August has been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster for the Raven, what with one thing and another, and some big decisions are now having to be made in the light of recent events. Consequently, my reading and blogging have been seriously impacted, and this has been quite a light month in terms of books read and reviews posted. I normally manage to read at least three books a week, but have been struggling to get through one! So big apologies for my severely depleted output, my sporadic catching up with social media and the acknowledgement of my fellow bloggers’ excellent posts. Am now in a state of ‘catch-up’, and hopefully there will be a much happier Raven back in the zone. Something good has got to happen soon, right?…
BOOKS READ AND REVIEWED:
James Nally- Dance With The Dead
Rod Reynolds- Black Night Falling
Robert Bailey- Between Black and White
Russel D McLean- And When I Die
Craig Russell- The Quiet Death of Thomas Quaid
Raven’s #20BooksofSummer: the first eight…
Chris Abani- Song For Night
Peter Watts- Echopraxia
Paraic O’Donnell- The Maker of Swans
Cynthia Ozick- The Puttermesser Papers
S. E. Craythorne- How You See Me
Robert Edeson- The Weaver Fish
Diana Rosie- Alberto’s Lost Birthday
David Peace- Tokyo Year Zero
Raven’s Book of the Month:
With a lengthy hiatus in this excellent series I was delighted that Lennox has now made a more than welcome reappearance. As I said in my review, Russell perfectly evokes the feel of 1950’s Glasgow, with the shabby, downtrodden air of a city recovering in the aftermath of war, and the incessant need for the criminal underclass to keep a foothold in the economic recovery of the city with the opportunity to make an illegal buck or two. Cut through with the dry wit of the laconic Canadian Lennox, the nod to the hard-boiled genre in terms of dialogue and pace, superb plotting and peopled with a colourful cast of supporting characters, Russell has done it again. If you haven’t discovered this series for yourselves yet, I would urge you to seek them out. Excellent.
Raven Crime Reads 
Sorry to hear you’ve ONE OF THOSE TIMES. Hope it eases up soon.
Thanks Margot- I hope so too! xx
I hope life resolves itself swiftly for you x
Bless you Cleo 🙂 xx
My dear Raven, sounds like you are having one of those blargh and aarrrggghh times (that I can relate to so well at the moment). Hoping you get your va-va-voom back in reading and everything else.
I love that description… blargh and aarrrggghh! I should have this put on a T-shirt 🙂 Looking forward to the return of my va-va-voom…. 😉
Oh, and I’ve just finished Tokyo Year Zero myself! Shattering portrayal of a time and place, isn’t it?
It’s a terrific book. Peace is a legend. Hope your blargh and aarrrggghh resolves itself soon too. Huh, life….x
hope those critical decisions result in something good for you. I’m not familiar with the Craig Russell series but am pretty sure my dad will enjoy them. Which is the first one? .
Thank you for your support! Your Dad needs to start with Lennox’. Hope he enjoys… 😊