SEPTEMBER 2015 - READING LIST AND PICK OF THE MONTH

Bit late posting my monthly round-ups, but hey so what.



11 books read in the month..... see below,

Verge Le Noir - Shell Casings (2014) (4.5)

Adam Howe - Gator Bait (2015) (4.5)

Benedict J. Jones - Skewered and Other London Cruelties (2014) (5)

Pierre Boileau/ Thomas Narcejac - Vertigo (1954) (4.5)

Benedict J. Jones - The Book of Skin (2015) (4.5)

Benedict J. Jones - Pennies for Charon (2014) (5)

Ed McBain - Guns (1976) (4.5)

Mark Pryor - The Blood Promise (2014) (3.5)

Eryk Pruitt - Hashtag (2015) (4.5)

Bill Pronzini - Scattershot (1982) (4)

Max Allan Collins - Scratch Fever (1982) (4)

A bit of useless data..........

11 reads from 9 different authors, counting double act Boileau-Narcejac as a single entity.

4 of the 9 were new-to-me authors.

2 of the 11 were 5 star reads and 6 were 4.5's (a new category for me – self-explanatory), 2 were 4s and 1 was a 3.5. All enjoyed, not a stinker among them.

Both my 5 star reads (and 1 of the 4.5s) came from the same dude – Benedict J. Jones. 

On balance I slightly favour the novel Pennies for Charon over the shorter offerings in Skewered and Other London Cruelties – though the latter does display his versatility and ability to entertain across genres.  Sex, violence, torture – among some of the difficult topics explored, but a main character in Charlie Constaniou with heart and several other notable attributes.

September’s Book of the Month – Pennies for Charon by Benedict J. Jones!  

9 of the 9 authors read were male. No females. Oops - radical gender imbalance alert! (Deja-vous I fear)

Cover of the month! Hashtag by Eryk Pruitt

5 of the 9 authors hail from the US. 3 from England, though one now resides in the US, 1 from France (or 2 halves if you like).

1 book from the 50s, 1 from the 70s, 2 from the 80s, 6 from last year and 2 from 2015.

All 11 were fiction.  7 novels, 2 collection of short stories and 2 short stories/novellas standing on their own.

5 ½ books were sent to me by the authors (or publicists/publishers on their behalf) – cheers!

3 ½ were bought. (Skewered was bought a year or two ago and when republished by Crime Wave Press contained additional stories that my copy didn’t have. Ben Jones was kind enough to forward me a complete PDF.)

1 was accessed via Edelweiss review site (courtesy of publisher 280 Steps),

1 was a free download at Smashwords

5 were paperbacks, 4 ½ were Kindle reads and 1 ½ were PDFs .

Total page count - 1989