While on many days in August it was too hot to run, I did get a lot of books read! I read six books in August and while that’s not a lot for many readers it’s a good amount for me.

One of the questions I like to ask, when I’m summarizing the books I’ve read is: “where did my reading take me?”. Well in August it was to a variety of locales, including outer space. My first stop was southern Spain!

A Silent Death – Peter May

Goodreads   Amazon

I requested this book from my library in January of 2020. Thanks to Covid 19 and the subsequent closing of the library, the book didn’t become available  until July. Which is why it is an August read.

About A Silent Death

In A Silent Death Peter May took me to Spain. The book opens with John Mackenzie – an ingenious yet irascible Glaswegian investigator being sent to Spain to transport a known ex-pat fugitive Jack Cleland back to the U.K.

Cleland had been living in Spain under an assumed name. He was captured when police arrived at his home, they thought someone had broken in. When the police arrive and  they enter the house the Cleland accidentally kills his pregnant wife. He then blames the young female arresting officer and vows revenge!

Prior to MacKenzie’s arrival Cleland escapes while being transported and vows to destroy the young officer Cristina Sanchez Pradell and her family.

An important member of Cristina’s family is her Aunt Ana. Anna has been deaf-blind for the entirety of her adult life: the victim of a rare condition named Usher Syndrome. Ana is the centre of Cristina’s world therefore  a key paw  in Cleland’s cruel plan.

Mackenzies quest becomes thwarting Cleland’s plan before he destroys Christina life and that of her beloved Aunt.

Thoughts About Peter May and A Silent Death

Peter May is one of my favorite authors. I particularly liked his Lewis Trilogy set in the Outer Hebrides Islands of Scotland. As well as, his more recent stand alone novels. His writing is always terrific and his stories original and exciting. Additionally his characters always memorable. John Mackenzie, Ana and to a certain extent Cleland join that group.

I enjoyed A Silent Death a lot. However, I would say it ranks below a few of his other stand-alones like Runaway, Entry Island and Coffin Road in my opinion. Of course, if I think about it longer, I’ll probably change my mind!

The bottom line any book by Peter May is well worth reading. So  Check it Out!

Next stop the Mediterranean Sea and Greenland as James Rollins’ and his Sigma Force take me on  The Last Odyssey. Ok

Links for Further Exploration of the Books of Peter May

Author’s Website
Wikipedidia
Amazon

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After Dial D for Deadman, I reluctantly left the world of Dan Deadman and returned to Earth. I landed in Siglufjörðurhe a quiet fishing village in Northern Iceland. Here I met Ari Thor Arason In Ragnar Jonasson’s Nightblind.

Nightblind – Rgnar Jonasson

Siglufjörðurhe is an isolated village only accessible via a small mountain tunnel. The small close-knit town is one where no one locks their doors. In Nightblind their world is rocked when a policeman is killed at a quiet house with a disturbing past.

The murdered officer was Ari Thór’s partner. Thor would have been on-duty the night of the murder but he had called out sick. Thor and the town’s former police chief are tasked with the job of unraveling the mystery. It’s complex mystery involving the compromised new mayor.

Along the way the reader is also given glimpses of a psychiatric ward in Reykjavik where a patient writes about his confinement and the reason for it!

All in all, it was a good visit. I enjoyed both the plot and the characters. Nightblind is the second book in Jonasson’s  Dark Iceland series.and you can bet I’ll be visiting Iceland again

. First, to find out what happened prior to Nightblind in Snowblind and then after in Blackout! I can’t wait.

Noumenon – Marina J. Losteller

Following Nightblind,  I traveled back to space with Marina J Lostetter’s Noumenon.  More precisely I traveled wit a convoy to the anomalous star LQ Pyxidis and back. A book Kirkus reviews calls “A striking adventure story that could hold a galaxy in its scope’

Noumenon chronicles humanity’s first adventures beyond the solar system,  The story is chronicles the aforementioned mission to visit LQ Pyxidis. The mission was the brainchild of Astrophysicist Reggie Straifer. Starifer thousands of others join a convoy of nine ships on a mission to reveal the origins of this anomalous star.

Since the mission would take centuries, it was decided that the travelers would not be frozen. Rather the mission would be composed of clones of Earth’s best scientists.

The story is told through a series of vignettes each featuring a different set of lead characters at various points along the journey. The only consistent character, and maybe the most interesting, is the ship’s A1 or ICC, short for Inter Convoy Computing.

I didn’t like these vignettes t first. It seemed, I would just be getting to know and like a character and boom they were gone! However, as the book progressed and I became aware of the length of the journey I saw the need for different characters.

The bottom line is that I thoroughly enjoyed the book and I am looking forward to reading the next book Noumenon Infinity. Here is a great review of Noumenon from  BarnesandNoble.com.

Finally, I have caught you up on the six books that I read in  November. In addition, I’ve told you about all the great places I have visited without leaving the comfort of my home!

Next up my first two December reads!!

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Where My First Three Reads in September Took Me…..

Ok so now that we are eight days into October I think it’s about time that I took you on a little trip. On the trip we will visit the places I was taken by the books that t I read in September.

New Orleans – Night of the Living Demon Slayer – Angie Fox

Our first stop is New Orleans, which was the location of  the seventh adventure of Demon Slayer Lizzie Brown chronicled in Night of the Living Demon Slayer. The adventure was put to paper by Angie Fox. In this adventure Lizzie’s is requested by a necromancer Evan Carpenter to go with him to New Orleans and aid in figuring out what voodoo bokor Osse Pade is up to. So because Lizzie owes Carpenter big-time she is off to New Orleans to face down Pade. And as always Lizzie’s grannie and her biker coven of witches go along to provide support. Lizzie also gets some aid from her shape-shifting husband, Dmitiri!  This is only the second book I have read from  Ms. Fox but they both have been a fun adventure!

Rating 3 stars out of 5. (Really liked it and I will read more when I need to escape from more grizzly adventures)

The next stop on my month-long adventure was Paradise Valley, Montana where Cassie Dewell and the Lizard King face-off in Paradise Valley, the fourth book of C.J. Box’s Highway Quartet. Cassie has been chasing the Lizard King, a long-distance trucker and serial killer for three years. The Lizard King, was so named because he preys on prostitutes on the nation’s highways. The prostitutes are known as lot lizards.

Cassie almost caught The Lizard King once but he got away. Now working for the Bakken County, North Dakota sheriff’s department she thinks she has created the perfect trap to catch him.But when things go south Cassie loses her job. Meanwhile, Kyle Westergaard, a troubled teen and a friend have finally taken off down river on their great adventure. Soon Kyle turns up missing and Cassie sets out to find him. However, it soon appears that the trail to Kyle may also lead Cassie to the Lizard King and back to Paradise Valley where the hunt began!

C.J. Box is one of my must read authors. I usually am quick to read the latest Joe Pickett novel! My hope is that we will hear more about Cassie Dewell!

Rating: Four stars – (really, really liked it!!)

Across America – White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide, by Carol Anderson 

The next book White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide, by Carol Anderson Ph.D.was my first of four non-fiction books that I read in September. This short book took me around America in time and space. While it is a short book it packs a lot of punch! Ms. Anderson traces America;s racial divide from the south’s Reconstruction period though the Jim Crow years and the Great Migration right up to the current events that seem to have widen that divide. Along the way she presented to me many things about the black experience in America that I didn’t know , or knew and forgot. This is a book that should be read in every high school and college across America! And maybe then we can take a hard look at ourselves and all work towards narrowing that divide!!

Rating: Five Stars out of 5! That means it was an amazing book! Read it Damn It!

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