Finished DRUMS OF AUTUMN

 

Not much I can say when finishing the fourth book in an at least 8 book series without spoilers.  If you are watching the TV series, I think I am roughly at the end of the 4th season.  There is lots more in the book than on TV (I know...duh) with a lot more preparation and explanation for our characters' actions during season 5 that we did not get watching.  I am obviously a big fan and enjoy every minute of the books even though I am still reading after seeing the show (not my favorite way of doing it.)  Knowing what is about to happen is more terrifying than reading it cold, I think...

I have now started To The Land of Long Lost Friends, the 20th book in the #1 Ladie's Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith.  I like the relaxation of following up an exciting book with a relaxing one and this fits the description.  It has begun with Mma Ramotswe seeing a long lost friend who she had thought was dead (late.)  A joy to discover that was a newspaper misprint and to discuss it with Mma Makutsi the next day.

Finished ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE

 

War is Hell.  Following individuals as this does, we of course learn what we old people know already.  No one person is completely bad (well maybe Hitler).  And fate is indifferent to the good in people (and the bad).  You cannot extrapolate from how much you like a character as to his or her ability to survive.  I do like that we visit each major character at the end of the book (about 30 years later) to find out what has happened to each.  I enjoyed the book.  It definitely held my interest.

I have now begun the fourth book in the OUTLANDER series, Drums of Autumn.  Jamie, Claire and entourage watch the hanging of one of Jamie's friends from the prison in Scotland and claim his body for burial.  Stephen Bonnet (having escaped from the line of men to be hanged) has hidden in their wagon, next to the body.

Finished DEADLY FATE

 

A bit more complicated that past books in this series, especially at the end.  I have been to Alaska (though not as north as this) and understand that, even with all the horrible things going on, why people keep saying they love Alaska.  These books are kind of a travel guide of the USA, with murders, ghosts, and romance going on all at once.  What's not to like?

I have now started All the Light We Cannot See, which I found recommended in a booklist of historical fiction.  Marie Laure, blind and 12 years old, lives in Nazi occupied Paris in 1944.  On the sixth floor of her building and alone, she hears planes (liberating forces of the Allies).

Read 100 more pages in THE CODE BREAKER

 

In this section Jennifer and friends/ associates try to go commercial, that is start a company to look for medical applications for CRISPR.  They had with mixed results.  Part of the problem was that at first nobody knew what it was and no one wanted to invest.  Then, of course as it became understood, everyone wanted to claim credit and/or beat Jennifer to the market. 

I have now started Deadly Fate, another Krewe of Hunters novel by Heather Graham.  The trick to this title is that some of the characters are actors in a play that will be performed on the cruise ship, "Fate."  The ship is anchored in Seward, Alaska, where two young women have been killed--horribly.

Finished BRIGHT SEASON

 

Of course there are complications.  In the first place, Melinda is navigating a new romance, renovating her house, running her drought-ridden farm, and working full time.  I don't know when she finds time to go to the bathroom.  Add finding some letters that gets the whole Schermman family concerned about Horace, and...well, darn that drought!  I have enjoyed the first 6 books of this series, that I just ordered the last four and the first 2 in a new mystery series by this author.  Although the publisher of this series says it is in DE Moines, Iowa, the last page in the book says Coppell, TX.  It is the Y in Coppell, TX, where TR and I attend water aerobics classes.  Could she live right here???

I am now about to head back to The Code Breaker.  The subject of this book, Doudna, was behind the vaccine for Covid.  Though it is fairly technical and gives me a headache occasionally, I have read enough of Robin Cook to have some idea of how stunning results of splitting (cutting and pasting) parts of DNA can be.

Finished BENEATH THE AMARILLO PLAINS

 

OK, well while I still think that being brain damaged would be terrible, I am quite amazed at how this young man could channel or shut down some parts of his brain to help the damaged section.  He was getting much of his language facility back, though listening and responding took effort and time and caused excruciating headaches.  But he and a friend were able endure the danger to solve the mystery...  I continue to love this author.

I have now started the sixth book in Malanie Lageschulte's saga of Melinda's move from city life to her own farm in a tiny Iowa town.  She met someone in the last book who she has begun dating.

                                               

 

Finished THE SPIDER'S WEB

 

Another mystery in which both John and Vicky were involved, but other characters solved it.  This ended a bit suspensefully but also a little slowly and even then a loose string was left.  I'm wondering if it will turn up in a later novel.  Once again, great characters and environment held my interest as well as the murders.  I enjoy this series.

I have now started Beneath the Amarillo Plains.  This is subtitled Jeff Kale, Brain Damaged Detective.  Henry Melton usually writes science fiction, which is what I love him for.  But this looks like a mystery, with a monkey wrench thrown in.  Someone was chasing Jeff and his friend and bumping into them, which caused the accident that has resulted in his brain damage, taking away his language center.   He has no idea who was chasing them...