clearing the air, april reads and a preview of coming attractions

[Nancy Oakes]

Just to clear the air, I won't read just any old book. I'm very happy to skip cozy mysteries, for example, as well as Patterson-type books, and even a hint of romance will send me skittering off to find something else. I do not like chick lit, nor do I read self-help books. When I read horror, it has to be the feel-the-hair-on-the-back-of-my-neck type of stuff, not cheesy horror mysteries. I'm not absorbed by vampire romance in any way shape or form.

My favorite mystery writers are probably the Scandinavians, but I also love British mysteries (the bulk of my collection) and Japanese writers as well.

I like edgy stuff, and I don't do cutesy. At all. period. Ick.

When I do a review, if you read it, keep in mind that I'm just a reader, not a writer, and I was not trained in English literature so I write what I feel about a book and I may miss a lot that other people will pick up. That's okay with me. I really just review them so that I have a record of what I've read and not just a list.



For the most part, the books I read in April centered on a common theme -- the locked-room/impossible crime mystery. I read other books as well, either connected to the locked room/impossible crime idea, or just from my tbr pile.

Here's what I read this month in the locked-room genre:

1. The Mystery of the Yellow Room, by Gaston Leroux
2. The Chinese Orange Mystery, by Ellery Queen
3. The Moonflower, by Beverley Nichols
4. The Layton Court Mystery, by Anthony Berkeley
5. The Three Coffins, by John Dickson Carr
6. The Footprints on the Ceiling, by Clayton Rawson
7. Diagnosis Impossible: The Problems of Dr. Sam Hawthorne, by Edward D. Hoch
8. The Tokyo Zodiac Murders, by Soji Shimada

and here's what I read from the tbr pile:

1. The Mad Hatter Mystery, by John Dickson Carr
2. The Eight of Swords, by John Dickson Carr
3. The Blind Barber, by John Dickson Carr
4. Death-Watch, by John Dickson Carr
5. The Crimes of Paris, by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler (thanks, Librarything!)

My favorite book this month was The Tokyo Zodiac Murders -- and if you're a hard-core mystery fan, like myself, you'll want to read it.


books recently bought (I absolutely love taking hours of time in dusty used bookstores):
Stephen Booth - The Dead Place
Georges Simenon - Maigret Goes Home
Peter Dickinson - One Foot in the Grave
Anna Clarke - Soon She Must Die
Frances Fyfield - A Clear Conscience
Ruth Rendell - Shake Hands Forever


Coming up in May -- books with names in the titles.