COLD SHOT to the HEART by Wallace Stroby *****

Well written, all details attended to, suspenseful page turner. Hard to put this one down as it moves from one set of actions to another. Crissa is a criminal but she's never killed anyone. She takes a job, meets with the other people to rob a private card game when someone surprisingly gets killed by one of her partners putting her life in danger.

Now a stone cold killer wants the money she risked her life for and he's coming at her with a vengeance.

Great story and I think I was holding my breath a few times.

Mr MONK on the ROAD by Lee Goldberg *****

Funny tongue in cheek humor. Monk and his brother go on a road trip with Natalie in a camper. As anyone who knows the series can imagine setting Ambrose (agoraphobic) and Adrian Monk loose on the general population under totally normal circumstances -it is fraught with peril. Debunking a "vortex" tourist attraction, bleaching the table that becomes Natalie's bed, recalled- and there fore- dangerous cereal, 10 minute mysteries and more amusing frolics across the CA highways and byways.

One shouldn't eat or drink while reading -liquids hurt coming out your nose.
Enjoyable reading.

TERRIBLE PRIVACY..MAXWELL SIMBY by Jon.Coe

Yuck. Other people attempted to read this, I could tell by the dog ears left in place but once I got past chapter 5 or so no one had continued. This is newish to the library. Lots of internal ramblings that sound like dreams in dreams, the past is rehashed over and over. Written first person and seems to be about this Simby guy, his bad marriage or it's crippling effect on him, or his job or changing his job. Lots of confusion there.

He like almost had an orgasm over finding an email in between spam mails. He reads other people's letters, or stories and everything sounds exactly as if this writer wrote it. Boring and tedious. The ex-wife...boring, Sims...boring, his friend Clive....boring...all sound the same boring reflective tone with non stop boring references to past more boring history. There are just pages and pages of rambling narrative...one instance covered almost a chapter while Simby is following a GPS. It seems as if all the new tech stuff over impresses Mr. Writer. Yeah...we know about GPS, sim cards, we know about emails and spam, we know we know. Geez. Couldn't continue and the first chance I got to pass the library I ran it in scorching the pavement on my way. It was almost painful.

HEAVEN's FURY by Stephen Frey ****

Too early to rate but I really like it a lot so far. Reason I'm starting this is cuz these super wealthy people live on the edge of a gorge or something in an otherwise rinky dink town. So Sheriff Summers is in love with one of the wealthy (billionaire) daughters since high school, Cindy. She of course turns up dead in her house after a night of people following her etc. most of which seemed pre-planned by her. What is very puzzling is why don't these rich people have top of the line burglar alarms? Not in this story. So; frightened Cindy answers the door to a gang of murderers? Or a couple of them? No alarm system in sight? WTF? I mean- get the killer around the system, fine with me, but shit, wealthy people have burglar systems....goes without saying. What doesn't fly is not even mentioning anything remotely protective in the house.

People's alibi's remain questionable till the end. How'd daddy miss the killers in his house? How'd he miss his daughter having sex with the husband and the cop? How'd the husband miss it all if he didn't make the drive home until very late? Lots of leftover endings here undealt with.

Ok so I'm finished and I really couldn't put it down, it was a page turner and I had very little idea what direction he was going in chapter to chapter. Twists, turns, surprises and unexpected. So the cop Sheriff Summers has very little respect in town and has always been bullied by Cindy's wealthy daddy. Meantime, we got drug dealers in the woods, a cult involving plenty of townspeople and they murder people selected by someone else in town. I'm not going to give stuff away but the ending was a disappointment for me because I didn't like the stripper and I did like the best friend. So the ending was bass-ackwards for me.

And I wasn't taking notes about who was where when and why didn't so and so trip over the other so and so if they were all pretty much piled on top of each other on the murder nights.
Could use some unraveling and who is running the sheriff's dept now? huh? How'd that all end? Waiting.....

The NEIGHBORS r WATCHING - Debra Ginsberg ***

This is about a bunch of neighbors and all their supposedly dirty secrets (Desperate Housewives? Sort of). Husband Joe, screwing neighbor slut, Jess, his pregnant teenager Diana, moves in with him. You get a lot of internal narrative, little dialogue and rarely any action. I read 94 pages before there was even a hint teenage pregnant outcast's baby has a daddy. Then of course it was an 'accident' she got knocked up.

Some stuff is so subtle I don't have a clue what the point is. Like when Jess/Joe are screwing and some kind of point is trying to be made about their relationship? Or what she does for a living? Or why they didn't use the master bedroom? WTF? IDK. That happens more often than I'd like. I don't have ESP, I actually need to be told stuff that's in someone else's imagination. u?

Start off; one day pregnant girl shows up at pops. Time passes...whoosh you are now into her 9th month...time passes again "somehow" and boom she has a kid. It's like on a stage with the winged cardboard sign "TIME PASSES" flitting from stage left to stage right. Diana rarely does any of her own thinking or talking, or expressing of herself but everyone else does. Someone (Sam?) thinks about preggo's horrible shitty life...and um...how the fuck would she know?

Then after delivery of child, mommy goes missing and the cops aren't called for DAYS (or weeks), her mom isn't notified for WEEKS...I mean, really???

I guess I'd call it psychological angst- the internal narrative dialogue that I can't stand. This book is pretty much all that b.s. It's not too horrible really, but seems I push on 'tediously'. I wouldn't have a problem suddenly dropping it past the expiration date. There must be readers thinking this is some intellectual, current-topic literary work but I'm not in that illustrious group.

VELOCITY by Alan Jacobson **

Who or what is Karen Vail, should be title of book. Is she a lowly cop? A captain? She sure acts like it bossing everyone around. A crime scene pro? She pretends to be. A profiler? She brags about how she should "come on" to the "narcissistic" killer and in what manner. A hotheaded bitch? You decide.

Mayfield is considered, and in hospital, for being "Crush Killer" which I was never told until 70 pages in WHY he's called that. He crushes their windpipe I guess. So Mayfield the (now contract) serial killer is in the hospital yet when the star cop goes to his house there is no crime scene tape, no CSI have been there, she just goes ahead and breaks open the door. She also is held back (right) by recent knee surgery....and is running around chasing perps everywhere, thru hill and dale against orders from everyone, without search warrants or back up like she's superwoman with a sidekick (Dixon).

There are way too many old crimes mentioned before even beginning to read any part of what I'd call the story. Chapter 1 a guy kills someone then you don't hear about that again for 60 pages. In between is Star cop-bitch Karen Vail with blood on her from a colleague who died (Lugo last book?). So one guy who died, her boyfriend is missing, a disc is missing, wives and sons kidnapped ad nauseum, Sheriff Stan Owens stepson is dead who by the way started a shed fire as a teenager (WTF do I care?), Dixon's boyfriend is dead too (again, WTF do I care?), a serial killer is in the hospital (like one out of 4) and the bitch orders people around like they're characters in a fiction novel. Even her own boss. Absurd. You got all the last letters of the alphabet in the names; Vail, DiXon, BriX, OWens, too many people to learn, way beyond TOO much past history. They're all cops, killers, victims or a combination.

I don't need to read the last book to read this do I? Some people take their fiction too seriously.

Writing one book and continuing into the next book is a pet peeve. I want the book I read FRESH, not a rehash of last book like it was yesterday (as in this book) cuz I'm tired, dizzy, sick of names before I hit chapter 3.  Innocent bystander picks up a book in the middle of all hell breaking loose. Not sure how much more I can stand.

Right now I'm in the middle. Vail blew Robbie's undercover ID so he could be dead cuz of her. Then she gets on speakerphone to her friend Dixon and tells everyone on her police force about drug cartels and all the private secretive information she just received about her UNDERCOVER boyfriend. What a frickin idiot who just keeps putting other people in danger. Someone shoot her before everyone else dies CUZ of her. I got another book. Library tomorrow....too much crap to digest and not interested enough to wade thru it.

ALTAR of BONES by Philip Carter *****

Really involved novel and I liked it a lot. It's about a generational line of women who inherit a secret "altar" that supposedly contains the fountain of youth. Goes thru a few generations of Russians and the secret altar is in Siberia. There's myth, love, adventure, blood, gore, car chases, murder, guns and the Russian mafia.

Interesting read and it stays in your head while you're reading it. Keeps you guessing, has surprises. If you like to read Dan Brown you'll enjoy this book too, I think.

I want to be the next proofreader tho, found a few errors. Hey -spell check can only do so much.

WORTH DYING FOR by Lee Child *****

Action packed adventure with John Reacher saving everyone in a small town who are under siege by one disgusting nasty family. Hard to put down.

There's not much else to tell without giving away stuff so it's about Reacher finding this town in trouble, making a few friends then dealing with lots of muscular rough necks (violently), and other bad guys all much deserving of punishment. Well written, great story line, no questions or complaints. EXCELLENT book!

DAUGHTER of DARKNESS by V.C. Andrews ****

Either you're familiar with her stuff or where you been? Prolific writer. Mostly teenybopper sort of stuff or maybe what is labeled chicklit nowadays. This is a strange vampire story. The vampires lead a stranger than fiction life. They go out during the daylight hours, don't much resemble bats, are fun loving daddies and are brought men-only to suck on by their harem of little women. One harem bride decides to break off from the pack in this book. Which by the way is only the sordid beginning. PART ONE<--That's what it should say on the cover but doesn't. Meaning....you don't get all the information you expect at the end of this book. Leaves you hanging mercilessly wondering WTF that was all about and is it possible for the writer to tie up any loose ends at all or does this just go on for eternity.

This book is like watching an accident: You wonder why you are still watching it because you really don't want to be caught looking at it but because you can see things unravel before your eyes it keeps you staring in amazement.

RUSSELL WILEY is OUT TO LUNCH by Richard Hine ****

This is something like a satire on newspaper publishing. First person, a few weeks about a guy who sells ad space or is in marketing. His internal angst isn't quite Woody Allen whiney but almost, if it had gratuitous sex with underage minors it would be spot on.

Confusing and not interesting was some terminology; cost-containment perspectives, brand permission research. People who suck at their job are quickly promoted. Dilbert much?

Adventures, misadventures of Wiley's life, his bad marriage, his friends and colleagues. Sometimes I cared other times not so much. Having also worked for a (smaller) daily paper I felt it was heavy duty pouring on of the 'self-importance'. Meanwhile -at the end the entire thing takes on a circus-like atmosphere with Barbie's singing their way thru ad spots, having limos dropping them at work blahblah, fans screaming at the door...so weird. Must be a NYC thing. Anyways made for some interesting and different reading. Not sure if that's good or bad.

Not a murder mystery...'something else'.