About Me

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Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada
I am a lawyer in Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada who enjoys reading, especially mysteries. Since 2000 I have been writing personal book reviews. This blog includes my reviews, information on and interviews with authors and descriptions of mystery bookstores I have visited. I strive to review all Saskatchewan mysteries. Other Canadian mysteries are listed under the Rest of Canada. As a lawyer I am always interested in legal mysteries. I have a separate page for legal mysteries. Occasionally my reviews of legal mysteries comment on the legal reality of the mystery. You can follow the progression of my favourite authors with up to 15 reviews. Each year I select my favourites in "Bill's Best of ----". As well as current reviews I am posting reviews from 2000 to 2011. Below my most recent couple of posts are the posts of Saskatchewan mysteries I have reviewed alphabetically by author. If you only want a sentence or two description of the book and my recommendation when deciding whether to read the book look at the bold portion of the review. If you would like to email me the link to my email is on the profile page.

Monday, January 6, 2014

New to Me Authors for October to December of 2013

As I have been occupied with writing posts about my best reads of 2013 I am a little late with my fourth quarter review of Best New to Me authors for the meme hosted by Kerrie Smith at her excellent blog, Mysteries in Paradise.

For October, November and December I read four new authors of fiction:

1.) Outburst by R.D. Zimmerman;

2.) Furies by D.L. Johnstone;

3.) A Cold White Sun by Vicki Delany; and,

4.) Japantown by Barry Lancet.

In non-fiction I read books by two new authors:

1.) Fire on Ice by Darrell Davis; and,

2.) Jim Henson by Brian Jay Jones.

Over the course of the 3 months I read 13 books with 11 being fiction and 2 of non-fiction.

The totals are slightly lower than the second and third quarters of the year.

Japantown was my favourite new book of fiction for the quarter. I think Lancet has created a compelling character in Jim Brodie who will soon be well known to readers around the world.

In non-fiction Jim Henson is my choice though by a narrow margin over Fire on Ice.

10 comments:

  1. Bill - I'm glad you enjoyed Japantown as much as you did. It does sound like a terrific book. I'm hoping to read it myself this year.

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    1. Margot: Thanks for the comment. I hope you get a chance to read it. It is different from the average thriller.

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  2. Hi Bill - just took a quick peek at your review of "Japantown"....sounds very intriguing. It's on my TBR list!

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    1. Debra: Thanks for the comment. I hope Japantown is near the top of your TBR list.

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  3. Bill, it's interesting that Darrell Davis should write about the famous hockey players of Saskatchewan in "Fire on Ice" rather than all of Canada. They must be real legends. I've read that ice hockey is popular in Canada and USA. I've seen snatches of the game on the sports channels and it looks fairly dangerous as the players often careen into each other. In comparison, ground hockey as played in other countries like India looks safer. My reading of non-fiction in 2013 was poor and I hope to make up this year with a few books related to war and geopolitics, my preferred choice.

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  4. Prashant: Thanks for the comment. Darrell wrote about Saskatchewan hockey players as he is from Saskatchewan and wanted to write about the high number of professional hockey players from Saskatchewan though we have a total population of just over a million.

    Ice hockey can be dangerous. I played for fun. I was never good enough to be better than a very low level player. It is sometimes called the fastest game in the world because of the speed players can get on skates.

    Instead of ground hockey we call it field hockey. On the West Coast and in Ontario a fair number of women play field hockey.

    I look forward to seeing non-fiction reviews from you in 2014.

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    1. Bill, I used to play field hockey in my teens. Field hockey is the term used here too. Ground hockey was just off the top of my head.

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    2. Prashant: I expect you were a better field hockey player than I was an ice hockey player.

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  5. Bill, Glad to hear that you liked Japantown so much. My husband has that book and we are both looking forward to reading it.

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  6. TracyK: Thanks for the comment. I hope we get a pair of perspectives when you post your review of Japantown.

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