Book Log 2021 #2: Lost and Gone Forever by Alex Grecian

Change has come to the Scotland Yard Murder Squad in the wake of Walter Day's kidnapping, most notably the sacking of Segreant Neville Hammersmith, who has started a private detective agency whose primary case is finding Day and catching Jack the Ripper. 

This book appears to wrap up the series, which is unfortunate as I liked the characters quite a bit and enjoyed seeing how the different factions in the Murder Squad interacted.  But I guess there's not a lot of places you can go after you bring in Jack the Ripper as your villain.

It's a good end to the series, at least, wrapping things up without doing so too neatly.

 Book Log 2021 #1: On the Plain of Snakes by Paul Theroux

Spurred to investigate the truth behind the rhetoric and stereotypes that dominate the discussion of the US-Mexico border, Theroux bought a used car and set out to drive the border, and then deep into Mexico itself, to get a sense of what current day Mexico is like and what motivates its people to either stay or go to the US.

The result is, not surprisingly, far more complex and nuanced than what we get from the evening news or blustering politicians. And while Theroux occasionally falls into stereotypes himself, he is a seasoned enough traveler to know how to connect with locals and draw conclusions from their stories. And while I miss the stories of his train travels, using a car gives him more time and flexibility to follow stories as they develop.