The Abandoned Book Pile

In March, I abandoned many books by favorite mystery authors. I am not sure if the problem is with them or with me. Three of the books were the latest in a series and one was the first in the series by an author I am crazy about. 

I whipped bookmarks out almost as quickly as I slipped them between the pages.

I mentioned this to a fellow reader I ran into at the library and he said he quit following many series for this same reason. The author seems to run out of steam.  Or perhaps, suggested a newspaper editor friend, it is the editing...or lack of.

In any case, here were my discards for the month:

The Woman Who Wouldn't Die by Colin Cotterill - This is the ninth in the series about the crotchety coroner in 1970s Laos. There were some pricks of violence that weren't in the other ones and I felt for sure that those foreshadowed scenes I didn't want to read.

A Fatal Winter by G.M. Malliet - This is the second handsome vicar Max Tudor mystery. Maybe I am just over vicars or prefer the ones in the Barbara Pym novels.

Speaking From Among the Bones by Alan Bradley - The fifth in the series about young detective Flavia de Luce. The story jumped from scene to scene with such rapidity that I lost sight of the real mystery.

One of Us is Wrong by Donald Westlake (writing as Samuel Holt) - Westlake wrote a series of four books very anonymously after he was already a successful author to see if his works would be popular if his authorship wasn't known. His publisher was the only other one in on the plan. After book three, though, somehow the truth came out. For that reason, Westlake lost interest in continuing the series about a television detective star who gets involved in real murders. On the other hand, I lost interest in reading this first book in that series. I will stick with his stories starring the hapless professional burglar John Dortmunder.

Have you had a similar experience? What series or authors have you given up on?

A Book-filled Weekend

Woman Reading
by
John Keaton

This will be short and sweet as I am trying to carve time out to actually read this weekend. I have four books going:

Crampton Hodnet by Barbara Pym - Not as engaging as the first-person narrative of A Glass of Blessings which I just finished, but many cups of tea will be enjoyed I am sure.  The two main characters, the elderly and bossy Miss Doggett and her companion the younger and very plain Miss Morrow, have taken in as a renter the new curate, the handsome, red-haired Reverend Stephen Latimer. Love in sure to follow.

My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop - I have just read the entries on the five or six bookstores I have visited myself. Next I think I will read by state what these eight-four writers have to say about their favorite places to find a good book. 

Sacré Bleu by Christopher Moore - This is a mystery about the supposed murder of Vincent Van Gogh investigated in nineteenth century France by an aspiring painter, Lucien Lessard, and his friend Henri Toulouse-Lautrec.

A Fatal Winter by G.M. Malliet - This is the second by the author in her Max Tudor mysteries. This one concerns the murder of a wealthy, bitter old man. The suspects number many as Oscar, the victim, had called all of his family to his castle for Christmas.

A Fatal Winter and My Bookstore

This is the Ides of March, which was originally celebrated as the start of the Roman new year with all sorts of revelries, but later got a bad reputation - Beware! - when Julius Caesar was assassinated on this date.

It turns out to be an auspicious day for me as two of the books I had on reserve at the library have become available. Just in time too, as the books I checked out last Friday are ready to be returned - one read, one abandoned.

A Fatal Winter by G.M. Malliet - This is the second in the series with Max Tudor, the dreamy vicar and former MI-5 agent. In this book, Max investigates two murders in his English village of Nether Monkslip.  I enjoyed the first in the series, Wicked Autumn, and look forward to seeing what Max is up to now. I also enjoy Malliet's Inspector St. Just mysteries.

My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop - I recently bought this book and then had to return it as the gutter (inside margin) was so tight I couldn't read the pages without breaking the spine. I am in hopes that this won't be the case with the volume from the library. There are essays by Rick Bragg, Fanny Flagg, Wendell Berry, Simon Winchester and others. 

I am set for the weekend. What are you reading?