_Stalking the Angel_ by
Robert Crais. Clearly an earlier Elvis Cole book, since Joe Pike occassionally
uses an unnecessary word or two. Good and sad, funny and violent, flip and
thoughtful.
_The Oxford Murders_ by
Guillermo MartÃnez, one of the millions of books about mathematician sleuths
and the huge sub-genre of them written in the environment of Andrew Wiles'
proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. Oh, what? Ok, probably the only such book, but
enjoyable. There was a nice enough mystery to carry it ...and I think there
is also a nice question of responsibility left open at the end to think about.
_Killer Smile_ by Lisa
Scottoline and TAXES. The former was much more interesting. While it used a
historical base, in this case, the internment of Italian-Americans in WW II,
like _Daddy's Girl_ (read a couple of months ago), this history was part of the
author's personal family history and it melded much better in the story line.
_Give Me Back My
Legions!_ by Harry Turtledove. Over-written, under-edited historical novel of
the disaster at the Teutoburg Forest in 9 CE. Turtledove may have the latest
historical thought incorporated the book, but even in it's sketchier coverage
(MUCH sketchier), Robert Graves provides more oomph in _I, Claudius_.
_The Quest_ by Wilbur
Smith. Fourth of the Egypt series of pot-boiler/adventures. Taita starts in
India and voyages to the source of the Nile and beyond to save Egypt. He has
never been in more H. Rider Haggard mold, which is saying something.
_Phantom Prey_ by John
Sandford. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Sandford's books read
beautifully. Nice to have the Twin Cities map in one's head for it, too.
_Ship of the Line_ by CS
Forester and _Deep Lie_ by Stuart Woods. These have been my dressing room
reading at BBB the last couple of weeks.
_Bookman's Promise_ by John Dunning. Nice foray into historical supposition
with Richard Burton helping start the American Civil War!
_Bookman's Wake_ by John
Dunning. Nice ambiguity in the title--a post-death wake since it is a
murder mystery and wake as in following the trail. I liked the first
book in the series because, well, it was a book about books. I liked
this one more--not only a book about books, but a book about printing as
well. I guess all those years at Quad had an
impact.
_So Yesterday_ by Scott Westerfield. Cool hunter kids teams up with an original thinker to find the source of the most amazing sneakers ever. I suspect that Westerfield had recently read William Gibson's _Pattern Recognition_ when concieving some of this. Not sharing a universe or story, just a feel.