4 stars out of 5
This is the third in the series featuring deputy coroner Clay Edison, and having read the previous two, I must say I think this is my favorite so far. Clay is not only competent at his job, but totally likable - as is his psychologist wife, Amy; together, they try to navigate job responsibilities around their infant daughter Charlotte, who isn't fond of sleeping - with Clay working the night shift.
At the beginning, Clay is called to a scene right out of the 1960s. On the Berkeley campus is a park that's mostly occupied by the homeless, but now plans call for renovating the property (read: get rid of the homeless) and erecting a building. In that process - which is loudly protested by the locals - one of the workers unearths small human bones. Clay and his partner, Kat Davenport, determine that it's part of a child's skeleton, raising the obvious question of identity as well as from whence, and when, the body was dumped at the site.
As the investigation begins, Clay gets another call, this time from a businessman who suspects the body might be a sister he never saw but always suspected went missing half a century ago. As the evidence builds up and more is learned about the skeleton, the story necessarily splits in two directions - with Clay investigating both (one officially and the other on his own time). While that adds interest and keeps the story moving along, it also makes for a boatload of characters to keep straight (and made me wonder how Clay, who is sleep-deprived as it is, could spare all those additional, and unpaid, hours). Along the way, he manages to get on the bad side of some very nasty people - not the least of whom are the folks protesting the razing of the park.
In the end, I found this to be a very enjoyable book that held my attention throughout (not that I expected anything less by anyone from the Kellerman clan). Thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy. Look forward to the next in this series!
Half Moon Bay by Jonathan Kellerman and Jesse Kellerman (Ballantine Books, July 2020); 368 pp.
4.5 stars out of 5
What do you get when you pit two psychologically
damaged sisters against one another? In this case, a very engrossing story that hooked me at the starting gate. That said, don't expect what I'd call a thriller nor, for that matter, many really likable characters; it's more of a manipulative struggle between the two sisters to determine who got the shorter end of life's stick and who can tell the most believable lies.
Alexandra Van Ness, a children's services worker, loves her job and her life with hunky and occasional model Chase. She's far less fond of her older estranged sister Ruth, with whom she shared a rocky, secret-filled childhood. So when Ruth shows up on her doorstep begging for help, Alex is torn. She's sure Ruth will revert to her unpleasant ways - possibly ruining the life she's built with Chase - but they are, after all, sisters. And even dysfunctional sisters have an obligation to take care of each other. Don't they?
Chapters switch from the perspectives of Alex and Ruth, with each telling her side of the story as she sees it, leaving readers to wonder who's the attacker and who's the villain. It's not till near the end that glimpses of reality creep in, and I must say that when the "truth" was revealed, I still wasn't convinced that either sister could pass for an innocent bystander. I'm not sure that was the intent, but I didn't like either sister well enough to give her a pass on bad behavior.
Still, I enjoyed this journey very much - and I recommend it as an anytime read, but especially on a beach read (if the virus pandemic we're currently experiencing eases up enough for beaches to be open) or by the fireplace when snow is falling outside. It's well-written, entertaining and fast-paced - what more could readers want? Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy.
Hurry Home by Roz Nay (Crooked Lane Books, July 2020); 272 pp.
3 stars out of 5
I started this book with very positive expectations, simply because I could so well relate to main character Summer Merriweather. She's a woman who, like me, hates romance novels, dislikes cozy mysteries, has a history of working in higher education and is terrified of eight-legged critters. Wow, I thought; any or all of these threads will make for an interesting plot.
Woulda, coulda, shoulda - but didn't; the best I can say now that I've finished is that it's 20% substance and 80% speculation. The only one of those threads that was fully developed is her hatred of romance novels - which ironically, strung out over many pages, ended up being a tribute to how great they really are. Then there's higher education, in which I spent several enjoyable years as a university administrator; turns out Summer hates her experience. And in her mind, it hates her despite the fact that she has a Ph.D. in Shakespearean literature (which she's fond of throwing in the faces of those around her every time something doesn't go her way). Cozy mysteries, too, somehow become more friend than foe. And my angst at almost every page that some kind of confrontation with those aforementioned creepy crawlers would happen? Well, let's just say I worried for nothing.
The substance comes when Summer's mother, free-wheeling Hildy, owner of Beach Reads bookstore, drops dead of an apparent heart attack and Summer returns to Brigid's Island for the funeral. She reluctantly comes from her self-imposed exile in England (she escaped there after a classroom video she thinks maligned her dignity went viral online; after all, she has a Ph.D., don't you know). Now that she's back on the beach where she grew up, readers learn she never liked it there, didn't get along with her late mother and hates her mother's bookstore because it stocks "trashy" beach novels and not a single work of what she and her Ph.D. consider serious literature. If that weren't enough, when she left home years earlier, she left a sour taste in the mouth of several island residents.
Summer hasn't seen her mother for ages, but she somehow concludes she couldn't possibly have had a heart attack (the argument seemingly being that she ate healthy foods and practiced Yoga and witchcraft). The rest of the book mostly centers on never-ending speculation: Is it really murder? Did he do it? Did she? Will I get my teaching job back? Should I call to find out? Do I really want it back? Did my mother really love me? Do her friends love me? Why don't people understand that my Ph.D. makes me smarter than everybody else on this godforsaken island?
Besides that, while I realize the copy I read is a pre-release version, courtesy of the publisher via NeGalley, the book could stand a bit more editing. Glitches like Summer's telling one character that she'd finished a novel only to tell another just a few pages later that no, she had not, really put a damper on any enjoyment I was feeling at the moment. And I'm still flummoxed as to how a bird described as very large could perch comfortably on a single human finger. Oh wait; maybe that's because I don't have a Ph.D.
I'm going to assume (yes, I know what happens when you do) that the author is trying to lay a ton of fodder for the next book - this is supposed to be the first of a series, I believe - as well as familiarize readers with characters and settings. As far as the settings go, she was successful; I loved the bookstore and life on the island and and would be very interested in reading about them again. The characters, not so much; most were rather nondescript, and the snobby Summer can take her precious Ph.D. to England. Or Canada. Or anywhere except the next book. As she speculates about herself somewhere in the pages, "Summer was aware she wasn't easily liked...but she wasn't completely unlikable, was she?"
You already know my answer to that question. Sorry, but for me this series ends here. I'm PhinishD.
Little Bookshop of Murder by Maggie Blackburn (Crooked Lane Books, July 2020); no page length listed.
4 stars out of 5
Never mind that it gets in the way of all the other things I need to be doing - it's always a treat to find a book you just can't put down. I started this one late in the evening - but even after just a few chapters I was hooked enough to want to keep going. The next day, I raced through it straight to the end (well, okay, I stopped long enough to chow down a slice when the pizza my husband ordered for dinner arrived, but that's only because I didn't want to get grease marks on my Kindle).
Just as the title suggests, the plot involves a dilemma. So, too, does writing a review; there's not much that can be said without giving away secrets that are unveiled as the story moves along. Essentially, it's about married couple Livia and Adam, parents of grown, but still living at home, children Marnie and Josh. They got married years ago when Livia got pregnant and have stayed together despite the fact that her parents disowned her and didn't give her the lavish wedding they'd promised. Since then, Livia has dreamed - make that obsessed - about having a 40th birthday party to compensate for the dream wedding she never got. Adam and Josh are helping make sure no detail (or expense) is spared, while Marnie is sending email and FaceTime encouragement from her education-related stay in Hong Kong.
But of course, nothing is quite as it seems. Livia has learned something awful that she hasn't told Adam about - but plans to do so after her big party. Adam, too, has an awful secret - one that he, too, must share with Livia. He agonizes over when to break the news, knowing that doing it now will spoil what is to be the biggest day of her life. Chapters switch between the perspectives of Adam and Livia, as both learn new more about their "secrets" and then waffle between whether 'tis better to tell or not to tell.
The waffling, I must say, is what nearly lost me. I've got a thing for characters who are on the paranoid side and constantly second-guess themselves and everyone around them (put another way, they drive me bonkers). These two, who fluctuate between selfish and selfless, came close to crossing the line; but to the author's writing credit, their back-and-forths ended up making me read faster instead of my usual throwing in the towel. Same with melodrama - no shortage of it here, but the way it is written more often than not makes it far more riveting than off-putting.
Nothing left to say, then, except thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy.
The Dilemma by B.A. Paris (St. Martin's Press, June 2020); 352 pp.
4 stars out of 5
June seems to be going to the dogs. Well, at least in my book; coming off reading another wonderful "Chet and Bernie" mystery by Spencer Quinn, I dived right into this one, which also focuses on unbelievably intelligent canines. But in this case, they're honing in on dead bodies.
That alone attracted me to this book, which came to me as a pre-publication review copy from NetGalley (thank you very much). But other things were intriguing as well; for instance, dog trainer Mason Reid - Mace to his friends - is a fan of country music, as am I. His main pooches have names like Maggie May, Delta Dawn and, the newest pup, Elvira. The name of another lead character, Chicago police officer Kippy Gimm, made me chuckle as well; when our daughter Christine Elizabeth was just starting to talk, the best she could do with her own name was "Kippy Libilip" - so for two or three years, Kippy it was (for the record, though, I do have a bit of a problem taking any grown-up named Kippy very seriously.
Mason and Kippy meet up at the scene of an apparent suicide by carbon monoxide, and they find what may have been an unintended victim; a golden retriever puppy that's unconscious but miraculously still alive. No surprise, but Mason takes the pup to raise, dubbing her Elvira, or Vira for short. It should be noted, also no surprise, that Mason - who's coming off the death of a favorite pooch and a marriage turned sour (I'm not sure which he mourns more) - takes quite a shine to the aforementioned Kippy.
Mason begins training Elvira as a cadaver dog, and she proves to be noseworthy in stellar fashion. In fact, she tackles - literally - a murder suspect she sniffs out in a crowd of bystanders, seriously injuring him and landing herself on the must-be-put-down list. When the authorities determine that the man was perhaps the serial killer they've been trying to nail for years, strings are pulled to keep Elvira safe.
Further investigation determines that Elvira's victim isn't working alone and a serial killer remains on the loose. The rest of the book focuses on the chase to find him (or her) as well as the killer's determination to put down Mason, Kippy and that pesky Elvira. It's an exciting chase to the finish, to be sure. My only concern is that while I enjoyed learning more about the superiority of dogs' brains and sense of smell, the detail was a bit heavy-handed. Since this is the first of what I believe is a series, I can't imagine there would be anything left to reveal in future episodes without repeating much of what's been said here. But in any event, I thoroughly enjoyed this one, and already I'm on the scent of another. Soon, please?
The Finders by Jeffrey B. Burton (Minotaur Books, June 2020); 288 pp.
5 stars out of 5
An uber-competent, likable yet flawed character, the first of what I hope will be a series and a plot with complexity that's easy to understand: What's not to like? By the time I was halfway through this one, I was hoping for the next.
This one begins as Marko Zorn, a detective with the Washington, D.C., Metro Police, fights over the rights to a body found in the Reflecting Pool with the city's park police. No, it's not a suicide; it's a homicide and it's ours, Marko asserts after he ruined his expensive clothing hauling the body out of the water. The park police back off, unwillingly, and there are no real clues as to what really happened except for a bracelet Marko spots in the surrounding grass.
Marko's expensive tastes couldn't happen with just a police department paycheck, and he supplements his income in other ways - sometimes not just skirting the law, but pretty much stomping it into the ground. As the murder happens, gang activity is picking up, with two members of one gang seemingly at odds with each other. The gang leader, an old woman named Sister Grace, occasionally asks Marko for help. This time, she has another job for him - but it's not one he's eager to take on (there are limits as to what he will do for money, it seems). As if all that weren't enough, his station boss shackles him to a new, squeaky clean partner - just about the last thing he wants to deal with right now.
Even worse, as his murder investigation ramps up, it becomes clear that unknown powers-that-be don't want Marko (or anyone else) digging in - powers that lead straight to the White House itself. The power struggle between the gang rivals heats up as well, fueled by a huge shipment of illegal guns that, depending on who ends up with them, could change the D.C. landscape entirely. Marko doesn't mind sticking to his own guns when it comes to the murder investigation, but if he screws up on the arms deal, it could "out" his side job - or even put him out of commission permanently. Can he pull everything off without losing everything, including his own life?
Well, you'll just have to read it to find out - and trust me, it's worth it. Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-publication copy. Good job!
The Reflecting Pool by Otho Eskin (Oceanview Publishing, June 2020); 352 pp.)
3 stars out of 5
Have you ever seen that TV commercial for spaghetti sauce - Ragu, if I recall correctly? "It's in there," the narrator says. Well, somewhere in this book is a story, I'm sure, but most of it went over my head in the jumble of endless characters, excessively lengthy chapters that switched gears several times with no warning and an ending that, to put it mildly, was abrupt.
That's not to say there's nothing going on, although sometimes it was hard to tell who was doing what to whom. Here's what I know (or think I know): A merger between two banks goes south, creating two mortal enemies who are planning to fight it out in court. One of those banks is represented by a heavyweight law firm and one of its high-powered attorneys, Elizabeth Carlyle. One of their younger associates screws up big-time by putting sensitive documents related to the lawsuit on his cell phone, which then gets stolen as he moves through Grand Central Station on his way somewhere.
Worried that the documents would be damaging to the firm if they fell into the wrong hands, Elizabeth hires a woman named Valencia, who appears to be some kind of professional mercenary, to find the phone and the thief. But then, the bottom falls out when Elizabeth gets a threat: The documents will be made public unless her firm pays a hefty ransom. Elizabeth agrees, with Valencia in turn agreeing to follow the money surreptitiously and, hopefully, get it back along with those pesky documents.
From that point on, things got so convoluted and ridden with characters, those characters' relatives and relatives of their relatives that I really couldn't follow it (although I did deduce that almost everyone involved was following almost everyone else to varying degrees of success). It might have gone more smoothly had the chapters been shorter. It's not a lengthy book, but there are only four chapters, so just about every "set" of characters gets a place in each one, but with zero transition. Many times I had to flip back a page or two in my Kindle when I realized I wasn't reading about the characters I thought I was.
In the end, although technically the writing (as in grammar, punctuation and spelling) had no noticeable glitches, I'm afraid this one just didn't click with me. Just the same, thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the pre-publication copy.
Clean Hands by Patrick Hoffman (Atlantic Monthly Press, June 2020); 288 pp.
4 stars out of 5
Absolutely love this series - Bernie Little, private eye, is a pretty cool character. But he pales in comparison to his canine companion, Chet - who narrates the books from his wonderful doggie perspective and canine sense of humor. He's also smart as a whippet, even if he did flunk out of K-9 training school on his final day (blame it on an errant cat).
When Bernie is called to a meeting with Wendell Nero, a hydrologist and professor at a local college about a possible job, it turns into a worst-case scenario: Professor Nero is in his trailer in a remote desert area, all right, but he's quite dead. Not long afterward, a man known to have been in the professor's trailer is found, and charged with the murder. Problem is, Bernie is pretty sure they've got the wrong killer.
Bernie is hired by Wendell's three ex-wives (largely so they can divvy up his estate), so Bernie and Chet begin sniffing around - with Chet wagging his tail and trying his best to figure out what Bernie wants him to do (sometimes that happens, sometimes not). Bernie wants some advice from an old sheriff friend, but when Bernie lets Chet spend the night with the man, it doesn't end well as a couple of dognappers swoop in and whisk Chet away.
Looking around the murder scene, Bernie spies a vineyard that's thriving despite the obvious lack of water, while Chet smells water and tries to convey his discovery to Bernie. Much more than that would spoil things for other readers, so I'll just leave it at that. I will say this isn't my favorite of the series, but it's mostly because the plot just didn't grab me as much. That said, I chuckled and teared up at moments appropriate to humans as always. If you love lovable pooches, fun and the art of the chase, I strongly suggest that you give this book (and the series as a whole - this is the 10th) a try. Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review a pre-publication copy.
Of Mutts and Men by Spencer Quinn (Forge Books, July 2020); 304 pp.
4 stars out of 5
I've read one other book in this series - this is the 14th - and because I enjoyed the story and characters in that one (the 13th) so much, I was delighted to have the opportunity to read an advance review copy through NetGalley). I liked this one as well, albeit not quite as much.
In part, I think, it's because main character Brooklyn Wainwright and her new husband and security consultant Derek Stone, somehow seemed more subdued here. And, there didn't seem to be as much emphasis on the how-tos of Brooklyn's work as a bookbinder who specializes in rare book restoration (details in the previous book were fascinating to me, and I'd looked forward to learning more). In fact, Brooklyn, who narrates the story, wasn't even identified until the 11% mark on my Kindle. Another intriguing character popped in and out, but I never found out from whence he came. Because he always calls Brooklyn "Babe," it actually crossed my mind that Ranger, Stephanie Plum's hunky temptation in the popular series by Janet Evanovich, had somehow morphed into this series under a pseudonym).
Once Brooklyn was properly identified, however, it was pretty much all systems go the rest of the way. She and Derek are back in Dharma, where her flower-child-like parents live amid the wineries of California's Sonoma region. Her mother is heading up the community's first annual Book Festival, which will be followed a week later by the grape harvest (her parents own a vineyard). Relationships are strained among some of the committee members, and one particularly nasty character - who's been buying up nearly foreclosed wineries in the area and turning them into producers of (gasp!) box wine - actually threatens Brooklyn's mother at one of the committee meetings.
Not long after the meeting, Brooklyn's mother and Derek's mother find a dead body in the town hall - he's the treasurer for the festival. Further investigation reveals that the committee's bank account - about $70,000 - has vanished. Meanwhile, a local bookstore owner gave a raggedy old copy of "Little Women" to Brooklyn to restore, with the intent to sell it by silent auction at the festival (readers do get a bit of details on the restoration process). Still another murder follows, and from that point on, everything is focused on making the festival a success and finding out who the murderer is - ideally before some other character bites the dust.
All in all it's an engaging experience, although I'd suggest that newbies read others in the series before tackling this one. That said, the recipes for some of the goodies mentioned in the story are at the end for those who are into such things (truthfully, they sound absolutely delicious; but anything with more than three ingredients doesn't get made at our house). And absolutely, I'll be watching for the next installment!
The Grim Reader by Kate Carlisle (Berkley, June 2020); 336 pp.
5 stars out of 5
Having spent roughly 16 years in journalism prompted me to say yes to this book - the third in a series featuring journalist Clare Carlson (now a TV news director). I'm glad I did; I thoroughly enjoyed every single page.
That's not to say I identified well with Clare; two of my years was as a beat reporter for a daily and 14 came managing editor of a regional business journal. Unlike Clare, neither experience got me a Pulitzer, sorry to say, but then again, neither was I ever in much danger. The closest I ever came was when I was interviewing a pair of township trustees who clearly didn't like each other, and when one started to take a whack at the other I had to jump out of the way. For sure I never got death threats, nor was my life ever in danger because of any story I wrote.
Almost from the first page of this book - the third in the series - Clare is on shaky ground. When a long-time friend and mentor is murdered, she isn't willing to believe, as do the police, that it was a mugging gone wrong. That's mostly because shortly before his death, he met with Clare to tell her he was looking into goings-on that related to New York's current hot-shot District Attorney Terri Hartwell.
Clare's TV boss isn't thrilled that she wants to delve into the situation to find out specifics about what her friend knew; but she's determined to get to the bottom of things, for the most part going off on her own. Meanwhile, Clare has a few personal "secrets" she'd rather not disclose - things that could derail her so-far stellar career. Her investigation takes her through a dark world of mob bosses, payoffs and yes, murder that go back to an unsolved murder many years ago in small-town Indiana (another plus for me, since I grew up not far from Indianapolis and Fort Wayne). In the end, everything comes to an exciting conclusion, most issues are resolved without, of course, Clare getting killed off (you really don't expect the heroine of a series to bite the dust, do you)?
All told (in first-person, by the way), I highly recommend this book. As always with a series, I'll also recommend starting with the first; but I have not, and I'm happy to say this one stands on its own just fine. Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review it.
The Last Scoop by R.G. Belsky (Oceanview Publishing, May 2020); 369 pp.
3 stars out of 5
After reading and enjoying other books by
this author, I jumped at the chance to get it as an Amazon Prime Reads selection. Now I've finished it, and I have to say it just didn't push the right buttons for me. It's heavy-handed in the focus on sexual abuse (often graphically described), psychologically damaged victims and some of the sickest characters I've ever had the displeasure to meet. It's not that it isn't well-written, I hasten to add - it was for me just too much of a bad thing.
There are two plots going on here, both tinged (make that doused) with violence and revenge. A group calling themselves The Crew meet on the Dark Web, plotting to make sexual predators "pay" for what they've done. No killing or maiming allowed, they claim; they simply want to impress upon them that payback is a you-know-what. The other story focuses on Sawyer Brooks, a 29-year-old journalist who longs to be on the crime scene beat. She and her two sisters, Aria and Harper, are themselves victims of extensive and horrific sexual abuse - and dealing with it in very different ways (Harper is a neat freak, Sawyer avoids emotional or physical attachments and Aria simply refuses to go there). Not only are all three seriously psychologically damaged by abuse, but in large part because of those experiences, they have tended to not play well with each other.
Things get heated when Sawyer gets her wish to partner up with the nationally recognized crime reporter at their Sacramento newspaper and her beloved grandmother dies. Since she's going home to nearby River Rock for the funeral, she convinces her new boss to let her report on the years-ago murders of two young girls and another - Sawyer's best friend - who went missing but was never found. Meanwhile, The Crew keep busy chasing down and showing the predators who abused them the error of their ways (oh golly, what could possibly go wrong with that scenario)?
For Sawyer, going home puts her right back in the eye of her storm - visiting the parents who at best ignored their daughters and the prison release of one of their abusers. On top of that, no one - including the police - are happy that old rocks are being overturned for all the world to read about in Sawyer's story. There are a few twists here and there, although they're for the most part predictable. Still, it's an action-packed adventure, albeit not what I'd call a totally satisfying one.
Don't Make a Sound by T.R. Ragan (Thomas & Mercer, June 2020); 285 pp.
5 stars out of 5
This, the author's second adventure set on
Camino Island, puts some of the characters from the first (appropriately titled Camino Island) back in the eye of the storm. This time, though, it's literally; not long after the story begins, Hurricane Leo threatens to disrupt the festivities honoring successful author Mercer Mann that are to take place in Bruce Cable's Bay Books store. Mercer, who has a college teaching gig, has returned to the island with her latest boy toy, Thomas, expecting to be wined and dined by her old friends.
But it's not long before all those plans are blowin' in the wind; Leo, it seems, has set his eye on the island's downtown. Evacuations are ordered, but Bruce and a couple of his friends decide to ride it out. Luckily, they survive the devastation; but no such luck for Nelson Kerr, a thriller writer and one of Bruce's friends. He's found dead at his damaged home; but an up-close-and-personal look determines that Leo may not have been the killer.
Since Nelson died in the storm when debris was flying everywhere, the local police aren't quite ready to buy the murder angle - and even if they did, they're up to their eyeballs in clean-up efforts and making sure looters don't start running rampant. Bruce, though, is positive he's right. As he and his friends, including Mercer and Thomas, put their heads together, the consensus is that somebody, somewhere, didn't want Nelson's not-yet-published manuscript to see the light of print.
But who might that be? Surely not one of their own - each of whom has a background and secrets that are slowly revealed as the story unfolds - and issues are resolved - over a period of a year or so. As was the first book, it's told in a narrative style, although there seems to be more dialogue here (and, maybe because of that, I think I slightly prefer this one). Those expecting courtroom theatrics will be disappointed, although lawyers do get involved in some of the goings-on. All in all, this one is thoroughly enjoyable - and I've definitely taken a liking to this series. More, please!
Camino Winds by John Grisham (Doubleday, April 2020); 290 pp.
5 stars out of 5
Enchanting. Tear-jerking. Edge-of-seat scary. All this and more await readers of this exquisitely written book. If I had to describe it in a single word, it would be mesmerizing.
At the heart of the activity is a telepathic dog named Kipp; Woody, a high-functioning autistic boy who hasn't spoken a word for all of his 11 years; and a diabolic plan to increase human longevity that goes horribly wrong. It's sort of a The Art of Racing in the Rain meets The Shining. Seriously, how can you top that?
Woody's dad was killed three years ago, leaving his mom, Megan, as a single parent who loves her son unconditionally. Woody returns her love even though he's unable to express it; what she doesn't know is that he's convinced that his dad's death was murder, not an accident. Elsewhere, an elderly lady named Dorothy has watched over her beloved Kipp for years, understanding his human-like abilities that include membership in the "Mysterium," a group of 86 golden retrievers and Labs who communicate with each other on the "Wire."
And in Utah, a man who was an executive at that research laboratory working on longevity is on the run. Lee Shacket, who escaped a major disaster there with a ton of money, briefly dated Megan before she got married and knows she's now a widow. On the spur of the moment, he decides that she would be the perfect companion as he flees to another country to spend the rest of his life in luxury. But when he calls her to ask, she rebuffs him - triggering an intensive desire for revenge that grows stronger and more dangerous by the page.
Meanwhile, Kipp begins to intercept messages on the Wire from someone he believes may be a young boy - certainly a first among the heretofore all-doggie system. Kipp doesn't understand why the boy is intent on proving that his father was murdered, but he knows he needs help and sets off to find him. All that sets in motion the events that follow - events that kept me glued to the book almost nonstop till the end. My emotions pretty much ran wild, with the extremes tempered by a bit of humor here and there (my favorite laugh-out-loud line came when one character was described as having "the attention span of a Chihuahua with ADHD").
Seriously, this is one of the best books I've read this year. And for the record, I'd love to read more about the adventures of Kipp and his buddies (hint, hint). How about it, Mr. Koontz?
Devoted by Dean Koontz (Thomas & Mercer, March 2020); 381 pp.
5 stars out of 5
There are way too many reasons I love this series to mention, but - almost lifelong Ohio resident that I am - I'll confirm that one is "Memory Man" Amos Decker's connection to the Buckeye State: Not only did he graduate from THE Ohio State University, but he was signed by my favorite NFL team, the Cleveland Browns. The latter was, alas, a career-ender - on his very first play of his very first professional game, he was injured so badly that he could play no more. That experience did, however, leave him with hyperthymesia, which causes him to remember every detail of every single day (whether he wants to or not) as well as synesthia abilities - associating colors with people and objects.
Now an investigator, he and his FBI colleague Alex Jamison go where they're sent; in this instance, it's remote London, North Dakota, where the rich Bakken oil field has put the fracking industry in boom mode. They're here to investigate the apparent murder of a young woman named Irene Cramer, whose body was dumped in an open area and, inexplicably, had been autopsied. Neither Amos nor Alex has any idea why Irene is important to the FBI powers-that-be, but they do learn that by day she was a teacher at a religious community near the fracking operations (and near a secretive government facility that claims to be watching the skies for possible nuclear invasion). After the sun went down, it appears that Irene supplemented her income as a lady of the night.
Nothing, though, is as it seems; Amos and Alex spend a goodly amount of time looking into all three operations - fracking, the government facility and the religious group - trying to determine who Irene really was, why she was murdered and whether any or all of the three operations are connected in any way. It doesn't take long for the investigation to turn deadly, though, and therein came an exciting surprise - the appearance of three other familiar characters from a different (and another favorite) series. From that point on, the pace picks up fast, making for edge-of-seat action the rest of the way. Yeah, I know it's highly unlikely that an author will kill off a major character in a popular series (this is the sixth Decker installment). That said, from my perspective it's a credit to any author who can make me worry that it really could happen - and I admit to holding my breath more than once in this one. Great job!
Walk the Wire by David Baldacci (Grand Central Publishing, April 2020); 433 pp.
This is the third in the series featuring deputy coroner Clay Edison, and having read the previous two, I must say I think this is my favorite so far. Clay is not only competent at his job, but totally likable - as is his psychologist wife, Amy; together, they try to navigate job responsibilities around their infant daughter Charlotte, who isn't fond of sleeping - with Clay working the night shift.
