fear nothing

fear nothing
dd warren #7
lisa gardner
mystery/thriller
dutton adult
published 2014

The last thing Boston Detective D. D. Warren remembers is walking the crime scene after dark.  Then, a creaking floorboard, a low voice crooning in her ear....She is later told her managed to discharge her weapon three times.  All she knows is that she is seriously injured, unable to move her left arm, unable to return to work.

Six weeks later, a second woman is discovered murdered in her own bed, her room containing the same calling cards from the first: a bottle of champagne and a single red rose.  The only person who may have seen the killer: Detective D. D. Warren, who still can't lift her child, load her gun, or recall a single detail from the night that may have cost her everything.

I'm still slightly bummed at the way this book ended!

I really enjoyed the characters, good and bad, and found the backstory of Adeline and her illness incredibly fascinating.  There was quite a bit of injustice all around here so it was a tough pill to swallow at times, but it made for some good reading and finding sympathetic characters where I wasn't expecting them.

There were times when D. D. got to be a bit annoying, but I feel like she is in every book.  She has a harder time getting over herself here and that's got a lot to do with her feelings of helplessness after her injury.  I found the parts with Adeline and Shana to be the most interesting to read.  I probably could have skipped over D. D.'s parts!

deadline

deadline
virgil flowers #8
john sandford
fiction/mystery/suspense
putnam adult
published 2014

In Southeast Minnesota, down on the Mississippi, a school board meeting is coming to an end.  The board chairman announces that the rest of the meeting will be closed, due to personnel issues.  "Issues" is correct.  The proposal up for a vote before them is whether to authorize the killing of a local reporter.  The vote is four to one in favor.  Meanwhile, not far away, Virgil Flowers is helping out a friend by looking into a dognapping, which seems to be turning into something much bigger and uglier - a team of dognappers supplying medical labs - when he gets a call from Lucas Davenport.  A murdered body has been found - and the victim is a local reporter.

Now I'm not saying that Deadline is going to keep you at the edge of your seat.  Or that you'll be stunned by the ingenious ways of the bad guys.  There is just something about Virgil that keeps me highly entertained.  He's funny for one, but most of all, the stories seem so real.  The characters are not caricatures of people, they are almost real life people.  Flawed, sometimes ditzy, sometimes cunning, simple, complex, nice, greedy, and real.  The conversations Virgil has with people is almost mundane, but somehow it's fascinating.

And really, let's be honest, Jenkins and Shrake should really have their own series by now.

snow white must die

snow white must die
nele neuhaus
fiction/mystery
minotaur books
published 2010

On a rainy November day police detectives Pia Kirchhoff and Oliver von Bodensetin are summoned to a mysterious traffic accident: A woman has fallen from a pedestrian bridge onto a car driving underneath.  According to a witness, the woman may have been pushed.  The investigation leads Pia and Oliver to a small village, and the home of the victim, Rita Cramer.  On a September evening eleven years earlier, two seventeen-year-old girls vanished from the village without a trace.  In a trial based only on circumstantial evidence, twenty-year-old Tobias Sartorius, Rita Cramer's son, was sentenced to ten years in prison.  Bodenstein and Kirchhoff discover that Tobias, after serving his sentence, has now returned to his hometown.  Did the attack on his mother have something to do with his return?  In the village, Pia and Oliver encounter a wall of silence.  When another young woman disappears, the events of the past seem to be repeating themselves in a disastrous manner.  The investigation turns into a race against time, because of the villagers it is soon clear who the perpetrator is - and this time they are determined to take matters into their own hands.

There was a LOT going on in this book.  Which is strange because everything basically circles around to one crime, but there were so many players that at times it was confusing to keep everyone straight.  You basically figure out the mystery, but then everything changes and you're left doubting.  There were a couple of things I felt were lost in translation and I found it interesting that they never say 'I went to jail' or 'I was in prison'.  It was always 'the joint' and 'the slammer'.

ONE MINOR SPOILER
I also had a hard time with the fact that it was a bad thing for a 17 year-old to have a relationship with a 27 year-old, but then later on no one bats an eye 10 years later that a 17 year-old ends up with a 30 year-old.  Maybe there isn't really a romantic relationship there, but to me it was clearly implied,

Anyhow, there were some things I didn't think needed to be delved into so deeply, especially Oliver's personal life, but then I discovered this is actually the 4th book in a series, but only this and two others have been translated to English!

I did like the book.  It was a quick read once I sat down and actually started reading.  While it was, at times, confusing with so many players, it was fun to read and kept me on my toes.

never go back

never go back
jack reacher #18
lee child
thriller/suspense
random house
published 2013

Former military cop Jack Reacher makes it all the way from snowbound South Dakota to his destination in northeastern Virginia, near Washington, D.C.: the headquarters of his old unit, the 110th MP.  The old stone building is the closest thing to a home he ever had.

Reacher is there to meet - in person - the new commanding officer, Major Susan Turner, so far just a warm, intriguing voice on the phone.

But it isn't turner behind the CO's desk.  And Reacher is hit with two pieces of shocking news, one with serious criminal consequences, and one too personal to even think about.

When threatened, you can either run or fight.

Reacher fights, aiming to find Turner and clear his name, barely a step ahead of the army, and the FBI, and the D.C. Metro police, and four unidentified thugs.

Combining an intricate puzzle of a plot and an exciting chase for truth and justice, Lee Child puts Reacher through his paces - and makes him question who he is, what he's done, and the very future of his untethered life on the open road.

Note: I finished this book over a week ago and I've been so distracted with other things I haven't gotten around to reviewing, which bugs me because I like to review books when they're still fresh in my mind so please excuse the shortness of my review!

Reacher finally makes it to Susan Turner.....kind of.  Things have gone bat shit crazy and all of a sudden Reacher finds himself back in the Army.

This was an unusual installment in the Reacher series.  We find Reacher contemplating his lifestyle in a way he never has before, including wondering if he missed out on things he never thought he cared about.  But Reacher is still there.  He's still the guy who needs to right the wrongs and take care of the people who can't take care of themselves.  Of course, Turner isn't necessarily one of those people.  I think Turner could take care of anybody, but things go easier with Reacher by your side.

So now that four book odyssey is over with.  Let's see where the road takes Reacher next.

Note:  I finished this book over a week ago and I've been so distracted with other things I haven't gotten around to reviewing which bugs me because I like to review books when they're still fresh in my mind so please excuse the shortness of my review!

always watching

always watching
chevy stevens
thriller/mystery/suspense
st. martin's press
published 2013

She helps people put their demons to rest.

But she has a few of her own....

In the lockdown ward of a psychiatric hospital, Dr. Nadine Lavoie is in her element.  She has the tools to help people, and she has the desire - healing broken families is what she lives for.  But Nadine doesn't want to look too closely at her own past because there are whole chunks of her life that are black holes.  It takes all her willpower to tamp down her recurrent claustrophobia, and her daughter, Lisa, is a runaway who has been on the streets for seven years.

When a distraught woman, Heather Simeon, is brought into the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit after a suicide attempt, Nadine gently coaxes her story out of her - and learns of some troubling parallels with her own life.  Digging deeper, Nadine is forced to confront her traumatic childhood, and the damage that began when she and her brother were brought by their mother to a remote commune on Vancouver Island.  What happened to Nadine?  Why was their family destroyed?  And why does the name Aaron Quinn, the group's leader, bring complex feelings of terror to Nadine even today?

Note:  I finished this book over a week ago and I've been so distracted with other things I haven't gotten around to reviewing which bugs me because I like to review books when they're still fresh in my mind so please excuse the shortness of my review!

I was incredibly disappointed with Always Watching.  After Still Missing I went to Never Knowing and that was a disappointment.  But Always Watching was even worse than Never Knowing (which I didn't hate, but I really didn't care for Sara).

Nadine was the worst character in a book with terrible characters.  I felt no sympathy for anyone except for maybe Willow and Heather who are fleeting in this novel.  I couldn't relate to anyone and I don't think even Chevy Stevens did.  The writing felt stifled and amateur, nothing like Still Missing.  It's very sad.

I still have That Night sitting on my bookshelf.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed...

cross my heart

cross my heart
alex cross #21
james patterson
mystery/suspense
little brown & co
published 2013

Detective Alex Cross is a family man at heart -- nothing matters more to him than his children, his grandmother, and his wife Bree.  His love of his family is his anchor, and gives him the strength to confront evil in his work.  One man knows this deeply, and uses Alex's strength as a weapon against him in the most unsettling and unexpected novel of James Patterson's career.

When the ones Cross loves are in danger, he will do anything to protect them.  If he does anything to protect them, they will die.

This review will contain spoilers.

I find it slightly humorous that the synopsis talks about how much Alex Cross loves his kids and his family, but the truth is, he may love them but he has no time for them.  Damon is calling his father, something obviously wrong, but Alex brushes him off.  Jannie is pissed because he never makes it to any of her school events and they're letting 7-year-old Ali watch The Walking Dead.  Are you kidding me?

Nothing of interest happens for 80% of the book.  I looked on my Kindle when stuff started happening.  There is a case going on but it's resolved and you know there's a bigger thing going on.  And when it got to that point I thought it sucked that it was going to get wrapped up so quickly.

But he didn't.  He left us hanging.  For the first time that I can remember James Patterson wrote an Alex Cross novel with a cliffhanger.  So I can't really judge the book on the first 80% because that was useless.  So I'm reserving my review until I read the next book.

the darkest evening of the year

the darkest evening of the year
dean koontz
suspense/horror/fantasy
bantam
published 2007

Amy Redwing has dedicated her life to the southern California organization she founded to rescue abandoned and endangered golden retrievers.  Among dog lovers, she's a legend for the risks she'll take to save an animal from abuse.  Among her friends, Amy's heedless devotion is often cause for concern.  To widower Brian McCarthy, whose commitment she can't allow herself to return, Amy's behavior is far more puzzling and hides a shattering secret.

No on is surprised when Amy risks her life to save Nickie, nor when she takes the female golden into her home.  The bond between Amy and Nickie is immediate and uncanny.  Even her two other goldens, Fred & Ethel, recognize Nickie as special, a natural alpha.  But the instant joy Nickie brings is shadowed by a series of eerie incidents.  An ominous stranger.  A mysterious home invasion.

And the unmistakable sense that someone is watching Amy's every more and that, whoever it is, he's not alone.

Someone has come back to turn Amy into the desperate, hunted creature sh's always been there to save.  But now there's no one to save Amy and those she loves.

In most of Dean Koontz's recent books I've read there is an autistic or child with Down's and a dog that has some uncanny sort of understanding of humans.  Most of the time I love it, but the way that the child was treated in this book was hard to read.  I mean, really hard to read.

The whole story is very slow.  He's building suspense and trying to lay out the story, but this time it didn't feel suspenseful and when the resolution is coming to and end it happens in about 4 pages.  After 10 years of being tormented by this woman there is no confrontation it's just over.  And the outcome is so 'magical' that I just couldn't get into it.  In the end, I just didn't care who lived and who died.

monster, vol. 1

monster, vol. 1
naoki urasawa
graphics/manga/thriller/mystery
viz media
published 1995

Brilliant doctor Kenzo Tenma risks his reputation and promising career to save the life of a critically wounded young boy.  Unbeknownst to him, this child is destined for a terrible fate.  Conspiracies, serial murders, and a scathing depiction of the underbelly of hospital politics are all masterfully woven together in this compelling manga thriller.

This one was recommended to me by a friend.  I went to the library and found the first volume and now I wish I had put the others on hold!  Grrrrrr

Volume 1 begins in Germany, 1986 with a young Dr. Tenma, rising star at Eisler Memorial Hospital.  Destined for big things and engaged to the daughter of the hospital director he's also dedicated and hard working, but his ideal life begins to show signs of tarnish when he wonders if the man he looks up to is really someone worth idolizing.  When he goes against the directors orders to save a gravely injured young boy his life goes into a tailspin.

Fast forward 9 years later and life is much different for Dr. Tenma and he seems to be happy with his new outlook on a doctor's life.  But things that happened 9 years ago are threatening to come back to haunt him.

I was told that Naoki Urasawa is Japan's Master of Suspense and that's evident here in this first volume.  But he's also really good at creepy.  There's a few creepy characters (I don't want to name any names so as not to spoil the story for you) and a few despicable ones too!  The other thing I really like is that I can easily tell the different characters apart!  One thing that always bums me out with lots of mangas is how everyone kind of looks the same.  Not necessarily main characters, but the supporting cast of friends, co-workers or relatives all tend to have that same look and I start getting people confused.  But Urasawa's artwork is unique and distinctive.

The story is goooood and leaves you with pretty much no closure.  What I expected to happen, happened, but that wasn't a bad thing and now I need to get my hands on Vol. 2!

dust to dust

dust to dust
kovac/liska #2
tami hoag
fiction/mystery/thriller
bantam
published 2000

Sorry.  The single word was written on the mirror.  In front of it hung the body of Andy Fallon, a Minneapolis Internal Affairs cop.  Was it suicide?  Or a kinky act turned tragic accident?  Either way, his death wasn't a crime.  The investigation will be a formality, a duty that veteran Homicide detective Sam Kovac isn't looking forward to.  He doesn't want to spend any more time than he has to in the bleak, empty world of the victim's father, Iron Mike, Kovac's old mentor and a department legend.  It's too much like looking into his own future.  But Kovac has a sixth sense for crime, and it's buring.

Together with his partner, the wisecracking, ambitious Nikki Liska, Kovac begins to dig at the too-neat edges of Fallon's death, uncovering one motive and one suspect after another.  The shadows of suspicion fall deeply not only on the city's power elite, but into the very heart of the police department itself.

While Ashes to Ashes was touted as the first Kovac/Liska book they merely had background roles in the book.  Kovac was present more than Liska was, but not much.  Here in Dust to Dust they are both in the forefront working together, but also separately on two different cases.  Both of them involving the police department.

Kovac's case is personal and he's pretty much the only one who thinks that a crime actually occurred.  Liska is following up on a closed case, much to the irritation of their boss.

There are times when I wonder why Liska makes such dumb choices, or ignores something that any self respecting cop would ignore.  And there are times when Hoag goes off describing something or added a scene that was completely unnecessary.  The book was longer than it should have been and to be honest, there were no surprises anywhere.

Who else could the killer have been?  The players could all only fit into certain roles so the pieces all fit in much faster than I think Hoag was aiming for.  

night film

night film
marisha pessl
fiction/mystery/thriller/horror
random house
published 2013

On a damp October night, beautiful young Ashley Cordova is found dead in an abandoned warehouse in lower Manhattan.  Though her death is ruled a suicide, veteran investigative journalist Scott McGrath suspects otherwise.  As he probes the strange circumstances surrounding Ashley's life and death, McGrath comes face-to-face with the legacy of her father: the legendary, reclusive cult-horror-film director Stanislas Cordova - a man who hasn't been seen in public for more than thirty years.

For McGrath, another death connected to this seemingly cursed family dynasty seems more than just a coincidence.  Though much has been written about Cordova's dark and unsettling films, very little is known about the man himself.

Driven by revenge, curiosity, and a need for the truth, McGrath, with the aid of two strangers, is drawn deeper and deeper into Cordova's eerie, hypnotic world.

The last time he got close to exposing the director, McGrath lost his marriage and his career.  This time he might lose even more.

I'm not sure what I was expecting when I picked up Night Film.  It was one of those books that I first saw in the emails the library send out of book recommendations.  I'd never heard of Marisha Pessl.  I'm not sure that her acclaimed first book Special Topics in Calamity Physics (despite being described as a murder mystery) is a book I would necessarily pick up and enjoy, but the synopsis of Night Film intrigued me.  Then reader friends began reading the book and saying only vague mysterious bits of praise.  So I got the book on my Kindle and promptly forgot about it.  When it came time to compile my TBR lists for 2014 I decided I would get down and read Night Film and see what all the fuss was about.

Although....you don't really hear too much.  It's not a mainstream book.  It's not side-by-side with the James Pattersons and John Grishams.  It didn't even hit the type of frenzy that The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo did.  It's odd.

Nonetheless, on to the review.  Reading Night Film was like experiencing A Clockwork Orange for the first time.  You're not entirely sure what's happening.  What is real and what is fantasy.  You're only sure that something is fucked up.  It reminded me of stories of Alfred Hitchcock.  I remember being pretty young and reading about Alfred Hitchcock giving a 6-year-old Melanie Griffith a wax doll replica of her mother Tippi Hedren in a wooden coffin as a Christmas or Birthday present.  It was the creepiest thing I'd ever heard of.  During the entire book I pictured Cordova as Hitchcock.  I spent much time wishing the movies Cordova made were real so I could run out and watch them.

And the book was terrifying in that you have no idea what's going on.  Like black and white horror movies where you don't actually see the monster eating the victim because it's off camera, but you know it's happening and somehow that's more terrifying than seeing it.  About two thirds into the book I was captivated by the insanity, worried I would have nightmares when I went to sleep.  (For the record I didn't, but I did read until 2 a.m.)

Of course there were things that bugged me.  If you've ever read my reviews of James Patterson books I hate unnecessary italics.  Marisha Pessl loves them.  They are everywhere and in the beginning I could barely get past it.  And then there were the obvious things that were happening that McGrath didn't pick up on.  Inez Gallo's nickname, the effects of the greenhouse & the repercussions of McGrath's missing research.  But I suppose with everything that was going on in McGrath's life at that moment things just got past him.

When I got to the rather abrupt ending it made mention of the Night Film app.  I wish it had mentioned that in the beginning so I didn't have to search through my ebook to find the places where I could interact with the app.  But I found the extra content to be kind of dull and cheap compared to the book.  The voice acting was awful and just ridiculous.  There is a 'diary' though that was quite a gem.

I'm not sure if this makes me a Pessl fan, but maybe someday if I see Special Topics in Calamity Physics at a used bookstore I might pick it up.

ashes to ashes

ashes to ashes
kovac/liska #1
tami hoag
fiction/suspense/thriller/mystery
orion
published 1999

The newspapers have dubbed him the Cremator.  He has already claimed three lives and he won't stop there.  He has a plan for greatness, only this time there is a witness.  A teenage runaway with a dubious identity and a murky past, Angie DiMarco has seen the face of the killer in the flickering light of the funeral pyre.  Now the police have Angie, but Angie isn't talking.

While I've read a few Tami Hoag books I've kind had a hit or miss sort of luck with them.  I bought a bunch of her books after I read the first one I really liked, but then I read the one I didn't like and I wasn't too excited to start any other one.

But after years of sitting on my shelf I've decided to finally give them another shot. And I was pleasantly surprised.  Much better than the not so great one I read, but I didn't quite get into it the way I did the first one!

It was really long.  And for why, I'm not entirely sure.  There were moments that dragged on, musings that seemed to muse for too long.  But it was interesting enough to keep me entertained until the end.  I have the next book Dust to Dust which features Kovac & Liska who were a little more than background characters in Ashes to Ashes.

And while it was interesting it was slightly predictable.  I knew who the killer was and I figured out the connection between the killer and the witness, but still there were a few surprises that I won't spoil for you.  All in all it was a good read!

catch me

catch me
dd warren #6
lisa gardner
fiction/suspense/thriller
dutton
published 2012

Detective D. D. Warren is hard to surprise.  But a lone woman outside D. D.'s latest crime scene shocks her with a remarkable proposition:  Charlene Rosalind Carter Grant believes that she will be murdered in four days.  And she wants Boston's top detective to handle her death investigation.

This is probably one of Gardner's best.  The story is tightly wound, supremely suspenseful and wonderfully written.  D. D. is at her best.  Motherhood has softened her a bit, but it's good for her.  She's not as bitchy as she was and that only makes her a better detective, I think.

I started getting inklings of the outcome, of the killer, but unlike other books the only reason I was figuring it out was because Gardner was writing it so I could figure it out.  It was brilliant.  Charlene is tough and paranoid, but good and flawed and human.  The only one I took an instant dislike to was Detective O.  She reminded me of a harsher, pre-motherhood D. D., but not in a good way.  I guess every story has to have someone you clash with though, right?

But my favorite part, by far was the convergence of multiple characters from nearly every story she's ever done!  Appearances were made by Kimberly & Pierce Quincy (the FBI Profiler series), Roan Griffin (The Survivor's Club) and JT & Tess (The Perfect Husband/FBI Profiler series).  The only one who didn't make an appearance was Bobby Dodge, which is strange since he's part of the D. D. Warren series.  But it was fun to catch up with everyone, especially Pierce and hear just a little bit about what has happened with him & Rainie - two of my favorite characters.  It was also crazy to think about JT & Tess to be in their 60s!

If none of them had been included in this story I still would have loved it, but the fact that they were just made me all giddy with excitement.

taken in death

taken in death (story in mirror, mirror)
in death #37.5
j. d. robb
mystery/thriller
jove
published 2013

Two young children disappear from their East Side home in New York City, their nanny killed in cold blood. As Lieutenant Eve Dallas begins to unravel the crime scene and search for Henry and Gala MacDermit, she's drawn into the twisted mind of a kidnapper who will stop at nothing to take revenge. Horrific threats concerning the brother and sister hit far too close to home for Eve, drawing her back into memories of her own tortured childhood.

But Eve knows that there's no time to waste on the past, and with every passing hour her determination to bring the children safely home strengthens. Eve and her team find themselves following an electronic breadcrumb trail left by a boy desperate to escape the evil witch. Their investigation into the kidnapper's sordid past reveals violent coercion, ritualistic killings, and chilling bloodlust - making her terrifying plans for the children abundantly clear.

Short & sweet and appropriately creepy!  There's the obligatory nightmare scene (can't have an In Death book without Eve having a nightmare) and all the usual suspects are showcased.  Roarke brings food for everyone, makes Eve eat and sleep.  Still, as predictable as it may be it's still a fun read and I don't get bored, even reading one of the shorts.

A fun little spin on a creepy old fairy tale.

thankless in death

thankless in death
in death #37
nora roberts
fiction/mystery/thriller/romance
putnam adult
published 2013

Lieutenant Eve Dallas has plenty to be grateful for this season. Hosting Roarke’s big Irish family for the holiday may be challenging, but it’s a joyful improvement on her own dark childhood.
 
Other couples aren’t as lucky as Eve and Roarke. The Reinholds, for example, are lying in their home stabbed and bludgeoned almost beyond recognition. Those who knew them are stunned—and heartbroken by the evidence that they were murdered by their own son. Twenty-six-year-old Jerry hadn’t made a great impression on the bosses who fired him or the girlfriend who dumped him—but they didn’t think he was capable of this.
 
Turns out Jerry is not only capable of brutality but taking a liking to it. With the money he’s stolen from his parents and a long list of grievances, he intends to finally make his mark on the world. Eve and her team already know the who, how, and why of this murder. What they need to pinpoint is where Jerry’s going to strike next.

I can't remember if there's ever been an 'In Death' case like this one.  Dallas & Peabody know who their killer is almost right away and it's not a matter of collecting evidence, but finding where he's holed up.

Reinhold was a pretty good villain.  Super gross and annoying, I couldn't wait for him to get his and it was a pretty satisfying conclusion.  

At one point in the beginning Eve mentions that the year is 2060 and going back, the first book Naked in Death took place in 2058 so less than 2 years have passed!  It feels like much longer than that.  While sometimes you get the feeling that these cases are back to back it seems like there's longer breaks between some, but I guess not.  Then again, Mavis & Leonardo's kid is a good measure of how much time has passed.  She's just barely walking and talking!

There were some sentimental moments here.  The acknowledgement of Eve & Roarke's hard work and their support of her team, not to mention Roarke's family and the appearance of a character from tons of books ago!

Now seriously, when is Eve going to have a kid?  Or Peabody, when are Peabody and McNab going to get married?  Something's got to happen there, right?!

love you more

love you more

detective d. d. warren #6

lisa gardner

fiction/thriller/mystery

bantam

published 2011

One question, a split-second decision, and Brian Darby lies dead on the kitchen floor. His wife, state police trooper Tessa Leoni, claims to have shot him in self-defense, and bears the bruises to back up her tale. For veteran detective D. D. Warren it should be an open-and-shut case. But where is their six-year-old daughter?

As the homicide investigation ratchets into a frantic statewide search for a missing child, D. D. Warren must partner with former lover Bobby Dodge to break through the blue wall of police brotherhood, seeking to understand the inner workings of a trooper’s mind while also unearthing family secrets. Would a trained police officer truly shoot her own husband? And would a mother harm her own child?
 
For Tessa Leoni, the worst has not yet happened. She is walking a tightrope, with nowhere to turn, no one to trust, as the clock ticks down to a terrifying deadline. She has one goal in sight, and she will use every ounce of her training, every trick at her disposal, to do what must be done. No sacrifice is too great, no action unthinkable. A mother knows who she loves. And all others will be made to pay.

This book was like Commando, but with a petite, yet tough woman instead of Arnold Schwartzenegger.

This was a constant ride of terror.  You're never really sure what's happening, if a little girl is dead or kidnapped, if Tessa is guilty of murdering EVERYONE....you're basically hanging throughout the whole book.

And it was awesome.

Things happen that make D. D. not so....annoying.  It's one thing to be tough and maybe play the bad-cop now and then, but D. D.'s way over the edge there and it's off putting.  I don't need her to be sensitive and sweet, I just need her to be human-like.

But Lisa Gardner writes a dang good book and getting Bobby Dodge for a whole novel was pretty sweet too!

lies beneath

lies beneath

lies beneath #1

anne greenwood brown

fantasy/ya/romance/thriller

delacorte press

published 2012

Calder White lives in the cold, clear waters of Lake Superior, the only brother in a family of murderous mermaids. To survive, Calder and his sisters prey on humans and absorb their positive energy. Usually, they select their victims at random, but this time around, the underwater clan chooses its target for a reason: revenge. They want to kill Jason Hancock, the man they blame for their mother's death.

It's going to take a concerted effort to lure the aquaphobic Hancock onto the water. Calder's job is to gain Hancock's trust by getting close to his family. Relying on his irresistible good looks and charm, Calder sets out to seduce Hancock's daughter Lily. Easy enough, but Calder screws everything up by falling in love--just as Lily starts to suspect there's more to the monster-in-the-lake legends than she ever imagined, and just as the mermaids threaten to take matters into their own hands, forcing Calder to choose between them and the girl he loves.

One thing's for sure: whatever Calder decides, the outcome won't be pretty.

This was much better than I expected!

Kind of Twilighty with the whole dangerous guy, girl falls for him anyway, but other than that it was unique and fun.

Mermaids and mermen, or rather, merman.  Lots of betrayal and mystery surrounding Calder and his sisters.  At first I was a little bummed to find out this was the first in a series, but after reading it I felt like we just scratched the surface and I'm interested to see where Brown goes with this.

But if you didn't want to start another series you could just read this one and be pretty satisfied.  I think it ends well, leaving it up in the air a little, but at the same time there's closure there too.  Like I said, I'm interested to see where she goes with this so I'm in for the next one whenever I can get my hands on it!

live to tell

live to tell

d. d. warren #4

lisa gardner

fiction/mystery/crime/romance/thriller

bantam

published 2010

He knows everything about you—including the first place you’ll hide.
 
On a warm summer night in one of Boston’s working-class neighborhoods, an unthinkable crime has been committed: Four members of a family have been brutally murdered. The father—and possible suspect—now lies clinging to life in the ICU. Murder-suicide? Or something worse? Veteran police detective D. D. Warren is certain of only one thing: There’s more to this case than meets the eye.

Danielle Burton is a survivor, a dedicated nurse whose passion is to help children at a locked-down pediatric psych ward. But she remains haunted by a family tragedy that shattered her life nearly twenty-five years ago. The dark anniversary is approaching, and when D. D. Warren and her partner show up at the facility, Danielle immediately realizes: It has started again.

A devoted mother, Victoria Oliver has a hard time remembering what normalcy is like. But she will do anything to ensure that her troubled son has some semblance of a childhood. She will love him no matter what. Nurture him. Keep him safe. Protect him. Even when the threat comes from within her own house. 

The lives of these three women unfold and connect in unexpected ways, as sins from the past emerge—and stunning secrets reveal just how tightly blood ties can bind. Sometimes the most devastating crimes are the ones closest to home.

Whoa.  This book was intense.  Dealing with very psychologically disturbed children, Live to Tell doesn't pull any punches.  We switch narrators between Detective D. D. Warren, Victoria, the mother of a violent son and Danielle, the only survivor of a family annihilation.  That in itself sounds pretty heavy, but then you add in time spent in a children's psychiatric ward you're pretty much wrung dry.

I have very little to complain about Lisa Gardner's writing.  I was at the edge of my seat, the pages flew by.  I was both enthralled and horrified.  But Warren was sooooo dang grumpy in this book!  I truly don't remember her being this obnoxious.  While the crimes were awful and she had to face them I didn't feel like she was emotionally disturbed by the crimes themselves, but more that she was pissed off that they weren't as clear cut as she thought and she was really horny and not getting any sex.

I counted the number of times she 'scowled' at someone.  It was 13.  One thing that drives me nuts in books is repetitive stuff and the scowling was too much repetition for me.

But really, that was it.  I loved Danielle, went back and forth with Victoria.  Sometimes I felt she was an idiot, that her ex-husband was right and other times I thought she was the hero and in the end I found she was the strongest one of all.

Definitely not a story for everyone.  Definitely full of stuff people don't want to think about actually existing in their world, but it was a good read if you're up for it.

a faint cold fear

a faint cold fear

grant county #3

karin slaughter

thriller/romance

william morrow

published 2003

Sara Linton, medical examiner in the small town of Heartsdale, is called out to an apparent suicide on the local college campus.  The mutilated body provides little in the way of clues - and the college authorities are keen to avoid a scandal - but for Sara and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, things don't add up.  Two more suspicious suicides follow, and a young woman is brutally attacked.  For Sara, the violence strikes far too close to home and as Jeffrey pursues the sadistic killer, he discovers that ex-police detective Lena Adams, now a security guard on campus, may be in possession of crucial information.  But, bruised and angered by her expulsion from the force, Lena seems to be barely capable of protecting herself, let alone saving the next victim....

Whoa Lena.  Just...whoa.

I've never really liked Lena as a character.  From the first book she was curt, rude, unforgiving and unhappy.  Then she was attacked and I felt horrible for her, but I still didn't like her.  In the second book she was spiraling down and again, I felt sorry for her, but I didn't like her.  Now, in the third Grant County book I just didn't understand her.

There's so much flip flopping in this books, things left unconnected and left hanging that at the end I would have felt bummed, but then with the last scene of Lena I was kind of floored.  At first I felt it came out of left field, but maybe not.

Everyone here still feels like a surface character.  We've not gone any deeper and so I think that's why I have a harder time connecting with anyone.  The murder mystery part is enough to keep me interested, but it was kind of all over the place and really, this was Lena's book.

For me this was a means to the end.  I want to continue reading the series so that means I must read each book along the way.  I could have taken this one or left it, but then ending....well, whoa.

let me go

let me go

gretchen lowell series #6

chelsea cain

suspense/thriller

st. martin's press

published 2013

Detective Archie Sheridan is about to receive a birthday present from the last person he ever wants to see again: Gretchen Lowell.  The investigation into Jack Reynolds's drug enterprise is heating up and has Archie heading off to attend a masked Halloween party on Jack Reynolds's island, where Susan is a reluctant guest.  But the next morning one of the guests is found murdered, and Archie quickly realizes that nothing is what it seems.  Only one thing is clear: Gretchen is back, and she's been closer than anyone thinks.  On Halloween Eve, with time running out, Archie will have to risk everything, and choose wisely whom to trust, if he and his loved ones are going to live through the night.

I love how freaking bad ass Susan has become.  How grown up and amazingly tough she is now without losing her humor or vulnerability.  And Archie, well Archie....it's simply amazing that he has survived as long as he has.  It is unbelievable that his body can take so much trauma and still be here.  Of course, it is the true earmark of fiction.  It's crazy and heart-pounding.  It doesn't matter how vicious or evil she gets, I always find myself rooting for Gretchen.  Thinking it about it this time I realized that's probably why I love Alice on Luther so much.  She is how I picture Gretchen even though they're not described physically similar at all!

We've delved deeper into the world that has already been laid out before us before, but not really examined this way.  Most of our time is spent on the island where Jack, Leo's father and the father of one of the Beauty Killer's victims lives and conducts the business that Leo is trying to bring down.  A glamorous party brings all the player to the island and Archie finds himself in quite over his head.

Gretchen is still out there, in the shadows, but she won't stay hidden for much longer.

divine evil

divine evil

nora roberts

suspense/thriller/romance

bantam

published 1992

A decade ago, sculptor Clare Kimball fled Emmitsboro, Maryland, to take the art world by storm.  Now she's celebrated as the artist of her generation.  But no amount of success can eclipse the nightmares that haunt her - or the memories of her father's suicide.  Just as her star is shining brighter than ever, Clare leaves it all behind to face her demons.

Emmitsboro sheriff Cameron Rafferty loved Clare from afar all through high school.  Now that she's back, they form a bond that grows stronger each day - fueled by an attraction that's been simmering for years.  But Clare's past soon rises up with a vengeance, rocking the town with a sinister murder that is clearly linked to her return.  As an investigation gets under way, Clare and Cameron will learn that evil can linger anywhere...even in those you love and trust the most.  But it's a discovery that may come too late to save them.

I go back and forth with this book.  The last part really took away from the ending I wanted and should have gotten.  Min Atherton bugged me but there were other characters who were so promising, but kind of relegated to the background - like Alice.  Loved her!

But I did like the book.  There was romance, suspense, mystery & the creep factor.  It's funny how things have changed over the decades though!  I remember reading this back in the 90s and liking it, but reading it this time I just found it funny how many chain smokers there were!  I can't think of any current books where the main characters smoke anymore.