Customer Comments

Uh-oh. I suspect I won't accomplish much for the next few weeks, as I work my way through Ann Cleeves' excellent "Shetland" series. While I had heard about the TV version of "Shetland", I hadn't read the books or seen the series. Deciding to read the books first, I started with Raven Black, and am reading them in the order they were written by Ms. Cleeves. What a terrific character detective inspector Jimmy Perez is! All of the primary characters in Raven Black are finely drawn, and the stark Shetland setting becomes a character of its own. It's a perfectly crafted mystery thriller, and you will change your mind several times about who the killer is...I was only sure of the resolution about eight pages from the end. Now, I'm starting White Nights, the second in the four seasons Shetland quartet, and I can't wait to find out what's next for DI Jimmy Perez.

Every year about this time - the fall season in Oregon when we're forced inside more than we might want - I tend to pick up an Olen Steinhauer spy novel. An American Spy, the third book in his Milo Weaver trilogy, gives us this complex, multi-layered character in an intense battle with Chinese counterparts who feel alarmingly real. Steinhauer's mastery of the mechanics of espionage bring the reader directly into the global spy business. I get a push/pull effect with this novel; I can't wait for the resolution of the thriller, but also don't want the read to end. Thankfully, An American Spy hints at perhaps a fourth Milo Weaver story. Can't wait.

There is nothing more comforting when it's my reading time and I realize I'm in the middle of a Chief Inspector Gamache mystery by master storyteller Louise Penny. Treat yourself to her well-rendered settings and intimate characterizations that will leave you with the feeling that you actually know these people. While it's not necessary to read the Gamache series in order, I would recommend that you read The Brutal Telling and Bury Your Dead back-to-back, as the stories are more interrelated than the other books in the series. Do be prepared to do nothing else for a few days, and to want to visit Quebec City!

How many novels have you read where the narrator is a fetus? Yeah, me neither. As an about-to-be debut novelist, Ian McEwan's latest work was a revelation. It was also slightly depressing, because no matter how hard I work on my craft, I'm unlikely to achieve what he has in this wonderful book. "Well-written" doesn't do McEwan's work justice. He's brilliant always, but no more so than in "Nutshell". I highly recommend this novel for everyone who appreciates gorgeous writing, although pregnant women might want to skip it until after they deliver.