Review: Gated Prey

<Gated Prey by Lee Goldberg
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Gated communities were things of TV show and movies to me until my first trip to the Southwest and West. Oh,there are gated estates along the Hudson and out on the Island but communities with gates like old west walled forts not so much. When I finally saw them for myself and even have friends who live in one, they amuse and annoy me. For one, the gate is never closed and the little guardhouse is never occupied. A little idiotic but also quite pretentious. Who are you keeping out? The Hispanic or Native American fellow residents of the area ? Probably--but who would admit that? Noooo, it is for safety from murderers and thieves.

Well, despite the undercover op in which Eve and Duncan are posing as a rich fat guy with a sexy younger trophy wife and are tooling around in an outrageously expensive Rolls Royce, the walls don't help. As a matter of fact, the crew of thieves who are robbing many of the elite homes and for whom our team is trying to lay a trap break into their pseudo domicile and two of them wind up dead! One takes a nose dive from the upstairs window into the pool and splat--the other gets it in the chest from Duncan's shot from the couch. The third makes a dash for it, Eve gives chase and destroys the Rolls. Third guy gets shot by the security guard for the grocery store in which he takes refuge from the pursuing Eve. There she goes again, acting impulsively and starting the case less than gracefully! Think that whole event of the security guard taking the shot a bit questionable.

Meanwhile, in another of the exclusive enclaves a woman seems to have had a stillborn child. Things don't quite add up and in time she admits she found the baby, dead, in her trash bin. Um, another questionable plot point.
Looks like Eve and Duncan will have their hands full and as usual, she aggravates her boss, and he tries to rope her in. But all ends well and the search for solutions to these unfortunate events in those elite compounds and the justice that drives Eve is, as ever, worth the read.

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Review: Bone Canyon

Bone Canyon by Lee Goldberg
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Read the first Eve Ronin ages ago but earmarked the series to continue. Eve is young, but fortunately, for several reasons, partnered with a soon to retire, Duncan Pavone. As a lowly patrol officer, Eve physically took down an arrogant movie star accosting a woman. His moniker in the movies was Deathfist and the take down was, of course, caught on every phone on site. The resulting video led to Eve getting the same nickname and her immediate fame and popularity allowed the Sheriff to promote her over the heads of others more senior.

Reason number one that her partner, Dunkin' Donuts Pavone, was a lucky pairing. His popularity with the troops shielded her a bit from the animosity felt toward her. He also is able to some extent rope Eve in a bit, since she is single-minded in her search for justice and the solution to the crimes they are assigned--not giving much thought to any political or social fallout she might suffer within the force.

The author is a screenwriter and it shows--the books read like a TV procedural and are so well done that the reader can " see " the settings, characters, leads and red herrings, as well as " hear " the dialog, sounds of the ocean, cars, bullets, and " smell " the burgers, fries and pizza these two seem to have as their only meals. One of the best series for forming mental images of the action I've ever read.

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Review: Bury Your Dead

Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So atmospheric--I've been to Quebec City but never in winter. Still living in Vermont it was not difficult to imagine the Capital during the short, cold, dark days with lots of snow and wind. This was the most emotional book of the series, thusfar. A man in Three Pines who had come to be a friend is in prison for having murdered a mysterious hermit in the Quebec woods. Armand and Beauvoir were instrumental in the identification and conviction of this man, but now Gamache is not sure they nabbed the real murderer.

Both Jean-Guy and Armand are on medical leave, both having been shot in the prevention of a terrorist attack on the largest hydroelectric dam in the Northeast. Both almost died from their wounds and both are suffering emotionally from the loss of a young new agent the terrorists had used as diversion from their plan. Armand is particularly distressed because he blames himself for young Agent Morin's death--having in his estimation made a serious error in judgement just as time for the Agent was running out.

As usual, both men are involved in several investigations at once. Armand has taken refuge in Quebec City with his mentor and teacher, the retired Emile. With him is his trusty dog, Henri, a dog toy gadget the Chuck-It, described to him by the entrapped Agent Morin while waiting for his rescue. On long walks, Armand relives the lengthy conversations he and Morin had. But, he also, spends time in the English library looking through old books on Quebec history and through these visits becomes involved in the murder investigation of the death of a man looking for the long lost grave of Samuel de Champlain.

Jean- Guy , in the meantime, has been dispatched by Gamache to Three Pines. He is to unofficially and quietly reinvestigate the death of the old hermit.

As always, by the end of the book, both murders have been solved, the characters in both locations have been even more deeply revealed and the two men, themselves, have come to more fully understand themselves and their relationship to each other.

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Review: The Life She Wanted

The Life She Wanted by Anita Abriel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Daughter of staff member at one of the Hudson River Mansions north of the City is included in social functions of the rich because the household has two children of the same age group. She, Pandora Carmichael , pals around with Virginia and her brother, Archie from early childhood to young womanhood when all three are at an age to head out into the world.

Pandora falls for one of the rich men of the group but he marries someone else--more appropriate. Later, she falls for yet another and marries him. A marriage of convenience that ends for them in scandal. And so it goes for her. Some readers consider that she is a strong heroine. I didn't feel that way. She is, unrealistically, in my experience very fortunate without much effort on her part.

Actually, most of the book is rather unrealistic and rather shallow. The homes of the rich that bordered both sides of the Hudson were and, those that still exist, are fabulous. But much like the palaces of Europe are today museums or owned by some Church or another or have become Schools. Much of those glory days were erased by the Crash and Depression both of which hardly touch the characters in this book. It is so incredibly superficial and the characters so one dimensional that I'm not even sure why I finished it.

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Review: In Her Tracks

In Her Tracks by Robert Dugoni
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Very much enjoying the Crosswhite story. Tracy is now involved with cold cases primarily--having taken over from her friend and colleague Nuzio. Kins, her other former team member, is still investigating active cases and since the section is down in staff he asks her to help in the disappearance of a young woman, who seems to have vanished for no apparent reason and with no viable leads.. The super is none too pleased with this but as long as she focuses primarily on the cold case, involving the disappearance 8 years ago of a 5 year old girl, he doesn't have much he can do about it. This child was playing hide-and -go seek with her father in a corn maze. One minute she was there, the lights in the maze went out, the fairy wings she was wearing as part of a Halloween costume were there but she was not. The father was,at the time, a police officer with the Seattle PD and was in the midst of a very antagonistic divorce. The wife and even the police considered him to be involved in the disappearance.

In the meantime, Kins' investigation involves the disappearance of a young woman who was a jogger with regularity. Her car is found in an area not part of her usual neighborhood and has been wiped of all traces of anyone. Her room-mate hasn't a clue where she could have gone and the case is just devoid of all clues.

As usual, Kins and Tracy are in sync with their techniques and the resolution of the jogger disappearance is horrific. The little girl case is less of a stumper and I knew where she was half way through the book. As readers we also knew where the jogger was but the investigation and the red herrings were engrossing.

Tracy is getting better at juggling her wife, new mother and policewoman roles. She is also doing much better,with the guidance of her therapist, the support of her husband and friends at work, with dealing with cases that have strong overtones of the case of her sister's disappearance. She will soon be back in stride with current cases, I believe.

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Review: Murder in the Parish

Murder in the Parish by Faith Martin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Really liked this 20th book in the series primarily because I like the main characters Hilary, Claire and Gareth. I like the way they interact, the geography of their neighborhood and the people who populate it. This case, however, was a bit transparent for me and I found myself reading it just because I wanted to know when the team was going to catch on to the obvious. Took them almost to the end of the book--which is crazy, since they thought of everything any Vicar has been suspected of, except this situation, which is just as prevalent a supposition about he breed.

So, it was a good book, worth finishing but just not that challenging for those of us who like to see themselves as part of the investigation team--lol

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Review: Secrets of the Nile

Secrets of the Nile by Tasha Alexander
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Read all of this series so have come to enjoy the adventures of Colin Hargreaves and his lovely wife, Lady Emily. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough of Colin in this book, though his mother and daughter were more finely tuned as characters this time. Usually, I like throw backs to prior time in same location but these two-three page chapters to the time of Ramses II were distracting and the theme not at all coherent with the main story. As to the main story, it was horribly convoluted and the solution to the mysterious death by cyanide of the victim was anticlimatic and disappointing.

There were as ever, positives to the tale--the description of Egypt in 1904 with all the British Egyptologists attempting to find artifacts of the ancient civilization was beautiiful. The history of the tombs of both Pharoahs and commoners was interesting as well as the description of the objects and their creation in the funerary rite were illuminating. Though the same information could be gleaned from academic essays, the setting in a novel made it more interesting. It is one of the strengths of the Lady Emily series and why I keep reading it. But, let's get Colin more involved next time, please--I missed him.

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