BACKYARD DOG by Ilona Benzel *****

Can't find this in the library but it's a great read about a litter of puppies and how they survive or don't. Not for wimpy readers, this tells the pup's stories realistically and I know a lot of people who should be forced to read it.

Can only find it at lulu.com and it's well worth the cover price. Hard to put down. Emotional, enduring stories that aren't easily forgotten. Based on reality. BEST DOG BOOK I EVER READ.

The SENTRY by Robert Crais *****

Really liked this one a lot, worth paying for. Joe Pike meets an interesting couple and everything goes to hell from there. Chasing, killing, murder, bad agents, twisty turns to keep you guessing. Lots of action packed adventure. Had a hard time putting it down.

VERY BAD MEN by Harry Dolan ****

I'll start by saying it's readable and kind of keeps you interested. Then lets get to how many people are involved in a 17yo bank robbery gone bad. 4 men were involved and a driver (no one, even those involved in the robbery know who the driver is...strange, no?). 17yrs later for really not much of a reason (nosy journalist & up and coming senator) the past comes back to haunt everyone. Now we got about 20 people either directly or indirectly involved in either covering it up or killing everyone involved. That's a lot of twisted complicated intertwining b.s. Add to that children unknowingly related,  someone marrying out of guilt and to hide stuff and it's sort of off-the-wall becoming more and more unreal.

Like a bad dream you get carried from one oddball scenario to another. One very difficult aspect near the end a teenager hears a conversation, is on a bike (?), beats the cops to the evidence hidden behind a wall he hacks up BEFORE they get there and somehow he steals a gun from the house where he heard the story. The cops go right to that other house and find the evidence and broken wall. Hard to swallow a kid is such a genius. How could he steal a gun at the same time he's knocking down walls?  Oh, so convenient he doubled back....KNOWING the cops wouldn't be there? How lucky for him they weren't!!! Lots of "things" in the story fall into place to support other off the wall and mostly unbelievable happenings.

I enjoy reading, I need a bit of credibility/reality tho. This one is ok library find. Kind of relentless with the unbelievability factors tho.

MYSTERY by Jonathan Kellerman *****

Great story, murder, Beverly Hills, almost-starlets, with Milo and Alex on the case. Fast read, no crap to slow you down. Characters are all distinct, unique and easy to follow. Never been disappointed reading a Kellerman novel.

RED WOLF by Liza Marklund

No stars cuz I'm not reading it. NY times best seller!  Boring me. So some journalist is investigating an incident involving planes blowing up or something 30 yrs ago. Her name is Annika, who meets up with Anna...thanks for the repetitious names. Some other reporter wrote a story relating to the 30 yr ago thing and ended up dead, recently.  All this crap takes place in Swedish places like Lulea and other far away frozen tundras.

Not interested and don't care about any of it. Nothing at all is driving me forward. So much for that. Blah.

STRONG at the BREAK by Jon Land ***

It's readable but geez what's with the noun fixation? Ever hear of a pronoun, Land? Every paragraph is Caitlin breathed and Caitlin saw and Caitlin walked and Cort Wesley this and that. Can't he be called Cort? Sick of Cort Wesley, I'm only on page 119 and if I were to have a drink everytime Cort Wesley's name came up I'd be drunk on page 3. Give it a rest, use; he, she, it. WTF.

That crap is so distracting I can barely tolerate the rest of the novel. The story is that some asshole teenager who's name you'll see a zillion times: DYLAN went to Mexico to find his dead girlfriend Maria Sancheza El Paso Sicko Full Namitosis. Daddy Ranger or whatever he is didn't tell him she's dead. Why? Stupidity. So now Caitlin, or Ranger, and Cort I'm sick of you Wesley are off on the chase. I almost wish they'd kill the kid, everyone could go home, get drunk and forget they have proper nouns in every paragraph of the book.

Cort Wesley said. Guillermo Paz said. Caitlin said. They all frickin full name (and middle names) said. Colonel, Ranger. Proper Noun capital of the world said. Dumb ass teenager carves a D in the floor and whooppeee everyone is so damn proud he ran away and was kidnapped. Cowboy story to the max but don't ask why...driving cars and not on horseback. Sheeeit.

The KING OF PLAGUES by Jonathan Maberry ****

I had a little trouble getting into this because it goes back and forth from 3 months ago to the present, then 7 weeks ago and then forward and then June, then December, then 4 months ago, back and forward thru the entire book. With lots of people, cops and bad guys. Lots and lots of them. Conspiracies up the yin yang.

Took me a long time to care about anyone or anything going on but once I finally did (about the middle) I'd say it began to sound like a real story. So tough investment and lots of pages. Religious clap trap, bible references, Cabals, Black ops, secret societies, lots of blood and gore.

An issue is that people get coerced into performing for the secret society, like this: If you don't do what we want your family will die and we are watching every second. But Amber Taylor got to live by picking up her kids, hiding in her house till the hero arrived and got her. No one tried to kill her. No one at her place of work tried to kill her or tried to carry out the mission- which in all the other coerced stories there were many people in on the act to be performed. Lots of people at the same location were coerced to perform bad stuff but not in her case. The only case. So wasn't happy about that difference. Why only her? HUH?

I think it's an okay library book but you really have to want to continue. You need fortitude for this one. Lots of it. Courage, fortitude and notch up your toughness rating then go for it.

CHOSEN by Chandra Hoffman **

Outside my 'like' meter. Something about adoptions, case worker Chloe, divorces, couples and their stupid pregnancy problems. One of the birth fathers, an ex felon steals the baby of (coincidently) another couple Chole knows. She gathers money for this felon and his creepy girlfriend so both can escape the kidnapping charges and they both get off because she's too much of a bimbo to actually call the police.

I thought a lot of the people in the story were weak, somewhat alike personality-wise and hard to separate because of their similarities. They just weren't distinctive enough or different and mostly I really didn't GAS about them or their stupid baby problems.

Slow mover and you really should be a people loving person to care about any of the couple's stories at all.

CHASING FIRE by Nora Roberts ****

Good library find, big book takes time to get thru. Lots about fire and people who fly out to the woods to fight them, throw in a romance and a couple murders and you're somewhat inspired to turn pages. I'm not saying it's a thrilling murder mystery or steamy romance, but it's not a bad read, goes sort of on the slow side. Has a lot of characters but they have distinctive names and personalities so it's not hard to remember them.

The lead character Rowan, for some reason the story focuses on HER being the reason for all the mayhem with shootings and deaths etc when she really isn't the core of the problem. I didn't hate it, didn't love it and I didn't get sick of it anywhere. I really am past giving a shit about all the fucking but I suppose Nora isn't.

The KENKEN KILLINGS by Parnell Hall ***

Mostly dialogue; clever or not so clever repartee with the "puzzle lady" who only does kenken puzzles and has a daughter or daughter in law do crosswords. How anyone could mix that into a murder mystery is beyond practicality. Two murders occur during Cora the puzzle lady's kind-of hearing of her alimony. The ex who is on his 5th bimbo wants to stop paying. Another ex wife bimbo is right behind the cheating ex husband of Cora.

It's a lot of back and forth supposed jokes, pointless repeat of clues and what ifs, who done it's and big mouth nosy Cora even acts as a lawyer in court AS IF that is the least bit realistic. So of course she solves the case, manipulates people to do things for her to prove it and voila! Case closed.

Personally I wasn't crazy about it. If you like labeled murder mysteries you might if you can get over the self importance of the main character. I read a LOT and didn't like it much. Just my opinion.