THE BLACK ECHO - Michael Connelly (five bean rating)

THE BLACK ECHO is a very good beginning to a very good police suspense series. Harry Bosch is a loner for the most part, with a sense of justice that the LAPD doesn't admire for the most part.

Harry is called to the scene of a heroin OD found in some pipes used for runoff in the hills of LA. He finds that he knows the victim from his Vietnam days and the man is considered a murder victim.

The book moves forward at the pace of an investigation. No shortcuts, no ah-ha moments from nowhere. Very enjoyable and highly recommendable.

I give it 5 beans.

AGATHA RAISIN AND THE QUICHE OF DEATH - M C Beaton

Well done, M C Beaton, well done!! This is a super fun beginning of a series I've long ignored for some dumb reason. I love Agatha Raisin. I think I like her and this series better than M C Beaton's other with Hamish Macbeth.

Agatha moves from fast paced London to slow as a turtle pace Cotswolds after selling her very popular public relations firm. She is soon regretting the move, but works through to become accepted by the community. The rest is funny along with a murder or two.....

I HAVE to read the rest of this series!

PACIFIC VORTEX - Clive Cussler

Reading Clive Cussler, especially this first Dirk Pitt, is like watching a really good Johnny Quest show. There's a mysterious message canister found in the ocean, an exotic woman, work with the US Navy looking for a missing nuclean submarine, evil frogmen.....This is a good thrill ride, action beyond belief, last minute reprieves of death. Makes me tired, but a good kind of tired.

This is only my second Clive Cussler, third if you count watching Sahara many times. I'll read more later, some time in my life. Need a vacation from the thrill ride, something mellow....maybe a vamp or werewolf book......

STORM FRONT: Book One Dresden Files - Jim Butcher

This was a very good book, especially as I was reading in tandem with Harlen Coben - DROP SHOT. Not sure if Harlen and Jim have met, but their two respective characters are so wonderfully similar in a very good way. So much so, that as I read DROP SHOT, I keep expecting Myron to begin talking in first person like Harry Dresden in STORM FRONT. Both are funny, smart, out there righting wrongs, smartass comments abound, keep going even when the possibility of bodily harm is on its way.
Harry Dresden is a wizard in Chicago. He is on retainer with the local police for any odd occurences that cannot be explained any other way. Harry has the White Council, watchers of all things magic, on his back for something he was acquitted, but they are still cautious. Harry is hired by a woman to find her husband, he is hired by the detective in the police department on whom all of the unexplained cases get dumped, to find who killed a local mob boss' right hand man, apparently by magic.
Dresden Files series is more than a series of books of the magic world. It's written like a Chicago private eye boiler. It makes for a super combo.
My favorite peripheral characters are Bob, the skull/spirit and Mister, the 33 pound cat.

THYME OF DEATH - Susan Wittig Albert

So I actually finished THYME OF DEATH in time for just one more book in January. This is good for First in Series, What's in a Name and A-Z Challenge. Very nice start to the series. I love learning something as I read and cozies are the trick. You learn herbs and makes me want to dig in the dirt. Can't wait for spring. This is almost as good as looking at High Country Garden and Wayside Garden catalogs.
China Bayles is a believable character. She is a lawyer who has moved to a small Texas town to have an herb garden and shop and have a new life. The book catches up to her after she's been in town for several years, enough time to make a name and make some friends. One is a firecracker and is discovered dead in her home. Murder or the suicide as claimed by all? China to the rescue.

TWO BOOK FINISHIN' DAY!! WHOO-HOO!

SWEEET! I finished two books today! It happens that way sometimes. Finished BLIND DESCENT - Nevada Barr BOT on the way home from work. It was very good and easy to get into. Nevada Barr makes you feel like you are the one going through the experience and Barbara Rosenblatt is the perfect narrator. Anna Pigeon is the main character of the series and her murder solving is believable. It's not like when Jessica Fletcher shows up on you doorstep and you just want to run away screaming since murder follows her. No, Anna Pigeon goes for at least a year or two and different national parks before murder shows. I like that she is a flawed person and I love her sister Molly and the relationship the two of them have.

The other book finished today was THE MONKEY'S RAINCOAT - Robert Crais. I was going to read and finish while on the recumbent bike, but I thought better of it when I got home from work. I took advantage of the quiet house and changed into (theoretical) workout clothes and snuggled under the fleece blanket on the spare bed in the Candy Room and read for an hour and finished the book. It was another very good read and a good intro to Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. I have read other books in the series and really enjoyed them. Robert Crais' writing has developed wonderfully through the years, but this first one was a great read, if a little rough. I love the humor of Elvis and stoicism of Pike. More please!

So now I am listening to Jeff Lindsey - DEXTER IN THE DARK that has been waiting since November for me to get to it. And I will continue with DEAD GIRL'S DANCE: Morganville Vampires Vol 2 - Rachel Caine for my next purse book.

What am I reading now??

Tape 9 of 9 BLIND DESCENT - Nevada Barr in the vehicle, not sure what will be next. Maybe the third Dexter. It's been waiting patiently since November. I am almost finished with purse book THE MONKEY'S RAINCOAT - Robert Crais and I started my preview of DEAD GIRLS' DANCE - Rachel Caine last night. I know it's going to be good, but I want to keep up with my previews. Don't want to get caught in line or at the gym with a bad purse book! I read myself awake this morning with DEATH'S ACRE - Dr Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson. Just did not want to get out of bed just yet, so read until I was reasonably more awake. Didn't want to go back to sleep or I'd have overslept and missed my workout (and time with Elvis Cole).