Continued, and I hope not ad nauseum.

THE RAGE by Gene Kerrigan

Kerrigan is one author I wish would write faster. He is a journalist in Ireland, and a new novel shows up every six years or so. His main characters are usually Irish cops, usually facing some sort of ethical situation. In The Rage the cop is investigating a murder in which a man was gunned down in the doorway of his own home. In a parallel story, a group of low life thugs are planning to rob an armored car. Political manuvering closes the investigation of the murder, and the cop knows that guilty parties are escaping. A nice, enigmatic ending.

THE LITTLE BOOK by Selden Edwards

Another book discussion choice. It's turn of the century Vienna, and two men are new on the scene. It's the heydey of one of Europe's most glamorous capitals and coffee houses are crowded with young intellectuals. It develops that the two men are time travelers - each from a different era in the later years of the 20th century. They share another important connection. I'm scheduled to lead the discussion, so I hung in there and finished reading the book, but I wasn't very impressed. Unless your interest in time travel sends you on a quest to read every book of that genre you can find, I'd say skip this one.

ROGUE by Frederick Ramsay

The sheriff of a rural county in Virginia hunts for the driver who critically injured the woman he loves. The plot begins to center on academic intrigue, the push for tenure, and the jealousies which seem to control a small college campus. A good book for a long airplane flight.

BREAKING POINT by C J Box

Game warden Joe Pickett is drawn into a battle between the EPA and a local property owner. Notes by the author explain that he based the plot on a real life legal struggle between a California couple and the EPA which eventually found its way to the Supreme Court. The landowners prevailed. Unfortunately for the characters in Box's book, things turn very ugly very quickly and the issues are resolved, but not in court.

THE BURGESS BOYS by Elizabeth Strout

I consider Strout an American treasure. Two men and their sister grew up in a small town in Maine. The men have each become lawyers, one with a wide reputation. When the sister's son becomes embroiled in what might be seen as a hate crime, the brothers return to help with the legal issues. Long buried secrets are uncovered, and like all good fiction almost nothing can be viewed as black and white. The author shifts point of view from one character to another, but interestingly, the reader never sees events though the eyes of the pivotal brother. Excellent read.

THE DINNER by Herman Koch

Translated from the original Dutch. I heard the book discussed on NPR, and when I requested the book from the library, I was startled to see a holds list of several dozen entries. It was worth the wait to read it. Two married couples meet to discuss the fallout from a teenaged prank gone bad in which their two sons were involved. Little by little, the reader learns more and more about the narrator, and I was startled and dismayed as I read the final chapter. It made me wonder what Alfred Hitchcock might have done with the story were he still around to write and direct movies.

SIX YEARS by Harlan Coben

Six years before the book opens, the protagonist was jilted by the woman he loves. He sees a funeral notice for the man she married instead and seeks the opportunity to pay his respects and re-establish contact with her. He meets the widow and is shocked to be talking to a total stranger. Perhaps not the best of Coben's stand alones, but it won't kick him off my "don't miss" list.

That's it for the fiction. Non fiction coming up in a day or two.