[ebooktalk] Books I read in May.
- From: "Shell" <shell@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <ebooktalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 2 Jun 2013 21:08:42 +0100
I had quite a good reading month and read some new authors to me. By far my
favorite book was the Joseph Heywood.
Shell.
French, Nicci. Blue Monday. May 2013. 9 Stars.
A little girl disappears from a sweet shop in the middle of the day. No body is
ever found, but when a little boy disappears on his way home from school 20
years later, it is psychotherapist Frieda Klein who presents the similarities
to the police.
Frieda is an excellent character and the mystery was solid. A very tense story
with lots of unexpected twists and turns. Will be reading more in this series.
Straley, John. The Woman Who Married a Bear. May 2013. 5 Stars.
Cecil Younger Is an Alaskan PI who is hired to solve an old crime. Some of the
descriptive writing is good, but Cecil's drinking problem and stories from his
youth drag the book down and make it tedious to read.
Shriver, Lionel. We Need To Talk About Kevin. May 2013. 10 Stars.
Written in a series of letters from Eva to her husband we go back in time to
before Kevin was born and hear the story of the strange child he was and the
events which led up to him killing 7 of his class mates.
Very suspenseful and dark but with some laugh out loud humor. We hear Eva's
thoughts and pain as she tries to cope with a terrible situation.
Crais, Robert. Suspect. May 2013. 6 Stars.
Max was injured in a shooting and can no longer be a street cop. Maggie, a
German Shepherd was also shot in Iraq and lost her handler in the same
incident. Can they now work together as a team and help heal each other's
emotional wounds?
A book of two halves. The dog story is sweet and pulls on the heart strings
but, the investigation side of the book is hampered with inaccuracies and is so
lame that non of it could happen in the real world. Which spoils the book all
together. A weak effort.
Mark, David. Dark Winter. May 2013. 8 Stars.
DCI Aector McAvoy is trying to connect the murders of victims who have all
previously been the sole survivors of tragedies. He is a gentle man with a good
home life which is nice for a change and I could not guess who-done-it. I
wasn't quite as bowled over as I'd hoped to be from the excellent reviews, but
perhaps I was expecting too much. Will read more in the series.
Heywood, Joseph. ICE HUNTER. May 2013. 10 Stars.
What a fantastic mystery! Set in the wilder parts of Michigan we meet Grady, a
woods cop like his Father. Policing such a rural area takes special skills and
Grady has all the knowledge of the rural area and the ability to track in all
the local terrain. Great mystery and the female characters out outstanding.
Beautifully described and a nice dog too. What more could you want. Can't wait
to get my hands on the next in the series. A must read!
McEwan, Ian. Sweet Tooth. May 2013. 6 Stars.
Set in 1972, Serena is a bit of a lost soul after a failed relationship with an
older man. She is offered a job by MI5, but it was not the work she had hoped
for.
Quite a slow book centering on relationships but quite compelling reading and a
good end.
Seton, Anya. Dragonwyck. May 2013. 7 Stars.
A good example of a gothic romantic suspense. Miranda accepts an invitation to
go and stay with her wealthy cousin in the mid 18 hundreds. We have the spooky
house, the mysterious but darkly attractive home owner and the impression that
all is not well. No real surprises in the tale, but it's well written and nice
and easy to read and relax with.
Kennedy, Douglas. Five days. May 2013. 8 Stars.
I've given this book more stars than suits my enjoyment of it because it's
unfair to mark a book down just because it's not my kind of novel. It was well
written and focusses on a married woman who has a fling with a married man at a
conference she is attending and the effect this has on her life and that of her
family. I just like a bit more to happen and a few surprises along the way and
as Douglas Kennedy is one of my favorite authors I expect a different style
from him. So, highly recommended if you like books about the intricacies of
relationships and I didn't dislike it but wasn't sad to get to the end.
Behrens, Peter The Law of Dreams. May 2013. 9 Stars.
Fergus is forced to leave Ireland in the 1840s due to the potato famine and the
death of his whole family. We follow his journey to Liverpool, Wales and then
on to America.
Quite a slow start and I did give up on it, only to be persuaded to give it a
bit longer. I was very glad I did as the book picked up and the characters
developed well later in the story. Some really interesting historical detail
and what life was like for the majority of people at that time.
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