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September 03
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Spuddie made a comment in the group Historical Mystery Lovers—Hi there! Welcome! topic:
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September 01
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Spuddie
took the never-ending book quiz.
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August 18
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Spuddie made a comment in the group Q&A with Susan Wittig Albert—What's different about Nightshade? topic:
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Spuddie
gave
to:
The Rabbit Factory (Hardcover)
by Marshall Karp
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in August, 2008
Spuddie said:
"First in a series featuring LA homicide detectives Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs. When Eddie Elkins, the man inside the Rambunctions Rabbit costume at Familyland (a Disney wannabe) is found with his throat slit in the employees-only underbelly of the fa...more
First in a series featuring LA homicide detectives Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs. When Eddie Elkins, the man inside the Rambunctions Rabbit costume at Familyland (a Disney wannabe) is found with his throat slit in the employees-only underbelly of the family-centered theme park, Lomax and Biggs are assigned to the case. When they discover that Eddie isn’t who he appears to be—that, indeed, he’s a convicted pedophile from back east—their obvious trail leads to who might have known this juicy tidbit of information and who had reason to whack him.
However, the little cartoon flip-book that is left with the body screams “serial killer,” and sure enough, when another person with ties to the owners of Familyland, Lamaar Stuidos, is murdered with a similar flipbook left on the body, the boys know they’re going to be spending many sleepless nights trying to track down the killer. It seems to be someone with a grudge against Lamaar, but who? Their corporate people are less than cooperatve with our erstwhile detectives, as they’re busy trying to keep the whole thing shushed up so their stock doesn’t end take a nose dive into the basement. But Lomax and Biggs persevere, and there is a bit of a surprise twist at the end.
I like Mike Lomax a lot—the book is told primarily from his POV, though that does change periodically. Karp handles the changing points of view well, though. Lomax is a recent widower, his wife Joanie having died of cancer about six months before. This book is almost like two stories, one detailing Lomax’s personal life and letting us get to know him and his family, and the other the murder case. I realize that a bit more detail is needed in introducing the main characters in the first book, but some judicious editing was definitely needed—the book was 632 pages in the hardcover edition! Granted, the author seems to write in the James Patterson style—very short chapters and lots of blank space—but still! Snip, snip, snip! LOL
It took me a good 50 pages before I warmed to the mystery and the characters, but I am glad I stuck with it, because it ended up being a great debut novel. I have the next one here and it seems to be a bit shorter, so someone must’ve hit Karp with a cluestick. LOL And I have to honestly say that I’m really looking forward to it, too! A-....less
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August 12
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Spuddie
gave
to:
No Dominion (Joe Pitt Casebooks, Book 2)
by Charlie Huston
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in August, 2008
Spuddie said:
"#2 Joe Pitt ‘paranormal noir’ mystery series. Joe, a Rogue Vampyre not pledged to any of the vampyre clans in New York, is feeling a bit peaky these days. He’s down to his last 3 pints of blood in the fridge and two months behind on his rent. E...more
#2 Joe Pitt ‘paranormal noir’ mystery series. Joe, a Rogue Vampyre not pledged to any of the vampyre clans in New York, is feeling a bit peaky these days. He’s down to his last 3 pints of blood in the fridge and two months behind on his rent. Ever since the incident in which he cheesed off a couple of the major clan bosses, the work coming his way has been slim to none. He’s about to go begging for a job when one gets thrown his way by Terry, the Society boss.
New vampyres are hitting on some new drug out there that’s making them go a bit crazy and Terry wants Joe to figure out what this drug is and who’s supplying it. It’s disrupting the tentative truce between the clans and no one wants an all-out war. Or do they? Joe treks across forbidden Coalition territory to the Hood to look up a guy whose name he got from another guy—yeah, the connection is slim but when you’re not sure where your next pint of blood is coming from, and your girlfriend (who, by the way, doesn’t even KNOW you’re a vampyre!) is needing some expensive medical treatments, you get a bit desperate. What ensues is a madcap couple of days with Joe nearly meeting an untimely end several times and the unveiling of plots within plots and much political scheming.
Very dark and noir, lots of graphic violins (but very little sax! LOL) and many unsavory four-letter words. In other words, my kinda book. ::grin:: I love Joe’s rogue attitude, what I call his whole “eff you personality,” since I tend to have the same attitude to belonging to groups myself. I have the next Joe Pitt book here on my TBR and I know it won’t be too long before I get to it. A....less
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Spuddie
gave
to:
Goblin War (Paperback)
by Jim C. Hines (Goodreads author!)
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in August, 2008
Spuddie said:
"Third and final entry in the “Jig the Goblin” light fantasy series in which Jig heads off to war. Goblins, hobgoblins, humans, a tangled mix of political and personal grievances to be sorted out and settled, a cranky old female chief for Jig to p...more
Third and final entry in the “Jig the Goblin” light fantasy series in which Jig heads off to war. Goblins, hobgoblins, humans, a tangled mix of political and personal grievances to be sorted out and settled, a cranky old female chief for Jig to please, not to mention trying to figure out the wishes and motives of his God, Tymalous Shadowstar. Poor Jig! All he wants to do is retire peacefully to his corner of the mountain with Smudge, his fire spider, with enough to eat and an extra loincloth or two. Instead he’s thrust into the midst of war with his busted-up knife, dwindling healing powers and a rag-tag group of what passes for loyal followers, which isn’t saying much among the goblins. And there he goes, headed towards the ultimate battle in which the goblins attempt to secure their little corner of the mountain.
I really enjoyed this series; it’s not your typical fantasy at all, more humorous and lighter in tone, yet with some underlying deeper messages, too. I’ll miss Jig now that his adventures appear to be done, but will definitely be looking for more from this author. A....less
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Spuddie
gave
to:
The Faithful Spy: A Novel (John Wells, Book 1)
by Alex Berenson
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in July, 2008
Spuddie said:
"Modern-day thriller/spy novel, I believe it’s first in a series and features rogue CIA agent John Wells. John was sent to Iran to attempt to turn spies for work infiltrating the Taliban and al Quaeda, and ended up a terrible failure at recruitment,...more
Modern-day thriller/spy novel, I believe it’s first in a series and features rogue CIA agent John Wells. John was sent to Iran to attempt to turn spies for work infiltrating the Taliban and al Quaeda, and ended up a terrible failure at recruitment, but he did manage to become a member of al Quaeda himself. Living abroad in the rough for years, speaking mainly Arabic but fluent in several other languages, initially going through the motions of the Muslim religion and eventually even converting, John is outraged at the way the fundamentalist extremists have twisted what he sees as a beautiful religion for their own purposes.
He has not been able to get a message ‘home’ in a long, long time and is assumed by many to be dead, and is even forgotten by all but a few. Eventually he is accepted by the people he lives and works with as a leader of a small band of guerillas, and is even summoned to meet Sheikh bin Laden, though nothing important seems to come of it. He learned about 9/11 well after the fact, not having a clue that it was coming to pass, and seems to have not done anything really ‘useful’ for his agency or country, living a meager subsistence sort of life fighting minor skirmishes in the mountains.
That is, until one day he is summoned from his group, sent back to the United States on a false passport and told to wait for contact. He travels to Montana to see his family, and his ex-wife alerts the CIA, who haul him in and treat him like a traitor. He knows that al Quaeda has been planning something. Something big. But he has no idea what and has no useful information. Eventually he escapes—or is allowed to escape?—and disappears, waiting for contact from Omar Khadri, the ‘big cheese’ of al Quaeda’s North American operations.
It’s been a long time since I read a real honest-to-goodness spy novel, and most of those that I read in the past were seriously outdated…Russian spies, Cold War type of stuff. This was waaaaaay too real and plausible and kept me right on the edge of my seat up til the end. Very well written with a believable main character, I will definitely continue reading in this series. Quite different from anything I’ve read in recent months, a nice change of pace. A....less
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Spuddie
gave
to:
Acqua Alta (Paperback)
by Donna Leon
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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Spuddie said:
"#5 Commissario Guido Brunetti police procedural set in Venice, Italy. Guido starts out investigating the assault of Brett Lynch, an American archaeologist/pottery expert who is in Venice visiting her lover, one of the opera singers who was featured i...more
#5 Commissario Guido Brunetti police procedural set in Venice, Italy. Guido starts out investigating the assault of Brett Lynch, an American archaeologist/pottery expert who is in Venice visiting her lover, one of the opera singers who was featured in Leon’s first book, Death at La Fenice. Brett is threatened and told not to attend a meeting she had set up with a local museum director to discuss some antiquities that had been in a display from China that she’d spearheaded a couple of years earlier—which she now discovers are fake. There are also some derogatory comments made about her lesbianism by the thugs who beat her up, so she isn’t sure just why she was attacked. When the museum director ends up dead, the necessity of finding the connection intensifies, and Guido digs and investigates while out of doors, Mother Nature provides the usual annual onslaught of ‘acqua alta’ or the torrential winter rains that cause severe flooding throughout the city.
I love this series—the characters, the setting, the food, the poetic prose...the only part of these books that sometimes annoys me is the constant background presence of the Mafia, and this book that featured rather heavily. It seems sometimes that it’s just too convenient and too pat a solution to whatever problem is presented. But I still loved it! A...less
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Spuddie
gave
to:
The Saint John's Fern: A Roger the Chapman Medieval Mystery (Hardcover)
by Kate Sedley
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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Spuddie said:
"#9 Roger the Chapman medieval mystery in which a newly-married Roger heads off to Plymouth, directed there by one of his dreams, and sure enough, finds a mystery that needs solving. Oliver Capstick was murdered in his home about five months ago, and ...more
#9 Roger the Chapman medieval mystery in which a newly-married Roger heads off to Plymouth, directed there by one of his dreams, and sure enough, finds a mystery that needs solving. Oliver Capstick was murdered in his home about five months ago, and everyone knows the culprit—his nephew, Beric Gifford. They had argued heatedly the day before and he was seen both coming and going from the uncle’s home, even to the point of having a dark stain on his tunic on his way out. But no one, including the Sheriff’s posse, can find him, despite searching not only the countryside, known haunts and his manor estate.
Everyone thinks he took St. John’s Fern, a flower that legend says can make a person disappear. Roger is a bit skeptical of course, though isn’t one to totally discount the supernatural. His travels lead him over the countryside to several villages and to Beric’s home of Villetort Manor in search of the young man or at least a search for some clue as to w here he’s gone.
I always enjoy this series, even though I thought the solution to the mystery in this one was quite obvious right from the beginning. In fact, I wanted to clunk Roger over the head with the oh-so-simple clues, but I let him off easily since he was a newlywed and likely to be a bit muddled. LOL Anyway, another wonderful foray into 1400’s England; I wish these weren’t so difficult to find—I always have to order them from my library and I hate giving them back. A...less
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Spuddie
gave
to:
Into the Forest (Paperback)
by Jean Hegland
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in July, 2008
Spuddie said:
"Although this sometimes classified as “post apocalyptic fiction” I would say it deals more with the collapse of our modern USA civilization rather than an actual apocalypse. The fall of an empire as seen from one small corner of the country. This...more
Although this sometimes classified as “post apocalyptic fiction” I would say it deals more with the collapse of our modern USA civilization rather than an actual apocalypse. The fall of an empire as seen from one small corner of the country. This book was very thought-provoking and in some ways disturbing, I think because the way society collapsed—slowly, over many months—and didn’t reach the people in the story until weeks after it actually happened because they were rather isolated, was so plausible. You could easily see that indeed this COULD happen just as the author outlined.
Eva and Nell, eighteen and seventeen year old girls and their father, a school principal, live in a country home five miles from their nearest neighbor and thirty miles from town. Their mother died of cancer just before the worst of these problems started, so their grief is still new and raw. They’ve always been somewhat isolated, the girls having been home-schooled, their mother working at home as a spinner and weaver. The problems start with occasional interruption in electrical and phone service, with internet news talking about shortages and cutbacks. A trip to town for groceries and supplies a few weeks later shocks them when they realize that most businesses are boarded up, gas stations closed, everyone they know dead of some deadly flu or they simply left, homes abandoned, and they are eyed suspiciously by everyone.
The few groceries they manage to find at the local warehouse store cost them most of their savings, and the few people who will talk to them have only bad news. Economic collapse. No government services. No power, no water, no medical care. At home, their computer and telephone are now just dusty boxes, chilling reminders of their old lives. They are now out of gasoline save enough for the chainsaw, so another trip to town is impractical. They plant a garden, chop wood for fuel, ration their goods and plan for the winter months ahead, looking forward to spring for the time when ‘things get back to normal,’ when Eva can resume her ballet lessons and Nell can make her application to Harvard. Until it becomes apparent that things are not getting back to normal.
What a powerful and wonderful book! While the whole setting ‘makes’ the story, as with all stories, it’s really about the people and their interactions. I highly recommend this book. If it doesn’t make my top ten list of the year, whatever books supplant it will have to be uber-super-great. A++...less
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