It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What are you reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. For this meme, bloggers post what they finished last week, what they're currently reading, and what they plan to start this week.


FINISHED THIS WEEK:

 

Synopsis here.

I actually preferred this to The Snowman.  It is much more violent than The Snowman, but much more
 intriguing. I can't say I'm a big fan of the main character Harry Hole, a handsome, rugged, opium-addicted, brilliant crime fighter.
There is so much going on in this book that at times it is like a three ring circus: settings in Oslo, the Congo, the mountain tops of Norway, and a cast of thousands.  There is in-fighting among the cops, treachery, and a fantastic scene in the snow-covered mountaintops involving the cops skiing in. I won't give anything away here.

Also finished this week:

From the book jacket:
The third psychological thriller from No 1 bestselling Swedish crime sensation Camilla Lackberg. 
The remote resort of Fjallbacka has seen its share of tragedy, though perhaps none worse than that of the little girl found in a fisherman's net. But the post-mortem reveals that this is no case of accidental drowning! 
Local detective Patrik Hedstrom has just become a father. It is his grim task to discover who could be behind the methodical murder of a child both he and his partner, Erica, knew well. He knows the real question - and answer - lies with why. What he does not know is how this case will reach into the dark heart of Fjallbacka and the town's past, and tear aside its idyllic facade, perhaps forever. 


I read this quickly and found that the plot was not as tight as her previous two books, in most cases I had figured out the storyline before we got to its conclusion.
I did enjoy the flipping back and forth through several generations as you try to guess the connection between the story of the daughter of a stone quarry owner beginning in the 1920s and the death of a child in the early years of the 21st century.
I have her next one to read when DH finishes it, all part of our plan to complete the "hard" copy books in the house to declutter them in a garage sale.

Also finished this week:

A highly charged, tightly written tale of intersecting lives that provides us with both an engaging and powerful story as well as a vivid portrait of life in Egypt in the late 1960's.

I have read and enjoyed his books before, he is a former Nobel Literature winner. This one, however, I had to force myself to finish, generally skimming the writing.

He tells a story from four perspectives, and from those perspectives emerges a second story, a depressing look at a country whose political deterioration had by the late 1960's ruined an entire generation. It's a decent read, but requires some familiarity with Egypt's modern history for non-Egyptians to get the most out of it.

Started this week:

 From the book jacket:

David Peace's acclaimed Red Riding Quartet continues with this exhilarating follow-up to Nineteen Seventy-Four. It's summer in Leeds and the city is anxiously awaiting the Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth's reign. Detective Bob Fraser and Jack Whitehead, a reporter at the Post, however, have other things on their minds-mainly the fact that someone is murdering prostitutes. The killer is quickly dubbed the “Yorkshire Ripper” and each man, on their own, works tirelessly to catch him. But their investigations turn grisly as they each engage in affairs with the prostitutes they are supposedly protecting. As the summer progresses, the killings accelerate and it seems as if Fraser and Whitehead are the only men who suspect or care that there may be more than one killer at large. 

This is the second book in the quartet, following Nineteen Seventy-Four. So far I am thoroughly enjoying it, even though it is extremely violent, racist and sexist, David Peace writes it like it was in the 70s.

I had read GB84 earlier this year as well.

2012 books read:
The Coast Road - John Brady
Still Midnight - Denise Mina
The Bulgari Connection - Fay Weldon
Good Bait - John Harvey
The Heretic's Treasure - Scott Mariani 
Dead I Well May Be - Adrian McKinty
The Devil's Elixir - Raymond Khoury 
A Darker Domain - Val McDermid
The Impossible Dead - Ian Rankin 
GB84 - David Peace 
The Emperor's Tomb - Steve Berry
Stonehenge Legacy - Sam Christer
Inquisition - Alfredo Colitto ABANDONED!

The Troubled Man - Henning Mankell

Nineteen Seventy-Four - David Peace

Faithful Place - Tana French

Dead Like You - Peter James

Brother and Sister - Joanna Trollope

The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton ABANDONED!

A Beginner's Guide to Acting English -Shappi Khorsandi

The Snowman - Jo Nesbo

The Leopard - Jo Nesbo

The Stone Cutter - Camilla Lackberg

Miramar - Naguib Mahfouz