What Fiction are you reading this week, February 22, 2026?

[hermetic]

This discussion thread is pinned.

Just finishing the mystical Thirty-Three Teeth. Next up, Silence of the Grave by Arnaldur Indridason from 2005. An Icelandic thriller, "Destined to be a classic in the world of crime fiction." Looking forward to it.

Listened to I Found You by Lisa Jewell This was a good, twisty mystery. Who is this guy? But, who is anyone, really?

Now listening to Middletide by Sarah Crouch, a Puget Sound mystery from 2024. "In this gripping and intensely atmospheric debut, disquiet descends on a small town after the suspicious death of a beautiful young doctor.."

Hope everyone is safe from the weather and the ICE.

[buzzycrumbhunger]

1. Celtic Love and Legends by Kathryn Le Veque

I normally read almost a book a day but this is an anthology of several stories so it’s going to take me an extra couple days to get through.

I normally LOVE Le Veque because her stories are more than goofy romance novels—they’re as much about the warfare, strategies, and above all, impeccably edited so nothing weird stops me in my tracks. In this case, I’ve made notes on several absurd editing misses—wrong words, weird punctuation—and I feel like she’s let me down. This is not an advance reader copy, so the fact there are mistakes makes me really sad. This has the added discomfort of an unusual (for her) addition of a grotesque incestuous relationship that isn’t her norm, and though the appropriate people have finally died, has really made me cringey as I read. Definitely a dark departure for her.

[hermetic]

2. Oh wow

She's got 182 titles listed in the Fiction DataBase.

I, too, get annoyed whenever I find editing misses. Seems to happen a lot more lately. Maybe because AI?

[buzzycrumbhunger]

8. I think it's more that it's expensive

… to be an author and more and more, I think people think they can write, have their friends and family act as “proofreaders” when they barely know how to spell themselves, and it’s no longer necessary to find a publishing house to take you on and do the behind-the-scenes work (proofing, editing, marketing, etc.) so they throw caution to the wind and just put stuff out there.

But never before have I seen errors of any kind from this author. It’s weird.

I HIGHLY recommend her otherwise, though. Maybe her subject matter just disturbed her, too, and things snuck through.

[cbabe]

3. Two historical dramas:

Last edited Sun Feb 22, 2026, 01:24 PM - Edit history (1)

Janelle Brown/What kind of paradise

What if Ted Kaczynski had a daughter?

And she escapes to early Silicon Valley, her dad’s nemesis and… ours?

That’s all. The rest would be spoilers.

Mark Thielman/The devils’s kitchen: a murder in Yellowstone

First in the Johnson and Nance mystery series.

The French Revolution, golden lost royal treasure to Spanish New Orleans to boating the Mississippi to the west, geysers and bears.

Special agents hunt the murderer while the treasure is being hunted.

Plus Tripod, the little three legged dog.

[hermetic]

6. That Thielman book sounds great.

He has another book called Friday, February 30th, which I just had to look up. "What would you do on a day without consequences? In 'Friday, February 30th,' an ordinary man finds himself in this extraordinary situation. A mystery story that would have been right at home in Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone."
Sadly, it's just an ebook, but I wanna read it!

[cbabe]

7. No consequences: eat more lemon meringue pie.

[EverHopeful]

4. Re-reading Relic by Preston & Child

Because I'd just finished Pendergast The Beginning and wanted to refresh my memory of what came next.

I have a personal sorta'-rule about re-reading books because I know there are probably millions of books I won't get to before I die but I'm enjoying it again.

[hermetic]

5. I know, right?

So many books. So little time.

[Number9Dream]

13. Did you like "Pendergast: The Beginning"?

I'm on my library's list for that when they get a copy.

I just re-read P&C's "Angel of Vengeance". That was one of their best.

[EverHopeful]

14. Oh yes, I did like it

And it's why I felt the need to re-read Relic.

[Bayard]

15. Funny!

I just finished reading, "Angel of Vengeance," the final one of that series trio.

I don't recall seeing, "The Beginning." I thought, "The Relic," was the intro to Pendergast. Will look it up.

[txwhitedove]

9. Lovely Sunday. Just dropped my granddaughter at airport, off to Salt Lake City for training to

work on river cruise ships. Wow, a new adventure and I miss her already.

Reading The Women of Arlington Hall by Jane Healey. Good easy read, engrossing.
"1947: Adventurous Radcliffe graduate Catherine “Cat” Killeen cancels her wedding and upends a future that no longer suits her. At the behest of her professor and hungry for a challenge, Cat arrives in Virginia to work on a confidential military project. A student in cryptoanalysis, Cat is already ahead of the game—to assist in rooting out Soviet spies who have infiltrated the US." Codebreakers, puzzles and spies, oh my.

[hermetic]

10. That sounds like a fun plan

River cruises and codebreaking, both.

[duckworth969]

11. And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks- Burroughs

Bohemian cast of characters generally dissipating their lives away. Told from the perspective of two different protagonists who are loosely based on Kerouac and Burroughs.

Easy read, mildly entertaining but nothing worth getting too excited about.

I read Junky which is my favorite Burroughs novel. Hippos has a similar style, but the situations and characters aren’t nearly as interesting.

Passed on Naked Lunch though I might try again later. Didn’t feel like spending hours looking up hipster terminology as I went along.

[mentalsolstice]

12. All Her Fault by Andrea Mara, a mystery/thriller.

It’s oh so good! From GoodReads:

Marissa Irvine arrives at 14 Tudor Grove, expecting to pick up her young son Milo from his first playdate with a boy at his new school. But the woman who answers the door isn't a mother she recognises. She isn't the nanny. She doesn't have Milo. And so begins every parent's worst nightmare.

Have a safe good week everyone!