumont series

23. Donna Leon – Guido Brunetti series set in modern Milan

24. John Lescroart – Dismas Hardy or Hardy & Glitzky series

25. Emma Lathan – Wall Street series

26. Robert B. Parker – Spenser series (found this series to be excellent and exciting for quite a few years but Parker seems to be producing Spenser books by formula for last few years)

27. Stephen Hunter – Earl Swagger series

28. Rex Stout – Nero Wolfe series (one of those classics that deserve to be read even today)

29. Marcia Muller – Sharon McCone series (interesting series but have read very little of it)

30. Peter Tremayne – Sister Fidelma series set in ancient Ireland

31. Sue Grafton – Kinsey Milhone series (much like the comment about Parker, above, Grafton seems to have peaked several books back)

32. Agatha Christie – Miss Marple series

33. Conan Doyle – Sherlock Holmes series (classic series not to be missed)

34. Ruth Rendell – Inspector Wexford series (one of my favorite crime and suspense novelists, including the books she writes as Barbara Vine)

35. John Mortimer – Rumpole series (crimes and comedy, a great combination)

36. Sharon Newman – Catherine LeVendeur series

37. Minette Walters

38. Jill Churchill – Jane Jeffries series


And then there were those who were mentioned several times but who ended up with more negative comments, or “votes,” than they did positive ones:

39. J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts) – mentioned were the “In Death” series and Eve Dallas series

40. Martha Grimes – Richard Jury series (a little surprised by some of the negative comments but agree that her books are not what they used to be)

41. Lee Child – Jack Reacher series

42. Janet Evanovich – Stephanie Plum series (defenders were lukewarm and detractors dislike her writing very much but she is constantly on Best Seller lists and I saw where Stephen King has made somewhat negative remarks about her as part of a cover blurb for a new British mystery writer)

While this list is far from complete, I think it’s a good example of the type of information that can be picked up from just one of the hundreds of questions that are posted at Library Thing every week. I always keep a few mysteries and crime novels around as a change-of-pace so something like this will help me the next time that I’m looking for someone new to read. If you haven’t found LibraryThing.com yet, now’s the time.

2022 Reading Log

(For personal reasons, I've been forced to put an unplanned end to Book Chase. I do intend, however, to use the site to keep a record of my reading and will do so via this list - and perhaps other variations. Please feel free to comment in the usual manner if so inclined; I miss book blogging a lot, but I miss our conversation the most...Sam.)

5-Star Books (Ranked within Fiction and Nonfiction):

The Searchers - Alan Le May

Slow Horses Mick Herron

Fight Night - Miriam Toews

Joe Country - Mick Herron

Nightfall - David Goodis

London Rules - Mick Herron

French Braid - Anne Tyler

The Bomb Maker - Thomas Perry

Cobra - Deon Meyer

Spook Street - Mick Herron

Devil's Peak - Deon Meyer

The First Stone - Carsten Jensen

Trunk Music - Michael Connelly

Endangered - C.J. Box

Red Bones - Ann Cleeves

The King Is Dead - Ellery Queen

Raven Black - Ann Cleeves

The Junction Boys - Jim Dent - NF

To Hell with Honor - Larry Sklenar - NF

The Splendid and the Vile - Erik Larson - NF

One Damn Thing After Another - William P. Barr - NF

Stolen Focus - Johann Hari - NF

4-Star Books:

Black Ice - Michael Connelly

Crime Hits Home - Various Authors

Little Big Man - Thomas Berger

Wednesday's Child - Peter Robinson

Get Back - The Beatles

Cold Earth - Ann Cleeves

Harlem Shuffle - Colson Whitehead

Tennison - Lynda La Plante

Innocent Graves - Peter Robinson

White Nights - Ann Cleeves

Cry Macho - N. Richard Nash

Dead Water - Ann Cleeves

Red Handed - Peter Schweizer

The Anthropocene Reviewed - John Green

The Silence - Susan Allott

Murder in Mykonos - Jeffrey Siger

Open Season - C.J. Box

One Writer's Beginnings - Eudora Welty

Grave's End - William Shaw

Angry Mobs and Founding Fathers - Michael E. Newton

Pudd'nhead Wilson - Mark Twain

Last Stand at Saber River - Elmore Leonard

Rediscovering Travel - Seth Kugel

Dolphin Junction - Mick Herron

The Hag - Marc Eliot

Dead Lions - Mick Herron

Death Be Not Proud - John Gunther

Hidden Depths - Ann Cleeves

The List - Mick Herron

Blank Pages - Bernard MacLaverty

Thirteen Hours - Deon Meyer

The Trawlerman - William Shaw

The Ranger - Ace Atkins

Seven Days - Deon Meyer

We Came, We Saw, We Left - Charles Wheelan

Real Tigers - Mick Herron

A String of Beads - Thomas Perry

The Burglar - David Goodis

Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë

Isaac's Storm - Erik Larson

Cold Is the Grave - Peter Robinson

Black Fly Season - Giles Blunt

One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow - Olivia Hawker

All That's Left Unsaid - Tracy Lien

Silent Voices - Ann Cleeves

Bad Actors - Mick Herron

The Woman They Could Not Silence - Kate Moore

3-Star Books:

Expats - Christopher Dickey

The Kings of London - William Shaw

The Illusion of Simple - Charles Forrest Jones

Final Account - Peter Robinson

The Mountain Lion - Jean Stafford

The Dutch Shoe Mystery - Ellery Queen

Black Money - Ross Macdonald

Blue Lightning - Ann Cleeves

Rizzio - Denise Mina

Thin Air - Ann Cleeves

Wild Fire - Ann Cleeves 

Maigret in New York - Georges Simenon

Blood at the Root - Peter Robinson

Savage Run - C.J. Box

Indemnity Only - Sara Paretsky

1979 - Val McDermid

Old Man Country - Thomas R. Cole

The Madness of Crowds - Louise Penny

Back of Beyond - C.J. Box

The Good Daughters - Joyce Maynard

Stupid Things I Won't Do When I Get Old - Steven Petrow

Bridge of Spies - Giles Whittell

Blood Safari - Deon Meyer

In a Dry Season - Peter Robinson

Leave the Grave Green - Deborah Crombie

Vanishing Act - Thomas Perry

Wrong Place, Wrong Time - Gillian McAllister

Bookends - Zibby Owens

Mourn Not Your Dead - Deborah Crombi

Our Country Friends - Gary Shteyngart

The Graduate - Charles Webb

Our Wives Under the Sea - Julia Armfield

Last Summer Boys - Bill Rivers

The Maid - Nita Prose

The Long Way Home - Karen McQuestion

Stargazer - Anne Hillerman

Uprooted - Grace Olmstead 

2-Star Books:

The Words Between Us - Erin Bartels

The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections - Eva Jurczyk

Shadows of Pecan Hollow - Caroline Frost

Sea of Tranquility -  Emily St. John Mandel

Tyrus: A Memoir - Tyrus

The Babes in the Wood - Ruth Rendell

The Secret Keepers of Old Depot Grocery - Amanda Cox

The Woman in the Library - Sulari Gentill

Packing My Library - Alberto Manguel

 January 2022

1. Black Ice - Michael Connelly - Harry Bosch  #2
2. Crime Hits Home - Various Authors - Short Stories
3. Little Big Man - Thomas Berger - Classic Western Novel
4. Wednesday's Child - Peter Robinson - Inspector Banks #6
5. Get Back - The Beatles - Documentary Companion Book
6. Cold Earth - Ann Cleeves -  Jimmy Perez #7
7. The Illusion of Simple - Charles Forrest Jones - Crime Novel
8. Expats - Christopher Dickey - Nonfiction 
9. The Kings of London - William Shaw - Breen & Tozer #2
10. Harlem Shuffle - Colson Whitehead - Crime Novel
11. Raven Black - Ann Cleeves - Jimmy Perez #1
12. The Words Between Us - Erin Bartels - Thriller Romance 

February 

1. The King Is Dead - Ellery Queen - 1952 Classic Mystery
2. The Searchers - Alan Le May - 1954 Classic Western
3. Final Account - Peter Robinson - Inspector Banks #7
4. Tennison - Lynda La Plante - Jane Tennison #4 - Prequel 
5. The Mountain Lion - Jean Stafford - 1947 coming-of-age novel
6. Innocent Graves - Peter Robinson - Inspector Banks #8
7. White Nights - Ann Cleeves - Jimmy Perez #2
8. Stolen Focus - Johann Hari - Big Tech impact on ADD
9. The Dutch Shoe Mystery - Ellery Queen - 1931 Classic Mystery
10. Black Money - Ross Macdonald - 1965 - Lew Archer #13
11. Red Bones - Ann Cleeves - Jimmy Perez #3

March

1. The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections - Eva Jurczyk - Novel about thefts from a university library 
2. Cry Macho -  N. Richard Nash - 1975 novel & 2021 coming-of-age movie starring Clint Eastwood (brilliant book/so-so movie)
3. Blue Lightning - Ann Cleeves - Jimmy Perez #4
4. Shadows of Pecan Hollow - Caroline Frost - Predictable crime/coming-of-age novel set in Southeast Texas
5. Dead Water - Ann Cleeves - Jimmy Perez #5: Jimmy is back
6. Red Handed - Peter Schweizer - How prominent Americans are bribed by the Chinese government and what they do in return
7. The Anthropocene Reviewed - John Green - A revealing memoir disguised as 44 short, unrelated essays
8. Rizzio - Denise Mina - novella, 16th century historical fiction
9. Thin Air - Ann Cleeves - Jimmy Perez #6
10. The Silence - Susan Allott - British mystery set in Australia 

April

1. The First Stone - Carsten Jensen - Danish novel about Afghani war
2. Wild Fire - Ann Cleeves - 8th & Final Jimmy Perez novel - flat 
3. The Junction Boys  - Jim Dent - Coach Bear Bryant's infamous 1954 football camp at Texas A&M (favorite sports book ever)
   
4. Sea of Tranquility - Emily St. John Mandel - time-travel novel in which I never felt a connection to any of the characters
5. Maigret in New York - Georges Simenon - Maigret #27 (1947)
6. Endangered - C. J. Box - Joe Pickett #15; excellently plotted
7. Murder in Mykonos - Jeffrey Siger - CI Andreas Kaldis #1
8. Open Season - C.J. Box - Joe Pickett #1 - Perfect introduction
9. One Writer's Beginnings - Eudora Welty - memoir in three parts
10. Grave's End -  William Shaw - Alex Cupidi # 4 - well written, character-driven crime novel
11. Blood at the Root - Peter Robinson - Inspector Banks #9
12. Angry Mobs and Founding Fathers - Michael E. Newton - a revealing look at the American Revolution

May

1. Savage Run - C.J. Box - Joe Picket #2 - modern range war
2. Pudd'nhead Wilson - Mark Twain - slave-baby & master's-baby switched at birth - lots of social commentary of the times
3. Indemnity Only - Sara Paretsky - V.I. Warshawski #1 - good introduction to series main characters, but mediocre plot 
4. 1979 - Val McDermid - OK 1st book of proposed 10-book series
5. One Damn Thing After Another - William P. Barr - at almost 700 pages, it answered all the questions I had about truth in politics
6. Last Stand at Saber River - Elmore Leonard - excellent character-driven post Civil War novel set in Arizona
7. Old Man Country - Thomas R. Cole - Interviews of elderly men about living into the "4th Age" - somewhat disappointing
8. Rediscovering Travel - Seth Kugel - travel stories and tips from a professional traveler 
9. The Madness of Crowds - Louise Penny - Unnecessarily long, dark post-pandemic novel; Penny may have "jumped the shark"
10. Tyrus: A Memoir - Tyrus - short  memoir that completely manages to ignore the author's marriages and children
11. The Babes in the Wood - Ruth Rendell - excellent mystery until Rendell ruins it by having Wexford recount its climax second-hand: show me, don't tell me  
12. Slow Horses - Mick Herron - excellent tale about group of MI5 castoffs with ideas of their own - Book #1 in Slough House series

June

1. Dolphin Junction - Mick Herron - collection of short stories & novellas featuring his series characters - uneven, but fun
2. The Hag - Marc Eliot - maybe the definitive Merle Haggard bio
3. Dead Lions - Mick Herron - "Slough House" #2 - excellent story about Soviet sleeper agents who "wake up" after two decades
4. Trunk Music - Michael Connelly - Harry Bosch #5 in which Harry reconnects with ex-FBI agent Eleanor Wish and they marry
5. Death Be Not Proud - John Gunther - memoir of a father who watched his son fight a brain tumor for 15 months (1947 death)
6. Hidden Depths - Ann Cleeves - Vera Stanhope #3 (2007)
7. The Secret Keepers of Old Depot Grocery - Amanda Cox - heavy-handed Christian novel with boring final third
8. The List - Mick Herron - Novella, "Slough House" #2.5 
9. French Braid - Anne Tyler - Gradual changes in family-tightness over four generations of a Baltimore family 
10. Nightfall - David Goodis - New York noir classic from 1946

July

1. Devil's Peak - Deon Meyer - Benny Griessel #1 - South African
2. Blank Pages - Bernard MacLaverty - 12 memorable short stories from an excellent Irish author
3. Thirteen Hours - Deon Meyer - Benny Griessel #2 - Two American teens run for their lives in South Africa
4. The Trawlerman - William Shaw - Alex Cupidi #5
5. Back of Beyond - C.J. Box - Standalone set in Yellowstone
6. The Ranger - Ace Atkins - Introduces the Quinn Colson series
7. Seven Days - Deon Meyer - Benny Griessel series #3
8. Cobra - Deon Meyer - Benny Griessel series #4
9. The Splendid and the Vile - Erik Larson - WWII history (1942) focusing on Churchill, Hitler, Goring, and Roosevelt
10. The Bomb Maker - Thomas Perry - crazy bomb-maker tries to wipe out entire LAPD bomb squad

August

1. The Good Daughters - Joyce Maynard - Two very different families share a huge secret for over 50 years
2. We Came, We Saw, We Left - Charles Wheelan - man travels around the world for 9 months with wife & 3 teens - Nonfiction
3. To Hell with Honor - Larry Sklenar - Brilliant explanation of what happened at The Little Big Horn and who was responsible
4. Stupid Things I Won't Do When I Get Old - Steven Petrow - writer vows to practice what he learned from watching his parents age
5. The Woman in the Library - Sulari Gentill - Disappointing mystery using novel-inside-a-novel structure that is stupefyingly formulaic 
6. Real Tigers - Mick Herron - #4 in the terrific Slough House series 
7. A String of Beads - Thomas Perry - Jane Whitefield #8 - Jane hides he childhood Seneca best friend from cops and killers 
8. Bridge of Spies - Giles Whittell - Account of U-2 pilot Gary Powers, his capture by Russia and exchange for Russian spy
9. Blood Safari - Deon Meyer - Second novel in Meyer's Lemmer series about a South African bodyguard
10. In a Dry Season - Peter Robinson - Inspector Banks #10 - a case going back to World War II; Banks meets DS Annie Cabbot
11. Packing My Library - Alberto Manguel - Argentinian author's 10 essays and 10 "digressions" on packing away his personal library

September

1. The Burglar - David Goodis - '50s noir at its best - really gets into the heads of the gang members and what motivates them
2. Leave the Grave Green - Deborah Crombie - Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James #3 - in which the pair get "romantic"
3. Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë - the classic anti-Jane-Austen-novel; filled with dark, cruel, and egotistical characters
4. Isaac's Storm - Erik Larson - nonfiction account of the September 8, 1900 hurricane that almost wiped out the city of Galveston
5. Spook Street - Mick Herron - #5 in Slough House series - proves that this series really does need to be read in order; it's brilliant
6. Vanishing Act - Thomas Perry - Jane Whitefield series #1; Jane fails a client - does not feel as formulaic as the more recent books
7. Wrong Place, Wrong Time - Gillian McAllister - "Can you stop a murder after it happens?" One woman sure hopes so.
8. Cold Is the Grave - Peter Robinson - Inspector Banks #11 - Banks's chief nemesis has his whole family destroyed
9. Bookends - Zibby Owens - found it difficult to feel a lot of empathy for the author of this memoir; not bad, otherwise
10. Mourn Not Your Dead - Deborah Crombie - rather simple mystery in this 4th Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series novel

October

1. Fight Night - Miriam Toews - novel about a nine-year-old and her grandmother, each who thinks she's taking care of the other
2. Black Fly Season - Giles Blunt - #3 in six-book Canadian detective series featuring John Cardinal of Algonquin Bay
3. One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow - Olivia Hawker - two women are forced to share a single homestead in 1876 snowbound Wyoming if they are to survive - and one hates the other 
4. Our Country Friends - Gary Stheyngart - Friends gather at a New York state estate to quarantine as the world tries to deal with COVID-19 in early 2020 
5. The Graduate - Charles Webb - Pretty much the same plot as the movie, but "Ben" is an obvious sociopath and "Elaine" has mental problems of her own. Now I need to re-watch the movie.

November

1. Our Wives Under the Sea - Julia Armfield - After being trapped in a submarine for five months, a woman returns to her wife
2. Last Summer Boys - Bill Rivers - coming-of-age novel about three brothers and their city-boy cousin in rural PA
3. The Maid - Nita Prose - a somewhere-on-the-spectrum maid in a big hotel discovers a murder victim then plays with everyone's minds, including the reader's
4. The Long Way Home - Karen McQuestion - 4 women, all strangers, drive from Wisconsin to Las Vegas
5. All That's Left Unsaid - Tracy Lien - Set in 1996 small town Australia; explores the Vietnamese immigrant experience 
6. Stargazer - Anne Hillerman - Bernie Manuelito does not believe her old college roommate when she confesses to murder

December

1. Silent Voices - Ann Cleeves - Vera Stanhope #4, in which a woman is strangled in the steam room of Vera's hotel health club
2. Uprooted - Grace Olmstead - nonfiction - the author considers going back to Idaho - a look at declining family farm industry
3. Bad Actors - Mick Herron - When a Russian mole is discovered working with the PM, the scramble to get rid of her is frantic
4. London Rules - Mick Herron - North Korean terrorists use MI5 game-plan in London
5. The Woman They Could Not Silence - Kate Moore - Nonfiction account of woman wrongly confined to insane asylum by husband
6. Joe Country - Mick Herron - Slow Horses' search for son of former colleague's son culminates in bloody Wales snowstorm

Currently Reading: 

• The World Played Chess - Robert Dugoni
• The Marylebone Drop - Mick Herron

Categories:

• E-books - 32
• Audiobooks - 32
• Abandoned - 9
• Translations - 7
• Library Books - 79
• From My Shelves - 28
• Review Copies - 3
• Amazon Prime Loans - 5
• Fiction - 91
• Nonfiction - 24

• Male Authors - 73
• Female Authors - 41
• By Both - 1

• American - 59
• British - 39
• Canadian - 6
• Danish - 1
• French - 1
• South African - 5
• Irish - 1
• Australian - 2
• Argentinian - 1

• 2022 - 19
• 2021 - 18
• 2020 - 3
• 2010s- 31
• 2000s - 14
• 1990s - 14
• 1980s - 1
• 1970s - 1
• 1960s - 3
• 1950s - 4
• 1940s - 4
• 1930s - 1
• 1920s - 0
• 1910s - 0
• 1900s - 0
• 1800s - 2

Pages Read: 

• Jan -    3,348
• Feb -   3,559
• Mar -  3,326
• Apr -   3,466
• May -  3,316
• Jun -    3,229
• Jul -     3,702
• Aug -   3,265
• Sep -    2,774
• Oct -    1,738
• Nov -   2,082
• Dec -    1,991
• Total - 35,896