Reading in July 2016

In July, I read seven books... all of them crime fiction. Four of them were published before 1960, and three of them were published after 1999. That includes more current crime fiction than usual for me, but the majority of my reading this month was still early crime fiction.

This is the list of books I read in July:

Fire Will Freeze by Margaret Millar
Vertigo by Boileau-Narcejac (originally published as D'entre les Morts in 1954)
Shot in Detroit by Patricia Abbott
She Shall Have Murder by Delano Ames
The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon
Dead Lions by Mick Herron
Jar City by Arnaldur Indriðason

The two books that I read this month that had the most impact on me were Patricia Abbott's Shot in Detroit and Delano Ames' She Shall Have Murder. The subject matter and style of the books were poles apart but they both engaged me 100% while I was reading them.  And the fact that both of them were favorites illustrates one of things I love about crime fiction: it has so much variety to offer.

She Shall Have Murder is a Golden Age mystery, published in 1948, set in London. Post-war London, with rationing, feeding the gasmeters, etc. is one of my favorite settings. At the beginning of this book, Jane Hamish is writing a mystery story and Dagobert, her lover, is giving her ideas for the plot. Dagobert is unemployed; Jane works in a lawyer's office. Although at first I found Dagobert very annoying, he grew on me as the book moved along and Jane Hamish and Dagobert Brown quickly became my favorite detecting couple in Golden Age fiction. I read some of this series in my youth and I was glad that this one did not disappoint.

Shot in Detroit is a novel of psychological suspense, set in 2007 Detroit. It does not paint a pretty picture of that area or the struggle to survive financially in that environment. The story centers on a female photographer who is working on a project to photograph black men who have died much too young. The subject matter is sometimes unsettling and the story is dark. My full review is here.

The rest of the books I read in July were also very high quality and great reads. I had a wonderful reading month.

I am reading from a list of books for the 20 Books of Summer challenge (which covers the dates June 1 - September 5th). I took this on because I had a list of books I wanted to read and I thought the challenge would keep on that path. So far my only deviation has been a book for the Crimes of the Century meme at Past Offences.


Still, at the end of July I have only 36 days to read another nine books and I probably won't accomplish that. An average month for me is 6 books. I have been happy with all the books with my list of books so far. Only one of the remaining books (a Smiley book by John le Carré) is exceptionally long, so wish me luck.