#TopFive Books I Want To Read Which Are….Trilogies !

So welcome to a new month, a new set of Top Five Saturday themes courtesy of Amanda at Devouring Books is up for your persual and themn brain racking to figure out just what are your top 5 books?

Can you think of 5?

Is it hard to cut them down to just 5 or is it a real chore?

Technically, this is a Top 15 this week as each choice links to 3 books! It’s Top 5 Trilogies today!
Hopefully there will be something here that will take your fancy or maybe you can recommend me a book-or 3!!!

3/7/20 — Trilogies

3/14/20 — Books with Beautiful Covers

3/21/20 — Magical Realism

3/28/20 — Murder Mystery

So without further ado, here are my top 5 trilogies I want to read-and in some cases, re-read.

1) Peter Straub’s ‘Blue Rose’ Trilogy

Comprising of ‘Koko’,‘Mystery’ and ‘The Throat’, these novels extend from  a late 70’s America in the aftermath of the Vietnam War to the early 90’s, this is less of a series that you read but one that you live through. A fully immersive and terrifying reading experience, I read ‘Koko’ when I was far too young to really appreciate the post ‘Nam lives of vets(god bless my dad for never censoring my reading but by god the nightmares I had!). The buddies meeting up at the unveiling of a memorial in D.C, begins a nightmare of epic proportions that all had thought left behind. Something or someone is stalking this small band of survivors….

‘Mystery’ is exactly what it says on the tin-a murder mystery with one foot in the past and one in the present. Less dark and tortuous than ‘Koko’, this is a chunky, fulfilling novel cum character study of identity, memory and relationships which swaps the 60’s for the 90’s and back again with aplomb. A vast canvas is used in both time and plot, but it is the kind of book you rip through with unbridled joy at Straub’s mastery-if not a few dark and chilling moments aside, this is an incredible ride.

‘The Throat’ brings a character from ‘‘Koko’ and ‘Mystery’ together in the town of Millhaven, where murders that shouldn’t be happening are keeping all its inhabitants in a state of fear. An aged sleuth and a Vietnam vet team up to put an end to a decades old reign of terror.

I have been a huge fan of Peter Straub for the most of my life and these books are brilliant. You don’t have to read them in order(I would suggest that you do purely because I am a pedant who loves reading things in order!!!)

Dark, deeply disturbing and immensely satisfying, I recommend them very VERY highly!

Twitter @peterstraubnyc

2) Stephen King ‘The Bill Hodges Trilogy’

Comprising of ‘Mr Mercedes’, ‘Finders Keepers’ and ‘End Of Watch’, this is Stephen King throwing his hat into the ring of a police procedural. The titluar Bill Hodges is a man on the edge, haunted by the actions of ‘Mr Mercedes’, a mass murderer who killed men, women and a baby all waiting in line at a jobs fair, knocking them down like skittles.

On the verge of taking his own life, retired and with very little to live for, Bill is suddenly taunted with his failure to solve this case via an internet chat room. Convinced that this is the actual killer, a cat and mouse game ensues where Bill puts together his own version of the Baker Street Irregulars and creates a detective agency ‘Finders Keepers’ , thwarts another mass killing event and finds a reason to stay on this planet.

Featuring some of King’s most memorable characters, killing others and setting up a great -if supernaturally tinged-mystery which runs over 3 books is no mean feat.

Satisfying? Yes, absolutely, and I can highly recommend the tv series based on the novels starring Brendan Gleeson. ‘Mr Mercedes’ seasons 1-3 are  available via Starz play on Amazon Prime in the UK at the moment. Also, main character Holly Gibney, pops up in another King vehicle, ‘The Outsider’ . Highly recommended, all episodes are available on Now TV and Sky in the UK as well as the US .

Twitter @StephenKing

 

3) Justin Cronin’s ‘The Passage’ Trilogy

Yikes! A confession…I haven’t read all of these so my details of ‘The Passage’, ‘The Twelve’ and ‘The City Of Mirrors’ are pretty sketchy. I remember the stunning opener of ‘The Passage’  and beyond that, very little except overwhelming feelings of completely loving it. Well overdue a re-read!!

A dystopian horror fantasy, centering a child and a rogue FBI agent, this imagines what could happen if a vampiric virus found in a remote bat cave is let loose-as if that could ever happen, right?

‘First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment. Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way to sunrise on a nation, and ultimately a world, forever altered. All that remains for the stunned survivors is the long fight ahead and a future ruled by fear–of darkness, of death, of a fate far worse.’

They look like chunky behemoths, but again, the size shouldn’t dissuade you because the story just flies and before you know it you are at the end of all 3 and bereft. LOVED THEM!!!

Twitter @jccronin

4) Gilbert Adair’s ‘Evadne Mount Trilogy’

A pastiche of Agatha Christie and Miss Marple whilst being an absolutely engaging mystery in it’s own right, these three books span from 1930’s to the 21st Century. Introduced in ‘The Act Of Roger Murgatroyd’, the sleuth cum detective is caught in the archetypal ‘locked room’ mystery. Celebrity gossip with a sideline in blackmail, Raymond Gentry, is found dead, inside a seemingly impregnable attic…

Following this, in ‘A Mysterious Affair Of Style’, Evadne is tasked with solving the murder of an actress, killed in front of an audience and with multiple motives flying around!

Whodunnit?! Fast forward to 2011, and we have ‘And There Was No One’. At a Sherlock Convention, what is more perfect than a mysterious death?It’s a fourth wall breaking tale which wraps up Evadne’s addition and has the author appear as a character himself.

They are enjoyable tales which as a Christie fan I found super enjoyable , picking out all the motifs and from which Christie novel. Underrated and not as well known as I personally think they should be, I would recommend checking them out for lovers of literate murder mysteries.

 

5) Tim Lebbon’s ‘Relics’ Trilogy

‘Relics’, ‘The Folded Land’ and ‘The Edge’ by Tim Lebbon are all out now from Titan Books-I am absolutely sure this would make a brillaint tv show as they are so vivid and cinematic in tone with a great hook.

Starting with a vanishing boyfriend, a woman on a mission who falls into a world she could never have imagined, and a quest, these books are fabulous escapist fantasy.

Escalating from an underground blackmarket in relics-such as angel wings, baby fairies and much, much worse-to a full blown war between supernatural creatues(or Kin) and humankind, this series is great for those who have read ‘Cabal’ by Clive Barker. A woman in love is not to be trifled with, criminologist Angela finds herself on the run from dark forces as she tries to find what happened to her boyfriend,Vince who with a note sayin g sorry, appears to have dropped off the face of the earth.

One of his best employers turns out to be a crime lord with a vested interest in getting him back, and the people who Vince has traded in are not exactly keen for Vince to be found. Caught between 2 sides, which one will Angela choose? And how will life ever be normal again now she knows that basilisks are real ? And centaurs, and satyrs….

Twitter @timlebbon

Bonus time….

‘Fawkes And Baxter’ by Daniel Cole

Bursting onto the crime writing scene with original and graphically gory tale ,‘Ragdoll’, Daniel Cole set up the arc that continues with ‘Hangman’, and then concludes with appropriately titled ‘‘Endgame’ .

When is a corpse not a corpse?

When it is a franken-body comrpised of multiple victims…

In ‘Ragdoll’, disgraced detective Will ‘Wolf’ Fawkes alongside friend Emily Baxter investigates the titular killing where 6 victims have body parts sewn together. What links them all and how does Wolf’s ex, a journalist, get the scoop before anyone else, even the police?

As suspicion mounts that Wolf is leaking details to the press, a sudden 360 is thrown on this notion when his name appears on a list of the next 6 victims. The race against time on the cards is accelerated even faster when it’s one of the constabulary’s own, disgraced or not…

In ‘Hangman’, the duo are pulled across the Atlantic to help the CIA with a serial killer who is posing his victims like puppets, with words carved into their chests. Who the message is for and who is pulling the strings is up to Fawkes and Baxter to unravel…

A return to the world of Wolf in ‘Endgame’ sees him arrested after the death of a fellow police officer and friend, bargaining his way onto the case in an attempt to vindicate his fellow officer and mentor.

I don’t know if this is the end of the first Baxter and Fawkes cycle and that there will be more from Daniel, but I sincerely hope that there is!
He writes with a dark vein of humour which perfcetly reflects the coping mechanisms of so many people in the police, yet feels entirely entirely natural.

Superb in keeping you on your toes but also creating characters that you care about , Daniel Cole is set to be a huge name in the field of police procedurals.

Twitter @Daniel_P_Cole

Abarat’ by Clive Barker

Featuring the fantastically named Candy Quackenbush, the ‘Abarat’ trilogy is Clive’s young adult fantasy series.

Candy is swept out of the world’s most boring town and into the world of the Abarat, a reality where all the hours of the clock have their own islands. Why she has been brought there and with what purpose becomes very clear-without her intervention the Abarat will cease to exist, a tragedy which affect all known worlds….

It’s Candy versus the Lord Of Midnight in a fight for reality and this is kind of a cheat, as there are at the moment only 3 books in this series. So it may end up having more but for the moment, it’s a trilogy! Liberally sprinkled with Clive’s original art, this is suitable for all ages from teen up to death. HUGE fan of Clive’s and I hope he will one day return to writing and finish his various series off…but in the meantime, his body of work stands as a something quite extraordinary and special.

So there we are!
Join me next week where we will be looking at another top 5…share your thoughts and comments below-have any of these tickled your fancy? Any you want to recommend?

Links-Alissa @https://allisawhitebooks.wordpress.com/2020/03/07/5-trilogies-i-need-to-finish/

Becky @https://crooksbooks.blog/2020/03/07/three-is-the-magic-number-top-5-saturday/

Blair @https://feedthecrime.wordpress.com/2020/03/07/lets-talk-about-trilogies-top-5-saturday/

Jill @https://jilljemmett.com/2020/03/07/top-5-saturday-trilogies/

HC Newton @https://irresponsiblereader.com/2020/02/29/top-5-saturday-books-inspired-by-mythology/