The BOYS FROM SANTA CRUZ by Jonathan Nasaw *****

Moves along very fast, most of the time you wonder 'where is he going with this' and you follow along for the ride. Some amusing stuff, ironic stuff, running around here to there. Nothing confusing, good descriptions and the characters really have their own personality so I like that about it.

It's about a kid who has lots of trouble, is institutionalized and wants to retaliate but the story is really everything in between that.

There are a few minor things bothered me like why did Rudy keep some pot in his vehicle when it must have been a huge relief to sell it all and go home plus he must have his personal stash at home so I don't get why he kept some kilos in the car? Left me wondering why....and a van full of money sits left alone for 10 yrs in an empty barn? Think not. Kids love exploring that stuff, even his own main character used to do that so I can't see why it'd be left intact for 10 yrs. That was unbelievable. But then again most of it is!! LOL

I never attached to the main character which was probably intentional -I don't know. I did sort of like the FBI guy chasing him around so since I'm not done yet I hope he's not killed off.

Great read, keeps you interested, moves quickly and hard to put down.

CLICK TO PLAY by David Handler *

Just started and I got another male writer who likes boxing. Sheesh. 3 books in a row about boxing. IDGAF Supposed to be about Hollywood tv family slaughtered. With a washed up reporter on the run but I get boxing. What are the odds the mafia and drugs are involved?? LOL

Well I gotta say I'm sick of looking thru the shelf books and author names are GIGANTIC with the titles hard to find on the covers. When did this happen? At least I'll know not to pick up anymore screaming DAVID HANDLER books.

Peat and repeat. The entire enchilda is given up very early in the book and the rest of it is just chasing down proof. BORING. Really. I kept waiting for some dark secret to be revealed. Not. Even the people you get familiar with die. And there is a cast of hundreds. I mean so many in show business, in a show, from a show, married to the people in the show, or murdered in the past from the show and now some entangled guy is running for president. Egads. So much b.s. to kill everyone the future president ever had contact with- it's bizarre. Not only that but the true evil villain HERBIE is still running around free! A pedophile who abused his own grandson! WTH? Just about everyone else in the story is dead but him! JEEZ
Leaving unsatisfied.

The 24th LETTER by Tom Lowe ***

I really abhor books with a cast of thousands. 300 something pages with as many names first/last etc. Not happy. Some guy is reading, nodding off and then "headed for the salon door, the dog followed to the cockpit. She licked his face blahblah and climbed the ladderlike steps to the flybridge. He unzipped the isinglass window." Is this all in English?? I don't know. Lots of crap like that in here.

Not impressed. Some murderer wrongly convicted will be put to death in like 60 hours unless the case is solved by the original cop who fucked it up the first time- yeah right. Meanwhile a lot of other people are dying in the process and seems no one gives a shit but the entire book is for one innocent on death row? Where's the cops? Where's the investigation? Don't know. Chasing the excop who really isn't very smart. Dead priest leaves a mysterious bloody message. Not 'FRED DID IT'. Of COURSE NOT!! 

Topics: Drugs, mafia, Boxing. 

Losing total respect for the writer. The stupid priest bloody message took 300 pages to figure out but how did the guy know it referred to a handwritten paper left in a bible? It never said anything about a bible- so if he's going to be psychic he could have checked the bible immediately following the priests murder. That's one thing pissing me off now the next:

The killer is headed for the same place as O'Brien (lead character). BUT the killer has no idea where the evidence that would convict him is hidden so why go there? It's a dark and rainy night! O'Brien knows the killer is hiding around the area someplace absolutely clueless about where the evidence is...while the killer is hiding nearby (since he has access to police info) the moron cop is going to dig up the evidence and...o no the killer is going to see him! He will kill O'Brien....o no hahahahaa. IDIOT WRITER. Why why why does crap get published.

The KEEPER of LIGHT & DUST by Natasha Mostert ***

Very interesting weird novel. It was about chi and kick boxing. Parts of it didn't interest me but I continued to read it because it was well written, good descriptions and it moved along rather well. I just didn't get the concept all that much and didn't really care for the boxing crap.

Everyone is of course stunningly gorgeous, tall, muscular etc. so it's somewhat fanciful in the vein of most fiction. All the beautiful people are in books.

The writer has this supposedly 'powerful' protective character who can't sense evil, or trouble even tho that's her speciality. Really she's pretty much in the dark until the end about how dangerous this guy is and instead of killing him she-- I  guess erases his tattoo??? And that kills him?? WTF whatever.

Should be called fantasy fiction.

The IMMORTALITY FACTOR by Ben Bova **

The book has several chapters separated by narrator. There's quite a few people doing diary style chapters.

This guy was dating a girl and 3 months later he asked her to marry him but before the wedding (a month later) she and his brother fell in love. Panties don't say on these characters for long. Now everyone is a happy family. RRRIIIGGGHTTT!

And in one scene he asks a total stranger on a date and she gives him the hairy eyeball when his limo drops her off at a condo. He thinks she wants to screw him.
Like I said, everyone's pants go flying into the air. He ignores her! HA

It's about stem cells etc and some chapters are about a court case, others about people outside the court spewing their garbage on both sides of the topic over and over again. It gets very tedious between court, outside it, the justifications of the main character and his brother. I am sick of all the stem cell back and forth -really had enough. I'm less than half thru the book.

I am now skipping over the court chapters because they bore me. The only interesting part is the 3-way relationship because somehow this author thinks 3 months is fine for falling in love and marrying for all of them without any comedy in between. I'm very amused by this crap.

Don't really like it, can't wait to see if the newly married couple sent to some war torn starving country ends up dead or alive at the end. Not rooting for anyone here.

I'm surprised the author has a scientific background because the experiments here are way off. It's about regrowing tissue, like an arm etc. So they experiment on some small hogs and monkeys never saying whether the experiments work or not but then use a chimp. Now that's just not right. They would first need a positive result to continue. Next they chop off a chimps arm to regrow one and remove his eye. So he's got all sorts of drugs in his system right? This is supposed to be real science. Next some girl with approval adds more experimental drugs to counteract some tumors on the chimp. That is NOT the way experiments are done. That's unprofessional. Only one drug and they should have other subjects etc. Ever hear of a control subject, Homer? So I'm unhappy with the chimp mutilation esp. without knowing other testing was positive and worked. This is why scientists have a bad reputation. Not just "they don't care about the animals" they don't even prove one thing before moving on? ASSES.

The LOST SYMBOL by Dan Brown ****

Well it's always intriguing to read Dan at the same time his characters are always blundering idiots. For example, a guy is trapped and drowning -his captor awaits an answer and instead of saying "let me out then I'll tell you" (which he says) but then tells anyway, is then obviously left to die. Many characters spill their guts with the threat of pain or death; and die after they do. LOL I mean HOW many stupid people are there? The sister gets a text message instead of phone call from her brother who doesn't ever text cuz he doesn't know how or care to learn but she then magically believes he sent it. Most of the time my mouth is open at the pure stupidity of the main characters.

PLUS the entire book is predicated on secrets and codes. Everyone knows it's all a big secret. One guy Peter, trusts (again stupidly) another, Robert, to keep something for him which Robert immediately under the simplest threat - a severed hand of Peter, whom he never learns is dead or alive, proceeds to decipher the code, hands everything he learns over to the criminal -responsible for killing an entire family! I sort of was routing for criminal-boy because the entire Solomon family was pure ignorance but described as super intelligent genius quality minds. Call me flabbergasted. At least he could have added that behind all the genius they couldn't function in the real world and given examples. But they do elude well. LOL

Of course the criminal is super intelligent. Some foreign prison turns up a super intelligent guy who robs a millionaire, kills him, ends up knowing all about the dark Arts and secrets so much so he could probably teach the geniuses.

On the plus side it's Dan Brown writing interesting and fast paced action that keeps you wanting to know more even tho you are either laughing at the ignorance or in awe of it. There's a lot of chasing, a lot of red herrings, lots of following ancient clues in modern world sort of stuff. If you are a fan you'll like it.

DEXTER BY DESIGN by Jeff Lindsay *****

Highly recommend any Dexter story by Lindsay. You will be entertained every page. He's a delightfully dexterious serial killer cop. Love everything about every book about Dexter and will read this one very slowly so I get the full value of each and every word.

This writer has unsurpassed skills. Suspense. Fear. Giggles. Fake love. If you get HBO you're very lucky and should watch it.

DEXTER RULES.

IN THE DARK by Brian Freeman ***

About solving an old murder/cold case sort of thing with all the old timers present and accounted for. Rehash the old teenager crap til you find a killer. If you're not really slow you can figure out the killer near the middle or so once you get the relationships and hints in place.

I was reading along just fine trying to keep the past, the present, the friends, the boyfriends all the relationships/first, last names in line when I got stymied by this writer Tish pretending she's someone else (Cindy) in her "story", first person and it's supposed to be about a murder she's 'investigating'. So that disarmed me there. I didn't like that she was Cindy in the story. For awhile I thought it was old found writing of Cindy's. Confusing. Not only that but the writer finally tells you about 3/4 way thru the book it's Tish. Not helpful.

Now I'm reading about 1977 (the past), the murder of Cindy's sister, Laura, and suddenly in the middle of this -one of the teenagers involved with the dead girls sister is a cop? or is invited by the cop to help? He's in high school, screwing his new girlfriend (Cindy) who ends up his wife but in the meantime without warning at like 18 he's invited to a murder investigation of one of his school mates? To question one of his school mates? WTF??? This part here is very puzzling as to why it even exists aside from spinning your head around like Linda Blair. DELETE. More writers need to use the delete key. IDIOTS.

So once you ignore the stupid shit it's not too horrid. There is suspense, and the basic writing is fairly understandable. Not a fan but someone else might enjoy it. 

DEVILS IN EXILE by Chuck Hogan *

I didn't bother reading after 50 pages. Some guy gets out of the service, attracts the attention of some other guy who robs drug dealers. Lots of heavy artillery, drugs, shooting, strong arming. I just don't give a shit.

FREEDOM tm by Daniel Suarez ****

The beginning of this was somewhat confusing but I didn't start with the original first book Daemon. It's very techie and network oriented. Pretty much a new world order thrives due to many corporations destroying the economic base. In short.

I liked most of it but did a lot of skipping over the war stuff, it was neverending and repetitive. It was informative about the internet, and a 3D world overlaying reality and was explained well enough for anyone to understand. The thing is you tend to go back and forth about who's side you're on, which seems somewhat intentional but leaves you not really emotionally invested on either side. You don't care who wins or loses. Both sides have monsters. There isn't really one 'hero' to root for in the story either.

Read it and decide for yourself.