Hope's Peak by Tony Healey
Started 2 December
Finished 15 December
I found myself irritated by this book from the start, purely because it is written in the third person, present tense. It just feels wrong to me. At times it felt like the book wasn't well edited, at least in the Kindle version.
"Harper isn't surprised to find it fairly empty when Harper walks in, shaking off her umbrella". Odd.
That said, the book grew on me as I got further into it, despite the jarring use of present tense. The characters started to develop and become more familiar. However, the ending was a bit of a shock and let me feeling a bit cheated. It felt too soon in what, I assume, is to be series of books to have this kind of ending. Would I read more by this author? Probably not.
A Fatal Thaw by Diana Stabenow
Started 15 December
Finished 16 December
This is my third Dana Stabenow book and I do enjoy them. This is the second in a lengthy series centred around an Alaskan investigator. I might work through them all in time - I caught up with all the Joe Pickett series by C J Box, so there's no reason to suppose I won't do the same here.
The depiction of life in Alaska doesn't pull any punches, Stabenow doesn't shy away from the less tourist-friendly aspects of life. Mind you, she doesn't do the natural beauty of Alaska any disservice, either.
In this novel, one out of multiple murders turns out to have been committed by someone other than the main suspect. Our investigator figures it out early on and leads the reader to her conclusion, explaining why she had to take action. The final chapters depict a thrilling chase in the mountains.
So Sure of Death by Dana Stabenow
Started 17 December
Finished 27 December
This is the second book in the series centred around Liam Cunningham, a state trooper in Alaska. It builds on the relationships of the first book well and I wasn't able to guess whodunnit in either of the murders. Dana Stabenow's books are easy to read, but they are also decent enough thrillers to make me return to them when I want to go to a familiar place, with familiar characters.
As I reach the end of the year, it's time to review my progress over 2016. I have read a total of 33 books. Not bad, could do better. My worst months were January and May, when I read only one book. I don't know why this was the case in January, but in May I was away visiting friends for some of the time, so probably too busy to have early nights curled up with a book. My best month was March, during which I read five books. Most other months seem to result in two or three books read. It would be nice to get through more, but I don't want to make it a target to achieve, or put pressure on myself; that would destroy the whole point of reading for relaxation. That said, I have quite a backlog of unread books on my Kindle…
I think I will continue these monthly posts and who knows, I might get round to posting some more in 2017. I have plenty of ideas, I just seem to run out of time to implement them.