Reading under the Cherry Blossoms

Thanks, dear friends and readers, for listening to me go on about Swiss politics the last time I blogged. Today, I thought I’d mention some of my favorite mystery authors—at least, from among the ones who are alive and writing books—and ask if you have some recommendations for me. I’m happy to have you suggest more mysteries, but I’d also be delighted to get the titles of some of your favorite books in other genres—science fiction, fantasy, romance, and just plain fiction. Now that I write mysteries, trying to keep up with the current authors in my field—much as I enjoy most of their books—can sometimes feel like a chore. So, if you have a book you love that isn’t a mystery, tell me about it.

I’m looking for new novels because my husband and I are visiting Japan for three weeks. There’s no point in flying all the way to Japan just to read, I know that, so I promise we’ll be doing lots of exploring. But there will be a long airplane ride back and forth, not to mention many train journeys—and what is a vacation without a stack of new books by favorite authors? Luckily, I have a Kindle, so I don’t need to travel with a stack.

I started by checking on Amazon to see if Ann Cleeves, Michael Connelly, S. A. Cosby, Deborah Crombie, Allen Eskins, Robert Galbraith, Jane Harper, John Hart, William Kent Krueger, Attica Locke, Dervla McTiernan, Phil Rickman, Julia Spencer-Fleming, Charles Todd, or Nicola Upson had a new book since the last one of theirs I read. I was already pretty sure they didn’t since I keep close tabs on their work, but I had to check! No luck there.

Except for S. A. Cosby, I think everyone on my list has written at least two books about the same characters, and most of them have long series. Ann Cleeves and Michael Connelly have at least four series each! Donna Leon’s thirty-third Commissario Guido Brunetti book, set—like all her mysteries—in Venice, will be out in July; Périgord’s most famous policeman, Martin Walker’s Bruno Courrèges, won’t have his next case until August. They’ll make much-anticipated summer reading for me, but that won’t help me in Japan. As for Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, he’ll be back in The Grey Wolf, but that isn’t being released until October 29, which is one day before my birthday—thank you, Louise Penny. The latest book with S J Rozan’s private detectives Lydia Chin and Bill Smith came out in December, and I read it over the Christmas holidays. Maybe if I’m lucky, there will be a new one for next Christmas, but that seems over-optimistic.

Eventually, my research bore fruit. Tana French, whose Dublin Murder Squad books are brilliant, has just published The Hunter, her second book set in an Irish village featuring a retired Chicago policeman—I bought that. And Laurie R. King has a new Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes book that I’ve snapped up. Then there are the series that I’ve let myself get behind with and can hope to catch up on in Japan: books about M. W. Craven’s Washington Poe, Val McDermid’s Karen Pirie, Alexander McCall Smith’s Isabel Dalhousie, and Mick Herron’s whole Slough House crew.

Perhaps you’ll be relieved to learn that my reading list isn’t completely filled with murders. I’m taking Angie Kim’s new book, Happiness Falls; an early Ann Patchett novel, The Patron Saint of Liars; and a romance by Emily Henry called Book Lovers. I still have time before we leave to find a fantasy or science fiction novel that calls out to me—I’m searching the reviews!

So please give me a hand, friends! Any recommendations for me from among your favorites? They don’t have to be new, just books you enjoyed a lot that I might have missed. Thanks!