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.