2015 Books

This year's book list. The (r) denotes a repeat read. *s = Good, DNF = Bad.

1. Ian Flemming's Commandos, Nicolas Rankin; DNF
2. Slow Train to Switzerland, Diccon Bewes; *****; Christmas gift from the Eldest, a very good read. An Young Woman's account of Thomas Cook's first Conducted Tour of Switzerland. The author retraces her trip as closley as possible. Trains and Travel in Switzerland, how could it be bad. Gave me ideas for more places to visit in Switzerland.
3. How We Got to Now, Steven Johnson
4. Murder on the 31st Floor, Per Wahloo; ***; Very good character development. Inspector Jensen is a piece of work. Written in the 1960s and set in an unappealing future.
5. The Water Room, Christopher Fowler; A Bryant and May of the The Peculiar Crimes Unit detective story. All the characters are interesting as are the crimes they are assigned to inspect. Can become a bit far-fetched.
6. The Steel Spring, Per Wahloo; Another about Inspector Jensen book, even more unappealing future.
7. The Blood of an Englishman, M.C. Beaton here.
8. Bryant and May Off the Rails, Christopher Fowler
9. Bryant and May and the Memory of Blood,  Christopher Fowler
10. The Marseilles Caper, Peter Mayle; Sam Levitt is back.  To which I reply, "Don't do it again"
11. Retribution, Val McDermid; Seventh with Tony Hill and Carol Jordan.
12. The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien, Georges Simenon
13. The Yellow Dog,  Georges Simenon
14. Travels with my Aunt, Graham Greene (r) Read on a riverboat on the Amazon.
15. Night at the Crossroads,  Georges Simenon
16. Monsieur Pamplemousse, Michael Bond (r); Series list here.
17. A Crime in Holland,  Georges Simenon
18. The Grand Banks Cafe, Georges Simenon; I enjoyed all of the Maigret  books by Simenon so far. Hope more are on the way. The Maigret TV Series from the 1990s was very good and starred Michael Gambon.
19.  Monsieur Pamplemousse and the Tangled Web, Michael Bond; Published in 2015, not among his best, but he is getting up there.
20. Among the Islands, Tim Flannery; Author is a zoologist and did expeditions in the South Pacific, a bit interesting. Worth reading once.
21. Death in the Sahara, Michael Asher; A Survey expedition to determine feasibility of building a railway to Timbuktu. Treachery, ambushes, cannibalism, battles, was an interesting read. Did not make me want to go to the Sahara.
22. River of Doubt, Candice Millar ****; Teddy Roosevelt's trip down an uncharted Amazon river tributary. Very interesting. Wished I would have known about it before our trip down the Amazon River.
23. Beyond Cape Horn, Charles Neider; Details of his third trip to Antarctica, Was just OK;  Obituary
24. Standing in Another Man's Grave, Ian Rankin
25. Down the Garden Path, Beverley Nicholes *****; First read this in the 1980s, lent the book to a co-worker and never got it back. Makes you want to go out and plant stuff.
26. No Man's Nightingale, Ruth Rendel; Wexford's last case, I never got that involved, but this was the first I read of his series.
27. The Way to Dusty Death, Alistair MacLean; Thriller taking place on the F1 racing circuit. Stayed up late a few nights getting to the end.
28. The Dying Hours, Mark Billingham; Something strange about those suicides. Once Detective, now back in Uniform, Thom Thorne finds these suicides suspicious. Number 11 in the series, number 1 for me, it was cheap and sounded interesting; It was.
29. Three Graves Full, Jaime Mason; A crazy good read. Stayed up past my bedtime to see how it ended. Strangely reminded me of "Restraint of Beasts", Magnus Mills.
30. Uncle Tungstun, Oliver Sacks, His childhood memoir. Not done yet, but very interesting so far. He grew up in London during the Blitz.

And now for something completely different

Smokey Manhattan

• 1 part Noilly Prat Rouge (red vermouth)
• 1 part Laphroaig (the smokey comes from this) I stock the Laphroaig 10 Year Old.
• several drops of Bitters, I used Fee Bros Molasses.

Some recipes used non-smokey whiskey and added a drop or 2 of liquid smoke, Yuck! 

Saw the recipe somewhere, don't remember where, I dropped the ratio of vermouth to Whisky(Scottish spelling) to 1:1.

I joined the 'Friend of Laphroaig' club and was given a lifetime lease on a numbered plot of their land (one square foot!). Haven't yet attended any of the events they have had in the area, but it may come in handy if we ever visit the distillery on Skye.