Spring book roundup

I’ve been reading a lot of mysteries and one thriller lately so I thought I’d throw them all in one post. One was fantastic and the rest were entertaining.

Messenger of Truth

A Maisie Dobbs mystery, I’ve been slowly working my way through this series and have finished another two. This one and one I’ll talk about further down. I really like Dobbs and I find the way in which the author finds interesting ways to take what happened in World War I and tie it into stories set in 1930s England, it’s amazing. The scars of war can last for such a long time and these mysteries always highlight that. But as the series continues Dobbs herself is becoming a more complex and interesting character.

An Incomplete Revenge

Yup, the second Maisie Dobbs mystery I’ve finished in the last couple of months. This one tied together World War I, fear of immigrants, small town village crazy, and what can happen when emotions and mobs come together. But this story also pushed further along some of the stories of recurring characters in Dobbs’ life as well as those around her. And we finally learned quite a bit more about her mother and her past.

The Middleman

I read all of Olen Steinhauer’s books where Milo Weaver was the main character and was keenly interested to see he had a new book out and it was a new main character. I finished this book so quickly because I couldn’t put it down, which is typical of Steinhauer’s thrillers. It was a fascinating tale of the US in the very recent past (think 2016-2018) and our current political climate and how some are using positions of power to manipulate events. Extremely relevant and yet it managed to go in a few directions I wasn’t expecting. I also really enjoyed the main character, Rachel, and I hope he writes more books with her in them.

Telling Tales

Another Vera Stanhope mystery where Vera is investigating a death that is almost a decade old, trying to find out if the wrong person went to prison. I’m gonna admit it, I didn’t see the ending of this story coming at all. And I’ve found I like revisiting old cases as a story line, so much to do with the story and how you reveal the past and when. (As an aside, I’ve been watching Unforgotten on PBS and it’s much the same as this book in that way.) I’m going to keep going with Vera, they are perfect books for hot summer afternoons on the patio after work.