rosalita (Julia) ROOTs around again in 2023-Chapter 3

My name’s Julia, and I have too many books. Well, that’s not really possible but it’s fair to say I have too many books I haven’t read yet. I’ve participated in the ROOTs group for two years, and have met my goal of 48 ROOTs each year. I’m going to aim for that same target this year, just 4 per month. Under-promise and over-deliver is the hope for 2023!

I work at my alma mater, the University of Iowa, so my thread topper features seasonal images from the campus, often (as with this summer scene from last week) the Old Capitol building at the center of campus.

That’s enough of the blather — on to the books!

Keeping Score

ROOTs (books)


Total books read (read)


Acquisitions (buy)

ROOTed in 2023
January through June

      

January
1. My Policeman by Bethan Roberts.
2. The Bone Is Pointed by Arthur W. Upfield.
3. The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang.
4. Strawberry Shortcake Murder by Joanne Fluke.

February
5. Too Many Cooks by Rex Stout.
6. Exiles by Jane Harper.
7. A Killing of Innocents by Deborah Crombie.
8. The Dry by Jane Harper.
9. Some Buried Caesar by Rex Stout.

March
10. The Mystery of Swordfish Reef by Arthur W. Upfield.
11. The Mystery of the Laughing Shadow by William Arden.
12. Over My Dead Body by Rex Stout.

April
13. Murder in the Ball Park by Robert Goldsborough.
14. Force of Nature by Jane Harper.
15. The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths.

May
16. Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead.
17. Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska by Warren Zanes.
18. Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert.
19. All That Is Mine I Carry with Me by William Landay.
20. Myth America: Historians Take on the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past by Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer (eds.).
21. The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman.

June
22. An Argumentation of Historians by Jodi Taylor.
23. Bushranger of the Skies by Arthur Upfield.
24. Lightfoot by Nicholas Jennings.

KEY: Italics = non-ROOTs. Bold = Favourite book of the month.

ROOTed in 2023
July through December

    

July
25. Homegoing by Yah Gyasi.
26. Romancing Mister Bridgerton by Julia Quinn.
27. Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells.
28. Writing Gordon Lightfoot: The man, the music and the world in 1972 by Dave Bidini.
29. Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby.
30. The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder by Lawrence Block.
31. Real Tigers by Mick Herron.
32. The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian by Lawrence Block.
33. Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane.

August
34. The Secret of the Crooked Cat by William Arden.
35. Hit Man by Lawrence Block.
36. Hit List by Lawrence Block.
37. Hit Parade by Lawrence Block.
38. Hit and Run by Lawrence Block.
39. The Cold, Cold Ground by Adrian McKinty.
40. Hit Me by Lawrence Block.
41. I Hear the Sirens in the Street by Adrian McKinty.

September
42. In the Morning I'll Be Gone by Adrian McKinty.
43. Where There's a Will by Rex Stout.
44. Gun Street Girl by Adrian McKinty.
45. Death of a Swagman by Arthur Upfield.
46. Rain Dogs by Adrian McKinty.
47. Blueberry Muffin Murder by Joanne Fluke.
48. Police at the Station and They Don't Look Friendly by Adrian McKinty.
49. Black Orchids by Rex Stout.
50. The Detective Up Late by Adrian McKinty.

September
51. The Return Journey by Maeve Binchy.

KEY: Italics = non-ROOTs. Bold = Favourite book of the month.

Added to the shelf in 2023
January through June

January
✔︎ 1. Myth America: Historians Take on the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past edited by Kevin M. Kruse and Julia E. Zelizer. ($18.99 ebook/Kobo)
  * NOTE: I also have the audiobook version, won in a Twitter giveaway by Professor Kruse.
✔︎ 2. The Bone Is Pointed by Arthur W. Upfield. ($5.66 ebook/Kobo)
3. Editors on Editing: What Writers Need to Know About What Editors Do edited by Gerald Gross. ($1.70 ebook/Kobo)
4. Wish You Were Here by Stewart O'Nan. ($1.79 ebook/Kobo)
5. The Chicago Guide to Usage, Grammar and Punctuation by Bryan A. Garner. ($1.79 ebook/Kobo)
✔︎ 6. Exiles by Jane Harper. ($14.99 ebook/Kobo)

February
7. Troublemakers: Chicago Freedom Struggles Through the Lens of Art Shay by Erik S. Gellman. (free ebook/University of Chicago Press)
✔︎ 8. A Killing of Innocents by Deborah Crombie. ($14.99 ebook/Kobo)
✔︎ 9. The Mystery of Swordfish Reef by Arthur W. Upfield. (free ebook/Kobo)

March
10. This Life: Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom by Martin Hägglund. ($4.99 ebook/Kobo)
11. Caramel Pecan Roll Murder by Joanne Fluke. (89 cents ebook/Kobo)

April
✔︎ 12. Bushranger of the Skies by Arthur W. Upfield. ($5.66 ebook/Kobo)
13. Down Cemetery Road by Mick Herron. ($1.99 ebook/Kobo)
✔︎ 14. The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths. ($14.99 ebook/Kobo)
✔︎ 15. Deliver Me From Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska by Warren Zanes. ($28.00/hardcover from Prairie Lights)

May
No books bought in May! Although I did pre-order one being published in September so perhaps not quite the win I'd like it to be ...

June
16. Dangerous by Minerva Spencer. (free ebook for VIP membership renewal/Kobo)
17. The Big Bad City by Ed McBain. ($1.99 ebook/Kobo)
18. Blackberry Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke. (89 cents ebook/Kobo)
✔︎ 19. The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder by Lawrence Block. ($9.99 ebook/Kobo)
20. A is for Arsenic by Kathryn Harkup. ($2.69 ebook/Kobo)




KEY: ✔︎ indicates books that I have read, either this year or previously.

Added to the shelf in 2023
H=July through December

July
21. Smiley's People by John LeCarré. ($1.99 ebook/Kobo)
22. The Return Journey by Maeve Binchy. ($1.99 ebook/Kobo)

August
23. Billy Budd and Other Stories by Herman Melville. (99 cents ebook/Kobo)
24. The Detective Up Late by Adrian McKinty. ($8.69 ebook/Kobo)
25. The Sisters & The Roommate by Dervla McTiernan. ($1.79 ebook/Kobo)
26. Apple Turnover Murder by Joanne Fluke. (89 cents ebook/Kobo)
27. Death of a Swagman by Arthur Upfield. ($5.66 ebook/Kobo)

September
28. The Longmire Defense by Craig Johnson. ($14.99 ebook/Kobo)
29. Black Orchids by Rex Stout. ($4.99 ebook/Kobo)




KEY: ✔︎ indicates books that I have read, either this year or previously.

I have so many reviews to do, but I'm afraid those won't get written today. But as my good friend Scarlett always says, tomorrow is another day...

Happy new thread, Julia. Always nice to see you here, even though I also get to "see" you on Twitter :)

Hi, Julia - I will do better at keeping up and commenting this thread! I have been scanning but you've mostly been way out of my comfort / knowledge zone. :)

Happy new thread! Looking forward to seeing those reviews fill it up :)

Happy new thread!

>8 katiekrug: Hello again, Katie! I'm much better at posting on other people's threads than my own. And we'll always* have Twitter.

>9 lyzard: No hard feelings here, Liz — I sometimes feel the same way over on your thread, after all! :-)

>10 rabbitprincess: Thanks, RP! The good news is because there are so many of them most will be the "quick summary" type, which I know people like. I reserve the right to blather on at a bit more length for at least a couple of the, though.

>11 MissWatson: Thanks for stopping by, Birgit!

* Offer good for a limited time only. Some limitations (like the idiocy of the owner) apply. ;-)

>12 rosalita: - Snort.

>12 rosalita: Wait, is it still Twitter? Looking forward to the reviews, Julia. It took awhile for the book covers on your thread to load but nothing brought the topper into view.

Happy new thread! I think LT (and Litsy) are having some issues with covers etc, according to a facebook post I saw earlier, so I wonder if it's still glitching.

>14 Familyhistorian: Thanks, Meg! I refuse to use whatever stupid name the egomaniac running the site — let's just call him Space Karen — has decreed this week. So yes, it's still Twitter to me, and will be until they turn out the lights for good.

There was a problem with images all over LT and Litsy, and though it's now been fixed it takes a while for everyone's browser to recognize and start using the new files. I'm sure the thread topper image will show up again sooner or later -- I guess you'll just have to check back in in a few days. :)

>15 Jackie_K: Yep, differences in browser caches are making it difficult for the fix to roll out evenly, apparently.

>16 rosalita: I reloaded the images that had disappeared from one of my threads, and it worked fine. Saved the inner workings the trouble of dealing with those two, at least!

>17 laytonwoman3rd: Smart thinking, Linda!

Hey Julia! You have been very restrained with your book buying this year. Kudos! I was wondering why images, book covers, etc. have been wonky lately...

Anyway, happy new one.

Happy new thread, Julia! Your topper is gorgeous!

>19 BLBera: I'm glad you think my book buying has been restrained, Beth. If you say it often enough, I might even believe it. :-)

>20 atozgrl: Thanks, Irene! The center of campus is a lovely space. My office is right across the street, although even when I worked in the office it was in a space with no windows so it's not like I could enjoy the view. But walking outside was always a pleasure.

Happy new one, Julia!

Thanks, Joanne!

>21 rosalita: Your book buying *has* been restrained, Julia! (says me, who just welcomed new book #109 this year into my life yesterday).

>24 Jackie_K: You are my book-buying hero, Jackie!

Happy Newish thread, Julia!

More greetings from me, Julia. I am so glad the pictures are back, I did miss them.

>26 connie53: >27 charl08: Thanks for stopping by, Connie and Charlotte! I'm sorry not to have more interesting content for you to read. I am desperately far behind on posting reviews.

My Currently Reading collection is getting embarrassingly long because I keep books there until I've posted about them here, and I haven't done that since (gulp) June. Bad Julia!

Instead of posting them all in the order I read them, I'm going to group them thematically, which will make more sense as I post them. So here goes ...

  

24. Lightfoot by Nicholas Jennings.

28. Writing Gordon Lightfoot: The Man, the Music, and the World in 1972 by Dave Bidini.

I posted a bit about the Jennings biography of Gordon Lightfoot back when I was reading it. It's very well-written and includes lots of information about Lightfoot's personal life as well as his songwriting and musical career. In some ways, Gord's story reminds me of the recent Paul Newman "memoir" The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man. Both were supremely talented individuals who seemed unable to accept or enjoy their own gifts and the success and accolades they earned until quite late in life. Jennings had full access to Lightfoot, his band members and family, which makes its searing honesty even more surprising. I came away from Lightfoot with a better understanding of the man and his music, which is pretty much what you want from a biography. My only quibble is the chronological structure didn't allow for making connections between different songs/albums/personal circumstances across the years.

The Bidini book, on the other hand — ooof. As Pete Campbell plaintively cried out on Mad Men, "Not great, Bob!" Dave Bidini did not have access to Lightfoot — Gord repeatedly refused his requests for an interview. Bidini turns that rejection into a sort of badge of honor, and fashions the book as an "open letter" to Lightfoot, speculating about his life and relating some tawdry gossip and anonymous criticism. Evidently realizing this self-indulgent stunt wasn't enough to carry a whole book, Bidini attempts to give the feather-light narrative more gravitas by alternating sections of his "letter" with a slapdash chronicling of events that happened during a particular week in 1972 — the week when both Dylan and Lightfoot appeared at the Mariposa Folk Festival in Toronto. The every-other-chapter structure makes the narrative even more disjoined than trying to tie together a bunch of completely unrelated events together would be ordinarily. The only consolation for me is I bought this one for $3 at a used bookstore.

25. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi.

Two half-sisters, born into two different tribes in 18th century Ghana, are the starting point for a sprawling multi-generational saga that traces the fortunes and misfortunes of the sisters and their descendants. One sister married an Englishman who spearheads the export of slave labor to the Americas; the other is one of those slaves who lands in the American South at the height of the antebellum slavery period.

Neither branch of the family emerges unscathed by the colonialist slave trade through the generations, though they are scarred (physically as well as emotionally) in different ways. Gyasi doesn't hold back in her depictions of the brutality inflicted on the Ghanians, and while she also is clear about the existence of slaves being part of the spoils of war between tribes, the reader can clearly see how much worse the colonial slave trade was for families, ripping them apart and away from their home.

I can't say I enjoyed reading this book. It is bleak and graphic and grim. But I'm glad I read it because it's a window onto the "other side" of the slavery story that gets taught in American schools (or at least was; heaven only knows what kids will be taught in the years to come).

Hi, darls! I see we've both been off the grid for about the same time; I've just been doing some catch-up posts (though no actual reviewing, of course). Hope all is well with you. :)

>32 lyzard: Good to see you, Liz! Here's to better luck keeping up for both of us going forward. Well, first I actually have to catch up, then worry about keeping up. :-)

26. Romancing Mister Bridgerton by Julia Quinn.

The fourth book in the series tackles the story of Colin, third sibling in the alphabetically named Bridgerton clan. It was interesting to read this one and spot the many differences from the Netflix series. I don't remember it well enough to comment more deeply.

27. Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells.

Another series continuation, this time the third book in the Murderbot Diaries science fiction series by Martha Wells. The moody Murderbot is hot on the trail of evidence that the evil GrayCris corporation (who were behind the shambolic mission that first set Murderbot free) has been up to even more shady dealings on another planet. When she travels to that place, she ends up getting entangled in a mixed human/android expedition that raises complicated feelings — why do the humans insist on treating their droid as a friend or pet instead of a tool?

29. Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby.

The sort of book that the adjectives "bleak" and "gritty" were made for. Living in a rural part of Virginia where antebellum attitudes hang on, Bug Montage has a checkered past as the getaway driver for some very unsavory people, but he's working hard to go straight, owning a mechanic shop and trying to be a good provider and set a good example for his wife and two young sons. When his business falters, he lets himself be drawn back into "one last heist" even though he knows that a black man such as himself has no business trusting a couple of white grifters who have a reverse-Midas effect: Everything they touch turns to dirt.

Cosby could have delivered a standard narrative, in which a fundamentally good man is drawn back into bad behavior by economic circumstances beyond his control. Instead, he gives us a much more nuanced character who, yes, needs the financial security that will come from a successful job, but who also misses the exhilarating highs that came from eluding the police in his illicit past. He's also struggling to come to terms with the disappearance of his father, who first introduced him to a life of crime before running afoul of his fellow criminals.

The opening scene alerted me that I would have to throw out my casual assumptions, when an illegal drag race goes awry and Bug doesn't settle for being grateful not to be arrested or killed but instead sets out to claim what is rightfully his. The climax of the book, when Bug has to confront the damage he's done to his family in his quest to provide for them, is heart-wrenching in its raw emotions from all of the key players, from Bug to his wife to his sons and daughter.

There's plenty of brutality in the story, and it's not for the squeamish. But all in all, this is an extraordinary book from a first-rate storyteller. I look forward to reading more from Cosby soonish.

After reading All the SInners Bleed, I am looking forward to more Cosby. I have BW on my Kindle...

Romancing Mr. Bridgerton was the first of the series I read way back in the early 00s, so I often say it's my favorite, but when I re-read it a few years ago, I wasn't as enamored.

>37 katiekrug: I've still got a long wait on the library holds list for All the Sinners Bleed, but I think I have Razorblade Tears lurking on my Kobo somewhere.

That's interesting about your reaction to the Bridgerton book on the second read, Katie. I wasn't sure if I was feeling underwhelmed because of the book or because so much of the story had already been revealed in the Netflix series. I still want to continue with the series, but I'm tempering my expectations somewhat.

>38 rosalita: - I also have Razorblade Tears on my e-reader!

I think my favorite now is To Sir Philip with Love, which I guess is next up for you? It's a bit spoiler-y for the series, but I found the way they introduced some of the characters from the book into the series interesting. Plus, Eloise!

The last three in the series are, to me, mcuh weaker, especially G & H's stories... Francesca's is just different because she's such a non-entity in the earlier books.

>39 katiekrug: I do think Eloise is my favorite Bridgerton, primarily based on the Netflix series. So I'm glad to hear the next one is a winner. And those three youngest Bridgertons really haven't had much of a presence in the books so far, so it's not surprising that their stories fall a bit flat.

Welp, now you'll probably hate it ;-)

>35 rosalita: I've heard lots of good things about the Murderbot books, but know if I bought them I'd probably never get round to them. Maybe one day!

30. The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder by Lawrence Block.

Lawrence Block wrote 17 novels, numerous short stories and a novella featuring Matthew Scudder, a former New York City police detective whose life skids off track after a tragic accident on the job. When the series opens, Scudder has abandoned his family on Long Island, living in a residential hotel in Hell's Kitchen and drowning his sorrows in bourbon. To fill the time between drinks, he occasionally does "favors" for friends and acquaintances which amount to acting as an unlicensed private detective. Scudder is a great character who grows and changes throughout the series, so starting at No. 1, The Sins of the Fathers is highly recommended.

This book, written this year — more than a decade after the last novel, A Drop of the Hard Stuff — is different. Like the novels and stories, it's written in the first person, narrated by Scudder. But this time, it's meant to be Scudder writing down the rest of his life story — all the bits that "the other guy" aka Lawrence Block left out or got wrong. The premise sounds a bit rickety but it works surprisingly well. If this is the last we hear from Scudder (and surely it is — Block is 85 years old) it's a sweetly poignant note to end on.

31. Real Tigers by Mick Herron.

I read the first two books in the Slough House series long before Apple TV+ made a TV series out of them. I really liked them but I got stalled because my library didn't have No. 3 or several of the following ones. Happily, the success of the streaming series spurred the library to acquire most if not all of the missing books. I'm happy to be back in the world of the Slow Horses.

All of the Slow Horses get up to a surprisingly energetic amount of activity in this one, as Catherine Standish, the administrative assistant who holds the place together, goes missing. Searching for her doesn't do much to take Louisa's mind off the tragic loss she suffered in Book 2 (Dead Lions) but she gives it her best effort, which is quite good indeed for someone officially labeled a screw-up. Meanwhile, River Cartwright stumbles into another angle of the plot when he learns about a diabolical plan by a Russian sleeper cell to fly a plane into a London building.

There's plenty of British humor, the new Horses settle into their roles well, and some recurring characters get exactly what they deserve, which is always satisfying. I'm looking forward to see this one come to life on Apple TV+.

>42 Jackie_K: I missed your comments in my posting frenzy, Jackie! They really are good, and because these first five or so are novellas they are quick reads. So you might find yourself slipping in at the odd time when you don't want to get stuck into something more involved.

I love Murderbot. I've listened to all of the books. The narrator Kevin Free is wonderful.

After seeing your comments on Blacktop Wasteland, I wonder if the book is for me. I am squeamish.

I need to get to the Herron series; it sounds like one I would love.

Great comments.

>46 BLBera: Thanks, Beth! I think you'd enjoy the Herron series.

Look at you finishing all those books! Wow. Nice recap, Julia. This is the second time this week I've seen Mick Herron mentioned. Clearly it's a sign.

>48 lauralkeet: All those reviews and I'm only up to late July! It's shameful how I let myself go this year. Must try to do better in 2024.

And I do think you'd like the Slough House series as well, Laura. Also the Apple TV+ series. So far there have been two seasons, one for each of the first two books. I really hope they stick to that format, because 6 to 8 episodes (I can't remember exactly how many are in each season) are the perfect length for not having to leave out huge chunks of what's in the books.

32. The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian.

I can't remember what prompted me to pick this book up at the end of July. I probably wanted a quick re-read before starting a new book that I knew would be more time-consuming, and Lawrence Block was on my mind having recently read The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder (see >43 rosalita:). Anyway, this is a perfectly fine entry in Block's other long-running series, featuring gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr. Full of the wit and whimsy that characterizes the whole series, it was a solid in-between read.

This was also foreshadowing for what's coming up in a few posts ...

33. Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane.

Boston in 1974 had a lot in common with Birmingham, Alabama. A court ruled earlier that year that Boston public schools must be desegregated in the fall of that year, leading to a summer full of racial tension centered on the black neighborhood of Roxbury and vociferous protests in the white working-class neighborhoods of South Boston.

Mary Pat, proud Irish Catholic single mother and vehement anti-busing advocate, is distracted from the activism she plans with other mothers in Southie when her teenage daughter Jules goes missing. On the same evening, a young black man is found dead in a Southie subway station. Do these two events connect, and how?

Man, the racism and the foul language, the cruelty and the violence that characters perpetuate on each other is so hard to read — not because it's exaggerated or over-the-top in its depiction but because it is all too depressingly real. The ways that even Mary Pat — as close as this novel comes to a protagonist — speaks about black people is like a bucket of cold water in your face. When the dead teenager turns out to be the son of Mary Pat's black co-worker at the nursing home, she tries and mostly fails to reach out to her with compassion, and is nevertheless surprised for her half-hearted condolences to be met with anger and resentment. The gulf between these two women, who have so much in common, cannot be overcome with a clever plot point or one heartfelt conversation. It is bone deep, generations old, and will undoubtedly live on in future generations on both sides.

There are also more bog-standard depictions of neighborhood gangsters and drug dealing, and it all comes together in an explosive finale that metes out a certain rough justice that satisfies no one. But those weren't the aspects that stuck with me. It was the seeming hopelessness of the interpersonal relations between two sets of Americans who struggle to even see each other as human that still haunts my thoughts.

34. The Secret of the Crooked Cat by William Arden.

The Three Investigators (teenager boys Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw and Bob Andrews) are drawn into a mystery surrounding a traveling carnival that seems to be plagued with a series of "accidents" that may mean it's cursed. It all seems to hinge on one of the prizes given in a midway shooting gallery game — a series of identical "crooked" stuffed cats.

By the end of the book, bank robbers and gypsies are also drawn into the carnival's mystery. There is some very questionable laissez-faire parenting among the carnival set and it's a wonder nobody lost a leg or worse in all the shenanigans, but as always in this series, all's well that ends well when Jupiter really puts his mind to the problem.

        

35. Hit Man by Lawrence Block.
36. Hit List by Lawrence Block.
37. Hit Parade by Lawrence Block.
38. Hit and Run by Lawrence Block.
40. Hit Me by Lawrence Block.

After dipping my toe into his oeuvre the previous month, August was well and truly Lawrence Block Month. I meant to just re-read Hit Man, the first book in this series about Keller, a neurotic and disturbingly likable assassin for hire, because it's very episodic in nature and can be read in short chunks.

But when I finished it, I found myself picking up the next in the series, Hit List which adds a throughline to the episodic structure: Keller slowly comes to realize that someone is trying to kill the killer — himself. He and his handler, Dot, work together to figure out who it is and how to neutralize the threat before the threat neutralizes Keller.

And then I was fully invested and picking up the third book, Hit Parade, was just reflex. Here the assassin's lifestyle starts to pale, and he and Dot both contemplate retirement. But what will Keller do to pass his time once he's no longer helping people pass on? He takes up stamp collecting of course, and it isn't long before he's fully caught up in buying stamps in whatever city he's sent to for work. But now there's a problem: The nest egg he had set aside for retirement is being eaten up by buying expensive stamps for his collection. So he and Dot decide he'll take every job that is offered to build it back up and get them both back in a financial position to hang it up for good. By the end of this one, he's just about there ...

So of course I had to read Hit and Run — one last job before Keller and Dot retire, and it's in Des Moines, Iowa. Except someone else — a visiting governor — gets killed while he's in Des Moines and it doesn't take long for him to realize he's been lured to the city to take the fall for a killing he didn't do. He has no choice but to cut himself off from contact with Dot and go on the run, driving across the country with just one destination in mind: Getting back to the safety of his New York apartment.

And now there's just one book left, Hit Parade, and who among us can walk away from the last Oreo in the bag? Keller has assumed a new identity to elude the manhunt for the governor killer, and he's settled in New Orleans and acquired a wife and baby girl (her name's Julia, so you know she's smart and adorable). But his past reaches out to him one more time — what will Keller do?

I love this character and all his quirks and neuroses, and for a series of books about a hired assassin it is surprisingly light and witty in tone. I found myself getting quite caught up in the stamp collecting milieu. You do get a lot of information about stamp collecting and it should be boring but it's not, or at least it wasn't for me. The depictions of Keller's assignments are presented as puzzles to be solved — how to approach the target without arousing suspicion, how to actually do the job (some clients want the death to seem like an accident while others want it to be a spectacular; some rule out the possibility of "collateral damage" and others don't care). I learned almost as much about how to approach murdering someone as I did about stamp collecting, and I enjoyed both even though I'll never take up either hobby.

And that's another series re-read done. I'm sure I'll re-visit these books in a few years and enjoy them all over again.

>53 rosalita: Great comments. I couldn't have resisted either.

>53 rosalita: -

>54 BLBera: Thanks, Beth!

>55 katiekrug: That is ... not how I picture Keller.

Hi Julia, Glad to see you were able to get back to the Slough House world! I have Mick Herron's latest book waiting for me at the library. I've only read his Slow Horses books but I'm looking forward to checking this one out.

Small Mercies is still a book I think about.

>57 Copperskye: Hi, Joanne! I am torn about continuing with the Herron series as I normally would and waiting to read the books as the Apple series are released, assuming they continue to make each season analogous to one book.

            

39. The Cold, Cold Ground by Adrian McKinty.
41. I Hear the Sirens in the Street by Adrian McKinty.
42. In the Morning I'll Be Gone by Adrian McKinty.
44. Gun Street Girl by Adrian McKinty.
46. Rain Dogs by Adrian McKinty.
48. Police at the Station and They Don't Look Friendly by Adrian McKinty.
50. The Detective Up Late by Adrian McKinty.

I know what you're thinking, I really do. You're thinking, "Son of a biscuit, Julia's gone off the deep end and is stuck in a time warp, reading entire series instead of one book at a time. What on earth has gotten into her?"

I don't suppose it would help to tell you there was a method to my madness? OK, not the Keller's Greatest Hits series — that was pure impulse. But I can explain this one. Sort of.

Lots of folks around LibraryThing know and love the Sean Duffy series, about a Catholic policeman in the predominantly Protestant Royal Ulster Constabulary police force during the sectarian Troubles. For a long time — Police at the Station and They Don't Look Friendly was published in 2017 — the series was thought to be finished. Times were tough for McKinty and he nearly gave up writing altogether. Then in 2019 he wrote a blockbuster thriller, The Chain and then another one in 2022, The Island. With his new publishing clout, he wrangled a contract to write three more Duffy books to round out the series properly.

The first of that final trilogy, The Detective Up Late, was published in August. I had been putting off reading the sixth when I thought there would be no more, so when the new publication date was announced I planned to finally read that one and then the new one. But I'd read all of the others in 2020 and I don't know about you, but I don't remember much of what I read during that hellish year. There was nothing to do, really, except read the whole dang series.

I'm not a monster, though. These books are significantly more noir than the Block series and I didn't want to read them in one long binge. So I alternated them with other books (reviews to come) until I finished them off as the clock ticked around to Oct. 1. I won't review each one, but I can give an impression of the series as a whole after reading it all in the space of a little more than a month.

First of all, it's good. Really good. Sean Duffy is a great character and first-person narrator. He's not your typical peeler. He listens to classical music and punk rock, he reads poetry and philosophy and speaks Irish, he blunts the insanity of trying to keep order in riot- and bomb-filled Belfast with copious amounts of whiskey and weed — plus the occasional snort of cocaine. He's sad and stubborn and snarky, and his career suffers in various ways because of all three. He's good company as McKinty takes us from 1980 in the first book to 1990 in the latest, chronicling the years mostly in terms of how little the sectarian violence changes over time.

The new book, The Detective Up Late, could be subtitled "Duffy's Last Case" as that's what everyone in the book is calling it — one last investigation of a missing tinker girl before he transitions to part-time work (phased retirement, we'd call it at my workplace). Given that there are meant to be two more books, I'm quite sure it isn't his last case, and if McKinty doesn't faff about for 6 years between releases again I won't have to read the whole lot again when the next one is published.

>59 rosalita: - Great comments! I still have #6 to read before I even get to the newest. But you are tempting me with a re-read - though maybe on audio, as Mamie has said the narration is excellent... Hmmm.....

ETA: I find it funny that I haven't liked his other books. I read The Chain and it was okay. I didn't even finish The Island. And I think I tried another one on audio once - it was set in Colorado? - and couldn't get on with it, either.

>59 rosalita: Hi Julia, I keep meaning to start the Sean Duffy series. I think I have The Cold, Cold Ground on my Kindle. Thanks for the reminder - and you make the books and the character sound very appealing.