Your post is the first I’ve heard of the new Lincoln Lawyer series on Netflix. Just watched the trailer. I don’t know. For me, , Matthew McConaughey IS and always will be the face of Mickey Haller, even when reading the books. Out with the old and in with the new I guess.
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We especially enjoy how Lorna and Cisco, and his driver Izzy, are depicted.
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I just devoured Portrait of an Unknown Woman. I am a big fan. I remember earlier books where the “housekeeper” at the UK property always served up great meals.
I also enjoyed Netflix’s LL series and Bosch-Legacy on Freevee.
FWIW James Lee Burke’s last book, Every Cloak Rolled in Blood, has knocked him off my must read list. I skimmed through about 75% of it just to get to the end to see if there was any point to it. There wasn’t. Sad to say I don’t think he is ageing gracefully.
Yes, there comes a time when you just have to give up on a book.
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We never took to James Lee Burke’s Holland series. It’s Dave Robichaux for us; the series’s writing has never disappointing, and a decades ago after discovering Burke through Black Cherry Blues, we were lucky to have had business trips to S.W. Louisiana and seen the well-depicted scenery and eaten many lunches at Antlers in Lafayette.
For us, the best part of Portrait of An Unknown Woman was the recap of the reality of that slice of the fine arts world.
For me the Robichaux series has become formulaic. Same plot, different characters. He was just hanging on by a thread before I read the last one. His poetic and lyrical writing is just not enough for me any more.
Yep, there’s too many books & too little time to waste on subpar reading. I once had a vow (in my teens cough 50 years ago cough) to finish any book I’d started. Realized that was foolish. Now, especially with the Kindle, I’m skimming & dumping w/o a 2nd thought.
Robert Parker in his Spenser series is a good example of a writer getting lazy (or maybe aging med issues). His early books are excellent but he was prolific with some 35-ish Spenser novels that he wrote and there were a few where he was just phoning them in. and just to stay on topic 
Spenser is often cooking a meal or eating out (from Chance):
John brought us two steaks and the cold seafood platter. He put the seafood in front of Susan.
“Isn’t it a lot?” she said.
“We can help,” I said.
“We can’t solve nothing,” Hawk said, “but we good eaters.”.
Susan speared a clam, dipped the end of it in cocktail sauce, bit off the sauced corner, and chewed it thoughtfully.
At page 263 of Reason to Kill, Lieutenant Malloy is buying lunch for Amos at Musso & Frank:
“It’s old Hollywood, elegant in the manner of your late Aunt Dorothy, who drank bourbon and did the Charleston. It’s got dark, cool, padded booths and waiters plodding around in red uniforms with towels draped over their arms. When you step the door here, your first impulse is to order a martini. I never do, not at my age, but it’s that kind of place. It’s been around forever, and it still serves up giant platters of food from another era, when nothing was organic and they didn’t skimp on butter. The last time we were here one of us (I forget who) had liver and bacon. You don’t see that on menus anymore.”
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After 50 years in business, Chinese Friends restaurant in LA is closing down this week. This little mention in their online good-bye made me smile and think of this thread.
“Even celebrated in the detective novels of Michael Connelly!”
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We recently discovered on Acorn.tv a South African TV show, Recipes for Love and Murder. Noticed in the credits that it is based on a Sally Andrew book of the same name, which turns out to contain recipes along with a glossary of Afrikaans and South African terms:
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We’re reluctant to ask the library to hold the last of any series that we enjoy, not knowing if there’ll be another, and then what . . . (It took years before we gave up hope that Kinky Friedman would pen another, so we took the plunge without regret . . . )
All that prolix writ, same drill for Wyoming’s master writer Craig Johnson. New Longmire ready for publication, so we picked up last year’s issue (Daughter of the Morning Star) and found Sheriff Walt (USC lineman) and buddy Henry Standing Bear (UCal running back) going at it over lunch:
"A young woman came over in a hairnet, apron, and unwarranted attitude.
"‘Can I help you’?
"He [Running Bear] handed her the menus. ‘How about two cheeseburgers with fries?’
"‘Considering your ages, sounds like a couple of ischemic strokes to me.’ She scribbled on a pad. ‘Drinks?’
"A couple glasses of saturated lard or hydrogenated vegetable fat, if you would.
"She turned and walked away without another word. I [Walt] called after her. ‘I’d like a root beer, please?’ I turned back to Henry as he spoke under his breath. ‘Dated her mother.’ "
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Richard Osman’s second, The Man Who Died Twice at page 218:
"Chris has always fantasize about being the sort of man who might buy the red, yellow, and green peppers. The sort of man who would buy broccoli or ginger or beetroot out of choice. To Chris, the fruit and veg aisle at the supermarket was where he bought bananas and occasionally a bag of spinach to put at the top of his basket in case he bumped into anyone he knew. People always look into your basket don’t they? Chris wanted to pretend he shopped and ate like a grown man. Slip the Kit-Kats under the spinach and no one’s any the wiser.
“Chris thinks back to the day a cashier in Tesco’s was scanning his shopping. As she swiped through the chocolate, the crisps, the Diet Coke, the sausage rolls, she looked up with a kind smile and said, ‘What is it dear, a child’s birthday party?’ Chris has used self-service checkouts ever since.”
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I’d been wondering how Richard Osman’s books are. Might given them a go now.
(Note: He was an enjoyable competitor on Taskmaster)
Thursday Murder Club is first in the so-far three-book series. The premise, characters, and writing drew us in.
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I loved the first two in the series, but the third one didn’t grab me. I thought there was too much talking. But I’ll certainly try the next one!
It’s not fiction but I just read Confessions of a Bookseller by Scot author Shaun Bythell. He often makes Cullen Skink & other Scottish dishes.
It’s a good read for anyone involved with books as seller or lender.
Also not fiction (maybe we should start a separate thread?), but I got the Somebody Feed Phil the Book from the library. It’s based on the series, but has lots of recipes and behind the scenes comments. Each chapter/episode has the transcript of Phil and his parents. It’s a fun read!
The current Michael Connelly issue is a Harry Bosch/Renee Ballard installment, Desert Star.
At page 167, trying to find the bad guy, Ballard is interviewing:
"Back in '05, do you remember if the campaign sent people door-to-door in the Franklin Village area? More specifically, Tamarind Avenue – that neighborhood?
"If it was in the district, I am sure we did. We went out every night. The whole staff and all the volunteers we could get. We’d meet at that deli on Sunset . . . I can’t remember the name. I was like a hundred years old, but they closed for good during the pandemic.
"Greenblatt’s.
“Right, Greenblatt’s – what a loss. I loved that place.”
(So did we. A loss to mourn.)
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I read that last month, it wasn’t as “foody” as they usually are. I just finished Louise Penny’s 18th Armand Gamache, and was reminded of all the delicious food served in Three Pines at Olivier and Gabri’s bistro, the Gramache’s home table or potluck at Clara’s. I just discovered they have a website with recipes from different titles.
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Given the sad occasion, we’ll take the liberty to embellish:
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