DEAD ANYWAY by Chris Knopf *****

Couldn't put the book down, very difficult to stop reading this one. It moves very quickly. A man, Arthur and his wife are shot, the man survives, recovers yet assumes new identities having himself declared dead. His sister helps with this subterfuge and off we go.

He starts off alone trying to figure out how to get the guy who shot him in the head, he is wounded enough that it takes him some time to regain all his faculties while this is all going down. In the meantime he connects with some mafia type Bosnians and a girlfriend then they bring down the bad guys.

He has to use a cop for some information, the cop not knowing who he is but he's getting info he himself can use to arrest people he's wanted for years. But in the end Arthur pisses him off and the book ends at a new beginning. They must now find the person withdrawing funds from an account his wife had hidden from her insurance company which was most likely the reason she was killed in the first place. Book with no end.

I would buy the book, very easy to get thru, fast read, moves quickly from scene to scene and is believable in most instances. He does seem to predict a lot of stuff that with a brain injury may have been a little more difficult to see.
And if Chris is in the Daytona neighborhood I'd be more than happy to meet him, he's hot.

FALLEN MASTERS by John Edward ***

At first the book is intriguing but after awhile it gets repetitious and boring. It just goes on and on in the same boring tone with different characters. Not one character stands out in any special way from anyone else.

There's some stupid singer I suppose is tailored after Taylor Swift, John Travolta is in the story. It's mostly about good vs evil and all the power that be are battling a dark cloud versus people being told by ghosts of other people how to be good. It's almost pathetic in some places how obvious it is.

I really lost interest around chapter 80 someplace and had to force myself to the end by skipping a lot of pages. So much blah blah blah could have been chopped out of it and the most mind boggling, idiotic ending about some singer at the Academy Awards with some other 'good guy' was really the frosting on the cake. Come on the Academy Awards?? WTF? I laughed due to the absurdity of it all. The ghosts and "other" place was about as smarmy as you can get and the ending was pretty boring. I gave it some stars because it began ok and I was interested enough to continue but someplace it lost a hold on me and I began hating it totally.

It became a joke at the end, really. Bad joke.

NYPD RED by Patterson, Karp *****

As usual, very intense writing, terse and moves quickly. Hard to put down. Characters well described and likable. Some crazy guy is on the loose making a movie in his head. He likes to kill and bomb places with his girlfriend helping set his scenes. Really good reading.

ICE FIRE by David Lyons ****

I thought it was very well written, had a good storyline and enjoyed the characters. It's about a very old case and a crooked judge and his cohorts trying to get methane from ice.

The story is believable and the protagonist Jock is a common sense kind of guy who helps out a person he barely knows because he thinks he's doing it for the right reasons. I think the death of his secretary/girlfriend was uncalled for but I suppose he had to continue the relationship with the first girlfriend who wasn't nearly as close to him.

I got it at the library and was happily surprised the story was so good.

SLEEP NO MORE by Iris Johansen **

An "Eve Duncan" story, novel or whatever. So suddenly she finds out she has a sister kept in an institution. The father of the sister is/was running for president? Or something you never really get a good fix on what he was running for all you know is that his mommy is killing everyone who seems to get in his way cuz he likes screwing underage kids. So she has them killed. Geez....what's worse, screwing underage kids or killing them? Who is the most controversial if he got elected? Duh I don't know.

Take it for granted that Iris takes your brain for granted in that you probably don't have one or you wouldn't be reading her slow moving repetitive novel with some penis entering vagina paragraphs.

I wasn't crazy about it, I think she writes for an immature audience. My take. You have yours I'm sure. Easy enough to get thru the chases and murders, and shootings and head bangings even the stupid ass killer kills the only reason he's being paid-the guy running for president or whatever the fuck. LOL Makes no sense to me. Maybe you need to be dumber to get it all.

The FORGOTTEN by David Baldacci *****

Very intense writing, leaves nothing unsaid or undone. The story is so powerful you can't put it down. I loved every second reading it and wish most authors could do the same thing but that's what puts Baldacci above most. He's a very good writer. Buy it no regrets. Excellent story line. Don't hold your breath too long during the action scenes you're liable to pass out.

LITTLE STAR by JA Lindqvist *

I think I got to chapter 14 or something. Baby found in the woods. Scary baby who doesn't seem right only knows music ends up miraculously in a home of musicians. Can't talk, just hums tunes.
Nothing to see here. Bye bye bookie. Boring as all hell. If it's going to break out and be scary (touted as good as Stephen King, haha) then WHEN?? I don't got all day!

BLACK DIAMOND by John F. Dobbyn ***

Mostly about the Irish, their past, the present, fixing races at Suffolk downs and a minor child kidnapping. Lots of 'mafia' types and trips back and forth to Ireland, US. I really didn't find it all that exciting. I suppose if you're Irish and can put up with mafia types who hang out in bars, and men who think they're cool to be mean this is the one for you~ me not so much.
The ending makes no sense to me. I've been to lots of races, horses and dogs. Anytime a jockey falls from a horse or jumps off or a dog catches the rabbit or any thing like that occurs it is declared a NO RACE. So in this story the reason for a jockey to jump off a winning horse is illogical. The race wouldn't have counted. Author should go to more races, me thinks.

DEAD LEVEL by Sarah Graves **

I think I got into 25 pages before giving up. It's just so slow and too descriptive for me, I prefer every line in a book, esp. a mystery to lead me to the mystery. Some escaped convict is after them, another female with a male  name and I can never figure out sentences with pronouns Jake apprently testified against him and is now back in the area. Good luck to Jake the female.

TWO GRAVES by Preston&Child *****

Great storytelling and at times difficult to put down. I found the basic theory with the Germans believable, so there are these twins and half are very bright the other half not so much. Pendergast gets involved due to his wife having been one of the twins and she is killed early in the reading so he's off trying to figure out why.
There are a few moments when you get tired of the chasing and running and missed shots etc. Even whether the shots were intentional or not. I liked it enough that I would buy it tho. Very good story, well told, characters are interesting and rounded out.

CLOUDLAND by Joseph Olshan ***

I wasn't overwhelmed by the novel. It had a lot of blah blah crap in it to consume pages about the land, the scenery, the descriptions of nonessential stuff, the weather, her past having no relation to the story.
Once I got going more-maybe halfway I sort of got into it more and it became important to finish it. It had old lovers, jilted lovers, bad cops, killers, knacker man, whatever. It eventually turned into a murder mystery for real finally.
I'm so so on it.

INTO the DARKEST CORNER by E.Haynes ***

I read the entire book, slowly. I hate Brit writers, so much tea drinking my bladder was killing me by the end of it. Yuck. We are Americans. Basically unless we're dying of something we drink COFFEE. We dumped a load of tea into Boston Habah....so give it a rest with the crappy weak tea.

Next, the story begins with cowardly girl and bad boy cop who controls her, then she gets away, finds new boyfriend asap, then thru some means you never discover she gets brave and strong. Therapy? I don't really know there is no transformation you can see. The next time she runs into the dickhead boyfriend she's perfectly capable of handling him. The end.