I Am Pilgrim

I very much enjoyed I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes which is a story about a "special agent" who goes by various names.  Narrated in the first person by the main character, Scott Murdoch, who is enjoying his "retirement" when called upon to find a terrorist he calls "the Saracen".  Murdoch tells the story of how he hunts him down because the Saracen is a major threat to the Western world.  There are many threads to this story which enables the author to hold the reader's attention for the almost 900 pages (small paperback) of the book.  A thrilling ride. 41/2/5

The Hunting Dogs

I very much enjoyed The Hunting Dogs by Jørn Lier Horst which is set in Norway.  Detective William Wisting is accused of tampering with evidence to secure a conviction for a murder 17 years ago.  He is suspended but works to clear his name and find additional evidence which will confirm that the conviction was sound.  Wisting's daughter Line works for a newspaper as an investigator and she uncovers more information about that murder and discovers ties to a more recent murder.  This is a great suspenseful read.  5/5

The Life to Come

I read The Life to Come by Michelle de Kretser.  It is about the lives of different characters and I found their stories very uninteresting.  Only that I am a "compulsive finisher" that I read the whole book in the vain hope that it would become interesting.  I found a lot of it confusing and boring.  Anyway, I won't waste any more time on this but there are probably people who have read it and liked it (see book title link to Amazon).  Opinions are diverse when talking about any book. 21/2/5

We Were Liars

I liked We Were Liars by E. Lockhart which is a haunting story about four teenagers.  The narrator is Cady now 17.  Two of the group, Mirren and Johnny are Cady's cousins and the other member, Gat, is a "ring-in" whom Cady loves.  They all go to an island with their mothers for their summer holidays every year.  The island is owned by their wealthy grandfather and his daughters have constant arguments about their inheritance and their children's inheritance.  When they were holidaying there two years previously, something happened which left Cady with serious memory loss and constant migraines.  The story goes back and forth between these two time periods until Cady and the reader learns what happened when Cady and the other teenagers were there when they were 15. Clever writing.  I liked the "fairy tales" which explained the story.  4/5

February Book Club

We've started our Book Club year, always great to see the ladies again after the Christmas/New Year break.  Only one of our ladies unable to come on Monday, hope she's recovering well.  Our host bought lots of great new books, and we had lots to talk about since we hadn't seen each other for a couple of months.  We talked about the joys of having grandchildren and some of the problems. One of our ladies has recently returned from a grey nomad adventure.  She and her husband saw a lot of Australia which
many people will never see.  It was great to hear about their travels which we'd followed with her photos.  We had a lovely supper with good company and good conversation.  I got a number of books to read for the month, until we see each other again.

Small G

I read Small G by Patricia Highsmith, originally published shortly after the author's death in 1995, it centers around a gay bar visited by a number of characters.  The main characters are Rick a middle-aged gay man, Renate a middle-aged woman who has a dressmaking business, and Luisa who works for Renate.  The story is about the things that happen to these and other characters.  Not the author's best work. 31/2/5