Silent Killer by Beverly Barton

Cathy is a witness to the murder of her husband, a town minister, and when another minister is killed in the same fashion only a few months later, Cahty breaks down and admits herself into a mental facility where she spends a lot of time coming to terms. Arriving back in Dunmore, Alabama as a new and improved woman, she meet up with Jack, her highschool sweetheart who has become a deputy in the town. Jack also carries some baggage, and both he and Cahty take small steps towards each other while they rekindle their old love. Pretty soon another clergy man is killed in the same gruesome fashion, and we now know that a serial killer is on the loose, a serial killer preying on clergy men.

The murder-plot is just one of the many plots in this below average thriller by Beverly Barton. An endless array of characters are introduced, making it hard to keep track, even for seasoned readers. Some loose ends, which actually seem very important, are never mentioned again and almost all the main characters are annoying. The writing is mediocre at best, and at first I thought that this was a first novel. At that point I was ready to forgive the bad plot(s) and the mediocre writing. But then I found out that the author has actually penned dozens and dozens of novels, and I must admit that I am not impressed.

There was absolutely nothing new in this story, and I am sure I will never pick up another book by Beverly Barton. It is not the author's fault that I mistakenly thought that this was a mystery when it was more of a romance with a thriller plot added though. Had it only been well written, I wouldn't object that much. As it is now, this one cannot be recommended at all.

Sunday Mini Review: The Killing Hour by Lisa Gardner

The Killing Hour has its moments. It is a fast read, the main plot is good and it is always interesting to be hot on the heels of an evil serial killer. But the characters are not really coming to life, and the usual 'stubborn heroine with a troubled past' is used too often.

Kimberly, the main character and heroine of the story, is a young FBI-trainee, and she is by coincidence and stubborness thrown into the investigation of a killer who has been killing for years. Kimberly is a troubled young woman with many demons, which is not making her life easier. She does not have any real friends, and her relationship with her father is neutral at best. When the serial killer starts dumping bodies close to the FBI training grounds, Kimberly cannot stay out of the investigation any more, even though her superiors has asked her to keep her nose out of it. Her father is an FBI agent who now has his own agency, and he suddenly shows up to help. Kimberly herself is also having personal motives to catch this killer, and while the time is running out, the clues comes together and it ends with a little twist which was just a little bit surprising. Hard core thriller readers will guess the identity of the killer long time before the final revelation.

This review has previously been posted on Amazon.com

NaBloPoMo # 25: Aftermath by Peter Robinson

Aftermath is number 12 in the Inspector Banks series by Peter Robinson. Some of you will know that I've read a lot of books in the series, but completely out of order. That has not really bothered me, and it didn't bother me this time, although I remembered the case of this book because I've read about it in one of the later ones. That did tell me who the killer was before the police knew it. But never mind, it certainly was a great read anyway, and very well put together.

Young, tall and blonde school girls has been disappearing for months, and Inspector Alan Banks is heading a task force investigating the missing girls cases. No one is able to get to the bottom of those mysterious vanishings, and there is real fear that this is not just your average teenage run-aways, but that there is a serial killer on the loose, although no bodies has turned up.

The timid Canadian artist Maggie lives in 32 The Hill, across the street from Lucy and Terrence in 37 The Hill. One night where she again is unable to sleep, she hears noises and voices from Lucy and Terrence's place, and decides to call the police, reporting what she fears is domestic violence. Two  young officers, Dennis and Janet, respond to the call, and before the night is over, one of them is dead.

Banks is called to the scene, and within a few hours it becomes clear that the domestic violence case and the missing girls case are linked, much closer than anyone imagines in the first hectic hours of investigating the domestic violence case.

And so the scene is sat for a thrilling mystery moving fast and without forgetting the excellent development of all the main characters, some of which we already know a lot about from previous (and later) books in the series. Recommendable!

This is the 25th post in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. See my page here.

NaBloPoMo # 15: Sunday Mini Review: Death Comes as the End by Agatha Christie

Death Comes as the End by Agatha Christie takes place in Ancient Egypt, and is about love and murder in a dysfunctional family around the year 2000 BCE. Its a fine and cosy mystery, and the scene set in Ancient Egypt shows us that when it comes to murder - and love - not much has changed since then.

This is the only book Christie wrote taking place in Ancient Egypt, but she wrote several with a Middle Eastern Scene, such as the well known Death on the Nile (legend had it that she wrote this while vacationing on the Old Cataract hotel in Aswan in Egypt. It is a fabulous hotel, closed these days for refurbishment, so the link goes to google image search) and Murder in Mesopotamia [Iraq] which centers around an archaelogical dig in Iraq. This is not so strange, considering that her husband was the world famous Near Eastern archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan, whom Christie followed around the world on archaeological expeditions.

Don't forget to check out the Agatha Christie webpage, its full of great info and links.

This is the 15th post in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. See my page here.

NaBloPoMo # 9: The Apprentice by Tess Gerritsen

Tess Gerritsen has written a serial-killer novel. Other reviewers has said the same thing, and I will repeat it: it is not good enough, it has been done better before! The Apprentice is a rip-off of serial killer/frustrated police-woman/gruesome medical examiner facts-books by Patricia Cornwell, Kathy Reichs and others, who does it much better than Ms. Gerritsen. There is not much new in this book, and it is hard to feel anything for the characters. Even the serial killer is just annoying. Jane Rizzoli, the frustrated police-woman, battling not only with sexist issues at the station but also the mental and physical scars from the same serial killer in a previous book, is trying hard to find him again, when he escapes prison. She cannot admit that she is scared to death, and while we try hard to gain some sympahty for her, the killer is getting closer and also playing gruesome mindgames with her. She is almost too stubborn for her own good. When the story is about to get going, it ends. Too much space in this book is used to descibe Jane Rizzoli's mental health, and her angst and anxiety and it gets boring. I was not impressed with this book, but - will not rule out that I could pick up another Tess Gerritsen book another time.

The above review has been posted on my Amazon.com review-page on June 20, 2004. And I did end up liking her books more, also the ones with Jane Rizzoli. But they will never become "5-star-favorites".

This is the ninth post in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. See my page here.

Sunday Mini Reviews: The Tempe Brennan series by Kathy Reichs

Searching Kathy Reichs on this blog will show two reviews: Devil Bones and Bones to Ashes. I have however read all books in the Tempe Brennan series (except the latest one 206 Bones, which is on my TBR). A complete list (except the latest one) can be seen here. Since I've been reading the series before I began blogging, I think that a couple of Sunday Mini Reviews are in order. I have to admit, though, that I cannot remember the exact plot of each and every book in the series, but I remember if I liked the book or not (mainly because I liked almost all of them).

The first book in the series is Deja Dead. At this point I was a huge fan of Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series, and wasn't really sure that another forensic-examiner-woman-sleuth would be nearly as good. But what a debute! I simply loved it and was chilled to the bone(!), even though I read it while I was living in Cairo and it was hot, hot, hot summertime. I found both plotline and character development to be bulls eye. Here is what Amazon.com says:

Actress Amy Irving's low-key approach fits first novelist Reichs's on-the-edge-of- your-seat thriller  perfectly. Montreal forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan is called upon when seemingly old bones are unearthed. She unwittingly stumbles upon a headless?and fresh?corpse. Research into other murders convinces her that a pattern is emerging and perhaps a serial killer is on the loose.

Loving forensics and loving serial killer mysteries, there wasn't anything not to be thrilled about in this first book. If you haven't read it and like a good mystery, then it is highly recommendable.

The followed number 2 which was almost as good as number 1. Number 3 was the one with the bikers, and that didn't really interest me, so wasn't completely taken with that one. Number 4 was about the plane crash and I remember it had a surprising ending. 5 in the series took place in Guatemala and was an okay read, and the next one, 6, I don't remember at all. I had to look it up at Amazon, and by reading their summary, I remember that this was the first one where I was a bit disappointed. Tempe's feistyness began to annoy me. Tempe's lecturing about forensic science (in what I found a patronizing way) also bega to annoy me, and this annoyance has stayed with me during all the remaining books. So reading number 7, I was already a bit annoyed, but remember an okay read. And then comes number 8. One of the most irritating books I've ever read. It came hot on the heels of the whole Da Vinci Code-frenzy, and it was definitely too thick. Its about the bones of Jesus and Tempe working in Israel and such. Boring and unneccessary. To be avoided.

As you can imagine, I wasn't thrilled and I didn't get to a Tempe Brennan book in a long time. But when I did pick up the next one, 9, I was very pleasantly surprised, because it was very good. And for 10 and 11, you can click the links above to see what I thought of them. But since I've purchased number 12, I guess you already have detected that I like them. Really, number 8 is the only one which really stinks. There are a couple I didn't really care for, but not in such a way that I was very disappointed or overly annoyed.

The conclusion is that number 1 was the best! And if you are only going to read one Kathy Reichs novel, then that has got to be the one! But the whole series is recommendable.

Cold is the Grave by Peter Robinson

This is book 11 in the Inspector Banks series of which I have read quite a few by now. They are all well written, although my personal interest in the plots differ a lot from book to book. Cold is the Grave sort of falls middle of the road. Its a long read, and the first third didn't really interest me, although I could see once the story got moving, why the first third had to be there in the first place. I also found the book to be about 50 pages too long, but that is a minor detail, since it is indeed well written.
Banks is being sent to London from his Yorkshire turf to help finding Emily, the runaway daughter of his boss, chief of police Jerry Riddle. Riddle has political ambitions, and he asks Banks to do this investigation at most discreet. Riddle and his cool wife Rosalind, the lawyer, are not interested in having their wild daughter tarnish the Riddle family's reputation. Banks unwillingly travels to London, manages to find Emily and delivers her relatively safe and sound to her family again.

Later a couple of lowlife criminals are found murdered, and as the investigations into those murders begin, Emily shows up again, asking Banks to meet with her. Soon it becomes clear that some of Emily's aquaintances in London could be involved in the murders of the low life criminals. Before Banks and his team manages to crack open the case completely, dramatic things happen, and the investigation takes on a whole other direction.

And this is where the story becomes a real mystery, with twists and turns, one more surprising than the other. In the end it is all being wrapped up - even Banks' love life which has been unsteady since his wife Sandra left him in an earlier book. The last part of the book was definitely the best, and I am already looking forward to the next one in the series, Aftermath.

The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons

I read a review of The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons at Regular Ruminations, and I just had to get it myself. I know that Anne Rivers Siddons is a famous writer, but I have not previously read anything by her. This book is an older one, published in 1977 or 1978. As far as I can deduct from various pages about Anne Rivers Siddons, this is her only mystery/horror-story.

I think it was a good read. Books set in a contemporary environment, but still 20+ years ago, are sometimes a bit weird to read. They are not yet classics from a historical period, like if they were written in the 1920'es or Second World War, but on the other hand they are not really modern either. They sort of fall between, and sometimes the lack of cell phones, internet and other modern stuff makes an otherwise contemporary story seem slightly off. Afraid I am not really making myself clear here, and this book is definitely not suffering much from being from the 1970'es (mentions of the women's clothes almost felt modern, since the 1970'es are rather retro anyway).

It takes place in a well off neighborhood in Atlanta among a set of neighbors and good friends. The 30-something couple Walter and Colquitt (awful names by the way) are the main protagonists, although the Guthrie and the Swanson-couples also feature prominently. Walter and Colquitt are the next door neighbors to an empty lot, where an up-and-coming architect builds a modern house, which everyone loves initially. Walter and Colquitt were not overly enthusiatic about having a house build next to them, but they also fall in love with this new, fabulous house.

Soon after the first, young couple has moved in, unspeakable horrors begin to take place, involving each couple (Walter and Colquitt, the Guthries and the Swansons) in turn, so that the book is actually made up of three stories within a frame. The frame which those stories are placed in, is Walter and Colquitt's interview with People, in which they, in retrospect, tell how they think the house is haunted. In which ways, I shall not tell, you will have to read yourself.

I wasn't very scared, but the books definitely has its horror moments, and the writing is fluid, although I do think that Rivers Siddons sometimes uses too many words in her descriptions. There is a bit too much of not showing but telling. All in all a good, entertaining read. Recommended.

Reviewed by Regular Rumination (click link above). Also reviewed by Eva at A Striped Armchair.

Devil Bones by Kathy Reichs

I've read all the Tempe Brennan-books by Kathy Reichs. Most were good reads, a few were really great and one or two were just plain bad. This one, Devil Bones, is the number 11 in the series, which can be read without problem out of order. But as always with a series, it pays to read them in order, since there is some character-development, spoiler-hints to previous books etc.

Devil Bones is an ejoyable, easy and entertaining read. Middle of the road. It wasn't bad at all, but there was not really anything new under the sun, and the plot was not overly interesting to me. Its main plotline is about fringe religions such as Santería, Wicca, Voodoo etc. And then of course there are some murders, some forensic work and some tension between Tempe and the police, her male friends/boyfriends etc.

What has begun to bug me slightly is the "lessons" I am being taught when reading the Tempe Brennan-books. I read forensic thrillers because I think its interesting and because I like a bit of gore and decomposed corpses. But since this is the latest book in a long series, and since Ms. Reichs is not the only one writing forensic thrillers (but, admittedly, she is one of the best), its like we have either heard it all before or the forensics involved are so complicated that we are being taught what it is about in a patronizing way, which is beginning to rub me the wrong way. An example could be like this: Tempe tells the police about some complicated, scientific forensic thing. The dumbass-policeman then says: Could you say that again in human language (or something like that). I just annoys me.

Anyway, Devil Bones is definitely worth a read, specially if you are a Tempe Brennan-fan and has read the other books. It is not the best one in the series though.

Undone by Karin Slaughter

Undone by Karin Slaughter (the UK edition is called genesis) combines the characters from Slaughter's Grant County-series and the series about Atlanta detectives Will Trent and Faith Mitchell.

One of the main characters in the Grant County-series is Sara Linton, coroner and pediatrician in a small town in Georgia. The main characters of the Atlanta-series are, as mentioned above, the detectives Will Trent and Faith Mitchell.

In Undone, Sara has moved to Atlanta to lick her (very deep) wounds from the previous novel in the Grant County-series. That was called Beyond Reach (and Skin Privilege in the UK edition), and if you plan to read this series, or maybe already read some of them, but not Beyond Reach, I do not recommend reading Undone, although they can easily stand alone. Undone just has too many spoilers if you want to read them in order. I shall avoid spoilers here, though.

Combining the two series in this book was a good move, I think. I had personally grown tired with some of the characters from the Grant County-series, and was relieved that I did not have to read about them yet again, although the whole series has grown a lot on me over the years.

We meet the main characters in the first chapter, where Will and Faith visits the ER where Sara is now working as an ER doc. Faith has been passing out and feeling unwell, and finally ends up in the ER. She has not been in the ER for long before the ER receives another patient: a young woman who is terribly mutilated, but still alive - barely. Sara treats her as best as she can, discover some horrible things, and within minutes Will is on his way to where she was found - after she was run over by a car.

Now the story takes up speed, horrendous things are uncovered from the earth, literally, and soon another woman goes missing. Will, Faith (who is being treated for her fainting-spells) and Sara digs into the case, which becomes uglier by the hour.

The case and the plot is interesting, and Karin Slaughter writes well and is good in building up characters. The life-stories (which we also know from previous books in the two series) are being told again, we learn new details about the characters and it all adds to the tension and excitement of the story. I would have liked a plot which was a bit more tight (I did guess most of it about half way through, unfortunately), and I would have liked some of the characters to "snap out of it", but that is a feeling I generally have with Slaughter's books.

All in all I think Undone is a rather good read and perfect for a lazy day - either on the couch or the beach :o) I really cannot write much more without giving away the plot of the previous books, and I think you should read it yourself :o)

Also reviewed by Lynda from Lynda's Book Blog.

Strange Affair by Peter Robinson

Strange Affair is no. 15 in the Inspector Banks series. When we left Inspector Banks, Annie Cabbott and the other policemen and women in Eastvale, dramatic stuff had happened. Everyone are still licking their wounds, mainly Banks, who has withdrawn into himself. When the book begins, he is on vacation. Not abroad, but at home. He receives a mysterious call from his somewhat estranged brother Roy, but he is not home to answer the call. Mystified and intrigued he leaves for London to ask Roy what is up, but Roy has disappeared, leaving only his cell phone behind. As Banks digs into the disappearance, he finds out things about Roy that he had never suspected, and he meets some of the people who were Roy's friends, business partners and lovers. Meanwhile, Annie Cabbott is trying to get hold of Banks, but he has left his cell phone back in Eastvale. He is desperately needed in Eastvale, as a young girl has been found shot, and traces are leading in all directions. Biggest fear is that the Eastvale police are dealing with a serial killer.

This was an exciting read, and I really liked it. I will take a break from the Banks-thrillers now and concentrate on some of my challenge reads instead. But if you begin reading the Banks-series, I can definitely recommend this one.

Playing with Fire by Peter Robinson

Peter Robinson is a British author, living in Canada. He is the author of 18 Inspector Banks mysteries. See complete list here and Robinson's own page here. Although I haven't read them all and although I am reading them completely out of order, and therefore am not 100% sure, it seems that most of them takes place in and around the fictional city of Eastvale in Yorkshire. On the subject of Eastvale, Peter Robinson himself says:

"Eastvale is modelled on North Yorkshire towns such as Ripon and Richmond, with cobbled maket squares, rather than the kind with one main high street, like Northalleron or Thirsk. I had to make it much larger than those towns, of course, otherwise who would believe there could be that many murders?"

Playing with Fire is Inspector Banks book # 14. By coincidence, the previous one I read was # 13 (check review here) and I also have # 15 checked out from the library, ready to be read.

Playing with Fire opens with....a fire. A fire eating two delapidated house-boats, inhabited by squatters. Unfortunately, two of the squatters, the artist Thomas McMahon in one of the boats and the junkie Tina in the other boat, are at home when the fire breaks out, and they die. Inspector Banks, DI Annie Cabbott and the rest of the team very soon figures out that they are dealing with arson - and murder. But why would anyone want to murder Tina - a 17 year old junkie who never hurt anyone but herself? Can her parents answer that question? And what exactly did Thomas McMahon work on as a painter, and to whom was he selling his art? While working on those questions, both Banks and Cabbott try to juggle their private lives as well. Banks has a new girlfriend, but is still agonizing over his divorce, and Cabbott just began dating the good-looking and sexy art-expert Phil Keane, who comes in handy when more fires happen and their investigations lean more and more towards the world of art, painting and artists. There are a lot of twists and turns in this Inspector Banks mystery, and it was an okay read. I loved the previous one I read, but this one was a bit slow to get going and didn't really pick up until I was more than halfway through. So not one of the best in the series out of those I've read so far.

Heaven's Prisoners by James Lee Burke

Heaven' Prisoners is book number two in the series about Dave Robicheaux. In this book he has resigned from the New Orleans policeforce, which he might have done already in book one, Neon Rain, which I read years ago, so I cannot remember.

Anyway, he has moved to New Iberia, about 150 miles from New Orleans and is now living with his wife Annie, with whom he own a boat-rental place. His days passes catching fish, thinking, supressing his alcoholic tendencies and his inner demons.

One day he and Annie are witnesses to a plane crashing into the Mexican Gulf, and Dave manages to dive down and save a little girl from the sinking plane. Annie and Dave take the little girl with them and plans to just get on with their lives, after reporting the crash to the relevant institutions. This plane crash is just the beginning of a case involving local small time criminals, federal government, Middle American smugglers, whores, thieves and threatening people from Haiti. Dave gets involved in the case, much to Annie's dismay, and it has fatal consequences. Now I haven't really said more than what is also on the back of the book!

The pages are almost moist with swampy Southern heat, mixed with violence, blood, alcohol and hangovers. There are some beautiful descriptions of nature and landscape in Louisiana, and when Robicheaux is hungover, the reader can feel the jackhammer behind the eyes. No doubt that James Lee Burke can write.

The plot of the book didn't really catch me. It wasn't that there were endless subplots, but the connections between one end of the plot and another was hard to follow and from time to time I just found too many weak links between a lot of characters. Considering how philosofical our main man, Robicheaux, is, I think he went pretty fast through a lot of things which I personally would have been thinking a lot about!

I liked the book and will probably read the rest, but it wasn't that great a mystery. The writing and the descriptions were fab though.

The Associate by John Grisham

Haven't read a John Grisham legal thriller for ages, when I found this in a hotel in Egypt on my recent vacation. Decided to grab it for a quick read. It is about Kyle, who is about to graduate and become a lawyer. He wants to work bro bono for some years, paying back to society and all that, but before graduating, he is being called to a meeting with some suspicious types who want him to do their business. For various reasons, he ends up accepting their "offer", which really is no offer at all, and soon after his graduation he finds himself in an enormous firm in New York, being worked to death as a first year associate. He has the suspicious types following his every step, his apartment is wired and he is generally finding himself in a huge jam, of which he cannot see a way out. But Kyle is a ressourceful young man, and a smart one as well, and he begins his own investigations and plans to get rid of his shadows and their threat of ruining his career if he is not doing as told.

This legal thriller is fine enough for a beach- or poolside read, and I was well entertained and found the writing fine and with a good flow. But nothing more. Not much substance and written like its to become a movie, rather sooner than later. I used to like Grisham's earlier works, then he sort of got "James Patterson Syndrome" and begun whipping out one bad book after another. He has not reached the low of James Patterson yet, though, and I can recommend this book as an entertaining, fast read.

The Summer That Never Was by Peter Robinson

I am fast becoming a fan of Peter Robinson and his Inspector Banks-series. I have read a couple of them in random order and The Summer That Never Was is book number 13 in the series. If you don't know the series and want to read it, I suggest you begin with the beginning. They can be read individually, but the characters go through different things which may be good to know. But that said, they can easily stand alone.

A young boy, son of a celebrity-couple, goes missing at the same time a skeleton is dug up in another part of the country (England). The skeleton turns out to be that of Bank's friend Graham Marshall who went missing in the summer of 1965. Banks heads home after a long vacation in Greece even though he still has some weeks of vacation left. He is going to help Annie Cabbott, his ex-girlfriend who is also a detective, solving the mystery of the missing boy. On the surface it looks like a "simple" kidnapping case, and even more so as the parents of the missing boy are being told by a mysterious caller that the boy, Luke, will return home the day after he went missing. Things doesn't add up though and pretty soon it becomes a very confusing case involving more people than anticipated at first.

At the same time, Banks is also getting involved in the Graham Marshall-case. Graham disappeared in 1965 when he was 15 years old and now that his skeleton has been found, there is no doubt that he was murdered back then. It is officer Michelle Hart who is leading the investigations and she finds out that not everyone are interested in her getting to the bottom of things and solving the mystery. Banks is drawn to the case and goes back to his childhood-town. It makes Banks remember things from his adolescent youth he had long forgotten. Things that may or may not help the investigation.

The two cases are not connected as such, but there are many resemblances, specially concerning adolescence, boys, coming of age and remembering the past and all the summers that never was.

The book is long, more than 400 pages, but it moves well along and is very well written and just the kind of mystery/thriller I like. This is either 4½ or 5 stars out of 5.

This is part of the Read and Review challenge.

What Never Happens by Anne Holt

Anne Holt is a well-known Norwegian author, writing mostly crime-fiction. I have read a couple of her books in the Hanne Wilhelmsen-series, but this one, What Never Happens, is number two book in what I think is going to be a series about psychologist Johanne Vik and her husband, detective Adam Stubo. I haven't read book number one, but I guess that the pair met each other in that one, as they are relatively newly-wed in this one. Not like they've JUST met each other, but they've both been married before.

Johanne is on maternity leave, having just given birth to their first child. She has an older daughter and the newborn girl is also Adam's, second child. On the day the daughter is born, Adam is called away from the maternity ward to have a look at a grisly murder comitted in one of Oslo's fancy neighborhoods. A talk-show star has been brutally killed and there are no clues at all. Or rather, there are a lot of clues, but the Olso murder squad cannot connect the dots and nothing seems to have been odd about this woman, who was killed.

As the trail gets colder, Adam persuades Johanne to have a look at the case-files. Long time ago she studied profiling with one of FBI's most famous behavioral experts, and she knows a thing or two. Johanne is both compulsed and attracted to case. But having a newborn, she is also tired and edgy and extremely jumpy.

She does manage to read some of the files, though, and pretty soon she is into the case big time, even seeing things the police had overlooked. When more murders are comitted, it looks like a serial killer is on the loose, but the things still doesn't add up. Something is off, and neither Johanne, nor the Oslo police can put their finger on it.

At the same time, the readers are following an anonymous woman, whom we know is behind the murders one way or the other from the beginning. But we don't know why and how and who she is, even though we are into her head from the beginning of the book.

The ending left me a bit annoyed as I think that it was too weak. It may lead to a number three book though, which will hopefully explain some of the things I didn't think were througly explained in this one.

All in all not a bad read, but not the best crime-fiction ever. The dialogue between Johanne, Adam and his colleague in the force, Sigmund, was not impressing. It kinda annoyed me a bit and felt forced at places. But again, it wasn't a bad read and I will try and find book number one and also see if there is a book number three.

Dorte from DJ's Krimiblog has also reviewed What Never Happens. Check her review here.

This is part of the Read and Review Challenge.

Can't Let Go by Jane Hill

Jane Hill is an English writer I sort of "discovered" earlier this year. I am fairly sure she is not read by a North American audience, as I can only find reviews on the British Amazon.co.uk. And not that many by the way. I kinda liked her two previous "crime" novels Grievous Angel and The Murder Ballad and reviewed them here and here. So if you go check those reviews out, I don't have to say again, that I really don't think they are crime novels as much as I think they are chick lit. Nothing wrong in that at all. They are probably a combination between the two.

Can't Let Go is build slightly different than Ms. Hill's previous novels. But they share at least one thing in common: they all have a somewhat bitter slash frustrated heroine in her mid 30'es. In this one, her name is Beth Stephens and she is a mousy teacher at a girl's school. Mousy she is and also an expert of blending in and not making any fuss about her own person. She is also paranoid and has been running away from her demons for the past 17 years. Because when she was 18, she killed a man and got away with it (not a spoiler, this is revealed on the front flap of the book). So Beth has spent her life since then hiding from.....? Thing is, she really doesn't know shy she is hiding. No one has ever come for her, nothing has ever happened since she killed a man and got away with it. We enter her life as she is on the verge of trying to get into a normal kind of life instead of a life filled with paranoia.

By sheer coincidence, she befriends the feisty stand up comedian Zoey and then the book begins to drag on and on and on. Beth begins receiving threatening notes and it looks like someone has finally figured out that Beth Stephens is not exactly the mousy teacher she has made herself into. But instead of taking up pace, the reader is dragged from one stand up joint to another with Zoey and Beth and are learning about how to do stand up while their friendship develops. Booooring.

The final pages are marginally interesting and I also liked the way things wrapped up, now that they sort of had to be wrapped up, but in conclusion, I really do not think that there was much of a story! I wasn't nearly as entertained as I had been with Jane Hill's previous novels. But I may still try her next one.

Life Support by Tess Gerritsen

Just finished Life Support by Tess Gerritsen this evening. I read my first Tess Gerritsen 4 years back and reviewed it on Amazon. It was book # 2 in her Jane Rizzoli-series and it was called The Apprentice. I wasn't impressed. Later on I picked up a couple of other Gerritsen-books and found that I enjoyed them. So it didn't take long to pick up Life Support and get reading. The story is about ER doc Toby Harper and about how a normal and perhaps a little boring life can deteriorate in a matter of weeks, which is was happens to Toby when she stumbles across a conspiracy involving a luxurious retirement home, young prostitutes and her own mother, suffering from Alzherimer's. One slow night in the ER, Toby receives an elderly man who is naked and confused and found wandering the streets of Boston. Before Toby can diagnose him, he has disappeared into thin air and no matter what Toby and her staff do, he remains missing. Toby cannot get him out of her head and finds out that he was a resident in the luxurious retirement home Brant Hill. Soon she smells something fishy going on in the Brant Hill retirement home and she begins her own investigations, going against the wish of several colleagues and doctors from Brant Hill. Then unpleasant things begin to happen to Toby herself, and in a matter of a few weeks, she doesn't know whom to trust and whom not to trust. All in all this is a pretty good plot and the book is also relatively well written. BUT! I like a medical thriller as much as the next girl, but this one wasn't fast paced at all. It was also too easy to guess the plot and the character development was lacking. It was hard to find any sympathy with the main characters who just felt one-dimensional and slightly annoying. Still, Life Support is an easily read and entertaining little medical thriller, but I am sure Tess Gerritsen can do much better than this.

National Blog Posting Month # 27: Pompeii by Rober Harris

I liked Robert Harris' Pompeii. I read it in a few days, enjoyed it, and found the story to be well written. But - there is a but - it could be boring at times. It was definitely not the 5* read I had expected it to be. Anyway, I loved the ancient setting in the Roman city of Pompeii with all it's hustlers, decadent senators, prostitutes, slaves and gladiators. The main character is the young engineer Marcus, who has travelled from Rome to take over the job as water-engineer in the area around Pompeii. He soon discovers that something is wrong, and the story takes place on those the last days of Pompeii. Will Marcus get out of the city before the volcano erupts? Will he be able to save the girl he can't stop thinking about? Will he find out what happened to the missing water-engineer of Pompeii? The novel is full of interesting questions plus a good deal of 'lessons' about volcanoes, earthquakes and so on. A fairly good read, entertaining.
This wonderful image of a street in the ruins of ancient Pompeii is by the flickr user Senex Prime.

This is my post # 27 in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. See my page here.

National Blog Posting Month # 22: Phantom Prey by John Sandford

This latest John Sandford Prey mystery is a fine enough read. Speaking in stars, where 5 is the most, this is a small 3 star read. I have read previous Prey mysteries which were way better, but this is not to say that Phantom Prey is bad. Not at all. But seems to me like Sandford is getting just a little tired of writing about Lucas Davenport and the BCA and the Minneapolis police. I don't know.

A wealthy, young Goth-girl has disappeared, leaving only a splatter of blood behind her in her mother's house. There is no body and no sign of forced entry and her mother, the very wealthy health-club owner and widow Alyssa Austin seeks out the help of Lucas Davenport after the regular police has given up finding her daughter (the daughter's body, should she be dead). Lucas is not crazy about taking on this case, but his wife Weather, who is friends with Alyssa Austin, has manages to convince him to give the case a look. Lucas discovers that the young girl was hanging out with a Goth-crowd and when the members of this crowd begin mentioning a mysterious fairy-girl who keeps disappearing, he gets seriously interested in the case, and pretty soon he is in serious danger himself. When more dead Goths begin turning up, Lucas has to speed up his investigations and look into clues that keeps pointing him in different directions.

The reader is told who the killer is halfway through the book and that did bother me a bit. Usually I do not mind being told this, some books tell you who the killer is from page one and still it can be a great mystery. But in this case I don't think it really was an advantage to know that much. All in all I can recommend this one as a light and entertaining read, but if you haven't read any of the Prey-series yet, begin with the first ones. They are better. This one can easily stand alone though.

This is my post # 22 in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. See my page here.