Where is your Bookmark?

[Carol]

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
4 Stars

From The Book:
Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolina--a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sister, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna. This is a remarkable novel about divine female power, a story that women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.

My Thoughts:
Many of us have lived through these times. It's 1964, the year of the Civil Rights Act, in Sylvan, S.C. Lily Owens is 14 years old and not only fleeing her abusive father, T-Ray, but also the police that beat her motherly servant, Lily for defending her new right to vote.

The story and the characters speak so openly of how life was in that time and the hardships some had to endure. It is really hard to do the book justice without giving away so much of it. Let's just say that it is beautifully written. I loved the writing...the descriptions... and the humor sprinkled through the story. There was sadness and love, hope and forgiveness – but ultimately The Secret Life of Bees is the coming of age for a young girl who had more than enough tragedy in her life. I highly recommend this book

[Carol]

The Liar by Nora Roberts
4 stars

From The Book:
Shelby Foxworth lost her husband. Then she lost her illusions…

The man who took her from Tennessee to an exclusive Philadelphia suburb left her in crippling debt. He was an adulterer and a liar, and when Shelby tracks down his safe-deposit box, she finds multiple IDs. The man she loved wasn’t just dead. He never really existed.

Shelby takes her three-year-old daughter and heads south to seek comfort in her hometown, where she meets someone new: Griff Lott, a successful contractor. But her husband had secrets she has yet to discover. Even in this small town, surrounded by loved ones, danger is closer than she knows—and threatens Griff, as well. And an attempted murder is only the beginning.

My Thoughts:
The first part of this was fascinating. Shelby discovering that her husband was never even close to who or what she thought he was and consequently the entire four and a half years of her life was one gigantic and dangerous lie. The only good thing that came from the marriage was three year old Callie Rose. How she went about getting herself out from under over three million dollars in debt while discovering more and more deception at every turn, would have by itself have made a excellent book. The story, for me at least, began to break down when she and Callie Rose returned to her family in Tennessee. Everyone was just too sweet to be believable or digestible for very long. I'm from the south and I know that family is everything but this felt way over the top. It was however a good story and picked up when the private detective tracked her down and became involved again. It earned the 4 stars.

[Marilyn]

February 5, 2017 Currently reading:

TEXT - Trials of the Earth: The True Story of a Pioneer Woman by Mary Mann Hamilton--nonfiction about the travails of a woman pioneering in the Mississippi delta. Unbelievable!

Also reading The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race by Jesmyn Ward--for a nonfiction book club, essays by prominent black authors, a Mayor's Book Club choice for San Antonio

AUDIO in the car - The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story by Douglas Preston--another nonfiction that I can't wait to start; saw an interview where the author is still suffering from an infection from his journey to find a lost city in the Amazon!

Personal AUDIO - The Widow by Fiona Barton--just for fun...

[Book Concierge]

Feb 6 - Currently Reading

TEXT - Exodus / Leon Uris
AUDIO in the car - Death Masks / Jim Butcher
MP3 Player AUDIO - Days of Awe / Lauren Fox

[Carol]

The Widow by Fiona Barton
3.5 Stars

From The Book:
There’s a lot Jean hasn’t said over the years about the crime her husband was suspected of committing. She was too busy being the perfect wife, standing by her man while living with the accusing glares and the anonymous harassment.

Now her husband is dead, and there’s no reason to stay quiet. There are people who want to hear her story. They want to know what it was like living with that man. She can tell them that there were secrets. There always are in a marriage. The truth—that’s all anyone wants. But the one lesson Jean has learned in the last few years is that she can make people believe anything…

My Thoughts:
Jean wanted nothing more in life than to be a mother. It became an obsession to her and her husband's seeming lack of enthusiasm only added to her misery. Jean had been taught to support her husband in all things but the more she learned about his secret life...the more she questioned that idea. The question became...just what would Jean do to have a child and just how far would Glen go to provide her with her fondest wish? That question has become almost three years old for DCI Bob Sparks and he needs to find little Bella Elliot, who was taken from her garden... and/or make an arrest for her kidnapping.

The Widow is a first book for Fiona Barton. The story is magnetic in it's ability to keep you glued to the book reading just one more chapter and then just one more, and one more. The characters are so diverse in their personalities and produce so many different emotions while telling their stories. If the reader has read any other novels with a similar plot, will find that they will eventually figure out who was guilty... but it takes almost the entire book. Good job Ms. Barton.

[Carol]

Cut and Run by Matt Hilton
Joe Hunter series Book #4
4 stars

From The Book:
An assassin with Hunter’s face launches a terrifying murder spree intended to frame his adversary—forcing Hunter to run from the pursuing law and his vengeful adversary alike, with no one to turn to for help and nowhere to hide.

My Thoughts:
The story begins with a nice twist right off the bat...one that I have to admit that I fell for even though it was so "unjoe". Someone has taken a great deal of time and effort to frame Joe for the murders of several cops in Tampa. It seems that Joe has no where to go that this assassin can't find him. With the help of his best friend and a former CIA agent he begins the journey to save the sister of a victim he feels he has failed and to put his life back together.

The only thing that was a little offsetting was that I don't believe that the author has ever visited Tampa or Florida for that matter. Some of the things he used in his scenes just don't exist there. But that was something that didn't really effect the story at all. Cut and Run] was a fun, brutal, fast paced thriller. If you like a book full of constant action then this series is for you.

[Carol]

Missing Presumed ] by Susie Steiner
DS Manon series Book #1
2★'s

From The Book:
At thirty-nine, Manon Bradshaw is a devoted and respected member of the Cambridgeshire police force, and though she loves her job, what she longs for is a personal life. Single and distant from her family, she wants a husband and children of her own. One night, after yet another disastrous Internet date, she turns on her police radio to help herself fall asleep—and receives an alert that sends her to a puzzling crime scene.

Edith Hind—a beautiful graduate student at Cambridge University and daughter of the surgeon to the Royal Family—has been missing for nearly twenty-four hours. Her home offers few clues: a smattering of blood in the kitchen, her keys and phone left behind, the front door ajar but showing no signs of forced entry. Manon instantly knows that this case will be big—and that every second is crucial to finding Edith alive.

The investigation starts with Edith’s loved ones: her attentive boyfriend, her reserved best friend, her patrician parents. As the search widens and press coverage reaches a frenzied pitch, secrets begin to emerge about Edith’s tangled love life and her erratic behavior leading up to her disappearance. With no clear leads, Manon summons every last bit of her skill and intuition to close the case, and what she discovers will have shocking consequences not just for Edith’s family but for Manon herself.

My Thoughts:
I can't really say that I liked this book or that I will continue the series...although I do like to give both a fair chance. Maybe because it's a first book in a new series for her but I found the book to drag from the very start. I didn't care about her love life...at least not two full chapters of who she was taking to bed and why. I guess it boils down to that the book is full of characters that I couldn't care about and were mostly totally unlikable.

[Carol]

A Prisoner of Birth by Jeffrey Archer
4 ★'s

From The Book:
If Danny Cartwright had proposed to Beth Wilson on any other day, he would not have been arrested and charged with the murder of his best friend. But when the prosecution witnesses happen to be a group of four upper-crust college friends―a barrister, a popular actor, an aristocrat, and the youngest partner in an established firm's history―who is going to believe Danny's side of the story?

Danny is sentenced to twenty-two years and sent to Belmarsh prison, the highest-security jail in the land, from where no inmate has ever escaped. But Spencer Craig, Lawrence Davenport, Gerald Payne, and Toby Mortimer all underestimate Danny's determination to seek revenge―and the extent to which his fiancee Beth will go in pursuit of justice.

My Thoughts:
The result of the intriguing trial...which sees a novice defense lawyer against a well seasoned and skilled prosecutor...is a 22-year sentence for Danny. However Danny is lucky enough to share a cell with Sir Nicholas Moncrieff, who teaches him the ins and outs of surviving prison life. Danny learns well and begins to plot a scheme to enact his pound of flesh on the three men responsible not only for the death of his best friend but in a large part to Danny's 22 year sentence for a crime that all readers know....he didn't commit. Just when you think you have things figured out...Archer throws us an ending you just won’t see coming. Anyone that thrives on courtroom dramas will find this book irresistible.

[Carol]

And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman
Novella
4.5 Stars

From The Book:

It's an exquisitely moving portrait of an elderly man’s struggle to hold on to his most precious memories, and his family’s efforts to care for him even as they must find a way to let go.

With all the same charm of his bestselling full-length novels, here Fredrik Backman once again reveals his unrivaled understanding of human nature and deep compassion for people in difficult circumstances. This is a tiny gem with a message you’ll treasure for a lifetime.

My Thoughts:
It is amazing how Backman managed to capture so much emotion so perfectly. It's a story about love and tenderness and letting go and remembering and legacies and family. I believe that Frederick Backman said everything that needs to be or can be said about this little gem. So with a heartfelt gratitude to Mr. Bckman for sharing his story...here is his quote.

"This is a story about memories and about letting go. It's a love letter and a slow farewell between a man and his grandson, and between a dad and his boy. I never meant for you to read it, to be quite honest. I wrote it just because I was trying to sort out my own thoughts, and I'm the kind of person who needs to see what I'm thinking on paper to make sense of it. But it turned into a small tale of how I'm dealing slowly with losing the greatest minds I know, about missing someone who is still here, and how I wanted to explain it to my children. I'm letting it go for now, for what it's worth. It's about fear and love, and how they seem to go hand in hand most of the time. Most of all, it's about time. While we still have it." ... Frederick Backman

[Carol]

Deception Point by Dan Brown
4.5 Stars

From the Book:
When a new NASA satellite spots evidence of an astonishingly rare object buried deep in the Arctic ice, the floundering space agency proclaims a much-needed victory...a victory that has profound implications for US space policy and the impending presidential election. With the Oval Office in the balance, the President dispatches White House Intelligence analyst Rachel Sexton to the Milne Ice Shelf to verify the authenticity of the find. Accompanied by a team of experts, including the charismatic academic Michael Tolland, Rachel uncovers the unthinkable: evidence of scientific trickery—a bold deception that threatens to plunge the world into controversy.

But before Rachel can contact the President, she and Michael are attacked by a deadly team of assassins controlled by a mysterious power broker who will stop at nothing to hide the truth. Fleeing for their lives in an environment as desolate as it is lethal, their only hope for survival is to find out who is behind this masterful ploy. The truth, they will learn, is the most shocking deception of all.

My Thoughts:
It started out rather slow but by the fourth chapter had started to really pick up the pace...and from there the story moves very fast and is full of twists and turns. It has a very clever plot in which you are never completely sure just who is 'the good guy". I loved that I was never completely sure what was going to happen or what I really wanted to happen. I can't say too much more without giving away the next reader's joy of immersing themselves in this very entertaining book. I did think that the author did a marvelous job of tying up the story lines into a very well done ending. The only thing that was missing in this one was all the puzzles that readers have come to associate with Dan Brown books.

[Carol]

The Charlemagne Pursuit by Steve Berry
Cotton Malone series Book #4
3 ★'s

From The Book:
As a child, former Justice Department agent Cotton Malone was told that his father died in a submarine disaster in the North Atlantic. But what he now learns stuns him: His father’s sub was a secret nuclear vessel lost on a highly classified mission beneath the ice shelves of Antarctica.

Twin sisters Dorothea Lindauer and Christl Falk are also determined to find out what became of their father, who died on the same submarine–and they know something Malone doesn’t: Inspired by strange clues discovered in Charlemagne’s tomb, the Nazis explored Antarctica before the Americans. Now Malone discovers that cryptic journals penned in “the language of heaven,” conundrums posed by an ancient historian, and his father’s ill-fated voyage are all tied to a revelation of immense consequence for humankind. As Malone embarks on a dangerous quest with the sisters, he will finally confront the shocking truth of his father’s death and the distinct possibility of his own.

My Thoughts:
It's not a bad book by any means...but certainly is not the best of this series. If I had depended on the description alone in choosing the book it would have rated very high as the subject was something that I am very interested in. As it turned out the characters were very hard to keep up with since the author jumped around in the time elements as well as what was taking place with each character in so many different localities. The usual team that Cotton works with were nearly all absent except for Stephanie and she was scarce and really wasn't working with Cotton. If this had not been a group read...which always adds so much to a book...I have to confess I probably wouldn't have finished it.

[Carol]

In the Cold Light of Mourning by Elizabeth Duncan
Penny Bannington series Book #1
3 Stars

From The Book:
The picturesque North Wales market town of Llanelen is shocked when Meg Wynne Thompson, a self-made beauty who has turned out to be something of an unpopular bride, goes missing on her wedding day--and turns up dead.

The last person believed to have seen Meg alive is local manicurist Penny Brannigan, who vows to find the killer. Seems that several people--including those on the guest list--had reasons to wish Meg dead. But when the trail leads Penny to the groom, a red-hot secret threatens to shake the small town to its very core.

My Thoughts:
I picked the book for a challenge that I was participating in. I knew it was a cozy and they are not my favorites...so I really don't want to pick the book apart. I can only say that it was okay. It was too easy to figure out who one of the guilty parties was and the second person was someone who was in your face obvious once the author revealed the twist in the story. I didn't get the motive for the murder even after the author revealed it. Reading about changing appointment times and canceling appointments became rather mundane and repetitive stuff after the first few times of Penny re-scheduling clients so she could go off investigating just wasn't my cuppa tea. Those that really like cozy mysteries will probably like it a lot more than I did.

[Carol]

The Furies by Mark Alpert
3 stars

From The book:
For centuries, the Furies have lived among us. Long ago they were called witches and massacred by the thousands. But they're human just like us, except for a rare genetic mutation that they've hidden from the rest of the world for hundreds of years.

Now, a chance encounter with a beautiful woman named Ariel has led John Rogers into the middle of a secret war among the Furies. Ariel needs John's help in the battle between a rebellious faction of the clan and their elders. The grand prize in this war is a chance to remake the human race.

Mark Alpert's The Furies weaves cutting-edge science into an ingenious thriller, showing how a simple genetic twist could have inspired tales of witchcraft and sorcery, and how the paranormal could indeed be possible.

My Thoughts:
I'd like to give the author the credit he deserves for creating a story and a universe that is not only interesting but very diverse. He has taken historical events and woven them into quiet an adventure. I believe...at least for me...it would have been worthy of another star if he had woven the story more around that parallel universe. The story strives for scientific plausibility...but it is too eager to explain things thus bogging the reader down in half formed theories.

The idea of "witches" existing in their human forms through the centuries and never ageing is an interesting concept and this should have been what was built on throughout the book.

[Book Concierge]

Feb 18 - Currently Reading

TEXT - Old Dogs / Donna Moore
AUDIO in the car - The Quiet American / Graham Greene
MP3 Player AUDIO - The Minor Adjustment Beauty SalonAlexander McCall Smith

[Carol]

Fatal by John Lescroat
Standalone
3.5 Stars

From The Book:
Kate loves her life. At forty-four, she’s happily married to her kind husband, Ron, blessed with two wonderful children, and has a beautiful home in San Francisco. Everything changes, however, when she and Ron attend a dinner party and meet another couple, Peter and Jill. Kate and Peter only exchange a few pleasant words but that night, in bed with her husband, Kate is suddenly overcome with a burning desire for Peter. What begins as an innocent crush soon develops into a dangerous obsession and Kate’s fixation on Peter results in one intense, passionate encounter between the two. Confident that her life can now go back to normal, Kate never considers that Peter may not be so willing to move on.

Not long after their affair, a masked man barges into the café Kate is sitting in with her best friend, firing an assault weapon indiscriminately into the crowd. This tragedy is the first in a series of horrifying events that will show Kate just how grave the consequences of one mistake can be.

My Thoughts:
John Lescroart is an excellent writer and his courtroom series with Diz and Abe is one of the best to come off the press. While this one had good characters it somehow missed the mark in the plot department. Nothing that Peter...the dead guy...did to become dead... made any sense what so ever. Why would a successful attorney jeopardize his entire life as he knows it to have a two hour fling with a woman he barely knows, and why would he change his personality so drastically because of it? I'm sure it probably could and does happen but the reader is left in limbo. It's never successfully explained enough for the reader to buy into it. Please go back to the wonderful novels with all the courtroom drama and stick with what you do best Mr. Lescourt.

[Carol]

The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston
Non-Fiction
4.5 Stars

From The Book:
Since the days of conquistador Hernán Cortés, rumors have circulated about a lost city of immense wealth hidden somewhere in the Honduran interior, called the White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God. Indigenous tribes speak of ancestors who fled there to escape the Spanish invaders, and they warn that anyone who enters this sacred city will fall ill and die. In 1940, swashbuckling journalist Theodore Morde returned from the rainforest with hundreds of artifacts and an electrifying story of having found the Lost City of the Monkey God-but then committed suicide without revealing its location.

Three quarters of a century later, bestselling author Doug Preston joined a team of scientists on a groundbreaking new quest. In 2012 he climbed aboard a rickety, single-engine plane carrying the machine that would change everything: lidar, a highly advanced, classified technology that could map the terrain under the densest rainforest canopy. In an unexplored valley ringed by steep mountains, that flight revealed the unmistakable image of a sprawling metropolis, tantalizing evidence of not just an undiscovered city but an enigmatic, lost civilization.

Venturing into this raw, treacherous, but breathtakingly beautiful wilderness to confirm the discovery, Preston and the team battled torrential rains, quickmud, disease-carrying insects, jaguars, and deadly snakes. But it wasn't until they returned that tragedy struck: Preston and others found they had contracted in the ruins a horrifying, sometimes lethal-and incurable-disease.

My Thoughts:

“There was once a great city in the mountains,” he writes, “struck down by a series of catastrophes, after which the people decided the gods were angry and left, leaving their possessions. Thereafter it was shunned as a cursed place, forbidden, visiting death on those who dared enter.”

It reads like a dark fairy tale…but in 2012, Douglas Preston was present as the expedition team attempted to use light detection and ranging technology to identify the city’s location in the uncharted wildernesses of Honduras; they shot billions of laser beams into a jungle that no human beings had entered for perhaps five hundred years....and with good reason. They succeeded in locating two large sites, apparently built by the civilization that once inhabited the Mosquiteria region. A return trip took place in 2015 to explore the sites on foot, an experience that was easier said than done but resulted in remarkable archaeological finds.

It’s not Douglas Preston's usual Agent Pendergast novel or one of his wonderful technological offerings …it’s a true adventure that the reader as well as the explorers may many times wonder if it may not have been best to just “let sleeping dogs lie.” An exceptional, entertaining, and educational read.

[Carol]

In the Blood by Lisa Unger
5 Stars

From The Book:
Liar, liar, pants on fire . . . College senior Lana Granger has told so many lies about her past that the truth seems like a distant, cloudy nightmare. But she meets her match when she begins babysitting for a volatile, manipulative eleven-year-old boy. Soon after Lana takes the job, her close friend Beck mysteriously disappears. Lana instantly begins fabricating stories - to friends, to police, to herself. Why doesn't her account jibe with those of eye-witnesses? Lana will do anything to bury the truth about that night ... and about her life. But someone else knows her secrets. And he's dying to tell.

My Thoughts:
You won't get very far into the book before you know that you have a winner in your hands and you might as well prepare for late, late nights of reading. Well we all have to make sacrifices you know:)

This author is a master at creating psychologically damaged characters....and Lana is no exception. Narrated from Lana's perspective... we soon learn that she is seen as a compulsive liar. By her own descriptions of events it soon becomes clear that she can give "mentally unstable" a completely new meaning... and It doesn't stop there. Many of the other characters fall into the "unstable" category. Luke is eleven years old and is way beyond his age with the knowledge he would be expected to have... and his behavior is so off the wall that he has been asked to leave almost every school he has attended. If two aren't enough for you we have Professor Langdon Hewes. He comes across at first as kind and caring but before long the hairs on the back of your neck let you know that all is not as it seems. Even the missing girl is manipulative and abrasive.

It's a book that will remain with you long after the last page is read and these psychopaths are once again safely enclosed between the covers of the book.

[Carol]

The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian
3 Stars

From The Book:
When Kristin Chapman agrees to let her husband, Richard, host his brother's bachelor party, she expects a certain amount of debauchery. She takes their young daughter to Manhattan for the evening, leaving her Westchester home to the men and their hired entertainment. What she does not expect is that the entertainment—two scared young women brought there by force—will kill their captors and drive off into the night.

With their house now a crime scene, Kristin's and Richard’s life spirals into nightmare. Kristin is unable to forgive her husband for his lapses in judgement, or for the moment he shared with a dark-haired girl in the guest room. But for the dark-haired girl, Alexandra, the danger is just beginning.

My Thoughts:
I have always enjoyed novels by this author and found them easy reading with interesting themes. This one somehow just didn't live up to the standards of the others. I don't know if it was the topic of human slavery and the Russian mob or if it was the sleazy actions by the guests at the bachelor party...but it just lacked something. So I would have to say the book was just "okay". I didn't hate the book. It had promise from the description... but I found it tedious and was glad when it ended.

[Marilyn]

Feb 24, 2017 Currently reading:

TEXT - Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer--winner of a British award for mysteries, this is the first book I've ever read from the viewpoint of someone emerging from a coma or from someone who has Asperger's syndrome. Eerie and fascinating.

Personal AUDIO - The Turner House by Angela Flournoy--saw this author at the Texas Book Festival last fall, and reserved it at the library right away. It's told from the point of view of several brothers and sisters living in Detroit. Very well-written!

AUDIO in the car - still listening to The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story by Douglas Preston--really enjoying it, although remind me never to go to the jungles of Honduras--deadly snakes, biting insects, drug lords! I'll stick with San Antonio!

[Carol]

Natural Causes by James Oswald
Inspector McLean series Book #1
4 ★'s

From The Book:
A young girl's mutilated body is discovered in a room that has lain sealed for the last sixty years. Her remains are carefully arranged in what seems to have been a macabre ritual.

For newly appointed Edinburgh Detective Inspector Tony McLean, this baffling cold case ought to be a low priority, but he is haunted by the young victim and her grisly death. Meanwhile, the city is horrified by a series of bloody killings—deaths for which there appears to be neither rhyme nor reason, and which leave Edinburgh's police at a loss.

McLean is convinced that these deaths are somehow connected to the terrible ceremonial killing of the girl, all those years ago. It is an irrational theory. And one that will lead McLean closer to the heart of a terrifying and ancient evil

My Thoughts:
This story of crime and mystery, set in Edinburgh, reminds us that the city has some dark deeds in its past. This story adds one more element of “dark” and “evil” to the mix.

The story moves very quickly for the most part and the bodies keep piling up, Detective Inspector McLean meets with resistance from some team members, however the scenes in the police station are well done, and the variety of characters throughout are well portrayed. Of course Oswald throws in one for us to hate. There is a hint... almost like a small dusting... of a supernatural element... that allows the reader to form their own opinion as to it’s authenticity. Over all a great first book and I look forward to the second one.

[Book Concierge]

Feb 25 - Currently Reading

TEXT - A Fierce Radiance by Lauren Belfer
AUDIO in the car - Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan
MP3 Player AUDIO - Deeper Than the Dead by Tami Hoag

[Carol]

The Third Victim By Lisa Gardner
The FBI Profiler series Book #2
3 Stars

From The Book:
An unspeakable act has ripped apart the idyllic town of Bakersville, Oregon, and its once-peaceful residents are demanding quick justice. But though a boy has confessed to the horrific crime, evidence shows he may not be guilty.

Officer Rainie Conner, leading her first homicide investigation, stands at the center of the controversy. It's hitting too close to home, bringing back her worst nightmares, threatening to expose her secret sins. But with the boy's life at stake, she won't let anything stop her from finding the real killer.

With the help of FBI profiler Pierce Quincy, Rainie comes closer to a deadly truth than she can imagine. Because out there in the shadows a man watches her and plots his next move. He knows her secrets. He kills for sport. He's already brought death to Bakersville and forever shattered the community. But what he has really come for is Rainie -- and he won't leave until he has destroyed her.

My Thoughts:
It's almost like history repeating itself for Raine as she struggles to come to gripes and believe that 11 year old Daniel O'Grady shot and killed a teacher and two young classmates. Raine herself has nightmares about being accused of killing her own mother fourteen years ago. Supervisory Special Agent Pierce Quincy from the FBI enters the turmoil to study child killers and to offer assistance to a small police force that up to now the largest crime they have investigated is a traffic accident. The two start out cautiously but eventually find they work well as a team. As anyone can guess that has read books of this type...they are probably destined to be more than just a "team".

I have a measure of hope for this series. I'm not a big fan of romance books and usually skip them all together but I will wait to pass any real judgment on the series. Perhaps it will turn out to be as good as Gardner's D.D. Warren series.

[Carol]

Don't Look Twice by Andrew Gross
Ty Hauck Series Book #2
4 Stars

From The Book:
A drive-by shooting rocks an affluent suburb, leaving an innocent man dead. A witness to the madness—along with his terrified teenaged daughter—Detective Ty Hauck launches an investigation into what looks like a vicious case of family retribution. But Annie Fletcher, the owner of a hip café who's attempting to rebuild her life, saw something that does not fit the bloody scenario. And the truth is a gathering storm of secrets and corruption that could tear through the mansions of the town's most powerful—ravaging a family . . . and pitting Hauck against his own brother.

My Thoughts:
I first read this author when he began co-writing books with James Patterson and thoroughly enjoyed his writing style and how easy he was to read and hold the readers interest with an easy to follow plot. This...his second book in the Hauck series... is no exception and if anything better than his co-written books.

The only "problem" that I had with the story was that it didn't seem that the "Why" was never fully explained. I believe if the author had told us why things occurred as they did I could easily have given the book another star. In spite of that it was a fun book that should appeal to all mystery fans. I'll certainly continue this series.

[Carol]

Dance of the Bones by J.A. Jance
J.P. Beaumont series Book #22 (not really)
2.5 stars

From The Book:
Years ago, Amos Warren, a prospector, was gunned down out in the desert and Sheriff Brandon Walker made the arrest in the case. Now, the retired Walker is called in when the alleged killer, John Lassiter, refuses to accept a plea deal that would release him from prison with time served. Lassiter wants Brandon and The Last Chance to find Amos's "real" killer and clear his name.

Sixteen hundred miles to the north in Seattle, J.P. Beaumont is at loose ends after the Special Homicide Investigation Team, affectionately known as S.H.I.T., has been unexpectedly and completely disbanded. When Brandon discovers that there are links between Lassiter’s case and an unsolved case in Seattle, he comes to Beau for help.

Those two cases suddenly become hot when two young boys from the reservation, one of them with close ties to the Walker family, go missing. Can two seasoned cops, working together, decipher the missing pieces in time to keep them alive?

My Thoughts:
The J.P. Beaumont series was and remains one of my favorite series of all times...so when I saw this "new" series with a new set of characters was coming aboard but J.P was still a part of it...I said "why not?". Turns out there was several reasons "why not".

1. The book was half way over before J.P Beaumont even made an appearance. I gave the book 2.5 stars because it was only AFTER he made his appearance that the story even seemed that it had been written by the same author.

2. The new characters are all just flat. Brandon Walker could evolve into a good character if he just had an original thought in his head and would stop listening to the dopey woman.

3. The story skipped back and forth over several decades and when you threw in the Indian lore that pops up suddenly out of left field it was nearly impossible to keep the story line in any perspective.

Needless to say there won't be a book 2 for this reader.

[Carol]

All The Missing Girls by Megan Miranda
3.5 Stars

From The Book:
Megan Miranda’s novel is a nail-biting, breathtaking story about the disappearances of two young women—a decade apart—told in reverse.

It’s been ten years since Nicolette Farrell left her rural hometown after her best friend, Corinne, disappeared from Cooley Ridge without a trace. Back again to tie up loose ends and care for her ailing father, Nic is soon plunged into a shocking drama that reawakens Corinne’s case and breaks open old wounds long since stitched.

The decade-old investigation focused on Nic, her brother Daniel, boyfriend Tyler, and Corinne’s boyfriend Jackson. Since then, only Nic has left Cooley Ridge. Daniel and his wife, Laura, are expecting a baby; Jackson works at the town bar; and Tyler is dating Annaleise Carter, Nic’s younger neighbor and the group’s alibi the night Corinne disappeared. Then, within days of Nic’s return, Annaleise goes missing.

Told backwards—Day 15 to Day 1—from the time Annaleise goes missing, Nic works to unravel the truth about her younger neighbor’s disappearance, revealing shocking truths about her friends, her family, and what really happened to Corinne that night ten years ago.

Like nothing you’ve ever read before, All the Missing Girls delivers in all the right ways. With twists and turns that lead down dark alleys and dead ends, you may think you’re walking a familiar path, but then Megan Miranda turns it all upside down and inside out and leaves us wondering just how far we would be willing to go to protect those we love.

My Thoughts:
It was a really good story but had parts that just had nothing to actually do with the events taking place. I had to pay very close attention due to the format; with the story going backwards, I had to stop several times and get reoriented as to how all the facts fit together. As the days reverse, the disappearance of the second girl, Annaleise Carter, is investigated and explained. The ending was unpredictable, and not obvious. There were several ways that I had hoped it would end and several of the characters I didn't want to be guilty...but overall...it was the way it just had to end.

[Carol]

The Smoke Hunter by Jacquelyn Benson
3 stars

From The Book:
Frustrated suffragette and would-be archaeologist Ellie Mallory stumbles across a map to a city that shouldn't exist, a jungle metropolis alive and flourishing centuries after the Mayan civilization mysteriously collapsed. Discovering it would make her career, but Ellie isn't the only one after the prize. A disgraced professor and his ruthless handler are hot on her heels, willing to go any extreme to acquire the map for themselves.

To race them through the uncharted jungle, Ellie needs a guide. The only one with the expertise is maverick surveyor Adam Bates. But with his determination to nose his way into Ellie's many secrets, Bates is a dangerous partner.

As Ellie gets closer to her goal, she realizes it's not just her ambitions at stake. A powerful secret lies hidden in the heart of the city - and if it falls into the wrong hands, it could shake the very fate of the world.

My Thoughts:
Historical novels are not really what I would normally pursue as those that know me well can verify but this one wasn't bad. There was lots of action, a touch of romance, and a wonderful setting in Belize, a very interesting and colorful country. This is Jacquelyn Benson's first novel and I will have to say that it showed a lot of promise. Her heroine was well ahead of her times as she didn't take any crap off of anyone and was very capable of standing up for herself and for 1898 that says a lot in itself. Who knows? I just might try book #2.

[Carol]

The Distant Echo by Val McDermid
Karen Pirie series Book #1
4 stars

From The Book:
It was a winter morning in 1978, that the body of a young barmaid was discovered in the snow banks of a Scottish cemetery. The only suspects in her brutal murder were the four young men who found her: Alex Gilbey and his three best friends. With no evidence but her blood
on their hands, no one was ever charged.

Twenty five years later, the Cold Case file on Rosie Duff has been reopened. For Alex and his friends, the investigation has also opened old wounds, haunting memories-and new fears. For a stranger has emerged from the shadows with his own ideas about justice. And revenge.

When two of Alex's friends die under suspicious circumstances, Alex knows that he and his innocent family are the next targets. And there's only way to save them: return to the cold-blooded past and uncover the startling truth about the murder. For there lies the identity of an avenging killer.

My Thoughts:
I was supposed to be the first book in the Karen Pirie series but actually Karen had very little to do with the entire book. She never even made a showing until the second half of the book and then she was a ghostly part of the story. That aside...the book was a fairly good read. Not as good as McDermid's Tony Hill/Carol Jordan books but still very readable. I think if you hadn't been looking for Karen to make an appearance the story would have had much more appeal. The writing is very good...the story is plausible... and the main characters are well developed and realistic. You can't help wondering what anyone would do if they suddenly were thrown into a similar situation. It all comes together in the end, no strings left untied. I can recommend this book to anyone that loves a well told mystery...just don't think of it as a series.

[Carol]

A Dream Across Time by Annie Rogers
3.5 stars

From The Book:
When Jamie Elliott arrives from New York onto the lush Caribbean island of St. Lucia, she is swept up in island forces, powerful across the centuries, which find deep echoes in her recurring dreams. As her dreams intensify on St. Lucia, Jamie must grapple with a cheating husband and her own attraction to Andre Demontagne, son of a powerful island family. Asserting her independence, she comes to terms with loss and love as she discovers who she is against swirling psychic forces and long guarded secrets.

My thoughts:
This book has the perfect union of romance and mystery...of setting and story. It will make you wonder about mystical possibilities of reincarnation and generational collective memory and will take you on a journey that you will not soon forget. I am not ordinarily a reader of "romantic mysteries" however...I do love mysteries and absolutely can't resist the paranormal. It's a great read about real people in an unreal world.

[Carol]

Safe & Sound by Danielle Singleton
3.5 Stars

From The Book:
Safe & Sound is the story of Amy Millhouse, a recent college graduate who travels to Mexico on vacation with her friends. While there, the girls are kidnapped by a violent drug gang and held hostage for everything they are worth - and more. Safe & Sound is a fast-paced kidnapping thriller that leaves readers on the edge of their seat and begging for more!

My Thoughts:
I picked this book up because it met the criteria for a reading challenge...haven't we all done that? It's a roll of the dice if we'll read it in one sitting or go screaming from the room. This first novel attempt by Danielle Singleton fell in the later category. The story was compelling even if it did deal with a brutal subject matter. Danielle manages to engage the reader in a manner that doesn't focus on the brutality as much as it does a connection to Amy and her strength throughout the terrible ordeal. It's not for the faint of heart but if you can get past this and go with the many twists and turns...you will enjoy this book.

[Marilyn]

March 9, 2017 Currently reading:

TEXT - Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett

AUDIO in car - Dance Hall of the Dead by Tony Hillerman

Personal AUDIO - The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

[Carol]

Echoes in Death by J.D. Robb
Eve Dallas - In Death series Book #44
5 Stars

From The Book:
As NY Lt. Eve Dallas and her billionaire husband Roarke are driving home, a young woman―dazed, naked, and bloody―suddenly stumbles out in front of their car. Roarke slams on the brakes and Eve springs into action.

Daphne Strazza is rushed to the ER, but it’s too late for her husband Dr. Anthony Strazza. A brilliant orthopedic surgeon, he now lies dead amid the wreckage of his obsessively organized town house, his three safes opened and emptied. Daphne would be a valuable witness, but in her terror and shock the only description of the perp she can offer is repeatedly calling him “the devil”...

While it emerges that Dr. Strazza was cold, controlling, and widely disliked, this is one case where the evidence doesn’t point to the spouse. So Eve and her team must get started on the legwork, interviewing everyone from dinner-party guests to professional colleagues to caterers, in a desperate race to answer some crucial questions... What does the devil look like? And where will he show up next?


My Thoughts:
44 books in this series and J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts) still manages to make the series inventive, entertaining and clever. I have been a huge fan of this series for years and there is a comforting feeling about the near future New York City and the characters that inhabit it. We have watched Eve grow and evolve from a battered child to a take charge and ask no forgiveness Lieutenant with the NYPSD along with Peabody and the rest of the crew.

This is one of the darker mysteries of the series with a generous dose of intrigue and suspense. It wasn't very easy to guess the killer and that was a good touch for those of us that enjoy our own chase but not so frustrating to those that want to know the identity sooner.

It was a heart racing journey and we all know that Eve always gets her man...or woman. Looking forward to book #45.

[Carol]

Buried in a Bog by Sheila Connolly
County Cork Mystery series Book #1
3 Stars

From The Book:
Honoring the wish of her late grandmother, Maura Donovan visits the small Irish village where her Gran was born—though she never expected to get bogged down in a murder mystery. Nor had she planned to take a job in one of the local pubs, but she finds herself excited to get to know the people who knew her Gran.

In the pub, she’s swamped with drink orders as everyone in town gathers to talk about the recent discovery of a nearly one-hundred-year-old body in a nearby bog. When Maura realizes she may know something about the dead man—and that the body’s connected to another, more recent, death—she fears she’s about to become mired in a homicide investigation. After she discovers the death is connected to another from almost a century earlier, Maura has a sinking feeling she may really be getting in over her head.

My Thoughts:
Stories of and from Ireland have a special place in my heart as that is where my grandmother came from and where my mother was born. This is a well written... easy to read story with a character in Maura that is strong and able to stand up for herself. The biggest part of the story is Maura's introduction to her grandmother's origins. The body found in the bog gave the armchair detective something to ponder but it was really fairly simple to solve. The history of the bogs and the descriptions of the countryside helped to paint a visual of this beautiful country for the reader. It's the story of a young woman's journey from a large American city to a place where time has all but stopped. For the cozy mystery enthusiast it will be a more than satisfying read...for the hard core mystery lover it will just be a delightful rest from the Blood and mayhem that we normally read. Glad I read it, but being one of the blood and mayhem bunch I probably won't be in any hurry to go on to the next one.

[Carol]

Secret of the Stones by Ernest Dempsey
Sean Wyatt series Book #1
4.5 stars

From The Book:
Sean Wyatt's learns his best friend has been kidnapped while working on a secret project. Sean and his new acquaintance, Allyson Webster, embark on a mission to solve a series of ancient clues they he hopes will lead to whoever kidnapped his friend. The riddles lead them on a dangerous chase through the southeastern United States and to a four thousand year-old secret that is bigger than anything they could have ever imagined.

My Thoughts:
I liked this book so much more than I ever thought possible. It's filled from cover to cover with action, suspense, a murder and a history lesson....so what's not to like? Fiction and legend are mixed to develop a theory on the origins of Native Americans on the North American continent. The reader doesn't have to agree with the theory to be entertained by the content and the process that provided the theory. Betrayal sets the stage for the next book and I believe I will be on a search for it.

[Carol]

Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance
Non-fiction

From The Book:
From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a powerful account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class

Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over forty years, has been reported on with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.

My Thoughts:
"The Vance family story begins hopefully in postwar America. J. D.’s grandparents were “dirt poor and in love,” and moved north from Kentucky’s Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually their grandchild (the author) would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of their success in achieving generational upward mobility."

While the book and the author focus on his own background...a dirt poor...Scot-Irish... section of coal country in Kentucky..anyone at all that is familiar with poverty in America will recognize... and to some extent sympathize... with J.D. Vance's attempt to tell his family's story.

It's so easy to lump classes of people together and tag them with the same stamp...but if there has been any attempt to get to know them as individuals we would soon see that while they share some common denominators...they are each different in their own ways. I know this was the authors attempt when he started the story but somewhere along the way he seemed to threw the family that he obviously loved with all their many faults...into the same giant melting pot. I do have to give the author credit that at the end of his story he expressed his growing realization, that while individuals do not have total control over the shapes of their lives, their choices do in fact matter...that one does always have input into the life that comes from being free to make choices... every day... and in every situation.

[Carol]

The Widow's House by Carol Goodman
4 ★'s

From the Book:
When Jess and Clare Martin move from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to their former college town in the Hudson River valley, they are hoping for rejuvenation—of their marriage, their savings, and Jess's writing career.

They take a caretaker's job at Riven House, a crumbling estate and the home of their old college writing professor. While Clare once had dreams of being a writer, those plans fell by the wayside when Jess made a big, splashy literary debut in their twenties. It's been years, now, since his first novel. The advance has long been spent. Clare's hope is that the pastoral beauty and nostalgia of the Hudson Valley will offer some inspiration.

But their new life isn't all quaint town libraries and fragrant apple orchards. There is a haunting pall that hangs over Riven House like a funeral veil. Something is just not right. Soon, Clare begins to hear babies crying at night, see strange figures in fog at the edge of their property. Diving into the history of the area, she realizes that Riven House has a dark and anguished past. And whatever this thing is—this menacing force that destroys the inhabitants of the estate—it seems to be after Clare next.

My Thoughts:
It was not exactly the ghost story that I was expecting but overall not a disappointing read either. Enough specters appear to keep the ghost story enthusiasts happy. Surprises along the way gave the story a nice suspense building pace while at the same time providing a dark and edgy atmosphere. It was an easy read and I would recommend this book to anyone that loves a mystery mixed with a few goose bumps..

[Carol]

Her Every Fear by Peter Swanson
4.5 Stars

From The Book:
The danger isn’t all in your head . . .

Growing up, Kate Priddy was always a bit neurotic, experiencing momentary bouts of anxiety that exploded into full blown panic attacks after an ex-boyfriend kidnapped her and nearly ended her life. When Corbin Dell, a distant cousin in Boston, suggests the two temporarily swap apartments, Kate, an art student in London, agrees, hoping that time away in a new place will help her overcome the recent wreckage of her life.

But soon after her arrival at Corbin’s grand apartment on Beacon Hill, Kate makes a shocking discovery: his next-door neighbor, a young woman named Audrey Marshall, has been murdered. When the police question her about Corbin, a shaken Kate has few answers, and many questions of her own—curiosity that intensifies when she meets Alan Cherney, a handsome, quiet tenant who lives across the courtyard, in the apartment facing Audrey’s. Alan saw Corbin surreptitiously come and go from Audrey’s place, yet he’s denied knowing her. Then, Kate runs into a tearful man claiming to be the dead woman’s old boyfriend, who insists Corbin did the deed the night that he left for London.

When she reaches out to her cousin, he proclaims his innocence and calms her nerves . . . until she comes across disturbing objects hidden in the apartment—and accidentally learns that Corbin is not where he says he is. Could Corbin be a killer? And what about Alan? Kate finds herself drawn to this appealing man who seems so sincere, yet she isn’t sure. Jet lagged and emotionally unstable, her imagination full of dark images caused by the terror of her past, Kate can barely trust herself . . . So how could she take the chance on a stranger she’s just met? Yet the danger Kate imagines isn’t nearly as twisted and deadly as what’s about to happen. When her every fear becomes very real. And much, much closer than she thinks.

My Thoughts:
The story is told from multiple viewpoints. I usually hate this way of telling the story as the characters sometimes become difficult to keep straight. That was not the case with Her Every Fear. There was a parade of various characters throughout Kate's stay in Boston and they all were loudly and convincingly proclaiming their innocence but you knew one of them was lying as Kate's neighbor had been murdered only hours before Kate arrived from London. I went back and forth on which one it was but Peter Swanson had delivered the story so well that I never did sort it out.

I highly recommend this to anyone that loves a physiological mystery with lots of possible solutions.

[Carol]

A Falcon for a Queen by Catherine Gaskin
4.5 stars

Summary From the Book:
Kirsty Howard has traveled a long way to find what is behind her brother, William’s death. Her brother had left China where they were raised to seek out their grandfather in Scotland hoping to establish a relationship with the not very outgoing or friendly old man that had had little to do with their side of the family. William’s death makes Kirsty determined that she must find out more. She has his letters, and a scroll he sent which contains strange Chinese symbols. She knows what the characters say: “she has killed” but they don’t make sense to her. Surprisingly the grandfather and William seemed to have gotten along very well but the old man sees no use for Kristy whatsoever. A woman can’t run the distillery and he has no heir to leave his estate to. Mairi Sinclair, the enigmatic housekeeper, can’t see much use for Kirsty either, and from the moment she first steps foot on the property, makes Kirsty feel very unwelcome.

Despite all the opposition she faces, Kirsty is determined to make a place for herself at Cluain. Angus is her only remaining relative, and Cluain is her destiny. Enlisting the help of Callum Sinclair, Mairi’s equally enigmatic son, she takes a tour of the whiskey brewery and begins learning all she can about the process. But why is she continually being blocked in her quest to find out what really happened to her brother?

My Thoughts:
A beautifully written book with rich imagery. I visited the Highlands of Scotland with my grandfather as a child many times when he returned to what he always considered his home. The words on these pages made me wish to hop a plane and return again to what I thought of as a "magical" land. This was my Blind Date With A Book but it is also a "snowy-day, grab a blanket and a cuppa tea and loose yourself in the story" kind of read.

[Book Concierge]

March 18 - Currently Reading

TEXT - María, Daughter of Immigrants / Maria Antonietta Berriozabal
AUDIO in the car - My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry / Fredrik Backman
MP3 Player AUDIO - The Bat / Jo Nesbø

[Carol]

Playing With Bones by Kate Ellis
Joe Plantagenet series Book #2
4 stars

From The Book:
Is the Doll Strangler back or is a copycat on the loose?

Singmass Close has a sinister past. Reputedly haunted by the ghosts of children, in the 50s it was the hunting ground of the Doll Strangler, a ruthless killer who was never brought to justice. Now DI Joe Plantagenet wonders whether a copycat killer is at work when the strangled body of teenager Natalie Parkes is found in the same close, a mutilated doll lying by her side.

With the recent disappearance of a young female model and an escaped convict at large, this new, horrific murder stretches Joe's team to their limit. But as the bodies start mounting up and Joe's questioning brings him closer to the real strangler, he comes to suspect a shockingly creepy connection between all three cases.

My Thoughts:
I like this series for the very reason that several reviewers did not like it... the supernatural element that seems to be a regular theme in all the installments of this series that is absent in Ellis's Wesley Peterson series. These ghostly wisps tantalizingly float just out of sight in the margins of the story.

Some of the characters were a tad unbelievable in their level stupidly...but it didn't interfere with the enjoyment of the story. The ending was unexpected but entirely plausible. Looking forward to the next in the series.

[Carol]

A Question of Identity by Susan Hill
Simon Serrailler series Book #7
4 Stars

From The Book:
A particularly unpleasant murder, that of a very old woman in a housing project, rocks the town of Lafferton. The murderer has left a distinctive "sign" on the body and at the scene of crime. A couple of weeks later, a similar murder occurs, and a month or so later, so does another.

Initial investigations discover that the mysterious "sign" left on the body was the calling card of a suspect who was charged with several murders in the northwest of the country, tried but acquitted on the grounds of insufficient evidence. All indications suggest that this person has simply vanished. Or is he right under their noses? Simon Serrailler is obliged to make delve deeper and scratch out answers,

My Thoughts:
I really like that Susan Hill has kept the setting of Lafferton, and the characters constant throughout this series. It gives the reader the opportunity to build somewhat of a bond with them. One bond I didn't build was with the murderer that was not only sheltered but given a new identity. This just didn't seem plausible to me. The book also didn't move along quiet as smoothly as her previous books had too many unsolved side stories and took way too long to actually get underway. All the other books in this series have received 4.5 & 5 stars from me...but I just don't feel this one can get more than 4.

[Carol]

Everything to Lose by Andrew Gross
4.5 Stars

From The Book:
While driving along a suburban back road, Hilary Cantor, who's just lost her job and whose deadbeat husband has left her to care for her son who has Asperger's, witnesses a freakish accident when a deer suddenly darts in front of the car ahead of her. The driver careens down a hill and slams into a tree. Rushing to help, she discovers the car smoking, the driver dead—and a satchel on the floor stuffed with a half million dollars.

That money could prevent her family's ruin and keep her son in school. In an instant, this honest, achieving woman who has always done the responsible thing makes a decision that puts her in the center of a maelstrom of unforeseeable consequences and life-threatening recriminations. It isn't long before someone comes looking for the money, and as they get closer and closer to Hilary, she is pulled into a terrifying scheme involving a twenty-year-old murder, an old woman whose entire life has been washed out to sea by the storm, and a powerful figure determined to maintain the secret that can destroy him.

With everything to lose and putting everything she loves at risk, Hilary joins up with a dogged police official from Staten Island who has his own connections to the money and is dealing with his family's tragic struggles in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Together they must fight to bring down an enemy who will stop at nothing to keep buried what that money was meant to silence.

My Thoughts:
What Hillary did was wrong...but you just can't help hoping that she'll get away with it. I found myself completely wrapped up in the story and the characters. Andrew Gross has managed to put an ordinary, everyday person into a breathtakingly suspenseful and dangerous situation and works his magic with the twists and turns that will keep the reader turning the pages to see how it all turns out. All the time you have to ask yourself... "In Hillary's situation would I have done the same thing to protect my family?"

[Marilyn]

Currently reading: 3/22/17

TEXT - One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez--for a senior book club; so far we are on our second week of discussing it, reading 5 or 6 chapters at a time...

Personal AUDIO - Idaho by Emily Ruskovich--just started listening to it, but already enjoying it.

Just finished listening to Frog Music by Emma Donoghue--really enjoyed the setting of old San Francisco, and the mystery of who the murderer was and what happened to Blanche's child. Completely different from her Room, which was deeply disturbing!

[Carol]

Ghost Girl by Torey Hayden
3.5 Stars

From The Book:
Jadie never spoke. She never laughed, or cried, or uttered any sound. Despite efforts to reach her, Jadie remained locked in her own troubled world—until one remarkable teacher persuaded her to break her self-imposed silence. Nothing in all of Torey Hayden's experience could have prepared her for the shock of what Jadie told her—a story too horrendous for Torey's professional colleagues to acknowledge. Yet a little girl was living in a nightmare, and Torey Hayden responded in the only way she knew how—with courage, compassion, and dedication—demonstrating once again the tremendous power of love and the resilience of the human spirit.

My Thoughts:
There is no nice, happily after-after, story book ending to this story of Jadie, a severely traumatized child who had so many different problems they were difficult to decide which was the most severe. It was finally determined that more than one thing may have been responsible for her condition...either separately or together.. She was either psychotic or was being ritually abused by members of an occult group. Torey Hayden was a young professional at the time...the beginning of her career and often found herself being made to feel inadequate by her older, more experienced colleagues who thought that they knew better...and to make mattes worse.... were not open to new ideas about special education and the needs of these special children. Hindsight is 20/20, and we all can look back later and wish we had seen the broader picture. Torey's honesty in writing about her own second thoughts made the story so much more compelling. I don't recommend this book to anyone that would have problems reading the graphic...intense... dirty details about the life and treatment of an 8 year old girl. THIS IS NOT FICTION. I do however, applaud Torey Hayden's courage in telling the story.

[Carol]

Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough
4 Stars

From The Book:
Louise is a single mom, a secretary, stuck in a modern-day rut. On a rare night out, she meets a man in a bar and sparks fly. Though he leaves after they kiss, she’s thrilled she finally connected with someone.

When Louise arrives at work on Monday, she meets her new boss, David. The man from the bar. The very married man from the bar…who says the kiss was a terrible mistake, but who still can’t keep his eyes off Louise.

And then Louise bumps into Adele, who’s new to town and in need of a friend. But she also just happens to be married to David. And if you think you know where this story is going, think again, because [Behind Her Eyes] is like no other book you’ve read before.

David and Adele look like the picture-perfect husband and wife. But then why is David so controlling? And why is Adele so scared of him?

As Louise is drawn into David and Adele’s orbit, she uncovers more puzzling questions than answers. The only thing that is crystal clear is that something in this marriage is very, very wrong. But Louise can’t guess how wrong―and how far a person might go to protect their marriage’s secrets.

My Thoughts:
This was an extraordinary story. Never in a million years could I have ever have guessed the outcome. It's also a dark story told through first person viewpoints. The timeline shifts between "then" and "now." I usually find this technique frustrating...but not for this one. I would recommend it for lovers of mysteries, thrillers, and psychological suspense. novels. I found the middle to be a bit slow...hence the 4 stars.

[Carol]

The Dirt on the Ninth Grave by Darynda Jones
Charley Davidson series Book #9
3 Stars

From The Book:
Charley Davidson is living in New York City as Jane Doe, a girl with no memory of who she is or where she came from. So when she begins to realize she can see dead people, she’s more than a bit taken aback. Strangers who enter the diner where she works seem to know things about her…Then she is confronted by a man who claims to have been sent to kill her. Sent by the darkest force in the universe. An enemy that will not stop until she is dead. Thankfully, she has a Rottweiler. And the diner’s devastatingly handsome fry cook, who vows to protect her even though he seems to be lying with every breath he takes. But in the face of such grave danger, who can Jane/Charley/whoever she is trust? She will find the truth even if it kills her…or the fry cook. Either way.

My Thoughts:
The book was okay...actually for me the entire series is just okay. I don't care for Ms. Jones humor most of the time although occasionally she does manage to strike a humorous chord. I love paranormal books but this just isn't particularly one of them that I care for. I needed a paranormal romance for a challenge and it this fit the bill for that.

[Marilyn]

Currently reading: March 25, 2017

TEXT - Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders--couldn't wait to read it, but not sure I like it--the ghosts are giving me nightmares!

AUDIO in the car - Midnight Sun by Jo Nesbø--not my favorite of this author's book...

Personal AUDIO - still reading Idaho by Emily Ruskovich--still liking it

[Book Concierge]

March 25 - Currently Reading

TEXT - Irish Girls about Town by Maeve Binchy (and other Irish female authors)
AUDIO in the car - Four to Score by Janet Evanovich
MP3 Player AUDIO - Bookmarked For Death by Lorna Barrett

[Carol]

Birthdays For the Dead by Stuart MacBride
Ash Henderson series Book #1
3.5 stars

From The Book:
A bloody, brilliant and brutal story of murder, kidnap and revenge.

Detective Constable Ash Henderson has a dark secret. Five years ago his daughter, Rebecca, went missing on the eve of her thirteenth birthday. A year later the first card arrived: home-made, with a Polaroid picture stuck to the front – Rebecca, strapped to a chair, gagged and terrified. Every year another card: each one worse than the last. The tabloids call him ‘The Birthday Boy’. He’s been snatching girls for twelve years, always just before their thirteenth birthday, killing them slowly, then torturing their families with his homemade cards.

Ash hasn’t told anyone what really happened to Rebecca – they all think she ran away – because if anyone finds out, he’ll be taken off the investigation. And he’s sacrificed too much to give up before his daughter’s murderer gets what he deserves.

My Thoughts:
The jury is still out on Ash Henderson but it is totally back in the box on Dr. McDonald, the forensic profiler and psychologist. My opinion is that she needs a psychiatrist...and he might want to take a look at the rest of the team. What a nut job! Even Ash calls her "DrFruitLoop". And then there is Ash... "a horse of an entirely different color" doesn't even begin to describe him. I entirely understood his need to find these girls but what have the police been doing for the past ten or twelve years since the "Birthday Boy" took the first one? He is a total loose cannon with an explosive temper...owes money to a group of loan sharks...has an on the border drug problem because of chronic pain with his back...and the problems with his ex wife and 12 year old remaining daughter are just too numerous to mention.

All of the characters are totally unlikable and nonredeemable for the most part. One reviewer described the story as "cringe - worthy". That does pretty much round it off. This book is not for those that don't want loads of blood and violence in their reads...but the characters are so off the wall you just have to see how they plan to solve this.

[Carol]

River Road by Carol Goodman
3 Stars

From The Book:
Nan Lewis—a creative writing professor at a university in upstate New York—is driving home from a faculty holiday party when she hits a deer. Yet when she gets out of her car to look for it, the deer is gone. Eager to get home before the oncoming snowstorm, Nan is forced to leave her car at the bottom of her snowy driveway to wait out the longest night of the year…

The next morning, Nan is woken up by a police officer at her door with terrible news—one of her students, Leia Dawson, was killed in a hit-and-run on River Road the night before, and because of the damage to her car, Nan is a suspect. In the days following the accident, Nan finds herself shunned by the same community that rallied around her when her own daughter was killed in an eerily similar accident six years prior. When Nan begins finding disturbing tokens that recall the her daughter’s death, Nan suspects that the two accidents are connected.

As she digs further, she discovers that everyone around her, including Leia, has been hiding secrets. But can she uncover them, clear her name, and figure out who really killed Leia before her life is destroyed for ever?

My Views:
It was a well told story but if like me, you like to be fed information so that you can work out who the killer is, you will be disappointed here. This author has always had a way of making the "bad guy" one you would least expect but not this time. You will know exactly... without a doubt by page 50. It seemed that Nan was the only person that didn't know. So...3 stars for a good story line but not much suspense.

[Carol]

The Forbidden Tomb by Chris Kuzneski
The Hunters series Book #2
4 stars

From The Book:
For nearly two thousand years, the legendary tomb of Alexander the Great—and the extraordinary riches concealed within—has remained undiscovered, but recent events may hold the key to locating the fabled vault. Only one team has what it takes to solve the mystery that has plagued historians for centuries. he Hunters—an elite group assembled by an enigmatic billionaire to locate the world’s greatest treasures—are tasked with finding the tomb. Following clues to Alexandria, they encounter hostile forces that will do anything to stop them. Before long, the treasure hunt becomes a deadly rescue mission that will take the lives of hundreds and leave a city in ruins. As the danger continues to mount, will they rise to the challenge? Or will the team be killed before they find the ultimate prize?

My Thoughts:
This is an exceptional series with true to life, believable characters and more action and adventure than anyone could possibly ask for. You won't always like the decisions that are made...you may become frustrated with some of the actions...but you will always be amazed at their individual abilities and skills. This one was headed for another half star at least...until the end. Sorry, Chris...but that was disappointing on so many levels.