The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert - 17 yo Alice has spent most of her life moving from place to place with her mother. It seems a streak of bad luck is always following them. When her grandmother, a reclusive author of dark fairy tales, dies it looks like things might be changing. And they do, but not necessarily for the better. Alice's mother is kidnapped and strange people want her to go to the Hazel Wood, a place she has been warned against. I didn't "get" this book at all, especially when Alice enters another world. I didn't know what she was supposed to be doing or why. This is a YA book, it's possible I'm too old for it. Looks like it's the start of a series.
1 star
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The Temptation of Forgiveness by Donna Leon - in the 27th Commissario Brunetti looks into a suspicious accident that has left a man in a life threatening coma. Could someone have wanted him dead and why? Does it have something to do with his son's possible drug habit? Brunetti does most of his investigating by gazing out his window and thinking. He makes some missteps in this one by not listening to one of his co-workers. As always, much of the book is spent at home with the Brunetti's and their food, conversations, and what books are being read. Not the best in the series, but a calm, comfortable read.
3 stars
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Bittersweet by Susan Wittig Albert - China Bayles is out of her comfort zone in Pecan Springs when she visits her mother and stepfather on their ranch for Thanksgiving. She's worried that her mother won't be able to run their ranch as a birders retreat now that her stepfather is in the the hospital. Along with that worry she gets peripherally involved in the big money business of exotic game farming and hunting. The chapters alternate with China's part of the story and game warden Mackenzie Chambers investigation into the same issues. Although I actually enjoyed Mackenzies portion more I felt it wasn't realistic to the normal tone of the series. The story is told in the (too) folksy voice of China and then jumps to a point of view she couldn't know. The ending was a little rushed and abrupt. I consider these books cozy mysteries and read them when I want to take it easy.
2.5 stars
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Very Bad Men by Harry Dolan - David Loogan, editor of mystery magazine Grey Streets, receives a very short manuscript detailing the murders of three men. All three are named and two of them are already dead. It looks like someone is killing the members of a bank robbing gang but to what end? A very convoluted tale of possible political cover-up ensues. I may have read this book before, the plot seemed very familiar until the end. Too many twists and turns for me.
2 stars
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A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielson - 12 yo Gerta wakes one day to see a barbed wire fence dividing east Berlin from the west. And her father and brother are on the other side. Her family has already been under scrutiny because of her father's activities. There doesn't seem to be any hope her family will ever be together again. But one day she sees her father dancing on one of the viewing towers in the west. He is acting out one of their favorite children's songs and she just knows he's sending a message. Do she and the rest of her family dare to act? This is a middle grade book but it certainly didn't seem childish to me. I found it quite exciting at the end. The only quibble I have is the precocity of Gerta but I think her circumstances certainly contributed to that.
5 stars
Sunday, May 27, 2018
Sunday, May 20, 2018
May 13 - 19, 2018
Flash by Donna Ball - a routine home alarm check becomes a double murder and attempted murder of a police officer. The only witness who saw everything is a border collie puppy. Two years later the puppy, Flash, has become part of the police force and everyone is gearing up for the trial of the murderer. But the wounded officer is having flashbacks that don't quite add up to the official version of events. This was an odd book, action and plot development would be interrupted by dog facts. But it's fiction so I don't know if the facts were factual. I enjoy a dog story but this was dog was just too smart and psychically connected to his owner.
2 stars
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The Alice Network by Kate Quinn - two women's lives intertwine after WWII when Charlie shows up on Eve's doorstep asking her to help find her cousin Rose. Eve was recruited into the Alice Network during WWI and is inserted into a restaurant where German officers meet. Her story is full of danger, courage, and betrayal. Charlie seems a little whiny but she's led a sheltered life with overbearing parents so perhaps she can be excused. Together they travel across France on what ultimately becomes a search for revenge.
4.5 stars
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Summer Hours at the Robbers Library by Sue Halpern - three very different people come together at a library in a small dying town in New Hampshire. Kit, a librarian, has made a quiet life for herself after arriving in the town four years ago. Sunny is sentenced to community service at the library after attempting to steal a dictionary. And Rusty finds himself there after losing his well paying Wall Street job during the economic downturn. The story is told from the viewpoint of all three and Kit also tells the story of her marriage. I was a little disappointed in the ending, it seemed to peter out.
4 stars
2 stars
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The Alice Network by Kate Quinn - two women's lives intertwine after WWII when Charlie shows up on Eve's doorstep asking her to help find her cousin Rose. Eve was recruited into the Alice Network during WWI and is inserted into a restaurant where German officers meet. Her story is full of danger, courage, and betrayal. Charlie seems a little whiny but she's led a sheltered life with overbearing parents so perhaps she can be excused. Together they travel across France on what ultimately becomes a search for revenge.
4.5 stars
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Summer Hours at the Robbers Library by Sue Halpern - three very different people come together at a library in a small dying town in New Hampshire. Kit, a librarian, has made a quiet life for herself after arriving in the town four years ago. Sunny is sentenced to community service at the library after attempting to steal a dictionary. And Rusty finds himself there after losing his well paying Wall Street job during the economic downturn. The story is told from the viewpoint of all three and Kit also tells the story of her marriage. I was a little disappointed in the ending, it seemed to peter out.
4 stars
Sunday, May 13, 2018
May 6 - 12. 2018
The Knowledge by Martha Grimes - a cabdriver delivers a beautiful, wealthy couple to the hottest spot in London, an exclusive casino/art gallery. They're shot right in front of him and the shooter gets in his cab and tells him to drive. This begins a jumbled tale of possible art smuggling, tanzanite smuggling, gambling, and precocious children. Quite a few coincidences and preposterous actions by the precocious children make this rather unbelievable. The ending read like the author had several possibilities and stuck a pin in one to decide. I always like the usual roundup of characters in a Richard Jury book, especially Melrose Plant. The series titles are always pub names, The Knowledge is a pub no one can find only for the famous London Black cab drivers, whose intimate knowledge of the streets of London is called exactly that.
2.5 stars
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The Escape Artist by Brad Meltzer - Jim Zwicharowski is a mortician at Dover Air Force Base. Here is where our fallen soldiers are received and made ready for burial by their families. It's also where autopsies are performed on those killed in less "public" ways. Jim has asked to do the autopsy on Nola Brown, an acquaintance of his own deceased daughter. But the woman is not Nola and this starts the search for the real Nola. This leads to the discovery of a secret government group associated with Harry Houdini. What does this have to do with Nola? Lots of going back in time to Nola's life as a young girl. Lots of action but I didn't really connect with the characters.
2.5 stars
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Smoky Mountain Tracks by Donna Ball - Raine Stockton, along with her semi-trained golden retriever, is called to join the search for a young girl believed abducted by her father. But when they find the body of the father things don't look good. A short fluff book for when you don't want to think a lot. The beginning of a series but I probably won't continue since my library only has a few of the titles.
3 stars
2.5 stars
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The Escape Artist by Brad Meltzer - Jim Zwicharowski is a mortician at Dover Air Force Base. Here is where our fallen soldiers are received and made ready for burial by their families. It's also where autopsies are performed on those killed in less "public" ways. Jim has asked to do the autopsy on Nola Brown, an acquaintance of his own deceased daughter. But the woman is not Nola and this starts the search for the real Nola. This leads to the discovery of a secret government group associated with Harry Houdini. What does this have to do with Nola? Lots of going back in time to Nola's life as a young girl. Lots of action but I didn't really connect with the characters.
2.5 stars
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Smoky Mountain Tracks by Donna Ball - Raine Stockton, along with her semi-trained golden retriever, is called to join the search for a young girl believed abducted by her father. But when they find the body of the father things don't look good. A short fluff book for when you don't want to think a lot. The beginning of a series but I probably won't continue since my library only has a few of the titles.
3 stars
Sunday, May 6, 2018
April 29 - May 5, 2018
Dark in Death by J.D. Robb - a woman is killed during a screening of Psycho and Eve Dallas and Peabody are in charge of the investigation. A well-known author approaches them with the idea that the killing was taken from one of her books and she feels there was a previous murder too. From the clues in the next book of the series, Dallas deduces who the next victim may be. But her warnings are unheeded, leading to the next victim. We know who the killer is about halfway through and then it's a race against time to catch them. The author in the book has quite a bit to say about out there fans and I wonder if Robb is taking the opportunity to vent a little. There are the obligatory sex scenes easily skipped. This is the 48th book in the series, it's the characters that keep me coming back.
3 stars
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Stay Hungry by Sebastian Maniscalco - the comic takes us back to his beginnings in the business 20 years ago when he arrived in Los Angeles without a clue how as to become a comedian. He took every job he could while honing his act and admits he had some fortuitous breaks along the way. Not quite as humorous as I expected. He has certainly worked hard to get where he is.
3 stars
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The rest of the books are by David Rosenfelt. I got in one of my obsessive reading moods and finished out the series. (Except for the one coming out in July.) I noticed things I wouldn't have by reading them like this. The author needs a continuity/time editor. If as much time passed between cases as he states the main character would be in his fifties. These are books I read just for the enjoyment of reading, especially when I don't feel like Netflix binging or cleaning house.
I'll give them all 3 stars
************************************************************************
One Dog Night - lawyer Andy Carpenter is defending a man who is sure he is guilty even though he doesn't remember setting a fire that claimed the lives of 26 people. But something about his story seems wrong and it's beginning to look like there's a conspiracy to cover the truth. The plot was a bit far-fetched for me.
************************************************************************
Leader of the Pack - Andy Carpenter always feels bad for his clients who have lost their trials, especially when he believes they are innocent. He's always thought one young man was convicted because of his family ties to organized crime. Soon when he gets the slightest hint that something didn't come out in the trial he starts digging. Another somewhat convoluted plot, this time with quite a twist at the end. The body count is pretty high in this one.
************************************************************************
Unleashed - Andy's accountant,Sam (and ace computer hacker), receives a call from an old high school buddy who's looking for a criminal lawyer. But before Sam can find out why, his friend is killed in a plane crash. Except the actual cause of death was botulism. First the widow is arrested and then Sam. Someone is going to a lot of trouble to cover something up. Lots more dead bodies with some of the killing on the part of the good guys with no remorse or repercussions.
************************************************************************
Hounded - Andy and girlfriend Laurie get a strange call from their police captain friend, Pete, asking them to come to an address as soon as they can. When they arrive it's the scene of a murder. But what Pete wants them to do is take in the victim's young son and his dog. When Pete is arrested for the murder, Andy quickly decides it must have something to do with some questions Pete was asking about a death. As usual, there are conspiracies and deaths. Adoption, and in fact child custody, is dealt with rather cavalierly.
************************************************************************
Who Let the Dog Out? - a dog is stolen from the Tara Foundation, the charity shelter for dogs that Andy and his former client own. When they track the dog's gps collar they find it next to a dead body. And when they learn the dog is owned by a chemist on the run after killing his partner things get complicated. Things that irritate me that I probably wouldn't notice if I weren't reading these in a row: a dessert is presented as new even though everyone raved about it in the last book, the dog of the traumatized, adopted boy sleeps in the parents' room (I'm pretty sure he and the boy would refuse to be separated), and Laurie does all the cooking.
***********************************************************************
Outfoxed - Andy is now involved in a prison program using inmates to train dogs so that they're more adoptable. A white collar crime inmate Andy has been working with is eligible for parole in just four months. So it comes as a great surprise when he escapes, along with the dog he's been training, and then supposedly murders his ex-wife and former partner. Of course Andy takes his case and there is much more to it than meets the eye.
**********************************************************************
The Twelve Dogs of Christmas - Andy is representing "Pups"Boyer, a woman who takes in stray puppies and raises them until they're adoptable. One of her neighbors has turned her in for having too many pets and Andy persuades the judge to stretch the rules. But not before Pups has threatened the neighbor. And when he's murdered the next day of course she's arrested. But it looks like she's being framed and the reason has nothing to do with dogs.
**********************************************************************
Collared - when a border collie is left at the Tara Foundation that Andy runs everyone is surprised to learn that it's a dog that disappeared the same time a baby was kidnapped. Which puts the conviction of the man arrested in question. As always there are many layers to the case and nothing is as it seems.
3 stars
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stay Hungry by Sebastian Maniscalco - the comic takes us back to his beginnings in the business 20 years ago when he arrived in Los Angeles without a clue how as to become a comedian. He took every job he could while honing his act and admits he had some fortuitous breaks along the way. Not quite as humorous as I expected. He has certainly worked hard to get where he is.
3 stars
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The rest of the books are by David Rosenfelt. I got in one of my obsessive reading moods and finished out the series. (Except for the one coming out in July.) I noticed things I wouldn't have by reading them like this. The author needs a continuity/time editor. If as much time passed between cases as he states the main character would be in his fifties. These are books I read just for the enjoyment of reading, especially when I don't feel like Netflix binging or cleaning house.
I'll give them all 3 stars
************************************************************************
One Dog Night - lawyer Andy Carpenter is defending a man who is sure he is guilty even though he doesn't remember setting a fire that claimed the lives of 26 people. But something about his story seems wrong and it's beginning to look like there's a conspiracy to cover the truth. The plot was a bit far-fetched for me.
************************************************************************
Leader of the Pack - Andy Carpenter always feels bad for his clients who have lost their trials, especially when he believes they are innocent. He's always thought one young man was convicted because of his family ties to organized crime. Soon when he gets the slightest hint that something didn't come out in the trial he starts digging. Another somewhat convoluted plot, this time with quite a twist at the end. The body count is pretty high in this one.
************************************************************************
Unleashed - Andy's accountant,Sam (and ace computer hacker), receives a call from an old high school buddy who's looking for a criminal lawyer. But before Sam can find out why, his friend is killed in a plane crash. Except the actual cause of death was botulism. First the widow is arrested and then Sam. Someone is going to a lot of trouble to cover something up. Lots more dead bodies with some of the killing on the part of the good guys with no remorse or repercussions.
************************************************************************
Hounded - Andy and girlfriend Laurie get a strange call from their police captain friend, Pete, asking them to come to an address as soon as they can. When they arrive it's the scene of a murder. But what Pete wants them to do is take in the victim's young son and his dog. When Pete is arrested for the murder, Andy quickly decides it must have something to do with some questions Pete was asking about a death. As usual, there are conspiracies and deaths. Adoption, and in fact child custody, is dealt with rather cavalierly.
************************************************************************
Who Let the Dog Out? - a dog is stolen from the Tara Foundation, the charity shelter for dogs that Andy and his former client own. When they track the dog's gps collar they find it next to a dead body. And when they learn the dog is owned by a chemist on the run after killing his partner things get complicated. Things that irritate me that I probably wouldn't notice if I weren't reading these in a row: a dessert is presented as new even though everyone raved about it in the last book, the dog of the traumatized, adopted boy sleeps in the parents' room (I'm pretty sure he and the boy would refuse to be separated), and Laurie does all the cooking.
***********************************************************************
Outfoxed - Andy is now involved in a prison program using inmates to train dogs so that they're more adoptable. A white collar crime inmate Andy has been working with is eligible for parole in just four months. So it comes as a great surprise when he escapes, along with the dog he's been training, and then supposedly murders his ex-wife and former partner. Of course Andy takes his case and there is much more to it than meets the eye.
**********************************************************************
The Twelve Dogs of Christmas - Andy is representing "Pups"Boyer, a woman who takes in stray puppies and raises them until they're adoptable. One of her neighbors has turned her in for having too many pets and Andy persuades the judge to stretch the rules. But not before Pups has threatened the neighbor. And when he's murdered the next day of course she's arrested. But it looks like she's being framed and the reason has nothing to do with dogs.
**********************************************************************
Collared - when a border collie is left at the Tara Foundation that Andy runs everyone is surprised to learn that it's a dog that disappeared the same time a baby was kidnapped. Which puts the conviction of the man arrested in question. As always there are many layers to the case and nothing is as it seems.
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