The BONE CLOCKS by David Mitchell *

Very choppy writing, could not get into it at all. Too many characters and there's a chapter or series of pages 98-166 that took me out of the story into some other musical crap then some people you're not introduced to until now. There is nothing to read in there. Then the story continues about this runaways life about 5 yrs later. She left home and caught her boyfriend (she's 15 he's 24) and he was in bed with her best friend.

Lots of 'thinking' by people, too much narrative and not much interesting action. Never really get an explanation for the action. Like her brother goes missing and poof nothing else. That's where you have to start a new story on page 58. It all sucked for me. Have no idea WTF it's doing on the NY times bestseller list. Sucked for me.

Oh yeah and what's "fecking?" or "Biro"? or "mam" "trucks wallop by" and "Seeds off dandlion clocks"? Rhimes with a tent over the i what is that?? I don't like reading crap I need to spend 10 minutes figuring out one sentence. No thanks.

INDEFENSIBLE by Lee Goodman ***

It was a slow read for me. I lost interest here and there due to the overwhelming population of characters. Even if introduced slowly they just over came me. This is about a Federal prosecutor  Nick Davis who had/has friends and what stuff they all do and who commits a crime and who doesn't. Who gets arrested for what and how he is involved in it.

I found it tedious at some points. There were more innuendos than actual telling of who did what and why and how they were dealt with. Too many killers, too many dead people with barely explanations for their deaths. I really pushed myself to continue.

Anyone used to murder mysteries and like an involved tale that you need to think yourself thru will like it but too much wear and tear for me. It was so so. Get it at the library.

DON'T TRY TO FIND ME by Holly Brown **

Not a fan. The main characters in the story were very unrealistic (self absorbed) so I didn't like it much. Everyone has something to whine about except the brow beaten husband. If you get to page 59 someone else she calls self absorbed but everyone in the novel is that way.

Then the girl Marnie gets on a bus and from what little the author says you assume she fucked Kyle but she didn't? Hard to figure that out till much later. And why does she want Kyle when she's madly in love with "B" and WTF is he called B for???? LOL That's so stupid.

So this married couple have a kid 14 (not his) and she runs away to meet her "true love" an exc on 2x her age. She wants to erase her name and past and be in love with this creepy person whom she has no idea is creepy because growing up in CA no mater where would make her a LOT smarter than the author allows her. I came from NH and wouldn't hookup with that loser. He lied to her about everything. How long would it take to figure that out? For the girl Marnie a long time.

Meantime daddy is on the internet and putting up flyers all over the country to find her and the mom (who is nothing special) fends off the daughters therapist and does drugs he prescribed for her. BIG WHOOP. She doesn't even screw him and the entire thing is such a major trauma in the book it's absurd. The front flap makes it sound like she has this deep dark secret when all it is is- NOTHING. 

The entire book is pretty much about NOTHING. Here's the story in a nutshell: Miserable horny teenager 14 thinks she's in love, runs away to her true love pedophile and eventually runs home to mommy. The parents are complete blindfolded idiots. The father has more sense than anyone else in the book. Mostly they just whine about everything and complain.

I didn't like it. No mystery. Nothing even close. It's actually a dumb book probably for a teenager who needs to be KEPT IN PLACE is supposed to read. Like, kids read this if you want to run away from the good life at home. 

THE SKIN COLLECTOR by Jeffery Deaver *****

Good reading as always. It has Amanda Sachs and Lincoln Rhyme. The detective in a wheel chair and his supposed blond model girlfriend. A likely couple. (not...only in a fiction story, lol). Anyway they have to solve a crime about a guy who tattoos people with poison, tries to poison Sachs and Rhyme in separate ways.

The killer is connected to the last book Bone Collector by way of cults and apocalyptic type thinking. A group of these people are involved. A few cops are killed, one is in bad shape in the hospital. Then another old foe "watch collector" enters the story towards the end.

Whatever the combo of information, introductions are made carefully, slowly and easily. The story flows along swiftly and to the point. No wasted crap to read thru to get to the story line. I enjoyed the book, I'm definitely a fan of Deaver. Good reading I would buy it.

SNOWBLIND by Christopher Golden ****

This is a horror type novel in New England area. There are several major characters, children and adults. The snow storms in the area carry frozen monsters of some sort that take the soul of people. You'll have to read it yourself to understand that aspect of the novel.

I thought the characters were all well defined, there were quite a few of them and after awhile became somewhat mixed together and confusing for me. It wasn't the best horror I've read but it was pretty good. Find it at the library.

One thing I didn't understand is why NO ONE thought to build fires, even burning houses down to rid themselves of the frozen monsters. Or use heaters, or torches, or something. It's like no one tried to really combat them aside from someone's ghost father.

IDENTICAL by Scott Turow ***

I found it somewhat readable but there was a lot of narrative and family stuff and history. On page 27 -28 there are so many people introduced I couldn't keep up with them after that: Raymond Horgan, Stan Sennett, Paul's cousin, Dita's murder, Sandy Stern, Cass, Nico Della Guardia, Mark Crully, Hal someone. This is still early in the book during some law case and it didn't matter much in the long run so why waste brain cells? Paul is running for office, his brother Cass was in jail unless they were trading places.

One guy named everyone in his family after Greek Gods, his name is Zeus, daughter Aphrodite, Cassius, lots of that and someone is named Evon (that's a name?) I guess it was a shortcut to Yvonne. Personally it took way too long for me to get information. It was windy twisty turny and went everywhere but straight to the matter at hand. I was pretty bored during most of it and skimmed over plenty of pages of narrative garbage.

Make of it what you will. I wasn't into it. Or it wasn't in my head the way I like my novels to become like a movie I'm watching, this one didn't do that. Very intrusive stuff, choppy writing. Not like.

CHOP CHOP by Simon Wroe **

I couldn't read this. It starts with a guy getting hired at a restaurant and he is also a writer-hence the story. He takes each individual person working there and tells you their history from the day they started and histories of everyone working there even before he got there. BORING.

I couldn't get into it at all due to the history of everyone and their grandmother. Almost entirely narrative. A few things occur during his discourse but nothing interesting. If you think you'll like it rent it at the library. I didn't care for it at all only read about 50 pages.

A DISTANCE TO DEATH by Holly Menino ***

Well, I'm not a fan. I'm on page 133 and nothing much is happening. There are a lot of people and I can't keep up with them all. Personalities aren't that distinct. Apparently there's some kind of horse race up hills and this girl is with her friend on her friends second horse. Believe me explaining this is difficult. You're supposed to be able to summarize a novel in a few sentences but I can't do that with this confusing mess of people and their odd relationships.

Who on earth would call a main character TINK? Did she tinkle her pants a lot as a child? Is she a Tinkerbell fan?  What? I do think she's been married 2x to some guy and now married to another guy and his business and their 'sons' business has something to do with him. I don't know. I'm about as confused as I get reading this boring crap. I can't take it anymore and I struggled to get to page 133 out of 276 pages. I read a lot of it thinking 'it'll get better as I go along'. Never happened.

FIREWALL by Diann Mills *

Some dumbo marries an ex con "by mistake" thinking how wonderful, passionate and caring he was. Meantime he wants her computer code. End of story.

It would be a fair story if God and religion and prayers and all that religious mumbo jumbo didn't fill the pages. I HATE IT. I hate religion in my mysteries. This library has a bunch of paperbacks and all of them; I mean ALL of them are religious in some manner and I won't ever pick one up again. Biased, religious fruitcakes. How many gods are there? Let me tell you about 4 thousand. WTF would you favor one over another? DUMBO. Only way to get published? LOL