Christmas Wishlist Book Talk #8

What to get a reader is a mystery...wait, mysteries, everyone loves a good mystery!

Here's one for you:  What writer recently released a book with the son of his first character as the hero?

Tom Clancy!

Dead or Alive takes off from where Teeth of the Tiger [2003] ended, both with Jack Ryan, Jr as the lead.

Actually, it looks like Clancy has brought other Ryan family members into his Jack Ryan/John Clark books before.  Jack's dad, Emmett is in Without Remorse.  Very interesting.

A couple other good adreniline rush reads are Warlord by Ted Bell, it came out in September, and is part of the Alex Hawke series.  Another is Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane, which was released in November.

I haven't forgetten about the Science Fiction crowd.

Surface Details by Iain M Banks was recently released and is a space opera sure to please the most discerning reader.

Earlier this year Stephen Baxter had Ark, a follow on from Flood, released and is a good read - duet if your Sci Fi reader hasn't read the first.

A third choice from the recent release shelf is the hard core Sci Fi Hull Three Zero by Greg Bear.

Told you I didn't forget this group :-)

Audio Book Talk!

Not too long ago the cutie and I bought an audio book to help us stay awake for a 4 hour drive [after a 7 hour flight]. We didn't finish it and brought it back with us to listen to the last CD. When the chance to finish listening to the audio book popped up, we decided to start at the beginning and enjoy it all the way through.

Ian Rankin's Doors Open was what we listened to and both thoroughly enjoyed it. The cutie is a fan of his not finished Rebus series and I'm ready to delve in to the Scottish authors mysteries.

While I won't give the plot away, it was flippin' great! Art theft always grabs my attention, but the way Rankin worked it was totally fresh. The gentleman who read the book was great [unfortunately I can't remember his name right now]. Gave different accents to each of the characters and brought the listener right into the story. My only negative, we didn't realize it was abridged when we bought it.

It looks like neither the book or audio book are available in the US [except from individual sellers], but when it is, reach out and pick up a copy. This is a new avenue for Rankin and I quite liked it. That said, I'll be picking up his backlist to find out more about Rebus, Edinburgh, and the interesting crimes he writes.

On a side note: We caught a Rebus mystery on TV recently and John Hannah [from Four Weddings and a Funeral fame] played the detective. Hope it becomes a series.