The BABY FARM by Karen Harper *****

This was about underground baby selling. People steal newborns from poor people and sell them to richer people. I guess there are enough real life stories to make this a current topic. Was good reading in general, but the midwife is very flaky, one minute likes the new doctor, then hates him, likes her adoptive mom then hates her. Lots of that going around.

I don't really know why her brother and dad were in jail. Emma's mom died in a tractor accident; her home was burned down by some guy named Sam working for Dehia (her adoptive mom involved in the baby scam). So if there was an explanation for why dad/son are in jail it now eludes me.

Written well, good personalities of each person who aren't easily forgotten, so even tho there were quite a few people in the novel it wasn't difficult keeping track.

Not a murder mystery by any means. Left without knowing who shot out her tires, where the baby of Jidge came from, which was her sole means for being in the novel. Got no clue about that one. These baby snatchers get into a hospital and fool around with medicine and intravenous tubes when they're total hicks from the boondocks. I would buy it but be disappointed it wasn't a murder mystery even tho the library slapped a mystery sticker on it.

WHITE FIRE by Preston & Child ***

This story brought some Sherlock Holmes stuff into it. The special Agent Pendergast has a bunch of kids he supports. Why he supports the one in the story is beyond me. She's pretty much a dolt. She's so dumb she was about to date her killer. She's so dumb she didn't know where to get information and any help from anyone else; she was jealous most of the time that she didn't uncover info herself. Selfish bitch. She (Corrie) also gets free college from Pendergast, along with whatever help he's obligated to do for her.

She goes out on her own when expressly told not to. She runs into the killer and thinks he's her boyfriend while he proceeds to burn her to death. Meantime she loses a finger and breaks her ankle, cannot defend herself in the least, like a poor wet kitten and somehow doesn't end up the stupid burnt to a crisp body in the old mining caves. Don't ask me how the person who died ended up in there cuz no one is going to tell you. I wish Corrie did die would have been more in the style of the novel. You do realize Darwin's law??? Well she's not supposed to live thru that. THE END far as I'm concerned.

Good enough to read thru, intriguing for awhile in spots, some places you need to skip some pages, repetition, etc. There isn't much of a mystery, no one is murdered with a case to solve. It's some college project little Corrie wants to do her senior project on a bunch of insane miners in the early 1900s which coincidently leads to the same story old Pendergast is chasing. That's sort of ho hum as well. No one from the old timers are now connected to the billionaires living high off the hog. The old story is an old story. Belongs in the archives of boring.

BAD MONKEY by Carl Hiaasen ****

This novel centers mostly around the Keys of FL. The main character Andrew Yancy, kicked off the police force is investigating restaurants as a demotion so of course there are more and more places he's scared to eat at. His predecessor died of food poisoning I believe.

While his restaurant stuff is ongoing he gets an arm from shoulder to fingers and puts it in his freezer so he's trying to solve this case where a guy seems to be dead, the wife and daughter will share in the 2 million life insurance policy but there's a secret in their story that Andrew has to figure out.

Sometimes author uses first name, other times last name-one of my pet peeves. We really don't even require last names of these FAKE CHARACTERS now do we? C'mon. Maybe author is shooting for ancestry? Or religious stuff? IDK.

The monkey part is for ridiculous stuff happening. He was gotten in a card game I believe, then ends up with a voodoo woman, then flees for awhile into the town and the original owner has him back by the end of them movie. He's not really much of a player in the book. Bunch of disconnected things come together at the end. Nice surprise ending in a way. You'll like it, I enjoyed the read.

THE WAY OF ALL FISH by Martha Grimes **

I read 230 pages of this. I think she thinks she's funny. The entire premise of the book is that some book agent  is trying to screw some writer of money saying he worked with her on the publication of one book and she says he didn't. The ENTIRE book is back and forth with idiots trying to help her. A bar gets shot up by some guy and broke a fish tank, a few people who saved a fish in water glasses decided to keep a fish or two. So the idiots (Candy & Karl-2 hit men?) are making up stories to scare off the publishing agent (L. Bass Hess). Like taking him for a ride and causing a tree to burn, an alligator to throw him into a boat, the other guy in the boat pretends he didn't see it and it was a set up anyway.

I hated the stupid pranks of these SUPPOSED KILLERS? I mean they are supposed to be killers and they save fish, try to get the agent out of town instead of killing him and do all sorts of stupid crap to keep them off the writer, Cindy Sella. No mystery. No murder. No interesting action. All bored me to death so much I had to skip pages that were repetitious or nonsensical B.S.

Good luck with this one. You're either a die hard fan or you'll hate it.

BLEEDING EDGE by Thomas Piynchon *

The cover made this sound like  a good book. I'm sure the author didn't write it cuz his writing is boring as watching snails race. On page 66 you are forced to read about the "waiter, whose credits include a couple of Sopranos episodes, recognizing this for what it is, stands by, trying not to roll his eyes too much." Well I hope they don't roll all the way across the US. If this is a sentence helping move you forward in the story (every sentence should do that) then I hate his writing.

I was bored to near death, I felt like I couldn't even figure out what the story line was about due to all the side tracking and intense descriptions of every action or past history of everyone. BLAH.

Didn't finish it not intriguing enough for me. Keep your day job.

The 12th of NEVER by PATTERSON & Friend ****

This is one of the "Women's murder club" novels. I got through it quickly he has short chapters with a couple stories going at the same time plus relationships. I thought it was worth reading, has mystery, some suspense and most of the cast are well rounded out.