Finished 11-21-12, rating 3.75/5, romantic suspense, pub. 2011

Julie DeMarco loved her big Italian-American family and they loved her, even though her blonde hair and blue eyes made her an obvious outsider.  Her mother married into the family and then had another daughter.  Julie never knew anything else.  Then one day at a photography exhibit she sees a photo of a little girl standing at the gate of a Russian orphanage.  She is scared when she feels a connection and wonders if the girl could be her.

Julie has had a rough year.  Her mother died, taking answers about her birth with her, her ‘father’ is drinking himself to death and her fiance is pushing for a wedding date.  Julie tells her fiance she’s not putting him off, but it’s not hard to see that she is and he is not supportive of her wild goose chase.  Neither is her sister, which I never did understand.  But Julie plunges ahead in her search with the help of sexy, bad boy photographer, Alex.

I found this book to be highly enjoyable and hard to put down.  There were a few twists I didn’t see coming and some danger that kept the suspense alive.  Oh, and the sex helped move the story along too.  While I found some of the storylines somewhat simplistic and the end just a bit too neat, I also found the book highly addictive.  A fast read that will keep you guessing.

I bought this for my Nook.

Where’d You Go, Bernadette, rating 2.75/5, fiction, 336 pages, pub, 2012

I accepted this for review because I enjoyed Semple’s first book and she was gracious enough to let me ask her a few questions a few years ago here on the blog.  I read nothing but positive things about it from other bloggers and it’s even up for a best book award at Goodreads.  So, it was bound to be a disappointment, right? Unfortunately, it was.

Bernadette, a reknowned architect, has been stuck in suburban Seattle hell for almost 20 years and her husband mentally checked out of her wacky ways way back as he focused on his very important job at Microsoft.  Bee, their daughter, never felt neglected or unloved so the parents were successful in raising a daughter with a bright future.  The story focuses on where Bernadette had disappeared to, but this doesn’t really happen until the last third of the book.

It was an epistolary novel, mostly.  There were chunks thrown in from Bee, especially at the end, that broke up that narrative in a less than positive way.  I liked the emails, police reports, newspaper articles, FBI reports, text messages that made up the story of Bernadette’s disappearance, but until the very last few pages I never cared about Bernadette or her husband Elgin. At the very end I appreciated Bernadette’s journey, but getting there was a journey I wouldn’t take again. Bee, was a sympathetic character but not one I connected with.

There were exotic locales, Antarctica playing a big role in most of the book, and plenty of laughable/hateful characters depicting the wealthy suburbanites I am all too familiar with so I think this could be a great movie.  The characters often felt like caricatures that could definitely work on the big screen, but for me I found them a bit too whiny on the page.

I was hoping to be entertained, but I grew bored early on and didn’t care at all until the crazy end.  What happened to Bernadette?  It’s a doozy.  I know I’m in the minority for not really liking this one and I’m okay with that.

I want to thank Anna at Little Brown for sending me a copy of the book 🙂

A is for Alibi, finished 10-27-12, rating 4/5, mystery, 214 pages, pub. 1982

After I finished the 1000+ IT, I knew I wanted to read something short and satisfying.  I’ve had this book on my shelf for a while but knowing that I was SO BEHIND in the series it was never much of a temptation.  Until I came across the book featured in Books to Die For.  This is a little of what Meg Gardiner says about it, “In Kinsey I discovered a young woman doing a job that had previously been restricted to male private investigators, and doing so in a thoroughly grown-up way, inhabiting her life and her story with confidence and uncertainty and charming, flawed honesty.”  With that recommendation I finally started the alphabet series.

For those who have yet to meet Kinsey she is a hard-edged private eye with an aversion to attachments.  Divorced twice and a one time cop it’s her policy never to sleep with anyone involved in a case, unless they prove irresistible, as in this case.  She’s hired to find the real killer of Laurence Fife, hired by the ex-wife who served eight years for his murder.  The cold case becomes hot again as Kinsey tracks down all the usual suspects.

I really liked this quick mystery.  There were many suspects for such a short novel, but it never seemed too much.  I was kept mostly guessing until close to the end.  It wasn’t perfect for sure, sometimes Kinsey being too oblivious to gloss over and a few extraneous storylines that went nowhere, but I thought it was a solid mystery for a series debut.

I know some of the appeal of Kinsey is that she was one of the first women in the central character detective role, but I think she proved herself worthy of more than just a cursory pat on the back.  Kinsey didn’t give much of herself away in this book and I’m looking forward to getting to know her better as I continue through the alpahbet.

Books to Die For: The World’s Greatest Mystery Writers on the World’s Greatest Mystery Novels

In this collection, 120 mystery writers were selected to write an essay on the book they consider ‘the best.’ It is not meant to be read at one time.  I like how Connolly and Burke say it in the Introduction, “obviously ideal for dipping into when you have a quiet moment.”  For that reason I’ll probably not try to review the book as a whole, but will add some commentary when I review a book that’s in here.

I’ve only read a dozen of the essays, but I can tell you that I recommend this book for mystery lovers.  Give it as the perfect gift, even if it’s to yourself 🙂  I picked this up at Bouchercon and had it signed by 30 of the authors.  I’ll have to see how many more I can get as the years go by.

Since I’ve read 7 of the 120 novels (a sad total, right?) I’m going to give you a taste of the essays on the books I’ve read and then my thoughts on the book.  The book lists them in chronological order but I think I’ll list them in order of how I like them best.

A Simple Plan by Scott Smith was chosen by Michael Koryta “The plotting of A Simple Plan is, and should be, widely praised, but I’d argue that the greater genius  of the novel is in the way in which Smith renders the voice of Hank, our narrator.  In those early pages, Hank is compelling and familiar and reasonable.  Oh so reasonable…  He’s not a typical suspense novel protagonist-no military skills, police background, or heroic traits.  No, he’s the accountant at a feedstore in a small midwestern town.  He has a pregnant wife and a troubled brother and the weight of two lost parents and one lost farm hanging over him, but these are problems we know or can relate to.  This man is one of us.  He’s speaking for us.”  To me this is a forgotten gem and I think everyone should give it a read.  Just reading his essay not only made me want to read it again, but to also finally read Koryta!

Tell No One by Harlan Coben was chosen by German writer Sebastian  Fitzek.  “To sum up, for its inconsistencies alone Tell No One is a “book to die for” for me.  It starts with a question that sounds almost supernatural, but leads to a real story, which leads to a logical ending.  It’s about extraordinary people we have never met in real life, but take at face value…With this book Coben has not invented a new genre, but he has pushed the boundaries toward new frontiers.  It makes him one of the few popular authors whose style can be recognized without looking at the name on the cover.”  This was my first Coben book and the one I always recommend to thriller lovers.  I’ve read all of his books and even though there’s no Myron it’s probably still my favorite.

Clockers by Richard Price was chosen by Gar Anthony Haywood. “Part of the great pull of Clockers is the anxiety a reader is made to feel throughout, waiting for Strike or Rocco to prove himself more compassionate, more alive than Price would lead us to believe he is.  In the hands of a lesser writer, characters this detached and manipulative, wading through daily existences this harsh and seemingly pointless, would tax a reader’s patience…But Price lends each man just enough humanity, just enough hope for his sorry future, to make writing him off impossible.”  It’s been many years since I read this one but I remember being blown away by the dialogue.  I think it may be time for a reread.

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote was chosen by Joseph Wambaugh.  “This book is less interested in the bogeyman terror of the event or the whodunit aspect of the investigation that in the psychological exploration of the criminal mind and motive, which had not been done in such depth since Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment.”  My thoughts are here.

The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain was chosen by Joseph Finder.  “If you haven’t yet read it, or haven’t read it in a while, you’ll be surprised at how well it holds up.  The prose is lean and spare, completely stripped of ornamentation or affection.  It reads like the confession that it reveals itself to be.”  You can find my thoughts here.

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier was chosen by Minette Walters.  “For those who see Daphne du Maurier as a romantic author, the book ticks every box in the developing Jane Eyre-love between the older Maxim and his younger second wife.  For crime buffs, it is one of the few murder stories where the voice of the victim resonates loudly on every page, playing not only with the minds of the other characters but also with the reader’s.”  I listened to the audio of this a few years before I started blogging and liked it, but didn’t fall in love with it.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt was chosen by Tana French.  “For me, this book redefined the territory that mysteries can claim.  When I started writing, more than ten years after I first read it, I was writing within a landscape that The Secret History had redrawn for me.  I aim to write mysteries that take genre conventions as springboards, not as laws, and never as limitations on quality or scope: books where the real murder mystery  isn’t whodunit, but whydunit and what it means.”  Listened to this on a road trip way, way back when and remember liking it but not a whole lot else.

Added 2/15

A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton was chosen by Meg Gardiner. “Deftly plotted, vivid, and convincing, the story has twists, multiplemurders, and some we-intended B&E by the heroine. It has sex. It has regret, and gunplay.  It has a cast of motley neighborhood characters that, over the course of the series, become beloved.  And in the center of the action it has Kinsey…  My thoughts here.

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle was chosed by Carol O’Connell. “There are 56 short stories, but I recommend Doyle’s finest of four novels, The HOund of the Baskervilles, to understand why Holmes’s story can never end, but extends from the horse-drawn-carriage era of 1887 into the twenty-first century-with fresh horses.”  My thoughts are here.

Finished audio 10-23-12, rating 3/5, thriller, pub. 2011

Unabridged audio 12 hours 20 minutes.  Read by Peter Berkrot

Glen’s wife dies in a horrific traffic accident that kills a father and son in another car, leaving him with their 10 year-old daughter and anger that she was drunk and caused the accident. As he tries to normalize life for his daughter, there’s another death in their small Connecticut town.  And then another.  When Glen starts putting the pieces together he discovers layers of secrets and murderers to spare.

I liked Glen.  He had a great relationship with his daughter, was a stand-up boss and neighbor, and a good friend.  The problem was the number of coincidences in the book.  Ever heard of these underground purse parties where you can buy knock-off designer bags?  What about prescription drugs that come from China sold under the (prescription) table?  And electrical parts that aren’t up to code also from China?  Well, not one, not two, but all three make significant appearances in the many storylines of this book.

It was too much, all the murders, the counterfeit sales, the characters that come and go with no purpose.  It was a fast and easy read and I wanted to stick it out to the end to find out how it all came together.  It was an enjoyable, if unbelievable thriller.

A word about the narrator, I didn’t like Berkot’s voices for women.  Every one sounded just plain annoying.  Other than that he was fine 🙂

I checked this audio out of the library.

Jane. Finished 9-11-12, rating 3.75/5, fiction, 320 pages, pub.2012

Cambridge, England: 1905. Jane Porter is hardly a typical woman of her time. The only female student in Cambridge University’s medical program, she is far more comfortable in a lab coat, dissecting corpses, than she is in a corset and gown, sipping afternoon tea. A budding paleoanthropologist, Jane dreams of travelling the globe in search of fossils that will prove the evolutionary theories of her scientific hero, Charles Darwin.

When dashing American explorer Ral Conrath invites Jane and her father on an expedition deep into West Africa, she can hardly believe her luck. Rising to the challenge, Jane finds an Africa that is every bit exotic and fascinating as she has always imagined. But she quickly learns that the lush jungle is full of secrets—and so is Ral Conrath. When danger strikes, Jane finds her hero, the key to humanity’s past, and an all-consuming love in one extraordinary man: Tarzan of the Apes.

Jane is the first version of the Tarzan story written by a woman and authorized by the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate. Its 2012 publication will mark the centennial of the publication of the original Tarzan of the Apes.  (from Goodreads)

I know next to nothing about the Tarzan story.  I vaguely remember seeing him fly vine by vine through the jungle in black in white as a kid flipping through channels.  And that’s it.  So, when I was offered a chance to learn his story from a viewpoint that interested me, I was excited.  I was pleasantly surprised at this telling of Jane’s story.

Jane is highly educated, opinionated and more progressive than her peers.  More interested in bones than marriage, she is the first woman to attend Cambridge Medical School and eager to join her father on one of his expeditions, much to her mother’s horror.  Father and daughter depart for the African jungle hoping to find the missing Darwin gene and instead find treachery, death, lies and separation.  When Jane is rescued by Tarzan she moves beyond the typical heroine and becomes a woman and scientist discovering passion for the first time.

I thoroughly enjoyed Jane’s adventures and Tarzan’s primal heroism and know that this is the closest I’ll ever get to an expedition such as this one.  With that said, adventure stories aren’t really my thing so there were small chunks of jungle time that I found myself skimming, but this is not a judgement on the storytelling, only on my reading habits.

This book was authorized by the Edgar Rice Burroughs Estate and is timed to celebrate the first publication of Tarzan 100 years ago.  Burroughs even makes an appearance at the beginning and end of the book.

As a newbie to Tarzan and Jane, I was totally captivated by their world and plan to check out more of Robin Maxwell’s novels about historical women.

Thanks to PR by the Book for getting this book in my hands.  Isn’t the cover cool?