Vendetta in Death/J.D.Robb/356 pages(Author's name has double consonants)

     Futuristic New York City has a new serial killer.  Lady Justice is out to right the wrongs when men who abuse, rape and cheat are not brought to justice.  Eve Dallas is primary on the case and quickly zeroes in on what the victims have in common and how to stop our Lady Justice from doing more damage.
     As always--BTW, this is the 49th book in the "in death" series--Eve's team of able detectives, friends, partner, husband and the NYPSD work force band together to solve the murders. 
     I have real all 49 of Robb's books and the latest does not disappoint.  All the main characters are like old friends you get to visit every once in a while and catch up on what they have been doing lately.  I am amazed that the author can keep turning out stories that surprise and entertain and keep you coming back for more.

Where the Crawdads Sing / Delia Owens / 384 p.

Kya's story is compelling. She was abandoned by her mother, siblings and father by the age of seven. Kya's strong survival instinct was her only lifeline.  She had so many trials and was wracked with such lonliness, but she survived!  Reading this novel by Delia Owens is an experience not ordinarily felt by the readers of most novels. Our most basic human instincts are revealed and lived by Kya. There is so much to ponder after reading her story. This is, at minimum, a perfect book club discussion novel. I will remember Kya for a long, long time.

Good, Girl, Bad Girl / Michael Robotham / 353 pages

This is a story about two young girls, one good and one bad.  The "good" girl is a high school student, Jodie Sheehan.  Jodie is a competitive figure- ice skating champion who is found murdered in the woods near her home.  The "bad" girl is young teen who was found six years ago in a secret room in a house where a terrible crime and murder took place.  She was half starved and filthy and would not tell anyone her name, age, or where she came from.  She is now living in a secure children's home and the courts have given her the name Evie Cormac.  Cyrus Haven is a forensic psychologist that has been called in to determine if Evie is ready to leave the home and be independent.  Cyrus is also working with the police investigating the murder of Jodie Sheehan.  Through Cyrus's involvement with both cases we learn more about the real story of both girls.  Another story to prove that you "can't judge a book by its cover"!

The Big Kahuna/Janet Evanovich/303 pgs

This is the sixth book in the O'Hare/Fox series.  Evanovich had previously written the series with Lee Goldberg, but this book was written with her son, Peter. I could tell the difference, but still liked the book.

Off on another wild bad guys chase, Kate and Nick, mostly Nick, push the boundaries of following the rules and keeping a budget.  They are searching for a Silicon Valley billionaire who has disappeared.  His wife and a former business associate are also on the trail of the mystery man.  The Big Kahuna, the name everyone calls him, realizes that other billionaires are being targeted and killed.  And he goes on the run with the help of his grown son and eventually, Kate and Nick.

The trail leads The Big Kahuna, Kate, and Nick to Hawaii, New Zealand, and finally Prague.  Along the way, things are blown up, cars are destroyed, and a couple of businesses are unfortunate victims of destruction and/or cars crashing into them.  And in the end, the good guys win.  

Justified Murder/Jude Deveraux/330 pages (Mystery)

  
                                                             Justified Murder picks up just months after the first book in this
                                                        series (A Willing Murder) leaves off.  Our three main characters--
                                                        Sara, Kate and Jack--successfully solved the murder of the first
                                                        novel and the towns people naturally assume they will jump in and
                                                        solve the "who done it" when a sweet neighbor lady is found dead
                                                        three times over!  Originally determined to mind their own
                                                        business, they are drawn in especially after the plot thickens 
                                                        with an old story of a kidnapped child and there's a stranger in the
                                                        area who is watching the investigation.
                                                             This is a delightfully light mystery with humor and great
                                                        characters.  It has a rather complicated story line and the ending could have gone several different ways and I think the readers will be surprised with the ending that Deveraux chose.









                                                                                                                                             

Where the Crawdads Sing / Delia Owens / 368 pages

This is the author's first fiction book and she scores a home run with it!  It takes place in a quiet town on the coast of North Carolina.  It begins in 1969 when Chase Andrews is found dead.  Chase is a young, handsome, and popular man in town.  The suspect for the murder is Kya Clark.  Kya is nicknamed "Marsh Girl" because she grew up isolated in the marsh outside town.  The author tells the story between the present with the murder investigation and trial and the past with the childhood and growing up of Kya.  Kya's family one by one abandons her and she is left to survive on her own.  The backdrop of the marsh of North Carolina is vividly described in the book and the author makes you feel you are there.  This is not a book I would have chosen on my own, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend !!

Watching You / Lisa Jewell / 324 pages

Watching You takes place in England.  It is a murder mystery involving several characters each with their own story line that comes together at the end with some twists.  Joey Mullen is a young woman recently married that comes home to live with her brother in an affluent neighborhood in Bristol, England.  She becomes infatuated with a neighbor whose wife later is found dead.  While the murder is investigated the lives and secrets of the suspects are exposed.  I found the story lines interesting and enjoyed the unexpected twists.

The Brass Verdict/Michael Connelly/422 pgs/Mystery

This is my first time reading a Michael Connelly novel.  I happened to choose one in the infamous Lincoln Lawyer series and I liked it.  Mickey Haller is the Lincoln lawyer and in this story he has been out of his “Lincoln office” for over a year.  The Lincoln office is a small fleet of three Lincoln cars and a driver that Haller finds easiest to work from instead of a traditional attorney’s office.

Haller had been shot, needed an additional surgery during his recovery, and ended up with an addiction problem.  With treatment and a strong determination to overcome his addiction, Haller is ready one year later to begin taking a case or two.

Much to Haller’s surprise, an attorney acquaintance has been murdered and Haller is the lawyer of record that is handed all the deceased attorney’s cases.  The biggest case is that of a Hollywood film mogul accused of a double murder.  What Haller doesn’t know is if he too is in danger from the person who murdered his aquaintance while he defends the accused.

It was difficult not to picture Matthew McConaughey with his smooth style as I read.  Not a bad visual.

Killer/Johnathan Kellerman/359 pgs/Mystery

Once I again I found myself reading a book from a series.  This was an Alex Delaware novel.  Alex Delaware, a psychologist and police consultant, is given a case child custody case involving two sisters.  Cherie and Connie Sykes, mother and aunt respectively, are the litigants.  Connie, a very wealthy doctor, is trying to win custody of her young niece.  Her sister, Cherie, a struggling, but good mother, is fighting hard to keep her beautiful baby girl out of her sister’s hands.

Connie feels that since she has the means and once cared for the child for an extended period of time, that the child would be better off with her and away from Cherie.  Unfortunately for Connie, the courts decide otherwise.  Everything looks good until Connie is found murdered and Cherie and the baby have disappeared.  Alex has every faith that Cherie had nothing do with her sister’s murder.  He goes to great lengths to prove Cherie’s innocence.  I will read another book in this series.

C is for Corpse / Sue Grafton / 318 pages / Mystery

After surviving a car crash that his best friend didn't, 23-year-old Bobby Callahan is paranoid that the crash was no accident and that the person responsible for it is still out to kill him.  So he hires Kinsey Millhone check up on anyone familiar with him, including friends, family and enemies, and see if she could find anyone who would want Bobby dead and why.  Kinsey becomes really close to Bobby and his mother, so when he dies a week later, she's more than heartbroken over it and does everything it takes to bring both of them justice, even breaking the law if she could get away with it.

Although I've enjoyed the process of this story, I felt like the near-end of it was weak; it drifted away from the main plot with the subplot between Kinsey, her landlord, and his lover-- irrelevant to Rick and Bobby's murders.  Then the culprit was revealed, but his actions were kind of cheesy (a psychopath slowly walking and singing eerie tunes is pretty cliché).

B is for Burglar / Sue Grafton / 321 pages

Kinsey Millhone is back into business, and she is assigned to locate Elaine Boldt, a woman who had been missing since her departure to Florida.  Kinsey interviews close friends and anyone who was familiar with her, in both Santa Teresa, California and Miami, Florida.  She also learns the story of Miss Boldt's friend, Marty Grice, who had been murdered six months before her disappearance, and one part of Kinsey believes that Miss Boldt may have took off as a result, either from paranoia or she may have been one of the suspects responsible for the murder; another says that she might already be dead.

I liked this book better than the first one, for the characters were more diverse in both appearance and personality, Kinsey revealed hidden depths to herself that made her more three-dimensional, and wowIdidnotexpectthatplottwistatall.
Overall, a very a good novel; I'm already partway through the third book, C is for Corpse, which I'll blog about in March.

A is for Alibi / Sue Grafton / 320 pages

Divorce lawyer Laurence Fife had been found dead, and the media blamed the murder on his wife Nikki Fife.  When she is released from prison eight years later, however, Nikki claims to be innocent, and she hires a detective, Kinsey Millhone, to find out who the real murderer is.  Kinsey goes around Southern California and Nevada to interview several suspects, including Mr. Fife's ex-wives as well as the family of a young woman who died the same way Mr. Fife did.  But when one of the suspects is murdered before Kinsey gets to interview her, she tries to figure out how the deaths are all linked to one another and why.

The first book to Grafton's Kinsey Millhone/"Alphabet mystery" series, I found it really interesting as I don't often read/listen to mystery novels.  I'm looking forward to B is for Burglar.

They Won’t Be Hurt/Kevin O’Brien/440 pgs

A horrendous crime involving the brutal killing of the entire Singleton family has a community on edge.  Two hours away, Laura Gretchell is home alone in their new house for the first time while her husband is out of the country on business.

In true murder mystery style, the Gretchell’s home is targeted by the murder suspects.  Laura soon learns that the prime suspect is Joe Spiers, one of her 3rd grade students when she was a teacher.  Laura was very important in Joe’s young life.  She realized that his home life was bad and reported the abuse.  He was removed from his home and went to live with his grandmother.

Knowing that she has been there him before, Joe seeks out his former teacher to help him prove that he was innocent of committing the murders.  Laura is forced to go to great lengths to get to the truth while her children are being held hostage at home.  A good murder/suspense read.

Feral Attraction/Watkins, Eileen/245 pages

                        

        Feral Attraction is a feather weight murder mystery--a very light and somewhat entertaining murder mystery.  Cassie is the main character, a cat groomer.  Mark is her somewhat serious boyfriend, a veterinarian.  They and their friends get involved in trying to help save the feral cats that are causing havoc at a local retirement community.  At first the residents of the retirement community are sympathetic about the cats but the situation quickly changes when not one but two of the residents die under suspicious circumstances.  Helping the cat population, working on the possible murders and trying to figure out her relationship with Mark keeps Cassie busy until the end.

      These characters must have been together in an earlier book or two.  The way the author mentions previous problems they solved and mysteries they tackled is a little unnecessary.  It certainly doesn't make me want to read any of her earlier books.  I only give this book one thumb up.  It was OK but certainly nothing special.

                                                                                                                                           

A Noise Downstairs/Linwood Barclay/356 pgs

One decision changes Paul Davis's life in an instant.  Curiosity killed
the cat and that night it nearly killed Paul Davis.  Suspecting his
coworker might be lost, Paul follows him and soon realizes that
something is amiss.  We soon learn that on that night Paul nearly
lost his life.  Now, months later, he is hearing strange noises coming
from a gift typewriter his wife gave him to help his recovery.  Things
get even crazier when typed "messages" appear written by the two
murdered women from the fateful night.  Worth the read!

Murder on Union Square/ Victoria Thompson/ 326 pgs

This is the 21st book in Thompson's Gaslight series and it's a solid entry. Sarah, a former midwife, is finally opening her maternity hospital. Frank, a former police detective, has his own PI agency now. Unfortunately for him, he's accused of murder this time around. In trying to adopt their foster daughter, Frank goes to see the girl's supposed father to get him to sign away his parental rights. Only the man, an actor, is found dead. This is a good whodunit and the look at the world of New York theater in the early 1900s is intriguing.

The Fallen/David Baldacci/420 pgs

Barronville, PA, once a boom town, has seen
better days.  Drugs, overdoses, and deaths are nothing                                 
new to the residents of Barronville.  Things change
when FBI agent, Alex Jamison and her partner, Amos
Decker come to visit Jamison's sister.  While in the
backyard, Decker observes something strange in the                                   
house across the yard.  Upon further investigation, he
discovers the bodies of two victims.  He and Jamison
soon realize that they are hitting too close to home in
their investigation when they are nearly killed...more
than once AND Jamison's brother-in-law mysteriously
dies at work.  This is another good Baldacci read.

A Noise Downstairs/Linwood Barclay/356 pages

A Noise Downstairs is a murder mystery that keeps you guessing to the end.  Paul Davis is a college professor that witnesses a colleague, Kenneth, trying to bury the bodies of two murdered women.  Kenneth attacks Paul with a shovel before being caught by the police.  Kenneth is tried and convicted of killing the two women after he forced them to type a confession of adultery.  Fast forward eight months and Paul is battling PTSD while recovering from his severe head injury.  He is seeing a therapist to help him get on with his life.  His wife buys him an antique typewriter that Paul has always wanted.  Paul plans to use it to write about his experience.  However, he begins to hear the typewriter keys clacking in the middle of the night.  He finds messages written on the paper that he believes are from Kenneth's victims. With the help of his therapist, wife, and best friend Paul tries to discover what is happening.  There are a lot of twists and turns and a surprising event in the story.

A Gathering of Secrets/Linda Castillo/308 pages

     Kate Burkholder is Chief of Police in a small Amish community where a barn fire kills Daniel Gingerich, a likeable, polite, hardworking young Amish teen.  At first no one can understand why anyone would want to hurt Daniel, but little by little Kate uncovers the true story behind Daniel's death and several others.  At the core of the investigation -- the Amish community.  There are sweet young girls and their protective parents.  There are the Amish customs and beliefs and threaded through the story are Dutch phrases that at first frustrated me but by the end of the book I knew what they meant before they were translated.  The author keeps you guessing until the end for this who-done-it.  Spoiler alert:  This is not one of those sweet, light Amish romances.  There is violence, rape, and suicide mixed in with the really gruesome descriptions of the burned bodies.  This one is a different type of read for me but I enjoyed it.

Look Behind You/Iris Johansen & Roy Johansen/325 pgs.

Kendra Michaels' special talents are called into play by the FBI to track down a serial killer. This particular killer has been leaving behind "trophies" from previous unsolved murders. Agents who had worked on the unsolved murders are called in to help solve the cases once and for all. Then it becomes apparent that Kendra is on the killer's radar--which puts a whole new spin on the investigation. It's a fast moving, engrossing novel--highly recommended!