At the start of the week I listened to Beneath Dark Waters by Karen Rose. I intended to listen to it on release, but since I got it as an audiobook and I was on vacation, it didn’t end up working out that way. Rose is my favorite author and this doesn’t disappoint. As I just started watching 24 for the first time in a long time, it finally clicked with me that that’s the itch Karen Rose scratches for me. The pacing of the story telling feels very comparable. There are less (but not none) outright traitors, the crimes are other types of sadistic monsters than terrorists (including sex crimes against kids in some), and the arc is built around a romance between two main characters, but just the way the story keeps moving forward and getting deeper (with characters that really flesh out over time) strikes a similar chord to me.

Still working on Stormlight Archive (on Words of Radiance) on ebook. It’s still insanely long and I find the world and the characters fascinating. I’m almost to the point of pulling the trigger on them all on audiobook so I have time for them because it’s so good, but I’m not sure it will feel right.

After finishing with Rose, I listened to several County Cork books by Sheila Connolly. It’s a light little mystery series where the main character honors her grandmother’s wish to visit where the grandmother grew up in Ireland, ends up finding her place there, decides to stay, and winds up on the periphery of a bunch of murders and solving them. As always with these small town mystery series, you have to suspend disbelief on the murder rate, but I like a blend of lighter world- and character- building to balance out the heavier stuff, and I like the flavor of this one well enough.