Finished 7-21-10, rating 3.5/5, Mystery, pub. 2010

Book 9 in the Lincoln Rhyme series (1st-The Bone Collector, 2nd- The Coffin Dancer, 3rd- The Empty Chair, 4th- The Stone Monkey, 5th- The Vanished Man, 6th- The Twelfth Card, 7th- The Cold Moon, 8th- The Broken Window)

Since Kopeski worked for a disability rights organization Rhyme’s condition was nothing to him.  An attitude that Rhyme approved of.  He believed that we were all disabled in one way or another, ranging from emotional scar tissue to arthritis to Lou Gehrig’s disease.  Life was  one big disability; the question was simple: What did we do about it? Rhyme rarely dwelt on the subject.  He’d never been  an advocate for disabled rights; that struck him as a diversion from his job.  He was a criminalist who happened to be able to move with less facility than most.  He compensated as best he could and got on with his work.

Chapter 21

Forensic Criminologist and quadriplegic Lincoln Rhyme and his team are working on two cases at once.  There is a potential terrorist attack using New York City’s electricity as a weapon and there is the ever elusive Watchmaker who has been taunting Lincoln for more than a year.  And Lincoln has a visit from a group who specializes in helping people die with dignity, something he has considered in the past.

I love this series, but this may be my least favorite.  There was way too much information about electricity and how it is harnessed and used in the beginning of the book.  I actually started the book and put it down for a week, something I don’t remember ever doing with this series.  Once the overabundance of information tapered off the story became much more fun and fast paced. 

I did enjoy the extra storyline with FBI agent Fred Dellray.  He hasn’t had a big story lately and it was great to see him back on the prowl and making tough choices.  And Ron Pulaski had a great storyline too.  So these combined with Lincoln’s consideration of assisted death made great storylines and I loved them.  It was only all the electricity stuff that slowed down the story for me.

Love the series – start at the beginning!

This is from my personal library.

Finished 7-19-10, rating 3.5/5, historical romance, pub. 1999

The spring Charlotte turned 20, her family gave up hope of her marrying.  In the three seasons since she made her debut she had done surprisingly well, considering that she rarely attended balls and had to be coaxed into attending garden parties and tea parties and rides in the park, the normal activities for gently bred young ladies.

Chapter 3

Lady Charlotte is fresh from boarding school and caught in situation with her friend where she makes a very bad decision.  She decides this indiscretion left her unsuitable for marriage and she rebuffed any suitors.  A few years go by and she decides, with the help of her very liberal mother, to put herself out there in the London ‘dating’ scene.  Charlotte is beautiful and rich and has no trouble attracting potential husbands, but the one she has always wanted just walked back into her life without remembering her from their liason years before.  He pursues her anyway and she tries to resist him because she is heartbroken he doesn’t remember her.

This is a very good first novel and I would gladly pick up another book by James because I enjoyed the writing.  That being said this is a story set in late 1700’s through the early 1800’s and Charlotte and her mother were very modern in their behavior at times and this did take me out of the story.  Also, things left unsaid is a hallmark of many romance, historical or otherwise, but this one was just too much.  One or two sentences could have cleared up any misunderstanding and it did make the book feel a little too long.  But even with those disappointments I will be giving Eloisa James another try because the story was entertaining and kept me interested.

This was from my personal library.

Finished 7-13-10, rating 4.5/5, fiction, pub. 1997

“Rich, I swear I think marriage is the most mysterious covenant in the universe.  I’m convinced that no two are alike.  More than that, I’m convinced that no marriage is like it was just the day before.  Time is the significant dimension-even more significant than love.  You can’t ask a person what his marriage is like because it will be a different marriage tomorrow.  We go in waves.”

page 166

Jean is a married mother of a five-year old girl and a photographer.  She and her family are on her brother-in-law’s  boat on the islands off of Maine researching a story for a magazine feature.  As Jean takes pictures of the island where a horrific crime took place in the 1800’s, she becomes convinced that her husband is having an affair with her brother-in-law’s beautiful girlfriend.   This story is spliced with the truth about what really happened all those years ago.

It is haunting, sad, and drew me in right away.  Beautifully told by alternating the past with the present I was even more invested in the old mystery surrounding a double murder and life on the inhospitable islands at the time.  It was made better because it is based on a true story.  Shreve used the old courtroom transcripts word for word, but made up the rest.  It definitely made me curious about the real murders.

This is not a long novel and one that will keep you riveted.  I never did fully connect with Jean, but I was fully engaged in the story.   It left me thinking well after I finished reading and that is about as good a recommendation as I can give.  I absolutely loved it!

This is from my personal library and was chosen by Piroska and Wanda.  Here’s what Wanda had to say…”One of my all-time favourites.”