Book recap: What I read in 2024

It's been over five (!) years since I've done one of these, but it's a good starting pointing for the revival. I thought that I'd fallen out of reading mysteries and thrillers last year because it didn't seem like I had read that many. There is a grain of truth to that when compared to how much I read over all for that year: 65 books. It wasn't until I checked my Goodreads today that I discovered that I had read ten. Not a lot, compared to the 26 science fiction works I read, but I'm fine with it. 2024 was the year where my reading horizons expanded in other directions, so some genres were bound to suffer a decline. Hell, I only read five fantasy books last year. But, I'm planning on upping my intake this year and get back in the saddle, so to speak. I'll expound on that in another post, however.

Anyways, here's what I read last year:

Sideswipe by Charles Willeford, read by Stephen Bowley.

The Hoke Moseley series became one of my favorites over the past couple of years. I can't even remember how I came across them, but I was hooked from the start. The whole series was on Audible for free (at the time. I'm not sure they're free anymore), so that was a nice bonus.

Sideswipe is the third and penultimate book in the series, and has Hoke fleeing back home to Singer Island after reaching his limit with all of his life's troubles. Alongside this is another plot concerning a career criminal's plan to stage a robbery with a less than stellar group of compatriots.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

Zero Tolerance by James Patterson and Duane Swierczynski.

I'm almost embarrassed to say that I listened to this. Never was two hours and some change more wasted than on this dreck of an Audible Original. I could write a whole post about how bad this was and all the problems with it, but I can find better use of that time, like dropping a deuce in the toilet.

Rating: 1 out of 10, but I'm seriously considering adding a 0 to this rating system just for Zero Tolerance.

The Way We Die Now by Charles Willeford, read by Stephen Bowley.

Much to my own sadness, The Way We Die Now is the fourth and final book in the Hoke Moseley series. Charles Willeford was actually working on a fifth, but unfortunately passed before finishing it.

In this one, Hoke is sent undercover as a transient in order to investigate a farm whose owner is suspected of killing Haitian farmhands. The b-plot involves a man that Hoke sent up the river for murder being released after a decade and deciding to move in right across the street from Hoke, his two daughters, and his former police partner (and her newborn baby). Maybe it's just me, but you can tell by the way this one ends that it wasn't meant to the finale and it's a damn, crying shame that Willeford wasn't able to gift us more Hoke.

Rating: 8 out of 10, but I'm tempted to bump that up to a 9.

Don't Let Go by Harlan Coben.

My first Harlan Coben and probably not my last. The plot concerns Napoleon aka Nap Dumas, a small town police detective still haunted by the deaths of his twin brother and his girlfriend back when they were in high school. When Nap's own ex-girlfriend reemerges in connection to a cop killing after being missing for decades, he's drawn into a mystery involving the government, a decommissioned military base, and more.

I generally liked Don't Let Go, but I found the plot twists at the end to be a bit much. I'm fine with plot twists and red herrings, but not when they alter the plot so much that it feels like the time I invested in reading the book was a bit of a waste.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

Dietrich by Don Winslow, read by Ed Harris.

One of two short stories I came across on Audible. I wanted something to listen to while at work and hey, it's narrated by Ed Harris.

It was fine. The story follows a NYPD homicide detective who's trying to solve one murder, then another even as his life and mental health crumble under the weight of alcoholism and a failed career.

Rating: 6 out of 10.

The Heron by Don Winslow, read by Ed Harris.

I'll be 100% honest: I've almost completely forgotten everything about this one except the ending. The eponymous Heron was a moneyman working for a mobster or some such and is hiding out after stealing money? Out of the two, Dietrich was the better story.

Rating: 5 out of 10.

Shadow Prey by John Sandford, read by Richard Ferrone.

So funny story about this book: I originally started reading Shadow Prey a few years ago when - and I kid you not - the George Floyd Protests broke out. Needless to say, a novel where the main character is a officer in the same police department that in real life caused nationwide protests against police brutality didn't feel like an appropriate read, so I set it aside with the plan to possibly return to it later.

It just took me a few years.

This time I opted for the audiobook because it was free on Audible and that's my favorite price.

I liked it. Lucas is always a fun character to follow and there was plenty of drama and a few funny bits.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling by Lawrence Block, read by Richard Ferrone.

The Bernie Rhodenbarr series has been one of my favorites since I read Burglars Can't Be Choosers and I've been listening to them when I can ever since. In this one, Bernie is the owner of a antiquarian bookshop when he gets roped into a plot involving a long lost Rudyard Kipling poem and of course gets framed for a murder that he has to solve.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

The Last Word by Elly Griffiths, read by Nina Wadia.

The fourth book in the Harbinder Kaur series. Kaur is barely even in this one, however, with the primary focus being on the trio of Natalka, Benedict, and Edwin. I fell in with these characters when I listened to The Postscript Murders years ago, which was the second book in the series. I still have to read books one and three to complete the set, which I plan to do this year.

Anyways, the trio investigate the death of an obituary writer and the mysterious deaths of several people he wrote about. It was a fun romp.

Rating: 9 out of 10.

And that's all, folks. I'm happy with how many mysteries I read last year, even if a couple were lemons. My original plan for this year was to read five, but that was before I found out that I had read double that last year. Obviously, I'm not regressing, so I'll aim higher and try for between 12-15 mysteries this year.

Let's bring this back, shall we?

Holy moly, I did not realize that it's been nearly five years since I last posted here. Certainly didn't seem like that long. Anyways, this is just a note saying that I plan on reviving Call The Detective and will be posting semi-regularly with the aim of dropping the semi.

Man, the Brits love mysteries

I was at the town library yesterday and decided to peruse the mystery DVDs. I've done so and checked out some videos in the past, but it didn't really hit me until then just how many of the shows they have are British. By and large our cousins across the pond outnumbered the domestically made fare and it made me think about just how much in general the Brits love a good mystery. Certainly our TV networks over here aren't slackers when it comes to producing a police show (hell, Hallmark even has a channel specifically for mysteries*), but nothing on the level BBC and the other channels over there are putting out.

I think the Brits have us beat on quality too. The broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox) tend to play it safe and come out with cookie cutter shows. They also tend to cling to the really successful shows until they've long since grown long in the tooth (*coughcoughSVUcoughcough*).

We could and should take lessons from the British when it comes to mystery television. Certainly wouldn't hurt.

*When it isn't airing Christmas movies.

A book review omnibus

I was planning on doing individual posts for each of these books, but given how faulty my memory is when it comes to books I've read weeks or months ago, I decided just to do a quick review in a single post.

NYPD Red - James Patterson & Marshall Karp. Not a bad book, but I'm not sure if I'll read any of the sequels. Very much reads like one of those cops shows you'd see on a broadcast network like ABC or CBS.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

The Sins of the Father - Lawrence Block. I'm most definitely a fan of the Matthew Scudder series. I think this is where I decided that I was going to like detective fiction. Scudder is a flawed, but noble man. I plan on writing a whole post about him sometime this year.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

Time to Murder and Create - Lawrence Block. See above.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

The Godwulf Manuscript - Robert B. Parker. So I pretty much read this because I have vague memories of watching reruns of Spenser: For Hire with my mom back when I was a kiddo. The book was very short, but told a good story for its length. Not a great book, but good enough to make me want to read more in the series.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

Last Bus to Woodstock - Colin Dexter. This book had more red herrings like a cannery. Did not expect the reveal of who the killer was at all and I loved it. The only thing keeping me from reading the next book is that none of the libraries in my area have it.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Housekeeping note: Imported posts

I just imported a few mystery related posts from an old book blog of mine, so that's why there's suddenly a bunch of posts that pre-date the intro.

Also, hi, I didn't forget about this blog and plan on posting here now that I'm solidly a fan of the mystery genre. Expect reviews to follow shortly.

Oh look, an intro post

Welcome to Call The Detective, a blog about the mystery, detective, police procedural, and crime fiction genres in both their prose and visual formats. The name's Jason and I'm somewhat of a newbie to those illustrious genres. I say somewhat because while it hasn't been until the last couple of years that I've started reading them, I've been a consumer of the various forms of mystery fiction ever since I was a lad. TV shows like Murder, She Wrote, Hunter, Father Dowling Mysteries, and more were what I watched growing up. But as I said, it wasn't until the last few years that I finally started reading the books and found that I enjoyed them a lot more than I thought I would.

Alas, I assumed incorrectly that while television mysteries and cop shows were fun to watch, the written forms wouldn't be. I couldn't have been any more wrong! While there have been books that I quit on, I have generally enjoyed the ones that I have finished.

So content-wise, expect posts about what I'm reading, "reviews" (and I can't emphasize those quotation marks enough because I am terrible at writing reviews) of books/short stories I've finished, any and all mystery/crime/cop shows or movies I've watched, and that sort of thing. Fair warning, I'm not a total devotee to the genres, so don't expect a high volume of posts, but this blog should be fairly active. I should also note that I have a side blog on Tumblr of the same name that will feature shorter posts and act as a supplemental to this longer form blog.

And I guess we're off to the races! I'll talk more about my favorite books, TV shows, and movies in future posts, so be on the lookout for those.

My mysteries and thrillers bookshelves

I recently spent time (and sanity) moving the bookcases in my room around so that they weren't all in one cramped space. I also did a bit of organization and gave one of my big cases over to my collection of thriller and adventure novels. Check them out below. Excuse the crappy quality of the pictures - my phone is crap and I can't take a steady picture to save my life!

So this is the Shelf O' Mysteries. It's a hodge-podge of books I've picked up from various secondhand sources such as thrift stores, library book sales, etc. The pictures might be too blurry to make out the titles, so here's a brief rundown:

Shelf #1: Mostly Martha Grimes' Richard Jury books mixed with Sherlock, Thomas Harris, and Robert Galbraith.

Shelf #2: Tony Hillerman's Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee series, P.D. James, Henning Mankell, John Mortimer, and Alexander McCall.

Shelf #3: Almost entirely John Sandford's Lucas Davenport series, with Dorothy Sayers, Peter Mayhew, and Ruth Rendell mixed in.

Now to the other bookcase.

I'm almost tempted to call this the "Adventure Shelf" because of all of the thrillers and action-thrillers on here.

Shelf #1: Tom Clancy, Michael Crichton, and Clive Cussler make up the bulk of this shelf. There's also a Ted Bell, a C.S. Forester, and a couple Vince Flynns as well.

Shelf #2: W.E.B. Griffin and John Grisham by and large. Jack Higgins, John Jakes, and two John le Carre's round it out.

Shelf #3: The rest of the le Carres, along with Robert Ludlum, and Matthew Reilly. This shelf also contains four history books: two by Cornelius Ryan, another about the Boer War (I can't remember which), and one about the American frontier. Those are there because they're adventures. Terrible, heartbreaking adventures, but adventures all the same.

Like I said before, my book collection is a hodge-podge from secondhand sources, but they're still pretty good. I try to choose books that I'm confident that I'll actually read and then do my best to follow through with that confidence. Doesn't always work out that way, but so it goes.

2017 in review

2017 ended several weeks ago and I have to say, it was a most fruitful year for my reading. Here's a list of all the books I read:

1. Tooth and Nail - Ian Rankin
2. Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hobb
3. His Majesty's Dragon - Naomi Novik
4. Old Man's War - John Scalzi
5. The Ghost Brigades - Scalzi
6. Night Train to Rigel - Timothy Zahn
7. The Last Colony - John Scalzi
8. Dragonflight - Anne McCaffrey
9. Phule's Company - Robert Asprin
10. Trading in Danger - Elizabeth Moon
11. Shards of Honor - Lois McMaster Bujold
12. Marque and Reprisal - Elizabeth Moon
13. Shotgun Saturday Night - Bill Crider
14. Cursed to Death - Crider
15. To Tame a Land - Louis L'lamour
16. Barrayar - Lois McMaster Bujold
17. The Warrior's Apprentice - Bujold
18. The Mountains of Mourning - Bujold
19. Pacific Vortex! - Clive Cussler
20. Killing Floor - Lee Child
21. The Mediterranean Caper - Cussler
22. The Prisoner of Zenda - Anthony Hope
23. The Baker's Boy - J.V. Jones
24. Spinneret - Timothy Zahn
25. Around the World in Eighty Days - Jules Verne
26. Devlin's Luck - Patricia Bray
27. Devlin's Honor - Bray
28. A Call to Duty - David Weber, Timothy Zahn
29. Rules of Prey - John Sandford
30. Altered Carbon - Richard K. Morgan

The good: While I only read four more than what I did last year, I'm more than satisfied with thirty. I'm also pleased with the increase in the number of SF from I believe nine in 2016 to fifteen in 2017. I also like that I read nine SF books in a row because I've never read nine books of any genre in a row before. I usually manage two, sometimes three in a row, but never nine.

Another thing I'm happy with is the variety of books. I read more mysteries and added in some classic lit, thrillers, and even a western. I plan on continuing this trend in the 2018, but that's another post, I suppose.

The bad: All good must have a bad and for me, it was the decline in my fantasy reading. The year before last I read eleven, but could only muster five last year. Even more startling is the the five month gap between the second fantasy book, His Majesty's Dragon, and the third, The Baker's Boy. I had picked up other fantasy books in the interim between the two, but The Baker's Boy was the only one I read to completion. I can honestly say that I have no clue why I went through such a drought but it happened and hopefully I can move on from it.

2017 also marks the last year that I'm focusing on the quantity of books read. I originally did it because I just wanted to track how many I could read in a year and after more than doubling in 2016 what I read in 2015, I wanted to see if I could go further. I did and I'm realistic enough to recognize that thirty books is probably my limit. I still plan on keeping track of what I read, but I'm not shooting for a specific total.

Instead, I'm going to focus on the quality of what I read and try to broaden my horizons, but that's another post for another day.

RIP Sue Grafton

Because much like the year before it, 2017 has to get in a few more celebrity deaths in before it ends. Sadly, that death is Sue Grafton, author of the popular Alphabet mystery book series.

I'm not going to BS and say that I'm a die hard fan of Sue Grafton. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten around to her books yet other than skimming A Is for Alibi once. But that was enough and she was immediately added to my TBR pile. I was planning on starting it next month.

The thing that first caught my attention was obviously the naming scheme. A series where every book is named after a letter of the alphabet? That piques your interest enough to at least pick up the first book and check it out. After that, the writing goes to work. I don't read a lot of mysteries, but the writing on the first ten or so pages of A Is for Alibi sure did their job.

As for the Alphabet series, fans of Kinsey Millhone have another, smaller reason to mourn. Sue Grafton was in the process of writing the final book, Z is for Zero, when she died and according to her daughter, Grafton doesn't want the book to be finished by someone else. Not a tragedy on the scale of Grafton herself dying, but certainly body blow for fans of the series.

Rules of Prey is done with

I said I was going to try and finish it by Thursday and I did. I really enjoyed it. The ending felt a bit rushed, like Sandford was trying to end the thing as quickly as he could without running the entire train off a cliff. It doesn't hurt story, but the resolution just felt abrupt.

Rating: 8/10.