Garry Disher - The Heat (2015) (5)
Bill Pronzini - Casefile (1983) (4)Robert Palmer - The Survivors (2015) (4.5)
Lono Waiwaiole - Wiley's Lament (2003) (4)
Nathanael West - Miss Lonelyhearts (1933) (2)
Sean Costello - Squall (2015) (4.5)
Lawrence Block - A Bad Night for Burglars (2011) (4)
J. A. Kazimer - A Very F***ed-Up Valentine's Tale (2015) (4)
Lawrence Block - Keller in Dallas (2009) (4.5)
Lawrence Block - Death of the Mallory Queen (2016) (3)
Bill Pronzini - Quicksilver (1984) (4)
Noreen Ayres - The Juan Doe Murders (2000) (3)
Max Allan Collins - Quarry's List (1976) (5)
Malcolm Mackay - Anatomy of a Hit (2013) (5)
As is my want, a bit of data .......
14 reads from 12 different authors,
4 of the 12 were new-to-me authors.
3 – 5 star reads Garry Disher's The Heat, Max Allan Collins with Quarry's List and Malcolm Mackay's 70 page Anatomy of a Hit.
2 of the 3 concern hit men, the other is a professional thief, who will kill to avoid capture! You can see where my reading preferences lay, I think!
Book of the month on the basis that I'd be more inclined to re-read this one - Garry Disher - The Heat!
2 of the 3 concern hit men, the other is a professional thief, who will kill to avoid capture! You can see where my reading preferences lay, I think!
Book of the month on the basis that I'd be more inclined to re-read this one - Garry Disher - The Heat!
3 of the 14 were 4.5 star reads, 5 scored 4.0 and 2 were 3.0s and 1 was a 2.0..... The 3.0s were ok, Noreen Ayres and her The Juan Doe Murders dragged a bit Lawrence Block's Chip Harrison short story was averagely good
Nathanael West's 1933 novella Miss Lonelyhearts wasn't all that good, but on the plus side it was only 70-ish pages long.
10 of the 12 authors read were male. 2 females only - a decrease on last month!
Cover of the month! Sean Costello's Squall. The fast-paced tale was really enjoyable as well.
9 of the 12 authors hail from the US - not a surprise!. 1 from Australia, 1 from Scotland,1 from Canada,
1 book from the 1930s, 1 from the 70s, 1 from the 80s, 3 from the 2000s, 6 from this decade - 2011 (x1), 2013 (x1), 2015 (x3) and 2016 (x1).
All 14 were fiction.
4 books were sent to me by the publishers, 10 were owned copies - though 5 of them were gotten from Amazon when freebies. (3 with thanks to Mr Block!)
4 were paperbacks, 1 was a hardback, 9 were Kindle reads,
My two monthly series reads continued - 2 Quarry books down 9 to go from Max Allan Collins, 13 Nameless books from Bill Pronzini read maybe 30 to go!
I did also manage to read a Scottish and an Australian book, which gets me a bit closer to completing the irritating sidebar challenges. I must be halfway on my US State reading challenge but haven't updated it in about two years!
Total page count - 2168 - a slight decrease on December's 2593.
Kerrie over at Mysteries in Paradise, collates crime fiction bloggers monthly round ups and their best books over at her site.
Check out what others enjoyed in February here.
Rest of the covers......
Glad to see you had a good reading month, Col - some solid winners, and no really awful reads, and that's great. Not surprised that Block shows up so much. And I'm very glad you liked the Disher as much as you did. I think he's really quite talented.
ReplyDeleteMargot thanks. Nothing too awful in the month - a few enjoyed less than others, but that's to be expected. Block and Disher - favourites in common!
DeleteThanks, Col, for your reviews and lists. I always find authors to check out on your blog.
ReplyDeleteElgin thanks. I hope you enjoy whatever recommendations you might pick up on.
DeleteI would be envious of your ability to read so many books and other works of fiction in one month, but if I read that many I would not be able to keep up with posts about them all. Thanks for all the stats.
ReplyDeleteI would chastise you for not keeping up your list of US state reads (but only because I want to see what you have read) but I am woefully behind on tracking that myself. A reminder I need to do that too.
I do struggle to keep on top of it all at times and whilst I enjoying blogging sometimes it's a chore and who wants to hear from me every day? No one really.
DeleteI will try and do a catch-up post on the US state challenge, not least so I can try and get closer to completion. I had a rough count up and I believe I'm about halfway. I would like to focus on getting some other states covered.
As usual very impressive reading, Col. What time of the day, or night, do you read?
ReplyDeleteMostly in the evenings, though if I can sneak 20 or 30 pages in the morning before work happy days!
DeleteGood haul and some great covers - and I agree with you about the best one.
ReplyDeleteCheers, Moira. March isn't looking so good!
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