Dec 2022

10 books read totaling 3,003 pages. Cumulative totals for the year:- Books 110 Pages 36,602

Another stop/start kind of month with a two week break from reading in the middle of the month. But ten books which took the year end total to 110. First up was the 13th in the TIME BUBBLE series by Jason Ayres. Lauren’s Odyssey she’s one of the series’ bit part players take centre stage. Has the series gone on too long? Probably not. Still a good few left I reckon.

My second book was by an author I’d heard of but never read. It’s the prolific VAL MCDERMID with 1979. The book was so good that upon completion I downloaded several more from McDermid including the Karen Pirie and the Tony Hill & Carol Jordan series. Both of which have been ITV dramas (Karen Pirie and Wire in the Blood).

December saw me laid up in bed with a nasty virus so as well as reading I watched a lot of TV. I decided to rewatch THE BILL from the very start. To assist my rewatch I purchased a couple of TV TIE IN books from Oliver Crocker under the title of MAKING THE BILL. Book 1 was Series 1-3 and book 2 was 1988. If you love THE BILL then these books are a must.

Books 5, 6 and 9 were the latest three in the SHOOTING STARS series by Simon Northouse. They follow a rock band who reform and prove that nothing in life is simple. The books were:- What’s it all About Geordie, Bells at Christmas and Tuscan Run (although I believe I did read one of them out of synch). Fingers crossed there’s at least one more to come to finish off the story.

Book 7 was Martin Kemp’s TICKET TO THE WORKD which was his memories of his time in Spandau Ballet. The story covers the full decade of the 1980’s. It was a great read although I was a tad disappointed that there was no mention of his time playing for Melchester Rovers in the weekly comic strip ROY OF THE ROVERS

Another series the Amazon Kindle algorithms led me too is the DCI KETT stories by Alex Smith. Book 8 was the 9th in the series called JAW BREAKER. I believe currently there’s two more so will feature early on in my 2023 reads.

The last book of the year was by another new author for me. JD KIRK. NORTHWIND was the first in a series featuring ex soldier and ex cop Robert Hoon. A thouroughly enjoyable read which led me to downloading the 3 others in the series. I then found out Hoon featured in another series by Kirk. The DCI Logan books of which there’s 15 with a 16th on the way. They’re on the TO READ list!