Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Books are my comfort food!

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

“woke” is the new caravan.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

When the time comes to make an endorsement, the pain of NYT editors will be palpable as they reluctantly whisper “Biden.”

Republicans would impeach Biden if he bit into a whole Kit Kat rather than breaking the sections apart.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

You are here: Home / Books / Book thread – Nothing like a good mystery

Book thread – Nothing like a good mystery

by | 63 Comments

This post is in: 

I was so delighted by this post by Chrisdonia at Central Station, I had to sit down and write another book post.

One day in March, staff at the Scottish Poetry Library came across a wonderful creation, left anonymously on a table in the library. Carved from paper, mounted on a book and with a tag addressed to @byleaveswelive – the library’s Twitter account – reading:

It started with your name @byleaveswelive and became a tree.…
… We know that a library is so much more than a building full of books… a book is so much more than pages full of words.…
This is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas….. a gesture (poetic maybe?)

Scottish Poetry Library

Go here to read the whole story of the 7 (and counting) beautiful sculptures which have been left so far. Lots of pictures like this:

Scottish Storytelling Centre

As for books for the purposes of reading, I’ve just finished “Faithful Place” by Tana French, a cold-case murder mystery set in Dublin. I wasn’t quite convinced by French’s first two books – they were wonderfully evocative, but the characters and plots didn’t quite hold together and the endings seemed slightly slipshod. This book, however, is a cracker – finely drawn characters, a well crafted (if slightly forseeable plot) and the atmosphere of family life in the rougher parts of Dublin comes through magnificently.

As a Who geek, I also enjoyed Michael Moorcock’s “The Coming of the Terraphiles”. Moorcock dumps the Doctor and Amy Pond into the middle of a Woosterian romp of stolen hats and terrifying mothers-in-law, slings in a few characters from his own books and then packs the whole lot off to the center of the galaxy to play mutant games of not-quite-cricket for a prize that might hold the secret to saving the entire universe. Moorcock never quite captures the characters of the Doctor and Amy as played by Gillan and Smith, but the entire thing is such a massive romp it doesn’t really matter.

Finally, I’d recommend “Finch” by Jeff Vandermeer. Vandermeer’s books are always delightfully weird evocations of unexplained alien worlds. Here his usual city of Ambergris has been taken over by creatures of living fungus whose motivations are unknown, and a search for a killer becomes an excuse for Vandermeer to explore humanity and its reaction to the loss of everything that it held dear. Great fun and genuinely mysterious.

What else should I be reading, kiddies?

Reader Interactions

63Comments

  1. 1.

    Corner Stone

    Oh thank God you’re here baby. I’ve been emotional again and feel like I need another good cry.

  5. 5.

    BonnyAnne

    (spoiler alerts)

    SPT, I love you with the power of the sun, and ordinarily I would leap at the chance to read what you recommended. However, back in 2007 (and with the blessing of Nancy Pearl, no less!) I spent an entire weekend of cruising about the San Juan Islands with my fiancee, avoiding the sailing and reading that blasted book, only to come to the belated conclusion that I, too, could write a book with so many thrilling and fascinating plot threads, if I had no intention of resolving any of them.

    I shall now proceed to avoid Ms. French with the same vigor that I avoid Mr. R.R. Martin’s fiction.

    I recommend the Cloud Atlas, if you have not yet picked it up.

  7. 7.

    BonnyAnne

    bloody edit function etc.

    also, too, Engines of the Broken World (by J. Vanhee) is an excellent YA novel, coming out soon from Henry Holt. I discovered it on kindle while trolling for new YA (that genre has some of the best fic out there,lucky kids) and am so glad it’s making the leap to paper.

    I am old like that.

  9. 9.

    Sarah Proud and Tall

    @BonnyAnne:

    If you’re referring to “In the Woods”, dear, I couldn’t agree with you more… However, I suspect someone has sat Ms French down in the last few years and told her that, no matter how evocative your writing is, readers quite like it when you don’t leave major plot threads entirely unresolved and unexplained at the end of the book.

    This last one was much better on that front, but I’ll entirely understand if her first book scared you off forever.

    As for David Mitchell, hell yes.

  11. 11.

    Cat Lady

    …they say they are waiting for my death and will recognize a Fifteenth Dalai Lama of their choice. It is clear from their recent rules and regulations and subsequent declarations that they have a detailed strategy to deceive Tibetans, followers of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and the world community. Therefore, as I have a responsibility to protect the Dharma and sentient beings and counter such detrimental schemes, I make the following declaration…

    Shorter Dalai Lama to Tibetans: Chinese want 2 b3 in ur BaS3 killin’ ur tulkus.

    That’s some interesting mystery reading.

  12. 12.

    BonnyAnne

    @Sarah Proud and Tall:

    oh hell yes. I think I drew breath three or four times tops in the last 50 pages of that book–THAT’S how desperate I was to see how she would end it.

    Occasionally I lay awake at night, *still* wondering how she intended to end it, and if she really ever had a plan, or maybe she ran out of money and had to economize on paper, or something. I have actually considered sending her cash in exchange for answers.

    Words cannot describe how compelled I was by that book. If you look carefully you will see, hanging in the air somewhere north of Orcas Island, the blue streak I cursed when the book stopped 75 pages too soon.

    Perhaps I will try her newest, however. I did like her prose an awful lot.

  13. 13.

    Phylllis

    @Corner Stone: Apparently Garcia the bum decided to show up for today’ game. And I’m with you on gin–upsets my stomach.

    ETA: Reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. Wanted a good page-turner that I didn’t have to invest a lot of mental work on.

  18. 18.

    MikeInSewickley

    Boy this is amazing – thanks for the link.

    My son-in-law and daughter both work at the Carnegie Main Library here in Pittsburgh.

    My daughter has a Masters in Art Ed and my son-in-law is finishing up his Pitt Masters in Library Science so this stuff is dear to me.

    What a glorious mix of art, libraries, and humanity these art pieces are.

    After just reading about the Florida Repub straw poll, I needed this to calm down.

    I’d like to see what others are reading before offering a book selection.

  23. 23.

    Bex

    @Sarah Proud and Tall: I liked “In the Woods” and grabbed “Faithful Place” as soon as I could. Guessed the murderer less than halfway through and I am hardly ever able to do that. Too many red flags.

  26. 26.

    JPL

    Can’t believe there is not a football open thread. So OT>>>
    Maryland’s ugly uniforms are not helping at all… That is all except LSU just scored, also,too.

  28. 28.

    DFS

    They got Michael Moorcock to write a Doctor Who yarn? That’s hilarious. And very appropriate.

    I liked his swords-n-sorcery stuff a ton when I was a teenager, grew into a lot of his other stories over the years.

  29. 29.

    Dee Loralei

    Those pictures are lovely Sarah, and I will attend to the link after football is over. Boomer Sooner! As Mizzou scores, Shit.

  31. 31.

    Water balloon

    Italo Calvino- Cosmicomics or Invisible Cities if you’re looking for something different. The Baron in the Trees if you require a plot.

  32. 32.

    JPL

    A bj commenter mentioned the Benjamin Black series on Quirke.. I’m reading Christine Falls and so far it is very good so thanks for the recommendation.

  35. 35.

    cleek

    What else should I be reading, kiddies?

    well, you have to start with VanderMeer’s “City Of Saints And Madmen”. and then go on to read everything else he’s written.

  38. 38.

    The Fat Kate Middleton

    “The Reservoir” by John Milliken Thompson, and “A Spot of Bother” by Mark Haddon. The latter author wrote “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime”. “Bother” isn’t perfect, by any means, but I lurved it. “Reservoir” is Thompson’s debut novel, and it’s simply gorgeous. Based on a true story, he’s done wonders with it. I enjoyed all three of French’s novels, but agree with you, Sarah, that “Faithful Place” is by far her best. Haven’t read anything by G. Martin yet, but have to ask his fans, do any of you read Cornwall’s Saxon Chronicles, and if I like those, does it mean I’ll love Martin?

  40. 40.

    Elizabelle

    @Cassidy:

    Why don’t you just hang out a dinnerbell?

    ======

    I have been reading/listening to several mysteries by Brit writer Ruth Rendell.

    Love her; acerbic insights into characters that are admirable on the surface, but look beneath.

    Actively rooting for one character to meet her murderer now, but no telling what will happen.

    Socially conscious mysteries that could be good reportage/fiction too. “Harm’s Way” dealt with domestic violence and the threat of pedophiles.

  41. 41.

    BGinCHI

    SP&T, if you’re still around.

    I liked “Finch,” though it was a bit labored. Have you read any of China Mieville’s books? Some good ones there.

    I’d also highly recommend “Ready Player One,” by Ernest Cline. Impossible to put down.

  42. 42.

    karen marie

    I would recommend The Man In My Basement by Walter Mosley, Robertson Davies’ Deptford Trilogy, John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee series, The Society of Others by William Nicholson, anything by Russell Hoban but especially Her Name Was Lola, Jonathan Carroll’s Sleeping In Flame and Outside The Dog Museum, Peter David’s Arthur trilogy (Knight Life, One Knight Only and Fall of Knight), The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor by John Barth, Before She Met Me and Staring At The Sun by Julian Barnes, Adios Scheherezade by the late great Donald E. Westlake, Christopher Moore’s Fool, and Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman.

    I loathed Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain but loved Royal Highness, Transposed Heads and The Black Swan.

    Also, too, currently I’ve been reading British mystery author Reginald Hill. Terrific stuff although, as an American, some of the cultural references are over my head.

  43. 43.

    The Fat Kate Middleton

    @karen marie: Something about your post made me thing of Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus mysteries (which are great fun), and the night I was watching TV our first night in Edinburgh. There was an interview with Rankin, who said that when his books were published in the U.S., his publisher asked him to rewrite all the endings of his novels, since Americans “don’t like ambiguity.” The next morning, I promptly found a bookstore and purchased three of his titles, and found … a huge difference between those and the ones I’d read. The original endings elevated his books to real literature. That he was told to do that still aggravates me beyond measure.

  45. 45.

    Sarah Proud and Tall

    @BGinCHI:

    I liked “Finch,” though it was a bit labored. Have you read any of China Mieville’s books? Some good ones there.

    I’ve loved almost everything he’s written, with the exception of The City and the City, in which, for some reason, I have repeatedly gotten stuck about chapter 2.

    I’d also highly recommend “Ready Player One,” by Ernest Cline. Impossible to put down.

    Thanks.

  46. 46.

    Katie5

    My sf/f favorites at the moment

    Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Wind-up Girl

    Stamping Butterflies by Jon Courtenay Grimwood

    Counting Heads by David Marusek

    and anything by Ken MacLeod

  47. 47.

    Denali

    Children and Fire, Ursala Hegli’s new book – fascinating intersection of the personal and political in Germany in the 1930’s.

  50. 50.

    MaryRC

    I think you’d like Kate Atkinson. I’ve only read her mysteries: Case Histories, One Good Turn and When Will There Be Good News? I’m looking forward to her latest: Started Early, Took My Dog.

    I second Elizabelle’s recommendation of Ruth Rendell, although I prefer the books she writes under the name of Barbara Vine. The Vine books are more psychological studies rather than the classic detective procedural/whodunnit, which to me is not Rendell’s strong suit.

    I think we all agree about Into the Woods!

  51. 51.

    Katie5

    If you like the urban fantasy of Jeff Vandermeer, you’ll like K J Bishop’s The Etched City and Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere. Neverwhere was made into a BBC show, which was pretty good, although it needed better production values.

  52. 52.

    Tlazolteotl

    I loved the first two Tana French books and have “Faithful Place” with me now while on vacation…looks like I will enjoy it :-)

  53. 53.

    Delia

    I was also vastly disappointed by In The Woods. Clues pointing to the killer way too obvious and too much left unresolved at the end. I’ve stayed away from her other books as a result.

    Michael Connelly never disappoints, but maybe everyone’s already read him. I recently read a Dennis Lehane, A Drink Before the War. Pretty good, and worth giving him another shot. Somebody mentioned Walter Mosley. He takes the standard PI novel to a whole other level. Anything he writes is great.

    For satiric twists on the form, Carl Hiaasen.

  54. 54.

    Sarah Proud and Tall

    Over the last year I have also read almost every story that Raymond Chandler wrote. Few writers have ever given me more pleasure. If you haven’t read The Big Sleep or Farewell, my Lovely, you really should.

  55. 55.

    Water balloon

    @karen marie: You loathed the Magic Mountain? That’s one of my all time favorites. It’s actually very funny, especially once Mynheer Peeperkorn appears. What didn’t you like about it?

  58. 58.

    piratedan

    well, since I haven’t seen them mentioned…..

    Lawrence Block – I’m not the biggest fan of all of his works, but I really enjoyed the Burgler series…

    George C. Chesbro – The Mongo books are a decided change of pace, Shadow of a Broken Man and City of Whipsering Stone are the first ones in the series.

    as for SF/Fantasy detective works… I’ve liked the Thomas Harlan future alternate history books and always have to put a shout out to Glen Cook’s Garrett P.I. series in a fantasy noir setting.

  59. 59.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    You should read everything Vorkosigan by Lois McMaster Bujold, starting with Cordelia’s Honor (the first two novels, repackaged).

    To quote the outlaws who invaded Flint’s home and got shot by his wife (Louis L’Amour): “That woman had SAND!”

    Then you should start on CJ Cherryh;s Merchanter-Alliance universe. My fave is “Merchanter’s Luck”.

  62. 62.

    Jess

    “What else should I be reading, kiddies?”

    Reginald Hill, if you haven’t already. He’s just “so you”–I can’t imagine you not falling in love with his cynical, hilarious, pitch-perfect portrayals of the English class system in Yorkshire. I recommend “Underworld” as a good place to start; his earlier works can drag a bit, and his later ones, while superb, are best enjoyed with a certain amount of familiarity with the characters’ backstory.

    Enjoy!

Comments are closed.