The Girl in the Woods by Gregg Olsen - a human foot is found in the woods during a school field trip and coroner Birdy Waterman and detective Kendall Stark can only wait until the rest of the body is found. Meanwhile, a man is poisoned and it looks like his wife may have done this before. Set in Port Orchard, Wa and the surrounding area, this is the only redeemable feature of the book. The author, a white male, makes his main character a female Makah Indian. Which is remarked on over and over. He also seems to have a hangup about lesbians, I had to check the copyright to see if this was written 20 years ago. Too graphic and a yucky sex scene that the characters didn't want in their heads and neither did I. This is what I get when I download a book from the library when I really want to read something. The first in a series I won't be continuing.
1 star
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Rescued by David Rosenfelt - a truck is found at a rest stop full of rescue dogs and a dead driver. Andy Carpenter, part time lawyer and founder of a dog rescue operation, is called to help deal with the dogs. He gets an odd phone call from his wife and when he arrives home she greets him with the news that her ex-boyfriend is there, he's confessed to the murder, but claims it was self-defense. Andy reluctantly takes the case, which turns out to have many layers. The 17th in the series.
3 stars
Sunday, September 2, 2018
Sunday, August 26, 2018
Aug 19 - 25, 2018
The Dark Angel by Elly Griffiths - archaeologist Ruth Galloway is asked by an old colleague to come to Italy to give her opinion on some bones found at a dig. She and her friend Shona, along with their children, travel to a very small village that soon reveals seething resentments under the surface. Meanwhile, back in England, DI Harry Nelson learns a criminal he put away is out and threatening revenge. Unfortunately, most of the book is dedicated to Ruth and Harry's sometimes on/sometimes off relationship and Michelle, Harry's wife, and her quandary over who is the father of her surprise baby. This series has devolved from fun archaeological mysteries to an overwrought soap opera.
2 stars
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The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz - a woman plans her own funeral and then six hours later she is murdered in her home. Stumped, the police call in consultant Daniel Hawthorne, ex-policeman. The author writes himself into the story by being asked by Hawthorne to write a book about him solving the crime. So we get to discover the clues along with Hawthorne and Horowitz while also learning some behind the scenes facts about the author's experience writing for television. (He's the author of one of my favorite series, Foyle's War.)
3 stars
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Murder in Greenwich Village by Liz Freeland - Louise Faulk has left the small town of Altoona, Pa, to try a more independent life in 1913 New York City. When she and her roommate are plunged into the middle of a murder investigation, she decides to do some investigating of her own. She also has a secret of hew own to keep. Louise is just as prone to jumping to conclusions as the police and stumbles around keeping valuable clues from them. I found her very irritating. This is the beginning of a series I won't be continuing.
2 stars
2 stars
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The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz - a woman plans her own funeral and then six hours later she is murdered in her home. Stumped, the police call in consultant Daniel Hawthorne, ex-policeman. The author writes himself into the story by being asked by Hawthorne to write a book about him solving the crime. So we get to discover the clues along with Hawthorne and Horowitz while also learning some behind the scenes facts about the author's experience writing for television. (He's the author of one of my favorite series, Foyle's War.)
3 stars
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Murder in Greenwich Village by Liz Freeland - Louise Faulk has left the small town of Altoona, Pa, to try a more independent life in 1913 New York City. When she and her roommate are plunged into the middle of a murder investigation, she decides to do some investigating of her own. She also has a secret of hew own to keep. Louise is just as prone to jumping to conclusions as the police and stumbles around keeping valuable clues from them. I found her very irritating. This is the beginning of a series I won't be continuing.
2 stars
Sunday, August 19, 2018
Aug 12 - 18, 2018
August's Heat by A.E. Howe - Conrad Higgins, an unethical/scammer antiques dealer, is found shot in his own home. There is no end of suspects since the man conned or bullied everyone he met, including neighbors, family members, business associates, and mere acquaintances. Deputy Larry Macklin and his partner theorize and rehash evidence over and over while the bodies pile up. The 10th book of the series is not the most successful.
2 stars
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The Other Woman by Daniel Silva - Israeli spymaster Gabriel Allon and his team are bringing in an asset when he's killed right outside their safe house. The spy community immediately accuses them of the murder. But Gabriel is pretty sure the death means there is a highly placed mole in MI5. This is the 18th book in the series and it felt tired. A couple of action scenes but ones we've seen before in previous books. A disappointment.
2 stars
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I Know a Secret by Tess Gerritson - a woman is found dead, her body is mutilated but there is no clear cause of death. Detective Jane Rizzoli starts digging and after the odd death of another person, learns the deaths may be connected to a 20 year old child abuse case involving several children at a daycare. Meanwhile, medical examiner Maura Isles is dealing with the imminent death of her mother, a convicted serial killer. This is the 12th in a series but the first one I've read. I didn't care for the characters and I was expected to know too much about them from previous books. Way too detailed in autopsy methods. I won't be reading more of the series.
1 star
2 stars
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The Other Woman by Daniel Silva - Israeli spymaster Gabriel Allon and his team are bringing in an asset when he's killed right outside their safe house. The spy community immediately accuses them of the murder. But Gabriel is pretty sure the death means there is a highly placed mole in MI5. This is the 18th book in the series and it felt tired. A couple of action scenes but ones we've seen before in previous books. A disappointment.
2 stars
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I Know a Secret by Tess Gerritson - a woman is found dead, her body is mutilated but there is no clear cause of death. Detective Jane Rizzoli starts digging and after the odd death of another person, learns the deaths may be connected to a 20 year old child abuse case involving several children at a daycare. Meanwhile, medical examiner Maura Isles is dealing with the imminent death of her mother, a convicted serial killer. This is the 12th in a series but the first one I've read. I didn't care for the characters and I was expected to know too much about them from previous books. Way too detailed in autopsy methods. I won't be reading more of the series.
1 star
Sunday, August 12, 2018
Aug 5 - 11, 2018
The Dark Lake by Sarah Bailey - a woman's body is found in a lake and Detective Gemma Woods is shocked to recognize Rosalind Ryan, someone she had gone to school with and been fascinated by. Gemma and her partner have a hard time finding a reason for the seemingly perfect Rosalind's murder, let alone a suspect. And Gemma has been thrown for a loop by Rose's death, it brings up unwanted memories of her high school boyfriend's death. Gemma is also having trouble at home and having an affair with her partner. The whodunnit and why is interesting, but oh my, Gemma is not likeable at all. She drifts along worrying about herself and seems to have quite an anger problem. This is written in present tense, broken by random thoughts from other characters that don't seem to have much to do with the main plot. And, if you must have unnecessary sex scenes at least don't use the same phrase to describe it every single time.
3 stars
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Threat Warning by John Gilstrap - Jonathan Grave, clandestine kidnap rescuer just happens to be at the scene when a terrorist opens fire during rush hour in Washington D.C. Just when he is about to apprehend the shooter he is arrested for being the shooter himself. Once that error is corrected he thinks that's the end of it. Until he learns that during the shooters escape they kidnapped the wife and son of a member of the his old special forces Unit. Now he and his team must find and rescue them, all without the help of official groups. The story alternates between Jonathan's efforts and what's happening to the kidnap victims and the group that is holding them. It takes a long time for the rescue effort. And just when everyone thinks it's over they discover that there's a much larger threat. This was the most enjoyable of the three in the series I've read but still not much character development.
3.5 stars
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Damage Control by John Gilstrap - this time the kidnap victims are a bus full of teenagers on a church mission to Mexico. Things go bad right from the start and Graves and his partner are accused of multiple homicides as is the one teen they rescue. The rest of the book is trying to get out of Mexico with the military and police, all of them controlled by a vicious drug lord, chasing them. Lots of carnage and torture. I can get these easily from the library on my kindle when it's late at night or too hot to go outside. That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it.
3 stars
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Right Behind You by Lisa Gardner - Sharlah Nash has finally found a permanent home with former FBI profilers Pierce Quincy and his wife, Rainie Conner. Eight years ago her brother killed their father when the drunken father was in a violent rage. And she hasn't seen or heard from him since. When four bodies are found it looks like he's snapped and is on a killing spree. Is Sharlah on his list? This is the 7th and most recent book in a series that I have not read. It was fine as a standalone.
3 stars
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Nightbooks by J.A. White - Alex leaves his apartment in the middle of the night to burn his books of stories in the basement furnace. But the elevator stops on a different floor and he is strangly compelled to enter the apartment at the end of the hall. Where he finds himself the captive of a witch and forced to read stories to save himself. The witch likes scary stories, the scarier the better, and Alex has just the thing in his notebooks. Scheherazade for middle schoolers with scary stories. And I did find the stories a little disturbing.
3 stars
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Force of Nature by Jane Harper - 5 women go on a wilderness hike for a corporate retreat and only 4 of them return. The resulting search for the missing woman very much interests fraud detective Aaron Falk and his partner because the woman was secretly getting sensitive documents for a police case. Has she been found out or is there another reason for her disappearance? The Australian bush is almost a character in this book too.
3.5 stars
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The Verdun Affair by Nick Dybeck - this book just didn't fulfill it's promise. Tom is a young American living in France after WWI. He was an ambulance driver during the war and now picks up the bones of the unidentified dead for a future memorial. He meets Sarah, a war widow searching for news of her husband before he wandered away from his unit and was never heard from again. They learn of an amnesiac patient in another town and also meet Paul, an Austrian writer. But the story is told in such a wandering fashion, going back and forth between 1921 and the early 1950's, that I just didn't care about any of them. It was all rather vague and it didn't help that none of the characters are completely truthful with each other. Disappointing.
1 star
3 stars
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Threat Warning by John Gilstrap - Jonathan Grave, clandestine kidnap rescuer just happens to be at the scene when a terrorist opens fire during rush hour in Washington D.C. Just when he is about to apprehend the shooter he is arrested for being the shooter himself. Once that error is corrected he thinks that's the end of it. Until he learns that during the shooters escape they kidnapped the wife and son of a member of the his old special forces Unit. Now he and his team must find and rescue them, all without the help of official groups. The story alternates between Jonathan's efforts and what's happening to the kidnap victims and the group that is holding them. It takes a long time for the rescue effort. And just when everyone thinks it's over they discover that there's a much larger threat. This was the most enjoyable of the three in the series I've read but still not much character development.
3.5 stars
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Damage Control by John Gilstrap - this time the kidnap victims are a bus full of teenagers on a church mission to Mexico. Things go bad right from the start and Graves and his partner are accused of multiple homicides as is the one teen they rescue. The rest of the book is trying to get out of Mexico with the military and police, all of them controlled by a vicious drug lord, chasing them. Lots of carnage and torture. I can get these easily from the library on my kindle when it's late at night or too hot to go outside. That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it.
3 stars
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Right Behind You by Lisa Gardner - Sharlah Nash has finally found a permanent home with former FBI profilers Pierce Quincy and his wife, Rainie Conner. Eight years ago her brother killed their father when the drunken father was in a violent rage. And she hasn't seen or heard from him since. When four bodies are found it looks like he's snapped and is on a killing spree. Is Sharlah on his list? This is the 7th and most recent book in a series that I have not read. It was fine as a standalone.
3 stars
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nightbooks by J.A. White - Alex leaves his apartment in the middle of the night to burn his books of stories in the basement furnace. But the elevator stops on a different floor and he is strangly compelled to enter the apartment at the end of the hall. Where he finds himself the captive of a witch and forced to read stories to save himself. The witch likes scary stories, the scarier the better, and Alex has just the thing in his notebooks. Scheherazade for middle schoolers with scary stories. And I did find the stories a little disturbing.
3 stars
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Force of Nature by Jane Harper - 5 women go on a wilderness hike for a corporate retreat and only 4 of them return. The resulting search for the missing woman very much interests fraud detective Aaron Falk and his partner because the woman was secretly getting sensitive documents for a police case. Has she been found out or is there another reason for her disappearance? The Australian bush is almost a character in this book too.
3.5 stars
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Verdun Affair by Nick Dybeck - this book just didn't fulfill it's promise. Tom is a young American living in France after WWI. He was an ambulance driver during the war and now picks up the bones of the unidentified dead for a future memorial. He meets Sarah, a war widow searching for news of her husband before he wandered away from his unit and was never heard from again. They learn of an amnesiac patient in another town and also meet Paul, an Austrian writer. But the story is told in such a wandering fashion, going back and forth between 1921 and the early 1950's, that I just didn't care about any of them. It was all rather vague and it didn't help that none of the characters are completely truthful with each other. Disappointing.
1 star
Sunday, August 5, 2018
July 29 - Aug 4, 2018. .
Bearskin by James A. McLaughlin - a man hiding from the Mexican drug cartel takes a job as a caretaker for a private nature preserve in the Appalachians. He's supposed to track wildlife and refurbish an old cabin. Plus, try to keep poachers out of the preserve. When he finds a bear slaughtered for its gall bladder and paws he is determined to find the poacher. He is already suffering from fugue states from past trauma and as he spends more and more time in the woods he begins having trouble distinguishing reality from dreams. And then trouble comes calling.
3.5 stars
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Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney - Amber wakes up and realizes she can't move her body and doesn't know where she is. She can hear everything people say and learns she's in a coma in the hospital. She doesn't remember what happened but knows she's afraid of her husband and doesn't trust her sister. We go back in time to the previous weeks before the accident and also read excerpts from her diary. The story was compelling as Amber tries to remember what happened. But all the characters are either sociopaths or wimps, I didn't like any of them. Lots of twists and the last page left me going what?
3.5 stars
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Ragdoll by Daniel Cole - a macabre corpse is found, stitched together from six different bodies and pointing directly to disgraced officer William Fawkes flat. No one knows how the victims are connected or even who they are. And the only reason Fawkes is allowed on the case is that his is the last name of future victims delivered to his ex-wife, an aspiring television reporter. Again, the story is good but the characters are unlikable. We have the detective consumed by his cases, the detective with a secret, the amoral news editor, and the get ahead at any cost reporter. The why of the murders seems a little far-fetched. This is the beginning of a new series. I will read the next.
3.5 stars
3.5 stars
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Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney - Amber wakes up and realizes she can't move her body and doesn't know where she is. She can hear everything people say and learns she's in a coma in the hospital. She doesn't remember what happened but knows she's afraid of her husband and doesn't trust her sister. We go back in time to the previous weeks before the accident and also read excerpts from her diary. The story was compelling as Amber tries to remember what happened. But all the characters are either sociopaths or wimps, I didn't like any of them. Lots of twists and the last page left me going what?
3.5 stars
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ragdoll by Daniel Cole - a macabre corpse is found, stitched together from six different bodies and pointing directly to disgraced officer William Fawkes flat. No one knows how the victims are connected or even who they are. And the only reason Fawkes is allowed on the case is that his is the last name of future victims delivered to his ex-wife, an aspiring television reporter. Again, the story is good but the characters are unlikable. We have the detective consumed by his cases, the detective with a secret, the amoral news editor, and the get ahead at any cost reporter. The why of the murders seems a little far-fetched. This is the beginning of a new series. I will read the next.
3.5 stars
Sunday, July 29, 2018
July 22 - 28, 2018
A Taste for Vengeance by Martin Walker - Bruno, chief of police of St. Denis, is searching for a missing English woman who is in France to attend a cooking class. Soon he knows she's traveling with a man not her husband, a somewhat mysterious man with local ties. Then she's found dead and the man is missing. This becomes a somewhat convoluted tale involving many agencies. Meanwhile, there's lots of cooking and eating and enjoying life as always in these books. One of the better in the series.
4 stars
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Hostage Zero by John Gilstrap - Jonathan Grave's business sometimes includes rescuing kidnap vicitims but this time it's personal. Armed men have broken into Resurrection House, the orphanage he supports, and kidnapped two boys while seriously injuring the janitor. What seems like a mindless kidnapping turns out to be a case of a high level government person trying to keep a secret. Lots of gun battles, described in infinite detail. Whole pages of gun descriptions. Probably a 100 pages could have been cut. Still, I started this series because I'm interested in the last book of the series. I'm going to try one more before I decide if I'm going to jump to the end. I'm curious to see if Graves will become more likeable.
3 stars
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Inseparable: The Original Siamese Twins and Their Rendezvous with American History by Yunte Huang - the story of Chang and Eng, conjoined twins discovered in Siam. First fact, they weren't Siamese, but Chinese living in Siam. Basically sold by their mother, with their consent, they were taken to America to be exhibited. Intelligent and quickly learning English, they declared themselves free agents when they turned 21. Free to organize their own business, they managed to save 10,000 dollars, quite a sum in the early 1800's. They eventually settled in Mt. Airy, the real home of the fictional Mayberry RFD. They married two sisters, had many children, and owned slaves. Told in almost excruciating detail, the books also explores the rise of humbuggery and the willingness of the public to be fooled and amazed.
3 stars
4 stars
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Hostage Zero by John Gilstrap - Jonathan Grave's business sometimes includes rescuing kidnap vicitims but this time it's personal. Armed men have broken into Resurrection House, the orphanage he supports, and kidnapped two boys while seriously injuring the janitor. What seems like a mindless kidnapping turns out to be a case of a high level government person trying to keep a secret. Lots of gun battles, described in infinite detail. Whole pages of gun descriptions. Probably a 100 pages could have been cut. Still, I started this series because I'm interested in the last book of the series. I'm going to try one more before I decide if I'm going to jump to the end. I'm curious to see if Graves will become more likeable.
3 stars
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inseparable: The Original Siamese Twins and Their Rendezvous with American History by Yunte Huang - the story of Chang and Eng, conjoined twins discovered in Siam. First fact, they weren't Siamese, but Chinese living in Siam. Basically sold by their mother, with their consent, they were taken to America to be exhibited. Intelligent and quickly learning English, they declared themselves free agents when they turned 21. Free to organize their own business, they managed to save 10,000 dollars, quite a sum in the early 1800's. They eventually settled in Mt. Airy, the real home of the fictional Mayberry RFD. They married two sisters, had many children, and owned slaves. Told in almost excruciating detail, the books also explores the rise of humbuggery and the willingness of the public to be fooled and amazed.
3 stars
Sunday, July 22, 2018
July 15 - 21, 2018
The Reader on the 6.27 by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent - Guylain Vignolles is the victim of an unfortunate name (I think you have to be French to understand), and as a result has always lived life on the edges, trying to be ignored. He has a job he hates and is actually afraid of. His only joy is reading aloud on the commuter train every morning. He gains some followers and slowly, gradually his life begins to change. And then he finds a memory stick on the train that may change his life forever. A charming little book with a few frank passages.
4.5 stars
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Tomorrow by Damian Dibben - the last thing his master said to Tomorrow was to meet him on the steps of the cathedral if they became separated. And he has been faithfully waiting - for 127 years. Tomorrow is a dog belonging to a man who has somehow become immortal and he's made his dog immortal too. They spend the centuries traveling as his master tries to find a purpose. But they're always on the lookout for a man who has become their enemy. Told from the viewpoint of the dog, this was beautifully written. His immortality seems to have made Tomorrow very wise and eloquent. I could tell from the cover that I would cry at some point and I was right. I'll be thinking about this book for a long time.
5 stars
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The Darkest Time of Night by Jeremy Finley - Lynn Roseworth, wife of a senator, has her life thrown into chaos when her youngest grandson disappears in the night. She's always been fearful of the woods behind her house and has forbidden her grandchildren from going in them. But what really scares her are the words her other grandson says when asked about the disappearance, he says "the lights took him". And Lynn has heard those words many times before as a young woman doing research for an astronomy professor. Since Lynn left that world, she has almost sublimated herself as the wife of an important man and as a mother and grandmother. But her determination to find her grandson makes her take unthinkable measures. What starts out as a thriller quickly becomes very sci-fi.
3.5 stars
4.5 stars
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tomorrow by Damian Dibben - the last thing his master said to Tomorrow was to meet him on the steps of the cathedral if they became separated. And he has been faithfully waiting - for 127 years. Tomorrow is a dog belonging to a man who has somehow become immortal and he's made his dog immortal too. They spend the centuries traveling as his master tries to find a purpose. But they're always on the lookout for a man who has become their enemy. Told from the viewpoint of the dog, this was beautifully written. His immortality seems to have made Tomorrow very wise and eloquent. I could tell from the cover that I would cry at some point and I was right. I'll be thinking about this book for a long time.
5 stars
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The Darkest Time of Night by Jeremy Finley - Lynn Roseworth, wife of a senator, has her life thrown into chaos when her youngest grandson disappears in the night. She's always been fearful of the woods behind her house and has forbidden her grandchildren from going in them. But what really scares her are the words her other grandson says when asked about the disappearance, he says "the lights took him". And Lynn has heard those words many times before as a young woman doing research for an astronomy professor. Since Lynn left that world, she has almost sublimated herself as the wife of an important man and as a mother and grandmother. But her determination to find her grandson makes her take unthinkable measures. What starts out as a thriller quickly becomes very sci-fi.
3.5 stars
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