Reading right now:

            “Free Fall” by Chris Grabenstein. This is the latest installment of the Detective John Ceepak and Officer Danny Boyle series which takes place on the Jersey Shore. This series is full of humor and fast-paced action. This is the 8^th in the series which started with “Tilt-a-Whirl.” Grabenstein won an Anthony award for “Tilt-a-Whirl.”  Once upon a time, Grabenstein was an improvisational comedian and before writing novels he spent 20 years writing commercials.

            I just finished “The Hit” by David Baldacci and it was fantastic. This is the second novel in his Will Robie series (the first was “The Innocent” which just came out last year). Start it and you will want to call in sick until you finish it—great fun. Watch out in November for another Baldacci book!

On hold right now:

            “No Way Back” is the latest from Andrew Gross. Gross has written several best-selling novels with James Patterson and several great novels on his own. His new novel revolves around an ex-NYPD detective who trusts the wrong man and finds herself wanted by the FBI.

Special Interest:

Perhaps you’ve read Stieg Larsson’s series “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” but have you read any of the other Scandinavian (mostly Swedish) mystery authors available in the U.S.? It seems to be a very popular and prolific group which includes: Karin Alfredsson, Karen Alvtegen, Carina Burman, Camilla Ceder, Arne Dahl (Jan Arnald), Ake Edwardson, Kerstin Ekman, Kjell Eriksson, Inger Frimansson, Carin Gerhardsen, Jan Guillou, Anders Roslund & Börge Hellström, Anna Jansson, Mari Jungstedt, Mons Kallentoft, Lars Kepler, Camilla Lackberg, Maria Lang, Jens Lapidus, Åsa Larsson, Henning Mankell, Liza Marklund, Håkan Nesser, Kristina Ohlsson, Hakan Ostlundh, Leif G.W. Persson, Hellstrom Roslund, Johan Theorin, Helene Tursten, Karin Wahlberg, Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, and Katarina Wennstam. Try one and see if you get hooked.