Updates, Record Keeping, and Challenges

I spent most of the morning of New Year's Day sorting out the directions of my reading for 2015.

I try to give my book selection some purpose by participating in a number of reading challenges which ensure that I include some diversity. Because of what I naturally choose to read, you could argue that some are not challenges, but I would argue that they do give me a wider appreciation of what is currently being published, but also what has been published in the past, and in languages other than English.

If you've come across a reading challenge that you think I should consider by all means recommend it in a comment. I allow overlapping in my challenges so a book could be recorded in a number of places.

Some of the challenges are external to this blog while others are hosted here or on a blog that I manage.
In practical terms I do allow some challenges to overlap, that is, most books will appear in more than one challenge.
In addition many of the challenges are simply continuations of challenges I took on last year, and are a reflection of my reading interests..

2015 The reading challenges I've joined

Last updated 3 January 2015

• Outdo yourself reading challenge 2015: aiming for 145, currently: 1 (137 in 2014)
• Agatha Christie Reading Challenge  Completed in 2014
• 2015 Global Reading Challenge currently 1/21
• USA Fiction Challenge So far 19/51
• 2015 Aussie Author reading challenge aiming for 20. Currently 0
• 2015 Australian Women Writers Challenge aiming for 20. Currently 0
• British Books Challenge 2015 hosted by Fluttering Butterflies currently 1
• Vintage Mystery BINGO 2015: Silver & Gold Edition currently 0
• 2015 Ebook Reading Challenge  currently 0
• New to me authors - a personal challenge currently 1
• Not crime fiction - a personal challenge currently 0
• Nordic reading challenge - a personal challenge unless I find an "official" one, currently 0
• New Zealand reading challenge - again a personal challenge unless I can find someone hosting an "official" one. currently 0
• Translated crime fiction - a personal challenge that will overlap with many of the other reading challenges that I have undertaken. currently 0
• Snagged at the Library currently: 1
• 2015 Authors A to Z Reading Challenge  currently: 1

Looking for some reading challenge ideas yourself? Check A Novel Challenge.

 A visual summary
 

	2015 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge hosted by The Book Vixen In 2014 I read 137 books. Aiming for 145. So far this year: 1 This challenge has its own record page at 2015 Reviews.
	Agatha Christie Reading Challenge How to join the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge This is one that I host. I completed the challenge in 2014 and so here this year I'll record blog posts related to Agatha Christie, probably mainly related to short stories.
	2015 Global Reading Challenge: 1/21 I have committed myself to reading 21 titles, all crime fiction, 3 titles each from 7 "continents". My 7th continent - historical crime fiction. Blog site: 2015 Global Reading Challenge Africa Asia Australasia/Oceania (my modification) - An extra hurdle for Australasia - at least one from New Zealand. I can count separate Australian states Europe - 4.8, ONLY THE INNOCENT, Rachel Abbott  - England North America - South America - 7th Continent: Historical -
USA Fiction Challenge ongoing	USA Fiction Challenge ongoing  This is one I'm hosting on its own site. I'm keeping my own  records on a page on my blog. So here I will just keep a summary of the number of states covered, as well as a list of US crime fiction I've read in 2015. Total so far 19/51 Books read 2015: 0
Golden Vintage - books written before 1960 - no bingos claimed yet  and   Silver Vintage: books written 1960 - 1989 - no bingos claimed yet	Vintage Mystery BINGO 2015: Silver & Gold Edition This is hosted by Bev at My Reader's Block. * All books must be from the mystery category (crime fiction, detective fiction, espionage, etc.).  The mystery/crime must be the primary feature of the book--ghost stories, paranormal, romance, humor, etc are all welcome as ingredients, but must not be the primary category under which these books would be labeled at the library or bookstore. You keep your records on bingo cards.  See my special page for this challenge
British Books Challenge 2015 - mine will be crime fiction	British Books Challenge 2015 hosted by Fluttering Butterflies The aim is to read at least 12 books by British authors. This is really not much of a challenge for me as I read so much British crime fiction, so the challenge is really just a way of keeping my records. Currently: 1/12 4.8, ONLY THE INNOCENT, Rachel Abbott
	The Aussie Author Challenge 2015 is being hosted at Booklover Book Reviews I'm aiming initially at Kangaroo (12 titles) but the reality is that I will read many more than that. - Read and review 12 titles written by Australian Authors of which at least 4 of those authors are female, at least 4 of those authors are male, and at least 4 of those authors are new to you; - At least 6 fiction and at least 2 non-fiction, and at least 3 titles first published in 2014 or 2015.  Currently: 0.
	2015 Australian Women Writers Challenge I will be aiming to read about 20 titles, all crime fiction. They will also count for the Aussie Author Challenge (above) Currently : 0
	2015 Ebook Reading Challenge Here is another that is probably not much of a challenge for me as I read so much on my Kindle. Levels: 1. Bits – 5 ebooks 2. Bytes – 10 ebooks 3. Megabytes – 25 ebooks 4. Gigabytes – 50 ebooks 5. Terabytes – 75 ebooks 6. Empty the Cloud – 100 ebooks   Currently: 0
	This is a personal challenge. I intend to read as many new-to-me authors as I can. Currently: 0 4.8, ONLY THE INNOCENT, Rachel Abbott
Not crime fiction	Not crime fiction Another personal challenge: a reminder to myself that I need occasionally to read outside the crime fiction genre. I find this very hard to do. Currently: 0
	Nordic Reading challenge Another personal challenge: a reminder to myself that I want to keep an eye on Nordic/Scandinavian crime fiction and to keep records of my reading. Currently: 0
New Zealand authors	New Zealand Reading challenge Another personal challenge: a reminder to myself that I want to keep an eye on New Zealand crime fiction and to keep records of my reading. Currently: 0
	Translated crime fiction This will overlap with a number of the other challenges and is really just a record of translated titles that I've read this year. Currently: 0
	It is really is a bit of a variant of the Crime Fiction Alphabet challenge that I have run for the last few years (and I may well do that again some time in 2015) I will count only crime fiction books for this challenge which is being hosted by Samantha Lin You list authors A-Z according to surname. My "official" record page is here.
	Snagged at the Library Hosted here probably not much of a challenge for me because I am a consistent "supporter" of my local library, but it will help me keep a nice record of my borrowed books. Currently: 1 4.8, ONLY THE INNOCENT, Rachel Abbott
nn	mm

What I read in December 2014

Crime Fiction Pick of the Month 2014

Considering the fact that December is such a busy month, I was very pleased with the amount of reading I did.
I was trying hard to finish off a couple of memes, and many of the books were read on my Kindle.

1. 4.3, THE SHADOW WOMAN, Ake Edwardson - translated
2. 4.3, CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION, Peter Robinson - Canadian author
3. 4.5, ANTIDOTE TO MURDER, Felicity Young - Australian author
4. 4.5, THE FORGOTTEN GIRLS, Sara Blaedel - translated (Danish) 
5. 4.4, NO ORCHIDS FOR MISS BLANDISH, James Hadley Chase - British author, US setting
6. 4.4, THE RULES OF THE GAME, Georges Simenon  - translated but set in USA
7. 4.5, ENIGMA OF CHINA, Qiu Xiaolong - set in modern Shanghai 
8. 4.8, A FEARSOME DOUBT, Charles Todd - audio book, set in 1919
9. 4.0, MURDER UNDERGROUND, Mavis Doriel Hay - Vintage crime, written in 1934
10. 4.4, THE FLIGHT OF THE FALCON, Daphne du Maurier - vintage crime, written 1965
11. 4.4, A TIME TO KILL, John Grisham - vintage crime, written in 1989 

My Pick of the Month was A FEARSOME DOUBT by Charles Todd

See what others have listed as their pick of the month.

Meme: New-to-me Authors October to December 2014

It's easy to join this meme.

Just write a post about the best new-to-you crime fiction authors (or all) you've read in the period of October to December 2014, put a link to this meme in your post, and even use the logo if you like.
The books don't necessarily need to be newly published.

After writing your post, then come back to this post and add your link to Mr Linky below. (if Mr Linky does not appear - leave your URL in a comment and I will add to Mr Linky when it comes back up, or I'll add the link to the post)
Visit the links posted by other participants in the meme to discover even more books to read.

This meme will run again at the end of March 2015
 

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Crime Fiction Pick of the Month December 2014

Crime Fiction Pick of the Month 2014

Many crime fiction bloggers write a summary post at the end of each month listing what they've read, and some, like me, even go as far as naming their pick of the month.

This meme is an attempt to aggregate those summary posts.
It is an invitation to you to write your own summary post for December 2014, identify your crime fiction best read of the month, and add your post's URL to the Mr Linky below.
If Mr Linky does not appear for you, leave the URL in a comment and I will add it myself.

You can list all the books you've read in the past month on your post, even if some of them are not crime fiction, but I'd like you to nominate your crime fiction pick of the month.

That will be what you will list in Mr Linky too -
e.g.
ROSEANNA, Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo - MiP (or Kerrie)

You are welcome to use the image on your post and it would be great if you could link your post back to this post on MYSTERIES in PARADISE.

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Review: ONLY THE INNOCENT, Rachel Abbott

• source: my local library
• first published 2011
• this copy published by Thomas & Mercer
• ISBN 978-1611-097849
• 459 pages
• #1 in the DI Tom Douglas series
• available on Kindle

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

Every moment of Sir Hugo Fletcher's life has been chronicled in the British press: his privileged upbringing, his high-profile charity work to end human trafficking - even his two marriages. But when the billionaire philanthropist is discovered murdered in his London home, tied naked to a bed, the scandal is only a shadow of the darkness lurking off-camera.

Laura Fletcher returns from an Italian vacation to find her husband dead and her home under siege by paparazzi. Is she shocked? Yes. But is she distraught? Not exactly. Especially when Chief Inspector Tom Douglas reveals his suspicions that Hugo's killer is female.

Laura always knew she wasn't the only woman in Hugo's life. And she knows she wasn't the only one with a motive to kill. The deeper Douglas digs, the more sordid details about Hugo Fletcher he uncovers. And yet nothing compares to the secret Laura guards, a secret that could bring the guilty to justice - or destroy an innocent life forever.

My Take

This reads like it must be in the middle of a series, because there are events referred to that have happened prior to the action of this novel, but it is actually a debut title. I've found that a strategy other authors have used in fairly recent publications.

DI Tom Douglas is an unusual detective as he doesn't keep his distance. When he begins to investigate the murder of Sir Hugo Fletcher he quickly gets on to first name terms with Lady Laura Fletcher. He knows instinctively that she is the clue to understanding Hugo's death.

ONLY THE INNOCENT has a complex plot with quite an array of characters. It is not a novel for the faint-hearted reader either. The structure is interesting. There are letters that Laura has written to her best friend Imogen which have never been posted which explain what has happened to Laura since her marriage to the high-profile Hugo. There are also occasional passages which describe the plight of a girl who has been imprisoned and is waiting for a release that may never come. These strategies heighten the tension and suspense in the novel.

Excellent reading, and in particular an excellent start for 2015.

My rating: 4.8

About the author (collected from Amazon and Fantastic Fiction)


Rachel Abbott published Only the Innocent in November 2011. It raced up the UK charts to reach the top 100 within 12 weeks and quickly hit the #1 spot in the Amazon Kindle chart (all categories) and remained there for four weeks.

Originally Only the Innocent was a self-published title, but since the success of the early version, the novel was re-edited and the new version was launched in the US by Thomas and Mercer in paperback, audio and Kindle versions on 5th February 2013, hitting the number one spot in the Kindle Store in August 2013. Her second book, The Back Road, was also published by Thomas and Mercer.

Her third book, Sleep Tight, was published in February 2014.

Rachel Abbott was born just outside Manchester, England. She spent most of her working life as the Managing Director of an interactive media company, developing software and websites for the education market. The sale of that business enabled her to fulfil one of her lifelong ambitions - to buy and restore a property in Italy.


Rachel now lives in Alderney - a beautiful island off the coast of France, and is now able to devote time to her other love - writing fiction. 

Top crime fiction reads for 2014 - a meme

Many of us make a list at the end of each calendar year of the best of our crime fiction reads.
So here is an invitation to you to create a post on your own blog, link it to this page, and then add the URL for your page to the Mr Linky below.

Stats for 2014

Stats for 2014

• I read 137 books - the same as last year
• About 25% are Australian authors
• About 30% are "new-to-me" authors but not necessarily recently published
• about 50% of the books have been read on my Kindle
• about 50% is British crime fiction
• 220 posts on this blog - quite a bit less than last year, as I didn't run so many memes, and I tended to only post book reviews.
• there are in all 2942 published posts on this blog and nearly 900 comments. (I've popped this in for future reference)
• Daily visitors have dropped off a bit, but presumably the fact that I haven't run Crime Fiction Alphabet this year has impacted there.
• many of the books read on my Kindle were review copies from Net Galley.
• I joined a number of reading challenges to give direction to my reading and have completed most of them
• Outdo yourself reading challenge 2014: aiming for 145, currently: 137 (137 in 2013)
• Canadian Reading Challenge 2014  currently 2/13
• Agatha Christie Reading Challenge  Completed
• 2014 Global Reading Challenge currently 21/21 - Completed
• USA Fiction Challenge So far 18/51
• 2014 Aussie Author reading challenge aiming for 20. Currently 30 - Completed
• 2014 Australian Women Writers Challenge aiming for 20. Currently 17/20
• British Books Challenge 2014 hosted by Feeling Fictional currently 62
• Vintage Mystery BINGO 2014: Silver & Gold Edition currently 26/12- Gold & Silver completed
• 2014 Ebook Reading Challenge  currently 72
• New to me authors - a personal challenge currently 45
• Not crime fiction - a personal challenge currently 4
• Nordic reading challenge - a personal challenge unless I find an "official" one, currently 9
• New Zealand reading challenge - again a personal challenge unless I can find someone hosting an "official" one. currently 2
• Translated crime fiction - a personal challenge that will overlap with many of the other reading challenges that I have undertaken. currently 18
• 2014 Mystery Author Challenge A-Z  Completed
• I ran a couple of challenges too that have worked pretty well
• I'm still running the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge with a monthly blog carnival. I actually completed the challenge myself this year. 
• I started the USA Fiction Challenge and that will keep me occupied for a number of years I think
• I also ran the 2014 Global Reading Challenge and will continue next year with the 2015 version.