Ace and Hoser Blook

Archy McNally is hired to be the go-between for the wealthy collector Fortesque and the seller of Truman Capote's original manuscript of Answered Prayers. The problem is Archy is conked on the head and loses both the manuscript and the money and furthermore a man is found dead in the room where he had just concluded the deal.

Enter Georgia O'Hara, the beautiful cop in charge of the murder investigation. Archy has no trouble in securing a date, of course only to discuss the case. At the same time he hopes to make Connie his long-time girlfriend jealous. Connie has been dating a dashing Cuban and seems to be losing interest in Archy.

At the same time the abandoned Beaumont house has been seen to have lights flickering in the windows. Ty Beaumont wants Archy to see if it is really his dead twin's ghost.

The McNally stories are always over the top but I think this time it is a bit much. Archy dates the cop who is investigating him as a suspect. Come-on! Also the stories seem to be very convoluted. The Beaumont case seems to just a bit of added fluff in case the main story was not enough. Archy this time appears to be a bit desperate instead of being the cad he is

First Line: "My potential client was a Ms. Claudia Lester."

Rating:

(3.5/5)

Labels: book review, Lawrence Sanders, mystery

Detective Sergeant Karen Pirie deals with cold cases.

Twenty-four years ago, a wealthy reclusive Scottish business man, Brodie Grant, lost his daughter in a botched kidnapping and never did find his grandson. Bel Richmond, an investigative reporter finds evidence of the kidnapping while on holiday in Tuscany. Bel goes directly to Grant who grants her access to himself and directs her investigations. Although Pirie is called in on the case, Grant only gives her minimal information and even orders Richmond not to give the police further help.

Misha Gibson walks into the police station to report her father missing. Only it happened over twenty years ago. She needs to find him in order to save her son medically. Pirie starts investigating to find out Misha's father is not where everyone thought and has vanished. Coincidentally at the same time as one of his friends also vanished and was thought to have committed suicide.

Pirie is a wonderful character. She seems to handle her boss quite adroitly and continues to investigate the cases in spite of his hindrance. McDermid is wonderful at turning seeming ordinary people like Pirie into great characters. I certainly hope her story continues.

First Line: "The voice is soft, like the darkness that encloses them."

Rating:

(4.0/5)

Labels: book review, McDermid, mystery

Erin dances at a strip club to pay her lawyer bills. She's in the middle of a custody battle with her ex for her daughter. Making friends with the other dancers and the bouncer makes Erin's job slightly more enjoyable, until a US congressman comes in for a dance and begins beating a bachelor over the head with a champagne bottle.

Recognizing the congressman to be David Dilbreck, three people try to blackmail him in exchange for their silence. All turn up dead. Dilbreck is oblivious to these problems though, as he has fallen in love with Erin and wants her to dance for him. A bunch of different characters are involved in the fiasco, each bringing their own crazy problems to the novel.

This was a fun book to read and I'm surprised it's taken me this long to read a Hiaasen book. The quirky characters made me chuckle and wonder how they got themselves into the situation and how they were going to get out of it. For all of the character build up, however, I felt let down by the ending. While everything was resolved, I felt like it wasn't what the characters deserved.

First Line: "On the night of September sixth, the eve of Paul Guber's wedding, his buddies took him to a strip joint near Fort Lauderdale for a bachelor party."

Rating:

(3.5/5)

Labels: Hiaasen, mystery

This a book about one school year in Torey Hayden's life. Torey is a special education teacher. This year she has twins suffering from Fetal Alcohol syndrome, a boy with Tourette's, a boy with an explosive temper and Venus Fox, an elective mute.

Although the book is about all the children including a few who are sent for only a few hours each day, the book concentrates on Venus. Venus is a mute who does not respond, does not listen or even seem to acknowledge other people.
Venus however does respond when accidently bumped into murderous rages.

Torey tries everything in the book to get the little girl to respond to no avail. Patiently and persistently she keeps on trying until she gets the slightest of nods. Venus does not come to school on a consistent basis and it seems for every step forward there are two back. Torey goes above and beyond to reach this child and bring her back from her silent world

First Line: "The first time I saw her, she was atop a stone wall that ran along the west side of the playground."

Rating:

(4.0/5)

Labels: book review, Hayden, memoir

Davy Boyce is referred to a childrens' center in rural Oregon because he is mute and becomes a violent biter when annoyed. Celia Griswold is an art therapist at the center. Her new boss is not a big proponent of art therapy. As Davy slowly responds to the art therapy his drawings get more and more bizarre, leading Celia to suspect the very worse of situations. She suspects abuse and very severe emotional trauma. Can she get anyone else to see her suspicions?

Celia has her own problems. Her husband is becoming more and more remote and just at a time when she wants to start a family. Celia and her husband live in a remote although beautiful area but a scary shepard had moved his herd into the area causing Celia some concern.

Then there is Chet, Davy's stepfather, the most scariest of men. What he has planned for Celia and Davy is the sickiest and grizzliest of scenarios.

First Line: "Davy Boyce climbed on top of another gray stump and fired again."

Rating:

(4.0/5)

Labels: book review, Nykanen, Sick Shit

This is the story of Kinky Kincaid, a housekeeper for two doctors in the northern Irish town of Ballybucklebo. Kinky was born Maureen O’Hanlon to a farmer and grew up in the county of Cork far to the south.

It is Christmas afternoon when Kinky gathers a group of children into the lounge for a story about her adolescence. It all started the year she was fourteen on a wintry day. Connor MacTaggart, their neighbour had helped with a sheep instead of hauling in more peat to keep himself warm. Connor was 'seeing' Maureen's sister Fidelma. Instead of accepting some peat from the O'Hanlons and being 'beholden' to them Connor decides to cut down a blackthorn tree. Mrs. O'Hanlon warns him to appease the Banshee and not cut the tree down or he will be cursed.

Of course Connor doesn't believe in fairies, dark or otherwise and cuts the tree down and immediately is beleaguered by a vixen, a spider and the cry of the Banshee. All this leads to Connor's death on the Feast of Steven or Boxing Day. Fidelma is devastated but Maureen starts hearing Connor's pipes and even starts seeing his ghost. Her mother who also has the sight helps her though this terrifying experience and Maureen eventually accepts her gift.

The second half of the story Kinky relates as she is cooking the Christmas dinner. She reminisces about a time 2 years past the incident with Connor. She thinks about her aspirations and her passions and how torn she was between the two. Maureen wanted to get her Leaver's Certificate and become a teacher but she fell in love with a man who did not want his wife to work. In the midst of all this angst were the insights into the future she would occasionally get. What did it all mean? Would she follow her heart or her head?

An Irish Country Girl is part of the Irish Country series but can be read stand-alone. I very much enjoyed Patrick Taylor's story-telling. Pull up a blanket and a cup of tea and prepare to be mesmerized and charmed.

First Line: ""Run along, make your calls, and enjoy His Lordship's hooley," said Mrs. Maureen Kincaid, "Kinky" to her friends, as she knelt in the hall and sponged Ribena black-currant cordial from a small boy's tweed overcoat."

Rating:

(4.0/5)

Labels: book review, Fiction/Literature, Taylor

Jessy waited forever for Ty Calder as she knew what she wanted. Ty finally divorced Tara and now Jessy and Ty are expecting twins. Happily ever after, right. Not quite as Tara's beloved father dies suddenly and Tara doesn't know what to do but to turn to Ty. Well she does know and knows exactly what she is doing as she is very manipulative and she wants Ty back.

Ty seemingly becomes more and more 'pulled' in as Tara helps to plan The Calder's auction barn and then buys the piece of land entirely enclosed by Calder ranch. The Calders have been trying to buy that land for a long time. How did Tara come by it so easily?

This series almost reads like a mystery as someone in every book is either killed or injured severely. Just another love story where the good girl wins in the end HOORAH!

First Line: "The grass ocean rippled gold under a strong summer song."

Rating:

(3.5/5)

Labels: book review, Dailey, romance

Detective Sergeant Karen Pirie is a cold case detective from Fife, Scotland. She's got a sharp mind, a boss that's out for himself, and a suppressed lust for her partner. When new developments are made in a twenty year old kidnapping case, Karen is brought in to examine the evidence. The case involves the kidnapping of a daughter and grandson to a wealthy Scottish businessman. The two were ransomed but the handover was botched and the daughter of Brodie Grant was killed, the grandson never to be seen again. Grant still wants to find his grandson, stopping at nothing to get more information, including not giving Karen access to all of the information she needs to know about the case.

Adding to Karen's case load is Misha Gibson, who reports her father Mich Prentice as missing even though he left his family over 20 years ago during a national miners strike. Many in the village believe he went scabbing with strike-breakers, abandoning his family. But the other men that left claim that Prentice never went with them. Karen sets out to solve the mystery without telling her boss that she's working in the field again.

It's refreshing to have such an ordinary person as the main character of the book. Karen Pirie explains herself as a little chubby and has a great whit and quick brain. She is a little self-conscious but doesn't let it affect her professional life (just her personal life!). McDermid bills A Darker Domain as a stand alone novel but I'd really like to see the return of Karen Pirie. She's right up there with Tony Hill as great McDermid characters.

The mystery is a typical McDermid-style mystery. You have some inklings on what may happen but you're still surprised at what ends up happening. This novel was a page turner, just as expected. If you've never read a McDermid book before but are a general mystery fan I suggest you pick this book up. If you are a McDermid fan, this is another great work. Either way, I suggest getting this book as it doesn't disappoint.

Browse or buy this book.

First Line: "The voice is soft, like the darkness that encloses them."

Rating:

(4.5/5)

Labels: mystery, val mcdermid

Maddog has been killing women in the Minneapolis area and leaving only one clue behind in the form of a rule 'Never kill anyone you know'. This is a killer that knows all the ins and outs about leaving behind evidence and the case will be very hard to solve. Enter Lucas Davenport, cop, video games inventor, seasoned veteran who operates almost on his own.
It takes dogged hard work to catch this guy and just a bit of luck. An interesting twist on the popular mystery as you know who the bad guy is and are waiting throughout the read to see when he will trip up.

This is the first of the series. I read this third and wish I had read it first as a lot of background was provided about Lucas. His relationship with women is kind of cold. The way he plays with the media is fascinating and the reader wants to applaud his handling of them. This is a gory read but I love the series.

First Line: "A rooftop billboard cast a flickering blue light through the studio windows."

Rating:

(4.0/5)

Labels: book review, mystery, Sandford