I've really been in the mood this summer to read mysteries. Not just mysteries, though, anything suspenseful or thriller-ish. I don't think I can blame it on being a Summer thing, since I love these types of books year round (given the chance I could easily read a steady diet of the stuff, I think, but I do like variety in my books as well). At the moment I've got four on the go that would fit nicely into these categories; Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca (of course!), Ruth Rendell's A Fatal Inversion, S.J. Bolton's Sacrifice and Wilkie Collins's The Law and the Lady. I'm afraid Wilkie is sitting at the bottom of the pile at the moment, though through not fault of his own. When it comes to classics I feel like I need to devote serious reading time to them, at least when I start, to get myself familiar with the story. And I haven't had lots of big chunks of extra reading time, so he's languishing a bit. The rest, however, have been easy to pick up and put down. The thing is when I pick them up, I don't generally want to put them down.
I follow a number of mystery series, and recently I was looking a few up to see when the next book was due out. Have you noticed that now Amazon has a little running banner on each book page with more book suggestions? This can be dangerous. When I find a good book I have to scroll through that little banner and see what else there is to tempt me. Here are the results when it comes to a few mysteries. I've already requested most of these at the library!
- Dead Dancing Women: An Emily Kincaid Mystery, Elizabeth Buzzelli - Not actually sure what this is about, but the title caught my eye.
- Mad About the Boy?, Dolores Gordon-Smith - This is set in 1920s Sussex, so I may have to give it a try as I like the period she writes about.
- The Serpent and the Scorpion, Clare Langley-Hawthorne - I really liked the first Ursula Marlow mystery. It was set in Edwardian England, and Ursula is a suffragette. This is the one I was checking on (still a couple of months to go...sigh). This time around she goes to Egypt. I'm really looking forward to this one.
- Deception's Daughter, Cordelia Frances Biddle - I read Biddle's first mystery about the same time as I read Langley-Hawthorne's first one, so I am looking forward to the next Martha Beale mystery as well. These are set in mid-1800s Philadelphia.
- Murder on the Eiffel Tower: A Victor Legris Mystery, Claude Izner - I liked this sound of this one--set in 1880s Paris. This is by a French author (I like reading foreign mysteries).
- Real World, Natsuo Kirino - Although her novels are a bit more on the graphic, or at least harsher reality side, I do enjoy them. Actually I've only read her first, Out, but I have Grotesque on my pile as well. I need to catch up before her third one comes out.
- Finding Nouf, Zoe Ferraris - I thought this sounded interesting. It is a literary mystery set in Saudi Arabia, which is a part of the world I don't read much about.
- In the Woods, Tana French - I've heard lots of good things about this one. I may just have to buy it as it is out in paper. She also has a new one coming out.
- Suspect, Michael Robotham - What caught my eye was a newer book by this author that is due to be released, but I like to begin with the first book, so I will be looking out for this one.
There's lots of good new books coming out. I've got a small stack of mysteries that I want to read...an Agatha Christie, something else by Georges Simenon, the next Jo Nesbo (to name just a few)...How to choose! What new mystery (or suspense or thriller) discoveries have you made lately?