April has been a pretty busy month for me personally, so I didn't have much time to read. I'm in the middle of something interesting right now, but I don't know if I'll have it finished within the next day or so. Since I like to post these on or before the 24th of the month, I'm gonna have to go with the 3 books that I have finished since my last post. Coincidentally, they all fall within the same category.
Series
Night Prey - John Sandford ($9.99/$.50, copyright 1994, 435 pages, Paperback)
Sandford has been writing this series about Lucas Davenport for a long time. Davenport leads a special police unit in and around the Minneapolis and St. Paul area, and in this book they deal with a serial killer. It's an interesting read, and Sandford alternates sections of each chapter between Davenport and his people, the killer, and a potential victim. Unfortunately, Sandford seems to presume that you're familiar with his characters and their relationships so he just jumps in and brings in whoever he needs when he needs them. It was OK.
The Chicago Way - Michael Harvey ($13.95/$.50, copyright 2007, 303 pages, Trade Paperback)
This is the first volume of a projected series. The main character is a former cop turned private investigator named Michael Kelly. Here, he's hired to look into an eight-year-old rape case by a cop and former friend. As cold cases go, this one stirs up a lot of heat and Kelly relies on an array of friends and colleagues who happen to be involved in professions that provide him with information - a coroner, a reporter, someone in the DA's office, etc. Nothing really new here. The author, Harvey, is the co-creator of "Cold Case Files" so he's familiar with how the procedures work, but sometimes this reads like he tried to expand on a television script and still left some details out. It was OK.
The Case of the Missing Books - Ian Sansom ($13.00/$1.00, copyright 2005, 326 pages, Trade Paperback)
Another first in a possible series. This is a sort of fish-out-of-water story. Israel Armstrong - a young, unremarkable English man - takes a job as a librarian in a small little town in the far north of Northern Ireland. Only the library has been closed, but he's to drive around the mobile library. Only all the books are missing, and the local government insists that it's his responsibility to find them - after all, he's the librarian. The village characters - and they are all characters - ring true, the dialog is great, and some of the scenarios are very inventive. I enjoyed it.
This Month
As I mentioned earlier, I was busy this month. April is Donate Life Month, and there were a few things I was involved in that took up a lot of time. There was also the Woodbridge Domestic Violence Response Team Annual Walk/Run which was held last Saturday and was a lot of fun. Additionally, my daughter and her husband moved into their first house on Sunday and, although I can't lift anything heavy, I was there to do what I could. Looking ahead to May, I don't seem to have as many demands on my time so maybe there will be more then 3 books next month.
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