The Paris Librarian by Mark Pryor - Hugo Marston's friend dies unexpectedly in a locked room in the American Library in Paris. Even though it looks like natural causes, Hugo has a feeling it's not and begins digging. When other people turn up dead, it looks like his suspicions are right. There's also a rumor that the papers of a famous actress recently donated to the library contain details of her work as a resistance fighter during WWII. Is there a connection? Not quite a s good as previous books in the series. A low
3 stars
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Y is for Yesterday by Sue Grafton - Kinsey Mullhone's latest case goes back in time 20 years when four boys commit manslaughter trying to recover a tape of an assault. Almost as soon as one boy is released from prison, his family receives a blackmail letter threatening release of the tape. That's where Kinsey comes in. In other bad news, the psycho who almost killed her in the last book is back. This was told from a few other viewpoints and from different time frames. Too much back and forth for me.
3 stars
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Sleeping in the Ground by Peter Robinson - a sniper takes out several people at a wedding and Inspector Banks team has no idea who did it or why. As they begin the painstaking digging trying to connect the dots they begin to think it has something to do with a murder fifty years ago. Banks has also just been to the funeral of his first love and is feeling morose. For a good detective he's rather obtuse when it comes to relationships.
3 stars
Sunday, September 24, 2017
Sunday, September 17, 2017
Sept 10 - 16, 2017
The Templar's Last Secret by Martin Walker - the 10th Chief of Police Bruno book starts with a dead woman at the bottom of a cliff and evolves into a hunt for terrorists. There's almost too much in this story. Bruno has a political observer shadowing him, there's a wedding, new discoveries in the famous Lascaux caves, and an old girlfriend shows up. And of course lots of cooking and eating, with the cooking portion very detailed. I found this a little disappointing.
2 stars
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Everyone's a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too: A Book by Jomny Sun - a lonely alien visits earth to learn about humans and meets many creatures (but no humans) with different perspectives on love, loneliness, and art. It's like a picture book for adults. Based on a Twitter account. I think I'm too old to "get" it.
2 stars
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Borne by Jeff VanderMeer - Rachel is a scavenger in some kind of post apocalyptic world dominated by a giant flying bear. The Company's biotech has gone horribly wrong and all sorts of creatures and humans(?) roam the city. When she finds a strange, plant type creature, she brings it home and that changes everything. What is Borne? Plant, animal? Rachel begins to care for him like a child but he is anything but. Graphic and disturbing sometimes as a world without hope would be.
4 stars
2 stars
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Everyone's a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too: A Book by Jomny Sun - a lonely alien visits earth to learn about humans and meets many creatures (but no humans) with different perspectives on love, loneliness, and art. It's like a picture book for adults. Based on a Twitter account. I think I'm too old to "get" it.
2 stars
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Borne by Jeff VanderMeer - Rachel is a scavenger in some kind of post apocalyptic world dominated by a giant flying bear. The Company's biotech has gone horribly wrong and all sorts of creatures and humans(?) roam the city. When she finds a strange, plant type creature, she brings it home and that changes everything. What is Borne? Plant, animal? Rachel begins to care for him like a child but he is anything but. Graphic and disturbing sometimes as a world without hope would be.
4 stars
Friday, September 8, 2017
Sept 3 - 9, 2017
A Talent for Murder by Andrew Wilson - in 1926, Agatha Christie disappeared for 10 days and never spoke of what actually happened. This is an imagining of those days. Already distraught over her husband's infidelity, Agatha is at the train station when someone pushes her towards the tracks. Her rescuer turns out to be an odious man who blackmails her into murdering his wife. Told mostly in Agatha's voice with some chapters from other viewpoints. It's hard to imagine in this age of tell all the lengths people would go to avoid social embarrassment. I prefer the Doctor Who version of the missing 10 days.
3 stars
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All Is Not Forgotten by Wendy Walker - I had some very ambivalent feelings reading this, it's quite graphic. Jenny is brutally attacked and then given a controversial drug to make her forget. When that doesn't work as planned she begins seeing a psychiatrist, the narrator of the story. Who turns out to be so unlikable that for a while I thought he was the perpetrator. I had to finish to see who the bad guy was but can't recommend this for it's graphic violence. Reese Witherspoon is supposedly making this into a movie.
2 stars
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The Last Mile by David Baldacci - Melvin Mars is just hours away from being executed for the murder of his parents when another man confesses, knowing details only the killer could know. That's when the newly formed FBI team with Amos Decker from Memory Man steps in. He has a feeling the confession is suspect but that Mars really is innocent. What follows is a tedious going over the steps again and again, lots of supposition, and a growing unbelievable plot line. Evidently Decker is the only one who can remember anything because the reader is not expected to remember things from page to page. Lots of repetition in this one. Think I'll give the series a rest.
2 stars
3 stars
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All Is Not Forgotten by Wendy Walker - I had some very ambivalent feelings reading this, it's quite graphic. Jenny is brutally attacked and then given a controversial drug to make her forget. When that doesn't work as planned she begins seeing a psychiatrist, the narrator of the story. Who turns out to be so unlikable that for a while I thought he was the perpetrator. I had to finish to see who the bad guy was but can't recommend this for it's graphic violence. Reese Witherspoon is supposedly making this into a movie.
2 stars
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Last Mile by David Baldacci - Melvin Mars is just hours away from being executed for the murder of his parents when another man confesses, knowing details only the killer could know. That's when the newly formed FBI team with Amos Decker from Memory Man steps in. He has a feeling the confession is suspect but that Mars really is innocent. What follows is a tedious going over the steps again and again, lots of supposition, and a growing unbelievable plot line. Evidently Decker is the only one who can remember anything because the reader is not expected to remember things from page to page. Lots of repetition in this one. Think I'll give the series a rest.
2 stars
Sunday, September 3, 2017
Aug 27 - Sept 2, 2017
The Search by Nora Roberts - Fiona Bristow runs a dog training business on Orcas Island and is also head of a search and rescue team. She's also the only survivor of the Red Scarf serial killer. Now it looks like there's a copycat coming to finish the job. Plus a romantic entanglement with her new neighbor, a hunky woodworker with a problem puppy. I should have known what I was getting into with a Nora Roberts book. The rapturous sex parts are easy to skip over, but sexual repartee not so much. I guess I'm really old, I have a hard time believing people talk like that when they barely know one another. Had to keep reading so they could catch the bad guy though. And the dog part was enjoyable.
2 stars
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Memory Man by David Baldacci - through an accident on a football field, Amos Decker can remember everything he sees. Including the scene of the murder of his family, so far an unsolved case. He falls into a deep hole, losing his job as a detective and his friends. When a man confesses to the murder of his family of course he's instantly interested. Then there's a massacre at the high school and somehow it's connected to something in his past and his family's murder. The first in a new to me series. A little gruesome and the last scene tied up a little too neatly but I'll be reading more in the series.
3 stars
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Swiss Vendetta by Tracee de Hahn - Swiss police detective Agnes Lughi is called to her first case after switching from financial crime to violent crimes. The body of a young woman has been found in front of a chateau in the middle of a snowstorm. Trapped with the taciturn family and servants in the chateau, she has trouble finding a reason for the murder, let alone who did it. There are a few sub-plots, with one of them suddenly becoming the focus. A good debut, the author really set the atmosphere. I was cold on a 90 degree day.
3 stars
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Arf by Spencer Quinn - the second in the Bowser and Birdie series. Someone has broken into Birdie's house, but why? The Gaux's have nothing valuable. Bowser is suspicious of a stranger who drives around with a cat in his car. And Birdie is suspicious of an unfriendly family in town. Told from Bowser's point of view.
3 stars
2 stars
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Memory Man by David Baldacci - through an accident on a football field, Amos Decker can remember everything he sees. Including the scene of the murder of his family, so far an unsolved case. He falls into a deep hole, losing his job as a detective and his friends. When a man confesses to the murder of his family of course he's instantly interested. Then there's a massacre at the high school and somehow it's connected to something in his past and his family's murder. The first in a new to me series. A little gruesome and the last scene tied up a little too neatly but I'll be reading more in the series.
3 stars
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Swiss Vendetta by Tracee de Hahn - Swiss police detective Agnes Lughi is called to her first case after switching from financial crime to violent crimes. The body of a young woman has been found in front of a chateau in the middle of a snowstorm. Trapped with the taciturn family and servants in the chateau, she has trouble finding a reason for the murder, let alone who did it. There are a few sub-plots, with one of them suddenly becoming the focus. A good debut, the author really set the atmosphere. I was cold on a 90 degree day.
3 stars
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Arf by Spencer Quinn - the second in the Bowser and Birdie series. Someone has broken into Birdie's house, but why? The Gaux's have nothing valuable. Bowser is suspicious of a stranger who drives around with a cat in his car. And Birdie is suspicious of an unfriendly family in town. Told from Bowser's point of view.
3 stars
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