The Midnight House – Alex Berenson (John Wells #4)

The Midnight House - Alex Berenson

The Midnight House – Alex Berenson (John Wells #4)

So, four weeks plus later and two books read in between, I finally finished Alex Berenson‘s The Midnight House. The Midnight House is the fourth book in the John Wells series and I loved the first three. The story lines were good and John Wells was a well developed character who I liked. So I had high expectations when I picked up this book, unfortunately, the book fell short of those expectations. It’s not that the book was bad, it’s just that there really was no hook that brought me into the story and made me want to keep reading. Read More

Favorite Series -Joe Pickett

C.J.Box’s Joe Pickett series has been a favorite of mine since I read Savage Run (Book #2) in 2004. I quickly went back and read book #1 Open Season (which won an Edgar Award for Best First Novel)and have continued from there. From the beginning, I have loved the characters of Joe Pickett and his family. Joe Pickett is a game warden originally living in Twelve Sleep, Wyoming and now Saddlestring. Joe is a kinda’ normal guy living a normal life and correcting the wrongs that he encounters and there have been enough to fill ten books. From his website: Read More

Book 9 -2010 – Redemption Street

While I am still working my way through The Midnight House I finished book 9 of 2010 Reed Farrel Coleman‘s Redemption Street. Redemption Street is the second book in Coleman’s Moe Prager series and my first read of this series. Prager is a retired New York City police officer, now running a wine shop with his brother. The story opens when a vagrant Arthur Rosen  comes into the shop and wants Prager to find his sister Karen, only problem is that his sister died in a fire in the Catskills sixteen years prior, with two other girls and sixteen other guests. Rosen, his sister and the other girls all went to the same high school as Prager, with one of the girls being a major crush of Prager’s.  Rosen is convinced his sister is still alive. Prager brushes him off as a crazy and when he goes to apologize a few days later, Rosen finds him, shortly after he has committed suicide and Prager’s name written in blood on his wall. So Prager sets out to set things right and find out what really happened the night of the fire. Read More

Book 8 – Red Sky at Night

While this book is my first read of a book by James W. Hall it is the sixth book in the eleven book series featuring Hall’s  iconoclast beach bum fisherman Thorn. (Anyone know his full name?). The book centers around the senseless slaughter of eleven dolphins at a Key West park that Thorn and his current girlfriend Monica had visited a few days previous. The slaughter is tied to the experiments in pain alleviation being performed on wounded veterans by an old boyfriend of Thorn’s Bean Wilson Jr. Wilson is also being investigated by the DEA for illegal actions and they have placed an undercover agent Greta Masterson in Wilson’s clinic. As Thorn starts to investigate he becomes a target and the rest of the story revolves around solving the mystery of the slaughter of the dolphins and rescuing Greta! Read More

Dark Tiger – William G Tapply (Stoney Calhoun #3) Book 7 of 2010gxz o

Dark Tiger Book 7 of 2010 – Dark Tiger is most likely the last Stoney Calhoun novel by William G. Tapply. Tapply passed away in July of 2009 after a battle with leukemia.  Tapply is best known for his Brady Coyne series which spanned twenty-six years and twenty-five books. Dark Tiger is the third book in the Stoney Calhoun series. Stonewall Jackson Calhoun is currently afishing  guide in Maine and runs a bait shop with his lover Kate Balaban. Read More

Favorite Series – Kenzie & Gennaro

In honor of the opening of Shutter Island (which from the trailers looks great) today based on the book by Dennis Lehane. I thought I’d write something about his series featuring Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro. Before he turned to stand-alones after the success of Mystic River, Dennis Lehane wrote five novels featuring Kenzie and Gennaro, starting with  A Drink Before the War, which won a Shamus award and ending with Prayers for Rain , including Gone, Baby Gone turned into the movie starring Casey Afleck. The books are gritty and deal with the underbelly of Dorchester a suburb if Boston, but the writing is terrific and the story lines are fast paced. I think I read these books about as fast as any I’ve read. They are  the kind you just can’t put down and when you do you can’t wait until you can pick them up again! Lehane said he wasn’t going to write anymore of these books but from what I understand his next book will be a Kenzie and Gennaro, can’t wait! So if you’ve never read them and enjoy gritty novels pick them up you won’t be disappointed! Read More

A Whisper to the Living (Porfiry Rostnikov #16) – Stuart Kaminsky (Book 6 – 2010)

I wrote two weeks ago about the loss of William G. Tapply and Stuart Kaminsky, two of my favorite authors. Well, a few days after I writing that post, I checked Stuart Kaminsky’s latest an maybe last novel in the  Porfiry Rostnikov out of the library and returned to Moscow. It was good to be among old friends, Porfiry, his wife Sara, son Iosef and his fiancé  Elena Timofeyeva, and Porfiry’s other team members Emil Karpo, Sasha Tkach, and Arkady Zelach. Read More

Parnell Hall – Woodstock Generation

Parnell Hall writes one of my favorite all-time series starring “Stanley Hastings, the world’s most reluctant private eye, is a failed actor/writer, who chases ambulances for a negligence lawyer in between gigs, which is most of the time” – (from ParnelHall.com). the books are just downright fun reads and a new one is due in July titled Caper! He also writes the Puzzle Lady series featuring Cora Felton also a good time. He obviously also can write music and sing as shown in the following video! I think I have the majority of those LP’s he’s looking at! Read More