Barbara (Ameise1)'s Root in 2021

After a rather catastrophic year, which probably also applies to many of you, I'm trying to be more present on LT in 2021 than last year.



# 1 Banker by Dick Francis (4½ stars) on the shelves since 2020
# 2 Innocent by David Baldacci (4½ stars) on the shelves since 2012
# 3 The Scarred Woman by Jussi Adler-Olsen (4 stars) on the shelves since 2020
# 4 Extraordinary People by Peter May (4½ stars) on the shelves since 2014
# 5 Sommer, Meer und der Tote im Pool by Inez Velazquez (3½ stars) on the shelves since 2020
# 6 The Critic by Peter May (4½ stars) on the shelves since 2014

Hi Barbara, good to see you here again. You're so right about 2020. It was a horrible year for everyone. But we are still good. I hope your family stayed safe too. Happy ROOTing!

>1 Ameise1: Could not have said it better myself, Barbara!
Good luck on your ROOT Challenge in 2021!

Hi Connie, good to see you. Yeah, it's been a crazy year. Teaching has always been a tightrope walk. From March 16 to May 10, we did distance learning, which is a lot more involved than teaching normally. Since then, the primary schools in Switzerland have been open and we teach on-site with masks etc., which doesn't make life easy either. So far we have come through the pandemic well. Our younger daughter had COVID-19 in the spring, but was very well looked after by her doctor as she is an astmatist. Our older daughter had it at the beginning of November. She and her partner were in isolation for ten days. They have recovered well. I've been on sick leave since December 10th. The COVID test was negative, but I have all the symptoms. After various drug treatments, many of which failed, a cortisone cure now helps. For three days now I have slowly but surely felt like a person again and I think that I can go to class again next Monday.

Stay healthy.

Welcome back, Barbara! I'm sorry to hear that you've been having COVID symptoms and hope that you are back to 100% soon. I also hope that 2021 is better!

Hi Barbara. Good to hear everybody is doing better now and you are returning to work is a good sign too.

I hope you feel better soon. I have so much admiration for you teachers, I couldn't possibly do your job! I hope 2021 is better for you, and for all of us.

Sorry to hear you haven't been feeling well. It's good to see you back here ROOTing though, and I wish you a happy new year.

J'espère que 2021 vous semble une amélioration dans tous les domaines.

J'espère que je l'ai écrit correctement.

Bonne année!!

Wishing you an enjoyable year of reading and ROOTing.

Here's to a happy and healthy year of ROOTing, Barbara

Welcome back, Barbara. It seems you have been really hit hard with this awful virus, so all my best wishes for a full recovery.

Thank you for the good wishes. I feel fit again and am now spending two weeks skiing in Davos.

book 1 Read in German

  Banker

Again, this was a good Dick Francis mystery.
This time it was about narcotics of a special kind. An insurance agent Tim Ekaterin had to discover that a good racing stallion, who now started his service as a breeding stallion, had mostly disabled offspring. What's behind it? A self-proclaimed horse whisperer seems to have a hand in this. He does not shrink from dangerous, even deadly, methods. This applies to horses and people alike. Tim meets a pharmacist who helps him to uncover the tricky case.
It was exciting from the first to the last page.

book 2

 Innocent

I have no idea why I haven't read this book earlier, in any case it is a great introduction to a series that is new to me, which I will definitely continue reading.
Will Robie is a killer who is actually 'employed' by a federal agency and yet does not appear in their books. This book introduces all the protagonists who will also appear again in the following books.
Will has to kill a Saudi prince, which he supposedly manages without any problems. Back in the DC he finds out that someone is hunting him down. Who is behind it? All the signs look like he's being hunted by a federal agency. Who is the mole? During his 'escape' he meets Julie, a teenager who witnessed the murder of her parents and is now on the run and swore revenge. Will takes care of her. As he tries to solve both problems, he becomes more and more convinced that all the dead who pave the way have to deal with him.
It's very varied and exciting.

>13 Ameise1: I am so glad to hear you are fit for sports again. One reads so much about the lingering consequences...

Hi Barb, good to see you back and on holiday. Enjoy the snow and the sun.

book 3 Read in German

 The Scarred Woman

I love the Department Q series. It grabs me from the first page.
This book is about Nazis and right-wing extremists, young welfare recipients and the pitfalls of Danish welfare, alcoholism, but for the team especially about Rose, whose mental state threatens to escalate to such an extent that she could die from it.
A young welfare recipient and her friends do not get along with the woman on welfare. Conversely, she finds that the social assistance system does not work because she has to keep listening to insults and lies and the recipients collect the money. So she decided to take justice into her own hands and kill the young 'useless' women.
On the other hand, one of these recipients comes from a wealthy family, only the grandmother guards the assets, the old Nazi secret, and gives her descendants little money every month. One day she is found dead in the park.
At the same time, this old lady was Rose's neighbor. Rose never explained to her team what depressed her or what she had to suffer from her father and what guilt she believes she has incurred. Her mind is driving her so crazy now that her life is in danger. Can the team save her?

book 4

 Extraordinary People

Great introduction to a new series for me.
Enzo Macleod, a Scot who lives in the south of France, used to be a forensic pathologist who now teaches biology at a small university. He has a knack for solving unsolved murders for years, claiming that the police are not doing their job properly, which doesn't exactly make him popular with the police.
A journalist wrote a book about seven unsolved murders. He hires Enzo to solve the first case. A former minister disappeared ten years ago. A skull in a box of five items appears in the Paris Catacombs. Enzo tries to figure out what these five items mean. He soon realizes that it is a clue as to where the nearest body parts are buried. Not only is it a dangerous mission for himself, no, his daughters are also involved.
Very exciting and variedly written.

book 5 Read in German

Sommer, Meer und der Tote im Pool

This is the first story of a Spanish investigator working around Malaga. He has a twin sister and three older sisters. His mother is a heart of a soul and his father is more of a tyrant who is dying. His boss is anxious to calm down the beautiful and rich, while Comisario Pablo Benitez gnaws at the 'bone' until he has found the culprit.
In this case, it is about an elderly German who was found dead in the pool. Was it just a heart attack, as the wife and his cardiologist claim, or is there more to it?
An amusing cozy mystery, something for summer vacation.

book 6

The Critic

The second volume in the Enzo Macleod series was also exciting. This time Enzo is investigating the Gaillac wine region, where a renowned American wine critic disappeared ten years ago and reappeared as a corpse during a night harvest. What's behind that? When even more missing 'dead' appear, Enzo too has to fear for his life. Fortunately, he has strong support from his daughter Sophia, her boyfriend Bertrand and the student Nicole. For a long time he could not expect anything from the authorities because he is not accepted as a recognized forensic expert in France.

Hi Barbara. Those Peter May books look interesting. Got to see I there are translations.

Happy Easter to you and the family.

Hello Connie. They are really great. I will have to buy the rest of the books as my library doesn't have any copies of them.
I also wish you a Happy Easter.