Books: Thursday murder club (R Osman)

The Skelf series by Doug Johnston are a good read. Family of female undertakers who are also PIs set in Edinburgh. Slightly bonkers premise but a good read

 

'A Gentleman in Moscow' by Amor Towles is probably my favourite book of all time! I must have read it 13 times at least! It never palls. I have two copies as I wore the first one out! I was studying in Russia in the '70s, so it brought back loads of memories, even though it's set 50+ years earlier. Magical book.

His 'Rules of Civility' is also a belter. His last one, 'The Lincoln Highway' didn't engage me in the same way, but his writing is superb.

 

Which one, @Ergates? His earlier ones are best, IMV, in particular Past Caring, Painting The Darkness, In Pale Battalions, Beyond Recall, and Sight Unseen. He did a trilogy that wasn’t up to his usual standard, and then his most recent three, The Fine Art of Invisible Detection, The Fine Art of Uncanny Prediction, and This Is The Night They Come For You, are all excellent.

 

• Past Caring (1986) - *****
• In Pale Battalions (1988) - *****
• Painting the Darkness (1989) - *****
• Into the Blue (1990) - *****
• Take No Farewell (1991) - *****
• Hand in Glove (1992) - *****
• Closed Circle (1993) - ****
• Borrowed Time (1995) - *****
• Out of the Sun (1996) - ***
• Beyond Recall (1997) - *****
• Caught in the Light (1998) - ****
• Set in Stone (1999) - ***
• Sea Change (2000) - ****
• Dying to Tell (2001) - ****
• Days Without Number (2003) - *****
• Play to the End (2004) - ****
• Sight Unseen (2005) - *****
• Never Go Back (2006) - ***
• Name to a Face (2007) - ****
• Found Wanting (2008) - ****
• Long Time Coming (2009) - ****
• Blood Count (2011) - ****
• Fault Line (2012) - ****
• The Ways of the World (2013) (James 'Max' Maxted trilogy: Book 1) - **
• The Corners of the Globe (2014) (James 'Max' Maxted trilogy: Book 2) - **
• The Ends of the Earth (2015), James 'Max' Maxted trilogy: Book 3) - **
• Panic Room (2018) - ****
• One False Move (2019) - ****
• The Fine Art of Invisible Detection (2021) - *****
• This is the Night They Come For You (2022) - *****
• The Fine Art of Uncanny Prediction (2023) - *****
• 
  A full list of titles with publication yrs and my own personal star ratings!

 

I’ve got The Fine art of Uncanny Prediction. They seem to have lots of others but they are all waiting list titles, so I grabbed the one that was available now.
I’ve just read Table for Two and the Lincoln Highway. I don’t think A Gentleman in Moscow is available.
Very few books by Doug Johnstone in our library, but they did have The Space Between Us, a bonus for me as I do love Science Fiction ( but not fantasy!)

 

Ah, now, you really ought to read The Fine Art Of Invisible Detection first as the two have the same central character and some of the things that happen in Uncanny Prediction do so because of what happened in Invisible Detection.

 

So do I; Asimov, Niven and Iain M Banks especially, Iain M Banks led me to Iain Banks where I enjoy that his books are different to each other.

 

Have you read The Expanse series, @NigelJ? I started watching the tv series first, and then got the books. I was really struck by how accurately the actors and the characters in the books resembled each other. Later I discovered that the writers had been heavily involved in all aspects of the tv production, very refreshing.

 

No I haven't I might have a look. Thank you.

 

Anthony Horowitz........ "The Magpie Murders"

 

I always liked Peter Robinson, although I wasn't a big fan of the 'DCI Banks' telly series, mostly because Stephen Tomlinson, decent actor though he is, just isn't like the Alan Banks of the books! Funnily, my favourite re-read of them all is one of his early ones, 'Caedmon's Song', which isn't about Banks at all.

 

I enjoyed the Ann Cleeves Shetland books, but couldn’t watch the tv series because the blond actor couldn’t have been more unlike the dark haired Jimmy Perez, of Spanish descent!

 

Isn't it strange how we 'see' a character in a book or series of novels, and are disappointed when a television spin-off doesn't match our mental picture?

I could never get on with Anne Cleeve's novels, so I loved 'Shetland' on T.V. with Doug Henshall as Perez, because I didn't have a preconceived notion of what he looked like. Conversely, the 'Rebus' character was much more like John Hannah than Ken Stott, to my mind, yet I actually liked both of them in the role.

 

Just finished Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris. I can’t remember who on here recommended it but thank you, it was excellent.

I have picked up a Belinda Bauer and Amor Towles is also on my list of authors to investigate.

 

Think that was me, @Butterfly6 Pleased you enjoyed it. The next one in the 'Malbry' series is 'Blue-Eyed Boy' but you can skip it if you like, and go onto the third one, 'A Different Class', and finally to 'A Narrow Door'.