DOGS DON'T LIE by Clea Simon ***

The title is off because it's mostly about cats. This 'person' can talk to animals...sort of. I wouldn't say talk to, I'd say hear one or two repetitious non-critical comments. There's a murder, a dog is blamed and kept quarantined at the animal control while Nosy Parker Pru goes around getting half sentences, partial stories, and non information from other people and animals to solve the case.

So many times I'm confused: Blahblah...cradling the hot china made me as mellow as Wallis in the the sun. I pretended to take a sip and smiled some more, trying to remember just which flower had that same shade of blue. WTF??? WHAT blue??? Again: Blahblah..my student loans had, reasonably, disappeared when I dropped my classes in midterm without explanation blahblah....HOW do school loans disappear?? Did she pay them? Did someone else pay them? Did she declare bankruptcy? What? WTF?? Again: "Delia, I'm so sorry." I could feel the flush grow in my cheeks. If only I hadn't let that damned thrush distract me." HUH? Thrush? Where? When? On what page? WTF??? AGAIN: blahblah...Mack called me a bit after eight. I mean, I like attention too. "Hey doll." There was a warmth in his voice that I didn't quite trust, "Good to hear from you."(HE SAYS) WTF? HE called HER. What is 'good to hear from her'?? WHEN? HOW? WTF???? This is endemic to the entire novel. Confused, disjointed, cut off wherever, unfinished thoughts and it sounds like good medication but so-so story telling.

It feels like 14 people are writing the story. One person starts a paragraph, someone else writes the next one and so on and so on. It isn't by any means flowing and easy to follow.

STRATEGIC MOVES by Stuart Woods ***

Stone Barrington is sort of a lawyer or something doing his own thing. He beds women, that's one thing. And his MO is the same. One dinner at Elaines, get them on his special little jet to a wooded cabin in VT then screw them for awhile. They don't really seem much like people with personalities except to follow him around to praise, admire him and be impressed with his finesse and who he knows.

Then he has 'regular' clients who have problems; like people are after them, or the CIA wants to talk to them, a scandal is happening, rumors are going around or some other crap which he seems to casually handle. Again he awaits the praise and admiration.

It's readable but no page turning, twisting murder mysteries in here if that's what you're into.

BACKYARD DOG by Ilona Benzel *****

Can't find this in the library but it's a great read about a litter of puppies and how they survive or don't. Not for wimpy readers, this tells the pup's stories realistically and I know a lot of people who should be forced to read it.

Can only find it at lulu.com and it's well worth the cover price. Hard to put down. Emotional, enduring stories that aren't easily forgotten. Based on reality. BEST DOG BOOK I EVER READ.

The SENTRY by Robert Crais *****

Really liked this one a lot, worth paying for. Joe Pike meets an interesting couple and everything goes to hell from there. Chasing, killing, murder, bad agents, twisty turns to keep you guessing. Lots of action packed adventure. Had a hard time putting it down.

VERY BAD MEN by Harry Dolan ****

I'll start by saying it's readable and kind of keeps you interested. Then lets get to how many people are involved in a 17yo bank robbery gone bad. 4 men were involved and a driver (no one, even those involved in the robbery know who the driver is...strange, no?). 17yrs later for really not much of a reason (nosy journalist & up and coming senator) the past comes back to haunt everyone. Now we got about 20 people either directly or indirectly involved in either covering it up or killing everyone involved. That's a lot of twisted complicated intertwining b.s. Add to that children unknowingly related,  someone marrying out of guilt and to hide stuff and it's sort of off-the-wall becoming more and more unreal.

Like a bad dream you get carried from one oddball scenario to another. One very difficult aspect near the end a teenager hears a conversation, is on a bike (?), beats the cops to the evidence hidden behind a wall he hacks up BEFORE they get there and somehow he steals a gun from the house where he heard the story. The cops go right to that other house and find the evidence and broken wall. Hard to swallow a kid is such a genius. How could he steal a gun at the same time he's knocking down walls?  Oh, so convenient he doubled back....KNOWING the cops wouldn't be there? How lucky for him they weren't!!! Lots of "things" in the story fall into place to support other off the wall and mostly unbelievable happenings.

I enjoy reading, I need a bit of credibility/reality tho. This one is ok library find. Kind of relentless with the unbelievability factors tho.

MYSTERY by Jonathan Kellerman *****

Great story, murder, Beverly Hills, almost-starlets, with Milo and Alex on the case. Fast read, no crap to slow you down. Characters are all distinct, unique and easy to follow. Never been disappointed reading a Kellerman novel.

RED WOLF by Liza Marklund

No stars cuz I'm not reading it. NY times best seller!  Boring me. So some journalist is investigating an incident involving planes blowing up or something 30 yrs ago. Her name is Annika, who meets up with Anna...thanks for the repetitious names. Some other reporter wrote a story relating to the 30 yr ago thing and ended up dead, recently.  All this crap takes place in Swedish places like Lulea and other far away frozen tundras.

Not interested and don't care about any of it. Nothing at all is driving me forward. So much for that. Blah.

STRONG at the BREAK by Jon Land ***

It's readable but geez what's with the noun fixation? Ever hear of a pronoun, Land? Every paragraph is Caitlin breathed and Caitlin saw and Caitlin walked and Cort Wesley this and that. Can't he be called Cort? Sick of Cort Wesley, I'm only on page 119 and if I were to have a drink everytime Cort Wesley's name came up I'd be drunk on page 3. Give it a rest, use; he, she, it. WTF.

That crap is so distracting I can barely tolerate the rest of the novel. The story is that some asshole teenager who's name you'll see a zillion times: DYLAN went to Mexico to find his dead girlfriend Maria Sancheza El Paso Sicko Full Namitosis. Daddy Ranger or whatever he is didn't tell him she's dead. Why? Stupidity. So now Caitlin, or Ranger, and Cort I'm sick of you Wesley are off on the chase. I almost wish they'd kill the kid, everyone could go home, get drunk and forget they have proper nouns in every paragraph of the book.

Cort Wesley said. Guillermo Paz said. Caitlin said. They all frickin full name (and middle names) said. Colonel, Ranger. Proper Noun capital of the world said. Dumb ass teenager carves a D in the floor and whooppeee everyone is so damn proud he ran away and was kidnapped. Cowboy story to the max but don't ask why...driving cars and not on horseback. Sheeeit.

The KING OF PLAGUES by Jonathan Maberry ****

I had a little trouble getting into this because it goes back and forth from 3 months ago to the present, then 7 weeks ago and then forward and then June, then December, then 4 months ago, back and forward thru the entire book. With lots of people, cops and bad guys. Lots and lots of them. Conspiracies up the yin yang.

Took me a long time to care about anyone or anything going on but once I finally did (about the middle) I'd say it began to sound like a real story. So tough investment and lots of pages. Religious clap trap, bible references, Cabals, Black ops, secret societies, lots of blood and gore.

An issue is that people get coerced into performing for the secret society, like this: If you don't do what we want your family will die and we are watching every second. But Amber Taylor got to live by picking up her kids, hiding in her house till the hero arrived and got her. No one tried to kill her. No one at her place of work tried to kill her or tried to carry out the mission- which in all the other coerced stories there were many people in on the act to be performed. Lots of people at the same location were coerced to perform bad stuff but not in her case. The only case. So wasn't happy about that difference. Why only her? HUH?

I think it's an okay library book but you really have to want to continue. You need fortitude for this one. Lots of it. Courage, fortitude and notch up your toughness rating then go for it.