Spell the Month in Books - July 2024

Spell the Month in Books is hosted by Reviews From the Stacks and occurs on or near the first Saturday of each month, so I am quite late this month - and it took some finagling! But here goes:

J     And Justice There Is None by Deborah Crombie (2002). In this eighth mystery about police detectives Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James, Gemma has been promoted to Inspector and given a case involving the wife of an antiques dealer in Notting Hill. I recall that Gemma becomes strangely drawn to the porcelain she encounters in her investigation.  She struggles with this, knowing she does not have an expensive porcelain lifestyle!

U    The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (2017). Starr Carter is always suspended between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. Both worlds are shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil – unarmed - at the hands of a police officer. My review.

L     Lost Light by Michael Connelly (2003). Now retired from the LAPD, Harry Bosch is determined to find out what happened in a cold case that has bothered him for years. Bosch was taken off the Angella Benton murder case when the production assistant's death was linked with the violent theft of two million dollars from a movie set. This was Bosch’s ninth mystery.

Y     Now You See Me by Sharon Bolton (2011) is the first in a mystery series I really like about a London detective investigating a Jack the Ripper type series of murders, while trying to hide from her superiors that she has secrets in her past and an old acquaintance might know something about what is going on. I wish Bolton would focus on this series instead of her standalone novels, although most of them are good too.

U is hard - I hope I didn't use Angie Thomas before!