Reading Challenge Status Update – April 9, 2015

2015 Reading Challenges Update and Projected April Reads

So we are almost a third of the way through April and I guess it’s time to update my Reading Challenges status and update the list of books I hope to finish this month!!! First yesterday I finished book 15 for 2015 Woo Hoo! To put this minor accomplishment in perspective I finished book 15 in 2014 on August 17th! I actually believe that having a plan and the reading challenges have helped me keep up this great pace!! (and not working full-time help just a wee little bit!) Read More

The Chessmen – Peter May

The Chessmen Book # 3 in the Award-winning Lewis Trilogy from Peter May

The Chessmen is the third and final book in Peter May’s outstanding Lewis Trilogy. The trilogy follows the life of ex-Detective Inspector Fin MacCleod as a returns to his home on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Through the outstanding writing of Peter May the reader is swept away to that rugged landscape and given a glimpse of the life of the people of live there.In this final installment Fin has left his former life and is temporarily living with his childhood love Marsaili. Fin has taken a job as head of security for Red River Estates. The Estates are experiencing problems with poachers and one of Fin’s first assignments reunites him with his childhood friend John Angus Macaskill, known as Whistler, who both poaches and lives on the Red River Estates. One night while pursuing Whistler across the rugged hills of the estate, they are forced to take shelter in a cave, The next morning they awake to find a loch in the valley of the hills has drained and a small aircraft is visible within the loch. The plane is the missing plane of a former friend Roddy MacKenzie, lost seventeen years earlier. When they explore the plane they find a decomposing body of a man who did not die in a plane crash but was murdered! Discovering the who and why of the murder will turn the lives of some of Fin’s closest friends upside down!! Read More

When Gods Die (Sebastian St Cyr) – C.S.Harris

When Gods Die – Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery Series – Book #2

I often joke that if I was ever on Jeopardy and the Final Jeopardy category was English Royalty I should just be prepared to be a loser!! When it comes to that category, in the infamous words of Sgt Schultz of Hogan’s Heroes fame, “I know NOOOTTTHHHHING!” But I do know a bit more after reading When Gods Die by C.S. Harris. Read More

Where Monsters Dwell – (Odd Singsaker Book #1) – Jorgen Brekke – Hop on the Brekke Bandwagon!!

Where Monsters DwellWhen I first picked up Where Monsters Dwell by Jorgen Brekke, I knew nothing about the book, but when I read what Steve Berry wrote about the book….

“History pulses with life and excitement in this chilling and foreboding read. Jorgen Brekke delivers what thriller readers crave, or at least what this reader craves – action, history, secrets, conspiracies, and international settings. Couldn’t ask for anything more.” Read More

From the Archives: Book 33 of 2011 Lassiter by Paul Levine ….

By Paul Levine

Through the years two of my favorite mystery series are the Jake Lassiter and the Solomon and Lord series both from Paul Levine. I haven’t read a book of his since 2011, when I read Lassiter. Here’s the review I wrote about it back when I finished the book. Tonight as I was re-posting this review I went to Levine’s page at Amazon and I see that books 9 and 10 in the Jake Lassiter series are both available at Amazon for only $3.99 each!! What a steal! Now I only have to find time to read them!!!! Anyway here is the review for Lassiter! Read More

After a Great Read – Bad Things Happen by Harry Dolan – I can’t wait to begin Very Bad Man!

bad things happenA couple of Saturday’s ago, I was browsing through the books at Barnes & Noble and I came across The Last Dead Girl, Book # 3 in the David Loogan series written by Harry Dolan. On the dust jacket of the book I read that Stephen King called Dolan’s book Bad Things Happen   “a “great f***ing book“! When I came home, I went to my local libraries website and requested the book. I was captivated by the book from the opening sentence, the pages flew by and it quickly became Book 29 of 2014, and I agree with Mr King in is  a great f***king book! Read More

Treasures From a Library Used Book Sale! Does It Get Much Better?

The other day I got to do one of my favorite things, go to a used book sale at the library. The visit was made even better because I The Things They Carriedgot to do it on the first day of the sale, when there were still a lot of books there! Typically, I’m there on the last day and sometimes during the last hour or so of the sale. When I went into the sale I decided that I was going to look, not for the typical mysteries that I usually go for, but for a few books that may be a more on the literature side. Read More

Michael Koryta’s Those Who Wish Me Dead – A Grade A Thriller – Read it before the Movie!!

Those Who Wish Me Dead are the sadistic and evil Blackwell brothers, who Jace Wilson saw murder a man in a quarry in Those who Wish Me DeadIndiana. Their quest to hunt down and kill Jace leads the Blackwell brothers to the mountains of  Montana , where Ethan and Allison Serbin run a summer survival training program for troubled youths. Jace was placed in the program by Jamie Bennett ,who was a former student of Serbin’s, Arriving in a snowstorm, Bennett asks Ethan’s help in getting Jace “off the grid” to protect him, something Bennett does not think she can do by herself. Although both Allison and Ethan have doubts about Bennett, they agree to help for the sake of the boy.  Soon the Blackwell brothers arrive, bringing their evil to the mountains. Can Ethan and Allison keep their promise to keep Connor safe?  The task becomes more difficult when Jace, sets out to escape from the brothers, alone!  While the brother’s bring evil and a devastating fire to the mountains, Jace encounters an ex-elite firefighter Hannah Faber, who joins the fight to keep Jace safe.  So begins Michael Kortya’s latest book Those Who Wish Me Dead about which Harlan Coben says….. Read More

Kathleen Mallory #11- It Happens in the Dark – Carol O’Connell

In Kathleen Mallory, author Carol O’Connell has created one of the most distinctive characters in the mystery and thrillerIt Happens oin the Dark genre. Mallory is

…. described by her creator as a sociopath. Emotionally scarred as a 6-year-old after she witnessed the murder of her mother in a small Louisiana town, Mallory flees to New York City, where she lives as a street child. She is caught trying to steal by police officer Louis Markowitz, who takes her home and becomes her foster father. Read More