2019 - MY BOOKS OF THE YEAR

A bit later than intended - last year's top banana books

Seven in total - 1 from the 70s, 2 from the 90s, 4 from last year/this year

John Dunning - Booked to Die (1992) (5)

Mick Herron - The Catch (2020) (5)

Peter Ritchie - Our Little Secrets (2019) (5)

Peter Temple - An Iron Rose (1998) (5)

Brian Freemantle - Goodbye to an Old Friend (1973) (5)

Kimi Cunningham Grant - Fallen Mountains (2019) (5)

Elgin Bleecker - Lyme Depot (2019) (5)


Previous posts......

2018 - MY BOOKS OF THE YEAR

2017 - BOOKS OF THE YEAR

2016 - PICKS OF THE YEAR

2015 - PICKS OF THE YEAR

2014 - PICKS OF THE YEAR

2013 - MY FAVOURITE READS OF THIS YEAR

2012 - BOOKS OF THE YEAR

2011 - SUMMARY

2010 - SUMMARY

NOVEMBER 2019 - READING LIST AND PICK OF THE MONTH

November's reading round-up posted in March! WTF - well I'm a bit behind on some of my posts. Apologies to the multitudes who have been wondering for the past four months where the round up post aka the monthly insomnia cure was.

The wait is over!

A dozen books enjoyed in the month - both read and listened to.

5 STAR reads - 2 of them - Mick Herron's novella The Catch and John Dunning's Booked to Die 

Book of the month - John Dunning - Booked to Die for no other reason than I'm pretty sure Mick Herron has been the blog's monthly top banana before.

4.5 STARS - x 4 Candice Fox and Crimson Lake, Russell Rowland with Cold Country, Larry D. Sweazy  - The Lost are the Last to Die and Heather Harper Ellett's debut Ain't Nobody Nobody

4 STAR READS - x 3 - T.S. Hunter - Killer Queen, Lawrence Block - Spider, Spin Me a Web and Heleen Kist - Stay, Mad Sweetheart 

3.5 STAR READS - x 1 - Owen Mullen and Deadly Harm

3  STAR READS - x 1 - Lawrence Block - The Adulterers

2.5 STAR READS - x 1 - Lawrence Block (as John Warren Wells) and Wide Open

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


a cop turned bookseller


a group of abuse victims gathering strength

an ex-cop with a shadow hanging over him

a small town community in thrall to a bully

a troubled married couple on a road trip

a "milkman"  with some trouble on his "round"

a grieving friend looking out for family

a one armed retired Ranger chasing a blast from his past

the Soho gay community in the 80s

a researcher/sex counselor and his subjects

a celebrated author revealing some tricks of his trade

some strong women fighting back against workplace harassment

Settings...... 


Denver; rural Ayrshire and Glasgow; Crimson Lake - Australia; Paradise Valley - Montana; mostly Mexico with a bit of USA; London; backwoods East Texas, rural Texas; London; a writer's office; the same writer's office; Edinburgh

Full list of books enjoyed with links to my reviews.....


John Dunning - Booked to Die (1992) (5)

Owen Mullen - Deadly Harm (2019) (3.5)

Candice Fox - Crimson Lake (2017) (4.5)

Russell Rowland - Cold Country (2019) (4.5)

Lawrence Block - The Adulterers (1960) (3)

Mick Herron - The Catch (2020) (5)

Heather Harper Ellett - Ain't Nobody Nobody (2019) (4.5)

Larry D. Sweazy - The Lost are the Last to Die (2019) (4.5)

T.S. Hunter - Killer Queen (2019) (4)

Lawrence Block (as John Warren Wells) - Wide Open (1973) (2.5)

Lawrence Block - Spider, Spin Me a Web (1986) (4)

Heleen Kist - Stay Mad, Sweetheart (2019) (4)


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


New to me authors in the month - 5 - John Dunning, Candice Fox, Russell Rowland, Heather Harper Ellett and Heleen Kist. I have another book from John Dunning on the pile.

Authors enjoyed before - 5 - Owen Mullen, Lawrence Block, Larry D. Sweazy, Mick Herron and T.S. Hunter. I have more from all of them on the TBR pile.



12 reads from 10 different authors - Lawrence Block was read 3 times.

5 were series books .....

John Dunning's Booked to Die is the 1st of 5 in his Cliff Janeway series

Owen Mullen's Deadly Harm might not be a series book per se but features a policeman encountered in some of his other books

Candice Fox has 3 in her Crimson Lake series featuring Ted Conkaffey

Mick Herron's The Catch is the 3rd short novella featuring John Bachelor and other Slough House figures.

T.S. Hunter's Killer Queen is the 5th of 6 with Joe and Russell
 


The Lost are the Last to Die is Larry D. Sweazy's 2nd Sonny Burton book.

Gender analysis -  3 female authors, 7 male.

Of the 10 different authors read, 5 hail from the USA, 1 and a half from England, the other half is from Wales, 1 from the Netherlands, 1 from Australia, 1 from Scotland 

11 of the books were fiction, 1 was non-fiction.

8 of the 12 books read were published this century

6 from 2019, 1 from 2017, 1 from 2020 that I got an early peek at

Of the 4 older books, 1 each from 1960, 1973, 1988 and 1992

None came from the man-cave blue tub stash in my garage

Publishers - Pocket Star, Bloodhound Books, Arrow, Dzanc Books, Soho Press, Polis Books, Five Star Publishing, Red Dog Press x 2 and the 3 from Lawrence Block were all released by the author


All 2 of the 12 reads were pre-owned, 5 came from the author, 2 from publisher Red Dog Press, 1 was a Net Galley book (Polis Books), 2 came from other review site - Edelweiss - Above the Treeline (Soho Press and Dzanc Books)



Favourite cover?  Heather Harper Ellett - Ain't Nobody Nobody

Second favourite cover - Cold Country - Russell Rowland

My reads were this long 432 - 369 - 416 - 248 - 182 (4 hr 20 min) - 128 - 167 - 332 - 76 - 154 (5 hr 34 min) - 243 (4 hr 5 min) - 336

Total page count =  3083 (2795 in October) ....... an increase of 288 pages

Actual read pages was 2504 with 13hr 59 min worth of Audible content

4 were paperbacks, 4 were ePub files read on the laptop, 1 was a Kindle book read on the laptop and 3 were Audible books enjoyed while commuting to and from work


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

John Dunning's Booked to Die was the longest read at 432 pages

T.S. Hunter's Killer Queen was the shortest at 76 pages long.

2020 READING PLANS

Ha, more for my own amusement than anything else and a bit behind the times

(note to self - find 2019 post of same, copy and paste, change dates and images, job done)

Haha - reading plans for a whole year, when I can't stay on track for more than a book, maybe two before getting my head turned by something else. Oh well..

1. Finish an intended TBR Mountain reading challenge that's been on the sidebar since 2014

2. Ditto a USA State reading challenge. I've probably read more than half the states in the country but am too idle to keep things up to date. I would like to finish it in 2019 - err, 2020
 

3. Catch up with my wife and son - I'm a list of books behind on the sidebar.

4. Ditto - an author catch up list.... Charlie Stella, Anthony Neil Smith, Michael Connelly to mention a few

5. Try and complete several book series I started running through some years ago, at a pace of one a month before getting distracted - Matt Scudder by Lawrence Block, Travis McGee by John D. MacDonald, Elvis Cole by Robert Crais, Quarry by Max Allan Collins and Nameless by Bill Pronzini.

6. Do the Aussie Author Challenge over at Booklover Book Reviews site

7. Complete the 2019 European Reading Challenge run by Rose City Reader, aiming for at least 12 countries in the year. Something I never actually started. Rolling over to 2020 then

8. More blog related than reading - finish cataloguing my books - the physical ones at least. I've been a bit slack regarding this!When I get caught up on my blog posts - I'm about a month behind I'll have to get back on the horse. I did do one tubsworth last year. 

The library in the old house

I might try and log the books on the kindle as well for a sense of completism. Plus I have another programme that stores books on the laptop.

9. Try and keep on top of any freebies/review copies that might come my way.

10. Stop browsing Net Galley and Edelweiss early reviewer sites. The world won't end if I don't get my hands on every new crime fiction book published!

11. Stop buying books

12. Stop buying books

13. Stop buying books

14. Try and catch up on the TV and Film backlog listed.

15. Oh and lose some weight you porky git. 

16. I do have a somewhat ambitious goal of trying to read a complete Indie publishers output - All Due Respect. I bloody love them. I think since 2012/2013 they've published nearly 70 books. I've maybe read 20 of them give or take. I probably have 40 in the TBR pile. I just like what they do. So why not aim high?

17. 120 yearly reading target as per usual

18. Read more female authors than in 2019 - I might need to actually find out how many that was first. 

19. Enjoy the books 

20. Try not to let people down - particualrly in respect of breaking promises and deadlines to read things. 

And also good yardstick for life anyway.



2019 READING PLANS

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.

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET: N IS FOR... NORWAY, NISBET, NEMESIS

Another week another batch of 4 from my collection - all N related.

N is for....

Norway - K.O Dahl, Jo Nesbo, Karin Fossum ????  All rejected in favour of

Anne Holt and Jorn Lier Horst

Anne Holt - 1222 (2007)

The only book I have from Anne Holt in my collection.

1222 metres above sea level, train 601 from Oslo to Bergen careens of iced rails as the worst snowstorm in Norwegian history gathers force around it. Marooned in the high mountains with night falling and the temperature plummeting, its 269 passengers are forced to abandon their snowbound train and decamp to a centuries-old mountain hotel. They ought to be safe from the storm here, but as dawn breaks one of them will be found dead, murdered. With the storm showing no sign of abating, retired police inspector Hanne Wilhelmsen is asked to investigate. But Hanne has no wish to get involved. She has learned the hard way that truth comes at a price and sometimes that price just isn't worth paying. Her pursuit of truth and justice has cost her the love of her life, her career in the Oslo Police Department and her mobility: she is paralysed from the waist down by a bullet lodged in her spine. Trapped in a wheelchair, trapped by the killer within, trapped by the deadly storm outside, Hanne's growing unease is shared by everyone in the hotel. Should she investigate, or should she just wait for help to arrive? And all the time rumours swirl about a secret cargo carried by train 601. Why was the last carriage sealed? Why is the top floor of the hotel locked down? Who or what is being concealed? And, of course, what if the killer strikes again?

Jorn Lier Horst - Dregs (2011)

Another new to me author. Pretty sure I have at least one more from him on the pile. Unread of course!


Meet Chief Inspector William Wisting, Head of CID in Larvik, Norway, the latest unforgettable import from Scandinavian crime fiction. An experienced policeman who is familiar with the dark side of human nature, he lives in challenging times for the Norwegian police force, meeting them with integrity and humanity, and a fragile belief that he can play a part in creating a better world. A police report of a shoe containing a severed foot washed up on the sand introduces CI William Wisting. Soon a second is washed up, but it is another left. Has there been some kind of terrible accident at sea? Does it indicate the killing and dismembering of two victims? Is there a link with the unsolved mystery of a number of disappearances in the Larvik area in recent months? In this gripping police procedural, Wisting gradually gets to the bottom of the mystery with the help of his all too human colleagues and his journalist daughter, Line.


N is for.......

Jim Nisbet

I've only read one novel from Jim Nisbet back in 2012 - Lethal Injection. I'm pretty sure it was one of my best read that year, so it's inexplicable really that I haven't read anything else by him in the seven years plus since that beauty.

The Octopus on My Head (2007)

Resigning himself to the doldrums of middle age, the only thing Curly Watkins has left of his former life as a punk rocker is a guitar and a tattoo of an octopus on his head. But his quiet new life quickly evaporates when old vices come back to haunt him, leading to a newfound hell of drugs, drink, and murder.

N is for......

Nemesis - a book in the Nameless PI series from Bill Pronzini

I'm about a dozen books in on this series which runs to over forty. It is one I've enjoyed before getting sidetracked by other books.

Nemesis (2013)

Nemesis is no. 38 in the series. If I get back on the horse and read at a pace of one a month, I can enjoy this around the middle of 2022


Young, newly rich Verity Daniels claims to be receiving threatening demands for money from a mysterious caller. When Jake Runyon agrees to investigate, it seems a relatively simple matter to expose the extortionist by setting a trap for him.

The case, however, is nowhere near as clear-cut as it first appears.

And Verity Daniels is nowhere near the helpless victim she pretends to be.

A series of surprise revelations culminates in Runyon being falsely accused of a crime that never happened, and he and his employers then become the targets of a vicious legal vendetta. A sudden act of violence turns the case upside down, leading to a much more serious charge against Jake.

With the help of partner Tamara Corbin, Nameless (known as Bill to his associates) puts aside the difficult personal issue that has kept him sidelined at home and works to clear both Runyon's and the agency's good names. The task requires untangling Verity Daniels' bizarre past and present relationships, and before Bill succeeds, he must overcome a deadly threat to his own safety.

Previous Alphabet entries.....

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - A IS FOR.... AX, ABBOTT, ABERDEEN

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - B IS FOR ....... BOSTON, BIRD, BONES

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - C IS FOR.........CAPE TOWN, CONFIDENCE MEN, CROSS

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - D IS FOR ....... DETROIT, DISHER, DEAD

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - E IS FOR ....... EDINBURGH, EXCESS, ELLIS

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - F IS FOR ....... FLORIDA, FRANCIS, FLOATERS

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - G IS FOR ....... GALWAY, GUNS, GRAFTON

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - H IS FOR ....... HAMBURG, HAMMETT, HIDDEN RIVER

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - I IS FOR ....... ICE, ICELAND, IZZO

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - J IS FOR ....... JAPAN, JACK CARTER. JELLO SALAD

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - K IS FOR ....... KING, KOREA, KEEPER

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - L IS FOR ........ LE CRIME, LEONARD, LOS ANGELES 

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - M IS FOR ........ MIAMI, MACKAY, MUCHO MOJO

2 BY PABLO D'STAIR

A couple from cult author, Pablo D'Stair this week. Hands-up, I've not read the man yet, but I'm correcting that oversight this month.

D'Stair's fiction is being brought to a wider audience with indie publisher All Due Respect bringing back Man Standing Behind and This Letter to Norman Court recently.

This Letter to Norman Court is the first in a five book series featuring Trevor English. The other four are due for publication later this year.

Various online sources tell me.....

Pablo D’Stair is a novelist, filmmaker, and essayist. He lives and writes in Lancaster, PA.
Pablo D'Stair was born in 1981. He is the author of over forty books of fiction, several collections of poetry, and numerous essays and dialogues. He writes on cinema for the UK film site BRWC: Battle Royale With Cheese and is a regular contributor of fiction, interview, and essay for the Montage: Cultural Paradigm (Sri Lanka).

Thanks to Chris Rhatigan of All Due Respect for putting him on my radar.

Man Standing Behind (2019)

Leaving work on a nondescript evening, Roger is held up at gunpoint when he stops at a cash machine. He attempts to hand everything in his bank account, but robbery isn't on the gunman's mind.

Roger is told simply to walk.

The gunman takes him on a macabre odyssey - from city pubs to suburban neighborhoods to isolated homes in the country - and as the night presses on, a seemingly not-so-random body count grows around him.

A moment-by-moment exploration of moral paralysis, Man Standing Behind charts the psyche of a random man caught in the roils of a mortal circumstance nothing to do with his own life. Is he a witness, a victim... or something altogether worse?

Praise for MAN STANDING BEHIND:

"This is where D'Stair shines. He has the ability to take a situation, one which might traditionally be addressed emotionally, and analyze it to the point of emotional emptiness. Life and death... is not a fight or flight, subconscious decision, but is one to be pondered, examined, weighed against context." - Caleb J. Ross, author of Stranger Will, I Didn't Mean to be Kevin, and The Soul Standard

This Letter to Norman Court (2020)

When petty crook Trevor English is offered two thousand dollars to deliver a letter across the country, the choice seems fairly simple - money up front, no way he can go wrong.

And when he finds himself in possession of correspondence several parties would pay to get their hands on, the choice seems even simpler - take what he can, while he can, from who he can... and disappear.

this letter to Norman Court is the first installment in Pablo D'Stair's five-novella Trevor English cycle.

Praise for the books by Pablo D'Stair:

"D'Stair is clearly a master. Likely Jean Patrick Manchette reincarnated... " - Matt Phillips, author of Countdown and The Bad Kind of Lucky

FEBRUARY, 2020 - 29 DAYS, 29 SHORTS!

Short story bonanza for the shortest month.

I usually do this exercise every August, but I'm currently minded to give it a go every few months or so. There's plenty of tight, taut tales out and about on the web just begging to be read.

Previous year's links below

AUGUST, 2016 - 31 DAYS, 31 SHORTS!

AUGUST, 2017 - 31 DAYS, 31 SHORTS!

AUGUST, 2018 - 31 DAYS, 31 SHORTS!

AUGUST, 2019 - 31 DAYS, 31 SHORTS!


This year appears to be a bit of a love-in wth Punk Noir Magazine and Out of the Gutter the main sources, with Shotgun Honey and All Due Respect providing back-up.

1st - Graham Wynd - The Ghost in You (Punk Noir Magazine)

2nd - Maria Hummer - He Took his Skin off for Me (Devil's Lake)


3rd - Paul Matts - Can of Worms (Punk Noir Magazine)

4th - Greg Smith - Tattooed Love Boy (Out of the Gutter)

5th - John Patrick Robbins - Two Birds  (Punk Noir Magazine)

6th - Paul D. Brazill - The Big Issue (Punk Noir Magazine)

7th - PJ Stephenson - Joe and Mary-Jane (Shotgun Honey)

8th - Tom Leins - 49,000 Ways to Die (All Due Respect)

9th - Jesse Rawlins - The Proxy (Out of the Gutter)

10th - Stephen D. Rogers - Mad Dog (All Due Respect)

11th - John Patrick Robbins - The Book By It's Cover (Punk Noir Magazine)

12th - John Bowie - I Am the Resurrection (Punk Noir Magazine)

13th - Graham Wynd - If I Could Be With You Tonight (Punk Noir Magazine)

14th - Judge Santiago Burdon - Dark Cloud In A Silver Lining (Punk Noir Magazine)

15th - Paul Matts - Dim Waghorn (Punk Noir Magazine)

16th - Paul D. Brazill - The Weather Prophet (Out of the Gutter)

17th - Robert Ragan - No Loyalty (Punk Noir Magazine)

18th - Zach Wilhide - El Dulce (Shotgun Honey)

19th - James "Jim" Shaffer - Life Number Ten (Out of the Gutter)

20th - Ron Earl Phillips - The Dog Catcher (Ron Earl Phillips)

21st - Ron Earl Phillips - Until Again (Ron Earl Phillips)

22nd - Ron Earl Phillips - Killing Hope (Ron Earl Phillips)

23rd - Tom Leins - Slay Ride (Out of the Gutter)

24th - Matthew Copes - Liberation - Mexican Style (Out of  the Gutter)

25th - Albert Tucher - Black Christmas Blues (Out of the Gutter)

26th - Mark Slade - Babylon (Out of the Gutter)

27th - Martin Mulligan - The Small Matter of Murder (Punk Noir Magazine)

28th - Tom Leins - Beauty and Ruin (Out of the Gutter)

29th - Mick Rose - All That Remains (Out of the Gutter)