Kathy's Book Bag

The Drop by Michael Connelly (Harry Bosch # 16)

popcorn317 — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:44:49 +0000

Book Description

Series: Harry Bosch | Publication Date: November 28, 2011

Harry Bosch has been given three years before he must retire from the LAPD, and he wants cases more fiercely than ever. In one morning, he gets two.DNA from a 1989 rape and murder matches a 29-year-old convicted rapist. Was he an eight-year-old killer or has something gone terribly wrong in the new Regional Crime Lab? The latter possibility could compromise all of the lab’s DNA cases currently in court.Then Bosch and his partner are called to a death scene fraught with internal politics. Councilman Irvin Irving’s son jumped or was pushed from a window at the Chateau Marmont. Irving, Bosch’s longtime nemesis, has demanded that Harry handle the investigation.

Relentlessly pursuing both cases, Bosch makes two chilling discoveries: a killer operating unknown in the city for as many as three decades, and a political conspiracy that goes back into the dark history of the police department.

Review -

Harry Bosch is one of my favorite characters and in this book he’s older, wiser,softer(because of his daughter living with him) and just as detemined as ever to do what’s right. He doesn’t care who he offends just as long as it’s done by the book. He’s my kind of guy. Excellent book and I highly recommend it.

Out On A Limb ( Claire Malloy Mystery #14) by Joan E. Hess

popcorn317 — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 02:06:47 +0000

Product Description:

WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS…IT’S MURDER

Faberville bookstore owner Claire Malloy is ruminating over the state of her love life when she gets disturbing news. Elderly Miss Emily Parchester is up a tree. Chained to an old oak, packing a thermos of tea and a gun, the retired schoolteacher is ready to go down with the ship, or rather the tree, before she’ll let another historic piece of Farberville be bulldozed in the name of “progress,” i.e., developer Anthony Armstrong’s condominiums.

With Miss Parchester armed, and therefore dangerous, Claire fears this noble act will end tragically. Unfortunately, it does-when someone murders Armstrong. And suddenly Claire herself is out on a limb: a baby has been left on her doorstep, the child’s teenage mom is suspect number one in Armstrong’s death, and Claire needs to find the real killer fast. Especially when she discovers Miss Parchester knows more than she’s willing to tell….

Review -

Let’s just say that this was a pleasant read for a cold afternoon when there was nothing on television and my head hurt and I didn’t want to think too much. I will be so glad when this headache goes away.

Deeper Than Midnight (The Midnight Breed, Book 9) by Lara Adrian

popcorn317 — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:07:13 +0000

Book Description

Publication Date: June 28, 2011

DELIVERED FROM THE DARKNESS, A WOMAN FINDS HERSELF PLUNGED INTO A PASSION THAT IS DEEPER THAN MIDNIGHT.

At eighteen, Corinne Bishop was a beautiful, spirited young woman living a life of privilege as the adopted daughter of a wealthy family. Her world changed in an instant when she was stolen away and held prisoner by the malevolent vampire Dragos. After many years of captivity and torment, Corinne is rescued by the Order, a cadre of vampire warriors embroiled in a war against Dragos and his followers. Her innocence taken, Corinne has lost a piece of her heart as well—the one thing that gave her hope during her imprisonment, and the only thing that matters to her now that she is free.

Assigned to safeguard Corinne on her trip home is a formidable golden-eyed Breed male called Hunter. Once Dragos’s most deadly assassin, Hunter now works for the Order, and he’s hell-bent on making Dragos pay for his manifold sins. Bonded to Corinne by their mutual desire, Hunter will have to decide how far he’ll go to end Dragos’s reign of evil—even if carrying out his mission means shattering Corinne’s tender heart.

Review -

The last time I read a book in this series was October of 2010 and I was able to pick right up with the story line(which is much too complicated for me to go into detail here) and the characters. It is a very fast read and if you like hunky century old vampires with a strict moral code, hot romantic scenes and very bad mean villians, you will love this series. I highly recommend it.

Tickled to Death (Claire Malloy Mystery #9) by Joan E. Hess

popcorn317 — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:50:23 +0000

Product Description:

Murder is no laughing matter—especially when it comes to marriage. So before Luanne gets in too deep with her new flame, a dentist named Dick, she’d like her best friend to do a background check. Did Dick murder his two previous wives? That’s what Arkansas bookseller and amateur sleuth Claire Malloy intends to discover…

Everything Claire turns up on this would-be blue-beard keeps leading her down a slippery slope. The police are determined to prove Dick guilty of double homicide, but Claire’s not so sure. Something about his story just doesn’t add up. But if Dick didn’t do the deed, who did? The only thing Claire knows for sure is that Luanne won’t have a moment’s rest until she finds out…

Review –

I don’t know how I did it but I read this book out of order and I hate it when that happens. Oh well, too late now. What’s done is done.

I didn’t care for this story as much as the others and I really can’t explain why except that the characters didn’t seem as interesting and I didn’t like the “bird” storyline. I’ve already moved on to another in the series and I hope it turns out better.

Deadly Night (The Flynn Brothers Trilogy) by Heather Graham

popcorn317 — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 02:05:45 +0000

Product Description:

The Flynn brothers have inherited more than a New Orleans plantation. They’ve inherited a ghostly presence… and a long-kept secret.
Aidan Flynn, a private investigator and eldest of the Flynn brothers, scoffs at the haunted-house rumors—especially since Kendall Montgomery, a tarot card reader who has been living in the mansion, is the one to tell him the tale of a woman in white. But when he finds a human bone on the grounds and another by the river, Aidan delves into the dark history of the Flynn plantation.
Forced together to uncover the truth, Aidan and Kendall realize that a serial killer whose victims seem to vanish into thin air has long been at work…and that their own fates are about to be sealed forever unless they believe in the unbelievable.

Review -

This is the first of three books in the Flynn Brothers Trilogy and takes place in New Orleans and involves ghosts, murders old and new and an old haunted plantation. I loved it. The locale is one of my favorites and you can’t beat a combination of ghosts,plantations, murders, a hot hunky private eye and a beautiful woman so it held my interest all the way to the end. I will start the second in the series in a day or so and can’t wait. It takes place in Salem, Massachusetts and maybe involves witches. I’ll let you know.

Harvest by Tess Gerritson

popcorn317 — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 03:46:02 +0000

Product Description:

Boston’s Bayside Hospital is a long way from Dr. Abby DiMatteo’s humble roots, and she’s elated when their elite cardiac transplant team taps her as a potential recruit. But an anguished, life-and-death decision soon jeopardizes her entire career. She and chief resident Vivian Chao boldly direct a crash victim’s harvested heart to a dying seventeen-year-old boy-instead of the wealthy forty-six-year-old woman to whom the hospital had cross-matched it. The repercussions cost Dr. Chao her job, and leave Abby shaken.

Then a new heart suddenly appears, the woman’s transplant is completed, and Abby makes a terrible discovery. The donor records have been falsified-the new heart has not come through the proper channels. Defying Bayside Hospital’s demands for silence, Abby and Vivian plunge into an investigation that reveals a lethal unthinkable conspiracy. Every move Abby makes spawns a vicious backlash…and on a ship anchored in the waters of Boston Harbor, a final, grisly discovery lies waiting.

Review -

Another great medical thriller by Tess Gerritson that had me hooked from the very beginning and wouldn’t let me go until the end. Makes me want to stay far far away from doctors and hospitals. If you like books of this genre give this one a try and see what I mean.

Cinder: (Book One in the Lunar Chronicles) by Marissa Meyer

popcorn317 — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 03:36:28 +0000

Book Description

Series: Lunar Chronicles | Publication Date: January 3, 2012

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

Review -

I first noticed this book on my daughter’s reading blog and I trust her judgement most of the time when it comes to YA literature because it is her passion. She reads it,she reviews it, and she teaches it. So, I decided to read it because I hadn’t read any YA so far this year and I love fairy tales retold. Let me tell you, this is a winner. It is Cinderella meets Sci Fi/dystopian, a time far far into the future, and Popular Mechanic/Terminator. I liked it much more than I thought I would BUT was let down at the end. I thought it was too abrupt. To see what I mean you’ll have it read it for yourself and you won’t be sorry.

Check out my daughter’s blog:

http://www.karinsbooknook.com/

A Conventional Corpse (Claire Malloy Mystery #13) by Joan E. Hess

popcorn317 — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:58:23 +0000

Product Description:

Farberville, Arkansas, is playing host to its first-ever mystery convention with five major mystery writers–each representing a different subgenre of the mystery world–making the trek to the local college for “Murder Comes to Campus.” Bookseller Claire Malloy is looking forward to meeting some of her favorite writers and, of course, selling books to the attendees. But her plans for a calm, profitable weekend are soon laid to waste when the organizer is hospitalized and Claire is dragooned into running the show.

Finding herself in the midst of barely controlled chaos, Claire has to deal with five writers, each with a distinct set of idiosyncrasies and difficulties (including one who arrives with Wimple, her crime-solving cat, in tow). With Claire’s own love-life woes with local police detective Peter Rosen added in, things have never been worse…until things get worse. One of the conference attendees dies in a car accident, Wimple the cat disappears from Claire’s home and cannot be located, and Roxanne Small is nowhere to be found–making it evident that in Farberville the murder mystery is more than a literary genre.

Review -

I’ve had a horrific sinus headache for many days and maybe that’s why this book just didn’t live up to my expectations. While I enjoyed it, the plot could have been stronger and the “Peter” situation thought out a bit more. I’ve already started the next one and I’m hoping my headache will be gone before I finish it.

Red Mist by Patricia Cornwell ( A Scarpetta Novel)

popcorn317 — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:02:47 +0000

Book Description

Series: A Scarpetta Novel | Publication Date: December 6, 2011

Determined to find out what happened to her former deputy chief, Jack Fielding, murdered six months earlier, Kay Scarpetta travels to the Georgia Prison for Women, where an inmate has information not only on Fielding, but also on a string of grisly killings. The murder of an Atlanta family years ago, a young woman on death row, and the inexplicable deaths of homeless people as far away as California seem unrelated. But Scarpetta discovers connections that compel her to conclude that what she thought ended with Fielding’s death and an attempt on her own life is only the beginning of something far more destructive: a terrifying terrain of conspiracy and potential terrorism on an international scale. And she is the only one who can stop it.

Review -

I have read every book in the Scarpetta series and was chompping at the bit to read this one and it was even better than I had anticipated and I give it FIVE stars. I was hooked from the very beginning and stayed that way til the end. I chose the audio version of this book and it was almost 13 hours long and I listened to it in two sittings. I’m retired and can do as I please and most days I please to read so that’s why I can sit for several hours a day and listen to a FIVE star book. Aren’t you jealous? I hated when it was over because now I have to wait for the next one to come out. I wish I could clone authors so they could write twice as fast. Wouldn’t that be great!!!!!

Girl Missing by Tess Gerritson

popcorn317 — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 13:56:55 +0000

Product Description -

THE FIRST BODY IS A MYSTERY.
She’s young. She’s beautiful. And her corpse, laid out in the office of Boston medical examiner Cat Novak, betrays no secrets – except for a notebook clutched in one stiff hand, seven numbers scrawled inside.

THE NEXT BODY IS A WARNING.
When a second victim is discovered, Cat begins to fear that a serial killer is stalking the city streets: a shadowy madman without mercy or apparent motive. The police are sceptical. The mayor won’t listen. And Cat’s chief suspect is one of the city’s most prominent citizens.

THE FINAL BODY…MIGHT BE HERS.
With the death toll rising, Cat races to expose a deadly conspiracy and the brutal killer at its heart – a killer who will stalk her from the dangerous streets of the inner city to the corridors of power. Because he’s closer than she ever dreamt. And every move she makes could be her very last.

Review -

I believe this book has been called the “bridge” between the author’s romance novels and her medical crime thrillers and since I haven’t read any of her romance books but some of the medical thrillers, I’ll have to take it under advisement. What I won’t have to take under advisement is how good this story is. Not only good, but great. It had me hooked from the beginning and I hated to see it end. I also had hoped that there would be a hint of a sequel or next installment with the characters of Kat and Adam but in my investiagtions I have failed to come across any. Darn. Just when their relationship seems to have a chance of surviving,the book ends. Oh well, now that I’ve finished a medical thriller, it got me wanting more so I’ve started another one by one of my favorite authors, Patricia Cornwell and can’t wait to really get into it. If you enjoy Tess Gerritson and haven’t read Girl Missing you really should give it a try.