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
