Holiday book haul, part 2:mystery edition

Finally, I am able to showcase my holiday book loot(or in this case, after holiday)in full. Lots of great book buying bargains tend to crop up between Christmas and New Year’s and I was fortunate enough to get a half off discount for a book that’s been getting great reviews along with wonderful word of mouth praise.

Jessica Knoll’s Bright Young Women follows several women who are sadly connected by a serial killer’s attack upon a college dormitory in the late 1970s. One of them in particular, Pamela, was an eyewitness that survived and is determined to see this man behind bars.

The tact taken with this novel is to solely focus on the women affected by the violence and to not even say the killer’s name (it’s suggested to be based on Ted Bundy). 

I was a true crime reader way back in the day, with only books and made for TV movies to rely on instead of the podcasts, documentaries and websites readily available today. This book reminds me of those times and it’s good to see some of the old school techniques blended into the new:

Since I decided to skip the January selections at Book of the Month Club, I went shopping at Better World Books and along with My Roommate’s a Vampire, my main purchase was All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby.

Sheriff Titus Crown is new to Charon County in more ways than one and a deadly school shooting on his watch only adds to the mounting pressure placed on him here.

The shooting in question was committed by a former student targeting a teacher and the student’s demise at the hands of the police urges most everyone to have Titus wrap up this case quickly and quietly. However, his investigation reveals a number of hidden secrets that promise to be messy to bring to light.

Last year, I read Cosby‘s Razorblade Tears and that book seriously slapped, hard enough to leave a memorable mark on my brain. While the tone of this book might be slightly different from that prior work, no doubt about the same intensely engaging quality still being there:

Just when I thought I was done with newer books, one of my library loans was due back in and I couldn’t resist getting a couple of more reads.

Along with J. Ryan Stradal’s Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, I borrowed Homecoming by Kate Morton, which was a contender in the Mystery category in the recent Goodreads Choice Awards.

This blend of historical fiction with mystery is set in Australia as Jess , a journalist who has come to the aid of her injured grandmother ,discovers a trove of information regarding a tragic event in her family’s past.

Seeing as this long ago happening still haunts her grandmother to the point where she’s risking her physical safety, Jess vows to find the truth about what did occur back in 1959 and what can still be done about it. Will that knowledge bring real comfort or open barely healed wounds for all concerned, though?

I heard plenty of people talk how great this book is during the Goodreads Choice discussion and it’s been awhile since I dove into one of Morton’s well developed tales of the past forming the choices of those in the present. 

Plus. a good chunky novel like this seems perfect for settling down with under warm blankets as we are truly getting some real winter weather this season:

I seem to have caught the mystery/thriller bug this early in the year but I might save at least two of these books for a future readathon this spring.

Cold weather does feel ideal for mystery reading and viewing; something about the outer chills matching the inner ones from such materials, I suppose. As much as I am thrilled with the True Detective: Night Country premiere (first time ever watching this series and it’s already a must-see!), it would be nice to be able to check the new Agatha Christie adaptation as well.

Then again, patience is a virtue that readers know all too well and is usually well rewarded so perhaps time is not that flat a circle as some might think: