Today, I received an email from Barnes & Noble and they are having a Nook Book Sale on the first book of a series. I checked out the first books Mystery series that were on sale, and here are six books that started some of my favorite mystery series!
Inside the Citadel in the ancient city of Ruin resides a select group of monks charged with protecting the Sacrament, along with thousands of ancient texts discovered over the millennium. The nature of the Sacrament is known only to a select few of those monks – the Sancti. But when Brother Samuel is initiated into the Sancti, and discovers what the Sacrament is, he decides can not live with that knowledge or continue to belong to the Sancti. He makes a harrowing and torturous climb to the top of the Citadel, where he stands for hours in a pose symbolic of the Tau, the symbol of the Sancti, before plunging to his death. So begins Sanctus, first book of the Ruin trilogy from British author Simon Toyne. The questions left unanswered are: Why did he do it? What did he see that lead him to take his own life?
Harry Dolan’s Very Bad Men is the second book in the David Loogan series, Dolan’s follow-up to Bad Things Happen about which Stephen King said….. “Great F****ing Book Man, I was totally hooked” I am in total agreement with the great Mr. King’s assessment of Bad Things Happen and I feel the same way about Very Bad Men!!
So while I haven’t finished any books in a little while that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been reading and out buying new books, much to the consternation of my better half. So what’s been happening. First I started to read the second book in the David Loogan series from Harry Dolan Very Bad Men, which I have checked out of the library. No, wait, first I started to read William Kent Krueger‘s latest Cork O’Connor book Windigo Island on the Kindle, then Very Bad Men. Then to compound everything, I went to Dollar General where I saw Sanctus by Simon Toyne, which looked pretty interesting. From the cover: “Frightening, ruthless, and relentlessly entertaining” – Brad Meltzer “A cliffhanger ….. that aspires to towering heights” Kirkus Reviews So never being one to pass up a bargain book $3.00 for a $9.99 list book from 2011, I bought it and then started it. So now I am reading three books!! I am making progress in each one and right now, none of them have grabbed me to the point ,that I will only read that book!! Hopefully, one of them will!! Finally in the midst of all this, I went to the Dollar Tree the other night with my wife and much to her dismay I bought three more books! – At dollar each how can you go wrong!! The books are: Silent Screams – C.E. Lawrence The Coldest Fear – Rick Reed Delirious – Daniel Palmer Anyone have an opinion as to which of these I should read first?? Oh , the third Keye Street book from Amanda Kyle Williams is on my to be read shelf, checked out from the library!! Can you say too many books, not enough time!!! I wouldn’t want it any other way!! It’s time for me to crank up some jazz and get reading!!
Ok so I did not really enjoy the first half of Amanda Kyle Williams The Stranger that You Seek, but the second half of the book was really good, and propelled me on to the second book in the Keye Street series Stranger in the Room. For me, there was no weak first half in this book, it grabbed me from the start and did not let go until the last page! Miki Ashton, Keye Street’s cousin returns home after a night on the town, puts the key in the front door of her house, before she can open the door, she hears footsteps in the supposedly empty house!! When she makes her way to the window in the front of the house, and peers in, she sees a slightly overweight man standing in the shadows, as he stands there he forms a gunwith his fingers and he pretends to shoot Miki!! So begins this great twisting mystery!! Who was this stranger in the room?? Why was he there?? Is he the source of the mysterious calls, and noises that plague Miki??
When I saw Jane Pauley’s book.Your Life Calling in the library last week it was like, yes! This is the right book at the right time! And while it was not exactly what I anticipated, it was nevertheless a good read. See two months ago, I applied for Social Security, more out of necessity than actually wanting to retire. Throughout this past year, the work that I have done for the last 34 years, has just not been there, and I have mostly been collecting unemployment and thinking about how I want to move forward with my life. I really don’t want to go out and find another job doing the same thing that I have done, so when my unemployment insurance ran out, rather than just take any job, I applied for my benefits and upped my hours at Target. So far,it has been a good thing, but I still keep wondering, is this all there really is, or is there something else out there that I would want to do!!
So I finally finished Dan Harris’ book 10% Happier:How I Tame the Voice Inside My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge and Found Self-Help that Actually Works – A True Story and it must say something about how I feel about the book that it took me, probably, about a month to read a 221 page book, 237 pages if you count the appendix!! I guess if I realized that it was actually more of a biography than a self-help book it would have helped with my enjoyment of the book. However, as I wanted for the methods and things that I could do to reduce that voice inside my head, all I got really was another story about Dan’s quest to discover more about Buddhism and Mindful Meditation.
So last week I wrote that I was struggling through The Stranger You Seek the first of the Keye Street novels from Amanda Kyle Williams. Tonight I went to the library to get book 2 in the series Stranger in the Room! It’s easy to explain the reason , stealing and editing a line from Monty Python and the Holy Grail “It Got Better!!
When NYPD Detective Kat Donovan sends her ex-fiancée Jeff Raynes “Their Video” on the dating site You are just my type.com and his response is “It’s Cute”, Kat doesn’t understand his response. Eighteen years earlier, before he dumped her and left town, their love was real and magical. Sure his dating site biography says he is a widower, but should his response be that lame? Well, he just wants to move on thinks Kat and so does Kat. She has more important things to do too, her father’s murderer is dying and she needs to visit one more time before he dies. When she does the hit man who killed her father, once again proclaims his innocence.
