Category: book reviews

Poor (financially-challenged) Jane – a dog-walker for the rich in Thornfield Estates, a gated community in Birmingham, Alabama – meets Eddie Rochester, newly widowed after his wife, Bea, and her best friend Blanche apparently drowned in a boating accident, though their bodies have not yet been found.  When Jane and Eddie begin a relationship, Bea’s presence is a continuing third wheel as objects from her successful business are all around the house, and in the memories and stilted comments of her friends.  As Jane and Eddie get closer, she begins to see a side to him that frightens her.  And then Blanche’s body is found, and it turns out she didn’t drown – she was murdered! 

This is an excellent story – EVERY character has secrets and I did not anticipate the ending.  

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Trouble has a way of finding former Special Forces military man turned lawyer despite his attempts to retire to the quiet life on Longboat Key.  First he discovers a body while taking an early-morning tour of a bird sanctuary.  Then, his ex-wife calls to ask for help finding her missing step-daughter – last seen on Longboat Key.  What at first seems like a simple missing persons case takes an ominous turn when all the clues lead to Blood Island, and a mysterious – or is he just crazy? – Minister. 

This is part of a series, but quiet enjoyable as a stand-alone story. 

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Former LAPD homicide detective Peter Decker and his wife, Rina Lazarus, have move to the “quiet” college town of Greenbury, New York.  But the murder of Brady Neil, son of a convicted and imprisoned robber/murderer opens a can of worms that leads to more deaths with links to the jewelry store heist that got Brady’s dad put away.  The neighboring town of Hamilton’s current Police Chief, Victor Baccus, was the lead investigator on that case and it jump-started his career.  Baccus’s daughter, Detective Lennie Baccus, has just been assigned to help Decker with his investigation – but he’s not sure if she’s there to help – or hinder – the investigation as more bodies are found. 

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The TRUE story of Grace Humiston, a New York lawyer, District Attorney, and detective who spurned traditional female roles in the early 20^th century.  Her work exposed peonage issues (importing/recruiting European immigrants by offering jobs but putting them into impossible-to-repay debt in the process) in the South.  She also helped solve the case of a missing young woman – Ruth Cruger – that the police couldn’t, or wouldn’t, solve.

It’s always interesting to learn about a little-known woman who made her career defending powerless women and immigrants.

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This is Tony Hillerman’s daughter Anne’s first book continuing the stories of Navajo Nation Police officers Jim Chee, his wife Bernadette (Bernie), and retired Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn.  In this book, Bernie witnesses a shooting in broad daylight that leaves someone close to her hovering near death.  Because she was a witness, she “officially” can’t work on the investigation, but since it was assigned to her husband, Jim Chee, she still manages to be a part of it.  And as Bernie and Jim find clues that lead to a very old case of Leaphorn’s they also find themselves in mortal danger.

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Many years ago bookseller Mal Kershaw compiled a list of “eight perfect murders” as written by the world’s best mystery writers for a bookshop blog.  Now, an FBI agent has come to him with questions about that list – and about some unsolved murders that seem to be following the methods of the classics from that list of years ago . . .  As he begins to “help” with the investigation, Mal finds that the killer is beginning to close in on him!

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Despite being kicked out of MIT’s graduate program, with the aid of her mentor, Eve, Angela Hoot manages to snag an internship with the FBI in their Boston field office.  Despite having no field training, Angela is called to assist with a murder investigation due to her computer abilities and hacking skills.  But her lack of training and discipline becomes a liability when the computer hackers behind a series of gruesome murders turn their sights on her!

Typical Patterson:  a fast-paced and engaging story. . . But it leaves threads hanging and the main character is both a primary target and the only one – despite a whole field office full of FBI agents)) who can find the bad guys. 

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In this book we meet Duchess Day Radley, a thirteen year old self-proclaimed outlaw, trying to hold her family together despite her mom’s self-destructive tendencies.  She crosses paths with Walk, the local police chief in the same small town in which he’d grown up with Star, Duchess’ mom, and Vincent, just released from prison for killing Star’s sister thirty years ago.  The stories of each of these people inter-twine as Duchess and Walk find the past revealing itself as they confront the future, and the possibility of love.

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