DECEMBER 2019 - READING LIST AND PICK OF THE MONTH

A bit of a flat end to the reading year with only 5 books read in the month. I enjoyed all the books, but life interfered massively with my reading - trying to deal with solicitors, estate agents and the like for the impending move of an elderly parent into more suitable accommodation, while juggling some year end work pressures really got up in my reading grill.

No 5 STAR read to go out with a bang but there was one which came close. 

Three reads were worthy of 4 STARS - two of them were re-reads
There was one 3 STAR read, which I found a bit draggy but enjoyed overall

Book of the month - Andrew Davie and Pavement

4.5 STAR READS - x 1 Pavement from Andrew Davie


4 STAR READ - x 3 - Gerald Petievich - Money Men, Mark J. Newman - Violence in the Blood and Julie Morrigan - Cutter's Firm 

3  STAR READS - x 1 - Dave Warner and Exxxpresso

I spent time in the company of .....

an ex-con ripped off by his ex-wife and in hock to a dangerous criminal who wants his money

a broken family and a journo in the cross hairs of a vicious criminal

a treasury agent and his partner seeking the killer of a young colleague in a sting gone bad

a couple of outlaws, cleaning shop, keeping order and crossing a cartel

a fixer with a gambling habit and some poor friend choices seeking revenge

Settings...... 

Kalgoorie and Perth, Australia; the north east of England - maybe Newcastle?; Los Angeles; an unnamed location off the i-95 south in the US and Miami; Glasgow and maybe a trip south to England if memory serves me well.


The full list of 5 reads with links to my reviews below......

Dave Warner - Exxxpresso (2000) (3)

Julie Morrigan - Cutter's Firm (2015) (4)

Gerald Petievich - Money Men (1983) (4)

Andrew Davie - Pavement (2019) (4.5)

Mark Newman - Violence in the Blood (2016) (4)


More information than you'll ever need to know ......


New to me authors in the month - 1 - Andrew Davie - with his debut.
I'm looking forward to his second book late 2020.

Authors enjoyed before - 4 - Dave Warner, Julie Morrigan, Mark J. Newman and Gerald Petievich.

The books by Newman and Petievich were re-reads. I have more on the TBR pile from all 4 authors

5 reads from 5 different authors

3 were series books .....

Mark J. Newman - Violence in the Blood is the first in his Crime Syndicate series

Money Men is the first in Gerald Petievich's Charlie Carr series.

Julie Morrigan's Cutter's Firm is the second in her Cutter trilogy - after Cutter's Deal which was enjoyed previously

Andrew Davie's Pavement has the potential to be a series with hopefully reappearances from lead characters McGill and Gropper 

Gender analysis -  1 female authors, 4 male.

Of the 5 different authors read, 2 hail from the USA, 2 hail from England (I think) , 1 unknown - might be American, might be English unsure and I don't suppose it matters

All 5 reads were fiction

4 of the 5 books read were published this century

1 from 2019, 1 from 2015, 1 from 2016

Of the 2 older books, 1 was from the 2000 and 1 from 1983


2 came from the man-cave blue tub stash in my garage - Dave Warner's and Gerald Petievich's

Publishers - Picador, All Due Respect, Morrigan Publishing, Mark J. Newman and unknown - I passed Money Men on before noting who published it

All 5 of the reads were pre-owned,



Favourite cover? Gerald Petievich - Money Men

Second favourite cover - Andrew Davie and Pavement

Random trivia - 3 of the 5 covers seem to feature roads

My reads were this long 384 - 102 - 224 - 114 - 105

Total page count =  929 ( 3083 in November) ....... a decrease of 2146 pages


2 were Kindle reads, 3 were paperbacks,

0 < 50,
0 between 51 < 100,
3 between 101 < 200,
1 between 201 < 300,
1 between 301 < 400,
0 between 401 < 500
0 over 500 pages

Dave Warner's Exxxpresso was the longest read at 384 pages

Julie Morrigan's Cutter's Firm was the shortest at 102 pages long.