December Book Club

Well, the long drive is good for podcasts and audiobooks!

I'm still on the mystery kick. I finished the second Helene Tursten, An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed, which is a proper although short novel, and which I enjoyed a lot but maybe not quite as much as the first short story collection in the series. It's still very satisfying and tidy, however, and sometimes that's what you want.

I must be feeling the need to travel, because the Tursten is set mostly in South Africa and reads like one of those books that the author wrote to get a tax writeoff on a "research trip." Which, you know, no complaints when it's well done. And I've also read two of Sujata Massey's Rei Shimura mysteries, set in modern Japan--The Salaryman's Wife and Zen Attitude. I'm loving the immersion in Japanese culture, and I like Massey's writing.

I came to these because I've been reading her more recent mysteries set in Raj India, which are darker and delve more deeply into trauma. The Rei Shimura mysteries are fluffier, and the protagonist--while bright and replete with a ferocious dose of attitude--is frequently such an idiot that I want to shake her. Just a little. Of course she is a 27-year-old with a chip on her shoulder, but my goodness Rei and her boyfriend have the stupidest fights.