Author: Marilynne Robinson

This is the third book in the Gilead series and since I’m so far in I think I’ll go ahead and read the last one. Her writing style has differed from book to book; this one was more confusing than the others but it certainly filled in the background of the Rev. Ames’ young wife.

Goodreads Rating: * * *

Author: Jo Nesbø

This book was not at all what I expected. Other books I’ve read by this author followed the cases of Detective Harry Hole. Every one of them was hard to put down. This one is hard to put down but for an entirely different reason.

MacBeth is the head of the SWAT team in the fictional city of Fife. Almost from the beginning we see a very dark side to Macbeth and he doesn’t get any nicer throughout the book. His climb to the top leaves a trail of murders, many of which MacBeth is behind but not necessarily the perpetrator. I soon came to dislike MacBeth; the reason I couldn’t put it down was because I wanted to see if he got his comeuppance. The mystery went on until the last few pages; the last chapter hints that the criminality will continue.

Goodreads Rating: * * *

Author: Marilynne Robinson

This is actually the first book in a series but reading the second one first really didn’t make any difference. In fact, this filled in a few of the gaps that I noticed in the second one.

John Ames, an elderly minister, has started to write down stories and thoughts for his very young son (only 8 years old) to read when he is a grown man. There are a few notable quotes but I never thought to write them down at the time I read them. It was a library book so I couldn’t mark them either.

I didn’t think I wanted to read the third in the series but it is the back story of one of the characters so I’ve ordered it from the library.

Goodreads Rating: * * *