NaNoWriMo

I am a participant in NaNoWriMo every year (except for last year when I was too lazy) and every year I have a great time with it.

I've actually only "won" it twice, in 2003 and 2004 but I've been participating since 2001.

For those who are not familiar with it, it stands for National Novel Writing Month, and during the month of November, the goal is to author a novel with 50,000 words in the thirty days. And the motto? No plot...no problem.

I will probably not get a lot of reading done. But I will get a lot of writing done.

I'll post my progress occasionally, here.

Hurricane

HURRICANE by Karen Harper (Mira, c2006, ISBN 0-7783-2307-2) blew me away!
Set in Gladesport, Florida near the Florida Keys and the Everglades, Julie Minton and Zack Brockman are in search of their teenaged children who went missing while on a Jet Ski ride. Normally there'd be no problem, but a hurricane is moving in...and fast.

Unfortunately, evidence leads the two to suspect foul play and as the hurricane moves closer and closer, it becomes a race against the clock and Mother Nature.

It starts with a radio broadcast:

All right, heads up everybody out there on this lovely morning.

This book was fast moving and I think the setting had everything to do with that. The tension that the hurricane caused and the fight to find their children in time caused for great suspense, despite the ubiquitous romance that popped up right in the middle of the ratrace. This was a very fun book to read and I am excited (and dismayed!) that I have found yet another author of whom I will be reading more. How tall can a stack get before it topples and buries a person? Are there any mysteries written about a body found buried under books?

The Perfect Family

THE PERFECT FAMILY by Carla Cassidy (Signet Eclipse, c2005, ISBN 0-451-21390-4) surprised me.

Set in Cass Creek, Missouri (a suburb of Kansas City) Marissa Jamison is trying to piece her life back together. A little over a year ago her husband, a member of the local fire department, was run down in a grocery store parking lot after stopping to get some milk. Now, raising two kids alone, Marissa thinks things are getting back on track when Alex Kincaid, her highschool sweetheart, comes back inter her life.

And then the "Gift Bow Killer" strikes and the victims all relate to Marissa somehow. Someone wants to be a part of Marissa's life and it looks like they will stop at nothing to make--the perfect family.

This book surprised because I found it in the trunk of my car, which is not uncommon but I think it jumped to the top of a stack or something because I don't recall buying it, putting it there, nothing. I was meeting my husband for lunch and he was on a call and told me it'd be a while so I went looking for something to read while I waited at the station and found this book in the corner of my trunk by an author I'd never heard of before let alone read, but, it had a purple cover and I like purple. So, I picked it up and by the time my husband called to cancel lunch, I had read 150 pages of it and didn't want to put it down. It had really great timing with the suspense and I will definitely search out more books by this author. I will recommend this book to my patrons who enjoy Mariah Stewart and Allison Brennen as I saw several similarities.

The first sentence:

It was a perfect evening.

Smitten

SMITTEN by Janet Evanovich (Harper Torch, c1990 and 2006, ISBN 0-06-059887-5) is a re-release of one of her earlier books.

Lizabeth Kane is living in Chase Mills, Pennsylvania and takes a job working for Matt Hallahan with his construction company, even though she knows absolutely nothing about construction. Her house is in need of much repair, her Aunt Elise Hawkins (the prototype for Grandma Mazur) has come to watch over her two boys for the summer and there's a flasher streaking thru the neighborhood and has his sights (and other body parts) aimed at Lizabeth while she has her sights on Matt.

This book was good for a quick, typical fluffy read; it was very entertaining but had little substance. I had to actually peruse it before writing up my review in the book that I keep because from the time I finished it and went to jot down my thoughts about it, I had forgotten all of the key elements to the plot.

However, as I said, it was typical for her re-releases (not the best of hers I've read but definitely better than some other authors I've tried)and since she is my guilty pleasure, I enjoyed myself while in between the covers of this book.

The first sentence:

When Lizabeth Kane was five years old she wanted to grow up to be a fairy.

Killer Instinct

I was a virgin to Robert W. Walker's books but that's not a bad thing because now I'm not any longer and I really enjoyed myself. A LOT.

KILLER INSTINCT (Diamond Books, c1992, ISBN 1-55773-743-6)is the first book in Walker's Jessica Coran series. Dr. Jessica Coran is an FBI medical examiner, brought into a case by Otto Boutine, featuring a killer who is draining his victims of their blood in vampire-like fashion across the Midwest.

The book begins:

Something akin to a fetid spirit moved past the sheriff and his deputy when the warped cabin door creaked open, revealing a black crypt.

For me, this was a fast-paced story with interesting characters and a good, solid plot. The only thing I didn't care for was Walker's overabundant use of ellipses (you know...the dot dot dot...thing) which distracted me to a great degree but I continued on to enjoy the story, trying to ignore the punctuation until I was finished with the reading. Sometimes I succeeded...sometimes not.
I loved that the book featured the Midwest (Wisconsin, Iowa City, IA and Chicago, IL)since this is where I make my home. I always find it refreshing to see in print a book that isn't set in New York, California, Florida or Texas.
I have given the author the benefit of the doubt as this book was published fourteen years ago and writing styles change as an author continues with his/her craft. Because of that, I will read the next book in the series because I truly enjoyed Dr. Coran's story.
She's the kind of gal with which I'd get together to drink coffee and discuss disembowelments. That's my kind of girl.

Triptych

Karin Slaughter is darker, bleaker and better with this stand-alone, TRIPTYCH (Delacorte Press, c2006, ISBN 978-0-385-33946-9), in my opinion.
The book begins:

Detective Michael Ormewood listened to the football game on the radio as he drove down DeKalb Avenue toward Grady Homes.

John Shelley is newly paroled from prison after doing a stint of 25 years after his conviction for the rape and murder of 15-year-old Mary Alice Finney. But there's a problem for John: similar murders are occuring and the similarities could land John back to prison, someplace he does not what to go.

Angie Polaski works undercover for the Vice Squad and meets John while working the streets and Will Trent is an agent with the GBI,(Georgia Bureau of Investigation) brought in to work on the cases in question.
The three make up the triptych of the story, their lives paralleling each others in more ways than one.

Okay, so this book is not for the weak-stomached. I have written before that I thought I was jaded to violence in books, grit and gore, that nothing seemed to bother me anymore in the books I read.

This book bothered me. On several levels. And there was one scene...I was reading on the couch and my jaw literally dropped because the revelation sucker-punched me right in the head and I had to read it again just to make sure I read it correctly. And then I read it one more time, just to make sure.

This book is not recommended for people who won't read about crimes against women or crimes against children and I wouldn't call the graphic violence gratuitous, but be warned that there is quite a bit of it. I would recommend it however, to everyone else. Even those people who really like her Grant County series.
Just leave a light on for this one.

Snow Blind

SNOW BLIND is the latest book by PJ Tracy (GP Putnam, c2006, ISBN 0-399-15339-6) and wowzer, this book, the 4th in the Monkeewrench series, is one zinger of a book.

Set in Minneapolis, Minnesota, it starts with the discovery of two police officers murdered and rolled up into snowmen during a snowman building contest. When another cop is found in the same fashion several towns away it becomes apparent that something is afoot. Grace McBride and the rest of the Monkeewrench gang team up with their computer sleuthing skills to aid Leo Magozzi, Gino Rolseth and Iris Rikker, the new sheriff to Dundas County, by trying to find a common denominator to the slain police officers before it becomes too late.

The book begins:

They had to sit for a time after dragging the body so far in the heat-two young women in sleeveless summer dresses, hugging their knees on the hillside while the hot wind danced in their hair and crept up their skirts and a dead man lay behind them.

There are many positives about this book including the break-neck pacing and the mystery wrapped up in a mystery. If there was anything negative to be said about this book, it would be that the Monkeewrench only plays a small part in this book as opposed to the others. If you're looking for a Monkeewrench book, this isn't it. But if you're looking for a great read, check this one out.

Sleeping with fear

Well, I've been reading them one right after another.

First up, is SLEEPING WITH FEAR by Kay Hooper (Bantam, c2006, ISBN 0-553-80318-1). Set in Hazard County, Opal Island off of South Carolina, Riley Crane, a clairvoyant, wakes up one morning with no memories of the past weeks and her clairvoyance lost to her as well. Riley was on assignment to investigate occult activity when a bloody murder occurs. Her lover and local DA, Ash Prescott plays a significant role in the book as well and I wouldn't be suprised if we saw him again.
This book was the third book in Hooper's FEAR trilogy, another Bishop FBI psychic book which I look forward to each and every time.
This book, although quick paced and high in suspense took me a while to read but I think my at-the-time upcoming wedding had a lot to do with that. I anticipate Hooper's next endeavor as usual.

It begins:

Even before she opened her eyes, Riley Crane was aware of two things.

Gone to the chapel

Okay, so it's been almost a month since I've posted but as you can see, I've got a very good reason...I married my long-time love on August 19th and life is just starting to settle down after post-wedding stuff.

I've read a couple of books since my last post; I just haven't had the time to write my thoughts about them but I promise that it is one of my top priorities and I look to flood my blog (Ha!) with posts in the upcoming couple of days.

Please don't give up on me. I've not given up on any of my readers. I've just been preoccupied for the past couple of months but now my life will get back to normal.


Weddings are crazy...

Copycat killin'

The book, COPYCAT by Erica Spindler (Mira, c2006, ISBN 0-7783-2312-9) was a good escapist read while I prepare for my wedding happening this Saturday. I tried reading THE GIRLS WHO WENT AWAY but it was just to intense for me to finish, what with everything going on in my brain as the countdown continues. It is waiting for me until after my wedding is complete.

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COPYCAT'S blurb:
Five years ago, three young victims were found dead, posed like little angels. There were no witnesses. Strangely clean scenes. The Sleeping Angel Killer called his despicable acts "the perfect crimes."

The case immobilized the close-knit community of Rockford, Illinois, and nearly destroyed homicide detective Kitt Lundgren's career—and her life. During the investigation, Kitt tragically lost her own child to illness. She was devastated by the death of her daughter; and the final blow was the crushing realization that she let the killer get away.

Familiar with every nuance of the cold case file, Kitt knows there's something different about this new rash of killings—a tiny variation that opens terrifying new possibilities. Is the Sleeping Angel Killer really back, or is a copycat killer re-creating the original "perfect crimes"?

But Kitt has no authority in this investigation. Young, ambitious detective Mary Catherine Riggio is heading up the Sleeping Angel Killer case. M.C. knows that Kitt wants back in and she's smart enough to realize that Kitt's obsession with the case has given the detective an insight that M.C. lacks. But M.C., intent on proving herself, fears Kitt will blow the investigation—again.

Then Kitt starts receiving disturbing phone calls. It's him—the Sleeping Angel Killer—and he makes Kitt an unthinkable offer: help in finding his copycat. Forced to rely on each other, Kitt and M.C. must decide whether to place their trust in a Murderer ...ar risk becoming victims of a fiend who has taken the art of the perfect murder to horrific new heights.

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The first sentence:

The girl's hair looked silky.

My thoughts:
This was a good installment from Spindler. I always recommend her to library patrons who like MH Clark, Carlene Thompson and Wendy Corsi Staub. This book kept me guessing right up until the end and caught me by surprise with the killer, however I was a little disturbed by some of the actions taken by both main police officers in this book but then I got over it. It could be just my frame of mind.

This book is not recommended for people who don't like violence against children books.