Things I Know I Know

While I was on vacation last week, I read three mysteries, a media tie-in novel, two true crime books, and A Beautiful Mind (which I'm still reading).

The three mysteries:

Garden View by Mary Freeman
A Sensitive Kind of Murder by Jaqueline Gardner
All Signs Point to Murder by Kat Goldring

were decent and I mostly enjoyed reading them, but they were not a good choice to read one right after the other. Each of them involved at least some characters more quirky than sympathetic, telegraphed the 'bad guy' by paying too much attention to them in ways calculated to raise the sympathy of readers, and had distractions typical of 'cosies' (mother trouble, sibling trouble, spouse trouble), which get on my nerves after awhile, said distractions usually coming right when the main character is about to ask a critical question or finally open the mail, or make that one all-important call that will Reveal All.

The media tie-in was Little Things a Buffy the Vampire Slayer book in which the central MacGuffin was vampire fairies. Cool idea. Plus, you know, Spike was in it.

That leaves:

A Warrant to Kill by Kathryn Casey
A Death in White Bear Lake by Barry Siegal

Not a bad weekend, reading-wise.