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Group Read - Finders Keepers Part 3 chap 1-21 75% Pages 263-331 Spoilers welcome
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Part 3 Peter and the Wolf1.(p263)
Hodges and Holly go to the movies, but their minds remain on the money and where it might have come from. They are hoping Pete tells them, so when big trouble comes, they will know from where.
2.(p264)
While Barbara and Tina make popcorn balls, Jerome, Tina’s brother comes home. They tell him the story as they know it.
3.(p266)
Pete considers his upcoming negotiation with Andy. Andy is intent of robbing Pete blind, Pete is determined to get a fair deal, neither of them realize Morrie is afoot. (some of Pete’s thoughts echo those of Morrie. We are being set up to see that there are many similarities between the two).
4 (p268)Hodges has a fitful sleep marred by nightmares, but awakens determined to make Andy pay.
5. (p270)
He enters Andy’s shop. He gives Andy, who does not recognize him, a query, then flips the door sign to CLOSED. Andy looks up to see Morrie with the hatchet. Andy looks like he is in the chips to Morrie, and it angers him enough to bury the hatchet in Andy’s sizable rear end. Morrie asks for the notebook, and Andy spills that the kid who lives in his old house has them. Morrie is particularly incensed that the kid has read the notebooks, and he has not. (After all, they are his!) He vents his rage on Andy, pretty much chopping him to pieces. He cleans up as best he can, wipes the place down, and leaves.
6. (p281)
Morrie gets Pete’s personal information of Andy’s laptop. He also gets shots of Pete from the security system, some money, and a gun.
7.(p284)Hodges plans to watch baseball, but gets antsy and heads for a visit at the hospital.
8.(p285)
He is heading to visit Hartsfield, who has traumatic brain injury. Better life than standing trail for all of his murders though. Hodges talks, Hodges taunts, Hartsfield does not respond. The police have stopped watching him, feeling he is more veggie than person, but when Hodges leaves, Hartsfield smiles.
9.(p293)
Pete is late for school, but has built up a good enough stock of good will to get away with it. He claimed he was sick and throwing up, but only the sick part was untrue. It was nerves.
10 (295)Jerome is waiting for Hodges when he returns home. He wants to discuss the Pete matter with him, since he cannot figure it out either. They plan for the meet with Pete the next day.
11.(p300)
Holly continues to mull over the money, the notebooks, and any possible relationship. She talks it over with Tina, looking for more ideas, then goes back t watching a movie
12. (p306)
Morrie continues to plot. He is feeling his oats, thinking that he could kill even his parole officer. His short term goal though is Andy’s car, having taken the key from his bloody pocket. He returns to his room though, paranoid that the parole officer is on to him.
13. (p308)Hodges and Holly compare notes and plot strategy. Hodges is not in complete alignment with Holly, but they listen to each other. First though, he has a court appearance on another case.
14. (p311)
Morris has decided he is the wolf, not a lamb. Perhaps it is time to hunt. Perhaps it is time to throw off his crappy job, and disappear. He heads off to find Andy’s car.
15. (p313)
As Morrie heads to get Andy’s car, Tina is feeling sick that she ratted out her brother. Tina makes a run for the bathroom, but does not make it, she tosses her cookies on the floor, almost passes out, and the janitor takes her to the nurse.
16 (p315)Morrie drives off in Andy’s Subaru. He gets a few more tools at Home Depot and breaks into the building that Pete has the books stored in. (but Morrie does not know this) (Tim Dorsey also uses Home Depot as the source of tools and supplies for his questionable deeds)
17 (p316)
Tina’s mother gets the word to retrieve her from school. She has an insight, and it is that the money that saved them came from Pete, and Tina is sick because she is worried about it.
18 (p318)
Hodges does well in court, keeping his temper in check. Tina’s mother gets Tina. Pete obsesses over the meeting he believes he is about to have with Andy to negotiate the sale of the books. Holly and Jerome catch up on where they are.
19 (p321)Morrie breaks into the abandoned building and tucks the gun in his pants. He sees the boxes with the notebooks, but they are marked ‘kitchen supplies’ and he thinks no more about them.
20 (p322)
Hodges, Holly and Jerome are off to intercept Pete. Morrie is waiting by the bookshop for Pete. Pete is in school studying Strunk and White, learning that he should eliminate unnecessary words. (That is why all my papers were handed in blank). Pete gets a text from his mother to come right home. He turns the phone off.
21 (p324)
Hodges sees Pete leave the school like a soldier heading to battle. He intercepts Pete, and sees Pete go to near panic as he tires to talk to him. Hodges asks about the money, Pete classifies it as mystery money. Pete says it was probably a mysterious benefactor. Hodges continues to work him. He almost gets it, but not quite. Pete leaves, and Hodges realizes the kid is ready for battle, he would never have penetrated. Hodges calls Jerome to go into tail on Pete.
This was a particularly nasty scene. I hate death by hatchet. I was not shedding any tears for Andrew, but man.Morris is certifiable.
Barry wrote: "4 (p268)
Hodges has a fitful sleep marred by nightmares, but awakens determined to make Andy pay.
5. (p270)
He enters Andy’s shop. He gives Andy, who does not recognize him, a query, then flips t..."
Barry wrote: "The police have stopped watching him, feeling he is more veggie than person, but when Hodges leaves, Hartsfield smiles...."Uh-oh.
Barry wrote: "Holly continues to mull over the money, the notebooks, and any possible relationship. She talks it over with Tina, looking for more ideas, then goes back t watching a movie...."Like Ann commented in the last thread, I am loving what Holly brings to the team, with her OCD self. And Will Patton's voices, including Holly, are right on.
This was a convenient development, not sure I really believed it but it did serve to move the plot along.Barry wrote: "Tina’s mother gets the word to retrieve her from school. She has an insight, and it is that the money that saved them came from Pete, and Tina is sick because she is worried about it.
.."
Carol: I agree that when Mom, Linda Staubers finally decides that Pete was the one sending the mystery money; it was convenient, it does move the story along; but I thought it was a good thing that she finally went ahead and put two and two together instead of sticking (both her and her husband's) heads in the sand any longer. Saying that she could finally breath a little and look around her sounds likely, as if she had been running on adrenaline for the sprint after the Mercedes killer injured Tom. Carol/Bonadie wrote: "This was a convenient development, not sure I really believed it but it did serve to move the plot along.
Barry wrote: "Tina’s mother gets the word to retrieve her from school. She has an insight, and it is that the money that saved them came from Pete, and Tina is sick because she is worried about it."
Barry: she really is a great character. I like Hodges and love Jerome, but Holly is special. Pete is a pretty special character too. Not like Holly but his range of being a mature beyond his years thirteen year old, growing up overnight to save the family, and an insightful student with a depth of understanding beyond most of his classmates and many adults, to the moments when he is still a teenager. and ignores his Mother's text to come home.
Your comment on the way Pete's thoughts are sometimes a mirror of Morris's thoughts was something I noted too. We are led to see Pete starting to obsess over the notebooks like Morrie. I found myself thinking "there but for the grace of God go I" regarding Pete and Morrie and how each turned out. Pete who cares deeply for his family and Tina especially; not like Morris who thinks of nothing but Jimmy Gold and who ever has wronged him today.
Barry wrote: "Holly is a great character."
and
"(some of Pete’s thoughts echo those of Morrie. We are being set up to see that there are many similarities between the two). "
The pace of these chapters, the building tension as we see the characters start to either collide or miss the opportunity to save the day is intense. It is a hard thing to not simply read the rest of the book in one sitting forgetting sleep or work or other demands. The scene when Morris confronts Andrew in the book shop with the hatchet was especially horrifying when, without notice he slashes into Drew's buttocks. What could have been (and should be) an oasis of books, a place most of us would love to spend time enjoying instead becomes a place of terror.
I'm not reading these comments yet...I just was laughing because my post in the last section said how surprised I was about how calmly Morris took the news of the empty chest. I just read the part about his visit to Andy/Drew...lol...oops.
Dawn: Oops, indeed, I guess Morris has a bit of a slow burn....this spoiler is something to come back and read only after you have finished the book.
(view spoiler)
Dawn wrote: "I'm not reading these comments yet...I just was laughing because my post in the last section said how surprised I was about how calmly Morris took the news of the empty chest. I just read the part about his visit to Andy/Drew...lol...oops.
"
Part 3 Peter and the Wolf
Starts Chap 1 page 263 or 59% Kindle location 3474
Ends Chap 21 page 331 or 75% Kindle location 4420