The Blade Itself by Marcus Sakey

Started: 7/18/13
Finished: 7/24/13
Year: 2007
Pages: 331
Genre: mystery
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: borrowed from library
Blurb (from back cover): "On the South Side of Chicago, you're only as strong as your reputation. Danny Carter and his best friend Evan earned theirs knocking over pawnshops and liquor stores, living from score to score, never thinking of tomorrow...until, in the roar of a gun blast, everything changed.
"Years later, Danny has built a new life: a legitimate career, a long-term girlfriend, and a clean conscience. He's just like anyone else. Normal. Successful. Happy. Until he spots his old partner staring him down in a smoky barroom mirror...
"Now, with all he loves on the line and nowhere to turn, Danny realizes his new life hinges on a terrible choice: How far will he go to protect his future from his past?"
Opinion: A great debut book from Sakey. Great twists and turns with an ending that most would not predict.

The Demonologist by Andrew Pyper

Started: 7/16/13
Finished: 7/17/13
Year: 2013
Pages: 285
Genre: suspense/horror
Grade: B
Reason for reading: borrowed from library
Blurb (from book jacket): " Professor David Ullman is among the world's leading authorities on demonic literature, with special expertise in Milton's Paradise Lost. Not that David's is a believer-he sees what he teaches as a branch of the imagination and nothing more. So when the mysterious Thin Woman arrives at his office and invites him to travel to Venice and witness a 'phenomenon,' he turns her down. She leaves plane tickets and an address on his desk, advising David that her employer is not often disappointed.
"That evening, David's wife announces she is leaving him. With his life suddenly in shambles, he impulsively whisks his beloved twelve-year-old daughter, Tess, off to Venice after all. The girl has recently been stricken by thte same melanchly moods David knows so well, and he hopes to cheer her up and distract them both from the troubles at home.
"But what happens in Venice will change everything.
"First, in a tiny attic room at the address provided by the Thin Woman, David sees a man restrained in a chair, muttering, clearly insane...but could he truly be possessed? Then the man speaks clearly, in the voice of David's dead father, repeating that last words he ever spoke to his son. Words that have left scars-and a mystery-behind.
"When David rushes back to the hotel, he witnesses Tess perched on the roof's edge, high above the waters of the Grand Canal. Before she falls, she manages to utter a final plea: Find me.
"What follows is an unimaginable journey for David Ullman from skeptic to true believer. In a terrifying quest guided by symbols and riddles from the pages of Paradise Lost, David must track the demon that has captured his daughter and discover its name. If he fails, he will lose Tess forever."
Opinion: Having never read Paradise Lost I did not find myself lost in the references. This was full of action and excitement. A good read.

The Story of X by A.J. Molloy

Started: 7/13/13
Finished: 7/15/13
Year: 2012
Pages: 329
Genre: erotica/romance
Grade: B
Reason for reading: borrowed from library
Blurb (from back cover): "Shy American student Alexandra Beckman-X to her friends-arrives in Naples desperate for adventures beyond the sheltered life she has led. She is there to study the Camorra,  an infamous Italian crime organization. But in the sun-soaked, ancient city streets, her research leads her to a man like no one else she has ever met.
"Irresistibly handsome, Lord Marcus Roscarrick is an Italian aristocrat with a mysterious past. Yet underneath his refined exterior, X senses a man who is well acquainted with danger.
"Soon they begin a passionate affair, and X is drawn into Roscarrick's world-a world she never dreamed existed. But as she falls ever more deeply under Roscarrick's spell. X must decide whether she dares to submit entirely to this shadowy realm of dark desire.
Blurb: This wasn't full of erotica which I was glad to read. Enough action and romance mixed into the erotica.

The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes by Marcus Sakey

Started: 7/1/13
Finished: 7/2/13
Year: 2011
Pages: 388
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: borrowed from library
Blurb (from book jacket): "The only sign of life for miles is an empty BMW. Inside the expensive car he finds clothes that fit perfectly, shoes for his tattered feet, a Rolex, and an auto registration in the name of Daniel Hayes, resident of Malibu, California.
"None of it is familiar.
"How did he get here? Who is he? Who was he? While he searches for answers, the world searches for him-beginning with the cops that kick in the door of his dingy motel with guns drawn. Lost and alone, the man who might be Daniel Hayes flees into the night.
"All he remembers is a woman's face, so he sets off for the only place he might find her. The fantasy of her becomes his home, his world, his hope, And maybe, just maybe, the way back to himself."
Opinion: This was a really good mystery with a severe twist at the end. Great story.

Ghosts and Legends of the Carolina Ghosts by Terrance Zepke

Started: 6/29/13
Finished: 6/30/13
Year: 2005
Pages: 159
Genre: Paranormal
Grade: B
Reason for reading: borrowed from library
Blurb (from back cover): A collection of twenty-eight stories ranging from hair-raising talks of horror to fascinating legends from the folklore of the North and South Carolina shores.
Opinion: Some interesting historical stories about the past on the Carolina shores. Would be nice to visit some of the areas mentioned in the book.

At the City's Edge by Marcus Sakey

Started: 6/19/13
Finished: 6/25/13
Year: 2008
Pages: 346
Genre: Mystery/suspense
Grade: B
Reason for reading: borrowed from library
Blurb: Brother, former soldier, comes home and seeks to change a community and revenge for his brother's death.
Opinion: Lots of action and obvious that Sakey did his research on gangs. Great book.

Fifty Shades of Dorian Gray

Started: 6/24/13
Finished: 6/25/13
Year: 2013
Pages: 233
Genre: erotica
Grade: C
Reason for reading: borrowed from the library
Blurb (from back cover): "Meet artist Rosemary Hall and follow her inevitable downfall brought by her lust for the famous Dorian Gray-a tale both familiar and new in this brilliant erotic mash-up of one of the world's most beloved novels. With a mix of old fashioned Victorian debauchery and erotic, twenty-first-century lut this cleverly sexed-up classic will leave you wanting more!
Opinion: I felt that this was more of a parody of the classic Dorian Gray novel. The erotica was there in the beginning and about  non existant from halfway in the book.

Kinsey and Me by Sue Grafton

Started: 6/17/13
Finished: 6/19/13
Year: 2013
Pages: 283
Genre: Short stories
Grade: B
Reason for reading: borrowed from library
Blurb (from book jacket): "The nine stories that open the book are each gems of detection. So much has happened in the decades since Kinsey made her debut that it's easy to forget she was part of a seismic shift in the private-eye novel, as women ceased to be loyal sidekicks and came into their own, with strong voices and decidedly strong opinions. The same fiesty voice, rapier with, and irreverent observations readers fell in love with in A is for Alibi permeate these stories, proving just how fully formed Kinsey was from the beginning.
"The thirteen stories that form the second part of the book were written in the decade after Grafton's mother died. These stories feature Kit Blue, a younger version of Sue herself. They are dark with their undercurrent of sadness and muted pain. Grafton's family was troubled, as so many families are, but her wise and sensitive telling traces a remarkable voyage, from anger to understanding to forgiveness, and finally, to the realization of a profound love. The emotional impact is enormous.
"Sue has in the past briefly mentioned the alcoholism of both her parents, which seems to have begun around the time her father returned from the war. Some things we never discover about our parents, and Sue did not know what led to this dependency. But with it came a childhood lacking in supervision. She was free to read everything and roam everywhere, to let her imagination take her as far as she could go. But the dark side of such limitless freedom was emotional turmoil.
"Sue is a very private person and has never before opened this up to public view. That she does so now speaks to her having come to terms with the past. Still, as she writes, 'we live in a confessional age, but I don't want to be perceived as plundering my own sorry story for fun and profit. At the remove of some fifty years, I still find myself reluctant to lift the veil on a period of my life that was chaotic and confused.
"'I wish life could be edited as deftly as prose. It would be nice to go back and write a better story, correcting weaknesses and follies in the light of what I now know. What I've noticed, though, is that any attempt to trim out the dark matter takes away some of the good that was also buried in the muck. The past is a package deal and I don't believe there's a way to tell some of the truth without telling most. Wisdom comes at a price, and I have paid dearly for mine.'"
Opinion: The Kinsey stories are typical Kinsey material-entertaining and fun. The more personal stories were interesting and lets readers into Sue's personal life.

The Clairvoyant by Hans Holzer

Started: 6/13/13
Finished: 6/17/13
Year: 1976
Pages: 166
Genre: Biography
Grade: B
Reason for reading: Borrowed from the library
Blurb (from book jacket): "Uschi Troll was born in Vienna in the 1950's. She had her first psychic experience at the age of four; by the time she was eleven, she had bewildered and frightened her parents-and herself-with the extent of her powers. Only gradually was she able to accept her unusual gift, as she moved from school to school, from relationship to relationship...
"When Uschi decided that it was time to tell her story, she told it to Hans Holzer, knowing that he, a world-renowned expert on psychic phenomena, would tell it with insight and truth. Holzer traces Uschi's life from private school in a baroque castle in Salzburg to study and exploration of parapsychology at the University of Los Angeles, and then to London as a society clairvoyant. In her twenties, her powers widely known, Uschi went back to Austria, where she was finaly able to resolve two troublesome conflicts: feeling quality over using her talents to amass a fortune and feeling disillusioned with a world that neither fully understood nor accepted, but as always poised to take advantage."
Blurb: An interesting look at a psychic's life.

The Perfect Marriage by Kimberla Lawson Roby

Stated: 6/12/13
Finished: 6/13/13
Year: 2013
Pages: 174
Genre: Literature
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: borrowed from library
Blurb (from book jacket): "Denise and Derrick Shaw are the perfecrt American couple. Happily married for fifteen years, they have a wonderful daughter, Mackenzie, successful careers, and a beautiful house in a posh Chicago suburb. They are attractive, respected...and hiding a shocking secret: a dangerous addiction to drugs.
"It started innocently enough. Denise occasionally used prescription drugs to help her deal with the long hours and demanding nature of her job. Derreck, also under pressure at work, began using cocaine socially with some of his colleagues.
"They can quit whenever they want to. At least, that's what Denise would like to believe..
"As her job becomes more stressful, Denise can no longer get through the day without a fix. Derrek realizes his harmless habit has become anything but, and desperately wants to get clean. However, his attempts are derailed when there is a sudden family tragedy. Once soul mates, now this husband and wife are quickly losing the immense love that had been the cornerstone of their marriage. With her parents spiraling out of control, Mackenie makes an unexpected move to take matters into her own hands. Is her sacrifice too late-or is there still hope? Is there a final chance to save the Shaw family?
Opinion: A powerful story in a short book. Readers immediately feel for this family and see how quickly innocent using becomes deadly.

Blood Money by James Grippando

Started: 6/10/13
Finished: 6/12/13
Year: 2013
Pages: 342
Genre: Suspense/mystery
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: borrowed from library
Blurb (from book jacket): "It is the most sensational murder trial since O. J. Simpson's. The nation is obsessed with Sydney Bennett, a sexy nightclub waitress and good-time girl accused of murdering her two-year-old daughter fro cramping her party life. When he had agreed to defend Sydney, Jack Swyteck knew he'd be taking on the toughest and most controversial case of his career.
"Millions of 'TV jurors' have convicted Sydney in the court of public opinion.
"When the shockking verdict of not guilty is announced, citizens across the country are outraged, and Jack is bombarded by ther fallout: angry, profanity-laced phone calls and even outright threats. Media-fed rumors of 'blood money'-purported seven-figure book and movie deals-ratchet up the hysteria, putting Jack's client and everyone around her at risk."
Opinion: High-paced action with some side twists. A great read.

The Lively Ghosts of Ireland by Hans Holzer

Started: 6/6/13
Finished: 6/10/13
Year: 1967
Pages: 182
Genre: Paranormal
Grade: C
Reason for reading: borrowed from the library
Blurb (from book jacket): "Holzer and a medium, in most cases his psychic friend Sybil Leek, investigated may spectral phenomena, which took them from the rocky Kerry Coast to the windswept hills of Tara. They found disembodied Irish characters everywhere-clinging to castle walls and inhabiting drafty rectories-all anxious to reveal their melancholy stories.
Opinion: For the time that it was written, it gives good descriptions of possible paranormal activity in Ireland.

Seeking Spirits by Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson

Started: 6/2/13
Finished: 6/5/13
Year: 2009
Pages: 264
Genre: biographical/paranormal
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: borrowed from library
Blurb: This is a following up to Ghost Hunting. More cases are discussed and more ghost hunting evidence/ways of examining are discussed.
Opinion: Some great cases and some that make you go Hmmmmm.

The Bone Bed by Patricia Cornwell

Started: 5/27/13
Finished: 6/1/13
Year: 2012
Pages: 463
Genre: mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: borrowed from the library
Blurb (from book jacket): "A woman has vanished while digging a dinosaur bone bed in the remote wilderness of Canada. Somehow, the only evidence has made its way to the inbox of Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta, over the two thousand miles away in Boston. She has no idea why.
"But as events unfold with alarming speed, Scarpetta begins to suspect that the paleontologist's disappearance is connected to a series of crimes much closer to home: a gruesome murder, inexplicable tortures, and trace evidence from the last living creatures of the dinosaur age.
"When she turns to those around her, Scarpetta finds that the danger and suspicion have penetrated even her closet circles. Her niece Lucy speaks in riddles. Her lead investigator, Pete Marino and FBI forensic psychologist and husband, Benton Wesley, have secrets of their own. Feeling alone and betrayed, Scarpetta is tempted by someone from her past as she tracks a killer both cunning and cruel."
Opinion: Fits right in with Cornwell's other Scarpetta books. Did drag a little bit in the middle when cases were being introduced but in the end it all made sense.

Mystery by Jonathan Kellerman

Started: 5/24/13
Finished: 5/27/13
Year: 2011
Pages: 320
Genre: mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: borrowed from the library
Blurb (from book jacket): "The closing of their favorite romantic rendezvous, the Fauboug Hotel in Beverly Hills, is a sad occasion for longtime patrons Alex Delaware and Robin Castagna. And gathering one last time with their fellow faithful habitues for cocktails in the gracious old venue makes for a bittersweet evening. But even more poignant is a striking young woman-alone and enigmatic among the revelers-waiting in vain in elegant attire and dark glasses that do nothing to conceal her melancholy. Alex can't help wondering what her story is, and whether she's connected to the silent, black-suited bodyguard lingering outside the hotel.
"Two days later, Alex has even more to contemplate when police detective Milo Sturgis comes seeking his psychologist comrade's insights about a grisly homicide. To Alex's shock, the brutalized victim is the same beautiful woman whose lonely hours sipping champagne at the Fauboug may have been her last.
"But with a mutilated body and no DNA match, she remains a mysterious in death as she seemed in life. And even when a tipster's sordid revelation finally cracks the case open, the dark secrets that spill out could make Alex and Milo's best efforts to close this horrific crime not just impossible but fatal."
Opinion: The characters continue to be well developed and pick up just like you would expect them to. Great little twists and turns throughout the book.

77 Shadow Street by Dean Koontz

Started: 5/15/13
Finished: 5/23/13
Year: 2011
Pages: 451
Genre: Horror
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: borrowed from library
Blurb (from book jacket): "The Pendlerton stands on the summit of Shadow Hill at the highest point of an old heartlan city, a Gilded Age palace built in the 1800s as a tycoon's dream home. Almost from the beginning, its grandeur has been scarred by episodes of madness, suicide, mass murder, and whispers of things far worse. But since its rechristening in the 1970s as a luxury apartment building, the Pendleton has been at peace. For its fortunate residents-a successful songwriter and her young son, a disgraced ex-senator, a widowed attorney, and a driven money manager among them-the Pendleton's magnificent quarters are a sanctuary, its dark past all but forgotten.
"But now inexplicable shadows caper across walls, security cameras relay impossible images, phantom voices mutter in the strange tongues, not-quite-human figures lurk in the basement, elevators plunge into unknown depths. With each passing hour, a terrifying certainty grows: Whatever drove the Pendleton's past occupants to their unspeakable fates is at work again. Soon, all those within its boundaries will be engulfed by a deadly tide from which few have escaped."
Opinion: A decent horror book with several characters-different from his traditional couple with a dog facing an unknown demon.

Chasing Ghosts, Texas Style by Brad and Barry Klinge

Started: 5/12/13
Finished: 5/13/13
Year: 2011
Pages: 223
Genre: Biographical
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: borrowed from library
Blurb (from book jacket): "The unusual is business as usual for brothers Brad and Barry Klinge, founders of Everyday Paranormal. With their state-of-the-art mobile ghost lab, the Klinges take a high-tech approach to investigating America's most notoriously haunted places, which has yielded some of the most definitive proof of ghosts' existence to date.
"In Chasing Ghosts, Texas Style, Brad and Barry reveal the events that led to the formation of Everyday Paranormal and their television show, Ghost Lab. They recall the eerie early experiences that convinced them that ghosts really do walk amond us, and vividly re-create their first forays into ghost hunting, their mishaps and close calls, and the bizarre characters they met along the way-both living and dead.
"A nonstop ride through America's haunted hotels, crumbling mansions, abandoned prisons, and other infamous sites, Chasing Ghosts, Texas Style is sure to captivate cynics and believers alike-and to change the way you think about ghosts."
Opinion: An interesting look at how the Klinge brothers became involved into studing the paranormal. I've always like their scientific approach to debunking and truly finding what out what is going on in "haunted"locations.

Good People by Marcus Sakey

Started: 5/4/13
Finished: 5/12/13
Year: 2009
Pages: 316
Genre: mystery
Grade: B+
Blurb (from back cover): "Tom and Anna Reed are young, middle-class, and in love. But financial pressures and the struggle to have a baby are wearing them down. So when they find $370,000 in their tenant's apartment, 'happily ever after' seems one risky decision away.
"But before the week is over, they'll know exactly where the money is from-and come face-to-face with brutal men who have been double-crossed. Men who won't stop until they get revenge.
"Nothing in life is free, and for Tom and Anna, happiness may cost more than they can bear to pay."
Opinion: A simple conflict taken to a whole new level. And it being done in a fantastic way. This is the first book that I read by Sakey and I will be reading more.

Chosen Prey by John Sandford

Started: 5/3/13
Finished: 5/9/ 13
Year: 2001
Pages: 294
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR shelf
Blurb (from book jacket): "An art history professor and writer and cheerful pervert, James Qatar had a hobby; he took secret photographs of women and turned them into highly sexual drawings. One day, he took the hobby a step further and...well, one thing led to another, and he had to kill her. A man in his position couldn't be too careful, after all. And you know something? He liked it.
"Already faced with a welter of confusion in his personal life. Deputy Chief Lucas Davenport decides to take this case himself, hoping that some straightforward police work will clear his head, but as the trail begins to take unexpected turns, it soon becomes clear that nothing is straightforward about this killer. The man is learning as he goes, Lucas realizes, taking great strides forward with each murder. He is becoming a monster-and Lucas may have no choice but to walk right into his lair..."
Opinion: A decent thrill ride where the reader would think that it was solved much earlier on and then a surprise twist.

Death Du Jour by Kathy Reichs

Started: 4/29/13
Finished: 5/3/13
Year: 1999
Pages: 379
Genre: mystery
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb (from book jacket): "Assaulted by the bitter cold of a Montreal winter, the American-born Dr. Temperance Brennan, Forensic Anthropologist for the Province of Quebec, digs for a corpse where Sister Elisabeth Nicolet, dead for over a century and now a candidate for sainthood, should be lying in her grave. A strange, small coffin, buried in the recesses of a decaying church, holds the first clue to the cloistered nun's fate.
"The puzzle surrounding Sister Elisabeth Nicolet's life and death provides a welcome contrast to discoveries at a burning chalet, where scorched and twisted bodies await Tempe's professional expertise. Who were these people? What brought them to this gruesome fate? And where are the children?
"Homicide Detective Andrew Ryan, with whom Tempe has a combustive history, joins her in the arson investigation, From the fire scene they are drawn into the worlds of an enigmatic and controversial sociologist, a mysterious commune, and a primate colony on a Carolina island. Tempe is overwhelmed by the case, confused by her mounting attraction to Ryan, and plagued by worries about her sister Harry's search for spiritual awakening."
Opinion: Some unique cases that are magically tied in with each other. Even though it is fiction, it contains some great detailed forensic work.

Before I Say Goodbye by Mary Higgins Clark

Started: 4/23/13
Finished: 4/29/13
Year: 2000
Pages: 332
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR shelf
Blurb (from book jacket): "When Adam Cauliff's new cabin cruiser, Cornelia II, blows up in New York harbor with him and several close buisness associates aboard, his wife, Nell MacDermott, is not only distraught at the loss but wracked with guilt because she and Adam had just had a serious quarrel and she had told him not to come home.
"The quarrel was precipitated by Nell's decision to try to win the congressional seat long held by her grandfather Cornelius MacDermott. Orphaned at age ten, she had been raised by 'Mac,' as she called him, and was always at his side on Capital Hill. Politics was in her blood, and Adam had known her ambitions when they married. Suddenly, however, he became opposed to her plan to run for Congress.
"Nell, like her great-aunt Gert, possesses psychic gifts, which her grandfather scoffingly dismisses as "flights of fantasy.' As a child she had been aware of the deaths of both her parents and grandmother at the exact moment they died.  She knew because at that very moment she sensed their presence near her.
"Even though Nell has the rare gift of extrasensory perception, she is much too level headed to accept most of the claims made by many so-called psychics and is skeptical about Aunt Gert's fascination with mediums. After Adam's death, however, Gert begs Nell to see a medium, Bonnie Wilson, who has contacted her, claiming she is in touch with Adam. Still regretting her last angry words to Adam, Nell agrees, hoping that she will be able to reach him through the medium and part from him in peace.
"As the investigation into the boat's explosion proceeds, Nell is shocked by the official confirmation that it was not an accident but the result of foul play. Adam, an architect, had been involved in a major construction project on land he had recently purchased and which had since had a spectacular rise in value.
"Was Adam the target of the explosion? Or was it Winifred Johnson, his self-effacing, fifty-two-year-old assistant, who knew too much about bribery in the construction business and who was openly in love with him? Or was it Sam Krause, a builder with a questionable reputation who was involved in the new project? Or Jimmy Ryan, the debt-ridden construction foreman whose wife, after his death, discovers money hidden in their home? Or was it Peter Lang, the wealthy man-about-town real-estate entrepreneur, whose minor traffic accident caused him to miss the fatal meeting on the boat?
"As Nell searches for the truth about Adam's death, she carries out instructions from Adam transmitted through the medium. What she does not know is that she is being closely watched, and the nearer she comes to learning what actually happened on the boat that night, the nearer she is to becoming the next victim of a ruthless killer."
Opinion: This story had an interesting little twist near the end that in hindsight, should have been predicted.

Saying Goodbye to Someone You Love by Norine Dresser and Fredda Wasserman

Started: 4/19/13
Finished: 4/23/13
Year: 2010
Pages: 198
Genre: Psychology/Grief
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "Saying Goodbye to Someone You Love consists of moving narratives about end of life and grief. These personal histories are complemented by practical guidelines for those caring for their loved ones through the last stages of life. For those who are grieving, the true-to-life-stories demonstrate how others have navigated through the tidal wave of emotions and reactions that chracterize the grief process. For health care professionals and those who are offering support to grievers, Saying Goodbye to Someone You Love provides a new perspective on the challenges of caring for the dying and living with grief."
Opinion: This book deals with dealing death of a loved one who does not die suddenly. Some great personal stories and some good guidelines of how to attempt to deal.

Here on Earth by Alice Hoffman

Started: 4/16/13
Finished: 4/29/13
Year: 1997
Pages: 293
Genre: literature
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "After nineteen years in California, March Murray returns to the small Massachusetts town where she grew up. For all this time, March has been avoiding her own troubled history, but when she encounters Hollis-the boy she loved so desperately, the man who has never forgotten her-the past collides with the present as their reckless love is reignited. This dark romantic tale asks whether it is possible to survive a love that consumes you. The answers that March Murray discovers are both heartbreaking and wise, as complex as they are devastating-for in heaven and in our dreams, love is simple and glorious. But is is something altogether different here on earth..."
Opinion: The ending seemed very rushed and certain characters didn't make sense in sticking together.

Q is for Quarry by Sue Grafton

Started: 4/10/13
Finished: 4/16/13
Year: 2002
Pages: 385
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR pile
Blurb (from book jacket): "She was a 'Jane Doe,' an unidentified white female whose decomposed body was discovered near a quarry off California's Highway 1.  The case fell to the Santa Teresa County Sheriff's Department, but the detectives had little to go on. The woman was young, her hands were bound with a length of wire, there were multiple stab wounds, and her throat had been slashed. After months of investigation, the case remained unsolved.
"That was eighteen years ago., Now, the two men who found the body, both nearing the end of long careers in law enforncement, want one last shot at the case. Old and ill, they need someone to do the legwork for them, and they turn to Kinsey Millhone. They will, they tell her, find a closure if they can just identify the victim. Kinsey is intrigued with the challenge and agrees to work with them.
"But revisiting the past can be a dangerous business, and what begins with the pursuit of Jane Doe's real identity ends in a high-risk hunt for her killer."
Opinion: This book fits right in with Grafton's Alphabet series. It was fun returning to Kinsey's life after not having visited in a long time. Lots of little twists and turns.

Devil's Knot by Mara Leveritt

Started: 3/25/13
Finished: 4/10/13
Pages: 347
Year: 2002
Genre: True Crime
Grade: C
Reason for reading: TBR pile
Blurb: This is the story about 3 teenagers who were allegedly involved in a satanic cult and killed three younger kids.
Opinion: There are several end notes in this book that would have been more effective if they weren't there (as part of the book) or as foot notes. Very distracting going back and forth. Overall it is an interesting story but the way that it was organized is why it got the grade I gave it.

Under Currents by Ridley Pearson

Started: 2/5/13
Finished: 2/21/13
Year: 1988
Pages: 435
Genre: Police procedural
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR shelf
Blurb (from back cover): "Seattle is a city paralyzed by fear. A serial killer is loose on its streets. And as each new victim surfaces-chest slashed, eyes taped open-the tide of panic arises.
"Driven by guilt and frustration, too exhausted to consider stopping, Detective Lou Boldt thinks he's finally gotten the break he needs to end the Cross Killer's twisted spree. But each new clue contradicts another. And each new corpse mocks Boldt's efforts.
"To fathom the silent tale told by the latest corpse washed up in Puget Sound, Boldt has to go beyond every state-of-the-art method at his disposal. But as he gets closer to the truth, he travels deeper into the tortured mind of a relentless killer...into the depths of his own fear...and into a whirlpool of madness more frightening than his worst nightmares."
Opinion: This was a well written and fast paced book that kept me interested until the last page.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Started: 1/29/13
Finished:  2/10/13
Year: 2003 (this edition)
Pages: 246
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR shelf
Blurb (from book jacket): "Four seekers have come to Hill House, a scary old abandoned mansion: Dr. Montaque, an occult scholar who had been looking for an honestly haunted house all his life; Theodora, a lovely and lighthearted girl there mostly on a lark; Luke, the adventurous future heir of Hill House; and Eleanor, a strange and lonely woman well acquainted with poltergeists and other psychic phenomena. At first their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable noises and slamming doors. But Hill House is gathering up powers and will soon choose one of them to make its own."
Opinion: Very different than the movies that were based on one of the original ghost story writers. Jackson has a way with building subtle suspense in her stories.

The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie

Started: 1/25/13
Finished: 2/1/13
Year: 1965 (this edition)
Pages: 192
Genre: mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: collecting all of the Christie books
Blurb: A mysterious woman is found dead in a prominent citizen's library.
Opinion: Jane Marple is made to think about whodunit in this well developed mystery.

Roadside Crosses by Jeffrey Deaver

Started: 1/15/13
Finished:2/6/13
Year: 2009
Pages: 548
Genre: Suspense
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: borrowed from mom
Blurb (from back cover): " Roadside crosses are appearing along the highways off the Monterey Peninsula, not as memorials to past accidents but as markers for fatalities yet to come...and someone, armed with information gleaned from careless and all-too-personal blog postings, intends to carry those killings. Kathryn Dance and CBI team know when the attacks will take place, but who will be the victims? Her body language expertise leads her to a recent fatal car crash, and to the driver, Travis Brigham, a gaming-obsessed teen who's become the target of vicious cyberbullies. And when Travis disappears, Kathryn must lead a furious manhunt in the elusive world of bloggers and social networking where nothing is as it seems..."
Opinion: Another great book by Deaver. It certainly had me guessing until the end. Full of twists and unexpected turns.

The Copper Beech by Maeve Binchy

Started: 12/28/12
Finished: 1/15/13
Year: 1992
Pages: 391
Grade: B
Genre: Literary fiction
Reason for reading: grabbed off TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "In the Irish town of Shancarrig, the young people carve their intials-and those of their loves- into the copper beech tree in front of the schoolhouse. But not even Father Gunn, the parish priest, who knows most of what goes on being Shancarrig's closed doors, or Dr. Jims, the village doctor, who knows all the rest, realizes that not everything in the placid village is what it seems.
"Unexpected passions and fears are bringing together the lives of many such as the sensitive new priest and Miss Ross, the slight, beautiful school teacher...Leonora, the privileged daughter of the town's richest family and Foxy Dunne, whose father did time in jail...and Nessa Ryan, whose parents run Ryan's Hotel, and two very different young men. For now the secrets in Shancarrig's shadows are starting to be revealed, from innocent vanities and hidden loves to crimes of the heart...and even to murder."
Opinion: Each chapter was about a different character in the small village. In each chapter, I became more and more interested in all of them despite their very obvious differences.

Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul edited by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Marty Becker, Carol Kline, Amy Shojai

Started: 12/26/12
Finished: 12/27/12
Year: 2005
Pages: 378
Grade: B+
Genre: Inspiration/Pets
Reason for reading: Cat lover, grabbed off TBR shelf
Blurb: Several short stories of how cats have affected people's lives.
Opinion: Another great Chicken Soup book, this time geared towards cats and the impact that they have had on people. Some stories were extremely touching and made me even happier of owning my 3 cats.

The Other Woman by Eric Jerome Dickey

Started: 12/17/12
Finished: 12/24/12
Year: 2003
Pages: 274
Grade: B+
Genre: African-American literature/romance
Reason for reading: grabbed from TBR pile
Blurb (from book jacket): " The central couple's biggest challenge is timing. He works days; she works nights. Instead of growing together, they're rapidly drifiting apart, coexisting on stolen phone calls from work, punctuated by occasional bedroom encounters that leave them both feeling even emptier and more alone. When she finds out about his affair-and starts her own-the delicate fabric of their marriage is torn irrevocably asunder. Or is it? In Dickey's expert hands, what begins as a seemingly unforgivable betrayal seques into the sexy and searing story of a man and a woman at a privotal turning point in their relationship. Only time will tell whether they'll let it all go...or whether they can hold on to the love that drew them together in the first place."
Opinion: Certainly makes you question what you would do if you were in the situation as any of these characters. Well done book.

Time's Witness by Michael Malone

Started: 12/4/12
Finished: 12/17/12
Year: 1989
Pages: 537
Grade: C
Genre: mystery
Reason for reading: grabbed from TBR
Opinion: It was very easy for me to be distracted from reading this story. 

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Started: 11/26/12
Finished: 12/4/12
Year: 1992 (this edition)
Pages: 312
Grade: C
Genre: literary fiction
Reason for reading: grabbed off TBR pile
Blurb: A painting of a man identifies who he is.
Opinion: Not the best classic that I've read but the idea of how a painting captures and destroys a man was interesting.

Worth More Dead by Ann Rule

Started: 11/17/12
Finished: 11/23/12
Year: 2005
Pages: 418
Grade: A
Genre: True Crime
Reason for reading: borrowed from mom
Blurb (from back cover): "Former Marine sergeant and judo instructor Roland Pitre Jr. claimed it was all an elaborate plan to win back his wife's love-it wasn't supposed to end with her dead body in the truck of a car. Nearly twenty years later, he acknowledged that he had hired someone to kill his estranged wife in 1988, though his alleged excuse for why a monstrous 'mistake' happened is a shocking and convoluted as the crime itself. Eventually, he was charged with first-degree murder in the long-unsolved death of Cheryl Pitre, after a mysterous witness betrayed Pitre to save his own skin. Tracing back the dark and bloody path of Pitre's life, two generations of detectives found a chain of brutal and terrifying crimes by a man who manipulated the courts and prisons to walk free."
Opinion: Another great collection of true crime stories by Ann Rule. These cases are all about people that were worth more dead than alive and how people around them caused their deaths.

Hex and the Single Girl by Valerie Frankel

Started: 11/16/12
Finished: 11/20/12
Year: 2006
Pages: 290
Grade:C
Genre: fiction/romance
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "Emma Hutch's upscale Manhattan clients call her the 'Good Witch.' Her uncanny telepathic abilities enable her to plant images into unsuspecting minds, which has made her New York's most successful professional matchmaker. After all, what bachelor, confirmed or otherwise, could deny his true destiny when the woman he can't seem to stop thinking about suddenly appers right in front of him? Now an all-too-perfect blonde socialite needs Emma's help to snare the most eligiblity single man in the city-all in a day's work for the Good Witch.
"Except William Dearborn-visual artist, software genius, total hunk, and dedicated hedonist-is not so easily snared. And he's becoming a little too interested in the desperate matchmaking sorceress who's been following him all around town incognito. Emma doesn't have to be psychic to know what's going on in his mind, Williams' having very wicked thoughts indeed about the Good Witch...and Emma likes it! But she's got to resist his special brand of magic...or else her witchy career is going up in flames."
Opinion: An average romance. Interest take having a "witch" that can force images into others' minds.

The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts by Lilian Jackson Braun

Started: 11/10/12
Finished 11/16/12
Year: 1990
Pages: 218
Grade: B
Genre: mystery
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "When Mrs. Cobb heard unearthly noises in the antique-filled farmhouse, she called Jim Qwilleran for help. But he was too late. It looked as if his kindly ex-housekeeper had been frightened to death- butby whom? Or what? Now Qwilleran's moved into the historic farmhouse with his two cat companions-and Koko the Siamese is spooked. Is it a figment of feline imagination-or that clue to a murder in Moose county? And does Qwilleran have a ghost of a chance of solving this haunting mystery?"
Opinion: Another good mystery by Braun. The mystery was well developed and not solved until the end.

Dark Tort by Diane Mott Davidson

Started:11/2/12
Finished: 11/13/12
Year: 2006
Pages: 422
Grade: B
Genre: mystery
Reason for reading: grabbed off TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "Caterer Goldy Schulz's lucrative new gig, preparing breakfasts and conference room snacks for a local law firm, is time-consuming, but she's enjoying it...until the night she arrives to find Dusty, the firm's paralegal, dead. The deceased also happened to be Goldy's friend and neighbor, and now Dusty's grieving mother is begging Goldy to find out who murdered her daughter.
"Just because the police are on the case doesn't mean Goldy can't do a little snooping herself. While catering a party at the home of one of the firm's lawyers, she just happens to overhear an incriminating conversation. She also discovers a few tasty clues in the kitchen. Before long, Goldy finds herself knee-deep in suspects. But one of them is incredibly dangerous...and very liable to cook Goldy's goose."
Opinion: Another good mystery by Davidson. Goldy's character continues to be witty and enjoyable as she cooks and attempts to solve the mysteries that she continues to stumble upon.

Breathless by Dean Koontz

Started: 10/24/12
Finished: 11/1/12
Year: 2009
Pages: 337
Grade: B
Genre: Mystery
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb (from book jacket): "In the stillness of a golden September afternoon, deep in the wilderness of the Rockies, a solitary craftsman, Grady Adams, and his magnificient Irish wolfhound, Merlin, step from shadow into light...and into an encounter with enchantment. That night, through the trees, under the moon, a pair of singular animals will watch Grady's isolated home, waiting to make their approach.
"A few miles away, Camillia Rivers, a local veterinarian, begins to unravel the threads of a puzzle that will bring to her door all the forces of a government in peril.
"At a nearby farm, long-estranged identical twins come together to begin a descent into darkness....In Las Vegas, a specialist in chaos theory probes the boundaries of the unknowable...On a Seattle golf course, two men make matter-of-fact arrangements for murder...Along a highway by the sea, a vagrant scarred by the past beings a trek toward his destiny."
Opinion: Typical plotline by Kootnz but interesting little creatures that he created that were truly a mystery.

Cottonwood Winter by Gary Slaughter

Started: 10/1/12
Finished: 10/26/12
Year: 2008
Pages: 400
Grade: C
Genre: Literary Fiction
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR pile
Blurb (from book jacket): "This clever Christmas story interweaves events on the Allied front lines in eErope with mysteries on the home front, during the last winter of the Second World War.
"The disappearance of B. R. Santa, the treat of an elite German espionage agent, the unexplained appearances of assorted grape-vine Christmas wreaths all over town, and many more mysteries are to be solved by Jase Addison and Danny Tucker, the young heroes of the Cottonwood novels.
Opinion: I haven't read the other books in the Cottonwood series so I'm not sure if I would have a more positive attitude about the stories if I had read them. The boys Jase and Danny are enjoyable characters.

Entering Normal by Anne D. LeClaire

Started: 9/24/12
Finished: 9/29/12
Year: 2001
Pages: 289
Grade: B+
Genre: Literary Fiction
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR shelf
Blurb (from the bookjacket): " Rose Nelson is a middle-aged woman with a broken past, harboring a sorrow from which she things she will never recover. Five years after her teenaged son's death, she is still sealed off from life, enveloped by grief and remorse. Then Opal Gates and her five-year-old son, Zack, move in next door.
"Determined to start anew, twenty-year-old Opal has left her family and Zack's father in North Carolina. Initially, Rose cannot bear the sight of the young mother and son. But with Opal's arrival in the small Massachuetts town, Rose is reluctantly drawn into the world she has avoided, irrevocably pulled into the lives of the freewheeling Opal and her child so full of promise. When Zack is injured,  Rose instinctively lies to protect Opal from a single mistake that changes the lives of everyone involved. Faced with a custody battle that threatens to take away her son, realizing that each choice she has made can be used as ammunition against here, Opal must now consider : What sacrifices must a mother be willing to make if she is to keep her child?"
Opinion: This story was a tearjeaker. I was quickly absorbed by learning about Rose and Opal and how their lives mesh with each other.

Blue Water by A. Manette Ansay

Started: 8/17/12
Finished: 8/20/12
Year: 2006
Pages: 280
Genre: Literature
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR shelf
Blurb (from paper book jacket): "On an ordinary morning in Fox Harbor, Wisconsin, Meg and Rex Van Dorn's lives are irrevocably altered when a drunk driver-Meg's onetime best friend, Cindy Ann Kreisler-slams into the Van Dorns' car, killing their six-year-old son, Evan. As Meg recovers from her own injuries, She and Rex are shocked when Cindy Ann receives a mere slap on the wrst. In their rage and grief, they buy a boat to sail around the world, hoping to put as much distance as possible between themselves and Cindy  Ann. But when Meg returns to Fox Harbor for a family wedding, she's forced to face the complex ties that bind her to the woman who has destroyed her peace.
Opinion: A heart-wrenching story where ultimately forgiveness is key. Great story.

Laguna Heat by T. Jefferson Parker

Started: 8/10/12
Finished: 8/16/12
Year: 1985
Pages: 322
Genre: mystery
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "Laguna...where every day the sun makes a promise the nightime breaks, while the super rich live out expensive fantasies in posh beach houses and drown their memories in Cuervo Gold margaritas...
Laguna...where trouble has swept in like a Santa Ana wind, blowing the cover off a world of torture, murder, and blood red secrets...
Laguna...where a crazed killer has turned paradise into a Disenyland of depraved violence-with a fiery vengeance-and where homicide cop Tom Shephard unravels a grisly mystery that reaches back across forty years of sordid sex, blackmail, and suicide into the dark corner of his own past, and sweats out a deadly truth in the sweltering...Laguna Heat."
Opinion: I'm a big fan of Parker's and somehow I missed this when I started reading his books.  A solid background to Shephard's character.

Peril at End House by Agatha Christie

Started: 7/9/12
Finished: 8/9/12
Pages: 224
Year: 1957 (this edition)
Genre: mystery
Grade: B+
Blurb (from back cover): "Three near-fatal accidents in three days. As Miss Buckley told of her nattor brush with death, Hercule Poirot felt a thrill of fear. Were these accidents-or attempted murder?"
Opinion: Another Christie classic. A good plot with the case not being solved into the last few pages.

He's Just Not That Into You by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo

Started: 5/24/12
Finished: 5/24/12
Year: 2007 (this edition)
Genre: Humor/Relationships
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "For ages women have come together over coffee and cocktails to analyze the puzzling behaviour of men. He's afraid to get hurt again. Maybe he's intimided by me. He's just got out of a relationhip. Greg Behrendt and fellow Sex and the City writer Liz Tuccillo are hear to say that men are not that complicated, even if they'd like you to think they are. And there are no mixed messages."
Opinion: I think that most humans can relate to this book. Very amusing comments about relationships and the idealistic nature of women.

Blind Spot by Judy Mercer

Started: 12/6/11
Finished: 1/17/12
Year: 2000
Pages: 449
Genre: Mystery/thriller
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "Good news doesn't come at 4 am. The call that comes in the predawn stillness of a warm Los Angeles night shocks Ariel Gold awake. A friend has been blinded. The assault on Laya is brutal, the result tragic, the method insidious. The LAPD thinks it's a case of product tampering, with the 'unlucky' Laya a random victim. Ariel's not so sure. As a correspondent fo the TV newsmagazine Open File, she is in a unique position to satisfy her doubts. As a friend, she won't quit until she has. But the claims of friendship, Ariel soon finds out, can prove complicated-and dangerous..."
Opinion: An enjoyable and exciting read.

Threadbare by Monica Ferris

Started: 11/15/11
Finished: 12/6/11
Year: 2011
Pages: 260
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: Review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from book jacket): "When a homeless woman is found dead on the shore of Lake Minnetonka, she's wearing something that holds the key to her identity but also opens up a mystery. Embroidered on her blouse is her will, in which she bequeaths everything she owns to Emily Hame, her neice-a member of the Monday Bunch at Betsy Devonshire's Crewel World needlework shop!
"Emily's aunt is, in fact, the second homeless wooman to be found dead under mysterious circumstances. Is someone targeting the homeless in Excelsior, Minnesota? Or is her aunt's death related to what turns out to be a sizable inheritance, thought with some bizarre conditions?
"It's all too much for Emily, who seeks the help of her good friend and fellow needlecrafter Betsy to discover the common thread between the deaths-and to determine if a murderer may strike again..."
Opinion: A pretty good mystery with a predictable suspect. For a more complete review, please check out MyShelf.com

Suffer the Children by John Saul

Started: 7/23/11
Finished: 8/29/11
Year: 1977
Pages: 378
Genre: Horror
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR shelf
Blurb(from back cover): "One hundred years ago in Port Arbello a pretty little girl began to scream. And struggle. And die. Non one heard. No one saw. Just one man whose guilty heart burst in pain as he dashed himself to death in the sea...
"Now something peculiar is happening in Port Arbello. The children are disappearing, one by one. An evil history is repeating itself. And one strange, terrified child has ended her silence with a scream that began a hundred years ago."
Opinion: Pretty good horror book.

Candyfreak by Steve Almond

Started: 7/18/11
Finished: 7/23/11
Year: 2004
Pages: 266
Genre: Non fiction
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR shelf
Blurb: Steve Almond has a fascination of candy and goes to several different local chocolate companies around the United States.
Opinion: Another person after my own heart. A fun and enjoyable read

Bad Blood: The Shocking True Story Behind the Menendez Killings

Started: 7/8/11
Finished: 7/18/11
Year: 1994
Pages: 256
Genre: True Crime
Grade: B
Reason for reading: Grabbed off the TBR shelf
Blurb: The court case of the Menendez brothers who were acquitted of killing their parents.
Opinion: Spoiled brats got away with murder is my take on the situation. Not quite sure how the juries for both were dead locked but that's the story.

The Black Echo by Michael Connelly

Started: 5/15/11
Finished: 7/8/11
Year: 1992
Pages: 412
Genre: Mystery
Reason for reading: TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "For LAPD homicide cop Harry Bosch-hero, maverick, nighthawk-the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is personal.
"The dead man, Billy Meadows, was a fellow Vietnam 'tunnel rat' who fought side by side with him in a nightmare underground war that brought them to the depths of hell. Now, Bosch is about to relive the horror of Nam. From a dangerous maze of blind alleys to a daring criminal heist beneath the city to the torturous link that must be uncovered, his survival instinct will once again be tested to their limit.
"Joining with an enigmatic an seductive female FBI agent, pitted against enemies inside his own department, Bosch must make the agonizing choice between justice and vengeance, as he tracks down a killer whose true face will shock him."
Opinion: Another great book by Connelly. Just wish I had the time to read more.

Lake News by Barbara Delinsky

Started: 4/27/11
Finished: 5/14/11
Year: 1999
Pages: 514
Genre: Literature
Grade: A-
Reason for reading: grabbed from TBR shelf
Blurb (from back cover): "After an unscrupulous reported falsely accuses Boston lounge singer Lily Blake of having an affair with a newly appointed Cardinal, she's hounded by the press, fired from her job, and robbed of all public freedom. The humiliation and violation of privacy leaves her no choice but to retreat to her rural hometown of Lake Henry, New Hampshire.
"In search of refuge, Lily forms an uneasy alliance with John Kipling, a former Boston reporter with trust issues of his own. Now editing Lake Henry's local newspaper, John cannot ignore Lily's appeal or her plight-even at the risk of taking on his former colleagues.
"Surprising and deeply satisfying, Lake News offers an intimate look at the complex relationship between an enigmatic man and a vulnerable woman, both struggling to find a new sense of cummunity in a strange place they once called home."
Opinion: I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. Simple and delightful read.

Driven to Kill by Cliff Linedecker

Started: 4/13/11
Finished: 4/16/11
Year: 2003
Pages: 253
Genre: True Crime
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed from TBR shelf
Blurb (from back cover): "'David, look what you made me do!' screamed Clara Harris as she held her dying husband's crushed body in her arms only minutes after running him over three times with her Mercedes. The mother of twin toddlers had been a hugely successful dentist, businesswoman and former beauty queen-but none of that was enough for David Harris, who carried on a blatant and torrid affair with his sexy receptionist, Gail Bridges. Pushed to the breaking point, Clara finally snapped. Driven to Kill puts you behind the wheel with never-before-revealed details of this murder by motor vehicle that gripped all of America-and like a real-life Greek tragedy, left no one.
Opinion: An average sensational true crime book. Guess all should be forewarned before they go cheating on a spouse.

The Bone Thief by Jefferson Bass

Started: 3/25/11
Finished: 4/13/11
Year: 2010
Pages: 359
Genre: Thriller
Grade: A
Reason for reading: grabbed from TBR shelf, bought on a recent trip to DC
Blurb (from book jacket): "Dr. Bill Brockton has been called in on a seemingly routine case, to exhume a body and obtain a bone sample for a DNA paternity test. But when the coffin is opened, Brockton and his colleagues, including his graduate assistant Miranda Lovelady, are stunned to see that the corpse has been horribly violated.
"Brockton's initial shock gives way to astonishment as he uncovers a flourishing and lucrative black market in body parts. At the center of this ghoulish empire is a daring and prosperous grave robber. Soon Brockton finds himself drawn into the dangerous enterprise when the FBI recruits him to bring down the postmortem chop shop-using corpses from the Body Farm as bait in an undercover sting operation.
"As Brockton struggles to play the unscrupulous role the FBI asks of him, his friend and colleague medical examiner Eddie Garcia faces a devastating injury that could end his career. Exposed to a near-lethal dose of radioactivity, Dr. Garcia has lost most of his right hand and his entire left hand. Out of options, he embarks on a desperate quest: both of his ravaged hands will be severed at the wrist and replaced with those from a cadaver. But unless suitable ones are found soon, the opportunity will be lost.
"As Brockton delves deep into the clandestine trade, he is faced with an agonizing choice: Is he willing to risk an FBI investigation-and his own principles-to help his friend? Will he be able to live with himself if he crosses that line"? Will he be able to live with himself if he crosses that line? Will he be able to live with himself if he doesn't? And as the criminal case and the medical crisis converge, a pair of simpler questions arise: Will Dr. Garcia survive-and will Brockton?"
Opinion: Great book. Fast paced. Easy summer read

Iron River by T. Jefferson Parker

Started: 2/3/11
Finished: 4/13/11
Year: 2011
Pages: 388
Grade: B
Reason for reading: Review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "Along the United States-Mexico border, a man named Mike Finnegan wakes up in the hospital in Buenavista after a hit-and-run accident, eerily aware of events he should know nothing about. His daughter claims he's schizophrenic, but she's every bit as odd. Also strange is that he was found with ninety thousand dollars in cash-and Charlie Hood's name and address in his wallet.
"Hood's down there tracking the flow of illegal guns into Mexico when his team accidentally kills the son of Benjamin Armenta, head of the Gulf Cartel and one of the most violent men in the world. Now, to save his own life and those of his team, Hood works to grasp the enigmatic forces fighting for control of Buenavista-forces that circle back to the Finnegans and to Armenta's unstoppable plan for brute vengeance."
Opinion: Obviously it took me forever to read this and I was very confused throughout the book. For a more complete review, please check out MyShelf.com in the future months.

What the Night Knows by Dean Koontz

Started: 1/3/11
Finished: 2/3/11
Year: 2010
Pages: 442
Genre: Thriller
Grade: b+
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb (from book jacket): "In the late summer of a long-ago year, a killer arrived in a small city. His name was Alton Turner Blackwood, and in the space of a few months he brutally murdered four families. His savage spree ended only when he himself was killed by the last survivor of the last family, a fourteen-year-old boy.
"Half a continent away and two decades later, someone is murdering families again, re-creating in detail Blackwood's crimes. Homicide detective John Calvino is certain that his own family-his wife and three children-will be targets in the fourth crime, just as his parents and sisters were victims on that distant night when he was fourteen and their slayer.
"As a detective, John is a man of reason who deals in cold facts. But an extraordinary experience convinces him that sometimes death is not a one-way journey, that sometiems the dead return."
Opinion: Koontz is back. This reminded me of how he used to write. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Just wish that it didn't take me so long to read it.

Prime Cut by Diane Mott Davidson

Started: 12/22/10
Finished: 1/02/11
Year: 2000 (this edition)
Pages: 368
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "Caterer Goldy Schulz is convinced things couldn't get worse. An unscrupulous rival is driving her out of business. An incompetent contractor has left her precious kitchen in shambles. And she has just agreed to cater a fashion shoot at a nineteenth century mountain cabin with her mentor and old friend, French chef Andre Hibbard.
"Together Goldy and Andre struggle in a hopelessly outdated kitchen to cater to a vacuous crowd of beautiful people whose personal dramas climax when a camera is pitched through a window...into the buffet. Then Goldy's contractor is found hanging in the house of one of her best friends. A second murder follows and Goldy must somehow solve a mystery and prepare for a society soiree that could make-or break-her career.
"It's a mystery that involves the dead contractor's unwholesome past, a food saboteur, the theft of four historical cookbooks, and an overzealous D.A. who has suspended Goldy's detective husband, Tom, form the force. What Goldy discovers is the perfect recipe for murder. And she may be dessert!"
Opinion: Just as good as her other Goldy books. I will be continuing the series.

Double Sin and other stories by Agatha Christie

Started: 12/10/10
Finished: 12/21/10
Year: 1984 (this edition)
Pages: 211
Genre: mystery, short stories
Grade: B
Blurb (from back cover): "In one of London's most elegant shops, a doll in green velvet is found every morning, seated in a different chair...In a small country church, an uninvited stranger is discovered sprawled at the alter. In this superb collection of treats for mystery lovers, both the indomitable English gentlewoman, Miss Marple and the inimitable Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, put their powers to the test."
Opinion: A good collection of short stories by Agatha Christie

The Echo of Violence by Jordan Dane

Started: 12/11/10
Finished: 12/21/10
Year: 2010
Pages: 353
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Grade: B
Reason for reading: Review for Myshelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "When terrorists attack a missionary school, brutally killing their hostages and posting videos of the senseless murders online, time is running out. Sentinels' agent Alexa Marlowe is forced into an unlikely alliance with a relentless mercenary. But he is no stranger.
"Jackson Kinkaid witnessed the raid, and only he can track the killers to their mountain stronghold. Guarding a dark secret, rumored to sell his services to the highest bidder, Jackson is not the same man Alexa once knew. And although he can lead her to the terrorist leader she's been ordered to take alive, how can she be sure he won't sabotage her mission to save the one person who got him through the worst nightmare of his life?"
Opinion: Really good with the action. Some of the romance fell flat...especially the ending. For a more complete review, please check out MyShelf.com in the upcoming months.

Last to Die by Kate Brady

Started: 11/22/10
Finished: 12/10/10
Year: 2010
Pages: 418
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Grade: B
Reason for reading: review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "A ruthless killer hides in plain sight, portraying the ideal citizen while hatching a horrific plan. Sins of the past have come to light and now the time is right for revenge. Six desperate women will be brutally murdered as punishment for the secrets they've kept hidden...
"Detective Dani Cole is devastated to discover that a young woman viciously killed in a local park was someone whose life she'd helped redeem. Her investigation becomes even more personal when it leads her to Mitch Sheridan, a renowned photojournalist. The two share a painful past...and an attraction that sparks as they race to find the killer. But danger is much closer than anyone imagines. For in the shadows, this calculating criminal has a new target: Dani Cole."
Opinion: Pretty good mix of romance and suspense. For a more complete review, please check out Myshelf.com in the upcoming months.

Over the Edge by Jonathan Kellerman

Started: 10/23/10
Finished: 11/22/10
Year: 1987
Pages: 433
Genre: mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "Brace yourself for shock when Alex Delaware gets a phone call from a former patient, a young, troubled genius who suffered a devastating mental collapse...
"When he drives through the night to save his life and winds up in a morass of murder...
"When he uncovers the secret life of one of California's leading families, and is witness to an explosion of murderous passions and shattering revelations..."
Opinion: Another good book by Kellerman. Just disappointed that with grad school and other things going on, that I wasn't able to read it as quickly as I wanted.

Dying for Mercy by Mary Jane Clark

Started: 9/30/10
Finished: 10/23/10
Year: 2010 (this edition)
Pages: 384
Genre: mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "Eliza Blake, co-anchor of the popular morning television show Key to America, is present when the party is cut short by the host's sudden, macabre death-and she's the first to discover that Pentimento is a giant 'puzzle house.' But each piece is leading Eliza and her KEY News colleagues-producer Annabelle Murphy, cameraman B. J. D'Elia, and psychiatrist Margo Gonzalez-deeper into darkness, toward a killer who believes that some puzzles must never be solved. And it soon becomes shockingly clear that no amount of wealth or privilege can keep the residents of Tuxedo Park safe...and alive."
Opinion: It took me so long to get through this since I started grad school this month. It was a fun and enjoyable read and I'm looking forward to reading more. For a more complete review, please check out MyShelf.com in the upcoming months.

Tough Cookie by Diane Mott Davidson

Started: 9/16/10
Finished: 9/30/10
Year: 2000
Pages: 319
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR shelf
Blurb (from back cover): "When caterer Goldy Schulz is offered a temporary stint hosting a cooking show for PBS, she jumps at the chance. After all, she could use the money-not to mention the great exposure. Plus taping the shows at Colorado's posh Killdeer Ski Resort will be fun. A little cooking, a little chitchat. What could go wrong?
"The answer: everything! When Goldy has to do one of her shows live for PBS telethon, the broadcast is riddled with culinary catastrophes-from the Chesapeake Crab Cakes right down to the Ice-Capped Gingersnaps. But the deadliest dish of all comes after the cameras go off-and a baffling accident claims a life. Then a series of suspicious mishaps places Goldy's own life in jeopardy and she knows she'd better whip up her own crime-solving recipe, and fast-before a deadly dash of danger ends her cooking career once and for all..."
Opinion: Another good mystery from Mott Davidson. Yummy recipes as well

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

Started: 8/27/10
Finished: 9/16/10
Year: 2009
Pages: 724
Genre: Suspense
Grade: A
Reason for reading: borrowed from Julie K
Blurb (from back cover): "Crusading publisher Mikael Blomkvist has decided to run an explosive expose of a wide-ranging sex trafficking operation. Just before the piece is published, the two reporters responsible are murdered. The fingerprints on the murder weapon belong to his friend, the troubled hacker genius Lisbeth Salander. Blomkvist, convinced of Salander's innocence, plungers into an investigation. Meanwhile, Lisbeth herself is drawn into a murderous game of cat and mouse, and is forced her to face her dark past.
Opinion: I actually enjoyed this one better than the first one of the trilogy. Lots of action and suspense.

The Funny Thing is...by Ellen Degeneres

Started: 8/26/10
Finished: 8/27/10
Year: 2003
Pages: 177
Genre: Humor
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb: A humor book.
Opinion: I could picture Ellen saying these bites on her show or during a stand-up routine. Some laugh out loud moments. Entertaining.

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

Started: 8/25/10
Finished: 8/26/10
Year: 1995
Pages: 218
Genre: Literature
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR shelf
Blurb (from back cover): "Hailed for its coiled eroticism and the moral claims it makes upon the reader, this mesmerizing novel is a story of love and secrets, horror and compassion, unfolding against the haunted landscape of postwar Germany.
"When he falls ill on his way home from school, fifteen-year-old Michael Berg is rescued by Hanna, a woman twice his age. In time she becomes his lover. She enthralls him with her passion, but puzzles him with her odd silences. Then she inexplicably disappears.
"When Michael next sees her, he is a young law student and Hanna is on trial for a hideous crime. But as he watches her refuse to defend herself, Michael gradually realizes that his former lover may be guarding a secret she considers more shameful than murder."
Opinion: A thoughtful tale. I had seen the movie before reading the book so I had images of the movie in my head-they followed each other pretty well.

Shattered by Kathryn Casey

Started: 8/19/10
Finished: 8/25/10
Year: 2010
Pages: 371
Genre: True Crime
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "In Creekstone, Texas, a small, quiet suburb of Houston, football was king...and David Temple was a prince. A former high school and college gridiron star-turned-coach, he had a fairy-tale marriage to bright, vivacious Belinda Lucas, a teacher at the local high school who was so warm and popular her colleagues called her 'The Sunshine Girl.'
"The fairy tale ended savagely on January 11, 1999, when Belinda's lifeless body was discovered in a closet. Her skull had been shattered by a shotgun blast at close range. She was eight months pregnant.
"There was no damning evidence directly linking the brutal murder to husband David, who stood by emotionless and dry-eyed as police searched the crime scene. But a dogged eight-year investigation would expose a shocking history of cruelty and domination, infidelity and rage-ultimately resulting in an epic courtroom battle for the ages-as the scandalous truth was reveled about love betrayed and innocent lives."
Opinion: A horrible story told in a great manner. For a more complete review, please check out MyShelf.com in the upcoming months

The Dead Janitors Club: Pathetically True Tales of a Crime Scene Cleanup King by Jeff Klima

Started: 8/12/10
Finished: 8/19/10
Year: 2010
Pages: 341
Genre: Memoir
Grade: B
Reason for reading: Review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "After toiling for minimum wage for years, Jeff Klima got an unexpected offer: to head up a brand new crime scene cleanup company in Orange Count. The upside: a chance to make incredible money in a field with no competition. The downside? Everything else about the job.
"From his first job-where a piece of brain fell off the ceiling and landed in his eye-to having to clean up one of his former neighbors, The Dead Janitors Club is more than just a retelling of crime scenes and what it takes to clean them up. It is a memoir of struggling to survive college, love, life and keeping ones' sanity when one never knows if, the next time the phone rings, you must delve into the darker side of life and death."
Opinion: An entertaining memoir with some graphic details. For a more complete review, please check out MyShelf.com in the upcoming months.

Supreme Justice by Phillip Margolin

Started: 8/1/10
Finished: 8/12/10
Year: 2010
Pages: 312
Genre: mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from book jacket): "Sarah Woodruff, on death row in Oregon for murdering her lover, John Finely, has appealed her case to the Supreme Court just when a prominent justice resigns, leaving a vacancy.
"Then, for no apparent reason, another justice is mysteriously attacked. Dana Cutler-one of the heroes from Margolin's bestselling Executive Privilege-is quietly called in to investigate. She looks for links between the Woodruff appeal and the ominous incidents in the justices' chambers, which eventually lead her to a shoot-out that took place years ago on a small freighter docked upriver in Shelby, Oregon, containing a dead crew and illegal drugs. The only survivor on board? John Finley.
"With the help of Brad Miller and Keith Evans, Dana uncovers a plot by a rogue element in the American intelligence community involving the president's nominee to the Surpreme Court, and soon the trio is thrown back into the grips of a deadly, executive danger."
Opinion: Great and fast paced. Check for a more complete review in the upcoming months on MyShelf.com

Murder & Other Acts of Literature Edited by Michelle Slung

Started: 7/17/10
Finished: 8/1/10
Year: 1997
Pages: 340
Genre: Literature Short Stories
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb (from book jacket): "The crime stores selected for this consistently imaginative collection shun the simple whodunit formula. Instead, Eudora Welty, Patrick O'Brian, Edith Wharton, and John Cheever, along with the twenty other masterful writes found here, take the compelling fact of murder and sudden death and proceed well beyond the business of clues and alibis. Writes from Shakespeare to Louisa May Alcott to Gabriel Garcia Marquez have long understood teh a corpse, rendered that way by foul plan or fair, can set into motion events both appalling-and enthralling."
Opinion: As with all collections, some stories are better than others. Most of these were very enjoyable.

The Lion by Nelson DeMille

Started: 7/7/10
Finished: 7/16/10
Year: 2010
Pages: 437
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: Review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "The Lion is back.
"The last time federal Agent John Corey of the Anti-Terrorist Task Force heard from Asad Khalil-known in the world of international terrorism as The Lion-Khalil claimed he was defection to the the US...then he unleashed a deadly reign of destruction on American soil. While Corey and his partner, FBI agent Kate Mayfield, pursued him across the country, Khalil methodically eliminated his victims one by one and then disapppeared without a trace.
"Now, after the horrific events of September 11th, Khalil has resurfaced, returning to America to take care of unfinished business-murdering his select group of enemies, with Kate and John topping the list. The Lion is a killing machine loose in America with a mission of revenge, and John Corey will stop at nothing to achieve his own goal: find and kill Khalil before Khalil kills him."
Opinion: Great read. Love the sarcasm throughout the novel. Lots of action. For a more complete review, please check out MyShelf.com

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Started: 6/25/10
Finished: 7/7/10
Year: 2005
Pages: 644
Genre: mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: borrowed from Julie K.
Blurb (from back cover): "Harriet Vanger, scion of one of Sweden's wealthiest families, disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, he aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pierced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption."
Opinion: After a slow start, it picked up and was well worth it. I can see why so many people are reading it now.

Private by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

Started: 6/21/10
Finished: 6/25/10
Year: 2010
Pages: 385
Genre: Mystery
Grade: C
Reason for reading: review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "Former Marine helicopter pilot Jack Morgan runs Private, a renowned investigation company with branches around the globe. It is where you go when you need maximum force and maximum discretion The secrets of the most influential men and women on the planet comes to Jack daily-and his staff of investigators use the world's most advanced forensic tools to make and break the case.
"Jack is already deep into the investigation of a multimillion-dollar NFL gambling scandal and the unsolved slayings of thirteen schoolgirls when he learns of a horrific murder close to him: his best friend's wife, Jack's former lover, has been killed. It nearly pushes him over the edge. Instead, Jack pushes back and devotes all of Private's resources to tracking down her killer.
"But Jack doesn't have to play by the rules. As he closes in on the killer and chooses between revenge and justice, he has to navigate a workplace love affair that threatens to blow the roof off his plans."
Opinion: I really wish that Patterson would take the time to actually write. This book just had too many plotlines that made it ugh. For a more complete review, please check out MyShelf.com in the upcoming months.

Kiss and Kill by Dale Hudson

Started: 6/14/10
Finished: 6/21/10
Year: 2008
Pages: 352
Genre: True Crime
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBS shelf
Blurb (from back cover): "Rick Pulley was a highly respected member of his Virginia community, a youth pastor and music director at his River of Life Church. When his devoted wife mysteriously vanished, few would suspect that Rick was somehow involved. Three-and-a-half years later, police found Patty Jo's decomposed body under a bridge, and a cold case suddenly turned red hot.
"Soon, the dark secrets beneath a life of lies were brought to light, with sordid details of adultery, phone sex, rage, madness-and finally murder. As a dramatic trial unfolded, a shocked community realized that Rick Pulley had nearly gotten away with the cold-blooded killing of Patty Jo.
"This extraordinary true story looks inside the hear of a close-knit community, behind bedroom doors, church doors, and jail cell doors-where a diabolical drama led to murder, a relentless investigation shattered innocence and illusions, and a monster was finally convicted of murder in the first degree."
Opinion: Another strong true crime novel by Dale Hudson. What is sad that we will never have another one by him since he passed away this past week. RIP Dale.

Fever Dream by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Started: 6/4/10
Finished: 6/14/10
Year: 2010
Pages: 405
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "At the old family manse in Louisiana, Special Agent Pendergast is putting to rest long-ignored reminders of this wife Helen's tragic death, only to make a dreadful discovery. Helen had been mauled by a large and vicious lion while they were big game hunting in Africa. But now Pendergast finds that her rifle-her only protection from the beast-had been deliberately loaded with blanks. Who could have wanted Helen dead...and why?
"With Lt. Vincent D'Agosta's assistance, Pendergast embarks on a quest for justice. It is a journey that sends him deep into his murdered wife's past, where he is stunned by how much she kept hidden from him. Helen Pendergast had nursed a private obsession with the fame naturalist-painter John James Audubon and spent years hunting for an infamous, long-lost painting of his known as the Black Flame.
"In a night of shocking violence deep in the Louisiana bayou, Pendergast gains some answers to the riddle of his wife's death, but he is left with an even greater mystery: Who was the woman he married?"
Opinion: I felt like I was on a little adventure while reading this book. For a more complete review, please check out MyShelf.com in the future months.

These Dreams by Barbara Chepaitis

Started: 6/2/10
Finished: 6/4/10
Year: 2002
Pages: 308
Genre: Literature
Grade: A
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR
Blurb (from back cover): "When a stranger poses this question in a supermarket checkout line, Cricket Thompson is jolted out of her everyday life to face a startling revelation: She has a loving husband and two wonderful teenage daughters and feels profoundly and utterly alone. The tides of change are slowly pulling her toward something new and barely recognizable: another man. But before she can even contemplate this internal shift, an act of deadly violence erupts at the local shopping mall, causing Cricket's whole world to come crashing down. Through the prism of this surreal crisis, Cricket's life is irrevocably altered...and without her knowledge or consent, she is lunged into the kind of cataclysmic event that by its very nature breeds transformation. An exploration of the solace of dreams and the fragility of being wide awake, These Dreams is an astoundingly powerful and heart-wrenchiing novel that no reader will soon forget."
Opinion: A truly powerful story that will get you thinking.

The Cloud of Unknowing by Thomas H. Cook

Started: 5/30/10
Finished: 6/2/10
Year: 2007
Pages: 310
Genre: mystery
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: borrowed from library
Blurb (from book jacket): "David Sears grew up in the shadow of his brilliant younger sister, Diana, convinced by their father that she would accomplish great things. Instead, she married and had a son, Jason, who-like David and Diana's father-is schizphrenic. Her husband, Mark, a geneticist, never made peace with Jason's condition.
"Perhaps this is why, when Jason drowns, Diana will not accept the authorities' conclusion that his death was accidental. Or perhaps Diana is going mad. She begins to send David faxes and e-mails about ancient murders, driven by her growing belief that the earth is Gaia, a living witness to her son's murder who could give evidence in the case she is building against her husband. David soon fears for his own family's safety as the seductive qualities of Diana's manic energy become impossible to ignore."
Opinion: Back to the traditional writing style that I've come to enjoy from this author. A definite decent read.

Twisted by Jeffrey Deaver

Started: 5/26/10
Finished: 5/30/10
Year: 2003
Pages: 383
Genre: mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR shelf
Blurb (from book jacket): "New York Times bestselling author Jeffrey Deaver has long thrilled fans with tales of masterful villains and their nefarious ways, and the brilliant minds who bring them to justice. Now the author of the Lincoln Rhyme series has collected for the first time his award-winning, spine-tingling stories of suspense-stories that will widen your eyes and stretch your imagination.
"A beautiful woman goes to extremes to rid herself of her stalker; a daughter begs her father not to go fishing in an area where there have been a series of brutal killings; a contemporary of the playwright William Shakespeare vows to avenge his family's ruin; and Jeffrey Deaver's most beloved character, a criminalist Lincoln Rhyme, is back to solve a chilling Christmastime disappearance."
Opinion: Almost all the stories had a twist that I wasn't expecting. All of the stories were enjoyable.

Pig Island by Mo Hayder

Started: 5/23/10
Finished: 5/26/10
Year: 2006
Pages: 494
Genre: mystery/suspense
Grade: B
Reason for reading: bookray through Bookcrossing.com
Blurb (from back cover): "Journalist Joe Oakes makes a living exposing supernatural hoaxes. But what he sees when he visits a secretive religious community on a remote Scottish island forces him to question everything he thought he knew.
"Why have the islanders been accused of Satanism? What has happened to their leader? And why will no one discuss the strange creature seen wanderint the lonely beaches of Pig Island?"
Opinion: Not as good as her previous novels but still worth the read.

Peril by Thomas H. Cook

Started: 5/21/10
Finished: 5/23/10
Year: 2004
Pages: 308
Genre: Suspense
Grade: B-
Reason for reading: borrowed from library
Blurb (from book jacket): "Sara Labriola is a married woman haunted by the shattering secrets of her past-and terrified of the future. Tired of living in fear, Sara decides to do the only thing she can: she makes herself disappear.
"On the sultry, seductive streets of New York City, Sara will reinvent herself. She will change her identity, and maybe even get the happy ending she's always dreamed of.
"But six desperate and dangerous men-each with the power to destroy her-are on Sara's trail. And none of them suspect that the woman they are seeking has a dangerous secret of her own. For Sara is leading all of them down a path of private demons, past sins...and the deadliest peril."
Opinion: Not as good as his other novels. The style was very different. Ending seemed a little rushed.

Real Hauntings: True American Ghost Stories by Hans Holzer

Started: 5/16/10
Finished: 5/21/10
Year: 1995
Pages: 337
Genre: Paranormal/Ghosts
Grade: B-
Reason for reading: grabbed of the TBR shelf
Blurb (from book jacket): "Hans Holzer's Real Hauntings continues his account of true, authenticated case histories of hauntings throughout the United States.
"From the restless shade of a sea captain on Cape Cod, to the remorseful parishioner at St. Mark's in New York who is unable to forget her extramarital affair, to the little girl ghost of Landsdowne, Pennsylvania, who can't quite understand what happened to her world, Real Hauntings chronicles the fascinating and dramatic accounts of the tree experiences that ordinary people have had with the world beyond our own.
"New Hampshire, Virginia, California, Louisiana, Minnesota: Ghostly encounters can occur anywhere and to anyone. Among the many remarkable encounters in Real Hauntings is the story about the ghost of a young girl killed during a wild party in Hollywood; the testimony of tenants at an 18th-century carriage house in New York's 'Hell's Kitchen' regarding the several ghost they have encountered; and the account of the piano-playing phantom in an old house in Arkansas. In all, twenty-five true, witnessed accounts are reported here by Dr. Hans Holzer."
Opinion: Some interesting hauntings. This book documents a lot of Holzer's investigations from the 1960s.

Red Leaves by Thomas H. Cook

Started: 5/16/10
Finished: 5/16/10
Year: 2005
Pages: 289
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: borrowed from library
Blurb (from book jacket): "Eric Moore has reason to be happy. He has a prosperous business, a comfortable home, a stable family life in a quiet town. Then, on an ordinary night, his teenage son Keith is asked to babysit Amy Giordano, the eight-year-old daughter of a neighboring family. The next morning Amy is missing.
"Suddenly Eric is one of the stricken parents he has seen on television, professing faith in his child's innocence. As the police investigation increasingly focuses on Keigh, Eric must consel his son, find him a lawyer, protect him from the community's steadily growing suspicion. Except that Eric is not so sure his son is innocent. And if Keith is not...and might do the same thing again...what then should a father do?"
Opinion: It's a simple story and moves quickly. Not as strong as some of his other books but still a decent read.

Open: An Autobiography by Andre Agassi

Started: 5/11/10
Finished: 5/16/10
Year: 2009
Pages: 388
Genre: Non fiction/autobiography
Grade: A
Reason for reading: birthday present from Evan
Blurb (from book jacket): "He is one of the most beloved athletes in history and one of the most gifted men ever to step onto a tennis court-but from early childhood Andre Agassi hated the game. Coaxed to swing a racket while still in the crib, forced to hit hundreds of balls a day while still in grade school, Agassi resented the constant pressure even as he drove himself to become a prodigy, an inner conflict that would define him. Now, in his beautiful, haunting autobiography, Agassi tells the story of a life framed by such conflicts, a life balanced precariously between self-destruction and perfectionism.
"Agassi makes us feel his panic as an undersized seven-year-old in Las Vegas, practicing all day under the obsessive gaze of his violent father. We see him at thirteen, banished to a Florida tennis camp that feels like a prison camp. Lonely, scared, a ninth-grade drop-out, he rebels in ways that will soon make him a 1980s icon. He dyes his hair, pierces his ears, dresses like a punk rocker. By the time he turns pro at sixteen, his new look promises to change tennis forever, as does his lightning-fast return.
"And yet, despite his raw talent, he struggles early on. We feel his confusion as he loses to the world's best, his greater confusion as he starts to win. After stumbling in three Grand Slam finals, Agassi shocks the world, and himself, by capturing the 1992 Wimbledon. Overnight he becomes a fan favorite and a media target.
"Agassi brings a near-photographic memory to every pivotal match and every public relationship. Never before has the inner game of tennis and the outer game of fame been so precisely limned. Alongside vivid protraits of rivals from several generations-Jimmy Connors, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer-Agassi gives unstinging accounts of his brief time with Barbra Streisand and his doomed marriage to Brooke Shields. He reveals the depression that shatters his confidence, and the mistake that nearly costs him everything. Finally, he recounts his spectacular resurrection, a comeback climaxing with his epic run at the 1999 French Open and his march to become the oldest man ever ranked number one.
"In clear, taut prose, Agassi evokes his loyal brother, his wise coach, his gentle trainer, all the people who help him regain his balance and find love at last with Stefanie Graf. Inspired by her quiet strength, he fights through crippling pain from a deteriorating spine to remain a dangerous opponent in the twenty-first and final year of his career. Entering his last tournament in 2006, he's hailed for completing a stunning metamorphosis, from nonconformist to elder statesman, from dropout to education advocate. And still he's not done. At a US Open for the ages, he makes a courageous last stand, then delivers one of the mother stirring farewells ever heard in a sporting arena."
Opinion: I have watched this man since he became pro. My mother would say I've obsessed over him. This book confirmed a lot of thoughts I've had about him over the years. Nothing in it shocked me. I cried while reading about some of his Grand Slam wins-just like I did when I watched him win them. I cried at the end just like I did when he gave his farewell speech.

Living at the Edge of the World by Jamie Pastor Bolnick and Tina S.

Started: 5/8/10
Finished: 5/11/10
Year: 2000
Pages: 283
Genre: Memoir
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "In this powerful and inspiring true story, Tina S. tells of four years living in the train tunnels beneath Grand Central Station amidst the homeless and the drug addicted. What begins as an adventure quickly turns into a nightmare as she describes daily life in a netherworld most people don't even know exists. With heartbreaking honesty Tina chronicles her descent into crack addiction, her several arrests and jail terms, and her overwhelming grief and guilt over the death of April, her best friend and fellow runaway.
"Finally faced with the reality that she might not make it through one more day, Tina begins the long struggle back to the world of the living. This is an unforgettable story of one young woman's indomitable will to survive."
Opinion: A great story but I didn't like the format of the book. It's amazing what this woman went through.

9 Dragons by Michael Connelly

Started: 5/3/10
Finished: 5/8/10
Year:2009
Pages: 374
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: borrowed from library
Blurb (from book jacket): "Fortune Liquors is a small shop in a tough South LA neighborhood, a store Detective Harry Bosch has known for years. Bosch still carries in his pocket a matchbook he picked up there on a case years ago. Its motto-'Happy is the man who finds refuge in himself'-has been a guiding light through some of his darkest days. The murder of John Li, the store's owner, hits Harry hard, and he promises Li's family that he'll find the killer.
"The world Bosch steps into next is unknown territory. He brings in a detective from the Asian Gang Unit for help with translation-not just of languages but also of the cultural norms and expectations that guided Mr. Li's life. He uncovers a link to a Hong Kong Triad, a lethal and far-fetching crime ring that follows many immigrants to their new lives in the United States.
"And instantly his world explodes. The one good thing in Bosch's life, the person he holds most dear, is taken from him, and Harry travels to Hong Kong in an all-or-nothing bid to regain what he's lost. In a place known as Nine Dragons, as the city's Hungry Ghosts festival burns around him. Bosch puts aside everything he knows and risks everything he has in a desperate attempt to outmatch the triad's ferocity."
Opinion: Another great fast paced thriller from Connelly.

Finny by Justin Kramon

Started: 4/30/10
Finished: 5/3/10
Year: 2010
Pages: 366
Genre: Literature
Grade: B
Reason for reading: review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from first page): We meet Finny Short as in impish fourteen-year-old, whose sly sense of humor can't hide the fact that she simply doesn't belong. Finny's socialite mother can't understand her, her father quotes Nietzsche over pancakes, and her brother's too busy to sympathize. The only person who makes her feel normal is her neighbor Earl Henckel, but his life is anything but normal...When turmoil at home results in Finny's deporation to Thorndon Boarding School, she finds herself catapulted into an even stranger landscape populated by a Dickensian array of eccentric characters, including a seductive New York heiress, a mercuial dorm mother namped Poplan, and a narcoleptic piano teacher whose own mysterious past will prove to bear on Finny's future.
"The entertaining, wickedly funny odyssey that follows propels Finny in an unpredictable world of intrigue and adventure, spanning twenty years and two continents, where she learns to navigate the treacherous waters of adulthood and is forced to rethink her loyalties to both family and friends. A charming and hilarious debut with a deeply felt love story at its core. Finny introduces us to both an unforgettable young woman and a talented and exitingly original new literary voice."
Opinion: Finny is one of the better literary characters that I've read in a long time. It is clear that Mr. Kramon has done his literary reading and is influenced greatly by the readings. For a more complete review, please check out MyShelf.com in the upcoming months.

The Most Evil Men and Women in History by Miranda Twiss

Started: 4/19/10
Finished: 4/30/10
Year: 2002
Pages: 189
Genre: History
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBS shelf
Blurb (from book jacket): "Evil is a fact of life. We can see it, not only in the reigns of Stalin and Hitler, but also in everyday crimes like murder, rape and assault-quite apart from the millions of lives brutalized by political or religious oppression, poverty, disease and starvation.
"One factor unites the sixteen men and women featured in this book and the evil acts they committed-they all had unlimited power over the people whose lives they controlled. Their reigns of terror cover a time-span of nearly two thousand years, from the rule of Caligula over the Roman Empire starting in 37AD, to the genocide of education Cambodians under Pol Pot during the 1980s. Motivated by power, religion, political belief, or by sadism and lust, and sometimes by insantity, they have become bywords for terror throughout the world.
"As ths book shows, however, there are degrees of evil. Hitler and Stalin between them murdered tens of millions of people: Elizabeth Bathrory, the so-called 'Countess Dracula,' probably fewer than the hundreds named by her accusers. Even so, the red threads of cruelty, torture and terror that run through these sixteen lives makes this fascinating, if uncomfortable, book a terrifying record of cold-hearted brutality, an infamous roll of inhumanity on a scale almost incomprehensible in its lack of tolerance and mercy."
Opinion: An interesting historical look at some of the cruelist people to have ever lived. Most of the 16, people would recognize.

The True Love Quilting Club by Lori Wilde

Started: 4/16/10
Finished: 4/19/10
Year: 2010
Pages: 372
Genre: Romance
Grade: B
Reason for reading: review for Myshelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "Trixie Lynn Parks changed her name to Emma, shook the dust of Twilight, Texas, off her shoes, and vowed to make it big in the city. But after twelve years of shatterd dreams, she heads back to the ladies of the True Love Quilting Club...and to her first love, Sam Cheek.
"Some things-and some people-sure have changed. Sam has grown from a carefree boy to a single dad. And even though the chemistry between them sizzles hotter than ever, Trixie Lynn quickly discovers she must choose between the fame and fortune that have finally come her way-or the one true love who has the power to mend her patchwork heart."
Opinion: Not a bad romance. For a more complete review, please check out MyShelf.com in the upcoming months.

Hell House & Other True Hauntings from Around the World by Alison Rattle and Allison Vale

Started: 4/12/10
Finished: 4/16/10
Year: 2005
Pages: 207
Genre: Paranormal
Grade: B
Reason for reading: Grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "Whether you're a skeptic looking for proof or a believer steadily collating evidence, ghost stories are a constant source of fascination. In this book we'll convert the cynics and arm the enthusiasts with facts and figures, first-hand accounts of ghostly sightings, and the frightening truth behind the stories."
Opinion: Not a lot of indepth information but does have some more recent sightings. Locations are from all over the world.

Friends of the Family: The Inside Story of the Mafia Cops Case by Tommy Dades, Michael Vecchione with David Fisher

Started: 4/5/10
Finished: 4/12/10
Year: 2009
Pages: 381
Genre: True Crime
Grade: B-
Reason for reading: review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "Two decorated NYPD detectives with access to the department's most sensitive information, Louie Eppolito and Steve Caracappa sold their badges to the Mafia-and became murderers for the mob. The most dangerous corrupt cops in American history, they left behind a pile of bodies when the retired in the early 1990s. For more than a decade it looked as if they were going to get away with it-until Detective Tommy Dades and Brooklyn Assistant DA Mike Vecchione turned a seemingly dead-end investigation into one of the New York City's greatest law-and-order stories."
Opinion: An interesting story and one that I remember from living there. Writing was very New York Cityish. For a more complete review, check out MyShelf in the upcoming months

Blood and Gold by Anne Rice

Started: 3/21/10
Finished: 4/5/10
Year: 2001
Pages: 564
Genre: Fiction
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR shelf
Blurb (from back cover): "Once a proud Senator in Imperial Rome, Marius is kidnapped and forced into that dark realm of blood, where he is made a protector of the Queen and King of the vampires-in whom the core of the supernatural race resides. Through his eyes we see the fall of pagan Rome to the Emperor Constantine, the horrific sack of the Eternal City at the hands of the Visigoths, and the vile aftermath of the Black Death. Ultimately restored by the beauty of the Renaissance, Marius becomes a painter, living dangerously yet happily among mortals, and giving his heart to the great master Botticelli, to the bewitching courtesan Bianca, and to the mysterious young apprectice Armand. But it isn the preset day, deep in the jungle, when Marius will meet his fate seeking justice from the oldest vampires in the world..."
Opinion: An enjoyable addition to the Vampire Chronicles.