Faithful Place by Tana French

April 12, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – print. Viking, 2010. 400 pgs. Purchased.  In 1985, Frank Mackey stood on around the corner of the Faithful Place flats in Dublin waiting for his girlfriend, Rosie Daly, to appear. For weeks, he and Rosie had cobbled together a plan to run away to London together where they planned to marry against the wishes of Rosie’s parents and, hopefully, break the cycle of poverty and alcoholism that marked their – read Frank’s – lives in Ireland. Yet Rosie […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Crime, Europe, Fiction, Ireland • Tags: Tana French

Lord John and the Hand of Devils by Diana Gabaldon

March 8, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – audiobook. Read by Jeff Woodman. Recorded Books, 2007. 9 hours, 41 minutes. Library copy. Lord John Grey was first introduced in Dragonfly in Amber, the second book in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, as a young English soldier who attempts to save Claire from the wanted rebel Jamie Fraser. Jamie spares Grey’s life after he tricks the young boy into sharing information about the location of the English forces in the area. Grey and Jamie would cross paths again […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Audiobook, Crime, Europe, Fiction, United Kingdom • Tags: Diana Gabaldon, Jeff Woodman

The Shadow Killer by Arnaldur Indriðason

March 6, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – Kindle edition. Translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb. Minotaur Books, 2018. Originally published 2016. 304 pgs. Library copy.  Amid the American and British occupation of Iceland in 1941, a man is founded murdered in a small apartment in Reykjavík – a swastika drawn across the victim’s forehead with his own blood. When the murder weapon is determined to an American-issued service pistol, a Canadian-Icelandic military officer by the name of Thorson is loaned out to the Icelandic […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Crime, Europe, Fiction, Iceland, Icelandic, Translated • Tags: Arnaldur Indriðason

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Part Two)

March 4, 2019 by Christina

Fiction — audiobook. Read by George Guidall. Translated from the Russian by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. Recorded Books, 2000. Originally published 1866. 25 hours, 1 minute. Library copy. This post includes my thoughts on Part Four through the Epilogue of Dostoyevsky’s most famous work. For my thoughts on Parts One through Three, please see this post. As the end of Part Three, the main character, Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov had awoken to find an unknown yet aristocratically dressed man standing over […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Audiobook, Classics, Classics Club, Crime, Europe, Fiction, Russia, Russian, Translated • Tags: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, George Guidall

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Part One)

February 20, 2019 by Christina

Fiction — audiobook. Read by George Guidall. Translated from the Russian by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. Recorded Books, 2000. Originally published 1866. 25 hours, 1 minute. Library copy. Arguably Dostoyevsky’s most famous work, Crime and Punishment is divided into six parts plus epilogue. Given the novel’s length and (assumed) difficulty in reading, my book club decided to split the book at the halfway mark and discuss it at two meetings. Our February meetup covered Part One to Three, which […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Audiobook, Classics, Classics Club, Crime, Europe, Fiction, Russia, Russian, Translated • Tags: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, George Guidall

See Me by Nicholas Sparks

February 18, 2019 by Christina

Fiction — print. Grand Central Publishing, 2015. 486 pgs. Purchased. It’s been awhile since I found myself (internally) screaming at a character to stop being so stupid. Yet, that was all I could do with the characters Sparks created for this novel. After about 100 pages, the main female character, Maria, reveals that she was sent unsigned, menacing notes following the death of a domestic violence victim. At the time, Maria was working as a prosecutor, and the victim’s murderer […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Chunkster, Crime, Fiction, North America, United States • Tags: Nicholas Sparks

Paradise Valley by C.J. Box

February 12, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – print. Minotaur Books, 2017. 340 pgs. Gift. Two years after the events of Badlands, Chief Investigator Cassie Dewell has finally ensnared the Lizard King in her trap. The serial killer she’s has spent nearly four years chasing is on his way to Grimstead, North Dakota to pick up a load, and Cassie and her fellow officers at the Bakken County Sheriff’s Department are prepared to take him into custody. Cassie is certain he won’t get away this time; […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Crime, Fiction, Mountain West, North America, United States • Tags: C.J. Box

Badlands by C.J. Box

February 5, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – Kindle edition. Minotaur Books, 2015. 384 pgs. Library copy. A year after the events of The Highway, the “Lizard King” has gone dark. Despite a nationwide alert, there have been zero reported sightings of the suspected murderer and his big rig. The man has seemingly disappeared into thin air, frustrating Lewis and Clark County Deputy Sheriff Cassie Dewell as his evasion is personal for her. Cassie has also grown frustrated with her boss. The sheriff used her to […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Crime, Fiction, North America, United States • Tags: C.J. Box

Off the Grid by C.J. Box

January 17, 2019 by Christina

Fiction — print. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2016. 371 pgs. Borrowed from a Little Free Library. It is always a gamble to jump in the middle of a series, and I took a huge gamble by starting Box’s Joe Pickett series with the sixteenth book in the series. In this book, the series’ title character is back working for the state of Wyoming as a game warden while he tries to deal with the insurance company over his daughter’s outstanding medical bills. […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Crime, Fiction, Mountain West, North America, United States • Tags: C.J. Box

Back of Beyond by C.J. Box

January 8, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – Kindle edition. Corvus, 2011. 382 pgs. Library copy. Cody Hoyt returned to his hometown of Helena, Montana after washing out with the police force down in Colorado. His marriage to the woman he married while still in high school disintegrated years ago, and while he tries to be the exact opposite of his own father, his relationship with his son Justin is strained. Despite the infamy of his family’s criminal behavior in Helena, Cody still manages to get […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Crime, Fiction, Mountain West, North America, United States • Tags: C.J. Box

The Shadow District by Arnaldur Indriðason

December 28, 2018 by Christina

Fiction — Kindle edition. Translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb. Minotaur Books, 2017. Originally published 2013. 304 pgs. Library copy. During the 1940s, when Reykjavik served as a staging ground for the American military invasion of Europe, a young woman is founded murdered behind the National Theater. The area around the theater is known as the “Shadow District”, and the devious behavior conducted there often occurs without punishment. But this murder — and the American serviceman seen fleeing from the […]

Categories: 2018 Reads, Crime, Europe, Fiction, Iceland, Icelandic, Translated • Tags: Arnaldur Indriðason

In the Woods by Tana French

December 11, 2018 by Christina

Fiction – audiobook. Read by Steven Crossley. Penguin Audio, 2007. 20 hours, 24 minutes. Purchased. In 1984, twelve-year-old Adam Ryan is found clutching a tree in the woods of Knocknaree, a suburb of Dublin. This discovery would be unremarkable if Adam and his two friends hadn’t been missing for days and if one of Adam’s shoe wasn’t filled with blood. Adam is unable to remember how he ended up in the woods, and his two friends – a girl named […]

Categories: 2018 Reads, Audiobook, Crime, Europe, Fiction, Ireland • Tags: Steven Crossley, Tana French