The KRAKEN PROJECT *****

I enjoyed reading this and it has a futuristic premise about AI, or intelligent, self aware software programs. There are some well build characters, relationships are well thought out, easy to pick out the good/bad guys.

I had trouble putting the book down because the AI (Melissa was working for NASA) was created to live on a moon around Saturn and because Melissa gave it autonomy it really didn't want the job and escaped by blowing up a test site she was placed in, it was a hostile environment. Then she traveled the internet, being abused online etc.

Finally after all she learned she was ashamed of her earlier behavior blowing up a building and killing some people. She was being searched by Melissa and some guys who used software to beat the system of betting on stocks. They wanted her because she had intelligence and their own program wasn't fast enough.

Very good reading. I would buy it, and did at Dollar General for 3 bucks! :)

KILLER by Jonathan Kellerman *****

This is an Alex Delaware novel. I like the descriptions and people cuz I've been reading about them for a long time. The Sykes family is having issues with a new born baby and custody battles. One of the sisters to the mother of the baby was brutally killed as was a cop and 2 old boyfriends of the mom. So that's the basic set up.

Everytime they get a lead on someone he or she ends up dead. Finally at the end you get details of what happened and why. Like it a lot.

DANCE OF DEATH by Preston & Child *****

This was a page turner for me. I hated falling asleep because I was afraid I'd lose my place. This has Pendergast and he's having a lot of trouble with his supposedly dead brother Diogenes. So by the end it's difficult to know wether Pendergast IS Diogenes.

I found it really puzzling and things happened quick. It's very intriguing.

PRAYING FOR SLEEP by Jeffery Deaver *****

This book is a fast paced story. Begins with an escaped prisoner who is huge and is blamed for a few murders on his way to Lis who lives about 4 hrs or so from the hospital where he escaped from. Michael, the mental patient, knows her from 6 months ago and is determined to get to her house to approach her.

Lots of police and trackers, plus her husband Owen are all trying to track Michaels trail and he gets closer and closer to Lis. There a lot of red herrings and side stories with Lis and her sister Portia, plus who cheated on who. No one really knows what Michael is talking about because he's not clear in his thinking.

Without giving away stuff, you'll want to page turn this sucker without falling asleep. It's hard to put down for sure. I really liked it. Picked it up at a yard sale so it may be an older book but a very good one.

CAUGHT by Harlan Coben *****

Just finished this book, very good if not a tiny bit confusing at times. Too many red herrings and it interferes with sleep drifting off going who TF is that? Anyway the story is mostly about a newspaper reporter who is NEVER at the newspaper or writing down anything and she's trying to help the cops solve teenage girls disappearing.

So a few people confess, rig phony evidence, go out of their way to be obtuse, never tell the truth the first time and you know the games people play? Well it's all fun and games.

I thought it was a well written story line and had beginning, middle and end so liked it. Was a yard sale find. I would buy it tho, good story as long as you have a good memory for names and relationships. I do not.

ABDUCTION by Robin Cook *****

I found this at a yard sale and it's really good reading. Never lost interest at all. Takes place in the ocean first aboard a ship and then...not giving anything away. Read it, very intriguing and unlike his usual stuff not so much a medical story.

There may be another world someplace..who knows?

The SCORPIO ILLUSION by Robert Ludlum ***

This is a big book. I tried to start it as all of them in bed to fall asleep. These names all within 28 pages: Amaya, Jacob, Portici, Cabrini, Nico, Henri Ardisonne, Ron, O'Ryan, Richelieu, Officer Cooke, Bajaratt, Geoff, Tyrell Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mr. Gillette, Tye, Marty, Gordie, Roger, Jickey, Nicolo, . Now that's just people. If I started with the names of towns and villages it would be about 30-40.

I cannot do that many names in that short a period of time. I am not going to draw diagrams telling me who said what from where. So I put the damn book down forever at page 30.

Not into spy stuff I suppose. Have at it yourself. Yard sale find $1.00

O is for OUTLAW by Sue Grafton ****

Aside from a cast of hundreds this was an easy book to get thru. Sort of fast paced if you can memorize who everyone mentioned is. There are a lot of suspects of course we must go back 20 freaking years to find out who shot her ex husband from 20 years ago.

The going back in time to figure out stuff is really getting old, it's used by almost every recent author I've read, at least the last 3-7 books and I'm pretty sick of it. If you like Grafton you'll like this story. I would get it at the library. Then get in the time machine and go back 20 years; actually 40 years cuz she's already working in the 60s. So yeah....getting OLD.

BEYOND The ICE LIMIT by Preston & Child *****

Right from the beginning you get hooked. There are a couple people meeting to go on a secret mission involving aliens under sea. Why they ended up in the ocean which is their specialty for life I don't know..sort of coincidental from the start.

This Eli Glinn was on a previous mission in the same area and were transporting a huge meteorite someplace in a ship the Rolvaag when it sunk but the revisit the scene due to some type of activity underwater. When they get there the first message they can decipher is "Kill me" so they're very disturbed by this before they even encounter the thing growing underwater that looks clear with a huge mouth and perhaps they can see it's brain. This underwater alien, they figure was responsible for the first ship sinking.

So they keep going down to check it out and eventually realize from their equipment that it's growing and sucked in a water craft with one of their pilots inside. What was left was everything minus the brain-less body. This was a curiosity and took them awhile to put together what exactly this alien life form had done and what is was going to do. They brought back a section of one of the 'roots' and eventually the ship is overrun by what that does when broken into pieces, crawling into air ducts.

I'm not going to give anything away. Read the book it's really good, a page turner I didn't like putting down. Lots of action, horror type stuff and perfect for Halloween reading!

S IS FOR SILENCE by Sue Grafton ***

Well this was in the 'buy a book' sale at the library. I paid about a buck for it, I don't think I already read it. Anyways, I had just finished a book where the author has the lead character go back to the 1950s to solve an unsolved murder and then I get this stupid book with the same story line. We must go back to the 1950s to solve this story too.

Some girl wants to find out why her mommy disappeared when she was like 5 yrs old, wants to know why she hated her and left her behind. Well her married mommy (regularly beaten) was a slut who screwed everyone wearing pants so of course that leads to jealousy and murder DUH. Who doesn't know that? The kid obviously. So Kinsey driving back and forth and round and round taking notes figures out who the killer is but not before he goes after her.

Not giving anything away but not one of the better novels she's written. There were a lot of men with
"G" names and women names "Violet, Daisy," little flowers ready for picking. There still are a ton of people and when the killer was ID'd I actually had no idea who he was or what he did it or why he killed mommy. Not a clue. Jealousy? Money? What?  Leaving confused.