1st, "The Case of the Crumpled Knave" by Anthony Boucher, 1939, 244 pages, 66k words. The Fergus O'Breen Mysteries #1. Fergus O'Breen is a likable enough young cheap detective.
I think this was on sale for $0.99 or $1.99. Anthony Boucher was also a science fiction author, and was the editor of the 1959 2 volume "A Treasury of Great Science Fiction" which was maybe the 2nd or 3rd sci fi book I read Back In The Day - from the Jeffersonville Public Library.
It's not a bad mystery, and an easy read. It's set in LA, with Hollywood connections. It was a pleasant diversion. It was weird how it was pre-WWII.
Next up, "A Spindle Splintered" by Alix E. Harrow, 2021, 109 pages, 29k words. That length would make this a novelette? This looks to be the 1st book of the Fractured Fables series.
A very fun read: Sleeping Beauty in the Spidey-verse. Proud to see a neighbor - Harrow lives ~40 miles from Lexington in Berea, I think - writing such great stuff.
OK, maybe time for some easy science fiction: "The Galaxy, and the Ground Within" by Becky Chambers, 2021, 324 pages, 88k pages. Wayfarer #4. So, aliens from 5 races are stuck together in an inn by a communications system failure. Different species learn about each other. It is tied to the other books in that 1 of the aliens is the lover of the captain of the Wayfarer. There is a little bit of excitement - a medical emergency, and the doctor who comes is human, yay us! Still, I guess these are character/personality stories in this series. This novel has the least action yet.
Penultimately, our 2nd mystery, "The Case of the Solid Key" by Anthony Boucher, 1941, 298 pages, 81k words. The Fergus O'Breen Mysteries #2. Another diverting tale, with some mistaken identity stuff and more Hollywood tie-in. There is a locked room murder, and, despite going back and rereading Chapter 18 (of 20), I still didn't quite get the point of the solid key.
Finally, "Leviathan Falls", by James S.A. Corey, 2021, 589 pages, 160k words. The 9th and final novel of The Expanse. A well done conclusion, some good symmetry with the beginning.
I was also current on the TV version of The Expanse. It's very well done. But in the last season, the actor playing Alex, the pilot of the Rocincante, got hit with several accusations of sexual harassment. So he was fired, but not before an episode in which Alex dies of a stroke during a hard burn.
I understand that the actor had to go, but Alex and the other 3 core Rocincante crew members - Jim, Naomi, and Amos - are pretty much a family throughout the whole series. So I was relieved that Alex is still alive and figures with a normal prominence in this novel. After all, the actor was the problem, not the character.
The TV Expanse I think got through the 1st 3-4 novels. They could come back and pick with the next big plot pivot and get the rest someday if they choose to.
The magazine stack is cleared, not sure what I want to read next. A good problem.
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