Friday, April 30, 2010

April's Book Reports.....

Taking a page from my daughter-in-law's inspiration, at the beginning of the year I started a journal (Book It) to record the books I read each month. I read mysteries - funny mysteries, detective mysteries, who done it mysteries, series mysteries, all mysteries except scary (cause they scare me) & sicko (I don't like nightmares, Mr. Patterson) or true life crime mysteries (no profits for crimes please). If it's a series, I ALWAYS start with book one and move on from there. So, here's my book report(s) for April...........

The Final Detail by Harlan Coben
I discovered Harlan's books last month and been zipping through the Myron Bolitar series. Great dialogue - banter throughout that will have you rolling on the floor with laughter - Myron's got a mouth on him and is not afraid to use it. This book is the 6th in the series when Myron meets Teresa. Myron is an injured basketball player turned sports agent in New York City that needs to investigate the death of "his" Yankee pitcher and get his business associate out of hot water. Good Read!
Darkest Fear by Harlan Coben
Myron's college girlfriend has to find a missing bone marrow donor for her son and comes to Myron for help. You can just guess what surprises await Myron and you in this good book.
Promise Me by Harlan Coben
Myron's neighbor's daughter goes missing and Myron was the last person to see her -- he plays superhero once more and on the case along with his best friend Win and the MB Sports Agency crew.
Long Lost by Harlan Coben
Eight years have passed since we've seen Myron in action and for eight years he's kept his nose clean having given up detecting. But after disappearing eight years ago, Teresa calls out of the blue and needs Myron's help. Myron jumps on a plane to Paris and comes to the rescue. A very good story! If I had not been reading this series all in a row - I would have been screaming for my Myron fix seven years ago.
Don't Tell A Soul by David Rosenfelt
This was David's first stand alone novel (away from the Andy Carpenter series). I love the Carpenter series and when I finished those I had to grab whatever David wrote next. Big disappoint in this book. I could only get through 55 pages and sent it back to the library. The humor in the Carpenter books was missing completely. Maybe his next stand alone novel will be better -- one can only hope.
The Last Refuge by Chris Knopf
A first novel and it shows throughout. It's an Okay story, great landscape descriptions but the character studies are long - to the extreme. The author makes a statement early in the book that our hero can't put a book down until it's completed - no matter how bad it may be. With that challenge in place, I had to finish this story. It wasn't bad just not great. I'll read more of his stories and hope they improve with age.
The Merry Wives of Maggody by Joan Hess
Joan Hess has always been a favorite of mine - her stories are just ridiculously funny. But, with a three year gap since the last Maggody book, this one was hard to read. To many characters to sort out -- way too many. And to light weight to keep me interested. If Joan had used the underlining story line as the main interest this would have been marked as a favorite read -- but with only 3 pages out of 339 dedicated to the real story in the book, it got lost in translation.
The Pallbearers by Stephen Cannell
Great Story -- Great Book! We've got Scully back and he is back in fine form. One of Cannell's bests. I loved the all the background references to the layers that make Scully a great lead. 9th book in the Shane Scully, a police sergeant in LA series who always goes off the beaten path.

And that folks, is what I read for April --- I've already started on my May list --- stay tuned!

No comments:

Post a Comment