This latest installment of the Harry Hole series is less gruesome and has a much smaller body count but yet it's all the more devastating because thisThis latest installment of the Harry Hole series is less gruesome and has a much smaller body count but yet it's all the more devastating because this time the case is personal. Harry has been living in Hong Kong for three years and is currently sober but he is pulled back to Norway when finds out that Oleg, the son of his ex, Rakel, has been accused of murder. At one point, Harry was almost a father to Oleg and he can't believe that Oleg is guilty. He returns to investigate the case (even though he is not longer officially the "police") and his arrival stirs many old ghosts. I think this is the best Nesbo yet and it will break your heart....more
This fantasy/alt-universe novel does a great job of creating a grim, "vaguely 19th century Russia with magic" world where we follow the adventures of This fantasy/alt-universe novel does a great job of creating a grim, "vaguely 19th century Russia with magic" world where we follow the adventures of Alina Starkov. She and her best friend, Mal, were raised in an orphanage located at a benevolent Duke's summer house. They were tested for magic when they were eight by two representatives of the Grisha, a hierarchical "army" of magic fok, but neither showed any aptitude. Years later, they are both in the Ravkan army, Alina working as a mapmaker and Mal as a tracker. Their homeland is engaged in an longstanding battle with its neighbors and so the army is pretty much their only option. As their regiment makes a dangerous journey across "the Fold," an area of land made dark, barren, and dangerous by magic gone wrong, their group is attacked by volcra, beings that inhabit the wasteland, and Alina discovers she has magic after all, a rare magic, that saves all but a few of her companions. Alina is whisked away from her old life, and away from her beloved Mal, to the glittering world of the Grisha, a magical elite, that live in opulence, worlds away from Alina's old life of hunger and hard work. She is especially noticed by the Grisha's leader, known as the Darkling, who thinks Alina's power might be the secret to destroying the Fold and healing Ravka. Alina is both flattered and unnerved by this attention but also struggles to discover the secrets to controlling what she can do.
Leigh Bardugo creates a grim world that seems all the more real with its vague echoes of our own. Though this novel is apparently part of a series, it stands alone well and doesn't end with an obvious cliffhanger (which I appreciate).
This book is like the love child of World War Z, Sean of the Dead, and anything by Carl Hiassen or Christopher Moore. It features a protagonist with tThis book is like the love child of World War Z, Sean of the Dead, and anything by Carl Hiassen or Christopher Moore. It features a protagonist with the same name as the author, David Wong, as well as David's best friend John (who, I guess, didn't actually die in the end), his girlfriend, Amy, and his dog, Molly. They live in the town of [undisclosed], which seems a bit like Sunnydale though it's not the hell mouth at work here but something else, more organized and more insidious, but never fully revealed. There is an epidemic of spider-like creatures that burrow into people, control them, and then eventually eat them from the inside out--creatures that only David and John can see (it's a long story). Things get blown up. People explode. A lot of drinking and panicking ensues. There's a quarantine. A bunch of zombie apocalypse "enacters" get a chance to put their skills in action. David and Amy and John and Molly get separated and spend a lot of time trying to find each other. The result is funny, silly, sometimes scary, often confusing, and pretty enjoyable. ...more
I think I liked this second installment in the series better than the first. This novel first travels back in time to year Zero, when the "Virals" werI think I liked this second installment in the series better than the first. This novel first travels back in time to year Zero, when the "Virals" were unleashed on the world. In the time honored tradition (and detailed in great length in The Passage), government scientists were attempting to create a super soldier and ended up creating a viral infection that turned their subjects into vampiric creatures--super fast, super strong, almost impossible to kill, and, of course, with a major thirst for human blood. The twelve in the title refers to the original twelve test subjects, all death row inmates (so stellar human beings all around) but each of these men/monsters then turns huge groups of humans into a sort of mindless vampiric horde, answering only to them. This novel begins as huge waves of virals are sweeping east from Colorado, destroying town and after town and the U.S. government strives to contain them (not realizing that it was a government project that created them). The story follows a series of characters-a high up goverment official, a pregnant doctor, a former Special Forces soldier--as they navigate the unfolding apocolypse. Then, the novel shoots forward almost a century and picks up where The Passage left off . . . and follows several different groups of survivors as well as the mysterious girl, Amy (who is both viral and not). All of these characters are connected in some way and the novel pulls them closer and closer to a big show down in the middle of Iowa.
Cronin has mastered the Stephen King technique of creating lots of characters and making you care about them as you move from perspective to perspective. There are echoes of The Stand here but in a good way. ...more
Pia is perfect or at least that's what she's told. Raised in a secret research compound in the Amazonian jungle, Pia is both researcher and subject. SPia is perfect or at least that's what she's told. Raised in a secret research compound in the Amazonian jungle, Pia is both researcher and subject. She is the product of many decades of work to create an immortal, genetically enhanced human and she not only is smarter and faster than the rest of her community but her skin cannot be pierced by bullets, knives, or needles. She is being taught by a team of researchers all she needs to know to become a researcher herself. She is impervious to harm but she is not impervious to being a teenager. On her seventeenth birthday, Pia begins to sense that there is much about the world that she doesn't know and in her attempt to both physically and metaphorically escape the compound, she meets a boy and a whole village of people she never knew existed. Through them, she begins to learn the truth behind her existence and what will need to be sacrificed to make more immortals like her.
Though not without flaws, this YA novels asks some good questions about both what it means to be human and how far science should be allowed to go (and at what cost) to "better" mankind....more
I picked this book randomly off the library shelf which had quite a collection of John Harvey novels (apparently before this book, Harvey wrote a seriI picked this book randomly off the library shelf which had quite a collection of John Harvey novels (apparently before this book, Harvey wrote a series of mysteries focusing on Charlie Resnick . . . who actually has a brief, very brief, cameo in this story). On the surface, this starts out to be a typical British police procedural but it soon proves to be more nuanced and character-driven than that. DI Frank Elder has retired to the Cornish coast--divorced and suffering from nightmares. He reads, takes walks, and looks forward to infrequent visits from his teenage daughter, Katherine. However, when a young man, Shane Donald, is paroled, Elder is reminded both of a case he solved and one that he didn't--that of the disappearance of Susan Blacklock. When Donald goes AWOL from a halfway house and another young woman goes missing, Elder gets pulled into the case and into his own past....more
In this latest novel by Craig Johnson, Walt Longmire goes undercover as an insurance adjustor in another Wyoming county to investigate the death of WaIn this latest novel by Craig Johnson, Walt Longmire goes undercover as an insurance adjustor in another Wyoming county to investigate the death of Wade Barsard. After killing his wife's horses, Wade is shot six times by his wife and his house is set on fire. His wife, Mary, even remembers firing the shots. However, Walt isn't so sure this open and shut case is so "shut" and this leads to the above mentioned "undercover." I wish that the TV show Longmire hadn't used part of this plot in season 1 because I knew something early on that I wish I hadn't. Still, as in all Johnson's novel, it's not the destination that's the point, it's the journey and the characters Walt meets along the way. ...more
Another tightly constructed thriller featuring FBI agent, Smokey Barrett, and her crack team of investigators. This episode begins as the gang is atteAnother tightly constructed thriller featuring FBI agent, Smokey Barrett, and her crack team of investigators. This episode begins as the gang is attending the outdoor wedding of one of their own, Callie. The festivities are interrupted when a car pulls up and a woman is tossed out onto the sidewalk. She is alive but out of it--with her head shaved and extremely pale skin. All signs point to the fact that she has been held in captivity for a long time but no one expects her to be a police detective who disappeared over eight years before. The fact that she is dumped at Callie's wedding proves to be no coincidence because Smokey soon receives a warning to "not investigate" any further. This works about as well as you might think and the resulting story is not without its horrors and casualties. McFadyen's work is not for the faint-hearted (though if you've been Nesbo-ized, you'll do just fine) but Smokey Barrett, as a character, is a conflicted force for good amidst the monsters....more
This is a memoir that starts out being about travel but really ends up being about a lot of other things. Wendy Dale spent the first 25 years of her lThis is a memoir that starts out being about travel but really ends up being about a lot of other things. Wendy Dale spent the first 25 years of her life being the uber-adult, a reaction to her transient and often slightly chaotic childhood. However, a daring trip to Lebanon to visit a friend gives her the travel bug and she soon finds herself buying one way tickets to several Latin American locales. Unlike many who visit Costa Rica, Dale doesn't spend much time hitting the beaches but instead finds herself getting an "almost inside" look into a Costa Rican jail. How this happens and where it leads makes for one interesting story and Dale is a funny, self-decprecating writer who makes you feel like you're sitting next to her at a bar, being regaled with tale after tale. It's well worth your time....more
Another interesting installment in the Walt Longmire series . . . not quite as strong as #3 but still quite good. This novel connects an event from WaAnother interesting installment in the Walt Longmire series . . . not quite as strong as #3 but still quite good. This novel connects an event from Walt's past, during his time in Vietnam, with his current search for the killer of a young Vietnamese woman, found abandoned in a field. When the woman's purse is found with a huge and homeless Indian living in a drainage tunnel, the case seems to be close to being solved but Walt is pretty sure that this man is not the killer. The whole investigation is complicated by the fact that Walt finds an old picture in the woman's purse of a young Walt Longmire with a Vietnamese woman--a woman whose murder he investigated back in 1967.
This novel had a stronger whiff of James Lee Burke than usual and it left me trying to do the math of how old Walt would have to be now to have been in Vietnam in 1967. [Craig, help me out here . . . ] I just assumed the novels were set in the now so this threw me a bit . . . but not enough to keep from enjoying the usual Johnson trademarks--inventive plot, strong sense of place, and excellent characters....more
Though it suffers from a silly rom com type of title, this young adult novel is more weighty than you might expect. On the surface, it's the story of Though it suffers from a silly rom com type of title, this young adult novel is more weighty than you might expect. On the surface, it's the story of chance. Seventeen-year-old Hadley misses her plane to London by four minutes and is forced to wait three hours before she can take the next flight out. This gives her more time to brood about what she's going to London for--to attend her father's wedding and meet her new British stepmother. However, it also gives her time to meet Oliver, a boy both charming and intriguing, and who in addition to helping her pass the time, also turns out to be sitting next to her on her new flight. As you might expect, Oliver and Hadley hit it off but reality hits when they get off the plane and lose each other in Heathrow. Of course, you know that they will meet up again but the fun is seeing how. That said, the real heart of the novel is the relationship between Hadley and her father--a relationship strained almost to the breaking point by her father's decision to pursue "love at first sight." Hadley's moods and reactions are frustratingly real and short sighted and that's what I like most about this story....more
The second installment of the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear is just as thoughtful and measured as the first. It's not a quick read, all fThe second installment of the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear is just as thoughtful and measured as the first. It's not a quick read, all flash and plot, but rather a more nuanced, time and place bound mystery that is as much about Maisie and a time between the wars as it is about the whodunit. Maisie is hired by an extremely wealthy businessman (owns a series of successful markets) to find his missing daughter, Charlotte. All signs point to the daughter, who is Maisie's age, having run away, but from what exactly? In exploring this question, with her faithful but troubled sidekick, Billy. Maisie discovers that several of the daughter's friends have been killed. Could Charlotte be next? As in the first novel, the answer to this question leads to the past and to the Great War....more
Imagine that every day you wake up in the body of somebody different--you can access the body's memories but not their emotions. Imagine that this hasImagine that every day you wake up in the body of somebody different--you can access the body's memories but not their emotions. Imagine that this has been happening ever since you can remember and as you grow older, the bodies you occupy are the same age you seem to be. This is the situation for a person named A and the set up for this intriguing novel. At age 16, A has gotten resigned to the fact that he/she will never have his/her own life but will always be hijacking the lives of others. Sometimes he/she likes the bodies he/she occupies and sometimes not so much but the general rule is not to attract attention and not to do anything that will affect the body in the long term. Until one day, A lands in the body of Justin and meets Justin's girlfriend, Rhiannon. Then, A's neat system starts to fall apart because A wants to keep seeing Rhiannon, no matter what body A occupies.
This book was not only an interesting mind game but a moving story of what love really means. ...more
A number of my friends have been singing the praises of this series so I'm a bit late to the party. However, my friend, Cathy, loaned me her copy of tA number of my friends have been singing the praises of this series so I'm a bit late to the party. However, my friend, Cathy, loaned me her copy of the first book and after getting it back from my mom (who read it in like 2 days), I got a chance to dive in. The best adjective I can use to describe this book and Maisie herself is charming. The year is 1929 and Maisie is setting up her own investigation business, after being mentored for many years by a man named Maurice Blanche. Her first case comes when a gentleman suspects his wife of infidelity, but Maisie discovers that the woman is actually having an affair with the dead--a young man who came back from the war with horrible injuries but who died more recently. Curious as to why this man only has his first name, Vincent, on the headstone, Maisie learns that the man had been living at this place called The Retreat, a sort of convalescent home/retreat for disfigured veterans and that this place has just opened up its doors more recently to any veterans who are looking to get away from society. It just so happens that James, the son of Maisie's benefactor, is considering going there since he seems not to have recovered from the traumas of war over a decade later. Maisie feels that something is off and she has been trained to trust her intuition so she begins to investigate. Not only does this investigation lead to some dark places but it also leads Maisie into reliving her past and her own war traumas.
One of the things I like about this book is that it feels both a bit old-fashioned but also strangely modern. Maisie is a great character and the setting, England between the wars, is a rich one to set a series. Once again, I've found a series worth pursuing....more
Though I loved the first two books in the Walt Longmire series, this one was even better. Walt and his old friend, Henry Standing Bear, have road-tripThough I loved the first two books in the Walt Longmire series, this one was even better. Walt and his old friend, Henry Standing Bear, have road-tripped to Philadelphia. Henry is speaking at a gallery opening of his photographs but Walt plans to spend time with his daughter, Cady--a lawyer working in a high-powered law firm. Walt and Henry aren't in the City of Brotherly Love for more than 24 hours when tragedy strikes. Cady is brutally attacked and found near the steps of a local museum. As Cady lies in a coma in the hospital, Walt and Henry can't help but start investigating the circumstances that led to the attack. When Cady's boyfriend (and the last person to see her alive) is also murdered, they realize that the attack was more than some random street violence. They are aided in their investigations by the Moretti clan (mom, brothers, and eventually Vic herself . . . arriving from Wyoming) but that might not be enough to keep Walt and Henry out of danger.
I don't know if it's the fact that the main characters in this series are pulled out of their usual context or that the writing is just so damm good but I couldn't put this book down....more
This second installment of this series set in rural Wyoming (the invented Absaroka County) finds Walt Longmire investigating the death of an elderly BThis second installment of this series set in rural Wyoming (the invented Absaroka County) finds Walt Longmire investigating the death of an elderly Basque woman, Mari Baroja. At first her death in the local nursing home seems "natural" but Lucian Connally, the former sheriff and Walt's old mentor insists that Walt take a closer look. Of course, this closer look leads to Walt uncovering the fact that Lucian, in his youth, had run off with Mari until her family came and found her and made her marry another. Also, as is customary in books like this, the past has a way of influencing the present and suddenly Walt finds himself in the middle of a family drama that may be dangerous to his health.
After only two books, I am a huge fan of this series. Johnson has created real and interesting characters and though I enjoyed the show, Longmire, on TNT this summer, the books are 800 times better. Johnson's writing reminds me of James Lee Burke's and that is a high compliment in my book. I'm off to read #3 in the series. ...more
A solid thriller that illustrates the age-old idea that if it seems "too good to be true," it probably isn't a good idea. Alice, the daughter of a famA solid thriller that illustrates the age-old idea that if it seems "too good to be true," it probably isn't a good idea. Alice, the daughter of a famous Hollywood director, has spent years trying not to rely on the family name. After getting fired from her job at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Alice spends months looking for work and is beginning to wonder what her next step can possibly be. A chance meeting with a gentleman at an art opening leads to what seems an amazing opportunity--the man is looking for someone to set up and manage an art gallery in Manhattan for a wealthy patron who wishes to remain anonymous. The only catch is that the first show the gallery space needs to run has to feature the photographs of the patron's lover, a Robert Mapplethorpe type without any of the artistry. Alice overcomes her initial doubts and suspicions and decides to take the job. That one fateful decision, made in defiance of her own gut "sense," ends up propelling Alice into a nightmarish morass of murder, pornography, and false identity. This is a wonderful "what if" scenario that never fully let me off the hook as a reader. ...more
I'm so partial to Myron Bolitar and anyone related to him that I enjoyed this second outing with his nephew, Mickey, and his scooby gang of Ema, SpoonI'm so partial to Myron Bolitar and anyone related to him that I enjoyed this second outing with his nephew, Mickey, and his scooby gang of Ema, Spoon, and Rachel. This novel begins only a day or so after the first one ends and the mystery is only deepening. Why does the picture of the Butcher of Lodz that the mysterious bat lady show Mickey resemble a paramedic that Mickey remembers seeing after the car accident that killed his dad? Is his dad still alive? When Rachel is shot and her mother is killed, Mickey realizes that the stakes are even higher than he thought.
This is a fast read though I wish Coben would take a cue from Joss Whedon and actually tell a full story in one book (so that if the series ended tomorrow, the reader wouldn't be totally left hanging). That is, why couldn't this YA book be more like the adult series featuring Uncle Myron? Hmmm....more
Harlen Coben is becoming the Jody Picoult of stand alone thrillers; he can churn out a perfectly readable and interesting novel that engages your inteHarlen Coben is becoming the Jody Picoult of stand alone thrillers; he can churn out a perfectly readable and interesting novel that engages your interest for 350 pages or so but not long after you close the book, you've forgotten the specifics. This novel has all the trade mark thriller bits--a possible serial killer, characters trying to escape their past but learning how impossible that is, and a cop who continues to investigate a case long after it's gone cold. Of course, being Coben, there's also some sharp dialogue between characters and a pair of stone cold killers who look like Ken and Barbie (Win, perhaps, if he didn't have Myron as a humanizing force). This was a perfectly fine read (perfect for beach or airport) but I can't help feeling like Coben is phoning it in these days....more
I wish I had read this before I saw the Scorcese film because behind the black and white illustrations of this book lurk the amazing palates of my memI wish I had read this before I saw the Scorcese film because behind the black and white illustrations of this book lurk the amazing palates of my memory of the movie. Still, the story is just as captivating as we follow the young orphan, Hugo, as he attempts to fix an automaton, the only piece of his father that he has left while keeping all the clocks in a Paris train station running. It's a story of secrets, friendship, and most of all the magic of movies and it's definitely not only for kids....more
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