Stacked Books

It's been over 3 months since I last wrote about the books I had read. But that doesn't mean I stopped reading; the below pictured stack covers all that was read, mostly on my daily walks.

The list:

• Jeffrey Archer, A Prisoner of Birth

• J.A. Jance, Hand of Evil

• Douglas Preston, Blasphemy
  

• Linda Fairstein, Likely to Die

• Jonathan Kellerman, Billy Straight
  

• Clive Cussler, The Chase

• Faye Kellerman, Grievous Sins

• John Lescroart, Betrayal

• Linda Fairstein. Killer Heat
  

• Raymond Khoury, The Last Templar

• Barbara Delinsky, Accidental Woman
  

• Michael Palmer, The First Patient

• Sue Grafton, T is for Trespass

It's clear that most fall within the mystery category, some with an historical perspective and a couple also containing the elements of thrillers. It would take too much space to discuss all of them but I do want to focus on two in particular.

A Prisoner of Birth was the first Jeffrey Archer novel I have read and I will be seeking out more of his work. Set in England, the intricacies of the plot coupled with a wonderful mastery of language and story telling kept me on the edge of my seat, so to speak, all the way through. I hope that future encounters with his work will prove as pleasing.

In the case of Sue Grafton, I have read all of her "letter" mysteries although I don't generally find them to offer much more than the story at hand. However, in the case of T is for Trespass, one of the plot lines dealt with the criminal aspects of elder abuse and I found it to be extremely informative in that it placed the issue in the context of a "real" victim and the modus operandi of a "real" abuser. For me, it made human the types of things we all too often come across in newspapers where the stories are reported but not in enough detail to make clear the extent to which elder abuse robs senior citizens with limited capabilities of their dignity and, in many cases, what little they have in the way of possessions. I recommend this mystery to anyone who wants a clear picture of the horrors of elder abuse.

My reading continues. There are just so many more exciting, well written mysteries novels and thrillers out there. It is almost reassuring to know that I will never come close to reading them all. There will always be new crimes to solve and heroes to solve them.