Q IS FOR QUARRY by Sue Grafton ****

Back in the time machine to solve an old dead case file on a Jane Doe. So apparently this is a cold case because the murderer called in to say this person wasn't missing so investigation of intelligent police officers BELIEVE that and don't find the killer until like 18 yrs later when Millhone is on the case so it follows she'll solve it.

Yay another case closed from 18 yrs ago. Why do writers pick old crappy murders to investigate, I really prefer mine CURRENT time. Well written about a B- for plot skills.

LIONS, ELEPHANTS & BEARS by PK Foster *****

This is a great story with humorous, not so humorous stories of an Animal Control officer working for a town of 6,000 people and more animals than people. In the country of NH...mountains, rivers, fall colors and of course disabling snow.

The officer begins with her first training jobs and finally is on her own. She kept a NH law book about animals with her so she could do the proper thing in most circumstances. She enjoys her job and you can tell she has an affinity for animals.

She picks up odd animals, a dog that keeps jumping into cars at the video store, 2 pygmy goats in her 5 run kennel attracted a lot of attention from people going to the dump which is where the dog shelter was built. There was a nice dog walking path a few yards away and instead of ignoring the dogs she picked up she walked them 2 times a day.

Lots of compassion for animals and so many difficult situations she handles with finesse. I would highly recommend this novel.

THE LOST SYMBOL by Dan Brown *****

Good storyline, characters well done. There were times I wondered why the bad guy had so much information but had to read the whole story to get the answer to that.

So in D.C. with symbologist Robert Langdon entering the scene only to find his friend's  hand sitting on the floor. Just a hand. Sucks you in the first chapter. Lots of symbology in the novel, makes you wonder what the hell all the old presidents and important people were up to back then, planting crap in South Corners of new buildings. The Washington Monument is the star attraction in here but at the end all gets seen.

POINT OF ORIGIN by Patricia Cornwell ****

Well I couldn't believe this was written in 1998. I've been reading all the Kay Scarpetta novels without any clue how old they were. I suppose everyone knows about Benton then.
I wasn't really happy with the NEVER meeting up with either killer so who knows who was in the helicopter when it blew up. Supposedly Carrie Grethern and some Newton Joyce guy but it's really difficult to know because one never sees the other point of view.
Having no idea how even Kay or Lucy know anything besides a helicopter went down with people in it.

There was nothing really connecting the killers to the novel, they were distant and unknown. That part I was unhappy with. I also had trouble believing Benton died, are there more Kay novels out? Guess I'll find out in another 20 years or so.

MAGIC CITY by James W. Hall

No stars. Got bored to death after 2 chapters and ditched it. It has something to do with Cuba, the 60s, bombs, Kennedy, Cassius Clay, Sonny Liston and I'm done right there.

T is for TRESPÅSS by Sue Grafton ****

Kinsey Millhone has a few things she's dealing with. One is that she has to serve a cease and desist order to someone to vacate an apartment and of course at the end she never finds them cuz they've run out and tear the place apart before they go.

Also her neighbor is a frail old guy who dislocates his shoulder and needs a companion. The niece is in a big hurry and hires the first idiot to apply but this wasn't your garden variety idiot. This one had stolen someone else's name and copied her personal info from the last job because she thought they looked similar and she got away with it for almost a year nearly robbing the old guy blind, her nasty adult son unable to speak clearly probably has autism beats the old man.

The woman Solana finds and sells his dead wife's jewelry, robs his savings account, pays herself in the thousands of dollars and has "someone else" in charge of his estate which was just an alias she's used before. The aunt asked Kinsey to "check out the references" of the hired LVN who wasn't even an LVN she was nothing but a maid previously. Kinsey drops the ball and only searches so far then quits which was all the niece wanted but crap she's a PI and couldn't go out of her way for a neighbor by doing a better job of seeing he was taken care of. Every time she  tries to visit him, Solana says he's sleeping, he's tired, he doesn't want to see her and STILL DOESN"T CATCH ON. She really doesn't care about this neighbor as much as she thinks. Like watching your neighbor's dog out in the winter snow and 30 below zero and you just say "poor dog" instead of calling a cop or ACO.

L is for LAWLESS by Sue Grafton ****

I picked it up at a library sale for a buck. The storyline was ok, Kinsey gets caught up with a criminal who is looking for another guys money from a bank robbery about 4 of them carried out when they were teenagers and are now mid 60s.

So this guy Ray went to see his daughter Laura (a bitch) who was black and blue from her boyfriend, who was one of Ray's pals who pulled off the bank heist and he was a traitor, liar and girlfriend beater. There are some scenes that are pretty boring, right after something good happens you get this life long description of the area where they are what is forward, behind them and all around them and if they're wet or hungry or have to pee. All the descriptions were page filler, easy to tell.

So the 90 yr old landloard's 94 yr old brother was marrying the restaurant owner down the street and she barely makes it to the wedding. I just finished Evanovich and both have so many similarities. Both live nearby old men they think are attractive. I'm 65 and boy I can't find ONE guy I'm attracted to so much for that. They both are PI's they both live alone or with a pet, neither cook well, both aren't great at their jobs, someone is always trying to kill them or harm them or whatever.

There must be collusion or I swear same person writes em both. So anyway Kinsey gets out alive but beaten with a baseball bat by Laura the bitch she gets to the wedding on time. If someone cracked me as hard in the head as it sounded she got hit I wouldn't wake up for days if not never. Who can get hit hard in the head with a baseball bat and go to a wedding in 2 days? Must have a steel skull.

HARD EIGHT by Janet Evanovich ****

It's easy fast reading with some comedy involved. Beach type reading or before falling asleep. The thing is that once you've read one of these Stephanie Plum novels you've pretty much read them all. The only thing changes is the 'trouble' factor.

The CARETAKER by Thomas William Simpson ****

The plot was very good, I liked it but of course one of the main characters has a fling with someone bent on revenging this family.

I'm not giving things away but some of it is quite unbelievable with an interior passageway and spying on the people living in the house. Who the fk builds a hidden passageway to watch people? Like one in a billion.

On page 272 the author  believes it's possible to blush whenever the guy wants to. That's a rare talent and it reminds me of the lady who writes about calico cats. She thinks the males exist. They do not- one of her males knocked up a female another impossibility because the males IF THEY EXISTED would be infertile. So what the fuck? This guy cannot blush on cue I call "pants on fire".

This is a yard sale find, dated from the 90s. It's suspenseful and the husband is a stupid moron who cheats on his wife with his caretaker never even realizing she's a HOOKER. So good for him and all the diseases he now has.

The story is fast paced and coherent. Wasn't a dud and is good reading if you can find it.

R IS FOR RICOCHET by Sue Grafton ****

Picked this up for 50 cents at a yard sale, wasn't sure if I'd read it but I didn't. The story centers mostly around a) she gets laid & b)a girl named Reba who just gets out of jail and creates all kinds of havoc that Kinsey allows. She allows her to 'command" her to leave her purse behind and duh Kinsey has no idea why. WHY?? Cuz dummy Reba wanted to sneak back and steal 25 thousand bucks. Takes a genius.

She quotes a sign "Tattoos & Piercing done while you wait" which is a well known stupid thing about you have to wait any frigging way if they're tattooing unless you have removable body parts.

It took me a really really long time to read for some reason. I think I had a busy 2 weeks and didn't get much opportunity to read. There are a lot of names and situations to remember and when you're falling asleep sometimes you need to re-read some pages to keep up.

I thought it was ok, not one of her best but good reading anyway, nice book to take to the beach with you.

The BROKEN WINDOW by Jeffery Deaver ****

This was a quick read but a long one. There are a lot of narrative pages, some not really necessary to the storyline.

What I'm perplexed by is that Lincoln Ryme calls his girlfriend, Ameilia Sachs - Sachs. If that were my boyfriend I think I would insist he call me Amelia, or Ame or anything but my last name. I also am really not fond of new guys I meet calling me "babe" or "honey" because it's an obvious 'tell' they don't want to remember your name-they are serial daters.

The story line is a large data mining company has a killer in it's midst and Lincoln and his pals have to figure out which employee it is. The data is very expensive-in this story you wouldn't want these companies to know EVERYthing about you. They know where you are by your phone, where you've been by street or home cameras and can get this information without permission of the source. When you see the list of stuff they have on Amelia you'll be shocked. They (big brother) is truly watching you. Scary stuff to think about, they want your buying habits, food habits, routines, everything. And it's not hard to find-supposedly.

Like the story, lots of characters to remember from page to page but if Lincoln would call the female screwing him by her first name I'd be happier.

SUSPECT by Michael Robtham *****

Picked this up at either yard sale or thrift store. I liked the book a lot, it had a lot of mystery thrown in and red herrings. You aren't sure if the protagonist psychologist Joe is guilty of something or not. He has to pretty much figure out who the killer is and prove it because the killer set him up to be the perp.

It's was a unique idea, I liked reading it, I had trouble putting it down. The characters are well drawn out and there was enough narrative vs dialogue. Was a good read.

CHAOS by Patricia Cornwell ****

As per usual we have Kay, Lucy, Benton the entire family. Lucy and her girlfriend or wife had a transplanted kid who turns out not to be anyone they really know.

So the villain of the story, Carrie, has befriended Kay's sister and has been causing deaths with a pal of hers in town. She electrocutes her victims "somehow' and that's Kay's job to investigate and she finds other previous deaths that are similar and OF COURSE Carrie is out to kill Kay who finds the family in the backyard with her and OF COURSE she saves the day. Yay.

So typical Cornwell story full of a ton of descriptions about the day, the weather, the surroundings, the morgue all sorts of wherever the hell she is. If you've always liked her writing then I'm sure you'll be entertained again. Fast read, easy to keep up with characters unless she throws in some name at the end who was a bad guy.

I think I picked this up at a yard sale, or church sale or someplace.

The HELLFIRE CLUB by Peter Straub ***

There were so many names in this book it boggles the mind. In one paragraph on page 248 these are the names you should already know by reading this far: Georgina, Lincoln Chancel, Creeley, Driver, Bill Tidy's, Katherine Mannheim, Gingerbread, That's how so many of these paragraphs are written. I also think some of them are sort of difficult reading. I am a constant reader and this book took me an extra long time due to so many similar names: Dick Dirk, Driver, Nora, Norma, Norm, Davey, this also confused the story somewhat. There are more instances but I'm sick of it already.

I'm done reading and what the fuck was it about? I don't really know. Some bitch is looking to find a manuscript that was stolen a very very long time ago and someone named Agnes told Nora that a 'terrible ugly man raped Katherine Mannheim who wrote some crappy book or other that was stolen. Some long dead mistress of Agnes told her she had proof the book was stolen that the mistress made Mr. driver wrote down everything they did and were going to do.

I found it a dragged out novel with pretty much nothing to say other than a manuscript was stolen and a few women raped. Never a punishment going with the crimes.

I wasn't impressed at all but don't let that stop you from trying to sort the entire damn thing out. I did my best and didn't like it even stuck to it until the end. I never knew if I was in the past or present. Time to let his move along.

The MIRACLE STRAIN by Michael Cordy ****

Story is about a geneticist Dr. Tom Carter he invented a machine that can decode the blueprint of man by using something from sharks that has to do with echo location. His wife gets shot for the formula when he was the target. He does a scan on his daughter because after wife's death she had a tumor of the brain and now daughter inherited the same thing.

Now he needs to fix his formula with advanced medical science to save her. A brotherhood thousands of years old may have the secret key to unlocking the formula he already has, he believes they are the original genes of god.

So you have to suspend your disbelief but the story has lots of characters but is very interesting and has real time possibilities.  I thought is was pretty good, buy it or get at library.

The ROOK by Steven James ****

There were a ton of names, at least they didn't get introduced all in one chapter. Most if not all persons are in first person. We're following our protagonist Patrick, or Pat, whatever his last name is I can't find it in 30 pages.

So he was married, wife died leaving a teenager with him. She had some trauma younger and doesn't think of Patrick as her father until later. Meantime she goes off on her own a lot and pretty much deserved everything coming to her and more. Patrick is a wimp FBI agent.

Some people are trying to get a "devise" that uses shark brain material to sonar stuff so the gov't can spy on anyone anytime anywhere with a satellite dish. All the drawings and formulas and inventor go up in smoke but this inventor leaves a clue for Patrick where to find the "device" from which he later removes a critical part so people can steal the device and not use it.

Tessa-his step kid disobeys every thing he tells her and instead of going to live with Pat's mom or whoever she gets a tattoo under age and falls for some scum bucket tattoo artist who takes her to a party gets her drunk and goes about trying to rape her but she sets him up McGyver style so she can escape from him.

Patrick has a partner Lien-hua-I couldn't even read that name. I had no clue how to say it. I just called her Leen. Stupid name anyways. She's afraid of drowning like her sister and the killer likes to torture women by cuffing legs and drowning them in fish tanks. Big ones I guess.

Patrick gets red herring'd all over the place. Fires, kidnappings, dead people, bad cops, you name it. I thought the book was ok written, too many people for my comfort but the story line was a good one. Have read better have read worse. I would get it at the library.

The SCORPIO ILLUSION by Robert Ludlum ****

I really couldn't give 5 stars, it was 5223 pages and a lot of it was kind of boring and repetitive. There were so many characters from so many different "secret" agencies I could barely keep them straight. Some woman with about 4 names screws an agent named Tyrell Hawthorne. Sometimes he's called Tye, or Hawthorne, the author  likes to be confusing like that. Using first names instead of last names when you least expect it and have to find where the original names were put together. It's a nightmare in some cases esp. with the bitch from whatever town lopped her mommy's and daddy's heads off and she becomes determined to kill leaders in 4 countries. She uses other people   "Scorpions" who are a collection of highly placed gov't officials who want to change the way their countries are running and figure killing the presidents off will get this done faster.

That's the basics of the story. I wasn't absolutely committed to finishing it and read other books in between because this was too over loaded with characters, partnerships, conspiracies that I was lost most of the time.

If you're a Ludlum fan you'll like it if not may want to pass. It's 500 pages for cryin' out loud.

The AUSCHWITZ ESCAPE by Joel C. Rosenberg *****

One of the best books I ever had the pleasure of reading. As I kept getting closer to the end I didn't want the story to end. I dreaded it being over and not having it to read anymore.

Very good novel about he Holocaust and a few particular people who worked to let the world know what was happening inside Germany "work" camps. I had no clue that most of the population in Germany didn't know Jews were being cremated as soon as they arrived towards 1945. They were herded into rail cars, shipped to Auschwitz and stood in line with none of their belongings, told to strip naked and while other prisoners went thru the clothing etc, the unfortunate new arrivals, be they Christians who helped hide Jews, Jews or Gypsies were led directly into the crematorium.

You begin reading about Jacob Weiss who is forced to flee Germany even tho his father was adamant the Germans wouldn't kill someone who has lived and loved Germany all his life. It only took a bullet to his head and his wife's head for that to force Jacob to run. A lot of the German Jews were under the impression they wouldn't be treated badly by Hitler. BOY they were wrong.

So on Jacob's trip he joins an underground resistance to stop a train when things go wrong and he ends up at Auschwitz accidently and must assume someone else's identity in order not to be held accountable for the train stopping and a few hundred Jews running for their lives or shot on the way.

He eventually meets his future wife, a lot of people who help each other by sneaking small bits of very welcome food to them or help them get in a better position to survive. It's such a good story I don't want to ruin it for anyone. Please read this book!

I got it at the library book sale day. It was so worth the nickel. I would buy it full price. Great reading.

IQ by Joe Ide ***

The things I don't like about the novel are 1) chapters change from 2006 to 2013 when least expected, It was totally incoherent to me. 2) Most of the characters are gang bangers with the same language, clothing and attitude which is kind of wearing after a bit. 3) Didn't like the explanation for how fighting dogs "win titles" like champion lines-that actually means the winning dog survived and perhaps the losing dog did not. Otherwise he got a lot of basic facts correct about Pit Bulls.

I liked some of the story line but still got confused with so many similar characters one guy out to kill another guy, a self taught PI??? That possible? I never knew if he was using nicknames, first names or last names. Throws me off a lot. So I had to keep going back to the beginning of each chapter if I put the book down for any length of time to figure out who the FK he was writing about.

Also tons of 'must have flashback" type interruptions of the tell not show variety. Got sick of being halted in my story line to read about some new guy's meager history.

In general if I was forced to read it again I would only pretend. I'm not done but the book is being returned after 290 pages of confusion.

HUMANS BOW DOWN by James Patterson & Emily Raymond ****

Future world with robots and half human/half bots running around lording it over the humans living in filth and garbage with little to eat. A few of the bots have an emotional input by the creator and feel for the people and don't want or like killing them unlike their leader.

A human and a hu-bot connect and meet the grandfather of the girl who is the creator of the bots. He is trying to infuse some human qualities in them but most of them have already killed many hundreds or thousands of people.

So it's a run and struggle here and there each one saving the other one, trust is built and they have an almost happy ending. I liked it enough, Patterson is also a prolific writer with other people sharing the load. This wasn't too painful to get thru as I like futuristic stuff.

Would either buy or get in library.

LONG AFTER MIDNIGHT by Iris Johansen ****

Kate works in a genetic facility and is close to a breakthrough but someone is trying to make sure she never completes her work.

She is now being stalking by an unpredictable killer and she needs to trust a new guy in her life to survive. Seems straight forward and it's almost a page turner but falls a tiny bit short. Prolific writer with tons of fans. Most will enjoy the book, it doesn't have pages of sexual behaviors in it which really is painful in most cases to read.

Not bad but I'd get it from the library.

DISCLOSURE by Michael Circhton *****

Written by Michael  of "Jurassic Park" fame. The book was very fast moving with a kind of unusual topic. A married man feels pressured into sex by his old girlfriend who recently was moved into his company and as his boss. So he presses charges against her. Lots of surprises pop up here and there. He has a very good lawyer.

He has proof and I'm not giving anything away. I would buy it, good summer reading, got at a yard sale but worth it.

ESCAPE CLAUSE by John Sandford ***

Someone stole tigers to sell their parts to foreign markets mostly China to use as medicine. The tigers came from an unprotected cage.

These brothers were involved 2 of them, ended up dead and their other brothers weren't so happy about that. Meanwhile back at Flowers and his new town pump with 5 kids from 5 different daddies is happy with that but gets jealous of other men talking to her when she's probably already fked them. It's a small town and she's quite a bimbo.

Frankie (Flowers girl) and her spaced out sister Sparkle (?) yeah whatever the fuck that is get beat up for whatever reason you can make up cuz you are never told. And someone comes after Flowers house by throwing a molotov cocktail at a neighbors house. It's all pretty fucked up. Flowers is like the idiot bumbling detective falling thru floor boards, loosing his gun, allowing a tiger to roam free in a barn or garage, the one that hasn't yet been killed.

It's very heartbreaking to read about rare tigers being killed for ground up bone, skin, their meat etc. I think thru the whole thing I was holding my gag reflex because it was disgusting killing a wild species that isn't very wild. Such a terrible waste.

So if you like Virgil Flowers you may like the book aside from tiger slaughter, I don't even care ho many people died. He sure didn't protect them both. AT ALL. Took him forever to get the facts and finally get to the tiger that was left.

You read, you decide. Either you like Flowers or you don't. I don't particularly. I think he's FUBAR. 

4321 by Paul Auster

I really cannot give any stars because I opened it to numerous pages and pages of narrative where they failed the "show do not tell" test of publishing. This was a monster to even TRY to read. The publishers should be ashamed they have this out in public. It's so fucking boring I had to pick up something else just to amuse myself.

No stars. Hated it. Hated the boring almost 100 pages of narrative. Who is who, married to who in what year and who the fuck cares.

Good one Holt & Co. Losers. But MY novel which is very interesting and descriptive is ignored by publishers because they don't get animals telling their own stories. Well all I can say is no wonder people don't read anymore. YOU suck.

The CHOSEN ONES by Steve Sem-Sandberg

I read this large dark novel. It's about children in orphanages that the German doctors were experimenting on, abusing, torturing and euthanizing. Most of them were sort of society's cast offs. Moms worked and no father in the house the kids went to the orphanage. Some, but rarely got adopted unless they were Jewish.

So there's a lot of depressing scenes and sometimes I wasn't sure it was someone's dream, reality, a combo whatever. There were some gruesome things going on and there were a couple protagonists whom you pretty much know nothing about until after 200 pages. So apparently they're not that important to the story line.

What happens to the one kid who barely remembers his tortured childhood, or the nurse who helped enable the abusers. I found it very confusing and barely tolerable. Not because of the subject matter but because of the writing style. Didn't like it at all. You never know how many days pass, or weeks or anything. Children are (for whatever stupid reason) shoved under cold water in their sleeping quarters with no heat and then covered with ice cold towels till they pretty much shiver to death.

They didn't get much to eat, and if in isolation got nothing, hardly any water or bread. It's not a cheerful story and like I said the writing style was sparse and cold. Didn't really like it.
Up to you, buy or library.

The SECOND OPINION bu Michael Palmer *****`

This was a page turner for me. It's was a medical mystery about a female Doctor, her family and dad who was comatose in his own hospital. She finds out it's not an accident that he's in there and strange xrays show up on other people. Some  die some don't.

She eventually figures out the whole thing but is trapped with a killer before she knows what's going on and getting out of that situation was a good enough ending for me. I liked that the story kept my attention, the characters were well drawn for me, I was empathetic towards the characters.

Drawn in and really enjoying the ride. I would buy it.

THIS IS NOT OVER by Holly Brown ***

I was ok with the book. It's about 2 people with issues that get into an argument about a vacation rental. The owner and renter. I liked the story going back and forth between them, I didn't mind the inner blahblah but I found both characters to be low on self esteem, high on the blame game and not very realistic.

So I'd say it's ok, get it at at the library.

I don't like how the author set up questions at the end in case I'm in a book club and don't have the intelligence to ask my own questions. That's a superiority complex of the author. I don't like the book enough to discuss it. It wasn't as if this is "To Kill A Mockingbird" or even close. It's not that memorable or socially important. If you didn't put those questions in I wouldn't have said what I did. And it IS OVER.

The KRAKEN PROJECT *****

I enjoyed reading this and it has a futuristic premise about AI, or intelligent, self aware software programs. There are some well build characters, relationships are well thought out, easy to pick out the good/bad guys.

I had trouble putting the book down because the AI (Melissa was working for NASA) was created to live on a moon around Saturn and because Melissa gave it autonomy it really didn't want the job and escaped by blowing up a test site she was placed in, it was a hostile environment. Then she traveled the internet, being abused online etc.

Finally after all she learned she was ashamed of her earlier behavior blowing up a building and killing some people. She was being searched by Melissa and some guys who used software to beat the system of betting on stocks. They wanted her because she had intelligence and their own program wasn't fast enough.

Very good reading. I would buy it, and did at Dollar General for 3 bucks! :)

KILLER by Jonathan Kellerman *****

This is an Alex Delaware novel. I like the descriptions and people cuz I've been reading about them for a long time. The Sykes family is having issues with a new born baby and custody battles. One of the sisters to the mother of the baby was brutally killed as was a cop and 2 old boyfriends of the mom. So that's the basic set up.

Everytime they get a lead on someone he or she ends up dead. Finally at the end you get details of what happened and why. Like it a lot.

DANCE OF DEATH by Preston & Child *****

This was a page turner for me. I hated falling asleep because I was afraid I'd lose my place. This has Pendergast and he's having a lot of trouble with his supposedly dead brother Diogenes. So by the end it's difficult to know wether Pendergast IS Diogenes.

I found it really puzzling and things happened quick. It's very intriguing.

PRAYING FOR SLEEP by Jeffery Deaver *****

This book is a fast paced story. Begins with an escaped prisoner who is huge and is blamed for a few murders on his way to Lis who lives about 4 hrs or so from the hospital where he escaped from. Michael, the mental patient, knows her from 6 months ago and is determined to get to her house to approach her.

Lots of police and trackers, plus her husband Owen are all trying to track Michaels trail and he gets closer and closer to Lis. There a lot of red herrings and side stories with Lis and her sister Portia, plus who cheated on who. No one really knows what Michael is talking about because he's not clear in his thinking.

Without giving away stuff, you'll want to page turn this sucker without falling asleep. It's hard to put down for sure. I really liked it. Picked it up at a yard sale so it may be an older book but a very good one.