Book Review - Don't Look Back by Erica Spindler

Katherine McCall left town 10 years ago, after having been acquitted of killing her older sister, Sara, who was her guardian after their parents were killed in a car accident. Many townsfolk thought she did it and they aren't pleased she is back. But a series of anonymous letters have driven her to confront the truth and find out what really happened. Assisted by the new cop in town, she faces new dangers as the truth is finally revealed. Competent mystery romance fare set in small town USA.
Wendy

Book Review - The Highway by C. J. Box

I like C. J. Box and this is a cracker of a rural Montana story. A new sheriff's deputy is involved in finding evidence about a crooked cop, her partner, Cody Hoyt. But the truth is never that simple and she finds herself in a desperate race to find two missing girls with Hoyt her only support. This story had me reading into the early hours to find out how the girls get tangled up with the serial rapist and killer called The Lizard King and, more importantly, did they get away? I am still puzzled by how the different crime fighting jurisdictions in America ever function together with State, city and local forces all with their own hierarchies and political realities, after reading uncounted American crime novels. By now, I just go with the flow and follow the detectives I like!

Wendy

Book Review - Necessary Lies by Diane Chamberlain

Newlywed Jane Forrester, fresh out of college with a degree gets a job very easily with a soclal work department dealing with a very poor area in North Carolina. After a while she finds out why it was easy to get a job in such a depressed area. It is 1960. Her husband does not want her to work as he feels it reflects badly on him and takes away from her fitting in to the country club set.  She encounters such grinding poverty that it takes her a long time to understand what choices or lack of them some of her clients have. Against all advice, she gets too close to some of them and is then caught in the middle of an unfolding tragedy.  Beautifully written.

Wendy

Book Review - The Wanderer by Robyn Carr

Hank Cooper is a wanderer and has lived the last few years since he left the Army on the move. One of the few ex=Army buddies he has sporadically kept in touch with has died and Cooper comes to Thunder Point to honour his memory and touch base with his last moments. Staying to sort out the property he has inherited from his friend, Cooper meets the townsfolk and finds that Thunder Point might be a hard place to move on from. Elements of mystery, teenage growing up and romance add to a feel good story that is good light entertainment. Cup of tea, a piece of cake, put your feet up and visit Thunder Point.

Wendy

Book - Review - King and Maxwell by David Baldacci

David Baldacci has written many best sellers and he knows exactly how to devise a plot and ratchet up the tension. Our two ex-Secret Service agents who are now PIs, just happen to see a frightened teenager out in a storm with a gun. They stop to help and are then intrigued enough by his story to get further involved. His Dad has been killed in Afghanistan but something doesn't add up. Uncovering the truth about a corrupt terrorist plot that goes right up to the White House will take all their skills and fighting abilities. Excellent.
Wendy

Book Review - W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton

It seems a long time since the first alphabet mystery featuring female PI Kinsey Millhone rolled off the mean streets of California. A is for Alibi started a series that has held up well in quality and content. Along the way, we've learned some more about Kinsey and her landlord, Henry and his family. Henry is still baking pretty good food and occasionally helping Kinsey's nutritional requirements. After all, peanut butter can only go so far.  Two seemingly unrelated deaths are on the agenda this time. Kinsey digs in and finds more and more layers of meaning and connection. You don't need to have read the earlier ones but if you read this one first, you'll go back to the others because they're all this good.
Wendy

Book Review - Bitter River by Julia Keller

We first met Prosecuting Attorney Bell Elkins in A Killing in the Hills, which I reviewed in these pages. I liked it but thought the bleak socio-economic circumstances that drove so many to drug addiction and crime were too heart-rendingly truthful almost to bear. Julia Keller returns to the town of Aker's Gap with her new mystery but it is a more straightforward murder mystery and the characters have more to hope for in their lives. The narrative appears relatively simple about a young pregnant girl from the wrong side of the tracks and a young man who is willing to step up and marry her against the wishes of his wealthy and overbearing father but then it gets entangled in sniper attacks, explosions and more deaths.  The author grew up in the Appalachian Mountains and they are beautifully evoked becoming almost another character in the story.  In spite of the fact that the secondary story is a little clumsily handled, there is much to like. As well as the mystery to solve, we get some more glimpses of Bell and Sheriff Nick Fogelsong's personal lives. This author is going from strength to strength.
Wendy

 

Book Review - The Giving Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini

This is a gentle novel but it doesn't shy away from serious and difficult topics. This is the second of the Elm Creek Quilts novels I have read. They don't need to be read in any order as they all involve people coming and going from a quilting centre – some of the stories are about ongoing characters and some are not. They are female in their concerns and orientations although an open minded male would no doubt enjoy them also. This setting is a quilt retreat for Thanksgiving where women come together to learn and share quilting techniques and to create quilts for charity. It is common for there to be a charitable element in any gathering of crafty people as we see in Camden with our Wrap with Love blankets, our Christmas stocking for the Hospital auxiliary etc. Each of the women who come to the retreat has their own story and we explore a couple of them including the cheerleader who has had a critical fracture, the wife who became a coach to help the school's team in a challenge where other teams cheated and the woman who didn't get a job at the Elm Creek centre when she applied some time before. Life events are often upsetting but there is comfort in helping each other through them. Wendy

Book Review - Sycamore Row by John Grisham

Another intriguing legal thriller by the master. Why did Seth Hubbard, an anti-social businessman leave 90% of his considerable estate to his housekeeper of three years? Struggling street lawyer, Jake Brigance, lands the second great case of his career in being appointed attorney for Seth's estate. The estranged family are outraged and packs of lawyers circle like hungry sharks when the true extent of his estate – over $20 million - is revealed. A court case ensues and there are many surprises in store for Jake and his support crew. Masterly plotted entertainment with a tragic twist in the tail. Wendy

Book Review - Sycamore Row by John Grisham

Another intriguing legal thriller by the master. Why did Seth Hubbard, an anti-social businessman leave 90% of his considerable estate to his housekeeper of three years? Struggling street lawyer, Jake Brigance, lands the second great case of his career in being appointed attorney for Seth's estate. The estranged family are outraged and packs of lawyers circle like hungry sharks when the true extent of his estate – over $20 million - is revealed. A court case ensues and there are many surprises in store for Jake and his support crew. Masterly plotted entertainment with a tragic twist in the tail. Wendy

Book Review - Loss of Innocence by Richard North Patterson

June 1968. USA. Whitney is the daughter of privilege and engaged to be married to an acceptable suitor, when she meets a charismatic and unsettling boy from the wrong side of the tracks. A social conscience is not necessarily encouraged in her social set, but the assassination of Bobby Kennedy, and the general turmoil of social, class and racial upheaval, act as a catalyst in changing her future. More reflective than his earlier books, this is an assured and confident novel. Wendy

Book Review - Deadline by Sandra Brown

Dawson Scott is a journalist suffering from PTSD after a tour in Afghanistan with the US troops. He is not trying very hard to get along with his editor who wants him to do fluffy human interest stories, when his godfather, Gary Headly, a nearly retired FBI agent, sends him to cover a bizarre murder case. The main witness for the prosecution, Amelia Nolan, attracts him and he is interested in the potential for one of the murder victims, her ex-husband, to be still alive. There is a DNA link to an FBI cold case, the one who got away from Headly many years ago. It's all fairly implausible but Sandra Brown ratchets up the suspense and the love interest and throws in enough twists and turns to keep you turning the page. Wendy

Book Review - A Tap on the Window by Linwood Barclay

A small town near Niagara Falls. A man trying to understand why his son died. He is accosted by a teenage girl seeking a lift from a notorious local bar. He wouldn't have got involved but she knew his son. A corrupt police force. A grandstanding mayor. Who is she trying to get away from? This story builds in intensity because, as more details are uncovered, the deeper the mystery becomes. All the loose ends are tied together well in the denouement of this page-turner. Wendy

Book Review - Predator by Faye Kellerman

One of the most bizarre set-ups for a suspicious death, an old man is found dead in the apartment he shares with a fully grown tiger. A recluse and rather strange animal enthusiast, Hobart Penney is not mourned y his family, but his wealth does generate a surplus of motives for his killing. Police procedural stalwart, Pete Decker is in his usual form as The veteran Kellerman ticks all the boxes once more. Wendy

Book Review - Silken Prey by John Sandford

Lucas Davenport is back with a new mystery to solve and a tight deadline as political smear plumbs new depths. With the election imminent, has the candidate really been looking at child porn or is it a clever scheme by his opponent, a rich and driven young woman. Unfortunately, we have to drag in the obligatory private computer wiz to hasten the plot along. Still, it is an entertaining ride. Of course, American voters would never elect a murderous psychopath, would they? Wendy

Book Review - Never Go Back by Lee Child

Once you are hooked by Jack Reacher, you are committed to needing the latest one as soon as possible. Reacher is intelligent and extremely competent at whatever he does, including beating up bad guys! He has Holmesian ability to immediately deduce background, intent and ability at one look . His planning of how to win a fight against greater numbers of men (its generally but not always exclusively men) has geometric precision. His ability to win is greatly enhanced by his understanding of human and particularly military behaviour. He mostly always gives the bad guys an opportunity to go away before he unleashes mayhem. Too bad most of them are too stupid or cocky to take it. An innate sense of justice and compassion for the vulnerable direct his actions. As an ex Military Policeman, Reacher is a loner who conveniently keeps finding battles to engage in – this time it involves losses from military supplies, or does it? They recently made a film from a Jack Reacher novel and cast Tom Cruise in it. I hope Lee Child got lots of money so he could look away. One of the things that makes the battle-scarred Reacher intimidating is his size . 'Both men looked more than six feet and two hundred pounds. Smaller than Reacher, but not by much.' I don't intend to see the movie. For me, Tom standing on a box just wouldn't cut it - although the library holds it in the DVD collection if you are interested - it's called Jack Reacher. Wendy

Book Review - Unseen by Karin Slaughter

I have previously enjoyed Slaughter's crime novels very much and I was puzzled at how long this one took to get going. I'm not sure if it was about a 1/3 or ½ way in when it started to actually come together and I think she has seriously miscalculated the plotting to let the opening go on so long. If you persevere (and I only did because I am a fan), you get to an intricate collection of deceptions that eventually turn into as satisfying a plot as a story that involves drugs, prostitution and pedophilia can be. Agent Will Trent's burgeoning relationship with Dr Sara Linton hits a few bumps in the road and hangs in the balance but the process of being with her has changed him forever. Sara's rocky relationship with Detective Lena Adams continues and they are all caught up in the maelstrom of violence as various investigations crash together at the end. Wendy

Book Review - Book, Line and Sinker by Jenn McKinlay

This is the second Library Lover's Mystery as Library Director Lindsey Norris is dragged into a local political dispute over buried treasure on an island offshore from their town of Briar Creek. In spite of a brutal murder, this is a cosy mystery as the townsfolk all seem to want to help their Chief of Police gather evidence and catch the bad guys. I particularly liked how the children's librarian smuggled her colleague's dog out of the library in the costume she wore for storytime. I'm sure Eric Carle would approve of his very hungry caterpillar being put to such use! You even get a recipe at the end but I had to Google almond bark to find out how to make Beth's Lemon-Almond Cookie Truffles. American baking has some idiosyncracies all its own. Wendy

Book Review - The Wedding Bees by Sarah-Kate Lynch

This is a charming story of Sugar Wallace, an itinerant bee-keeper who arrives in a place only to sort out her new friends and then move on to pastures new chosen by her bees crawling on a map. But this time, Sugar gets more than she bargains for as her bees help her with her neighbours in a New York City apartment building and with her own bruised heart. Helping others can help you help yourself but you have to be open to life's hurts as well as its joys. I think this is my favourite read this year. Wendy

Book review - Whiskey Beach by Nora Roberts

Eli Landon has escaped conviction of the murder of his estranged wife but no-one else is in the frame and suspicion lingers. He may have to face a civil suit brought by her family who are still looking for answers. He retreats to his grandmother's home at Whiskey Beach where a group of concerned locals help him find new love as he unravels a historical mystery which holds the key to his present travails. Nora Roberts can craft a fine tale with red herrings and a varied cast of well drawn supporting characters. Wendy