CLOSE YOUR EYES by Iris Johanson ****

The story began with a blind girl, Kendra, who had gotten her sight back yet had other higher perceptions and senses she had relied on in the past who then becomes part of a police investigation, like a consultant on serial cases. This case was about some people smuggling a toxic material to another country and lots of bodies were left in the wake. She worked with a cop named Lynch, who talks her into helping because her old boyfriend, Jeff, is missing and she will feel compelled to help him to find the boyfriend.

She does a good job using other senses to make determinations, some small areas were boring or repetitive but in general the book was well worth the time to read. It's fast paced, hard to put down and keeps you wondering where you're going with Kendra. Her best friend gets seriously wounded and is in the hospital. As with every murder mystery I ever read people are so wounded or damaged they can never help the cops with any ID's or any info. Either they were so traumatized, or someone grabbed them in the dark or from behind so most living victims are useless in most murders.Neighbors rarely notice anything or hear anything.

I would get it at the library, it's a good find.

DROP DEAD on RECALL by S.W. Boneham***

This book was so so for me. There were times I wanted to strangle either the main character or the writer. The female in the story gets a message to return a call to the cops and never does. Dipshit. Then her dog is supposedly poisoned and she doesn't even call the cops. Who would do that? They didn't even try to determine if the dog had been poisoned. No vomiting, no watching for symptoms which was very obvious as the writer just ignored that stuff while you kept wondering when it would get mentioned. The cops warn dipshit Janet to be very careful with her pets and she turns around missing a cat. Within seconds! And does she report it immediately? Duh. No. She goes out looking for it herself putting up posters etc.

People keep getting murdered. Mostly old old love romance reasons, or we're gonna get caught reasons and everyone but lucky little Janet ends up dead.

The stuff I liked was information about breeding, DNA, things that go wrong and/or things that should go right. There was training involved and agility. So she showed readers some ways to engage and treat their dogs. She also did some on rescue and like that.

Nice last name writing about dogs: BONEHAM, or Hambone. Whatever. Real?
So the murder part of the story made really no sense to me at all. The fight in the dark (always fights in the dark with uncharged cell phones) was irritating. But I generally like the message to the readers about pet ownership. Ok library find but could use a teenage or young audience. I wasn't crazy about it. Sort of childish to me.

GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn *****

Very interesting novel with plenty of twists and turns. I doubt anyone could be these people but I sure don't know everyone, they're too Boris and Natasha for real life. Really liked reading the book tho, it was fast moving, page turner and plenty of inner descriptions that sometimes are a tad wearing to keep reading about their inner thoughts and feelings or lack of them.

Wife suddenly disappears on their 5th anniversary and husband is of course accused of murder due to specific clues devised to point to him. What happened to the wife? Where is she? If she's so frickin smart how'd she get robbed of 8 thousand bucks anyway, Miss Conniver? Have no clue. She really doesn't live in a real world mentally.

Very popular book to read right now on the top 10 list. Good reading.

FULL DISCLOSURE by Dee Henderson **

A sort of cop story with too many characters, and an absurd job where some chick Ann goes around looking at murders, makes up a story about them and comes to her conclusion, moves on the the next town or case. Haha. So some guy Paul Falcon is a real cop of some kind and they have a mutual friend.

Paul asks the mutual friend about Ann, like is she married etc and one of the questions this dork asks her is if she slept with anyone. AS IF the friend REALLY knows the answer to this question. He says no. Haha again.

So their main objective is to find a 'hit girl' who has sort of quit after her 30 dead guys. Ann is also a writer who writes love/god novels. So let me tell you there is a lot of religion in this mix of crap and you get to read all about it. Not real forensic work is done by anyone in the story. They're mostly there to fall in love and find this one killer by telling stories about it.

Good luck getting thru it. I'm not all that eager to continue. Probably won't cuz hitting up library today for refills.

FREAK by Jennifer Hillier ****

Pretty fast paced story begins with a cop, Jerry who hires a girl, Danny and they're trying to convict a girl Abby for murder because she and her boyfriend Ethan killed a lot of people, I suppose in book one. I hate series. I obviously read this one out of order which is why I hate them.

Meantime some flaws: The killer tells the cops where a body is but the cops must return the next day a Sunday to talk to the killer to get the info. Since when do cops obey killers? Duh.

Jerry's employee Danny worked at the jail where Abby is....o geez no she's not in any way involved in Abby and her killing. Nope. DUH.

So Jerry knows one of the CO's at the prison is screwing Abby yet doesn't do anything about it or tell anyone. The CO is helping her get cell phones etc. and how come in jail you can have a remote and earplugs and a TV in your cell? What kinda prison is this? Supposedly the hardcore one cuz eventually Abby gets moved to one where she can escape and she does...SURPRIZE.

Why didn't the call girl service (Estelle) know that everytime someone went to Jeramiah's room they ended up never coming back again? They were in the paper DEAD or missing. She dumb or what? She just keeps sending girls out to be killed. Very nice. Brainless.

I also don't understand why the bus driver removed the handcuffs during the ride from one prison to another. Not a very good move right? Stupid. So I found a lot of "WTF"s going on. And if there is a series 3 of these books remind me not to read it. I hate when killers get away and keep killing. It's not like this writer is anywhere near as good as Dexter series and he usually has the same main characters with DIFFERENT killers. Not the same ones. Don't like that. Catch killer end of story. Continue new story another day. Hate repeat repeat and more repeat of same crazed looney bin killer.

GUILTY WIVES by Patterson&Friend ****

Another good Patterson book. There were some repetitious areas, plenty of them but otherwise, easily readable. Some husbands jealous their wives are having affairs decide to frame them for murder without realizing who some of the victims were.

So mostly it's the women going to trial (very much not in their favor) then the year or whatever in a French hell jail with people killing each other etc. That part was predictable and somewhat boring.

When the girl Abby escapes it becomes a little more adventuresome but it's hard to believe she figured out anything about the husbands by filing paperwork to prove they were involved then says she didn't know for sure who did it.

So kind of a medium to slow read, somewhat repetitive/boring in lots of areas but not a bad story in all. I would get it at the library.

DEAD SCARED by S.J. Bolton ***

This one is about an undercover girl who plays colege student to stop what appears later on to be snuff films. There's hardly a believeable drug that would cause someone to kill themselves no matter what wierdness took place before hand. I think someone experiencing all the b.s. these people were would see a doctor! I know I would. Most of them it's unexplained how the drugs got into their system.

There's a lot going on here and it' s not easy to put it all together. There are pasts you don't know about. One thing I hate is "eleven days earlier", "23 years earlier", "Ten days earlier", and this goes on infinitum. Hate that crap. Not only that but it doesn't seem to have much to do with the basic story.

So 23 years earlier when someone was killed it traumatized someone? What? Never says. One person Evi had a boyfriend and believed him dead, but no where does it say she has any contact with him at all. How does that make him her boyfriend?

Most of it is what? what? what? what? Huh? Really? Not cohesive enough for me. Library.

POTBOILER by Jesse Kellerman *

I was reading along about an author, Arthur, who wrote one book, his friend, William, a very popular writer disappears and he finds a manuscript unpublished left behind by him. Arthur has always been in love with Williams wife since college. Meantime I'm not going to give you the ridiculously spelled names everyone has. They are too bizarre to have to read thru never mind pass them along here. Screw it. I hate names I can't figure out how to pronounce in every paragraph. Still tho I was enjoying the story about how he was sending secret code he had no idea about thru the new novels he was given to write.

THEN hit chapter 56 and I'm done. I couldn't figure out anything after that. Had no intention of reading it or bothering myself with it. The whole thing looked like one person wrote half the book and some creepy weird person came into the room and wrote the rest. Seems to be about unrest in some foreign tiny coountry nobody GAS about. Me neither. I flipped thru pages and pages and finally get to chapter 86 which is back to being almost readable.

The wife Carlotta is being held prisoner until he does something. I have no idea what and don't care. I may finish it I probably won't. Stupid ass book with stupid ass premise and stupid ass people's names. Must have been some creeptoids nightmare and aren't we privileged to read it. YUCK.

NIGHT WATCH by Linda Fairstein ***

It was a sort of good story but in the beginning Ms. Protagonist Alex Cooper is in France with her new boyfriend and gets a call after only a short weekend or something to come home to some major event in NY where they just cannot continue the case without her.

She gets there and all kinds of other people have taken over the case. She does not one frickin thing the entire book till near the end when she goes to court to correct errors the first prosecutor made. And at the end, that story doesn't end. To be continued. Did the guy rape the maid or not. Who the fuck knows. I don't and I read the entire book, shouldn't I get rewarded for putting up with all that shit by knowing the end??

Meantime her boyfriend has no clue people are smuggling coke or drugs thru his wine bottles. That's the big deal of the story. I don't even know why I continued to read it. He seemed rather stupido if you ask me. And Alex with all her admirers didn't do a damn thing throughout the novel but eat drink and be merry. Didn't care for it at all.  Lee Child liked it good for him, wonder if he read the stupid thing. Pointless.

Not only that but you have to put up with lots of history lessons. Not interested in history of bars. Sorry too many history b.s. and bored me forcing me to skip pages and pages.

1 LAST THING BEFORE I GO by Tropper ***

This is a story about a one hit wonder drummer who is divorced and has a daughter. He lives in sort of a motel with other losers who are also divorced and lonely. He's pretty lonely and pathetic. Apparently once the music world has dropped everything to hear your every word then suddenly you're like a normal person-- life sucks. No duh.

Some of the loneliness stuff I liked because I'm like that and it felt real to me esp on page 227 when he describes it to his ex. But he pretty much screws anyone, for any reason, then just before his ex wife is to remarry he screws her too. I can't use the term make love for anything he does with a woman. He screws them. He's not really a very nice person and I don't at any point have any empathy for him at all. He's a sad sack loser. He thinks he's a nice guy and he has warm happy thoughts while screwing women but he doesn't do anything for me that makes me think he GAS.

So while he's lonely and waiting for his life to go back to the way it was; married in a house with his teenage daughter, he finds out he's going to die. Does he want to live? A little stent will save him. He sure takes his sweet time figuring that out, most of the book really.

So it's easy to read, easy to follow, some repetitive religious family stuff quite a bit of it actually but it's not a bad library find. Interesting enough not to toss away in favor of something else. Not bad, not great-my opinion.

The WRONG MAN by David Ellis *****

The story was about a lawyer defending a homeless vet who wouldn't speak at all, just enough to incriminate himself in a murder he didn't commit. The judge in the story was a prick, as was the prosecution, if that's how the justice system is managed I'd think the prisons are full of innocent people because there didn't seem to be any justice in this story at all.

The lawyer was forced to do his own investigating with help from friends and colleagues FOR FREE. This included the mafia, an old bombing in another country and countless killings. I found the courtroom stuff sort of interesting in that I would never want to be involved.

So the more that is dug out about Mafia, hits, killings etc, the more he's attracted to a female who he knows very little about and she was met at a bar with 2 goons after her. Sort of a set up.

There was, I think personally, a lot of repetition, a lot of off-track stuff, some confusing areas for the reader but I liked it enough that I'd buy it because it takes awhile to get thru and isn't an easy story line. A bit different. Apparently he was one of the James Patterson helping writers I guess Patterson starts up a story outline and hands that to a newbie writer to give them a chance at having a name on a cover with him then they get famous and write their own books.

The BONE BED by Patricia Cornwell ****

Your typical Cornwell novel. Petty jealousies, someone wants either Kay really bad or her husband. To the point of insanity, near rape...whatever. They are just so desirous and enviable.

So while that goes on in the background there's a murder to solve, or more than one. One body has old buttons on her clothing and seems like an old timer type person, whom we have no idea whether she put the old buttons on her clothing or the killer did. Apparently the killer doesn't like old ladies and we never find out what that's all about. It can't be cuz he doesn't like his auntie, killing? Cuz of his aunt? WTF? Mystery forever.

Meantime a male named female agent is convinced a man who gets off his murder charge is responsible for all the murders. And also she is viciously in love with Kay's husband Benton, then ends up dead -why? I don't know. I don't know how the killer is in so many places in such a small amount of time. I don't know why he kills the way he does with different MO's for each murder. Was the agent an old lady? Where is the missing dog? Apparently Kay fits his modus operandi by being an old lady to murder cuz she's on his hit list. She must be old as death by now.

Lastly, I have no idea who this killer was throughout the story. Do not remember him being mentioned AT ALL. Not once. And in his vehicle are suitcases with forensic tools so WTF is he? I don't know. I tried fanning pages to see where he was mentioned previously and couldn't find him.

Didn't think it was as coherent as most of her other novels but of course a NY Bestseller! Nobody asks any questions I guess. Read it and STFU, I suppose.

The NIGHTMARE by Lars Kepler ****

I found this one a little strenuous to get into. The foreign names are confusing at first and there are many of them. Then the premise of the story is so difficult you need a roadmap at the end by the author to figure out all the ins/outs and whyfores.

I understand there are gun deals happening in countries where they shouldn't be but money makes that happen. This is pretty much about a gun deal that threats were used and people killed due to not keeping their part of the bargain or opening their mouth or something. I thought some of the people who were killed were done so for no reason I could see. They fulfilled their part of the bargain yet still were killed.

So a couple cops are trying to save a girl. Her boyfriend found a photo sent secretly to her with arms dealers celebrating and why he even thought it was worth trying to blackmail anyone is beyond me but he did and started a big mess of killings. His girlfriend's sister is killed, he is killed and the girlfriend (without much help from the cops) is left to fend for herself.

Many times I wanted to strangle the cops for being so stupid. The killer is so brilliant he's everywhere at once killing randomly all over the world. So he's pretty much superman with many killing talents.

There are some pretty weird characters in here. I liked it but it was a job processing info. Get it at the library and persevere.

PLAY NICE by Gemma Halliday *****

This was a page turning spy thriller with lots of action. Anna working at a dog shelter used to be a killer and has thrown all the people who hired her in the past off her tail by pretending to be dead in a car explosion.

She gets found out, spies are all over trying to kill her, the ways she avoids them, the life she has now after 15 yrs without killing make it difficult for her to get out of the previous life because after all this time they found her and want to use her again to kill a senator.

Find out yourself how it ends up. Good story telling, action adventure novel. Very good writing and I liked it enough to buy it.

Mr. MONK on PATROL by Lee Goldberg *****

After the last thought provoking and intense book I was happy to throw a Monk novel in to lighten the mood. His old cop buddy Randy Disher married Sharona and he found so many theives in the old city's leadership he practically had to fire everyone and took over temporary Mayor, plus is Chief of police.

He calls Monk and Natalie to fly to New Jersey to help him since he's very low staffed, soon to be even lower staffed. Monk has all the qualifications to be a patrol officer but Natalie will need more schooling if she likes the job and decides to pursue it as a career.

So of course they both travel there to help Randy out. Since Monk has discovered who murdered his wife he has calmed down a teensy bit and is a little more accepting of things around him altho whenever he's in town he measures people parking their cars to be sure they are all equally separated and threatens warning tickets for non compliance.

There were some areas I actually laughed, one was when he said 'today you need an aspirin, tomorrow you're a crack whore". There are a few other pretty funny Monkisms in there to keep you amused.

The ending leaves you wondering what is next for Monk and Natalie because they both have no reason to return home and things have been going rather well in New Jersey. Good, light reading, easy to follow and amusing.

PS If Mr. Goldberg would be so kind as to give me a review on Amazon for Backyard dog which is kindle ready or digital for $5. I'd sure appreciate it.
:) Good luck with your writing.

The DOG STARS by Peter Heller *****

Don't read this if you're a wussy crybaby. That's the first thing people whine at me about my book Backyard Dog, "is it gonna make me cry?" For shit's sake if you go inside someone else's head for awhile reading an author's vision and version of life who knows where it's going to take you. Maybe you'll cry, so what, will it kill you? Probably not.

Books are meant to take you out of YOUR comfy little life into some special meaningful other world inside the writer's head. If you're scared to cry don't read books.

So the world had a catastrophic illness and most everyone died (you may now begin to cry) and this man Hig, his dog Jasper and a guy Bangley hang around living in a fortified airport area. They pretty much kill anyone stepping foot in their territory and have lots of guns and grenades etc. (keep crying wussy asses). There's some boring areas about day to day chores, how they live, and what Hig thinks about stuff. But his wife and unborn baby got sick and died (go on...boo hoo) and passed away before this story starts but the deaths are still inside him and make him deeply melancholy. Actually Hig is like me with a terrible hole inside no one on earth can fill or fix.

So as Hig, Bangley and little old Jasper run around scrounging and being pals and sleeping under the stars at night and killing everyone who moves...the wittle doggy dies. (Oh my you widgets -are you crying again?) This makes his sadness even deeper because now he has no reason to care or live and has a deathwish that Bangley will accidently shoot him when he returns from hunting someday. Bangley believes in shoot first - don't ask questions.

Now, since they live in an airport hangar, figure out anything yourself yet? Yes! Hig can fly a plane and has an operable one. So after Jasper passes away he just wants to go. Anywhere. No particular reason. Someplace he's destined to run out of gas; for the hell of it. He dreads living without anyone meaningful in his life, he already lost his family and now his dog. Who can lose a dog without wanting to die with it??

On his air travel he then meets some people and the rest you read for yourself and cry your wittle tears to sleep at night. I loved the story minus the boring areas and think you should be forced to read it. Don't forget your tissues. Weak-kneed, spineless, losers. At least all wussies die in the story from the illness no WAY weak-kneed crybabies survive, hahahahahahahha.

I would pay for this one. Loved it. It made me cry more than once.

The CONVICTION by Robert Dugoni ***

I wasn't real into the premise of the story. 2 kids get into trouble, one is a real asshole so when Jake ends up incarcerated (illegally somewhat) I was rather happy about it. I didn't mind anything else that happened to the little bastard while in there either but his friend TJ certainly didn't deserve being along with him and he showed no character by following him like a little sheep. IMO they both needed counseling. Anyways turns out this isn't your normal kids jail. It's a torture boot camp with masochistic leaders and a couple of really psycho kids.

Turns out to be a money laundering operation with several greedy towns people involved and they don't want anyone to know...hushhush. So there are twists and turns in the story, escapes, murders, death and destruction here and there.

One father of the boys is a lawyer the other a cop. You'd think they could swoop down some CIA choppers and wipe these assholes off the face of the planet. A chopper for SURE was needed during the long trek to finding out what was going on in the woods but no one mentioned THAT little detail. Could have found everything they wanted with couple days sweep of the area. Lets just pretend there are no choppers. Hell half the town kids are in this fake jail-torture chamber you'd think the parents would be somewhat TICKED OFF about it but no one seems very disturbed except the people running the jail.

It was something to read, I kept turning pages sometimes I skipped a few paragraphs because there is a somewhat guess-what's-next formula to it all. Ok library find. Reads well, quick, not too many characters to learn. Didn't hate it.

VIRAL by James Lilliefors ***

For me this wasn't something I'd look to read. It was sort of MAD magazines Spy vs Spy and you are always confused about who is on the good side and who is not-which keep switching BTW.  I was totally overwhelmed with people, names, different organizations with evil intention and off the wall leaders.

 There are probably 5 people in the story that you can follow as "helping" the side for good. Everyone else belongs to one of about 5 different bad 0rgs. Even the govt, a wealthy man, Arabs, you name it they're in it.

Basically what I "think" is some people want to destroy and rebuild Africa with an airborne disease. A large nation with the most people who are poor, no water, no jobs, no economy, no farming, nothing really for them to do to attain a country on their own. So if Africa is decimated by intention anyone supposedly can come in and make a re-do of the entire people and economy. That's the premise of the story but there are so many factions at work in this I couldn't keep pace with it. You need a map of each org and who is in it to get any successful understanding of WTF is happening.

So in essence it was readable to a certain extent but barely understandable TO ME. I just was lost with so many different groups trying to kill so many different people. Too much for me and I don't have the patience to sit back and figure out who is who belonging to what.
Didn't like it.

BORN TO DARKNESS by S. Brockmann ****

The first more than half the book is a romance type novel with some other stuff happening between the fucking they all do to each other. So lots of fucking sucking and getting it on, and the little story that unravels is about a drug that makes people go crazy, which the author nicknames "jokering" which is highly amusing way to call crashing or having a bad trip or whatever.....jokering. BWAHAHA. It's just very funny to me. You can tell she has no background in pot or anything to do with street drugs. DUH.

So onwards the sex goes from gay to normal and sometimes you hear about little snippets of young girls with ESP talent being kidnapped and tortured for their blood. The torture lifts the pheromone levels which makes the drug more powerful. Some people take it and once they do they're supposedly permanently addicted to it but get benefits like healing powers, or anti-aging powers or the ability to knock down walls just like these ESP geniuses and a few joker which mean have a bad trip and usually die.

A couple of kids are involved Anna and her sister Nika. Nika is a kidnapped kid and Anna was taken by these ESP stars to save the day. Most of the novel was about saving them, and each other's true love. If you like romance with a little story background this is the book for you. Not quite my style. Way too much fucking and sucking going on but it's way better than that 50 Shades crap.

SIMPLE by Kathleen George ****

There are some things I liked, others I didn't. Writer called all men by last names, all women by first. One guy's last name was Christie so you keep thinking it's a female one female's name is Fredricka or Fred so geez confusing in that regard.

Then there are the phones, the killed girl has a phone everyone knows her phone number all they have to do to find it is GPS it. But do they ever? Nope. Otherwise they'd have found it buried where the killer put it or even caught it on his person before he buried it.

This is about a guy running for I think governor and all the people around him kill his girlfriend so Mr. Married Gov doesn't get a bad rep for screwing her and all the girls he's screwed. Besides that the wife is cheating too and they barely tolerate each other for the most part.

I didn't like the plethora of names, people and back and forth. At one point I'm reading along having no clue who the hell I'm reading about. No name till like the next page. Very irritating.

Very early on they arrest some "slow" guy and send him to jail for awhile until the other detectives don't think he did it. The original guys who put him in jail do not get demoted or kicked off the force and they had virtually no evidence against him. They questioned him to death and to get food and sleep he says yeah he did it. Coerced confession. Not good police work IMO.

So not too bad a storyline, told herky jerky back and forth from one scene to another yanking you around but basically ok for a library find. Feel bad giving 4 stars, it's between 3-4. The writing is ok, the jerking me back and forth I hated.

WIFE 22 by Melanie Gideon ***

I didn't entirely hate the story. There were too many characters and it was sometimes hard to keep up when they just suddenly showed up in a scene when you hadn't heard about them for chapters.

The basis of the story was "someone" chose the wife Alice for an online survey about marriage. It's not hard to guess who once you read the story. I pretty much knew after the first load of questions. The thing I really really hated about the novel was that the questions weren't with the answers; they're at the end of the book. There's a break for you. Whenever you read an answer you can flip to the end to see what the question was an option I didn't have cuz no one told me. So I really hated that part of the book, the answers.

A lot of times there are online conversations that are very confusing with names and who said what to whom and who cares. I wasn't crazy about the book and it took me a long time to read it what with trying to figure out the stupid ass questions and who everybody was emailing or facebooking or tweeting all the time. Just a PITA. Library book, so-so.

COME HOME by Lisa Scottoline ****

This is a story about a mom/pediatrician who has lots of marriages, ex kids etc and is ready for another marriage. Meanwhile one of her ex's gets killed, a stepdaughter comes to her for help then mysteriously disappears. Meanwhile Dr.Mom uncovers plots and plans to defraud people and schemes to screw with the stock market buying with inside info. Lots of people want her dead.

Not bad reading, easy to follow, people are somewhat distinct even the kids. Keeps you interested and reading altho it's a little teeny bit on the young adult side of the reading category. It's ok. Liked it.

YEAR ONE by Rob Reid *

This one is barely readable. I only have 2 books til Friday so am forced to shove this down my throat. Some guy who's partner in a group of lawyers, his name is Nick Carter gets a meeting with some aliens who think they owe the music world all their money in the universe for stealing their music-listening to it and playing it etc. He even has very boring * things you have to read at the bottom of the page.

The aliens travel thru wrinkles, like the universe is a sheet with folds in it. That's how they get places. It's pretty much about idolizing music and musicians, there's a lot of thrown in internet crap like Fark etc. just so he can say it "fark". He hangs out with 2 aliens Carly and Frampton. Carly is supposedly so famous around the universe for being in a reality show which most of the time she's not in it-so how does that work exactly? Once they went to see her daddy ONSTAGE and then things were being filmed --WHAT? It was supposed to be a concert. I got no clue but at first you are led to believe it's a music concert going on with lip-syncing and I don't see any of that taking place. It actually was quite a bit more boring.

Meanwhile our hero Nick gets an upgrade including 6 more toes or something then later in the book he can't even fold himself into a wrinkle while trying to convince someone he's a guardian whatever the fuck that is. Guardians I suppose don't need help traveling thru space tho and yet this one idiot can't do it. There are multiple species more intelligent than earth people our only advancement is music according to them. But if you count a 20 yo blonde bimbo (name rhymes with Maylor) who is barely 20 almost still in diapers, has nothing to say and got an emmy as someone who helps our planet become famous I got no clue of 'why'. To me the music industry is the WORST failure of our society. The first song aliens like was Welcome Back Kotter and the novel goes downhill from there with one song wonders being famous on these planets by lip sync-ers cuz they cannot sing at all.

So I'll let you decipher what "That merkin stand was from Borneo" means while they're inside a Warcraft scene on earth. Sheesh. I don't know if someone is trying to destroy the world, take it over, save it or publish it.

Sounds like somebody isn't taking their meds and needs an aluminum hat while watching tv. I'm on page 269 and cannot take it anymore. If you see it in the library gently replace it and run. NEXT!!

FIRE SEASON by Jon Loomis ***

Takes place in Provincetown Mass. There's a cop named Frank Coffin who has a pregnant girlfriend living with him in his mom's house. She's in a home and causes trouble all the time. Most of the people in the story cause trouble all the time.

There's the guy seeing UFOs gets sent to a psych ward, his crazy mom, his nuts cousin who deals drugs or robs druggies or something and somehow manages to report some story or other to a cop he can blackmail but gets some of the druggies jailed. I can't explain it well. It doesn't go over well either.

Then there's the guy who's burning down the town, running around burning churches, gay bars, the cops house whatever. The cop, Frank pretty much runs back and forth with his crappy piece of shit car doing nothing. Everyone is a drunk basically even cops on duty. Personally I think it's intention was partial comedy but like the FL guy (Dorsey) who writes tongue in cheek sort of like this I don't think the same things are funny that they do.

I actually get pissed off that a cop is drinking on duty, knows his friend stole a million bucks worth of heroin, lets that go and the only crime he seems to take seriously is the fires. Only because his own house becomes involved. With luck when he rebuilds he moves away and we don't need to read anymore about him letting people get away with murder etc. He couldn't find his dick if it was in his hand while he was peeing.

ONE RED BASTARD by Ed Lin

Not giving out stars. 2 cops are chatting back and forth making little sense to me. Don't like them, don't care about their political topics and don't care that some Chinese girl wants to defect to the US. Lots of meaningless chatter to me. You try it. Done!
Some writers don't understand the basic concept of catching the interest of a reader. Small talk back and forth in Chinatown doesn't hook me in to anything, neither does anything else mentioned. The conversations sound forced. not real. I'm not connecting, nothing is moving me forward so for me it's over.

WHAT COMES NEXT by John Katzenbach*****

Very good storyline, well told and edge of the seat tension. This older professor who is dying sees his 'family' of ghosts who help him find a kidnapped girl Jennifer. She's been kidnapped, put on a website for torture and raping then they'll kill her. So does he get there in time even tho he forgets to clean stuff, or often goes into mindless dazes?

He tries to convince a cop where to look but she follows procedure and can't get it together.

The cover is apt and relates to the storyline. I really liked it, liked the ghost family he has. The wife's reason for suicide has a feel of reality to it. Even tho some parts were repetitious I think it was done intentionally so you remember each character and they're all memorable which you can't say about most story book characters.
Well done, buy it if you can't find it in the library.

HITCHERS by Will McIntosh ***

Pretty strange sci fi novel about people who die coming back and taking over bodies of the living. You never learn if it's permanent or not. I have no idea why Atlanta had a terrorist attack of anthrax where thousands died but somehow that instigated the body stealing.

So our main character lost his childhood twin sister, then his wife is electrocuted and 2 yrs later this epidemic starts. His grandfather comes back into his body pissed off about him taking over his syndicated cartoon and making tons of money. The major twist is that people who are taken over by other people are on a quest to figure out how to get rid of these 'hitchers' permanently. Some of them come and go, and sometimes the body owner ends up in deadland. The main guy, Finn, finally gets an idea how to peel his grandfather out of him and read the book to find out.

I thought it was a unique idea, the middle of the book was boring in quite a few places, or repetitive and I wasn't so hot on it in the middle. It had the potential to be much better, with humor or more takeovers or something. It was a little bland in those places.

That's my take on it. Ok library find, reads fast and is an unusual storyline.

TALKING to the DEAD by Harry Bingham

Personally I couldn't get thru it, lots of descriptions, tea drinking writer and phrases I don't care to figure out. Very slow going. I quit early. I'm not going to star it cuz I didn't read past page 30 or so.

GUILT BY DEGREES by Marcia Clark ****

IRL this writer must not be allowed to eat much because the entire book is mostly written around restaurants and food, eating, drinking and being merry. So there is a story line you get to follow a DA and Cop around trying to figure out who killed a woman's husband after a jury found her innocent. He was ax murdered to pieces.

The wife wasn't a friendly person and all the time someone was trying to kill poor DA Rachel or Bailey Keller (female). There's bullets flying, car chases, red herrings, sometimes you wonder how they got to the point they're at in the investigation. Otherwise, easy reading, take your time not a bad story line. Characters are likable enough. It's ok. Good library find.

The THIRD GATE by Lincoln Child *****

Intriguing idea about Egyptians and their burial sites. This one old king decides to do things differently, he supposedly united East and West Egypt way back when. Anyways he decided to move his sarcophagus to some swamp that stunk to high heavens and a team of people are determined to find it. There are of course curses, saboteurs, a woman who died and was revived who now has several mental issues but she's on the trip to communicate with the dead Egyptian. Does she really? Or is she nuts and making it up? Read and find out.

I liked that it was fast paced, didn't have too many characters, but he has a tendency to use last names then once in awhile throw in a first name then you have to go back and figure out who the hell Jeremy is.

Otherwise recommended reading. Get it at the library or even buy it. Good reading.

SO PRETTY IT HURTS by Kate White

Again, started to read it, names were flying at me here and there. Didn't care much about anyone in the story, nor the main character. She just wasn't my type of likable. Too many skinny glamorous idiots. Done with it very early on so I didn't star it. No read/no care/no stars. I won't say it sucks. It sucked for ME.

STRANGE FLESH by Michael Orlson *

I tried really hard to read it but couldn't get past like chapter 10. Didn't like main character, didn't care about uppity classmates, wasn't impressed enough to continue. Didn't read anymore.

DEFENDING JACOB by William Landay*****

Yeah this was a page turner cept for some reminiscing pages. Aside from rewinding to the past so many times it was an interesting court room drama with an unusual new type of DNA testing, I'll let you read and find out about that yourself.

I thought the family did way too little communicating. I don't think most families would act as these people did. They pretty much ignored the entire REASON for the court, the child being arrested etc. In my house that kid would have undergone the 3rd degree to the 10th degree. In this story they never even really probed into his life, his lies or his stories. I would surely have liked to have known MORE about his childhood issues but that wasn't delved into much at all either.

Seems like people sleep walking thru life doing their own thing without regard for each other. I think families try to do more than just walk blindly thru life. My son cried everyday when he was 3-4 yrs old and he saw a shrink. I'd have to say this kid was badly handled not being in the hands of a shrink at a young age, esp. due to the father's knowledge.

You'll like the story, it's got twists and turns and things that are intriguing about it. I would buy it if I had to. Good writing, interesting tho blind characters and it gives food for thought.

BREAK DOWN by Sara Paretsky ***

It's readable but extremely repetitive with little new information being added. She runs from this to that place, talks to this and that person and the tidbits of information are basically useless. So I'd say half the book could have been deleted. Half the character list could have been cut in half as well. Who cares about most of these people? Too many, don't care about them. As it wore on me turning pages forever I began to hate everyone in the book.

This is a big book, with lots of stupid little side stories and it seems like it took me forever to read. I get 2 weeks to read a library book and this one took me up to the last 4 days of the two weeks.

VI Warshawski novel. Usually I look forward to reading them but for gods sake cut the thing down some PLEASE read Patterson. Make every word count for something can't stand all the blathering on and on about nothing.

STAY CLOSE by Harlan Coben *****

Very good reading, a page turner that has twists and turns and keeps me on every page. An ex-hooker/dancer left her life behind when she thought her boyfriend killed someone. She got a husband 2 kids and is living like a regular family, she doesn't even need to work. So she hears about another killing on the anniversary of the first killing and goes back to her old haunts stirring up all kinds of trouble for herself and a lot of other people.

Even tho she meets up with old true love-who she believed did the killing-she doesn't go back to  her old life. Eventually cops she knows and other people begin to solve things she and her boyfriend have proof of, or saw. Captivating storyline for mystery readers like me. I was very into it and didn't want to give up reading for bed. So it's not S&M, lol...it's a well written book by a really good author who knows at least how to write a story without little virgins biting off their lips. 1,000x better than Shades of Gruesome.

The MESSENGER by Stephen Miller *

I'm half thru the boring  book. You don't really need to read the first half, it's redundant and boring. Some stupid refugee dimwit decides to carry smallpox into the US. So you get to travel around on her plane ride, her walks, her boring and mindless contaminating of people and things. I mean BORING. Just BORING the shit out of me. Meanwhile some other guy named Sam Watterman has a sick wife at home and some background with terrorism in anthrax and other ways to poison communities.
So they grab him one night, say nothing else, plop him whereever they want for a couple days and you get to hear how absolutely bored HE IS??? C'mon, I'm ready to get drunk and cry myself to sleep here. I'm half thru the book and it's so mindless I can't stand it.

Daria is bad; Sam is good; then start your reading after Day 6 you still get the basics without the boredom. Hate it. I hope I can get past the dreadful parts just in case something happens.....it's so boring it frustrates me for 110 pages or more. Just deadly dull. I don't care about anyone at this point. They could all go up in smoke and I'm not invested in one person.

So like I said above, I finished it. Just begin after page 110. Once you get going from there it's not too horrid. I've read similar stories, much much better ones. There isn't one likable character in this story except the dying wife cuz there is NO interaction with her at all. Otherwise everyone is an asshole.
This guy cannot create characters. He makes puppets who have strings pulled. They have no feelings, no passions, no voice. They're all robotic.

LIVING PROOF by Kira Peikoff ****

I normally don't like religion in my novels but this one shows how religion screws with medicine and the future of stem cell ressearch. Starts with a woman, Arianna who is a doc and she has a fertility clinic. She also has MS and needs stem cell research to save her life. It's been years since the church took over (insanely) and makes sure no eggs are killed. So Arianna has a few people who are helping her out keeping track of eggs while she has a doc cloning them to keep the count right for the religious police but she needs experimentation to help her overcome the MS and needs the eggs for the research.

Needless to say one of the agents sent to discover her secret falls in love with her and questions all his religious crap, then decides instead to help her live. It's a good story and proof we need more doctors doing this but they've learned to use other means of stems cells nowadays I think and don't need baby cells anymore.  It's fast paced, easily readable and easy to follow. I had no questions at the end. Basically a well written story. Liked it. Good library find for me.

BECKON by Tom Pawlik ****

Pretty fast paced novel with likable characters all trying to survive after discovering either a cave or being lured to live in the mansion of a guy who has access to an underground cave of secrets. Seems some alien life forms have lived in the caves for 100s of years and are proficient at keeping other people alive with a substance they can't stray too far from due to needing it daily but they never grow old and are difficult to kill.

I thought it was ok, I really liked some characters and didn't like to see them die while others I couldn't wait for them to get killed off. Page turning, a little tiny bit religious but I liked one sentence quoted by Walter M. Miller Jr. "You don't have a soul. You are a soul...you have a body." I thought that was profound and really like it.

Not a long hard to follow book so I gave it 4 stars. Good reading, takes you on  a trip and you see inside another person's imagination. Exactly what writing should do.

WAKING HOURS by Lis Wiehl *****

This is called "An East Salem Novel" which suggests many more are involved. I happened to like this one a lot but I wouldn't go running out to read a similar book because I just read this one, I don't like reading series, I don't like reading the same type story over and over.

It has a psychiatrist out to figure out who murdered some high school girl one night and more than one person was involved. Lots of interviews with high school students and finding evidence, sending it out waiting for results. Meanwhile an old high school football player (personally they did nothing for me) secretly has been in love with her and he joins up while he's getting a PI license to help her out tackling trouble whenever it shows up.

There are people in love not having sex in the book, lots of that. Apparently this is something in the Twilight novels that this author reveres so she has it in her books as well.

There are some really disturbed people in the book, some have overcome their past, others are causing trouble now. While there is evil in a person there's also an angel around to help or give hints or dreams or whatever. Mr. stud muffin in chains and leather. So there's some religious (non specific) stuff involved probably due to the 'Salem' aspect of the story. Not much else describes this town in Massachusetts to me but I only lived next door in NH so why would I know anything when the authors are from NY. I have also been to Salem which is a quaint little town with brick houses, I didn't see any angels running around. There are very few descriptions of any real Salem settings.

Still I guess for younger people this would be a very good read, it's not looking to go further than a teenager I don't think; so in that respect you'd want your kid to read it...maybe I don't know...depends on how you feel about angels etc.

I thought it was well written, good pace, intriguing story line and different from most other novels so I 5 starred it.

XO by Jeffery Deaver ***

I'm not much of a musician fan. I mean the kind of musicians that are famous and screwed their way to the top. Or their daddy or mommy was a musician. So this book is about some singer's stalker and Kathryn Dance who is supposed to "read" body language can't figure out the stalker is killing everyone in the general area until the last few pages. Meantime he frames other people, there's someone else trying to horn in on a governer's job, so much other stuff is happening that you can't really follow the stalker part of the story with all the sidetrack b.s. to distract you.

Sure Lincoln Ryme and Ameila "the super model", karate expert, diver expert and whatever else she makes up for in talent because Lincoln can only move one arm but they're lovers. Hmmmm where else but a novel.

Anyhow with all this cop presence no one catches the killer till the last few pages. Lots of crap happens between the start and finish it's just a matter of shuffling thru it. I wasn't happy with the singer-music aspect of the novel so I didn't really like it at all. If you like music and famous star people you'll like it.

COUNTY LINE by Bill Cameron ***

This is about some guy in love with a girl who has a mysterious past....I hated the basketball scenes, I hated the flashbacks. I hated the girls punching each other stuff and I hated how "tough" she was. She really wasn't all that frickin tough. She just had an attitude. Doesn't everyone. So she's not Miss Innocent, lots of girls have/had harder lives than hers.

So we go back and forth from today looking for Ruby Jane, and then to her childhood. I wasn't happy with how it was handled going back and forth. It was boring me. I skipped a lot of stuff that bored me for too long.

She has a "haunted" past. lol, whatever. Mommy was a rich girl drunk who didn't get any money due to her marriage to a drunk. At the end we still don't know where the ring or the money went do we? I read it all and sure don't have a clue. Money kept disappearing from grandmoms account and nobody konws where it is. Ruby Jane or RJ, knows her brother didn't kill daddy but never tells him and for some mysterious reason he runs out of a bar in front of a car. End of brother. I have NO IDEA why or what that was about. Stupid. Anyways. Someone else can unravel the thing, I got tired of it all.

TRAUMA PLAN by Candace Calvert

This is sort of a romance. I was really hoping it was a hospital type story as written by Robin Cook. BOY was I wrong. It should be under a "religious" category. So a romance with a lot of faith, god and prayer. Not for me at all. I don't like religion shoved down my throat while I'm trying to enjoy a story.
Keep it to yourself. I hated it. I got more than half thru it hoping it would let up a little but it gets more and more preachy as it goes on. Yuck. No stars.

BIRDS of PREY by J.A.Jance*

I got about half thru it. Some people on a cruise, someone goes overboard. Some guy who sounds like he's gay but isn't is your main police character. The story is repetitive, boring, slow, too many people, too much descriptive crap. I hated it and shut it down less than half thru it. Everyone is crying, or moaning or bitching or fake having fun. Too many family members, cheating. Just way too many people for me to care. This was a yard sale find. Back to the paper recycling bin. Buh bye.

INTO THE DARKEST CORNER by E.Haynes ***

It was a good read, the main character had no backbone to speak of. Even when she's at the point where she's ready to take control of her life and deal with her violent ex she has no plan whatsoever. Most women would have a plan-- so duh ,there. She just got lucky.

This bitch drinks so much tea she must have to piss every 5 minutes, I had to pee after all the tea she drank. Nobody in their right mind drinks that much tea. But naturally this is an English tea sucker writer so that's what comes of that. Really I don't need a list of times she's off drinking tea.

So we have a bad ex boyfriend, a terrible nasty best friend, some marks on the dope's body (main idiot) and nowhere did the ex use a knife on her that I read so maybe she cut herself up. Who knows. She's such a dummy that even when he applies for a job she's advertising she treats him like any other person applying for a job after he spent 3yrs in jail for trying to kill her. She has a lot of mental issues.

Her new boyfriend Stuart doesn't seem to stand out as much different. Does she check his background to be sure he is what he says he is? Does she check his past girlfriend history or speak to any of them to see if he's truthful about anything? She's such a wuss. I don't really like her from start to finish but the story was well written and fast paced. I kept reading to see when she'd grow a pair but her OCD took up a lot of the story. And I don't think the author did a very good job researching OCD. I thought main tea sucker was very easily manipulated even AFTER the yrs in mental places, and seeing doctors etc. She never had a bone in her body. Ever see the movie "Enough" with Jaylo? Well that's more like it. THAT'S THE KIND OF GIRL to write about! Not this sniveling locked-door-checking whiner drowning in tea.

SPILLED BLOOD by Brian Freeman *****

I thought this was a great read and the author made me stay up at night reading when I should have been trying to fall asleep. Lots of tension, twists, turns and at the end of each chapter you got a shove forward to the next one. That's why I couldn't put the damn thing down.
I liked most of the characters, if he wanted me to like Olivia I didn't, but most of the others in the story I either liked or the personality was filled out enough not to like them. A bully is a bully and Mr. Freeman can create some powerful ones.

The town is broken because science caused cancer to some victims, mostly children and the protagonists' wife as well. A nutso scientist put some chemicals in the water that went into the homes of people downriver. It was a cancer cluster, more could have been written about some of the victims to make them more real but the one or two were just barely enough to keep you reading. So a court case was tampered with and the company found innocent making it all the more tragic for everyone.

There's a mysterious note writer named Aquarius and in the end he creates a lot of destruction.
I didn't like to see Lenny killed, because he was redeemable and cared for Olivia. Maybe he was a little off but growing up without parents and having a bully-brother contributed to his personality. I think author was too quick to kill him off instead of finding a more satisfying ending for him. Not one person liked the poor guy and he tried hard to be ok but the author made him go in a worse direction so his death wouldn't seem all that bad but I thought he got a bad deal there. JMO

All in all it was a very good read, would buy it.

The TRUTH OF ALL THINGS by Kieran Shields **

I don't even know why I continued to read this religious mumbo jumbo written about the time of Lizzy Borden 1890s? It had way too many bad people coordinating way too many grotesque murders and killings and hangings and removal of body parts. They were all talented in make-up and disguises. I couldn't stand all that religious text stuff and skimmed it all.

So there are some guys Lean, and Grey who are trying to solve these murders together. The book is highly reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes and Watson but I just can't separate them enough to discern which is which. Or witch is witch. I don't even know at the end if anyone doing the murders was getting even for his/her past treatment or really believed all the religious baloney. Whatever. I would not recommend trying to unravel this tripe. It was written ok, but boring as all get out most of the time.

PARADISE FALLS by Jonnie Jacobs ***

As I was reading along, I had questions that I waited and waited for answers. For a mystery this writer doesn't delve much into the police work, so it's a struggle waiting for any information.
What was on the mysterious Ipod in the girls locker? Was that a clue? If so it needed to be heard, dusted for prints, whatever. That sucked. Then a video camera arrives as a gift, from who? How long does it take to finger print it? Do they find anything? Do they even try to see if a video of the missing daughter is on it? That sucked too.
Why didn't the police do their follow up work asking the last person to see Caitlin alive a LOT more questions? People IRL don't get off so easy as they do in this novel. So it was fair. I read it.
Nothing special except I found the descriptions of loneliness on the mark, and the marriage was headed for hell soon as the kid disappeared. I guess the family relationships were complicated and replaced police work in the novel.

The HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins ****

Ah back to territory I understand, sci fi. In the future people are randomly selected from certain sections of  what was once N.America because they had a rebellion once. These people; a boy and girl between like 12-18 are chosen to enter a killing contest with children from other sections of the country until only one is left.

A girl Katniss and boy Peetah become the focus of the story and what they do to survive. Before the contest, you get to see how most of the people in the country are starving but some are foraging outside of the makeshift fenced districts and it's forbidden altho that's how Katniss has been living. Using a bow and arrow her father made long ago, she brings food to the table. Her mother is a useless lump of flesh since hubby died. The youngest daughter was selected for the games but Katniss volunteers to take her place which is ok with the game masters.

Most of the story is about the contest, surviving, liking people in the games that must be killed by each other. No matter how she dislikes the ruling factors for having these games nothing is really done about it. There isn't a means for her to figure out how to end it forever (writer's downfall here). As it is she and Peetah save each other with a love thing. Either Katniss and Peetah have a real romance going, one does or neither does and you won't know the answer to that question.

Since it's for teens I think more could have been done to show how someone CAN make a huge difference (independence, brains, intelligence) and actually end the stupid games forever. Which would have been nicer than allowing them back to their poor districts to live in wealthy houses surrounded by the poor starving masses while they get everything they could want. I think that's the reward.

Then again when you look at it as a reality TV show perhaps it's where our reality shows are headed except the stupid assholes idolized on TV (Kardashians, and like them) are too weak kneed and dumb to be in a contest like this one. They couldn't survive off the first step, lol and tit size has nothing to do with winning.

P.S. I had no idea this is a trilogy

THE VANISHERS by Heidi Julavits *

This is about a character named Julia. She starts off working for some weird dark woman who runs an institute for people who can read minds and see the future etc. So Julia kisses her when she's asleep and then things go downhill from there. She loses her job. So no more psychotic people that read minds, now you get psychotic people talking about how people want to get out of their lives without suicide. They make a good bye film, as if it were suicide and just wander away into a new life allowing family to believe they're dead or something.

So I'm at this "party" where a bunch of people are discussing some of these films they watched, they like quoting Sylvia Plath (but of course) and I just am so bored with it all. It's too elitist for me. I hate it.
I can't read it anymore, there seems to be no point to the story at all. Or if there is I don't know what the point is and I'm done at page 90. Kaput.

12*21 By Dustin Thomason ****

This is about the Mayan prediction of the end of the world. Starting with a woman who is Mayan Chel Manu, a researcher meets up with a Dr. Stanton who studies prions and they're off on a chase to beat a disease that destroys brains sort of like mad cow disease.

They must locate the source of the infection someplace in a jungle in Guatemala, and find a way to penetrate the brain/blood barrier to cure everyone dying of this disease so at the end they're both in the jungle searching for a cure.

The disease entered the country on a man who loots old Mayan antiquities from the ground and the infection begins very confusing to everyone involved, is very active and moves quickly to people so they're all running around from town to town trying to avoid getting it. Panic everyone!

Read the book and see if a cure is found. It's readable, not something you can't put down but it's interesting and the writer sounds knowledgeable about his topic so you're learning while you read.

Not a bad library find.

The NEXT ACCIDENT by Lisa Gardner ****

I liked the book, it was quick, lots of murders, twists and turns. One suspect I did suspect the other one was mentioned in passing and then showed up for the finale. The lead character FBI Agent Pierce was likable but not very talkative and he lost a lot of family members in the process of finding the killer who was trying to ruin his life.
I guess since it had murder, was fast, not a lot of characters it was my sort of reading material, just a little on the simplistic side. I liked it, good find at a yard sale (it's ca 2001) for me-beach reading.

A FATAL DEBT by John Gapper *

I got to about page 40 or so and closed the damn book. It's so boring. Sounded like a good read but as you enter the character's life MUST HAVE FLASH BACK grasshopper and boy it takes away the enjoyment of the story line.....if there is one.

He's in an office interviewing someone and goes off onto his own damn childhood from like 10 years old. I DO NOT CARE. Then he's riding in a car with someone and he's TELLING HIS DREAM to the reader. Nothing could be more boring than someone's dream, never mind a fake character's page long dream. I just couldn't take the boredom any longer. BYE.

So far nothing fatal. So far not care about anyone in story. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

COPPER BEACH by Jayne Krentz ****

Main character Abby can read or get hot or something from crystals, so there's a hidden book the bad psi people want and she has been hired to get it for her new boyfriend Sam Coppersmith, also her new bodyguard. He guards her body when he's not screwing it.
Meanwhile there are a few people determined to kill others with crystals and esp type stuff in order to get to the book, that can't even be read without someone breaking the hidden paranormal locks or some such junk like that.
Not bad for a romance, beats stupid Shades of Grey by a mile and a half. At least this book is readable. Minor love and sex stuff so it's not overwhelming. For me...ok, nothing great but it was an easy read, quick, not too many people to memorize and it wasn't painful anywhere, at least for me. Good library find.

FEVER DREAM by Dennis Palumbo ***

A psychologist named Rinaldi is the main character and there are TONS of people in this story, practically an entire police force to learn names, more psychs, girlfriends, bad guys. More than one thing is going on at the same time and in between are boring stretches of idle time not adding much to the story line.

I read a lot. I knew immediately who the second bank robber was and was just waiting and waiting for the psych to guess instead of pampering her along. I got some questions, like how did Treva get out of the bank being robbed...like WHY HER? Everyone else was dead but the robber released her? WHY?  And no cop questions this? Then the second robber gets away thru the back door. Geez I wonder who that was.

At one place in the story the bad bank robber goes into the hosp holding a hostage and asks a doc to fix his shot broken arm. So why didn't that stupid ass doctor shoot him up with a drug to knock him out instead of standing there like a douche and doing as ordered? As if the bank robber idiot knew what drug was a local and which wasn't.

Why did Roarke kill Stubbs in the same room with Rinaldi but not kill Rinaldi? WTF? If a patient starts acting out and takes meds to fix that problem why are the docs and therapists so dumb they don't think he's not taking his meds as he's supposed to? Why he got bumped off is beyond me, he didn't know or do anything worth dying for.

There ya go. It was ok but left a lot of WTF's.

OFF THE GRID by P.J. Tracy ***

I thought the book moved rather fast, lots of characters without a protagonist, really. Most of the time you are left wondering why. Why why why. Or how. I don't think it sucks but it's not the best book I ever read. Lots of unexplained stuff goes on that you wait for answers to and don't get.

So the main character, I assume, is Grace MacBride but just about everyone in the story gets as much or more copy so I wouldn't swear to that. Supposedly she runs a computer company called Monkeewrench Software. What it does, I don't know. Designs firewalls? I don't know who they sell to. An FBI friend, John uses the software, switches it all around so not even a genius can figure it out then deciphers incoming bad people messages and learns where people live who are involved in human trafficking or are going to have a "mob" scene killing spree on Halloween.  And somehow broadcasts that info.

While Grace is out with her friend John on a sailboat enjoying nothing much 2 guys creep aboard and try to kill John. John acts all stupid like "I don't have any idea why I have enemies." Stupid ass has been decoding all the locations of murderers and sending to the FBI, think that might be it, ass?

One of Graces friends, Annie goes to work in a frickin feather dress? WTF is that? Bunch of hens get plucked before dinner and turned into a frickin dress? She's on a shootout in this rare and idiotic item.

Some Native American cop gets involved which involves tribe members who also were marines or in the service after some of the rez kids got kidnapped which is where dying Joe with cancer (also somehow involved) kills the kidnappers, moves along to a house full of bomb explosives and guns then gets shot after killing the people living there. Somalis I believe. He's happy he didn't die of the cancer. No one ever sees these poor kidnapped kids again, or their families. No concern there I guess.

Meanwhile at the end they're all hunkered around some cabin, natives in the trees or deer stands if you will, others in the house to fight off .... gee I don't really know who. People who think they ruined Halloween? I guess. And Mr.Brilliant John (remember went on the sailboat with Grace), says he'll watch the kitchen little darlin' and for her to go into the liv. room with the feather-dress girl. So Grace asking no questions goes along to get along and John the brilliant runs out the back door, gets shot immediately and bleeds to death before Grace figures out that John must have gone outside instead of protecting the house and his friends like he should have. Bye John.

I thought it moved along ok, can't understand how who knew what or why and how come this all took place to begin with. Lots of feather references. FBI were all over everything but never happened to be anywhere important until after people were all killed.
I read too much.

GIDEON'S CORPSE by Preston & Child *****

Had trouble putting this one down, it was very much a thriller. Lots of spies, end of the world destructive forces, Gideon had to find traitors, learn who to trust and keep the bad guys from destroying another country. It was very cohesive, I didn't get confused at all with all the people wandering in and out of the story.
If you enjoy the chase and like twists and turns you'll really like this story a lot. Holds your interest and you really don't want to drop the book for any reason, like the phone rings, I go 'what'...barely listening so I can keep the story ongoing in my head.
I just don't know why it's titled Gideon's Corpse as um....he's not dead. Hel-lo? So who's corpse are we talking about here? That's the only part confusing to me, the title. I even liked the mini romance.

DARK MEN by Derek Haas ****

Very short and quick reading. Fast, you don't want to put it down. But it's a spy thriller, which for me isn't really a murder mystery so it's not something I'm used to reading.
Bunch of spies -assassins really, running round the country holding hostages so the other spy will show up at designated places.
This one spy doesn't like giving up on his prey and kills the spy who was after him creating the hiring factors to want him as their spy. It sort of was whoever lives gets to join the club.
The focus of the story; Columbus, had retired and was spending nice quiet days with his new true love. They get her involved as well and I'm not giving away the ending for you. I did enjoy reading it, but could go thru life without reading another spy novel. I just don't care about them. Killing people is killing people. They aren't 'nice' people to me. I prefer my main characters to chase killers, not to be them.

BLOOD STORM by Bill Brooks *

Thought I was getting a modern western with some serial murder but what this is turns out is a historical writer, so the story takes place like in the 1800s up in the Black Hills area. I read about 10 pages then tossed the thing aside. Yuck. Do not care. Gas lights, running baths 20 guys use the same water, rain so hard it flattens the cowboy hats. LOL
Not interested.

MIDNIGHT GUARDIANS by Johathon King ***

It was a sort of PI story about protecting a person who has info about illegal drugs and gun running etc from a supposedly non crooked guy. Her brother gets killed 2 secs after being warned, and Mr. Kool PI had just ordered the boss to send protection to their location. NICE JOB!! LOL
I didn't like it much I didn't hate it. It was so so. Lots of muscle building, cut and ripped pecs etc making everyone seem super strong after crap they had dealt with in their past.
Does it make you want to start pressing weights? No, it just makes you feel inadequate while you sit on your butt eating pretzels. These pretzels are making me thirsty.

EXIST*ENCE by David Brin

I'm not a big sci fi fan but there are some books I loved in the past. All the books by Douglas Adams were just wonderful. His imagination stunned me with his creativity. So once in awhile I'll try to read one that's not part of a series. I chose this because the title was intriguing. The inside cover sounded like a book I would enjoy.
I was wrong. So confusing with some kind of space guy gathering space junk. He finds something shiny is where I'm at now but then I have to read something about two people having what....um...text sex or whatever? I don't even know because it's so confusing. Here's some copy:Immigrants stirred things-the big S music scene was raki and manic arts flourished, encouraged by a faint glow surrounding old downtown on the quay was lively as three sailors haggled with a smoke artist whose delicate portraits couldn't be reproduced by nanofax or shipped my omail. They forked over cash and watched her puff a gel-hookah, adding clots of fast congealing haze.
It's just so out there with the stupidest details. I might not mind the story but the sidetrack stuff is killing my interest. I just cannot get into it at all.
Not going to finish past page 21. It's sooooo confusing. No stars.

HOT WATER by Erin Brockovich ***

AJ gets involved/hired by a company that runs a nuclear plant to figure out why someone is tampering with things there. Which is caused (if I read this correctly) by a religious nut who wants profits from the growth of the facility. Meanwhile back at the ranch, her boyfriend and a cop girlfriend are watching her wheelchair bound genius son.
The son's grandfather is very wealthy and for no reason I can figure out wants everyone out of his way so he can raise the child. So he has hired a gunman to kill everyone who can deter him in his evil plan. This part actually is half the book, the nuclear plant the other half. No where in the story is anyone ever able to telephone mommy and tell her all the courtroom drama, grandfather tampering. They call her for like days and hourly and something is wrong with all the phones, the area has no towers. I don't know seems fishy to me but that's the story. I really didn't get why this kidnapping/courtroom child thing was going on to the point where the granddad was going to KILL THE MOM???!!!??? WTF?? No motive I can see. I had a difficult time swallowing this entire half the book.
The best character in the story is Morris who naturally gives his life to save the nuke plant from decomposing and radiating the entire state of VA.
Entirely not my style of writing or reading topic. Didn't particularly care for it. Not a murder mystery. Not even a real mystery. Just a slowly unfolding story.

DEAD LAST by James W. Hall ***

I read it, and it was sort of slow going. It was no page turner and lots of time was spent stepping out of the story for some detail or other I had to flip pages thru so I wouldn't be forced to read them.

The actual best character in the story was Buddha Hilton, a small town cop who was connected to the case in Miami by a death in her town. She followed the leads and ended up meeting with Thorn (some idiot cop wannabe who knocked up a teen a long time ago, was never told about it then accidently ran into her and the family). Nothing was ever DNA'd to prove anything and the mother was sort of a slut so I personally was hesitant to believe the kids (twins) were even his. I didn't like Thorn, I didn't like any of the family he was hanging with.

Too bad Buddha was knocked off she was the most interesting person in the story and when she died; for me, so did the entire interest in the murders and rest of the book. Lost it and didn't care any more.
I can't understand how someone can create such an interesting creature as Buddha was and knock her off first chance author got. Was she too strong a character for him to deal with? He uncomfortable with strong women?

The rest of the women were wimpy little nobodies. O and DeeDee the belle of the ball totally LOVED cleaning toilets.....see? He can't handle strong women in his books. Knock em off. Keep the domestics.
There was a confession of mommy's boyfriends tossed into a river with a block of cement on their feet and that was NEVER investigated. Disappointing really. The end was a non-ending.

Not impressed.

LUNATICS by Dave Barry/Al Zweibel **

It's similar in storyline to Forest Gump. A pair of local idiots are forced on trips around the world while causing all kinds of havoc that turns them from terrorists to heros. I had a lot of trouble separating them, they're too similar, as are their names: Peckerman and Horckman.
Readers are forced to follow them thru one stupid act to another. Begins with a loose Lemur, goes on to a lost insulin pump the lemur took, cop chases, being shot at, boarding a ship by stealing IDs, ending up in the desert or Africa feeding poor people bananas from a tipped over ship......blahblahblah.
I didn't find much of it amusing. Urinating anywhere, diarrhea in inappropriate scenes that are supposed to be humorous. The Donald running for president, one of them peeing on Sarah Palin. One of them who hasn't changed his pants for about a year and he has a wife. Like that'd happen. Lots of b.s. going on constantly, from accidental escapes, being met by terrorists or black ops or whatever. It's way overboard and I didn't find it the least bit entertaining.  Then the end was about politics (yawn).
The killing of animals pissed me off, or losing them, or hurting them or speaking about hurting them or killing them.
For me....blah

THE DROP by Michael Connelly ****

An older cop is assigned a newbie and has to sort of train him, meanwhile they do old unsolved cases plus he gets hired to do a Senators son's death as well. The stories move back and forth between the two but not in a difficult to follow way.
One looks like a suicide, the other is a pedophile and one of his victims gets to help the older cop Harry Bosch by ID'ing him, giving history etc. Got some good stuff, wouldn't call it a major page turner but good writing, easy to follow, not too many characters and the story lines are interesting.
I'm not sure I'd buy it but good library find.

SOFT TARGET by Stephen Hunter ***

This was a trapped-in-the-mall takeover by foreign guys hired by some white kid with too much time on his hands. Not really anything of interest to me.  People screaming, shots, bad guys killing people in the mall while a couple snipers figure out how to end the takeover. The higher ups free some stupid jailbirds and all it does is make the white kid happy for no reason in particular. He has no goal cept to die like he's in a video game. That's all the whole thing was to him, a game.
Not really a fan of so many people, so many killers and all the thousand of hostages. For me it wasn't really good reading, I skimmed over so much of it because it was boring for me. I think maybe it's a guy book? It sure ain't a girly girl reader.

DEFENSIVE WOUNDS by Lisa Black ****

Kind of a page turner with some breathing room for breaks. There are a lot of people in this and some of them are related to each other so keeping track is sort of important yet non-thrilling. It has to do with lots of weird murders of lawyers at a convention with no evidence (how likely is that?) must be a miracle killer you'd think and for a novice murderer it is very unusual. So anyways there are some red herrings, and some tense moments for the lead character who is overly dramatic about most things. There are a lot of boring little details about collecting evidence esp. since they never find anything at all but cat hairs.
Good library find if you want to take your time reading and learning all the people's names and relationships.

STORM DAMAGE by Ed Kovacs **

Just started reading it but already I got stuff to bitch about. There's a "copper" (writer calls them that) named Honey Baybee. I can only surmise he promised one of his favorite hookers her name would appear in his next book (maybe even more than one). An abomination, cop named for a hooker. DUH. There was a murder of some store owner and his body disappeared. But this is during/after Katrina that devastated New Orleans so everything is a mess that Mr. Hired Detective has to go thru. I can't stand mafia type people and their wars, which is implied at this point in the book so I don't know if I'll bother with it. After Honey Baybee it's too ridiculous to continue without laughing out loud and I'm only on page 40. I can see where someone else dog-earred a page then returned it to the library. So I'm not hopeful.

I'm on page 99 and tomorrow it's being returned to the library. The copper stuff is dull. I really don't see anyone naming their little daughter Honey Baybee, and I don't see a cop renaming herself that. Maybe as a stripper but permanent? She thinks someone will take her seriously? How? Done.

WHITE HORSE by Alex Adams ***

First of all this is supposed to be scary. I have to say that at first I really was interested and enthralled with the book because it had a disease taking over the population that changed DNA somehow and you will NEVER know how or why. What pisses me off is there is no explanation of this disease nor the shot she was given even tho the lead character Zoe confronts the old man in charge of the lab that created it. He also had her sister killed by mistake wanting to kill her.

The problem with the novel is that after all the crap that goes on you begin to become more and more amused until you are laughing at the preposterous scenarios unrolling for you. First all countries are at war. Then a disease kills off or physically changes more than half the population so soldiers return to find their familes deceased by the illness. People are burned in mass graves like a swimming pool--see how it becomes amusing? Meantime Zoe is wandering around like a stupid lost person trying to keep one person or animal alive at a time. She meets a serial killer OF COURSE, then she smothers him (so she thinks) - he (it) killed a couple people she liked and cared for.

Meantime it goes on and on in this drab black and white depressing storyline until WHAT could possibly happen next?? AN EARTHQUAKE???? Yes!! Just what I was waiting for. I laughed and laughed. One thing about thrillers or horror the writer is always walking a tightrope; you really don't want to go past the point towards laughter. And I am truly totally amused now by so much bizarre horror. I don't even GAS about Zoe anymore. She's not a believable character, she lost it. She doesn't want to start up a cigarette for a dying boy cuz she's PREGNANT....hahahaha....like it'll hurt the baby. Not that the earthquake, the DNA disease, end of the world, the murder and mayhem will but one hit off a cigarette is gonna be fatal to her baby -we don't even really know she's pregnant. Her friend thought she was but there was no baby. O yeah and try not to laugh when all the cats fall out of the trees or the air like it's raining cats. That was too funny.

So if you like funny horror this is it for you! Not done yet so if I get more funny stuff I'll letcha know. Of course it's overwhelmingly full of every death one can imagine. Disfigured people lurching around (think: Total Recall) while Zoe is off chasing her psychotherapist who leaves her for Greece not giving a frickin shit about her at all. Why does she want someone who runs from her? Writer probably has a few of these unrequited loves...mooning over someone who doesn't care about her. It's all I can come up with. No one in their right mind would travel from America to Greece during war, famine, and disease with cats falling out of the sky for someone who ran away from her. DUH.

VICTIMS by Jonathan Kellerman ****

Awesome book, I took my time cuz I didn't want it to end. Has the psychologist Alex Delaware and Milo his cop pal looking for serial killers that originated in an old asylum years ago. A few things I didn't follow well enough or something 1) how did they know 2 people were working together? and 2) Who and what are Pitty and Eccles as part of this story? That confused me. As "mentors" what did they mentor? I have no idea how they got involved with the real killer. I don't even know if they killed anyone or what their motives were. At least the real nutcase killer is distinguishable and a solid filled out character in the story where the other two are much less so.

It was a good story, easy to follow and read, scary killer, bloody murders, lots of investigating and guesswork. I generally enjoyed it and would recommend buying it or get it at the library. Pretty good reading. Just concentrate better than I did maybe you'll figure out how the other 2 fit in. I left not knowing.

BONNIE by Iris Johansen

Difficult to follow with chasing thru woods, fog, anything to thwart the progress of the chase. So there are like 5 people who can't find one person a little bit ahead of them who is thoughtful enough to hide a boat and car for his getaway. Most of this crap I don't get at all. Supposedly Eve Duncan's daughter disappeared a long time ago and WHAT MOTHER would assume that she was murdered without a shred of proof? Who? Who? No blood, no body, no clothing found, no weapon found. NOTHING. She just assumes she's dead. There isn't a real life mother who would not hold out hope for a live child somewhere out there waiting to come home except this one. So meantime her and her crew of kiss asses are out chasing suspects.
I can't read it. Sorry. To misdirecting, too red herring. Too much of I just don't care. Not interesting enough.

The SKELETON BOX by Bryan Gruley ***

The names of places in here are depressing; Starvation Lake, Hungry River, and some other one. Long involved murder about a nun in the 1950's which most of the people involved are luckily still alive. The main character's mom is involved hiding info and evidence. The protag is a newspaper writer. So of course some of the townspeople are either involved, know who was and suddenly for whatever reason people are now being robbed or killed for a map mom drew 30 yrs ago.
Lots of people mentioned, names galore, too many personalities and twisted motives. Of course involving, nun, priest and baby. Not really a book I'd look to read but it was fair to ok for me.
I don't like old mysteries. I like newish murders, forensics, ongoing on the run hiding etc.
This was an old forgotten mystery and for me the reading went slow.

TOO MUCH STUFF by Don Bruns ****

Sort of comedic story telling about 2 not very bright guys on the prowl for some leftover supposedly buried gold in Islamoralda. Won't say more than that or I'll give away too much info. They were hired by a woman who deciphered a message and that's why they thought the gold was on the island.

They two pals bicker back and forth, there are a few women tossed in to keep them healthy, aside from it's in the Keys so I'm sure there are plenty of women down there. Not once did they eat a key lime pie much to my disappointment.

Good pace, well written, nice adventure to go along for the ride. Not too deep or confusing or over anyone's head. Liked it, get it at the library. Not really a "murder mystery" but still ok.

BLINK of an EYE by William S. Cohen

Wow, hard to read. Can't follow it at all. So much internal junk, lots of diplomatic crap, too much gov't garbage. It's some kind of conspiracy oriented story wrapped in so much crap you can't find the story line. Good luck. I read about 25 pages and gave it all I got. Hated it.

DEAL BREAKER by Harlan Coben *****

Picked it up at a yard sale for beach reading. Great book, lots of action. Coben actually takes you along with one character as he goes from one place described well to another with his buddies or girlfriend. Old case is being investigated with Myron Bolitar's help, his first case.
Fast paced, well written, easy to follow. No uppity Harvard-snob type writing, just down to earth and really am grateful for that after so much vomit I have to read. Thanks for the great story. I liked it a lot. Get it at the library, a yard sale or buy it. Worth it.

FREEZING by Clea Koff ***

Really fast paced and readable novel. It felt like you know the characters, they're all very distinctive and likable except of course the bad guys. I liked the forensics, the science and explanations of the deaths but for a murder novel I would have preferred more in depth of the the killer/killers by that I mean their mental thoughts, their processing of information. I feel it lacked something I can't describe as far as the murders and it being a mystery.

The personal issues that were involved either weren't well described or not traumatic enough to cause the disturbances acted out by the characters. Going into forensics is an expectation of working with bodies, not being traumatized by all associated with the job. She picked the wrong profession? The writer seems to be over awed by her own job description. 

The one incident of a guy being blown up in front of one of the  main characters wasn't touched upon enough to satisfy my curiousity about why it affected the person to any extent. Wasn't enough. The reasoning of the killer to "get" Houston wasn't explained well, nor did Houston ever even KNOW why the killer was killing because of him. I don't really know either. Not explained a all.

Good library book but could use some work. To me it seemed like a work in progress, not a done deal.

The END of the WASP SEASON by D. Mina *

Written by a woman from Scotland. Confusing. I'm getting descriptions of everything in the room, the stairs, the books, furniture. It goes from one confusing scene to another. A driver is never named yet there is a conversation between the pregnant female investigator and the female driver. I really am being dragged thru this room by room, person by person all with partial personalities. I'm not going to finish the book. It's way too boring for me.

I have no idea what relation anyone has to anyone else and at this point since the author doesn't WANT to tell me I don't care anymore.

WHAT DOESN'T KILL YOU by Iris Johansen ***

I actually couldn't wait to read this and put a hold at the library for it but once I started reading it I found it to be extremely repetitive, somewhat boring and very little action. I barely cared about the characters who seem mostly robotic or make believe or whatever they are. There's a lot of philosophizing that really is circular in it's thinking: round and round and round over and over again.

Someplace in this hodgepodge of sloppiness is a story about some poison, or tampering with stem cells and people trying to get it and other people trying to stop them and protect themselves. The bulk of the REAL story could have been over in 5 chapters or so but I was dragged kicking and screaming thru 406 pages. So many times I didn't want to continue.

I feel so so about it. If there's story, it's not easy to pick it up; it totally gets interrupted many times with either her childhood, her kids childhood and nothing at all about the obvious HIS FATHER. Since she trusts so few people who the hell was the baby daddy?

L.A. MENTAL by Neil McMahon ****

Honestly I have no idea what the L.A. Mental is all about..the title. It doesn't seem to fit the story. The story is about people who are making a movie. Then it's about some of them having nano technology they put into cocaine or in a bath so others inhale it. Then they have these remote controls to control people with either ecstasy or violence. At one point the FBI are involved but you really don't see much of them, or have a clue what they're doing in the story. Only one person gets arrested. They never stop the nano stuff from being anywhere. No scientist tries to cure anyone. Nanos remain in place in their brains.

Later there are truck loads of this stuff dumped and burning in a port so many people are going to be exposed. Next book I suppose. Meantime I found the premise weird. I found the nanos had magical unrealistic powers and the main character thinks he discovered layers of "gods" that watch silently as all this goes on. It's a lot of fictional junk to be tossed on a reader so stay awake. Not poorly written, but confusing at times. Ok library find.

SON OF STONE by Stuart Woods *

Bazillionaires owning planes, flying them, directing business, having friends and parties with their bazillionaire over talented kids with IQ of 180 or something, making movies at 16 yrs old getting millions for it while still in school =basics.

Stone falls in love, her ex boyfriend isn't happy. They get married, children are involved, all geniuses who don't get into trouble. Life is happy, rich, tits are thrown in men's faces while they're getting waited on, the rich are waited on hand and foot, can't even get a slipper without some asshole passing it over to them. They are all too beautiful to mention. The rich unavailable life to 99% of America and I'm supposed to feel sorry after reading 229 pages of this boring ostentatious crap that someone gets shot. O no! It's the wealthy trillionaire wife! Her ex shoots her, then the housekeeper shoots him. OVER in a second. WOW
Hated it. Boring shove diamonds in your face crappola. Stay off Woods. I feel guilty giving it ONE star.

BACK OF BEYOND by C.J. Box ***

Interesting storytelling. Some alcoholics from AA are being bumped off. Then some people go on a camping trip in Yellowstone where more people are getting bumped off. I liked most of the story, I even liked the cranky cop Cody Hoyt, he has a nice sense of humor about his superiors. His son is one of the Yellowstone campers along with some other kids.

What stumps me is some guys who went to an AA meeting were told about a plane full of money that crashed in Yellowstone. Big deal right? But what I don't know is how the killer found out what story was told in the meeting. HOW? There is no explanation about how she knew anything about what they talked about in the AA meeting.

Not only that but there was no explanation about WHO or HOW the people got killed after leaving the campsite. WHO did the killing? No mention of anyone leaving the campsite,  horsese missing (hard for a clackety noisy horse to quietly disappear) and for all I know the guy leading the campers did it, or his girlfriend did it or this female killer did it but we never really get to know the whole story about those episodes which if you ask me are rather IMPORTANT to the story. So there was more information about Yellowstone and Cody with his cig/alkie issues than the MEAT of the story like WHO frickin DONE IT. The only one we know is a undersheriff (whatever he's under) did something to almost kill Cody. That's it. Ta-da.

DEATH BENEFIT by Robin Cook *****

Really good reading, easy style, limited amount of characters, all very distinguishable. About 2 doctors working on the newest research to replace body parts by growing them using cells, and water baths, plus a new sort of dot matrix thingy, which is so advanced technologically it's hard to imagine. A med student gets involved by studying beside the 2 docs when suddenly both docs are murdered. She runs around being abducted, beaten and still clings to the facts and tries to expose their deaths.

The other part of the book is about the evil money brings to people who value it above all else. Some people are so fearful of losing insurance money of diabetic patients who will have a future of growing their own pancreas that they are determined to stop progress.

Very satisfying ending for all involved and I found it fast paced and hard to put down. Cook always has very interesting over the top in advance technology medicine stories. Some parts leave you wondering if it's even possible to do what he describes. I would buy the book. Very good.

KILLING KATE by Julie Kramer ****

Quick moving, with humor here and there. A reporter is doing a couple stories and gets personally involved and on the killers list of victims. The ridiculous enters when she believes she has a guardian angel who is really the killer following her around. She actually BELIEVES she has a guardian angel in the flesh. Dimwit. I hate religion tossed haphazardly into my reading material. I don't enjoy fantasy writing.

Her boyfriends name throughout the entire book was I believed "Garnett" then in one paragraph on page 269 she begins to talk about someone named Nick. WTF is a Nick? Where'd that come from? Suddenly one section, on one page, his name turned into Nick. So most of the time during the story she writes using his last name for everything??? Who does that? I never met anyone calling their husband or boyfriend by their last name IRL. That sort of threw me off track. Lots of other people in the book have their first names used so I don't understand why Garnett is favored over Nick. Confusing.

So people are being killed, serial style killer and she's writing stories for her paper about it and doing a little investigative work and interviews that lead her around in and out of trouble. That's about the jist of it.

NEED YOU NOW by James Grippando **

People praise this "nail biting style"on the cover and I was mostly bored propping myself up to keep track of names, agencies they belong to, good or evil, lying or not, it was a smallish book but most of the time I was confused. It wasn't my fault either. Cast of hundreds of characters, self important higher ups nobody cares about.  Many descriptions of physical things, more so than people or their actual feelings.

Money is missing, no one ever finds it, no one ever knows what it financed, lots of people are killed mostly in disgusting I-don't-wanna-know ways. Thoroughly disappointed, normally I like his books.
His leading character's job description: Wall Street advisor at the worlds largest Swiss bank. WTF does that mean? I never once saw him working, or doing anything related to work, or even in a Swiss bank. WTF does Lily do that directly ties her to billions of dollars in losses suffered?
Beyond my care meter. Blah. Mostly due to the plethora of side characters I don't GAS about.

DEADLY MAGIC by Ilona Benzel *****

No wasted words here. This is a horror novel about a magician finding a mirror from area 51 in New Mexico. He thinks he can add the magic in the mirror to his act because things disappear into it and sometimes return, alas, sometimes they don't.

Eventually he disappears, house is sold, mirror is found and suddenly people who visit the house suffer disturbing fates. People are compelled to kill others.

What horror is taking place in the home previously owned by the magician, what new monsters are slowly developing to take over our world.

I really liked the book, fast paced, well developed characters. Can't get it from library but it's on Amazon and ready for kindle as well. Worth the cover price.

LETHAL by Sandra Brown ****

Good writing, fast paced novel with twists and turns, unexpected bad guys and suspicions all along about innocents. I like the book and recommend it to anyone looking for adventurous writing with  hiding out, joining forces with FBI, lots of untrustworthy people, even cops involved. Very unsuspecting evil character.

Some areas were repetitious but that's how to get 470 pages, I suppose. I would chop out some stuff if I was an editor but it doesn't detract from the story too much.

Guns, death, cops, FBI, people protecting each other for right or wrong reasons. There was a little romance and the little bit in there was 1,000x better than the last crappy version of a book I read. Very tasteful and caring. People in the novel felt real and had well rounded personalities. Because of the boring repetitive areas I wouldn't pay for it, but great library find.

THE INQUISITOR by Mark Allen Smith **

Lots of kidnapping, head banging and violence. Someone has "something' other people are trying to get. It's a tape. Meanwhile a child is kidnapped and our hero Geiger finally 'feels' something for someone else and decides to take care of him till the material is given to the kidnappers.

Now I don't care about all the repetition page filler type stuff that goes on and on forever. Like fights and hiding or running away. That crap just continues throughout the story unrelentingly. Then the end result, what the kidnappers want is never explained WHY they want it. Who is really behind trying to get it and why is it necessary for people to be killed over some tapes that are about 10 yrs old? What is the point?

I thought aside from about 60 pages that could easily have been removed it was written ok but left you wondering if you'd ever get answers to anything. Most stuff you do not. It's a fast reader esp. if you skip the repetition stuff. Lots of pain, blood, gore, but at least you can read it quickly. Pain isn't ever lasting.
Lots of why? why? huh? What for? I was so so about reading it. Could have lived without it.

50 SHADES of GRAY by EL James

I'm now DONE reading an online version of a book (couldn't finish-too gross). I say it's a version of a book cuz it's really a piece of trash. There are no real personalities to speak of. Barbie does S&M. Hate it. Sorry MISS STEELE does S&M. Very very slow reading, repetitive and monotonous. The author seems to have ripped off a lot of material from other books for this piece of shit.  How many gorgeous women that tons of men would want are virgins at age 21 and not for religious reasons?

BTW I wish she'd bite her fucking lip right off. What a misfit. They fuck constantly and she says O he's so close I could touch him. NO DUH

If you're sexually repressed and need some sex ideas for your bedroom you could scan thru to find something interesting but personally there's nothing of interest in this piece of shit. I don't need  pornography to find new things to do in the bedroom. I'm not sexually stunted and have my own ideas.

And guess what? Of course, of all the real literature and great writing by self-published authors this mindless English tea sucker with her repetitive crap writing gets on TV and has movie offers.

WOW perfect example of the dumbing down of America. People actually admit to LIKING this shit? I dread meeting any of them.
P.S. what's with the belly clenching is that where Miss E.L. James thinks her clitoris is?

O gosh my sister LOVED this book. ICK. This book sure doesn't deserve the amount of attention it's getting. It's not by any means a well written interesting story. ROMANCE, S&M, REPETITIVE and SIMPLISTIC. People who don't know how to read can bore themselves with it but there are sure plenty of better writers. THOUSANDS of them.

Challenge: I write better than this horny tea sucker. Backyard dog (Amazon), read that. Much more emotional and intriguing. What life is really about: highs, lows, characters you fall in love with or hate. Reading should bring you new views and ideas, get inside your mind and life and change you a little. My book does that. I wouldn't criticize without having a clue about how to write.
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