Becky's Books –

Hi all, I’ve been gone for awhile because I was, and still am, very sick. But I feel a whole lot better the. last couple of weeks and I want to continue the blog because, as I planned when I started, even if no one else reads the darned thing, it helps me remember what I’ve read.

So … I’ve made a longhand list of the books, authors and my rating but there are no “reviews, only a rating and maybe a word or two. If here is a book I read via any means other than audio I’ll n note that.

(The books are mixed up so I’ll just say that my ratings are 1-10 for fiction and nonfiction with A-F for mysteries/crime and sci-fi. I don’t read romance if I can help it. The entries with a couple of asterisks are vert briefly reviewed – for not – maybe not so much later. W

There are a lot of books so this might take me awhile. I’ve

NIGHTSHADE
by Michael Connelley
Excellent start for a new series with Detective Stillwell being transferred to Catalina Island where there is not a whole lot of nefarious activity.
Crime procedural crime, A-

MURDER IN CHELSEA
by Victoria Thompson
Gaslight Murders #15
crime – historical cozy

Imo, these are some of the best “cozy” mysteries because there is little or no romance in them. There is one ongoing relationship between two widowed people who are in their early 30s(?), but the focus of the story sticks to New York City circa 1900 and solving the murder at hand. Each book focus on a different section of New York. The history tends toward accuracy and details. (Sad to say, the author died before she could finish the series but I’ll certainly finish what she did!)

CHERRINGHAM
by Matthew Costello & Neil Richards
Cherringham series #s 1-3
Rating: C – Very cosy with romance

EVAN HELP US
by Rhys Bowen
#2 in Constable Evan Evans series
Populare mystery writer – a bit too Ormandy for me
Rating: C – / cozy mystery with romantice overtones

SECRET WITNESS
by Victor Methos
Shepherd and Grey series #1
Rating: A – legal thriller

THE SILENT WATCHER
by Victor Methos
Vegas Shadows series #1
Rating: B / legal thriller

THE CRASH
by Frieda McFadden
stand-alone
C mystery/Crime

TAKING MANHATTAN:
THE EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS THAT CREATED NEW YORK AND SHAPED AMERICA
by Russell Shorto
Rating: 9.5 / US History

** Shorto is magnificent – I knew Manhattan was first colonized by Netherlands and New York called New Amsterdam but I didn’t know much else. This book shows howNew Netherlands and New Amsterdam became New York State (loosely) and New York City a renowned international port and the naval captains who made it so.

THE HAVES AND THE HAVE YACHTS
by Evan Osmos
a series of very related essays, pointed but often kind of funny
Rating: 8 / general nonfiction

MURDER ON MURRAY HILL
by Victoria Thompson
Gaslight Murders #1
Another good one!
Rating A / historical cozy
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Long ago I read a handful of books about modern day Israel, its history and difficulties. One of the an authors was Ilan Pappe, and I believe Chomsky may have been another.  This book, published in 2023, is an excellent follow-up.  

On Palestine by Noam Chomsky, Ilan Pappé,
and Frank Barrat 
Read by George Newb
Ratingi –  10 / (amd read twice
(Both read and listened 2x)

And as annoyed (scared, angry, etc.) as I am now with the world situation and the US situation I know there are plenty of very intelligent people who agree with me and my views.  This time the problem is not of the Palestinian making – nor is it the job of the US to fix things.  It just feels to me that Frank Barrat (An author here) has it right. 

From Audible (2015 and 2020)
Operation Protective Edge, Israel’s 2014 assault on Gaza, left thousands of Palestinians dead and cleared the way for another Israeli land grab. The need to stand in solidarity with Palestinians has never been greater. Ilan Pappe and Noam Chomsky, two leading voices in the struggle to liberate Palestine, discuss the road ahead for Palestinians and how the international community can pressure Israel to end its human rights abuses against the people of Palestine.

And now … here we are in June 2025 and virtually nothing about the basic conflict and/or strategies/tactics has changed from the 2014 event or the 2020 essays. The only thing is that it’s been mixed up a bit more with Trump and company plus Iran.  The situation is not good.

Oh this is a wonderful book!  I loved reading it and finished it, 9h 21m, in one day.  This was*back on June 6 I and didn’t manage to blog it.    The plot is thick and twisty. The characters are very nicely drawn and, when continuing the series , it seems to stay consistent with prior works. I have to quit now.

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Recommended in the 4-Mystery Addicts reading group and I’d been looking closely at it anyway.  I’ve read so many “mystery” novels from India and Pakistan, Malaysia, etc. 

The Museum Detective
by Maha Khan Phillips, 2023
Read by Fareda Pasha, 9h 19m
Rating  B+ / international mystery 

Inspired by a real-life antiquities scandal in Pakistan, this gripping series debut introduces archaeologist Dr. Gul Delani, whose investigation into the discovery of a mummy gets complicated—and personal—when it collides with her years-long search for a missing family member. Perfect for fans of Sue Grafton and Elsa Hart.

When Dr. Gul Delani receives a call in the middle of the night from the Sindh police, she thinks they may have finally found her niece, Mahnaz—a precocious, politically conscious teenage girl who went missing three years prior. Gul has been racked with grief since Mahnaz’s disappearance, and distracts herself through work: she’s a talented curator at the Museum of Heritage and History in Karachi, one of the country’s leading experts in archaeology and ancient civilizations, a hard-won position for a woman.

But there is no news of Mahnaz. Instead, Gul is summoned to a narcotics investigation in a remote desert region in western Pakistan. In her wildest dreams, Gul couldn’t have imagined what she’d find there: amid a drug bust gone wrong, there is a mummy—life-size, seemingly authentic, its sarcophagus decorated with symbols from Persepolis, the capital of the Achaemenid Empire. The discovery confounds everyone. It is both too good to be true, and for Gul, too precious to leave in careless or corrupt hands.

Aided by her team of unlikely misfits, Gul will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of it, even as her quest for the truth puts her in the throes of a dangerous conspiracy and threatens to collide with her ongoing search for Mahnaz. A portrait of a city fueled by corruption and a woman relentlessly in pursuit of justice, The Museum Detective is an exciting, gritty new crime thriller that announces a whip-smart and brilliant sleuth and builds to a stunning, emotional conclusion that readers won’t soon forget

And my response –   

I liked it for awhile, but then some scenes were too gross and there came to be too many characters.  The gross scenes stopped but the new characters kept coming.  I wasn’t fond of the protagonist because I thought she was too bossy and did her own thing no matter who might object. Otoh, the writing was nice and, after I got used to it, the narration was good. It starts slow but the tension is masterfully built.  The ancient history aspect is nicely done but limited so I never had the feeling I was in Pakistan like I did Egypt with Agatha Christie or Elizabeth Peters.   

The story concerns a family slaying in which a 15-year old girl, Sophie. hides, survives and escapes. (This happens in the Prologue.) This kind of hooks the reader into the story (lol).

The Silent Watcher
by Victor Methose
Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld 8h
Series Vegas Shadows Book 1
Rating: A+ / legal crime

From Amazon:
Far from the neon glare of the Vegas Strip, attorney Piper Danes walks away from a hotshot law firm to work as a guardian ad litem (GAL). Piper was once a vulnerable youth herself, and a GAL gave her hope when she needed it most. Now she’s committed to paying it forward.

Teaming up with the formidable Judge Hope Dawson and enigmatic Detective Lazarus Holloway, Piper delves into a world more sinister than she could have imagined.

Their hunt for the truth leads to a serial killer known only as “the Creeper,” a predator who hides in the shadows. But as the team inches closer to unveiling the murderer, they find themselves in the crosshairs. Trapped in a web of lies, Piper will do anything to protect Sophie and stop the killer…before she becomes his next victim.

In his 2009 (?)  book,The Fifth Risk, Michael Lewis wrote about how the government might possibly develop a way of rewarding the good workers in its various departments. There are multitudes of good workers and probably dozens of outstanding workers.  I think this book, Who Is Government?  may be the results.  He wrote the first story and he had other writers write about other workers.  The writers are some of America’s finest

WHO IS GOVERNMENT? 
The Untold Story of Public Service
by Michael Lewis et al 
Read by Michael Lewis and the other authors
6 hours 3 minutes. (excellent!)
Rating: 10 – government/politics

Michael Lewis has this incredible ability to zoom in on one person’s story, and from there reveals 
something much bigger about our culture. His books leave you seeing the world differently, and
his books about federal workers are no exception.”—Katie Couric

So oh my, yes, I did enjoy this book – it’s a collection of personal stories from employees of the Federal Government. The first one is from a mine engineer who helped develop the tests and formulas to make the underground mines and caves safe from falling earth and rock.  The second tale is one of the veteran’s affairs cemetery workers – 

And it goes from there with one fascinating story after another all dealing with government jobs and the absorbing characters who hold them. 

One downer –  this very morning I heard on television what Trump has done is that he has “leveled” the drug prices.  This means that “research and development” will be all but eliminated and if you get to the last story in the book, “The Equalizer” by Sarah Vowell you will know what that’s a downer.  Hopefully, the pharmaceuticals will fight that in court. 

Oh I so enjoy raw books of Victor Mwrhoa – these are legal thrillers with plenty of courtroom drama. Many of them come in short series. I’ve read about 7 books – not going in any rush but I could do another one pretty quick now but I finished up the Desert Plains series (3 books so far). Oh well, browsing through the “legal thriller” I see I have plenty to choose from; Scott Turow could sand some catching up on.

An Unreliable Truth
by Victor Methos
Narrated by Arnell Powell, 11h 9m
Rating. – A / legal thriller
Desert Plains #3

Methos’ plots are usually original and, on one level, deal with contemporary social issues/. This time three people are murdered alongside the road with another one escaping over a cliff. A local man is arrested. He is known to be mentally ill and violent.

In my opinion there’s no partial literary value in Methos’ books but he does weave a twisty plot without too much predictability. I”ll likely be getting another one in a few weeks.

Fun book – especially for a debut novel. heartwarming characters involved in a complex plot with thought-provoking themes.

Remarkably Bright Creatures 
by Shelby Van Pelt
Read by Marin Ireland, Michael Urie 11h 16m
Rating –  8.75 (Very good!) 

Heartwarming tale – fun.  There was a nonfiction book about an octopus I read several years go which kind of set me up for this kind of novel. The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery was very interesting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remarkably_Bright_Creatures

I’ve read Banville/Black’s 6 earlier novelss in this series and enjoyed them all. Prior to those I read most of his stand-alone literary fiction. Banville has his own unique style which will likely never pull off a James Patterson type thriller. That’s okay – he does his own thing and the last couple chapters of this book were plenty twisty.

The Drownedby John Banville 
2024
Read by John Lee 
Rating – 8 (but I’ll read it again)
Strafford and Quirke series #4

I can’t say if I liked the literary fiction better or the mystery/crime novels because I think it depends on the individual book – and in this case they’re very close.  Fwiw, Banville says he tried the crime fiction to see if he could do it and after about 5 or so novels he was satisfied with the effort and dropped the pseudonym he’d been using for the crime novels, Benjamin Black.  Literary miysteries are hard to do well – the author has to include some very literary elements, like interesting language and theme development or maybe using an original structure, etc plus themes and complex characters in addition to a good plot.  

The Drowned is seventh in the series and I’d highly recommend starting with #1 because the relationships of the main protagonists need be followed chronologically. . 

Time has gone by and the daughters of Joe and Marybeth Pickett have grown up, but the world has changed, too.  Where the Job is the same in some ways like finding the idiot who shot and then left a magnificent elk to die in a pasture or even the types of criminals they get in the Woming back-country.  This is NOT okay in Wyoming or in the eyes of Joe Pickett, the local game warden or his wife and family. But there’s more trouble brewing this Thanksgiving than that. 

Shadows Reel
by C.J. Box
2015/ #
Read by David Chandler  9h 4m
Rating: A / contemporary Western

Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett’s job has many times put his wife and daughters in harm’s way. Now the tables turn as his wife discovers something that puts the Pickett family in a killer’s crosshairs in this thrilling new novel in the best-selling series. 

A day before the three Pickett girls come home for Thanksgiving, Marybeth Pickett finds an unmarked package at the front door of the library where she works. When she opens the package, she finds a photo album that belonged to an infamous Nazi official. Who left it there? And why did they leave it with her? 

She learns that during World War II several Wyoming soldiers were in the group that fought to Hitler’s Eagles Nest retreat in the Alps – and one of them took Hitler’s personal photo album. Did another take this one and keep it all these years? When she finds the name of a deceased local man who was likely in the unit, Joe visits the man’s son – only to find him brutally tortured and murdered. Someone is after the photo album – but why? And when a close neighbor is murdered, Joe and Marybeth face a new question: How will they figure out the book’s mystery before someone hurts them…or their girls? 

Meanwhile, Nate Romanowski is on the hunt for a younger and more ruthless version of himself – the man who stole Nate’s falcons and attacked his wife. Using a network of fellow falconers, Nate tracks the man from one city to another, learning that his target is an agitator and a financier of anarchists. Even as he grasps the true threat his quarry presents, Nate swoops in for the kill – and a stunning final showdown.©2022 Joe Pickett (P)2022 Recorded Books

This is the 15th mystery novel in the fine Gaslight Series which takes place in New York City at the turning of the century from the 18th to the 19th centuries. 

Murder on Fifth Avenue ~
by  Victoria Thompson 
read by Suzanne Toren, 8u 56m

I’m very much enjoying this series –  I think my first book in this series was #4 and I decided that was soooo good I’d start from the beginning and that’s what I’ve done. This is #14 in that Gaslight Series with 27 in all.  

The “historical” aspect is wonderfully well done without bogging down in the history while the fiction develops right around the history impacting the lives of the nicely drawn characters as it is in real life. The tension is twisty and growing from the first couple chapters.  

From Thompson’s site at: https://victoriathompson.com/book/murder-on-fifth-avenue/
From the tenements to the town houses of nineteenth-century New York, midwife Sarah Brandt and Detective Sergeant Frank Malloy never waiver in their mission to aid the innocent and apprehend the guilty. Now, the latest novel in the Edgar® Award-nominated series finds Sarah and Malloy investigating the murder of a Knickerbocker club member who was made to pay his dues…

Sarah Brandt’s family is one of the oldest in New York City, and her father, Felix Decker, takes his position in society very seriously. He still refuses to resign himself to his daughter being involved with an Irish Catholic police detective. But when a member of his private club—the very exclusive Knickerbocker—is murdered, Decker forms an uneasy alliance with Detective Sergeant Frank Malloy to solve the crime as discreetly as possible.

Malloy soon discovers that despite his social standing, the deceased—Chilton Devries—was no gentleman. In fact, he’s left behind his own unofficial club of sorts, populated by everyone who despised him. As he and Sarah sort through the suspects, it becomes clear to her that her father is evaluating more than the detective’s investigative abilities, and that, on a personal level, there is much more at stake for Malloy than discovering who revoked Devries’ membership—permanently.

Enjoy!

Vicious Circle
By C.J. Box, 2016/ 
by David Chandler 
\(Book #17 in the Joe Pickett series) 

The plane circled in the dark. Joe Pickett could just make out down below a figure in the snow and timber, and then three other figures closing in. There was nothing he could do about it. And Joe knew that he might be their next target. 

The Cates family had always been a bad lot. Game warden Joe Pickett had been able to strike a fierce blow against them when the life of his daughter April had been endangered, but he’d always wondered if there’d be a day of reckoning. He’s not wondering any longer. Joe knows they’re coming after him and his family now. He has his friend Nate by his side, but will that be enough this time? All he can do is prepare…and wait for them to make the first move.

I only have one (1) book left in this series – there may be more coming up after that – if so I’ll be on them. (lol)

I read this back in February (’25) and made notes for it, but I never got those notes put up into a “review.”

Playground 
by Richard Powers,  2025
Read by Edoardo Ballerini &  a small cast
Winner of Pulitzer Prize fiction 2024
Rating 9.5 / General Fiction

Todd Keane and Rafi Young are high school students in Illinois – both are brilliant students and become fast friends over chess. Todd id White, Rafi is Black. Their life paths seem to follow each other from meeting and falling in love with an Hawaiian woman, Ina Aroita, through inventing a fortune in Silicon Valley and more. \

But this book is about two very contemporary young men with differences about money, race a young woman and so on. It’s beautifully written with plenty to think about.

Conclave
by Robert Harris
2016
Rating – 8 / Gen Fiction

Good book! A bit more religious (appropriately and carefully so) than I expected – I guess I expected big sex scandals or something but that’s not it, although there is a fairly major less public scandal. Actually, years ago I had my eyes on a book very similar to this one . this book is about a Cardinal in Rome at the time of the current Pope’s death. This will entail a “conclave” to determine the next Pope.

This is Book 2 of a 2-book series. The interesting thing  is there are probably 20 years between books. I’m surprised I remember book #1.  . 
That reminds me of one of John Grisham’s newer books and there are similarities. The Exchange and The Firm are by John Grisham and the Exchange takes place a couple decades after The Firm. So, too, with Presumed Guilty,  the first book in Turow’s series/sequel.  

Presumed Guilty – 
By Scott Turow
2025 – 
Read by Grover Gardner 
Rating:  A- / courtroom-thriller 
Kindle County Book 3

To me, reading Presumed Guilty felt like a Book 2, but of a different series because it’s been so long and it didn’t occur to me until I was midway through that this was like John Grisham’s 2-book series was. 
 Anyway ….  Definitely enjoyed the time spent reading this one  

This is #13 in the Gaslight Mystery series which I’m reading my way through nice and slowly, enjoying myself.  This series has some excellent historical fiction with a very light touch of romance.  I don’t know about Thompson’s other books and series but I’ll be sampling when I finish this one 

Murder on Sister’s Row
by Victoria Thompson 2011 
Read by Suzanne Toren,  9h 8m 
Rating – 8.75  / historical crime fiction 

This is a fine review of the whole series and includes the individual books on a later page:

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And another interesting note about the setting is that each book takes place in a different part of New York – and you can tell by the title. 

What’s good about this series is that it incorporates verifiable history, like that Teddy Roosevelt is President of the New York City Board of Police Commissioners for a couple years between 1895 and1897 – (go look it up). It’s bothersome when TR talks and interacts with the fictional characters, but as usual with this kind of writing in the fiction is negated anywhere, nothing I know of  in the history sources. Mostly this author is very talented at working the historical background, foreground, aspects right into the plot without ever showing off her research. What’s presented is interesting and appropriate as well as accurate.

I’ve been intrigued by the historical New York of this era and prior for many years and read a fair amount on my own. She’s got it right as far as I know and I look up anything I’m really not familiar with.  (And fwiw, 

Second, the politics, social issues, economics, religious ideas, etc affect the lives of the historical characters. So the history here is a dynamic characteristic, one which moves and changes people in its path,  History here is not sitting on the sidelines doing nothing like a background setting.  

And third, these books are quality mystery tales with complex and twisty plots, believably set in the “gilded age” of New York City. with characters who seem to be “of the times.”  

The protagonist is Sarah Brandt, the adult daughter of a very upper class couple, but Sarah married a police officer a few years prior to the beginning of the series.. Her parents opposed the marriage, but the young couple went ahead anyway. This was scandal enough, but a few years later Sarah’s husband was gunned down, apparently in the line of duty.  

At some, point Sarah and Frank come to understand Sarah’s first husband was not killed by accident but ,might very well have been “knocked off” by a small gang he was investigating. – That’s an over-arching plot – one that ties that separate books together (in addition o the growing relationship between Frank and Sarah.

This particular story involves a brothel of sorts with one of the girls about to be delivered of a baby. This is why Sarah was called in. But there are murders involved and some very nasty characters.  

Remember when typewriter print was as regularly examined and written about in crime stories as fingerprints are today?  Yes, well his first book, Call for the Dead, first published  in 1961,by John Le Carre, took me back.  

Call for the Dead
By John la Carre, 1961
176  pages – 4h 34m
Rating 8.75,  Non-fiction spy tale

There are two typewritten letters with handwritten signatures involved.  As a matter of course George Smiley (the protagonist of a short but important series) notices that the print type shows they were produced by the same typewriter. 

This is John Le carre’s first  published novel so it’s the opener for George Smiley and his series. There are 4 books here, 

I have read a few of John le Carre’s books before and they’re good – I was in the mood. Sad to say this one starts very slowly, steadily builds tension and action, and then it’s over and the we’re back to slow.