Monthly Summary (September 2014)

I read last month seven crime fiction books: 

• The Long Goodbye (Penguin, 2010) Paperback edition. First published in 1953 by Raymond Chandler (A+)
• Playback (Penguin, 2011) Paperback edition. First published in 1958, by Raymond Chandler (C)
• Trouble Is My Business and Other Stories (Penguin, 1950) Reprinted 1983. Paperback format. First issued in book form in the U.S.A. in 1946 by Raymond Chandler (reread)
• Killer in the Rain (Penguin Books 1966) Paperback edition with an introduction by Philip Durham. First published by Hamish Hamilton, 1964 by Raymond Chandler, a collection of short stories
• Our Man in Havana (Penguin Books, 1991) Format Paperback. First published in 1958 by Graham Greene (B)
• Strange Shores (Harvill Secker, 2013) Kindle edition. Translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb. First published with the title Furðustrandir, 2010 by Arnaldur Indriðason (A)
• The Widow (New York Review Books, 2008) Paperback format. Translated from the French by John Petrie. Original title La Veuve Couderc, 1942 by Georges Simenon (A+)

Pick of the Month

My choice is a tie between The Long Goodbye and The Widow

Opening lines:

The first time I laid eyes on Terry Lennox he was drunk in a Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith outside the terrace of The Dancers. The parking lot attendant had brought the car out and he was still holding the door open because Terry Lennox’s left foot was still dangling outside, as if he had forgotten he had one. He had a young-looking face but his hair was bone white. You could tell by his eyes that he was plastered to the hairline, but otherwise he looked like any other nice young guy in a dinner jacket who had been spending too much money in a joint that exists for that purpose and for no other. (Raymond Chandler)

A MAN WALKING. One man on a stretch of road three miles long cut slantwise every ten yards by the shadow of a tree trunk, striding unhurriedly from one shadow to the next. As it was almost noon, with the sun nearly at its highest point, a short, ridiculously shadow –his own- slid in front of him. (Georges Simenon, translated by John Petrie) 

Check out at Mysteries in Paradise here to see other suggestions.  

Books Bought Last Month

• Angels Flight (Harry Bosch Book 6) by Michael Connelly

• Trunk Music (Harry Bosch Book 5) by Michael Connelly

• El ruido de las cosas al caer de Juan Gabriel Vásquez (English title: The Sound of Things Falling 

• Strange Shores by Arnaldur Indridason. Tran Victoria Cribb

• Salvation of a Saint: A Detective Galileo Novel by Keigo Higashino, Alexander O. Smith. Tran  Alexander O. Smith

• A Morbid Taste For Bones (The Cadfael Chronicles 1) by Ellis Peters

Currently Reading

• Where the Shadows Lie by Michael Ridpath