Mystery Max looks for the best of the best in 2022

I'm hoping to do some great reading this year and I wish the same for everyone here! I'm going with four categories: Mysteries, Fiction, Non-fiction, and Science Fiction. My theme is the best read I've had in each of the four categories.

General Fiction
This is where I'll put my non-mystery/crime books. Haven't decided yet where 'thrillers' will go - either here or in mystery.


The Bakers Secret is one of the best books I've read since I joined LT!

1. Shardik by Richard Adams
2. "Speaking of Operations" by Irvin S. Cobb
3. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
4. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
5. The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
6. The War Lover by John Hersey
7. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
8. Labyrinth of the Spirits by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
9. Dust on the Sea by Edward Beach
10. The Fools in Town are on Our Side by Ross Thomas
11. Runner by Patrick Lee
12. Signal by Patrick Lee
13. Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salmon Rushdie
14. Dark Site by Patrick Lee
15. While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams
16. The Kill Artist by Daniel Silva
17. The English Assassin by Daniel Silva
18. The Messenger by Daniel Silva
19. The Defector by Danial Silva
20. Call Me A Cab by Donald Westlake

Mystery
I'm sure this will be my biggest section. (Who'd have guessed?!)


Hard to choose the best of the best, but Upfield has consistent 5 and 4.5 stars, and the Swagman is one of my favourites!

1. Billy Boyle by James Benn
2. Murder by Tradition by Katherine V. Forrest
3. Blood Alone by James Benn
4. Evil For Evil by James Benn
5. Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie
6. The Late Scholar by Jill Paton Walsh
7. Leave No Trace: An FBI K-9 novel by Sara Driscoll
8. Guilty Minds by Joseph Finder
9. Maigret in Vichy by Georges Simenon
10. The Moving Target by Ross Macdonald
11. The Drowning Pool by Ross Macdonald
12. Find a Victim by Ross Macdonald
13. The Doomsters by Ross Macdonald
14. Maigret and the Man on the Bench by Georges Simenon
15. The Blind Barber by John Dickson Carr
16. Under Pressure by Sara Driscoll
17. Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie
18. The Road to Ruin by Donald Westlake
19. Lemons Never Lie by Richard Stark
20. Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie
21. The Case of the Baited Hook by Erle Stanley Gardner
22. The Case of the Curious Bride by Erle Stanley Gardner
23. The Case of the Counterfeit Eye by Erle Stanley Gardner
24. A Mortal Terror by James Benn
25. Home Sweet Homicide by Craig Rice
26 The Case of the Sleepwalker's Niece by Erle Stanley Gardner
27. The Case of the Dangerous Dowagaer by Erle Stanley Gardner
28. Going Rogue by Janet Evanovich
29. Death's Door by James Benn
30. The Underground Man by Ross Macdonald
31. A Blind Goddess by James Benn
32. Still Waters by Sara Driscoll
33. The Case of the Drowsy Mosquito by Erle Stanley Gardner
34. The Rest is Silence by James Benn

Science Fiction, Fantasy, Steampunk


This book, and the entire series, absolutely 'blew me away' when I read it. It was hard to choose between this and Project Hail Mary, a book I will reread, I'm sure.

1. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
2. Procurator by Kirk Mitchell
3. Ink & Sigil by Kevin Hearne
4. Paper & Blood by Kevin Hearne
5. Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi
6. 2010 by Arthur Clarke
7. Hounded by Kevin Hearne
8. Hexed by Kevin Hearne

Non-Fiction


There were again so many great non-fiction reads, but this one has been indispensable in terms of my writing, so it gets the best of the best rating.

1. The Keeper of Lime Rock by Lenore Skomat
2. Victura by James W. Graham
3. The Book on the Bookshelf by Henry Petroski
4. PT 109 : John F. Kennedy in World War II by Robert J. Donovan
5. Scott's Last Expedition by R. F. Scott
6. Murder Ink by Dilys Winn
7. The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes
8. Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides
9. Island of Shame by David Vine

Book Bullets Received



I'm always getting hit by BBs, I write the book title down somewhere and never ever see it again. So I'm going to list them here.

1. First of the year! Evil Things by Katja Ivar - bullet fired by DeltaQueen50
2. The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier
3. The Secret Place by Tana French
4. Operation Napoleon by Arnaldur Indridason
5. Home, Sweet Homicide by Craig Rice - another one from Judy
6. Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice - another from Judy, I've got to stay away from her thread, lol.
7. The Savage Garden by Mark Mills - not sure if I want to read it, but I do like Mark Mills work.
8. Marines of Que Son by R. B. MacNichol
9. Judas Country by Gavin Lyalll - and possibly more by him!
19, The City of Dragons by Robin Hobb
11. Murder Underground by Mavis Doriel Hay
12. Inspector French books by Freeman Crofts
13. A Study in Silks by Emma Jane Holloway
14. In Plain Sight Arcane Casebook 1 - Dan Willis - Series: Arcane Casebook #1
15 The Sussex Downs Murders by John Bude
16. Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov

Hi, Max! Welp, I've already added for books to my list - I haven't read any of those favorites of yours!

Great Cats! I'm put 3/4 of your "best" books on my WL.

I'm shocked that mystery would be the biggest section of your challenge ;) Have fun!

Looking forward to seeing what you read to fill in your categories! (Especially the mysteries)

Good luck with your categories.

Merry Christmas, Max and happy reading in the new year. I too took a BB or two already.

Looking forward to following your reading in 2022. I always get hit with several BBs!

Merry Christmas! Dropping a star here so I can keep up with also my fave category of mysteries.

I added all of your favorites to my list, and the year has not even started yet. I'm guessing your thread is gonna be dangerous for me.

Wishing you a Happy New Year! I'm also an Upfield fan.

Hope you have a great year of reading!

Welcome to you all, glad you're on board this year. >9 rabbitprincess: Who'd a thunk it, eh?! >15 Crazymamie: I'm anxious to hear how you enjoy my group of four!

My first read of the year was to begin the Billy Boyle series again so I can catch up. Since the MysteryKIT for January is series, I figured it should be the first book of the year. I'd read it when it first came out, but they say one good thing about getting older is that you can reread books and not remember how they come out! For those unfamiliar with Boyle, he is a young American nephew of General Eisenhower during WWII. Ike makes Billy his personal investigator.

>20 mysterymax: I've pledged not to begin ANY new series until I've finished all the ones I've already started--big laugh! I'm putting Billy Boyle on my WL.

>20 mysterymax:

That series sounds interesting and I can get the first one from my local library.

What a great, simple set-up. Enjoy!

>21 Tess_W: I could have told you from experience that kind of promise never works!

Added 13 books today. Library book sale. Great bargains. Picked up a couple of Caleb Carr, some Daniel Silva, an Agatha Christie, a Lawrence Block, and some Eric Wrights. Worth going out in miserable weather!

>25 mysterymax: Yippee! Nice book haul!

>25 mysterymax: I ran into the library one day this week to pick up a book I'd had held. I noticed there was a small sale--just two or three small shelves front and back. I didn't take time to look.

>25 mysterymax: Love those library sales! Hate those library sales!

>28 Tess_W: I agree. I am doing a public service to take away those books and make a contribution to the library.Then again, no more space at the house for books.

>29 LadyoftheLodge: You are very civic minded!;)

>29 LadyoftheLodge: My son-in-law commented that when I'm gone they'll have to turn the house into a library...

Finished Shardik by Richard Adams. Read it before, when it had just come out and loved it, so I thought I'd do a reread. I still really enjoyed it, but would have cut about a hundred pages. Funny how your likes change with the years.

>32 mysterymax: That brings back memories! I read that years ago too. "Go play with the children."

>32 mysterymax: It certainly had a lot more to say this time around.

Finished The Keeper of Lime Rock by Lenore Skomat. It's the story of Ida Lewis, a lighthouse keeper. It was a rather small book, but worth reading For the subject matter, Fire on the Beach by David Wright was another good read

Another short read after getting through Shardik! "Speaking of Operations" by Irvin S. Cobb is a very short little gem written in 1915 will charming illustrations by Tony Sarg. I got the book for two reasons - the first because I love these old books that give you a glimpse of a time gone by and second because my maternal grandfather was a Cobb.

So glad I did.

Finished my ER copy of A Dragon Used to Live Here. It's a nice, gentle book for kids. Am going to send my copy to my granddaughter who really doesn't like scary, violence, or sad endings. Cute drawings which they should enjoy as well.

Murder by Traditionby Katherine V. Forrest was an excellent mystery/trial story. I would have happily given it four stars except for the sex scene. And not because it was a lesbian sex scene. I dislike sex scenes in mysteries, period. They rarely have anything to do with the solving of the crime, and I felt the same in this incidence. The fact that the police detective was lesbian was very much a part of the story, but her current relationship was not, in my opinion.

>38 mysterymax: I have found that to be true about some of the novels I read, mystery or other. Sometimes the sex scenes just seem to be dropped into the novel with no real reason or addition to the story.

>39 LadyoftheLodge: Agreed.
Next up was The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. If I had read this before it was in my youth, which is so long ago (both in time and memory) that I didn't remember it. In fact, my current thoughts of Jekyll and Hyde, I admit, have been tainted by movie interpretations. So, imagine my surprise when I discovered that Hyde was not a huge entity, ripping his clothes apart when he changed personas. He became smaller than Jekyll, not larger. So much for The League of Extraordinary Gentleman version, lol. There was an introduction in my copy which deals with the duality of Jekyll as a moral play, while I felt that even though it was written in 1886, it gave a rather convincing portrayal of schizophrenia as Jekyll writes his narrative of the events. (The change in physical attributes, an exception, of course.)

>40 mysterymax: Agree with your description of Jekyll and Hyde. I saw it on the stage a few years ago and the duality of nature and schizophrenia was played very well. Reminds me of the Black wolf/white wolf theory--we all have the capability of evil.

>41 LadyoftheLodge: Interesting. And did they have a change in size?

Read The First Wave by James Benn in more or less one sitting. I say more or less because I went to bed with it unfinished and woke up during the night and had to finish it. I read these as they came out but am trying to read them close together now. It gives more continuity and power to the stories. This one involves Algiers, the Vichy French, and the introduction of penicillin on a large scale.

>42 mysterymax: Not really a change in size, more of a change in aspect and attitude.

>44 LadyoftheLodge: Interesting! I'd like to see that sometime.

>45 mysterymax: The actor who played Jekyll and Hyde was wonderful. I have seen him in many other productions. Did you ever see Jack Palance as Jekyll and Hyde in the film version?

>46 LadyoftheLodge: No, but I see that I can stream it, so I may give it a watch. Thanks for mentioning it.

Finished a reread of The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I read this so many years ago and thought it was fantastic. I was curious to see if it held up. So often, I reread a book and my new rating is different from the first time I read it. However, the book was still fantastic. It was good to revisit it, and now I am going to read the whole series.

>48 mysterymax: I loved that one when I read it a few years ago! I still remember it quite well. I think that's a testimony to a book--the book lingers in a good way!

I have so many quotes from that book in my Commonplace Book.

Blood Alone by James Benn is the third in the Billy Boyle series. Billy is now in Sicily where he's been sent to carry out another mission for Ike - to make contact with the head of the Sicilian Mafia and convince him to cooperation with the Allies. Problem is Billy wakes up in a field hospital without his memory.

>48 mysterymax: This one is still on my tbr and has been for ages. I am sure I will get to it one day!

Finished Evil For Evil by James Benn. This time Billy is sent to Ireland to investigate the theft of some weapons. Billy being Irish from Boston winds up between the factions in Ireland, all of whom aren't too fond of the British or the Americans. Billy sees the evil in the century's long propagation of the feuds between the Catholic and Protestant forces.

Reread Victura by James W. Graham. It's about the Kennedys, their sailboat Victura, and their relationship to the ocean and its lessons about life. Not sure that I enjoyed it as much the second time around, but it does have small intimate details about the Kennedy family that I hadn't known.

Next was Procurator by Kirk Mitchell I collected this book because I had read three other books by Mitchell and felt he wrote tremendous stories. All have been from different genres, and all have made me want to go out and find another book by him. This falls into the realm of alternative history and involves Rome with a bit of science fiction/fantasy elements. My only complaint was the size of the print in my copy. (A bit too small and tight for me).

>55 mysterymax: I liked what you had to say about Kirk Mitchell and looked to see what books he had written. I found that I have Sky Woman Falling which I've never read and that's now pulled off the shelf for reading soon.

>56 hailelib: I hope you enjoy it. I'm in such a re-reading mode this year I may get to the others I have of his.

Just finished Five Little Pigs, a Christie mystery and one that I really enjoyed. I've seen either a movie or a television version of this and everything tracked until the end. The murderer wasn't who I thought I remembered, but my memory is probably faulty. I'm writing a short article for the Sherlockian journal that I have a column in about poisons, so it seemed only natural to pick one that included poison. (About half of her stories did, so it wasn't difficulty finding one!) This was also a pick for the Feb MysteryKIT for cold cases.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein was a good read, Not five stars, but four and a half.

>57 mysterymax: I read it sooner than I thought I would and liked it well enough to eventually pick up another one.

>60 hailelib: Let me know which one you like the most!

The Late Scholar by Jill Paton Walsh is a pastiche of Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane, the couple so ably penned by Dorothy L. Sayers. Wimsey and Harriet are now married. Peter is the Duke of Denver and as such is in Oxford, with Harriet, charged with settling a dispute at St Severin's College over the sale of an antique book. They become involved with settling several murders before Peter can make his decision known.

Had to interrupt the non-fiction book I was reading to read the next Sara Driscoll FBI K-9 book Leave No Trace. This was the most exciting of the series so far and the one that physically tests Meg and her dog, Hawk. The story has ties back to The Trail of Tears and takes the team to Georgia to track a killer. This is my favorite K9 series, hands down. MysteryKit for March.

Another interruption. Read Joseph Finder's Guilty Minds. My non-fiction book is great, very interesting, but I can't read a lot at a time. I'm almost finished it. Meanwhile Finder's book was good to pass the time with. Heller is hired to disprove a smear campaign against a Supreme Court Justice which he does, only to discover that it was a setup to begin with. Good twists.

FINALLY finished The Book on the Bookshelf by Henry Petroski. It seemed like it took forever to get through it, but it was fascinating. Only a few pages were lacking a piece of information that was unknown to me. I would never have thought there was so much history to bookshelves and how books were stored. We take them so for granted. The plentiful illustrations were an added bonus.

>65 mysterymax: - This has been on my bookshelf almost since I first joined LT. I really should get it read I suppose.

>66 dudes22: I've had it a long time as well. It doesn't move quickly, that's for sure, but some parts were really interesting. I have seen a lot of pictures lately of different bookshelves and there's always one picture with books on the shelf with the spines at the back so you can't see what they are. My reaction has always been 'how dumb', but know I know that books were once actually shelved that way. There were a couple of methods of knowing what book was which however. I managed to get through the book by reading a chapter or two and then reading a mystery!

>67 mysterymax: I read an article online about book nooks in people's homes and how to set up a reading space. One photo showed the books shelved by color!! And the article suggested it was a cool way to shelve one's books, as they "looked" interestingly decorative that way. (And I would never find any of my books if I did that!) I also recently purchased some nice used/nearly new editions to add to my International Collector's Library, spending very little for them, with the books advertised as a way to decorate your home. (Yikes, you mean we are supposed to read them too???)

>68 LadyoftheLodge: Apparently Samuel Pepys took all of his books to a bookbinder to have them all bound with the same binding (with the exception of a few) and a year later had the same books gilded. The goal was to make them pleasing to his eye. The exceptions were books that he would read, but not keep. He says in his diary, "To the Strand, to my bookseller's, and there bought an idle, rogueish French book, which I have bought in plain binding, avoiding the binding of it better bound, because I resolve, as soon as I have read it, to burn it, that it may not stand in the list of books, nor among them, to disgrace them if it should be found." So I guess books as decoration might not be such a new concept...

>68 LadyoftheLodge: - When we moved and I put a small bookcase of cubes in, I decided to make each spine a different color. I keep track in LT of what books are where.

The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon wasn't as good a read, for me, as the first book (The Shadow of the Wind), but I'm going to go on and read the final one.

>70 dudes22: My problem would be that I'm not disciplined enough to get them back where they belong when I take them out to read them.

>72 mysterymax: - I moved some at Christmas to tuck in some decorations and some are still the other room. And once I read them, they usually leave the house to make room for more.

>69 mysterymax: I guess it is not a new concept, and I think most of us enjoy beautifully bound books.

I have mostly fiction downstairs and nonfiction upstairs, but I'm thinking of bringing some non-fiction down so that visitors don't think I'm totally immersed in mysteries, lol.

Finished Ink & Sigil by Kevin Hearne and loved it! It is sort of a lighter version of Harry Dresden with a lot more humor. Al is an elderly Sigil agent (spells written in special inks) who winds up with a hobgoblin as an assistant and a seriously dangerous office manager. Humans are trafficking in the fairy folk and submitting them to experiments to make them immune to the dangers of iron and then using them for their own nefarious purposes. Al has to stop it. Great fun when the hobgoblin is drunk on hot salsa. Laughed till I cried. I guess this means I'll be adding another series to my bookshelves!

Maigret in Vichy is one of the best Simenon books. Unlike the rest of them, here Maigret has been told by his good friend, Dr. Pardon, that he needs a rest and tells him to go to Vichy and 'take the waters'. Naturally, a murder occurs while he and his wife are there, but he takes a back seat in the investigation. We see a Maigret more relaxed and spending time with his wife.

>77 mysterymax: I am looking forward to that one!

The Moving Target by Ross Macdonald was my MysteryKIT for hard-boiled April reads. So far, I wouldn't put Ross Macdonald on an equal footing with Chandler, Spillane and Hammett. There's more development in location, and more introspection with Lew Archer. He's not a Mike Hammer, who shoots first and then asks questions, if fact he sometimes leaves his gun behind. Here he's beaten up at least three times. His take on women seems harder than the others I've mentioned. Also, the one-liner comebacks that I so love in the other hard-boiled threesome weren't as good. There were some, but Archer is more philosophical.

Also finished The Drowning Pool and Find a Victim by Macdonald. Still giving them 3.5 stars, but there is a noticeable progression in how I like them. Each one is better. But then I finished The Doomsters and I have to give it only a 3. Macdonald is praised for adding more psychology to his characters, but The Doomsters drowned in it.

>80 mysterymax: I keep discovering Lew Archers I haven't read! The Doomsters is one of them. One of my favourites is The Far Side of the Dollar, but The Chill is probably my most favourite.

>80 mysterymax: I thought that The Galton Case (1959, I think) and those that came after were better than the earlier ones. It's been long enough, maybe 15 years, that I no longer remember which ones I thought were best.

By the end of April I'd also finished The Zebra-striped hearse by Ross Macdonald and The Instant Enemy. My opinion of Ross Macdonald continues - he improves as he goes along. The Instant Enemy is the best read so far, but another good quote fell out of The Zebra-striped hearse...
Archer: "I'll go, What's her number?"
The man at the desk: "Three-oh-eight on the third floor. But we don't like gentlemen visitors in a lady's room"
Archer: "I'm no gentleman. I'm a detective."

Started May with The War Lover by John Hersey who also wrote A Single Pebble. Hiroshima, and A Bell for Adano. In spite of the title, the book should be regarded as a classic anti-war novel. It certainly deals with what fear in combat eventually does to a man.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood deserves a re-read in these times.

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam translated by Edward Fitzgerald. Mine is a first edition with only 75 verses. Lovely. Lovely illustrations by Anthony Rado. I understand that Fitzgerald's translation isn't literal, but when one is translating poetry, I think you must take liberties in order to make the work feel like the original.

Did another Maigret for the MysteryKIT - Maigret and the Man on the Bench one of three books in one of the Detective Book Club series. Maigret gets interested in a case he wouldn't normally look at. Great as always.

The Blind Barber by John Dickson Carr was a good challenge. Part way through it didn't make any sense and I found I had actually turned two pages instead of one. Went back and reread from the beginning!

Under Pressure is one of the FBI K-9 series by Sara Driscoll. I love this series and can't wait for the next one.

Love library book sales! Added 11 books to my overflowing shelves. Managed to come home with only two that I already had. It's getting harder and harder though to find older books. I managed to get three Agatha Christie's, but everything else was recent. I went hoping to add some missing Erle Stanley Gardner, Mickey Spillane, Simenon, Rex Stout etc. but nothing.

>90 mysterymax: Send me a list of what you're looking for and I'll keep an eye out whenever I go to a book sale!

>90 mysterymax: I used to bring home duplicates from library sales all the time. Now I have LibraryThing on my phone so I can check.

I usually end up with duplicates too. If it looked good once,......

>92 lowelibrary: Nice to have a phone like that. We have no cell service where I live, so to pay for a phone I would rarely use seemed a waste/thinking of all the books I could buy with that money, LOL.

>93 LadyoftheLodge: Absolutely! And of course, they go and change covers so you are sure you don't have THAT one.

>91 rabbitprincess: Great idea, The Gardner and Stout books I'm missing would fill sheets. But I am trying to find Keeper of the Keys, by Biggers (a Charlie Chan story), and the first two Mickey Spillane books: I, the Jury and My Gun is Quick. FYI I expect to be back in Ottawa in early August. We could plan a trip to the Book Bazaar on Bank after tea. Rich and I went when I was there and I'm really impressed with what the new owner has done with the place. Don't know if Julie told you about the great place we had brunch. Worth a revisit. Missed you not being there.

>96 mysterymax: Oh, I didn't know Book Bazaar had a new owner! Will have to go and check it out.

>97 rabbitprincess: Yes, and gone are all the piles of books on the floor, stairs, etc. You can actually move around now. Much cleaner and brighter. Looks like a lot of the same inventory but I did find several books that we hadn't seen there before.

>96 mysterymax: Just checking on these for you. Keeper of the Keys by Biggers is free on Project Gutenberg Canada site. Mickey Spillane books you are seeking are on Amazon Kindle and in print for not too much $$$. You can get a combination volume with those two Spillanes plus another one on kindle for a great price.

>99 LadyoftheLodge: Thanks for the heads up on the print books on Amazon. I don't do e-books at all.

Finished Rag & Bone by James Benn and loved it. It tied in with a book I read last year Imperfect Burials by Thomas Henry Pope. It looked at the same historical event from a different perspective.

>100 mysterymax: You might find them on ebay too, but I did not look for them there. I have gotten some used books on ebay and was satisfied with them.

Just finished Labyrinth of the Spirits the fourth and final book in the series by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. The first book, Shadow of the Wind is my favorite of the lot. This one was 800 pages. I'm glad I read them all but would have been just as happy reading only the first one. (The benefit of hindsight)

So many lovely enablers willing to help fill in those missing books!

Finished Dust on the Sea by Edward Beach. I have no idea why I love submarine stories so much. Always have and the only submariner in the family was my young nephew. This was a great read. Might not get published today without serious edits because people seem to like their thrillers as fast as possible and Beach is full of detail. All the steps in raising and lowering the periscope, all the steps involving in submerging, all the details in lining up shots, etc. For me, these details only enhanced the story, made it more believable. I have Run Silent, Run Deep by Beach, but I am now on a hunt for more of his submarine books. This story involved the submarine EEL and its activities in the Yellow Sea during WWII. SPOILER ALERT: My only disappointment, and it didn't spoil my overall rating, is that it gave no indication of the final report on the sister sub Whitefish. I would have enjoyed knowing that it received a bit of dressing down for their lack of action which allowed one of the Japanese ships to get through.

>105 mysterymax: - I might put that on my list of books to buy Pete. He's always up for a good boat book.

Also reviewed A Visit to Moscow which I got as an ER book. I've been having problems with the ER site since they made the changes. You really need to read the entire descriptions and go all the way through the list. It used to be that the ebooks were located at the bottom of the selections, so if you did or didn't want that format you could easily find it or ignore it. Right after the changes I ordered a book that turned out to be an ebook. Thankfully they removed it from my books. This time I ordered a book that I thought was a novel and it turned out to be a graphic novel written at the junior fiction or young adult level. These mistakes are all my fault for not being careful. This book A Visit to Moscow was a toughing story, but clearly written for a younger (than adult) audience.

>107 mysterymax: I have also had problems with ER since they changed it. I used to consistently receive books to review but then started receiving none. I have not asked for any for quite some time. Even ones I never received and could not review still showed up on my profile as not reviewed.

>108 LadyoftheLodge: As well, the quality of the books seems to have gone done. Several months I've seen nothing I'd want to read.

The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie is the latest read. I've come to the conclusion that one loves Christie because of her protagonists - Poirot, Marple, the lot of them rather than the mystery itself. Again, I had it figured out, but I still loved it. And this one filled this month's MysteryKIT.

>110 mysterymax: They are like "brain candy."

>111 thornton37814: And so much richer in color than the present day 'cozies'!

Two more done: Lemons Never Lie by Richard Stark and The Road to Ruin by Donald Westlake. Stark and Westlake are the same person. Both books were great. I'm partial to the Dortmunder series by Westlake, but Lemons Never Lie was also good.

The Fools in Town are on Our Side by Ross Thomas was an interesting read. Based on the idea that sometimes things have to get a lot worse before they can get better, Thomas' protagonist is hired to thoroughly corrupt a town that is already badly corrupted. And against the odds, the plan actually has the desired outcome.

Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi was like a 'cozy' scifi. Quite enjoyable. Jack Holloway is surveying a planet for its mineral wealth when he encounters a fuzzy creature that appears at first glance to resemble a cat. From being a hard-boiled loner with only his financial gain on his mind, he becomes the protector of the sentient creatures.

Next was a reread of Runner by Patrick Lee. This book absolutely left me breathless in 2014 when I first read it, and it did again this time. It is a high adrenaline action, fingernail biting suspense. With a heart. If you haven't read it you should.

Having just watched Agatha Christie's Cat Among the Pigeons I decided to make that my next read. The Suchet version certainly holds up and what changes have been made are far less irritating than those of recent Christie remakes. I was confused by the presence of a character in the book that I didn't remember being in the movie. Confusing because in the film she was one of the victims, but the film makers combined her character with another.

Read The Fourth Durango and Twilight at Mac's Place by Ross Thomas. Thomas' protagonists are not white knights in shining armor, that's for sure. But you do care about what happens to them, and worry about how the story will turn out.

Three books:
PT 109 by Robert J. Donovan - excellent read of J.F. Kennedy's war experience in the Pacific Ocean
The Case of the Baited Hook by Erle Stanley Gardner - great read until the end, when right at the highlight moment the book was missing the rest of the book, proving that lightening does strike twice. From now on when buying used books I'm checking to make sure the book ends!
The Case of the Curious Bride by Erle Stanley Gardner - I really enjoy the early Mason books.

>118 mysterymax: Eek about the missing pages! Same thing happened to me with a used book--parts in the middle had been razored out! Whole chapters!

>118 mysterymax: - >119 LadyoftheLodge: - Why would people do that. It's one thing if the binding breaks and they fall out, but to cut them out!

>118 mysterymax: I read most of the Perry Mason books when I was in middle school. I occasionally re-read one, but they don't work quite as well for me as they did back then.

>120 dudes22: That is a good question. I wonder if someone really liked parts of the book and might want to re-read, but did not want to keep the entire book?? Or they were traveling and did not want to take the whole book along??

>119 LadyoftheLodge:, >120 dudes22:, >121 thornton37814:, 122 You've got me. I have no idea. In this book it didn't look like the binding was broken, but it was very frustrating whatever the reason.

A couple more reads: Scott's Last Expedition. This was a small volume of extracts from the personal journals of Capt. R. F. Scott, R.N. printed in 1923. Very glad to have had the chance to read this. He was abundant in his praise of the men on the expedition which was wonderful. It was also amazing that among the men there was such a spirit of fellowship, with no clashes of personality or ill will. Undergoing the hardships that went through it would not have been surprising, but instead they all worked together, supporting each other, each doing their job. I also loved his observation of some of the whales, including a small pack of killer whales that worked together to rock (by swimming underneath and then rising up and banging it) an ice floe where two dogs were tethered. By luck they were unsuccessful in having canine for dinner.

And I risked another Perry Mason, The Case of the Counterfeit Eye.

>124 mysterymax: Nice review!

I've read so much by or about Scott but don't remember if I've ever read this one. I worked in a polar research library so it's highly possible. It's always seemed strange that Scott was so revered even though he failed in his attempt. I've always believed it was the comradeship and personalities of his team as you describe that brought about the high esteem he attained. You've made me want to read more about Scott.

>125 VivienneR: According to what I understood from the book, he did reach the pole and certainly his expedition amassed a great quantity of scientific information. He failed in beating Shackleton to the pole, and he failed in getting himself and his men home, but I suspect that had Shackleton taken the same route he might not have made it either. It seemed like Scott should have made it home, the planning of everything was so precise. What they couldn't plan was the weather, and that's what defeated them. I'm not well enough read on either of the two men, but what little I have read leads me to believe that as a person Scott was the better man.

>126 mysterymax: He got there but failed in his goal to be first - and as you say, getting his team back. There was a tv series that was broadcast in the early 1980s that was quite critical of him. I believe it was the first time anyone had not treated him like a hero. Amundsen's superior equipment was praised. I visited the Scott Polar Research library at Cambridge where there was a display of expedition clothing that looked like it was made from canvas. At that time I lived in the very cold city of Edmonton and could recognize clothing inappropriate to the climate. I agree with you that he was the better man. I was a fan also of his son, Peter Scott, an ornithologist whose paintings of birds are amazing.

Can't say I read every word on the 500 plus pages of Murder Ink by Dilys Winn, but it was never meant to be read straight through. Wonderful tongue-in-cheek articles as well as a few serious ones. Written in 1977, it would provide interesting stuff for people newly into mysteries and who know only those writers living and writing now.

A Mortal Terror by James Benn is the fifth book in the Billy Boyle WWII mystery series, and the best so far. I'm glad I read many of these long enough ago that I've forgotten lots. Or perhaps I am just noticing more. This one has Billy hunting a serial killer and trying to keep his younger brother out of harm's way. Difficult to do.

>129 mysterymax: - The most recent book in the series is reviewed in the Sept Book Pages which I just picked up from the library. My hubby thought it sounded interesting so I've requested the first one in the series from the library for him.

>130 dudes22: I think he'll like them. I've read them in various order and finally decided to do it the right way, so I've started them over.

Personal rule I must learn to stick to: don't read thrillers at bedtime! I had started Signal by Patrick Lee and couldn't stop reading. Finally, at 2:45 am I admitted I couldn't finish it. Started again while I ate breakfast, and on page 256 said, "oh, s***! I HAD to keep reading then and was almost late for my acupuncture appointment. When it started it reminded me a bit of the movie Deja Vu with Denzel Washington. Both involve a machine that allows people to see an event hours ahead. Excellent book, excellent movie.

>132 mysterymax: Signal sounds wonderful! I had a similar experience last week when I read One for Sorrow by Helen Fields.

Two great reads. My ER book came: The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes. I see a lot of his influence in the poems by Frederick Ward such as the ones found in Riverlisp. I have another collection of Hughes, so there was some overlap, but it was still a good book to receive.

Second was Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie. I had purchased this soon after he wrote it and I saw a talk by Rushdie about the importance of stories that aren't true. Started the book and something happened to derail me. Glad I read it now, and it is just as important and relevant now as it was a few years ago. Especially with this wave of people thinking they need to prevent libraries, especially school libraries, from carrying this book or that. It is another book that is labeled 'children's' but in reality a book that every grownup should read.

Haven't enjoyed a "cozy" mystery this much in a long time. Home Sweet Homicide by Craig Rice was a book bullet I was hit by earlier this year. I'm going to have to do some serious searching for more books by her.

>135 mysterymax: I really liked that one too! I also read Craig Rice's Eight Faces at Three earlier this year, which I'd highly recommend if you enjoy screwball comedy à la The Thin Man!

Finished my ER book, Operation Overlord by Francis Moss. This is for middle-school and deals with WWII and preparations for D-Day, (Operation Overlord) A school boy is in Southhampton with his father who is a military officer working on Overloard. He meets a girl his age who is a Dutch refugee and together they find a group of spies. I could only judge it with a background of knowing about D-Day. I can't tell how well the book would go over with kids who know little or nothing about this historical period. As an adventure it works. A glossary in the back provides American definitions for the British terms used.

Two more books done. The case of the sleepwalker's niece by Erle Stanley Gardner. Another Perry Mason book. While it was clear early on who the real culprit must be, watching Mason getting them to confess was good. I really enjoy these early Perry Mason books.

The other read was While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrahms. It's quite the page turner, and a bit scary when she so vividly paints the picture of how much unchecked power Homeland Security has, and how much information the government collects on every citizen.

The longest Perry Mason I've read yet was The Case of the Dangerous Dowager. One character in it (the dangerous dowager) reminded me of Louise Penny's Ruth. She actually pulls Mason's case out of the fire for him. Good read.

>139 mysterymax: It's been decades since I read that, but I remember that being a good one.

Two more books. Ghost Soldiers is the non-fiction, well-written, stomach-churning story of the rescue of POWs in the Philippines during WWII. Some of these men were survivors of the Bataan Death March. Thank goodness that just before I finished it Going Rogue, the 29th Stephanie Plum book, arrived giving me something light-hearted to read. After 29 books, I still love the misadventures of Stephanie.

Followed up the laughs with Stephanie Plum with a real page turner - The Kill Artist by Daniel Silva. Had read it a long time ago, but decided to read the ones I have in order. It was the first book in the Gabriel Allon series and an absolute block-buster of a thriller.

>142 mysterymax: - My husband has recommended Daniel Silva to me and I keep meaning to get around to reading him.

>143 dudes22: Just finished another one...The English Assassin. I liked the first one a little bit more. I'm going to keep going. The only way I can deal with the suspense is to cheat. I have to look at a few back pages to make sure the female Allon is working with survives. (It's a different woman this time.) Once I'm assured of that I can handle the rest of the tension!

>144 mysterymax: - La! La! La! - Fingers in ears...Don't tell me the endings. 🤐

>145 dudes22: Mea culpa. Sorry about that.

Sat up until 2:30 this morning to finish Shifting Trust by Madona Skaff-Koren, a thriller set 25 years into the future so there are small technical changes, but otherwise it's quite in the present time frame. Good twist at the end. The book got off to a quiet start, for me, but I was soon involved - as 2:30 am would suggest. Protagonist is an ex-RCMP office now working as a security expert for a nano-tech firm. Total twist at the end that I did NOT see coming.

Island of Shame by David Vine is a well documented disclosure of the secret and shameful history of the island of Diego Garcia. (One of the side issues in my second book.) Not only was the fate of the island determined by secret dealings between the U.K. government and that of the United States, the islanders were removed under a false pretext and not allowed to return. For anyone interested in the military, or history, or human rights this book should be on their reading list.

Some place along the way I missed entering Death's Door by James Benn. In this one he is at the Vatican investigating the death of an American priest, and also trying to rescue the woman he loves from the Nazis.

>149 mysterymax: - My husband just started reading this series and he's liking it a lot so I'm getting one after another for him from the library. Which reminds me - I need to go checkout that hold and see if it's in yet. (Trots off to library web site....)

>150 dudes22: I’ve read every book in the series, including the newest one published this year. They are all consistently good. I haven’t been disappointed yet! Enjoy!

The Underground Man by Ross Macdonald was my next read. It's a Lew Archer novel. I think I've enjoyed others more than this one. I just couldn't work up any feelings for the people he was trying to help.

I'm getting a bit disappointed. I have tons of 4 star and even quite a few 4.5 stars, but nothing so far stands out as THE best book I've read this year. None with 5 stars. I've had lot of good, enjoyable reads, don't get me wrong. But nothing that stands out as an "I'll never forget this book." One month to go, maybe something will turn up.

>153 mysterymax: I don't remember if I've given anything higher than 4 stars all year. I guess I'll see . . . and perhaps December will give me a 5 star read!

>154 thornton37814: I've been wondering why I haven't had that 5 star - grab me by the heart - read and yet have so many 4 and 4.5 reads. I think it's because I have read very few 'new' books this year. They have all been either re-reads or books by writers that I know and love.

>155 mysterymax: Same here, I am rather picky about giving 5 stars, usually four or four and a half are the tops.

A Blind Goddess by James Benn is the best in the series so far. Deals with the racial prejudices suffered by both the black soldiers and the Jewish people. So much money was wasted by having the troops segregated, everything had to be done in duplicate. And it gave the English a good look at what some white Americans were really like. I had not realized that the British had actually gone so far as to make 'non-awareness' of the concentration camps a policy. A real eye-opener. Benn's writing is flawless.

Time for a fun read! Hounded by Kevin Hearne. This is the first in the Iron Druid series. I read his Ink & Sigil series first and met the Iron Druid that way. So I've started the series! Absolutly loving it!

Finished Still Waters by Sara Driscoll. It's the 7th book in the FBI K9 series. This is the best K9 series I've read. I read it straight through. I have to learn to read slowly because now it will probably be a year before the next one comes out! This time Meg and her dog Hawk are in Minnesota because she and her partner Brian and his dog Lacey are learning some new skills. Trouble happens, of course, and I was holding my breath until the end.

500+ pages in The Defector by Daniel Silva A giant, deadly romp. Can't imagine how the series will go from here.

Not my favorite Perry Mason story, but it is one in which Perry proposes to Della (and she says no). The Case of the Drowsy Mosquito by Erle Stanley Gardner. I pulled it out of the bookcase in a moment of, 'I haven't picked something to read in bed' panic. The title had always intrigued me, but as a Perry Mason story it didn't entertain as much as some of the others.

>161 mysterymax: I'm sure I read that one as a teenager, but I don't remember Perry proposing to Della.

I have a few more books to read before the year ends, but this will do for 2022.

Year-End Meme

Describe yourself: The Kill Artist

Describe how you feel: Under Pressure

Describe where you currently live: Fuzzy Nation

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: The Road to Ruin

Your favorite form of transportation is: Call Me a Cab

Your favorite food is: Paper & Blood

Your favorite time of day is: While Justice Sleeps

Your best friend is: The Late Scholar

You and your friends are: Going Rogue

What’s the weather like: Dust on the Sea

You fear: Ghost Soldiers

What is the best advice you have to give: The Fools in Town Are on our Side

Thought for the day: Lemons Never Lie

What is life for you: Cat Among the Pigeons

How you would like to die: Murder by Tradition

Your soul’s present condition: The Weary Blues

What was 2022 like for you? The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

What do you want from 2023? Still Waters

>162 thornton37814: Yes, it's at the end. Dr. Kenward and the nurse are going to go to Las Vegas and 'get spliced' and Salty and Lucille decided to go too. Perry says to Della, "Know what?"
"What?"
I bet the preacher would make a reduced rate on marrying three couples instead of two."
She looked at him with wistful tenderness. "Forget it, Chief."
"Why?"
and she gives him a few reasons.

>163 mysterymax: I fear mine is going to be the slimmest pickings this year. I'll wait until I'm done or know what the last few completions will be for certain before trying to fit things.

>163 mysterymax: - Some of your answers just cracked me up. And remind me not to eat at your house. 😂

>166 dudes22: After sleeping on it, the list is more appropriate than I thought when I did it!

>166 dudes22: And many thanks for the nod on your meme!

Finished Call Me A Cab by Donald Westlake. I'm a big fan of Westlake, but this one didn't quite do it for me. At first, I was very interested - expecting something to happen, but it never did. Katharine hires Tom, a New York cabbie, to drive her to LA. She wants to spend the time trying to figure out if she wants to marry Barry. By the time they reached Colorado I was skipping actual pages. I wanted to keep reading, believing there would be a masterful Westlake twist at the end. In the afterword, a commentor asks "Can you have a suspense novel without any crime in it?" The answer might be yes, but for me, not in this case.

Withing everyone a wonderful holiday season, and for all of us - a healthy, saner, gentler, more civilized new year.

>170 mysterymax: Amen to that. Wishing you a lovely, peaceful holiday!

>170 mysterymax: Wishing you the same!

>163 mysterymax: Looks like your year was bumpy! Best wishes for Still Waters next year!

>173 VivienneR: It's funny, putting the meme together I felt like my books weren't offering good choices! Now every time I see it I think, Wow. That's it in a nutshell. .... or a meme!

Thanks for the good wishes, which I also echo--we need saner and gentler times.

The Rest is Silence is the next Billy Boyle WWII mystery. Billy is trying to find the identity of a man washed up on the beach. The Allies are practicing for D-Day and a terrible training accident takes place. All round a good book.

Finished Hexed by Kevin Hearne. Just started the Iron Druid series, having come by them via the Ink & Sigil series. Lots of fun.

To wrap up the year:
Didn't get a lot of reading done - only 71 books this year.
What I enjoyed reading the most was continuing series: The FBI K9 series by Sara Driscoll, the Billy Boyle series by James Benn, and the Ink & Sigil series by Keven Hearne, which introduced me to the Iron Druid series, and the Gabriel Allon series by Daniel Silva.
Loved the new addition to the Stephanie Plum series that came out this year, and Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salmon Rushdie, a book that everyone who loves to read should read.