Book Review: Something Missing by Matthew Dicks

Finished reading May 5, 2016

Synopsis at Good Reads

A career criminal with OCD tendencies and a savant-like genius for bringing order to his crime scenes, Martin considers himself one of the best in the biz. After all, he’s been able to steal from the same people for years on end—virtually undetected. Of course, this could also be attributed to his unique business model—he takes only items that will go unnoticed by the homeowner. After all, who in their right mind would miss a roll of toilet paper here, a half-used bottle of maple syrup there, or even a rarely used piece of china buried deep within a dusty cabinet?

Even though he's never met these homeowners, he's spent hours in their houses, looking through their photo albums and reading their journals. In essence, Martin has developed a friendship of sorts with them and as such, he decides to interfere more in their lives—playing the part of a rather odd guardian angel—even though it means breaking many of his twitchy neurotic rules.

Along the way Martin not only improves the lives of others, but he also discovers love and finds that his own life is much better lived on the edge (at least some of the time) in this hilarious, suspenseful and often profound novel about a man used to planning every second of his life, suddenly forced to confront chaos and spontaneity.


My review at Good Reads 
4 of 5 stars

This was quirky and fun read. Imagine; a story where the good guy is a professional thief! I got to know Martin, the main character, well and a good description of his “clients.” It made me think about how secure our own home is and how much we really pay attention to the things we have. Could we have had a weekly visitor back in my working days that helped himself to ten packets from the 100 packet Splenda box or a ream of printer paper from the case of paper we had with no printer in the house? I love a story that can make you really think, even about the silly.

Some reviewers think there was a lot of brand name product placement. I didn’t think so. Maybe it’s a “born in Detroit” thing, but I always said “the Camaro” rather than “the car.” Friends and family have always referred to their cars by the make or model rather than the generic term. Other name brands mentioned either gave an indication of price and quality of some items or were used for the purpose of describing shopping areas. I find books that make too much of an effort to avoid mentioning brands to be far more annoying.

It was a sweet story and a fun read for a break in between deeper or more serious books.

Book Review: The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins

Finished April 4. 2016

Synopsis at Good Reads

A debut psychological thriller that will forever change the way you look at other people’s lives.

Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.

And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?

Compulsively readable, The Girl on the Train is an emotionally immersive, Hitchcockian thriller and an electrifying debut.


My review at Good Reads
4.5 of 5 stars

The Girl On The Train has been compared to Gone Girl. I'm glad I didn't read that before I read the book because I probably wouldn't have read it. I hated Gone Girl and really liked The Girl On The Train.

The story is told in first person by the main character with chapters told by. 2 other supporting characters. Three women; an alcoholic and 2 with fidelity issues, one likes married men and one likes any men. I still found 2 of them understandable, even likable. I moaned every time the alcoholic fell off the wagon after a couple of dry days like she was a personal friend.

The characters are well developed and their relations with each other are complex. The story moves well with lots of gentle twists. Some of those twists I could figure out a little before the main character did and some surprised me as much as they did her. The climax was exciting and hard to put down. I loved the last line!

Book Review: Long Shot by Mike Piazza, Lonnie Wheeler

Finished March 27, 2016

Synopsis at Good Reads:

Mike Piazza's autobiography—the candid story of the greatest hitting catcher in the history of baseball, from his inauspicious draft selection to his Hall of Fame-worthy achievements and the unusual controversies that marked his career.

Mike Piazza was selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 62nd round of the 1988 baseball draft as a "courtesy pick." The Dodgers never expected him to play for them – or anyone else. Mike had other ideas. Overcoming his detractors, he became the National League rookie of the year in 1993, broke the record for season batting average by a catcher, holds the record for career home runs at his position, and was selected as an All Star twelve times.

Mike was groomed for baseball success by his ambitious, self-made father in Pennsylvania, a classic father-son American-dream story. With the Dodgers, Piazza established himself as baseball's premier offensive catcher; but the team never seemed willing to recognize him as the franchise player he was. He joined the Mets and led them to the memorable 2000 World Series with their cross-town rivals, the Yankees. Mike tells the story behind his dramatic confrontation with Roger Clemens in that series. He addresses the steroid controversy that hovered around him and Major League Baseball during his time and provides valuable perspective on the subject. Mike also addresses the rumors of being gay and describes the thrill of his game-winning home run on September 21, 2001, the first baseball game played in New York after the 9/11 tragedy. Along the way, he tells terrific stories about teammates and rivals that baseball fans will devour.

Long Shot is written with insight, candor, humor, and charm. It's surprising and inspiring, one of the great sports autobiographies.


My review at Good Reads: 
1 of 5 stars

It took me a long time to read this book. I expected to like it a lot. I was a Piazza fan from his rookie year. I watched any game on cable TV that included the Dodgers, listened to night games when the Cardinals, Cubs, Pirates or any team with a radio superstation and a good bounce that could delver the games from LA at night to the Detroit area. I even paid some serious cash to the baseball card store when they got his Bowman rookie card in. I called him my first "adopted rookie," telling everyone about him in 1993 and following his career. I was excited to read his autobiography.

Mike was a great ball player. Mike is a lousy writer.

The wonderful story of the 62nd round draft pick who became a super star became tainted with incessant whining. He had help getting to levels in his minor league days but seemed to find fault because things weren't happening his way or at his pace. He had the talent that drew the media but lacked media savvy and blamed the media when they were critical. And I could have accepted, even belived that, if it wasn't a career-long recurring theme.

Too big a portion of the book was devoted to defending the steroid users. While I do agree that legal supplements and weight rooms contribute to numbers getting bigger and records being broken, that doesn't excuse the use of performance enhancing drugs and in truth makes it more inexcusable.

There is just too much unessesary detail in everything. The book is over 600 pages and it would have lost nothing if it was edited to 400. In the end the books tells that Mike was a great player who didn't get credit for how great he was. He powered through constant adversity because everyone stood in the way. He sure hates the Dodgers. Steroid users aren't so bad and our society would be better if we were all Roman Catholic. My husband asked me if reading Piazza's book changed my mind about him. No, Mike Piazza was an awesome baseball player who had a stellar career. I just don't want to read it if he writes another book and I don't think I'd want to have a beer with him.

Hell's Corner (Camel Club #5) by David Baldacci

Finished November 18, 2015

Synopsis at Good Reads

Oliver Stone and the Camel Club return in #1 bestselling author David Baldacci's most stunning adventure yet.

An attack on the heart of power . . .

In sight of the White House . . .

At a place known as . . .

HELL'S CORNER

John Carr, aka Oliver Stone-once the most skilled assassin his country ever had-stands in Lafayette Park in front of the White House, perhaps for the last time. The president has personally requested that Stone serve his country again on a high-risk, covert mission. Though he's fought for decades to leave his past career behind, Stone has no choice but to say yes.

Then Stone's mission changes drastically before it even begins. It's the night of a state dinner honoring the British prime minister. As he watches the prime minister's motorcade leave the White House that evening, a bomb is detonated in Lafayette Park, an apparent terrorist attack against both leaders. It's in the chaotic aftermath that Stone takes on a new, more urgent assignment: find those responsible for the bombing.

British MI-6 agent Mary Chapman becomes Stone's partner in the search for the unknown attackers. But their opponents are elusive, capable, and increasingly lethal; worst of all, it seems that the park bombing may just have been the opening salvo in their plan. With nowhere else to turn, Stone enlists the help of the only people he knows he can trust: the Camel Club. Yet that may be a big mistake.

In the shadowy worlds of politics and intelligence, there is no one you can really trust. Nothing is really what it seems to be. And Hell's Corner truly lives up to its name. This may be Oliver Stone's and the Camel Club's last stand.


My review at Good Reads
4.5 of 5 stars

Wow! This was a great book with lots of action . I've said before they the Camel Club series has a definite Scooby-Doo essence to it, maybe in the way of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show’s Scooby Gang which was darker. Given that, I accept that the heroes and the villains are sometimes a bit over the top. They are very enjoyable.

The story involves multiple big agencies in Washington and England battling the group responsible for a bomb that caused much damage and a major investigation. Oliver Stone was asked to work for the government again for one case. Paired with Mary Chapman, an MI-6 British intelligence agent, they always seem to be one step behind the perpetrators. Clues lead them one direction only to find the truth seems to begin another. Why is that happening? There is a traitor in the ranks, but who?

I enjoyed the plot that seemed to leave the gate twisting. It made a book that was exciting to read. If you enjoy crime mysteries and stories revolving around governments, I definitely recommend the Camel Club series, but read them in order and don't expect to nitpick the believability - just enjoy the ride.

Book Review Murderous Traits: The Rare Traits Trilogy Book III by David George Clarke

Finished October 29, 2015

Synopsis from Good Reads

The third book in the fast-paced Rare Traits Trilogy of modern and historical mystery thrillers, Murderous Traits continues the tale of the apparently immortal 15th-century artist John Andrews and those who share his extraordinary longevity, interweaving once again the present and the past, self-preservation and murder, art history and forensic science, immortality and DNA.

John Andrews is in a state of shock. Just weeks after meeting his daughter Paola for the first time – almost 500 years after she was born in Naples – she is abducted and DNA evidence shows that the culprit is Jacques Bognard, John’s seafaring friend from 17th century Marseille.

When the body of a brutally murdered, unknown woman is discovered in Paola’s Cape Cod house and Paola’s own identity is found to be false, the police are baffled. And the deeper they dig, the more mysterious the case becomes.

In the gripping, fast-paced finale to the Rare Traits Trilogy, the apparently immortal John Andrews finds himself in a desperate search for his daughter that leads him from the US to the UK and then to the area of Tuscany he knew as a young man in the 15th century.

Meanwhile, in the frustration of her captivity, Paola must come to terms with her psychopathic tendencies …


My review at Good Reads
5 of 5 stars

The only thing bad I can think to say about this book is that it’s number three in the trilogy! Even at that there does remain an opening for possibly more at the end...

John Andrews, as he is currently known, has been painting master works since the Renaissance under many different names., The rare trait of his DNA leaves him impervious to ailments and factors that cause aging and he enjoys the appearance and health of a man in his 30s with the mind and an impeccable memory of a man who has seen over 500 years of the world. He has loved, married and seen friends, family, even children age and leave his world. There are also a few offspring who have inherited their father’s remarkable traits and those family members have begun to find each other.

But there are “bad apples’ in every family and having incredible health and near immortality is in no way a guarantee of happiness or morality. How are those rare traits passed on? Can a test-tube baby be created to have those traits? To what extent will someone go to create progeny of their own?

The final book of the Rare Traits trilogy takes the reader through the intrigue of how the remarkable genetic traits become easier to understand and discover and possibly exploit in the modern world. The antagonist, who has kidnapped and threatened in order to replicate the DNA to a new generation, must be discovered and the captives freed using both modern technology and ages old methods for remaining elusive. The action is great, the drama intense and it intermingles great fictional “traits” and rich historical references. And, like any of rare Traits trilogy, once you pick up the book, it’s near impossible to put down!

Book Review: Hannibal’s First Case: and two other Hannibal Jones Mystery shorts by Austin S. Camacho

Finished October 20, 2015

My review at Good Reads
4 of 5 stars

This was three short stories told in first person by Hannibal Jones himself. Honestly, I wouldn't recommend it as reading for someone not familiar with the Hannibal Jones series. For you, I recommend The Troubleshooter! But if you love the books, the short stories are like having a cup of coffee with Hannibal while he recounts something that has happened. From having read the books and some of the shorts, I can tell you you're enjoying coffee with a very sexy man who appreciates the finest coffee and is a great storyteller.

Book Review: Don't Say a Word (Don't Cry #2), by Beverly Barton

Finished October 18, 2015

Synopsis at Good Reads 

Cross Your Heart. . .

One by one, they will die. He has waited patiently, planning their final moments. Their tortured screams, their pleas for mercy--all will be in vain...

And Hope. . .

Homicide detective Julia Cass has witnessed plenty of crime scenes. But the murder of a Chattanooga judge is shocking in its brutality. Teamed with FBI agent Will Brannock, Julia delves into an investigation that soon unearths more bodies--all mutilated in the same way, all left with a gruesome souvenir of a killer's ruthless rage. . .

To Die. . .

The only way to stop the slaughter is to predict the next victim. But when you're dealing with vengeance at its most ruthless, one wrong move can make you a target. . .and the next word you utter could be your last. . .


My review at Good Reads
3 of 5 stars

Unlike the last book I read, which was a new writer’s first book, this one is an established writer’s last work. Beverly Barton died in 2011.  Don’t Say A Word is the sequel to Don’t Cry, but having not read Don’t Cry, I can promise it holds its own as a stand alone book.

I knew going in that this was "suspense romance" or something like that, but I got the book as a freebie, or maybe a daily pick Nook deal so it wasn’t a great financial investment and I thought I'd give it a try. It wasn't too bad. Personally, I could've done without the romance part. Pretty much everything that had to do with the sex and romance was completely over the edge as far as believability goes and I think it took away from the book. But the serial killer story, why I read the book, is well done.

The reader visits the killer’s mind and parts of the murders without divulging the identity or motive. His kills are planned and meticulous and he has a definite agenda. The federal and local detectives comb the scenes of the high profile crimes and follow leads that go in the wrong direction at times and put the pieces of the macabre puzzle together.

In the end, the killer’s motive and identity are revealed and it’s definitely a surprise. I was sure I’d figured out who he was and I was very involved in screaming “no! That’s where he is!” to myself as I was reading the last couple chapters.  I absolutely love the attention to many details that were clues to the reader of the killer’s identity.

I enjoyed the murder mystery part of the book and if you like the investigative drama and serial killers, skim past the unrealistic romance garbage and there really is a very good story. 

Book Review: A Choice of Darkness (Major Crimes Task Force #1) by Jon D. Kurtz

Finished October 6, 2015

Synopsis at Good Reads

For millennia philosophers have explained the nature of the world in terms of dualities, such as masculine and feminine and fire and water. As a new year dawns over the capital city of Pennsylvania, far more ominous examples come to mind. The media debates the concept in terms of good and evil. A killer perceives it as a struggle between the light and the darkness. For members of the state's newest criminal task force, it's a matter of life and death.

Under cover of night, he trawls the streets of Harrisburg, relentlessly searching for answers to questions formed in a mind damaged by nature and a traumatic childhood. In his wake he leaves the lifeless bodies of his victims, each lovingly posed beneath a synthetic yellow blanket, the same type used by police and emergency personnel.

Venturing into the shadows, a diverse team of investigators quickly realizes little time remains before the killer chooses his next victim. Forced to navigate the fickle waters of inter-agency relations, lacking the trust of the community they seek to protect, and used as pawns in a political game of chess, the task force races to decipher actions spawned in a mind gripped by psychosis. Yet, their greatest challenge will not be external. Years of battling criminals, comforting victims, and living life leave scars. Hidden behind the stoic facade, even the most indomitable investigator faces demons.

Good or bad, cop or criminal, choices will be made. And with choices come consequences, some temporary, some lasting, and others…eternal.


My review at Good Reads
2 of 5 stars

The book started okay but by the time it was done my head felt like it might explode! This was a new author’s first book and I just felt like he was trying to tell every possible associated story in minute detail. It wound up feeling just overdone.

I’m not sure if the book was written as a thriller, an introduction to the task force or a probe into a killer’s mind. There was a lot of time spent in the killer’s mind; what planted the seed, how his psychotic mind works and what motivates him. The reader knew what he’d do and why almost before he even did it, so it’s definitely not a mystery.

Then there’s the main character; a cop who has been given the role of forming and leading a new special task force while he’s still dealing with his own mental demons of life after his wife’s passing five years ago. It’s not even presented as a strong subplot, yet while he was assessing a potential lead his mind broke into a enthralled like a schoolgirl daydream about kissing a woman the night before. I’ve never been involved in something big at work and drifted off to thinking about my romantic life, in fact a project at work has more often worked for forgetting a romantic situation. Maybe obsessing about one’s love life at work is a guy-thing I don’t know about.

There were many places where things were over-explained. If the book is in the killer’s mind, I don’t need an additional narrative telling me what society thinks is normal. As the reader, I AM society. I know what’s normal and understand that his thinking is not acceptable.

The story was slow and the end was worse. I think in the end there was a chase scene. I think it was after a twist in the plot where the killer became mentally clouded in a different way and it was a shocking total change. The writing was in many characters’ minds and the mental explanations were more detailed than what was actually happening. That lessened the action and the intensity of what I think was supposed to be the book’s climax. There were multiple points where the story could have ended but jumped back in and went further. It became less believable as it went on. After switching gears between thriller, psychology text and personality study throughout the book, it moved into a spiritual story describing things in a way that just didn’t fit with the way the rest of the book was written.

It finished with an epilogue that basically told you that the police never did figure out as much as the reader does. The epilogue was basically a wrap up of the things other books leave out because they aren’t necessary. I was surprised to see an epilogue because the book seemed like it had already ended. After reading the epilogue, I still wondered why it was there.

A Choice of Darkness didn’t leave me soured on a new author, but it didn’t leave me with an anxious desire to read Book #2 either.

Book Review: Divine Justice (Camel Club #4) by David Baldacci

Finished September 4, 2015

Synopsis at Good Reads

Known by his alias, "Oliver Stone," John Carr is the most wanted man in America. With two pulls of the trigger, the men who hid the truth of Stone's past and kept him in the shadows were finally silenced. But Stone's freedom has come at a steep price; the assassinations he carried out have prompted the highest levels of the United States Government to unleash a massive manhunt. Joe Knox is leading the charge, but his superiors aren't telling him everything there is to know about his quarry-and their hidden agendas are just as dangerous as the killer he's trying to catch. Meanwhile, with their friend and unofficial leader in hiding, the members of the Camel Club must fend for themselves, even as they try to protect him. As Knox closes in, Stone's flight from the demons of his past will take him far from Washington D.C., to the small, isolated coal-mining town of Devine, Virginia-and into a confrontation every bit as bloody lethal as the one he left behind.

My review at Good Reads

5 or 5 stars

Initially I had a character problem with this one. Two of my favorite authors use the same last name for men of different levels of authority at CIA. Maybe I should change genres and read those books with Flavios and Blades to swoon over. Nah, I’ll stick to getting used to THIS Knox; Joe. It only messed with me for a couple of chapters before I focused on the current Knox anyway.

It was a great follow-up to Stone Cold, picking up where it ended and answering my question about how there could be a Book 4. Oliver is being hunted by CIA investigator, Joe Knox. Knox was ordered to locate John Carr (AKA Oliver Stone) and report back to a higher up wo unbeknownst to Knox had a personal reason he wanted Carr silenced before he was caught by some other branch of government where the higher up could end up facing having to admit to not so legal doings of his own if Carr was brought to trial.

Oliver saved a young man in a 3 on 1 fight and travelled back home with him to a quiet small town where Stone figured he might be able to hide for a while. Except that it turned out the little town of Divine wasn’t so quiet. Stone ended up in the middle of a murder investigation with a bigger than you’d expect in a small town drug ring involving a power dunk warden at the local super-max prison and the drug-addicted workers of the local coal mine. Not so quiet, but definitely the base for some serious action and the book doesn’t disappoint.

Members of the Camel Club are searching for their needle-in-a-haystack friend by tailing Knox unearthing clues to Oliver’s whereabouts just after Knox does while trying to get to Stone before Knox does. As Knox searches for John Carr he finds facts that point to him not being involved in legit investigation for reasons of questionable morality. The questions in Knox’s mind become even less clear when he finally finds John Carr; war hero who has become Ben; drifter and local hero.

It’s a great book with action, moral dilemma and even a little bit of a love scene. See, I don’t need to change genres after all. Considering where this book ends, I look forward to seeing where book 5 goes!

Book Review: Bullseye by David Baldacci

Finished August 24, 2015

Synopsis at Good Reads

Will Robie is closing in on his next target when he finds himself in the middle of a bank heist--and he's taken hostage alongside Oliver Stone. But is this just a simple bank job, or are the robbers after something even more valuable--and dangerous--than the cash in the vault?


My Review at Good Reads
5 of 5 stars

Bullseye is a short story, so it’s a quick read. It pairs Will Robie and The Camel Club, an awesome combination! At closing time on a Saturday at the bank in the mall, the security guard closing the doo¬r is killed by 4 people in masks with a covered cart. Will Robie and Oliver Stone are in the bank when the robbery starts. But is it a robbery or something else? The group is skilled and has the details down. They confiscate Robie’s gun and every cell phone or device of communication from the hostages and move them into a room that is also void of communication to start their work.

Oliver gets a message out to the Camel Club and he and Robie, who don’t know each other, work together in the bank while the other members of the Camel Club work in the mall to figure out what the actual target of this gang that’s sawing something outside of the closed room the hostages are in.

I’m not giving spoilers, but it’s great brainwork and action in a pretty quick read. Stone and Robie are a good working pair, with Stone trying to get Will Robie to admit who he is and what he does and Robie not admitting when Stone’s guesses are right. It was a great quick read and the quality I’ve grown to expect from Baldacci.

Book Review: Stone Cold (Camel Club #3) by David Baldacci

 Finished August 21, 2015

Synopsis at Good Reads

The #1 bestselling author of The Collectors and Simple Geniusreturns with STONE COLD...an unforgettable novel of revenge, conspiracy, and murder that brings a band of unlikely heroes face-to-face with their greatest threat.

Oliver Stone, the leader of the mysterious group that calls itself the Camel Club, is both feared and respected by those who've crossed his path. Keeping a vigilant watch over our leaders in Washington, D.C., the Camel Club has won over some allies, but it has also earned formidable enemies-including those in power who will do anything to prevent Stone and his friends from uncovering the hidden, secret work of the government.

Annabelle Conroy, an honorary member of the Camel Club, is also the greatest con artist of her generation. She has swindled forty million dollars from casino king Jerry Bagger, the man who murdered her mother. Now he's hot on her trail with only one goal in mind: Annabelle's death. But as Stone and the Camel Club circle the wagons to protect Annabelle, a new opponent, who makes Bagger's menace pale by comparison, suddenly arises.

One by one, men from Stone's shadowy past are turning up dead. Behind this slaughter stands one man: Harry Finn. To almost all who know him, Finn is a doting father and loving husband who uses his skills behind the scenes to keep our nation safe. But the other face of Harry Finn is that of an unstoppable killer who inevitably sets his lethal bull's-eye on Oliver Stone. And with Finn, Stone may well have met his match.

As Annabelle and the Camel Club fight for their lives, the twists and turns whipsaw, leading to a finale that is as explosive as it is shattering. And when buried secrets are at last violently resurrected, the members of the Camel Club left standing will be changed forever.

With unrelenting pacing, stunning reversals, and two of the most compelling characters in modern fiction, STONE COLD is David Baldacci writing at his breathtaking best.


My review at Good Reads
5 of 5 stars

I adore that in this series the good guys and bad guys are gun metal gray and silver rather than black and white in their MOs and motives. I’m not saying the lines between main character heroes and villains are blurred, but some of the supporting cast may change your mind...and change it back before you finish the book.

There are two stories happening separately and together in Stone Cold and they coexist very well with both complete and intense and neither one taking anything from the other. Let me ask you this: When is it okay to kill? Sure in self-defense, but revenge? And if revenge is justifiable when does it become justifiable? When a family member is killed? When you suspect a child may have been killed? What about when the same killer is still killing the people you care about many years later? Like I said; gun metal gray and silver.

The end of the book was more than I expected and the big question as I finished was “I thought there were more books in the series; HOW?” The very end could have gone one of two ways. It obviously wen the other one. I’m anxious to read what’s in Book 4!

Book Review: Inferno (Reilly Steel #2) by Casey Hill

Finished July 20, 2015

Synopsis on Good Reads

Read the clues. Decode the science. Reveal the murderer.

That's Reilly Steel's mantra. Find the answers, solve the crime. But the Quantico-trained forensic investigator is finding her skills aren't enough when a ferociously intelligent killer strikes Dublin.

The modus operandi is as perplexing as it is macabre. What connects the two seemingly disparate, high-profile victims?

Their corpses refuse to give up their secrets and the crime scenes prove a forensic investigator's worst nightmare. Reilly soon suspects that she may be dealing with a killer - or killers - who know all about crime scene investigation.

The police are just as frustrated by the crimes' impenetrable nature and it's only when a third murder occurs - equally graphic and elaborate in its execution - that they discover that this particular killer is using a very specific blueprint for his crimes.

Who is the killer's next victim, the real target? And what's his endgame?


My Review on Reads
5 of 5 stars

Inferno is the follow-up to Taboo and it was a great read. I didn't expect a reference to Dates Inferno and the Divine Comedy, since a book by the same name I read at the beginning of the year was, but I loved the art references and also enjoyed comparing the way those references were used so differently. The murders were gruesome in accordance with the dark Renaissance work they take their influence e from.

A brilliant killer stays one step ahead of the police, even after they put the murders together and start to figure out the puzzle. And the motive; are the heinous crimes somehow justified? Can they be? I love a book that's intense, exciting and makes you think. Inferno did a wonderful job of that!

Book Review: Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs by Johann Hari

Finished July 20, 2015

Synopsis on Good Reads

It is now one hundred years since drugs were first banned in the United States. On the eve of this centenary, journalist Johann Hari set off on an epic three-year, thirty-thousand-mile journey into the war on drugs. What he found is that more and more people all over the world have begun to recognize three startling truths: Drugs are not what we think they are. Addiction is not what we think it is. And the drug war has very different motives to the ones we have seen on our TV screens for so long.

In Chasing the Scream, Hari reveals his discoveries entirely through the stories of people across the world whose lives have been transformed by this war. They range from a transsexual crack dealer in Brooklyn searching for her mother, to a teenage hit-man in Mexico searching for a way out. It begins with Hari's discovery that at the birth of the drug war, Billie Holiday was stalked and killed by the man who launched this crusade- and it ends with the story of a brave doctor who has led his country to decriminalize every drug, from cannabis to crack, with remarkable results.

Chasing the Scream lays bare what we really have been chasing in our century of drug war-in our hunger for drugs, and in our attempt to destroy them. This book will challenge and change how you think about one of the most controversial-and consequential-questions of our time


My review on Good Reads

5 of 5 stars

I’d almost call this as essential a read for adults as the recreational drugs book my mother gave my brother and me to read when we were teens. She told us that the book, which of course she’d read first, was to let us know what is there and what it’s supposed to do, including side effects and the likelihood of addiction and dangers from taking the drug. She was always open to discussion but she told us to think; make intelligent decisions. As lax as some may think it was, neither of us had drug problems and did more telling people what the drug we were refusing did than experimenting when we were younger.

Chasing The Scream is a book like that, almost a follow-up to that book from my teen years. It starts with how the “war on drugs” started and follows cases of addiction, laws, punishment, street gangs, violence and murder from that beginning to present day. Careers have been made and ruined by this war, lives have been saved and ended.

The book also addresses the harm drug prohibition does. Similar to alcohol prohibition it curbed the use of drugs a little, but it also made more people criminals. There have been behavior tests that have debunked the strength of addiction to the drugs themselves there have been programs tried at relaxing laws and helping addicts that have worked. There has also been violent resistance. Imagine the governments making money or political inroads from the war and drug kingpins that decorate their mansions with profits because what they sell is illegal and users caught dangerously in the middle, just like it was with the government and gangsters in alcohol prohibition. More people ended up in jail or dead for visiting a speakeasy than the people opening the door or supplying the bathtub gin.

If I sound a little swayed, I am. After reading about the huge strides groups and governments have made with efforts to end the war on drugs and help people affected by them; the people who have actually tried to understand why addiction happens. Drugs and partying is not something new to civilized mankind but addiction is more prolific today. Maybe it’s not what drugs do to people but what people don’t do for other people.

Chasing The Scream, is a well-researched book told in easy to understand language. Real stories and real people tell the history and suggest the future of the war on drugs or its end. I’m not going to all out try to change minds…yet…but I definitely encourage everyone to read this book with your mind open and form your own opinions.

Book Review: Antiques Maul by Barbara Allan

Finished March 25, 2015

Synopsis on Good Reads

After her impossible-but-adorable mother quits the local theater group, Brandy Borne has a brilliant idea for keeping Mother out of trouble: open their own booth at the new antiques mall in town. But things turn grim when a body is found between the cigar-store Indian and the chamber pot. The local law believes that normally good-natured Brad Pit Bull, the victim's dog, mauled its owner to death. But Brandy and Mother suspect the hound has been framed. And as Halloween approaches, true terror unmasks itself when Brandy's young son, Jacob, goes missing. Now Brandy and her diva mom are on the hunt to find Jake before a devious killer can maul again.


My Review on Good Reads
3.5 of 5 stars

I read the first book in the Trash ‘n Treasures series, Antiques Road Kill, a couple years ago and found it to be a cute read with fun characters and a light murder-mystery. Antiques Maul is a natural continuation of those characters with main character and first person narrator, Brandy Borne, and her eccentric mother, Vivian, maintaining their booth, number 13, at the local antiques mall. The Borne women are once again involved enough in a murder that they need to solve it before they’re next!

I enjoyed the book as just what I expected it to be; a cute story and characters that made me chuckle. It didn’t have to be believable; it just had to make sense within itself. It was an entertaining light read.

Book Review: 50 Shades of Grey by E.L. James

Finished March 5, 2015

Synopsis on Good Reads

When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms.

Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.

Erotic, amusing, and deeply moving, the Fifty Shades Trilogy is a tale that will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever.


My review on Good Reads

1 of 5 stars (because I can’t give 0 on Good Reads)

Back in 2012 my husband and I joined my vacationing family in North Carolina for a few days of our vacation time at The Outer Banks. One afternoon I was sitting in the living room at the beach house with my Nook. My aunt asked me “Are you reading 50 Shades of Grey?” The highly touted for being scandalous book was new and very popular. I thought then and still believe it’s true ta this book could only become as popular as it did because of eReaders. With an eReader you can read anything anywhere and no one can see the book’s cover or title to judge.

I wasn’t reading 50 Shades of Grey in the summer of 2012. I was actually pretty shocked that my aunt asked if I was specifically reading that book instead of “What are you reading? I really do believe eReaders are what made the “scandalous content” popular for the average American Soccer Mom.

Now 2-1/2 years later the movie is out, the “raunchy BDSM content” is all the talk again and the debates about if the book; Is actually porn? Is the movie porn? Does it demean women or support the abuse of women? Is it a preachy sermon about a woman submitting to a man like the bible says?

Okay, that last one is a sarcastic comment by me. I really haven’t read about any ministers liking it.

The truth is, it’s just a romance novel and not a very good one. Yes, Mr. Grey has a fully stocked play room. It was referred to more than it was actually visited or used in the book. The sex, and there was a lot of it, wasn’t anything even a little kinky until 60% of the way into the book. (Thank you Kindle for measuring the book in percentages) I read a few Harlequin romances in my 20s. There was a 3-books-a-month deal with a very nice set of canapé knives that came with a block for serving; one knife each month. I got the books until I had all six canapé knives and then cancelled the subscription because the books were basically all the same. There is more sex in 50 Shades of Grey than I recall in the Harlequins but it was more boring than I remember the sex being in the Harlequin books. Maybe that’s because I was in my 20s then and I’m in my 40s now. Maybe a romance novel needs more sex to sell to the “modern woman.”

I read the book as fast as I could, often skimming through the sex scenes; all I needed to know was which piece of furniture and the rest was the same as the last chapter. The novel is in first person, told by the main character, Ana, and I didn’t like her at all; I really wanted out of her silly head. The book really wasn’t well written, the story was trite, and I disliked the narrator; a crappy book trifecta. Much like the lead up to the movie release of Blair Witch Project, the product was unworthy of the hype.

I got my 50 shades of pop culture. Now I’m going to find a GOOD book to read.

Book Review: The Collectors by David Baldacci (Camel Club #2)

Finished February 28, 2015

Synopsis at Good Reads

In Washington, D.C, where power is everything and too few have too much of it, four highly eccentric men with mysterious pasts call themselves the Camel Club. Their mission: find out what's really going on behind the closed doors of America's leaders.

The assassination of the U.S. Speaker of the House has shaken the nation. And the outrageous iconoclasts of the Camel Club have found a chilling connection with another death: the demise of the director of the Library of Congress's rare books room, whose body has been found in a locked vault where seemingly nothing could have harmed him.

A man who calls himself Oliver Stone is the groups unofficial leader. Staying one step ahead of his violent past and headquartered in a caretaker's cottage in Mt. Zion Cemetery, Stone, drawing on his vast experience and acute deductive powers, discovers that someone is selling America to its enemies one classified secret at a time. When Annabelle Conroy, the greatest con artist of her generation, struts onto the scene in high-heeled boots, the Camel Club gets a sexy new edge. And they'll need it, because the two murders are hurtling them into a world of high-stakes espionage that threatens to bring America to its knees.

From an ingenious con in Atlantic City tho the possible forgery of one of the rarest and most valuable books in America history, to a showdown of epic proportions in the very heart of the capitol, David Baldacci weaves a brilliant, white-knuckle tale of suspense in which every collector is searching for one missing prize: the one to die for.


My review at Good Reads

4 of 5 Stars

Sometimes I feel like that tough English teacher who doesn’t grade on a class curve but on a personal curve; how does this compare to what you’re capable of doing? I do rate this higher than the first Camel Club book, but I still struggle with believability issues.

I like the Camel Club; I mean I like the characters, the individuals in the club come from varied pasts and presents, build on each other’s strengths and support each other’s weaknesses, like people do in good friendships, and they are good friends. And those traits of supportive teamwork are essential in business for successful team efforts, which is why I don’t have any personal issues with the Camel Club’s efforts working in the end. It’s just sometimes it’s hard to believe they don’t get caught doing some things. Then again I’m usually surprised when they do get caught because they seem to be approaching it more sensibly than the times they didn’t. The point is that, believability of the plot aside; I’d sit down for coffee with any member of the Camel Club except that I would worry about the possibility a new very real conspiracy starting with a poisoned cup of coffee.

There was one “scene” in The Collectors where once the bad-guys left the room I could hear the announcer from the old Adam West Batman series posing the rhetorical “Will our heroes escape with their lives?” questions with a “Same Camel Chapter” promise to read on and find out. I enjoyed the old Batman series as a kid, but I sat down in front of the TV with very different expectations than I do when I open a thriller to read. I do admit that as I get used to that combination of serious, a little funny and some over the top so far the suspense is silly combination those expectations change and the reading is more pleasurable.

I liked the see-sawing between the head spy and the Camel Club and that the Camel Club did not have it all figured out in the second chapter. They were even wrong in some of their deductions from the facts presented. I like the addition of “Annabelle” even though her seeming infallibility was a bit much.

If you’re looking for a thriller that makes you wonder if maybe what you’re reading could actually be going on somewhere, there are Baldacci titles that will give you that, but 2 books in I’d say the Camel Club books don’t fit that bill. What you do get is four likable guys, some beyond logic clues and situations, a little bit of old Batman TV and a bad-guy reveal bat the end that has a little flavor of Scooby-Do with guns. I have to admit I enjoyed it although I’m not personally handing out any literary awards. As much as I hate cliff hangers, there is a cliff hanger, so Camel Club #3 is already in my e-library.

The Best and Worst Week

The week started with a new month and me wanting to assess January as I went into it. But starting February 1 there was plenty of present to keep me from reviewing the recent past right away.

Of course Sunday was Super Bowl Sunday. The game outshined the commercials this year! There were a few good spots, but the football was exactly what you’re supposed to see when arguably the best from each conference face off in the biggest football event of the year. As a Patriots house we were biting nails at the very end, sure that we were about to see the Sea Hawks grab the victory on a drive at the very end only to screams and exchange happy high fives as Patriot’s rookie, Malcolm Butler, intercepted what would have been the end of the game loss for his team and essentially won the game and the title for the Pats.

Add to the coolness, it’s four Super Bowl rings for Tom Brady, who was the game MVP and was awarded a new truck from Chevy in recognition of that. Brady wanted to give that truck to Butler. The huge difference in incomes of the veteran star and the undrafted rookie would have had major taxable prize/gift implications because the truck would have been taxed at Brady’s considerably higher income with an additional gift tax for transferring it to Butler. Chevy stepped up and changed the awarding of the prize directly to Butler, taxable just as a prize at his income. Three-way awesomeness!


But on Sunday the news wasn’t so celebratory before the game in Toledo. We had snow, tons of it, falling. I’d already made a call for Rapid, LLC., our fantastic plow guys, to come over to do clean-up Sunday night, after the snow stopped and after the game if they had the interest/opportunity to watch. Yes I know we aren’t their only customers but the snow wasn’t supposed to stop until Sunday night, so maybe they’d have some time before they had to head out. It’s a small local company; they’re leaving home to go to work, not a garage with an army of plow tanks.

We were at a Level 3 Snow Emergency, no one who wasn’t medical, street maintenance or media out on the roads. How that started and played out was the darkest part of Sunday. Mayor, D. Michael Collins, held a press conference where he said that the Level 3 would start at 3PM. While driving home after that he suffered a cardiac arrest and his SUV drove into a utility pole. Two people called 911, and with the 911 operator’s guidance, pulled him from the SUV and started resuscitation as he wasn’t responsive. I listened to the 911 recording on The Blade website; they found ID and at that time realized who it was. Mayor Collins was taken the University of Toledo Medical Center where he was listed in critical condition. He died yesterday afternoon when he was taken off life support.

I feel a loss for my city because while it’s only just a little more than a year since Mayor Collins took office he faced so many challenges so well. From losing 2 firefighters, to record snowfall, cold and the snow removal crisis that accompanied that last winter to 2 days without drinkable water to start August and the call left to him when it was safe to drink from the tap again, and he handled them all with strength of character and reassuring confidence. But I think for me personally it’s also shown me how much smaller Toledo is than Detroit too. As a citizen the loss is personal too. Maybe it’s that I actually live in the city where I lived in Detroit suburbs; the mayor of the big city in the area is a choice on my election ballots. Maybe it’s that the mayor lived a block away from us. What I definitely know is that in a year he stretched the shoes in the Mayor’s office enough to make them even harder to fill in the special election that will be held in November.

Please visit The Blade to read about a great man with a personal history that built him into a great mayor. Unlike so many in politics he didn’t create problems, he solved them.

Toledo mourns loss of Mayor D. Michael Collins



In the closer personal Naniland my daily Lasix, water pill, and I have reached a tentative truce area. Simply if I don’t take it I can feel It; my legs swell, what mobility I have is compromised and I feel awful, part because with the swelling I still don’t drink enough water because rising up from the chair to go to the bathroom is painful. The anti-Lasix stance was self-destructive at best. So here is my wake-up to midafternoon ritual that’s worked well for me for the second half of this week.

Wake-up time is when my lower back and legs ache the worst. Bless David, he helps get me through morning stretching and downstairs and once he knows I’m down safely he goes back to bed because it’s usually before wake up time for him. Then I have my morning coffee and breakfast. Notice how I prioritize there? Starve me if you will, but don’t deny me my coffee! I take the Lasix after I’ve had a chance to really wake up and when it calls me to the bathroom I drink 2 Nani-gulps of water. 2 Nani-gulps usually empties a 16-oz bottle. I have no idea why, but it works. The urgency is down and the 3 times and hour bathroom trips have gone down to about 3 in 2 hours. I’m also keeping hydrated and feel a ton better during the day.

I Can Has Do Over!

I’m starting over on my reading for this year. I didn’t think the idea of having two books at a time is bad as long as I accept that the paper pages will go slower than the e-pages. The current paper page book is a hard cover. I’m slow at reading it and slow at getting into the story. That's not because I read slow. Until my first ereader in 2010 I always read slow and had to work to do that. My reading comprehension has always been great, I scored well in school, the Mensa test and thankfully I didn’t need to reread chapters to take tests in college. I just read black on white paper slow. But I read the whole Harry Potter Series, Gone With The Wind and the awful fan-fiction sequel, Scarlett in paperback or hardcover, the current book I just not captivating me. It does interest me though and books that have been slow but interesting to start in the past have often ended well for me. So, while it’s hardcover and honestly, I drop it a lot, I’m going to keep reading.


I think the problem was with the eBook I started with. I was reading that one at night because I wanted to get it over with, but I seemed to have100 pages left every time I looked. Here is the “When I stopped review” that I put on Good Reads when put it in my “did not finish” file.

The Lost Code by Keith Emmerson

I know this is a "young adult" book and sometimes I like to take a break from heavier reading and enjoy some light reading. I got as far as 178/276 pages and I couldn't bear the fact that there was still 100 pages to read. This wasn't the fluff mystery I was expecting it seemed to lose another screw from the reality cap with every chapter. It was taking me forever to read because it just never made me actually want to read it so I never picked it up. Maybe I'll finish it someday but for now I'm letting my brain wake up again in the worlds of murder and political gain. :)

So starting February 1 my new goal for the year is 22 books read, 22 reviews that I’ll post here. It’s the same hard cover in the “currently reading” window at the left but new e-title.

And so the do-over begins! :)

Book review: Inferno by Dan Brown

Finished January 4, 2015

Synopsis at Good Reads

Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon awakens in an Italian hospital, disoriented and with no recollection of the past thirty-six hours, including the origin of the macabre object hidden in his belongings. With a relentless female assassin trailing them through Florence, he and his resourceful doctor, Sienna Brooks, are forced to flee. Embarking on a harrowing journey, they must unravel a series of codes, which are the work of a brilliant scientist whose obsession with the end of the world is matched only by his passion for one of the most influential masterpieces ever written, Dante Alighieri's The Inferno.


My review at Good Reads

3 of 5 stars

First I will say there like this book a lot more than I did the last book I read by Dan Brown. I still haven't figured out if I really like the book or just kind a like the book. It's the oddest sensation I’ve ever had after reading a book. The art history offered in the book was fantastic and the facts about the art mostly accurate. I've read other reviews of Brown's work and I agree there is a tendency to add “known opinions” that never existed in with facts in a way that makes large parts of the fiction created around the fact to be more real than they are. But reader beware; don’t believe everything you read in FICTION. Brown does a great job of using researched facts to create a conspiracy theory on which to base the plot of his books. I really don't think that's a bad thing but sometimes it can be overdone. I guess it's both what I like most about the book and what bugs me most about the book. I like how all of the puzzle pieces fit together using the facts to create fiction. I wasn't crazy about the over-facting. It started to become tiresome.

But more than the conspiracy theory story that was sometimes overdeveloped I was bugged by characters that were a unbelievable. When you're developing a story that supposed to make the reader believe they are reading more possible additional facts, the characters need to be more believable. In the book that starts with the hero, Robert Langdon suffering from partial amnesia he has an incredible ability to remember just everything that he's ever come in contact with. Couple that with the female main character, Sienna Brooks, who is beyond genius with an IQ higher than most of the most intelligent people on earth and it it leaves the reader expecting no mistakes to ever be made and a much shorter book.

The end was too long. After a catastrophic climax that was left dangling at the end the rest of the book almost seems forced, as if there needed to be “something” else in there. It actually is kind of a sad ending in the unsolved global crisis and our lead hero taking a nap on the plane on the way home. It just left me feeling frustrated that no one actually did anything. I think a conspiracy theory fiction is supposed to leave you feeling hopeful that something can be done, not like a victim. I could just be reading too much into that too.

The action was good the details a bit overdone, but I like detail of historic art so I can't complain about that too much, but I am bothered by the unbelievability of many of the characters and definitely some parts of the plot. Oddly, however, as many little things about the book as I can easily complain about and as disappointed as I felt with the ending I can't really say that I didn't enjoy the book. Odd indeed.

Book Review: Spectrum by Alan Jacobson

Finished November 1, 2014

Synopsis at Good Reads

New York City: home to world-renowned museums, theater, restaurants, iconic sports franchises. Central Park. Wall Street. And an infamous serial killer who’s terrorized the Big Apple for decades.

The year is 1995 and the NYPD has just graduated a promising new patrol officer named Karen Vail. The rookie’s first day on the job is anything but easy when she finds herself at the crime scene of a young woman murdered in an unusual manner. Vail is unsure of what she’s looking at or what it means—but it’s a case that will weigh on her mind for nearly twenty years.

As the years pass, Vail’s career takes unexpected twists and turns—as does the case that’s come to be known as Hades. Now a skilled FBI profiler, will Vail be in a better position to catch the killer? Or will Hades prove to be Karen Vail’s hell on earth?

The character who has captivated readers worldwide—and who won the praise of literary giants Michael Connelly, James Patterson, and Nelson DeMille—returns in a story that captures the experiences that shaped the revered profiler and made her the top cop she is today.


My review at Good Reads

4.95 of 5 stars

Behold the writer whose pen leaks? There was one chapter I felt a little awkward with. Alan Jacobson is not perfect. That feels odd to hear me admit. I still loved the book and Jacobson remains my favorite current author.

I'm not a fan of prequels. But this isn't a prequel. But it is. It starts and finishes in the current day but this is a case that been with Karen Vale her whole career.

I enjoyed the developing killer's story and the understandable foundation of what life events turned his mind. Vale's beginning as a rookie NYC cop who fast tracked into homicide met with discrimination in the good old boys network and she stepped on toes of those above her in rank who bucked change even when she was right. The eventual turning point for her professionally was given direction through networking with FBI agents at a class that gave her a path in when the work politics were applying a stranglehold on her career.

There was a segment about 9-11-01 that was very tastefully and not sensationally done. Vale, born in New York and working in the FBI office in New York City at that time was definitely involved in the events of that day, and blessed by the luck of circumstances like many were. It was an important part of Vale's life and well done; the world may have been falling apart and crime may have dropped significantly in the days after, but no common criminal or murderer foresaw a terrorist attack on American soil before the exact moment it happened and the work of common crime scenes still went on.

The only chapter I wasn't impressed with was the "cutting room floor" segment from inmate 1577. The scene from Alcatraz was there to show that the case from early in Vale’s career had always been part of her world, but if a reader had picked up Spectrum before reading the other books they'd be thrown into a segment of a case they knew nothing about and characters whose personalities are foreign to them. I had to stop and reread a page to get reoriented. I’m not sure why this particular reference to a case from another book felt awkward to me and others didn't.

I loved the end where the twists in the killer that's haunted the NYC police for over 20 years really start. I had an idea who I thought the killer was and I picked the right one but oh was I surprised to see how he did it and how he was shifting the blame that kept police frustrated for so long! I also give Alan Jacobson big props for blasting a current and real media stereotype witch-hunt concerning an illness they are too often eager to assign blame to for violence, showing how assumptions can make the ones who assume it cooperative pawns in a killer’s plan.

Book Review: Taboo (Reilly Steel #1) by Casey Hill

Finished October 9, 2014

Synopsis at Good Reads

A first thriller co-written by Melissa Hill and her husband Kevin.
The story is set in Dublin and features forensic investigator Reilly Steel who has moved from the US to Dublin to be close to her father.
But what should have been a quiet period filled with training and Irish forensics team turns sinister and violent when body after body is found of people killed in what appears to be a twisted game.


My Review at Good Reads

3.5 of 5 stars

This book was a freebie on ireads. I found it interesting right from the start and it grabbed me more and more as the Book went on. The family ties in the story were reminiscent of the first Alan Jacobson Karen Vail thriller but Riley Steele is no Karen Vail. Vail is it character I love and Reilly Steele Is a strong character but with a much softer personality than Vail. I still enjoyed Steele as a character.

The story was written and flowed well, however as for editing and printing they were a few typos that even I caught which means there were likely more. Still the story was compelling enough that typos didn't matter. I thought the epilogue could've used a few more pages. It wasn't rushed but I would have preferred if it had been written to read a little slower. I will likely read the second book.