For the Los Angeles book in the bonus: City of Echoes by Robert Ellis. I got a copy of this on my Kindle, before it's available to everyone. After a couple of disappointing mysteries, this one is a winner. Main character Matt Jones, a newly minted homicide detective, is set to meet his best friend for a celebratory dinner at famed Musso & Frank restaurant. When he arrives however, he finds a crime scene in the parking lot. Someone's been killed in their SUV, impossible to identify through all the blood. Jones is assigned the case, which is more complex than immediately apparent. Good story, with a few twists.

For the London book in the bonus: Brilliant by Marne Davis Kellogg. First in a series featuring Kick Keswick, an American ex-pat who's been at a prestigious London auction house for over 3 decades. Kick lives a very private life, owns her own flat, and rarely dates - until the house she works for is taken over by a very rough-around-the-edges American. Less a whodunit and more a fluff novel of romantic suspense, this was just fun - though there are a couple interesting twists along the way. (This would also have worked for the "no murder in this case" category, by the way.)

Why, yes, I am pushing hard to finish the challenge...

Finished on 8/27/15, for the private eye category: Louisiana Hotshot by Julie Smith. I've always enjoyed Julie Smith's series featuring New Orleans policewoman Skip Langdon, so I was happy to see a new series from Smith. This is different. Main character Talba Wallis is an African-American poet who writes and performs her work as the Baroness of Pontalba. She's also in need of a job that challenges her and uses her skills to pay the bills, so she answers an ad placed by p.i. Eddie Valentino. Valentino decides to take her on as an apprentice (she's worked for another p.i. before), and Talba immediately gets thrust into the middle of a complicated case. Very good! 

I finally finished!!  Got hung up on the Grand Master Award winners.  Wasn't interested in the ones represented by the "milestones" suggested...had already read them years ago and didn't really want to re-read.  I originally thought to create my own milestones, but the authors for any I came up with didn't interest me either!  I finally did read a Rex Stout for the high school category.  Then read Margaret Maron's latest and decided to just forget the milestones and use her for the second book in that category!

Lori...I have the Julia Smith book on my Kindle...think it was a free one...but haven't got around to it yet!  I liked both of the Marne David Kellogg series...the one you mentioned and the one set in Wyoming.  You're right, they are pretty much fluff, but fun!

I couldn't find a grand master milestone book, read a couple of the grand master books.  I tried to make it easier but throwing in the milestone made it more difficult.  Should have just said read one of the grand master winners books.

I have two more book to go to finish the challenge.  I read more cozies and have finished Alice's challenge once and I'm almost through the regular part a second time with only Kindle books. 

I must say congratulations to all the people who have completed and almost completed the challenge!  Great job!

I'm reading my Grand Master milestone book - The Care of Time by Eric Ambler. Ambler was awarded GM in 1975, the year I graduated from high school. I hadn't read anything by him, and this (his last book, (c) 1981) was available. 

After this I only have the British inspector category in the main challenge and a few of the Olympic cities for the bonus. There are a couple books set in Lake Placid - but I've read them both recently - so I'm looking for something set in upstate New York.

Marla - I read the Wyoming series by Kellogg, too. I originally thought this would be my 'France' book for the Olympic bonus, but very little takes place in France. It's really a London book. I got the Julie Smith book as a freebie for my Kindle, too. It's good, but I figured it would be as I've enjoyed her Skip Langdon series in the past. (Skip makes an appearance in this one, but it's very minor.)

Lori for the Brit police procedural you might like the Wesley Patterson series by Kate Ellis.  Unless you read it already.  Marla finally managed to push me kicking and screaming into reading it.  I'm totally hooked on the series.  I actually read three of the books in August which is something I don't normally do.  Maybe two but not three.  The Merchant's House is the first in the series and it should be read from the beginning since it develops nicely.  Oh if not this one then maybe Stuart Pawson's Charlie Priest story.  Another that I was dragged into.  Brit police was not my cuppa until  Marla and Browyn convinced me to stick my toe into the water.

Geri, I've liked some Brit police procedurals in the past - but it's not what I look for most often. I'll take a look at the two you suggest, but I think I'm going to read one from the Duncan & Gemma series by Deborah Crombie. 

Lori, in past challenges they always seemed to have Brit procedure and I would struggle to find something.

I completed the Grand Master book - this Grand Master was named in 1975, the year I graduated from high school. The Care of Time by Eric Ambler. This was his last book published (to my knowledge). Main character Robert Halliday is a former journalist, current ghostwriter, with good reason to dislike the CIA and the Iraqis. Halliday is blackmailed by a shadowy international middleman into helping broker a negotiation between NATO and a Persian Gulf sheik of considerable power – and questionable sanity. Satisfying tale, even though it drags a bit by today’s standards.

I am reading 'The Ten Second Staircase' by Christopher Fowler, I enjoy the quirky MCs seem  to take divergent routes to solving crimes.  The Peculiar Crimes Unit is under investigation and all the higher ups are trying to close the unit down.  I enjoy the books this one is very weird showing cultural myths come to life.

For the Olympic Bonus (New York): Murder 101 by Faye Kellerman (TBR). Det. Peter Decker has retired from the LAPD, and he and Rina have moved to upstate New York to be closer to their adult children & grandchildren. To keep busy, Decker’s taken a job with the small town police department, which is far less exciting – or dangerous – than LA was… until he’s called in to investigate his first real crime: a break-in at the local cemetery. This leads to discovering that two of four Tiffany panels in a mausoleum have been replaced by forgeries. Very good police procedural with a fine puzzle, though there’s still one detail left dangling at the end (I think). 

Haven't posted here in a while. I now reading First Family by David Baldacci for the kidnap category. The niece of the First Lady is abducted, and the First Lady asks a couple former Secret Service members to investigate, along with the FBI and Secret Service, causing some friction among the investigators. The book is okay, but I wouldn't exactly call it a page-turner. It's the first book by this author I've read and I don't know if it's part of a series. In any case, there are a lot more books that I enjoy more, so I won't be continuing with this author. 

For the Switzerland bonus category I read The English Assassin by Daniel Silva. Now that was a page-turner! It's the second one (out of order) that I've read in the series featuring a former member of Mossad, now working as an art restorer.I have almost all the rest on my TBR, enroute to me or on my WL.

Another excellent book was Thief of Souls by Ann Benson. It's set in Franc shortly after the end of the Hundred Years War, and in present-day US. Alternating chapters are narrated by two women MCs who are investigating the disappearance of pre-pubescent boys. Gets a little gruesome, but really held my attention. The author also wrote The Plague Tales, again with two stories, one in the past and the other in the present. I have it on my WL.

Only six more books to go and I'll have successfully completed the Challenge!. 

DONE with the main part of the challenge! I read Hushabye by Celina Grace for the British police procedural category. I've had the book on my Kindle for a couple years (picked it up as a freebie at one point), and decided to just read it instead of searching for another. Only 3 more for the Olympic challenge: Greece, Japan, and Switzerland. I've just started the book for Japan, have Switzerland on my shelf & Greece from the library. The end is in sight!

Good for you Lori!  I have one in the regular part and one in the bonuse part.  Both on Kindle, had them a while and keep grabbing something else!

For the Olympic bonus - Japan: Rain Fall by Barry Eisler. First in a series. Half Japanese, half American John Rain learned in Vietnam that what he did best was kill people. So that’s what he does, contract killing, with a specialty – he makes every murder look like death from natural causes. And he has three rules: (1) exclusive contract; (2) the target has to be a principal player; and, (3) no women or children. All goes well, until he becomes involved with the daughter of his most recent kill. 

A Death in Vienna by Frank Tallis is a locked room mystery by means of a non-existent bullet. This book set in Austria at the turn of the 20th century provides an interesting look at the social, cultural, intellectural and political life of that time, and features the duo of police detective Oskar Rheinhardt and psychiatrist Max Lieberman, who get a bit of unexpected help solving the crime.

Two more months and two more books to go - nonfiction and Gothic.

Just finished Those Who Hunt the Dark by Barbara Hambly for my vampire selection.  It was really good!  Just some good old fashioned vampire fun/intrigue.  She even surprised me with the culprit and the final solution to the "problem."  Good stuff.  Four more categories to go.  Sadly, I might require longer than 2015 to finish my challenge!

Finally finished my own challenge!  Pity sake, when I looked for books for the challenge I had almost all for the regular part and had to dig a bit for the bonus.

I read Rain Fall for my Japanese bonus book too.

Now, I want A Death in Vienna andThose Who Hunt the Dark.  They both sound terrific.

Two months to go and there will be a 2016 challenge.

***DONE*** 

Finished the challenge last week, while on vacation! Last book was Thumbprint by Friedrich Glauser for Switzerland in the Olympic bonus. This was a hard book to get into - it's older, first published in 1936, and translated to English about a decade ago. The plot follows an investigation that seems open and shut - there's an obvious suspect, who has confessed. But Sergeant Studer (like Det. Columbo) keeps looking at different aspects of the case, tugging at threads, to discover the truth. 

I second the recommendation of Barbara Hambly's Those Who Hunt the Night. I think she wrote two or three with this main character. Looking forward to the 2016 challenge!