Aug 2 - 8, 2015

Brush Back by Sara Paretsky - the 17th V.I. Warshawski novel. V.I. is asked by an old friend to exonerate his mother of the murder of her daughter after she has already served her 25 year sentence. This leads to a convoluted tale of Chicago political corruption, old neighborhood hatreds, and Russian mobsters. Round and round we go with about 100 pages too many. Language.

3 stars
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Silent Creed by Alex Kava - the 2nd book featuring Ryder Creed and his search and rescue dogs. He's searching for bodies or survivors after a landslide buries several houses and a gov't medical research facility. While I liked that part, the whole thing was rather disjointed, going back and forth between people and places. I find political cover-up stories irritating and it was pretty cliche-ish. Too many sneaky people, not enough dogs.

2 stars
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The Swede by Robert Karjel - a Swedish secret policeman is asked by the Americans to determine if an imprisoned terrorist is also Swedish. A very convoluted tale involving the Thailand tsunami, art theft, hate groups, and secret torture. I'm not sure what I think about this one. I set it down many times, thinking I was done. While I don't recommend it, I found it strangely compelling.  A very ambivalent.....

2 stars
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The Ghost Fields by Elly Griffiths - the 7th Ruth Galloway novel. A buried WWII airplane is discovered with the pilot inside. Evidence shows that he was murdered and that his body was not always in the plane. Mystery surrounds the Blackstock family and the ghost fields of old airfields. Ruth isn't quite as whiny, and Cathbad, her druid friend, proves to not be infallible. In fact, he's not very prominent, which I found a welcome change. Although it takes awhile for things to get going, the ending has enough twists to be interesting. I like the way the minor characters are developing.

4 stars (which may be just because it was nice to read something I really enjoyed)
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The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro - an elderly couple in a time long ago set out on a journey to visit the son they can barely remember. Along the way they're assisted by a Saxon warrior and his orphan companion and an old knight. Although this is called a fantasy, and had fantasy elements, I found it to be more about relationships and memories.

4 stars