August Wrap-Up & Pick of the Month

Once again in 2014 I will be combining my monthly wrap-up post with Kerrie's Crime Fiction Pick of the Month over at Mysteries in Paradise.  As predicted last month, I am now behind on my Goodreads goal--two books behind to be precise. I need to pick up the pace! Of course, one of the books was a monster--nearly 600 pages long and almost half were over 300 pages. So, not too bad. Here are the stats:

Total Books Read: 13
Total Pages: 3798
Average Rating: 2.8 stars  
Top Rating: 4 stars 
Percentage by Female Authors: 50%
Percentage by US Authors: 62%
Percentage by non-US/non-British Authors: 0%
Percentage Mystery: 85% 
Percentage Fiction: 92%
Percentage written 2000+: 38%
Percentage of Rereads: 0%
Percentage Read for Challenges: 100% {It's easy to have every book count for a challenge when you sign up for as many as I do.}    
Number of Challenges fulfilled so far: 23 (53%)


AND, as mentioned above, Kerrie has started us up for another year of Crime Fiction Favorites. What she's looking for is our Top Mystery Read for each month. In August, eleven of the books I read count as mysteries:


The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Angel of the Opera by Sam Siciliano (2.5stars) 
The Mangle Street Murders by M. R. C. Kasasian (3 stars) 
Introducing C. B. Greenfield by Lucille Kallen (2 stars) 
Date With Danger by Roy Vickers (3 stars) 
Button, Button by Marion Bramhall (3 stars) 
Book of the Dead by Elizabeth Daly (3 stars) 
Book Clubbed by Lorna Barrett (2 stars)
New Orleans Requiem by D. J. Donaldson (4 stars) 
The Bigger They Come by A. A. Fair (2.5 stars) 
The Attenbury Emeralds by Jill Paton Walsh (2 stars) 
The Late Scholar by Jill Paton Walsh (3 stars)

As we can see the only four-star winner is New Orleans Requiem by D. J. Donaldson--one of several recent review requests I've received. This one is, indeed, a real winner and absolutely deserving of this month's P.O.M. Award. It is a fast-paced thriller with much of the classic whodunnit. There is a really nice twist at the end and the final reveal came as a big surprise. Enjoyable read for thriller, police procedural, and whodunnit fans alike.