BREAKDOWN by Johathan Kellerman ****

This is an Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis novel. Alex is slumming around after he meets some chick Zelda and her son Ovid-whom he bonds with. Later in time (5 yrs), he finds Zelda (aka Jane Smith) died claiming ownership of some mansion (her mom is Zina Rutherford) then is found poisoned on the exact premises (why did they check for poison? No coroner ever does that UNLESS strong, strong reason). There was never, so far as I remember, any check for poison, it seems Alex assumed so due to the many deadly plants growing on the property. So apparently this dame living the high life killed people to keep her inheritance. Her own half sister, the half sisters kid, other people who saw killings you know .... once you kill someone you end up with a houseful of strangers...dead or dying.

I guess this novel was a bit confusing. There were areas I forgot who was related to whom, what the F they were poisoned with and why. There are similar sounding names, he has to go back 5 years or more to study past deaths and people involved. It was difficult to keep up with the shenanigans when you're trying to fight your sleep meds to figure this crap out. So I gave it 4 stars for the confusion. What confused me most is WHY did everyone assume the dead were poisoned? Why? By what means? Can you tell from a 5 yr old or older body that they were poisoned? IDK. Kind of on the outer edges of believability.

MIRRORWORLD by Jeremy Robinson ****

This begins with a patient who has no memories at all, he's in a mental hospital but someone working for the gov't knows about his penchant for seeing into a parallel universe and gets him out. At first because he has no idea who he is, he's called Crazy. He is ex-military and has some supposedly incredible moves in that he is so over confident he walks into any situation and KNOWS absolutely how to kill everyone in the room in case they decide to "take" him.

I didn't mind the start but when he begins "seeing" into the parallel universe it got very confusing. His girlfriend is lost over there. Don't ask me how he recovers his memories, it's beyond my capabilities but somehow with someone he does. Then he's like superman of the between worlds, holding off enemies until even the leader of the "Dread" is using him as an ally. This part I don't get. Why would an alien with monsters who can plant deep fears into people in this world want to stay in their own world? Why show up at all? Was there a pizza party going on or what?

It was kind of different, I wrote a book called Deadly Magic and I wrote it years ago. It was self published and is on Amazon. It's about a magician stuck between a mirror world and the real world. Somewhat similar. I wrote mine in the early 90s. This is sort of similar but he has different type of monsters interested in what I have no idea. Anyways, get it at the library. Not as good as mine....I don't start off with a guy famous for not feeling fear and immediately facing the enemy is scared shitless. Whatever!

RED TIDE by Jeff Lindsay *****

Well as expected a great read, book is too small wanted MORE MORE MORE. This is a story with Billy Knight in it, I suppose a new character replacing Dexter. The book is good, takes it slow and easy in the beginning then speeds on to the end. There is romance, voodoo, pythons large enough and trained to kill, of course for fights all the fists flying,  knives, guns whatever can be picked up.

I would recommend it to anyone that likes murder mysteries, or mysteries. This is pretty much about how people save all their money to come to America from Haiti and are tricked into the water by a false skyline so most of them drown in the ocean and the captain makes quite a lot of money NOT delivering the 'product' which would be illegals. Liked it plenty. Buy or rent. Up 2 U.

DEVOTED IN DEATH by J.D.Robb ****

This is a book takes place in the future, the cop LT Eve Dallas who gets to fuck Roark at least once in graphic detail is trying to find 2 killers who are in love. They kill for an apartment, for vehicles and torture people so their sex is better somehow.

A couple of times the writer describes crap page after page about things of which I do not care. Every page she is playing a guessing game, who is doing what and why? What if it's THIS scenario, or THAT scenario. The entire book is a tortured back and forth of WTF is maybe happening. I don't really like that much but the story was interesting enough to finish so I gave it 4 stars, I would get it at the library. It was so so for me but I'm picky about murder mysteries.

The DRIFTER by Nicholas Petrie ****

A story about a veteran with some stories about the homeless etc in along with the storyline. There's someone amassing bomb materials and Peter Ash has to save the day. He begins by visiting a dead friends wife and kids then a dog is found under a porch guarding some money which he offered the wife but no one knows where the money comes from and later in the story it doesn't sound like he committed suicide after all.

Quick moving story line, well drawn characters and your interest is on the story all the time. I liked it but there were a few dog things I wasn't happy about. First the abandoned dog, then not getting the dog a bath for weeks on end, and then washing him in a car wash (wrong), never saying what the hell the dog was eating and when. Most of the time it sounds like the dog is only offered a hamburger for a meal or a burrito or something stupid. Surprised there wasn't a chapter on dog diarrhea.

Happy ending and good story. Get it at the library or buy it.

The VANISHING by Bentley Little ****

Well last Bentley novel I could find. This is so weird. Strange alien type people live in the woods. They entice people for sex ,normal people who give birth to half monsters. Every thing they touch flowers and/or blooms and/or grows. The children eat body parts.

There is a lot of back and forth to the 1800s which TO ME didn't seem necessary. There is gold but it's cursed due to these monsters/creatures. I find it hard to describe. I think I could trim out 100 pages of b.s. that I wasn't really interested in reading so I just read first line of paragraph and continued that way for awhile. I thought it had too many boring or tedious spots and it took too long for it's size to read.

I'm not in love with it, I don't hate it. Somewhere in between, I suggest the library.

The HAUNTED by Bentley Little ***

This is same author again, I have one more book of his from the library. This seems like a real early starter book. It's about a haunted house and how a family is coping with it, along with the neighbors.

The daughter is cutting herself, ends up in the hospital. IRL she'd end up in therapy for an extended stay but not in the book. Most people in the story have ghostly stuff happen but won't tell anyone because the ghost threatened them. In some places the book was sort of drawn out enough to bore me. I  had to read first line in paragraphs and flip thru pages or I felt like tossing it in the garbage. Since it's a library book I really couldn't satisfy myself doing that.

It was fair. Best to just read the last book he wrote and not go trolling for earlier novels they're really not that great. He does a better job later in his writing.

HIS FATHER'S SON by Bentley Little ****

The protag Steve Nye suspects his father who is dying was a serial killer so he feels some demented apathy and begins killing people. He thinks he's doing the world a favor but often kills innocent people who do nothing but bother him. Mr. Big Ego who misinterprets almost everything anyone does likes to kill. He's a Dexter wannabe.

What I didn't like about it was the fact he did all this without ONE HINT of suspicion from the cops. What are they doing I kept wondering, without any answers. The one sided view of Steve was kind of boring at times. How does someone see a thrown out stuffed animal and think it's real? LOL Well I guess he's a moron as well as a killer. He really needs very little provocation to kill someone. Not only that but he kills people around him, so WTF are the cops? Not even suspicious?  DUH.

I thought it was ok, quick reading and not horribly written so but get at the library. I enjoyed the last book of his and dug out older ones from the library. He does improve very much.

The CONSULTANT by Bentley Little *****

I'm willing to bet that S. King and Bentley would have a hell of a dream marathon once they got started. I really liked reading this and it went quickly cuz it was hard to put down, I mean I read thru commercials on TV.

Some people at a company (CompWare) hire a "consultant" to help keep the company making money. The consultant is Mr. Patoff, which has a translation you'll find towards the end, so it's not likely a real name. This guy is some sort of monster and instead of firing people they are found to have committed suicide, or self inflicted gunshot, or hanging. This way the company doesn't have to extend benefits to the family so Mr. Patoff is doing pretty well. He scares the shit out of everyone but no one really defies him.

He calls employees at 2am for a "meeting" and when they show up the meeting is something useless that a meeting didn't need to be held. The consultant has "followers" who follow everyone around with little notebooks and cameras are installed all over the company even in the bathrooms. The main character is  Craig Horne, married to Angie with a son Dylan. The consultant has visited every one's place of work, even the school where Dylan goes. He becomes a very hated person or...is he even human? You'll need to read the book to find out.

The ending is a little unresolved in that you don't really know what the company name DFG stands for, nor do you know why rooms changed their shape, and you have no clue at the end what Mr. Patoff is or what his reason for existence is. I guess you could say he wants to have a successful company with one person doing all the work; which is impossible. So off you go, buy it or library it. Good writing, edge of the seat style.

STRATEGIC MOVES by Stuart Woods ****

Well this is a smallish book so I got thru it rather quickly. Terse writing, to the point and almost similar to any of Patterson's books. This is a Stone Barrington novel, with some hinky money issues, a guy on the run from the FBI and whoever else. Stone is a lawyer so he represents people and tries to protect them. Meantime he's always got some girlfriend, different one every novel.

Not horrible at all, good reading for a bedtime book and an easy read. Get it at the library or a yard sale like I did.