Death’s End by Cixin Liu

by Carol2 Comments
Death's End is the conclusion to the fabulous Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy. The Trisolarans and Earth are basically at a stand-off, thanks to events in book #2. The "peace" is working well, but of course can't last. Enter Cheng Xin, our main character for this installment. She's a regular, intelligent woman who hops through time, thanks to hibernation, making bad decisions. Maybe that's harsh. She makes decision consistent with her character, but she was more or less put in charge of humanity's fate twice, which seems a little unlikely. it works within the plot, but the story works hard to get you there. Death's End is a tough book to talk about. On the one hand, it's amazing. The scale in time and space that the author is working with is enormous and he makes it believable without making it too easy. There's a lot of science here, I feel like it was explained well enough for me...
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Newcomer by Keigo Higashino

Newcomer by Keigo Higashino

by Carol6 Comments
I have been a fan of Higashino's for years, but the order his books are translated into English seems rather haphazard. Thankfully the ones I've read have all been able to stand on their own, including Newcomer. The newcomer is Detective Kaga, who has been newly transferred to the district. He is investigating the murder of a divorced woman who lived by herself, also a relative newcomer to the area. Kaga is like Sherlock Holmes in a way, picking up on the tiny, seemingly insignificant clues, but he's friendly and nice and puts people at ease. And he doesn't have a sidekick. He works with others in his department, but only when he needs to, he does his best work when he's on his own. This is a puzzle-type mystery. We have an odd assortment of clues and a large batch of potential suspects, but no good, solid possibility. The way the book is set up is a bit unusual. Each section...
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A Midsummer’s Equation by Keigo Higashino

by Carol2 Comments
Higashino might be one of my favorite authors. A Midsummer's Equation is the fourth of his mysteries I've read I've read. It's the third Detective Galileo translated into English but the 6th in the series. It doesn't matter; the ones I've read definitely stand-alone. As the blurb above says, Manabu Yukawa is at a run-down resort town to attend a conference when, surprise, surprise, someone gets murdered. Yukawa is a physicist - good at observing, logical, thoughtful, quiet. He's that character that knows what's going on but isn't going to brag about it. We also get to see his more caring side here. He becomes friends with a boy who is also staying in town and they have some very good scenes together. His concern for the boy is what pulls him into the case, and his natural tendency to get involved in mysteries - he is the series' star. A lot of mystery blurbs talk about a surprise twist, but Higashino actually lives up to...
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