Tuesday Book Review on Wednesday

Four-star review of Circle in the Water by Marcia Muller

I usually love Muller’s mysteries, especially the Sharon McCone ones, but this didn’t have the spark of previous novels in the series. I still enjoyed reading how Sharon and Hy and their operatives worked out what was behind a series of pranks played on several privately-owned streets in San Francisco.  It’s always enjoyable to spend time with the official and unofficial members of the investigative company. Still, there were too many hints early on as to who the culprits were and the short novel was over too soon.  

Tuesday Book Review on Wednesday

Five-star review for Alchemy’s Reach  by Chris Allen and Pat Walkow

 When Jennifer Murphy finds an old map of an old town in southeastern New Mexico not far from where she runs the family ranch, she has no idea how it would change her life. Until recently covered by a lake that had dried up due to a drought, Alchemy was considered a ghost town by Oldtimers. When Jennifer’s brother returns from a job as a logger in Oregon and she shows him the map, he and his dog set off to explore. This murder mystery was a quick and easy read. The descriptions of life in smalltown New Mexico are dead on. The characters are interesting and the dogs are fun. 

Tuesday Book Review

Four-star review for The Silent Watcher by Victor Mentos

This gritty thriller about the investigation of similar murders of groups of family members carried out by a detective who seems to crave pain and an advocate and legal representative for juvenile victims, called a guardian ad litem was a gripping fast read. I found the detective as unlikable as the GAL was likable. The behaviors of the judges and lawyers were predictable and also hard to take. Okay, so this takes place in Las Vegas, which we’re reminded often, especially whenever the detective drives to a dive bar in the older part of the city, and the novel is redeemed by the plot and unusual viewpoint of the GAL. Toss in hints of cannibalism and other unsavory practices, this might be too unsavory for some.

 

  

Tuesday Book Review on Wednesday

 

Four-star review of The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave

A quick read about a woman, Hannah, whose husband asked her to protect his teenage daughter, Bailey, before he disappeared. Soon after, the head of the company where he worked designing games is arrested by the FBI. But is his disappearance due to the issues at his firm or to something in his past? Hannah is determined to find out about the discrepancies in his story about his history at the same time that she does what she can for Bailey, who has never accepted her as a step-mom. There were several holes in the plot and the ending seems manipulated, partly because Dave wrote her way into an unresolvable situation but also, probably, because of an upcoming sequel.

 

 

Tuesday Book Review

Five-star review of The Wild Robot by Peter Brown

After seeing the animated movie version of this story in the theater, I wondered how much it differed from the original book series. It is aimed at children, of course, but the story of a robot named Roz stranded on the beach of an island in the middle of a vast ocean and eventually adopting a gosling she names Brightbill is charming and full of adventures. Some of the language used might not be easy for young readers and even younger children who are read to but that adds to all that children might learn from the book about kindness and friendship, nature and technology. The story does differ somewhat from the movie but was moving and engaging. A quick and easy read for an adult and an enjoyable one for a child.

Tuesday Book Review

Four-star review of Drop Dead Sisters (The Finch Sisters Book 1) by Amelia Diane Coombs

The Finch sisters have been estranged for years, or rather the narrator, Remi, has been estranged from her much older sisters Maeve and Eliana partly because of her interpretation of their childhood together. But when a family camping trip, complete with quirky relatives including their parents, turns into a murder mystery involving them all, the three sisters must work together to investigate what happened. Remi hates camping and hiking, she hates her job, she has trouble making relationships work, etc., and her whining about her past is a bit too much, but her sense of humor, the weird and even weirder situations that occur, and even Remi’s moments with the hot ranger made the story enjoyable.

Tuesday Book Review

Five-star review of Code: Elephants on the Moon by Jennifer Bohnhoff

I didn’t immediately get into this book, but it is a compelling story about one girl in a small French town during World War II. The writing became much surer as the story unfolded and I was there with Eponine as she felt the ostracism of the Norman girls because of her red hair and freckles yet felt more loyal to France than those who went along with the Germans occupying the town and nearby area. The amount of research that went into making the reader understand and learn about this difficult time for everyone  in France and, in fact, all of Europe is evident. Eponine’s eyes were gradually opened to all her mother and their house guest were doing and then did her part along with her horse. Excellent for children ten or eleven and up.