Review: The 6:20 Man

The 6:20 Man by David Baldacci
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Not sure if I've read any Baldacci before but have wanted to so picked this one up because of its setting rather than anything else. Nothing like a commuter train into the City at an ungodly hour in the morning. Hopefully, not too many of the riders are former Army Rangers who are working in Wall St as a self imposed penance for an act not particularly becoming for an Officer and a Gentleman. More logically than Sex and the City or Friends, Travis Devine, is sharing a townhouse in Mt Kisco rather than a Manhattan roomy apartment and his salary barely covers the rent, food and train fare so his social life is not very exciting.

With the death of an office colleague with whom he had a one night stand, that rather mundane life is going to get much more stimulating. He has received a rather strange email telling him of the woman's death. No one else has gotten such a personal notification and the sender's address is strange looking. Next thing he knows Travis is being personally approached by detectives at his station in Mt Kisco, their interest in him rather intense. Do they suspect him of her murder?

Before long he is further approached by someone who appears to be a Fed and knows all about Travis' military history. Threatened with prosecution and probable jail sentence, Travis agrees to get some information about the financial institution where he and the deceased worked together as analysts. The the background info he uncovers is convoluted and confusing and the deaths keep mounting up. What is going on and how is he going to keep himself from being among the dead?

View all my reviews

Review: The Black Book

The Black Book by Ian Rankin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Loved John Hannah in the series, did not like Stott, his replacement because he was too old for my mental image of Rebus and am looking forward to the new series, though this guy seems too young.

If ever I go to Edinburgh I will forever be thinking of all the nefarious underworld goings on and never feel safe in any pub or restaurant. The place is teeming with horrible people who speak in a dialect I'll never understand. As a matter of fact, Hannah gave me problems in the program--thank goodness for cc or I'd be truly lost. And truly lost is what Ian Rankin keeps his readers. Rebus is constantly running all over town and environs and never seems to get enough pieces to any puzzle he's trying to solve. What he does learn at any turn makes me feel as though I'm doing a jigsaw but it isn't the one this bit belongs to and I hate jigsaw puzzles! But, the characters and places are so intriguing and Rebus, himself so Columbo-like, that I keep subjecting myself to this torture.

In the end, the result is always satisfactory but I feel so exhausted I swear i'm not going to read the next one, until I do. Sigh

View all my reviews

Review: Origin in Death

Origin in Death by J.D. Robb
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

2059 New York City--though only 35 years from now, hoping this book is not what our future holds. Between the threat of AI creating a " reality " difficult to discern, the idea of Quiet Birth is enough to make me happy that I can't last that long at my age. Does make me worry about what the future holds for our children, though. Must admit, I like a lot of the automatic driving vehicles that would allow me to get around more easily than current vehicles do at my age.

View all my reviews

Review: Down a Dark Road

Down a Dark Road by Linda Castillo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What do you do if your pre-teen crush, who's been found guilty of murdering his wife, escapes from prison after two years and takes his five children captive in their farmhouse? Joseph King swears he did not kill his wife, Naomi and wants his old friend, Sheriff Kate Burkholder, to reopen the case and find out the truth. With memories of the young man he once was running through her mind, Katie starts nosing around.

What she does is rile a hornets' nest and almost loses her life in the process. What she finds is that more than one person played a part in the death of Naomi King!

View all my reviews

Review: Hatchet Island: A Novel

Hatchet Island: A Novel by Paul Doiron
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Not sure if, in each of these 13 installments of the life of Mike Bowditch, Doiron has covered all the biases, perversions and socio-economic statuses that exist in Maine but there are not many I can think of that he hasn't! Will have to wait until June to see what he comes up with in episode 14.

This time around we have the obsessive behavior of some environmentalists who have been granted the exclusive use of a State owned island to protect the nesting grounds of several species of sea birds. The lead researcher is going slightly mad because the number of birds is rapidly diminishing and yet she is willing to do almost anything to retain the donations coming from the rich folks who have moved into several of the other islands, using their money to create their own feudal estates among the lobstermen etc of the area.

Of course, there has to be a law enforcement officer or two who seem less than professional and therefore may, possibly, be part of the crime committed. Oh, yes, the crime--while the lead researcher is mysteriously off the bird sanctuary, someone has brutally murdered two of her interns, and posed them for pictures. The third intern, Black by the way, has disappeared and may have survived. Ah, is he the murderer?? Naturally, one of the investigators with no evidence is sure he is, but naturally too, this is a racist supposition as Mike and Stacy are swift to deduce.

Yes, Stacy and Mike are back together again and this time it seems for good. To the point, that having headed out for a romantic camping trip on one of the other islands, they have stopped off at the bird sanctuary. Stacy's ex-college roommate, Kendra has asked them to drop by and for Mike to bring his gun and badge. Kendra is nervous about Maeve's deteriorating mind and about some fishermen who have begun to stalk around the island. After meeting the other two interns, Garrett and Hillary, the lovebirds head off to a nearby island. During the night, the sound of a gunshot in the vicinity of Baker Island brings them back in the morning to the site of the horrible massacre.f

Soon, the two of them are assistants of sorts in the investigation that soon involves a strange photographer who stages death scenes for his works, his aggressive wife, the photographer's assistant and his family, several lobstermen of varying ages and their families. Making sure all bases of diversity are covered the new State trooper is a Hispanic woman from not Maine. Don't want to give away the specific type of perversion in this one, since it is the motivating factor in all that ensues.

BTW, Shadow who was left at home is doing fine and has allowed Stacy to sit next to him and pet his head without tearing off her arm. Must be she will say yes when Mike asks.

View all my reviews

Review: Dream Town

Dream Town by Lee Goldberg
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One of my favorite authors for characterization and descriptive locations. His books read with as much action and realism as his TV shows. Eve Ronin just cannot help but get on her superiors' nerves but she is thorough and dogged in her determination to solve any crime that comes her way. Duncan, her poor, more experienced, soon to retire partner tries his best to rope her in to no avail. He is so concerned about her survival that he postponed his retirement after their last case and finds himself riding herd on her in Hidden Hills, a gated community of the rich with a Western theme! Apparently, such a place truly exists though Goldberg jazzed it up a bit with a resident deputy sheriff who rides a horse, wears a stetson and has his own little hoosegow on the estate. I instantly disliked and distrusted this character upon his appearance. Even his name, Amos Tatum, annoyed me.

But the most annoying characters were the Kardashian wannabes, the Winslows. Daddy is a retired film cowboy living in his fictional world, his heavily sculpted and endowed wife, and two obnoxious children. His eldest, Kitty, has just been shot in the face in her bedroom in her glamourous guest cottage. And her gazzillion dollar engagement ring has gone missing. When Eve and Duncan show up to investigate, Tatum is there to assure them he has it all in hand in HIS community. Eve will have nothing to do with yet another deputy thinking he'll try riding rough shod over her. And so it begins. Who killed Kitty--the darling of the reality Life with the Winslows reality show? If only hers were the only dead body our heroine will encounter before this saga ends.

Interesting, too, is the behind the scenes of how TV shows are filmed, where they are filmed, who does what behind the scenes and the politics of production. I'll never view a TV program the same again. Neither will you!

View all my reviews

Review: Dead by Dawn

Dead by Dawn by Paul Doiron
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the Doiron book that should have won a literary prize! The best, most exciting, fastest reading book in the series so far. Don't usually like books in which the plot moves back and forth between time periods but this time the plot device makes the action move with even more urgency. It takes place in only one day but Mike and Shadow have some day!

Starts out simple enough--taking Shadow to the vet for a check-up and stopping by to visit a woman who's sent him a note asking him to review a closed case. Definitely, not how it ends. But then nothing with Mike Bowditch is simple--from his relationships with women to his obsession with a wolf. And while Rambo may be, in Mike's mind, at a moment of great crises, " a bullshit macho fantasy", he has nothing on old MB!!!

Love Doiron's sense of humor, his style and his way with words--I, too, thought the professor looked like a " pompous ass" ! Just from reading his description.

View all my reviews

Review: Extravagant Death

Extravagant Death by Charles Finch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

At last Charles Lennox has made his way to the colonies and is astounded by the opulence of the monied class! Having seen some of the old world homes of those that preceded the American barons of industry, I'd say they did a good job of emulating them. Even to the point of acquiring all the pieces of those places that were able to be transported across the pond. What is more to the point is the fact that, having fought a war to dissolve an attachment to a monarchy that they found less than democratic, the descendents of the warriors who won that freedom set about establishing a pseudo-royalty along Fifth Avenue and the East coast of the country. Not having any family titles to hand down through the generations many of the nouveau riche went about buying them as well.

Though Charles, himself, seemingly could care less about this societal discrimination on either side of the Atlantic, Lady Jane and Mrs Astor both enjoyed the society it established. But, in the beginning, Lady Jane is left at home with the children, as Charles has embarked upon a Dickensian tour of the States. As he is making his way from New York City to Boston his train is intercepted by the private train of one of the Knickerbocker families of New York, one William Schermerhorn. It would seem that a young lady attending the season at Newport, Rhode Island has been murdered. As Lennox is an internationally well known detective ( and though, not said, a man of some standing in British society ), Schermerhorn has summoned him to Newport to investigate.

Naturally, Charles resents this interference with his mission on behalf of his Queen, but eventually agrees to make the detour for a day or so. And thus ensues Charles' introduction to America's idle rich and naturally, though the invitations are highly prized, obtains entry into Mrs Astor's fabulous party of the season. Oh, and he does manage to identify the murderer among other secrets that even the very rich hide from each other.

View all my reviews

Review: The Litigators

The Litigators by John Grisham
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

David Zinc has had it with the long hours and stress of the high end law firm in which he is one of many minions, so he walks out one morning, goes to a local bar and gets shit-faced and wanders into a store front, ambulance chasing firm made up of two aging lawyers, one who does not much of anything and the other, a recovering drunk, who chases down clients in ways quite seedy.

Welcome to Finley and Figg, a boutique law firm, or so the partners call it. They quickly take David on and he joins them and their secretary, Rochelle in what becomes a rather complex lawsuit against a pharmaceutical company. It is to be heard in Federal court--and none of the three of them have ever appeared in this court. indeed, none of them have any experience in such a suit and they are going to face a battery of high-priced lawyers employed by the drug giant.

While the intricacies of legal maneuvering that takes place in such a situation are mind-boggling, what is really eye opening is the process by which a new drug is the testing it undergoes and the approval process that the FDA uses to allow its use. It makes me very happy that at 81 I take no medications or supplements because I have refused them and, so far, am quite healthy, thank you. Side-effects don't appeal to me and one doctor told me that I'm probably as healthy as I am because I DON"T use any medications. Quite the revelations in this book!!

View all my reviews

Review: The Girl in Cabin 13

The Girl in Cabin 13 by A.J. Rivers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Perp is Easy;Motive is Tough

Within seconds of the character's appearance I had the murderer pegged! Still the investigation for Emma to realize who done it and, more importantly for me,why was worth the read. Would have given the book a five if it had been harder to finger the Who.

View all my reviews