Ace and Hoser Blook

This is #8 in the Harry Bosch series and they just keep on getting better and better.

Harry is investigating a bone that a dog has found in the Hollywood Hills. It ends up being human from a cold case 20 years previously. The case becomes intense for Harry as his childhood keeps on being dredged up.

Harry in his typical persistent dogged manner starts digging through police records, hospital records and missing people reports. He just won't let it go. Bosch finds a family is disarray because of their missing child. Following a trail of meager proportions he continues, sometimes alone by choice, until all hell breaks loose and the police have a live case to solve.

Harry also gets involved with a rookie cop which although short has disastrous results.

Harry's character is the cop we all love to see. One who follows a case and solves it on crumbs of clues. Can't wait to read the next in the series.

First Line: "The old lady had changed her mind about dying but by then it was too late."

Rating:

(4.0/5)

Labels: book review, cozy mystery, Michael Connelly

This book is a saga about the Sawtelles and their exceptional dogs. Dogs not of a particular breed but bred for their qualities of obedience, loyalty and intelligence. Edgar was born to Trudy and Gar,as a mute. He learned sign language to communicate but he has grown up with the dogs and little outside contact. His father gives him his own litter to raise and train.

When Gar brings his brother, Claude into his home after his release from prison, the family is changed. Gar and Claude start to argue a lot and Edgar doesn't understand why. When Gar dies, Edgar knows he must learn everything that his grandfather and father knew about the dogs. But Claude is insinuating himself more and more into Edgar's and Trudy's lives. When Edgar tries to prove that Claude killed his father everything backfires and Edgar runs away.

This is a coming-of-age, a mystery, an animal and family story. The scenes from the wilderness that the author portrays are so very real. By far my favourite part of the book is the narration by Almondine, Edgar's faithful companion dog. These chapters are poignant and beautifully written.

First Line: "After dark the rain began to fall again, but he had already made up his mind to go and anyway it had been raining for weeks."

Rating:

(4.5/5)

Labels: book review, Fiction/Literature, Wroblewski

Enzo is a dog like no others. He knows that when he dies he will return as a man and so hopes by watching the humans around him he will learn his lessons well. He educates himself by watching TV and listening to his master, Denny.

On the eve of his death Enzo recounts his life story. He starts off when he was picked by Denny and goes through Denny's life. The hardships Denny has faced trying to become a professional race car driver. The marriage and then loss of his wife to cancer. The ugly custody battles with his late wife's parents over his daughter Zoe. All Enzo hopes for is for Denny to have Zoe beside him when he wins the ultimate race.

Enzo draws on car racing as an analogy of life. Enzo's way of looking at life is funny, quirky and sometimes sad. One wonders if dogs really see us this way. Even though I knew Enzo was dying I cried buckets at the end. Loved, loved this story

First Line: "Gestures are all that I have; sometimes they must be grand in nature."

Rating:

(4.5/5)

Labels: book review, Fiction/Literature, Stein

Below the streets of mid-1800s London, England runs the city's sewer system. It's an endless maze of decaying brick pathways that smell horribly and are used by many to hide things, including bodies.

William May returns from the Crimean War an almost broken man. He has what is obviously post traumatic stress syndrome and the only way he can act normally around his wife and son is to go down into the sewers to cut his wrists. Eventually, May gets a job with the city to help transform the sewer system. This leads May in to some tricky scenarios from corrupt city workers that make him lose his mind and his family. Did he witness a murder in the tunnels? Or was it just his deranged mind?

I found this book to be a fairly slow read even though it was very interesting. I'm not sure if it was the structure of the book that made it slow as I was definitely engaged. I was surprised that someone would pick this subject for their book but it worked! Though there is some history in this book from the little bits of Crimean war and how the sewers were overhauled, I didn't find this as much as a historical fiction as a fictional mystery. Though I do wish the mystery had started a bit earlier in the book, there was still enough tension to keep me engaged. Definitely an interesting read.

First Line: "Where the channel snaked to the right it was no longer possible to stand upright, despite the abrupt drop in the gradient."

Rating:

(4/5)

N falls madly in love with Margaret Towne while a grad student. When he goes to visit her family in Margarettown he finds several women named Margaret: May, a little girl, Mia, a sullen teenager, Marge, a cynical middle-aged woman, Greta a 50ish woman who has committed suicide and Marge, old and full of advice.

The first half of the book describes N's and Margaret's love and the struggle of N to understand all the variations of Margaret. The second half belongs to Jane their daughter reading her father's letters and version of his courtship with Margaret, their affairs and eventual 'getting back together'.

Every person does have a multitude of people that make up their whole. That is the gist of the book but I found this book just a bit too philosophical for me.

First Line: "When I first met Margaret, I lived in a basement apartment."

Rating:

(3.5/5)

Labels: book review, Fiction/Literature, Zevin

Gabrielle Breedlove (doesn't this just set the tone for the entire book?) co-owns an antiques shop with her friend Kevin, is in to aromatherapy, and believes that people have auras and karma. When Gabrielle notices at bulky man following her for a week, she takes the man down with a can of hairspray only to find out it's property crimes detective Joe Shanahan. Shanahan believes that Kevin has stolen a Monet painting and needs Gabrielle to help. Shanahan poses as her boyfriend and does some carpentry work in her store so he can keep his eye on Kevin. Typical to any romance novel, the two can't stand each other at first but desire always wins out and they fall in love.

This book is nothing more than fluff as a break from the more serious books I've been reading. It's not written all that well, though I have definitely read worse romance novels. And the fight between hate and lust started to annoy me after the first 150 pages or so. Yes, I understand you hate him but he's soooooo dreamy - insert the eye roll here. There were a couple steamy scenes near the end, which I guess, in more ways than one, is the climax of the book? HA!

First Line: "Detective Joseph Shanahan hated rain."

Rating:

(2.5/5)

Labels: romance

Avery James was a foundling. Brought up in institutions and foster homes she leaves at the age of 13 to find her own way. At first she stumbles upon Cassie who teaches her about herbs and healing.

She eventually finds her way to Sante Fe where she is an assistant to a caterer. Working at a wealthy art dealer's party she comes upon a painting of a woman who is her mirror image. Avery has found her mother. What follows is a search. Her mother died in a tragic accident 8 years ago. Avery initially declines wanting to know anything about her mother but she ends up wanting to know all about her. From her lover and friends, her enemies and even her isolated cabin and journal she finds out about her mother and herself.

First Line: "The first time I saw my mother was the night she died."

Rating:

(3.5/5)

Labels: book review, Fiction/Literature, Hendricks