June 8-14, 2014

The Black-Eyed Blonde: a Phillip Marlowe novel by Benjamin Black -this is supposed to be hard-boiled detective noir but I thought the detective seemed tired and lonely. Not much mystery until halfway through the book and then suddenly there's lots of violence and a mundane ending.

2 stars
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Elephants Can Remember by Agatha Christie - Mrs. Ariadne Oliver is approached by a woman in a very obnoxious way. She has questions about a double suicide that took place 20 years ago. She enlists the help of Hercule Poirot.  Solved the old fashioned way - lots of interviews.

3 stars
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Love Life by Rob Lowe - not as much of a memoir as his first book, this is more of a collection of his thoughts on different subjects. Sometimes I wished he would just come out and name names. He does seem to really love his family. Some language.

3 stars
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In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker - The Company has discovered immortality and time travel and uses both to save plants, animals, and humans from extinction. All for the benefit of the Company. Mendoza is an operative working in England during the reign of Bloody Mary. I just didn't get this book. The sci-fi part was confusing and I really didn't follow the plot at all.

2 stars
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To Kingdom Come by Will Thomas - it's 1884, and Thomas Llewelyn and his employer go undercover in an Irish group wanting to blow up London. William Yeats, the Prince of Wales, and Charles Spurgeon make appearances. I'm enjoying this series and the little bits of humor that are slipped in.

3.5 stars
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Invisible City by Julia Dahl - a woman has been murdered in the Hasidic community of New York and it looks like there's a cover-up going on. Rebekah Roberts is assigned the story by her newspaper and gets drawn into the community. An interesting look at an insular group. There is totally unnecessary, descriptive sex that has nothing to do with the story.

3 stars
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Life Reader by K.M. Shea - Raven is a page turner with a special power, whatever she reads aloud in a book comes to life. But it becomes a little difficult to keep it hidden when she's asked by her father to go undercover at a library to find a magical artifact. This book plunges you right into a fantasy world without a lot of explanation, in fact I was never sure exactly what a page turner is. I took a chance on it as a free Kindle book and am glad I did. I was hoping it was a part of a series, but it doesn't look like it is.

4 stars
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Don't Ever Get Old by Daniel Friedman - Buck Schatz is 87 years old and retired from the Memphis police force 35 years ago. When he learns that an enemy from WWII is still alive, he finds himself involved in a hunt for Nazi gold. Buck is not a geriatric movie hero, he's physically fragile and is worrying that he's going into dementia. He's also not very likeable. I didn't find his character sympathetic. Too much language.

2 stars