Mercury: An Intimate Biography of Freddie Mercury, Jones. Non-fiction. This seemed at least as much a survey of other writings as an intimate biography, though Jones does eventually get down to a substantial amount of original reporting. I was pleased that there is less tittle-tattle than I feared there might be; with the subject’s prodigious appetites, though, it would be unrealistic to expect any biography not to touch on his various excesses (and disingenuous of a biographer to pretend they did not exist). Given its survey nature, there is quite a bit of “Person A described events this way, but Person B disagreed.” While that was somewhat unsatisfying, I think on reflection I need to give Jones credit for not cherry-picking stories to fit a chosen narrative. After all, people are complicated, and eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable. Still, I can’t recommend it for any but the most dedicated fans.

Death at La Fenice: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery, Leon. Yes. I was reasonably sure I was going to like this when I reached this part, fairly early:

It seemed, in this moment, that he had spent his entire life … telling someone that someone they loved was dead or, worse, had been killed. His brother, Sergio, was an X-ray technician and had to wear a small metallic card pinned to his lapel that would turn a strange color if it was exposed to dangerous amounts of radiation. Had he worn a similar device, sensitive to grief or pain or death, it would have changed color permanently long ago.

It was something of a mixed bag, with delightful passages interspersed with sentences that pulled me out of the story to puzzle out what was wrong—or at least distracting—about them. It was also somewhat the opposite of hard-boiled, with passages such as this one:

… shock of silver hair swept back from his angular face. There was the faint Slavic tilt to the eyes, which appeared curiously light under the dark brows that overshadowed them. The nose was entirely too long for the face, but the effect of those eyes was so strong that the slight defect hardly seemed worth notice. The mouth was broad, the lips full and fleshy, a strangely sensual contrast with the austerity of the eyes.

Overwhelmingly positive, on balance, though I think Leon will probably be on my “reliable standby” list with Pratchett, rather than the “must read” list with Tana French.

Redshirts, Scalzi. Yes. This book is so far up its own ass that it would ordinarily be a disqualifying defect. In this case, though, the point of the book is to be further up its own ass than you might think possible. Even so, it rode the edge for me here and there. I have previously found Scalzi very good, and have wished that he would be just a little bit better, and by and large Redshirts continued that tradition. All that notwithstanding, I think I enjoyed this the most of his works that I’ve read so far.

The Butcher’s Boy: A Novel, Perry. Yes. Very compelling first chapter, though it accomplishes that via a device that would get old very quickly.
At first look, copyright looked to me to be 2003, but that turned out to be when the introduction was written. The book is from 1982, which was a simpler, much more innocent time, as it turns out. Mechanically sound (though not perfect), and involving enough that I stayed up way too late to finish it. Michael Connelly’s introduction (which does not give away plot, but does reveal more about the structure than I would) describes it as “relentless”, and that seems fair to me. I shall very likely try Thomas Perry again.