Sunday, December 29, 2013

The SHADOW RACER by Meg Gardiner ****

The story begins with Sarah running away from a burning house containing the body of her sister, she is running with the dead sister's baby Zoe. That's your set up. When typing the title I'm wondering what the hell that means in relation to any part of the book. Not a fuckin thing.

Meanwhile as time goes by and Sarah changes her name etc, she works as a skip tracer. A school bus is in an accident and the hospital spots a chip or RFID like you put in dogs in Zoe and compare blood samples saying it's not her kid (sisters and their kids would pretty much be similar/bloodwise unless they are stepsisters which they are not). Do not believe. Her daddy belonged to some super strange religious cult with like ten members in it and supposedly daddy died the day of the fire because Sarah shot him.

So the cult is made up of crazies, (isn't that normal for a cult?) then they somehow find out about Zoe being alive and her chip contains way more information than a dog's chip, like she's a super computer chip kid with bank accounts and stuff like all the people's names from the cult (all ten of them and their kids). Some of the FBI or cops are inherently nasty creatures calling her a killer of her sister and chasing her down like a dog or using her as bait. Who would actually do that without her permission? Anyways, one cop is on her side a Marshall of some sort but meantime she and a friend or two are on the run, helping each other and the marshall is helping (in a limited way of course, he's never around during the terrifying moments she endures till the last minute) and on and on she runs with throwaway phones but the cult is smarter than her of course and it all comes to a showdown in some podunk town full of dead airplanes near Rosewell NM. That's all folks. I found it a little over the top in believability, hell I was told over and over by editors that Backyard Dog was hard to accept the suspension of disbelief. Where are you now editors? This book is rank with suspension of disbelief.

That's my take on it. Recommend library or borrow. And welcome to suspending your disbelief.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

THE HIT by David Baldacci *****

Very well written thriller, about 2 people who are working for a secret cabal for the US killing as snipers people that are dangerous to this country and other nearby countries. Maybe their policies don't jell with ours or they hate the US and we don't want them in charge.

So these two are usually separate and doing their own job. One day a hit man is killed doing his job and both are fearful of each other and the company they work for. Female Reel is going rogue for some reason and Robie has to find out the reason. They are equal in talent but Robie is hired to kill Reel. Instead they become a duo to take out a secret group that was trying to infiltrate our government and take it over by slaughtering everyone from heads of states all at once.

Both dodge bullets constantly throughout the novel by some faction or another, people are killed all over the place until the end. It's a fast paced story and interesting not a hard core page burner but close enough. I would buy it.

Sunday, December 15, 2013

DOCTOR SLEEP by Stephen King *****

The continuation of The Shining, actually time has passed since the hotel fiasco and Dan Torrance is still alive. This book covers his alcoholism and his next troubled ghost story. Since having a bad  drunk he moves to another town and becomes an orderly or something like that at a hospice. A cat named Azzie sleeps beside someone ready to die and then Dan goes in and helps them to the other side because he has special powers of intuition that can help them. While in town he meets up with other new people he's living in NH and finds a girl who as a baby writes her name on something in his house "Abra" and as she grows and he recovers from alcohol they finally meet. Abra has very strong "shining", more so than Dan and that's how they begin their connection.

Not to give it all away, a cadre of camper people traveling the road, similar in every way with old time gypsies are going around sucking the "shining" from children. They first torture them really good so their power is strong then breathe in the dying breath of the kids they then bury them. One kid leaves behind a nice little gift for them and they begin dying off and feel a need to get Abra stronger than anything else they can do.

Several have a run in with her on her turf and it pisses off the head female who wears a top hat assumed to carry badness. Anyway if you've read King before you know what to expect. Lots of supernatural occurrences, intuition, friends helping out and the good guys usually win. Most of them anyway. So read it. Great scary novel. Recommend even buy it.

Monday, December 9, 2013

NEVER GO BACK by Lee Child ****

I think Lee Child writes intriquing novels. Sort of different involving government figures, CIA, FBI, spying etc. this novel is a little difficult to put into one paragraph. Jack Reacher and another commanding officer (CO) named Susan Turner are both jailed. Jack for things he supposedly did 20 yrs ago one of which includes having a child he never knew about. The other CO was also jailed for some reason I don't recall.

The entire book is both of them on the run with throw away phones attempting to figure out what they did that put them in trouble and attempting to find any proof. Of course they didn't find proof of any wrongdoing and for all the confusing army/CO/crap thru the entire book were of course innocent and found out why they were framed. The end.

I personally was only half in thrall and wouldn't buy it, I would get it at the library.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

MY STORY by Elizabeth Smart/Chris Stewart **

Big yawn to be honest.  Smart was kidnapped July 2002 and spent about 9 months with her captors. If you're not religious you're not going to like this book. Her captors Mitchell and Barzee were nutso about religion believing they're the disciples of god or something and god wants Mitchell to have a lot of virgins (man? no duh). They are a filthy dirty disgusting couple who are pathetic in their ability to get a frickin job. But I don't get why Smart thinks her god is better than their god. Like if you're going to ridicule a religion, don't leave any of them out because they're all the same weird fiction inside your head. To this day she's pious and religious, travels around trying to convert others to being a Mormon, just like Mitchell tried to do to her. Weird hypocrite. You'd think she could take a lesson out of that by seeing god doesn't GAS about her or her little place in the world and creates people like her abductors. Does anyone honestly believe that god looks down at every individual, hears each breath and listens to every single person and is concerned in the least? Well if you do, read the book.

If not; welcome to boredom central. It was repetitive, slow moving and dull reading. She was fourteen, the most naive fourteen yr old on the planet but as in most super religious families like her Mormon crap they are ridiculously pious and shocked by anything outside their own experiences. Sex is more than likely a duty a woman must endure to stay married. Like an ironing board with a man on top. http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/False%20Religions/Mormons/sickos.htm

You know, Mormons/Amish breed dogs, sell the puppies and are the worst caretakers of their animals. They treat dogs as an agricultural product, they are PUPPY MILLS.
They are known for abusive treatment of most animals they breed specifically for money. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700088639/Salt-Lake-County-unveils-proposed-dog-breeding-ordinance.html
\http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,445553,445557
http://thedogwalkersandiego.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/indiana-amish-puppy-mill-video/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormons

Now just because I think the way I do doesn't mean I don't feel anything for the crap she had to put up with. But when they returned to Utah, her home area, Mitchell ran off with his big scary knife and she was alone with Barzee for days. What was stopping her THEN from running off? What? Stupidity? She tries to justify all the reasons she never told anyone questioning Mitchell about who they were, why they were there. She could have ripped her stupid face covering off at anytime and told anyone and get saved. Does she not believe in jail? Does she not understand that police are THERE for people like her if they only TALK instead of sending brain messages to them?

Lots of people tried to ask who she was and why they were in the streets. Draped in filthy sheets, hungry, thirsty, depressed and drunk a lot. Since she was raped multiple times by Mitchell in ways we'll never know cuz she ain't telling why would she not think a cop could intervene with Mitchell and end the stupid kidnapping? What blockage is in her brain? What? I think her survival instincts aren't as acute as normal, you know....Darwin. Honestly it could happen to her again she's just not that with it.

Her mother gave her good advice at the end but that's about all I liked about the entire waste of paper.


Tuesday, December 3, 2013

RAGE AGAINST THE DYING by Becky Masterman *****

This was a really good edge of the seat story. The characters stood out, they had real personalities and the plot moved along pretty quickly. There wasn't much to dislike about it. An older female FBI agent becomes involved in a serial killer string of murders and faces off with him even after he hired killers to take care of her.

I don't really have anything negative to say. Liked it a lot would buy it.

Sunday, December 1, 2013

CHRISTIAN NATION by Frederic C. Rich ****

The premise of the book: McCain won the election not Obama and McCain's running mate was of course, the crude and unsophisticated dullard Sarah Palin. So sometime after the election McCain passes way in Russia and Sarah, speaking like an idiot, tries to get the body back to the US without success.

Since Sarah is so ignorant about politics, (but very up on slaughtering wolves from helicopters) she needs help in the oval office so some evangelical clown moves in to help her. Another 9/11 type event (much worse also w/planes) occurs prior to her re-election but in the meantime she calls out the national guard, declares martial law and tries to eliminate at first the Muslims who caused the calamity then more people get in front of her gun. She either ships them where ever they choose to go or imprisons them I guess. She thinks God is pissed off and says we DESERVED the planes that crashed recently because we are ungodly and ignoring his commandments, which have now become more important than the constitution. The bible begins to rule over laws.

She pretty much, with her evangelicals, declares that we are America the Christian Nation, she has no clue about history and as other dumb super-religious people she believes dinosaurs and humans both occupied the same space at the same time. She inflitrates schools and eliminates Muslim teachings, begins a campaign of hatred of gays, atheists, and non believers and begins to allow states to decide if they want prayer in their schools and this is almost like Animal Farm without the animals. She makes abortion illegal, along with gays (sodomy in the bible).

It's very dry and long narrative language. I had a very difficult time getting 'into' it at all. I do believe yes; this can happen in America because of fear, stupidity (dumbing down of Americans) and lack of knowledge by the general public. There are laws already in place that could hasten this scenario and no one has protested loud enough to stop these laws from taking place. I really got sick of the narration, explanations, details etc. I think it's a good book for anyone interested in history, Christianity, dominance and influence of evangelicals on our system but I couldn't finish it. Sorry Fred, it was too much information not enough character. I had to re-read paragraphs over and over to understand them because my bored mind tended to wander away from the book. But I think it's a good book for people to read.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

THREE GRAVES FULL by Jamie Mason ***

This wasn't a murder mystery per se, it was more you know who did what and have to go thru the b.s. in their lives along with them for the consequences of what they did.

To start with I didn't like or feel compassion for anyone at all in the book cept the dog.
The people were liars, killers, stupid, oafish, living in a world of their own. One guy hits a chick over the head with a shovel, she knows he did it and yet she helps him get out of trouble for a murder he committed. We never know if the killer who was the previous owner the house where bodies show up- got busted for stealing his twins' life taking welfare or disability checks. So much is still balls in the air never landing.

I didn't really like the book at all. Mostly because there wasn't anyone sympathetic to speak of. Maybe the cop's wife but she was so flighty it almost doesn't count. The dog was nice enough. The people were jerks. So so for me.

Saturday, November 23, 2013

REMEMBER AMELIA by Kimberly McCreight *

Well the type is kind of small. There are tons of useless person descriptions. I mean geez, paragraph after paragraph of everyone's life history. Unnecessary waste of my time. If the nanny doesn't live there anymore I don't want her life story or how long she was there or who the fuck misses her. Big deal. Just say, her childhood nanny was vetoed by Amelia. THE END.

So then I have to read about all the lead character's lawyer work, her friends, her co-workers, how she went to law school. How she dealt with her pregnancy unmarried. And BTW one of the worst parents I ever heard of. She chose a child over abortion I would think she should give her child all her attention instead of leaving her to cope with teenage life alone. DUH. Once you decide to have a kid, you have a kid! Not a career 45 mins from home/school etc.

Do you not understand McCreight that EVERY frickin word is to move the story forward? You delay and delay and I got so sick of it I stopped reading. Not a fan.

Friday, November 22, 2013

LET ME GO by Chelsea Cain *****

Awesome edge of the seat story telling. The villain is evil and the main character is somewhat in love with her. Apparently she's pretty hot but she's also a killer.

So there's an FBI undercover guy, a Halloween party, some females and Archie the detective who is half in love with the killer female. The party gets pretty messy once it's over. Lots of murders and death, another serial killer Gretchen who sort of helps Archie find the male serial killer after she stabs him in the stomach. Nice girlfriend. Lots of sex stuff gone wrong in here. Hookers, pole dancing etc.

It's hard to put down because you don't want to feel like you're lost when you pick it up again. There's way too much going on all the time.

Really good moving story and the characters seemed real, weren't too many to keep track of and I liked it a lot. Would buy it.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

EVIL EYE by Joyce Carol Oates ***

This is a book with three short stories in it. The first one had something to do with a 4th marriage and someone missing an eye or not. Stupid. I can't even remember the other two they were kind of forgettable. No real endings to the last one I remember that much.
It gets you to sleep and the stories are short so not a huge waste of your time. Not too many characters. So so for me.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

The GOLIATH STONE by Larry Niven & M.J.Harrington

I am on page 50 and have no idea what the hell I'm reading at all. Something about nano particles making decisions and dividing themselves, eating each other, having a computer brain telling them what to do. Back on earth nothing much I can figure out here either. Lots of people, fake names or too many of them. I don't know.

Hated it really did. I tried to 'get into it' but was confused over and over again. Once you're in 2025 then you're in 2052, then back and then forth and then back and then forth. I give up. Even the way people speak is absurd.
Done with it.

Saturday, November 16, 2013

The HOMECOMING by Carsten Stroud *

Wow, I didn't read the first book so this one was nonsense to me. Utter stupid nonsense. Here are names you must learn up to page 9: John Parkhurst, Mogan Littlebasket, Thad Llewellyn, Inge Llewellyn, Nick Kavanaugh, Beau Norlett, Mavis Crossfire, Tig, Dillion, Delia Cotton, Gray Haggard, Kate Walker, Twyla, Bluebell, Coker. Continuing on to page14: Zachery Dak, Mark Hopewell,  Edgar Luckinaugh, Boonie Hackendorff, Byron Dietz, Beth, Reed Walker, Marty Coors, Linus Calder, Axel, Hannah. That's 24 names in half as many pages. Dumb ass names BTW. Somebody shoot me! Shoot me NOW!!

So I am half thru the miserable confusing stupid ass book. Nothing at all makes sense to me. People disappeared in a mirror, which is covered in a blanket in someone's house; people who are supposedly involved somehow in the story from the early 1900s, Rainey, Axel are two kids and no one really knows how old Rainey is, even himself. It's just so far off that I think writer needs medication. Serious meds. And a nice quiet corner.

I really have to stop now I can't stand it anymore. It's pure unadulterated torture for me. I don't care about anyONE in the story. I don't give a flying fuck who lives or dies or what Chase Run, Tallulahs Wall, Upper Chase Run, Crater Sink, Armory Bridge, and more people. I just GIVE UP. DONE. OVER. If I owned it I'd burn the sucker.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

BRIDGET JONES, Mad About The Boy by Helen Fielding ****

I was burning pages I was reading so fast. Each page doesn't really contain many words, lots of space between some paragraphs it's a fast read for sure. So there were some times I was in bed trying to read before falling asleep and I began giggling because Bridget is so "duh" about things in general. I like the stupid sex scenes with her boy toy as Americans call them not the other way round "toy boys"? What is that? Robot?

The killing of her husband was pretty slick, writer is one trick pony. She does stupid sex, wanting sex, watching other couples and wishing for sex, while superficial friendships abound. Didn't like the dead husband angle (killing off Mark Darcy) much the story goes from widowhood to fucking a tween half her age. Again she falls in love or is it lust?  If the original Mark died we are OVER being in love, and dripping for sex are we not? Isn't there something else we are supposed to learn about Bridget aside from sex? What was marriage like? I made this up to keep last names in order for high school tests: "Romeo and Juliet a Montague and Capulet, both are lovers never to see what living together would really be." by ME.  Story is the same old same old. Just like reading the first one over again. Author says she has "moved on" from the first marriage angle of the book but then goes and continues it all over again in this one. Same shit different names.

So there are terms which are incomprehensible: "Spagbog"? HUH??? Sounds like something coming out the rear end of a dog but they eat it. Then we have "sledging"? Which IRL is sledding? Duh. I guess they can shag on their sledges then, no?  How can Bridget fit '2 sledges and children INSIDE her car? Would that be a sledge HAMMER?? What kind of sledges are we talking about? Little saucer type things? Regular size sleds? WTF? Maybe she drives a Hummer or something. When going sledging why does one wear goggles? WTF is that all about? Gee I wish I knew English. (So glad the tea went into Bahston Habah.)

Here's a nice indecipherable sentence for all you Americans out there "I haven't got any summer events to go to or a fascinator." Pray tell what the fuck is a fascinator? Fastener? Like a snap or zipper? What the fuck? A huge battery operated dick? Fascinator?

So if you slide or glide over the Queens English pretending you understand, it's a quick funny read and I might suggest buying but try library first. The entire time I pictured Rene Zellweger in the role so it was good for me but nothing new but 2 children.

Monday, November 11, 2013

The CURIOSITY by Stephen P. Kiernan *****

This is a really good read with some twists and turns. I had a hard time putting it down. A guy is discovered in "hard ice" and a crew of scientists want to see if they can reanimate him out of the ice as they have done with shrimp and krill. But the lower life forms have a life expectancy of a few minutes so making this frozen ice guy live for longer than a month is a question no one can answer till the end of the book and the ending is a little ambiguous. A reasonable cure is found to keep him alive but he rides off into the sunset on a boat with his newly screwed scientist crying on shore.

Now for one thing the author gets into what this guy is eating way too late for me. Also they NEVER find one living relative. Now his wife had a family and so did he I would think unless all parents, brothers, uncles, aunts, grandparents of both wife/husband are all dead. Sort of unrealistic in that respect. So I was unhappy with that aspect of the story.

The fact this mega intelligent scientist Philo (weird name) screws him is another matter because he's from the early 1900s and has a different outlook on easy carefree sex so I don't think in my wildest dreams he would be fucking her. And WTF is she doing by screwing the experiment? Sure he's human etc so lets find some RELATIVES for heaven's sake and go screw someone else that's not 100 yrs old and newly reanimated, k? Desperate much?

Otherwise I thought it was fascinating and unique for a book idea and it was well written with characters you felt you knew. I recommend the book, and even go buy it.

Thursday, November 7, 2013

HUNTING EVE by Iris Johansen **

Man another dose of sleeping pills here. It's so much talking, thinking, doing of nothing, like filler for a pillow with very little story line. In a nutshell Eve still has to make a sculpture of some raving lunatics son. The end.

Page 299 "No one protects anyone but Eve." OMG she is all that and a bag of chips. On the cover is some body holding a gun yet Eve never has killed anyone, she's mostly wimpy and always in jeopardy making everyone else around her risk their lives to save her. The end was an explosion and oh my god Eve was in the building when it happened...could she...really....could she be....I only wish...could she be dead???? LOL

NO ENDING. THE END. Another one.

Monday, November 4, 2013

TAKING EVE by Iris Johansen ***

Wow, my precious precious Eve gets nabbed by a maniac who (hahahaha) wants her to sculpt his dead murderous son's head. I can't help laughing thru most of this book. Girl talks to feral cats, dogs living longer than supposed to, CIA and FBI morons hiding criminals because of some stupid tapes Doane/Haller(?) uses for blackmail but the CIA can't get them altho they are hiding him in a safe house. From the safe house he kidnaps poor Eve who is beloved by her ghost daughter, her boyfriend or husband Joe, her adopted daughter plain Jane, Margret, Caleb who is so addictive to Jane she creams her jeans over him all the time but is scared of him at the same time.

People do NOT talk as portrayed in the book, it makes everything so childish and inane. It's like watching a movie and just before anyone gets shot they have time to spill their guts, then something switches order and the guy gets arrested. Like TV drama shows. So dramatic all thru the book, "She whirled on Venable (CIA), and said fiercely, 'It could have been Eve damn you Venable. Joe said you know more about this than you're telling him. You talk to us.'" LOL

Most of the characters are either so good they wear angel halos or so bad and cunning they can kill with the thrill of a hunter. This whole thing is unbelievable. Literally. Don't like it much I think it's for teenagers or something. Not for adults that's for sure.

This book has no ending you must buy or borrow the next book to see what happens. Drama, drama, drama and all the queens you need. I shall continue on the second book cuz like an idiot I picked it up with this one. Reading till I get to the library again. Woe is me. There is no ending to this book, must be the same publisher for Robin Cook.
NO ENDING. THE END.

Saturday, November 2, 2013

W IS FOR WASTED BY Sue Grafton **

::Yawn:: I don't know what it is about this novel that was terribly boring for me. Could have been the dozens of characters involved, a bunch of names to memorize, or the descriptions of people's lives from birth onwards in some cases. I didn't really have a cohesive picture in my head of anyone but Henry, the cat and Kinsey. But I've read a lot of her novels and maybe that's why the 2 humans stood out.

On page 306 she has a flat tire that has been punctured on the side near the rim. Now that happened to me as well and no mechanic can "fix" that, you need a new tire. Tires can only be fixed by a plug if the hole is on the part riding on the road.

At the end Kinsey ends up with one of her "relatives" moved in with Henry and we never see the end of that. I have NO CLUE why that girl, Anna, was in the novel at all. WhyTF did she move in with Henry and WTF was her purpose for being there at all? She was a hastily sketched person with barely a personality and I can't see why she followed Kinsey home. WTF???

For such a large book the story had a lot of time to WASTE before hinting at the very slow moving story line. So I can see where the title came from. WASTE of paper. Was a fan, thinking of moving on. I just didn't get it with all the stupid characters, drunks, bums, doctors, research, bad medicine, nothing showing up in the autopsies not even the bad drug that supposedly killed 3 people. So I'm just gonna go hit up the grand marnier and get myself wasted cuz this was over bearing boredom FOR ME.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE by Owen Laukkanen ****

Very fast paced novel about a wealthy man who can't afford his lifestyle so he tries out robbing banks. What is sort of a disappointment is that when he does all these banks there are no dye packs involved. Like huh? Everytime?

He has a new secretary, a teenager who has a boyfriend and she somehow knows exactly the people to call for guns, ammo and where drug dealers live and play poker. She's inappropriately hired as his secretary? Why and what skills does she have minus the criminal activities? Funny how she just works for the wealthy guy who is into robbing banks now and she has all the creds of an ex con.

The more the criminal, Carter Tomlin, robs and kills the happier he gets about doing it. With no apparent skills in this department he spontaneously decides to rob an armored car a couple times, no planning or anything. Once in the morning when there probably isn't ANY money in the truck. It's a little preposterous. So I could only give it 4 stars. Mr bad guy gets shot in the gut yet manages to kidnap a BCA's daughter and run around like that in the mall of America shooting his way towards her while bleeding to death. Then at the end he survives, big surprise there. He got shot driving an SUV away with gunfire behind him where he shoved the BCA's daughter who didn't get a scratch on her yet the truck was filled with gunshots from the rear. Another unreal scenario.

I did like the fast pace, some of the characters, I liked FBI Agent Windermere and almost liked Stevens who was the BCA but he was kind of wishy washy. The story, altho full of flaws for me was pretty good reading, just turn off most of your credibility and read away.



Saturday, October 26, 2013

The DOLL by Taylor Stevens ****

After chapter one which is loaded with names it becomes the start of a story. It's about a couple people who are well trained with guns etc. and the female Vanessa Michael Monroe gets kidnapped and is threatened by the "Doll man" to deliver Neeva, a movie star,or something similar from one place to another. They are holding her Michael/Monroe's brother for collateral. Why the criminals don't use their own skilled shooting bunch of thugs I have no clue. That really wasn't believable but continuing on. There's a lot of fights, murder, blood and gore. I still don't know why they'd hire a female who is uncontrollable in the long run and they KNOW she's going to hate the assignment and kill his people. So Duh?

I thought it was fast paced enough, the female's boyfriend Bradford has to find the hostages all the time so Michael/Monroe can kill the abductors. During about half the book the protagonist is called Michael (who was made up to look like a guy-again why?) then all of a sudden author decides she's not Michael anymore and begins calling her Monroe. So confusing I had to go back pages and pages to see who the fuck Monroe was.

Apparently this is a character the author writes about again and again there are  more books with her brave antics. It's not an easy book to stop reading because of the fast pace but at other times you want to laugh at the "bad" guy who dresses up his kidnapped females in doll clothes. So this is about human trafficking and more missing kids are hidden away that Michael/Monroe has to free. Etc etc etc.

Not bad reading, not great reading so get it at the library.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

REVIVER by Seth Patrick ****

This was sort of different. Some people, I suppose it's the future, can awaken the recently deceased under certain circumstances and revive them to ask who killed them if murder is suspected. Or someone needs closure in the relationship etc.

There were too many people for me. Just so many names and weird ones at that, "Never" that's a guy's name so sometimes you think the word never starts off a sentence but no...it's the guy.  So Jonah Miller is one of the revivers and he keeps hearing weird background voices when he's reviving someone and he begins to believe there is an evil spirit that wants to exit his dormancy in the "other world" so to speak.

There are several different agencies at work, some people want to control the other world guy, there are theories about who or what it is and some want it not to survive transference permanently into a living body. That would mean the person sacrifices him/herself to the other spirit. There's so many people involved I had a difficult time keeping it all separated. I have to sleep sometime and when I start up the book again--forget it. Confused all over again.

I sort of liked the idea of "revivers" but the evil spirit showing up is the major story and I didn't really care about much of that. I would get it at the library.

Friday, October 18, 2013

ALEX by Pierre Lemaitre ***

Well I read the entire book, finding a lot of passages to skip over. The writer gets carried away with descriptive long boring passages about the character. There is a writing rule: Show don't Tell. He does a lot of telling and it's boring as all hell. Aside from that....

The story was interesting, it had a nice number of murders and they seemed unconnected until the end. There are twists and turns as you continue reading to the end. That part I enjoyed but it could have been done a little quicker without all the boring what someone is thinking about someone else. The main detective is like 4'11" and the writer never lets you forget it. It's in almost every chapter how he's "disabled" due to his height. There's a little Columbo in there, with the short Commandant Camille (female name, but a guy). He walks around and suddenly something occurs to him and bang he solved something about the case.

The killer is very interesting and has a lot of problems. I think the story is ok. It's translsated copy from a French writer who was a literature proff. Still I think he could cut down on the descriptive narratives and make a better tighter story, this is too loose and you lose interest here and there.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

The LEVIATHAN EFFECT by James Liliefors ***

The first thing I have to get out of the way is how difficult this book is to get into. There are so many people in the beginning along with acronyms and agencies. Every page up to about page 50 you have new people or whatever to learn about and he doesn't take anything you may already know for granted, he explains all details so by the time you get to page 50 you want to stop reading the damn book. But hang in there because if you just skim over the crap you'll finally enter the story.

This is about weather control and it's an interesting concept. So you have the lead characters, I would give them equal weight really, Catherine Blaine and Charles Mallory. They try to find information about what the hell is going on because someone is sort of black mailing the president to stop a hurricane developing in the Atlantic ocean. It's loaded with murder and false leads, and real ones. I didn't mind it after I waded thru the beginning but the acronyms continue throughout the novel and it gets tedious.

If you like a semi-realistic scenario and murder and chasing and solving the crises type of story this one is ok. Not on my top ten list but wasn't bad enough to replace with another book. Fair.

Monday, October 7, 2013

HUMAN REMAINS by Elizabeth Haynes ***

I thought it was a pretty good story but could tell throughout that it was a Brit writer, just the general tone and some words that seemed outdated or used oddly.

So a guy named Colin goes around finding depressed people and talks them into committing suicide (supposedly in the double figures, some still not discovered). He tried it on the main character Annabel and she couldn't remember anything he told her. Not one bloody word. So you have this mysterious way of talking people into committing death but aren't allowed to know how it's done. I think it was implied by hypnosis or coercion but no one ever really tells you much of anything except Colin is innocent of anything (as far as police are concerned) more than chatting up some girls who decide to kill themselves without provocation. Yeah ok sure. How about conspiracy to commit a crime?

The premise of the story was unreal but reading it as a simple story without questioning anything it went along pretty well, you kept wanting to know more, like what the fuck Annabel's job is all about. Who ever even heard of a civilian looking crap up for the PD and being paid? IDK. Sounds idiotic to me, she should either be part of the PD or get a real job.

Anyway those are some of the obstacles you need to leap your faith over and read for the sake of wasting your time reading. I found it absorbing because you kept waiting to see what Colin was doing which you never got an answer so it really was a waste of my time.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

INFERNO by Dan Brown *****

This is a typical Langdon run thru the streets to beat a mysterious person trying to tamper with genetics or unleash a genetic disease upon mankind. The brilliant but obsessed with Dante's Inferno guy kills himself about when Langdon wakes up from amnesia in Italy. He has no idea how he got there or why is there. And so the chase begins. In the hospital he's told he was struck by a bullet and watches as his doctor is gunned down in front of him, he's grabbed by a student doctor Sienna and off they go together following clues from the bad guy.

Lots of descriptive passages about Italy the art and statues and each painter, sort of a history lesson from a professor, I kinda skipped over that crap it bored me, esp. since there was so much of it.

A guy on a boat finds out his client is the brilliant "killer" and goes to the world health org. with his findings to ask for help in stopping the ticking time bomb somewhere under Italys water ways so there are cops, the guys from the ship, the WHO all chasing after Langdon hoping he leads them all to an underground passage containing a dangerous substance. 

I won't give anything away but I was sort of rooting for the bad guy once I knew what they were looking for. The book addresses the increasingly dangerous overpopulation to our planet and how it can only sustain perhaps half of everyone on it. Usually nature takes things into it's own hands and a new strain of bacteria or deadly virus wipes out most of the population giving earth a chance to recover and start fresh. I liked the premise of the story and it's one that needs to have more thought by all the countries leaders. Limiting the amount of children people can conceive is a responsible thing to do.

I know someone who is fostering a baby and the mother has given up 3 other children to the adoption process and is pregnant yet again. The dumb shall inherit the earth because the more intelligent people know to limit the size of their family. Very intuitive and good reading.

Saturday, September 28, 2013

MY SECOND DEATH by Lydia Cooper ****

I found this to be very good reading but the main character is so "off" it's unbelievable. A girl, Michaela, feels no physical pain, has no empathy, which makes her a sociopath and bunch of other weird psychosis names, has an older brother who tortured her all her life to get a rise out of her but of course he never did. The brother was basically a killer who blamed most of his dirty deeds on the sister who is so dumb or stupid she never explained to anyone that she didn't do anything. Just spent a lot of her childhood in mental institutions drooling on herself but now somehow she has redeemed herself to teach other children, I guess college students.

She's rude to everyone in her path, says she can't emote but is honest as that's the only way she can be. This has to be some fabricated psychotic person. She's even ruder to her own mother and father, more so than necessary and they seem to play almost no role in her life whatsoever. They're blank slates you never get to know at all really. You're pretty much stuck with Mickey, Aiden (her new roommate) her brother David and that's about all folks.

A few fires, some dead bodies turn up that she's supposed to solve the crimes without involving the cops or herself -course she CARES enough not to be sent back to the mental institution to go to all the trouble of trying to solve the cases herself.

One very irritating aspect of the writing is how everything smells. Drove me nuts. She doesn't want to be next to someone because "she'll be able to smell his teenage body odor and deodorant and the cafeteria and perfume scents lingering on his school clothes." HUH? What perfume? Or "The frozen crust of earth purls (?) with trapped melted snow. The scent of snow, wet crumbling tree bark (who smells this?), of exhaust. And under it all the sharp bitter smell of scorched wood, melted rubber, overheated metal, the last traces of an apocalyptic fire." Come on...really? She must be a dog but no one told me, a bloodhound perhaps. Odors like this crap are common thru out the book. It's ridiculous.

Otherwise I could have enjoyed it, if you bypass the fake ability to smell like a dog (and sense odors as one, lol) you may like it as well.

Monday, September 23, 2013

ASK BOB by Peter Gethers *****

If you enjoy animals and the inside of other people's relationships you'll enjoy the book. I liked it very much, mostly cuz it's about a veterinarian, his pets and his dating, marriages etc. It didn't really delve much into he animal part of his life and some of the relationships were unrealistic but overall a good read. Easy to get thru liked most of the characters, felt he was a sort of way too easy going type of person but would like to meet someone like that in my own life. Enjoyed it.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

CODE WHITE by Scott Britz-Cunningham *****

Very good medical story with some danger/mystery involved. A  neurosurgeon was married to quite the monster, left him for another doctor and her husband went on a tirade. He invented a learning computer program that sort of was part of his own personality. He rigged the hospital with dynamite and demanded ransom money which the computer would go into the banks while the money was transferred and steal more up to the billions of dollars.


The wife Ali, learns all this while in the middle of using new technology they both invented (husband) to reconnect the boys brain to get his vision which he never had due to a tumor that first needed to be removed then the egg computer program inserted. She was running back and forth watching him, worried about the bomb, no one was allowed to leave the building but FBI and other cops were involved. Her boyfriend was offed by the computer without the husbands consent, it just acted on it's own and that scared Ali so much she had to figure out how to get the computer to calm down and stop the bomb ticking down to explosion.

Very edge of the seat and good reading. You'll like it.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill ****

First off you gotta know that Joe Hill is Steven King's son. So there ya go...it's as scary as his dad writes, altho a little 'trippy' about "inside reality" being the same as outside reality, say music in your head becomes music in reality he just carried it sort of into bizarre areas that takes quite a lot of setting aside your disbelief. How can people travel over bridges in their mind with other people to be some far off place to "find" something? A few of these characters have this so called "power".

I can't give it 5 stars for a few reasons. It's a fairly good and difficult to put down book. Things I don't like are that the children somehow made to believe in a bad guys dream life and become vampire-like but are still alive and real children at the end but blood thirsty killers in between. Don't get it at all.

Then the heroine undeservedly aside from all the ass kicking she takes to herself, and marries/fucks a big huge obese fat guy when it says nothing about her being uglier than sin doesn't make it to the end. That is very disappointing to the reader. You have to know that the entire book hinges on this one character solving EVERYTHING and then you kill her off? WHY? Wasn't she tough enough, or worth enough, or kick ass enough? You made her a huge fighter but can't keep her alive? What was her point? Then her asshole big fat husband goes and gets his stomach tied off so he's slim and worthy of her but she's not there to see THAT and the cop who suspected the heroine Vic of killing her own kid ends up fucking her husband. It's unjust, unfair and not worth 700 pages for that ending.

How is any of that in all fairness worth the reader sticking with the writer to the end? Now I will never trust you Joe Hill. Not for a minute. I will doubt everything you tell me about everyone in your stupid stories and know you have a bad or unfair ending for them. Glad to hear you're so popular on twitter you're gonna need those friends. I may read your books but be suspect about your motives for every strong character because in the end they will weaken and die like all the bad guys in the book. I have no confidence you are taking me on a fair journey. You are taking me for a long drawn out stupid make believe story with a bad ending.



Monday, September 9, 2013

TWICE KISSED by Lisa Jackson **

The most ridiculous "romance" novel evah! Some teen has sex with a cowboy her twin has sex with her half brother, finds out about the cowboy seduces him from her sister and there's beginning of the love stupidity.

So the half brother kills himself sister #2 miscarries his kid which is why he did that, then she gets knocked up ASAP by her own sisters boyfriend and gives that kid away. Sounds like a horror story right? O but the sister#1 still adores and worships her manipulating, self centered, monster of a twin.

I hated it. Not a romance, not a mystery mostly a hate crime from one sister to everyone else she deals with in her miserable life. Hated all of it. Stupid ass yard sale buy. Circa 1998 and redone in 2006--bad idea it sucks.

Saturday, September 7, 2013

ORIGINAL SKIN by David Mark *

Got reading it and said to myself, "self" I said, "Shit, writer's a Brit." hated it.
"chats with the force psyhologist and had her doctor sign the last of the seemingly endless forms promising that the slash wound to her hand has left no permanent damage. Tonight, all being well, she's allowed back to the sharp end of policing, watching her boss blahblah etc and somewhere on this page tea drinking is mentioned.
BUHBYE.
She drives a Citroen for shits sake listens to a station called Radio Humberside, loose horses and a stallion. I was an animal control officer and this dipshit with the loose horses gets no fine. NOTHING. The most dangerous animal is a stallion running loose, esp. since so many females are running around with him crashing car windows and stomping all over everyone's garden. NO FINE. NO PUNISHMENT. Nothing. Sheesh.

SIX YEARS by Harlan Coben ****

This is a very confusing story. There's a secret society that hides people who's lives are in danger and one guy Jake wants to find his girlfriend who disappeared into this net of deception. He's looking because he saw her marry a guy who was killed and the obit stirred his curiosity enough to want to find his girlfriend whom he absolutely couldn't live without.

Now in the story a bad guy has a son who wants to help people hide for the rest of their lives, so the newspaper article declares and people tell Jake that as well but then the author somehow turns him into a criminal who was killed by a person who had to hide in the secret society called Fresh Start. So this part is very stupid/confusing. Is Archer bad or is Archer good? Did he help people as the reader is led to believe or is he a criminal like his father?

Well you'll never really get a good answer to that. Otherwise the book is fast reading, you want to continue because so many odd things occur it peaks your curiosity but at the same time pisses you off by the high numbers of people involved the bad vs good the nature of Fresh Start and all that crap. One of the people who started the program worked with the FBI at one time hiding people so my question left at the end is why didn't he just put them in witness protection? Some were bad? Killers? I don't know.  By the time you're done reading it you have very little idea whether you care or not.

Happily ever after. The end.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

TRAIL OF BLOOD by Lisa Black **

I almost read to the end because I had nothing else to read for awhile. This has two murder investigations going on, one 50 or so yrs ago the newer one is when the book was current which was 1963. There is no end to the murder mysteries that begin with one from 50 years ago. This sucks and pisses me off. I hate old crap murders. Either start fresh or stop writing this nonsense.

I find both investigations boring to the max. She writes in some old fashioned antiquated style: "Greer didn't, though, merely turned away and took a few unsteady steps. the Thunderbirds did a vertical climb over the lake, their engines whining, their sharp outlines silhouetted against the cobalt-blue sky. The cops present watched, of course, as anyone would, but Theresa stopped to swat a late-sesason mosquito and therefore witnessed the councilman drop to one knee and lose his lunch onto the grass." B-O-R-I-N-G.

There is way way too much space filler such as that all over the book, it makes you want to rip out page after page. I skip a lot of the reading to avoid these mindless traps of boredom. My opinion is find something more current, this shit sucks.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

The WORLD OF THE END by Ofir Touche Gafla ***

Highly wordy and confusing mixed up bag of tricks about the afterlife. This guy likes Shakespeare and Salman Rushdie and all kinds of discussions about them ensue, he likes making his characters philosophize page by boring page. The few incidents that actually forward a story is so convoluted it's sometimes difficult to follow.

If you knew half the crap in the middle you wouldn't be so amazingly distant from what the hell is going on. Very hard to decipher and I don't got that kind of time. If you like to take your time diagnosing every page for nuances of shit to come then this is the book for you. Not me so much. Didn't really care for it. Blah.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

DEEPLY ODD by Dean Koontz *****

I would definitely buy the book, this is about Odd Thomas and his adventures with the underworld that he and few others can see. Some children are in jeopardy by cultists of some kind and his mission with some helpful near supernatural people is to save the children without dying or any of them being hurt.

There are monsters, ghost dogs, Alfred Hitchcock, scary people who worship the underworld to an extent that they don't deserve to live. At one point Odd is shot in the throat and how he lives is a mystery right to the end of the book. Or was he shot at all?

There is another world, we cannot see that is cruel, gray and frightening only a few can see it or survive it. Lots of action, adventure and always strangeness that is Dean Koontz's vision only he knows how to tell. Very good reading, could hardly put it down. Thanks!

Monday, August 19, 2013

NO REGRETS, COYOTE by John Dufresne

No stars. What a bunch of bullshit. You jump from one ridiculous scene to the next. Nonsensical and nothing to do with solving a murder, just stupid ass insane people talking to more stupid ass insane people. I got to page like 100 and I just can't stand it anymore. Senseless dumb crap. Wrong drinks, dementia father, guy seems gay but supposedly isn't, no murder mentioned beyond the second chapter far as I know. It's all drinking and patting each other on the back. Yahoo. BYE

Saturday, August 17, 2013

SHE CAN TELL by Melinda Leigh ****

This is more a romance novel than anything else. I thought it sounded on the back like a mystery but not really. Most of the men are big and hunky or big and mean. One or the other no techy geeks or anything. Mostly your rugged beat everyone up types. The cop vs the boss of him was political b.s. and no one really knows the ending of the big building lot going up or not near the lake. That must be the mystery. Still is.

So Rachel and her sister who gets beat up by her drunk husband now and then (she claims only the one time, as do they all) and sister Sarah has kids whom you don't really ever see, or hear from...best kind of kids right? But 3 stars for the obnoxious little dog who can solve crimes and lead everyone to bad guys.

Chief Mike becomes Rachel's boyfriend and lots of naked scenes going on in here altho poor little Rachel has been hurt before and her heart isn't up for grabs like it used to be. She was also hurt badly in a fall off a horse during a jumping competition, the author knows something about riding and horses needless to say, must have some.

Anywho as the book goes on, the clothing comes off, the cop is fired and has a friend build the girlfriend a fortress no one can break into and yet with cops watching out for her etc. Her barn gets burned down and all are forced out of the 'safe' house into the gloom of night and killers lurking all over the property. The end. :)

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

THE BIG EXIT by David Carnoy ***

For me there were too many characters, esp. for the length of the book, smallish. A long time ago someone fell asleep in a car, Richie-called by his first name, there was an accident and other people were hurt or killed or whatever. Then he gets out of jail, his old buddy, McGregor called by his last name, who was in the car with him, who he swears switched him from passenger to drivers seat is the one driving and got in the accident altho he did the jail time.

I really have no idea why McGregor wants to kill himself aside from not wanting to divorce his wife and give her some of his money, so anyways they find a body assuming that's who it is and the rest is crappy police work trying to figure out whether or not Richie killed McGregor or not to get even with spending time in jail. McGregor also married his old girlfriend.

There were lawyers, his help, cops up the yin yang, news reporters, company people and blahblahblah that didn't really interest me all that much. I really don't like an over population in my reading material, makes it hard to fall asleep and pick up again not knowing who is who all over again. Also not many of the people had distinct personalities except a couple, like Richie cuz he sang at night like Frank Sinatra, and maybe the ex girlfriend Beth. The rest were only names on paper to me.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

JUNKYARD DOGS by Craig Johnson **

This is a drug related murder mystery, sounds like it has potential right? It's still a mystery even tho I read it. Too many people to keep track of and some of them have multiple names he calls them by so it's ridiculously difficult to keep up with the characters. Far as I can tell one person: Saizarbitoria, The Bear, Henry, The Cheyenne Nation. Another person: Sancho, The Basquo, Saizarbitoria, Santiago. There are more people that have more than one name like his female cop.

I don't get it, what the hell is with all the names for one person? I just can't keep up. Plus there are more people who get labeled with other name shit.

Oh and it's so a) stupid b) lacks creativity c) Irritating to name his dog DOG. DUH. Only idiot with no spark of intelligence name their dog DOG.

I read it, it was tolerable and just passed readable but it's very difficult to know who the fuck who the fuck is. Good luck on your name adventure.

The sheriff has got multiple injuries due to his intelligent understanding of crime. Haha.

Saturday, August 3, 2013

AGENDA 21 by Glen Beck & Harriet Parke *****

This is a very interesting story about a law written to protect the land, animal species and the ocean for which all pollution is blamed on humans around the world. Authority figures want to stop humans from destroying the planet and have them working on bikes, living in cement blocks, appointing husbands/wives and ordering them to have children to produce their own energy which no one knows what it's used for.

If you are a slacker you die, the children don't thrive because they're removed from parents and taught only stuff to preserve the agenda of the authorities. Environmentalists have really gone overboard in getting this thru the UN laws I believe it is and altho the book is fiction- in the future it has possibilities of becoming real. Humans are over populating the world and using it's resources faster than the planet  can deal with what is taken from it.

Your own opinion is what matters in this regard not mine. I urge you to read the book and Agenda 21. Might give you nightmares and it is in force already. Some stuff in the book is repetitive but basically it's a good story to tell, with lessons we should actually learn from.

This book leans a little towards panic, everybody panic so take it with a grain of salt.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

DON'T GO by Lisa Scottoline **

Mildly interesting, nothing special here. Coulda dropped it for a month got back and still nothing would be happening.

Some chick's husband was in Afghanistan, lost his arm, came home. She stabbed herself accidentally while drunk and bled to death before he got home and they had a baby her sister took custody of supposedly temporarily. Lawyer husband writes daddy out of the project, but Lisa still thinks he's a nice guy at the end.

I guess you're supposed to think sister and husband are mean for keeping him from his own daughter. He couldn't figure out why she cried whenever he saw her, probably cuz miss sister was pinching her. That woulda made it more interesting but nope. NOT EVEN THAT!! Really everyone turns out to be so pleasant and nice and goody goody only doing what's right for baby.

So he had an oxy issue going on due to the limb pain, finds out his wife was having an affair and got knocked up. And here you're going why the fuck doesn't someone check DNA and find out whose baby it is? WHY? So ask yourself that thru the entire book and you'll never get the answer but the person who's the daddy goes and kills her best friend who he must have thought knew who he was. There wasn't proof of that anywhere. The husband found a gold bracelet and saw one on the guys wife TA-DA solved.

I'm not used to this boring type of writing. Sorry I picked it up. Even sorrier I finished it. I was actually thinking something interesting would happen. NOT.

Monday, July 29, 2013

IMMORTAL by Dean Crawford ***

I'm being generous with the third star. This has a cast of hundreds and CIA, FBI, DIA, blah blah. So Saffron is an activist fighting with grampaw over a company wanting to bump off the general population and let a few bazillionaires live forever from a fountain of youth discovered by some cowboys during the Civil War in the AZ desert 1862 or something. The fountain is made from bat shit and moss etc growing in a Carlsbad Cavern pool.

This is a complicated twisty spy vs spy thoroughly confusing story. I would put it down, the page I was on would get lost and I'd pick it up someplace in the general area and keep reading. I could easily edit 60 pages out of this monster. Lots of boring stuff (explanations of things) and/or repetition.

You have the hero Ethan Warner (almost always called "ETHAN") his work partner Nicola Lopez (almost always called "LOPEZ") and they're on the case from Alaska to Santa Fe to wherever to figure out who's trying to kill who and why. Where are the civil war guys living almost 200 yrs and how? That's their mission.

Why the fuck does the YET AGAIN BRIT WRITER use one guys' first name throughout the novel and everyone else's last name? Sometimes he calls him Warner and I can't figure out who the fuck that is, or he calls Lopez by her first name Nicola and again I'm confused. Just give me a fricking black marker and I'll KISS. Geez. What a nightmare of places, names, acronyms and fighting. Not a big fan. Best I can say is at least no one drank any frickin tea.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

POPPET by Mo Hayder ***

I gotta say this one was mildly interesting but when you're done reading it you end up with a lot of questions instead of answers. Poppets are some voodoo dolls by the way. Some idiot in the mental ward makes them. Yup.

It takes place mostly at a mental institution so you gotta know everyone's a flake even the staff and of course one of them is a weirded out killer, I won't give you a hint but a dog is poisoned, stupid ass killer.

Meantime  you travel between a cop Cafferty dealing with some diver named Flea who is protecting her brother or so it seems, she was going to tell him more stuff to solve other stuff but that never came to fruition. Which is noted and hated. THANKS for nothing.

Then the ending is left for you to figure out; the girl meets up with the guy and is she the one in the woods all the time or was Issac? What the hell is she doing meeting up with him hiding out in some freakin tree in the middle of the woods? So many questions so little answers. So I can't give it a really great recommendation. I would say if you don't mind being led around by your nose ring go ahead and read it, most of it is interesting/weird and you keep wanting to know more then you get the no answer part.

Naturally this is a Brit writer. Tally ho. They always make everything so confusing and strange. I wonder why that is?

Saturday, July 20, 2013

The FIRE WITNESS by Lars Kepler *****

Very nicely written thriller. The novel has the lead character Joona Linna as an investigator under some kind of review supposedly unable to be a cop but he does anyway. Some little girl and an older woman are murdered at a rehab for teenagers facility. I'm not sure what the equivalent between whatever Sweden has to what we have so you'll just have to put up with my interpretation. Foreign writers. bah.

So apparently sometimes orphans are adopted, if their parents don't want them or adoptive parents don't off they go to some sort of rehab for whatever supposedly ails them. I'm not sure all of them have emotional trauma but in this story most of them do. There are a lot of people in and out of their lives. Joona has quite a hard time trying to piece together this mystery of murders and keeps getting called by some lunatic woman with ghost stories and in the end she sort of solves the crime for Loona. Of course, as in every novel, the real police write off the one not supposed to be working and write off the case as well calling it murder by a child when Loona is getting info contradicting that diagnosis of the murder.

Eventually thru the mazes and puzzles and ups and downs (it's a long book) you get a satisfactory ending. I liked it, very involved and you had to stay on your toes for the details but it was well written and keeps you spell bound for most of the story.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

MAD RIVER by John Sandford *****'

Another very good, well written novel from Sandford. It has Virgil Flowers the cop in it and there are lots of killings going on, he's chasing the bad people-a couple killer kids mostly- all over the MN area.

Some guy wanted his wife killed so he could have the money, hired the teens, they began killing people for like cokes etc in stores and running all over hiding. One gives himself up claiming he didn't do anything and was a hostage. Find out more about that and read the book.

On page 373 was a very forceful truth because I did animal control for years and had a file an inch thick of other people telling me how a breeder was torturing or killing dogs yet I'd go there and see nothing. In the book Davenport says to Virgil how come we haven't arrested so & so yet. And Virgil says no proof. That's so deep in my heart. If I had proof of what this person had done she wouldn't be allowed to own a dog. 

So good reading and I liked the storyline. Has a Bonnie and Clyde theme to it. 

Monday, July 15, 2013

EXTINCTION by Mark Alpert ****

This novel gets you at the start because it's about stuff that can really take place in the future of mechanical limbs and computer intelligence. So naturally some people have enhanced body parts, a blind female has robotic eyes that can enlarge stuff from very far away. She's in love with the protagonist Jim Pierce who is having trouble with his daughter Layla, a computer hacker.

Some of this is sort of like the real life guy leaking secret material to the newspapers (Layla) and takes place mostly in China. The new computer developed a brain and wants to eliminate humans who are ruining the planet. No duh.

The things that trouble me are these flies that are made to sting and paralyze. Where are they being made? Who is doing that? How are they making thousands at a time? No explanation plus the computer keeps doing brain work on everyone important with very little effort and no explanations how that occurs. I would prefer knowing.

Another irritating bit is that "everyone connected to the computer has the same skills". Well that may be true in the authors mind but let me say if people don't work out the same, and not in shape to carry AK47s or hold one for a length of time they sure as shit aren't going to hit anything. Skeptic here. Page 203 says Module 51 has expertise of real physical soldiers, without ever having done the muscle mass work, working out, running, none of the quickness. These modules would fall on their asses against trained CIA agents. Do not tell me they are comparable. Lies. Don't believe any of it.

That's why you only see 4 stars altho most of it is very compelling and interesting. I liked it hard to put down but some parts are just overboard, I like my material to be coherent and mostly as real as possible even if dealing with abstract ideas.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

A KILLER IN THE WIND by Andrew Klavan *****

I really was into reading this one, it was a burning page turner. Hard to put down or fall asleep when I desperately wanted to finish reading it.

It's about a cop named Dan Champion who doesn't realize he has a past he's blocked out. He has a girlfriend but has a preoccupation with another female but he's not sure why.
I can't say too much about the novel because that would be giving away a lot and you want to read this to get the most out of the tension and edge of the seat stuff.

Suffice it to say, there are murders, pursuers, killers, fires, trashed apartments. Two lost and almost forgotten orphans find each other in their adult lives and all hell is breaking loose around them. Very suspenseful and original. Liked it enough to recommend buying it if so incliined. Very good reading.

Friday, July 5, 2013

SEVERE CLEAR by Stuart Woods ****

This probably should have been read by me before the other book I reviewed but it doesn't really matter much. Stone Barrington always has someone to screw, there is a lot of that going around. Mostly beautiful people, rich, arrogant and ambitious.

So Stone is opening a new hotel in his dead wife's memory called the Arrington and the president, his wife and the president of Mexico are having a meeting there to sign something or other. In the meantime bombs are being built and delivered by terrorists, some of which are related. These guys get jobs in the hotel or rooms and a trunk is delivered before the hotel security is warned about potential bomb threats so they never see that one.

So the story moved along quite well, not a nail biter but basic good story with one actual personality. A girl who wants to play piano probably had the most personality of anyone else in the book. The rest are like the author positioning bodies for things to happen to or for them to solve stuff. I still have no idea what anyone looks like.

Do any of the plastique bombs go off and destroy millions of people and some wealthy land owners in Bel-Air or is Hollywood safe from disaster? I thought it was ok, but I think Woods does too much gratuitous sex, too little of people personalities and a lot of shifting scenes. I would like to know who Stone likes, why, what's so appealing blahblah, same for the other people. No real motivation that I can see. If I saw it at a yard sale or the library I'd pick it up.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

COLLATERAL DAMAGE by Stuart Woods ****

I sort of liked the book, it wasn't a thrilling page turner and the characters are somewhat similar personality-wise not very well rounded out TO ME. But the action and premise were interesting, a terrorist female, Jasmine Shazaz is running around wreaking havoc in cities by setting off bombs and no one can find her. Once they spot her no one can catch her.

So Holly Barker and her lover Stone are on the case with their other cop friends, all mostly likable and similar. I'm not sure what anyone at all looks like I don't think any descriptions were put out there except for the luxurious surroundings of the famous restaurants they ate at and the accommodations where they slept. Very well depicted but not the people, the things.

Mostly a chase and bombs going off, Jasmine hiding with her allies and people getting killed by shooting or bombs. No one is really described or their lives explained leaving you to think of them all as little barbie dolls put there for a sole purpose of being blown away.

I thought it had potential to be much better. More personality for the people involved, likes, dislikes, hopes, dreams, desires. It seemed more like a story skeleton than a completed novel. That's JMO.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

JOYLAND by Stephen King *****

Your typical S.King murder novel. It's written to fit into a series of "Hard Case Crimes" which is equivalent to "True Romance" type novels. Mostly formula written with a crime to solve or be solved. This one has a college age kid, Devin, getting over an almost girlfriend with whom he's never felt up or had sex. He's mooning over the relationship while working at a ferris wheel and funhouse type job with other wierd characters.

There is a little esp involved with a fortune teller and a child with MD. He gets involved in this childs life and with his mom for a very short time but she saves his life when the serial killer has Devin trapped on the ferris wheel ready to kill him.

There are many murders attributed to this guy after a friend of Dev's does some research about murders happening around carnivals so the killer does a little traveling around to mix it up. Very involved, hard to put down and keeps you guessing and wanting to read more. It's a small book (for a King novel) and you know the end is near but you'll be guessing the entire time who is who and what is what. Have fun with this one and take your time to make it last. Worth the money.


Tuesday, June 25, 2013

KNOCK OUT by Catherine Coulter ****

Very good novel, hard to put down. People with telepathic powers, a child as well as others in her gross family are trying to kidnap the child at the same time some 2 other people are trying to kill one of the FBI agents.

I thought the second part of the novel with the 2 teen killers was a little over the top but I suppose it filled pages and she somehow connected a relationship between the killers and the little girl's family. It was the most useless part of the storyline.

Meantime Sherlock, Savitch, Ethan are all FBI crime fighters in and out of trouble getting shot or shot at. If an FBI agent is shot they're not doing a very good job of protecting themselves or others. They should be SMARTER and more outwitting of their sociopathic killers which in this case they seemed evenly matched mentally.

Otherwise a page turner, keeps you interested and I liked it most of the time.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

DREAMS AND SHADOWS by C.Robert Cargill*

Reading along thinking I was reading one story, next chapter I'm whisked away into some other story, then again and again. It seemed at first to be a bunch of short stories, then by IDK chapter 7 or whatever you go back to the first story. 

Someone kidnaps kids and replaces them with monster babies. WHY? Pointless. So they can raise the normal chidlren? Why not give the monster babies to the monsters raising the normal babies and leave them where they are? The entire premise of the book is stupid. BUYBYE. Done.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

NANO by Robin Cook *

Well what a disappointment this was. I rushed thru the novel because it was a fast paced action about nano technology and China's involvement trying to steal it like they steal everything esp. patents, developed by other countries.

So Berman, a guy who owns Nano, hired Pia a dangerously curious scientist who is developing technology with nano robots. She finds out the guy is actually working on Chinese prisoner volunteers who are cut up in pieces while their body parts are thriving in a tank. This of course freaks her out, she keeps learning more and more disgusting things as her boss becomes more and more obsessed with owning her.

So the conclusion was a flop. Pia was kidnapped, her mafia dad is trying to find her in the "pipeline" of woman who are bought and sold in the underground market. The ending is that Berman signed over everything he owned FREE to the Chinese thinking he was earning money but he wasn't. Then Pia at the end of the book is still missing in action.

THERE IS NO ENDING. THE END.

Actually in the next book, Cook writes Pia is still MIA. I still didn't like the ending.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

ROOM NO. 10 by Ake Edwardson **

Boring boring boring between somewhat interesting. I can never tell if the investigator "Winter" in like Scandinavia is going back in time to another murder or sticking to the future murder. I never know, he just runs back and forth from past to now randomly.

Lots of weather reports, descriptions of crap that has nothing to do with the story. Very in depth details about the cops involved, shit I don't care about. Not my type of mystery. Didn't really like it.

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

Futuristic novel about being a cop. This one has a killer unleashing a new virus that makes people hallucinate and kill each other, like in bars and restaurants and so on so he can climb the corporate ladder. Prettly simple premise.

I'm not finding that most novels are written with each word contributing to the final outcome but I guess forensics are easier in the future. You find a hair and boom got the owner. Not bad as a story line and not great for me. So so.

Monday, June 3, 2013

LUCKY STUFF by Sharon Fiffer **

Personally I would suggest you skip it. This book is really a very short story with a lot of b.s. written to make it appear to be a book. It's full of nonsense that doesn't propel the story any further. So much crap to read for no reason.

Some guy comes back to town and he has bad memory loss from his childhood. No one ever finds out if he paid their tab or not, wasn't part of the story line, but his spending sure was. So who cares? No one ever even heard of him, he's a nobody who does nothing in the story but go into a memory trance now and then. The lead character Jane is a ditz.

My advice? There are other books to read, don't waste your time with this. Every word in a novel should propel the storyline forward, not in this book it doesn't. Leaving unimpressed.

Thursday, May 30, 2013

TWISTED by Andrea Kane ****

A former agent named Sloane during this adventure is rekindling her sexual relationship with a boyfriend in the FBI Derek who she thinks abandoned during her last struggle with a killer when she got her hand chopped up by a knife.

This story is about some deluded idiot no one of course can even guess who he is, he also leaves prints everywhere and kills Asian prostitutes, I think he's been arrested before which would put his stats online and he'd have been found quicker. Meantime he's collecting women by kidnapping them to bring with his dying mother to Mt Olympus (in his crazy-ass head) and Sloane is going with them all. With all her kick ass FBI training she gets subdued and abducted even with a FBI agent protecting her. Nice job guys.

It was interesting enough most of the time to continue reading, there were a few spots you wondered why they didn't pursue stuff, or be more aggressive in their questioning. They sort of accepted everything anyone said without grilling anyone at all. Obviously a loner living with a dying mother in the middle of murders and kidnapping should be first priority. Anyone would think so if they read mysteries. Oh yeah I was really disturbed about a techie getting killed when the murderer had no idea what info he was developing and he never even tried to get the answer or try to shut down the computer that was searching for him via input by the dead guy. All the stuff was done, they were only waiting for a response. So stupid killer just bypassed that computer and killed the guy for no reason. DUH.

Otherwise I'd think it was worth buying.


Friday, May 24, 2013

RIPTIDE by Tim Dorsey ****

Not bad, sort of comedy meets murder in Florida. A couple vacationing from Wisconsin get in the middle of a coke deal and luggage full of money. So the two main characters Serge and Coleman get involved either helping or hindering everyone.

I thought at times it was ok, too many people involved, I have no idea who is doing the bad and who is doing the good. Too difficult to figure out. There isn't a cop involved in any place in the book tho they've been called numerous times, Dorsey has little respect for law enforcement.

Have fun reading it and don't take any of it seriously for a second.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

The STORYTELLER by Jodi Picoult ***

An unexpected reading for me. I thought it would be a murder mystery. Turns out this girl, Sage with a scar on her face (car accident-mommy died) screws a married guy then some guy Josef she meets asks her to help him kill himself because of things he'd done as an SS soldier during the Holocaust. She contacts or is contacted by an investigator who of course falls in love with her mixed up mental mind. She has sisters also named for spices. Geez mom was a mess too I guess.

Turns out her grandmother was in the same compound and Josef did things to keep her alive. But he was still part of all the crematoria stuff. Meantime the author copies another writer and the grandmother writes stories for her boss the SS guy. He finds them and wants to know what's next in the story and she thinks that's what is keeping her alive, never ending the story. That's a Greek mythology or something she sort of stole for her book.

Anyways it was somewhat confusing at times, different typefaces depicting the story, the grandmother's story the grand daughter's story, sometimes I had no idea what was going on until I was a few pages into it. I don't like that type of confusion.

I don't think the author knows a lot about Jewish burials because no Jew can be buried in a Jewish cemetery with tattoos UNLESS they were in the camps. During the funeral service this granddaughter steals the grandmothers entire life history by covering her number tattoo with cover up. Why? Is she ashamed of her grandmother's struggle to live? Is she ashamed she did live? I don't get why she would hide the truth from the family. It's stupid. That woman went thru hell, turned out to be a sweet woman, had children and a normal life after the war yet her dumbass grand daughter erases her entire history from the family. Who gives her the right? Did the grandmother ask her to? NO. I want to know what right she had to interfere in another persons backstory. That woman EARNED the right to wear that tattoo if she wanted, or she could have had it removed, which she didn't. That means she wanted it there for whatever reason. The grand daughter is an ass.

Not crazy about the entire thing. Lots of stuff end up way off the trail from what you expect. I think the story had potential to be much better. JMO.