Review: Malibu Burning

Malibu Burning by Lee Goldberg
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love Goldberg's writing--it is so vibrant and alive--the characters step right off the page as though in a movie or TV program. The dialogue is snappy and real. And sometimes, as in this case, his villain is not all bad and actually likeable. But then, Danny Cole is a con man so I guess he'd have to be somewhat appealing to succeed. Still, it is his foolish sensitivity that gets him every time. Can't wait for the next installment --Sharpe, who looks like a wrinkle-faced dog and is dogged in his investigations of fires and their causes, Walker, who is supposed to have left his dangerous police job behind but who is always the hunter, aiming for the culprit with a incurable lack of self preservation. What a team!

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Review: Rich Blood

Rich Blood by Robert Bailey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love reading books set in places I've been and this one takes place around Lake Guntersville in Alabama. Well, let me just say, things around the Lodge in the State Park were quite sedate in comparison with the activities taking place on the Island and in town. While there may have been some alcoholics and drug users at the Lodge they were not noticeable. Certainly, one of them wasn't an alcoholic attorney ( Jason Rich ) in town to defend his druggie sister,( Jana Rich Winters), who has been accused of paying a drifter felon to murder her husband, a local physician.

Jason is that attorney that you see on billboards all over the South, particularly in Alabama and Louisiana in my experience. He has a big smile, uses lots of toothpaste, impecable hair cut, well cut clothes with a snappy catchprase: In an accident? GET RICH Personally, one of those guys would be the last one I'd call but Jason seems to be doing quite well, although he's never been to court or defended a client in a capital murder trial. Did I mention, he's an alcoholic pretty much being watched very closely by the Alabama Law Board.

Jana is his older sister--two daughters, a husband who was about to divorce her and leave her penniless and oh, yes, a drug addict---meth is high on her list of treats. The local drug czar is often a bedmate, primarily because she owes him lots of money, which she doesn't have.

Another of her bedmates is a guy who does odd jobs on the Island and who has confessed to shooting the deceased Dr Winters three times in the head. But, more than that, Mr Pike claims Jana paid him $15,000 to do it. Just so happens Jana withdrew exactly that much from her joint account on July 3 and the Doctor was murdered July 4. Jana claims the money is stashed in her car, but nope, can't be found.

All info seems to point right at her. She had motive--Dr dearest was playing around on her and divorcing her, she had the means taken out of the bank and she had the method, a felon willing to do the job!

How is jason going to get her out of this mess? Bailey has us going and there are plenty of pitfalls and curveballs all of which are great fun. I really like this guy--this is the fourth book of his I've read. He's as good as Grisham. But wait until you get to the end--Whammo--didn't see that coming.

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Review: The Story Collector

The Story Collector by Evie Gaughan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

BookBrowse sent me an Advanced Readers' Edition to discuss. I found this book a true delight.

Sometimes when a book has alternateing time lines the story becomes confusing and the reader loses track of where they are in time. Woods handles the switching very well and smoothly.

In 2011 a young woman grieving her failed marriage impetuously boards a plane for Ireland instead of heading home to her parents for rest, recovery and reevaluation. What she finds there is a small village of caring and interesting people. And, in one of her walking excursions a diary of a young girl, who 100 years ago dwelt in the same cottage in which she is staying.

Sarah finds herself engrossed in the tale of Anna, the daughter of the farmer who lived in the small cottage Sarah is now inhabiting. Anna too is suffering a grief of her own that she finds herself not sharing but that is a driving force in her life. Both women become involved with the men who will help them start to sort the pain and move forward through it. For Sarah, it is the local conservation officer, Oran. He and his wife and daughter had once lived in the cottage, too. But his wife died young and he could not remain there once she was gone. He has a daughter, Hazel, a young teen who is quite fascinated by Sarah, the American from New York by way of Boston.

For Anna, it is a young American, as well. Harold Griffin-Krauss has come to Thornwood Village from Oxford where he is studying. He wishes to research the Celtic culture, particularly as it applies to magic, the little folk, superstition. He asks Anna to introduce him to the locals so he can gather their stories and experiences. For Anna, his interest helps her deal with her anxiety to contact the sister she has lost. For Sarah, the story of their exploits helps her to open her mind to the possibility of a future without guilt or sadness.

Hazel at one point quotes Raold Dahl--"Those who don't believe in magic will never find it." In their own ways both Sarah and Anna find magic. And while their future is not truly known at the end of the book, there is at least the promise of happiness and contentment.

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Review: The Girl in the Manor

The Girl in the Manor by A.J. Rivers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Emma is on leave but naturally that doesn't mean she's sitting on her butt relaxing! Nope, there is a bus terminal explosion and her ex-boyfriend, Greg, appears in the video feed from the security cameras. Eric, her buddy back in the FBI home office lets her know that the boss has allowed him to send her a clip--just to make sure it is really Greg. It is, so Emma is requested to come look at all the video and give her imput on what Greg may have been doing in the site.

Sam, her new/old boyfriend, and the local sheriff is not happy that she is taking off to do FBI stuff when she's to be resting. He, of course, doesn't mind her helping out on a little mystery back there in the hometown. A little girl has died in an apparent accident--she slipped running on a marble floor in her billionaire Dad's home, hit her head and died. Her mother isn't sure it was an accident and so the new wife is being scrutinized a bit more closely, since she was the only one with the child when she fell. However, this woman has been found hanging in the mansion with all the windows and doors closed and locked from the inside. Suicide. Case closed on the child's death. Not so fast--Mother and her boyfriend aren't happy that there will be no more investigation into that death. Meanwhile, Dad has disappeared and no one knows where he is. Add to that the fact that the knots on the suicide's rope could not have been tied by her. So that one looks like murder.

Emma has her hands full but wait, there's more. Another Manor all together and a cult connection. AND there appears to be a stalker watching Emma and when she notices him she thinks it is her missing father--but you needed to read the first two books to understand that whole plot point.

Pretty convoluted tales this series but interesting enough that I keep right on reading them

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Review: Fatal Blow

Fatal Blow by James L. Thane
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Hell hath no fury..... clever book! A woman whose husband has cheated on her decides to get even by disappearing and making it look as though he is somehow involved in her disappearance. In the first chapter this plan is laid out quite clearly. Becky Miller is dissatisfied with her college sweetheart who was a jock and she a cheerleader when they met and fell in love and married. As the time went on, Walter Miller allowed himself to grow a bit flabby and otherwise unattractive. They've moved into separate bedrooms and Becky, who has bank-rolled his businesses, has cut off all physical contact. Walter has found a cocktail waitress to satisfy his needs, both physical and ego. So the two of them continue to live a congenial if bland relationship. Then, Becky finds an email from Cathy Stanton that totally rocks her equilibrium. Hence the plot!

Second chapter, Sean Richardson and his partner, Maggie catch a case. The torso of a woman has been found in the CAP canal near Phoenix. Around the same time, Walter has reported his wife missing to the police. Fairly soon the evidence appears to indicate the body is that of Becky Miller!

From then on, the chapters alternate between Becky carrying out her plans until her disappeance and the investigation into her death. This plotting keeps the story moving and interesting. But halfway through the book, a sudden twist takes everyone down a totally different path. As to the ending--well, let's just say, life goes on.

The best of the series thus far--On to the next installment.

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