THE WIDOW by Fiona Barton ***

The writer switches back and forth from "widow" to "newspaper writer" to "husband" to "cop". It's not as confusing as the years that jump back and forward in time like Back to the Future. Not an easy thing to follow when you just want to read a freaking good book.

So this person Jean is NOT a widow until the last chapter or two. There is a missing child in the neighborhood and she suspects her husband, as does the general population. He gets into court but gets out for some reason, like maybe NO evidence??? Ya think?

No real murder you take part in, no scenes with husband and kid, nothing. Just badgering by the newspaper writers, one of whom takes over Jean by sequestering her in a hotel room so no one else will get the story and mousy little "widow" goes along for only so long.

Eventually we find the child's body etc. Way later than I wanted to read, I mean I went thru about 300 pages or so to get to something NON repetitive and interesting and it lasted over one cheap chapter. If you like mysteries or murders or anything out of the ordinary you won't like this book. It's too tame and boring in most places, aside from the peat and repeat.

Rent it or don't read it. Either way you're ahead of the game.

ACCEPTABLE RISK by Robin Cook *****

Always a scare reading Robin Cook and his medical stuff gone awry. This time it's primarily about the Salem witch episode and how the rye fungus acted to cause hallucinations and other weird behaviors.

Starts off with a nurse, Kim who is related to one of the people tried as a witch. She keeps diving into the old paperwork in the attic and cellar until she's prompted to find a relic that was left behind by her ancestor Elizabeth. When she finds it she's shocked.

Meanwhile her boyfriend is a scientist and with a few others they open a lab in her extra roomy barn and instead of waiting for testing results they decide to all take various amounts of the drug themselves. This was the same rye fungus used by Elizabeth to bake the bread that caused hallucinations in the children of Salem. So it gets quite gory in some parts towards  the end which is expected.

I liked the story, the people were almost real to me, most of them anyway. The drug developed from the fungus is believable and most if not all our medicines are derived from plants or fungus anyway so that part is real enough to be scary. I liked it and would buy it, actually did at a library sale.

EXTREME PREY by John Sandford *****

An Alex Delaware story. This is a page turner and you have a hard time putting it down. Lots of action as Alex is on a quest to protect and find anyone aiming to harm a Gov running for President.

He has to question people and has suspicions about the deaths following along behind him. He works with other agencies as a free lancer for now and does a pretty good job of sorting out the killers and at the last minute the method of their killing the governor.

I like it and I would buy it.

The HATCHING by Ezekiel Boone ****

If you're already afraid of spiders then you don't want to read this book. Some kind of alien spider has overtaken countries a bit at at time until everyone panics and atomic bombs go off. These spiders are hunters and eat people, they also send threads into the air to fly around and go other places which is actually a bit to swallow but anyways that's what they do.

The army can't stop them, even scientists end up getting in trouble with them. There are also breeding spiders (inside animals and humans OF COURSE) and perhaps more trouble in the future.

So I can see where this can be exaggerated to some extent but the extent to which this is written is a bit overwhelming and somewhat unbelievable. I know we have cans of spider spray around here someplace and geez you can't even step on them before you're consumed by a pack of them? Even when others are being attacked? I don't get how they overtake hundreds of people so fast they can't be stepped on or squashed or sprayed individually to die. Why can't they be brushed off and stepped on? If everyone did it? WTF?

In the RW there are also sticky traps that can catch them if they walk across it and I'm sure there can be quickly developed poisons to end the b.s. but in this story forget all that. Alien spiders. So that's about that. I would get it at the library.

The TRAP by Melanie Raabe ***

The best thing about this book is that it's a fast read. Some girl Linda who is agoraphobic is a writer and about 10 yrs ago her sister Anna was murdered. She recognizes who she believes is the killer (she saw his face right as she discovered sis's body) so she lures the investigative reporter to her home so she can trap him either by DNA or a confession.

She scares the crap out of him and he proves it wasn't him because he was in Afghanistan during the time this murder was committed. I'm not going to reveal the real killer you can figure that out yourself before half thru the book. Sister is sooo beautiful and self indulgent she can lure away Linda's boyfriends any time she chooses.

So Anna embodies everything Linda would rather be than herself. Even as a published writer. I thought the book was fast paced, large type on small book. Easy to read and figure out connections between everyone. Basically well written BUT at some point when she holds a gun at the supposed killer she has no clue about confessions gotten under duress DO NOT amount to a confession. Duh.

MOST WANTED by Lisa Scottoline ****

This was a fast paced read. Story is about woman getting sperm donor cuz idiot husband hasn't got any (he blames her to his parents). So she's knocked up and sees a serial killer on TV that looks identical to her baby daddy.

She is a teacher on leave for the summer so she finds an almost retired lawyer to help the "donor" because he seems so sincere she believes  in his innocence. I heard that 95% of those in jail are innocent. But anyways, she gets him a lawyer, works with the lawyer and goes around sticking  her nose into everyone's business.

I won't blow the ending for you but I have a comment. This other knocked up woman who used the same sperm donor as our heroine Christine (nice catholic name there) goes and tells the guy in jail all about how she is knocked up by donor 3316 and thinks it's him. He then "assumes" Christine is knocked up (he knows this by what....telepathy?) and tells her that he is donor 3316 but reality is that he has no personal knowledge Christine is pregnant. She isn't even showing yet. She doesn't tell him she's knocked up. She just decides he's innocent and goes looking for the real killer or a way to prove his innocence.

That's all I got. If I had to read it again I would but get it at the library. Her husband is a real stick in the mud trying to hinder her or degrading her work and he never really improves in my opinion. I'd divorce the bastard.

8th CIRCLE by Sarah Cain ****

To begin with this had a ton of people (Danny Ryan, Conor, Beth, Beowolf, Michael Cohen, Linda, Andy, Alex Burton, Sean McFarland, John Novell, Tommy Ryan) in the first 15 pages you had to learn all their names because they were pretty much all the people in the story and a lot were related.

In one part of the story the protagonist Danny Ryan (who seems to be related to everyone) gets into bed with a corpse and had no idea she's there. Like yeah ok....sure lady. Not to mention some nitwit who got his mail accidently and kept it until the last chapter of the book and during the entire novel Danny had no idea why people were being killed, his dog was killed, he was threatened because of paperwork, videos etc that the nitwit neighbor girl kept holding onto until last chapter.

I thought the book had a fair/good story line, I didn't like everyone being related by marriage or whatever, it seems like everyone has known each other for 30 yrs YET didn't know each other at all. That was kind of bogus. I think we all know Dante's Inferno and that's what the title is referring to. I guess sexual perversions, snuff films, killing children that aren't missing....that kind of crap. It was ok. I would get it at the library.

UP COUNTRY by Nelson Demille **

Well this book is 700 pages so it takes a really really long time to read. I read between other books due to it being one of the most boring POS I ever read. This guy goes to Vietnam and you have no idea why until probably page 699.

I didn't like the character, or his girl friend he met somewhere along the line. All you are reading thru most of this is where he was when he was in the war as opposed to where he is now and what he's seeing. Boring. Lots of descriptive narrative and I could easily take 500 pages out of this crap. Too many towns, names, boring descriptions of places and I hated it. Now if you fought in Vietnam you might enjoy it but I wasn't there and this was a futile attempt to read about it.

The CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D.Salinger ****

I was never forced in any English class to read this but decided to see what the big deal was. I think at the time all the swears made the book important. Otherwise I don't get the big thrill. It about some nitwit kid Holden Caufield who keeps getting kicked out of expensive schools. This last one he leaves on his own a couple days before his parents are expecting him and moves around in hotels, friends places, thinks he had a pervert after him one night and he contacted his sister who gave him her Christmas money.

I really hated the "old" everyone. Old Phoebe, Old Mr so&so, old this person, old that person the word OLD got so overused it really got old. I hated reading them all must be 25 per page.  There are other words used so frequently it's actually boring-dragging the story along and not accomplishing much. He always says stuff like "you want to know the truth" and other little tidbits like that. It all made the story sound so immature and it was boring to read as an adult. I have no idea what I'd think of it if I was a teen. I would probably think he was a nerd.

He says in the beginning he's the worlds biggest liar and are we supposed to believe his story or not? Personally I don't think he has the temperament to run off on his own. He'd curl up in a ball and cry for his parents to get him, JMO. Well I gave it one star more than I normally would cuz he's so famous and all. Like why I do not know.

LIBERTY'S LAST STAND by Stephen Coonts ***

Quick overview: someone from a Democratic party is president but decides to declare martial law and suspend the Constitution at the end of his second term. Some think it's so he can be a dictator of the US so Texas decides to secede from the states.

This separating Texas from the US causes all kinds of problems which I don't know much about cuz I quit reading this political confusing mess about 1/3 the way thru it. Too many people, names, places just really bored me. I find books like this referring back to the Alamo, wars, politicians etc. opposite of book flap cover: a thriller. My bad. You read it, get it at the library.