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.