Back of Book:
In New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris's Aurora Teagraden series, a small-town librarian feels like life is passing her by, while, at the same time, death comes calling…
Going to two weddings-one of a former lover-and a funeral for a member of her disbanded crime discussion group keeps Aurora "Roe" Teagarden quite busy for a few months. Unfortunately, her personal life seems to be at a standstill-until her fortunes unexpectedly change.
After the funeral Roe learns that Jane Engle, the deceased, has named her as heir to a rather substantial estate, which includes money, jewelry, and a house complete with a skull hidden in a window seat. Knowing Jane, Roe concludes that the elderly woman has purposely left her a murder to solve. So she must identify the victim and figure out which one of Jane's ordinary-seeming neighbors is a murderer-without putting herself in deadly danger.
This series has really yet to grab me, but I much preferred the first book (REAL MURDERS) to this second installment in the Aurora Teagarden series.
There wasn't much mystery-solving going on. The question of the skull pretty much solved itself rather than requiring any investigative work on Aurora's part.
The secondary storyline of Aurora's ex from book 1 was all right, and it was nice to see that there was a cause and effect from the goings-on in REAL MURDERS (her father and step-mother have moved across the country, taking her half-brother with them to get as far away from what happened as they could).
Perhaps this book is a stepping-stone to something, but I just found the book rather dull. It certainly wasn't bad and there were entertaining qualities to it. I just felt the mystery was lacking and it's supposed to be a mystery! A first for me when reading anything by Charlaine Harris. ]]>
Back blurb:
Trained to be a detective by his father, blessed with astounding powers of observation and deduction, and cursed with a refusal to take anything seriously, Shawn Spencer has convinced everyone he's psychic. Now, with his best friend, Gus, he's either going to clean up… or be found out.
With eighty-seven parking tickets to their credit, it doesn't take a psychic to predict what happens when Shawn and Gus go to pick up Gus's impounded car: They get busted. Shawn is convinced they've stumbled across a criminal conspiracy, but Gus just wants to get away intact. Unfortunately, the fleeing Gus is run over by a speeding Mercedes.
When he wakes up in the hospital, things have gotten even worse. Because while Gus was unconscious, Shawn picked up a new sidekick: Tara Larison, a beautiful woman who insists she's Shawn's psychic slave … and who won't leave them alone until she's fulfilled every one of Shawn's desires.
But when Shawn's enemies start turning up dead, the pair must figure out if it's the work of the criminal conspiracy they've discovered-or Shawn's subconscious, sending his new minion out to do his dirty work.
This was an okay read, the characterizations were pretty spot on across the board, but the book just moved very slowly for me. Everything ties together nicely and Shawn, as always, prevails. There were some interesting secondary characters, but again I just felt the pacing was a bit off. I will say, the author's vision of Henry's new pastime was comical - and the reasoning for his getting involved in it was believable.
Overall, an average read, nothing to get excited about but as the characterizations were well done I can't say it's a waste of time. ]]>
Susan
took the never-ending book quiz.
| questions answered: | 1 |
| correct: | 0 (0.0%) |
| skipped: | 0 |
| best streak: | 0 |
| questions added: | 0 |
Back of Book:
WHO WAS JOHN WAYNE GACY?
The model citizen whose business skills were admired by his peers?
The hospital volunteer whose sweet-faced clowning lightened the patients' days?
The member of the Jaycees who was a civic-minded friend of the community?
The depraved maniac who sodomized, tortured, and killed thirty-three young men and boys?
Shortly before Christmas of 1978, a teenage boy disappeared from the drugstore where he worked. He would be the final victim of John Wayne Gacy's horrifying compulsion.
Then, ten days after the boy's disappearance, detectives, finding a human bone in the crawl space of Gacy's house, dug into the lime-covered ground. With mounting horror, they pulled bone after bone from Gacy's suburban home until finally they had gathered the remains of twenty-eight more youths who had fallen prey to the killer clown.
I had read this book many years ago. I was a pre-teen when this all went down. I remember the newscasts from the scene and my mother sending me out of the room quickly whenever Gacy's name was mentioned or photo shown.
Recently, I had occasion to watch GACY: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0330181/ and the distorted facts of the case the movie presented made me want to find the book and read how it really went down.
The author, Terry Sullivan, was the district attorney and involved in the case almost from the get-go when Rob Piest was reported missing in December 1978. He presents what seems like a very accurate account of the surveillance and what led to Gacy's arrest as well as what led Gacy to the murderous path he chose.
The very idea that this man could have gotten away with an insanity defense and been out on the street again one day makes me shudder. Mr. Sullivan and the rest of the prosecution team proved their case as the last of the book shows.
Gacy was executed May 10, 1994, eight of his thirty-three victims were never named. And whether thirty-three was the total number in his murder spree is not known for sure.
]]>
bookshelves: to-read
]]>
bookshelves: to-read
]]>
bookshelves: to-read
]]>