The Girl Thief, by J.A. Schneider

Book number 38 for 2024, 5/5 stars

 I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

While this book kind of got off to a slow start, it dramatically picked up by the end. In fact, I binged about the last third of the book because it got so intense and interesting.

Rooney, our main character, has gotten a temporary job with a catering company, and is working a pretty high-class party. The host’s wife, Kate, is drunk and is about to pass out and embarrass herself. Rooney is called on to help Kate, so she takes Kate upstairs, around a back way, so as to not be seen by other party guests. She is kind to Kate and takes care of her, which gets her points with Kate’s husband, Griffin. Griffin then hires Rooney to look after Kate, at least temporarily. There is much more to this, but I don’t want to give away key plot points.

The thing is, Rooney has an agenda. She has gotten herself into this position on purpose. At the beginning, we are not sure what this agenda is, but we do find out.

Rooney is an enjoyable character. Kate is, at times, but seems very whiny at times, as well. But there is a reason for that, which we don’t learn until late in the book. Griffin is simply a scuzzball. There are flashbacks, as well, which give us back story, mostly into Rooney, to help explain what she is, in fact, up to.

This is a twisting, turning psychological thriller with a twist near the end that I certainly didn’t see coming. The last part of the book (about a third, as I said) is most definitely a “page turner.” I like J.A. Schneider’s writing style. There is a lot of dialogue, and the style is accessible. I think the author does a great job of getting the reader into the heads of the characters. I had several guesses as to what was going on, and was totally wrong with all of them. I like a story that keeps me guessing, and I definitely enjoy surprise twists along the way.

I definitely recommend this story for folks who enjoy psychological thrillers.

TTFN, y’all!

Pursuit, by Joyce Carol Oates

Book number 20 for 2024, 4/5 stars

This is my first book by this author. I’ve been familiar with her name for many years, but, for some reason, had never read any of her books. After reading this one, I’m sure to read more. I really enjoyed this book.

This one is short, barely over 200 pages. It begins with our main character, Abby (not her real name, as we find out), getting off a city bus (at the wrong stop), and then rather absentmindedly stepping off the curb right in front of the bus, getting hit by it, which sends her into a coma for a bit. Oh, I forgot to mention, this was the morning after her wedding.

As the people in her life try to figure out if this was intentional or accidental, we get Abby’s back story, the story of her parents. And all throughout, we keep returning to the scene of a couple skeletons that Abby found when she was a child. 

Ms. Oates does a magnificent job of putting us in the heads of the different characters. Sometimes, we are in Abby’s head. Sometimes we are in her father’s head (he was capital C “Crazy”), and sometimes we are in her mother’s head. The domestic abuse that occurs in that horrible excuse for a marriage is disturbing, to say the least. Abby’s father was a classic case of “toxic masculinity.” Sometimes, we are in the head of Abby’s new husband, Willem. 

The psychological nature of this book is thrilling. It is called “A Novel of Suspense” on the cover, and it certainly is. Right down to the last page. It’s a quick read, and if you’re into this kind of thing, I highly recommend it.

TTFN, y’all!

Glory in Death, by J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts)

Book number 101 for 2023; 4/5 stars.

This is the second book in J.D. Robb’s “In Death” series, and yes, I am extremely “late to the party.” I started the series on the recommendation of a friend who opined that I might enjoy them, as they are futuristic crime thrillers. I also knew, before I started, that J.D. Robb was a pseudonym for Nora Roberts. I have yet to read a Nora Roberts book (except of course, for the first two of this series).

Glory in Death continues the saga of Eve Dallas, a detective in the NYPSD (New York Police and Security Department), and is set somewhere in the mid-twenty-first century. Consider, of course, that this series was begun in the 1990s, so the mid-twenty-first century was a few decades away.

Dallas continues her questionable relationship with a guy who is known only as Roark, who was an actual suspect in the first book. And in this book, she has to solve what starts as one murder, of a high-profile prosecuting attorney in the city. Before she can even get a suspect, a second murder occurs, of an aspiring actress. Eventually, there will be a third murder, but this one appears to be a case of mistaken identity.

The plot heats up as Dallas attempts to find her suspect. She gets it wrong a couple of times before finally figuring it out. I figured out who did it just a short time before she did. 

Glory in Death is a fun romp of a crime thriller. It gets pretty “spicy” a few times, as Dallas’s relationship with Roark heats up (after cooling down for a minute), and I must say that I was never bored and never lost interest in the plot. I like the way the author writes her characters and how she keeps us guessing, even about our main characters. Definitely a fun series.

TTFN, y’all!

One For the Money, by Janet Evanovich

Book number 88 for 2023. 4/5 Goodreads stars.

Yes, I’m a bit late to the party on this one. I think number thirty was published this year. But let me explain.

The only reason I was reading this book was because I was looking for a book with “only words on the cover.” I’m in a Facebook reading group, along with some wonderful people, and we have a challenge list of 100 categories each year. A book with only words on the cover is perhaps the most difficult category to fill. And, having already read 87 books, my category selection is getting slim.

So I did some searching and found that the LP version of this book only has words on the cover. Yes there are a couple of lime green rectangles with lines coming out of them, but the creator of the challenge assured me that this was acceptable, as there is no visible image.

Now. Back to the book at hand. It took a while to grab me. I mean, not so much that I wasn’t going to finish it. In fact, there was no way I wasn’t finishing this book, because of the category. But I was iffy on how many stars it was getting, up until about halfway through, and then it just kind of gradually sucked me in.

Stephanie Plum is the most unlikely bounty hunter you will ever meet. She is so desperate for money and a job, that she takes on the case of this particular FTA (Failed To Appear) that has a bond of $100,000, of which her share would be $10,000, if she succeeds in bringing him in. There’s a problem, though. Joe Morelli, the subject FTA, is someone she has known since childhood. He is also quite the “ladies’ man.”

There are hilarious interactions between Stephanie and Joe, along the way, as she keeps running into him, but fails to bring him in, for one reason or another. At one point, she even steals (or “commandeers,” as she puts it) is Jeep Cherokee. They seem to have quite the love/hate relationship going on.

Plum, in the meantime, also manages to bring in some lesser FTAs, getting a couple thousand dollars along the way, so she can at least survive and not get kicked out of her apartment.

When all was said and done, I really enjoyed this book. I like Ms. Evanovich’s writing, and the characters she has created are likeable (except for Benito Ramirez, but we aren’t supposed to like him . . . she did a great job of creating a loathsome character with him). I think it is difficult to categorize the book, genre-wise. It is, to some degree, a mystery, but more of a crime drama/thriller, in my opinion. I am looking forward to further adventures of Stephanie Plum.

TTFN, y’all!

Naked in Death, by J.D. Robb

Book number 62 for the year. 4/5 Goodreads stars (maybe 4.5).

This was a great book, all around. It’s my first by J.D. Robb (or Nora Roberts, for that matter), as I have never ventured into her territory. But someone told me that the “in Death” series was, essentially Science Fiction, and it is, to a degree. This story is SF, mystery, thriller, and romance all packed into one volume. And the romance, while pretty spicy, doesn’t overshadow the story.

The protagonist is Lieutenant Eve Dallas, a New York homicide detective. I have seen that the year is 2058, but I don’t remember reading that anywhere in the story, itself. Eve has just killed a man who had butchered a young child (his own roughly five-year-old daughter), and is due in for mandatory testing the next day. But a case comes up that takes priority over her testing, and she is commanded to report only to her direct commander. Someone has murdered a prostitute in a very cold and calculated way. And she’s not just any prostitute, she is a U.S. Senator’s granddaughter. A very powerful and influential U.S. Senator.

I forgot to mention politics up there with SF, mystery, thriller, and romance.

So right off the bat, this case is very sensitive. Having never read any of Nora Roberts’s books, I don’t have anything to compare this with, other than other mystery/thrillers that I have read. And it holds up very well, in my opinion. I mean Robb/Roberts is insanely popular, so I assumed it must be good. I just never thought it would appeal to me.

I was wrong. I really enjoyed this story. It held my interest from start to finish, and, for the most part, moves very quickly. I do question that part where Eve Dallas has a fling with a top suspect in the case, though. That part was iffy, as well as being the spiciest part of the story.

I like Eve Dallas, though. She is a tough character. She reminds me somewhat of Anita Blake, or Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. Maybe even of Karrin Murphy, from the Harry Dresden series. She takes no guff; she won’t let herself be bullied. But she has her own demons to fight off, as well, which are revealed later in the story.

The ending had a bit of a surprise for us, as I confess that I didn’t see it coming. I like that, too. Keep me guessing. Give me clues and let me think I have it figured out and then, suddenly, everything shifts. Very entertaining. I feel relatively sure that I will continue in this series. Which will keep me busy for quite some time, as there appear to be somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty of these novels.

TTFN, y’all!

Still Missing, by Chevy Stevens

4/5 Goodreads stars, but 4.5 on Bookly. Book number 34 for 2023.

I wish Goodreads allowed half stars. I rated this one 4.5 on my Bookly app. The reason for that is that the last half of the book was, in my opinion, a five-star book, while the first half was four. I really liked it, and it drifted toward amazing, but not enough to get it a full five stars.

Annie O’Sullivan is a realtor. She has an open house to run, and, just as she is getting to close it up for the day, a man comes to look at it. He is very friendly and cordial, with a nice, confident smile. But as she is showing him through the house, he grabs her from behind, sticks a gun in her back and makes her get in his van. He drives her away, and after some time, pulls over, makes her lie down in the back, and injects her with something to knock her out. She wakes up in a cabin, somewhere on a mountain.

She spends the next year in that cabin with that man.

We know, right off, that she survived this ordeal, because the book is presented in the form of sessions with her shrink. The chapters are headed with “Session One,” “Session Two,” and so on. Each chapter begins with something she is saying directly to the psychologist, and then breaks into her telling her story.

You would think her getting away would be toward the end of the book, but that is only about half of it. The rest of the book consists of what, exactly happened, and why, and who was involved. Her means of escape was a great turning point in the book, as well. It almost happened without warning. I remember uttering an audible “Whoa!” when it happened.

And then, the twist. About fifty pages from the end of the book, we get a hint (a strong one) as to who was responsible for the whole ordeal, and it blew me away.

This is well written, and the characters are well-presented. The perpetrator of the kidnapping is presented as a real lunatic, living in some kind of fantasy world. He is very easy to hate. Annie’s story is tragic, but when she is seen in present time, she certainly sounds like someone who is on the very edge of sanity, as well she should be, after what she went through.

There are some false leads, along the way, as misinformation is handed to Annie, both by her kidnapper, and later by her mother. Information about her friends and family, and other things.

I can’t say a whole lot more without giving spoilers, and I don’t want to do that. I will say that this is a gripping thriller, but it is also a bit rough, as there is sexual abuse, as well as physical non-sexual abuse, and verbal abuse. Lots of “triggers,” in other words. In fact, some of that is what kept it from being a full five-star book. Some of the first half was a familiar trope. But when it took its twists, it quite suddenly got away from that.

If you love a good page-turner thriller, this is definitely for you. Just be aware of the triggers.

TTFN, y’all!

The Poisoned Rose, by Daniel Judson

Book 28 for 2023 – 5/5 Goodreads stars

It’s not often that one of the books that I get free from the many e-book emails I get each day gets a five-star rating. But this one most definitely deserved it, in my opinion.

This one has been in my inventory of Kindle books for almost nine years, and I finally got around to reading it this year.

Early on, it seemed to move a little slowly (maybe this is what they call “slow burn?”), but the thing that grabbed me at first is that it seemed somewhat “noir-like.” You know, the old black and white shady detective kind of story. Only Declan “Mac” Macmanus isn’t your normal detective. He’s a drunk and he hardly ever works. He doesn’t have any A/C in his place, and, frankly, doesn’t even officially have a “place,” as he lives upstairs above a bar.

The tale that Daniel Judson weaves is somewhat intricate, and has what appears to be several different plot lines, but they all seem to come together at the end. And this is far from my favorite genre of book, but I loved it, nonetheless.

Mac is the kind of character that one pities. He’s had a hard life, and it ain’t getting any easier. He gets himself involved in something very dangerous, that involves at least one person who is somewhat deranged and will stop at nothing to get what he wants. In the meantime, he has been tasked with find a person, a woman, and has no idea how she is connected to the rest of the story.

He has some startling realizations at the end, when it all comes together, and it wasn’t until the very end that I understood the reference in the title. I like that in a book, when it keeps me guessing until the very end.

Speaking of endings, though, the reader should be warned to not expect a “happy ever after” kind of ending in this one. I don’t see that as a spoiler, because I haven’t told you what happens. But I’m telling the truth when I say that, over the course of the last few pages before the “Epilogue,” I could hardly take a breath. That’s how gripping it was. And how ironic is it that it has 13 chapters? Not counting the aforementioned Epilogue, of course.

TTFN, y’all!

Anybody’s Daughter, by Pamela Samuels Young

4/5 Goodreads stars

Another book about the evils and dangers of human trafficking, this one is so much more well-written than the last book I read that addressed the subject.

Pamela Young has created believable characters, with which it is easy to sympathize. In this story, Brianna Walker, a middle school student, falls prey to a fake romance through a Facebook account. She isn’t supposed to even have Facebook, but her Uncle Dre gave her an iPhone, and she created a Facebook account against the wishes of Donna, her mother.

She goes out, under false pretenses, to meet the “boy” that she has met on Facebook, who turns out to not be real, and is abducted by a couple of guys, who take her to house, where the intent is to force her into being a sex worker (the word “prostitute” was repeatedly used, but this was written almost ten years ago, before that word began to fall out of favor).

Uncle Dre feels so guilty over this that he determines to find Brianna and has pledged that he will not sleep until he does. Uncle Dre is an ex-drug dealer, so he knows some things about criminals and their habits, and has some rather shady friends to help him, as well.

That’s as much of the plot as I will reveal, but I will say that this thriller kept me on the edge of my seat. So well written, and when the climax of the story happened, I just about stood up and cheered. This wasn’t just a tale of bad things constantly happening to someone. And Brianna stood tough through it all, at least as tough as an adolescent (or maybe even pre-adolescent) girl could, under the circumstances.

The author never gets too graphically detailed, in my opinion. She comes right up to a line, but never crosses it. I believe this maintains integrity in the story, as it is not presented as simply “shock value,” but is truly a story that shows the possibility of redemption for people who are tragically involved in this business. It also displays the tragic truth that young girls who are forced into this lifestyle are so often treated as criminals, themselves, while their pimps (always called “Daddy” or “boyfriend” by the girls) barely get their hands slapped.

There is definitely violence and sexual content, but there is also a lot of mention of prayer in the story, as well, and it’s not presented in a mocking way, which I found to be both uplifting and interesting. Overall, in my opinion, a really good book.

There is a list of resources at the end, presented as a way for readers to get involved in trying to stop human trafficking, or at least to create safe spaces for victims to flee to.

TTFN, y’all!

Quicksilver, by Dean Koontz

3/5 Goodreads stars

I went back and forth on ratings as I read this one. I had been anticipating it, and must say that, while I did like it, it wound up being slightly disappointing.

It started off really good, and early on, I would have given it five stars. But somewhere around the middle, it got weird for me. He almost lost me in what I consider the middle third of the book. However, it picked back up and finished strongly, but not strongly enough to get four stars.

Quinn Quicksilver was left in the middle of the road in a basinet, as a baby, and was rescued by three men in Arizona. Three men whose names are vaguely resemblant of the traditional names of the “three wise men.” Quinn was taken to an orphanage, where he lived until he was finally able to leave on his own, as no one would ever adopt him.

Quinn, it turns out, has “special abilities.” That’s a recurring theme in stories by Koontz, perhaps to excess. Due to what becomes known as “psychic magnetism,” he winds up teaming up with Bridget and Sparky Rainking (Sparky is Bridget’s grandfather), and they wind up all running from the “ISA.” As they seek to find the three men who rescued Quinn as a baby, they wind up teaming up with a fourth (fifth if you include the dog they got from some drug dealers that they stole a bunch of money from), and go in search of no one really knows what.

“Psychic magnetism” leads them to a placed called “Oasis,” where a guy runs a cult that thrives on sex and drugs and no rules, except for the rule that anyone can do what they want, but he gets first choice on everything.

The characters are interesting, and, in the first part of the book, there is a lot of snarky humor that I really liked. There are even some good lines in there, like this one: “When feverish politics and demented ideology entwine, those who are not well anchored to the beliefs that allow a civil society can be swept away, becoming part of the storm of madness that lays waste to everything.” There are a few other good lines in the book, which make me think that, to a degree, Koontz is trying to make some kind of statement in the midst of the madness that makes up the story. And that might be where it got bogged down a little for me, because I wasn’t able to quite pin that down.

It’s far from Koontz’s best work, in my opinion, but it’s worth finishing, if you start it. I wouldn’t hurry to read it, though.

TTFN, y’all!

Real Easy, by Marie Rutkoski

4/5 Goodreads stars

I received this book as a winner of a Goodreads Giveaway, and am leaving a voluntary review.

I do want to explain that, when I review books on Goodreads, I follow the star rating literally. I went back and forth between three stars (liked it) and four (really liked it). In fact, while I was writing this review, I changed it again.

The story concerns a strip club in the late nineties, called Lovely Lady, and there is a murder/abduction that takes place, involving two of the ladies.

The things I liked about it: I liked the over all writing style. I liked the way the chapters were set up. Rather than having chapter numbers, each chapter is named after the character who is the main character in that chapter. Or, it might be better to say that it is the character whose perspective is being represented in that chapter. It is all in third person, though. I also liked how the chapters seemed to get shorter as the end of the book approached, indicating, to me, the urgency as things headed to a close. I also like that the chapters about the perpetrator were simply titled “Him.”

I liked the interactions of the characters. Not that I have any experience knowing how strippers interact with one another, but there seemed to be a rather realistic approach, here. The writing on the inside of the cover indicates that the author was once a dancer, so she should know, right? There’s a lot of tension between the dancers, because, of course, there is a lot of competition. I also liked the interactions of the police officers/investigators that were involved.

I liked that it didn’t get too “spicy.” Given the subject matter, there could have been a lot more sexual content than there was. But the author focuses more on the crime and the investigations, as well as the personalities of the characters.

There were a couple of things I didn’t like. One was that one of the detectives, Holly Meylin, reminded me way too much of another character by another author. It just seemed to me that she was too similar to Holly Gibney, of Stephen King fame. This may be totally coincidental. I have no idea. The other thing that I didn’t like was a plot development that came roughly midway through the book, that, to me happened much too quickly. Hopes were dashed. In fact, I have to confess that I was even a little angry at the author at that point. I got over it, of course, and finished the book.

One other thing in the dislike category: When the crime is committed, and this isn’t really what I would consider “spoiler,” because it happens in the first chapter, two of the girls are taken, because they happen to be riding in the car together. One is killed on the spot, and the other is abducted. The murdered girl is left at the scene. I don’t recall that there was ever any explanation as to why the perpetrator did that. I may have just missed it, but I don’t remember that being explained. And, of course, the author doesn’t owe me anything, you know. I just wish there had been something said about that.

I didn’t really touch on the topic of abusive relationships, because that is certainly addressed as well. I think it’s worth noting that this is also represented in this story, in more ways than one.

Definitely worth reading, I think, as a mystery/thriller (I fell that is more thriller/suspense, perhaps, than mystery), and I also have to confess that I did not figure out “whodunit” before the reveal. In fact, it didn’t even cross my mind. So well-played, Ms. Rutkoski.

TTFN, y’all!