July 1 - 7, 2018

The Lonely Witness by William Boyle - Amy lives a quiet life working temporary jobs and serving as a Eucharist minister to the housebound. She's trying to be a "good" girl after her former life of partying. Then she witnesses a murder and begins to make some bad decisions. She takes the murder weapon and hides it .And then somehow becomes entangled with the murderer. This book is full of sad, lonely people. I only finished it to see if Amy redeems herself. She doesn't.

1 star
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The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers - an LBGTQ/gun debate/immigration/eco-conservation/any other headline novel peopled with characters ripped straight from several sci-fi series. Rosemary is the new crew member on the Wayfarer, a ship that makes black holes by tunneling through space. On board she finds her fellow crew members are a mix of various species including a sentient AI. On the long journey to their latest job she finds a new family and purpose in her job. I liked this in spite of its preachiness.

3 stars
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Private Eyes by Rene Formby - Moose teams up with PI Tony to find evidence to free his pal who has been falsely accused of killing his girlfriend. What makes their partnership unusual is that Moose is an Australian terrier and Tony is a cat. When the real killer is also killed their only option is to break Moose's friend out of jail. This book tried way too hard to be hard-boiled noir and contemporary at the same time. The animals complain all the time about not having opposable thumbs and yet are able to operate computers and construct a bomb. And Moose, who id a breed known for it's loyalty, isn't even sure of the name of his owners. I like anthropomorphic animal stories but this didn't work for me.

2 stars
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Dead Angler by Victoria Houston - Doc Osbourne is fly fishing when he finds a body in the river. Fortuitously, he happens to be fishing with the town sheriff and she promptly deputizes him to do the dental forensics. The victim turns out to be the heir to a large fortune so suspects abound. I couldn't warm up to Doc and his deceased wife sounds horrendous. Too many subplots and way too much about fishing. This is the first book in a series and was published in 2000, so Doc is quite astonished that the sheriff is a woman and that she likes fishing. I won't continue this series. Also, this was a freebie on my Kindle and the editing was quite bad.

2 stars