Village in the Dark – Iris Yamashita (Cara Kennedy Book#2)

Village in the Dark Iris Yamashita cover

Village in the Dark by Iris Yamashita is book number 2 in her Cara Kennedy series. It is a mystery thriller set in Alaska. Book 1 in the series is City Under One Roof. Cara Kennedy is an Anchorage Police Department Detective. She is on administrative leave after her husband and son disappear while on vacation in Point Mettier. Point Mettier is an isolated town where its residents all live in one high-rise. In book one Cara finds some of the answers to her husband and son’s disappearance and they weren’t pleasant. (I’m not spoiling things by telling you what she discovered). Anyway at the end of the book she makes another discovery that leads her back to Point Mettier to see if she can find the final answers! Read More

Update: January-February 2024 Reads

Update: January-February 2024 Reads

Midnight Creed - Alex Kava
Midnight Creed (Ryder Creed #8)

Midnight Creed  is the 8th book in Alex Kava’s Ryder Creed series  The series was a spin-off of Kava’s Maggie O’Dell series. Since Maggie and her FBI colleagues are an intricate part of the Ryder Creed series, I’m going to call this book book 19 in the Maggie O’Dell has targeted homeless people up and down the east coast. While Ryder  and his dogs are searching for a missing boy. Additionally, Ryder and his staff are awaiting a shipment of K9s that were left behind when our troops left Afghanistan. Read More Read More

Noir and Girl, Forgotten Recent Reads Part 1

Noir - Christopher Moore Cover

Noir and Girl forgottenNoir and Girl,Forgotten are the 43rd and 44th books I have read in 2022. Both were written by authors who are among my favorites. Cristopher Moore wrote Noir and Karin -Slaughrer penned Girl, Forgotten. Since Noir is book 43 I’ll write about it in Part 1…..

Noir

Through the years  I have read and enjoyed many of Christopher  Moore’s books.Typically, I find them extremely funny and Noir is just that…. From Moore’s website…

The absurdly outrageous, sarcastically satiric, and always entertaining New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore returns in finest madcap form with this zany noir set on the mean streets of post-World War II San Francisco, and featuring a diverse cast of characters, including a hapless bartender; his Chinese sidekick; a doll with sharp angles and dangerous curves; a tight-lipped Air Force general; a wisecracking waif; Petey, a black mamba; and many more. Read More

The Bottom Line

The Bottom Line is Noir deserves between around 4.5 thumbs ups. What the plot lacks, the setting and characters and Moore’s quick wit more than make up for, leaving me laughing and happy! But don’t just take my word for it here’s what some others say about Noir….

Moore is a master of metaphor and a sultan of simile. . . .It takes an author of remarkable talents to keep a profitably urinating snake, a dame named for a dairy product, and a slimy extraterrestrial all running through a narrative.”
Washington Independent Review of Books Read More

Finally a Post! Romeo’s Way Book 22 for 2021!

Romeo’s Way -James Scott Bell

Ok so it may or may not be obvious but I am not having an easy time restarting posting to this blog. I have started countless posts only to not finish them. Frankly, I really don’t know why. Part of the reason may be that I am being overly self-critical. I keep telling myself no one cares or even likes what you write! Additionally, I think of  the vast quantity of blogs and say to myself, “why do you think anyone is going to visit your blog?”My answer is always the same – I don’t know”. Then I decide to go and find something else to do!

Lately something else has been reading. So far this year I have read 22 books which is FIVE books ahead of the pace I need to reach my goal of 60 books for 2021. While that’s a good thing, the bad thing I have written about very few of them!

Therefore, I am in a quandary. As to the best way to go about catching up writing about some many books. Maybe I’ll start with my most recent reads and work my way back….. so here goes…..

Romeo’s Way -James Scott BellBook 22 – Romeo’s Way (Mike Romeo #2) – James Scott Bell Read More

The Boy from the Woods -Harlan Coben delivers again!

Harlan Coben - The Boy from the Woods cover

Ok so this blog is titled FreeWheelin’ Book and Music Safari and so far in 2021 I have not written about any books! The reason I haven’t written  about any of the book I’ve  been reading is that I’ve been writing about my 30-day folk music challenge.

However, I have been reading, all be it at a slower pace than typical during the winter months. So far, I have finished three books. I finished =&0=& by Harlan Coben yesterday afternoon. It’s book number 3 for 2021.

The  book is a stand alone novel and not part of the Myron Bolitar series. However, it does feature criminal lawyer Hester Crimstein, who has made appearances in many Bolitar books

In =&1=& Hester‘s grandson Matthew contacts her and asks her to look into the disappearance of a school mate, Naomi Pine. Naomi is an outcast and a target for relentless bullying.

The search for Naomi brings Hester back to her home and town, where she raised her four boys. The town where her son,  Matthew‘s father lost his life in an auto accident.

To aid in the search,  Hester contacts Wilde, the boy from the woods. Thirty years earlier, Wilde was found in the  woods living as a feral child wirth no memory of his past.  Wilde grew up in a foster home and David became his best friend.

The search for Naomi led Wilde, and Hester to the Maynard family. Their son Crash is a classmate of Naomi and Matthew and a bullier of Naomi’s.

The Maynard family is embroiled in a controversy revolving around tapes that may end the Presidential campaign of a pat reality show host. As the search for Naomi intensifies the two storylines collide and Wilde and Hester need to use all their wiles to figure it all out!!

Final Thoughts

Overall, I didn’t race though most of  =&3=&like I have in other Harlan Coben books. However, the second half of the book and the conclusion more than made up for any deficiencies of the first half of the book!

Overall , I found Wilde to be an interesting character and certainly would like to see him in more action. It was also interesting to see Hester in her own book with only one reference to Myron!

I did think that aspects of the book are very timely. And considering the similarity to what we saw during the Trump presidency.

Again while I didn’t think it was Coben’s best, it’s still a 4-star book for me. I look forward know to see the Netflix show and see if the characters are anything like I imagined!!

Links for Further Explorations of the Works of Harlan Coben Read More

Green-Eyed Lady – Chuck Greaves

Green-Eyed Lady –  Chuck Graves – Jack MacTaggart No 2

 

Green-Eyed Lady from Chuck Greaves has a great opening. Liberal Democratic candidate for the Senate in California Warren Burkett three weeks before the election, encounters a damsel in distress. The young lady’s pursue and keys have been stolen by an unknown assailant. Burkett offers to give the beautiful green-eyed lady a ride back to her mansion. Reminiscent of another Democrat, this one was elected President, Burkett’s libido doesn’t stop. He believes he has hit the mother lode with this young woman! So much so, he helps break into her mansion (remember her keys were in her purse, which was stolen!) But when the door to her bedroom bangs open,  where a lust-filled Burkett  lies in wait for a thankful young woman to repay her debt it’s not the damsel who enters the room, but the police. They had responded the break-in at the mansion! When the dust settles, the green-eyed lady is gone along with a 2 million dollar plus painting and  maybe Burkett’s hopes of winning the election!

In steps attorney Jack MacTaggart,, who is hired to defend Burkett and unravel the mystery! When the painting surfaces in a most unusual place, the election is rocked again! And it appears that MacTaggart has stepped into some deep, you now what, as he takes on not one but two swarmy politicians, a mobster, and an urban artist! This tale has lots of twists and turns and it’s hard to tell who the good guys are. Hint it may not be the politicians!!

I started this book early in the month and liked it, but I set aside, and I raced through both Alex Kava’s Breaking Creed and Parnell Hall’s Safari.When  I came back to the book, within a few pages of where I had left off, Greaves hooked me and he didn’t let go until the final pieces of the puzzle f ell into place! Douglas Preston says this about the book…..

GREEN-EYED LADY by Chuck Greaves is the wickedest read of the year, smart, real, vivid as hell, and so plausible it could be in the Times. Greaves is a master of the language. I loved this book.” Read More