Sunday, November 30, 2014

DEEP WINTER by Samuel W. Gailey **

This wasn't the true definition of a murder mystery because you know right off who did it, but it was law enforcement and he was going to frame the girls friend. Everyone in this town except maybe 3 people were mean, nasty killers. The cops, the deputies, the local sheriff and the brothers of the slain girl. All nasty pieces of work. Only the Statie was mildly nasty but started looking at some of the evidence and changed his mind.

There was never a true investigation, no CSI, no autopsy, no clues, no evidence, nothing to prove a cop killed the girl even though his blood and skin were under her fingernails he WAS A SHERIFF and still thought he could get away with it?? What a moron. What town in it's right mind would hire this drunken sack of shit as a cop? Drunks.....majority of players were drunks, gun happy, killers.

I read it because it's a horroday (holiday) and the library was closed 4 days and had nothing else to read. This book was fair to yuck. If I was stuck alone on a desert island and this floated up I'd read it and still be disappointed. WTF is a gangrene 3 legged doe doing leading people around anyways? Is this some kind of mystical being? Don't worry folks the nasty inebriated sheriff knocks her off without so much as blinking as he does with everyone he aims the gun at. He shoots innocent bystanders. Pretty much everyone in front of him gets shot.

Try to keep an open mind but I didn't like anyone in the story.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

SAUCER SAVAGE PLANET by Stephen Coonts ***

I didn't think this was a "bestseller" by any means but after reading the last book by Phillip K Dick I think this one lacks whatever Dick is writing.

This is sort of about an alien who appears human and he's lived thousand years or so going thru time with Vikings, and Indians having a family and children. His space ships are discovered, they are run with headband and ESP. Some girl just walks onto one and can fly it in no time. Meanwhile the alien called Adam Solo joins a group to destroy DNA that would solve cancer and have people living thousands of years which makes the words "population explosion" obsolete. The planet would be overwhelmed. Anyways I didn't think it was a page turner, I got thru it fast because I needed to get it out of my head, some places I skipped pages and pages of explanations or narrative and only reading the first line got me the basics.

Too many boring sequences and some repetitious areas that were distracting from the main story line. Didn't love it didn't hate it. So so.

Monday, November 24, 2014

FLOW MY TEARS, THE POLICEMAN SAID by Phillip K. Dick *****

Very unusual philosophical sci fi. A famous actor/TV star wakes up in a flop house and cannot be identified even though he believes he knows who he is. He gets the attention of cops and a couple women and in the end believes that most of his life is perception, and he's been on a drug all the time. You never really get a solid explanation of that.

This writer is very good at what he does, he keeps your interest and pulls you along with him in the story even tho you may not want to go. He had some interesting views on mourning and death around page 112 or so.

http://www.octobot.net/library/Dick,%20Philip%20K/Dick,%20Philip%20K%20-%20Flow%20My%20Tears,%20the%20Policeman%20Said.pdf

That is a pdf version you can download or read online.
He's written a number of books and since I enjoyed the first one will keep reading him for awhile between modern writers. This guy has been around for awhile.

Monday, November 17, 2014

VISONS by Kelley Armstrong **

I read up to the 10th chapter, repetitious, boring and hard to care about at all. I could barely force myself to read as much as I did. Too much going over the past, which means the past book. If I was interested in knowing about book one I would have read it. I did not read it therefore I am not interested in hearing about it all in book 2.

This girl sees visions, supposedly was going to get married but now isn't and is love with some con artist guy who is being paid by her first fiance to watch out for her and he hires her to work for him and he didn't tell her he was hired by the boyfriend. Circles around more circles. Must be chicklit.

Can you see where this confusing mass of b.s. is going? It was probably written for tweens because I hated it. Don't recommend unless you want to be put to sleep anytime you pick it up.

DOING HARM by Kelly Parsons *****

This book was great, it was named appropriately; you know it's about doctors and someone is doing bad stuff. The title totally fits the novel.

From the very first page I was severely hooked. I had to pick it up anytime I had to myself and read it. Very fast action, twists and turns unexpectedly, people dying and you have no idea who is next. The killer is very blatant with a doctor and sort of makes him complicit but he and someone else figure out a way to beat her and it's really a page turner you won't soon forget and I really don't want to go into a hospital anytime soon. :) Liked it a lot would buy it. Worth it.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

The CATCH by Taylor Stevens ***

Well not at all a murder mystery. This is a hijacked boat with a guy/girl running most of the stuff going on. She's so freaking tough most guys believe she IS a guy. This is all taking place in 3rd world countries and a boat gets hijacked by Somali pirates that Vanessa "Michael" Monroe has to cope with the villain and friendlies to correct everything the gun runners started.

She's so tough and rugged and manly she can shoot her way out of anyplace. She knows more about guns than seduction. When she gets hurt you don't stop hearing about her fatigue and pain at all. It's constant throughout the book, gets monotonous. What I hated was that. Tell Mrs. Tough Guy to shut TF up and get the job done without all the pain whining. She has lots of drugs so pain should stop entirely being an issue.

This is not a book I would select if I knew it had no murders involved. It sounded intriguing but I wouldn't personally recommend it to a mystery reader. One reason I didn't like it is that it's 90% narrative. Not a don't tell, show sort of thing, mostly a tell and tell and tell. On and on. That's my take on it anyway.

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

WHERE MONSTERS DWELL by Jorgen Brekke ***

This is of course written by a guy from Norway. I'm not fond of non-American murder mysteries. There is one character cop from the US involved but not very much. There's a lot of screwing going on which I also don't much care for but it led someone else to become a killer of his wife and son due to her cheating.

Several times I had to just put the book down and take a break. It was full of characters, a lot of them on the sidelines and unimportant but you had to read thru that crap to continue on. There are lots of places that are difficult if not impossible to pronounce nor do I have a desire to figure them out. I can't understand the label "The #1 international Bestseller" What a load of crap. This book had too much narrative descriptions, too many sexual goings on, too many people to count, travel here and there and who gives a crap. Certainly not me.

If you seriously need to read about a Norway murderer then by all means get it at the library. If I knew what this was about FIRST I would have left it on the shelf. I did read the entire novel because I had become deeply involved with names, towns and who was doing what. The fact someone was using skin as a book cover or parchment paper was an interesting angle but I still had to leave the book and escape. Usually books ARE the escape.