It has been a while since I posted anything from my reading forays but here we go.  First the old friend, in this case Stuart Woods.  His latest, Unnatural Acts, is in the Stone Barrington series and as always provides an engaging read.  In this one the evolving Herbie Fischer plays an increasing role.  Woods fans will remember Herbie as the ner-do-well that always managed to find trouble even if he had to go out of his way to look for it. Herbie is now an attorney and actually manages to even do some things right.  Dino, Barrington’s police lieutenant friend, faces a dilemma when a former lover and FBI agent, turned serial killer reappears with explosive results.  As is Wood’s want you will also find a sprinkling of other Woods characters making cameo appearances.  As you track through the story of Herbie attempting to help one of the law firm’s top clients deal with a problem son, you will be looking for the unnatural act and believe me you will find it. The sometimes larger than life characters, particularly the villains, that are a cornerstone of Woods offerings are here and in full bloom.

I stumbled across the new acquaintance, Karin Fossum, very much by accident – Amazon had a choice of her books for $0.99 one day and I thought – what-the-hell – at that price I would give one a try and even if I didn’t like it I wouldn’t lose much.  Well I liked it and liked it a lot.  Fossum is a Norwegian author and the setting is, not surprisingly in Norway.  The book, Don’t Look Back, is part of a series that features a smart and enigmatic Inspector Sejer as the protagonist who weaves his way through a seemingly unexplainable murder of a teen-age girl in a small Norwegian town where everybody knows everybody. As Inspector Sejer peals back the layers of secrets, lies and deceit like the layers of an onion a seemingly unrelated event proves key the unlocking the mystery.  Fans of the Stieg Larsson’s Girl That Kicked the Hornets Nest series will certainly be at home with this book and author. Given how much I enjoyed this book I will be moving on to others in the series and will provide updates.