IQ

IQ

Joe Ide

Genre: Mystery

Summary (from Goodreads): A resident of one of LA's toughest neighborhoods uses his blistering intellect to solve the crimes the LAPD ignores.

East Long Beach. The LAPD is barely keeping up with the neighborhood's high crime rate. Murders go unsolved, lost children unrecovered. But someone from the neighborhood has taken it upon himself to help solve the cases the police can't or won't touch.

They call him IQ. He's a loner and a high school dropout, his unassuming nature disguising a relentless determination and a fierce intelligence. He charges his clients whatever they can afford, which might be a set of tires or a homemade casserole. To get by, he's forced to take on clients that can pay.

This time, it's a rap mogul whose life is in danger. As Isaiah investigates, he encounters a vengeful ex-wife, a crew of notorious cutthroats, a monstrous attack dog, and a hit man who even other hit men say is a lunatic. The deeper Isaiah digs, the more far reaching and dangerous the case becomes.

Review: An interesting take on a Sherlock Holmes type mystery, with young, black, inner-city hoodlum-turned-savior Isaiah as the brainiac hero.  Getting a glimpse into Isaiah's early life with his brother and friend Dodson gave some insights into his personality quirks in the present.  I found myself turned off by the amount of time and effort Isaiah put into committing crimes as a teenager, and would have liked to have seen some remorse on his part.  But I guess that's too idealistic for inner city LA.  In any case, Isaiah is a fascinating new hero with a new age vocabulary.  I'll definitely look for the next book if it becomes a series.

Rating: 4 stars

After the Storm

After the Storm

Linda Castillo

Genre: Mystery

Summary (from Goodreads): In this electrifying thriller by New York Times bestseller Linda Castillo, Kate Burkholder must uncover a family's long-hidden past to solve a brutal murder

When a tornado tears through Painters Mill and unearths human remains, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder finds herself tasked with the responsibility of identifying the bones--and notifying the family. Evidence quickly emerges that the death was no accident and Kate finds herself plunged into a thirty year old case that takes her deep into the Amish community to which she once belonged.

Meanwhile, turmoil of an emotional and personal nature strikes at the very heart of Kate's budding relationship with state agent John Tomasetti. A reality that strains their fragile new love to the breaking point and threatens the refuge they've built for themselves--and their future.

Under siege from an unknown assailant--and her own personal demons--Kate digs deep into the case only to discover proof of an unimaginable atrocity, a plethora of family secrets and the lengths to which people will go to protect their own.

Review:  A bit grisly and gory when describing the murder scene and speculating about the remains, this novel is nevertheless an entertaining read.  While this is book number seven in Castillo's Katie Burkholder series, it read well as a stand alone novel.  I do think it would have helped to have read the earlier books in order to better understand the relationship between Burkholder and Tomasetti, and to help keep some of the minor characters straight.  I had expected this book to dwell more on the Amish community, but it focused more on Burkholder and her life as Chief of Police in a small town.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Most Wanted

Most Wanted

by Lisa Scottoline

Genre: Mystery

Synopsis:  Donor 3319 Profile: Tall, blond, blue eyes.  Medical student.  Wanted for murder.

Christine Nilsson and her husband, Marcus, are desperate for a baby.  Unable to conceive, they find themselves facing a difficult choice they had never anticipated.  After many appointments with specialists, endless research, and countless conversations, they make the decision to use a donor.

Two months pass, and Christine is happily pregnant.  But one day, she is shocked to see a young blond man on the TV news being arrested for a series of brutal murders-and the blond man bears an undeniable and uncanny resemblance to her donor.

Delving deeper to uncover the truth, Christine must confront ad terrifying reality and ace her worst fears.  Riveting and fast-paced, with the depth of emotionality that has garnered Lisa Scottoline legions of fans, Most Wanted poses an ethical and moral dilemma: What would you do if the biological father of your unborn child was a killer?

from the book jacket

Review:  This book fell flat for me.  The characters were very flat and one-dimensional which lead me to not understand why characters acted the way that they did.  From the plot description I thought it would be a very interesting and engaging story and while I wanted to know whether the man accused of murder was the donor or not, I didn't really care for how the story progressed.  The whole story was quite unbelievable.  There was no motivation behind the murders even once we find out for sure who did it.  I've read one other book by Lisa Scottoline and while it was simplistic story it was enjoyable.  This one does not make me want to read another book by her.

Rating: 2 1/2 stars

Pretty Girls

Pretty Girls

Karin Slaughter

Genre: Mystery, Thriller

Summary (from Goodreads): #1 internationally bestselling author Karin Slaughter returns with a sophisticated and chilling psychological thriller of dangerous secrets, cold vengeance, and unexpected absolution, in which two estranged sisters must come together to find truth about two harrowing tragedies, twenty years apart, that devastate their lives.

Sisters. Strangers. Survivors.

More than twenty years ago, Claire and Lydia's teenaged sister Julia vanished without a trace. The two women have not spoken since, and now their lives could not be more different. Claire is the glamorous trophy wife of an Atlanta millionaire. Lydia, a single mother, dates an ex-con and struggles to make ends meet. But neither has recovered from the horror and heartbreak of their shared loss—a devastating wound that's cruelly ripped open when Claire's husband is killed.

The disappearance of a teenage girl and the murder of a middle-aged man, almost a quarter-century apart: what could connect them? Forming a wary truce, the surviving sisters look to the past to find the truth, unearthing the secrets that destroyed their family all those years ago . . . and uncovering the possibility of redemption, and revenge, where they least expect it.

Powerful, poignant, and utterly gripping, packed with indelible characters and unforgettable twists, Pretty Girls is a masterful thriller from one of the finest suspense writers working today.

Review: Wow, this was a seriously creepy and disturbing psychological thriller!  I picked it up solely because it was on the top 5 list of a Goodreads Listopia list that I've been voting on - What Women Born in the 1970s Have Read So Far This Year.  All I can say is that women born in the 1970s must have a lot higher tolerance for gruesome violence than I do.  I was immediately drawn into the story; the author has an easy to read style that quickly brings the characters to life.  But I found myself having to skip paragraphs because I couldn't handle the graphic descriptions of unimaginable torture and rape.  I read it all the way to the end because I HAD to find out what happened, but overall, it was just too much for me.

Rating: 3 stars

The Woman in Cabin 10

The Woman in Cabin 10

by Ruth Ware

Genre: Mystery

Synopsis: In this tightly wound, enthralling story reminiscent of Agatha Christie's works, Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins.  The sky is clear, the waters calm, and the veneered, select guests jovial as the exclusive cruise ship, the Aurora, begins her voyage in the picturesque North Sea.

At first, Lo's stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant.  But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo hears what she can only describe as a dark and terrifying nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard.  The problem?  All passengers and crew members remain accounted for-and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo's desperate attempts to convey that something (or someone) has gone terribly, terribly wrong...

from the book jacket

Review:  At first I thought I would not like this book because of the opening to the story--a traumatic event in Lo's life--and how Lo deals with the issue (mainly drinking herself into oblivion).  I was not originally a huge fan of Lo but she did grow on me somewhat (admittedly by the end she still wasn't my favorite protagonist in a book).  I thought this book to be a thriller but I would classify it more as a mystery which also made me like it more as it was suspenseful and there was definite "who done it" attitude.  The events in this book move fairly quickly once she hears the splash in the water that she presumes to be a dead body.  The reader is caught up in a whirlwind of activity.  The story carries you along with the relaxed writing style and the attention grabbing story. I don't believe this is the finest written book but it was entertaining.  The last page of the story makes you second guess what happened in the book so you might be left somewhat hanging if you don't have someone with whom to talk to about their perception of the end.

Rating: 4 stars

The Chocolate Cupid Killings

The Chocolate Cupid Killings

Joanna Carl

Genre: Mystery

Summary (from Goodreads): Ninth in the scrumptious-and national bestselling-Chocoholic Mystery series. 

TenHuis Chocolade is wall-to- wall with chocolate hearts for Valentine's Day. But Lee is getting no love from Private Detective Derrick Valentine. He's looking for their employee-a woman Lee and her Aunt Nettie have been harboring for an underground railroad-type organization that aids abused women. Luckily, they manage to not spill the cocoa beans and clue him in. But the situation becomes a complex confection when Valentine meets his end. And it's Aunt Nettie who becomes a suspect. Lee will have to find a way to free Nettie of guilt without exposing the innocent-and find a killer with a bitter heart that's definitely not made of chocolate...

Review: I was working on puzzles with Nathaniel in the children's section of the library, and Amelia wandered over saying she had picked out all her books.  So I sent her over the adult fiction section of the library and told her to pick out a few books for me to read.  She seemed unsure about how to pick out books for me, so I told her to grab ones that had interesting titles or covers or plots on the back of the book.  This is one of the ones that she chose for me (and the only one that I finished - the others were not my style at all!)  There's the long explanation for why I read this particular book.

This cozy mystery is clearly part of a series, and while the beginning of the book gave pertinent background information, there were definitely things I felt like I had missed because of not reading the first eight books in the series.  It was interesting enough, but a little confusing (perhaps because of all the characters, who would be well-known to readers of the series).  I was mostly mystified as to why Lee felt like she needed to solve all these mysteries herself without police assistance.

Rating: 2 stars

Where I Lost Her

Where I Lost Her

T. Greenwood

Genre: Mystery

Summary (from Goodreads): In her page-turning new novel, T. Greenwood follows one woman's journey through heartbreak and loss to courage and resolve, as she searches for the truth about a missing child.

Eight years ago, Tess and Jake were considered a power couple of the New York publishing world--happy, in love, planning a family. Failed fertility treatments and a heartbreaking attempt at adoption have fractured their marriage and left Tess edgy and adrift. A visit to friends in rural Vermont throws Tess's world into further chaos when she sees a young, half-dressed child in the middle of the road, who then runs into the woods like a frightened deer.

The entire town begins searching for the little girl. But there are no sightings, no other witnesses, no reports of missing children. As local police and Jake point out, Tess's imagination has played her false before. And yet Tess is compelled to keep looking, not only to save the little girl she can't forget but to salvage her broken heart as well.

Blending her trademark lyrical prose with a superbly crafted and suspenseful narrative, Where I Lost Her is a gripping, haunting novel from a remarkable storyteller.

Review: I'm having trouble deciding whether this book is actually a mystery, because I think it should have been a relationship drama, but the main character is insistent that she needs to solve a mystery on her own.  While this book was hard to put down, I wouldn't say it was easy to read; Tess's struggles with infertility and the difficulties she has during the adoption process are tough to read about.  The mystery surrounding the little girl was interesting but predictable, and while I was happy with how the story was resolved, I thought the strength of the book was more in the relationship dramas.

Rating: 4 stars

Somebody I Used to Know

Somebody I Used to Know

David Bell

Genre: Thriller

Summary (from Goodreads): When Nick Hansen sees the young woman at the grocery store, his heart stops. She is the spitting image of his college girlfriend, Marissa Minor, who died in a campus house fire twenty years earlier. But when Nick tries to speak to her, she acts skittish and rushes off.

The next morning the police arrive at Nick’s house and show him a photo of the woman from the store. She’s been found dead, murdered in a local motel, with Nick’s name and address on a piece of paper in her pocket.

Convinced there's a connection between the two women, Nick enlists the help of his college friend Laurel Davidson to investigate the events leading up to the night of Marissa’s death. But the young woman’s murder is only the beginning...and the truths Nick uncovers may make him wish he never doubted the lies.

Review: This book didn't hold my attention like I hoped it would.  While I was initially intrigued by the mystery surrounding the young woman, I found the main character a bit boring, and the plot twists too contrived to be realistic.  Perhaps the main character dwelt too much in the past, making it difficult to get a sense of him as a 40 year old man.

Rating: 2.5 stars

The Light in the Ruins

The Light in the Ruins

by Chris Bohjalian

Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery

Synopsis: 1943: Tucked away in the idyllic hills south of Florence, the Rosatis, an Italian family of noble lineage, believe that the walls of their ancient villa will keep them safe from the war raging across Europe.  Eighteen-year-old Cristina spends her days swimming in the pool, playing with her young niece and nephew, and wandering aimlessly amid the estate's gardens.  But when two soldiers, a German and an Italian, arrive at the villa, the Rosati's bucolic tranquility is shattered.  A young German lieutenant begins to court Cristina, the Nazis descend upon the estate demanding hospitality, and what was once their sanctuary becomes their prison.

1955: Serafina Bettini, an investigator with the Florence Police Department, has her own demons.  Serafina carefully hides her scars along with her haunting memories of the war.  But when she is assigned to a gruesome new case-a serial killer who who is targeting the Rosatis and murdering the remnants of the family one by one in cold blood-Serafina finds herself digging into a past that involves both the victims and her own tragic history.

from the back of the book

Review:  I listened to this as an audiobook and got through one and a half cds.  This book was completely different than I thought it would be.  I really like historical fiction books but this one was much more mystery than I like.  It was gruesome at parts and I just couldn't listen to it.  The historical aspect to the story didn't keep me interested enough to keep listening to the murder mystery parts.

Rating: abandonded

The Magician's Lie

The Magician's Lie

Greer McAllister

Genre: Historical Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads):Water for Elephants meets The Night Circus in The Magician’s Lie, a debut novel in which the country’s most notorious female illusionist stands accused of her husband's murder --and she has only one night to convince a small-town policeman of her innocence.

The Amazing Arden is the most famous female illusionist of her day, renowned for her notorious trick of sawing a man in half on stage. One night in Waterloo, Iowa, with young policeman Virgil Holt watching from the audience, she swaps her trademark saw for a fire ax. Is it a new version of the illusion, or an all-too-real murder? When Arden’s husband is found lifeless beneath the stage later that night, the answer seems clear.

But when Virgil happens upon the fleeing magician and takes her into custody, she has a very different story to tell. Even handcuffed and alone, Arden is far from powerless—and what she reveals is as unbelievable as it is spellbinding. Over the course of one eerie night, Virgil must decide whether to turn Arden in or set her free… and it will take all he has to see through the smoke and mirrors.

Review:  Comparing this book to The Night Circus isn't fair; it sets the reader up for disappointment.  Although this book is about a magician, it doesn't have the same spellbinding magical quality of The Night Circus, and it certainly isn't as novel and clever.  So please don't go into this book expecting that.  Comparisons aside, though....

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book about a female illusionist at the turn of the 20th century.  The book is less about the onstage magic in Arden's life, and more about her unusual adolescence and her adult relationships.  The summary doesn't indicate this, but most of the novel is spent on Arden's retelling of her past, with flash-forwards to the present day after she has been captured by Virgil.  I found myself rushing through the present day parts so that I could get back to her fascinating past.  I haven't read many stories set in this time period, and haven't read any about women on the entertainment circuit, so I appreciated this glimpse into a unique part of American history.

Rating: 4 stars

Hostage Taker

Hostage Taker

Stefanie Pintoff

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Summary (from Goodreads): From Edgar Award winner Stefanie Pintoff comes the start of an electrifying new thriller series featuring Eve Rossi, head of a secret division of the FBI - one made up of ex-convicts with extraordinary talents, oversized egos, and contempt for the rules. Perfect for readers of Iris Johansen and Catherine Coulter.

TERROR STRIKES AN ICONIC CHURCH - AND BRINGS A CITY TO ITS KNEES.

In the hushed quiet of early morning Manhattan, in front of the towering brass doors of Saint Patrick's Cathedral, a young woman holds a sign that reads: HELP ME. For one FBI agent, a madman's terrified hostages, and an entire city, a long and harrowing day is about to unfold.

The hostage taker's identity is unknown. But he knows who FBI agent Eve Rossi is - and everything about her past. Along with her presence, he demands five witnesses: ordinary people with some hidden connection. Defying her superiors, Eve begins a deadly dance with an adversary whose intentions are surely sinister, whose endgame is anything but certain, and whose cunning keeps him one step ahead at every turn.

As Eve manages a taut hostage situation, she relies on the combined skills of her team - a secret unit inspired by France's most notorious criminal and made up of ex-convicts with extraordinary talents, oversized egos, and contempt for the rules.

Eve is up against a rapidly ticking clock. But the dangerous man calling the shots has a timetable of his own - and a searing question for his targets: What are you guilty of? As shocking revelations surface, so does another crisis nobody could anticipate - one not even Eve and her team may be able to stop.

Review:  I enjoyed this suspenseful and dramatic thriller; having a female hostage negotiator was a nice twist on the typically male thriller heroes.  The story was interesting, the descriptions of the cathedral were detailed and set the scene nicely, the ending had an interesting twist, and the minor characters were quirky and likable.  My only problem was that the book was a little long for the story; the author spent a while building the stories of the minor characters (I'm assuming in the hopes of continuing this novel into a series) but it detracted from the pace of the story and made the book drag on too long.  And while I enjoyed the criminals working with the FBI (a la the TV show White Collar), I wasn't convinced that these criminals provided a specific expertise that FBI members couldn't also provide.

Rating: 4 stars

The Bones of You

The Bones of You

Debbie Howells

Genre: Mystery Thriller

Summary (from Goodreads): A stunning, wonderfully assured psychological thriller that evokes Gillian Flynn and Alice Sebold, The Bones of You revolves around a young girl’s murder and one woman’s obsession with uncovering the secrets in an idyllic English village.

I have a gardener’s inherent belief in the natural order of things. Soft‑petalled flowers that go to seed. The resolute passage of the seasons. Swallows that fly thousands of miles to follow the eternal summer.

Children who don’t die before their parents.

When Kate receives a phone call with news that Rosie Anderson is missing, she’s stunned and disturbed. Rosie is eighteen, the same age as Kate’s daughter, and a beautiful, quiet, and kind young woman. Though the locals are optimistic—girls like Rosie don’t get into real trouble—Kate’s sense of foreboding is confirmed when Rosie is found fatally beaten and stabbed.

Who would kill the perfect daughter, from the perfect family? Yet the more Kate entwines herself with the Andersons—graceful mother Jo, renowned journalist father Neal, watchful younger sister Delphine—the more she is convinced that not everything is as it seems. Anonymous notes arrive, urging Kate to unravel the tangled threads of Rosie’s life and death, though she has no idea where they will lead.

Weaving flashbacks from Rosie’s perspective into a tautly plotted narrative, The Bones of You is a gripping, haunting novel of sacrifices and lies, desperation and love.

Review:  This was a dark and creepy psychological thriller, full of lots of nasty characters that I couldn't stand.  What made this book different is that the narrator was an eminently likable, lovely, kind woman who befriended the mother of the missing girl.  Somehow having a decent woman at the heart of the story made the nastiness easier to read, while also providing an interesting contrast between good and evil.  Interestingly, it was also narrated by the dead girl; at times this was a bit confusing, but it lent an interesting perspective and provided some of the back story, since the novel opened with the girl already missing.

Rating: 4 stars

Don't Ever Get Old

Don't Ever Get Old

Daniel Friedman

Genre: Mystery Thriller

Summary (from Goodreads): DON'T EVER GET OLD was one of mystery-publishing's biggest critical successes last year, earning starred reviews from every major trade publication, garnering nominations for the Edgar, Thriller, and Anthony awards, and winning the Macavity Award for Best First Novel. The producer of four Harry Potter films and the Sherlock Holmes sequel, Lionel Wigram, is writing the script for the movie and producing the film version.

When Buck Schatz, senior citizen and retired Memphis cop, learns that an old adversary may have escaped Germany with a fortune in stolen gold, Buck decides to hunt down the fugitive and claim the loot. But a lot of people want a piece of the stolen treasure, and Buck's investigation quickly attracts unfriendly attention from a very motley (and murderous) crew.

Review:  I really liked the crotchety elderly man at the center of this book, a long retired police officer and Jewish veteran of a Nazi prison camp.  His attitudes about growing old and his "things to remember" were humorous and insightful.  I also enjoyed his frat boy grandson Tequila, especially watching the interactions between the two men from completely different generations.  The action scenes, chase scenes, and murder scenes were descriptive and compelling.  However, I thought this novel was lacking in plot continuity; I never fully understood why all the victims were so violently murdered, and the resolution seemed a little hasty.

Rating: 4 stars

Make Me

Make Me

Lee Child

Genre: Fiction, Thriller

Summary (from Goodreads): “Why is this town called Mother’s Rest?” That’s all Reacher wants to know. But no one will tell him. It’s a tiny place hidden in a thousand square miles of wheat fields, with a railroad stop, and sullen and watchful people, and a worried woman named Michelle Chang, who mistakes him for someone else: her missing partner in a private investigation she thinks must have started small and then turned lethal.


Reacher has no particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there, and there’s something about Chang . . . so he teams up with her and starts to ask around. He thinks: How bad can this thing be? But before long he’s plunged into a desperate race through LA, Chicago, Phoenix, and San Francisco, and through the hidden parts of the internet, up against thugs and assassins every step of the way—right back to where he started, in Mother’s Rest, where he must confront the worst nightmare he could imagine.

Walking away would have been easier. But as always, Reacher’s rule is: If you want me to stop, you’re going to have to make me.
 
Review:  Not as good as the earliest Reacher books, but much better than the last few.  I prefer thriller books where the hero discovers a problem and spends the book trying to solve it; this was not that type of book.  Instead, Reacher stumbled across some suspicious behavior in a shady little town and has to try to figure out what is wrong about the town.  He makes some phenomenally good guesses given the lack of information he has.  There also seemed to be some technical inaccuracies concerning the geography of the US that were needed as plot devices, for example, having to drive two hours out of the town before getting cell service, and having to drive another two hours before reaching a highway, in what appeared to be Oklahoma or Kansas.  Minor things, but annoying.  I still love Reacher as a character, but I am losing interest in the newer books of the series.

Rating: 3.5 stars

The Girl Without a Name

The Girl Without a Name

by Sandra Block

Genre: Mystery

Synopsis:  In what passes for an ordinary day in a psych ward, Dr. Zoe Goldman is stumped when a highly unusual case arrives. A young African American girl, found wandering the streets of Buffalo in a catatonic state, is brought in by police. No one has come forward to claim her, and all leads have been exhausted, so Zoe's treatment is the last hope to discover the girl's identity.

When drugs prove ineffective and medical science seems to be failing, Zoe takes matters into her own hands to track down Jane Doe's family and piece together their checkered history. As she unearths their secrets, she finds that monsters hide where they are least expected. And now she must solve the mystery before it is too late. Because someone wants to make sure this young girl never remembers.

The Girl Without a Name is a powerful novel of memory and forgetting, of unexpected friendship and understanding...and of the secrets we protect no matter the consequences.

from GoodReads

Review: The synopsis of the book intrigued me because child psychology really interests me.  I normally don't pick up a lot of mystery books so I've never read anything by Sandra Block before and I wasn't sure what to expect.  Her writing style is very simple and at first I felt like the sentences were short and disconnected.  The writing wasn't lyrical and didn't flow but it did get better as I kept reading and I stopped noticing her writing style.  The medical jargon got in the way and I wasn't sure what things meant.  It almost seemed like the author had taken a medical class about psychiatry and wanted to show how much she knew in the book so she found many opportunities to talk about medications and medical terms.  So much of it seemed out of place and unnecessary and made the dialogue choppy.  Again this didn't bother me later in the book and I think this is because Block used the same terminology throughout the whole story.  I was engaged in the story for the most part but once the mystery was resolved I didn't buy in anymore.  The motivation of the "bad guy" just didn't seem realistic and it seemed to come out of nowhere.

Rating:  2 stars

The Daylight Marriage

The Daylight Marriage

Heidi Pitlor

Genre: Fiction, Mystery

Summary (from Goodreads): Hannah was the kind of woman who turned heads. Tall and graceful, naturally pretty, often impulsive, always spirited, the upper-class girl who picked, of all men, Lovell--the introverted climate scientist, the practical one who thought he could change the world if he could just get everyone to listen to reason. After a magical honeymoon they settled in the suburbs to raise their two children.

But over the years, Lovell and Hannah’s conversations have become charged with resentments and unspoken desires. She’s become withdrawn and directionless. His work affords him a convenient distraction. The children can sense the tension, which they’ve learned to mostly ignore. Until, after one explosive argument, Hannah vanishes. And Lovell, for the first time, is forced to examine the trajectory of his marriage through the lens of memory--and the eyes of his children. As he tries to piece together what happened to his wife--and to their lives together--readers follow Hannah through that single day when the smallest of decisions takes her to places she never intended to go.

With the intensity of The Lovely Bones, the balance of wit and heartbreak of The Descendants, and the emotional acuity of Anne Tyler’s work, The Daylight Marriage is at its heart a novel about what happens when our intuitions override our logic, with a page-turning plot that doesn’t reveal its secrets until the very end.
 
Review:  This was a quick read and an interesting story about a wife who has gone missing.  Written from the husband's perspective moving forward, and the wife's perspective about the day she went missing, it was interesting to see their separate reflections about themselves, each other, and their marriage.  Unfortunately, I couldn't stand any of the characters, so it was hard to actually like the book.  The teenage daughter was especially horrible.

Rating: 2.5 stars

The Silent Sister

The Silent Sister

by Diane Chamberlain

Genre: Mystery

Synopsis:  In The Silent Sister, Riley MacPherson has spent her entire life believing that her older sister Lisa committed suicide as a teenager. Now, over twenty years later, her father has passed away and she's in New Bern, North Carolina cleaning out his house when she finds evidence to the contrary. Lisa is alive. Alive and living under a new identity. But why exactly was she on the run all those years ago, and what secrets are being kept now? As Riley works to uncover the truth, her discoveries will put into question everything she thought she knew about her family. Riley must decide what the past means for her present, and what she will do with her newfound reality, in this engrossing mystery from international bestselling author Diane Chamberlain.

from GoodReads

Review:  I picked up this book a while ago, read the first 10 or so pages and put it down and read several other books.  Then I returned to this book in the hopes that I would be more excited about the book.  I have to admit that it was hard to really lose myself in this book but I forced myself to keep reading because I generally enjoy Chamberlain's books.  Finally I became more invested in the story but it didn't take me a while.  I think my problem was that I didn't like any of the characters.  Riley was OK but I did not like her brother, Danny, has he seemed odd and very angry, not at all a loving brother.  The other side characters who come in contact with Riley were not portrayed well either.  Riley had uneasy feelings about them which made me not like them.  You ask then what kept me going.  Well, the mystery of finding out about Lisa's suicide, murder, disappearance, etc was compelling.  I wanted to know what really happened.  As you keep reading you get to know more and more of the truth about what happened and where Lisa has been for the last twenty-some years.  There was a lot lacking in the story to have me rate this book higher and I think it is entirely due to the likeableness of the characters.

Rating: 3 stars

Cell

Cell

Robin Cook

Genre: Thriller

Summary (from Goodreads): The New York Times bestselling author and master of the medical thriller returns with a top-notch fusion of groundbreaking medical science and edge-of-your-seat suspense. George Wilson, M.D., a radiology resident in Los Angeles, is about to enter a profession on the brink of an enormous paradigm shift, foreshadowing a vastly different role for doctors everywhere. The smartphone is poised to take on a new role in medicine, no longer as a mere medical app but rather as a fully customizable personal physician capable of diagnosing and treating even better than the real thing. It is called iDoc. George’s initial collision with this incredible innovation is devastating. He awakens one morning to find his fiancée dead in bed alongside him, not long after she participated in an iDoc beta test. Then several of his patients die after undergoing imaging procedures. All of them had been part of the same beta test. Is it possible that iDoc is being subverted by hackers—and that the U.S. government is involved in a cover-up? Despite threats to both his career and his freedom, George relentlessly seeks the truth, knowing that if he’s right, the consequences could be lethal.
 
Review:  I found the premise of this book fascinating, given that the idea of iDoc seems plausible in the near future, but unfortunately the writing didn't deliver.  The main character, radiology resident George, seemed to be a very smart person, but was unbelievably naive and lacking in common sense.  Even worse, the conversations were so stilted and awkward that they took away from the story.  And the book needed a better editor - I noticed a few very obviously wrong word choices.  I was also disappointed at the cop-out ending.

Rating: 2.5 stars

The Last Breath

The Last Breath

Kimberly Belle

Genre: Women's Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): From a remarkable new voice in suspenseful women's fiction comes an emotionally searing drama about a woman who risks her life to discover the devastating truth about her family…

Humanitarian aid worker Gia Andrews chases disasters around the globe for a living. It's the perfect lifestyle to keep her far away from her own personal ground zero. Sixteen years ago, Gia's father was imprisoned for brutally killing her stepmother. Now he's come home to die of cancer, and she's responsible for his care—and coming to terms with his guilt.

Gia reluctantly resumes the role of daughter to the town's most infamous murderer, a part complete with protesters on the lawn and death threats that are turning tragedy into front-page news. Returning to life in small-town Tennessee involves rebuilding relationships that distance and turmoil have strained, though finding an emotional anchor in the attractive hometown bartender is certainly helping Gia cope.

As the past unravels before her, Gia will find herself torn between the stories that her family, their friends and neighbors, and even her long-departed stepmother have believed to be real all these years. But in the end, the truth—and all the lies that came before—may have deadlier consequences than she could have ever anticipated…
 
Review: I wanted to love the main character, but I found her past as a humanitarian aid worker traveling to third world countries hard to reconcile with her present as she describes it.  I would have liked to have more insight into her character.  The supporting characters were fun and interesting, especially Fannie the hospice nurse and Gia's sister, although I did think Gia's siblings' changes of heart in regards to their father happened too quickly to be believable.  The mystery was less a who-done-it and more of a did-he-do-it, which made for an interesting and suspenseful read.  There was too much bad language and descriptive adult behavior for my taste, though, and I wasn't very happy with the ending.

Rating: 3 stars

Case Histories

Case Histories

Kate Atkinson

Genre: Mystery

Summary (from Goodreads): Case one: A little girl goes missing in the night.

Case two: A beautiful young office worker falls victim to a maniac's apparently random attack.

Case three: A new mother finds herself trapped in a hell of her own making - with a very needy baby and a very demanding husband - until a fit of rage creates a grisly, bloody escape.

Thirty years after the first incident, as private investigator Jackson Brodie begins investigating all three cases, startling connections and discoveries emerge . . .
 
Review: I picked this book up from Savers based on the recommendation of a complete stranger who told me that she had a literary degree and lived in Seattle.  She said she absolutely loved it.  She also recommended a few other books that looked a little heavier and more depressing than books I typically enjoy reading, so I wasn't quite sure what I would think of this book.

While Case Histories is dark and tragic, and many of the characters are depressing, I ended up really enjoying the book.  I guess I'd classify it as a mystery, since a retired police detective ends up investigating three cold cases, but it really is more of a human interest story or a drama.  I was invested in the characters, while feeling alternately amused and appalled by them.  The ending wasn't entirely satisfying, but enough was revealed that I could live with it.

Rating: 4 stars