Wednesday, 8 January 2014

2013 AWARD WINNING BOOK CHALLENGE SUMMARY

5 STARS
Notes from my sidebar, (which I can now delete) stated..........Trying to read at least 1 book a month that has previously won either an Edgar, CWA Gold or Silver Dagger, Shamus, Anthony, The Glass Key or Ned Kelly Award,


12 total in the year and I would be happy and could consider the challenge met. If some of them happened to crossover into my Scandinavian challenge and offer the opportunity to kill two birds with the one stone - all good and I do like a bit of double-counting! (3 actually)

Here's the list of what I managed:

January - Jo Nesbo - The Bat (Glass Key, 1998) - (4 stars)

January - Ed Lacy - Room To Swing (Edgar Award, 1958) - (4 stars)

February - Adam Hall - The Quiller Memorandum (Edgar Award, 1966) - (4 stars)

March - Gene Kerrigan - The Rage (CWA Gold Dagger, 2012) - (4 stars)

4 STARS
April - Dick Francis - Forfeit (Edgar Award, 1970) - (4 stars)

May/June - Lawrence Block - Eight Million Ways To Die (Shamus, 1982) - (4 stars)

June - Brian Garfield - Hopscotch (Edgar Award, 1976) - (5 stars)

July - Belinda Bauer - Blacklands (CWA Gold Dagger, 2010) - (4 stars)

August - FAILED!

September - Nicolas Freeling - The King Of The Rainy Country (Edgar Award, 1967) - (3 stars)

September - Karin Altvegen - Missing (Glass Key, 2001) - (3 stars)

October - Walter Mosley - Devil In A Blue Dress (Shamus Best 1st PI Novel, 1991) - (4 stars)

Nov/December - Leif Davidsen - Lime's Photograph (Glass Key, 1999) - (4 stars)

December - Gregory McDonald - Fletch (Edgar Award, 1975) - (4 stars)

4 STARS
In summary, 13 read in total,

6 Edgar winners, 3 Glass Key winners, 2 Shamus winners and 2 CWA Gold Dagger winners, (disappointingly nothing that scooped the Ned Kelly Award.)

11 male authors, 2 females (big surprise, huh?)

5 US authors, 4 UK authors, 1 from Ireland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway,

1 from the 50's, 2 x 60's, 3 x 70's, 1 x 80's, 3 x 90's, 1 from the noughties and 2 from our present decade. (Spitting hairs Francis 1970 Edgar winner was probably a 60's book rather than a 70's, so 1 up, 1 down!)

Best book from my unscientific scoring was Brian Garfield's Hopscotch. 

2 books which I awarded 4 stars to, with hindsight I wish I had given the extra star to as I couldn't really fault them - The Rage (Gene Kerrigan) and The Quiller Memorandum (Adam Hall aka Elleston Trevor)

Not too many lows, least enjoyable was Freeling and Rainy Country, which in truth was probably a 2 star read.

3 STARS (GENEROUS!)



I won't continue this challenge for 2014, but will highlight what has won an award as and when I read something.




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18 comments:

  1. Prashant C. Trikannad8 January 2014 at 22:43

    Col, you can't go wrong with a Brian Garfield novel. I haven't read "Hopscotch" though. I'd a vague recollection of Adam Hall (Elleston Trevor as you mentioned) and found that he has written dozens of books. I'm already game for his espionage-related Quiller novels. Thanks for the heads up.

    By the way, NetGalley has already bombarded me with two books. I have stopped firing from my side. A question: do you review every single ebook from NetGalley or do you occasionally write about them without (as yet) reading them? Thanks, Col.

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    1. col29108 January 2014 at 23:48

      Garfield's novel was perfect and I kind of felt that the author enjoyed himself as he wrote it. I would love to read a lot more from him, but only have a couple more of his laying around. They usually weigh in at about 200 pages, which is another added bonus.

      Hopefully, I will read more Quiller/Hall books this year.......the series runs to 19 in total, written over a period of 30 years. If it took him that long to write them I can allow myself the same period of time to read them!

      Re Net Galley, I have accepted a couple of their invitations to me also in the past, but declined a few as it would be reading a book for the sake of it rather than something I would choose to read. I can honestly say though that I have read all that I have reviewed. About 16/17 so far I think. I still have more I'm working through, as I kind of went a bit mad and requested too many!
      What books have you had from the site? I'm interested in knowing what grabbed your attention.

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    2. Prashant C. Trikannad9 January 2014 at 00:52

      Col, I requested three and got two, both thrillers, namely "One May Smile" by Penny Freedman (Troubador, UK) and "Trans-Siberian Express" by Warren Adler (Stonehouse, for which I'm auto-approved). I liked the storylines and the covers. Perhaps, they'll live up to my expectation. The ebooks are a little over 200 and 300 pages long. It's too early for me to receive invites—thank god!

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    3. col29109 January 2014 at 00:55

      Prashant, thanks. I will check them out......purely for research purposes only (and not because I might have missed a couple of gems!)......seriously I'm not asking for more books from there before I have caught up.

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  2. Bernadette8 January 2014 at 23:27

    I read Hopscotch years ago...don't remember too much about it but I do like the adaptation which Garfield helped write...Walter Matheau in fine form

    About the only one of these that I've read and disagree with you and the award givers on is Nesbo's The Bat...but life would be boring if we all agreed

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    1. col29108 January 2014 at 23:56

      I'd love to see that film, Glenda Jackson as well I believe. I'll keep my eyes peeled for it, Matthau is usually pretty good to watch.

      I seem to recall you had issues with some of Nesbo's Bat regarding the setting and some of the local flavour. Never having been to Aus. it probably all went over my head.....I still need to read a Harry Hole book set in Norway! Cockroaches which is no.2 and ordered from the library, apparently is set in Bangkok.

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  3. Clothes In Books9 January 2014 at 01:26

    Nice list: I've read a few of these, and wouldn't mind reading Hopscotch, as it sounds funny and fun - I remember your review from earlier in the year. Re: NetGalley - I (try to) make it a rule only to go looking for books or authors I know about. If you start browsing you end up asking for far too many books...

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    1. col29109 January 2014 at 01:40

      Moira thanks. Hopscotch was a blast.

      Re Net Galley, I think I temporarily turned into Veruca Salt when I first hit the site. Some of my pending reads are previous author favourites, some are new books/authors I liked the sound of........but yes I ought to be a bit more constrained.

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  4. col29109 January 2014 at 05:10

    Margot said.......Well done, Col! I'm glad you had so many good 'uns in this challenge. And I couldn't agree more about The Rage. Isn't it a great read? - Margot Kinberg

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    1. col29109 January 2014 at 05:11

      Margot thanks, I still have a couple of Kerrigan's to read at some point which is all good! (I'll paste your comment on the blog - even if it might look as if I'm talking to myself!)

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  5. TracyK9 January 2014 at 10:28

    Most of what I would say here, others have already said. Hopscotch (reading and watching the movie) is going to be my first book to movie foray this year. So in the next month or so. Many of the others sound good and I want to read them. Rage by Kerrigan for sure.

    I hope I like Freeling more than you did because I bought a few at the book sale. I did not pay much for them.. but still.

    I like the personal challenges you set up. I have a few unofficial ones.

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    1. col29109 January 2014 at 20:03

      Tracy, I'm going to have to have a look and see if the film is available over here. I'll keep an eye out for your comparison. I think you will enjoy Rage, I hope so at least.

      Freeling just didn't tick many boxes for me, and I found it a bit of a chore, Whether a second book would change my opinion, maybe.....but I think I can get by without him. Fingers crossed you take to him more than I did.

      Challenges? You nearly got me with the global one yesterday, but I think I'll stick!

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  6. Anonymous9 January 2014 at 15:01

    Only seen the movie of HOPSCOTCH, which I thought was great - must read more Garfield, thanks!

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    1. col29109 January 2014 at 20:11

      Sergio, thanks. I'd like to read more Garfield myself, but will probably leave it a few months and then forget about him for another couple of years, until something jogs my memory. Great author though.

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  7. RebeccaK9 January 2014 at 17:59

    Interesting list with a few I'd like to read as I haven't read any of them. I like reading reviews of older stuff because I'm a bit burned out by contemporary stuff. And, finally, how many Edgar awards do they give out each year? I seem to see it on lots of jacket copy.

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    1. col29109 January 2014 at 20:15

      Rebecca cheers. I might be with you on older books - they're shorter for starters!
      I think there's about 9 Edgar Awards in total, though that includes a TV award, juvenile/YA awards, short story, factual crime. The main ones I suppose are Best Novel, Best First Novel by an American and Best Paperback Original.

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  8. w13 January 2014 at 07:00

    I enjoyed THE RAGE by Kerrigan. Too bad I didn't find his backlist as successful (to be fair I read one other title and it wasn't nearly as good to me). I own two Garfield titles (can't remember but you reviewed one of them) and the Adam Hall title. I started reading the Hall but set it aside for something. I need to get back to it.

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    1. col291013 January 2014 at 21:07

      I think THE RAGE raised the bar for him, but I didn't think his previous one(s) I read were too shabby. I had a look through Garfield's list on Fantastic Fiction which has a quick premise on most of the books. Blimey, he's quite prolific and there's maybe 20 more of his I wouldn't mind reading, which probably won't happen. Hall - hopefully I can read number 2 in the Quiller series this year.

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