June 22-28, 2014

Cold Killing by Luke Delaney - DCI Sean Corrigan is a detective who has the uncanny ability to think like the bad guys. And he's pretty sure there's a serial killer in London and pretty sure he knows who it is. This story also gives the viewpoint of the killer. Very graphic violence. Only because of the ending will I give it

2 stars
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Cathedral of the Wild: An African Journey Home by Boyd Varty - the author grew up at Londolozi Game Reserve. This book relates his adventures there. He's now working toward restoring an elephant corridor across part of Africa.

3 stars
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Cambridge Blue by Alison Bruce - DC Gary Goodhew is a rather strange policeman. He's new on the force and yet seems to know quite a bit about people and crimes, maybe more than he should. He goes against his superior's orders and blithely runs the investigation the way he wants. I didn't find him very sympathetic. The plot kept me guessing until the end. Quite a bit of sex. I don't know if I'll continue this series.

3 stars
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Postcards from Cookie: A Memoir of Motherhood, Miracles, and a Whole Lot of Mail by Caroline Clarke - what starts as a search for medical information leads to the discovery of who her birth mother is. And the famous family she comes from.

3 stars
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John Wayne: The Life and Legend by Scott Eyman - the author of this 672 page book seemed to think what I wanted to know was every.single.movie John Wayne ever made recounted in detail, including how much it cost, who got paid what, and how much it made. About page 400 is where it got interesting for me. Also, the author had, as far as I could tell, a single interview in 1972, that somehow gave him amazing insight into how John Wayne thought. Only finished this because I'm stubborn.

2 stars
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What She Saw by Sheila Lowe - a woman comes to on a train and doesn't know where she is or who she is. After several fortuitous incidents, she finds herself at work looking for mysterious missing files. Fairly mundane mystery, read because I was out of books and it was free on my Kindle.

2 stars
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The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham - set in Hong Kong in the 1920's, this is the story of Kitty Fane. She doesn't love her husband and embarks on an affair. Of course there are consequences. Written in 1925 it is certainly not pc.

4 stars
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The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling) - the second Cormoran Strike book. Riding on the success generated by the events of the first book. Cormoran takes on a missing husband case because he feels sorry for the wife. Then he finds the husband horribly murdered. While the mystery part of this story was good, I thought the book was too long and overly redundant. I didn't need the (very) gory murder described over and over. Nor did I need to be reminded, several times, of the events of Cormoran's break up with his former girlfriend. The reveal at the end was a surprise though.

3 stars