BODY WORK by Sara Paretsky ***

Seems like work due to the plethora of names. Somewhat mystery. VI Warshawski on the case of what exactly I am not sure. Weird people body painting each other, naked in a bar? Somebody is gay, other people were in Iraq, some guys loud and demanding in a bar over WTF I have no idea. Secret body painting codes? I'm at the end and still don't know. An Iraq soldier was drugged into a coma? And had evidence planted beside him so they think he killed someone who was in an audience and body painted someone else. Whatever the fuck that's all about I do NOT KNOW. It's all so out there. Close to aliens.

All these aliens are in a bar doing uncommon things to each other and some other people from companies  hire thugs to get something. An autopsy report? Which anyone can simply ask for. The piece of paper being chased around and people murdered over is corny. I think a public record of someone's death is sort of PUBLIC???

So much confusing stuff. On one page 241 "she left her keys in the dressing room..." next page "blahblah she PARKED HER CAR IN THE ALLEY..blahblah leaving the door unlocked cuz she didn't have her keys." So how many people carry individual keys around? Not on a keychain? Like she has the CAR KEY but not the HOUSE KEY? How can this happen? Stumped.

On page 361 some teenager is telling a story. Doesn't say she stutters yet she can't get to a point...I, er...but...see.....umm.....WTF So she's babbling about the extremely rare autopsy report and her mom went to give it to the 'killers' who will burn her house down but instead of the author saying "IT WASN'T THERE CUZ STUTTERING IDIOT TEENAGER TOOK IT." Goes something like this: "...they punched me again and my nose started to bleed, she (meaning mom?) went to get it. See, she'd hidden it inside a statue. She-I should have told her, but I thought-I don't know what I thought. I was praying and praying..."  I never was told as the reader WHAT THE FUCK happened to it. Even later when they start talking about the autopsy report I didn't immediately connect that was the paper hidden in the statue and stuttering idiot teenager didn't relate THAT important piece of information-she-I should-have put it together but ...

There are a few similar areas of confusion. I'm not going to pick out all of them. Taking awhile to plod thru, reread to figure out discrepancies, and continue. So so for me. I'm on page 363 and STILL have no idea what the story is really about. Military? Gays? Naked body artists? Coma soldier innocent? Guns? Private companies in Iraq? So many red herrings; inner thoughts on who could do that, and why did who do that...and man you really have to WANT the ending to keep reading. A cumbersome body of work.

DARK PROPHECY by Anthony E. Zuiker ****

Well I read the first of the 'series' as well. This one, at first, is a little repetitious. Over and over about the wife dying and the baby needing him....blahblah if he wants to see her so frickin bad GO SEE HER. Meanwhile back at the ranch, good murder stuff and he's hunting the killers who's baby died and the couple is blaming the world. I don't remember how baby died. Clueless. Maybe it was mentioned- but once? Don't know and I'm done reading the book.

Dark chased them as some private secret agent type with a female who helps him remain covert. I don't like how fast his past co-agents are willing to jump on him AS the killer. Ok, he's edgy and tense all the time but pick one. Killer or manhunter.

The book comes with an online movie of some sort where you type in whatever it tells you before each tarot card. (Tarot card murders). What pisses me off is I can't get into the site without saying "Yes go get my personal information from my email web address." So NO THANX. Privacy is a dirty word in the 2000's.

Good read, page turner BUT: Page 110 there are screams inside a bathroom due to dead body..."a bouncer ran back to the ladies room to find it locked." Where screams come from genius?  Boss (Lankford) of some secret agent place walks out of his office on page 125 leaving a snoopy journalist. Unrealistic and how'd he get the job being so stupid and all?

This writer started the CSI infestation. Good read but to spend money on it I'd need to type the code words in without signing in to anything.

SILENCING SAM by Julie Kramer

You are correct. No stars. Only got to chapter 3. Hated it..
Julie used to be a reporter so instead of writing you a novel she's doing a column about herself writing a novel for you. Seems like. We need action Julie. We need you to SHOW not TELL us crap. Its as if she has to explain every detail of life before anything is allowed to happen. Someone swore on the air. Does the general public NOT KNOW this isn't going to air? But we get "Fuck is a word stations aren't allowed to broadcast because the airwaves...blahblah" WE KNOW JULIE. We don't need you to explain air turbines controversy to us either. We are the ones who MAKE the controversy so STFU.

I'm probably unable to continue. I'm not a baby needing newspapers, energy, tv anchors, hair, boots explained in overly dramatic repetition. I shall try. It's so terribly boring. Bob did this story about this, I did that story about that. On and on.....telling telling telling. Who publishes this crap??? Atria books....send your manuscript to them writers....anything flies.

Wanna know why I quit with tail between my legs? Bible thumping religion. Buh Bye.

BAD BLOOD by John Sandford *****

Great read. It's a Virgil Flowers novel and lots of weird sex, religion, murder and of course great investigation. Easy to maneuver and enjoyable to read. Taking my time. I'm not left with unanswered questions or motives, or evidence; it's all being well taken care of by Mr. Flowers and Mr. Sandford as it should be!

Everything flows and moves along as it should. There are a lot of names and once in awhile first and last and when I'm used to the last name not happy when a first name pops up in a paragraph but only complaint not considered as such.

BLUE LIGHTNING by Ann Cleeves **

Too soon to rate but I'm reading it now and we must be in a time warp. A guy walks into a room to talk to 2 women, then next chapter we go back in time and redo his life until he walks into the door again. This goes on constantly and is very distracting. Instant replays all over the place.

English writer, "You never saw him in the field much these days and if you did people just took the piss." Huh? I am stupified.

Men who spend their entire spare time bird watching...like it's soccer. In twitches. As in "he was a big twitcher in his day." Round these parts a twitch can be a female or female parts. And men? Bird watching since high school? Seriously? I mean more than one per novel? Really? ROTFLMAO

So much drivel about the past, everyone's relationships, their boring inner thoughts, people get tossed your way when writer is bored with whoever she's boring you with last chapter.

The cop seems dumb and uninvolved. He needs a woman's reassurance that taking pictures is how to begin the case. He has no tools, no gloves, calmly goes about the scene without calling anyone else, not protecting the scene from his shoes or fibers or anything. I am never told how he touches her, what he's looking for, what he sees beyond a knife in victims back. That's all I get.

There's a big storm, it's an island. No one can get in or out. Everything rests on his boring damn shoulders. Sheesh. Drama much? There is a lot of everyone being really dramatic and self centered. I don't really like it but shall plod on.

Still reading and now a victim's mom couldn't talk on the phone, had to meet the cop in person on the island. Was flown over and what mystical news is revealed? NOTHING. That's right. Lotta of that goin' around.

I'm done and lots of garbage in and not a lot of garbage out. I felt as tho the story fizzled to an end. Disappointed. For one thing: mr macho cop who doesn't have much in his head KNEW who the killer was (so he says) and still let his girlfriend in the general area. AND he read an email that pretty much detailed the motive for a murder and dismissed it. So yeah...he sucks as a cop. Good luck with that! P.S. No court in the land would let a child live with a total stranger over dad and grandparents. Not even with a handwritten piece of toilet paper for a will.

The BURNING WIRE by Jeffery Deaver *****

Writer always does a lot of research for a realistic storyline. Lots of work for this one on electricity and makes you think twice about it's safety.

There are a lot of names. I'm sure a lot of characters could be consolidated and do multiple tasks so you aren't inundated with people every chapter. In my head anyways I think either good or bad and don't bother learning most of them. Then from the very beginning when the first few people are killed I wanted to know who the victims were and Lincoln didn't get to that nor did anyone else for that matter until the very end. I was suspicious about that. With all the charts etc no victims mentioned? Hard to believe for a Lincoln Rhyme story. Even if he was all sick or whatever Sachs has half a brain right? So I was a little disappointed there and sort of knew that was the meat of the story due to it's absence.

Otherwise a great page turner, good puzzle and scary scenarios. Keeps you on the edge of your seat and hard to fall asleep reading it cuz you don't want to stop. Well written, well researched, generally well told. He could have put the victim facts in front of the readers without anyone in the story paying it too much attention and got away with that.

The DEAD PATH by Stephen M. Irwin ****

Very suspenseful novel. At first it seems a little like someone put a bunch of scenarios into a hat and pulled out: ghosts, spiders, witches, Pan, medieval sorcery and was dared into combining it into one novel. Ta-Dah!

There were scenes in the beginning (up to 25 pages of it) that were difficult to fathom where we are; in recovery? A plane? Is he a child, an adult? What? Too many transitions too short of time. Are we in the past, the present the future? He sees ghosts or doesn't? Lot of telling not showing until somewhere just left of the middle the story starts to have action and somewhat unfolds. How blades of grass become animated life forms tho - got no clue.

Why are spiders here? Who got them into this land of weirdness? Why are some giants? Why does he only "hallucinate" after some wild strawberries but then everyone else hallucinates spiders, witches, scary faces in the trees and not eating strawberries? How can there be woods no one can walk thru? K, I never saw woods that were so thick with trees you couldn't walk between them.

If you read this story to a child it would probably be very scary but for an adult it's a little outre. A child would be too scared to ask the whys.

DEXTER IS DELICIOUS by Jeff Lindsay *****

Nothing better than a Dexter novel. There were some boring repetitive spots but all in all a good read.

The books differ somewhat from the series. The child he has with Rita is a girl, Rita is still alive, he has a brother. So you need to read the book alongside the series to get the full Devious Dexter.

The writing has changed from earlier ones instead of us watching Dexter do his "work" we watch others do it and we're chasing their asses around with sister Deb and brother Brian. Round and round, over hill and dale....blahblah while he's 'changing' due to the new baby, feeling human and whatever like that. Not even much about his police work, more like he's now a bystander. Sort of sad in a way. Bye Dexter you had a good run.

HEALER by Carol Cassella ****

A simple family story, mom the almost doc, dad the almost scientist and the over indulged daughter. Doc-mom apparently doesn't know how kids are made so the baby came before the marriage proposal. She can't have other children so this little precious is precious. I think privilege is the norm (for writer) because everything else has a feel of being talked down to. Just my impression.

The drama queen daughter has a very compromising mommy. In the novel Mexicans sneaking into the US die of thirst 1,000 yards from water and are compared to her life as a newbie doctor; or her husband needing billions for research. Happiness, throughout the book, is dependent on having money or miserably accommodating to a life without it altho owning a home on 80 acres in the boonies. Poor? The 'poor' just reeks of $. The most spunk/personality here is the daughter and I don't even like the whiney complaining bitch.

Took me longer than usual to read because there's not a passionate reason to get to it everyday. I actually felt so much blandness. The marriage=bland, the husband seemed wimpy and barely there, the wife had no spine. What was the point? Truly I don't know. The back says "striking meditation on the complexities of love, fragile miracle that is the human body...burdens and blessings of being a healer." The healer who was so bland and uninterested in her own career she didn't get her med. license or practice for 14 yrs? Very in-depth on stupid daily things and the past but so little about the reason she didn't practice. Took almost the entire book to get into that and it was a dud for a firecracker. An unemotional paragraph covered it. Hey make me laugh or cry. Bland. I do think 'striking meditation' fits. It's too calm and meditative for me but OK for a library find.

SIZZLING SIXTEEN by Janet Evanovich ****

Well it's a good read, Stephanie Plum the bail bonds person; murder, arson, mayhem. Tight clothes, heels, makeup, nail polish. These stories (series) are usually written in a very light vein and I generally like them but women...the way they are portrayed...geez. Even the strong one, Stephanie, has men doing all her heavy work, waiting in the wings for her to need them: following her around (GPS) picking up her pieces; and the bonded men who are too large for Stephanie to push into a vehicle so she needs a man to do her work. The point of her job is doing exactly THAT. So....left wondering why. It's her job right? She isn't doing it. Sex kitten doing man's work. Meow.
Fun, light, summer fiction read, nothing to think about -let your brain take a nap.

The BRIDE COLLECTOR by Ted Dekker **

Another author title more important than the book title. That's good cuz I don't think I'll be looking for another TED DEKKER novel. It appears intriguing enough and starts off ok but the novel gets so bogged down in crap. You're taken to a 'Center for Wellness', in other words a nuthouse and you are then drowned in all the random thinking of all the insane. It's so boring you just want to close the book and be done with it. It's like pages of listening to someone's dream. No kidding. It's so tempting to just get another book instead of trudging thru this internal thinking of all the nutjobs. I would rather have scene details, most of the time I'm confused about who is doing the internal ranting and to whom and where we are.

The killer's notes are really stupid. Somehow, and I have NO CLUE how the lead cop (FBI Brad) connects the killer's letter to the nuthouse just because it says "intelligence is centered" in it. Some magical force jumps to the nuthouse and there we go off to be brain damaged by boredom. Page 96 "Brad....hovers over the case like a mother hen, knowing that FOR ALL THE WORLD HE COULD NOT SEE, something was  indeed happening." WTF does that mean? Then another killer note says "Be careful who you love. I just might kill all the beautiful ones. I am more intelligent than you. blahblah" and Brad suddenly takes that as a personal threat. I don't see where it's personal. For one thing it's not handwritten like the other letters, then it's not written as a riddle of some kind and now it's a personal note to Brad? HUH? How does Brad deduct this? His name isn't on there. Just because it was stuck on his window? HUH? Lots of unexplained puzzlers.

There's a lot of so bizarre sexual attractions of Brad, the killer and all the weird females involved so have a good time straightening that out. Half the time you have no idea what's physically happening. The killer is talking to a passenger in a cop car he stole and blahblah on and on till finally you find out she's got a bullet in her forehead. There was a hint but COME ON. Tell me up front what the fuck is going on. You shouldn't make me linger for pages to learn something so stupid because I tend less and less to believe where you're trying to take me. A shame cuz I think I liked the last book he wrote. Also killer tells a victim to get a beauty makeover (yeah I know) then says 'send it to me' (a pic). This insane girl later sends a pic via a cheap cell (he gave her) to him, "the only number in the phone." I would not know 'send it to me' means use the phone so how does the insane girl? How does she know to use it as a camera? She's insane! When she used the phone to call for help Miss Smarty Pants could have given the cops or who she called, the killer's cell number and they could locate him by satellite. HEL-LO!!