World of Trouble (2014) – Ben H. Winters

  The Last Policeman Trilogy comes to its conclusion with this final installment from author Ben H. Winters. The asteroid’s, Maia, impact is only days away now. Civilization has complete fallen apart, but Hank Palace, ex-detective, his dog Houdini and tag along criminal, Cortez, find themselves embroiled in one final mystery. Where is Palace’s sister,…

The Cabinet of Curiosities (2002) – Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

  The third novel featuring FBI agent Pendergast is set, once again, in New York. It’s been a number of years since the journey into the sublevels of the Big Apple, but a curious discovery has drawn Pendergast back to the city. A charnel house has been discovered while the foundation of a new building…

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) – L. Frank Baum

  While I was laid up in hospital a couple of weeks ago for my hernia operation, I decided I would read a children’s book that I had never looked at before. So my Kindle was happy to add the 15 Oz novels by L. Frank Baum to their library, and I had a look…

Countdown City (2013) – Ben H. Winters

  The sequel to The Last Policeman picks up with less than three months before the big asteroid is to make its devastating impact on Earth. Hank Palace is no longer a police officer, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to stop being a detective. With his dog, Houdini at his side, Palace finds himself…

Reliquary (1997) – Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

  The second novel in the Pendergast series from Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child serves as a direct sequel to 1995’s The Relic. Pendergast, Margo, Frock, D’Agosta and Smithback are all back with the addition of a few new characters including the tough, and very smart Hayward. And while the revelation in the final act…

Hollow City (2014) – Ransom Riggs

  The adventure that began in Miss Peregrine’s  Home for Peculiar Children continues in this next installment, and let me say, and this one, the second book of the trilogy (or at least I think it’s a trilogy) is very much the Empire Strikes Back of the series. In that you know it’s the middle…

Relic (1995) – Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

  I read this one back when it first came out, though I definitely didn’t recall much in the way of details, I think because after I read it, I saw the film adaptation, which, in my opinion dropped the ball (though now that I have read the book again, I may rewatch the film,…

Good Omens (1990) – Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

  So I dove into another Gaiman novel, and while I recognized some of it, I don’t think I ever finished the tale, so something must have happened to stop me from reading it. Anyway, this time, Gaiman pairs up with the author of the Discworld series of novels, and brings to life a humorous…

The Last Policeman (2012) – Ben H. Winters

  This week’s perusal of the Book Shelf brought me this, the first in a trilogy, that combines a whodunnit with some light science fiction. Not too long from now, an asteroid, Maia, is discovered, way too late to do anything about it, on a direct collision with Earth. They have until the beginning of…

Solo (2013) – William Boyd

  Bond is back in this continuation of the original Ian Fleming novels featuring 007. It’s 1969, and James Bond has just celebrated his 45th birthday when he is given his latest assignment by M. And thus begins an adventure that is far more in line with the literary Bond than his big-screen interpretation, that…