What I'm Reading - and Want To #mystery #sci fi #history #apocalypse

 I often publish reading lists of books that sound interesting to me. After all, reading is   subjective, right? I may be drawn to a book's cover or blurb, but it doesn't always mean it's something that matches my reading taste. That doesn't mean it's not interesting to someone else, of course. 

For February, here are some books I think you'll fall in love with, too.

Just finished: 

 The Last Roman, Exile (Book 1), B.K. Greenwood  - This book intrigued me for its unusual take - what if that Roman Centurion who had the unenviable job of overseeing the crucifixion of Jesus and the thieves was changed by his experience - but not how you expected? What if instead he was cursed to also become immortal, living for decades, centuries, and having to die over and over? And what if he wasn't the only one? Over the centuries, Marcus faces his once-friend and now arch-enemy Doubting Thomas (yes, that Thomas) as he tries to stop a fiendish, most unholy plan made possible by modern science and technology. Fascinating.

Want to Read:

 The Last Storm, (Pre-order, Releases July 5) ,Tim Lebbon -  In this age of droughts and near-apocalyptic events, who can resist a book where rainmakers don't bring down rain but scorpions and strange creatures? Following up on his scary 2015 novel, The Silence  (adapted in 2019 as a creepy Netflix movie centering on a family trying to escape eerie monsters that attack based on sound), Lebbon now turns to the coming apocalypse. Here, America is a desert where a young woman begins building a supposed rain-making machine. But her father, who'd thought her dead, gave up his rain-making skills when it brought down scorpions and strange creatures instead. Now, he must stop her from using her tainted gift even as others follow her, and another seeks revenge, as she conjures even more deadly storms.

 

Under the Dead Man's Hat and Under the Dead Lady's Corset, Robert W. Walker - Besides the truly eye-catching and colorful covers, fellow former Chicagoan Walker has a way of using the Windy City as a backdrop in his novels. He used it with his Inspector Ransom mysteries set in the 1800s. He used it again in a series of fun, comedic and slightly gruesome horror novellas in his Chicaghosts series (see below.) Now he uses the city as a setting for his books featuring Medical Examiner Jude Avery, and adds an equally fascinating Poe twist to book two.  

Under the Dead Man's Hat, A Jude Avery Thriller (Killing Time Book 1) - Dr. Jude Avery and Dr. Sybil Shanley, medical examiners for Chicago and Cook County, Illinois go after the most wanted and vicious killers in the city. The two violent men, known as the Veteran killers, graduate to become the Nun killers, preying on the most revered and vulnerable of society.

 Under the Dead Lady's Corset, A Jude Avery Thriller (Killing Time Book 2)  - Seven years before, someone bricked up a newlywed couple, their bones residing below City Hall in Chicago, right at the City Hall train stop... When a modern-day ME takes on the case, she learns it has a lot to do with Edgar Allan Poe...

Interesting Horror-Humor Novellas:

 

Gone Gorilla, The Old Fart Squad Novella Series, (Chicaghosts Book 1),  Robert W. Walker - Gone Gorilla -Chicago history meets horror and humor as these retired cops led by former Det. Aubrey Hamilton try to find out where the 500-pound stuffed Bushman gorilla has gone. (* Read this one. A fun story and fun setting!)

The Monster Pit (Chicaghosts Book 2) - Retired Det. Aubrey Hamilton and his "Old Fart Squad" investigate what is lurking beneath Chicago's downtown as a giant hole opens up and small animals, etc. disappear. 

Goatbusters, (Chicaghosts Book 3) - This time the retired Chicago detectives must track down where and why  trail bikers and kayakers are disappearing along a stretch of the Chicago River. It urns out they are disappearing into the river with a bizarr0 creature ripping them apart and feeding them to its babies. Where'd the monster come from? 

The Heads Have Eyes, (Chicaghosts Book 4) - When a new strain of 'smart' spiders emerge in Chicago known as Chi-racnids, heads will roll, as these parasitic spiders make babies inside humans. Specifically inside human heads, until the weight of the growing horde inside the skull becomes too heavy for the brain stem and spinal cord to support.

What I'm Reading:

The Dead of... Mystery Series by Jean Rabe. - This mystery series by USA Today Bestselling Author Rabe has grown from an initial offering, The Dead of Winter: A Piper Blackwell Mystery, to the upcoming fifth book, The Dead of Autumn. It's been interesting following a youngish new sheriff in a small Indiana town who takes over the job after her father fights cancer and watch how she's grown, both personally and professionally. Coming out around May, book five (which I'm pre-reading), is interesting for its Halloween elements,  a couple of murders with a unique twist, and seeing how Sheriff Piper Blackwell, her chief detective and staff follow the clues and trail a killer. Great characters, great writing, and an interesting murder mystery overall make this one for the must-read list.

 The Five: The Untold Stories of the Five Women Killed by Jack the Ripper, Hallie Rubenhold. 

I spotted this book in The Mighty Girl page on Facebook and thought it sounded fascinating. We all think we know about "the five" - the five "fallen" women killed by the notorious Jack the Ripper--- or do we? Love that time period and it's always interesting to read a new take on the Ripper murders so I had to pick this up at the library. 

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