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Category: By Year

The Last Ranger – Peter Heller (Book 9 of 2024)

The Last Ranger - Peter Heller cover

The Last Ranger is the second book I’ve written by Peter Heller. The River was the first of Heller’s books I read back in 2020. In a year where I read 56 books (thanks to the pandemic,) it was one of the best books I read. So I was looking forward to reading The Last Ranger. I must admit that I found it a little slow going in the beginning and and actually set it aside and started reading James Grippando’s latest Goodbye Girl. However, I went back to it as the library due date for the book approached, uh it’s today! Anyway, I’m glad I returned. 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

Starter Villain – John Scalzi – AnotherWinner for Scalzi

 

So on Friday January 12 I finished reading my second book for 2024, John Scalzi’s Starter Villain. It is the ninth book by Scalzi on my Goodreads shelves. I began reading Scalzi’s books in 2008. The first book I read was Old Man’s War.  that book among the others in the Old Man’s War series may still be my favorites written by Scalzi.

The hero of the book, well maybe not a hero, let’s just say main character of the book is Charlie Fister. Charlie is  a divorced ex-newspaper  journalist. Who is now a substitute teacher living with his cat. A house his siblings want to sell.  All Charlie wants is to buy and run  a pub downtown. But the cost is astronomical  and his only collateral for a bank loan is the house he lives in, which his estranged siblings want to sell!

Then his estranged Uncle Jake dies and leaves Charlie his business. Charlie realizes he may be in trouble, when he’s asked to represent the family at his uncle’s memorial service. At the service, first it was the message sent on a vase of flowers. The message See You in Hell” During the visitation, one guest checks Jake’s pulse another tries to stab him! It seems his uncle was not too popular. “

When Charlie is whisked away to his uncle’s island (I won’t  tell you why) he learns Uncle is a “villain”. Additionally, the people who were out to get Jake are out to get his heir, i.e. Charlie. Can Charlie survive??

Thoughts on Starter Villain

Starter Villain is the ninth book written by John Scalzi I have read. While I enjoy his hard science a little more I also enjoy his other books.I thought The Kaiju Preservation Society was a great read.  The book was nominated for a Goodreads Award as Best Science Fiction book of the year so others liked it, too. It finished as the 8th most popular book.

Starter Villain reminds me a lot of The Kaiju Preservation, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food delivery apps until she becomes involved with the Society.  Cuarlie on the other hand is an ex-journalist stuck working as a substitute teacher. Both are characters that you can root for as they both face formidable opponents.

John Scalzi’s sense of humor always comes out in his characters and it certainly does in Charlie Fister. It certainly is one of the aspects of Scalzi’s books I love.

Even though I keep waiting for something big to happen in Starter Villain, overall i was satisfied with the surprising final twist at the end. Actually, the more I think about the book the more I realize that I really liked the book.

In 2023 Starter Villain was also nominated for the best science fiction book at Goodreads. This time Scalzi’s book finished fourth in the voting. So check it out.

Links for the Further Exploration of the Books of John Scalzi Read More

Midnight Creed (Ryder Creed # 8) -Alex Kava (Book 8 of 2024)

Midnight Creed - Alex Kava one my my 2024 Reads

Midnight Creed (Ryder Creed (#8) (Maggie O’Dell World #19) Alex Kava


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. 

Soon another boy goes missing (one that Ryders’s coworker Jason knows well) and Ryder and his team sets off on a frantic search to find the boy.

Meanwhile the serial killer Maggie’s chasing is headed to Florida! Will the two cases collide!

My Thoughts on Midnight Creed

I have been reading books by Alex Kava since her first Maggie O’Dell book A Perfect Evil. I have enjoyed everyone of them.m Each case  Maggie faced through the first 11 books has been slightly different. Maggie has faced not only serial killers a, but serial arsonists, and a potential mall bomber. In addition to electrocuted teenagers and deadly pathogens.

Kava introduced Ryder Creed in her 2015 release Breaking Creed. Ryder an ex-marine turned K9 search-and-rescue dog trainer. Along with his partner they rescue dogs and trainer them to become search-and-rescue dogs. Through the first seven books in the series Maggie and Ryder’s relationship has developed. In book 7 they revealed their love for one another but they still live separately. Maggie cant’ leave Quantico and the FBI and Ryder can’t leave his dogs.

But back to Midnight Creed. Once again Kava provides a well-paced character driven treat. In addition to Maggie and Ryder the supporting characters Jason and Ryder’s sister Brodie have become key characters in the series.  Well, Brodie has been a key character in the series since the beginning of the series. However, readers just met her in the most recent books. Where was she?

Midnight Creed can be read without having read the whole series. However, I bet you’ll want to go back aand read the rest of the series after reading it!  So check it out!

Links for the Further Exploration of the Books of Alex Kava Read More

Crooked River – Preston & Child – Pendergast is Gold Again!

If you’ve read some of my past blog posts you probably know that I am a fan of mystery and thriller series. Some of those series I have been reading religiously for 20 or more years. Others I have read several books, stopped a lost track of the series. The Agent Pendergast series from Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child is one of the later. Read More

Dark Sky -C.J. Box (Joe Pickett #21)

Dark Sky - C.J.Box

I have been reading c.J. Box‘s  Joe Pickett books for a long time and Dark Sky the 21st book in the series is in my opinion one of his best!

About Dark Sky

In =&1=&  Joe must lead an elk hunting trip for a famous tech mogul. Steve Price, better known as Steve-2, the founder of Aloft and the social media platform  ConFab. Steve-2 wants to track, kill and dress an elk. Needless to say things don’t go well almost from the beginning. As the hunting party begins the hunting party are being watched by the Thomas  family. Seems the father Earl has a score to settle with Steve-2 and he’s brought along his to sons Kirby and Brad to help him settle it!

Meanwhile Nate Romanowski and Sheridan Pickett Joe’s daughter who is also Nate’s falconry apprentice have their own problems. Seems someone is stealing from their falconry nests. And Nate is none to happy with that situation!
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The Residence -Andrew Pyper – A Haunted White House!

The Residence - Andrew Pyper

So this morning I didn’t do my typical workout first thing. Instead I finished reading The Residence by Andrew Pyper. It’s the first book I’ve read by Pyper and the 27th book I’ve read in 2021.

About Andrew Pyper

Andrew Pyper is a Canadian author hailing from Stratford, Ontario. He has a B.A. and M.A. in English Literature from McGill University, He also has a law degree from the University of Toronto. However , he has never practiced law.

His novel, =&0=& won the 2014 International Thriller Writers Award for Best Hardcover Novel, and was a #1 bestseller in Canada.

=&1=& is his 11th novel and the 5th published  by Simon & Shuster.

About The Residence

=&3=&is a ghost story set in the White House during the administration of Franklin Pierce. While I never really found the book overly scary, I did find the overall story intriguing.

Franklin Pierce is one of the Presidents that you don’t really learn a lot about in school. I had read previously about the Pierce’s losing their son Benjamin (Bennie) in a train accident  It’s Bennie’s death and Jean Pierce’s attempts to contact him in  the afterlife that is central to the story.

While I didn’t love the book I did find it an interesting read. When I was in the middle of the book I decided I wanted to know more about Franklin and his wife and family. So I googled “best books about Franklin Pierce”. There are only a couple of biographies the most recent was written by Michael Holt and is part of The American President Series. So I checked at my library for the book and it’s on its way to me!

Summarizing, The Residence was for me an ok read (3/5 stars). It kept me interested to the end but didn’t provide a lot of scary moments. However, there were a few thought provoking moments about slavery and the creation of our nation. So check it out! As for me, I’ll be checking out some of Pyper’s other books.

Finally,  I was going to write about the rest of my morning in this post. However,  since I went on and on about The Residence I think I’ll post this and tell you about my morning in my next post!

Links for the Further Exploration of the Books of Andrew Pyper. 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