Wicked Business by Janet Evanovich

Lizzy and Diesel #2

            Lizzy and Diesel are back. This time they are on the hunt for the Luxuria stone, the Seligia stone of lust. Just like last time, Wolf and Hackitt are hot on their trail. And this time there is someone else looking for the stone as well. Someone even Diesel and Wolf don't know about.

            There is a scavenger hunt for clues in locations all around Massachusetts. And, this time Lizzy and Diesel need a little help from their friends. For instance, Diesel borrows a painting that seems to be the answer to a clue, but neither he nor Lizzy can figure out what it means. When Glo spots the painting, she can see numbered bells that no one else can. Once Lizzy and Diesel track down the bells, they cannot get them to chime, but Carl the monkey can. They persist in the hunt for, and eventually find, both the Luxuria stone and the clay tablet that will point the way to the next stone holder.

            I didn't enjoy this one as much as the first one. I just wasn't feeling the usual level of zaniness. Nor did I feel the levels of nuance surrounding the stone and its powers. Not to suggest this was not a fun book. The entertainment factor was quite high. I just don't think it lived up to the first book, Wicked Appetite.

Criminal by Karin Slaughter

Read by Kathleen Early

Will Trent #7

            It took me a while to get into this book. It is extremely well written, however, so despite feeling a bit leery at first, I kept listening. This is the first book I've read by Slaughter. She did such an amazing job of describing the descent of a typical middle class teenager into drugs and prostitution that I could easily imagine how the same thing could have happened to me. The story was gritty and real and made me very uncomfortable. I wasn't sure I wanted to listen to things like that for the several days it takes me to get through an audio book. But I could not walk away from such a compelling writer's work.

            While this series is about Will Trent, the story is about the first major case solved by his boss, Amanda, decades earlier. Prostitutes and had been disappearing in Atlanta.  But since no one was particularly interested in what happened to streetwalkers, no one realized there was a pattern, until Amanda and her partner are asked to go into the projects and interview a woman about a rape. There, they hear a story about girls gone missing.

            A few days later, the woman they spoke to is found dead on the pavement behind her building, an apparent suicide jump. But the facts of the case do not add up, and Amanda and her partner start looking into the deaths and disappearances.  They get almost as much grief from their fellow cops, at least the male ones, as they do from the criminal element. But they persevere, eventually, putting a serial killer behind bars. That serial killer was also Will Trent’s father.

            Now, daddy has been paroled and more girls come up missing mere weeks after he is back on the streets. Will is being blocked from investigating by his boss, Amanda. He is confused, angry and filled with mounting frustration. Amanda, too, is not happy about the situation. Not all her questions had been answered by the man’s arrest so long ago, and as she once again begins to investigate, she finds she did not completely clean up the mess she found as a green detective. This time around, though, there are no loose ends left hanging.

            I really liked this book. Yes, it made me very uncomfortable at times. But I was riveted. I regularly listen to an audio book for half an hour or so after I get off work at midnight, before I go to bed. I had several very late nights during this story, because I had trouble turning it off. I just had to hear a little more!

All Summer Long by Susan Mallory

Fools Gold #9

            This installment in the Fools Gold series is yet another quick fun read. This romance is between a firefighter and an underwear model. I know that sounds more like something that would appeal to the men folk, but in this instance, the firefighter is the girl and the underwear model is the boy. Isn't that a clever little twist?


            Charlie Dixon, firefighter, has decided she would like to become a mother, but she is concerned that her fear and distrust of men will have a bad effect on any children she has. She decides that the best way to overcome this shortcoming in herself is to ask a man to help her get past her fear of intimacy.

            Clay Stryker is the new man around Fools Gold. He is stepping away from a successful career as a model and "butt double". His extraordinary good looks have brought him fame and the adoration of women the world over. And the death of his wife has left him largely uninterested in the women who continue to throw themselves at him. He has moved to Fools Gold to be close to his family and to start up a new business in town. His plans to become an active member of the community include volunteering as a firefighter.

            When Charlie decides to ask the new guy to help her overcome her fears, she doesn't really think he will agree. When he does, they are both a little surprised. They are even more surprised to find how compatible they are. Once Charlie feels Clay has completely fulfilled his part of the bargain she is absolutely shocked when he tells he is glad their business arrangement has come to an end. Now they can start dating!

            Neither of them expects to fall in love, but it happens. They have their ups and downs, but ultimately join the ranks of the happy-ever-after in Fools Gold. If you’d like to see my other Fool’s Gold review, just click! Only Us

Wicked Appetite by Janet Evanovich

          Lizzie and Diesal #1

            Wicked Appetite is the first book in the Lizzie and Diesel series. I assume there will be seven books in the series as Evanovich is using the seven deadly sins device. This book is her usual fun and quirky style. Roll your eyes goofy and laugh out loud funny in places. The situation comedy aspect is very strong. How can an overly human monkey or a one-eyed ninja cat not be entertaining?

            Lizzie is a pastry chef with a particular talent for cupcakes. She works at a bakery in Salem, MA, home of the Salem Witch Trials. Considering where she works, the odd is not unusual. But when a tall, cadaverously pale man enters the bakery looking for her things get more than odd.

            After Wolf scares Lizzy half to death and leaves, his gorgeous cousin, Diesel, rolls in looking for her. He explains that he and Wolf are both looking for a special stone controlling gluttony. He says Lizzy has special abilities, not only with cupcakes, but also to feel the energy given off by this stone. He insists she help him find it. Since she finds herself unable to get rid of him, and he promises to protect her from Wolf, she assists.

            The hunt for the keys to the stones location becomes increasingly difficult and dangerous as the story progresses. Of course, the goofiness surrounding Lizzy increases apace, balancing tension and release nicely. And, while I have always associated gluttony with food, Evanovich uses a much broader definition to great effect.

            Lizzy and Diesel eventually find the stone, but find themselves at an impasse with Wolf at the same time. Wolf and Diesel agree to split the loot with him, and meet again another day - presumably in Wicked Business, Lizzy and Diesel #2.

            This is not the great American novel, but it doesn't seem to expect to be. It is seriously fun, and I recommend it. I am looking forward to the next installment in the series.

 

The Monkey’s Raincoat by Robert Crais

Elvis Cole #1

            This is not the kind of book I generally like Elvis Cole is not the kind of character that usually appeals to me. So what is it about this series that delights me?

            I like Elvis Cole. His sense of humor is a lot like mine. He's quirky and proud of it. He'll sleep with any woman he runs into, but mostly because he's trying to make both of them feel better. And he has great taste in friends. His business partner, friend and muscle, Joe Pike is great. A genuinely tough guy with a sense of other people's psyches, an OCD-like compulsion about clean cars, and not a lot to say. Elvis describes him as thinking that "Clint Eastwood talks too much."

            This is the first book in this series, published in 1987. I added it to my TBR list after reading Taken, the 13th in the series [Taken], and I'll be adding Stalking the Angel, the third in the series.

            Elvis Cole is a private investigator in Hollywood. This story starts with two women arriving in his office to hire him, a quiet doormat of a wife and her pushy, overbearing best friend. Mrs. Doormat's husband has disappeared with their son. She fears he has left her and their daughters. Elvis agrees to look into the situation for her. He agrees to meet her at her house to collect his retainer and look through her husband’s papers. When Elvis arrives he finds the place has been systematically and thoroughly tossed. His client refuses to call the police, not wanting to embarrass her husband when he returns as she believes he did the tossing.

            Elvis starts his investigation, first uncovering evidence of an affair. Further investigation reveals that hubby and side piece attended a party at the home of a wealthy drug dealer. As it turns out, two kilos of nearly pure cocaine were stolen during the party. Drug dealer assumes hubby took it.

            Elvis finally insists that the police be called in, and they quickly find hubby shot dead in his car. The boy is missing. The drug dealer has snatched him to use as an exchange for the drugs. There's just one problem. Hubby didn't take the dope. Now Elvis must find out who did take it, and be prepared to swap it for the boy without everyone getting killed.

            I really enjoyed this book. Although I'm still not sure why it is titled the way it is. Apparently it has to do with a haiku quoted at the beginning of the book. I recommend both the book and the series highly.

The Innocent by David Baldacci

            The Innocent is yet another "boy book" about a CIA assassin. Not my usual cup of tea, but this shooter seems to have a heart and a moral compass.

            The book starts with us watching a couple of bad guys being taken out by Will Robie at the behest of his CIA handler. Robie is patient, efficient and organized. But something goes wrong on his next assignment.

            Robie is told to kill a US government employee in Washington DC. He arrives in the woman's apartment to find her asleep with a toddler in the bed with her. Robbie's handler tells him via his earwig to shoot the boy as well as his mother. While Robie might buy that the woman is a traitor, he has trouble believing a toddler is. He refuses to shoot. However, a sniper round comes through the window killing both of mother and child with a single round. Robie takes off knowing the next round will be aimed at him. On his way out of the apartment, he finds an infant asleep in a carrier. He grabs the child, drops him in front of a neighbor's door, rings the bell and runs.

            At the same time another violent scenario is playing out in another part of DC. A teenage girl, Julie, has skipped out of her foster home and gone back to her parents place. They all intend to leave DC together and start a new life elsewhere. She arrives to find a stranger in the act of murdering her father. Her mother's dying act is to throw herself on the attacker to allow her daughter to escape. Julie runs for her life as directed.

            Both Robie and Julie choose to escape DC by catching the next bus to New York. Robie takes the back seat. Julie chooses one a couple of rows in front of him. The last guy on the bus seems very interested in Julie, but she is prepared to defend herself with a can of pepper spray. Robie also observes the guy's interest in Julie and after she uses the spray, Robie grabs her and hustles her off the bus. As they reach the ground, the entire bus explodes killing all the passengers. Robie doesn't know if the explosion was meant to kill him or Julie, but he takes no chances. He brings her on the run with him till he can find out what's going on.

            What he finds is a circle of traitors in very high places and a plot to assassinate the president. A plot that could have been foiled by Julie's father and the men and women he had served with in the army during the first Gulf war. As twisted and confusing as the circumstances are, Robie and Julie figure it out and keep the president alive.

            This was a pretty good book. My biggest problem with it was that I knew who the assassin was going to be before I figured out there was going to be an assassination. That character and Robie’s response just did not ring true.

            Boys are probably going to like this one, and if my husband hasn't read it yet, he is going to want to.

Samurai Game by Christine Feehan

Ghostwalkers #10

            This is another series that I'm arriving in the middle of. This one is about people who have natural psychic abilities and have been "enhanced". For instance, one guy has venom sacs on his wrists and can poison people with a touch. Both of the main characters in this story can teleport, or instantly transfer their molecules from one place to another without passing through the intervening space.

            All the enhanced characters in the story are Ghostwalkers, a clandestine military group that does special missions for the US government. All of them are former experiments of the mad doctor, Peter Whitney. So they have common ground, but very different individual experiences.

            Sam Johnson was raised by a US military father. Azami was raised in the Samurai tradition by a Japanese father. They meet when The Ghostwalkers become interested in the satellite technology offered by Azami's technology company. Azami and her brothers come to visit the Ghostwalkers well-fortified compound and it comes under attack. Sam and Azami find themselves engaged in combat with an unknown enemy. Sam is not only impressed with her abilities as a warrior, he is positively aroused. He never believed he could find a woman who would understand his way of life, but a warrior woman is perfect for him. And Azami finds in Sam a man who will accept, love and desire her despite the physical and mental scars left on her by her time with the mad doctor.

            I like Christine Feehan's stories, although she has a nasty violent streak! I don't think I'll be adding the first nine Ghostwalkers stories to my to-be-read list, but I will happily read others as they come along. And come along they must as the evil Dr. Whitney has not yet been eliminated.

Fifty Shades Freed by EL James

Fifty Shades #3

            This is the third book in this series. While I enjoyed the first two books [Fifty Shades Darker, Fifty Shades of Grey], I didn't think they lived up to the hype. And, I've got to say I don't think any of them deserve a months-long rid e on the New York Times Best Seller list. However they are definitely fun reads. Once again the email correspondence between Ana and Christian is very entertaining.

            The story picks up as they are getting married and honeymooning in various European hot spots. They have an exhausting amount of sex, but they are young and honeymooning, so I guess that is to be expected. Once they return home it's time to get back to work.

           
            The pressures of Ana's publishing job increase, her schedule becomes increasingly hectic and birth control slips her mind. She discovers, much to her horror, that she is pregnant. An ultrasound shows her a tiny blip that her Ob/gyn indicates is the fetus. She immediately feels protective and loving toward her Little Blip, but dreads telling Christian. Much drama ensues.

            Unsettling things continue to happen and security around the entire Grey family is tightened. At one point, an attempt is made to abduct Ana, but is foiled. The bad guy goes to jail but is bailed out by an unknown benefactor. While out, he manages to successfully abduct Christian's sister. Ana saves the day and gets to shoot the bad guy in the knee. What fun!

            The bad guy is arrested again, and all slides back into a normal routine. The book ends with Ana and Christian at their newly renovated home, living happily ever after. The last several chapters are almost like outtakes at the end of a movie, but reveal some rather interesting aspects to Christian's story. My favorite is the first encounter between the two at the interview in Christian's office. It is told entirely from Christian's point of view and is both enlightening and entertaining.

            I think this series is a pretty good one. It gets points in my book for being fun and entertaining. 

                                                                                         

Summerland: A Novel by Elin Hilderbrand

Read by Erin Bennett

            Summerland is kind of a sad story. It is well written. I liked and cared about the characters, but is does not get big points for entertainment.

            Most of the story takes place on Nantucket Island among the permanent population. On graduation night, four high school juniors are involved in a car accident. The driver, Penny, is killed, her twin brother, Hobby, is left in a coma. Her boyfriend, Jake, and her friend Demeter, walk away from the accident. But the ramifications of the crash are felt among a large portion of the island's population.  

            Demeter has serious self esteem issues and at the time of the crash is learning to drink away her pain. Her parents are oblivious to her blooming alcoholism. While sneaking around trying to find booze, Demeter sees something she shouldn’t have. And, immediately prior to the accident, she shares her knowledge with Penny

            Jake has been in love with Penny for his whole life. While they have only recently become lovers, they have been inseparable since they were small children. He believes they share everything about themselves, but in the aftermath of the crash, he discovers she has been harboring a secret.

            Hobby is the big man on campus, the popular football star and natural athlete. He appears to have the world by the tail, but he has a distressing secret, too.  And the crash leaves him with multiple broken bones, effectively destroying any chance he might have had to become a professional athlete.

            Penny, Hobby’s twin sister, is a sweet popular girl with the voice of an angel. She is driving Jake’s Jeep the night of the crash because she is the only one of the group not drinking. She does not indulge in alcohol because her first priority is caring for her voice. She feels things deeply, her love for Jake, the loss of the father who died before she was born, the weight of responsibility her vocal gift requires. But her sunny appearance belies a dark side to her psyche. It is her reaction to Demeter’s secret that causes the crash that changes everyone’s lives.

                        The story deals somewhat with the kids dealing with the aftermath of the crash, the loss of a sister, a lover, a friend. But largely, the story is about how the adults deal with the crash and their discovering the secrets being held by their children. It's not pretty. It could never be pretty, but the adults also hold secrets that just make the story sad.

            Things do work out in the end. And while I wouldn't go so far as to call it a happy ending, it is satisfying. No loose ends are left hanging out there, and life goes on.

The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language by Melvyn Bragg

            I don't often read nonfiction. However, I really enjoy history (except wars) and I love knowing about words - where they came from, how their usage has changed over time - so this book was right up my alley. It describes how the English language went from a local dialect of a few thousand words to the world wide form of communication it is today.

            Admittedly, some of the earlier chapters went over information I was already familiar with. But it was very interesting to read about how the language spread beyond the island of England to become the basis of communication on other continents. Naturally, I found the language's arrival in and progression through the US fascinating. I was unaware of how influential the Lewis and Clark expedition through the Louisiana Purchase was in the increase of American English vocabulary. I liked how the chapter on the American expansion opened:

            

If you can imagine a language having a life of its own...that language after a certain take-off stage becomes a living entity, like water...the reach of English has been oceanic. It had already by this stage in its history, the middle of the eighteenth century, gone from a splinter dialect of a subdivision of a branch of an Indo-European tongue to the language of Shakespeare and the King James Bible, the language that sailed in the mouths and minds of zealous and dedicated men and women to plant itself in a new world.

            Obviously, this book is not for everyone. I enjoyed it immensely.

11th Hour by James Patterson and Maxine Peatro

Women's Murder Club #11
 

Read by January LaVoy

            This installment of the Women's Murder Club has a pregnant Lindsay Boxer faced with a series of bizarre murders. She is called to a scene at a compound built by a man who liked his privacy. The new owners are not there much, but there is a small staff residing at the location. Upon arriving in the garden of the compound, Lindsay is shown two decapitated heads, one old, and one still relatively fresh. They are displayed on the patio surrounded by freshly picked flowers. As if this is not weird enough, further investigation turns up more skulls of varying ages buried on the grounds.

            Suspicion naturally turns first to the owner of the property who years earlier was acquitted of murdering his wife whose body has never been found. Try as she might, Lindsay cannot make a case against him for any of the dead women. In looking farther afield, Lindsay finds an odd and reclusive woman squatting in the servants' quarters at the compound. She does not seem quite sane, and does admit to displaying the heads in the garden. Unfortunately, a case cannot be made against her for the murders. But Lindsay does not give up and eventually discovers her murderer.

            While trying to identify the skulls and solve their murders, Lindsay is having problems at home. An old flame of Joe's calls and leads Lindsay to believe that Joe is having an affair with her. Lindsay, apparently suffering from a bad case of hormones and pregnancy brain, throws him out without letting him tell his side of the story. It turns out she is wrong and she has to deal with her marriage woes while trying to do her, always difficult, job.

            This is pretty typical James Patterson fare, although the squatter in the servants' quarters is particularly odd, and Lindsay's lack of perspective with Joe is a bit out of character. It was a good way to spend some time, and it was nice to catch up with the girls in the Club.

A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

          John Carter #1

          A Princess of Mars is the first book in a science fiction series by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It was originally published in 1917. I added this book to my to-be-read list when it was referenced in a novel I was reading. (I don't remember which one off hand.) This was not the first time I had encountered such a reference. One of my favorite authors is Robert Heinlein, and he makes frequent reference to the Barsoom novels -and the Oz books by L Frank Baum- none of which I'd read. So, in order to have a better grasp of the context of more modern novels, I decided to take in some of these classics.

          John Carter is a Civil War veteran who heads West after the war to try his hand at prospecting. He and his business partner are quite successful at it, and soon determine they require better equipment for their mine. His partner takes off one morning to acquire the equipment, and many hours later, John Carter is watching the tiny dot of his pony disappear over the most distant rise he can see.  As he turns to go back to work, he sees several other tiny dots appear and follow his partner. Indians!

          Knowing there is really nothing he can do to help, John Carter gets on his horse and rides frantically after the group. He does eventually catch up, but it is too late. His partner’s arrow riddled body lays in the middle of an Indian encampment, dead. John is filled with grief and fury and rides into the camp, grabs the body and rides away. The Indians give chase, and John eventually finds himself trapped in a small cave. There, something inexplicable happens and he finds himself transported from Arizona to Mars! And, here is where the story really gets started.

          Carter finds himself in a strange landscape with much less gravity than he is accustomed to on Earth. Before long, he encounters a race of savage, large green people. His fighting skills come in handy among them, as well as his “supermartian” strength.  He quickly becomes a chieftain among these people through combat.

          As he is settling into his new life among the green Martians, a group of flying boats appear and are immediately attacked by the green Martians. At this point, Carter discovers there are also red Martians who are much more human-like. One of the flying boats is carrying the princess Dejah Thoris, the most beautiful woman Carter has ever seen.  She is taken prisoner by the green Martians and held while they decide whether to kill her or hold her for ransom.

          Carter helps her escape and has many adventures while returning her to her people. He and Dejah Thoris fall in love, and he becomes a prince among the red Martians when they marry.

          After ten years on Mars, at atmospheric tragedy occurs, killing most, if not all, the population.  Carter breathes his last on Mars, and awakes in the cave in Arizona.

          This was a fun book to read. The language and technological concepts were old-fashioned, but not distractingly so. Apparently, the other ten books in the series detail John Carters further exploits during the ten years he remains on Mars.  I think I’ll add them to the T-B-R list.

Celebrity In Death by JD Robb

    In Death #34

   I loved this book! As you may already know, Nora Roberts (who writes as JD Robb) is my favorite author. I have read every book in this series, and enjoyed them all. I like them so well I own most of them, starting with an ancient paperback copy of Naked In Death, through a series of hard backed editions to the most recent releases in digital format.

   In Celebrity In Death a movie is being made about the Icove case, one of the murders Eve Dallas and her partner Delia Peabody solved (see Origin In Death). Dallas and Peabody are invited to a gathering of several of the principal performers and their real life counterparts. after dining and enjoying a gag reel from the upcoming film, a death is discovered. The actress portraying Peabody is found dead in the lap pool.

   Eve and Peabody set out to determine who done it in this version of a locked room mystery. Everyone at the party was in the screening room watching the gag reel - or were they?

   Before long, a second murder has occurred. This time it is a private investigator that had been hired by the dead actress shortly before her demise. Eve doesn't believe in coincidence, and assumes the two deaths are connected.

   With the help of her expert consultant, civilian - Roark, her husband - Eve follows the money and power to the only possible conclusion.

   With the death of one of Hollywood's rising stars and the arrest of one of its movers and shakers, Eve and Peabody may well find themselves the subject of another blockbuster film!

   I highly recommend this book, but I also recommend reading some of the earlier ones as well. The love story between Eve and Roark over the course of the series is lovely. It's wonderful to watch two independent people strive to make a relationship. Both of them are strong and temperamental, but have their weaknesses and demons. Seeing them give and take and compromise and draw lines in the sand of their convictions makes them feel real. And the murder mysteries are great!

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

          I just finished Gone Girl. And, I've got to say, Wow! What an imagination! As a reader, I am regularly impressed by the imaginative powers of authors. But I am awe struck by Ms. Flynn's - very complex, very devious, positively enthralling.

          Every marriage has its ups and downs. Every spouse gets angry with their partner. Some spouses act on their angry feelings. Nick and Amy Dunne take this to unprecedented levels. They make it an art form.

          Amy Dunne disappears on the afternoon of her and Nick’s fifth wedding anniversary. The front door is standing open when Nick comes home and there are signs of a struggle in the house. Naturally, the police look at the husband first. They always do. Nick’s story does not quite add up and some of the evidence looks staged. And, once the police home in on Nick, they cease to look anywhere else.  Weeks pass without Amy’s body being found. I’d love to tell you more, but do not want to give any of the good stuff away. 
  
           The story is told from both Amy’s and Nick’s points of view. The voices alternate each chapter.  We see how the two of them met and fell in love. We are given an insider’s view of how they married and each fell out of love. We see how each of them reacted to the crumbling of the marriage.  And we see how all those puzzle pieces fitted together culminate in the events of the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary.

          This is the story of a marriage between two of the sickest, most twisted people imaginable. I loved it. I’m having a tough time describing the story without any spoilers.  It is too good to give away any of the juicy details.  You have simply GOT to read it for yourself. I insist!

 

Come Home by Lisa Scottoline

          I struggled with this book. It had some very interesting premises and I think it could have been very good. However the main character, who should have been smart and sensible -she is a pediatrician - keeps doing things that are just stupid. I spent large portions of this book wanting to shout "Stop that, you silly wench! What are you thinking??"


          Dr. Jill Farrow finds out her ex-husband has died when one of her former step daughters arrives on her doorstep drunk and devastated. The youngster is certain here father was murdered despite his death having been declared an accident by both the homicide cops and the medical examiner. And she wants Jill to help her find out who did it.

          Rather than doing the sensible thing for the young woman with whom she has had no contact in several years, and getting her to a counselor, Jill begins looking into her ex husband 's life. She snoops into his laptop, after being asked not to by both the executor of the dead man's estate as well as her fiancé. Jill starts to realize there are things about her ex that just do not add up. And she begins to investigate them - once again after being asked repeatedly not to. She begins to believe she is being followed. And her step daughter suddenly disappears without a trace.

          As it turns out, the step daughter was correct- daddy was murdered. And Jill is also nearly killed trying to prove it.

          Now, granted, a doctor has to be confident that their decisions are for the long term best interests of their patients. And, granted, it is important for doctors to trust their guts and push for the responses they need from those around them. However, it is just silly to risk life and limb over a guy who betrayed and left you, especially when you have a young daughter of your own at home and a relationship with a good man at risk. I couldn't help but think that Jill was being irresponsible and inflexible. I didn't like her or the way she thought. As a result I didn't like this book very much.

          If you are going to write realistic fiction you shouldn't test the bounds of my ability to suspend disbelief. I find it irritating, not entertaining.

 

Guilty Wives by James Patterson and David Ellis

 Audio book Read by January LaVoy

          The next time I get irritated with my husband, I'll try to remember the husbands in this book. They'd make any ordinary jerk look like a prince.

          Four women decide to have a girls’ weekend in Monte Carlo. Right away you know these are not ordinary housewives. They are the wives of rich and powerful men. While partying at the casino, they meet a group of men and decide to make it a more private party on one guy’s yacht. Adulterous sex ensues, and in various states of inebriated exhaustion, everyone on the yacht sleeps.

          They are rudely awakened by a SWAT team early the next morning, and are marched off to police headquarters where they are interrogated as terrorists. Each of the women is shocked and horrified to discover that two of the men they had been with had been murdered in the early morning hours. They are even more shocked to find that the four of them are the prime suspects.

          After being vilely treated by the police and an alleged confession coerced out of one of the wives, they are all arrested and charged with the murders, either as perpetrators or accessories. They are sent to prison in France to await trial.

          Months later, they go to court. As witnesses are called, it becomes apparent that someone is actively working against them. Repeatedly, the women listen as people who could exonerate them perjure themselves in court. It quickly becomes apparent that the wives are going to be convicted and spend the rest of their lives in a French prison for something they didn’t do.

          They are pressured to confess, and are offered vastly lighter sentences if all four of them do. But one of them refuses. She will not confess to a crime she did not commit and knows her friends did not commit either. She knows they are all innocent of murder and is determined to prove it. But, all four go to prison, never to see their homes or families again.

The holdout bides her time, learning to tolerate the nasty conditions in the prison. She refuses to break down, even under torture, refusing to confess to the murders she and her friends have been convicted of. And, she eventually escapes from prison and finds the proof she needs to exonerate herself and her fellow wives.

          During the entire ordeal, the husbands are distant, unhelpful and actively working to procure the confessions the French police so desperately want. They may believe their wives deserve to be punished for their infidelity, but to allow them to be sent to a foreign prison for life seems a little extreme to me.

          This was a fast-paced thriller with lots of interesting twists. It is a very typical James Patterson offering. This won’t go down in history as the great American novel, by any stretch of the imagination, but was a pretty entertaining read.

Kill Shot by Vince Flynn

          Mitch Rapp #2

          Kill Shot is not my usual kind of book – spies, assassins and terrorists are not really my thing. This is not a book I would read again, not because there is anything wrong with it; it is just not to my taste.

          Kill Shot is well written and fast paced. The main characters are easy to differentiate and remember. My only issue is that one guy’s first name is Stan and another’s last is Stanfield.  And, as is normal with this kind of book, characters are referred to by first and last names interchangeably. This took me a couple of chapters to get lined up correctly in my head.

          There was a little too much blood and gore for my taste and too little remorse for the taking of life – even scum sucking terrorist life should not be taken emotionlessly. However, the “good guy” (AKA Mitch Rapp, CIA assassin) was an efficient killer. The bad guys were all trigger happy idiots, but that did make it easy to tell the good from the bad.

          The story centers on Mitch Rapp, a CIA operative based in Paris. He has been given a list of targets he is supposed to kill one after another. This story gets started as Mitch enters a Paris hotel room with the intention of doing away with a Libyan official.  Rapp is met by a hit squad of Islamic terrorists spraying the room with bullets. Rapp manages to complete his assigned kill then kills four of the five member hit squad. He escapes the hotel with one minor bullet wound which he dresses himself squatting under a stone bridge support.

          The French police are left with a mess and a mystery created when the French version of the CIA comes in to tamper with the evidence. Rapp walks away from the incident convinced there is leak within the CIA and he has been compromised.

          The rest of the story involves bringing Mitch in after the debacle, running down the source of the leak at the CIA and finally torturing and killing Mitch’s nemesis within the agency.

          This is most definitely a “boy book” and I am not a boy.  However, it is well written enough that I won’t mind reading others in the series as they come along. And, I’m definitely recommending this one to my husband.

Catch Me by Lisa Gardner

          D.D. Warren #6

          This was a good book – not great, but a fine way to spend a few hours.

          Detective D.D. Warren of the Boston Police Department is a homicide cop who finds herself with two series of murders to solve simultaneously. The first is the executions of several pedophiles.  While at the scene of the first death she is called to, D.D. spots someone moving suspiciously at the edge of the crowd outside the building. D.D. runs this character down to find she is Charlie Grant. Charlie’s murder hasn’t happened yet, but she assures D.D. it will happen in a few days. She claims to be at the scene to check out D.D. since she’s heard D.D. is the best. Charlie wants D.D. to handle the investigation of her murder once it happens.

          This introduces the second series of murders D.D. must solve. Charlie’s two best friends have been killed. The first on January 21^st two years prior; the second was murdered on January 21^st of the previous year. It is now mid January, and Charlie is counting down the days and hours till the twenty-first and preparing herself mentally and physically to fight her killer to the end.

          D.D. is trying to balance her job as a murder cop with her job as mother to her ten week old son.  And, as if she does not have enough on her plate, her parents are coming to visit! D.D. is frazzled and sleep deprived as she juggles job and family.  It makes her wonder if she’s losing it when aspects of the two cases seem to relate to each other.

          The story twists and turns as D.D. tries to solve the murders of the pedophiles while preventing Charlie’s demise by solving the murders of her two friends. Little does she know that many of the answers to both puzzles are lurking within her own Boston PD.

          On the evening of January 21^st, D.D. realizes two things nearly simultaneously: she knows who has been killing the pedophiles, and Charlie has disappeared. As D.D. races to find Charlie before the killer can finish her off, Charlie is discovering that all her preparations for facing and defeating her murderer have been for naught. Unless a miracle happens, she is going to die, and several others may die along with her.

          But D.D. arrives in the nick of time.

          I can recommend this one as an entertaining read. While I won’t go back to read the first five books in the series, I will gladly read the others as they come along.

 

 

The Capture of the Earl of Glencrae by Stephanie Laurens

          The Cynster Sisters Trilogy #3

          This is the third book of a trilogy of which I have not read the first two. While I found this a fairly fun book to read, there were some gaps in the story which may not have existed for me if I’d read the others. In particular, there was a bad guy who appears mysteriously very near the end. The part he plays seems largely unnecessary, and his motives are not explained. But could be I’d have known what was going on with him if I’d started this trilogy by reading the first book.

          The Earl of Glencrae seems like a good guy.  Of course, he’s a big handsome Scot – oh, and did I mention wealthy? – so what’s not to like here.  Angelica Cynster is my favorite kind of heroine. She is smart and feisty. She can take care of herself, and once she has committed herself to a plan, she follows it through, even if it means flouting convention. (It occurs to me, that if as many people flouted the conventions of the ton as happens in romance novels, the ton would have had a totally different set of conventions.)

          Angelica spots Dominic’s reflection in the window at a party and knows immediately that he is her hero, the man she is destined to spend the rest of her life with.  She maneuvers an introduction to him, and then requests a stroll in the garden, unknowingly setting herself up for her own kidnapping. This distresses her somewhat, but does not shake her faith that Dominic is her man.  Okay, that’s corny and goofy, but was very entertaining to read.

          As it turns out, Dominic is being blackmailed into kidnapping one of the Cynster sisters.  He’s tried to kidnap both of Angelica’s sisters in previous books, and Angelica is his last chance. She convinces Dominic to explain his reasoning for the kidnappings.  Once she finds out it is what he need to do to save his clan, she falls in with his plans immediately.

          The two of them, with their entourage of servants, set out to avoid her family, who will certainly want to rescue her. They must also convince Dominic’s mother that Angelica is being taken against her will, thus ensuring the social ruin of Angelica’s mother, her girlhood rival. Once that is accomplished, Mom will turn over the treasure that was promised to the bankers that hold title to all the clan lands and businesses.

          Angelica and Dominic succeed smashingly. And apparently live happily ever after.