Scandal on Rincon Hill. Finished 10-5-14, rating 3.75/5, mystery, 340 pages, pub. 2010

Book #4 of the Sarah Woolson mystery series (Book 1) (Book 2) (Book 3)

A body is found just blocks from attorney Sarah Woolson’s home on Rincon Hill. Sarah is on the case, but 19th-century San Francisco is soon thrown into a state of panic as a gruesome crime spree begins to take hold of the city.

from Goodreads

Sarah, the only female attorney in San Francisco in 1881 and one of two in all of California, has opened up shop but has a hard time making ends meet.  No one is in a hurry to hire a woman lawyer even though she has helped solve several big name cases.  Her heart is always willing to take on the oppressed and marginalized and she has the smarts and support to do it.  She still lives in the family home and her father and three brothers are all successful in their chosen fields. Only her mother still believes she’ll be able to see Sarah married off someday and in this book there is a marriage proposal so she’s not far off.

Brielle, a young mistress is thrown out of her home after she has a baby and has to turn to a madam to make ends meet.  Two men from China, only in town for days, are railroaded for two murders.  Sarah takes on both cases with little hope of successful outcomes for either.  She might just manage to keep her law practice afloat, but she’ll have to rely on old friends for help.

I like this series. Sarah is a focused and unconventional and Tallman is able to give me real sense of life in 1881 San Fransisco.  If you like historical mysteries and female leads you will probably like this series.

This was from my own library.

Prospect Street. Finished 9-23-14, rating 4/5, fiction, 498 pages. pub. 2002

In one fell swoop, Faith Bronson loses her marriage, her financial security and her home. Despite the protestations of her father, she moves her family to a run-down town house in Georgetown. As she works on the house and attempts to put her life back together, she begins to discover secrets that have been long buried in the house on Prospect Street. Secrets that will change her family forever…

from Goodreads

I don’t want to give away too much so I won’t tell you why Faith’s marriage broke up, but the beginning of the story that concerned this worried me.  It was not the story I wanted from Richards whose heartfelt novels always leave me satisfied.  But as the story became more about Faith discovering her strength, I became more invested and less worried that it would fall down a rabbit hole I didn’t want to be trapped in.  This book was not in a hurry to get anywhere fast and I loved that. I loved meandering through the lives of Faith, her children, her family, and neighbors.  They each had their own story to tell and a mystery that connected them all.

It felt a little like a throwback, I was surprised that it was published in 2002.  Maybe the topic seemed dated, but I don’t know why because it’s not.  Anyway, I got caught up in the people, the mystery of a kidnapped baby and the rich Georgetown setting. I was reading this on our recent trip to Washington DC and we were planning on spending some time there, but it got late and I was too tired to walk across the bridge.  I love Georgetown and the idea of living in the townhouses there. Love it until, like Faith, I learn that renovations are extensive and expensive in those old homes.

It was a warm story of a woman coming into her own while battling the mysteries of her past.  I was captivated.

This was from my own library.

Missing You. Finished 8-1-14, rating 4/5, thriller, pub. 2014

Unabridged audio read by January Lavoy. 11 hours, 54 minutes

It’s a profile, like all the others on the online dating site. But as NYPD Detective Kat Donovan focuses on the accompanying picture, she feels her whole world explode, as emotions she’s ignored for decades come crashing down on her. Staring back at her is her ex-fiancé Jeff, the man who shattered her heart—and who she hasn’t seen in 18 years.

Kat feels a spark, wondering if this might be the moment when past tragedies recede and a new world opens up to her. But when she reaches out to the man in the profile, her reawakened hope quickly darkens into suspicion and then terror as an unspeakable conspiracy comes to light, in which monsters prey upon the most vulnerable. 

As the body count mounts and Kat’s hope for a second chance with Jeff grows more and more elusive, she is consumed by an investigation that challenges her feelings about everyone she ever loved—her former fiancé, her mother, and even her father, whose cruel murder so long ago has never been fully explained. With lives on the line, including her own, Kat must venture deeper into the darkness than she ever has before, and discover if she has the strength to survive what she finds there.

from Goodreads

I can count on Harlan Coben for solid thrillers, sometimes even stellar.  He always seems to have the latest cultural fad at the ready for his standalone books.  In this one it starts with online dating but goes much more up-to-date than that (I don’t want to spoil anything) and the results are very good.

I loved Kat as a heroine, what made her great as a detective also make her care about Brandon, who was concerned about his missing mother.  Everyone else had blown him off but Kat was willing to dig in and she already had a lot (too much?) on her plate since she was investigating her father’s death years before.  There were many storylines, but Kat was able to handle them and I liked her.

With that being said, I finished this a month ago and as I sat down to write this review I couldn’t remember a thing about it.  That says  a lot right? And not just that my memory isn’t what it should be!  After reading a few reviews I remembered but I admit that I expect more than that from Coben. I  can say with all honesty that I don’t think you can go wrong with any of his thrillers, but some are better than others.  This might not be one of the stellar ones (much like this review) but it was completely satisfying.

My mom bought this one and loaned it to me.

B is for Burglar.  Finished 7-21-14, rating 4/5, mystery, 209 pages, pub. 1985

Although business has been slow lately for P.I. Kinsey Millhone, she’s reluctant to take on the case of locating Beverly Danziger’s sister Elaine Boldt. It’s a small matter that Beverly should be able to handle herself. So why is she enlisting Kinsey’s services? Beverly claims she needs Elaine’s signature on some documents so that she can collect a small inheritance. But the whole affair doesn’t sit well with Kinsey. And if there’s something she’s learned in her line of work, it’s to always follow your instincts…

Kinsey’s hunch proves true when she begins her inquiries into Elaine’s whereabouts and discovers that the attractive widow was last seen in a flashy lynx coat boarding a plane for Boca Raton. But the more Kinsey searches for Elaine the more questions she encounters. Is Elaine’s disappearance tied in to the brutal murder several months ago of one of her bridge partners? And what happened to Elaine’s Persian cat who seems to have also vanished?

from Goodreads

 Second in the Kinsey Millhone series. (Book 1)

I need more of these short, satisfying books. With time as limited as it is these are perfect in size and scope (short and not too deep) and I really liked Kinsey in the debut novel and knew I’d continue on with her eventually.  I felt like I got to know the private detective more in the first mystery (feisty, relationship wary) so I’m glad I read it, but I think I liked this mystery better.  There were so many potential avenues and suspects to pursue that I found it hard to put this novel down.

I know I am way late to this series, I think she’s on W now, but I like the comfort of knowing I’m going to get a great mystery with a great woman heroine in as few pages as possible 😉  I’m not going to be reading these back to back, but I will be picking them up often!

What about you? Are you reading or have you read this series?  How well does it age?

I picked one up at a book sale and also picked up the next in the series.

That Night. Finished 7-22-14, rating 4.25, fiction, 384 pages, pub. 2014

As a teenager, Toni Murphy had a life full of typical adolescent complications: a boyfriend she adored, a younger sister she couldn’t relate to, a strained relationship with her parents, and classmates who seemed hell-bent on making her life miserable. Things weren’t easy, but Toni could never have predicted how horrific they would become until her younger sister was brutally murdered one summer night. 

Toni and her boyfriend, Ryan, were convicted of the murder and sent to prison.  Now thirty-four, Toni is out on parole and back in her hometown, struggling to adjust to a new life on the outside.

from Goodreads

It’s hard to put my thoughts on this one in a cohesive review.  If I hadn’t agreed to read this for She Reads (who has chosen some of my favorite books of the year), it would probably still be sitting on my nightstand with a bookmark that moved forward ten pages a week.  For me, it was the tale of two books.  The first half was so slow and, well, slow.  Toni seemed like your typical angst, chip-on-her shoulder teen who fell prey to the bitchy girls of high school.  She had the perfect relationship with her boyfriend, a most imperfect one with her clueless parents and she and her sister were never close.  I. Was. Bored.  I powered through because of She Reads and also because I remember reading another blogger say that it took a long while for the story to pick up.  And I am so glad that I continued reading because pick up it did and the second half of the book had me reading late into last night when I closed the book with a satisfied sigh.

Since Toni was our narrator, it was easy to see that most conflict was skewed in her favor, and there was a lot of conflict. I viewed her as someone who wanted everyone to think she was tough and because of that she attracted trouble wherever she was – high school, prison, halfway house, going back home when no one really wanted her there.  I had sympathy for her but I also was hoping that she could somehow rise above it all.  You’ll have to read it and make up your own mind on whether that happens or not.

I thought the book really highlighted the problems of our prison and rehabilitation system here in the States.  Here was a girl who was innocent, sent to prison, and then expected to learn how to live in a world hostile and distrustful of her.  Maddening and saddening at the same time.

If you are willing to get past a slow beginning you will be in for a great thriller that will have you turning pages as quickly and as long as possible.  Like me, you might even give up some sleep for it.

I received this book from She Reads.  Go on over and see what other bloggers think about this one.   There’s still time to enter for a free copy here.