Between the Plums by Janet Evanovich.
These 3 short novels work as screwball comedies (ala Harvey), seem a
bit out of this world for the regular Stephanie Plum line. I am
aware of the Lizzy and Diesel series these connect to...
Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons A very clever book updating the Canterbury tales and various mythologies to the distant future, worth the 1000 page read...
They Came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie The
CD version read by Emilia Fox was very enjoyable--sounding like Hayley
Mills as the young plucky protagonist. This book from 1951 caught
a lot of the cold war spy furor, but lapsed into the over-the-top
Control/KAOS type scenerio with too many necessary coincidences to
really work as a spy novel.
Pronto by Elmore Leonard An
advantage of a bad memory is enjoying again favorite authors, and no
one wrote sassy criminal dialog and tense plots like Elmore
Leonard. This one is the prequel to the Justified TV series, and
reading it again after having seen most of the seasons of Justified
gave me a new appreciation of Raylan, as characterized by Timothy
Olyphant.
Top Secret 21 by Janet Evanovich.
From one point of view, Stephanie Plum is caught in a Ground Hog
Day sequence of lowlife FTA's, exploding cars and amorous
misadventures. From my perspective, the plot never really
changes but the frequent laughs make each novel a worthwhile
experience. It did feel like the denouement was rather too
anticlimactic.
Ventus by Schroeder, Karl. I've
never been sure what genre space opera is, but this is my idea of it,
with larger than life characters fighting for the fate of the human
universe. Great nano concepts as always with Schroeder.
The Long Fall by Walter Mosley All the hallmarks of a classic noir novel, along with engaging family subplots.
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