2012 Books Read

1. U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton

2. The Sorceress of the Strand by L T Meade and Robert Eustace

3. Amendment of Life by Catherine Aird

4. The Vault by Ruth Rendell

5. The Big Bow Mystery by Israel Zangwill1895

6. The Notting Hill Mystery by Charles Felix1862

7. Fate by Amanda Hocking

8. Double Indemnity by James M. Cain1943

9. Ocracokes Curse- The Mystery at Teach's Hole by Mark Duffey

10. The Monster in the Box by Ruth Rendell

11. The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey 1929

12. The Problem of the Wire Cage by John Dickson Carr1939

13. The Burning court by John Dickson Carr1937

14. The Black Tower by P D James

15. The Book of the Crime by Elizabeth Daly 1951

16. Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky

17. The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz

18. V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton

19. An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde

20. Shroud of Darkness by E C R Lorac1954

21. The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey1951

22. The Retribution by Val McDermid

23. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

24. Water-Blue Eyes by Domingo Villar

25. Death Comes to Pemberely by P. D. James

26. DeKok and Murder on Blood Mountain by A.C. Baantjer

27. The Leopard by Jo Nesbo

28. I could Murder Her by E C R Lorac 1951

29. Leave the Grave Green by Deborah Crombie

30. The Tragedy of Z- A Drury Lane Mystery by Ellery Queen 1934

31. The Witches by Roald Dahl

32. Escape the Night by Mignon G. Eberhart1944

33. I am the Cat by Rosemary Kutak1948

34. A Cold Day for Murder by Dana Stabenow

35. Tom Brown's Body by Gladys Mitchell 1949

36. The Scarlet Letters by Ellery Queen1953

37. Second Form at Clares by Enid Blyton

38. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

39. Candide by Voltaire

40. First Love by Ivan Turgenev

41. The Charing Cross Mystery by J S Fletcher

42. Shadows over paradise by Anne K Edwards

43. The Holcroft Covenant by Robert Ludlum

44. An Expert in Murder by Nicola Upson

45. Journey into Fear by Eric Ambler

46. Venetia by Georgette Heyer

47. Yellow Snake by Edgar Wallace

48. A Case to answer by Margret Yorke

49. The Silent house in Pimlico by Fergus Hume

50. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

51. Zone Defence by Petros Markaris

52. Killing Orders by Sara Paretsky

53. The Question of Belief by Donna Leon

54. Number Sense by Stanislas Dehaene

55. Clockwise by Elle Strauss

56. Middlemarch by George Eliot

57. Xpd by Len Deighton

58. Dangerous Past by A F Ebbers

59. The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien

60. The Marais Assassin by Claude Izner

61. The Saint Zita Society by Ruth Rendell 2012

62. One Major Mistake by Starr Gardineier Reina 2012

63. Small Island by Andrea Levy

64. Dracula by Bram Stoker

65. A Stranger is Watching by Mary Higgins Clark

66. Manga Shakespeare- Romeo and Juliet

67. When Red is Black by Qiu Xiaolong

68. The Great Impersonation by E Philiphs Oppenhiem 1920

69. Hypothermia by Arnaldur Indridason

70. The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough

71. The Postman always rings twice by James M. Cain1934

72. Asta's Book by Barbara Vine (1993

73. Behold Here's Poison by Georgette Heyer 1936

74. Phantom by Jo Nesbo (2012)

75. Caravan of Thieves by David Rich


76. The Piccadilly Puzzle by Fergus Hume

77. Perfect People by Peter James

78.The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

79. Bloodline by James Rollins (2012)

80. The man in the picture by Susan Hill

81. The mist in the mirror by Susan Hill

82. The Caller by Karin Fossum (Norway)

83. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

84. Whited Sepulchres by Anne Perry

85. What am I doing here? By Liz Cowley

86. The Little stranger by Sarah Waters

87. The Women's Room by Marilyn French

88. Simon Cowell: The Unauthorized Biography by Chas Newkey-Burden

89. The Middle Temple Murder by J S Fletcher

90. Service of All the Dead by Colin Dexter

91. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

92. A dark-Adaptd eye by Barbara Vine

93. False Pretences by Margret Yorke

94. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

95. A Killing Kindness by Reginald Hill

96. The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton

97. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins1868

98. Joe Muller Detective by Auguste Groner

99. The man who went up in smoke by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo

100. Last to die by Tess Gerritsen

101. Brick Lane by Monica Ali

102. The Black Path by Asa Larsson

103. Don't Look Back by Karin Fossum

104. The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey1948

105. Snow Angels by James Thompson

106. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

107. The Casual vacancy by J K Rowling

108. The Christmas Odyssey by Anne Perry

109. The Dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell

110. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

111. The Long Song by Andrea Levy

112. The Expats by Chris Pavone

113. The Bat by Jo Nesbo

114. The Game of thrones by George R R Martin

115. Sleuth of St.James Square by Melville Davisson Post

Reading Challenge Addict 2012 Wrap-up

Reading Challenge Addict 2012 (40/40)

I signed up for the reading challenge addict challenge to complete 16 challenges. Here are all the challenges that I participated and completed successfully.

1. Antonym Reading Challenge

2. A to Z Mystery Author Reading Challenge

3. A to Z Author Reading Challenge

4. Support Your Local library Challenge

5. What's in a Name 5 Challenge

6. Chunkster Reading Challenge

7. What an Animal V Reading Challenge


8. A to Z Reading Challenge (Titles)

9. Merely Mystery Reading Challenge

10. 2012 Bucket List Reading Challenge

11. 2012 Ebook Reading Challenge

12. 2012 Ebook Challenge

13. Cruisin thru cozies Reading Challenge


14. Borrowed Book Challenge


15. Criminal Plots II Challenge

16. Mystery and Suspense Reading Challenge

17. 2012 Color Coded Challenge

18. Getting Lost in a Comfortable Book

19. Birth Year Reading Challenge

20. Eclectic Reading Challenge

21. 2012 Vintage MysteryReading Challenge

22. Free Books 2012 Challenge

23. Off the Shelf 2012

24. Read Your Own Books

25. Back to classics Challenge

26. Classics Challenge

27. 52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge

28. Death by Gaslight Reading Challenge

29. Books Published in the first years of my life Challenge

30. New Authors Challenge

31. British Book Challenge

32. 2012 Why buy the Cow Reading Challenge

33. European Reading Challenge

34. Mixing it Up

35. Fall into Reading Challenge

36. Olympic Reading Challenge

37. R.I.P. VII

38. Orange July

39. Paris in July

40. Reading Challenge Addict (40/40)

European Reading Challenge Wrap-Up

I signed up to read books based in Europe for the European Reading Challenge. Here are the books I read:

The Vault by Ruth Rendell (UK)

Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky(Russia)

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak(Germany)

Water-Blue Eyes by Domingo Villar(Spain)


DeKok and Murder on Blood Mountain by A.C. Baantjer(Netherlands)

The Leopard by Jo Nesbo(Norway)

Candide by Voltaire(Portugal)

The Holcroft Covenant by Robert Ludlum(Switzerland)

Journey into Fear by Eric Ambler1948(Turkey)

Zone Defence by Petros Markaris (Greece)

The Question of Belief by Donna Leon(Italy)

The Marais Assassin by Claude Izner(France)

Dracula by Bram Stoker(Romania)

Hypothermia by Arnaldur Indridason(Iceland)

The man who went up in smoke by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo (Hungary)

The Black Path by Asa Larsson (Sweden)

Snow Angels by James Thompson (Finland)

The Dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell (Latvia)

Joe Muller Detective by Auguste Groner (Austria)

The Expats by Chris Pavone (Luxembourg)



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Joe Muller Detective by Auguste Groner

Last year (2011) I read The case of the lamp that went out by Auguste Groner featuring Austrian detective Joe Muller, a different kind of detective who cares not only about the victim but also the perpetrator. When I found four novelettes featuring Joe Muller in the public domain I downloaded the ebooks.

In 'The Case of the Golden Bullet', Professor Fellner, is found shot dead in a locked room. The autopsy reveals that Fellner was killed with a golden bullet. Muller uses disguise and solves the case. He is compassionate not towards the victim but towards the murderer.

In 'The Case of the Registered Letter', Babette Graumann approaches Joe Muller to save her nephew who had been wrongly arrested for a murder. There is lots of evidence incriminating Albert Graumann. But Muller believes in his innocence, how will he prove Albert's innocence? Muller uses the nature of the accused to show that he could not have committed the crime. This is an interesting story though I don't think quite possible. There is an important message too.

In 'The Case of the pocket Dairy found in snow', a working-man on his way home, finds a package, with instructions to hand it over to the nearest police sation. The package contains a woman's pocket diary that details her kidnap. Will Muller find her and rescue her before it is too late? The rescue forms the story.

In 'The case of the Pool of blood in Pastor's Study', the Pastor's study is filled with a pool of blood, Pastor's body is missing. Joe Muller is called to investigate, he finds strange circular pattern in the room and a lead. What are the circular patters? What happened to the body? He quickly solves the case.

Interesting stories but no twist or surprise. Muller is a detective with a heart rather than a thinking machine. Originally written in German, and translated and compiled in an omnibus in 1910. These ebooks can be found in Gutenberg.

The Black Path by Asa Larsson

The Black Path by Asa Larsson is third book featuring Rebecka Martinsson. When the story starts with the recovery of Rebecka Martinsson from a trauma, I started wondering if I made a mistake by picking up the third book, without reading the first two. Looking into some reviews on the internet, I found that The Black Path works quite well as a standalone. Now to the story.

A woman is found murdered in an 'ark', a fishing cabin with a hole in the floor through which one could fish from a hole in the frozen lake. Inspector Anna-Maria Mella and Sven-Erik Stalnacke start investigating the case. Who is the murdered woman? What is she doing alone in the Ark? Who killed her and why?

Once you know who the victim is, you know who did it too. The story develops into the possible motives and how she is murdered. Rebecka after the trauma moves to Kiruna and helps with the investigation. While Anna-Maria is involved in the field work part of the investigation, Rebecka scours the internet for information and analyses the financial information of a leading industrialist to help with the investigation. We get insight into Rebecka's childhood, why she lived with her grandmother and the family life of Anna-Maria.

The backstories of various key players (read suspects) are narrated and the various story arcs converge together leading to the final denouement. One aspect that caught my attention in this story is the concept of Maternal love. Rebecka's mother is not able to cope up with the responsibilities of motherhood and finally leaves her with her grandmother. Ester is brought up by foster parents, and longs for appreciation from her foster mother. It did look like Ester's foster mother loved her, but why can't she appreciate the fact that Ester is a better artist than her. Why should she be so cruel? While Ester's character and story is interesting, I couldn't help wondering the purpose of her story. It does add up in the end-in the Black Path.

Translated from Swedish by Marlaine Delargy, The Black Path is a gripping police procedural.

Note: If you wonder what an Ark looks like. I think it is the cabin in the book cover.

The Expats by Chris Pavone

When Dexter Moore gets a job offer in Luxembourg, his wife Kate Moore decides to leave her secretive job in U.S. and enjoy being a stay-at-home mom in their new home. The Moores move to Luxembourg and Dexter is always busy at his work. Kate finds lots of time on her hands and in spite of constant jet-setting travelling different European countries in the weekends and holidays, she is bored. Kate gets friendly with Julia and Bill Maclean, only to learn that all is not as it seems. Is it because Kate is bored that she finds the need to investigate her new friends or is just her habit? What are the secrets our Kate is hiding? What are the secrets, if any, her new friends are hiding? Why is Dexter so secretive about his new employer?

The story has a disjointed feel. One moment the children are going to school in Luxembourg, another in Paris. It takes some time to understand that they are different timelines. Only the present is labelled as Today, the timeline in the past is not labelled, causing confusion. I don't know if it is done on purpose. It takes lots of time to get used to the structure. The story gets interesting to me after a magical number appears. Before that the story seemed to be going in the direction of spouse swapping. With the magical number, the story takes a completely different turn. The second half is exciting with lots of surprises, twists and turns. And you get a feel of the expat life in Luxembourg.

I bought the ebook for £0.20 for kindle from Amazon UK. For all I know, it is still the same price, a bargain I think.

The Man Who Went Up in Smoke by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo

The Man Who Went up in Smoke, published in 1966, is the second book featuring Martin Beck, Swedish Police detective. This book is translated from Swedish by Joan Tate and published in English in 1969.

Martin Beck is called back from a holiday to look for a missing Swedish journalist in Budapest. Budapest in 1960s is under the Soviet rule and it is interesting how this hardly reflects on the case. Martin Beck has to look for the journalist without any help from local authorities. How to look for somebody in a foreign country without the help of the local authorities? He is not entirely sure what to do. One moment he hurries up to do something, next he slows down. What to do? Back home, his colleague provides him with one lead. Beck goes to check the lead. He is still not sure that anything is going to come out of this. What happened to the journalist? Did he disappear and go up in smoke?

Budapest is described beatifully, that I want to visit. But this is Budapest of 1960s , how does it look half a century later. As the story progressed, I understood what really happened, but didn't figure out the why. This is a short novel can be read in one or two sittings. This is my first Martin Beck read and I look forward to read more books in this series.

I like the title, it is very clever.