LAST TO DIE by Tess Gerritsen

When fourteen-year-old Teddy Clock's foster family is murdered, in an eerie echo of the murders of his birth family two years before, Rizzoli and Isles send him to Evensong, a secure and strange boarding school where child survivors of violent crime learn survival skills. The school is run by the mildly annoying (to me) Mephisto Society, which R&I readers will remember from earlier novels. Other orphans who have survived two attacks on their families emerge, and R&I must find the connections among the victims. Much of this one takes place at Evensong, where things are not as they seem. Teddy, Julian (from ICE COLD), and other students form an amateur detective society, the Jackals, to help with the investigation.

This is the tenth in the Rizzoli and Isles series, and it wasn't my favorite. Gerritsen fans who adore the Mephisto Society will probably be delighted. Evensong was an interesting setting, at least, and the amateur detectives add freshness to the storyline. All in all, a fun entry to the series.

Recommended to Rizzoli and Isles fans. If you need a place to start, the first in the series is THE SURGEON, and it's really an excellent police procedural/forensic science series.

THE TEMPLETON TWINS HAVE AN IDEA by Ellis Weiner

I think THE TEMPLETON TWINS HAVE AN IDEA is probably a series that will appeal to the Lemony Snicket crowd. While I've found much middle-grade fiction has appeal for me, I never warmed to Lemony Snicket and the overly intrusive narrator. Likewise, the overly precious, snarky narrator in this book left me cold. And I usually *like* snark. From the publisher:

LET'S SAY John was pragmatic and played the drums, and Abigal was theoretical and solved cryptic crosswords. Now suppose their father was a brilliant, if sometimes confused, inventor. And suppose that another set of twins--adults--named Dean D. Dean and Dan D. Dean, kidnapped the Templeton twins and their ridiculous dog in order to get their father to turn over one of his genius (sort of) inventions. Yes, I said kidnapped. Wouldn't it be fun to read about that? Oh please. It would so.

LUCKILY FOR YOU, this is just the first in a series perfect for boys and girls who are smart, clever and funny (just like the twins) and enjoy reading adventurous stories (who doesn't?!).

If the asides and parentheticals don't irritate you, give this one a try. The whole book is like this description - littered with tangents and chatting by the narrator. To add to the fun (?) there's quite a bit about cryptic crosswords that is fairly interesting, though the tone of the whole book negates the interest for me.

I recommend this book for Lemony Snicket fans, who may be delighted to have a new favorite series.

Source disclosure: I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher.

THE DOLL by Taylor Stevens

I loved THE INFORMATIONIST. I loved THE INNOCENT. So I was excited for a chance to review the latest thriller featuring Vanessa/Michael Monroe. My review of THE DOLL is "Meh." Let me be more specific. What I loved about the first two novels in the series, in a word: Michael. This entry has less Michael and less-believable Michael, both of which took away from the enjoyment for me. Michael is a fabulous, edgy, resourceful female heroine (who often transforms into a man when it's expedient for her missions). She's also a sociopath, but since she uses her powers mostly for good, I'm okay with that. Michael is the reason I read Taylor Stevens. So what happened with THE DOLL?

Stevens makes Bradford and his team more of a focus in THE DOLL. Nothing against Bradford and company, but their missions/actions are simply not as interesting to me. Bradford is more like "insert your favorite action hero here" and less...fresh and interesting than Michael. His part of the story (which is substantial) feels like a Jerry Bruckheimer/Michael Bay movie: perfectly serviceable and fun with popcorn, but not particularly meaty or insightful. Michael is complex and nuanced and her methods are unpredictable.

Speaking of Michael, her character took on a very odd twist that seemed inconsistent with the previous two novels. Logan, her dear friend, has been kidnapped and beaten by a man known as the Dollmaker (I'll get to him in a minute) in order to "persuade" Michael to deliver actress Neeva Eckridge to a man who has bought her from the Dollmaker for his personal entertainment. Michael has surprisingly few qualms about handing Neeva over to slavery with a psycho so that she can keep Logan safe. I felt this complex situation deserved more thought and reflection from Michael, but she focuses on accomplishing her goal to rescue Logan.

As a villain, the Dollmaker was more annoying than anything else. He's completely insane and delivers women and girls into unspeakable horror for profit, but his odd personal habits offset his menace and he reads cartoonish, in an unsatisfying way. In THE INFORMATIONIST, Michael is forced to confront her past, in THE INNOCENT, she infiltrates a cult, and in THE DOLL...she cooperates with a nutjob who dresses kidnapped women as oversized porcelain dolls and contemplates his extensive doll collection (actual dolls, not humans). It's anticlimactic. The first two novels had very meaty, rich plots, while THE DOLL feels less substantial, less nuanced.

All that said, I still recommend this book to thriller fans. It was just disappointing to me after the excellent first two books in the series.

Source disclosure: I received an e-galley of this title from the publisher.

THE MAP OF LOST MEMORIES by Kim Fay

"The one thing to remember about an adventure is that if it turns out the way you expect it to, it has not been an adventure at all." - THE MAP OF LOST MEMORIES

The adventure begins in Shanghai in 1925. Irene Blum, passed over for her expected promotion to the curatorship of the Brooke Museum in Seattle, has arrived to meet Simone Merlin and recruit her on a mission to recover scrolls that will illuminate the history of the mysterious Khmer. Irene's father had bequeathed a letter proving the existence of the scrolls to Irene's mentor, Mr. Simms, who presents this evidence to Irene when she leaves the museum in fury. Along for the ride are Marc Rafferty, recommended by Mr. Simms, and Simone's recruit, Louis Lafont, a competitor of Irene's. Naturally, everyone has ulterior motives and secrets, which just keeps things interesting. Running underneath the story (and bubbling to the surface) is the colonial attitude of ownership in another country's treasures and questions of a country's right to control its own history.

Fay evokes her settings (Shanghai, Saigon, and, finally, Cambodia) with rich prose:

"Breathing in the scent of fish drifting on a current of lemongrass and star anise, she felt her strength begin to return. And it amazed her that somehow, despite how this part of the world wearied her, it also gave her sustenance--just to stand in the middle of it, sheltered from the midday sun by the flaming petals of a coral tree."

Along with the spices, Irene and Simone breathe in the history and culture of Cambodia, and it is a heady brew. The sense of place and time and culture is well-balanced. The only sour note for me was the relationship between Marc and Irene. He irritated me - much more Kate Capshaw than Karen Allen - and the romance, compared to the mystery and adventure, simply wasn't that interesting. But then, I've never found the love interest component in adventure novels or movies to be the most compelling part; if that's something you enjoy, simply ignore my mild complaint. Adventure, betrayal, mystery, history, culture, and exotic locations - an excellent way to pass the time. I recommend THE MAP OF LOST MEMORIES to anyone who loved Indiana Jones films but wished they had a woman at the center.

Source disclosure: I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers Program.

STRANGER IN THE ROOM - review and giveaway!

STRANGER IN THE ROOM by Amanda Kyle Williams: The second novel in a series is critical; after all, a good first novel could be a fluke. The more I like the first in a series, the more I hope the second lives up to its potential, and I am pleased to say that Amanda Kyle Williams more than delivers with her second Keye Street thriller, STRANGER IN THE ROOM. If you missed THE STRANGER YOU SEEK, Keye is a disgraced FBI profiler-turned-P.I., her brilliant career derailed by alcoholism, who gets pulled in as an APD consultant when a serial killer terrorizes Atlanta. Keye is funny but competent, deeply flawed, and self-aware. She's as funny as early Stephanie Plum, but in more intense thrillers (think Karin Slaughter, early Patricia Cornwell). It's an addictive combination. Thrillers are often relentless (which is the point, of course -- to keep the reader turning pages) in gore, action, and suspense, but in a twist on the usual thriller formula, Williams has used her heroine's abundant flaws to inject substantial humor into her books. The suspense is still intense; humor simply provides another layer of enjoyment.

Atlanta is practically a character in STRANGER IN THE ROOM. Having made it through a scorching summer, lines like "Atlanta's smoldering summer had dropped down around us like a burning building" really resonate with me. Keye observes of her private investigation business, "Missing persons, surveillance, bond enforcement, and process serving keeps the cash flowing when business slows to a crawl over the winter holidays. But when Atlanta starts to heat up and the glaring southern sun sets our bloodstreams ablaze, when the clothes get skimpy and overworked servers stagger out with trays of frosty pitchers at packed pavement cafes, my phone gets busy." Details of locations and mouth-watering descriptions of restaurant offerings (more on this later) add to the authenticity. Keye struggles with sobriety, and Williams treats alcoholism with great sensitivity and understanding, even as Keye cracks jokes about it.

STRANGER IN THE ROOM starts out with Keye's troubled cousin, Miki, asking for help; she's being stalked. Keye isn't sure how much of Miki's account to believe, but when a body turns up in Miki's house, Keye is convinced. Miki is possibly more screwed-up than Keye. "'Are you all right?' she asked, then went on without giving me time to answer. 'Oh, right. The alcohol thing. What's the big deal, anyway? I won't let you get wasted. Just order a fucking drink.' 'That's the worst idea I've heard all day.' She reached into her bag and withdrew a tiny glass vial with a black cap. 'I've got some coke. Would a line help?' That's my Miki, always thinking of others." Meanwhile, APD Lieutenant Rauser has asked for Keye's insight in a serial killer case. These two mysteries make up the main plot, with Keye's private investigation business providing the subplots. One is a bail bonds case that provides quality comic relief (and by "comic relief," I mean, "uncontrollable laughter"), and the other takes Keye up to rural Big Knob, where she investigates odd happenings at a crematorium. The Big Knob case introduces one of my favorite characters in any book in any genre: the politely racist Mrs. Stargell. In a less nuanced novel, Mrs. Stargell would have been a one-dimensional character to hate, but Williams rounds her out nicely, and she steals every scene she's in. I kind of hope future cases take Keye back to Big Knob.

Keye's supporting cast is fantastic. Williams is skilled at crafting complex characters, no matter how few words they have in the book. Keye's relationship with Rauser continues to develop in interesting and unexpected ways. He's a great cop: "'Listen to me, people,' Rauser snapped. 'All that DNA shit, it's gonna be great in court. But it's good old-fashioned police work that closes cases. Don't ever forget that.'" But he has a goofy side, too: "Rauser's hand went to his weapon, then slid away when we saw the gray tabby from next door pulling himself up and over the fence. He balanced on top for a couple of seconds, then jumped to the ground and sauntered over to the patch of neglected garden. He dug around, sniffed, turned a few circles, sniffed, dug, then laid back his ears and did his business. 'Little bastard,' Rauser growled, watching the cat with Wile E. Coyote eyes. 'Fucker's looking right at us.' I had to bite my lip and look away. Rauser had unintentionally built a giant cat box in his yard." Her coworker, stoner savant Neil, is hilarious and strangely competent. He and Keye exchange great childish banter that brings out Keye's silly side. "Neil had his electronic devices out, and he was balancing a hotel coffee mug. 'This is going to be one of those three-hour tour things, isn't it? Big Knob's the Minnow and you're Ginger and I'm the professor and we're never getting off the island.' 'You see me as Ginger? Really?' I glanced at myself in the rearview."

I'm tempted to quote all the passages I marked that made me laugh out loud (and, in one case, literally slap my knee), but I don't want to spoil the joy for new readers. I'm also tempted to quote all the passages about food (seriously, don't read Williams on an empty stomach!), but I'll just give one example: "She grew poblano peppers in her own garden and stuffed them with cheese and cubed acorn squash she'd sauteed in garlic. She skewered fresh peaches on cinnamon sticks and bathed them in bourbon and honey on the grill until their meat was sweet and smoky. She filled tiny pastry cups with goat cheese and homemade lime curd and glass pitchers with sweet iced tea and fresh thyme. Southern cooking gets a bad rap. But when it's done right, it's a beautiful thing." Besides their other attributes, I think Williams's books could be the foundation for a spectacular cookbook.

STRANGER IN THE ROOM stands well on its own, but I can't possibly recommend skipping THE STRANGER YOU SEEK. Do yourself a favor and read both. Quoting extensively in a review is the highest compliment for me: it means the writing is so good, it's best to let it speak for itself.

Source disclosure: I received an e-galley of this title courtesy of the publisher and purchased my own hardcover edition.

Giveaway: Oh, look! I purchased an extra copy of STRANGER IN THE ROOM in honor of Book Blogger Appreciation Week! Want to win? Leave a comment on this post with some way to contact you, and I'll draw a winner next Monday, September 17. Contest open worldwide. For extra entries (one per action - leave a comment with a link): post a link to this contest on your blog, tweet it, otherwise publicly share it.

My review of THE STRANGER YOU SEEK

A thriller that sends up the thriller genre

POTBOILER by Jesse Kellerman: I haven't read Jesse Kellerman's previous novels, which appear to be complex thrillers, but based on the cleverness he demonstrates in POTBOILER, I'm very interested in reading more of his work. POTBOILER cannot be easily categorized. It's an affectionate parody of the thriller genre, but it functions equally well as a thriller in its own right. However ridiculous and implausible the twists and turns, this novel kept me chuckling at Kellerman's gentle mocking of his own genre while at the same time biting my nails in anticipation. I couldn't help but laugh at myself and how swept up in the absurd action I became.

Arthur Pfefferkorn is a college professor with one critically acclaimed novel far, far in his past. He's avoided his oldest friend, William de Vallee, for years, jealous of his wife and his bestselling oeuvre of thrillers while contemptuous of the non-literary genre. When de Vallee disappears and is declared dead, Pfefferkorn takes a reckless step that pulls him into a world of international intrigue, conspiracy, and double crosses. To rescue de Vallee's widow (with whom he is still in love), he takes on a shadowy assignment from a questionable government agency and ventures into Zlabia, an utterly absurd nation divided into two entirely different cultures. Zlabia is a hoot, and it's to Kellerman's credit that I remained engaged in the action despite the ridiculous aspects of Zlabian politics.

To point out the cleverest twists would be to spoil the unfolding plot. This is a book I will recommend to everyone I know just so I can talk about it with someone and say, "Wasn't it perfect when Pfefferkorn said X and then Y happened later?!" A devoted thriller fan who sees nothing amusing in the conventions of the genre will not enjoy this book, but anyone who read, say, THE DA VINCI CODE and rolled her eyes at the stilted prose and pat descriptions (while frantically turning the pages to see what happens next) will adore POTBOILER. I am even willing to confess my secret addiction to Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels to illustrate my qualifications in making this recommendation. The over-the-top writing drives me a little crazy and the stereotypes and predictable elements required of the genre make me roll my eyes; yet, I can't not read them.

When Pfefferkorn finally reads a de Vallee novel, he is contemptuous:

"The thirty-third installment in a series, the novel featured special agent Richard "Dick" Stapp, a brilliant, physically invincible figure formerly in the employ of a shadowy but never-named government arm whose apparent sole purpose was to furnish story lines for thrillers. Pfefferkorn recognized the formula easily enough. Stapp, supposedly in retirement, finds himself drawn into an elaborate conspiracy involving one or more of the following: an assassination, a terrorist strike, a missing child, or the theft of highly sensitive documents that, if made public, could lead to full-blown nuclear engagement. His involvement in the case often begins against his will. I've had it with this rotten business he is fond of avowing. Who in real life, Pfefferkorn wondered, avowed anything?"

This over-the-top language turns up in elements of POTBOILER that highlight its absurdity, as in the fabulous description of a character's mustache: "Pfefferkorn could not tell his age, due to a full eighty percent of his face being hidden behind the largest, bushiest, most aggressively expansionist moustache Pfefferkorn had ever seen. It was a a with submoustaches that in turn had sub-submoustaches, each of which might be said to be deserving of its own area code. It was a moustache that vexed profoundly questions of waxing, a moustache the merest glimpse of which might spur female musk oxen to ovulate. It was a moustache that would have driven Nietzsche mad with envy, had he not been mad already. If the three most copiously flowing waterfalls in the world, Niagara, Victoria, and Iguazu Falls, were somehow united, and their combined outputs rendered in facial hair, this man's moustache would not have been an inaccurate model, save that this man's moustache also challenged traditional notions of gravity by growing outward, upward, and laterally. It was an impressive moustache and Pfefferkorn was impressed."

Pfefferkorn is fond of coming up with outlandish ideas and wondering if they might be good premises for a novel. Naturally, these wild plot developments turn up in the Zlabian intrigue. Throughout commentary on the Zlabian hit show The Poem, It Is Bad! and the magical disguising power of mustaches, the overly complicated plot unfolds with precision in ways that are both predictable and unexpected. This is a masterful satire of the thriller genre, but at the same time, a fantastic thriller. It might be the ultimate beach read.

Source disclosure: I received an uncorrected proof of this book through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program.

Mystery Monday: Never Knowing by Chevy Stevens

I read Chevy Stevens first book STILL MISSING the early part of last year. I'm amazed she has another new book out already! But I was thrilled to know that, because her first book was so well written. And her second entry in the book world is even better!

In NEVER KNOWING, a woman (Sara) finally decides to look into who her birth parents are after always knowing she was adopted. She never quite fit into her adoptive family, especially when her mom was able to have two more biological daughters after adopting Sara. Sara's dad never really seemed to like her and treated her differently than her sisters. When the day arrives that Sara receives a copy of her birth certificate in the mail, opening it is like opening Pandora's box. She realizes her birth mother is a professor at a university nearby. When she tries to meet with her, the woman doesn't want to get to know her. In fact, she can't stand the sight of Sara! Heartbroken, Sara hires a private investigator to try and figure out who her birth father may be. Through information the investigator collects, Sara soon learns she is the product of a violent attack and her father is a serial killer still at large known as the Campsite Killer. As Sara digs deeper, information is leaked to the public and the Campsite Killer soon contacts her. This triggers a feeling of obligation on Sara's part to get this psychopath off the streets. Her obsession with trying to catch her biological father threatens her life and her relationships with her fiancee, daughter, and family.

This book was really good. I always hated when I had to set it down to do something else. Every chance I got to pick it up I would read a few pages here and there. This is one that I wish I had an entire day to just cuddle up and read straight through. Perfect for a vacation read! Stevens uses "Sessions" with a psychiatrist to break up the book instead of chapters, just as she did in STILL MISSING. Perhaps this will become Stevens trademark style of writing? I like it. It helps with character development. You get to delve into the main character and really know what she is thinking. I liked this book even better than STILL MISSING just because the creepy guy wasn't as creepy as The Freak. And I loved the "hunt" of this book. It was so suspenseful! I wanted to keep reading to find out if Sara caught the Campsite Killer or if he got to her first! I will for sure pick up the next book that Chevy Stevens writes and probably the one after that too.

NEVER KNOWING hit the bookshelves this past Tuesday on July 5th! So no need to wait in adding this one to your library!

Source Disclosure: I requested a review copy of this book from the publisher.

Review Snippets: Part One

Oh so sad. I've only finished 10 books so far this year. UGH. That's what having a 16-month old (plus two other older kids) and a part-time business will do to your reading life. And reviews. Well, they are just not getting written as I would like. So I'm going to quick type up a few short reviews so at least I can document my thoughts.

The Inner Circle by Brad Meltzer
I was drawn to this book because its main character is an archivist at the National Archives. My background in museum and archival work made me very curious and well, I know a former co-worker who actually works at the National Archives so it made me think of her. :-) Beecher White is an archivist who gets sucked into a presidential conspiracy when he discovers a book in a hidden compartment of a chair in an isolation room at the Archives. From there, he discovers he can trust no one and he is now part of a situation involving a brotherhood known as the Culper Ring. But is it the real Culper Ring (dating back to George Washington) or just a group claiming to be?

Hmm...this book was mildly entertaining. The last third got quite unbelieveable even for a political conspiracy book. I kept thinking I was reading a book that would be made into a movie. And quite a bit of it reminded me of the already-made movie National Treasure. If you're looking for something that is an easy read, a little over the top, and a bit of a thriller, this may be a good vacation read for you. Not a total waste of time, but definitely better books out there.

The Night Season by Chelsea Cain
The fourth installment in Cain's Archie Sheridan series. She steps away from the serial killer Gretchen Lowell storyline to introduce us to a new serial killer. One that kills his victims with a small octopus! And all while Portland is flooding. I wonder if Cain wrote her "Heart" series as a trilogy and now plans to write more without Gretchen involved?

I'll be honest and say, this is a great, fresh addition to the series! I actually liked the fact that we have moved on from Gretchen. This book was much MUCH less violent than the previous books (which is a nice change of pace). And many of the other original characters are still there and seem to take on more full development now that we're not focused on the Gretchen/Archie dynamic.

I think Cain is a really good writer. She is very creative. I mean, who comes up with using a rare small octopus as a murder weapon?! Don't worry, that wasn't a major spoiler. That is revealed early on in the book. I also think she does a great job of telling the story without a lot of extraneous information. Too many authors feel like they need to add 100 more pages than necessary. Highly recommend this one!
Evil at Heart Review
Sweetheart Review
Heart Sick Review

Source Disclosure: The Inner Circle was an e-book galley copy from Netgalley.com and I borrowed The Night Season from the library.

Altar of Bones by Philip Carter

There are not too many reviews of Altar of Bones out there yet. I'm kind of surprised by this actually. Philip Carter is supposedly a pseudonym for "an internationally renowned author" according to Simon and Schuster's website. It seems to me that it would be promoted more already with less than a month to its release. As Book Faerie at Journey of a Bookseller noted, it does have a Dan Brown feeling to it. While reading I thought to myself that it kind of reminded me of The DaVinci Code minus all the random art historical/historical fact rambling.

Altar of Bones jumps around in the beginning quite a bit, but once you get to the nitty gritty of the story, it's a spy/treasure hunt/suspense thriller based on a Russian folk story. Somewhere deep in the frozen tundra of Siberia there is a frozen lake with a frozen waterfall hiding a cave that legend claims holds the Altar of Bones and a fountain of youth. One particular family, who are descendants of the "magic people" of the area, have passed the secret to the Altar of Bones from mother to daughter for centuries. One woman is known as the Keeper and she must protect the Altar of Bones at all costs. However, these women are tempted by love and the men in their lives tend to prove untrustworthy and only interested in finding the Altar of Bones.

Jump to the present day of the story and Zoe Dmitroff finds herself the most recent Keeper when she receives a letter from her grandmother. She starts on a world-wide journey to unlock family secrets. Along the way, she teams up with an ex-DEA agent named Ry O'Malley. Together the two of them travel to Paris, Budapest, and finally Siberia. All while being hunted by a crazy red-headed femme fatale, an old KGB official, and more. This book is chock full of action with car chases and gun fights with a little romance thrown in by the end. It also tries to offer a new conspiracy theory for a presidential assassination with ties to Hollywood.

All very interesting to ponder. The book was a tiny bit long for me and dragged a bit about 2/3rd in and picked up toward the end again, but overall was a fun read. I kept turning the pages to find out where the adventure took Ry and Zoe next, whether he would eventually double-cross her and what they would do once they finally found the Altar of Bones.

Source disclosure: This was an e-book galley from Simon and Schuster and will be available for purchase March 8, 2011.

Beautiful Malice by Rebecca James

I chose this as an Early Reviewer book from LibraryThing because I thought the storyline sounded intriguing and I usually like psychological thrillers. I wasn't disappointed. In fact, I read this book in two days which is quite a feat for me these days with three kids.

In Beautiful Malice, Katherine has suffered through losing her sister in a family tragedy. She is living with her aunt and trying to start over at a new school when she meets Alice, a popular and fun girl. After knowing Alice for a bit, Katherine thinks there is something that seems a bit off about her but dismisses it. As the story unfolds, Alice is not who she seems to be and starts wreaking havoc on Katherine's life just as she starts to move past her sister's death.

The author took her time revealing all the secrets of the book and paced it just right to keep the reader moving through the pages. I didn't really guess any of the story before it was revealed to me which I always think is the sign of a good book.

It only received mildly warm reviews on LibraryThing, but I felt it was one of the better books I've read in awhile.

Source disclosure: Received from the publisher through the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program.

Never Look Away by Linwood Barclay

Never Look Away is the second Linwood Barclay novel I've read (my review of Fear the Worst here), but I've taken to collecting them now (through Bookmooch). I LOVE Harlen Coben novels and though these don't quite grip me the same way, they do fit the bill when it comes to wanting an interesting suspenseful story.

Never Look Away opens with a family's trip to an amusement park. Just after entering the park, the couple's four year old son is kidnapped and then found a few moments later abandoned in his stroller on the other side of the park. Just as David Harwood is calming down from the roller coaster ride of finding his son, he discovers his wife is now missing. As the investigation into her disappearance gets underway, suspicion falls more and more on David. His claims that his wife was depressed and suicidal appear made up. No one else has seen this side of her. His actions appear more and more guilty to the police. All during which, David never gives up looking for his wife and eventually stumbles on a mystery involving her true identity. Is she who she's said all these years? Or someone completely different? Someone he doesn't even know.

This book has several twists and turns and while I found much of it to be predictable, the book was time well spent. I find Barclay to be a comfort author. Someone you can count on to give you a good well-written story when you're in the mood to just sit down and enjoy a book. Not much thinking involved, no real depth to the story or characters. Just nice surface appeal.
The book is in bookstores March 16, 2010.
Source disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from Random House through the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program.

Mystery Monday

Three Bedrooms, One Corpse by Charlaine Harris is the third book in the Aurora Teagarden mystery series. Book 3 finds Aurora sampling the realty business in her mother's real estate office after quitting her library job in Book 2. An alarm sounds through the real estate world when it appears there is a serial killer on the loose who just might be a real estate agent! Oh, and Aurora also seems to find love again.

I have to say, this has been my least favorite in the series so far. I just didn't find the mystery very interesting. I also wasn't convinced of Aurora's relationship with her new beau, Martin. She seemed to fall in love way too fast and he just doesn't seem like a good fit for her in my mind. However, I'll continue to read the series to see where Aurora's story goes.

I received an ARC of Linwood Barclay's Fear the Worst through Shelf Awareness. I whipped through this book in no time. I had not read anything by Linwood Barclay before. I would compare him to Harlan Coben. This book has a very similar story line and flow to many of Coben's novels.

The novel starts out with a typical exchange between a divorced father (Tim) and his teenage daughter (Sydney). They argue, she leaves the house mad, heading off to work. He, of course, feels awful about their argument and looks forward to her returning home in the evening to work things out. However, she never comes home. None of her friends have seen her. And when he goes to the hotel where she supposedly works, they tell him they do not know who she is and that she's never worked there. Huh? This starts Tim on a chase throughout the rest of the book to find out what happened to his daughter, hoping she's still alive, and saving her from whatever she's gotten herself into. As Tim delves deeper into the mystery of Sydney's disappearance, he slowly becomes a suspect with the police and not only is he chasing Sydney's kidnappers, the police are chasing him.

I enjoyed this suspenseful novel. It was a fast read and it held my interest. There was not much that bothered me about it. I think I enjoy Coben's writing just a bit more, but Barclay definitely deserves a read. I've since picked up No Time For Goodbye from Bookmooch and look forward to getting to it at some point. I'm not sure this book fully falls into the Mystery category, but it's close enough to be included here in Mystery Monday.

R.I.P. Challenge

Sooooo, I'm not doing so well with my Art History Reading Challenge. I've only read 2 of the 6 books for it. I do have until the end of the year. So you never know. But right now it's not looking good.

All that aside, I'm thinking of joining in the R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril IV Challenge. I've never done this before but have seen it in past years and it looks like fun! I plan to read creepy and/or mystery-type books before Halloween anyway, so I might as well have them count for a challenge if they are going to fit in with it anyway, right?
Here's what I was planning on reading in September and October:
--The Hanging Hill by Chris Grabenstein (Cannot wait for this! I LOVED The Crossroads last year)
--Creepers by Joanne Dahme (wanted to read this last winter and decided to wait for Halloween time)
--Coraline by Neil Gaiman (been on my TBR list for awhile, a great time to knock it off the list)
--Evil at Heart by Chelsea Cain (won this through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program. Enjoyed Cain's first two books in the series and looking forward to this one)

I was hoping the second Joy of Spooking book would be out this fall, but I'm not sure when it is supposed to be published (anyone know?!). That would be another fun book to read around Halloween.

If this sounds like a fun challenge to you! Head over to read Carl's post and sign up! And here's a link to the R.I.P. IV Review website as well.

Fragment by Warren Fahy

I received an ARC of Fragment from Random House through Shelf Awareness. This book was touted as the next Jurassic Park or The Ruins. I have not read The Ruins, but I did read Jurassic Park (many years ago now) and devoured it! I LOVED the mix of adventure, science, suspense and Crichton's good writing. After that, I read all of Crichton's earlier works. So I was really looking forward to delving into a scientific thriller.

The book opens on a boat filled with scientists and a camera crew recording a reality show that takes the scientists to various islands looking for new species. When they come across an island only mentioned once in all of history and completely uninhabited, the scientists are excited to check it out. Once ashore, they discover a crazy world left to evolve without any human contact whatsoever. Darwin gone completely crazy! There are plants that are actually animals. Every species on the island seems to be a predator. The opening of the book starts with quite a bang and continues on that front throughout. It doesn't really slow down, except for the lengthy scientific descriptions throughout the book.

The overall premise of the book is fantastic. The prologue of the book provides a brief history of alien species invading islands and taking over or causing other species to go extinct. Alien as in foreign not extraterrestrial. I actually found this information just as intriguing as the novel. It set up the book quite nicely. This is Fahy's first novel and it's relatively well done. I say relatively because I think there was good and bad. Fahy has a fantastic imagination. The descriptions of the island, its animals and environment were spot-on. The back of the book contains a map of the island and sketches of some of the species found on the island. I found my vision of the animals from the text was quite close to the sketches provided. It takes a incredible amount of imagination for Fahy to create the island that he did.

The title is apt in that it not only describes the island as an isolated fragment of a supercontinent long ago, but also the writing style. Short chapters that jump around between characters and places. This eemed very disjointed and bugged me through the first 2/3rds of the book. The last 1/3rd really picked up and ended quite interestingly. I was satisfied with the ending and that made up for some of my annoyance in the beginning of the book. Some of the lengthy scientific descriptions got a little tedious, but not overwhelming.

Overall, this is a fun book for summer. A good vacation read. And I can definitely see this made into a movie. It is so visual. One of my real problems with the book actually has nothing to do with the author. It was the marketing. This book did not live up to Jurassic Park for me. I definitely can see a comparison to Crichton's work in general, the science-fiction adventure such as Congo comes to mind more than Jurassic Park. I just think that's quite a lot to live up to for a debut novel. This book is receiving nice praise though, check out other reviews at:Thoughts of Joy and The Novel Bookworm. Both glowing reviews.

Fragment became available in bookstores June 16, 2009.

Darling Jim by Christian Moerk

Like his con artist storyteller, Jim Quick, Christian Moerk weaves a Gothic tale of suspense that draws its audience in, compelling us to find out how it all ends. The structure is intricate, but adds to the mood. The book opens with mail carrier Desmond finding the body of an old woman on his route. When the police investigate, they find not only the body of Moira, but the bodies of two young women who were apparently her prisoners. Further investigation reveals that the girls were Moira's nieces, and that a third prisoner was present at some time, but escaped. The structure immediately pulls in the reader, who knows that something horrible and dramatic must have happened, but like the police, the reader is utterly baffled. When a postal service employee, Niall, happens upon a package with the return address of one of the dead girls and impulsively takes it home with him. It turns out to be the diary of Fiona Walsh, one of the dead girls in the house. She tells the story of Jim, a storyteller who has captivated all the women in town with his fairy tale and dangerous good looks, and who arrives in town just about when mysterious deaths begin to occur. When Fiona's diary comes to an abrupt end, Niall (and the reader) is obsessed with the story and heads to the town where Fiona says the events began to see if he can pick up the thread of how the girls met their fate. He happens upon the diary of Roisin, Fiona's sister, which fills in many of the question marks. The Gothic suspense is thick and irresistible, the story tight, and the fiddly novel structure, which would have seemed amateurish and clunky in another type of book, is perfectly suited to creating the dark, foreboding mood in Darling Jim. The level of detail in the diaries is absurd, of course--no one writes detailed dialogue or remembers every event like that, but that's part of the point, and it sweeps the reader into the story.

Darling Jim is an excellent, spooky read for those who like their plot labyrinthine and their suspense relentless. Pre-order it at amazon.com or pick it up on March 31!

Child's Play

39 Clues Book 3: The Sword Thief by Peter Lerangis:

The third book in The 39 Clues multimedia series was a little heavy on annoying bad-guy point-of-view (and there are several annoying bad guys), but I was swept up in the action nonetheless. This entry takes Amy and Dan to Japan, where we are treated to some interesting history of the Yakuza and a dollop of alchemy. Perhaps what this series does best is incorporate some learning that might spur reluctant readers to seek out other books on topics they like. Amy and Dan are still struggling with the "Trust No One" rule about the Cahill family, but they are forced into some unlikely alliances. I don't want to give any key plot development away, but I thought one character's point of view should have been excluded--when we learn this person't thoughts, it solves the mystery of which side the person is on. This one was about the same length as Book 2, and my guess is this is the standard, and Book 1 was only longer to set the stage. For an adult, this makes for barely an hour of reading, but it was a fun, action-packed hour. I like Amy and Dan, and their adventures are interesting.

My review of Book 1, Maze of Bones
My review of Book 2, One False Note

Percy Jackson: The Demigod Files by Rick Riordan: This is a pre-Book 5 release, and a cynic would say its only purpose is to generate cash for Disney/Hyperion from readers desperately waiting for Book 5 (May! Yay!). I probably wouldn't have paid $12.95 for it, but bn.com had a good price with the member discount and I needed something else to get to free shipping. I'm glad I did! The three short stories are the meat of the book, and they're excellent adventures. I wouldn't read them if you haven't read the four books in the series, as some information from the books is revealed. The rest is mildly entertaining filler--a map of Camp Half-Blood, a crossword puzzle, a guide to the Greek gods, and a diagram of Annabelle's trunk, but the stories are worth it. "The Stolen Chariot" was released online for free quite some time ago, but now I can get rid of my printout that's sitting on the shelf next to the series books, and the other two stories were new to me. In short, not an essential read, but the stories make it very tempting for a Percy Jackson fan.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

I try not to read too many reviews of a book that I just know I'm going to read. I don't like going in with too many preconceived notions about a book. And when I first started seeing The Graveyard Book around I knew I wanted to read it. I haven't read any other Neil Gaiman books (although I do have Coraline on my TBR pile) so I wasn't sure what to expect. When this book won the Newberry Award and I saw it everywhere I quit reading reviews about it. :-)

It was Friday the 13th last week and I found myself looking through my shelves for a new book to read. I decided on The Graveyard Book just because Friday the 13th seemed like a good excuse to read a book centered around a cemetary.

I really REALLY wanted to like this book and started it very enthusiastically. But, after the first couple chapters I wasn't sure what I thought. I plowed ahead and am really glad I did. I ended up truly liking this book. It's the story of Nobody Owens who narrowly escapes danger as a baby to end up living in a graveyard his whole life. Ghosts and other supernatural/paranormal characters become his guardians and best friends. As he gets older, he longs to learn and be around people who are alive. After trying out a "normal" school, it is decided the graveyard is where he should be. The danger he experienced as a baby still surrounds him and the graveyard is the only place he is truly safe.

I was expecting a book that flowed well through the boy's life but found the story rather choppy. It took me until Chapter 4 to get into the flow of the book. Each chapter could be a short story within itself and the next chapter doesn't necessarily flow from one to the next. There are large time jumps between chapters. Once I got used to this, I really enjoyed the book. In reading the acknowledgments at the end of the book, Gaiman says he actually started writing the book at Chapter 4 and filled in the earlier chapters later. It's interesting that is the point at which the book really grabbed me.

This book has adventure, a tad bit of mystery, fun characters, and I see it as an allegory (hmm...did I use that word correctly?) for life or growing up. Even though all of this happening in a graveyard is very abnormal, the boy had people (his adoptive parents and guardian) to love him, teach him, and protect him. He learns life lessons that help him along his journey and he grows up and moves on outside of his "family" just as many of us do. I love the end of the story and the promise it holds for Nobody Owens after the dark childhood he had.

I recommend this book and say stick with it even if it doesn't quite grab you in the beginning.

Other reviews of this book:
Hidden Side of the Leaf (Dewey listed 11 other reviews too! And a book trailer!)
Thoughts of Joy
A Life in Books
Bloggin' About Books
Maw Books Blog

One False Note by Gordon Korman

Allison wrote a great review of the second book in the 39 Clues series. I won't go into the synopsis but will say, I enjoyed the second installment. I agree with Allison's assessment that this series is a bit like a boy band. :-) It seems like a bit of a fad in a way. I'm not sure of the lasting power of these books. However, they are entertaining for now and I'm sure kids are loving reading them. I enjoyed the story leading the children to Venice (one of my all-time favorite cities) in this book. I'm a little puzzled with the series though. So far, the children have discovered only one or two clues per book. At some point the pace must pick up because there are only 10 books slated for the series.

Each book in this series is written by a different author. I am curious to see how the voice or story changes from author to author or if it stays fairly consistent. So far I didn't see a huge difference in the style of writing between Rick Riordan and Gordon Korman. I believe the third book The Sword Thief by Peter Larangis comes out March 3rd. Larangis is an unfamiliar author to me. A quick search on Amazon shows he writes two main series: Spy X and Watchers, both received very good reviews and sound interesting to me. I may have to look more into him. Now see, 39 Clues is working its marketing magic. I'm being exposed to an author I've never heard of and thinking about checking out his books. I have a feeling I'm a publisher's dream. :-) I would be very interested to hear others' comments if they have read any of Peter Larangis' books.

The 39 Clues: One False Note

My review of Book 1 here
Holly's review of Book 1 here

I really wish I had read The 39 Clues series as a child, because they don't have the same timeless charm of Harry Potter or Percy Jackson. I can see the wheels turning, and I remember reading a review of the first book that compared the series to a boy band, a particularly apt comparison. This is a high-concept, multimedia, take-the-world-by-storm marketing force. But it's a fun one. My main gripe with book 2 is that it's short--160 pages, compared with 224 pages in Book 1. Sure the pace is brisk, but there really was less "there" in book 2, and is it any cheaper? Of course not! There are 10 books projected in the series, each written by a different author. Each book comes with 6 cards, and there are card packs to buy separately. You enter the codes for your cards into your online account at the39clues.com, which gives you more puzzles to solve. Although the premise is ridiculous, really James Bond villain-ish in scope, it's a fun ride once you suspend disbelief, and the multimedia aspect is intriguing to me. I'd love to know how many reluctant readers are devouring the books to be a part of the online game/trading card part of the action. Scholastic gets bonus points for pushing the envelope.

In Book 1, we learned a lot about Benjamin Franklin as the kids traveled (scheming relatives hot on their heels) to various world locations. Book 2 focuses on Mozart, the clue-to-the-Clue being a scrap of music, and takes the Cahill children to Vienna and Venice. This introduces a history/art/geography component that elevates these to a more educational level--almost as if Scholastic thought, "Hey, while we've got them reading, let's throw in some other stuff, too." The history is presented in an accessible way, with even Dan "This is so Boring" Cahill getting interested in Mozart's biography. Dan and Amy are fun siblings, and their au pair provides some strategy and grounding for them. The overarching premise that all the important people in the world are Cahills, more than stretches credibility, but the action never stops. I'll certainly read Book 3 when it comes out in March, and if you'll excuse me, I have to enter my Book 2 cards into the website...

Interred With Their Bones - Review AND Giveaway!

I debated over whether or not to read this one before giving away my spare copy (from Reading Group Choices, but I thought, "Eh, it's Shakespeare meets DaVinci Code. I'm sure I'll love it!" So I decided to post the giveaway with the review, which means that I'm saying, "I really didn't like this book! Don't you want a copy?" This is very reminiscent of my little brother at the dinner table as a small child. He would take a tiny bite of something he hated and then offer up big bites to everyone else at the table. "Mmmmm," he'd say, "This is SO good. Dad, you should try some! Mom, have a bite!" So let me assure you, I planned to give this away all along, and I'm still going to because everyone's taste is different, and you may love it. Rules for the giveaway after the review.

I was excited to read Interred With Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell, which was being touted as The DaVinci Code meets Shakespeare. Carrell knows her stuff; she has a Ph.D in English and American Literature from Harvard, among other qualifications, and like her protagonist, she's directed Shakespeare. Unfortunately, this "stuff" is conveyed via long lectures in the text. It's not a good sign when I plow through a book just to get to the end and then am riveted by the Author's Note. It means that something went awry with the storytelling. The plot is promising: Former academic Kate Stanley has a visit from her estranged mentor, Roz, the night before Kate's production of Hamlet opens at the Globe Theater. Roz tells Kate she's found something and gives her a box. After the Globe burns down and Roz's body is found, Kate opens the box to find a brooch and a cryptic note that seems to point to Cardenio, Shakespeare's lost play. With her friend, Sir Henry, she determines that she has to get to Harvard, where she is menaced by mysterious bad guys with Shakespearean threats and meet Roz's nephew Ben, a security expert hired to protect her. Oh, and the British police think Kate might have killed Roz, but they don't really do much about it. Kate and Ben run from library to library on two continents, fleeing bad guys and police and looking for more clues. The bodies are piling up, but since Kate barely seems to care, the reader doesn't either. I'm not sure if Carrell is being ironic when she has Kate say "My God!" when a new piece of mildly interesting inconclusive information seeming to point to Shakespeare's true identity is found. I'm not sure it matters.

I'm not saying The DaVinci Code is great literature; Dan Brown's writing "style" drove me to distraction, but it was good for what it was. Brown kept me interested in the story with high stakes, breakneck pacing, and pieces of the puzzle coming together quicky. He did not have elegant prose or three-dimensional characters, but he didn't need one to make the book entertaining. For some reason, I just didn't get the same sense of high stakes in Interred. Okay, there's a lost play by Shakespeare. And someone might kill to get it. But the question of Shakespeare's true identity overshadowed the search for Cardenio, and I just wasn't buying it as something a person would kill so many people (in dramatic, Shakespearean fashion, no less) to conceal. And I just didn't get Kate. She decides to investigate herself despite the rising body count, instead of turning her information over to the police. She decides to trust or mistrust other characters on some whim, and she makes wildly speculative assumptions in one moment, only to declare "It's not proof positive" in the face of fairly convincing proof in another. The plot pacing was not very exciting for me. The pattern went: find a clue, get chased by bad guys, run to the next library, find a clue, get chased... You get the idea. There were plot twists, but nothing that really redeemed it for me. And if one more bad guy announced his presence in the dark with the hiss of a knife being pulled from its sheath, I thought I might scream.

In short, I thought this was much ado about nothing. The blurbs on the back of the book take pains to portray the book as "literary," "high class," and "intellectual." They certainly describe the author, but I'm not sure they describe this not-very-thrilling thriller.

Okay, so after all that...who wants a copy? Leave a comment here telling me what makes you want to read the book (or if you're planning to give it as a Christmas gift--it is brand new). For a bonus entry, tell me about your favorite suspense novel! For three bonus entries, post about this contest on your blog and tell me that you did. You have until Monday, December 15 at noon EST to enter! My postage budget for the year is shot, so I have to make this one U.S.-only. Good luck!