4.5 stars out of 5
No matter what the generation in which it happens, parenting ain't for sissies. My indoctrination - the first of two - happened way back in 1963. Unlike the author, we got one with outdoor plumbing and one with indoor; and they were nearly five years apart instead of just two. Still, with the exception of not having ultrasound readily available during pregnancy, many of her experiences with childbirth and rearing mirror mine - and, I suspect, those of most parents, at least if they're honest about it.
Right up front, though, I'll warn that this book isn't for everyone; the language is both colorful and frank. I know women, for instance, who would jump in a vat of hot oil before allowing their kids to watch them pee (or, for that matter, use the word "pee" in front of them). So if that describes you, well, perhaps you should skip this one. As for me, I was rocked by several belly-laughs throughout; like the author, I've got a mouth like a truck driver (with apologies to those drivers who are far more well-spoken than I). Also like the author, while I tried really hard to keep my lips zipped around our kids, sometimes (okay, make that fairly often), the heat of the moments got the better of me.
The book begins with a somewhat bawdy description of her pregnancy and then moves to some of the more, shall we say, enlightening mileposts that happened once her first kid made an appearance (somewhat rapidly followed by a second, bringing even more complications and yuck-yucks from me). And even when I couldn't identify with a specific behavior - honest to God, neither of my kids ever licked anything more potentially mess-making than a three-scoop ice cream cone - the concepts hit bullseyes for me just about every time. And always, the focus is on loving, nurturing and protecting her boys - how could any mother argue with that?
There's a bit of more serious "stuff" sprinkled around, including dealing with her parents' split for a rather unconventional reason. She also emphasizes that the book really is about her, and how difficult, yet important, parenting is for her. The only time I took any issue at all is when she spanked one of her sons. Not a Martha Stewart good thing? Agreed. But it happened only once and she immediately concluded that spanking is a no-no. Now, though, it's way past time to stop dwelling on it; a one-and-done certainly won't scar the kid for life.
There's a helpful appendix with parenting tips here as well - making the whole thing both entertaining and educational. Thanks, Ms. Mitchell, for sending me a copy to read and review - good job!
Stop Licking That by Karin Mitchell (Amazon Digital Services LLC, February 2017); 277 pp.
5 stars out of 5
Okay, I'm Jazzed.
Finally - a heroine who's independent, feisty and could give MacGyver a run for his money. That much of the time Jasmine ("Jazz") Bashara skirts the edge of the law makes her all the more interesting. Throw in a kinky sense of humor that doesn't let up from start to finish, and I'm in it all the way.
Jazz, now in her mid-20s, has lived in Artemis - the first and so far only city on the moon - since early childhood. Residents live and work in five self-contained spheres called bubbles that have numerous fail-safes to protect residents from an unfriendly moon atmosphere. People come from all parts of Earth to live and visit (tourism is big business, and trips from Artemis to Earth take half a dozen days or so). Jazz herself is from Saudi Arabia, brought by her father, who practices the welding trade in his adopted city. They aren't particularly close - for openers, he's a practicing Muslim and she has no interest in any kind of religion.
Because it's forging new territory, life on Artemis isn't as fully regimented as is Earth; some rules, for instance, like no firearms (or fire of any kind, for that matter), are more stringent, mostly for safety reasons. In addition to her regular but peon-type job, Jazz has been smuggling goodies up from Earth for quite some time. But because she's almost desperate to earn lots of money (called "slugs" on Artemis) so she can move out of her coffin-like living quarters and eat food that isn't reminiscent of Soylent Green, she's hoping for something closer to a windfall.
Then along comes her big chance, in the form of filthy rich businessman Trond Landvik. He's consumed with the notion of putting Artemis's huge aluminum smelting operation out of commission so he can buy it at a fire-sale price and take over. Knowing her proclivity with a blowtorch (some skills she bothered to learn from her father) and willingness to color outside the lines, he offers Jazz a monumental amount of slugs if she can disable the company's four "harvesters" that gather rocks from the moon for use in the smelting process.
Needless to say, things don't exactly go according to plan, and Jazz and her cohorts more than once find themselves between a rock and a hard place (literally). Telling more would ruin the story for others, though, so you'll just have to read it to find out who wins and who loses.
What I will venture to say is that I liked this book even better than the author's previous book, The Martian, which also earned 5 stars from me (and FYI, each of the two books stands totally alone). Admittedly, Jazz can grate on the nerves a bit, although overall I enjoyed the heck out of her sense of humor. And as was the case in The Martian, the technical stuff is both educational and fun but can be a bit overwhelming at times.
But in the end, I loved it. Many thanks to the publisher (via NetGalley) for the opportunity to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Artemis by Andy Weir (Crown, November 2017); 320 pp.
5 stars out of 5
When I finished The Silent Corner, the first book in this series featuring FBI agent Jane Hawk, I loved it so much that in my review I urged the author to hurry up and finish the next one sooner than scheduled. He must have heard me, since he beat that original date by a couple of months. And oh boy, am I glad he did!
This one can stand alone, although I'm sure I enjoyed it more for having read the first. That one had plenty of action, but here it's almost nonstop, meaning I was "forced" to put other chores on the back burner so I could keep reading (honestly, I think it's even better than the first, and I gave that one a 5-star rating). The prose is pure Koontz, with each turn of the phrase artfully crafted. The focus of the plot - really, really bad guys and gals who are using nanotechnology to turn human beings they don't like into well-controlled automatons - may be a bit "out there," but on the other hand, as one of my favorite comedians, Judy Tenuta, used to say, "It could happen."
In the first book, Jane's husband Nick reportedly committed suicide - but Jane knew better and vowed to get to the truth. That in turn put her at odds with the FBI and even higher-up powers, forcing her to go on the run and put her young son Travis in hiding. Early on, she seeks help from a respected journalist - hoping he's someone she can trust (it's nearly impossible to discern who's had the technology implants, making Jane's quest to take down the instigators all that much harder). At the same time, a much-loved Minnesota school teacher inexplicably commits mass murder by driving her homemade bomb-laden car into a crowd (killing herself as well). When Jane learns of the incident, she immediately suspects that the woman was "guided" by an outside force.
At the same time, local Sheriff Luther Tillman has suspicions all his own; wanting to find out why the normally sweet teacher would commit such a horrible act, he visits her home and retrieves a few items. Shortly thereafter, her home goes up in flames, adding fuel to Luther's belief that something is rotten in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
Jane and Luther lead separate investigations for a while, but as might be expected, their trails eventually come together. From that point on, there's no going back - and they must cling to the hope that the way forward won't end with either or both of their deaths.
Mysterious and spooky and all together ooky, this book is a must-read for anyone who loves thrillers spiked with a tablespoon of science fiction. Love it - and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
The Whispering Room by Dean Koontz (Bantam, November 2017); 528 pp.
4 stars out of 5
When I opened this book on my Kindle, I was eager to start my first by this author even though it's not in the Sneaky Pie Brown cat series I've been wanting to sample for quite some time now. But when this one began with a lengthy list of character descriptions - not just of people, but hounds and foxes - my heart sank a little. I'm not young any more, and my short-term memory isn't even close to what it used to be. How on earth, I said to myself, will I ever keep all of them straight?
And at first, that really was an issue; flipping back and forth to the lists to jog my failing memory would have taken too much time and distracted me from the story (it probably would be easier on a "real" book, though I wouldn't have wanted to do it there, either) - so for the first several chapters I felt more than a bit lost. That the switch from people talking to animals talking isn't clearly delineated made it even more difficult; I'd be halfway down a page before realizing that the conversation I'd just read was between a couple of pooches or owls, not people.
The story, though, not only is well crafted but interesting to me because I know (make that knew) next to nothing about fox hunting. An extensive glossary of terms at the beginning was helpful, but then again, I forgot most of the definitions once the story got going. But I decided to forge ahead and not worry that I couldn't always remember who's who and what's what. And by golly, I'm glad I did. Not only did I learn that the state of Virginia is a hotbed of fox-hunting activity (I thought it to be a sport in which only the English partake), but the intricate plot caught me up in intrigue and the thrill of the chases as well as perspectives on topical issues such as race relations, politics and drugs. There was humor as well; consider, for instance, this description of a particularly talented cat:
"Her marvelous ears could hear a rat piss in cotton."
Now about that story: Around 1954 - the year I was 13, in case anyone thinks I was lying about being old - an accomplished fox huntsman and noted ladies man named Wesley Carruthers (better known as Weevil) disappeared, never to be found. Rumored to have stolen valuable jewelry from one of his also-rumored lovers, it was assumed that he'd been murdered even though his body never turned up. Fast forward 60 years to a museum near the Jefferson Hunt Club in rural Virginia, when an etched cow horn goes missing from a display case and someone "sees" Weevil at the scene. When his distinctive horn echoes at a hunt, all kinds of questions emerge - not the least of which is whether or not ghosts really exist.
Along the way, readers meet a cast of colorful characters like "Sister" Jane Arnold, master of the hunt club; Tootie, a young heiress who gave up on a prestigious college education (and was disowned by her richer-than-God father) to find her true calling working with hounds and horses at the club; and Yvonne, Tootie's former supermodel mother, who's in the midst of dumping her cheating husband and hoping to make a new life near her daughter.
But the overriding issue, so to speak, is Weevil: Who is he, really, and why has he come back? While I correctly guessed the who part fairly early on, the why eluded me until all the details were wrapped up cleverly at the conclusion. My own conclusion? Well done! And many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Crazy Like a Fox by Rita Mae Brown (Ballantine Books, October 2017); 305 pp.
4 stars out of 5
If you enjoy reading about female characters who are totally consumed by angst, paranoia and self-doubt, do not - repeat, do not miss this book. Not only is there one such character here, but three - and until the end, it's virtually impossible to tell who's telling the truth. It's a story with a past that began five years prior to the present day, when Mia Hamilton has finally come to grips - almost - with her husband Zach's suicide. He died on the same day that Josie, one of his university students, disappeared (he was a professor); the claim was that he and his student were having an affair that somehow went awry. The unfortunate result, it appears, is that he murdered her and took his own life in remorse.
Despite a few misgivings, Mia never believed Zach was a murderer; and now, she's getting by at their London home with help from their young daughter, Freya, her close personal boyfriend Will and Zach's ever-loving parents, who live nearby. She's undergone training as a personal counselor, seeing clients in her home office, and her life after Zach is back on a track toward normalcy. That changes, though, when a young woman named Alison seeks her out and makes an appointment. Clearly, Alison is seriously disturbed, but she makes a claim that chills Mia to the core: She knew both Josie and Zach, and more to the point, she insists Zach did not kill himself. That said, she abruptly runs off, leaving Mia to deal with the fallout and start questioning Zach's death, and just about everything else she's come to believe in, all over again.
But can what Alison says and does be trusted? Just as Mia begins to think she's the real deal, something happens that make her think she's delusional. As Mia tries to separate fact from fiction, what really happened back then is revealed to readers through flashback chapters narrated by Josie, the student supposedly murdered by Zach (I've grown weary of this technique, in all honestly, but the author does it very well). After a number of twists and turns, everything comes together in a surprising end.
That ending was not, however, all that satisfying. I'm not totally sure why, except perhaps that I never really related to any of the three women (hey, that's just me, but I prefer my female characters to be strong and mentally stable, I guess). Still another reason is that I guessed wrong - make that way wrong - so maybe my let-down is just a touch of sour grapes to compensate for being fooled. The bottom line is that this is a well-written, easy-to-read book that I really didn't want to put down. Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read it in exchange for an honest review.
Silent Lies by Kathryn Croft (Bookouture, October 2017); 321 pp.
4 stars out of 5
Finding a new series -especially one that shows promise - to me is akin to finding gold pellets in a stream. First comes the excitement of discovery, followed by the hope of more to come. Such is the case here, with the introduction of Sacramento, California, private investigator Jessie Cole. I won't say it was love at first word, but she's interesting enough that I look forward to future adventures.
As is the usual case with series heroines, Jessie brings "issues" to the table - most notably, the disappearance of her younger sister Sophie 10 years earlier. Since then, Jessie has become almost obsessed with finding her - or at least what happened to her - especially important since Sophie's daughter, Olivia, lives with Jessie and is for all intents and purposes now her daughter. When she's not focused on Sophie's disappearance, Jessie spends most of her time finding missing persons on behalf of her clients.
At the outset, one of those clients puts Jessie in a real bind. Hired to document a stalker, she ends up on the other side of the crime and facing prosecution (and possible jail time). Her one-time love interest, detective Colin Grayson, is still around, but for the moment, at least, their future as a couple doesn't seem to be in the cards. He's been hard at work trying to find the so-called Heartless Killer, who's kidnapped, tortured and killed numerous victims.
Almost out of the blue, Jessie is contacted by journalist Ben Morrison, who has a backstory of his own. A decade ago, he was seriously injured in an auto crash that left the driver dead and Ben with no memories of the accident or, for the most part, his past (except, I guess, his ability to write - apparently he's continued his newspaper career with only time out for recuperation). But now, triggered by bothersome but unexplainable flashbacks that include a woman who resembles Sophie, Ben wants to rehash her now-cold case, and it's important that he has Jessie's support.
He gets it, albeit reluctantly since Jessie questions his motives. And, she's got cases of her own to work on, including the possible kidnapping of a mentally disturbed young woman whose off-the-wall father is desperate to find. As all this plays out, chapters switch to what's going on with the very active serial killer; the only thing that's clear is that he will keep doing his thing until he's caught.
The action is almost nonstop, so I was happy to be able to finish the book in two days of spare-time reading (for the record, I'd have been even happier if I could have done it in a single day). Jessie is off to a great start -and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Her Last Day by T.R. Ragan (Thomas & Mercer, October 2017); 318 pp.
5 stars out of 5
Perhaps I say this because when I got within a couple of hours of finishing this book nothing short of an act of God could have pried my hands off my Kindle, but I truly believe that of all the author's books I've read, I enjoyed this one the most. His always extensive research is borderline awesome here, and the plot was totally engrossing. While I might not call the action nonstop, there was more than enough to hold my attention right from the git-go.
A couple of other pluses: The central theme - the age-old questions of where human life came from and where it is headed - is thought-provoking (though I'm pretty sure Bible literalists will disagree). Both the plot and the action seemed more within the realm of possibility than in previous books - meaning I wasn't saying, "Oh, c'mon, get real!" throughout. As usual, the settings provided a ton of learning opportunities, all so well written that a devout non-lover of history like me enjoyed every word. One of those settings, in fact, was of special interest: the still-unfinished Basilica of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain - a structure that fascinated me as the subject of a CBS "60 Minutes" segment a while back.
The story begins as Robert Langdon, professor of symbology and religious iconology at Harvard University, is at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (Spain) at the request of former student, billionnaire scientist and self-proclaimed athiest Edmond Kirsch. Here, Kirsch has promised, he will reveal a scientific breakthrough that will, by answering those two fundamental questions, render moot all organized religions. The event, with a guest list of hundreds, was coordinated by the beautiful Ambra Vidal, the museum director who just happens to be engaged to marry the future king of Spain.
But just as Kirsch is about to make his big pronouncement, something unthinkable happens; the crowd is thrown into a panic, Robert lands next to Ambra, and suddenly, the two of them are on the run. They don't know who to trust nor the real significance of Kirsch's botched presentation, but they're certain they must find the password that will unlock and release the program he intended to bring to the world before someone else finds and destroys it.
Meanwhile, the man responsible for creating the panic is found to have ties to the Palmarian Church, an ultra-conservative offshoot of the Roman Catholic Church. That in turn brings up questions as to whether that group's arms extend into the Vatican and the Spanish government - and if they do, to whom. As a result, the issue of who can be trusted takes a few even more sinister turns that threaten the lives of Robert and Ambra. Unfortunately, their search of Kirsch's almost unbelievably high-tech Barcelona home yields only vague clues as to where the password may be, prompting the pair to set off once again - guided in large part by Robert's noted eidetic memory and the assistance of a very unusual "friend."
But can they find the password before someone finds them? Who, really, is behind the efforts to stop them? And what, if anything, is the significance of Kirsch's discovery? All I'll say is that it's a neck-and-neck race from the starting gate to the finish line - and you won't want to miss a second of it. Outstanding!
Origin by Dan Brown (Doubleday, October 2017); 480 pp.
5 stars out of 5
Easy to read, attention-holding and a wonderful way to take a break from my usual shoot-'em-up, gore-filled action books: That's my take on this fun book that I thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish. If there's a downside, it appears to be the last in a five-book series that I wish I'd started from the beginning (although this one stands on its own just fine).
Admittedly, I'm not a huge fan of cozy mysteries - but for one primary reason: It seems to be the rule that the heroine be downright obnoxious. She goes off on her own, never paying any attention to anyone - as well as the kind of woman who, when chased by a bad guy with a knife, turns left into the dark alley instead of heading toward the well-lit, people-filled street to the right.
Not so here. In fact, I quite liked Juliet Langley, a sometime musician and self-appointed private detective who manages Java Jive, a coffeehouse in Nashville. She's intelligent, assertive but not pushy, and actually listens to the counsel of friends (and yes, even police officers) before going off the deep end. That's not to say she doesn't have emotions, though; in fact, she's got plenty. For starters, she still hasn't come totally to grips with losing her romance with town police detective, Ryder Hamilton, who switched to her best friend and PI-business partner, Maya. She's also got mixed feelings about her current, much younger go-to guy, and conjures up visions of getting together with long-time friend and coffeehouse owner Pete. Mostly,though, she's furious with her former fiance, Scott O'Malley, who ran off with another woman, cleaning out their bank accounts and causing the downfall of the coffeehouse in Juliet's home town of Liberty, Indiana, that she and Scott co-owned (yes, it does seem she's run through an excess of male companions over a very short period of time, but then that's not necessarily a bad thing).
Needless to say, Scott's totally unexpected appearance at the Nashville shop took both her and Pete by surprise - so much so that she punches him in the nose - and when he begs Juliet to use her PI skills to find his missing wife Mandi (the one he dumped Juliet to be with), she's dumbfounded. She's flat-out gobsmacked, though, when he drops dead right in the middle of the shop. When it's determined that he may have been poisoned, the local police become aware of the hostility Juliet's harboring toward the victim and consider her a person of interest at the very least.
With her reputation at stake, Juliet is intent on clearing her name and sees no alternative except to take the investigation into her own hands; somewhat reluctantly, Ryder agrees to help. The place to start, they agree, is in Liberty - just a couple of hours from Nashville - where they quickly learn that Scott and his wife are "drug dealers" (a.k.a. pharmaceutical reps). Despite the potential for better-than-decent income, though, it's pretty clear they're living lives of luxury well beyond their means.
Are the drugs in any way connected to Scott's untimely death or his wife's sudden disappearance? If she's been kidnapped, is she still alive - and can they find her in time to prevent a worst-case scenario? Of course, I can't reveal the answers - but I will say it was a real treat finding them for myself. I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Oh yes - a personal note that gave this book extra-special interest to me: Like Juliet and the author, I'm Hoosier born (but Buckeye bred). Even more coincidentally is that I grew up in Union City - less than an hour northeast of Liberty. My favorite shopping excursions were to nearby Richmond, where for a time my late father - "Buckeye Poet" Harold Pickett (a.k.a. "Slim Acres") taught Business Law at the Ivy Tech Community College campus.
Small world!
Murder Over Mochas by Caroline Fardig (Alibi, October 2017); 235 pp.
4 stars out of 5
In some ways, I enjoyed this book more than others in the pile of 44 previous editions; for instance, I felt more "comfortable" - i.e., not on the edge of my seat waiting for something awful to happen to one or more of the main characters as I usually do. Besides that, I enjoyed the interactions among the characters here, some of which provided more insights into happenings in previous books.
Conversely, the overall atmosphere seemed a bit lackluster with not much real excitement. And, I confess I was a little bummed when I learned that my fairly early-on guess of the killer's identity was, in fact, not even close (I'm joking here, of course, since being a little surprised at the end really isn't a bad thing).
The saga begins as Lt. Eve Dallas meets up with a professional acquaintenance - a forensic anthropoligist - in an upscale bar (reluctantly for Eve, who isn't into the bar scene, especially a fancy-schmancy one). Just as Eve decides she's had enough, a woman staggers into the room from the downstairs, bleeding profusely. After crashing into a server who's carrying a fully loaded tray, she collapses on the floor. Eve and her companion rush to help, but they're too late to save her; the cut on her arm severed her brachial artery, assuring that she'd bleed out in minutes.
In addition to discovering that the bar is one of the hundreds of properties owned by her Ireland-born, uber-rich husband Roarke (one of my all-time favorite book characters, for the record), Eve learns that the victim is Larinda Mars, a major TV personality in the gossip trade - certainly not someone high on Eve's list of people to know, much less love. Still, murder is murder, so she and her department colleague, the effervescent Peabody, set out to investigate. Roarke gets a bit more involved in this case as well - he's not pleased that the murder happened in one of his properties, after all.
Early on, the team determines a possible motive: Larinda, it seems, has been raking in millions by blackmailing wealthy people on whom she's dug up serious dirt. As the number of victims grows, so does the number of potential killers - exponentially. Just whittling the list down to a manageable size is a daunting task, but necessary if they're to tag the culprit.
All things considered, this is another solid piece of work, and of course I look forward to the next. Here's another thought (admittedly wishful thinking at this point): How about a new series featuring that forensic anthropologist, Dr. Garnet DeWinter, and her capable assistant? Methinks there's plenty of room in the reading world for another Temperance Brennan (another of my favorite characters, BTW). I'd be a fan in a heartbeat!
Secrets in Death by J.D. Robb (St. Martin's Press, September 2017); 381 pp.
5 stars out of 5
I'd love to meet Virgil Flowers. There. I said it. He's long been a favorite character (this is, I believe, his 10th book). Actually, so is the author's other series hero, Lucas Davenport, but Virgil always won out (if only by a little bit). I'm not exactly sure why, except Virgil has that "bad boy" appeal - coupled with an irresistible offbeat - many would say irreverent - sense of humor.
But Virgil wasn't all that thrilled to get involved here, for a couple of reasons. First, he's still got a couple of days left on his week's vacation. Second, the case takes him back to Trippton, Minnesota, where a while back he dealt with members of a local school board who put a unique twist on the concept of education. Now, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agent has been called in to help with the murder of a very wealthy, divorced businesswoman whose body literally was fished out of a mostly frozen river. On the suspected night of her death, she'd hosted a get-together of planners of their high school class's 20-year mid-winter reunion - and as Virgil somewhat reluctantly begins his investigation, he learns the planning committee members may have been closer to enemies than friends.
Then, along comes another investigation - this one at the insistence of the Minnesota governor - and Virgil is even more reluctant to get involved. Mattel, it seems, has paid a California lawyer to track down whoever's been buying up Barbie dolls - then modifying them to "talk" using, shall we say, very suggestive phrases and reselling them on the black market. Just for the record, being not even close to a fan of Barbies (Ken and Skipper? Not in this lifetime), I immediately gave the perps points for ingenuity despite realizing (of course) the gravity of the crime.
The Barbie-doll lawyer isn't the most pleasant of women (that she keeps bugging Virgil to work harder to catch the culprits while he's busy on the other murder case is one of her less endearing qualities). To make matters worse, that murder is followed by a second - and now Virgil really has his hands full; dealing with two issues at once really puts his nose out of joint. As usual, Virgil works everything out in the end, taking readers along for another fun ride.
Maybe it's just me, but I sense that Virgil seems to have mellowed a bit over the last couple of books (or at least, ever since he hooked up with girlfriend Frankie). Of course, no one can stay young and irresponsible forever - this, I believe, is the tenth book - but I really do miss his feistiness. On the plus side, though, he's still got his chuckle-eliciting one-liners. When, for instance, Virgil is told that Amazon sells "sex toys" all of which are eligible for Amazon Prime, he doesn't miss a beat.
"That's a relief. I'd hate to wait for three days," he quips.
Virgil, my man, you've still got it (and if you'd like to discuss that over a cold Leinenkugel next time you're passing through my part of Ohio, give me a jingle - I'm buying). Meantime, many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for giving me the opportunity to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Deep Freeze by John Sandford (G.P. Putnam's Sons, October 2017); 399 pp.
4 stars out of 5
This is the third book I've read in the author's series featuring Detective Inspector Helen Grace. Like the others, it's fast-paced and almost riveting - I'd have been quite content if I could have read the whole thing in one sitting. But truth is, I didn't actually "like" it much. Here's why: The only setting I hate more in books and motion pictures than an Afghanistan war zone is in a prison. And guess where most of the action takes place?
But that's a personal preference that shouldn't hamper other readers' enjoyment - especially long-time fans of the series - and when it's otherwise a very good book. The real focus is a question: How is it that the fiesty Helen is locked away? Well, it appears she's been disGraced - I'm assuming the details of her situation were laid out in a book I didn't read. She's now in jail awaiting trial for a murder she didn't commit; she was framed by her nephew Robert Stonehill (or so she claims). Her old department continues to run with someone else at the helm; some of her former colleagues think she's guilty and others - like her fiercely loyal friend Charlie - are working hard to gather evidence that proves Helen's innocence.
None of them, though, can protect her from what she's dealing with now. Leah, a woman who occupied the cell next to Helen's, has been murdered in the night. The word on the block is that she was a snitch - clearly grounds for reprisal in the eyes of other innates. And a gruesome murder it was: Her eyes, mouth and other body parts were sewn shut and her ears stuffed with an unidentified substance - yet there were few signs of a struggle. The prison security chief is convinced that Helen somehow did the deed, so Helen tries to put her investigative skills to work on finding the real killer. In the process, she takes a real beating that lands her in the infirmary. Another murder happens in similar fashion, leading Helen to believe it may be the work of a prison employee rather than an inmate.
On the outside, still another force is working against Helen - Emilia, the reporter who broke Helen's pre-jail story. The woman left her old newspaper job, hoping to cash in on her scoop - and when she learned of the first murder, she became more determined than ever to keep dogging Helen and turn up more dirt to boost her own career.
While all this is happening, Charlie keeps trying to nail Stonehill, much to the dismay of her superiors, meaning she's jeopardizing her own career. Inside the prison, though, all hell is breaking loose, with Helen squarely in the middle of the action. Will Charlie be able to find Stonehill and prove Helen's innocence in time to save her friend? It's a race to the finish, taking readers on a wild ride.
As a final note, I'll say that this book certainly can be read as a standalone, although knowing what happened previously would have helped me get more out of the experience (I skipped one or two more recent books in the series including the one immediately preceding this one). That said, it's another excellent addition to the series and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Hide and Seek by M.J. Arlidge (Berkley, October 2017); 409 pp.
4.5 stars out of 5
