Reading right now:

            “”A Calamitous Chinese Killing” by Shamini Flint. This sixth book in the Inspector Singh Investigates series catapults Singh into the murky waters of Chinese politics. When asked to solve the murder at the Singapore Embassy in Beijing, Singh finds his way complicated by illegal organ harvesting, poverty, corruption, and much more. The first book in this series was “A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder” which came out in 2009.

On hold right now:

            “The Midas Murders” by Pieter Aspe. Belgium author Pieter Aspe embarks on his second Inspector Van In novel. “The Square of Revenge” began the series and this new book shows Inspector Van In trying to thwart a series of terrorist plots.

Other Mysterious Things Available:

“White Fire” by Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston. This is a great series which centers around FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast whom I’ve always felt owed a lot to the great Sherlock Holmes. In this the 13^th installment of the series, Child and Preston pay tribute to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde in a remarkably fun and thrilling way. I loved this book and thought it was one of the best in the series. Pendergast is an odd and intriguing character whose exploits often roam into Stephen King territory. The first book in this series was “The Relic” which was made into a movie. Preston’s nonfiction work “The Monster of Florence” is being made into a movie with George Clooney playing Preston.

“The Gods of Guilt” by Michael Connelly. The 5^th Mickey Haller (Lincoln Lawyer) book is available and really good. Like many others, I love Michael Connelly’s books. He started out in Florida as a reporter specializing in the crime beat. When he wrote a magazine story which was short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, he landed a job as a crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times. Only three years later, he started writing his first novel featuring LAPD Detective Hieronymus Bosch. I’ve heard that a pilot called “Bosch” is in the works with Amazon and hopefully streaming in March 2014. If you watch the TV show Castle, Connelly can sometimes be seen as one of Castle’s poker playing buddies.