Monday, December 26, 2016

CAUGHT by Harlan Coben *****

Just finished this book, very good if not a tiny bit confusing at times. Too many red herrings and it interferes with sleep drifting off going who TF is that? Anyway the story is mostly about a newspaper reporter who is NEVER at the newspaper or writing down anything and she's trying to help the cops solve teenage girls disappearing.

So a few people confess, rig phony evidence, go out of their way to be obtuse, never tell the truth the first time and you know the games people play? Well it's all fun and games.

I thought it was a well written story line and had beginning, middle and end so liked it. Was a yard sale find. I would buy it tho, good story as long as you have a good memory for names and relationships. I do not.

Sunday, December 25, 2016

ABDUCTION by Robin Cook *****

I found this at a yard sale and it's really good reading. Never lost interest at all. Takes place in the ocean first aboard a ship and then...not giving anything away. Read it, very intriguing and unlike his usual stuff not so much a medical story.

There may be another world someplace..who knows?

Monday, November 21, 2016

The SCORPIO ILLUSION by Robert Ludlum ***

This is a big book. I tried to start it as all of them in bed to fall asleep. These names all within 28 pages: Amaya, Jacob, Portici, Cabrini, Nico, Henri Ardisonne, Ron, O'Ryan, Richelieu, Officer Cooke, Bajaratt, Geoff, Tyrell Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mr. Gillette, Tye, Marty, Gordie, Roger, Jickey, Nicolo, . Now that's just people. If I started with the names of towns and villages it would be about 30-40.

I cannot do that many names in that short a period of time. I am not going to draw diagrams telling me who said what from where. So I put the damn book down forever at page 30.

Not into spy stuff I suppose. Have at it yourself. Yard sale find $1.00

Thursday, November 3, 2016

O is for OUTLAW by Sue Grafton ****

Aside from a cast of hundreds this was an easy book to get thru. Sort of fast paced if you can memorize who everyone mentioned is. There are a lot of suspects of course we must go back 20 freaking years to find out who shot her ex husband from 20 years ago.

The going back in time to figure out stuff is really getting old, it's used by almost every recent author I've read, at least the last 3-7 books and I'm pretty sick of it. If you like Grafton you'll like this story. I would get it at the library. Then get in the time machine and go back 20 years; actually 40 years cuz she's already working in the 60s. So yeah....getting OLD.

Monday, October 24, 2016

BEYOND The ICE LIMIT by Preston & Child *****

Right from the beginning you get hooked. There are a couple people meeting to go on a secret mission involving aliens under sea. Why they ended up in the ocean which is their specialty for life I don't know..sort of coincidental from the start.

This Eli Glinn was on a previous mission in the same area and were transporting a huge meteorite someplace in a ship the Rolvaag when it sunk but the revisit the scene due to some type of activity underwater. When they get there the first message they can decipher is "Kill me" so they're very disturbed by this before they even encounter the thing growing underwater that looks clear with a huge mouth and perhaps they can see it's brain. This underwater alien, they figure was responsible for the first ship sinking.

So they keep going down to check it out and eventually realize from their equipment that it's growing and sucked in a water craft with one of their pilots inside. What was left was everything minus the brain-less body. This was a curiosity and took them awhile to put together what exactly this alien life form had done and what is was going to do. They brought back a section of one of the 'roots' and eventually the ship is overrun by what that does when broken into pieces, crawling into air ducts.

I'm not going to give anything away. Read the book it's really good, a page turner I didn't like putting down. Lots of action, horror type stuff and perfect for Halloween reading!

Thursday, October 13, 2016

S IS FOR SILENCE by Sue Grafton ***

Well this was in the 'buy a book' sale at the library. I paid about a buck for it, I don't think I already read it. Anyways, I had just finished a book where the author has the lead character go back to the 1950s to solve an unsolved murder and then I get this stupid book with the same story line. We must go back to the 1950s to solve this story too.

Some girl wants to find out why her mommy disappeared when she was like 5 yrs old, wants to know why she hated her and left her behind. Well her married mommy (regularly beaten) was a slut who screwed everyone wearing pants so of course that leads to jealousy and murder DUH. Who doesn't know that? The kid obviously. So Kinsey driving back and forth and round and round taking notes figures out who the killer is but not before he goes after her.

Not giving anything away but not one of the better novels she's written. There were a lot of men with
"G" names and women names "Violet, Daisy," little flowers ready for picking. There still are a ton of people and when the killer was ID'd I actually had no idea who he was or what he did it or why he killed mommy. Not a clue. Jealousy? Money? What?  Leaving confused.

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

THE WIDOW by Fiona Barton ***

The writer switches back and forth from "widow" to "newspaper writer" to "husband" to "cop". It's not as confusing as the years that jump back and forward in time like Back to the Future. Not an easy thing to follow when you just want to read a freaking good book.

So this person Jean is NOT a widow until the last chapter or two. There is a missing child in the neighborhood and she suspects her husband, as does the general population. He gets into court but gets out for some reason, like maybe NO evidence??? Ya think?

No real murder you take part in, no scenes with husband and kid, nothing. Just badgering by the newspaper writers, one of whom takes over Jean by sequestering her in a hotel room so no one else will get the story and mousy little "widow" goes along for only so long.

Eventually we find the child's body etc. Way later than I wanted to read, I mean I went thru about 300 pages or so to get to something NON repetitive and interesting and it lasted over one cheap chapter. If you like mysteries or murders or anything out of the ordinary you won't like this book. It's too tame and boring in most places, aside from the peat and repeat.

Rent it or don't read it. Either way you're ahead of the game.

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

ACCEPTABLE RISK by Robin Cook *****

Always a scare reading Robin Cook and his medical stuff gone awry. This time it's primarily about the Salem witch episode and how the rye fungus acted to cause hallucinations and other weird behaviors.

Starts off with a nurse, Kim who is related to one of the people tried as a witch. She keeps diving into the old paperwork in the attic and cellar until she's prompted to find a relic that was left behind by her ancestor Elizabeth. When she finds it she's shocked.

Meanwhile her boyfriend is a scientist and with a few others they open a lab in her extra roomy barn and instead of waiting for testing results they decide to all take various amounts of the drug themselves. This was the same rye fungus used by Elizabeth to bake the bread that caused hallucinations in the children of Salem. So it gets quite gory in some parts towards  the end which is expected.

I liked the story, the people were almost real to me, most of them anyway. The drug developed from the fungus is believable and most if not all our medicines are derived from plants or fungus anyway so that part is real enough to be scary. I liked it and would buy it, actually did at a library sale.

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

EXTREME PREY by John Sandford *****

An Alex Delaware story. This is a page turner and you have a hard time putting it down. Lots of action as Alex is on a quest to protect and find anyone aiming to harm a Gov running for President.

He has to question people and has suspicions about the deaths following along behind him. He works with other agencies as a free lancer for now and does a pretty good job of sorting out the killers and at the last minute the method of their killing the governor.

I like it and I would buy it.

Thursday, September 8, 2016

The HATCHING by Ezekiel Boone ****

If you're already afraid of spiders then you don't want to read this book. Some kind of alien spider has overtaken countries a bit at at time until everyone panics and atomic bombs go off. These spiders are hunters and eat people, they also send threads into the air to fly around and go other places which is actually a bit to swallow but anyways that's what they do.

The army can't stop them, even scientists end up getting in trouble with them. There are also breeding spiders (inside animals and humans OF COURSE) and perhaps more trouble in the future.

So I can see where this can be exaggerated to some extent but the extent to which this is written is a bit overwhelming and somewhat unbelievable. I know we have cans of spider spray around here someplace and geez you can't even step on them before you're consumed by a pack of them? Even when others are being attacked? I don't get how they overtake hundreds of people so fast they can't be stepped on or squashed or sprayed individually to die. Why can't they be brushed off and stepped on? If everyone did it? WTF?

In the RW there are also sticky traps that can catch them if they walk across it and I'm sure there can be quickly developed poisons to end the b.s. but in this story forget all that. Alien spiders. So that's about that. I would get it at the library.

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

The TRAP by Melanie Raabe ***

The best thing about this book is that it's a fast read. Some girl Linda who is agoraphobic is a writer and about 10 yrs ago her sister Anna was murdered. She recognizes who she believes is the killer (she saw his face right as she discovered sis's body) so she lures the investigative reporter to her home so she can trap him either by DNA or a confession.

She scares the crap out of him and he proves it wasn't him because he was in Afghanistan during the time this murder was committed. I'm not going to reveal the real killer you can figure that out yourself before half thru the book. Sister is sooo beautiful and self indulgent she can lure away Linda's boyfriends any time she chooses.

So Anna embodies everything Linda would rather be than herself. Even as a published writer. I thought the book was fast paced, large type on small book. Easy to read and figure out connections between everyone. Basically well written BUT at some point when she holds a gun at the supposed killer she has no clue about confessions gotten under duress DO NOT amount to a confession. Duh.

Thursday, August 25, 2016

MOST WANTED by Lisa Scottoline ****

This was a fast paced read. Story is about woman getting sperm donor cuz idiot husband hasn't got any (he blames her to his parents). So she's knocked up and sees a serial killer on TV that looks identical to her baby daddy.

She is a teacher on leave for the summer so she finds an almost retired lawyer to help the "donor" because he seems so sincere she believes  in his innocence. I heard that 95% of those in jail are innocent. But anyways, she gets him a lawyer, works with the lawyer and goes around sticking  her nose into everyone's business.

I won't blow the ending for you but I have a comment. This other knocked up woman who used the same sperm donor as our heroine Christine (nice catholic name there) goes and tells the guy in jail all about how she is knocked up by donor 3316 and thinks it's him. He then "assumes" Christine is knocked up (he knows this by what....telepathy?) and tells her that he is donor 3316 but reality is that he has no personal knowledge Christine is pregnant. She isn't even showing yet. She doesn't tell him she's knocked up. She just decides he's innocent and goes looking for the real killer or a way to prove his innocence.

That's all I got. If I had to read it again I would but get it at the library. Her husband is a real stick in the mud trying to hinder her or degrading her work and he never really improves in my opinion. I'd divorce the bastard.

Monday, August 15, 2016

8th CIRCLE by Sarah Cain ****

To begin with this had a ton of people (Danny Ryan, Conor, Beth, Beowolf, Michael Cohen, Linda, Andy, Alex Burton, Sean McFarland, John Novell, Tommy Ryan) in the first 15 pages you had to learn all their names because they were pretty much all the people in the story and a lot were related.

In one part of the story the protagonist Danny Ryan (who seems to be related to everyone) gets into bed with a corpse and had no idea she's there. Like yeah ok....sure lady. Not to mention some nitwit who got his mail accidently and kept it until the last chapter of the book and during the entire novel Danny had no idea why people were being killed, his dog was killed, he was threatened because of paperwork, videos etc that the nitwit neighbor girl kept holding onto until last chapter.

I thought the book had a fair/good story line, I didn't like everyone being related by marriage or whatever, it seems like everyone has known each other for 30 yrs YET didn't know each other at all. That was kind of bogus. I think we all know Dante's Inferno and that's what the title is referring to. I guess sexual perversions, snuff films, killing children that aren't missing....that kind of crap. It was ok. I would get it at the library.


Thursday, August 11, 2016

UP COUNTRY by Nelson Demille **

Well this book is 700 pages so it takes a really really long time to read. I read between other books due to it being one of the most boring POS I ever read. This guy goes to Vietnam and you have no idea why until probably page 699.

I didn't like the character, or his girl friend he met somewhere along the line. All you are reading thru most of this is where he was when he was in the war as opposed to where he is now and what he's seeing. Boring. Lots of descriptive narrative and I could easily take 500 pages out of this crap. Too many towns, names, boring descriptions of places and I hated it. Now if you fought in Vietnam you might enjoy it but I wasn't there and this was a futile attempt to read about it.


Monday, August 8, 2016

The CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D.Salinger ****

I was never forced in any English class to read this but decided to see what the big deal was. I think at the time all the swears made the book important. Otherwise I don't get the big thrill. It about some nitwit kid Holden Caufield who keeps getting kicked out of expensive schools. This last one he leaves on his own a couple days before his parents are expecting him and moves around in hotels, friends places, thinks he had a pervert after him one night and he contacted his sister who gave him her Christmas money.

I really hated the "old" everyone. Old Phoebe, Old Mr so&so, old this person, old that person the word OLD got so overused it really got old. I hated reading them all must be 25 per page.  There are other words used so frequently it's actually boring-dragging the story along and not accomplishing much. He always says stuff like "you want to know the truth" and other little tidbits like that. It all made the story sound so immature and it was boring to read as an adult. I have no idea what I'd think of it if I was a teen. I would probably think he was a nerd.

He says in the beginning he's the worlds biggest liar and are we supposed to believe his story or not? Personally I don't think he has the temperament to run off on his own. He'd curl up in a ball and cry for his parents to get him, JMO. Well I gave it one star more than I normally would cuz he's so famous and all. Like why I do not know.

Monday, August 1, 2016

LIBERTY'S LAST STAND by Stephen Coonts ***

Quick overview: someone from a Democratic party is president but decides to declare martial law and suspend the Constitution at the end of his second term. Some think it's so he can be a dictator of the US so Texas decides to secede from the states.

This separating Texas from the US causes all kinds of problems which I don't know much about cuz I quit reading this political confusing mess about 1/3 the way thru it. Too many people, names, places just really bored me. I find books like this referring back to the Alamo, wars, politicians etc. opposite of book flap cover: a thriller. My bad. You read it, get it at the library.

Sunday, July 24, 2016

The LAST MILE by David Baldacci ****

This was an interesting mystery. A guy gets bonded out of jail on the day he's to be executed. He ends up with FBI, and a cop, plus a few other cops. I had a problem remembering names the author divided them sometimes so only 2 or 3 went someplace then in another section 3 or 4  them went someplace together. There were also too many bad guys which also were thrown together randomly and that became an issue for me trying to keep track. Their personalities are not strong enough except for the guy out of jail Mars, and maybe the lead character Amos Decker. Also it seems names like Decker, Davenport, Montgomery are common book names and it's confusing.

The writing and descriptions are well done. The story line is interesting enough to keep me reading cept one cop was kidnapped for no reason, no ransom, no demands to get her back. Who the F* knows what that was all about, got me! It was almost the last page they get her back for a trade. I don't think the author made enough mention of her, where she was, why kidnapped, what was happening to her etc. Just left her to wallow in her own misery I guess.

Recommend get it at the library.

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

HIDDEN BODIES by Caroline Kepnes ****

I think the storyline was ok, at first this guy Joe Goldberg is a killer until he falls in love. That's the basic story line but in the end he's in jail thinking he's going to get away with all the dead bodies all over the place from before he moved to CA.

There are a lot of people in the book and after awhile when you don't hear about them for a few chapters you tend to forget who the hell they are when they pop up again, esp. at the end of the book. It could have gone, "Mr. so&so, the FIRST COP to try and get him jailed" but there is sort of a reminder about him that wasn't relevant like "he cried like a baby" which most of his victims OF COURSE do.

There are elements of Joe that are not consistent in the context, he thinks he is not a sociopath, he just goes about killing people who have found out stuff about him, left him, or otherwise stepped on his ego until he's close to love, marriage and having a child. A guy he wanted dead, ends up dead for no reason having to do with him altho he worked on killing him and didn't realize he wasn't dead.

Since he's a 'writer' we never get a clue when that's going on. Like all his time is spent with his girlfriend or chasing other people around, I have no idea when he wrote anything or helped anyone else write anything. That was not part of his life altho you are led to believe it is.

I would get it at the library and don't expect normal criminal-type behavior nor your everyday kind of murder  mystery cuz it's not.

Some people spend their life writing books, self publishing them, with a writing background and still don't get noticed, I suspect this author had a life of luxury, she was special and had entitlements but I really don't know-I just suspect so (grew up on Cape Cod? yeah..).

Monday, June 13, 2016

ASHLEY BELL by Dean Koontz *****

This book was about Bibi who was dx'd with brain cancer. The story is told in a very different manner than most and you don't get the truth until you're almost at the end. I'm not going to spoil it for you. Suffice it to say this kept me fighting sleep every night to read more.

I would buy it or get it at the library. Great as usual, reading.

Saturday, June 4, 2016

TIME OF DEPARTURE by Douglas Schofield *****

This was a very interesting book that at first I thought was following a murder script but turns out to have some Sci Fi involved. This lawyer meets up with a guy 30 yrs her senior but he seems to know her very well. Claire has been working on an unsolved case with missing women but no bodies have been found until recently.

While she is busy trying to find the killer, her new friend Marc Hastings is helping her but continues to know more and more about her without being told. She can't figure it out until she gets on a train and is in an accident. The accident throws her back about 30 yrs and it takes her awhile to figure out it's truth. Once there she meets Marc. So how does this end you wonder. She is from 30 yrs in the future. But in the future he is 30 yrs older than she is. I never could figure out his age.

Many intriguing twists and turns for the heroine. Some areas are hard to figure out about what gets changed in the future due to her knowing who the women killer is. It's a struggle that if you take time out of reading you have trouble imagining what the hell happens when she is "reborn" and live to the time she meets the old man Marc.

I would buy it. Very interesting premise.

Friday, May 27, 2016

UNDER THE INFLUENCE by Joyce Maynard ***

This was intriguing (for me) only for the fact the writer used to write about her home life for the Concord Monitor in NH. She screwed her way into JD Salinger's life -I'm sure long enough to piss off his wife all the while (I'm sure) thinking of herself as a young female temptress of a retiring, shy man who had little use for her interference. Then she wrote about it, doesn't believe in kiss and not tell.

Most people don't see her actions that way. They are mostly disappointed in her fame-fucking & bragging. She doesn't believe in keeping things to herself.  She was looking for an easy piece of ass to boost her career and since she wrote about her tryst and sells books, I'd say she was a successful fucker.

This novel isn't a mystery. It's about some dumb bunny Helen with a kid (Ollie-horrid name) who drinks away her child in a divorce then goes to AA and falls in with the wrong type of people. Wealthy getchu-anything-honey type of people. Then she finds out they're fake. WOW biggie news story there. O hell ya, rich people don't really GAS about the peons in the world. Surprise!! Pretty much nothing goes on at all during this story. Not a thing worth reading.

So this was disappointing. No murder, no excitement whatsoever. Even the accident was a let down here I was suspecting child rape but nope. Even Helen's boyfriend Elliot is steadfastly boring and she finds herself attracted to that at the end. Boring is now her middle name and life in general- all good wishes from Joyce, it must be how she sees other people.

And BTW the book wasn't all that and a bag of chips. I would get it at the library or not even bother. Watch the movie To Die For instead. Much better story about murder and it had some amusing on screen moments. Unknown if she wrote the movie script but the book wasn't all that wonderful for me either. When I read her stuff I feel her arrogance, her disdain for most of the characters in her stories-which I translate to people IRL. That may be why I'm not crazy about her writing style.




Sunday, May 22, 2016

BREAKDOWN by Johathan Kellerman ****

This is an Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis novel. Alex is slumming around after he meets some chick Zelda and her son Ovid-whom he bonds with. Later in time (5 yrs), he finds Zelda (aka Jane Smith) died claiming ownership of some mansion (her mom is Zina Rutherford) then is found poisoned on the exact premises (why did they check for poison? No coroner ever does that UNLESS strong, strong reason). There was never, so far as I remember, any check for poison, it seems Alex assumed so due to the many deadly plants growing on the property. So apparently this dame living the high life killed people to keep her inheritance. Her own half sister, the half sisters kid, other people who saw killings you know .... once you kill someone you end up with a houseful of strangers...dead or dying.

I guess this novel was a bit confusing. There were areas I forgot who was related to whom, what the F they were poisoned with and why. There are similar sounding names, he has to go back 5 years or more to study past deaths and people involved. It was difficult to keep up with the shenanigans when you're trying to fight your sleep meds to figure this crap out. So I gave it 4 stars for the confusion. What confused me most is WHY did everyone assume the dead were poisoned? Why? By what means? Can you tell from a 5 yr old or older body that they were poisoned? IDK. Kind of on the outer edges of believability.

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

MIRRORWORLD by Jeremy Robinson ****

This begins with a patient who has no memories at all, he's in a mental hospital but someone working for the gov't knows about his penchant for seeing into a parallel universe and gets him out. At first because he has no idea who he is, he's called Crazy. He is ex-military and has some supposedly incredible moves in that he is so over confident he walks into any situation and KNOWS absolutely how to kill everyone in the room in case they decide to "take" him.

I didn't mind the start but when he begins "seeing" into the parallel universe it got very confusing. His girlfriend is lost over there. Don't ask me how he recovers his memories, it's beyond my capabilities but somehow with someone he does. Then he's like superman of the between worlds, holding off enemies until even the leader of the "Dread" is using him as an ally. This part I don't get. Why would an alien with monsters who can plant deep fears into people in this world want to stay in their own world? Why show up at all? Was there a pizza party going on or what?

It was kind of different, I wrote a book called Deadly Magic and I wrote it years ago. It was self published and is on Amazon. It's about a magician stuck between a mirror world and the real world. Somewhat similar. I wrote mine in the early 90s. This is sort of similar but he has different type of monsters interested in what I have no idea. Anyways, get it at the library. Not as good as mine....I don't start off with a guy famous for not feeling fear and immediately facing the enemy is scared shitless. Whatever!

Thursday, April 14, 2016

RED TIDE by Jeff Lindsay *****

Well as expected a great read, book is too small wanted MORE MORE MORE. This is a story with Billy Knight in it, I suppose a new character replacing Dexter. The book is good, takes it slow and easy in the beginning then speeds on to the end. There is romance, voodoo, pythons large enough and trained to kill, of course for fights all the fists flying,  knives, guns whatever can be picked up.

I would recommend it to anyone that likes murder mysteries, or mysteries. This is pretty much about how people save all their money to come to America from Haiti and are tricked into the water by a false skyline so most of them drown in the ocean and the captain makes quite a lot of money NOT delivering the 'product' which would be illegals. Liked it plenty. Buy or rent. Up 2 U.

Saturday, April 9, 2016

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

This is a book takes place in the future, the cop LT Eve Dallas who gets to fuck Roark at least once in graphic detail is trying to find 2 killers who are in love. They kill for an apartment, for vehicles and torture people so their sex is better somehow.

A couple of times the writer describes crap page after page about things of which I do not care. Every page she is playing a guessing game, who is doing what and why? What if it's THIS scenario, or THAT scenario. The entire book is a tortured back and forth of WTF is maybe happening. I don't really like that much but the story was interesting enough to finish so I gave it 4 stars, I would get it at the library. It was so so for me but I'm picky about murder mysteries.

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

The DRIFTER by Nicholas Petrie ****

A story about a veteran with some stories about the homeless etc in along with the storyline. There's someone amassing bomb materials and Peter Ash has to save the day. He begins by visiting a dead friends wife and kids then a dog is found under a porch guarding some money which he offered the wife but no one knows where the money comes from and later in the story it doesn't sound like he committed suicide after all.

Quick moving story line, well drawn characters and your interest is on the story all the time. I liked it but there were a few dog things I wasn't happy about. First the abandoned dog, then not getting the dog a bath for weeks on end, and then washing him in a car wash (wrong), never saying what the hell the dog was eating and when. Most of the time it sounds like the dog is only offered a hamburger for a meal or a burrito or something stupid. Surprised there wasn't a chapter on dog diarrhea.

Happy ending and good story. Get it at the library or buy it.

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

The VANISHING by Bentley Little ****

Well last Bentley novel I could find. This is so weird. Strange alien type people live in the woods. They entice people for sex ,normal people who give birth to half monsters. Every thing they touch flowers and/or blooms and/or grows. The children eat body parts.

There is a lot of back and forth to the 1800s which TO ME didn't seem necessary. There is gold but it's cursed due to these monsters/creatures. I find it hard to describe. I think I could trim out 100 pages of b.s. that I wasn't really interested in reading so I just read first line of paragraph and continued that way for awhile. I thought it had too many boring or tedious spots and it took too long for it's size to read.

I'm not in love with it, I don't hate it. Somewhere in between, I suggest the library.

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

The HAUNTED by Bentley Little ***

This is same author again, I have one more book of his from the library. This seems like a real early starter book. It's about a haunted house and how a family is coping with it, along with the neighbors.

The daughter is cutting herself, ends up in the hospital. IRL she'd end up in therapy for an extended stay but not in the book. Most people in the story have ghostly stuff happen but won't tell anyone because the ghost threatened them. In some places the book was sort of drawn out enough to bore me. I  had to read first line in paragraphs and flip thru pages or I felt like tossing it in the garbage. Since it's a library book I really couldn't satisfy myself doing that.

It was fair. Best to just read the last book he wrote and not go trolling for earlier novels they're really not that great. He does a better job later in his writing.

Friday, March 11, 2016

HIS FATHER'S SON by Bentley Little ****

The protag Steve Nye suspects his father who is dying was a serial killer so he feels some demented apathy and begins killing people. He thinks he's doing the world a favor but often kills innocent people who do nothing but bother him. Mr. Big Ego who misinterprets almost everything anyone does likes to kill. He's a Dexter wannabe.

What I didn't like about it was the fact he did all this without ONE HINT of suspicion from the cops. What are they doing I kept wondering, without any answers. The one sided view of Steve was kind of boring at times. How does someone see a thrown out stuffed animal and think it's real? LOL Well I guess he's a moron as well as a killer. He really needs very little provocation to kill someone. Not only that but he kills people around him, so WTF are the cops? Not even suspicious?  DUH.

I thought it was ok, quick reading and not horribly written so but get at the library. I enjoyed the last book of his and dug out older ones from the library. He does improve very much.

Friday, March 4, 2016

The CONSULTANT by Bentley Little *****

I'm willing to bet that S. King and Bentley would have a hell of a dream marathon once they got started. I really liked reading this and it went quickly cuz it was hard to put down, I mean I read thru commercials on TV.

Some people at a company (CompWare) hire a "consultant" to help keep the company making money. The consultant is Mr. Patoff, which has a translation you'll find towards the end, so it's not likely a real name. This guy is some sort of monster and instead of firing people they are found to have committed suicide, or self inflicted gunshot, or hanging. This way the company doesn't have to extend benefits to the family so Mr. Patoff is doing pretty well. He scares the shit out of everyone but no one really defies him.

He calls employees at 2am for a "meeting" and when they show up the meeting is something useless that a meeting didn't need to be held. The consultant has "followers" who follow everyone around with little notebooks and cameras are installed all over the company even in the bathrooms. The main character is  Craig Horne, married to Angie with a son Dylan. The consultant has visited every one's place of work, even the school where Dylan goes. He becomes a very hated person or...is he even human? You'll need to read the book to find out.

The ending is a little unresolved in that you don't really know what the company name DFG stands for, nor do you know why rooms changed their shape, and you have no clue at the end what Mr. Patoff is or what his reason for existence is. I guess you could say he wants to have a successful company with one person doing all the work; which is impossible. So off you go, buy it or library it. Good writing, edge of the seat style.

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

STRATEGIC MOVES by Stuart Woods ****

Well this is a smallish book so I got thru it rather quickly. Terse writing, to the point and almost similar to any of Patterson's books. This is a Stone Barrington novel, with some hinky money issues, a guy on the run from the FBI and whoever else. Stone is a lawyer so he represents people and tries to protect them. Meantime he's always got some girlfriend, different one every novel.

Not horrible at all, good reading for a bedtime book and an easy read. Get it at the library or a yard sale like I did.

Thursday, February 25, 2016

FOREIGN AFFAIRS by Stuart Woods ****

Stone Barrington is main character. At least this book he sticks to one woman he met on a plane they then become Fbuddies all over the globe until she gets kidnapped and happily for Stone who has other 'fish to fry' or women to bed, she doesn't really like him because he didn't rescue her fast enough. She wasn't intelligent enough to get on the main road from the fortress like structure and run down it at night or during the day. If she saw a vehicle what's to stop her from hiding or something, a cliff? I think if she valued her life and it was threatened by bad guys she'd risk a chance climbing down a bit on the rocks and waiting for a better moment to continue on.

I like readnig Woods, his stories go quickly, terse writing and characters distinguishable from each other but Stone is sort of a misogynist, he likes fucking women like usually different ones thru an entire novel. Glad he stuck to one till the end when he found the next flavor of the month. Not bad but get at library.

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

CHILDREN OF PARANOIA by Trevor Shane ****

I liked most of the story but there were niggling irritations that bugged me thru the entire thing. First off a secret group of people are good vs evil but you'll never know who is who. That's minor irritation #1. This doesn't seem like a well thought out story to me, at all.

There are these 2 groups of people hiding in the public; I think perhaps they are related (each group) and for some unknown reason (irritation #2) you'll never know why the fuck they're at war with each other. There are theories proposed and myths since this has been going on for generations, probably so thinned out after hundreds of years they aren't truly related any longer.

The war has rules. This is a really stupid part of the novel because really...rules? In a war? WTF?  Rule one is no one is killed under 18 yo, after that they're fair game. No killing innocent bystanders. Third rule is you can't have kids till you're 18 or the child is handed to the other "side". How do these stupid war people know about every birth in the world and why hand their own babies over to murderers who will teach their own children to murder? Please tell me that author. How can they stop stuff they'll never know? The claim is without rules is chaos and believe me it's already chaos.

How pure are the bloodlines after hundreds of years? Not frickin' very. If it wasn't so intriguing an idea I would have tossed it aside because you learn basically. NOTHING! About anyone. You learn NOTHING. About why there's a war. You learn NOTHING. About why this b.s. is still ongoing, supposedly they have had truces before but the other side reneged. Why? They must be the stupid group. Mostly it's kids who have lost family members to the  other side eager to kill the murderers. So if there are no murderers any longer it would ease off and stop.

So STORYLINE generally sucks. There are likable characters, ok action scenes and you puzzle your way thru hoping at some point an answer will tumble out of someone's frickin' mouth but that never happens. My bad, so sorry....Not quite enough information for 5 stars.




Monday, February 8, 2016

SPLINTER THE SILENCE by Val McDermid ***

It's readable, I actually got thru 240 pages but it took me almost 2 weeks to read the damn thing. It's pretty boring in most places. Lots of references to 2 people in the lead character's life but no explanation how they died. NO LADY I did NOT read your first book so I'm stuck not knowing WTF you are referring to half the time.

Another freaking NON US citizen writing a crappy book, but this one at least drinks coffee. There are a lot of colloquiums I have no clue about what. The explanations can go on for an entire page. Lots of characters to learn. I'm done, not finished but not caring either.

Friday, January 29, 2016

LOST SOULS by Seth Patrick ***

If you saw the TV series Revival and liked it there's a chance you'll like this book. I watched some of the show but was bored with the no story line thing going on. Like no why, no how, no explanations, blahblah so naturally I wasn't thrilled by the novel. I didn't like it, too many descriptions, not enough action. Who would name a kid NEVER???? Like Never went to school...so what someone didn't go to school? Or someone named Never didn't go to school? Confusing and dumb JMHO.

Monday, January 25, 2016

ZERO WORLD by Jason M Hough ****

This is sy fy and I didn't mind it too much. This guy Caswell has been sent on a journey thru a black hole or worm hole to another planet, he'd been there before but a technology implant is in his neck to erase his memory. He doesn't remember killing anyone on any of his "jobs". He's sort of a futuristic mercenary for a woman Warden named Monique. Some people are on Earth but from another planet making sure that each one speaks English (even tho everyone on Earth does NOT speak English). So he lands on another planet called Gartien and meets up with a female spy (I think) named Melni. They become partners in the task of killing off Alia somebody who is trying to upgrade the Gartiens with new technology defying a group called Prime, which Monique is part of, as even Caswell is part of which you don't learn till the end but his entire thinking changes over the length of the novel.

Some things were confusing like using blixxing as a swear word, Sometimes they are wearing or using gear that is incomprehensible and the descriptions lack enough detail so it leaves you thinking, "whatever" and you go right past it. At one point Caswell forgets how to use a gun, and believes he's never killed anyone even tho he turns beer bottles backwards in the fridge so he knows how many people he's killed on his missions. So that didn't make sense.

On page 440 after an unexpected event occurred he had sent a transmission recorded before everything happened and sent it to Earth. That was an impossibility. I didn't get how they could record something they didn't know would happen. Caswell spent so much of the early parts of the story without food or water yet managed somehow to live. I don't understand that either. He couldn't eat the food on Gartien due to bacteria (he thinks) and I have no idea how he could survive weeks without food or drink. It boggles the mind. Anyway the end is satisfactory. The story had a beginning, middle and end. It wasn't terrible but it wasn't edge of the seat thrilling either. It had no humor in it really, takes itself very seriously. I tend to compare SyFy with Adams. Sorry writer.
I would get it at the library. It's a large book so don't let it fall on your head.

Sunday, January 17, 2016

AVENUE OF MYSTERIES by John Irving *

Most novels require you to be lured into the story HARDCORE, if the author is unable to do this and just tells without showing I'm not going to be drawn in and don't GAS about the story.

I only got 14 pages into this and quit. Why? Pages and pages of nonsense about what Juan Diego calls himself from the past to the present-not kidding and why. Then there are umpteen paragraphs about "dump kids" from his past. There is a passage about what a shrug means...total arrogance of the writer to bring me here cuz I'm done.

Boring. Go to sleep reading something more interesting. Even if you're not tired this one will put you down or make you toss it across the room. Really not a fan.

Saturday, January 16, 2016

ALL THIS LIFE by Joshua Mohr ****

Not a mystery or murder novel, more like the movie "Crash" where all these people end up at the same spot at the same time at the end.

There are mostly computer users who think most of their life is glued to the internet but realize at the end it's not true. There is a story about an alcoholic mom and the story of her son and past girlfriend, then one about a kid who's sister commits suicide and thinks the internet is life, there's a madman of course, and parents, siblings etc.

Each story in itself is sort of interesting and as a novel it's okay for me, I didn't hate it but it's not my genre really. It holds interest but often you get confused which person's life we'r'e on that's the most distracting part of the novel. Otherwise library or buy it. Not all bad, mostly showing and no telling so it's more of a correctly written novel than most I read. This has a beginning, middle and end.

Sunday, January 10, 2016

HOST by Robin Cook *****

Never one to ignore a Cook book (intended) I picked up this one which is new. As usual it involves doctors, hospitals and drugs. A med student, Lynn, has a boyfriend Carl, who needs minor knee surgery but something goes terribly wrong and he ends up in the next door building for non brain functioning coma patients. Wonder why parents aren't asked if he'd like to be moved anywhere else?

The Shapiro building is mostly a  mystery and you learn more about it the more you read. Carl was forced into a coma to end up next door comatose. Lynn and her BFF Michael are on the search to figure out what happened to Carl, why he was in a coma following simple routine knee surgery and they had a lot of ground to cover to get to the end and learn the truth.

At one point Carl makes friends with an IT guy from Shapiro, a Russian, and Michael abuses the friendship offered by the Russian by stealing his fingerprint and his passwords to the Shapiro computers, which can only be accessed from inside the building. I imagine no one really GAS about the Russian friend but I thought it wasn't very friendly of Michael but I guess he had no other alternatives to get into the building.

All in all it had a sort of ending, both Michael and Lynn graduating from their med rotations or education and onto residency someplace. There are still 2 Russians after them but they don't have any immediate plans to go after them.

Fast paced, hard to put down and YAY an ending of sorts. Something about Cook doesn't like finality or happy endings..get used to it!

Monday, January 4, 2016

SATURN RUN by John Sandford & Ctein ****

This is almost 500 pages, so of course being who I am I think I can cut 100 pages out of this sucker so it's not as sleep inducing as it was.

USA and China have a space ship (year 2068 or so) going to space because it appeared from earth that aliens were moving back and forth to a moon of Saturn. There's your RUN, they are racing to get there first. The US gets there first on (of all things in hell) a ship named the Richard R. Nixon. which almost made me toss the library book into the trash. Pushing that absurdity aside I read it all and SPOILER ALERT there are no aliens to meet, only robotic crap that aliens created. There are no questions worth asking those useless pieces of crap.

 I won't give much else away except to say that traveling for 3 yrs to another planet can be tres boring. There is a bet going onboard the US ship on the date the ship's captain and some guy will screw so they hold off till it's a million then fuck and split it. Meantime back at the Chinese ship they are scurrying along slowly with mostly militia on board vs the US having mostly scientists aboard with very few weapons altho they have lots of technology even printers that can reproduce printers etc. So the inevitable happens at around page 400 on the way home to Earth when the Chinese are having so much trouble with their ship they come aboard the US ship and try to take it over with some bitch killing people every time she blinks even after all Chinese being throughly searched by the US teams. They did a crappy ass job. The new travelers used aerosolized LSD. Must have been a fun time for all.

I folded some pages where I think "she' was used instead of "he' or it was ambiguous for pages until they finally mentioned she was with a she, as in gay. For awhile I couldn't tell if Sandy was male or female. In one scenario the Chinese were on a trip to Mars for some reason, saw the Saturn business and were perfectly equipped to change course in their cargo ship with enough crap on board of food and water for 6 years? I wasn't convinced. Meantime how and why did a US ship guy become a Chinese spy? I mean the Chinese didn't even know the US was going to Saturn so how'd they plant someone on the ship? Reality sets in.

I'd like to know at what time in the world laws were written stating what piracy in the sky was, or what international laws were dreamed up for space travel? Ok, so I'm not gonna be around for 2068 but still, I'm clueless, so how long has space travel been going on? Sometimes Zhang is male and sometimes I think it's a she, I'm very confused, it's a large book and I just can't familiarize myself quickly to so many people, sexes and countries. There are very few VERY WELL drawn characters the rest are filler robots. I hate books with too many people and this has too many pages, too many people, too many scenarios of b.s. to get thru without encountering ONE lousy alien. I mean COME ON!! I read 500 pages and no alien??? Disappointed. Hence the only 4 stars.