Spenser is hired to find a rare book stolen from a university and the first witness he talks to ends up standing over a dead body within a day, but claims she didn’t do it.
This is the first book in the long-running Spenser series, and it is one of my favorite series of all time.… Read the rest
Jane breaks an innocent man out of jail but the real criminals grab her and torture her to talk. She doesn’t, of course, which sets off a long series of other events.
The crooks figure out that Jane is a pro, and that others must know who she is, so a lot of other hunters from previous books show up again.… Read the rest
Jane is retired, ready to give advice if need be to would-be runners looking for her help, but she spends her days being the dutiful supportive wife of her surgeon husband. At a fundraiser for the hospital, a bomb explodes to hide the activities of a group of hunters determined to capture a pregnant girl before she can get to Jane.… Read the rest
Pete Hatcher works in a Las Vegas casino as a low-level executive. When the big bosses decide maybe he knows something that would interest the Feds, Jane has to help him escape to a new life. But the major complication for Jane is that they hire a couple of pros to find Hatcher.… Read the rest
Jane Whitefield is back and trying to guide an 8-year-old boy with an inheritance and a 30-year-old woman with stolen bank money to a safe haven.
The methodology for how Jane helps everyone is quite good, and reads both simple and plausible, a veneer of realism that sells the stories.… Read the rest
Jane Whitefield is a Seneca woman living in NY state. She honours her ancestors and helps those who are in trouble to disappear and start a new life.
The premise of the main character’s “job” of helping people escape bad situations and start a new life — serving as their guide — is a fantastic premise, and the first half of the book is primarily about how she goes about doing her job.… Read the rest
A new trio of Jason, Piper and Leo has arrived at Camp Half-Blood and are ready to set off on a quest, but something seems off about not only them and their memories, but their participation in a ritual for the children of Greek Gods at all.
The new trio are fun, and there’s enough mystery in both who they all are and why they don’t remember to keep things interesting.… Read the rest
A woman dies at a party at a country resort, the solution obvious. But she was actually murdered, and a guest must solve the crime or never leave. Because the same day repeats each day, and each day the guest is in the body of someone else. He has seven chances to get it right.… Read the rest
A man observes the comings and goings of a 1920s party host who is both his neighbor and a paramour of his cousin.Â
It is weird to go back and read this book some 35 years after high-school. I remember thinking it was this glamourous world of parties and high society, where people really did act differently from the common folk.… Read the rest
This is a self-help guide to reducing your stress levels by choosing to care only about those things that are important to you.
I found this a very odd book to read. In almost every chapter, I found myself disagreeing with his evidence and examples, often thinking they proved the opposite of what he was trying to use them to prove, yet at the same time agreeing with some of the premises.… Read the rest
Almost three separate stories together — an opening reset of who is on which team, separate adventures for Kendra and Seth, and then a merged final battle.
Seth’s story is almost readable now, although I still feel most of the time it could have simply been one kid’s story, not separate ones for Kendra and Seth.… Read the rest
A wife of a polygamist starts to wonder about his other two wives and seeks them out, only to find a potentially dark secret.
The original premise was unusual and intriguing, and the writer’s use of an unreliable narrator is creative.
The original premise is interesting enough for you to want to find out about a three-wife relationship, where all three wives are kept separate.… Read the rest
A detective was framed for rape, temporarily jailed, kicked off the police force and is working as a private investigator looking at a potential case of corrupt cops who tried to commit murder.
Mosley always creates compelling characters (like Easy Rawlins) and Joe King Oliver is no exception.… Read the rest
Two stories converge, one of faux Kendra and one of a Dragon sanctuary.
The story of Kendra and a duplicate is interesting, but a bit slow for most of it. But once the Dragon sanctuary is involved, it takes off again.
Seth is being stupid again and it is really starting to take away from the story.… Read the rest
Darkness has come to Fablehaven, with many creatures being turned from light to dark.
There are almost three stories working at once, which adds to the complexity – Seth running around being annoying and self-centred in the Preserve; Kendra going to another Preserve on a quest; and a giant battle at the end that seems almost Lord-of-the-Rings-like.… Read the rest
Kendra and Seth start to receive their training from three experts in how to protect the Preserve.
The three experts and their specializations are pretty cool, all with slightly different skills and personalities. And the finale seems like a solid “Indiana Jones” challenge.
The book is a lot slower than the first, and while Seth isn’t quite as annoying, the ending reads almost like a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (series of chambers, different puzzles) and the main protagonist, Kendra, is relatively an observer for most of it while others do the heavy lifting.… Read the rest
Kendra and her brother Seth protect a magical preserve against dark forces.
Like most stories of youth being exposed to magic for the first time, there is a healthy skepticism like they’re being punked. What differed in this one is that the initial intro is one mostly of light and wonder, not darkness and fear.… Read the rest
A fictionalized “true” story of the author observing a brilliant detective attempting to solve the murder of a woman who went in to plan her funeral and was murdered the same day.
The premise of the story of the woman planning her funeral and then being murdered was a great Agatha Christie-style plot, more so than Sherlock Holmes.… Read the rest
The year is 1942, and Jack Delaney is working as a writer for the local radio station where weird things happen, like actors going missing and potential German spies hiding in plain sight.
The story starts off confused, and a hint of someone in trouble.… Read the rest
A blackout hits New Jersey and two kids try to figure out how it happened and how to fix it.
The level is middle-grade and moves along at an okay pace. The cause of the blackout comes down to computers, and the solution is relatively straightforward without seeming too simplistic.… Read the rest
