The End Of The Pier by Martha Grimes

The End of the Pier by Martha Grimes



My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I've never been able to "get" Martha Grimes. It's not that I outright don't like her books; it's more that I just don't know what she's trying to get her characters to convey. The End Of The Pier is the perfect example of this. I'm not sure if the characters in this book are deep (as in profound thinkers), crazy, or maybe just flat out stupid.

There's a serial killer loose in Elton County, a small town-America rustic area, only no one seems to have put together the clues indicating that the murders of women which have taken place over time are connected. What law enforcement exists in the area is lazy at best and clueless at worst. Except for the local sheriff, Sam DeGheyn, who believes the wrong man has been tried and convicted for the murders. However, Sam's got a screwed up personal life, so his full attention is not quite concentrated on the murders. Besides that, Sam isn't getting a lot of cooperation from his fellow county law enforcement officers.

One of the main characters through whom this story is revealed is Maud Chadwick. Maud's thought process is all over the place which, to me, made her annoying and ornery rather than helpful in figuring out what is going on around her. I wanted to like Maud, I really did, but just about the time I thought she'd offered some genuine insight, she'd go and spoil it all by uttering stream of consciousness drivel.

As for the mystery of who is killing the women of Elton County: by the time I reached the end of the book I really couldn't have cared less. I was just glad I'd reached the last page so I could pack this book up to donate to Good Will.

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Silent Snow by Steve Thayer

Silent Snow by Steve Thayer

My review

Rating: 4 of 5 stars
The kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby in 1932 forms the backdrop for this very well written thriller/mystery. In Minnesota in 1999, Rick Beanblossom's baby boy is kidnapped from his nursery crib just as the Lindbergh baby was kidnapped 67 years previously. Beanblossom's wife, Andrea Labore is a television media star, while Rick is a well-known print media reporter. They both are celebrities, and they both, by virtue of what they do for a living, have numerous contacts thanks to work associations both currently and from previous jobs. However, when their son is kidnapped they are just as much at the mercy of those who took their son as anyone else in their position might be.

By shifting the action back and forth between 1932 and the present, we follow the parallels between the two different kidnappings. There are many similarities between the two cases. In 1932 the Lindbergh case was closed when Bruno Hauptmann was found guilty and executed for the crime. However, because of the uniformity of the current crime to the former one, serious doubt is placed upon the assumption that Bruno Hauptmann committed the kidnapping of Baby Lindbergh alone. Beanblossom begins to suspect Hauptmann had an accomplice and that this accomplice is now working out of Minnesota on a similar plan to extort money from wealthy parents.

Once I began reading Silent Snow, I found it difficult to put the book down. Steve Thayer maintained a level of tension throughout the book that kept me turning the pages as fast as I could read them. Apparently Thayer had one book before this one, The Weatherman, in which the characters who appear in Silent Snow make their debut. Based upon this book, I'd be willing to read anything more Thayer has written. He's created some interesting characters, and it would be interesting to see where he takes them from here.


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Case With Three Husbands by Margaret Erskine

Case With Three Husbands by Margaret Erskine

My review

Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Septimus Finch has been invited by his doctor friend, Adam Braithwaite, to spend some time recuperating from a gunshot wound to the stomach, sustained while on duty as a detective inspector for Scotland Yard, at Braithwaite's home by the sea. It is assumed that Finch will get plenty of rest and relaxation while he recovers from his injury and subsequent surgery. This is not Finch's idea of an ideal way to spend his time since he's all about the challenge and fun of solving crimes and unraveling murder mysteries. But he does go off with Adam for a few weeks.


The Bonner family lives next door to Braithwaite in a Gothic Victorian mansion. They are having a gathering to celebrate Aunt Agatha and Uncle Lionel's 75th birthday. On the eve of the to-do, Aunt Agatha suffers a stroke after receiving some shocking news which she is unable to fully communicate to her brother. The next day Aunt Agatha is murdered in her bed, Braithwaite is called in to deal with details, and Finch, as his house guest tags along. When it becomes known that Finch is a detective inspector for Scotland Yard, he is included in the case's investigation.


Margaret Erskine has written a tightly crafted murder mystery with a very likable investigator and a cast of characters who are all eccentric, but who are also interesting, sympathetic, or so eccentric they're very funny. While I may have solved the mystery in my head before I reached the end of the book, in no way did I begin to touch the crux at the bottom of the whole plot. There were enough twists and turns to grab my interest and hold onto it throughout the whole book.


I like cosy mysteries and I would recommend this one to those who share that preference as well as an enjoyment of British mysteries. I will be looking for more of Margaret Erskine's work.


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Leading An Elegant Death by Paula Carter

Leading an Elegant Death by Paula Carter

My review

Rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is the first in Carter's series about Hillary Scarborough, a Martha Stewart-type tv hostess, and Jane Ferguson, an almost-lawyer who is hired to be Hillary's assistant when together, on Jane's interview, they discover the body of a dead woman. Unfortunately, the dead woman was Hillary's rival in the tv ratings, so both she and Jane come under suspicion for the murder.


I like cosy mysteries, and this one has good possibilities for a series; however, more development needs to go into the characters and the plotting of the mystery itself if the series is to draw in more readers. The whodunit in this book was weak, and the investigative process consisted more of Hillary driving like a maniac and Jane being scared of her own shadow than it did collecting actual proof of anything or against anyone.


There was humor, though, and all the main characters were very likable. It would be fun to see where Carter takes her people in future episodes. There wasn't enough development of the characters, though, to sustain the story in spite of the weak plot mystery. Somewhat reluctant sleuths are a staple of the cosy mystery genre, but in this case not enough inquisitiveness was written into Jane's character to justify her becoming more and more involved in the developing investigation. And having her 10 year old daughter figuring out aspects of the case before they occur to Jane didn't help the credibility of Jane's character much either.


However, that's not to say this wasn't completely a lost cause. When I finished Leading An Elegant Death I wanted more, and that's always a good sign.




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The Lawyer's Tale by D Kincaid

Lawyer's Tale by D. Kincaid

My review

Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Harry Cain is the Super Hero of Lawyers. There is no case he can't win for his clients; no plan he conceives that doesn't work out just exactly the way he envisioned it. He works for movie industry people as well as the corporate wealthy; they all love him and believe he can do anything. If this book became a movie, George Clooney should play the part of Harry Cain. Suave, tres cool, yet vulnerable to what he holds dear.

Reading The Lawyer's Tale is just like reading a superhero comic book. It's very unrealistic, the bad guys are so villainous they might as well be wearing flashing neon signs over their heads, and the tactics Harry uses time and again are about as farfetched as it's possible to get and still have an ounce of credibility. But this is truly a fun read. It's the ultimate poke in the eye to the Big Boys who think they've got all the power and can do whatever to whomever they want. And yet, after all the razzle dazzle clears, Harry still has a life, and it's not quite what we'd expect of the "Sunset Bomber" as he's dubbed by those who hold him in awe. Harry may be brilliant, but at the end of the day when The Suit comes off, he's just a guy, the same as everyone else.

There were enough twists and turns in The Lawyer's Tale to keep it from becoming tiresome with all of Harry Cain's theatrics. There was always the mystery about how Harry was going to get his client the favorable decision, and there was certainly doubt about where Harry might have been just a tad gullible. All in all The Lawyer's Tale was a worthwhile read.


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Whose Body? by Dorothy Sayers

Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers

My review

Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Through the first few chapters of Whose Body?, I thought Lord Peter Wimsey was what you'd get if you crossed Sherlock Holmes with Benny Hill. Since I find both those men insufferable, I was prepared to loathe Wimsey.


And then something happened about halfway through the book. Lord Wimsey became more of a real person instead of a know-it-all gasbag. In fact, Wimsey had some rather sobering thoughts about life, the universe, and everything which made me re-evaluate my thoughts on him.


By the end of the book he was back to Sherlock Holmes mode, but there was enough poignant residue for me to feel like I'd read more of Sayers' mysteries about him.


The case Wimsey solves is about a body that mysteriously shows up in a bathtub in a very unsuspecting gentleman's apartment. Along with Scotland Yard's incompetent inspector, Wimsey is called and of course spots all the minute clues no one else would ever in a million years notice. There's a fair amount of beating about the bush until we finally get down to considering who put the body in the bathtub as well as the identity of the dead man. By the time Wimsey reaches this point, it's no real surprise who did the killing.


This mystery is pure British through and through which can become tedious reading when Wimsey goes meandering off on some tangent that is meaningless to the plot. He tries desperately to be witty and bright to the extent that I wanted to suggest he STFU. I was careful to pay close attention to every scene otherwise I could easily miss some significant piece of information buried under some of Wimsey's gibberish. But in the end, I found Whose Body? an interesting read. Dorothy Sayers had a very unique way of presenting her story through Wimsey, and I would definitely read more of this series now that I know better what to - or not to - expect.


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The Nursing Home Murder by Ngaio Marsh

The Nursing Home Murder by Ngaio Marsh

My review

Rating: 2 of 5 stars

I tried reading Ngaio Marsh years ago and just couldn't get into her style of writing. This time around I liked her characters, particularly her Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn. He's charming, smart, witty, and a little on the goofy side. But this was not the best book to showcase his talents or his personality.

Home Secretary, Sir Derek O'Callaghan is not having a very good time of it. He's introduced an anti-anarchistic bill in the House, and as a result he's gotten some death threats. Not only that but his mistress has voiced her desire to kill him as has his personal physician. When Sir Derek becomes ill and needs surgery, even a nurse in the operating room expresses an interest in seeing him dead. When he does die after his surgery, at first it's presumed he died of complications thanks to a burst appendix. Later it becomes clear he was murdered.

If Marsh had stuck with the characters surrounding Sir Derek and built on their relationships to develop her plot, I think this book would have been much better. Instead she goes meandering off into other areas which may or may not tie into the murder. After a while even Inspector Alleyn couldn't make me care about the outcome of this one.


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The Trophy Wife by Diana Diamond

The Trophy Wife by Diana Diamond

My review

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Walter and Emily Childs were married for years. Their family included two teenaged children, a boy and a girl. Walter Childs worked as a senior vice-president at InterBank. He was in line to be promoted to the top spot at the bank when the current chief executive officer retired. Walter had decided to secure that position and then leave his wife, Emily, and marry Angela, a graduate of Harvard Business School and a woman he'd begun mentoring when she started work at InterBank. Angela was young, beautiful, smart, and she was the person Walter wanted by his side as he took over the CEO position for which he'd been preparing himself for years. It wasn't that he didn't care about Emily; it was a matter of Emily's no longer being suitable as the person with whom Walter wanted to share his new life as CEO. Walter believed Angela was the better choice as a "Trophy Wife" to share his future.

And then Emily was kidnapped for a $100 million ransom which Walter was supposed to arrange to deliver to her captors through funds he'd route from InterBank to a secret account in an offshore account. Whoever took Emily had arranged for various people to be involved in her abduction. None of the participants knew each other, nor did they know for whom they were working. The point was for no one to be hurt so long as Walter followed the instructions he was given to get the money to whomever had taken Emily.

Banks have policies about the abuction of its employees' family members. Even though Walter knew what this policy was and that he could not expect the bank to willingly arrange for the ransom demands of his wife to be paid, Walter enlisted the help of the bank security officer to try to get Emily back with or without the transfer of the money. It was at that point the story got more complicated. Emily's life was in serious jeopardy, and while Walter was concerned about her safety and wanted her returned unharmed, he also was worried about what his compliance with the kidnappers would do to his chances of moving up in the bank's hierarchy. He was not willing to consider that his future with the bank was in jeopardy because of this development.

Diana Diamond has written an absorbing story with plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader unsure of who is behind the plot to kidnap Emily Childs. Another interesting aspect to the story is the relationship between Walter and Emily. What makes a man decide that the wife who has stood by him over the years giving him the support he needed and often putting his concerns before her own is suddenly incapable of continuing to share his successful life with him? What makes such a man betray his family by so blithely deciding that what he must have to secure his future is a "Trophy Wife"? What I particularly liked about Diamond's treatment of this material was that she did not turn to the cliched version of this age old situation with the typical husband-dumps-wife-for-younger-woman scenario. Instead, Diamond gives a more grown-up version of this kind of situation which serves to make this book hard to put down. I'm interested in reading more of Diana Diamond's work.


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The Agreement by Sarah McMurry and Francesco Lualdi

The Agreement by Sarah L. McMurry; Francesco Lualdi

My review

Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Three women, friends since they were all in college together, each believe she is married to the world's worst husband. While they've stayed in contact with each other by having a monthly lunch and trip to the theater, none has ever unburdened herself of the marital problems she believes she faces.

Adrianna thinks her husband is an old, boring fool, and she's furious because he is about to take a huge chunk of what will be her inheritance and spend it on a center for psychiatry that will essentially be an honor for himself.

Millie is married to a man who physically abuses her, and who has been forcing his attentions on her older daughter. Millie believes it's merely a matter of time before he does the same thing to her younger daughter.

Ruth is married to a philandering husband who is morally corrupt in most areas of his life. He has no respect for Ruth and treats her like a doormat.

When Adrianna suffers what she feels is "the last straw", the three women get together and finally reveal to each other exactly how unhappy these 3 men have made them. In the course of listening to and comforting each other, an agreement evolves. What if they all helped each other be rid of these unacceptable men so they could each go on to live out the rest of their lives happily. Could they pull off such a scheme and ultimately get away with murder?

I thought The Agreement was a tightly crafted story that was difficult to put down. While the theme of wives being victimized by their husbands may have been more relevant when this book was first published, the story has stood up over time. I was disappointed to discover that McMurry and Lualdi do not have more books to their credit. They certainly grabbed and held fast to my attention with The Agreement, and I was hoping, if not for a sequel, then at least another book to showcase their collaborative writing talent.


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The Closers by Michael Connelly

The Closers by Michael Connelly

My review

Rating: 3 of 5 stars

In this addition to the Harry Bosch series, Harry is called out of a 3 year retirement to work with his former partner, Kizmin Rider on the newly formed Open-Unsolved Squad of LAPD. The case assigned to Bosch and Rider concerns the murder of a teenager who'd been carried from her bedroom during the night and murdered not far from her home. The murder had originally been staged as a suicide, but even after that conclusion was ruled out, there never was a firm suspect or solution to the case.


17 years later, with the inclusion of DNA as routine evidence in murder investigations, this cold case could be reopened since there had been tissue and blood left on the inside of the gun by whomever had fired it. That evidence did not belong to the victim. So Bosch and Rider begin from scratch to construct from bits and pieces of information who murdered the teenaged girl.


What I particularly liked about The Closers was the focus on what homicide detectives use to help solve the cases they are given. The attention to detail, the imagination of various scenarios to answer what appear to be unanswerable questions, and the trust a detective needs to have his his or her own instincts to move forward when the case appears to have come to a standstill. In this regard, Kizmin was certainly, as her name implies, the "rider" along for whatever clues Bosch flushes out of this case. Not only is she there to watch Bosch's brilliance at work, but she's also there to provide him with the encouragement and support he needs when some of his plans in solving the crime lead to unexpected results. In other words, Kizmin, for most of the book, is Bosch's straight man -- or, as Connelly tells it, a black, lesbian, intelligent cop. Irritated as Rider can become with Bosch, she always lets him off the hook for his blunders and gazes in awe when he succeeds. Sometimes I wonder how she doesn't gag, but that's just me.


I like the Bosch series. Harry is the kind of detective you'd want working your case if you either were or knew the victim. Yeah, occasionally he blunders, but his conscience never lets him off the hook for mistakes he makes. He believes he is there to speak for the victim and to provide that victim with the justice (s)he deserves. I like that. It's obvious that Connelly knows his stuff when he writes these novels because the plotting is so realistic as the case unfolds.


And then there are those endings. No one writes endings to mysteries like Michael Connelly does. Sometimes they are unrealistic, sometimes they are thrillers down to the last page, and sometimes, after all the smoke has cleared, they could break your heart. That's why I keep on reading whatever Connelly writes. I think he's THAT good.


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A Holly, Jolly Murder by Joan Hess

My review

Rating: 1 of 5 stars
Very disappointing addition to the Claire Malloy series. A Holly, Jolly Murder has been tagged as a "Holiday Themed" book. Only by stretching the imagination to its very outer limits would I categorize it that way. Merely because Hess mentions Christmas or Santa Claus now and then doesn't make this book anywhere near being about the holidays. It's about Druids and Satan-Worship and Wiccans... if that dredges up sweet memories of Christmases past for some readers, fine. It certainly did not do that for me.

But it isn't just the lack of material that supposedly defines this book as a holiday mystery. It's also that the whole story from beginning to end is terribly contrived. What humor there is, and that's sparse, is forced. What used to pass for Hess' wit comes across in this book as artificial and affected. I've read other Claire Malloy books. I've seen how good Hess can be when she's at the top of her game. This book simply doesn't have even a remnant of that creativity. It's like Hess wrote this one because someone was threatening to pry off her fingernails slowly and painstakingly, so she wrote anything to avoid being unable to wear nail polish for a while.

The plot to this mess concerns a group of people with mixed spiritual beliefs. Some are Druids, some Wiccans, and some Satanic followers. One of the group is murdered, and for no reason that makes any sense whatsoever, Claire Malloy gets involved in the trials and tribulations of the members left alive.

Meanwhile, Claire's daughter, Caron, is involved in some trouble of her own. This turns out to be a minor, somewhat annoying, distraction from the real mess of the book which is who killed the victim. Getting deeper and deeper into that part of the story only serves to muddle the plot further, and if I weren't absolutely anal about having to finish books I start to read, I'd have hurled this one at my favorite spot on the wall and forgot about it.

Word to the Wise: Skip this one and find something far more interesting and better constructed to read than A Holly, Jolly Murder... like maybe your cereal box.


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The Vulture Fund by Stephen Frey

The Vulture Fund by Stephen W. Frey

My review

Rating: 2 of 5 stars

I read this Stephen Frey book because I thought it would be interesting to see how a plot could be developed using investment banking as the backdrop for a mystery/thriller. Unfortunately, the story was not even close to plausible, and that I found disappointing. However, this is not to say I didn't like the book at all. Frey has a wide variety of characters most of whom play against each other, and at the very center of this is the mystery concerning who is really pulling all the strings for a nefarious scheme to raise a huge amount of money over a short time period. This gave me some incentive to keep on reading. Given the current very real global economic crisis, The Vulture Fund could have been relevant to today's financial headlines. Instead, because of its unlikely story development, the book fell short of my expectations.

If Frey were relying on his own experience in investment banking, he has a very low opinion of women working within this industry. His opinion of men isn't much higher. In short, men are pigs, and women are pig farmers. That doesn't make anyone very likable. None of the characters were ever developed enough to make the reader care what happened to them.

Perhaps someone who really really likes reading mystery thrillers would enjoy this book, but I'll pass on anything more by Stephen Frey.

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A Is For Alibi by Sue Grafton

What a difference a few decades makes! I read my first Sue Grafton mystery years ago when the series first began. I'm fairly certain I read this particular book, although that's a whole lotta books ago, so maybe I'm wrong. In any event, I didn't like the series much, and the reason I didn't like it was Kinsey Milhone.

Fast forward those several decades, and I just finished reading A Is For Alibi, and I loved it! One of the reasons I liked it so much was.... Kinsey Milhone. Go figure.

For one thing, Kinsey doesn't like dogs. I don't like dogs either, and I could easily form a bond with someone based upon their dislike of dogs alone -- even if that someone is fictional.

Milhone's premiere case involves Nikki Fife, a woman who has just been released from an 8 year prison sentence she received because a jury was convinced she'd killed her husband. Nikki maintained all along she was innocent, and now that she's served her time, she's hired Kinsey Milhone to clear her name and find out who really did kill Laurence Fife.

Naturally Laurence Fife had more than a few people who disliked him enough to want him dead. It's up to Kinsey to find out who had the biggest motive. At first she has trouble breaking through the case that had been formed against Nikki, but in time she starts unraveling the lies from the truth. This is a good thing for Nikki, but it's a bad thing for other characters in the book who wind up dead because of Kinsey's snooping.

This time around I really enjoyed Sue Grafton. I like the way she writes, and I found her plot to be tight and well told with just enough clues tossed in here and there to hold my interest.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good mystery where the answer to whodunnit isn't obvious from the first page. And if you're not a dog lover, you've just gotta like Kinsey.

The Straw Men by Michael Marshall

I chose The Straw Men by Michael Marshall as my book to satisfy the "Thriller" Challenge for the Readers In Thongs Amazing Page Race Book Challenge. Stephen King's blurb on the cover assured me this book is "A Masterpiece". The back cover stated that this book is, "an epic thriller". What I think after reading this book is that Stephen King needs to re-evaluate his definition of "masterpiece", and whoever decided this book is an "epic thriller" has a very low threshold for suspense and thrills.

That said, this was a good book. I just don't think it lived up to all the hype on its cover, but then what book ever really does that? Very few in my experience.

The story of The Straw Men is told from 3 different perspectives. The first is Ward Hopkins, and his is the voice I liked best. His reflections on the state of the world as it concerns what people will do to one another as well as his wry, sarcastic sense of humor held my interest throughout the book. Given the sketchy background he reveals for himself, I thought he was somewhat naive, but his character is the right mix of strength and vulnerability rather than merely some super hero as is the case in many thrillers.

The second perspective is that of The Upright Man and his last victim; a teenaged girl he is holding hostage in an undisclosed location. There have been others before her, and none have met with a happy end. There is no reason to believe her fate will be any different.

The third view is that of an FBI agent and a former law enforcement officer who have had previous experience with the serial killings of The Upright Man. Their job is to find the teenaged girl before she is murdered. It appears to be an insurmountable task.

Interspersed with these three separate viewpoints is a series of apparently unrelated incidents. Or are they? As the story progresses it becomes clear that not only is nothing as it seems, but there is a thread binding all of these people and incidents together.

While I may not have been sold on the idea that this book is a real nail biter, I did like Michael Marshall's writing and his development of this story. He has written two sequels to The Straw Men, and I intend to read both. I'll just do it with a far more realistic idea of what I can expect.

Bubbles Unbound by Sarah Strohmeyer

If you are looking for a book to tell you how to dye your hair green using unsweetened lime Kool-Aid, this is the book for you.

Or maybe you're wondering what on earth you can do with that very ripe avocado, mayonnaise, and honey that's been sitting in your kitchen serving no discernible purpose. Look no further. Bubbles Unbound has the perfect solution in an Avocado and Mayonnaise Hair Repair.

Or perhaps you're a brunette, and you've noticed a few stray gray hair appearing without warning because Lord knows you're not old enough to be getting gray YET! Well, using nothing more than rosemary leaves, very strong coffee, vinegar, Vitamin E capsules and some water, Bubbles can make those gray hairs disappear.

However, if you're a Stephanie Plum fan looking for something similar to read, I do not recommend Bubbles Unbound by Sarah Strohmeyer.

Perhaps it's because Bubbles tries just a little bit too hard to be Stephanie Plum that she completely turned me off. I mean, the similarities between these two fictional women practically jump off the pages, grab you by the throat, and demand you answer whether you want Stiletto or Ranger. And then there's the cops these women involve in their love lives. Granted Joe Morelli is written as someone much more desirable than Mickey Sinkler, but the idea is the same nonetheless.

There was one positive aspect for me in Bubbles Unbound, and that was all the references to Allentown, PA and the Lehigh Valley. Those references helped distract me from a mediocre mystery about a woman who dresses like a 50 cent streetwalker, but who protests all the time how she doesn't dress that way for attention. She does it because she likes the way she looks. But who is the one noticing immediately when the men with whom she comes in contact immediately respond to her various and sundry body parts on display? You guessed it... Bubbles herself.

Maybe if Strohmeyer had included the recipe for the Halupki she kept talking about, I'd consider giving her one more try to see if Bubbles gets any better in future novels. But there was no recipe, so for me, Bubbles needs to be bound... and gagged.

Murder Book by Richard Rayner

Billy McGrath is a 15 year veteran of the LA Police Department. Billy has a wife, from whom he's divorced, and a daughter to whom he is devoted. The failure of his marriage is all his fault, and he allows this to weigh heavily on his mind.

Billy is assigned to a case of murder in which the main drug lord of LA's mother was brutally tortured before she was murdered. When the drug lord approaches Billy with a bribe of $1 million if Billy will turn over the name of the murderer to the drug lord who wants his own form of justice against this person, Billy doesn't think very long and hard before accepting the bribe. Billy's reasoning is that now he can provide for his ex-wife and daughter in a much better way than he's been able to up to that point.

The story continues from there to a very satisfying conclusion in which all loose ends are nicely cleared up. How all this comes together is somewhat "convenient" at times, but the writing, particularly the characterizations in this book, is so good that I could overlook some of the story that was a bit contrived.

Rayner has written a lot of psychological insight into this book, so I wouldn't recommend it to someone who likes face paced stories. However, I would recommend it to someone who enjoys more depth and insight into what enables a person whose job involves daily doses of murder and mayhem to keep facing that kind of horror day after day after day. I enjoyed Murder Book and would definitely read this author again.

The Woods by Harlan Coben

I've read other books by Harlan Coben, and The Woods continues his tradition of mysteries that make for very good, very suspenseful reading.

As the book opens, Paul Copeland is an acting county prosecutor for Essex County, New Jersey. He is prosecuting two college aged students for raping a girl who was invited to a frat party as one frat boy's date, but who ended up in the room of two other boys who raped and sexually abused her. She filed criminal charges against the two frat boys who came from wealthy families, both of whom were willing to threaten, bribe, or otherwise convince anyone standing in the way of their sons' acquittal to drop all charges. In spite of hard pressure from the families, Copeland was determined to bring justice for the girl who had the courage to stand up to the bribes and threats meant to destroy her reputation.

Copeland himself has some skeletons in his closet that could be exploited to have him drop the rape case. As a teenage camp counselor Copeland was negligent in his duties. The result of this was the death of 4 campers who had gone into the woods one night. Two of the campers were found stabbed to death and buried in shallow graves in the woods; the other two were believed to be dead as well although their bodies were never found.

The story goes back and forth between the mystery in the past involving the campers in the woods and the court case in the present which Copeland is successfully prosecuting.

I find Coben's style very entertaining; he's very good at writing books categorized as "page turners". I'd recommend The Woods to anyone who likes suspense, mystery, and surprises.

Players and The Sculptress

Players by Clay Reynolds is a complex story about Eddy Lovell, a guy who can't seem to stay on the right side of the law no matter how he may try to do it. While in jail, Eddy takes Moria Mendle under his protective wing when Mendle is being threatened by guys of whom he has no chance of surviving the attentions. Moria pays Eddy back by giving him a job as driver/body guard, but since Mendle doesn't often stay on the right side of the law either, the job is hardly a cake walk.

Clay Reynolds writes very involved, highly charged stories about people living on the edge of one disaster or another whether they know it or not. They've either been targeted by or have targeted for themselves another person who unexpectedly gets roped into tense and dangerous situations. It's a good idea when reading Clay Reynolds to pay attention because you never know what stray tidbit of information may become the key to what happens next. In my opinion, Clay Reynolds surpasses "thrillers" and goes straight into nails-bitten-to-the-quick suspense and excitement. I highly recommend Players to anyone who enjoys that kind of involved, hair-raising story.

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The Sculptress by Minette Walters is the story of Olive Martin who was arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to spend at least 25 years in jail for slaughtering her mother and her sister in the family's kitchen. Rosalind Leigh is the author assigned to write an account of Olive Martin's story which will be published in book form to boost Roz's somewhat sagging career. The idea to write this book was not Roz's; her publisher issued her an ultimatum. Even though the idea of writing this kind of book disgusts Roz, she goes to meet and eventually conducts interviews with Olive Martin in her jail cell.

The more information Roz collects about Olive Martin the less inclined she is to believe that Olive did in fact commit the crimes of which she has been convicted. It is then up to Roz to follow her leads through to the conclusion of who did butcher those two people in the Martin's kitchen.

I think some of the highest praise an author can receive is to have his/her readers say they want to read more about the characters introduced in one of the author's books. That is exactly how I felt after reading The Sculptress. Not only was this book well written and a tightly constructed mystery, but the characters were so intriguing and interesting that I hated to see them go when I'd finished the book.

The Sculptress was the Edgar Award winner in 1994, an honor well deserved. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mysteries where the crime itself remains the focus of the story, but the character involved give it just the right touch of atmosphere and add just the right amount of texture to the story.

I read this book for the Readers In Thongs Weight Loss Book Challenge

Players weighs 1 pound 8 ounces
The Sculptress weighs 4 ounces

TBR's Down By 2

Soon She Will Be Gone by John Farris has received a 5 Star rating at Amazon. I do not understand how that could have happened. To my way of thinking, a 3 Star rating would have been more than sufficient -- kind even. But 5??? No way.

The plot is a murder mystery, and it's set among the very wealthy. Six women have vanished over a period of time. All of them had some form of disability, but they were all very talented women in spite of whatever drawbacks their individual disability might present. All were last seen in the company of the same man; the locations varied. Enter Sharan Norbeth who is coerced into becoming the lure to capture the suspected murderer.

The story is a mess, switching from one character to another without much rhyme or reason. A relationship develops out of nowhere with no explanation for how such an intimate turn came about. Other readers at Amazon talked about the twists and turns and how they could not put this book down. For me, there were no surprises, and the only reason I didn't put it down and forget about it completely was because I paid for it, and because I'm anal about finishing books I start.

Farris can certainly write well when he wants, and he can surely turn a phrase. But at no time in the 387 page duration of this book did he give me one good reason to care about any of the characters. Further, once all the characters had been introduced, I quickly figured whodunnit.

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Blanche On The Lam by Barbara Neely is a completely different story. This book won the Agatha, the Macavity, and the Anthony -- three of the four major mystery awards for best first novel.

The perspective of this mystery is different from most books I'm accustomed to reading. Blanche White is African-American who works for wealthy white people. There are not very many "nice" white people in Blache's world, but then having read a lot of Agatha Christie's mysteries, she didn't have a whole lot of nice white folks either. And that would include Miss Marple who would have got on my nerves after about 5 minutes. Blanche, on the other hand, would be an interesting person to know. She's smart, a good ('scuse me -- fabulous) cook, and even though she does her best to avoid Darkies Disease, she's got a big heart.

Blanche solves the mystery in this book using her common sense and her network of women friends and family. I look forward to reading more of her adventures in subsequent books.