The Dark Remains by William McIlvanney and Ian Rankin

 Started: 12/17/2021

Finished: 12/22/2021

Year: 2021

Pages: 242

Genre: Mystery

Grade: B

Reason for reading: review for Reader Views

Type: Hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Lawyer Bobby Carter did a lot of work for the wrong kind of people. When his body is found in an alley behind a pub that is known to be under the protective wing of a local crime boss, the fragile equilibrium that has been keeping Glasgow relatively safe for months is shattered. Besides a distraught family and any number of powerful friends, Carter has left behind his fair share of enemies. So who is responsible for his death?

DC Jack Laidlaw’s reputation precedes him. He’s not a team player, but he’s got a sixth sense for what’s happening on the streets. His boss chalks Carter’s death up to the usual rivalries, but Laidlaw knows it can’t be that simple. As two Glasgow gangs go to war, he needs to find Carter’s killer before the whole city explodes.

William McIlvanney’s Laidlaw books changed the face of crime fiction. When he died in 2015, he left half a handwritten manuscript of Laidlaw’s first case. Ian Rankin has finished what McIlvanney started. Here, in The Dark Remains, these two iconic authors bring to life the criminal world of 1970s Glasgow, and Laidlaw’s relentless quest for truth."

Opinion: review will be on readerviews.com soon

Leave Only Footprints by Conor Knighton

 Started: 12/4/2021

Finished: 12/6/2021

Year: 2020

Pages: 310

Genre: Travel/Memoir

Grade: B

Reason for reading: Goodreads.com giveaway

Type: Hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "When Conor Knighton set off to explore America's "best idea," he worried the whole thing could end up being his worst idea. A broken engagement and a broken heart had left him longing for a change of scenery, but the plan he'd cooked up in response had gone a bit overboard in that department: Over the course of a single year, Knighton would visit every national park in the country, from Acadia to Zion.

 
In Leave Only Footprints, Knighton shares informative and entertaining dispatches from what turned out to be the road trip of a lifetime. Whether he's waking up early for a naked scrub in a historic bathhouse in Arkansas or staying up late to stargaze along our loneliest highway in Nevada, Knighton weaves together the type of stories you're not likely to find in any guidebook. Through his unique lens, America the Beautiful becomes America the Captivating, the Hilarious, and the Inspiring. Along the way, he identifies the threads that tie these wildly different places together—and that tie us to nature—and reveals how his trip ended up changing his views on everything from God and love to politics and technology.
 
Filled with fascinating tidbits about our parks' past and reflections on their fragile future, this book is both a celebration of and a passionate case for the natural wonders that all Americans share."

Opinion: An interesting look at the National Parks of America. For me, I would have wanted to read them in the order that Knighton went to them instead of them being grouped together by similar topics like Animals, God, Love, etc. It seemed like Knighton took a bad personal experience and transformed into a better person. I can relate from my experience of traveling cross country from FL to OR by myself.

Ghost Stories of Texas by Jo-Anne Christensen

 Started: 12/12/2021

Finished: 12/12/2021

Year: 2001

Pages: 232

Genre: Paranormal

Grade: C

Reason for reading: bookslender.com book

Type: Trade paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "Along with its Wild West spirit, geographical diversity, dramatic history and sheer size, Texas contains a wealth of spine-tingling stories of the supernatural. Enjoy tales of Texas hauntings from the Alamo, Big Bend National Park, Dallas, Fort Worth, Laredo, Galveston, Corpus Christi and more."

Opinion: A bunch of quick blurbs about several different paranormal things in Texas-definitely a quick read.

A Rip in Heaven by Jeanine Cummins

 Started: 12/9/2021

Finished: 12/12/2021

Year: 2004

Pages: 302

Genre: Memoir/true crime

Grade: B

Reason for reading: booklender.com book

Type: Trade paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "A Rip in Heaven is Jeanine Cummins’ story of a night in April, 1991, when her two cousins Julie and Robin Kerry, and her brother, Tom, were assaulted on the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, which spans the Mississippi River just outside of St. Louis. When, after a harrowing ordeal, Tom managed to escape the attackers and flag down help, he thought the nightmare would soon be over. He couldn’t have been more wrong. Tom, his sister Jeanine, and their entire family were just at the beginning of a horrific odyssey through the aftermath of a violent crime, a world of shocking betrayal, endless heartbreak, and utter disillusionment. It was a trial by fire from which no family member would emerge unscathed."

Opinion: A truly tragic story. Well written from an insider point of view. One of the better true crime stories that I've read.

Ghettoside by Jill Leovy

 Started: 11/28/21

Finished: 12/3/2021

Year: 2015

Pages: 308

Genre: True Crime

Grade: C

Reason for reading: Librarything giveaway

Type: ARC

Blurb (from back cover): "On a warm spring evening in South Los Angeles, a young man is shot and killed on a sidewalk minutes away from his home, one of hundreds of young men slain in L.A. every year. His assailant runs down the street, jumps into an SUV, and vanishes, hoping to join the vast majority of killers in American cities who are never arrested for their crimes.

"But as soon as the case is assigned to Detective John Skaggs, the odds shift.

"Here is the kaleidoscopic story of the quintessential American murder-one young black man slaying another-and a driven crew of detectives whose creed is to pursue justice for forgotten victims at all costs. Ghettoside is a fast-paced narrative of a devastating crime, an intimate portrait of detective and a community bonded in tragedy, and a surprising new lens into the great subject of why murder happens in America-and how the plague of killings might yet be stopped."

Opinion: This isn't written like most other true crime novels. The beginning was a lot more chaotic with statistics instead of being focused on the one killing that this book ends up being focused on. Beside the beginning, this was a decent look at how one killing was resolved in L.A.