The Alienist / Caleb Carr / 496 p.

BONUS Categories: Historical fiction, Story with a television adaptation


I began watching the series in January on TNT.  I loved the historical and forensic aspects of the series, but grew impatient to find out how it would all turn out.  The book is written as though it were a memoir written in 1919 about a case that took place in 1896, by John Moore, a reporter for The New York Times.  A serial killer had been killing boys in New York City, and the police department did little until the new commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt (who would later become U.S. president) asked Dr. Lazlo Kreizler to apply new scientific methods to help solve the case.  Dr. Kreizler convinces Roosevelt that he must be allowed to run his own investigation, and he gathers his team.  Kreizler and Moore are helped by Sara Howard (the first woman to be hired by the NYC police department) and Marcus and Lucius Isaacson (two Jewish brothers hired to replace corrupt police officers fired by Roosevelt).  Kreizler's servants, Stevie Taggert and Cyrus Montrose, also prove valuable in getting the team around New York City and assisting in stakeouts.


The book is slightly different from the series, but in all the best ways.  The interactions between the characters are even more complex in the book than in the series, and the background for the forensic methods is explained in more detail.  Some of the details of the characters has been changed slightly, and the suspect's background appears to be different as well.  As I've only seen the first six episodes, I can't tell yet how the TV series will turn out.


The author, Caleb Carr, was already established as a non-fiction writer before publication of this novel.  He wrote an afterword of a hoax he'd had to pull on his agent and editor to get them to agree to let him make the switch to fiction.

Echo Park / Michael Connelly 416 p.

In this 12th Harry Bosch mystery, a killer accused of 2 murders plea bargains for life in prison and avoid the death penalty by confessing to multiple murders including one Bosch has been ruminating on for over 10 years.  He and Kiz Rider are brought in to interview the killer, when the prosecuting team agree for the killer to show where the body of Marie Gesto is buried.  There everything goes to awry and the killer escapes, police are murdered, and Bosch begins to suspect all is not what it seems with the escaped killer.  Bosch hooks up with FBI agent Rachel Walling (first seen in the Poet), to find the truth in this police procedural with multiple twists and intricate plots and political shenanigans. 


Echo Park / Michael Connelly 416 p.

Double Dexter / Jeffry P. Lindsay / 337 pages / November challenge (Horror)

This 6th novel follows much the same formula as previous novels in this series.  Watching the friendly neighborhood serial killer try to balance family, work, and very illegal playtime is humorous, but perhaps the author has spun out the formula a few too many times to make it feel fresh and new.  Dexter's lovely (and increasingly neurotic) wife plays a larger role than in previous novels.  She never quite gets enough development to feel like a real person, but that may be the author's clever way of showing how Dexter views her.  She seems to only be foremost in his mind when she's not in the kitchen cooking.  He then sets about figuring out how to get her back into the kitchen.  Dexter's monstrous step-children seek out new brushes with death and destruction as Dexter tries to hold them in check.  While I've mostly enjoyed this series, I will also be glad to see it come to an end with the next novel, Dexter's Final Cut.

Dexter in the Dark / Jeffry P. Lindsay / 302 pages

Psychological suspense. This is the 3rd book in the series which inspired the Showtime series Dexter. Check out the 1st of the series Darkly Dreaming Dexter.  This novel begins rather philosophically, leading the reader to understand that Dexter's "dark passenger" is an entity separate from Dexter himself - and there are more "shadows" out there.  Dexter meets his most fearsome foe to date, all while planning a wedding and carefully mentoring his fiancée's children to be neat and polite little monsters.  Dexter regains some of the edge lost in the 2nd novel although he did lose his dark passenger for a while.

Dearly Devoted Dexter / Jeffry P. Lindsay / 292 pages

The 2nd novel in the Dexter series features a more tamed Dexter than in the first.  Constantly watched, Dexter can't let his "dark passenger" out to play.  Therefore he settles into a more domesticated life with Rita and spends most of his time either with her or helping his dear sister to catch a sinister serial vivisectionist.  There's some dark imagery in this book - even more than the first, but Dexter seems to have lost his edge.  I hope the next novel in the series brings deadly deranged Dexter back while he manages the women who seem determined to get ever closer to him.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter / Jeffry P. Lindsay / 288 pages

Several years ago, I was able to get 3 months of free Showtime, and I began watching the first season of Dexter.  Sadly the preview ended and I was unable to watch the remaining seasons.  The TV series followed this book pretty faithfully.  As I listened to the author's narration, I remembered all the dark humor that drew me to the TV series.  I love the premise of a serial murderer who only kills other serial murderers, and this novel took Dexter through a number of twists and turns to explore his deadly dark personality.  The word play is fun to listen to and Dexter's questioning of his own sanity is humorous in a dark way.  I would highly recommend this book.

Video Kill/Joanne Fluke/447 pages

Tony and Erik have a great idea for screenplay. They want to make a movie about a serial killer. The only studio that will consider it takes a year option to buy. Eleven months later, the script is still sitting on the shelf until a real serial killer starts terrorizing Los Angeles. The script becomes hot property especially when it starts mirroring exact details of the murder. With details only known to the police and the killer, how can the rewrites on the script be so spot on to the actual crime?


Fluke is known for her Hannah Swensen mystery series. This novel moves away by just a bit from a cozy mystery. It has a great premise that could have been a little more suspenseful, but it was still entertaining. The ending was a little too "romance" for my tastes, but that didn't spoil the whole book for me.

The Wicked Girls / Alex Marwood / 378 pages

     A debut novel from a British journalist writing her first fiction novel. The novel begins with two eleven year old girls wandering the countryside of their small English village. They don't have any where to go as one is avoiding trouble at home while the other has been left home alone by her parents. A shocking event sends the two of them to prison for a portion of their young lives. Fast forward to the present day and Kirsty an up and coming journalist is trying to get a foot in the door of newspaper publishing. She has been sent to a small town which has been under attack from a serial killer. Amber Gordon works at the local carnival as a night cleaner. She is the new supervisor and isn't sure she wants the job. She finds the newest victim and Kirsty tries to interview her for the story. Suddenly past and present collide in a series of events that no one can predict the outcome.
    I will admit I was very skeptical when starting this book. For me, thrillers often run along the same predictable lines. This book however was jaw-dropping. Amber and Kirsty are two women just trying to get by in life and find a little happiness. But something always seems to be getting in their way and as the story goes on the tension gets tighter and tighter till the point where everything just explodes! I read this in two nights. I could not put it down. The writing style is accessible but I will admit to not getting all the English slang. The male characters don't seem to have a backbone among them and I thought that was a little sad. The killer when revealed was totally anti-climatic based on what happened next. WOW!!! I recommend this to anyone who has patrons who love good well-written hard core thrillers. There is language and some sexual content. Excellent start for Marwood. I did receive this from the Penguin First Flights program.

Six Degrees of Reading:  Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger, The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison, The Good Girl by Mary Kubica.

Unlucky 13/James Patterson and Maxine Paetro/384 pages/1 December Challenge Met

The Women's Murder Club is back for another set of adventures. Lindsay Boxer is loving her life as new mother, Yuki has some life-changing news, Claire's life is just humming along and Cindy is trying to get over a broken heart. When a couple of college kids literally blow up and their last meal looks to be the cause, Lindsay is on the hunt for the "belly bomber." A menace from the past comes back to even the score, and Cindy is determined to get a front page story from it. Yuki's life takes both a happy and terrifying turn.


Another quick read from Patterson. Just a warning: don't take this with you to read on a cruise.


December challenge met:5 Golden Rings