Joy Ellis
Joy Ellis: They Disappeared
Before starting this book, I’d said I hoped Ellis was done with the serial killer plots, as I had a feeling she was at risk of turning into a one trick pony that way — well, let’s say I both did and didn’t get my wish. (Several gruesome deaths, yes, but not a mentally diseased […]
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Halloween Bingo 2020: The First Week (+1 Day)
This year’s Halloween Bingo started a lot more promising than last year’s with a strong joint entry in Michael Connelly’s Bosch and Ballard series, and in fact, not one of the books I read earned less than a four-star rating — with the standout being Nicholas Blake’s The Beast Must Die, which turned out to […]
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Snakes and Ladders, 2020 Edition – TA’s Master Tracking Post: DONE!
Tracking courtesy of Charlie and Sunny, as always, of course! SPACES AND DICE ROLLS 1. Author is a woman — Patricia Wentworth: Pilgrim’s Rest (finished April 1, 2020) 2. Genre: mystery 3. Set in the twentieth century 4. Published in 2019 5. Published in 2018 6. Title has a color word in it 7. Author’s last […]
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Joy Ellis: The Patient Man – Reading Progress Update: 1%
Wow. What a beginning. And just for a moment, I wanted to wring Ms. Ellis’s neck there. Hard. Original post: ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/2164092/reading-progress-update-i-ve-read-1
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Joy Ellis: Five Bloody Hearts
24 Festive Tasks: Door 14 – St. Nicholas’ Day / Sinterklaas, Book: Read a book with an orange or red cover, set in the Netherlands or Germany, by a Dutch or German author, or with nuts, chocolate, coins, canals or beer on the cover. Well, this may be stretching the spirit of the holiday a […]
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Joy Ellis: Jackman and Evans & Matt Ballard Series
As a new discovery, this is a carry-over from 2018, when Ellis’s Their Lost Daughters completely knocked me sideways during Halloween Bingo. I’ve since read her entire Jackman & Evans series — my favorite entries still being Their Lost Daughters as well as, coming very close, book 4 of the series, The Guilty Ones […]
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2019: The Books I’ve Been Most Thankful For
24 Festive Tasks: Door 11 – Thanksgiving: Task 2 Tell us: Of the books that you read this year, which are you most thankful for, OR was there one that turned out to be full of “stuffing”? Alternatively, which (one) book that you read anytime at all changed your life for the better?”) With another […]
Read MoreJoy Ellis: Beware the Past
Reading progress update: 20%. Since I’ve read all of Joy Ellis’s Jackman & Evans books (or all that she’s published to date), what a good thing she’s come up with yet another series set in the Fens … and so far, I’m liking it — and DCI Matt Ballard — really, really very much. And […]
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Joy Ellis: The Stolen Boys
24 Festive Tasks: Door 4 – Guy Fawkes Night, Book: Read a book set in the UK, a political thriller, a book involving any monarchy or revolution, a book about arson or related to fires and burning, a book whose plot involves costumes / fancy dress, or that has masks on the cover, or that […]
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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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Halloween Bingo 2019: The Third Week
Well, the third week really hit my bingo experience out of the ballpark this year — and not only Pbecause it finished with my first completed bingo; that was actually just the icing on the cake. But it included no less than three absolutely knock-out fabulous books, plus a fourth that was almost as good […]
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Joy Ellis: The Guilty Ones
Aaah, what a joy to move from my last book, which was so-so at best, to an absolute stunner! I had every faith this was going to be the case, and Ellis delivers in spades — in a mystery that this time comes calling so close to DI Jackman’s home that in reality he would […]
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Halloween Bingo 2019 PreParty — Question for 08/10 (Day 10): Most Anticipated Read for 2019?
MR suggested a group or buddy read of Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments — I’d definitely be up for that. (Ditto Toni Morrison’s Beloved, if it comes to that.) If I can work up the nerve, I may reread The Handmaid’s Tale prior to bingo just so as to have the continuity experience; either way, I’m […]
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Halloween Bingo 2019 PreParty — Question for 08/04 (Day 4): Favorites from Halloween Bingos Past?
Oh man. So many! Biggest new discoveries: * Fredric Brown: The Fabulous Clipjoint — huge thank you to Tigus, who gifted his Ed & Am Hunter omnibus to me. Where had Brown been all my life until then? * James D. Doss: Charlie Moon series (via books 6 & 7, Grandmother Spider and White Shell […]
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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 […]
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BL-opoly: Dice Roll #21 & Scottie Dog: Please pick my next book!
Well, I’m not sure what I’ve just read (John Le Carré’s A Small Town in Germany certainly hasn’t aged very well, generally speaking, though in some parts it’s eerily prescient); anyway, having finished it, I’m allowed to roll again. This takes me to square 10: Beach Week — read a book that appears on any […]
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 Favorite Books of 2018
24 Festive Tasks: Door 9 – Thanksgiving, Task 1: List the 3 books you’ve read this year you’re most “thankful” for (your favs) or the one book you’ve ever read that changed your life for the better. 2018 was an excellent reading year for me, both in terms of quantity and quality — yet, […]
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Joy Ellis: Their Lost Daughters
Why, oh why did anybody think that this book’s title (!!) needed an appendage such as “a gripping crime thriller with a huge twist” on Amazon (and likely thus also on every other site that draws its feed from Amazon and where there aren’t any librarians to do away with this sort of nonsense) in […]
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