Reading Asimov's third Elijah Baley sci-fi crime novel, The Robots of Dawn

Lex, I love the Bosch novels, and the TV series was excellent.

I am back to reading my Victorian novels after a few months' hiatus. The one I am reading now is East Lynne by Ellen Wood, published in 1860 and considered to be one of the best sensation/thriller novels of that period. Three chapters in and the groundwork is being laid for a very interesting plot.

As a result of a new thriller series on BBC, Wolf, based on on one of Mo Hayder's books about detective Jack Caffery, I have just started reading them (starting with Birdman): powerful stuff, needing a strong stomach!

I think I have a new author to add to my favorites list. Alex Pine. Just finished the second in the DI James Walker series last night. The first is called The Christmas Killer, there's a killer in the village where DI Walker lives. A note is left for him - 12 days of Christmas, 12 murders of people that deserve it.

The second book is called: The killer in the snow; A year has passed when a family is found murdered in their farm home. The crime scene has strange echoes of another terrible murder committed at the farm house twenty years earlier.

I haven't purchased the third book yet called The winter killer & the fourth won't be out until November called The night before Christmas. Both books that I read were real page turners.

I still haven't been reading as much as I would like to but those books sound good judith, so I am making note of them.

Thanks judith: I will add Alex Pine to my list, and I see that the first book is free for Amazon Prime members (which we are).

Oh, I'm so happy you were able to receive the first book for free Lex, enjoy the book.

My wife is a great fan of Chris Carter's heavy duty violent murder thrillers, so we are just catching up with his latest (from last year): Genesis - another one not for the squeamish

...and at the other end of the spectrum there is a new Thursday Murder Club offering from Richard Osman: The Last Devil To Die

After getting caught up with the two newest Temperance Brennan novels by Kathy Reichs, A Conspiracy of Bones and The Bone Code, I decided to try N. K. Jemisin's New York City duology The City We Became and The World We Make. They're contemporary fantasies in which real people become avatars of their cities and have to use the powers they gain to try to defeat a persistent and powerful enemy. I really enjoyed them both very much.

After playing and loving the game, I finally found a used paperback copy of Callahan's Crosstime Saloon online. It's a collection of short stories that take place at Callahan's, and echos of several of them appeared in the game. They are loaded with humor, puns, and dollops of compassion for the often needy souls who find their way to the bar. I have since collected several more books in the series and am planning a marathon read of them soon.

Started back into the Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin. Decided to re-read it since Netflix is going to be putting out a series based on the "trilogy". The Chinese version is actually on YouTube and is quite good, very loyal to the book. I think the Netflix version is going to be more of an interpretation. Great books if you like mind bending stuff, some heavy science and a moving crossover from the cultural revolution in China. The aliens in the book are probably the most alien I've read. Not just in appearance or physical existence, but culturally as well. They are all wired very different than humans.

LadyKestrel, I love the games, I will have to look for the books.

Your best bet for the Callahan books are mostly used copies on eBay or Amazon, Connie.

I think that some of the Callahan books are available on kindle.

Thanks LadyKestrel and Lex.

I just finished J. D. Robb's first Eve Dallas mystery, Naked in Death, and I'm hooked. It's fortunate because I bought the next two books and won't have to wait to continue. It's also unfortunate because there are 43 more mysteries in the series.

LadyK, I would say, "Oh, how awful!" But I love when I'm in the same situation! have fun with the series...

LadyKestrel, according to Fantastic Fiction there are 57 books in the series and counting. I have the first 43 but haven't read quite all of them yet. They are in my rotation with some other authors I read. I'm trying to get caught up so I can buy some more.

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/r/j-d-robb/

Currently 58 stories in this series according to Amazon, so I have downloaded the kindle sample of the first one... (thanks for the mention LadyK)

Meanwhile a mention on the what are you watching thread has reminded me of the engaging stories of Native American police by Tony Hillerman and later Anne Hillerman which I may revisit.

Heh. I only counted the Robb books listed in the first reprinted paperback. I think I'm going to have to ration them 3 at a time.

I do love Tony Hillerman's books, but I haven't read any of Anne's.

What are the Robb books? Police procedural, private eye, or what? I'm intrigued.

Also, anyone got recommendations for authors of "crime with humour" similar to the Myron Bolitar books of Harlan Coben or the ones set in the Florida Keys by Carl Hiaasen? (Mrs Worrier has already introduced me to Temperance Brennan)

Some of John Sandford's books have quite an element of humour (especially those involving Virgil Flowers) as well as being good police thrillers, and there are now a lot of them so plenty to keep you going if you like his style (which I do).

However, the balance between thriller and humour is hard to get right and does not make for massive sales, which I know is why Harlen Coben largely abandoned Myron Bolitar: SF is a genre where the blend seems to work better, Callahan's Crosstime Saloon (mentioned above) being a case in point.

My tiny dip into the first Robb book indicates a gently futuristic backdrop for a quasi police procedural and a fair amount of humour, sort of blade runner very lite, but others who are more immersed in her work may disagree!

(BTW even if you are not a kindle reader, you can read the samples online to get a good feel for the books)

Urban Worrier, I absolutely adore Stuart McBride's Logan McRae series. Funny, gritty and very Scottish. My favourite crimes series by a country mile. They should be read in order, if you're interested in them.

Hagatha maybe I'll revisit these: I think that I originally found the first one a bit too jokey (as well as generally preferring my thrillers to be based outside the British Isles)

Not so much a great read as an interesting curiosity, but I am currently reading a very early SF work The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish written in 1666, prompted by a review of a recent book about her https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blazing_World

(available very cheaply on kindle)