The KRAKEN PROJECT by Douglas Preston ****

This was an interesting concept, an AI becomes self aware and was written for a program intent on sending her to another planet's moon to study the hostile environment. "She" Dorothy, realized she would be in a hostile environment alone and decided to escape from the vehicle holding her prisoner.

She jumped into a computer destroyed the NASA building and the rest of the book is basically people chasing her around. A computer programmer wants her for stock raiding, the original programmer wants her back to reinstall her, beginning to realize the program is self aware.

The program ends up in some kids play robot his dad is working on and everywhere she goes trouble is following, guns going off etc. There are some nasty ass cops in Arizona, remind me not to go there and get stopped. They were beating the crap out of innocent people and not allowing them lawyers. Guess Mr. Preston found some ol' hick cops passing thru. :)

I would get it at the library. It keeps you reading even though you're on a chase with near misses the entire time. Was good for getting your head out of your problems. Short time.

FLESH AND BLOOD by Patricia Cornwell ****

Good story, good writing, yet again someone is trying to kill Kay Scarpetta the coroner, and/or her husband she stole from someone else Bentley. They don't really do much communicating. The adopted daughter Lucy is first suspected in some deaths due to the height a sniper uses and distance etc. But it's up Bentley and Lucy to solve the case without Kay getting involved but of course she has her suspicions.

Always Kay is under attack. If you comb the internet you probably won't find ONE coroner whose life is in danger as often as hers is (I found NONE). Mostly it's due to past crimes or her unstable niece Lucy. I really wish this was a book about solving SOMEONE ELSE'S DAMN CRIME.

I'm sick of Princess Kay, King Bentley and whatever Lucy is. I won't say I hated it or stopped reading it but I'm really getting bored with the same old same old. Too bad we can't think outside the box. There is a lot of internal thinking and that's the bulk of the novel. Not much in the way of action.

Get it at the library because you read one you've read them all.

DEADLINE by John Sandford ***

This is a Vigil Flowers story taking place out in some Minn. place where the school board is ripping off the town and all the dogs in the area have been stolen to be sold at auction. That about sums it up but you gotta read over 300 pages to get there.

He's still fucking the town pump Ma aka Frankie with a kid from about 10 different fathers, I stopped keeping track. This relationship only makes Flowers look like a low life slut fucker. Far as I'm concerned, and while he's gone what's she doing besides fake farming? Who knows. She spent most of her life screwing anything that'd fit. I'd rather see him with the slutty TV Reporter. Least she has a job and probably no kids.

I outlined it for you, lots of long boring crap in between knowing about the school, getting evidence, knowing about the dogs who had to wait till the last chapter to be saved. I mean boy how'd the book get to 300  pages?? I will never figure it out. Good luck ya'll.

PERSONAL (Jack Reacher Novel) by Lee Child**

Well I started out hopeful that I'd like this cuz normally I read his stuff but I could only get half thru it because so much of the same old same old kept happening over and over. Reacher and a female named Nice (nice, lol) were running around London trying to buy guns and pissed off several "gangs" here and there. Some other guy Bennet is like a watchdog of some sort. He GPS's them somehow and likes that they knocked off a few of one gang but wants more?

I don't really care and I tried to. I read 212 pages for christ's sake and boy it was so much the same throughout the book I figured I already read everything I needed to know. He's a NY bestselling author so you want to read it and fall asleep that way ... it's your call. I didn't like it.

KEEP QUIET by Lisa Scottoline ***

If I wrote this I would cut about 100 pages of repetitive story line. Over and over how bad everyone feels about the tragic death of a runner (track?) around a curve in the road. They even arrange this huge meeting in like a gym or something crowded with all the people from the school to discuss her tragic loss and say nice things about her. I have never in my life heard of this being done, aside from the fact the "praise overdone" lasted about 20 minutes.

The husband allows his son to drive and he hits someone, the rest I'll leave to you to find out if you decide to read this. Really I couldn't get past all the over and over grieving and blaming and sadness and blahblah geez. Not to mention the "secrets" they all kept from each other during almost the entire novel. Dysfunctional family but not typical.

I wasn't hot for it, I had to slog thru much of the boring stuff.

ROGUE CODE by Mark Russinbovich **

This book is not for a beginner computer or stocks buyer person. I've been on computers since the 80s and trade online but I couldn't get half of what was going on. It bored me. It's about a new program some people are trying to get made public on the stock market. Meantime a company is trying to explore ways to get into the servers of the stock market to close up any holes. Someone has penetrated the stock market computers and are ready to begin stealing from people.

Very confusing. Here is a paragraph and I read over 100 pages then dropped it in frustration. :"That's something else we need to consider," Adam said. "Founders and early backers typically represent about ten percent of the stock first sold to the public. We're over forty percent, not as bad as Facebook was,but bad enough. If makes it look like we don't have any faith in Toptical and want to get our money while we still can."

I didn't care for it.

DEEP WINTER by Samuel W. Gailey **

This wasn't the true definition of a murder mystery because you know right off who did it, but it was law enforcement and he was going to frame the girls friend. Everyone in this town except maybe 3 people were mean, nasty killers. The cops, the deputies, the local sheriff and the brothers of the slain girl. All nasty pieces of work. Only the Statie was mildly nasty but started looking at some of the evidence and changed his mind.

There was never a true investigation, no CSI, no autopsy, no clues, no evidence, nothing to prove a cop killed the girl even though his blood and skin were under her fingernails he WAS A SHERIFF and still thought he could get away with it?? What a moron. What town in it's right mind would hire this drunken sack of shit as a cop? Drunks.....majority of players were drunks, gun happy, killers.

I read it because it's a horroday (holiday) and the library was closed 4 days and had nothing else to read. This book was fair to yuck. If I was stuck alone on a desert island and this floated up I'd read it and still be disappointed. WTF is a gangrene 3 legged doe doing leading people around anyways? Is this some kind of mystical being? Don't worry folks the nasty inebriated sheriff knocks her off without so much as blinking as he does with everyone he aims the gun at. He shoots innocent bystanders. Pretty much everyone in front of him gets shot.

Try to keep an open mind but I didn't like anyone in the story.

SAUCER SAVAGE PLANET by Stephen Coonts ***

I didn't think this was a "bestseller" by any means but after reading the last book by Phillip K Dick I think this one lacks whatever Dick is writing.

This is sort of about an alien who appears human and he's lived thousand years or so going thru time with Vikings, and Indians having a family and children. His space ships are discovered, they are run with headband and ESP. Some girl just walks onto one and can fly it in no time. Meanwhile the alien called Adam Solo joins a group to destroy DNA that would solve cancer and have people living thousands of years which makes the words "population explosion" obsolete. The planet would be overwhelmed. Anyways I didn't think it was a page turner, I got thru it fast because I needed to get it out of my head, some places I skipped pages and pages of explanations or narrative and only reading the first line got me the basics.

Too many boring sequences and some repetitious areas that were distracting from the main story line. Didn't love it didn't hate it. So so.

FLOW MY TEARS, THE POLICEMAN SAID by Phillip K. Dick *****

Very unusual philosophical sci fi. A famous actor/TV star wakes up in a flop house and cannot be identified even though he believes he knows who he is. He gets the attention of cops and a couple women and in the end believes that most of his life is perception, and he's been on a drug all the time. You never really get a solid explanation of that.

This writer is very good at what he does, he keeps your interest and pulls you along with him in the story even tho you may not want to go. He had some interesting views on mourning and death around page 112 or so.

http://www.octobot.net/library/Dick,%20Philip%20K/Dick,%20Philip%20K%20-%20Flow%20My%20Tears,%20the%20Policeman%20Said.pdf

That is a pdf version you can download or read online.
He's written a number of books and since I enjoyed the first one will keep reading him for awhile between modern writers. This guy has been around for awhile.

VISONS by Kelley Armstrong **

I read up to the 10th chapter, repetitious, boring and hard to care about at all. I could barely force myself to read as much as I did. Too much going over the past, which means the past book. If I was interested in knowing about book one I would have read it. I did not read it therefore I am not interested in hearing about it all in book 2.

This girl sees visions, supposedly was going to get married but now isn't and is love with some con artist guy who is being paid by her first fiance to watch out for her and he hires her to work for him and he didn't tell her he was hired by the boyfriend. Circles around more circles. Must be chicklit.

Can you see where this confusing mass of b.s. is going? It was probably written for tweens because I hated it. Don't recommend unless you want to be put to sleep anytime you pick it up.

DOING HARM by Kelly Parsons *****

This book was great, it was named appropriately; you know it's about doctors and someone is doing bad stuff. The title totally fits the novel.

From the very first page I was severely hooked. I had to pick it up anytime I had to myself and read it. Very fast action, twists and turns unexpectedly, people dying and you have no idea who is next. The killer is very blatant with a doctor and sort of makes him complicit but he and someone else figure out a way to beat her and it's really a page turner you won't soon forget and I really don't want to go into a hospital anytime soon. :) Liked it a lot would buy it. Worth it.

The CATCH by Taylor Stevens ***

Well not at all a murder mystery. This is a hijacked boat with a guy/girl running most of the stuff going on. She's so freaking tough most guys believe she IS a guy. This is all taking place in 3rd world countries and a boat gets hijacked by Somali pirates that Vanessa "Michael" Monroe has to cope with the villain and friendlies to correct everything the gun runners started.

She's so tough and rugged and manly she can shoot her way out of anyplace. She knows more about guns than seduction. When she gets hurt you don't stop hearing about her fatigue and pain at all. It's constant throughout the book, gets monotonous. What I hated was that. Tell Mrs. Tough Guy to shut TF up and get the job done without all the pain whining. She has lots of drugs so pain should stop entirely being an issue.

This is not a book I would select if I knew it had no murders involved. It sounded intriguing but I wouldn't personally recommend it to a mystery reader. One reason I didn't like it is that it's 90% narrative. Not a don't tell, show sort of thing, mostly a tell and tell and tell. On and on. That's my take on it anyway.

WHERE MONSTERS DWELL by Jorgen Brekke ***

This is of course written by a guy from Norway. I'm not fond of non-American murder mysteries. There is one character cop from the US involved but not very much. There's a lot of screwing going on which I also don't much care for but it led someone else to become a killer of his wife and son due to her cheating.

Several times I had to just put the book down and take a break. It was full of characters, a lot of them on the sidelines and unimportant but you had to read thru that crap to continue on. There are lots of places that are difficult if not impossible to pronounce nor do I have a desire to figure them out. I can't understand the label "The #1 international Bestseller" What a load of crap. This book had too much narrative descriptions, too many sexual goings on, too many people to count, travel here and there and who gives a crap. Certainly not me.

If you seriously need to read about a Norway murderer then by all means get it at the library. If I knew what this was about FIRST I would have left it on the shelf. I did read the entire novel because I had become deeply involved with names, towns and who was doing what. The fact someone was using skin as a book cover or parchment paper was an interesting angle but I still had to leave the book and escape. Usually books ARE the escape.

The BONE CLOCKS by David Mitchell *

Very choppy writing, could not get into it at all. Too many characters and there's a chapter or series of pages 98-166 that took me out of the story into some other musical crap then some people you're not introduced to until now. There is nothing to read in there. Then the story continues about this runaways life about 5 yrs later. She left home and caught her boyfriend (she's 15 he's 24) and he was in bed with her best friend.

Lots of 'thinking' by people, too much narrative and not much interesting action. Never really get an explanation for the action. Like her brother goes missing and poof nothing else. That's where you have to start a new story on page 58. It all sucked for me. Have no idea WTF it's doing on the NY times bestseller list. Sucked for me.

Oh yeah and what's "fecking?" or "Biro"? or "mam" "trucks wallop by" and "Seeds off dandlion clocks"? Rhimes with a tent over the i what is that?? I don't like reading crap I need to spend 10 minutes figuring out one sentence. No thanks.

INDEFENSIBLE by Lee Goodman ***

It was a slow read for me. I lost interest here and there due to the overwhelming population of characters. Even if introduced slowly they just over came me. This is about a Federal prosecutor  Nick Davis who had/has friends and what stuff they all do and who commits a crime and who doesn't. Who gets arrested for what and how he is involved in it.

I found it tedious at some points. There were more innuendos than actual telling of who did what and why and how they were dealt with. Too many killers, too many dead people with barely explanations for their deaths. I really pushed myself to continue.

Anyone used to murder mysteries and like an involved tale that you need to think yourself thru will like it but too much wear and tear for me. It was so so. Get it at the library.

DON'T TRY TO FIND ME by Holly Brown **

Not a fan. The main characters in the story were very unrealistic (self absorbed) so I didn't like it much. Everyone has something to whine about except the brow beaten husband. If you get to page 59 someone else she calls self absorbed but everyone in the novel is that way.

Then the girl Marnie gets on a bus and from what little the author says you assume she fucked Kyle but she didn't? Hard to figure that out till much later. And why does she want Kyle when she's madly in love with "B" and WTF is he called B for???? LOL That's so stupid.

So this married couple have a kid 14 (not his) and she runs away to meet her "true love" an exc on 2x her age. She wants to erase her name and past and be in love with this creepy person whom she has no idea is creepy because growing up in CA no mater where would make her a LOT smarter than the author allows her. I came from NH and wouldn't hookup with that loser. He lied to her about everything. How long would it take to figure that out? For the girl Marnie a long time.

Meantime daddy is on the internet and putting up flyers all over the country to find her and the mom (who is nothing special) fends off the daughters therapist and does drugs he prescribed for her. BIG WHOOP. She doesn't even screw him and the entire thing is such a major trauma in the book it's absurd. The front flap makes it sound like she has this deep dark secret when all it is is- NOTHING. 

The entire book is pretty much about NOTHING. Here's the story in a nutshell: Miserable horny teenager 14 thinks she's in love, runs away to her true love pedophile and eventually runs home to mommy. The parents are complete blindfolded idiots. The father has more sense than anyone else in the book. Mostly they just whine about everything and complain.

I didn't like it. No mystery. Nothing even close. It's actually a dumb book probably for a teenager who needs to be KEPT IN PLACE is supposed to read. Like, kids read this if you want to run away from the good life at home. 

THE SKIN COLLECTOR by Jeffery Deaver *****

Good reading as always. It has Amanda Sachs and Lincoln Rhyme. The detective in a wheel chair and his supposed blond model girlfriend. A likely couple. (not...only in a fiction story, lol). Anyway they have to solve a crime about a guy who tattoos people with poison, tries to poison Sachs and Rhyme in separate ways.

The killer is connected to the last book Bone Collector by way of cults and apocalyptic type thinking. A group of these people are involved. A few cops are killed, one is in bad shape in the hospital. Then another old foe "watch collector" enters the story towards the end.

Whatever the combo of information, introductions are made carefully, slowly and easily. The story flows along swiftly and to the point. No wasted crap to read thru to get to the story line. I enjoyed the book, I'm definitely a fan of Deaver. Good reading I would buy it.

SNOWBLIND by Christopher Golden ****

This is a horror type novel in New England area. There are several major characters, children and adults. The snow storms in the area carry frozen monsters of some sort that take the soul of people. You'll have to read it yourself to understand that aspect of the novel.

I thought the characters were all well defined, there were quite a few of them and after awhile became somewhat mixed together and confusing for me. It wasn't the best horror I've read but it was pretty good. Find it at the library.

One thing I didn't understand is why NO ONE thought to build fires, even burning houses down to rid themselves of the frozen monsters. Or use heaters, or torches, or something. It's like no one tried to really combat them aside from someone's ghost father.

IDENTICAL by Scott Turow ***

I found it somewhat readable but there was a lot of narrative and family stuff and history. On page 27 -28 there are so many people introduced I couldn't keep up with them after that: Raymond Horgan, Stan Sennett, Paul's cousin, Dita's murder, Sandy Stern, Cass, Nico Della Guardia, Mark Crully, Hal someone. This is still early in the book during some law case and it didn't matter much in the long run so why waste brain cells? Paul is running for office, his brother Cass was in jail unless they were trading places.

One guy named everyone in his family after Greek Gods, his name is Zeus, daughter Aphrodite, Cassius, lots of that and someone is named Evon (that's a name?) I guess it was a shortcut to Yvonne. Personally it took way too long for me to get information. It was windy twisty turny and went everywhere but straight to the matter at hand. I was pretty bored during most of it and skimmed over plenty of pages of narrative garbage.

Make of it what you will. I wasn't into it. Or it wasn't in my head the way I like my novels to become like a movie I'm watching, this one didn't do that. Very intrusive stuff, choppy writing. Not like.

CHOP CHOP by Simon Wroe **

I couldn't read this. It starts with a guy getting hired at a restaurant and he is also a writer-hence the story. He takes each individual person working there and tells you their history from the day they started and histories of everyone working there even before he got there. BORING.

I couldn't get into it at all due to the history of everyone and their grandmother. Almost entirely narrative. A few things occur during his discourse but nothing interesting. If you think you'll like it rent it at the library. I didn't care for it at all only read about 50 pages.

A DISTANCE TO DEATH by Holly Menino ***

Well, I'm not a fan. I'm on page 133 and nothing much is happening. There are a lot of people and I can't keep up with them all. Personalities aren't that distinct. Apparently there's some kind of horse race up hills and this girl is with her friend on her friends second horse. Believe me explaining this is difficult. You're supposed to be able to summarize a novel in a few sentences but I can't do that with this confusing mess of people and their odd relationships.

Who on earth would call a main character TINK? Did she tinkle her pants a lot as a child? Is she a Tinkerbell fan?  What? I do think she's been married 2x to some guy and now married to another guy and his business and their 'sons' business has something to do with him. I don't know. I'm about as confused as I get reading this boring crap. I can't take it anymore and I struggled to get to page 133 out of 276 pages. I read a lot of it thinking 'it'll get better as I go along'. Never happened.

FIREWALL by Diann Mills *

Some dumbo marries an ex con "by mistake" thinking how wonderful, passionate and caring he was. Meantime he wants her computer code. End of story.

It would be a fair story if God and religion and prayers and all that religious mumbo jumbo didn't fill the pages. I HATE IT. I hate religion in my mysteries. This library has a bunch of paperbacks and all of them; I mean ALL of them are religious in some manner and I won't ever pick one up again. Biased, religious fruitcakes. How many gods are there? Let me tell you about 4 thousand. WTF would you favor one over another? DUMBO. Only way to get published? LOL

I REMEMBER YOU by Yrsa Sigurdardottir **

The book was as confusing to me as the pronunciation of the author's name. I want a book to grab my attention quickly, this book did not. It's slow as molasses going uphill on a cold winter day. I was on chapter two or three and cops are in  a classroom taking prints and pictures so I assume that someplace in this mess of kindergarten toy crap is going to be a body. Wrong.

It never quite got me interested. I closed the book after I realized no one died. Chapter three each paragraph begins: Katrin sat on the edge of the porch. Katrin opened her eyes and stretched. Katrin shifted position on the porch and tried to spot blahblah. She peered again through the yellowed sea of vegetation. Too much boring narrative. I don't have the most patience for reading stuff like this. Done with it and it's slow boring crawl to some ghost story at some future point in time.

The LITTER OF THE LAW by Rita Mae Brown ***

Barely tolerable for me. Sounds like an old bat over 100 wrote it and has no understanding or view of the world as it now is. She should back date it taking place in 1935. For one thing I am so sick and tired of religion in my mystery novels. This one goes back to the beginning, like the big bang with explanations of every religion. If anyone goes to church in these books in the future leave me at home please am sick of your religious crap. I hate this shit. If I want to read religious books I will. This is supposedly a MYSTERY.

This author mainly concentrates on gossip, a dead body here and there with absolutely no crime scene investigations what so ever which is one of the reasons I enjoy mysteries. What the hell is up with corn and pumpkins, eating food not treated with chemicals and cats following the owner around wherever she goes. Absurd. Cats aren't like that. Would you take your cat food shopping with you? Or let it out of the car at your friends house and call it to the car when you want to go home?? Didn't think so. This is almost, very close to animal cruelty.

So she "dumps" her animals off everywhere she goes and expects them to be following her around. They are ANIMALS. If any of her cats saw a squirrel running across a road buh bye kitty.

This is so full of crap information the book is a useless boring read FOR ME. I don't appreciate the inner most thoughts and daily chores of everyone in Crozet or wherever the F* she lives. It's readable, there are a ton of people in it. People with the strangest names they could only be fictional: Harry is a female really named Mary. So when does she begin being called Harry after her marriage to Fair <--lol before="" harristeen="" or="" p="">
Then there's Boomboom (I can only picture her as that human Barbie doll person) Coop a cop, Big and little Mim. WTF is a mim?? Tazio, Hester (1935 see?), Wesley, Buddy Janss, Seth Isman even the animal names are cruel "Casenovia" ? Lucy Fur? Elocution?

Aside from that I'm stuck with only a couple books, I'm 100 pages into it and I suppose since the sweetest, friendliest, person got murdered with a friend of hers I'll continue on making believe I'm liking it. I need some CSI lady. This is boring. 

MOVING TARGET by J.A. Jance ****

I have no idea why it's called moving target. I didn't see anyone moving anywhere. The company people trying to solve the problem were moving a lot but weren't a target.

Some genius kid and his teacher develop a computer program everyone wants. Suddenly lots of people are showing up dead like his teacher, ex girlfriend (who also screwed his 15 yo brother), a nun and priest guard this genius when he's in the hospital for burns and a lost leg that someone caused him by setting him on fire. There were a lot of death and abductions with everyone abducted surviving. Somehow I'm led to believe this computer program has something to do with a gang? I think? I guess they're connected to some high company owners who want his program. I didn't really get the gang angle, the dope dealers.

I always say if you want something kill everyone to get it. Yup. That makes the person who has it much more willing to give it to you. The kid Lance gave an early prototype to the bad guys and it needed another password in 6 hrs or would disintegrate so that sort of pissed them off.

I'm so so on whether I enjoyed it or just read it cuz I had nothing else. The story moved around a  lot from one problem to another and Ms Jance picked a bunch of confusing names beginning with L besides the one name B, yes that's a name. She writes a lot and must use the dictionary to keep up with naming everyone. Lance, Leland, LeAnne, Lawrence, Langston, some of the other people had L's in their name like Ali, Daniel, Phyllis. There are a lot of people in the story but at least they appear slowly and some go away permanently but I hate too many names in my mysteries.

This was almost fast moving and had a lot of different angles so I gave it 4 stars. I would borrow it from the library.

STAND UP GUY by Stuart Woods ***

Well I don't think Stone Barrington stands up much cuz he's alway screwing some bimbo he just met or knows from his past or whatever.  So I don't get the title. Anywho some blonde gets "kidnapped" and he needs to deliver 5 million to the kidnappers. She's not really kidnapped and he got the bills in twenty's and tens. That's a lotta counting.

The story is brief, short chapters, lots of names to remember for the size of the novel, and there are barely any narratives or descriptions thus assuming you've read his books and know all about Barrington's life. Personally I didn't like the screwing in about each chapter or every 2,000 words but who would? I guess he thinks he has to entertain the men readers cuz I wasn't entertained.

If you cut the fucking and got the story straight up it would be a very short novel.

BROTHER ODD by Dean Koontz *****

I love Dean Koontz . The writing is great, there aren't too many people introduced too early, the story is well balanced and I always like reading Odd Thomas stories.

This takes place at a monastery, which I find lame and Odd isn't actually a 'brother' he just has settled in there for whatever reason. Clueless on that one. I'm sick of ghost Elvis WTF??  Odd meets deformed, retarded yet miraculous children who each have some kind of art talent or something similar, one wants to work with dogs. Honestly the brain damaged kids TO ME is not really my thing-I don't care. That's the way God made them; that's the way he wants them so be it and keep it away from me. I didn't deform or retard them. There is enough in the world to be sorry for; police dying on the job, women beaten in their own home scared to leave; dogs dying in shelters, innocent babies being intentionally left in cars to die. I am limited in the amount of what I can possibly GAS about.

I don't believe in any religion and don't like formalized religion due to the overwhelming amounts of money the church collects (millions) while the 'brothers' and preachers are molesting the choir boys (hundreds). At least the Jewish religion ignores all that crap with choirs, and incense and molesting of choir boys, they don't have choirs or snake charmers. They don't even believe in heaven or hell. I prefer their way of thought over all other religions, that and Buddhism. People say to me that there is only one god and every religion is praying and talking about the same god, which is beyond ridiculous. Do Christians expect to get 1000 virgins if they jihad themselves? Or however that goes? I don't think so. Which thing is not like the other, which thing isn't the same: Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, the Stork or God?

I didn't appreciate the setting but since that's just me  I still gave it 5 stars. I did buy the book because I was flying and didn't want to spend 6 hours in the air biting my fingernails, they're already short enough. I don't like or enjoy or want to promote ANY religion in ANY book I read. I find out it's in a monastery and almost chucked it. To each their own. If you pay attention (I do) most books are good vs evil. I don't even believe that because good/evil are part of Christianity. There are good people and there are bad people and there are murderous people who are damaged in some way. They aren't necessarily evil, that's a religious concept. Bye for now.

POLICE by Jo Nesbo **

Norwegian writer with oddball names throughout the book. Too many characters. Too much background life histories and too few acting at murder scenes. I hate it. Boring boring and more boring.  Too many narrative descriptions. HOW do these writers get published???

From what I know you should lure the reader into the first chapter and capture them right away. So many many books do NOT do that. I hate them. This is the publishers FAULT. Knopf.

No story to tell here. Just boring and more boring. Things happen so slowly if you cut out the narration and only told the basic story you'd have a book about 50 pages. This is over 400 and not worth my time.

FIRST FIFTEEN LIVES of Harry Åugust by Claire North *

Boring. Repetitive. To the point that you just awaken, read a chapter or two and fall asleep again. I mean wicked boring ass stuff. It had the potential to be really good but instead got off the good stuff onto rambling narrative of Harry who lives 15 times.

The thing that gets me is a doctor keeps finding him to torture him for some reason. I don't understand how he knows of Harrys' existence in each life because Harry is born over and over during the same time frame. So how does the evil doctor even know he exists each time he comes back? Is he also someone who lives over and over again?

So I was bored to death by the physics, science, god, religion bullshit and it probably doesn't even deserve one star just cuz it bored me so much.  Absolutely mostly narrative and absolutely not worth my valuable time.

The BUTCHER by Jennifer Hiller *****

Wow this was a thriller I couldn't put down. Hardly got any sleep and not just because of the reading, the murders are gory scenes. I really liked the book. Begins with a cop Edward Shank a police chief who solved the murders of the "Butcher" but there's a secret in there.

You go back and forth in time but it's not at all distracting because it adds to the depth of the story. The main character I would say is the grandson of the cop named Matt Shank who has a line of restaurant trucks and also indoor dining, he's about to become a TV personality for his cooking when the shit hits the fan.

He has a girlfriend Samantha who he hasn't really been treating very well, and inherited his grandfathers old home where secrets were buried. He discovers these secrets and has a hell of a time trying to accept what he found and figure out how to take care of it all. I really liked the book would buy it and there are 2 other books from the same author I haven't read yet, may look her up in the library for those two books "Creep' and 'Freak". Try to get a good night's rest before starting. LOL

LAST TO KNOW by Elizabeth Adler *****

This is a well written murder mystery with just enough evil characters to hide the real one among them. In a quaint little lakeside village a cop lives with his husky who loves him. (Doing animal control I find this so hard to believe, huskies don't care about people, they care about running off and chasing something.) So anyways not too many people to memorize, couple families and fake families.

Most of the women in the story are "incredibly beautiful" which is hard to swallow. The murderer gets hold of a kid from a local family of whom she wishes she was the mother, odd flakey girl that she is, and pushes him into a well. You'll have to find out yourself what happens.

I don't understand though how this girl who only lived in the area less than a month or so knew where all the hideouts were. She found the well supposedly NO ONE knew about. Kind of off the charts there. I would buy it though, it's  a good read and interesting and quick.

DON'T EVER LOOK BACK by Daniel Friedman ****

I began reading this and wished my dad could have had the chance to read it also. The author has a great eye on elderly and my dad would have thought parts of it, esp. in the beginning were funny. It's about a cop who is 80+ years old so the story has a back story in 1965 when he was a cop. He is still trying to catch his nemesis even from his old folks home while using a walker.

The back and forth from 1965 to 2009 is a little disconcerting but I think it's easy to get over if you aren't falling asleep while reading it. There were many areas in the book I just passed over. I'm not a fan of descriptive narration. It bores me. Even telling me the story going on in 1965 bored me. I would have given it 3 1/2 stars instead of 4 but I don't have half stars.

I would get it at the library. It's not bad, has some comedy to it, lots of personality of the characters but I couldn't say this was a murder mystery. It's sort of between a mystery and a delusion of grandeur.

The MOON POOL by Max McCoy *****

Very easy to follow and the story was intriguing. It was about a serial killer who made scenarios under ground in deep pool caves of his dead women. A body turns up in a cave and several more are found until they finally keep diving and finding more and eventually they catch up to the killer.

I would have liked to have known more like how he got the job he had and kept if for so long being the psycho that he is. I'd have liked to know if he was married with kids and what they thought about him as a person. There are a lot of psycho questions I would like answered but the rest of the basic story was very well written and unusual. I liked it and gave it 5 stars. I would buy it, actually I did buy it at a yard sale. Was written originally in 2004.

The FOREVER WATCH by David Ramirez *

Just barely readable for me. I read about 75 pages. This takes place on some vessel traveling thru space because Earth has been destroyed. Some chick in the story was used as a baby machine so the species can continue as this ship has been in space 346 years.

Mostly I can't be bothered with the jargon, the stupid descriptive narratives, the backgrounds of everyone involved etc. etc.. Let's just say I hated it.

The AMAZING HARVEY by Don Passman *****

This story is about a magician who gets mistakenly accused of a murder. It's very quick reading and not hundreds of people to memorize. It's a good storyline and different.

I liked most of the people who were well defined and not carbon copies. I would buy it.

TERMINAL CITY by Linda Fairstein ***

Geez, get in bed read about 15 pages and meet: Alexandria, Cooper, Loo, Rocco Correlli, Micke Chapman, Pug McBride, Gisele Bundchens, Hal, Coopster?, Sherman, Alex, Mercer Wallace, Ray Peterson, Johnny Mayes, Commissioner Scully, Paul Battaglia, Hal Sherman, Dr. Azeem. You can just keep reading that every night to fall asleep, just 15 boring pages.

Author goes into mindless details about crap in the city. I could care less. Give me the murder, the suspects or don't bother me. I am up to page 146 out of 375 am headed to library and this one goes back unfinished with the reading. Too boring, I must have skipped about 25 pages of boring narrative describing the library, the history, the painting, the blahblahblah.

Hoping not to trip over another of her boring history books. Buh Bye and all that. Do not like her. Doesn't mean you can't but everyone I've talked to about books has told me they hate books that start with too many characters, who are BTW called by first or last names randomly, or have nicknames. Good luck with that.

STORM FRONT by John Sandford ****

I had been reading these books of Sandford's and there's this whore in it called Ma. She has 5 kids from 5 different fathers, runs around screwing anyone moving with a penis and Virgil Flowers finally breaks down and fucks her. No mention of rubbers. WHO, I mean this seriously WHO would fuck a woman everyone calls MA??? Something very psychologically wrong there. So Sandford has Virgil looking for something to call the new thing growing on the end of his dick, gets her middle name 'Frances' and can now feel unashamed fucking the slut everyone else in town has fucked (the town pump, if you will).

There is a paleontologist or similar who buries, then finds his own stone supposedly from early Israel. So everyone is chasing him around trying to buy it. He has terminal cancer his wife has Alzheimer's and he wants the money to keep her in the fancy digs she's in. Meantime meet Mossad, terrorists, Palestinians, Syrians, and other gun toting idiots. Davenport asked Flowers to handle it so in his own way he does.

Meantime the woman with 5 kids supposedly has beautiful boobs (after nursing 5 kids?? They should be dragging on the ground beside her knuckles) and a killer body--PUH LEEZE ever hear of stretch marks? After 5 kids? Next thing you know Ma will be in Mensa or run for POTUS.

She's a genius, haha. I can't get over the way men think. All little head- if you can't change what you've said in the past then make it so she's genius material with special sexual powers. "I have an itch that needs scratching" she says. LOL So much for b.s. there is a lot of that in the books he writes.

Well it was readable, ok storyline even if very very difficult to believe. If you like his stuff you'll probably like this.

MR. MERCEDES by Stephen King *****

Well this is a first for Mr. King I think, a murder mystery. It was just as interesting and thrilling as any of his other horror genre books. The story follows a retired cop, his friends and the murderer from chapter to chapter. You see what the killer is up to and why, you also see what the retired cop is up to and why. You're on the edge of your seat hoping the killer can be stopped in time before he goes on a wild bombing at a concert with children.

I loved the writing style, the page turing was quick and reading was fast. No difficult people to mix up, they were all very distinct and well crafted. Liked it a lot, would buy it.

The BONE ORCHARD by Paul Doiron ****

The title threw me off, this book hasn't got anything at all to do with a bone orchard. It's not a bad read, Bowditch used to be a game warden in Maine but quit to be a fishing guide. He was mostly running around chasing leads to one of the wardens being shot by buckshot in her face, which also totaled his vehicle.

So he goes wandering around reading emails and other mail until he has an idea who did what to whom. A dog was shot, the dog's owner (warden) was shot. This is a smallish book and easy to read in a few days if you have time. It's not a page turning thriller or anything but it's a good read.

THE CITY by Dean Koontz *****

I really enjoyed this book it is detailed and well written. It has a beginning a middle and an end. It's about some kids hanging out, the stuff they do, the trouble the father is to one of the boys and a robbery that takes place. For some, it's horrific for others it doesn't hurt them physically only mentally.

Most of the people in the novel have a bit of ESP but for the girl who was lost in the story. I liked the relationships everyone had with each other except for the evil people and they were particularly evil.

Quick reading, well plotted and all the people had individual personalities. Enjoyed it a lot would buy it.

DEADLINE by Sandra Brown ***

This wouldn't be anything I'm used to reading, it's a romance and I don't care for them much. So it starts with a band of idiots in a house like Waco TX who all end up shot or running away. The female Flora, is married to Carl and they have one son they raise to believe the crap they do about the gov't. Meantime he marries and has 2 kids with the future widow.

The widow, Amelia waffles back and forth over fainting in his presence. She likes him, she hates him, she likes him, she hates him blahblahblah. That's the part I could do without and all the fucking at the end.

The middle is mildly interesting with chasing the old time bad guys who are still roaming around with new paperwork etc. Amelia married the son Jeremy and had 2 kids, then she thinks he died but no of course not. So the FBI and everyone is chasing them all over the midwest and you have to read it yourself for details. I wasn't thrilled. But that's me.

The TARGET by David Baldacci *****

This was a good book, had all the ingredients and not an overflow of unnecessary people to memorize. The only complaint is the either all the descriptions of the people were so subtle I missed them or he didn't bother with hair or eye color or much on body type. But I don't really read for that anyway.

Two ongoing stories. One is about a female named Chung Cha-an assassin from a hell hole in North Korea who is eventually sent to the US with a child she pulled out of another hell hole (sort of concentration camps where everyone is beaten and rewarded for ratting each other out. Chung Cha was forced by the camp guards to kill her family lined up, tied and with targets drawn on them. I leave you the details. She's the State assassin.

The second story is about Jessica Reel and Will Robie protecting the good 'ol USA from bad guys. In the end they meet up with Chung Cha and you'll have to read the book for the ending. Not giving it away. Would buy it.

The OCTOBER LIST by Jeffery Deaver *****

Very good murder mystery with the police and a bad guy. I can't say much about it without giving it all away. The story is written backwards so things are taking place in reverse order. You learn who is who at the end. Smallish book, fast page turning and easy reading. Highly recommend it. At first the past stuff confused me but I'm giving you the heads up so go with it. I would buy it.

MISSING YOU by Harlan Coben *****

Great reading. Kat is a cop, she used to be in love with a guy who suddenly left the area for reasons you won't find out till the end. Meantime she finds his profile on a date site and thought he was dead.
Bad guys steal seldom used date profiles to snatch women and men, drain their bank accounts and keep them in underground boxes resembling coffins. When the bank accounts are empty and they've shipped the money oversear they shoot the people.

Kat gets approached by a nineteen year old kid who's pretty good with computers and he helps her despite her reluctance to get involved. She figures her old boyfriend is dating his mom, the money withdrawn from the account of the female was for a home or trip and brushes the kid off most of the time until she finds things are a little hokey with the profile and having given the bad guys her real name. She finds more and more missing people and gets very involved in the case.

Very quick moving page turner and I enjoyed it a lot. Worth buying.

BIRD BOX by Josh Malerman *****

This book is small but intense. Some sort of creatures have infiltrated the world and if anyone including animals look at them they become insane due to not understanding or being familiar with the form of life. So people walk around with blindfolds on, as long as no one sees them they're ok. They also affect wild animals, birds and dogs etc. Very edge of the seat type story. Not a murder mystery at all but interesting nonetheless.

The title comes form a box of birds that squawk if anyone comes near the doorway so they're kept there as a warning sign.

One mix up at the end is that a dog, Victor, was locked in a room by his owner and the main character Malori lets it out then you never hear about the dog again. Meanwhile she's pregnant and another pregnant person, Olympia enters their home along with someone who is insane (Gary) and can't get any insaner when he sees the aliens. So he thinks that strictly by belief people kill themselves, like a mass hallucination. But when people do see the aliens they either kill others and then themselves or only themselves.

So Malori raises the 2 nameless children alone for a few years but Tom, one of the original people who helped her in the beginning phones every number in a phone book and leaves a message for someone several miles away who contacts Malori and she decides after 4 years alone to move there and see what kind of living arrangements are there. Most of the middle age children are blind by choice but the new guy Rick says they don't do that anymore. No creatures can enter their village or whatever it is. They are self sufficient. So now Malori lives happily ever after with 2 kids. Where is the dog Victor? I want to know!!

The DEEPEST SECRET by Carla Buckley ***

This book is strange. There's a creepy son Tyler who has XP where he can't go out in daylight, but of course near the end shatters that by running outside during daylight. Meantime he spies on his neighbors all night, then does school work all day so when TF does he sleep? Once it was 6 o'clock and author said that they were up late. Up late??? 6pm isn't late? 6am? Early? WTF?

The daughter got drunk went out, and is guilty of something, who knows what. Probably killing the kid Amy in the story. Which is mostly what this is about. There isn't a mother in the world who would behave as this mother does. She's so overprotective she can't even breath on her own. She's like a black raven on the son's shoulder not allowing him to do anything becaUse of his illness, he's almost 14 I think he can make his own decisions because supposedly no one reaches adulthood with this disease.

Mommy killed the little girl who knows why there were handprints or fingerprints all over the kids arm. You'll never find out. The cops have nothing but a confession. She's wiped out all the evidence and doesn't even tell her BEST FRIEND that she killed her daughter. Whatta bunch of b.s.

I didn't like one person in the novel. They were all out for themselves. Every single one of them is creepy and unrealistic. It's ok to read if you get it at the library. But I was underwhelmed.

THE LEFTOVERS by Tom Perrotta ***

Barely kept my interest. Apparently people were running around minding their own business when 1% or so of the human population disappeared. The book doesn't address this issue whatsoever.

There are stupid new religions springing up all over, targets on foreheads for one group and flip flops even in winter and smoking for another group. It's all so bizarre. People just decided to lead new lives as if their life has no meaning anymore. I was certainly not into all the people and their stupid lives. People do the same things NOW never mind after a calamity. One woman changes her hair color and goes to leave a note at some guys house (old husband?) and finds a baby their son dropped off on the door step. One of the gurus knocked up his little tribe of women. Wow isn't that novel?

Most of the women in the book are stupid, slow, mindless, without goals, vapid, not one leader or strong woman figure stands out at all. The men are the anchors in the book and the women are the dupes. I hated that part of it as well. Tried to look for ONE strong woman who could deal with anything and couldnt find a one.

Best seller list!! Soon coming to TV near you. I hated it with a passion. I'm a very strong female and not to even see ONE leaves the author a misogynist. He sees them as pointless unless he wants to fuck them.

The INVENTION OF WINGS by Sue Monk Kidd **

The librarian said she hated this book but I got it because it was on the best selling list. If you want to compare black history books I'd prefer Roots, 12 Years A Slave or the book written by a white reporter about the slaves in her neighborhood that told of each slaves story. Much better. This book tiring, boring, long winded and dead in the water.

I couldn't get past 55 pages. For one thing this isn't a murder mystery, so I don't like that much, then it's full of descriptions and made up descriptions from each person in the story. I really  am not a big fan of a narrative novel. You need to grab my interest quickly or bye. I don't have the patience of a saint. Just a reader trying to get thru someone's b.s. Not happy with this one.

BONES OF THE LOST by Kathy Reichs ****

This novel was sort of a mismash of many things. We have Temperance Brennan in Afghanistan right in the middle of a murder she's trying to solve. We have dead old dog xrays smuggled into the country and find out girls are also being smuggled into the country. She testifies in court that a guy who is accused of shooting 2 guys in the back were really shot face forward in the chest.

So you have a lot here to zig and zag you back and forth with a lot of descriptions and thoughts and sometimes that bogs down the story instead of forwarding it which is why you read.

Make your own mind up, I don't like TV shows like Bones because without fail the main female marries the main male and have kids. I get so sick and tired of that crap. This story has her divorced with a daughter in the service. If you like her books ALL the time you'll like this one. I wasn't head over heels.

FIELD OF PREY by John Sandford *****

Very fast moving serial killer story with twists here and there. It's a Lucas Davenport story and all the other law enforcement officers are mostly memorable, plus he refers back to his friend works for him Fuckin' Flowers for example.

Nicely built up suspense. I couldn't fall asleep didn't know who to blame it on, supposedly caffeine free ice tea or the novel. Probably the novel, the closer I got to the end the more suspense had built up and I really didn't want to fall asleep. I will just have to crate the puppy who wakes up at 6am in some other room of the house.

Really enjoyed it and worth the cover price.

NATCHEZ BURNING by Greg Iles ***

This is a historical type novel of fiction based on crap that happened in the 60s with RFK shot, JFK shot, blacks hung, skinned alive etc., by KKK etc. So the town Nachez is in Mississippi. The entire novel was probably done better by Harper Lee with To Kill A Mockingbird. It's in the same vein but over populated, so much so I don't even care who I'm reading about.

The novel presents the Double Eagle's club comprised of racist killers in the town. Sort of an offshoot with more vainglorious goals to kill all the liberals in politics that want equality in the USA.

It's so repetitive, I always think, "Didn't I already read this?" That's due to the repetition ;). There is so much of it, it really takes away from the story which bores me half the time.  Sure a lot of people are killed someone's doctor father is in lots of KKK pictures and the kid (in his 40s?) is having a hard time trying to figure out why because now the Docs ex-nurse Viola (who was raped and beaten by the Double Eagles group) birthed one of their children who has no idea who his daddy be.

Viola left town after the rape, all the blacks who wanted retribution for her rape disappeared. So that about sums it up. The Double Eagles are still around as old men.

I think the story is told during the "60s" and again during the present which is why I hate it so much.
I gave it a good shot reading past 250 pages but I just don't want to deal with the town of names and surprising amount of evil characters performing evil related or not related. This book has many holds on it at the library so a lot of people want to read it. My advice is try not to read in bed cuz if the book falls on your head it's going to hurt.

GHOST SHIP by Clive Cussler **

I'm sorry Clive fans I don't seem to be one. He is very prolific and writes tons of books so he must have a lot of fans. I'm sure he won't miss me not being one.

Read  about 50-70 pages and I thought a ghost ship would prove to be very interesting but he never got me anywhere near a weird lonely ship at sea with bodies aboard cept for the one with 3 bodies. Now I have no idea if that's the ghost ship or not.

Didn't like it.

KIND OF CRUEL by Sophie Hannah *

This novel is weird. Part of it is about a family around Christmas all getting together (long ago) when a married couple and their two kids disappear for like 12 hours and no explanation is given. This family member Amber Hewerdine is obsessed with trying to figure out where they went without just asking them (too obvious?).

I read up to page 135, she is doing some hypnosis trying to remember where she saw the words written down that said Kind, Cruel, Kind of Cruel. She hasn't got a clue and is mentally searching all over some past house for the words she thinks she saw. Personally I just think she's whacked out. I hated the novel. I hated to keep reading it. I hated how entirely boring it is waiting and waiting for anything to peak interest more. There is no incentive whatever to read pretty much nothing but one person's thoughts page after page after page. BORING as all hell.

Never going to finish it. Good luck if you picked it up. Another English writer must be why I hate it so much.

INHERIT THE DEAD by multiple authors ****

This novel was written by multiple writers to "raise awareness of Safe Horizon the largest victim support charity in the US."

I liked the basic storyline even tho it was a pretty simple murder mystery, not very exciting or anything. One or two of the authors would take the story to areas you get bored to death in like all the internal thinking isn't really forwarding the story. The past of the private det. hired to find a missing heiress -to-be thinks every female he encounters is stunning beyond words. He must live in a hooker village near Vegas.

I liked the writers who forwarded the story significantly and kept it up throughout the chapter. Each writer added a chapter to the novel. I believe there are 20 writers involved.

Basic story; disgraced cop/detective hired to find daughter of wealthy mom so girl can inherit her money exactly on her 21st birthday. Mom was already wealthy and would have no reason to want her dead but it seems someone does. The girl Angel no less, is hiding. The PI finds her and the story continues, don't  like the ending all that much. Too many questions ex: Angel knew about her inheritance or did she? The detective uncharacteristically wants to open a car door on a passing bike messenger which was so out of character it was puzzling.

I got it at the library-my recommendation.

YOU DISAPPEAER by Christian Jungersen *

As a midwestern friend of mine would say, Golly gosh. This one takes the cake for boring. A husband has a brain tumor that needs operating on and the wife, every minute, teensy itty bitty little thought that flits thru her head is what the chapter I read was about.

Count me out. Doubt this is a murder mystery, more like a perverted brain injury changed her husband, he robs something or other and you get very deeply into the mind of the boring wife. Good luck with that.

DEAD MAN'S FANCY by Keith MCafferty ***

This book was sort of confusing. I'm done reading it and haven't figured out who was murdered by whom. The person thought to be dead wasn't. The little wolf pack friends were sexually active but no details so it's hard to know why one of his past girlfriends killed him. The worst part of everything is that so many crimes are committed and not one person is arrested.

I don't like to read mysteries that don't get cleared up at the end. This was a book like that. Sean one of the aids in solving crimes is a fly fisherman. There is way too much moose killing off season, fishing and killing of animals. The real animals in the fiction were the people. They should have been killed, shot and gutted. One dead girl tripped into a hot pool of mud I guess and her murder was solved but the guy wasn't arrested.

The antlers on the cover do not resemble moose antlers in any form unless it was some kind of small baby moose, I don't know. I never saw a moose with a set of deer antlers. EVER.

I wouldn't recommend this to animal lovers. I wouldn't recommend this for people who hold relationships with another person as a compassionate agreement between 2 people.

There is way too much killing of animals in here esp. wolves which is a controversial subject but if I had five bucks I'd bet this writer is a conservative "animals are here for us to use and abuse". I'm not a vegetarian but killing animals as a sport to  me is disgusting.

The LAST DEAD GIRL by Harry Dolan ****

This was a pretty good murder mystery. It's in 1998, a guy, David Malone is living in some rinky dink town and is about to get married to Sophie until he sees and screws the very screwable Jana Fletcher. She pretty much does it with anyone with a penis. He, of course, ditches the future bride and tries to find out why Jana was killed to the extent that he moves into the dead girls apartment. She screws David, Luke, Warren. I'm surprised she needed clothing.

On her way to NYC to try to find her fame as an actress Jana meets up with a pair of brothers, one of which she has sex with. Consensual. Later the brothers, Eli & Luke, do bad things. There is also another pair of brothers which includes their wives and other misc. family members; Neil (a bad teacher) and Gary Pruett a jailbird.

So a pair of evil brothers made the book extremely difficult to follow because one minute you're in a flashback, the next in real time. It's so hard to follow over a period of days. Not many people can devote an entire day to one novel so this one is extra hard to get into, if it wasn't for the brothers, all the dead girls either related to the brothers or friends of the wives. One of them is in jail for killing his wife, which Jana was trying to figure out who the real killer was but really he belonged in jail just for being the brother of Neil who is entirely worse.

If it weren't for the time machine dragging me back and forth or the brothers and sisters, sisters in law, friends, multiple motives for murder I just couldn't give it 5 stars. It's a 4 and I'm being generous. It was so confusing I had to page backwards multiple times to see who was who and where in what time zone.

Good luck brave readers. It's ok, fast moving and could have liked it more.

The LAST ALIBI by David Ellis *****

I was intrigued by the book, it was about a serial killer getting even with a lawyer who faked him out long ago and he got jail time when he didn't think he would.

The lawyer is Jason Kolarich and he meets a guy with a wig, fake fat tummy etc who threatens him and his life. Suddenly women start dying and the kiler, James Drinker is framing Jason for the murders. There are women involved. One is a girl he's dating named Alex, who is quite insane, then he has a lawyer Shauna in his office he has an on and off relationship with.

Very tangled and Jason has a lot of legal maneuvering to do in order to keep himself and Shauna out of jail. Twists and turns and easy reading. Liked it enough to say buy it.

LINE UP by Liad Shoham ****

This isn't bad really but the names are often too similar to keep them all lined up in my head. When first names are used for a change I get totally lost. This rapist is loose in Israel and sort of an outcast detective is on the case. He's outcast for selecting someone who didn't rape anyone and making false accusations altho the guy was in the wrong place at the wrong time he was doing something bad so the 'bad vibe' had the cop suspicious and thinking he was the rapist.

The book moves terribly slow. Lots of repetitive crap in it. How many times do I have to read how he can't decide who to call and report or not report. Nachum is way  confused and it carries over to the reader. I'm confused. Got no clue what he's wondering about and why. How many times do I need to know what the personality is he's looking for? How many times do I need to know confused and scared Nevo is?

Too much repetition for me and not a murder, no good stuff really. Stupid rapes in the dark with the girls unable to speak for any amount of time to help with the case. I hate when that happens. One girl  of course washed her self for hours afterwards and got rid of any evidence of a rape. Why they even believed her later I'll never know.

Not my style of writing or reading material.

ACCUSED by Lisa Scottoline ****

This book is basically about someone wrongly jailed for a murder of a girl he didn't commit. You go along for the ride with Mary DiNunzio to interrogate suspects because the younger daughter in the murdered girl's family hires Mary. No one believes the girl, Allegra, when she says the killer and dead sister were dating, no one believes her when she says she was babysat by her sister, she also says the killer in jail was wrongly committed. He voluntarily admitted his guilt rather than tell the truth about anything. So technically he allows the real killer to run around scot free to murder again. Who does that help? Nice logic.

The stuff I didn't care for was the religious crap. There are a few funny things that happen but this girl is totally surrounded by imposing friends and family and family friends. Since only one murder was being re-investigated I didn't think it was 'great' or anything. It moved along well, most of the characters are easily distinguished from each other but there are a lot of Italian old fashioned stuff and religion which I don't like. If I want religious reading material I'd rent that. I want a good murder mystery. In this one there was little mystery, more family stuff and I wasn't waiting with bated breath for anything. There are a few twists and turns to keep it interesting, I would get it at the library.

WINTER PEOPLE by Jennifer McMahon ***

I sort of liked it but most of the time I couldn't tell one character from the next. There are maybe two that have distinct personalities, the rest all seem to be the same age, without good descriptions. The novel bounces back and forth to 1/29/1908, 1/12/1908, present day.

After a chapter 1908 I get introduced to people and some of them speak in the first person, others don't. I just tried to keep the people straight with the time frames and had a hard time picking up the book, putting it down, reading in bed and then trying to remember WTF is going on with who and when.

I found it confusing, obviously but I suppose there's bizarre story line in there with dead children and parents who want to bring them back to life, which only BTW happens once. Despite forcing m to read 300 pages.I can't figure out how much I cared for the book. It was in the so-so category.

MASSACRE POND By Paul Doiron****

This was sort of a mystery because some rich lady wanted to provide a new private park of timberland and someone killed or "murdered" some moose on the property because the hunters are against loosing the area for hunting-big whoop. And to prove how against this they are, they kill some moose. Like moose are pretty dumb, they'd walk right up to the muzzle of a gun and say howdy, shoot me! Later a daughter of the rich estate woman is killed by being run off the road or her own panic thinking she was being followed and run off the road.

For one thing, these aren't cops solving a murder, they're political junkies in Maine called Game Wardens. The game wardens who are out of favor are given crappy jobs and the others go and solve the crime wrong. Which is a typical small town b.s. as I did work with a small town PD and found the same stereotypical 'cop with a bigger dick' than everyone else while ordering people around without even following or allowing any facts. Been there did that. This novel is supposedly built around a real case of a slaughter of moose in Maine and it was never solved. A female Game Warden did work for years on the case and has found the killers but it's way past time to prosecute. Everything about the novel isn't factual, it's fiction based on fact.

If you like long tedious descriptions of Maine and care about who the main character, Bowditch is next in love with while sounding totally confused most of the time about who's lying or who's telling the truth. He has 'feelings' without any basis of fact. Anyways a few people die at the end. I won't give you any hints. If you like slow paced, descriptive, woodsy stories you'll enjoy this. For me it was a little slow, too few hints of facts, too little evidence of anything and the end for me was huh? You might like it. I gave it 4 stars for not putting me entirely to sleep, altho there were a few times...I did drift off.

KILLER by Johathan Kellerman ****

This is an Ales Delaware novel. He's usually a consistent character and he's likable. The story is basically about a couple of connected people (friends or relatives) who are shot to death and a mysteriously disappeared new mother. I don't really understand why all the killing, even with an explanation. How the f* would any likely father KNOW his child was with these killers? I think literally over-kill. The couple and their nasty daughter obviously went overboard and are psychos. Who in their right mind would let these adults adopt a baby (aforementioned nasty daughter)? Their adopted daughter is the girl who was going to pretty much torture the baby in the future once mommy was killed and what the heck did they keep her alive for anyway? Senseless.

There was a spot of blood in one of the disappeared person's house that belonged to her now dead sister. It was O positive, not proof AT ALL. Why? Cuz the sister could share blood types which they usually do. PLUS O Positive even O negative are so common no one can really prove where it came from so if they hoped to use that as proof the killer was in both places it's not very good evidence in a court of law or in a mystery novel. Should have used AB negative or something.

I did basically enjoy the read, so find it at the library.

RUNNER by Patrick Lee *****

I read this recently but returned the book before writing this. It's about a psychic girl, Rachael, about 11 years old who literally is running away from bad people (undercover scientists of a kind) and smack into an Ex- Delta Force specialist. She probably used her psychic crap to find him. Anyways he does help her escape from people who've kept her away from normal life for as long as she can remember and they are trying to kill her so she can't keep doing her psychic stuff on anyone and the program that created her remains a secret.

There is tons of chasing and running away from the bad guys and at the same time Sam Dryden the Delta guy is trying to figure out where she really belongs, where her family is etc. or a safe place for her to live the rest of her life. It's got twists, turns and lots of bailing out of almost impossible situations. I liked it a lot. I would buy it.

CELL by Robin Cook ****

A few previous 'stars' from the last book are in here but Pia is still missing and there is no accounting for her at all. Pisses me off.  Now the resident doctor George Wilson discovers a glitch in an implanted device that is related to a computer program called iDoc. People will have 24/7 access to the program instead of wasting time visiting doctors. The glitch comes when the computer discovers the people are going to die anyway so it unloads all its medicine implanted in the diabetics and kills them off.

George has a new bedmate towards the end when no one else can be trusted and decides against going along with everyone in their blind faith in the iDoc program. So he sends a letter to a friend in case he disappears forever and tells where he most likely is with background info for the newspapers and his friend to help him out.

I liked how easy reading it is, but there is always a catch to reading 400 pages without a definitive ending. I'm assuming George is in the mental hospital since his friend is reading his 'if you don't hear or see me for awhile' letter. He has wicked poor taste in females. I would get it at the library.

The ASCENDANT by Drew Chapman *****

Very good book about fighting a war by computers. If you like computers and have a basic understanding of them you can get through the book easily. I liked the main character Garrett Reilly and most of his followers. Everyone was clearly distinct from each other.

China had a dissident among them, called the Tiger and no one really had any idea who it was but Garrett saw a change in the normal order of things watching stocks rise and fall. He has a gift of noticing discrepancies, and he slowly began to unwind what was going on and how to combat it. It seemed they wanted the US to start a war while they were provocating it.

I still cannot make a connection between "the tiger" and the rest of the story, doubt you will either but for a far fetched story line you won't mind for awhile. I have no idea why China was trying to provoke war and trying to connect that to 'the tiger'. Still good reading.

Would buy it.

The BABY FARM by Karen Harper *****

This was about underground baby selling. People steal newborns from poor people and sell them to richer people. I guess there are enough real life stories to make this a current topic. Was good reading in general, but the midwife is very flaky, one minute likes the new doctor, then hates him, likes her adoptive mom then hates her. Lots of that going around.

I don't really know why her brother and dad were in jail. Emma's mom died in a tractor accident; her home was burned down by some guy named Sam working for Dehia (her adoptive mom involved in the baby scam). So if there was an explanation for why dad/son are in jail it now eludes me.

Written well, good personalities of each person who aren't easily forgotten, so even tho there were quite a few people in the novel it wasn't difficult keeping track.

Not a murder mystery by any means. Left without knowing who shot out her tires, where the baby of Jidge came from, which was her sole means for being in the novel. Got no clue about that one. These baby snatchers get into a hospital and fool around with medicine and intravenous tubes when they're total hicks from the boondocks. I would buy it but be disappointed it wasn't a murder mystery even tho the library slapped a mystery sticker on it.

WHITE FIRE by Preston & Child ***

This story brought some Sherlock Holmes stuff into it. The special Agent Pendergast has a bunch of kids he supports. Why he supports the one in the story is beyond me. She's pretty much a dolt. She's so dumb she was about to date her killer. She's so dumb she didn't know where to get information and any help from anyone else; she was jealous most of the time that she didn't uncover info herself. Selfish bitch. She (Corrie) also gets free college from Pendergast, along with whatever help he's obligated to do for her.

She goes out on her own when expressly told not to. She runs into the killer and thinks he's her boyfriend while he proceeds to burn her to death. Meantime she loses a finger and breaks her ankle, cannot defend herself in the least, like a poor wet kitten and somehow doesn't end up the stupid burnt to a crisp body in the old mining caves. Don't ask me how the person who died ended up in there cuz no one is going to tell you. I wish Corrie did die would have been more in the style of the novel. You do realize Darwin's law??? Well she's not supposed to live thru that. THE END far as I'm concerned.

Good enough to read thru, intriguing for awhile in spots, some places you need to skip some pages, repetition, etc. There isn't much of a mystery, no one is murdered with a case to solve. It's some college project little Corrie wants to do her senior project on a bunch of insane miners in the early 1900s which coincidently leads to the same story old Pendergast is chasing. That's sort of ho hum as well. No one from the old timers are now connected to the billionaires living high off the hog. The old story is an old story. Belongs in the archives of boring.

BAD MONKEY by Carl Hiaasen ****

This novel centers mostly around the Keys of FL. The main character Andrew Yancy, kicked off the police force is investigating restaurants as a demotion so of course there are more and more places he's scared to eat at. His predecessor died of food poisoning I believe.

While his restaurant stuff is ongoing he gets an arm from shoulder to fingers and puts it in his freezer so he's trying to solve this case where a guy seems to be dead, the wife and daughter will share in the 2 million life insurance policy but there's a secret in their story that Andrew has to figure out.

Sometimes author uses first name, other times last name-one of my pet peeves. We really don't even require last names of these FAKE CHARACTERS now do we? C'mon. Maybe author is shooting for ancestry? Or religious stuff? IDK.

The monkey part is for ridiculous stuff happening. He was gotten in a card game I believe, then ends up with a voodoo woman, then flees for awhile into the town and the original owner has him back by the end of them movie. He's not really much of a player in the book. Bunch of disconnected things come together at the end. Nice surprise ending in a way. You'll like it, I enjoyed the read.

THE WAY OF ALL FISH by Martha Grimes **

I read 230 pages of this. I think she thinks she's funny. The entire premise of the book is that some book agent  is trying to screw some writer of money saying he worked with her on the publication of one book and she says he didn't. The ENTIRE book is back and forth with idiots trying to help her. A bar gets shot up by some guy and broke a fish tank, a few people who saved a fish in water glasses decided to keep a fish or two. So the idiots (Candy & Karl-2 hit men?) are making up stories to scare off the publishing agent (L. Bass Hess). Like taking him for a ride and causing a tree to burn, an alligator to throw him into a boat, the other guy in the boat pretends he didn't see it and it was a set up anyway.

I hated the stupid pranks of these SUPPOSED KILLERS? I mean they are supposed to be killers and they save fish, try to get the agent out of town instead of killing him and do all sorts of stupid crap to keep them off the writer, Cindy Sella. No mystery. No murder. No interesting action. All bored me to death so much I had to skip pages that were repetitious or nonsensical B.S.

Good luck with this one. You're either a die hard fan or you'll hate it.

BLEEDING EDGE by Thomas Piynchon *

The cover made this sound like  a good book. I'm sure the author didn't write it cuz his writing is boring as watching snails race. On page 66 you are forced to read about the "waiter, whose credits include a couple of Sopranos episodes, recognizing this for what it is, stands by, trying not to roll his eyes too much." Well I hope they don't roll all the way across the US. If this is a sentence helping move you forward in the story (every sentence should do that) then I hate his writing.

I was bored to near death, I felt like I couldn't even figure out what the story line was about due to all the side tracking and intense descriptions of every action or past history of everyone. BLAH.

Didn't finish it not intriguing enough for me. Keep your day job.

The 12th of NEVER by PATTERSON & Friend ****

This is one of the "Women's murder club" novels. I got through it quickly he has short chapters with a couple stories going at the same time plus relationships. I thought it was worth reading, has mystery, some suspense and most of the cast are well rounded out.

RED 1-2-3 by John Katzenbach ****

I liked the book but not on my top ten, it wasn't hard to get into at all, minimal characters and they all had distinct personalities. I didn't really 'bond' with anyone in particular. The writing is easy flowing and has good descriptions. It's about a writer/serial killer who has never been a suspect in the long long time he's been a famous writer? Hmmm. Dumb cops all the killings are done to be a book he writes and what....nobody reads them and connects them, even tho he changes minor details?  Instead of a 4 year old he writes about, he kills an 8 yr old. No way to tell?

There are 3 women with red hair and he's the big bad wolf, sending out threatening letters. What I don't get is why on earth he thinks they'll meet each other, or even bother looking but they do. Then whatever he expects from the meeting doesn't occur. One fakes her death, the three of them go after him with threats and no police action, which I just do not understand. Why not throw the cops onto him and get him put away for all the murders he's committed, his own wife even helped him. Stupid biatch.

Since he wanted red heads WTF didn't they color their hair black or brown,they would no longer be little red riding hoods. Don't get that part either. Most women don't know what their original hair color is after 30 anyhow.

So many things I didn't get that the author should have covered. The wolf belongs in jail. I don't like the ending.

WHEN SHADOWS FALL by J.T. Ellison ****

Long story with many characters but worth the time to read it. It was fast paced with likable people and you were rooting for the good guys to win and the bad ones to get killed off.

My issue is not a big one by any means, in 400 pages there is a TON of people, some with names assumed to be one sex or another. A pet peeve of mine I suppose.
June=guy
Curtis=female
Sam=female
Adrian=male
Jordan=female
When you are skipping merrily along she also switches back and forth from first to last names, not helpful when names of people are unisex ones. That's all I could find that I didn't really like. The basic story line, a cult with babies being sold is sort of off the charts but what the hell. Not bad. Not really my type of murder mystery.

SANDRINE'S CASE by Thomas H. Cook *****

At first I didn't know what the story was about but as I continued on I realized it was a first person story about a guy Samuel Madison who is facing murder charges for the death of his wife Sandrine. This isn't exactly a murder mystery, I would say it's more a literary love story told by someone who has forgotten what love is and is forced by the death of his wife to face what she had to face before her death.

I liked the book a lot, I wanted to read the next page and the next. I was engrossed in it and all the characters were well defined with different personalities and different motives. They are so solidly built by the author you almost can recognize them if you met on the street. I think the author has a great talent in that.

Good style of writing, easy to read and not hard to re-enter after you've put it down for awhile. I kept trying to read more and more of it as I was drifting to sleep, next day I had to go back a few pages to recover what I didn't remember. Highly recommend the book. I would buy it.

SUMMER DEATH by Mons Kallentoft **

I tried really hard to like this book, I read past 100 pages. The writer thinks we need to know about EVERYthing in EVERYBODY's mind. It so sucks. People are boring generally and I'm sick of how hot it is, how the sun burns everyone's eyes and everyone left to go on vacation. It's repetitive to the max which increases my reason to close it. How many times is the main character Malin going to think about all the dead or raped victims and try to put them all together? Page filler me thinks. Means boring fall asleep reading even when you don't want to.

Excerpt:
Do  I want to remember? What happened still exists, even though I can't remember it, doesn't it?
Soon I'll be able to go home.
I shall lie on the porch and try to remember, I shall whisper to myself; remember, remember, remember!

The earth above me, does it have any memories?
I know why I'm here now. 
Where I am.
I'm Theresa
It must be the night up there. I can't hear any voices of people swimming.
And I'm sleeping here, aren't I"
How did this happen?
Why am I sleeping here?
What are my dreams now?

Geezus the entire novel is filled with garbage in garbage out. I quit.

RED DEVIL 4 by Eric C. Leuthardt

I honestly tried to get into the book. I tried hard to read it but when we get to a man who has had every single cell of his skin implanted with neon colors flashing on and off you went off the edge of the planet and I lost you there. BYE BYE.

How does his skin breathe? How does the blood get to his skin cells? How does he know if he has dry skin? WTF is this supposed to enhance in his life? WTF????

PARASITE by Mira Grant **

This is a very large book, will keep you busy a few days unless you took the Evelyn Wood speed reading course. I enjoyed most of the very well described characters in the book. This is in the future when science has developed a tape worm people swallow and it rids your body of any toxins and keeps you healthy. If you're a diabetic for example the worm would take care of keeping your body on an even keel so drugs aren't necessary.

If suffer any physical issues internally it fixes most of them but now they're learning to creep into people's brains with some sort of protozoa. Very confusing unless you're a scientist. So since I'm no scientist I was totally confused. The simple explanations were not enough.

I basically enjoyed reading the book and the only reason I kept turning the 500 pages was to see what the ending had to offer.  THERE IS NO ENDING. THE END. 

I despise this way of author tortures. Is there not a way to finish a book and begin with the same characters over again without teasing me for 500 fucking pages leaving everything in the air? No? Then you suck as a writer. You're unfit to write anything.  Every book should be complete by itself. If you can't accomplish that keep your day job. Stories have a beginning, a middle and AN END. DUH. I despise that shit. I just erased another star. Pisses me off so much.

YOU by Austin Grossman

For, by and about writing code/gaming. You need to be under 30 and a geek or something to even care about this book. Didn't like it. Didn't read much of it.

TAMARACK COUNTY by William Kent Kruger ***

Story was sort of ok, I despise religion in my novels, write a frickin holy book instead of throwing your god trash in a murder mystery. So Anne wants to be a nun. How many people nowadays do that? Waste of time and life. She is in love with a person in real life WTF is she gonna do but go someplace people are non believers get into their heads until she forces them to believe (here eat this food we're giving you for free and believe in Jesus) called COERSION.

The killer, of course, is like a monster movie, never dies at the end. When Cork had the gun on him, he knows the killer will be after him yet again so he listens to his super religious nun bitch daughter who stands in front of the moronic killer. Like she has some kind of super god power. <b>If I wrote the book, Cork would have shot them both.<b/> POS and doesn't kill the man who deserves it. He crippled his son perhaps permanently, he killed a lot of people while he's totally insane, no one is going to care if he's dead.

A man wrongly convicted has found peace in jail and doesn't want to leave  even if pardoned and told to leave. Yeah that makes all kinds of sense, so he can't do any good for the world at large by leaving prision? WTF is that all about.

I will never read another book by this author. The religious crap, the "no speaking to you now" Crap is about all I can handle. One stupid book. DONE. Three stars, don't waste your valuable time on this unless you want to read a lot about god and nuns.

SYCAMORE ROW by John Grisham ***

I just finished the book which has a hold on it so I read quickly. On a scale of 1-10 the 1 being bad, 10 great I'd give the reading of the book from the beginning a 4. It was so so and tepid for me. Lots of introductions and lots of people, who they are trouble they get into etc. Jake is a lawyer and his client hung himself and left a debatable will leaving his kids out of it and maid in it. So big disturbance.

The courtroom crap I really had to skim thru it, for me...boring. Back to the scale still a 4 maybe a 5. I was tolerating it mostly because he's a good writer.

Then, once you get thru all that 300 boring, crappy pages you finally get to a bit of interesting stuff in court. Of course the best is saved pretty much for the last couple chapters by then if you are still reading it >CONGRATS!!! I finished it and at the end I still wouldn't give it a 10, maybe an 8 or something. Wasn't all that and bag of chips for me.
Get it at the library. Certainly not a reason for me to wait for 300 people to read it before me, it had that many reserves on it. Poo.

FROM THE CORNER OF HIS EYE by Dean Koontz *****

For some reason I took too long to read this one. Must have been busy during the week. Anyway this is a convoluted story about several people and how in the end their lives all intersect. T

There's a hint of  God and religion, a touch of Steven Hawkins string theory with the bubbles of lives we supposedly have whenever we face choices. Told by a kid like this:Everyone is a tree, and if you make one decision (major) to say go to college then the person you are on another branch of the tree goes on to college and each branch of that are other decisions. I thought that was a good allegory.

So a boy at about 3 can walk in the rain and not get wet cuz he walks where 'there is no rain' and there are others who have various little quirks like that. His dad died on the way to the hospital when his mom was in labor.

Meanwhile it begins really good with a loving couple climbing a mountain fire tower and it has weak spots so the guy at the spur of the moment decides to shove the wife off it.  He does so and changes his life in a negative way, collects money from the state for the weak railing, then buys ugly art, then hears the name Bartholomew someplace, can't remember where and thinks he has to kill him. There is a Barty in the story who is the 3 year old and can't possibly cause him any threat but he raped a young girl who got pregnant and had a child. She dies giving birth but names the baby Angel and the sister against all she believes in raises the kid even tho at first all she can feel is hatred towards the baby but in time she loves her.

All these people come together with a detective chasing after Junior the child rapist-wife murderer and it's a long process of describing their lives and what goes on until the day they all meet. Liked it a lot would buy it. This was written ca2000.

VELOCITY by Dean Koontz *****

Since I enjoy reading Dean Koontz so much I decided to look in the older sections of the library for maybe some books I missed reading at some point in my life. I had believed I read them all but found two I have not and maybe more if I go back and look.

This one was very eerie and dark. A bartender named Billy Wiles had a 'different' childhood than most and was adopted by another family. His step brother, much older than he, was a policeman. Not a very good one really.

In town some artists are making a performance art mural they're going to burn at some time in the future. Billy begins finding notes and body parts. These notes suggest his wife, barely alive on a hospital bed, being fed by a tube was poisoned by soup and won millions of dollars for her care. So Billy worries that someone who had decided to attack his life is going to kill her. The first thing entering his mind is what most cops say "follow the money" and he does without finding anyone suspicious.

In a round about way he does discover who is tormenting him, but doesn't realize till the very end that he had help. It's up to Billy to keep himself from becoming a suspect, to keep his wife alive, to figure out who the killer is and to end it all for the sake of his sanity.

Fast moving writing, excellent character descriptions and a really good tale. I would buy it.

INNOCENCE by Dean Koontz *****

Well ya I mainly do love Dean Koontz's books so it's always or usually always five stars. This time there are two characters from the beginning a 'father' and a 'son' and the son is named Addison. But they are not related. Soon thereafter you learn about the mystery of Addison's birth and how his mom was a hero for keeping him alive.

Both Addison and his "father" cover themselves from people from head to toe. Why they cover their hands you'll have to ask Dean cuz there is no reason for that in the book. It's really the eyes. So anyway the (dad/Addison) run around a city during the night all covered up or live in the drainage system of like New York. Addison's mother packed him a bag when he was eight and said 'go away' then shot herself...BANG. He rode a semi to the city.

One day the make believe "father" has a meeting with a couple rough guys and Addison is alone till he meets a female a little younger than he is and her name is Gwynth who's father prepared her to live in 9 different apartments and houses so she could flee to where ever she needed to be because she also had the same affliction as Addison and his dad. but she wears colored contacts so as not to attract anyone's attention.

During the crises of some guy chasing Gwynth around trying to have sex with her to demean her, which I don't understand how that could happen when so few people; especially good people, couldn't look her in the eyes. Same as Addison. How's he going to molest someone he can't stand to look at? Ask Dean, again- not in the book.

So there's a child who had been molested, she's very young and she's also alone. Gwynth and some other mystery guy or benefactor who knew her dad, who also helped Addison and his father get food and clothing has also been protecting the child. This kid was hooked up to hospital crap for years on stand-by until Gwynth needed to get her out of the city. And there are many other children like them. Meanwhile back at the ranch, people in other countries are dying by what seems to be a mysterious illness, there is a 99% kill rate from this bird carried disease. People are dying all over the world from it.

No more info for you. Read the book, I've said enough to get you going. Peace Out.
I would buy it.