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Here are 15 books that caught my interest lately.
Fresh, off-beat, quirky or curious titles that might deserve more attention:
For this month, my focus is on crime novels, domestic suspense, thrillers and noir classics.
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01: HARLAN COBEN, „Tell No One“, 370 pages, 2000. [Thriller]
02: WILLIAM HJORTSBERG, „Falling Angel“, 302 pages, 1978. [Fantasy Noir]
03: TED ALLBEURY, „Lantern Network“, 200 pages, 1979. [Espionage]
04: RUTH RENDELL (as BARBARA VINE), „The Dark-Adapted Eye“, 278 pages, 1986. [Thriller]
05: CHARLOTTE ARMSTRONG, „A Dram of Poison“, 160 pages, 1956.
06: ROSS MACDONALD, „The Chill“, 288 pages, 1963. [Noir; book 11 of an 18-book series]
07: ED LACY, „Room to Swing“, 132 pages, 1957. [Noir]
08: KIN PLATT, „Sinbad and me“, 255 pages, 1967. [Children’s Mystery]
09: JACK D. FERRAIOLO, „The Big Splash“, 288 pages, 2008. [Middle-Grade Noir]
10: STUART GIBBS, „Spy School“, 291 pages, 2012. [Middle-Grade Spy Parody]
11: JOHN MORGAN WILSON, „Simple Justice“, 304 pages, 1996. [Mystery, first in an eight-book series]
12: JOHN FREEMANTLE, „Charlie M“, 207 pages, 1977. [Spy Thriller, first in a fourteen-book series]
13: ADAM HALL, „The Quiller Memorandum“, 254 pages, 1965. [Spy Thriller, first in a nineteen-book series]
14: ISSER HAREL, „The House on Garibaldi Street“, 290 pages, 1975. [Nonfiction]
15: JÜRGEN THORWALD, „Das Jahrhundert der Detektive“ / „Century of the Detective“, 704 pages, 1965 pages [Nonfiction; German]
This month, I found most of these titles on a long list [Link] of winners and nominees for the Edgar Awards [Link].
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Here are five books that made me curious enough to buy them:
01: DON CARPENTER, „Hard Rain Falling“, 308 pages, 1964. [Noir Classic]
02: CHESTER HIMES, „If he hollers, let him go“, 224 pages, 1945. [Noir Classic]
03: ERIC AMBLER, „A Coffin for Dimitrios“, 304 pages, 1934. [Espionage / Suspense]
04: TONINO BENACQUISTA, „Saga“ / „Das Seifenopern-Quartett“, 439 pages, 1997. [Farce / Satire; France]
05: DANIEL GALERA, „Flut“ [German title] / „Barba Ensopada de Sangue“ [Portugese title], 424 pages, 2012. [Brazilian… literary thriller]
I started reading Dieter Wunderlich’s review here [Link, German; Spoilers], marked the book as to read – and later got a copy of the German edition, from Suhrkamp [Link]: Frank, the German editor, is a good publishing friend… and thought I’d like it.
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…and finally, here are three books that I read – and that were really good:
5 of 5 stars: DAVID GATES, „Jernigan“, 256 pages, 1991.
5 of 5 stars: PETER HEDGES, „What’s eating Gilbert Grape“, 319 pages, 1991.
4 of 5 stars: CELIA FREMLIN, „The Hours before Dawn“, 192 pages, 1958. [Thriller / Domestic Suspense]
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related Posts:
- my 20 Best Books of 2012 (Link)
- my 20 Best Books of 2011 (Link)
- Summer Reading – 60 books for the next couple of months! (Link)
- Still unread: books I plan to read (pretty soon?) (Link)
- 40 disappointing Literary Classics (Link)
- Essay: “Futter für die Bestie – Literaturkritik in digitalen Zeiten” (Link, German)
and:
- Underdog Literature, August 2013 (Link)
- Underdog Literature: July 2013 (Special German Edition, Link)
- Underdog Literature: June 2013 (Link)
- Underdog Literature: May 2013 (Link)
- Underdog Literature: April 2013 (Link)
- Underdog Literature: March 2013 (Link)
- Underdog Literature: February 2013 (Link)
- Underdog Literature: January 2013 (Link)
- Underdog Literature: December 2012 (Link)
- Underdog Literature: November 2012 (Link)
- Underdog Literature: October 2012 (Link)
- Underdog Literature: September 2012 (Link)
- Underdog Literature: August 2012 (Link)
- Underdog Literature: July 2012 (Special German Edition, Link)
- Underdog Literature: June 2012 (Link)
- Underdog Literature: May 2012 (Link)
- Underdog Literature: April 2012 (Link)
- Underdog Literature: March 2012 (Link)
- Underdog Literature: February 2012 (Link)
- Underdog Literature: January 2012 (Link)
