Title:  44 Scotland Street
Classification: Fiction
Author:  Alexander McCall Smith
Publisher: Anchor Books
Copyright:  2005
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:

Originally published by The Scotsman in serial form, this charming, old-fashioned novel focuses on the separate but inter-woven lives of tenants in an apartment building in Edinburgh.  Pat, the student working in a small gallery while taking her second “gap year” from college;  hunky, shallow Bruce, the Adonis who may be the first person to ever wear out a mirror; and Irene, the prototypical pushy mother and her gifted, angry son Bertie are all richly described here as they deal with their efforts to find recognition, acceptance and value.

An absolutely delightful book!

Title: Abduction
Classification: Fiction
Author: Mark Gimenez
Publisher: Vanguard Press
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: This may be the best thriller I've read this year! I loved this author's debut novel, Color Of Law, and this book, about the kidnapping of the granddaughter of a former Vietnam Green Beret, is just as good. The power of coincidence is striking as Ben Brice, despite all evidence to the contrary, is convinced Gracie is alive and sets out to find her. Don't wait for paperback...a year is too long to wait to read this!

Title: Abide With Me
Classification: Fiction
Author: Elizabeth Strout
Publisher: Unknown
Copyright: Unknown
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: An untidy second novel by the author of the excellent "Amy and Isabelle." Tyler Caskey, widowed minister and father of two, meanders aimlessly (and, it seems, endlessly) through the second year following his wife's death with an entire cast of unlikable characters. Everything about this book, including the ending, is tedious and uninspired. Pass.

Title: Alabama Moon
Classification: Fiction
Author: Watt Key
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: A really poignant book about ten-year old Moon Blake, who has lived his entire life in a shelter in the woods with his paranoid father. When his dad dies, Moon starts out for Alaska, where his father has said there are "lots of people like us." It isn't long, however, before he realizes that being alone isn't easy, and that friendships are worth sacrificing for. A very nice little book.

Title: Alchemist
Classification: Fiction
Author: Paulo Coelho
Publisher: Harper
Copyright: 1993
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: There's good news and bad news about this book.  The good news is: if up til now you've based your life philosophy on fortune cookies and the horoscope in the morning paper, this is for you.  A bunch of hokey, "wishing will make it so" pop-psych mumbo-jumbo.  The bad news is: if you want a thoughtful, well-written book about life's challenges and mysteries, this book is a bunch of hokey, "wishing will make it so" pop-psych mumbo-jumbo. A poor shepherd boy travels from Spain to Egypt while following the quest for his "personal legend," encountering mystical (and shallow) characters on the way who give him advice like "The Soul of the World is nourished by people's happiness.  And also by unhappiness, envy, and jealousy.  To realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation.  All things are one."  And on and ON in this vein.  What a waste of time.

Title: All Mortal Flesh
Classification: Mystery
Author: Julia Spencer-Fleming
Publisher: Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Spencer-Fleming proves, once again, that she is absolutely one of the best mystery writers around in this, the fifth in the Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne series. Returning from a week's retreat to come to grips with her decision not to see the married Van Alstyne again, Clare is stunned to learn that his wife Linda has been murdered...and that Russ is the primary suspect. After all, the husband is always the first the police look at--especially one rumored to be having an affair, and, more especially, one separated from his wife. This is one series that earns a "5" for every book. Don't miss them!

Title: Angels of Destruction
Classification: Fiction
Author: Keith Donohue
Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Twenty years ago Erica Quinn vanished with her boyfriend to join an anarchist group, leaving her mother Margaret to mourn. So...when a child appears at Margaret's door in the middle of the night of course Margaret takes her in. And of course she makes up a story about the child being her granddaughter. And, of course, when complaints come to her from the school about the girl's strange behavior, she ignores them. This book asks the question: are angels real? And after having slogged through these pages the answer is: who cares?

Title: Apostle
Classification: Fiction
Author: Brad Thor
Publisher: Atria Books
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Scot Harvath, the beleaguered hero who made his debut in Thor\'s Takedown, is back--this time slogging his way through Afghanistan to rescue a kidnapped American doctor and capture a terrorist. Despite the interesting premise, Thor manages to bore us to tears with endless descriptions of mud huts and the etiquette of Middle Eastern tea drinking. Pass.

Title: Appeal
Classification: Fiction
Author: John Grisham
Publisher: Doubleday
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Although I rarely (if ever) include a book here that I couldn't finish, I felt I needed to mention this one since, after 100 pages, I was bored, bored, bored.  It's just another example of Grisham choosing a position on an issue and beating the reader over the head with it.  In this case, a mega-corporation dumps chemicals into groundwater (shades of Three-Mile Island and Erin Brockovich), leaving a a small law firm and its clients to stand up against the injustice.  In Grisham's black-or-white world the characters are all good or all bad which makes for very dull reading, which this is.  Pass.

Title:  Arcadia Falls
Classification: Fiction
Author:  Carol Goodman
Publisher: Ballantine
Copyright:  2010
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:

Left in debt when her husband dies, Meg Rosenthal accepts a position teaching at Arcadia, where she can continue her doctoral dissertation about fairy tales and her artistic daughter Sally can go to school. Founded in the 1930’s as an artist’s retreat, the school is now a haven for artistic students who like Wiccan ceremonies and for odd instructors who can’t get jobs anywhere else.

Although it sets out to be a Gothic mystery, the plot here devolves into a soap opera-like mix of murder, mistaken identity, infidelity and romance in a book that goes on far too long.  This is another example of an author who just can’t make up her mind to wrap it up and be done; instead she throws in several additional plot twists after what should have been the end of the story.  Tedious.

Title: An Arsonist's Guide To Writers' Homes In New England
Classification: Fiction
Author: Brock Clarke
Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: At the age of eighteen Sam Pulsifer burns down the home of Emily Dickinson.  It's an accident, as much of Sam's life is.  After serving his time in a minimum-security prison with lawyers and bond traders, Sam marries and finds a job with the intent of putting his past behind him, but his parents, the bond traders and those persistent accidents come together to keep his life in its inevitable downward spiral.   Reading about Sam is like waiting for a train wreck: you know it'll be hard to watch but you just can't help yourself.  A quirky, deftly written book.

Title: At Risk
Classification: Fiction
Author: Patricia Cornwell
Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons/Penguin
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: I feel as though I should wear a black armband to mourn the loss of trees that were sacrificed in the printing of this disaster of a book. Cornwell muddles along without even the Scarpetta angst in this novella, which wouldn't have had a chance at being published without her name on it. One word: Blech.

Title: Bad Guys
Classification: Mystery
Author: Linwood Barclay
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Barclay is back, and he's proved he isn't a one-book author...Bad Guys is up to the standard set in Bad Move, complete with overprotective husband/father, sassy kids and smart wife; even the move back to the city can't save the hapless dad from his obsessive worry. Fortunately for us, it's really funny.

Title: Bad Luck and Trouble
Classification: Fiction
Author: Lee Child
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In this, the eleventh in the Jack Reacher series, Reacher shows a small chink of humanity after one of his ex-military buddies is found dead. Reacher reassembles the remaining members of his elite group to hunt down and eliminate those responsible and destroy a harrowing threat to America. As are all of the Child books, this is a fast-paced, tightly-written thriller; a real can't put it down read. Don't miss it!

Title:  Bad Moon on the Rise
Classification: Mystery
Author:  Katy Munger
Publisher: Thalia Books
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:

Although it’s been years since the last in the Casey Jones series, Munger must have spent the time honing her skills, because this is far and away the best so far.
When Casey is hired by Corndog Sally, local character and businesswoman, to find her grandson and his drug-addicted mother, Casey uncovers a nasty plot that forces her to confront her own terrors. Despite the help of all the men in her life and the complications of a new relationship Casey is running for her life as she fights to bring Sally and her grandson together before it’s too late.
A terrific read!

Casey Jones series:
Legwork
Out of Time
Money to Burn
Bad to the Bone
Better off Dead
Bad Moon on the Rise
 

Title: Bad Move
Classification: Mystery
Author: Linwood Barclay
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Okay, gang, take Carl Hiaasen, move him to the suburbs, keep all the humor and whacked characters, and you've got Barclay. This is a terrific new voice in mystery...don't miss it.

Title: Based On the Movie
Classification: Fiction
Author: Billy Taylor
Publisher: Atria Books
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In this surprisingly entertaining first novel, Taylor leads us through the convoluted and funny production of a movie through the experiences of dolly grip (don't worry, you'll find out soon enough) Bobby Conlon. Although his wife is having an affair, his truck is totaled, and he finds himself attracted to a woman who, after stomach-stapling surgery has enough loose skin to drown in, Bobby plows on. Even for non-movie folks this book will keep you turning pages...and laughing.

Title: Belle Weather
Classification: Humor
Author: Celia Rivenbark
Publisher: St Martin's Press
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Without a doubt this is the funniest book I've read this year! For one thing, Rivenbark is Southern, which gives this collection of essays the perfect blend of hysteria and dysfunction. For another, she is possibly the sharpest-eyed domestic commentator since Erma Bombeck (although with a LOT more swearing)! Believe me, I'd read you a passage from this book, but I can't...I'm laughing too hard to talk!

Title: Best Friends Forever  
Classification: Fiction
Author:  Jennifer Weiner
Publisher: Atria
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:

Addie and Val have been best friends forever, until high school,  when a terrible secret forces them apart for years.  It is only when another crisis brings them together again that they both realize their friendship is stronger than old memories. 

 Weiner has written another good book about women’s friendships as Addie and Val run from what may or may not be a dead body and resolve the resentment that has simmered between them, keeping Addie from finding love and keeping Val from realizing what love is.

 A fun, frothy read!

Title: Beyond Reach
Classification: Fiction
Author: Karin Slaughter
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Slaughter is at her absolute best in this, the latest in the Grant County series. Sara Linton is being sued for malpractice in the death of one of her young patients and has closed her clinic when her husband, sheriff Jeffery Tolliver gets word that Lena Adams is in trouble. Lena, a talented yet troubled detective has been found at the scene of a horrific crime and arrested. When Lena vanishes, Sara and Jeffrey find themselves in the midst of a town filled with pervasive and violent corruption. If you've been reading this series, don't wait for paperback. This is the most breathtaking, shocking book yet; don't miss it!

Title: Bible Salesman
Classification: Fiction
Author: Clyde Edgerton
Publisher: Little Brown
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: At twenty, Henry Dampier is out in the world for the first time, peddling Bibles as he travels. Raised by his Uncle Jack and his very religious Aunt Dorie, Henry is not prepared at all for the likes of Preston Clearwater, the con man who gives him a lift and a job. Innocently, Henry helps his new employer recover "stolen" cars until the truth becomes evident...an event that comes too late.

Title: Black Fly Season
Classification: Fiction
Author: Giles Blunt
Publisher: Berkley
Copyright: 2005
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In Canada's Algonquin Bay, few brave the outdoors during black fly season. So when a beautiful redhead wanders into the local bar covered in bites and with no memory of who she is there's reason for the police to be suspicious. When a bullet is found in her brain their suspicions are confirmed. But with their only witness unable to remember who shot her, or why, will they be able to stop him before he tries again? A very good read.

Title: Black Out
Classification: Fiction
Author: Lisa Unger
Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Ophelia is living a lie. Married to the mysterious Gray, mother of young Victory, she appears to have the perfect life, except that there is a hole in her memory that prevents her from knowing whether she is a murderer. This should have been riveting, but underdeveloped characters and an anticlimactic ending make it more slog than page-turner. Unfortunate, since Unger is really a very good writer, but you'd hardly know it from this effort.

Title: Black and White and Dead All Over
Classification: Fiction
Author: John Darnton
Publisher: Alfred A Knopf
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: A completely entertaining novel about the newspaper business. When loathsome editor Theodore Ratnoff is murdered, no one is upset by his death (well, almost no one), but when the murders don't stop there the entire staff gets pretty edgy. And when reporter Jude Hurley, stymied at every turn in his attempt to write the story, is targeted by the killer he only becomes more determined to find the truth. A nicely ironic, well-crafted book.

Title: Black Water Rising
Classification: Fiction
Author: Attica Locke
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Jay Porter is a scared man. Fear has been his companion since his days in the civil rights movement...since his arrest after his lover betrayed him. Now, years later, married and a practicing attorney, Jay is still scared. But this time he has reason to be, after a shooting leaves him a witness with people wanting him dead next. The question is: why isn't he? Either his pursuer is just not committed to killing him, or is really incompetent. Unfortunately, we never get an answer, a glaring omission in this otherwise pretty decent debut novel.

Title: Blind Rage
Classification: Fiction
Author: Terri Persons
Publisher: Doubleday
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In this ho-hum sequel to Persons' very good debut novel, FBI agent Bernadette Saint Clare returns with her second sight and a ghostly sidekick. Unfortunately, she continues to muddle, rather than clarify, the investigation into the drowning deaths of troubled college students and proves that her unusual ability to enter a killer's mind is less effective than good detective work. I hoped for more from this one, but was really disappointed.

Title: Blind Sight
Classification: Fiction
Author: Terri Persons
Publisher: Doubleday
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Persons brings back Bernadette Saint Clare in this, the third in the Sight series, to track down the murderer who killed a pregnant teenager and removed the full-term fetus from her body. Despite help from her ability to see through a killer's eyes and her partnership with fellow FBI agent Tony Garcia, Saint Clare is stymied in her search by two complications. One, that she is seeing through two sets of eyes and two, that her efforts render her temporarily blind. A little too much slogging through the snow and way too much reliance on an obvious red herring, but a pretty good read. Wait for paperback.

Title: Blind Spot
Classification: Fiction
Author: Terri Persons
Publisher: Doubleday
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: FBI agent Bernadette [Cat] Saint Clare has been transferred from post to post, mostly because her bosses find it unsettling that by touching an object handled by a killer she can see through his eyes. Odd, then, that her newest supervisor not only asked for her but wants to understand her talent...especially when corpses show up with missing hands. Cat finds herself caught up in her new job, and in an affair with her landlord who most definitely is much more than he seems. As Cat narrows the search for the murderer she also confronts the possibility that she's losing her mind when her dreams start to seem real. All in all, a very good read!

Title: Blind Submission
Classification: Fiction
Author: Debra Ginsberg
Publisher: Shaye Areheart/Random House
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Okay, so someone tell me how Ginsberg got away with this. And, moreover, how she got it published with this title when it should have been called "I'm Plagiarizing The Devil Wears Prada." Not an original thought or description in the book; badly written, badly edited. Pitiful.

Title: Bodies Left Behind
Classification: Fiction
Author: Jeffery Deaver
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Now, this is the suspense thriller we've been waiting for! Emma and Steven Feldman, she a lawyer, he a social worker, are planning a quiet weekend at their isolated getaway place when two armed gunmen storm the house. Are their murders connected to a high-profile case Emma was working on or to something else altogether? Can Brynn McKenzie find out in time to save herself and her family from the killers? A high octane read; a great breakout from the Lincoln Rhyme series. Don't miss this one!

Title: Bone Garden
Classification: Fiction
Author: Tess Gerritsen
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In a dramatic departure from her series, Gerritsen tells the haunting story of a series of murders in the 1800's while describing the grisly details of nineteenth century medical science. Rose Connolly watches her sister die of childbed fever, then flees with her newborn niece to protect her from her abusive brother-in-law. As people from the hospital begin to die, however, it becomes apparent that the baby is being sought by someone more sinister, and more powerful, than Rose can imagine. This is, without a doubt, one of the best suspense books out this year and confirms that Gerritsen is a powerhouse. Don't miss it!

Title: Book of the Dead
Classification: Fiction
Author: Patricia Cornwell
Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: One of the things you'll notice right away in this book is that Cornwell now writes in the third, rather than the first, person...probably because even Kay Scarpetta can't stand to be herself any more.   The novel, of course, begins with Kay's trademark angst about Benton, Marino and Lucy and throws in a convoluted, unsatisfying series of murders with a predictable murderer.  And, please, after all these years together, can't Kay and Benton learn to relate to each other as adults rather than as insecure adolescents?  Grow up, Kay...and while you're at it: you're a doctor.  Write yourself a prescription for Zoloft; you'll feel much better. As for me, I'm done. A cereal box is a better read. (Click here to check out other reviews for this title)

Title: Book Thief
Classification: Teens
Author: Markus Zusak
Publisher: Alfred A Knopf
Copyright: 2005
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In 1939 Liesel Meminger is delivered by her mother to foster parents in the town of Molching, Germany to live out the Second World War. She's already a book thief, having stolen a book about grave digging after the funeral of her brother, but that theft is only the beginning of her need for, her obsession with, words. Without giving too much of this story away, let me just say that it is magnificent...if you're only going to buy one book on your next trip to the bookstore, make it this one.

Title: Boy's Life
Classification: Fiction
Author: Robert McCammon
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: A wonderful coming-of-age story of a twelve-year old boy growing up in Zephyr, Alabama, in the early sixties. Similar in feel to "To Kill a Mockingbird" this is a departure from McCammon's horror books, and a genre he should have pursued because this one is fabulous! Not to be missed!

Title: Brass Verdict
Classification: Fiction
Author: Michael Connelly
Publisher: Little Brown
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Connelly brings back Mickey Haller from Lincoln Lawyer in this, the second in the series, which he shares with longtime protagonist Harry Bosch. Mickey is forced out of his hiatus from practicing law when fellow lawyer Jerry Vincent is murdered, leaving his practice to Haller. Among the cases is that of Walter Elliot, accused of killing his wife and her lover...a case in which Haller is convinced the defendant was framed. Was Vincent's murder connected to this case? And is Haller in the killer's sights? Although there are a few too many obvious red herrings for this to be a great read, it's still enjoyable.

Title: Breathless  
Classification: Fiction
Author:  Dean Koontz
Publisher: Bantam
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: 

Koontz delivers again with this page-turner about new life forms, chaos theory, good and evil, created around rural furniture builder Grady Adams and his Irish wolfhound Merlin. 

 On a day that begins with a walk in the woods, with murder, and with animals aware of some new creation, the story effortlessly weaves science together with fantasy as humanity, in fear or wonder, accepts that it may be neither evolution nor creationism which holds the answer to life.

 A definite must-read!

Title: Broken Window
Classification: Fiction
Author: Jeffery Deaver
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In what may be the ultimate Big Brother novel, Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are on the trail of a rapist/murderer with a twist: he is able to frame innocent people because he knows everything about them. Further, he can manipulate computer data to set up his own alibis and to impede his pursuers. This, the eighth in the Lincoln Rhyme series, is an absolutely terrifying look at just how vulnerable we all are in an age of cyber data, and one of Deaver's best books ever! Don't miss it.

Title: Brother Odd
Classification: Fiction
Author: Dean Koontz
Publisher: Bantam Dell/Random House
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: It's no secret that I love Koontz and this, the third in the Odd Thomas series, has given me one more reason to feel this way. Odd has retreated to a monastery to heal after losing his true love Stormy and to reflect on his ability to see dead people. It soon becomes apparent that there is no refuge even here and he is caught in a race to save the handicapped children who live there. This is Koontz at his best, with the humor and humanity that are his trademark, and, of course, with a dog. If you haven't read this series, start with the first (Odd Thomas), and if you have, buy this without delay!

Title: By The Time You Read This
Classification: Mystery
Author: Giles Blunt
Publisher: Henry Holt
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Blunt, the author of Black Fly Season, is back with another great read! John and Catherine Cardinal have been married for years, so he knows when his wife's bipolar syndrome is reaching the blackness of depression. He's devastated when, on a routine photography outing, she throws herself off the tallest building in Algonquin Bay. Despite overwhelming evidence that her death is a suicide Cardinal sets out to prove that it was murder and uncovers the dark and twisted truth. Don't miss this one!

Title: Can't Wait To Get To Heaven
Classification: Fiction
Author: Fannie Flagg
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: If you liked Flagg's "Standing In the Rainbow," you'll enjoy this! The town of Elmwood Springs is stunned when their friend Elner Shimfissle is stung by wasps and killed in a fall from a ladder. While they grieve, they rediscover all the large and small ways Elner has touched their lives, and are delighted when it appears a mistake has been made at the hospital and Elner isn't dead after all. Elner has died, however, and been sent back to Elmwood Springs from heaven, a fact her niece Norma encourages her not to share. A really charming little read.

Title: Case Histories
Classification: Mystery
Author: Kate Atkinson
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Copyright: 2004
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Kate Atkinson just hasn't found a way to write a bad book, and this entry in the Jackson Brodie series is more evidence of that. Three unrelated crimes, spanning a period of twenty-four years, are woven together in an unlikely but inevitable way when former cop Brodie investigates. Atkinson, as always, convincingly establishes the strength of coincidence as the quirky Brodie wanders through the clues. A terrific read.

Title:  Caught
Classification: Mystery
Author: Harlan Coben 
Publisher: Dutton
Copyright:  2010
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:

Dan Mercer is on his way to help a teenage girl in trouble when he walks into the glare of television lights and his life is forever changed.  Wendy Tynes is the TV reporter who has made a name for herself by exposing pedophiles and who thinks Dan is no different from any of the others she has nailed.  This case is not the same, though, and with heart-pounding speed Coben races through twists as more people are caught in the maze of murder and retaliation. 

Move this one to the top of your must-read list, and be sure not to schedule anything until you’re done.  Absolutely fantastic!

Title: Charley's Web
Classification: Fiction
Author: Joy Fielding
Publisher: Atria Books
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Although the suspense here is just a notch below See Jane Run or Mad River Road, Fielding continues to keep us turning pages in this book about Charley Webb, controversial newspaper columnist and single mom whose children are being threatened. Additionally, Charley has decided to write the story of a convicted child murderer and is trying to establish relationships with her long-absent mother and resistant siblings. Although there is a lot going on here, Fielding handles her characters and plots deftly as always and hands us a surprise at the end, as well.

Title: Chasers
Classification: Fiction
Author: Lorenzo Carcaterra
Publisher: Ballantine/Random House
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: With his first foray into fiction with Apaches, Carcaterra introduced ex-cops Boomer and Deadeye in a gruesome, riveting book about illegal drug smuggling. Unfortunately, in this long-awaited sequel, he drags in so many stereotypical, boring characters that, even if the plot were interesting (which it isn't) I found myself wallowing in a sea of them. Even the dialogue ("No place to go, nobody to see, and before you can say needle and spike some lard-ass loser who looks a lot like you has her living off the pipe") is unbelievable and forced. My advice: don't waste your time or your money on this one.

Title: Chasing Darkness
Classification: Fiction
Author: Robert Crais
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Several years ago Elvis Cole cleared Lionel Byrd of murder, so when Byrd's body is found with evidence linking him to that crime and others since, Cole determines to find out if Byrd could have been guilty. His investigation leads him to a sleazy city official, a deputy police chief and a cover-up...all threatening to keep him from discovering the truth in time to prevent more deaths. Crais continues to keep us turning pages in this solid entry in the series.

Title:Chicago Way
Classification: Mystery
Author: Michael Harvey
Publisher: Vintage Books
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In a dynamite debut, Harvey introduces Michael Kelly, Chicago cop turned private eye who is hired to investigate a cold case. When his client turns up dead, Kelly finds a trail of bodies, all systematically murdered, all connected to the case, and he realizes that he can't trust anyone...even his friends. This is one of the best detective thrillers I've read this year! I'm looking forward to the next in the series.

Title: Christine Falls
Classification: Fiction
Author: Benjamin Black
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Set in the 1950's, this excellent crime drama explores murder and black-market adoption in Dublin's Catholic culture. Dark and wonderfully written with a convincing protagonist, this book could be the best of its genre this year. When medical examiner Quirke wanders into the morgue after a night of partying he finds his brother-in-law, respected physician Malachy Griffin, altering a file he has no right to even be reading. With his curiosity piqued, Quirke sets out to determine just what makes the death of Christine Falls worth the risk Griffin has taken and discovers a network of arrogance and deceit...a network that involves his own family. The first book written under the Black pen name of Booker Prize winner John Banville, this is a debut not to be missed.

Title: Church Folk
Classification: Fiction
Author: Michele Andrea Bowen
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Stereotypical, racist, this book might have been considered realistic before the civil-rights movement, but today is just insulting. Blech...should have been called "Church Folk in Black Face."(Click here to check out other reviews for this title)

Title: Cinderella Affidavit
Classification: Fiction
Author: Michael Fredrickson
Publisher: Forge
Copyright: 1999
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: A fairly entertaining legal thriller about a crooked cop and a lawyer with a conscience, but for all of you (and you know who you are) who say you don't want a book with too many characters, this is not for you. And, after all the characters and all the plot twists, the ending is anticlimactic. Pretty well-written, though, so I'd give the author another try.

Title: Cleaner
Classification: Fiction
Author: Brett Battles
Publisher: Dell
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In this very good debut, Battles chooses an unlikely hero: Jonathan Quinn, who makes his living cleaning up after killers have done their work. Just back from vacation, Quinn is sent to tidy up the details following a fatal fire but what he finds convinces him that this is no ordinary job, a conviction strengthened when the killers come for him. Full of spies and counterspies, this is a solid beginning to this new series.

Title: Clover
Classification: Fiction
Author: Dori Sanders
Publisher: Fawcett
Copyright: 1990
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Awkwardly written, clumsily paced, this book about a girl whose father dies hours after marrying the woman who becomes her stepmother is filled with caricatures instead of characters. At ten, Clover never knew her mother and has been raised by an aunt and other members of her extended family but, when her father dies in a car wreck, is turned over to his widow despite the fact that no one really knows her. The town drunk is here, along with the rejected ex-girlfriend, the wannabe suitor and the sad old people...all of whom have been better written in a thousand other books. Pass.

Title: Cold Blood
Classification: Mystery
Author: Theresa Monsour
Publisher: Berkley
Copyright: 2005
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In the style of Gerritsen and Lisa Gardner. I'm looking forward to reading more of her.

Title: Cold Moon
Classification: Fiction
Author: Jeffery Deaver
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: This is the seventh in the Lincoln Rhyme series, and the best since Bone Collector, with all of Deaver's fully fleshed-out characters and convoluted plot turns. When two murders occur on the same night, Rhyme calls Amelia Sachs away from her primary investigation to hunt down the "Watchmaker" who has left clocks at his crime scenes; but all, of course, is not as it seems. Why would such a meticulous killer make huge mistakes that allow his next victims to escape? Is Sachs dealing with a serial killer, corrupt cops, or something larger and more sinister? A really gripping read!

Title: Collision
Classification: Fiction
Author: Jeff Abbott
Publisher: Dutton
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In this unfortunate attempt, Abbott weighs in with a completely disorganized spy thriller, with misunderstood good guy and CIA killer Pilgrim pursued by ruthless businessman Sam Hector as Hector tries to manipulate international terrorism. Despite a trail of bloody bodies and chase scenes, this book manages to be boring as Pilgrim and his unlikely sidekick Ben slash and shoot their way through enemies on all fronts in their effort to save the world. Even a contrived surprise ending can't save this one.

Title: Color of Law
Classification: Fiction
Author: Mark Gimenez
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Wow! Great new author, great new read. Although legal thrillers are pretty easy to find, discovering one that's well-written is becoming difficult. I can't wait for Gimenez to write another one!

Title: Columbine
Classification: History
Author: Dave Cullen
Publisher: Twelve
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In the ten years since Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on their killing spree, myths surrounding the murders and the murderers have become firmly fixed in our national psyche. In this fact-filled book, author Cullen means to set the record straight by letting us know that Cassie Bernall did not say "yes," and that the first responders delayed storming the school for so long that a victim (who could have been saved) was left to bleed to death. The rest is pretty much a rehash of what we already knew, told in an awkward, disorganized style. Disappointing.

Title:Come Closer
Classification: Vampires, Horror & Creatures of the Night
Author: Sara Gran
Publisher: Berkley
Copyright: 2003
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Okay, so Amanda is slowly and insidiously being possessed by a demonic thing. She's acting really weird, but no one seems to notice...even her adoring husband. He even overlooks it when she takes up smoking and jams a cigarette into his hand. Too bad for him, because we know he's gonna be dead (and he is). But the worst, the absolute worst, is that even when Amanda gives herself over to the demon completely and is totally no longer a person, she continues to write in a sane and reasoned voice. This, quite possibly, is the weakest horror book ever written. Blech.

Title: Condition
Classification: Fiction
Author: Jennifer Haigh
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Haigh's insight is at work again in this, her third novel, as she follows the McKotch family through their troubled relationship to one another. Frank and Paulette are driven apart by their daughter Gwen's diagnosis of Turner's syndrome, but the book title comes from much more than that. Years of repression and deceit have created what son Billy calls the "System..." a way of compartmentalizing people and places constructed to protect the fragile family, a condition that enables them to maintain the facade of closeness until real emotion forces each of them to face truths long buried. A wonderful read.

Title: Consigned To Death
Classification: Mystery
Author: Jane K. Cleland
Publisher: St. Martin's
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: First time novelist Cleland does a creditable job with antiques dealer Josie Prescott, who lost her job in the auction-house scandal but has gone on to create a successful business in New Hampshire. Everything is going well for Josie until she finds herself the chief suspect in the murder of an elderly potential client who, it turns out, had paintings stolen during the Nazi regime. A little heavy on the advice from Josie's deceased parents, and not quite enough detail about antiques, but a good read nevertheless. I'll look forward to Cleland's next. (Click here to check out other reviews for this title)

Title: Coronado
Classification: Fiction
Author: Dennis Lehane
Publisher: William Morrow/HarperCollins
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Since the publication of "Drink Before the War," there has been no doubt that Dennis Lehane is a terrific writer. However, like many novelists who try their hand at short stories, Lehane needs more pages than are available in short fiction to make that evident. Just when your curiosity has been piqued, the story is over, leaving you wanting him to finish what he's started. He pads this collection with the title piece: a play that didn't leave me with a desire to buy tickets. We've been waiting for years for more Lehane, but with this, we'll have to wait some more.

Title: Cowboys Are My Weakness
Classification: Fiction
Author: Pam Houston
Publisher: Unknown
Copyright: Unknown
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: This redundant collection of short stories is a look at women giving up their identities to live through men who don't care about them. It includes such overblown lines as "...I held myself there unbreathing, like waiting for the sound of hooves on the sand, like waiting for a tornado." Huh? Despite the title, this collection concludes with the obligatory story of the woman friend dying of breast cancer to attract the Kleenex set. Pass.

Title: Crazy School  
Classification: Mystery
Author:  Cornelia Read
Publisher: Grand Central
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:

In a worthy sequel to Field of Darkness, Madeline Dare and her husband have moved  from Syracuse to Massachusetts where former reporter Madeline has found work teaching at a school for troubled teens.  The longer she’s there, however, the more she realizes that the students aren’t the only ones with problems--everyone from the headmaster through the custodial staff seems surrounded by dark secrets. The question is, who is capable of murder?  And who wants Madeline dead?

Title: Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder
Classification: Fiction
Author: Rebecca Wells
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: With its overblown prose, occasionally told from the perspective of the Moon Mother: "I know the moon and the moon knows me. I am the moon and the moon is me," more often from the view of the main character Calla, "Who isn't deranged one way or the other? It's how we dance with the derangement," Ms. Wells has written a mess of a book. Believe me, if Valley Girls were from the South, they would be these shallow, unbelievable characters living these overwrought lives. Calla just keeps giving her heart: to the moon, to the river, to dancing, to men while she rhapsodizes about all of them. Smarmy.

Title: Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
Classification: Fiction
Author: Mark Haddon
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: This book hits the mark on all counts: it's well-written, it's funny, it's poignant, it's fabulous. A wonderful story, told through the eyes of a fifteen-year old autistic boy.

Title: Daddy's Girl
Classification: Mystery
Author: Lisa Scottoline
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Scottoline turns in a well-paced, very nicely crafted mystery here, featuring law professor Nat Greco who gets caught up in murder when she visits a local prison to present a lecture with a teaching colleague. Prompted by the dying words of a prison guard: "Tell my wife...it's under the floor," Nat delivers the message to his widow and finds herself accused of murder. On the run, she finds a plot much bigger and more convoluted than even she can believe. Can she get anyone to listen to her before more die? This is one of Scottoline's best!

Title: Darkest Evening Of The Year
Classification: Fiction
Author: Dean Koontz
Publisher: Bantam
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Called in the middle of the night to a house filled with violence, Amy Redwing finds a battered family and the dog she has come to rescue. This dog, however, sparks a recognition in Amy...something beyond her love of goldens, something  "noble and solemn," something that promises changes both terrible and wonderful. Koontz has written a novel of evil, of salvation and redemption and healing, a book about dogs and children...the people they save and the people by whom they are saved.  A must-read.

Title: Dark of the Moon
Classification: Fiction
Author: John Sandford
Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Son
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Sandford has finally done it!  He's written a non-Prey book that is terrific!  Granted, Davenport makes several small appearances, but the main character here is Virgil Flowers and he is great.  Called to the small town of Bluestem to investigate a double murder, Flowers is sidetracked when another killing occurs.  The question is: who is killing old people, and why?  Is it random, is it based on a decades-old business scam or is something else going on?  Virgil proves himself a tough, savvy and very funny guy; a fresh new character from Sandford, whose Davenport is just about done.  This is a great read.

Title: Dark Places
Classification: Fiction
Author: Gillian Flynn
Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Libby Day escaped the night her mother and two sisters were slaughtered and has lived for twenty-four years with "a meanness inside...real as an organ." Understandable, given the fact that her father is one of the sleaziest characters ever written and her brother is in prison for the murders. Almost broke, Libby accepts an invitation by the Kill Club to investigate the killings, despite the fact that most of the members believe her brother is innocent and despite the fact that it was her testimony that helped convict him. This book, tightly written and brutal, is just about the best suspense novel this year!

Title: Date You Can't Refuse
Classification: Mystery
Author: Harley Jane Kozak
Publisher: Broadway Books
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Kozak delivers another solid entry in her Wollie Shelley series as greeting card designer and date extraordinaire Wollie serves on a jury, then is approached by the defendant with a job offer: come to work for him and he'll pay her enough to keep her erratic brother in the care facility he needs. Things get hectic when the FBI encourages her to go undercover for them and become even more complicated when Wollie's on-again, off-again boyfriend shows up. Definitely worth a read!

Title: Dead Ex
Classification: Mystery
Author: Harley Jane Kozak
Publisher: Doubleday
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In this, the third in the Wollie Shelley mystery series, the greeting card designer and muralist finds herself head-over-heels in lust with FBI agent Simon Alexander when she finds out an ex-boyfriend has been murdered. But who would kill a terminally ill man, and why? Wollie is caught up in the weird world of soap operas and reality TV as she tries to prove her best friend innocent of murder and as she herself becomes a target. A really fun mystery.

Title: Dead Watch
Classification: Fiction
Author: John Sandford
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Copyright: May 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Sandford breaks out from Davenport and Kidd in this rather ordinary suspense book centering on political corruption and murder in a post-911 world when citizens are joining the Watchmen to control the actions of their neighbors. The question is: was a prominent ex-congressman killed by them? By political rivals? His widow? Or was his death something else altogether? This is not the most neatly drawn or best-thought-out plot, but Sandford still writes well and this is probably worth a read. (Check out Venus's review of the same book by clicking here)

Title: Deceit
Classification: Fiction
Author: James Siegel
Publisher: Warner Books
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Reporter Tom Valle is fired from his high-profile job for falsifying all or part of fifty-six of his stories. Now working for the small town Littleton Journal he's covering mall openings and hundred-year birthdays when he stumbles on the story of a lifetime, but with his history he knows it's futile to hope that anyone will believe him. As he digs further into the truth of the flood that destroyed a town fifty years ago he finds a conspiracy that extends to the highest level of government, a conspiracy that continues to kill everyone who gets close to the truth. A tight, creepy novel in the tradition of "Shutter Island." I highly recommend it.

Title: Deceived
Classification: Fiction
Author: Brett Battles
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: With this, his second in the Jonathan Quinn series, Battles has firmly established himself as an excellent suspense writer. When cleaner Jonathan Quinn is hired to dispose of a body in a shipping container he is shocked to find that his friend Steven Markoff is the dead man. And when his attempt to notify Markoff's girlfriend of his murder sets off a series of attacks on him, Quinn is drawn into a tangle of international intrigue and a shadow group whose purpose is to influence the U.S. government. Battles is at the top of his form with this one; I can't wait for the next.

Title: Deep Dish
Classification: Fiction
Author: Mary Kay Andrews
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Gina Foxton, star of her own local cooking show, is devastated when her sleazy producer/lover sleeps with the sponsor's wife and her show is cancelled. Not all is lost, however, when Gina finds herself on a national reality show, competing against hunky rival Tate Moody for a shot at the big time. A cute, fluffy read, but wait for paperback.

Title:  Desolate Angel
Classification: Mystery
Author:  Chaz McGee
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:

Kevin Fahey was a terrible husband, a terrible father and a terrible cop, but now that he’s dead he is determined to fix the mistakes he made when he was alive. It isn’t his former partner, the drunk and unreliable Danny whom he chooses to help correct the disasters he left, but a new cop…the gritty and talented Maggie Gunn. When Fahey realizes that it was his indifference to the truth that left an innocent man imprisoned and another victim dead, he decides to join forces with Maggie as they pursue the killer and, with any luck at all, stop him before he gets to Maggie.
An interesting beginning to this new series by Katy Munger, writing as Chaz McGee.

Title: Devil's Punchbowl
Classification: Fiction
Author: Greg Iles
Publisher: Scribner
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: A terrific entry from Iles as Penn Cage serves his second year as mayor of Natchez, Mississippi, troubled by his failure to change its school system and by its loss of industry. In fact, his only major success has been to attract the Magnolia Queen, a floating casino which dumps lots of money into the town...until Cage hears from his oldest friend that horrible things are being sponsored by the casino, things that are awful even beyond the laws they violate. When the friend is tortured and killed, Cage realizes that he and his family are next in the killer's sights. This is the best Iles book in a long time!

Title: Dexter In The Dark
Classification: Fiction
Author: Jeff Lindsay
Publisher: Doubleday
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Wacky forensic guy/serial killer Dexter is back (series); this time cut adrift from his "Dark Passenger," that little internal voice that tells him who to kill, and who has killed. Caught up in wedding plans, Dexter is also faced with a series of murders and with a sense that there is a force darker than he that he must face, all while mentoring his soon to be stepson who shows signs of possessing his own "Dark Passenger."  A fun, ironic read.

Title: Die For You
Classification: Fiction
Author: Lisa Unger
Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Isabel Raine and her sexy husband Marcus share a typical morning just before he walks out of her life forever, leaving her stunned and shattered. As she tries to find him, Isabel is forced to realize that her wonderful husband is not who he seemed to be, although that discovery may cost her her life. A really terrific thriller, contemporary and edgy.

Title: Digging To America
Classification: Fiction
Author: Anne Tyler
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Finally! A book I've been looking forward to reading has lived up to my expectations! Anne Tyler rarely fails to deliver, and "Digging To America" is no exception in this story of an Iranian immigrant whose cautious life is changed when her Americanized son and his wife adopt a Korean baby and, in the process, become friends with a thoroughly "American" family who celebrate the arrival of their Korean infant the same day. Tyler's wonderful characters are real and idiosyncratic as they forge bonds that underscore the realization that similarities between people are more important than the differences among cultures. This is a nearly perfect read.

Title: Dirty Job
Classification: Fiction
Author: Christopher Moore
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Christopher Moore ("Stupidest Angel," "Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove," "Lamb") is as whacked as ever in this rib-splitting novel about a man whose wife dies, leaving him with an infant daughter. Doesn't sound like a plot that would have you gasping in laughter, but in Moore's hands even Death Merchants are hilarious. Definitely a book to read right away...don't wait for paperback for this one!

Title:  Dirty Secrets Club
Classification: Fiction
Author:  Meg Gardiner
Publisher: Signet
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:

When assistant U.S. Attorney Callie Harding drives off a bridge after leading police on a high-speed chase, forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett is called in to determine what would have made the woman kill herself and the others she took with her. It isn’t long before Jo discovers that this isn’t the first violent death of high-profile members of a clandestine group who call themselves the Dirty Secrets Club.
A decent read, but overly long as if the author decided to be done (several times) and then realized she had more ideas to include. This one would have benefited by some ruthless editing.

Title: Distance Between Us
Classification: Fiction
Author: Bart Yates
Publisher: Kensington
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: At seventy-one, former piano virtuoso Hester Donovan is alone, sustained by memories and anger, when she takes in Alex as a boarder and infuriates her children and ex-husband. A bleak novel of the disintegration of a family, tempered with not enough redemption as Hester fails to recognize her own narcissism.

Title:Dorothy on the Rocks
Classification: Fiction
Author: Barbara Suter
Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Just another book about a woman who drinks too much, smokes too much and is looking for love. Pass.

Title: Down River
Classification: Fiction
Author: John Hart
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Adam Chase is an angry man, but who can blame him since, after his acquittal on murder charges, his entire family (and his entire home town) turned their backs on him. Five years later, during his exile in New York, he gets a call from his best friend who needs him to come home and, despite reservations, he goes...only to discover that the old hatreds are still there and the real murderer from his past is still on the loose. A worthy second novel (following King Of Lies) from an author in the style of Greg Iles and the early Stuart Woods. Definitely worth a read!

Title: Dying In Style
Classification: Mystery
Author: Elaine Viets
Publisher: Penguin
Copyright: 2005
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Cute, light mystery, the first in the Secret Shopper series.

Title: Earthly Pleasures
Classification: Fiction
Author: Karen Neches
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Skye Sebring is a greeter in the Hospitality Section of Heaven with no aspirations for promotion.  After all, that would mean an assignment to earth and she has no interest in THAT, thank you very much.  However, there is that guy, Ryan...the one all the other women (even the angels) tune into on the Earthly Pleasures tv station.  The one who is married.  The one Skye can't stop thinking about.  The one she is certain she knows.  But how?  Skye is a "new soul," one who has never died, never lived on earth.  Neches' quirky heaven (all the lessons in life are contained in the words of five Beatles' songs) and irreverent characters (the newest angel wears a spiked collar with her white gown) combine to make a thoroughly enjoyable read. A very sweet debut that avoids being saccharine...a completely entertaining book.

Title: Echo Park
Classification: Fiction
Author: Michael Connelly
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In this, the twelfth in the Harry Bosch series, Harry is still working in the Open/Unsolved Unit when he is notified that there has been a confession in one of his cases; a thirteen-year-old murder that has haunted him. The confessed murderer is leading him and other officers to the burial site when everything goes wrong and Harry has to deal with the possibility that his partner, Kiz, might die...and with the certainty that the killer is not who it seems. Connelly's Bosch series continues to be convincing and tightly-written, and this entry is one of his best.

Title: Even
Classification: Fiction
Author: Andrew Grant
Publisher: Minotaur
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: David Trevellyan has just finished a job in New York and is returning to London tomorrow, so after treating himself to a nice dinner he decides to walk to his hotel. After all, he does prefer the city at night. It's his discovery of the body, however, that delays his departure for home--that, and the fact that the police and the FBI immediately nail him as the killer. David is not the telecommunications engineer he claims to be, though, and his experience makes him more than capable of dealing with not only the bad guys but the inept good ones as well. Although he is (maybe unavoidably) influenced by his older brother Lee Child, don't sell Grant short--he's written a page-turning, heart-pounding thriller of his own. Don't miss it!

Title: Everything Must Go
Classification: Fiction
Author: Elizabeth Flock
Publisher: MIRA Books
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: An odd and awkward book by the author of Me and Emma about the life of Henry Powell, former high school football star, who dreams of being a recording star and fantasizes about his biography. Maybe it's too much for me to ask, but if an author is writing a book that is supposed to be "moody," could we at least have characters about whom we care? Or situations that engage us? I suppose there's a need for books through which we must slog, but we shouldn't have to pay for them. Pass.

Title: Fair and Tender Ladies
Classification: Fiction
Author: Lee Smith
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: This is one of my favorite "mountain" books. Told through the letters of Ivy Rowe from her home in the Virginia mountains at the turn of the century, Smith captures the hard and lonely life of the time and place. A lyric read in the tradition of "Color Purple."

Title: Faithful Spy
Classification: Fiction
Author: Alex Berenson
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: American CIA agent John Wells has successfully infiltrated al Qaeda and has lived as a part of them for ten years. Guilty over his failure to prevent 9/11, he is committed to making sure there is never another attack on his homeland, but plans are in place that even he doesn't know about...and his superiors in Washington have stopped trusting him. As events unfold it is obvious that al Qaeda won't be satisfied with just one more attack and that this time many more thousands will die. This may be the best spy novel I've ever read; Berenson's style is riveting! (Click here to check out other reviews for this title)

Title: Family Daughter
Classification: Fiction
Author: Maile Meloy
Publisher: Scribner/Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: After Abby sleeps with her uncle she tries to manufacture a way he might be her first cousin instead. Oh, please...like that would make a difference? Another book full of rationalizations for unacceptable and smarmy behavior, and peopled by a family too boring to be called dysfunctional. Yuck.

Title: Fear
Classification: Fiction
Author: Jeff Abbott
Publisher: Onyx
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Abbott has come a long way from his early mysteries and has pretty much arrived with this one. Miles Kendrick is in the federal Witness Protection program, seeing a shrink and sharing his life with the nagging ghost of his best friend (whom, he's pretty sure, he killed) when he's offered the chance to participate in an experimental test to treat victims of post-traumatic stress syndrome. All bets are off, however, when his doctor is murdered and Miles seems to be the next target. A little overly wordy, but all in all a very good read.

Title: Fear the Worst
Classification: Mystery
Author: Linwood Barclay
Publisher: Bantam
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: When his seventeen year-old daughter doesn't come home from her summer job, at first divorced dad Tim Blake thinks she's in a snit over the minor argument they'd had. But when the staff at the motel where she's been working tell him they've never seen her and her absence stretches into days, then weeks, Blake's investigation opens a whole new world to him. The question is: has Syd left on her own or has she uncovered something that cost her her life? And can he stay ahead of the police long enough to find out? Another fast-paced Barclay success.

Title: Fearless Fourteen
Classification: Mystery
Author: Janet Evanovich
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: It just wouldn't be summer without the new Stephanie Plum (series)...there's something about the Morelli/Ranger indecision that lends itself to a front porch and iced tea. This one is no exception, as Plum takes on temporary custody of a client's kid while helping Ranger protect a has-been singer and trying to keep Grandma Mazur from digging up Morelli's yard. (Well, she DOES think the nine million dollars is buried there). Add to the mix a kidnapping, a homemade cannon that shoots potatoes and a dog that eats underwear and Stephanie is pretty busy. No big guffaws, but lots of little giggles. (Click here to check out other reviews for this title)

Title: Fidelity
Classification: Fiction
Author: Thomas Perry
Publisher: Harcourt Inc.
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Phil Kramer is a savvy, careful private investigator. So how does he let himself be shot and killed while doing something as simple as getting into his car? That's what his wife Emily is determined to find out but, unfortunately, she finds too many implausible things to make this a convincing read. She's smart, too, so why didn't she know who her husband is? And what he was doing, at least some of the time? All the money is gone? There have been lots of women? He has a son? She doesn't know any of this? The only good news is that Thomas is working on a new Jane Whitefield novel, so maybe there's hope yet. For this one, though, pass.

Title: Field of Darkness  
Classification: Mystery
Author:  Cornelia Read
Publisher: Grand Central
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: 

Madeline Dare comes from money so old that there’s none left, although there are members of the family who still live as though there’s plenty.  Dare, however, is living in Syracuse, working at the local newspaper when her father in-law shows her some dog tags found at a murder scene years ago.  Interesting but not riveting until Madeline sees the name on the tags and begins her search for answers, because the name is not only familiar to her but belongs to her cousin, a Gatsbyesque playboy who may or may not be a killer.

 A very good debut!

Title: Fifth Floor
Classification: Mystery
Author: Michael Harvey
Publisher: Alfred A Knopf
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Harvey is back, with the second in the Michael Kelly series, and he proves that his terrific first book wasn't a fluke! Kelly is hired by an old lover, now married and a punching bag for her influential husband, and Kelly finds himself up against the powerful Fifth Floor...the seat of Chicago's city government and home of Mayor Wilson in a mystery that starts with the Great Chicago Fire. Another great read from Harvey!

Title: Fifth Vial
Classification: Fiction
Author: Michael Palmer
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Palmer explores the terrifying possibility that medical labs could establish a data base of subjects for organ transplants by drawing an extra vial of blood from unsuspecting patients, then tissue-matching them as unwilling donors. The powerful men and women who run the organization defend their actions based on Plato's philosopher kings and justify killing "producers" to protect their self-proclaimed Guardians of the Republic. A little predictable, but a good, quick suspense read.

Title: Finger Lickin' Fifteen
Classification: Mystery
Author: Janet Evanovich
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: When celebrity chef Stanley Chipotle is beheaded right in front of Lula, Stephanie and the gang decide to sign up for a barbecue cookoff to trap the killers before they kill Lula. After all, it should be easy to recognize the guy with the meat cleaver and the giggle. But the laughs in this latest Stephanie Plum mystery are few and the Stephanie/Ranger/Morelli tension seems forced. Evanovich needs to wrap this up and move on.

Title: First Commandment
Classification: Fiction
Author: Brad Thor
Publisher: Atria Books
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Maybe it was too much to expect that Thor would be able to follow Takedown with another barn-burner, but I did and he hasn't. Scot Harvath returns as the in-your-face Homeland Security guy...this time on the heels of a group of terrorists released from Guantanamo with the blessing of the president of the United States to prevent the massacre of American school children. Sounds pretty good, right? It could have been, if Thor didn't spend so much time reminding us (and REMINDING us) how brave, stoic, loyal, revered, patriotic and on and on Harvath is. I sort of expected him to throw in the Boy Scout oath as well. This one is definitely on the low side of "liked."

Title: First Patient
Classification: Fiction
Author: Michael Palmer
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In this edge-of your-seat thriller, small town doctor Gabe Singleton is recruited by his long-time friend, president of the United States Andrew Stoddard, to replace the president's personal physician who has gone missing. To complicate matters, Stoddard himself is experiencing strange and terrifying psychotic symptoms. From his first day in Washington, Singleton is caught in a vortex of conspiracy and murder that races through a web of politics and technology. A not-to-be missed read, one of Palmer's best!

Title: First Rule 
Classification: Mystery
Author:  Robert Crais
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Copyright: 2010
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:

In this, the second in the Joe Pike series, Crais has the deadly Pike hunting the home-invasion gang that killed his friend and former mercenary. When it becomes evident that this is no low-level drug-addled group, Pike finds himself up against the powerful Russian mob in a thriller that races its way through deceit and double-cross and has Pike calling in all his favors as he tracks a killer who is almost as lethal as he.
Whether he features Joe Pike or his business partner Elvis Cole, Crais almost always nails it…this one is no exception.
 

Joe Pike series:
Watchman
First Rule

Title: Five Fortunes
Classification: Fiction
Author: Beth Gutcheon
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Unfortunately the format of this book (chapters divided by character) doesn't allow for full development of the characters. I was left with the feeling that I didn't get to know any of them. A ho-hum read.

Title: Fixer Upper
Classification: Fiction
Author: Mary Kay Andrews
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Dempsey Killibrew finds herself without a job when her high-powered lobbyist boss is investigated by the FBI for bribing a congressman. When her father offers her the chance to rehab the old family plantation as a way to earn some money and escape Washington Dempsey thinks she's safe until she discovers her old boss has thrown her under the bus and that the FBI is now tracking her down. A moderately entertaining read, but certainly nothing special.

Title: Fluke
Classification: Fiction
Author: Christopher Moore
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Copyright: 2003
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Marine biologist Nathan Quinn has made a career of studying whale songs and, after twenty-five years, has come to believe that their meaning will forever elude him. His career takes a surprising turn when, on an ordinary day, a whale dives displaying this on his tail: the words "Bite Me." This experience, followed by a request from the same whale for a pastrami sandwich, begins this journey into the weird world of Christopher Moore's novel of whales, humans, and a strange mix of both. As always from Moore, an odd, surreal book... thoroughly enjoyable.

Title: Forever Odd
Classification: Fiction
Author: Dean Koontz
Publisher: Bantam
Copyright: 2005
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: While not as good as the first book featuring Odd (Odd Thomas), this is still Koontz and, as far as I'm concerned, still worth a read. Even at his worst, Koontz is better than a lot of authors at their best.

Title: Forty Words For Sorrow
Classification: Mystery
Author: Giles Blunt
Publisher: Berkley
Copyright: 2001
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: One of the most surprising things about this author is that he isn't front and center on bookstore displays. In fact, I had to special order this: and it was worth the wait! This is the first in the Algonquin Bay series featuring cop John Cardinal, and is as absolutely great as the others. Cardinal's bipolar wife Catherine is hospitalized, his daughter Kelly away at school, when he's called out to view the most unusual results of a murder: the victim is frozen in a block of ice. Missing for months and almost dismissed as a runaway, young Katie Pine has been found. Set in Canada, this book will chill you as Cardinal tries to find the killer and as he hides a shameful secret. My recommendation? Read this book!

Title: Gardenias
Classification: Fiction
Author: Faith Sullivan
Publisher: Milkweed
Copyright: 2005
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In this worthy sequel to Sullivan's wonderful Cape Ann, Lark, her mother and her Aunt Betty are living in San Diego during World War II after leaving Lark's ne'er-do-well father in Minnesota. Lark's bitterness grows as she finds herself living in ramshackle government-built housing, alone while the mother and aunt work to support them. Slowly, though, she starts to meet her neighbors and finds that they become as important to her as her abandoned family was. Sullivan captures the feel of time and place in a perfect way; her California of the 40's is completely convincing and captivating. A must-read!

Title: Gate House
Classification: Fiction
Author: Nelson DeMille
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: After several blockbuster suspense novels (Night Fall, Plum Island, Lion's Game), DeMille tries to bore us to death in this, the sequel to Gold Coast. Ten years after John Whitman Sutter's wife killed her lover, and ten years following their divorce, Sutter returns to his old stomping grounds on Long Island's Gold Coast where he spends the better (or worse) part of almost 800 pages mouthing what I think is supposed to be amusing repartee. Unfortunately it isn't. Amusing. At all. Or entertaining, or well-written or engaging. For an author who can usually be counted on to turn in a must-read, DeMille has, this time, given us a mustn't-read. Pass.

Title: Ghost War
Classification: Fiction
Author: Alex Berenson
Publisher: Putnam
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: John Wells is back in Berenson's second novel as he tries to prevent war with China.  Patriots and megalomaniacs abound as Wells goes first to Afghanistan to defeat a threat there, then travels to China to save the world.  Despite a world-class first novel in Faithful Spy, Berenson suffers sophomore slump here by making Wells the kind of super hero usually found only in comic books.  Here's hoping for better next time.

Title:  Girl Who Chased the Moon
Classification:
Author:  Sarah Addison Allen
Publisher: Bantam
Copyright:  2010
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:

When Emily’s mother dies, she discovers a grandfather she never knew existed and a side of her mother she can’t believe was true. In Mullaby, North Carolina, though, there are a lot of things that only exist in a Southern town: wallpaper that changes of its own volition, the sweet scent of cakes that acts as an aphrodisiac, and a powerful family whose men carry a secret hidden for generations.

Allen has, once again, created an enchanting story of love and mystery that allows you to gladly suspend belief in the mundane.  All that’s missing is the sweet tea.

Title: The Girls
Classification: Fiction
Author: Lori Lansens
Publisher: Little, Brown
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Canadian author Lansens (Rush Home Road) has done it again in this wonderfully written story of conjoined sisters. From the opening sentence: "I have never looked into my sister's eyes", we are drawn into the rich lives of Ruby and Rose, their family and their neighbors, and follow them for thirty years of their unique but universal experiences. A must read, and one well-suited for book club discussion groups as it explores the world through a view both rare and familiar.

Title: Given Day
Classification: Fiction
Author: Dennis Lehane
Publisher: William Morrow
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: A big, brawling, sprawling historical novel, set during the first part of the twentieth century as the country tries to find its way during the First World War. In his first novel since Shutter Island, Lehane weaves together the life of Luther Laurence, a black man running from his past, with those of Danny Coughlin, a Boston cop, and Babe Ruth, less hero and more human than you'd expect. This is a terrific book, one with both historical and contemporary importance. Don't miss it!

Title: Gone
Classification: Fiction
Author: Lisa Gardner
Publisher: Bantam
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Gardner is a consistent page-turner who needs to be discovered by a larger audience. This one is no exception...

Title: Gone Tomorrow
Classification: Fiction
Author: Lee Child
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: It's two o'clock in the morning, just a normal subway ride, except that the woman across from Reacher is anything but normal. After all, how many people match eleven of the twelve characteristics of a suicide bomber? With the woman dead, Reacher discovers a conspiracy that spans decades and reaches across the globe in this, the thirteenth in the Jack Reacher series. Lee Child has never been better than this so please, stop reading this and go buy this book!

Title: Good Guy
Classification: Fiction
Author: Dean Koontz
Publisher: Bantam Books
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Stonemason Tim Carrier stops by his favorite bar after work where a stranger hands him an envelope containing ten thousand dollars and the picture of a young woman with assurance another ten thousand will be delivered "when she's gone." Knowing that it's up to him to prevent the murder, Tim finds Linda, the targeted victim, and they find themselves running from an assassin with powerful forces on his side. In a shadowy world where it's impossible to identify the bad guys Tim discovers a conspiracy that reaches to the most influential people in the world. Can he stay alive long enough to destroy it? Once again, Koontz has written a tense, riveting thriller that will leave you breathless!

Title: Good Things I Wish For You
Classification: Fiction
Author: A. Manette Ansay
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Recently divorced Jeanette Hochmann is stuck--in life and in her writing. Despite her passion for her subject (a novel about nineteeth-century pianist and composer Clara Schumann's relationship with Johannes Brahms), Jeanie has hit a wall until she meets Hart. Soon she is living a life that parallels Clara's; loving a man who can love only himself even though he provides the passion that fuels her creativity. Unfortunately, in a style unlike Ansay, the development of the relationship is awkward, while the characters are too stiff too be believable. Definitely not up to the promise of Ansay's Vinegar Hill.

Title: Got the Look
Classification: Fiction
Author: James Grippando
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Good, but probably worth waiting for in paperback. It’s on my shelf, but the second one down.

Title: Go with Me
Classification: Fiction
Author: Castle Freeman, Jr.
Publisher: Steerforth Press
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In this unassuming little book, Freeman's timing is flawless, his ear for dialogue  perfect.  Divided between good ole boy conversation in an all-but-abandoned Vermont logging camp and the almost certain to fail trek into the mountains in search of a killer, the humor leavened with intensity, Freeman's minimalist prose is dead-on.  A definite top pick!

Title: Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Classification: Fiction
Author: Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Publisher: Dial Press
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Author Juliet Ashton's theory is that books have a secret homing device that "brings them to their perfect readers." And in this perfectly charming book set in postwar Great Britain it seems that all books have wound up in the hands of just the right people, including a copy of Ashton's "Selected Essays of Elia" which somehow has made its way to a farm in the Guernsey Islands. Written in the form of letters, this novel captures the time and place so perfectly it could almost have been non-fiction...an almost perfect read!

Title: Hangman's Beautiful Daughter
Classification: Mystery
Author: Sharyn McCrumb
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Set in the mountains of Tennessee, this book weaves a haunting Appalachian story of murder, suicide, history, and prescience. Much more than a murder mystery; it's a moody, moving story of the deep rural south.

Title: Happiness Sold Separately
Classification: Fiction
Author: Lolly Winston
Publisher: Warner Books
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: A mildly interesting book by the author of the wonderful first novel "Good Grief." After eight years of marriage, Elinor and Ted Mackey find themselves unable to have a child, and pushed apart by their failure. Elinor seeks solace by doing endless loads of laundry, while Ted (of course, stereotypical man that he is), has an affair. An endless round of analysis follows: does Ted want to stay with Elinor, or leave her for Gina? Does Elinor want to keep Ted with her, or does she want him to be happy with Gina? A little tedious, and not up to the promise of Winston's debut, but readable enough.

Title: The Hard Way
Classification: Fiction
Author: Lee Child
Publisher: Bantam Dell
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Child has done it again in this, the tenth of the Jack Reacher series! Former military guy Reacher is asked by the leader of a mercenary group to find his kidnapped wife and step-daughter. But who's the bad guy here? Tight, intense, this is another great read from the writer of just about the best suspense books around.

Title: Heartstopper
Classification: Fiction
Author: Joy Fielding
Publisher: Atria Books
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Although certainly not in the same league as Fielding's See Jane Run and Mad River Road, this is a pretty good (but very predictable) suspense read. When pretty, popular Liana Martin goes missing everyone in this small, dysfunctional Florida town becomes a suspect. (Except, of course, for the real killer). Fairly interesting characters, but without the depth and darkness in some of the author's earlier books; this would make a good, quick beach read.

Title:Heat Lightning
Classification: Fiction
Author: John Sandford
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In this, the second in the Virgil Flowers series, Sandford manages to create a really high degree of...boredom. Like James Patterson, Sandford has taken on a writing partner and it shows in a marked decrease in suspense and organization. Flowers is called in to investigate when corpses begin showing up with lemons stuffed in their mouths, which may or may not be a sign of Vietnamese murders (don't hold your breath, we never actually find out). One of the problems with more than one author is that loose ends are left dangling, and that's definitely a difficulty here. Pass.

Title: Hide
Classification: Fiction
Author: Lisa Gardner
Publisher: Bantam Books
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: A pedestrian thriller about a woman (she's had so many names that I'm loathe to include one)whose family picked up and moved a LOT when she was a child. We're left to determine whether those moves were a result of her father's paranoia or a consequence of his job (wow--maybe an FBI agent?) or perhaps even because he was a serial killer. By the time I reached the end, I really didn't care. Ho-hum. (Click here to check out other reviews for this title)

Title: Hiding Place
Classification: Fiction
Author: Trezza Azzopardi
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: A stark, brutal novel of an impoverished family in 1940s Wales and, ultimately, a story of redemption. Powerfully and wonderfully written.

Title: Hoe Lot of Trouble
Classification: Mystery
Author: Heather Webber
Publisher: Avon
Copyright: 2004
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: A cute mystery (the first in the Nina Quinn series) featuring the owner of a landscaping firm, her police officer husband, and his teenage son. And, of course, Xena the snake. A light, fun read in the style of Elaine Viets and Sharon Short.

Title: Hold Tight
Classification: Mystery
Author: Harlan Coben
Publisher: Dutton
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Coben does it again! Following the suicide of a teenage boy, Mike and Tia Baye are worried about their son...so worried that they install spy wear on his computer to monitor his activities. Their discoveries lead them into a new culture of drugs and murder and the fear that they will be too late to save their son. Although not quite as tightly-written as Tell no One or Gone For Good, Coben paints a fairly convincing picture of the potential for terror in today's tech-driven world.

Title: Hoot
Classification: Children's
Author: Carl Hiaasen
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Hiaasen's first foray into children's books is a hit! The humor and quirky characters in his adult mysteries, although obviously less irreverent here, are still completely enjoyable even for adults. And, of course, since it is Hiaasen, there's an ecological plot which involves and empowers the kids. Read it with your kids or read it for yourself, but read it! (Click here to check out other reviews for this title)

Title: The Hour I First Believed
Classification: Fiction
Author: Wally Lamb
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In the ten years since his last book (I Know This Much Is True), I've thought often about Lamb and wondered not only if he would write again but if he could match the eloquence of his first two books. With The Hour I First Believed he has...and he does. In a first-person narrative told by Caelum Quirk, Lamb manages to include the Columbine massacre, the Civil War, the penal system, Miss Rheingold and much more, and he manages, out of all that, to create a vortex of a story, a book about hate and love and violence and redemption. This is another nearly perfect book by this author; a must read.

Title: How Perfect Is That
Classification: Fiction
Author: Sarah Bird
Publisher: Alfred A Knopf
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: I'm still yawning after reading this ho-hum novel about poor Blythe Young, former caterer to the stars, former wife to millionaire Trey Dix; current drunk, druggie and all around loser. Please only buy this book if you're up for three hundred pages of failed attempts to produce sympathy for this completely unlikable character, or if you're a masochist. Otherwise, pass.

Title: The Husband
Classification: Fiction
Author: Dean Koontz
Publisher: Bantam Dell
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Koontz remains the master of suspense with this novel of an unassuming gardener whose life is forever altered with the abduction of his wife Holly by kidnappers who are masterfully framing him for her murder. Twist follows heart-pounding twist as Mitch finds himself face-to-face with violence and evil. This is a don't-wait-for-paperback book! If your bookstore or library is open, grab your keys and leave now. (Click here to check out other reviews for this title)

Title: I Am the Cheese
Classification: Teens
Author: Robert Cormier
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Reminiscent in tone of Flowers for Algernon, this teen read is a dark look at reality versus nightmare. I highly recommend it.

Title: I'm Not Julia Roberts
Classification: Fiction
Author: Laura Ruby
Publisher: Warner Books
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: While this is a decent enough little "filler book," there are too many characters with too few unique personalities to keep them straight. Ruby should have concentrated on one perspective or written a longer book! A moderately interesting book about modern divorce, but this is a topic that's been done before, and better. Pass.

Title: Intent to Kill
Classification: Fiction
Author: James Grippando
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Ryan James was playing minor league baseball, waiting to be picked up by the majors, when his wife was killed in a car crash after being run off the road by a drunk driver. Three years later he\'s hosting a sports talk show, taking care of his daughter, not sleeping, and mourning his wife when he gets a message that reads "It was no accident." If you like a suspense(less) novel that you figure out on page 28, then this is for you. Otherwise, pass.

Title: Intruders
Classification: Fiction
Author: Michael Marshall
Publisher: William Morrow
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Marshall is back with another creepy thriller in the tradition of his first two: Straw Men and Upright Man. Jack Whalen has stopped being a cop and become a writer, enjoying life with his wife and trying to decide if he has another book in him, when he gets a call from a high school classmate ...someone with whom he was never close, someone he has hardly thought of in years. It's a surprise, then, when Gary Fisher asks him to look into the disappearance of a scientist and the murder of the researcher's family. Giving only vague details, Fisher leaves Jack with a nagging interest in the case; an interest that becomes an obsession as he realizes his wife is involved and that intruders can enter your life in more ways than one.

Title: Invisible Prey
Classification: Fiction
Author: John Sandford
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: After his rather disappointing breakaway novel, Dead Watch, Sandford is back with Lucas Davenport in this, the seventeenth in the Prey series. Although it lacks some of the suspense of the earlier ones (you know whodunit pretty soon), it's nice to have Lucas on the trail of the bad guys when old people (old, RICH people) are murdered in their homes. The only link seems to be antique quilts...but is that enough reason for the killings? Davenport has sort of turned the corner from driven detective to comfortable, "just doing my job" cop, but Sandford writes well enough to keep us involved. A good read.

Title: Isabella Moon
Classification: Fiction
Author: Laura Benedict
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Although a moderately well-written first novel, Benedict makes the fatal mistake made by too many authors caught up in their own plots: she fails to write an ending.  The story is fairly interesting...small town, missing child, but far-fetched ghostly apparitions and somewhat stilted dialogue mar the book.  Here's wishing for better next time.

Title: I Shall Not Want
Classification: Mystery
Author: Julia Spencer-Fleming
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne are back in the first in this series since the death of Linda Van Alstyne, and Spencer-Fleming has allowed their relationship to dominate the book with enough sexual tension to classify this entry as a romantic suspense rather than a mystery. A definite distraction from what used to be a tightly-written series with a romantic subplot, and one I hope doesn't continue in subsequent submissions. Here, Clare caught up in the murders of undocumented aliens who are, unfortunately, so vaguely drawn that it's hard to keep track...since, after all, Russ is no longer married and the focus is on: when can Clare sleep with him? All in all, a letdown.

Title: Island Of Lost Girls
Classification: Fiction
Author: Jennifer McMahon
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: It happens so quickly: Rhonda Farr stops for gas and, in an instant, sees what might be a hallucination. There's hardly any other explanation for a white rabbit kidnapping a little girl from a parked car. If it weren't for the fact that this is not the first girl to go missing, and for the fact that at least one of them is dead, Rhonda could almost pretend it didn't happen. And, of course, her childhood memory of her own white rabbit. A pretty good read, with only a few needless detours.

Title: Josie and Jack
Classification: Fiction
Author: Kelly Braffet
Publisher: Mariner/Houghton Mifflin
Copyright: 2005
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Although I read this a couple of months ago, I've had to mull over my feelings about it. Braffet writes well (as she did in Last Seen Leaving), but she has chosen a disturbing subject (think Flowers In the Attic, but brutal) and presents it in such a creepy, uncompromising way that I was tempted to avert my eyes as I read. A dark, moody book with perfectly drawn, disturbing characters, but definitely not for everyone.

Title: Judas Horse
Classification: Fiction
Author: April Smith
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: FBI agent Ana Grey (series) is back on the job and, after fellow agent Steve Crawford is killed, assigned to infiltrate a cell of domestic terrorists. Aware of just how easy it is to lose herself in her fictional character, Ana soon begins to question her identity, and to wonder just who the bad guys are. No black and white here, only shades of gray in Smith's slightly disjointed thriller.

Title: Julia's Chocolates
Classification: Fiction
Author: Cathy Lamb
Publisher: Kensington Books
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Almost-bride Julia Bennett has left her abusive boyfriend and run away, leaving her wedding dress hanging from a tree in North Dakota while fleeing to the safety of her Aunt Lydia in Oregon. Lydia, who hosts a weekly Psychic Night (Breast Power Psychic Night; Your Hormones and You) and who has large concrete pigs in her yard named after men who have made her mad, is the sane one in Julia's family which gives you an idea of the rest of them. This is a warm, wonderful book in the tradition of Billie Letts and Rebecca Wells...I highly recommend it!

Title: Keepsake
Classification: Fiction
Author: Tess Gerritsen
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: When a well-preserved mummy is found in the basement of the Crispin Museum, it generates a lot of interest in scientific circles, but when it's discovered that "Madam X" is actually a recent murder victim Detective Jane Rizzoli is called in. As she pursues a faceless killer she finds herself caught in a tangle of horrors; is it possible to catch the murderer before anyone else dies? This is Gerritsen at her best...tight and terrifying suspense!

Title: Killer Instinct
Classification: Fiction
Author: Joseph Finder
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: When mid-level manager Jason Steadman wrecks his car, tow-truck driver and former Special Forces guy Kurt impresses him. Jason invites him to join his softball team and arranges a job in security at his company. To repay him, Kurt starts doing "favors" for him, but when terrible things begin to happen to Jason's business competitors, Jason knows he's dealing with someone much more (and much worse) than a friend. Tightly written and compelling...a definite must-read.

Title: Killer's Wife
Classification: Fiction
Author: Bill Floyd
Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Young bride Nina Mosley has no reason to be suspicious when her husband returns from a business trip covered in scratches. After all, he explains, he helped fellow passengers subdue a drunk on the plane. But when Nina realizes that Randy's injuries correspond with the timing of horrific murders, she is forced to face the possibility that she is married to a killer. This is a tight, stunning debut novel in the tradition of Harlan Coben and Joy Fielding. Don't miss it!

Title: Kindness of Strangers
Classification: Fiction
Author: Katrina Kittle
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: A somewhat predictable but well-developed story of a widow who discovers her closest friend is harboring a terrible secret. Not for those who can’t read books in which bad things happen to kids.

Title: King Of Lies
Classification: Fiction
Author: John Hart
Publisher: Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's Press
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:This is the legal-thriller debut of the year! When Ezra Pickens is found murdered, his son Work is the prime suspect despite a town full of people who loathed the victim. A terrific book filled with great characters set against a Southern-gothic backdrop. If you've been wishing for THE mystery to read this summer, this is it!

Title: Knight in Shining Armor
Classification: Romance
Author: Jude Deveraux
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:Contemporary woman meets 14th century knight and the rest is fabulous. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll lust. I thought this was great.(Click here to check out other reviews for this title)

Title: The Know-It-All
Classification: Humor
Author: A.J. Jacobs
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks
Copyright: 2004
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: If you can't imagine how reading the Encyclopedia Britannica could be entertaining, you haven't read this book. The author may not have succeeded in "becoming the smartest person in the world," but he is certainly among the funniest. His quotes and observations make reading the encyclopedia sound not only bearable, but fascinating. I found that I couldn't read this book in public without drawing stares from people around me as I laughed out loud. From "a-ak" (see gagaku), through "kappa...a vampirelike lecherous creature from Japan that's obsessed with cucumbers" to the anticlimactic "Zywiec...a town in south-central Poland," this is a great read!

Title: Lady Killer
Classification: Mystery
Author: Lisa Scottoline
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Lawyer Mary DiNunzio is juggling her typical caseload of South Philly clients (responsible for the sign on the office door that reads "Must Wear Shirts")when former high school classmate Trish (Trash) Gambone shows up in her office, hysterical. Trish is terrified that her abusive boyfriend is about to kill her, and with his Mob connections it's a real possibility. So when Trish goes missing, Mary is sure she's dead and sets out to find her murderer. Written with Scottoline's trademark humor, this is a very good read.

 
Title: Ladies of the Lake
Classification: Fiction
Author: Haywood Smith
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Smith Can't avoid a certain sappiness as she puts four very different sisters in the house of their recently deceased grandmother. To meet the terms of her will (and to each become very wealthy), they must coexist, not necessarily peacefully, for three months, cleaning out the house and coming to grips with their differences. A little contrived, a little romantic, a little silly, but an okay read.

Title: Last Child
Classification: Fiction
Author: John Hart
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: A year ago Johnny's twin sister was abducted and since then Johnny has spent every day searching for her. After all, his dad left and his mom is living with a sadist who controls her with violence and drugs. At some level Johnny realizes that his search is futile, until a dying man tells him "I found her" before he says "Run." Through a whirlwind of accusations and murder Johnny does just that, not knowing that others are following the same trail. In this, his third blockbuster novel, John Hart proves himself to be one of the best suspense writers out there! Don't miss this one.

Title: Last Secret
Classification: Fiction
Author: Mary McGarry Morris
Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Twenty-six years ago Nora Hammond ran away with her sociopathic boyfriend in an act of teenage rebellion. Now wealthy and married, mother of two, Nora has crafted a life for herself that certainly doesn't include doping, drinking and what might have been murder. What she hasn't counted on is the return of Eddie, the homicidal boyfriend who seems bent on ruining her life. As Nora's fear escalates she discovers that she isn't the only one with terrible secrets that threaten her carefully constructed life. Although a little long on the angst-filled, helpless female angle this is a pretty good read.

Title: Last Seen Leaving
Classification: Fiction
Author: Kelly Braffet
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: When her pilot husband is killed while flying a mysterious mission for the government, Anne Cassidy is devastated and spends the next twenty years trying first to find out what happened, then trying to reconnect with him through meditation and crystals. Their daughter Miranda, shut out of her mother's life, drifts from one man to another...then vanishes. Anne, desperate not to lose her child, is forced to come to grips with what she meant to her husband, and what her daughter means to her. A well-written, though somewhat predictable story. (Click here to check out other reviews for this title)

Title: Lean Mean Thirteen
Classification: Mystery
Author: Janet Evanovich
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Stephanie Plum (series) is back and as funny as ever as she juggles Morelli and Ranger while trying to solve the disappearance of her scumbag ex. Lula is in rare form as she and Stephanie track down a no-show for the bond office in a trailer inhabited by a monster python and through a cemetery in the dark, and as they try to apprehend a taxidermist afraid to leave his house. Evanovich is dependably hysterical...it would be great if she gave up on her other series and gave us more Plum!

Title: Life And Times of the Thunderbolt Kid
Classification: Biography
Author: Bill Bryson
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In his funniest book since Lost Continent, Bryson recounts his early life growing up in Iowa in the fifties and recalls for all of us the innocence, the simplicity and the hope of the time. Not that his descriptions are always idyllic; he reminds us that "Only one thing came close to matching the fear of teenagers in the 1950s and that was of course Communism. Worrying about Communism was an exhaustingly demanding business in the 1950s." Whether reminiscing about the development of the hydrogen bomb ("One possibility was that it might ignite all the oxygen in the atmosphere"), or protesting the day each summer that he had to spend at the Riverview Amusement Park (of whose roller coaster he says: "People didn't even scream on it; they were much too petrified to emit any kind of noise"), Bryson is hysterically accurate. Whether you lived the fifties, or the fifties are ancient history to you, you must read this book. If you give it as a gift, make sure to buy one for yourself, too!

Title: Lincoln Lawyer
Classification: Fiction
Author: Michael Connelly
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Connelly breaks out of the serial killer genre to write a courtroom drama and does a fairly good job, although I hope this isn't a permanent change. It's just a little too pat with the "should a lawyer sell his soul" question.

Title: Little Giant of Aberdeen County
Classification: Fiction
Author: Tiffany Baker
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Truly is easily the biggest baby ever born in Aberdeen County, so it's understandable that her mother died in the process. When her father, drunk, bored and broken-hearted dies, too, Truly and her sister (the breathtakingly beautiful Selena Jane) are farmed out to local families where they continue the paths already established for them...Selena Jane the cherished trophy daughter, Truly the dutiful workhorse. Nicely written, with a story that reminded me a little of Garden Spells and Lace Reader; a very good first novel.

Title: Lone Wolf
Classification: Mystery
Author: Linwood Barclay
Publisher: Bantam Dell/Random House
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In this, the third in the Zack Walker series, Zack is working as a feature writer for the Metropolitan when he gets the call informing him that his father is dead. Not just dead, but eaten-by-a-bear dead. When he arrives at his father's camp he finds, not a bear, but a group of survivalists who are armed to the teeth and whose artwork on the walls features a picture of Timothy McVeigh. At least his father isn't dead, but a lot of people might be if Zack can't find out just who is being targeted by this group and stop them before it's too late. Maybe a notch less funny than the first two, but still a must-read.

Title: Long Lost
Classification: Mystery
Author: Harlan Coben
Publisher: Dutton
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: My apologies to Coben. For years I've groused about his Myron Bolitar series while praising his stand alone novels. But, at least with this entry, he's made a convert of me. Bolitar gets a call from a woman with whom he shared a passionate escape years ago. She's in France and says only: "Come to Paris." Despite warnings from his friend and partner, he goes, to be caught up in a flurry of murders, terrorists and red herrings that lead to a chilling conclusion. A really terrific read!

Title: Long Way From Chicago
Classification: Children's
Author: Richard Peck
Publisher: Puffin
Copyright: 1998
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: It's 1929 when Joey and his sister Mary Alice begin their annual August visits with their grandmother...a train trip away in miles from their home in Chicago, but even farther in experiences.  Peck chronicles their visits in a series of short stories covering nine years and captures the feel of small town life during the depression, although I'm not sure how interesting the details will be to a young reader.   Nicely told,but be prepared to discuss topics like prohibition, Al Capone and Hupmobiles with your kids.

Title: Look Again
Classification: Mystery
Author: Lisa Scottoline
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Reporter Ellen Gleeson is tempted to toss the missing children card that comes in the mail but the child pictured on the card could be her adopted son's twin, a coincidence that drives Ellen to a search for a truth that could take her son from her. In this fast-paced thriller, Ellen has to face her fear that, like the women about whom she writes, she may be become a statistic: a woman who loses her child, not to murder or kidnapping, but to a crime with the same result. A terrific, harrowing read!

Title: Mad River Road
Classification: Fiction
Author: Joy Fielding
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Without a doubt her best since See Jane Run. Don’t miss it!

Title: Made in the U.S.A.
Classification: Fiction
Author: Billie Letts
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Lutie McFee and her brother Fate are living with their father's former girlfriend, Floy, when Floy drops dead at the local Walmart. Afraid of being taken to foster homes they steal Floy's car and head to Las Vegas to look for their father, convinced he's living the good life and that he will be thrilled to see them, despite the fact that he abandoned them. Once in Vegas, really ugly things happen to them BUT, conveniently, they are rescued by a disabled circus star. How coincidental that Lutie is a gymnast and that their rescuer takes them to the winter quarters of the circus where she discovers the high wire. Happy, happy, right? Unfortunately, no...just contrived and trite. What a shame that Letts, who made such a promising start with Where the Heart Is and Honk and Holler Opening Soon, has lost her touch with Shoot the Moon and this one.

Title: Magicians
Classification: Fantasy
Author: Lev Grossman
Publisher: Viking
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Lev Grossman may, at one time, have had an original idea, but none of them is in this book about a teenager who discovers he's a magician and is transported to a mysterious, magical school. Sound familiar so far? Grossman borrows heavily from Rowling, C.S. Lewis and L. Frank Baum as well as J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan and Carroll's Through the Looking Glass as protagonist Quentin dreams of escaping to the fictitious world of FIllory from the books of his childhood. A thinly-veiled revamping of other people's work (he even includes a mythical white stag), this dreary book fails not only because of its unoriginality but because its author believes himself to be in the same realm as much better writers. He is not.

Title: Magic Time
Classification: Fiction
Author: Doug Marlette
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In this tedious, way-too-long book, Marlette examines the angst of newspaper reporter Carter Ransom whose teen love Sarah was killed in a civil-rights church bombing twenty-five years ago. The opening alone (a terrorist bombing in New York) is jarring in its insignificance, and is overshadowed by Ransom's return to his Southern roots for the trial of the Ku Klux Clan member suspected of ordering the murder of his girlfriend and three other civil-rights workers. This plot has been done so well before (Greg Iles' Quiet Game), that Magic Time pales in comparison. Definitely not worth the time it takes to slog through.

Title: March
Classification: Fiction
Author: E.L. Doctorow
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2005
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Lyrically written, as are all of Doctorow's books, this account follows Sherman's march through Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, with convincing depictions of actual and fictitious characters and events. As the South falls, Sherman becomes more obsessed with his own importance and power and more disengaged from the war's human factor while those around him struggle with the new reality the war is creating. Moving and poignant, this book brings to life the battle of two cultures becoming one country.

Title: March
Classification: Fiction
Author: Geraldine Brooks
Publisher: Penguin
Copyright: 2005
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In this wonderful book, Brooks brings to life the absent March father from Alcott's Little Women as she follows the itinerant preacher through the early part of the Civil War. Our knowledge of Marmee and the girls provide a context for understanding their haunted, conflicted husband and father as he confronts a reality far removed from the safety of philosophizing about the evil of slavery and war. This is a nearly-perfect period novel.

Title: Marked Man
Classification: Fiction
Author: William Lashner
Publisher: William Morrow/HarperCollins
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Attorney and media darling Victor Carl stops by his favorite bar for a drink and wakes up the next morning with more than a hangover; he has a tattoo of a woman's name on his chest. Who is she? And does she have any connection with the elderly Greek woman who begs him to bring her fugitive son home? Is Carl investigating one crime or two, and just how is his father involved? A pretty well-paced mystery, with a cast of interesting characters, but worth waiting for paperback.

Title: Marley and Me
Classification: Biography
Author: John Grogan
Publisher: Harper
Copyright: 2005
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: This book has been floating just below my radar for awhile, but I thought it might be a great read during the holidays. After all, what could be more heartwarming than a dog book? So, having now read it, I can tell you: almost anything but this. Poor Marley. Brought into a family that wants to practice parenting on a dog before having children and treated by them as though he should have been born knowing good behavior, this poor dog wanders from one disaster to the next. The cover of the book proclaims Marley is "the world's worst dog," but misses the fact that the Grogans may be a dog's worst family. The charm of this book eludes me...it's like reading a TV sitcom. Pass. PS: AND...the dog dies. (Click here to check out other reviews for this title)

Title: Mephisto Club
Classification: Fiction
Author: Tess Gerritsen
Publisher: Ballantine/Random House
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Although Gerritsen includes her regular cast of characters, she has written a rather mundane book trading on the popularity of Biblically-based evil-doers. This plot has been done before(and much better), so unless you need another rip off of Dan Brown et. al., skip it or wait for paperback.

Title: Mermaid Chair
Classification: Fiction
Author: Sue Monk Kidd
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Oh, woe, this woman has a perfectly nice life, a perfectly nice (though rather bland) husband, but when her daughter goes off to college she is drawn home to her estranged mother where she just HAS TO have an affair with a monk from the monastery next door. Oh, please, yadda, yadda, yadda. What a dismal follow-up to "Secret Life of Bees."

Title: Mermaids in the Basement
Classification: Fiction
Author: Michael Lee West
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: West is in her element here with gushing Southern belles and dissolute men, but she misses her chance to write a really good novel.  Renata DeChavannes' mother has died, her boyfriend is reported by the tabloids to be pursuing another woman and her detached father is getting married again.  Although you'd think that would be enough burden to bear, in West's world there's more...much more, since Renata is missing a chunk of memory and her grandmother is determined to bring it back through (many) stories of infidelity and betrayal.  Despite West's trademark humorous treatment of her subject the number of affairs just becomes boring; the South has so many dysfunctions from which to choose that to focus on one limits the scope of the characters and the potential of the book.  A moderately good read.

Title:  Midnight House
Classification: Fiction
Author:  Alex Berenson
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Copyright: 2010
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:

In another so-so thriller featuring John Wells who has already saved the world more than once, Wells is called in to investigate when members of a super-secret military torture team start to turn up dead.  Along the way, Wells finds a trail of missing money, corrupt government officials, Middle Eastern assassination plots, a covert house of torture and a lot of generally whacked-out bad guys.  Unfortunately, there’s little suspense and the dead people seem to have gotten what they deserve, so the book turns out to be a whimper and not a bang.

John Wells series: Silent Man , Ghost War , Faithful Spy

Title: Motor Mouth
Classification: Mystery
Author: Janet Evanovich
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Okay, so this isn't Stephanie Plum, but it's still laugh-out-loud funny. Barney is back (series), working for (and trying to resist) Nascar Guy Sam Hooker. When another driver races to the win, Barney is convinced that he's cheating. And when bodies start to turn up, Barney and Hooker have to race against the clock to find the murderer before they end up in jail...or dead. (Click here to check out other reviews for this title)

Title: Murder On a Girls' Night Out
Classification: Mystery
Author: Anne George
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: The first in the Southern Sisters mystery series, this is a delight. The series features Sister and Mouse, two elderly Southern sisters who sleuth. The relationship between the women rings absolutely true and the supporting characters are fun, too. (Click here to check out other reviews for this title)

Title: Murder Unfolds
Classification: Mystery
Author: Sharon Short
Publisher: Avon
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In this, the fifth in the Stain-Busting series, Josie Toadfern (laundromat owner and stain-removal expert) tries to determine whether her former high school teacher (grumpy Mrs. Oglevee) was murdered. Although Short has vastly improved her writing style and story-telling technique she still has a way to go. I understand the difficulty of concealing the identity of whodunit, but throwing in lots of superfluous characters as red herrings just muddies the story without advancing the plot. Short's humor, though, shines in the first half of this book. For a chance to meet the author, check the Foul Play site (linked on our home page); she'll be appearing there in June 2007.

Title:  Murderer’s Daughters
Classification: Fiction
Author:  Randy Susan Meyers
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:

Sisters Lulu and Merry,  shattered by the murder of their mother and the near-killing of Merry, spend years being shuffled from one place to another, never belonging, always the daughters of the man who killed his wife. Lulu builds a wall of denial, refusing to visit or talk about her father while Merry begs to see him, hoping to discover why her father tried to kill her.

As the years pass and the day of their father’s release from prison looms, the fear that has driven both their lives threatens to destroy them both. 

An impressive debut…don’t miss it!

Title: My Summer of Southern Discomfort
Classification: Fiction
Author: Stephanie Gayle
Publisher: William Morrow
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Natalie Goldberg, daughter of famed civil rights attorney Aaron Goldberg and a lawyer herself, moves to Georgia to work for the district attorney's office where she is assigned to prosecute a death-penalty case. Cautious about establishing relationships following a disastrous affair Natalie slowly finds herself caring more about her work and about her co-workers than she expected to. A readable, though slightly disorganized, read.

Title: Nature Girl
Classification: Mystery
Author: Carl Hiaasen
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf/Random House
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Hiaasen does it again! When Honey Santana answers the phone to sleazy telemarketer Boyd Shreave, it's the last straw for her...she enlists the help of her computer geek son to give him a taste of his own medicine. With a full cast of quirky Hiaasen characters (although missing the governor), this is terrific. Add it to your must-read list!

Title: Neighbor
Classification: Fiction
Author: Lisa Gardner
Publisher: Bantam
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: When young wife and mother Sandy Jones disappears in the middle of the night, leaving her daughter alone in the house, Sergeant D.D. Warren is called on to investigate. Her focus is first on Sandy's husband, a mystery man whose past only extends back for five years, but the presence of a neighbor, a convicted sex offender, makes Warren's work that much more difficult. Who could have hated this reclusive woman enough to kill her? This is suspense at its best...and Gardner at her best! Well-paced, with plot twists that keep you turning pages. I read it at one sitting!

Title:  Never Look Away
Classification: Mystery
Author:  Linwood Barclay
Publisher: Delacorte
Copyright: 2010
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:

David Harwood is worried about his wife Jan, who has been showing signs of depression, but he is encouraged by her plans for them to take their four year-old son to a nearby amusement park for a family day.  David’s optimism turns to horror when first Ethan, then Jan, disappear and all the evidence implicates him.  The police want to know why only two tickets to the park were bought and why no one else has noticed any changes in Jan’s behavior. 

Fast-paced and riveting, Never Look Away is another winner from Barclay!

Title:  Never Tell a Lie
Classification: Fiction
Author:  Hallie Ephron
Publisher: Harper
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:

Prone to miscarriages, hugely pregnant Ivy Rose is excited and apprehensive about the chances for carrying this baby to term.  But first, she and husband David are cleaning out their Victorian house with a yard sale that is attracting a satisfyingly large crowd, including another very pregnant woman who introduces herself as a former classmate. David agrees to let her tour the house, but when she disappears all the evidence points to murder, with David the prime suspect.

This is Ephron’s first novel, but if she continues to write like this I certainly hope it isn’t her last.  A great read!

Title: New Woman
Classification: Fiction
Author: John Hassler
Publisher: Penguin
Copyright: 2005
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: A sweet little book about moving into a retirement home. Wait for paperback, though; there’s not enough to it to justify the hardcover price.

Title: Night Fall
Classification: Fiction
Author: Nelson Demille
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Based on the downing of flight 800 off Long Island, this is the best suspense book I've read in a long time! The main action begins in the summer of 2001; the tension builds not only as the plot develops, but as we inevitably approach September and the event none of the characters knows is coming. Masterfully and tightly written, this is one of Demille's best! (Click here to check out other reviews for this title)

Title: Nightlife
Classification: Fiction
Author: Thomas Perry
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Run, don't walk, to get this newest book by the author of the Jane Whitefield series. Although this is a stand-alone, like his last two, it is fast-paced, well-written and riveting. The best suspense book I'veread this year, this features one of the most convincing female serial killers yet. Don't miss it!

Title: Nineteen Minutes
Classification: Fiction
Author: Jodi Picoult
Publisher: Atria Books/Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Picoult tackles the disturbing topic of school violence in this dark book and asks an interesting question: can twelve years of bullying produce the same effect as is seen in battered-woman syndrome? And is the resultant violence defensible? Following the disaster of her last book (The Tenth Circle), Picoult has produced a thought-provoking story here in the tradition of My Sister's Keeper and Plain Truth. Definitely worth a read!

Title:  Noah’s Compass
Classification: Fiction
Author:  Anne Tyler
Publisher: Knopf
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:

At sixty, Liam Pennywell loses his job teaching at a second-rate boys’ school and drifts into his new life as a retiree. All those unfilled hours, however, bring him face-to-face with the reality that he has been floating unengaged through all the years of his life in an amnesiac haze, that he has “never been entirely present” in his own life. What he needs, he thinks, is a “rememberer,” someone who can remind him of the important things, but even the prospect of losing his one chance at love isn’t enough to break down the barriers he has created.
Almost no one’s characters are as quirky and real as Tyler’s and she is at her best here. A must-read.

Title:  No Mercy
Classification: Fiction
Author: Lori Armstrong 
Publisher: Touchstone
Copyright: 2010
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:  

Mercy Gunderson is home on her family’s ranch after her father’s death, trying to deal with her loss and with the problems presented by her sister and her troubled nephew when a body is found on her land.  So far, so good.  Mercy is a career Army sniper, one of the few women in the field, and she’s a rough, tough woman (but beautiful, of course) who has traveled the world killing people. Why is it, then, that she now chooses to pursue a killer while leaving her gun at home, getting drunk, and falling (weeping) into the arms of the big strong (and handsome, of course) lawman?

Armstrong needs to stick to romance and if she’s thinking about making this a series I hope she changes her mind.

Title: No Such Creature
Classification: Mystery
Author: Giles Blunt
Publisher: Henry Holt
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In a departure from Blunt's Algonquin Bay series, Owen Maxwell and his Shakespeare-quoting great-uncle Max are engaged in their yearly travels, robbing the "rich, the Republican, and the reprobate." Unfortunately, they attract the attention of a group called the Subtractors...a gang of thieves without scruples (!) who subtract the body parts of fellow criminals until they give up the location of their stolen goods. Much lighter than Blunt's usual fare, but still an enjoyable read.

Title: No Time For Goodbye
Classification: Fiction
Author: Linwood Barclay
Publisher: Bantam
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Fourteen year-old Cynthia Bigge wakes, hung over and confused.  Granted, her parents were livid last night to find her in a parked car with the town bad boy, but surely not enough to have taken her brother and left.  However, twenty years go by without a word from her family and Cynthia has resigned herself to the fact that they're all dead.   But after all this time, why would the killer come after her?  If you're looking for a great, fast-paced suspense read in the tradition of Harlan Coben, then this is your book!  Don't miss it!

Title:Nothing to Lose
Classification: Fiction
Author: Lee Child
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Wow! Jack Reacher (series) is back, bigger and better than ever as he uncovers the secrets in a small Colorado town where strangers are definitely not welcome. When the cops are called in response to Reacher's request for coffee at the local diner he's determined to discover what really goes on in the metal recycling plant owned, as is everything else in the town, by businessman and apocalyptic preacher Jerry Thurman. In a heart-pounding race Reacher has to take on the entire town to prevent a disaster of astonishing proportion. I couldn't put this one down!

Title: Obedience
Classification: Fiction
Author: Will Lavender
Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Professor Williams's Logic and Reasoning class begins with the words "There's been a murder," and his fifteen students find themselves challenged to find the victim. For, as Williams explains, the murder has not yet occurred and only they can prevent it by asking the pertinent (logical, reasonable) questions and solving the mystery in time. As the semester progresses, however, it becomes clear that there is more going on than a teacher's attempt to hone his students' logical thinking...no one is who he seems to be and there is no line between lies and the truth. This is a fine debut novel!

Title: Odd Hours
Classification: Fiction
Author: Dean Koontz
Publisher: Bantam
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Koontz returns with his fourth in the Odd Thomas series and seems to be a little tired of this protagonist. Odd has left his hometown of Pico Mundo and is working for former movie star Hutch Hutchinson when he meets Annamaria, a pregnant woman who promises to play a major role in Odd's premonition of a coming holocaust. However (and this is very unlike Koontz), the story of Annamaria remains unresolved and the rest of the plot meanders through a swath of fog and bodies. Even Odd himself, with his companions Frank Sinatra and Boo the ghost dog, fails to be as appealing or convincing as before. Time to wrap this up.

Title: Odd Thomas
Classification: Fiction
Author: Dean Koontz
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: One of the most interesting and charming of the characters in the Koontz books, Odd Thomas is afflicted (or blessed) with the ability to interact with the dead; once again Koontz has managed to create a story that is gripping and human. I loved this!

Title: Of Blood and Sorrow
Classification: Mystery
Author: Valerie Wilson Wesley
Publisher: Ballentine Books
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Although Wesley is an author I've enjoyed before, this latest in the Tamara Hayle series is a letdown.  Tamara's son Jamal witnesses a murder and seems to be the chief suspect, despite the fact that the police don't seem to be in any hurry to talk to him.  When Tamara and Jamal get into a screaming match (with lots of exchanges of the "f" word), Jamal vanishes.  There are just too many stereotypes here, and too many excuses for awful behavior.

Title: Olive Kitteridge
Classification: Fiction
Author: Elizabeth Strout
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Through thirteen interwoven stories, Strout explores the many facets of Olive Kitteridge, a cold and thoroughly unlikeable woman who makes no effort to connect with her family and neighbors in any but the most shallow, self-centered way while seeing herself as a paragon of righteousness. Her husband has withdrawn into his work and his fantasy about another woman, her son into active resentment and her neighbors into edgy dislike. Still, Olive makes her quiet, negative judgments of them all. It is only when she is, finally, alone that she begins to face the truth about herself, but it is too late to save the relationships she has destroyed. Harsh, wonderfully written...a great choice for book club discussions.

Title: One Good Turn
Classification: Fiction
Author: Kate Atkinson
Publisher: Little, Brown
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: A very intriguing novel about how one moment influences life, how "One Good Turn," can alter future events. Retiring, asocial author Martin Canning is witness to a brutal example of road rage. Without thinking, he throws his laptop at the aggressor and saves the victim, who just happens to be a hitman. Does this action save the intended target? Or does it widen the circle of violence? A taut, riveting story.

Title: One Last Dance
Classification: Fiction
Author: Mardo Williams
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2005
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: This is a book that stays with you! One of my absolute favorites, started by Mr. Williams when he was 92 years old. No stereotypical old folds here--real people who will touch your heart. I'm hoping for a movie (maybe Jack Nicholson and Shirley Maclaine?). Don't miss this book!

Title: One Mississippi
Classification: Fiction
Author: Mark Childress
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Childress is back in the South, but the quirkiness of "Crazy In Alabama" is missing in this book set in the early days of desegregation. There's a manic feel to both the characters and the action, with Daniel Musgrove, the teenage protagonist, caught between the bleakness of his family and the darkness of his best friend's madness. Definitely not up to the standard set by "Alabama" and "Gone For Good," but okay.

Title: The Other Boleyn Girl
Classification: Fiction
Author: Philippa Gregory
Publisher: Avon
Copyright: 2004
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Once I got past the run-on sentences (has the author not been introduced to the semi-colon?), I liked this one. I think, though, that it belongs more in the romance than the general fiction genre. Lots of sexual plotting to snare Henry the Eighth by women desperate to give him the male heir he wants, some historical fact to give it "weight" and fiery characters make this an enjoyable read. However, Gregory constructs her chapters in a formulaic way that becomes tedious with repetition so that the book begins to drag toward the end. A little ruthless editing would have improved it tremendously. (Click here to check out other reviews for this title)

Title: Other Side Of the Bridge
Classification: Fiction
Author: Mary Lawson
Publisher: Dial Press/Random House
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Wow! After Crow Lake, her wonderful debut, I was hoping Mary Lawson could do it again...and she did. This is a mesmerizing book, set in Canada, although the themes and characters are universal, with a story beginning before World War Two and continuing into the 1960's. It is the story of staid, dependable Arthur Dunn and his irresponsible (perhaps evil) younger brother Jake; the hired hand, Ian, and the lovely, haunted Laura. This is a must-buy, must-read book!

Title: Outside World
Classification: Fiction
Author: Tova Mirvis
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Set in the Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn, this book is a warm and poignant look at family and community, at faith and relationships. Mirvis keeps getting better; her first book "Ladies Auxiliary," was an impressive debut and "Outside World" proves she is a talent to be watched!

Title: Overlook
Classification: Fiction
Author: Michael Connelly
Publisher: Little, Brown
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Bosch is back and better than ever as he investigates the murder of a physician with access to hospital supplies of cesium. He finds himself not only in a race to find the killer, but also in a battle against the FBI and his former girlfriend, agent Rachel Walling, who have been tracking a terrorist plot to use the radioactive material. A roller coaster read with a cliffhanger ending; Connelly has written a book with a real adrenaline rush!

Title: Palace of Strange Girls  
Classification: Fiction
Author:  Sallie Day
Publisher: Grand Central
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:

At the second- or third-rate beach resort where they vacation every year, the Singleton family struggles with their younger daughter's illness, their older daughter's sad search for love, and their parents' distance.  Their mother, Ruth, wants nothing more than a home with status, while their father, Jack, is obsessed with the letter he carries from the woman he loved during the war. 

Set in 1959, this is not a nostalgic book, but one painted in sorry shades of gray...even the ocean is cold and unwelcoming.  A tough look at an unloving family.

Title: Panic Attack
Classification: Mystery
Author: Jason Starr
Publisher: Minotaur
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In this barely so-so suspense novel, Johnny Long fancies himself the quintessential Casanova, seducing and robbing as many women as he can. Things escalate when he agrees to help his friend burglarize a supposedly empty house but, after his buddy is killed by the homeowner, decides the only decent thing to do is to avenge the death. Amateurish, predictable and filled with thoroughly unlikeable characters. What a waste of time.

Title: Paper, Scissors, Death
Classification: Mystery
Author: Joanna Campbell Slan
Publisher: Midnight Ink
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Scrapbooker Kiki Lowenstein is stunned when her husband George is found dead in a hotel room, and completely puzzled when she learns that he was naked...unless you count the woman's scarf stuffed in his mouth. Despite the distraction presented by hunky Detective Detweiler, Kiki is determined to find out who killed George and who is responsible for the money missing from his business. A sharply-written cozy with handy scrapbooking hints at the end of each chapter (I only skimmed those, since I'm hopelessly un-crafty). A nice beginning to this new series.

Title: Past Perfect
Classification: Fiction
Author: Susan Isaacs
Publisher: Scribner
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Susan Isaacs is at the top of her form in Past Perfect, the story of successful Katie Schottland who has written and published the best-selling book Spy Guys which goes on to become a tv series. Katie is happily married, with a son she adores and with plenty of money. So what could be wrong? Fifteen years ago Katie was fired without cause from the CIA: no warning, no explanation. And for fifteen years she's needed to know why. So when a former colleague calls and promises to give her the reason in return for Katie's help in a matter of "national importance," Katie can't help but be intrigued...especially when her colleague disappears. A fun read with enough twists to keep you guessing, this is Isaacs' best book since Shining Through!

Title: Perfect Family
Classification: Fiction
Author: Pam Lewis
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In this, her second novel, Lewis fulfills the promise she showed in Speak Softly, She Can Hear. The Carterets have always seemed, to outsiders, to be perfect. A successful father, a lovely mother and four talented children. Even Pony's pregnancy by a man she refuses to name fails to tarnish the perfect facade. But when Pony dies after a mysterious phone call to her brother the facade begins to crumble, revealing hidden truths and secrets that threaten all their lives. An excellent, tightly written book...I highly recommend it!

Title: Phantom Prey
Classification: Fiction
Author: John Sandford
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: When the daughter of wealthy widow Alyssa Austin goes missing and a spray of dried blood is found in her kitchen, Lucas Davenport is tasked with finding the "fairy"...a mysterious woman who moves in the daughter's Goth world and is seen in the company of subsequent victims. This, the eighteenth in Sandford's Prey series, is not as compelling as the earlier ones, and the distracting subplot feels like filler. It might be time for Sandford to move on.

Title: Piano Tuner
Classification: Fiction
Author: Daniel Mason
Publisher: Vintage/Random House
Copyright: 2002
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Even moments of lyric prose can't save the mind-numbing boredom of this book, about a piano tuner who is chosen to travel from London to Burma to repair the piano belonging to an arrogant officer in the British army of 1886. It felt as if it took as long to read this as it did for the main character to make the singularly uninteresting trip, and by the end I felt nothing but relief. This one deserves an entirely new category: "For Insomniacs".

Title: Plea of Insanity
Classification: Mystery
Author: Jillianne Hoffman
Publisher: Vanguard Press
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: When a mother and her three children are horrifically murdered, Assistant State Attorney Julia Vacanti is tapped by her charming boss (and new lover) to sit second chair on the prosecution team EVEN THOUGH Vacanti has never tried a murder case. Oh, geez, and she's afraid people will think she slept her way to this plum assignment? Of course there's more AND more, all of which lead poor Julia to sob her way through most of the book. Honest emotion is one thing, but when an author uses tears to fill the pages that's quite another. Pass.

Title: Plum Lovin'
Classification: Mystery
Author: Janet Evanovich
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: The second in the Evanovich Diesel sub-series, this short-story sold as novel is about as good as Visions Of Sugar Plums (the first). Although it's mildly amusing, Evanovich risks alienating her fans by asking them to spend money on something that would be better as a part of a collection of short pieces. Cute, but who cares? (Click here to check out other reviews for this title)

Title: Plum Lucky
Classification: Mystery
Author: Janet Evanovich
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Well, I have to say, this little between-the-numbers novella has all the hilarity of Evanovich's full-length Plum novels, with Grandma Mazur finding a bag full of money and heading for Atlantic City with Stephanie in pursuit. The entire cast of regulars is here, although in abbreviated form, and Stephanie's quirky style has rarely been more evident. A terrific read that will tide us over until the next book!

Title: Plum Spooky
Classification: Mystery
Author: Janet Evanovich
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In her first full-length "Plum" book (series), Evanovich nails it! Weird sexy Diesel is back, along with Carl the Monkey and the rest of Stephanie's gang as they track a white-collar criminal who wants to rule the world (and get girls). Although this series within a series is usually skimpy, this entry is fleshed out and funny...maybe enough to keep you laughing until June, when Fingerlickin Fifteen is released!

Title: Power Play
Classification: Fiction
Author: Joseph Finder
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Finder is another of those authors who promises more than he delivers, and he does so again with Power Play. I slogged through the first third of the book while the characters and plot were set up (diligently, but with little excitement), then really started to get involved when the action picked up with the capture of a group of high-powered executives on an off site meeting. Good stuff here. Then...the end. What? Wait for paperback.

Title: Prayers for Sale
Classification: Fiction
Author: Sandra Dallas
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Eighty-six-year-old Hennie Comfort has lived in Middle Swan, Colorado, since just after the Civil War and has forged a life in the mining town, in a house with a weathered sign in the front yard offering prayers for sale. When lonely young Nit Spindle hands Hennie her last nickel for a prayer, their friendship begins and, through stories shared over quilts and coffee, the two women share their lives. What a wonderful read!

Title: Princess Bride
Classification: Fiction
Author: William Goldman
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: A gutsy, beautiful princess, a handsome, hapless prince...this is one terrific story!

Title: Promise Me
Classification: Mystery
Author: Harlan Coben
Publisher: Dutton
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Coben is back with Myron Bolitar and the gang in the series he left for the terrific stand-alone "Tell No One." I honestly haven't missed Myron, and am not delighted to have him back, although this book about missing teenagers is mildly entertaining. Too many pointless twists and stereotypical characters and way too much superhero stuff by Myron. It's time to retire Bolitar for good and for Coben to get back to the stuff he does well.

Title: Prospect Park West  
Classification: Fiction
Author:  Amy Sohr
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:

This pitiful book follows a group of New York mothers who hate themselves, each other, their husbands and their children as they compete for status by name-dropping the drug-addicted movie star who lives in their midst. 

 Dumb, dumb, dumb.  Don't waste your time or your money. 

Title: Protege
Classification: Fiction
Author: Stephen Frey
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Not up to the standards Frey set with Day Trader, but still worth a read.

Title: Rabbit Factory
Classification: Mystery
Author: Marshall Karp
Publisher: MacAdam/Cage
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Several years ago, Larry Brown wrote a wonderful book called "Rabbit Factory" so, when this book was released, I just had to read it to see how it would compare (which is a risk that occurs when books share a title). Karp is not nearly the writer that Brown is, but has written a pretty good mystery featuring detectives Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs, two cops who are called to investigate the murder of a pedophile who has landed a job playing Rambunctious Rabbit at Familyland. At first it seems to be a revenge slaying, but when more killings follow, Lomax and Biggs realize that someone has it in for the owners of Familyland and anyone who has anything to do with the company. Like many first-time authors, Karp has a hard time wrapping things up and the book goes on about three chapters too many, but the characters show promise for a sequel. Worth a read when it comes out in paperback.

Title: The Race
Classification: Fiction
Author: Richard North Patterson
Publisher: Henry Holt
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: If you aren't already dreading the long and nasty campaign season ahead, or if you aren't already tired of political infighting, then you might like this book. Nearly perfect senator Corey Grace (after MUCH soul-searching) decides to run for president against weak Senator Marotta and popular evangelist Bob Christy. Lots of debate about values, with Grace making lots of speeches.  Whoa: another terrorist attack, which gets about three pages and allows Grace to look presidential.   Then not another mention of it.  What? This is not important?  A rambling, disorganized and slightly boring read. Pass.

Title: Rattled
Classification: Fiction
Author: Debra Galant
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: I think Galant is trying for Hiaasen here, but there's no mystery. Another good, but wait for paperback, book.

Title: Relentless
Classification: Fiction
Author: Dean Koontz
Publisher: Bantam
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Cubby Greenwich is a happy man. Married to the love of his life, father to gifted and precocious Milo, "owner" of Lassie (despite the name, not a collie), and author of five best selling books, Cubby's life is just about perfect. Even the scathing review of his sixth book by world-famous critic Shearman Waxx can't mar his optimistic nature. But there is that small degree of curiosity about the critic which drives Cubby to coincidentally be at lunch at the same time and at the same restaurant frequented by Waxx. Of course he couldn't know that the review is only the introduction to the terror Waxx has planned and that Cubby and his family have been targeted by a madman. A heart-pounding, page-turning book. I couldn't put it down.

Title: Reliable Wife
Classification: Fiction
Author: Robert Goolrick
Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: "I am a simple honest woman," begins the letter to Ralph Truitt in response to his ad for a wife. But the letter does not begin to tell the true story of Catherine Land and, as the two of them start a complex and painful relationship, their sad and lonely lives come to light in this dark story of attraction and obsession set at the beginning of the twentieth century. A wonderfully written book.

Title: Restless
Classification: Fiction
Author: William Boyd
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: As a child, Ruth heard her mother's admonitions that "You'll wake up one morning and I'll be gone. Disappeared. You wait and see," as nothing more than attempts to get her to behave. But when, as an adult, she is given pages of her mother's memoirs, she learns that her mother lived a secret life and that even now she is in danger. After decades of living quietly in the English countryside Sal Gilmartin has been found by the network of spies for whom she worked (and killed) during World War II. A convincing, believable spy novel.

Title: The Rest Of Her Life
Classification: Fiction
Author: Laura Moriarty
Publisher: Hyperion
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In this, her second novel, Moriarty looks at family dynamics when daughter Kara accidentally runs down and kills a schoolmate. It is in this context that Leigh, her mother, is forced to come to grips with her own past and to examine the mistakes she has made in an effort not to repeat the cycle of neglect and lovelessness with which she was raised. Cast with mostly unsympathetic characters, this book doesn't reach the potential of Center Of Everything but does raise some interesting questions about parenting and relationships.

Title: Retail Hell  
Classification: Biography
Author:  Freeman Hall
Publisher: Adams Media
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:

After having read this book, all I can say is: Thank you to all the wonderful customers who shopped in my store and who are not the customers Freeman Hall describes.  Although moderately entertaining, Hall suffers so much as a self-described "retail slave" that I can't imagine him working for twenty minutes, let alone twenty years, in a field that requires daily interaction with people.  This book might have worked better if the author had included even one wonderful customer (because there must have been some) instead of whining about all the crazy psychos who ruined his life by expecting some (drum roll here) customer service.

 The retail world is certainly better off without Hall, and I'm not sure the publishing world is better off with him!

Title: Rise and Shine
Classification: Fiction
Author: Anna Quindlen
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: THIS IS IT!! Alert Merck and Lilly, because this book is absolutely the best remedy for insomnia I've run across in a long time. So Bridget's sister is the world famous host of a morning talk show and utters a (gasp) BAD WORD on the air, which leads to a lot of debate about...well...nothing much. There's probably more I could say, but I need a nap. Only buy this book if Tylenol PM isn't working for you.

Title: Roadside Crosses
Classification: Fiction
Author: Jeffery Deaver
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Well. Let me just say that this, the third novel featuring Kathryn Dance (series), is as good a reason as any to save the forests, since it's a crime that trees were destroyed to publish this pretty terrible book. Roadside Crosses to honor the dead start to pop up, but the problem is that they appear before people die so Dance and her team immediately spring into action and, without any evidence, decide who's to blame. Of course, Dance has to squeeze in the investigation around her cool shoes, her infatuation with a fellow (married) agent, her mother's arrest for murder, her attraction for a consultant in the case (who is pretty dumb in his own right) and the fact that she jumps around from one sure suspect to another. Please, if I'm ever in trouble, get me someone more competent than Dance to investigate. What an embarrassing effort for Deaver.

Title: Rocket Boys (aka October Sky)
Classification: Biography
Author: Homer Hickam
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: The first in Hickam's series of autobiographies, this is just about the best I've ever read. Set in Coalwood, West Virginia, it's the coming-of-age story of a group of boys around whom the town rallies when they start to build rockets at the beginning of the space race. It's about family, community, poverty and mountains; it is not to be missed.

Title: Rockville Pike
Classification: Fiction
Author: Susan Coll
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2005
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Oh, please, just what we all need: another book about a woman whose life is out of control and she does nothing about it but whine. Of course there is the contrived, silly happy ending in which all Jane's problems are solved, but this book is a definite pass.

Title: Run
Classification: Fiction
Author: Ann Patchett
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: First, the mother dies. Then Patchett, as she describes in tedious detail the singularly uninteresting lives of the remaining Doyles, including the oldest, wastrel, son and his nearly perfect adopted siblings, along with their distant father, manipulates the story until she is able to kill off all the other mothers. Just about the only thing in this book that I could relate to was the particularly terrific snowstorm, since I felt that I, like the pitiful characters, spent the entire time slogging. Pass.

Title: Runner
Classification: Mystery
Author: Thomas Perry
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: It's been ten years since Jane Whitefield (series) has helped anyone disappear. But on the evening of the bombing, the night she meets Christine, she knows that her skills are the only ones that might save the young, pregnant woman. Things have changed in ten years, though, and Jane is up against not only a determined adversary but also against sophisticated technology. Although it's been years since Perry's last Whitefield book, this may be the best one in the series...it's as taut and suspenseful as anything I've read in awhile. And if you've missed the earlier books in the series, you're in for a treat while you catch up!

Title: Rush Home Road
Classification: Fiction
Author: Lori Lansens
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: The wonderful, wonderful story of how a seventy-year old woman and a five-year old girl become family to each other when the child is abandoned by her mother. Although set in Canada, it could fit in the "dysfunctional Southern family" category. A not-to-be missed book!

Title: Sacred Cows
Classification: Mystery
Author: Karen E. Olson
Publisher: Warner Books
Copyright: 2005
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Annie Seymour, jaded newspaper reporter,investigates the murder of a woman who is a college student moonlighting as a call-girl.   When it seems as though the story is reaching into the lives of the city's most rich and powerful, Annie is warned off by the paper's owner, who also happens to be sleeping with Annie's mother.  Hmmm...a little too conveniently contrived for me, but this s a decent-enough "filler" read.  Low end of "liked".

Title: Savannah Breeze
Classification: Fiction
Author: Mary Kay Andrews
Publisher: Unknown
Copyright: Unknown
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Weezie and BeBe (from the author's earlier "Savannah Blues") are back, this time tracking a sexy embezzler who has seduced BeBe and stolen back her family's fortune. A light, fun read.

Title:  Saving CeeCee Honeycutt
Classification: Fiction
Author:  Beth Hoffman
Publisher: Penguin Books
Copyright: 2010
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:

In this debut novel evocative of Secret Life of Bees, twelve year-old CeeCee Honeycutt watches her mother sink further into madness as her father becomes more and more distant. Far from family, CeeCee has no one to turn to until the day she finds herself being rescued by a great-aunt she’s never heard of and whisked away to an extended family of women who give her the chance to grieve and rediscover her childhood.
A sweet story, filled with Southern grace and quirkiness.

Title: Saving Fish From Drowning
Classification: Fiction
Author: Amy Tan
Publisher: Ballantine Books/Random House
Copyright: 2005
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Amy Tan breaks out of her tradition of writing about generational and cultural mother/daughter relationships in this book, but doesn't lose her unique storytelling ability. Told through the eyes of recently dead Bibi Chen, San Francisco socialite and art maven, it is the story of twelve of her friends who travel to Burma for the trip she planned for them. It is there that they (most of them) discover their strengths, their weaknesses, and their ability to love and hope. This was a most-welcome visit to Burma after the very disappointing "Piano Tuner" and, although maybe a notch in quality below Tan's other work, a really wonderful read.

Title:Say Goodbye
Classification: Fiction
Author: Lisa Gardner
Publisher: Bantam
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: A middle-of-the-night phone call is never good news, but this one is just puzzling. Although FBI Special Agent Kimberly Quincy has never heard of her, a just-arrested prostitute is claiming to be her informant and is demanding to see her to report that her friend, another prostitute working for the same pimp, is missing. When it becomes evident that not one but many women are unaccounted for, Quincy and her team find themselves pursuing a man who not only kills for pleasure, but insists that his victims select his next prey: it has to be someone they love. This is unquestionably Gardner's most gruesome, most riveting novel to date...not to be missed! One note, though: this is not for arachnophobes.

Title: Scarecrow
Classification: Fiction
Author: Michael Connelly
Publisher: Little Brown
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Reporter Jack McEvoy, newly pink-slipped and with only two weeks to work, lucks into his biggest story since he covered the Poet. When an exotic dancer is found dead with her body stuffed into the trunk of her car, the police believe they have her killer until McEvoy and his partner discover an almost identical killing, one the suspect couldn't have had anything to do with. Together with FBI agent (and former lover) Rachel Walling, Jack follows a trail of clues and bodies to a conclusion that reminds us just how unsafe we all are.

Title: Scarpetta
Classification: Fiction
Author: Patricia Cornwell
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: The question is, who is behind Gotham Gotcha, and who is putting Scarpetta's (series) most personal information on the smarmy internet gossip site? Further, could this site be connected to a rash of murders, or to the paranoid fantasies of the main suspect? When Cornwell focuses on crime and forensics she's great, but she suffers from the same syndrome that James Patterson does: they write badly and stiltingly about relationships, while insisting on including way too much awkward nuance and far-fetched dialogue in their novels, a habit that bulks up the pages but slows down the plot. Wait for paperback. (Click here to check out other reviews for this title)

Title: Secret Keepers
Classification: Fiction
Author: Mindy Friddle
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Although I would love for Mindy Friddle to be another Lee Smith, she isn't. Her characters aren't quite fleshed-out enough and the Secret Keepers (flowers harvested from seventy-two year old Emma Hanley's fallen down ancestral home)reminded me more of something from Little Shop of Horrors than the lush, almost human plants Friddle intends them to be. All in all, just too trite. What a shame--there's nothing quite as good as an excellent Southern dysfunctional-family book. Unfortunately, this isn't it.

Title: Secret of Lost Things
Classification: Fiction
Author: Sheridan Hay
Publisher: Anchor Books
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: After the death of her mother, Rosemary leaves her native Tasmania and travels to New York where she finds work at the Arcade, a sprawling bookstore staffed with strange and thoroughly unlikeable people. It's not long before she finds herself in love with one of them, loved by another, and caught in a smarmy relationship with both of them while trying to find Herman Melville's lost manuscript. The unfortunate thing about this book is that Hay misses the reality of working in a bookstore: the love of books and the immediate link between booksellers and their customers. Hay portrays booksellers as petty and mean, while describing their customers as incipient thieves. This may be fiction, but it reads like fantasy. Pass.

Title: Secret Sisters
Classification: Fiction
Author: Joni Rodgers
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: So I'm continuing to harp on this subject, but please, the graphic sex scenes are just distracting, do little to advance the plot, and make it difficult to remember much but those (pant, pant; sweat, sweat). Rodgers writes too well to pander this way.

Title: See Jane Run
Classification: Fiction
Author: Joy Fielding
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: A woman standing on a street corner in Boston. Her dress is covered in blood, her pockets are full of money, and she doesn't know who she is. As Jane discovers her lost identity, she also finds out what horrific event caused her to forget in the first place. A must read!

Title: The Senator's Wife
Classification: Fiction
Author: Sue Miller
Publisher: Alfred A Knopf
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: This voyeuristic, slightly smarmy novel is a look at two marriages, both of them unidimensional and tediously explored.  The Senator and his wife, long-married, have lived apart for years, his many infidelities making a life together impossible although his wife, Delia "loves" (read "lusts after") him still.  Meri and her husband Nathan are newlyweds who seem to have little connection beyond sex when they move into the house next to Delia.  Years pass, with Meri's unwanted pregnancy and the Senator's stroke the main focus until their final betrayal of their respective spouses. Miller allows a happy ending for one couple, while only hinting at the lonely and loveless end the other endures.  Pass. (Click here to check out other reviews for this title)

Title: Shadow of Betrayal
Classification: Fiction
Author: Brett Battles
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In an abandoned Irish church Jonathan Quinn and his apprentice Nate wait. As a cleaner, Quinn's job is to clean up and dispose of any mess that might be left after this meeting...not to participate. However, when an unanticipated and definitely uninvited guest arrives all hell breaks loose, leaving four men dead and the two cleaners up to their necks in an international plot that threatens to disrupt governments at their highest levels. A harrowing, tightly plotted book, this third in the Quinn series races with roller coaster speed.

Title: Shanna
Classification: Romance
Author: Kathleen Woodiwiss
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Since I'm not much of a romance reader, I wasn't expecting much from this, but I loved it! Just about everything you'd expect from historical romance; they hate each other, they lust for each other, they love each other. A perfect beach or bubble bath read.

Title: Sharp Objects
Classification: Fiction
Author: Gillian Flynn
Publisher: Shaye Areheart/Crown
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Okay, so when I heard that this first novel was written by the TV critic for Entertainment Weekly, I almost passed, which would have been a mistake. This woman can write! When two girls in her Missouri hometown are murdered, Camille Preaker's editor sends her there to cover the story, despite her reluctance to return to her family. As the story unfolds, we are drawn into a bleak world of ugly secrets and vicious relationships, with murderousness masquerading as love. A riveting read; don't miss it!

Title: Silence
Classification: Fiction
Author: Thomas Perry
Publisher: Otto Penzler/Harcourt
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: A so-so book, lacking the great characters and interesting plots of Perry's Jane Whitefield series. Wendy Harper has been hiding for six years from the man who tried to kill her. When her former boyfriend is accused of her murder, ex-cop Jack Till, who taught her how to disappear, tracks her down to protect the boyfriend from a trial. This book has way too many pages devoted to Wendy and Till in various cars trying to avoid a pair of unconvincing assassins while trying to work out their long-buried attraction to each other. A tedious read, definitely not up to the standard we've grown to expect of this author. Pass.

Title: Silent Man
Classification: Fiction
Author: Alex Berenson
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In this, the third in the John Wells Series, Berenson continues the promise he showed in the first (Faithful Spy), despite the serious disappointment of the second (Ghost War). The theft of two nuclear warheads from a highly secure Russian depot, in addition to a stunning attack on Wells, drives this high-octane thriller as Wells tries to track down the location of the bomb before it's too late. Cleverly plotted, this is another terrific read!

Title: Silver Swan
Classification: Mystery
Author: Benjamin Black
Publisher: Henry Holt
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In this, Black's sequel to the excellent Christine Falls, pathologist Quirke is asked by a long-ago classmate to forgo an autopsy on his wife, dead by what seems to be suicide. The curious Quirke agrees, knowing that he won't honor the request and, when he finds a puncture mark in the dead woman's arm, sets out to find the truth about her death. In a meandering, Columbo-like plot, Quirke discovers hidden lives including the one being led by his estranged daughter. Unfortunately, Black dozes off and at the end of the book forgets his own murder sequence, which throws the whole thing into a shambles. Well-written, but not for true mystery readers who will be appalled by this slip.

Title: Simple Genius
Classification: Fiction
Author: David Baldacci
Publisher: Warner Books
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Baldacci began his writing career with Absolute Power, a great suspense novel. Since then, he has floundered his way through eleven more books without coming close to reaching the level of the first. But in Simple Genius, about the super-secret CIA installation at Camp Peary in Virginia, he shows the same promise we've been waiting for. If it's spies and rogue agents you're looking for, this is the book for you!

Title: Sky of Stone
Classification: Biography
Author: Homer Hickam
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: A worthy second sequel to "Rocket Boys" (skip "Coalwood Way"), this is set during Hickam's first summer home after going away to college when he finds himself, reluctantly, working in the mines he fears.

Title: Sleeping Doll
Classification: Fiction
Author: Jeffery Deaver
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Nine year-old Teresa Croyton is sleeping in her bed filled with toys when her family is murdered by a group patterned after the Manson family. Years later, the family disbanded and its leader in prison, she has been spirited away by her aunt and uncle and kept safe...until the cult leader escapes. Led by FBI agent Kathryn Dance, law enforcement agents race to find him as he pursues Teresa and the former members of his "family". Although this lacks the polish of Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme novels, it still moves well and provides a few surprises.

Title: Sliver Of Truth
Classification: Fiction
Author: Lisa Unger
Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Ridley Jones picks up her developed pictures from the local photo lab and is immediately approached by the FBI. In the background of each picture is the shadowy figure of a man: her beloved uncle Max, dead for over a year (or, of course, is he)? As Ridley searches for the truth about Max, about her lover Jake, and about mysterious FBI agent Dylan Grace she realizes that she is the only link to Max for the people on both sides of the law who will kill to find him. Well-crafted suspense, but a sequel to Beautiful Lies, which I wish I had read first (as I recommend you do). Definitely worth reading this series!

Title: Snow Blind
Classification: Fiction
Author: P. J. Tracy
Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons/Penguin Group
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: The mother-daughter team of P. J. Tracy has done it again in this, the fourth in the Monkeewrench series. When two cops are murdered, the cyber-sleuth group is mystified when the word "Bitterroot" shows up in an email thread...a thread protected by firewalls that stymies even their sophisticated systems. With detectives Magozzi and Rolseth tracking the evidence trail, and Grace and her team working the chat room angle, time is running out, especially when another murder occurs. If you haven't read this series before, do it now! (Click here to check out other reviews for this title)

Title: Solomon Vs Lord
Classification: Fiction
Author: Paul Levine
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: A fun lawyer read with enjoyable romantic sparring between the main characters.

Title: Speak Softly, She Can Hear
Classification: Fiction
Author: Pam Lewis
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2005
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Awkward Carole Mason and her best friend, the sharp-edged, erratic Naomi have made a pact: they will not go to college as virgins. And after the horrifying night that Carole succeeds in her promise, a night in which she loses not only her virginity, but also her innocence and trust, she flees. There is no escaping the past, however, and after ten years of hiding she has to confront her worst nightmare again. A very good psychological thriller!

Title: Spooner
Classification: Fiction
Author: Pete Dexter
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In this wonderful book, Spooner, who survives his better-looking twin at birth, makes his hapless and convoluted way through life. Raised by his hypochondriac mother and Calmer, the stepfather who was mustered out of the navy after shooting and sinking the coffin of a U.S. Congressman, Shooter gives up on trying to measure up to his brilliant sister and the even more brilliant brothers who follow and takes, instead, to urinating in people's shoes.  A terrific, memorable book, Spooner is a character to whom life happens with little interference on his part.  This is a must read, and a great selection for book clubs!

Title: Spot Of Bother
Classification: Fiction
Author: Mark Haddon
Publisher: Doubleday
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: This little book by the author of the really excellent "Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" is definitely quirky, but just doesn't live up to the promise shown in the earlier one. George Hall is retired, living a quiet life with his wife, when he discovers a small lesion on his hip. Convinced (despite his doctor's diagnosis of eczema) that it's cancer, George begins a descent into compulsive hypochondria which is exacerbated by the discovery that his wife is having an affair. That, combined with his daughter's on-again, off-again wedding plans and his reluctance to accept his son's homosexuality, sends George over the edge. Although a mildly entertaining read, this lacks the charm and innocence of "Incident."

Title: Still Life
Classification: Fiction
Author: Joy Fielding
Publisher: Atria Books
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: After a horrible accident, Casey Marshall wakes to realize that, while she can hear, she is in a coma and might not live. Surrounded by her family and friends she begins to understand that what happened to her was no accident...and that someone she loves won't stop until she's dead. A roller coaster read from one of the best in the business--this is a top notch, can't miss book!

Title: Stone Rain
Classification: Mystery
Author: Linwood Barclay
Publisher: Bantam Books
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Barclay does it again, in this, his fourth entry in the Zack Walker series. Walker, in his own hapless way, finds himself drawn into a murder when he's asked for help by his former neighbor and professional dominatrix Trixie Snelling. Trixie has kept her life a secret until now, when she is exposed by an article in the local weekly newspaper. The reporter is found in her home, strapped to a restraint device, and very dead. Zack and Trixie find themselves suspects in the crime, and pursued by really bad people from Trixie's past. Barclay is always worth reading and this book proves no exception.

Title: Story of Edgar Sawtelle
Classification: Fiction
Author: David Wroblewski
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In this stunning debut, Wroblewski tells the story of the Sawtelle family and their dogs. Sounds simple, right? But in the hands of this gifted writer, Edgar Sawtelle and his dogs are on a journey almost spiritual in scope, with relationships finely nuanced and beautifully written. This may well be the best book of the year; it will break your heart as surely as it will make it swell with joy. Don't miss it.

Title: Sugar Queen
Classification: Fiction
Author: Sarah Addison Allen
Publisher: Bantam
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Josey Cirrini is twenty-seven years old and still living with her cold, controlling mother. Her only solace is her secret closet stash of candy and romance novels which is where she's heading when she finds Della Lee Baker...a local waitress with a shady reputation who has apparently chosen Josey's closet as her hiding place. Why she's there, and how Josey's life begins to change as a result, are all part of another magical Allen read; this is one author who hasn't suffered sophomore slump with her second book! Don't miss it. (Click here to check out other reviews for this title)

Title: Sworn To Silence
Classification: Fiction
Author: Linda Castillo
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Kate Burkholder was fourteen years old when she killed the man who raped her and for sixteen years she's lived with the guilt, although his death brought an end to the murders that paralyzed the tiny town of Painters Mill. Now the chief of police, Kate is forced to revisit that event as more killings occur bearing the same signature. Is this a new killer or did she shoot the wrong man all those years ago?

Title: T Is For Trespass
Classification: Fiction
Author: Sue Grafton
Publisher: Putnam
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Kinsey Millhone (series) is back with the cast of Santa Teresa as she finds herself investigating crimes against her elderly neighbor Gus while tracking down a witness with a shady past. Timing is critical as Gus grows weaker and his caretaker carefully isolates him from help. Grafton continues to demonstrate the reasons this series has staying power; Kinsey has become an old friend we haven't seen for awhile, but one with whom we sit down and pick up where we left off as though our last visit were yesterday. I'll be really sorry when she comes to the end of the alphabet!

Title: Take Down
Classification: Fiction
Author: Brad Thor
Publisher: Atria/Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: What a roller coaster of a read! A terrorist strike on the Fourth of July wipes out the bridges and tunnels in New York, beginning a breakneck chase by Scot Harvath to hunt down and stop the group responsible before more destruction occurs. As the body count rises, Harvath realizes his own government may not be innocent and that his time to stop the carnage is limited. In the tradition of Demille's "Nightfall," this one will keep you turning pages all night! A must read! (Click here to check out other reviews for this title)

Title: Taken
Classification: Fiction
Author: Chris Jordan
Publisher: MIRA
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Widow Kate Bickford has managed to survive the death of her husband, but when her son Tommy disappears after a Little League game she sees the end of her world. Then, when she arrives home, she finds the kidnapper in her home demanding that she transfer all her money to an overseas account to assure Tommy's release. This kidnapper, however, has a more sinister motive than money and Kate is caught up in a terrifying effort to not only find her son, but to save his life. A great first adult novel by Rodman Philbrick ("Freak the Mighty), writing under the Jordan pen-name.

Title: Tallgrass
Classification: Fiction
Author: Sandra Dallas
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: It's 1942 and thirteen-year-old Rennie Stroud is watching with the rest of Ellis, Colorado, as Japanese-Americans arrive from California destined for Tallgrass, the detention center built to house them for the duration of World War II. Raised in the safety and shelter of her small farming town, Rennie is unprepared for the hatred she sees in her neighbors and tells her story with wry, poignant observation. This is the author's best book since The Diary Of Mattie Spenser; I highly recommend it!

Title: Tell No One
Classification: Fiction
Author: Harlan Coben
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: His first book not in the Bolitar series, Coben nails this one! When a couple goes away on their annual anniversary trip only one of them comes home. Great read!

Title: Tenth Circle
Classification: Fiction
Author: Jodi Picoult
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Picoult, who scores a 5 with "Her Sister's Keeper", strikes out with this book about a comic-book illustrator whose adolescent daughter is running amok and whose professor wife is seeking youth and comfort with a student. Way too many far-fetched, unrealistic plot turns. Yawn.

Title: There's a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell
Classification: Fiction
Author: Laurie Notaro
Publisher: Villard Books
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Maye and Charlie move from their home and friends in Phoenix to Spaulding, Washington, where Charlie has a job teaching at the local college and Maye has...nothing. Despite her efforts to make friends, the best she's been able to come up with are a Gothic Book Club (honestly, she thought they read Gothic literature), and a Vegan Club (she's not a vegetarian). Desperate, Maye signs up for the town's annual talent show and decides to teach her dog to (okay, yes this is ridiculous) play the piano. A pretty cute, light, entertaining read.

Title:  Think Twice
Classification: Mystery
Author:  Lisa Scottoline
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Copyright:  2010
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:

As head of her own law firm, Bennie Rosato has been up against some of the toughest criminals but never one quite like her identical twin Alice.  Even though Bennie was successful in getting Alice acquitted of murder, Alice has decided that she wants more. She wants Bennie’s life.  So, in this latest entry in the Rosato and Associates series, that’s exactly what Alice sets out to get, no matter who she has to kill.

Very fast-paced with lots of action, this is a very fun read.  But try not to read the last sentence—it sounds like a line from Scooby-Doo.

Series:

1. Everywhere That Mary Went

2. Legal Tender

3. Rough Justice

4. Mistaken Identity

5. Moment of Truth

6. Vendetta Defense

7. Courting Trouble

8. Dead Ringer

9. Killer Smile

10. Lady Killer

11. Think Twice

Title: Third Degree
Classification: Fiction
Author: Greg Iles
Publisher: Scribner
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Married for years to a successful doctor, Laurel has always been faithful...until a year ago, when she started an affair.  Now Laurel's husband is under investigation for Medicare fraud at the same time she discovers she's pregnant, probably by her lover who has left her. Things get really dicey when Laurel's husband finds a hidden love letter and goes on a murderous rampage.  Although not nearly as well-written as Dead Sleep or Quiet Game, this is a fast read similar to Iles' 24 Hours.

Title: Too Close To Home
Classification: Mystery
Author: Linwood Barclay
Publisher: Bantam
Copyright: 2008
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Seventeen year-old Derek Cutter has a plan. He'll hide in his best friend's house until the family leaves on vacation, then have a perfect place to see his girlfriend while they're gone. But when he hears the family return, and he hears the shots that kill them, Derek knows that he is the perfect suspect. Is there a chance that the wrong people were murdered? Is his own family next? In true Barclay style this is a quick, page-turning thriller.

Title: Triptych
Classification: Fiction
Author: Karin Slaughter
Publisher: Bantam Dell/Random House
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In a departure from her Grant County series, Slaughter features John Shelley, newly released from prison after being convicted in the rape and murder of a classmate fifteen years ago. When Shelley discovers that someone has stolen his identity and when murders with the same pattern begin again, he knows someone is setting him up for the blame. Although lacking the compelling characters of her series, and although this one is pretty predictable, it's still worth a read.

Title: True Evil
Classification: Fiction
Author: Greg Iles
Publisher: Scribner/Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: As FBI hostage negotiator Alex Morse's sister lies dying of a stroke, she makes a startling accusation: she's been murdered by her husband. Further, she pleads with Alex to save her son from his father. In the subsequent investigation Morse discovers a trail of victims killed not by bullets, but by cancer and other diseases and in all cases the victim leaves a spouse wealthier by far. As she races to save the next target, Morse finds herself caught between the killer and her superiors at the FBI. This is the best Iles since Dead Sleep, and brings back characters from his earlier books in a riveting, convincing medical thriller.

Title: Turning Angel
Classification: Fiction
Author: Greg Iles
Publisher: Scribner
Copyright: 2005
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: With the same characters as were in Quiet Game, this should have been great. Sigh…it missed, but is still worth a read.

Title: Twelve Sharp
Classification: Mystery
Author: Janet Evanovich
Publisher: St. Martin's
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: This, the twelfth in the Stephanie Plum series, reinstates Evanovich as the freshest, funniest mystery writer around. All the regular gang is here, with Stephanie in the middle of the action when Ranger's daughter is kidnapped, Lula joins a rock group, and Grandma connects with the new owners of the funeral home. I look forward every June to an evening of laughing out loud with Evanovich, and this one didn't disappoint; in fact, there's more laughter here than in the past few. (Click here to check out other reviews for this title)

Title: Twenties Girl
Classification: Fiction
Author: Sophie Kinsella
Publisher: Dial Press
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Lara never knew her great-aunt Sadie, so she's a little miffed when she's made to go to her funeral. After all, Sadie was 105 years old so it shouldn't have come as any surprise to anyone that she died. Lara is still a little (okay, more than a little) obsessed with the boyfriend who just dumped her, so when Sadie's ghost starts yelling at her, Lara is sure she's finally gone off the deep end. A charming book about the unlikely friendship between a modern woman and a ghost from the 1920's.

Title: Twisted
Classification: Fiction
Author: Jeffery Deaver
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2003
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Although short stories are not usually a format I enjoy, this is a very good collection. From the first, in which a wife mourns her husband, through the interesting story featuring Lincoln Rhyme and company, to the last in which a father pursues his daughter's stalker, Deaver continues to enhance his reputation as a master of plot twists and startling endings. If you've enjoyed his suspense novels, as I have, give this a try.

Title: Two Minute Rule
Classification: Mystery
Author: Robert Crais
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: A departure for Crais with uneven results. I was hoping for something great with this one and didn't get it, but it's worth a read.

Title: U is for Undertow  
Classification: Mystery
Author: Sue Grafton
Publisher: G. P. Putnaml
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments:

Unfortunately, Kinsey seems a little tired in the newest entry from Grafton and when she’s approached by a new client who is convinced that he saw two men bury a murder victim when he was six years old she spends a lot of time in her car making right and left turns.  Mixed in with her efforts is a story set twenty years earlier, during the sixties, with the requisite hippies and dopers searching for free love.

 All in all, a let-down.

Title: Undead and Unwed
Classification: Vampires, Horror & Other Creatures of the Night
Author: MaryJanice Davidson
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Okay, so this one is on the low side of "liked"...an Evanovich wannabe with vampires. Cute, but a little heavy on the sex scenes with fangs. Series.

Title: Undone
Classification: Fiction
Author: Karin Slaughter
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: In this, the first in her new series, Slaughter brings together Dr.Sara Linton and cop Will Trent from her earlier books to create a brutal, horrifying story. When a woman is run down on a rural Georgia road her injuries from the accident are terrible enough, but when it's discovered that she had been starved and tortured, and when another victim is found, the police set out to find a connection. Their only clues are that each woman is completely unlikable and that each is a member of a website that encourages anorexia. A dynamite read!

Title: Vanish
Classification: Fiction
Author: Tess Gerritsen
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Jane Rizzoli, who has appeared before in Gerritsen's books, is back--this time pregnant and held captive by a madwoman who faked her own death. I thought this was a very good read!

Title: Vanishing Act Of Esme Lennox
Classification: Fiction
Author: Maggie O'Farrell
Publisher: Harcourt, Inc.
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Iris has never heard of Esme Lennox, so she is certain that Esme can't be her great-aunt despite convincing proof that she is.   How is it possible that neither Iris's mother nor her grandmother has ever told her about Esme?  An aunt who has spent an astonishing sixty-one years locked away in a psychiatric institution (hospital is too kind a word)?  An aunt not once acknowledged by name or nuance?  This is a powerful book of hopelessness, told in several haunting voices, that will stay with you.

Title: Velva Jean Learns To Drive
Classification: Fiction
Author: Jennifer Niven
Publisher: Plume
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Velva Jean Hart is ten years old when she is saved for the first time and expects wonderful things to happen. What she doesn't expect is that her daddy will leave again and that her mother will die, leaving her to grow up wild in the mountains of North Carolina. Even her dream of singing in Nashville is derailed as Velva Jean marries itinerant preacher Harley Bright and tries to become the obedient wife he insists on, but the more controlling he becomes, the more important her singing is to her. Set in the mid-1930's against the backdrop of the beginning of the Blue Ridge Parkway, Niven has written a wonderful story of family, faith and dreams.

Title: Very Valentine
Classification: Fiction
Author: Adriana Trigiani
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright: 2009
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Valentine is the funny one in her family, but there's not much funny about her life. She works at a job she loves, in the family custom wedding shoe business, but it's on the verge of bankruptcy; she's still friends with the love of her life, even though he's married to someone else; and the hunky new guy has just seen her showering naked in her rooftop garden. Despite a light (but promising) beginning, this book just sort of dissolves into a lot of angst about Valentine's ART. I really liked her observations about light and color, but her never ending conflict with her boyfriend's hectic schedule and her constant analysis of her ART just left me tired. This one just barely made the "liked" rating.

Title: View From Mount Joy
Classification: Fiction
Author: Lorna Landvik
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: If you like a book with unimaginative characters, a boring, disorganized plot and an ending without resolution, you'll love this one. Kristi Casey is the golden girl of her high school and engenders lust in the hearts of all the boys, especially new guy Joe. Yadda, yadda...years pass. Kristi re-enters the picture, more lust; more yadda yadda. Kristi becomes an evangelist. Who cares? Blech.

Title: Virgin Of Small Plains
Classification: Mystery
Author: Nancy Pickard
Publisher: Ballantine/Random House
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Pickard's newest starts great, with the discovery of a nude, frozen body by three farmers, and has an interesting plot. She loses steam, however, and just sort of muddles her way to an unsurprising end. A good beach read for next summer, when it will be released in paperback.

Title: Walking In Circles Before Lying Down
Classification: Fiction
Author: Merrill Markoe
Publisher: Villard Books
Copyright: 2006
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Let me begin by saying that I love dogs. I especially love MY dog, who is just about perfect. Okay, she's completely perfect. And I talk to her. But she doesn't talk back. Markoe's heroine, Dawn, talks to dogs who talk back and whose conversation varies from "Just pick up the ball and throw it" to "My memory is burdened by chaos and cacophony." (Huh)? What is the matter with this woman that she can't just love dogs as they are, without pretending they're furry humans? My advice is, if you like dogs, talk to one yourself and pass on this book.

Title: Wanted
Classification: Fiction
Author: Kim Wozencraft
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Copyright: 2004
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Political activist Gail Rubin has just been rejected in her request for parole after having served eighteen years in federal prison. Police officer Diane Wellman has been framed on drug charges. Together they escape and form an unlikely bond as they work to secure freedom for Gail, justice for Diane. A tightly-written, well-paced thriller...I highly recommend it!

Title: Watchers
Classification: Fiction
Author: Dean Koontz
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: My all-time favorite Koontz, this book is a classic tale of the battle between good and evil, with jabs at early DNA research by the military. Fast-paced and scary, this book will keep you turning pages well into the night. (Click here to check out other reviews for this title)

Title: Watchman
Classification: Mystery
Author: Robert Crais
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2007
Book Rating:
Reviewer Comments: Joe Pike takes center stage in this great thriller about a spoiled rich girl involved in a car wreck and then targeted for death. As Pike and Elvis Cole race to find her would-be assassin, they find themselves caught up in a world of international greed and murder. One of the best Crais books, this is a must-read.