Ian Rankin
Ian Rankin: Knots and Crosses
Blurb: ‘And in Edinburgh of all places. I mean, you never think of that sort of thing happening in Edinburgh, do you …?’ ‘ That sort of thing’ is the brutal abduction and murder of two young girls. And now a third is missing, presumably gone to the same sad end. Detective Sergeant John Rebus, […]
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Two Christmas Mystery Short Story Anthologies
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Festive Tasks, Door 21 — Good Luck Charms and Traditions: Read a book from the fantasy genre, or one with something on the cover that refers to “luck”. Festive Tasks, Door 24 — Cherished Memories: Read a book with a split timeline, one that takes place in the present […]
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Favorite Rainy Day Reads
24 Festive Tasks: Door 5 – Bon Om Touk, Bonus Task: List / tell us about your favorite rainy day reads. I suppose it only takes one look at my list of read books this year to determine my favorite rainy day books, as 2020 was essentially one extended rainy day: Golden Age mysteries and […]
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Ian Rankin: A Song for the Dark Times
24 Festive Tasks: Door 5 – Bon Om Touk, Book: Read a book that has the moon, or an ocean, river, lake, or other body of water (larger than a puddle) on the cover, read a manga, or read a book set anywhere in Asia. As my book for this square, I’m claiming Ian […]
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Six Favorite Scottish Writers
24 Festive Tasks: Door 12 – St. Andrew’s Day, Task 1: Tell us: Who is your favorite Scottish (or Scots-born / -descendant) writer? Six favorite Scottish writers: Arthur Conan Doyle: Elementary. Robert Louis Stevenson: For Kidnapped alone — though his Edinburgh Picturesque Notes, even 150 years after their first publication, remain one of the […]
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My Rainy Day Reads
24 Festive Tasks: Door 5 – Bon Om Touk, Task 1: List / tell us about your favorite rainy day reads. Any- and everything that — with or without a mug of hot tea and some chocolate or other snacks — makes me feel all warm and comfortable (while still engaging my brain cells, […]
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Halloween Bingo 2019: Tracking Post — Blackout! (And bingos Nos. 12 and 13.)
Many thanks to Moonlight Reader and Obsidian Blue for hosting this game for the fourth year in a row, bigger and better than ever before! Witih today’s call, I’ve blacked out my card, in addition to collecting my final bingos (nos. 12 and 13). Somewhat to my surprise, after completing my books for my […]
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Halloween Bingo 2019: Tracking Post — Bingo No. 3 and Reading Blackout
* Triple Bingo Happy Dance * Well, that went by much faster than I had anticipated … Many thanks to Moonlight Reader and Obsidian Blue for hosting this game for the fourth year in a row, bigger and better than ever before! I’ll continue tracking my bingos of course — and since we now have […]
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Bingo call: 9/21/19 – Modern Noir
Reblogged from: Moonlight Murder Modern Noir: mystery with noir elements, including authors like James Ellroy, Ian Rankin, anything that falls generally under the category of Nordic Noir, Tartan Noir, Granite Noir, etc; Book list linked here. Mystery square. Original post: ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/1955670/bingo-call-9-21-19
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Halloween Bingo 2019 PreParty — Question for 08/09 (Day 9): Book Suggestions for the New Squares? Part 1: “Paint It Black”
Today’s prompt is for favorite horror reads; that not being much of my thing (outside, perhaps, the gothic classics and anything more edifying or funny rather than scary), I think I’m going to leave that prompt to Char, Bark’s Books (aka Bark at the Ghouls), and the site’s other horror fans. Instead, I’m going to […]
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All 61 squares revealed: 19 through 38 (Mystery / Suspense & Supernatural)
Reblogged from: Moonlight Reader The Mystery & Supernatural squares! The Mystery Squares: 19. Genre: Mystery: anything that fits into the mystery genre. Book list linked here. 20. Amateur Sleuth: this mystery will have a main character who is not a member of law enforcement. This can include retired police officers and private detectives. Book […]
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Halloween Bingo 2019 PreParty — Question for 08/06 (Day 6): Favorite Seasonal Covers — Mysteries and Crime
Original post: ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/1931388/halloween-bingo-2019-preparty-question-for-08-06-day-6-favorite-seasonal-covers-mysteries-and-crime
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Halloween Bingo 2019 PreParty — Question for 08/01 (Day 1): Mystery or Horror?
Mystery, definitely. For one thing, I’m a total chicken — I can’t look at blood (not even, or rather, especially not my own, e.g. in medical procedures); and anything shocking, spooky, or otherwise unnaturally unsettling just has me running for the rafters. That’s particularly true at night — which is when I’m doing a […]
Read MoreBooks With a Difference
Responding to Moonlight Reader’s “call for papers (= titles / authors)” — there are quite a number of excellent lists out there already; anyway, here’s my contribution … or a first draft, at least. Links go to my reviews (or status updates / summary blog posts / author pages) to the extent I’ve posted any. […]
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My Personal Literary Canon, Part 2: “Veteran” Readership
24 Festive Tasks, Door 5, Task 3: Tell us: What author’s books would you consider yourself a veteran of (i.e., by author have you read particularly many books – or maybe even all of them)? The authors by whom I’ve read the most books don’t coincide exactly, but substantially with those that I’d also consider […]
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Book Rescue, Book-Related Places of Pilgrimage … and My Personal Literary Canon, Part 1
24 Festive Tasks: Door 7 – Mawlid, Task 2: The Five Pillars of Islam almsgiving and the pilgrimage to Mekka. Tell us: Have you ever donated books or rescued them from (horror of horrors) being trashed? Alternatively: Is there a book-related place that is a place of pilgrimage to you? If I donate books, I […]
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A Cornucopia of Holiday Stories
Turns out I already knew five of the ten stories in this anthology: Ellis Peters’s The Trinity Cat Julian Symons’s The Santa Claus Club Ian Rankin’s No Sanity Clause G.K. Chesterton’s The Dagger With Wings and Marjorie Bowen’s Cambric Tea. So I skipped those (though I do really like the stories by Ellis Peters, Julian […]
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The Twelve Tasks of the Festive Season — Grand Finale and BLACKOUT!
Snow Globes: Reads Bells: Activities I intend to also read a book for the Kwanzaa square and try to get as many of my as-yet missing activities done (Holiday Down Under, Movie Ticket, and Holiday Party), but since completing either activities or reads qualifies for completing a square, as far as the game itself is […]
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Ian Rankin: Even Dogs in the Wild
The Twelve Tasks of the Festive Season — Task the Fourth: The Gift Card: – Read a book that you either received as a gift or have given as a gift. This task truly came in handy, as my birthday fell smack into the Halloween Bingo and I therefore haven’t made particularly great inroads […]
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The Twelve Tasks of the Festive Season — Task the Sixth: The Hanukkah
Reading: Let the dreidel choose a book for you: נ Nun (miracle): Christopher Paolini – Eldest (audio version read by Kerry Shale) ג Gimel (great): Arthur Conan Doyle – The Valley of Fear (audio version read by Simon Vance) ה He (happened): Ian Rankin – Even Dogs in the Wild ש Shin (there, i.e. Israel): J.R.R. […]
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