Author: ekkarn

Chris Mooney – Remembering Sarah

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Thriller book cover with eerie forest

Chris Mooney’s Remembering Sarah has been on my To Be Read pile for some time now. But the other day after moving some books around it was sitting out, so after finishing, The Baxter Trust I picked it up and for a couple of days I couldn’t put it down.

The story begins when Mike Sullivan promises to take six year old daughter Sarah sledding on The Hill. When his overprotective wife Jess  hears about the outing, she tells Mike no way!

So like a good husband Mike waits until Jess leaves and then sneaks out with Sarah to the hill! At the hill, Sarah, ever the strong willed and independent girl, wants to go up the hill by herself. Mike always encouraging her independence and strong will lets her go .Then the worst happens, Sarah never comes down

! The book takes off from there as, Mike, with his marriage falling apart relentlessly searches for Sarah investigating every lead he can to find her. Mike, and everyone in town, is convinced that the Father Jonah, who has already been linked to the disappearance of three other girls is the culprit. But Jonas is dying and Mike must find out what he knows before he passes on or will lose Sarah forever!

 Amidst all this Mike is also dealing with a mother that left him when he was twelve and a criminal and abusive father, not much on his plate, huh! Like I said I just couldn’t put the book down last night until I finished!

While the blurbs on the back of books are always gushing, I thought two of them on the back of this book hit the nail on the head!

“At the core of this gut-wrenching thriller is something rare: a poignant examination of parental love and parental folly. Chris Mooney has written his finest novel and that’s saying something indeed” – Dennis Lahane

“Remembering Sarah is harrowing, gripping, haunting, gut-wrenching, beautifully written, and one of the best thrillers – maybe the best I’ve read this year” – Harlan Coben

My Thoughts

Some praise from two of my favorites! I thoroughly enjoyed the book, everything, the characters, the setting and the pace of the storyline! If you’re like me and love Harlan Coben’s standalones and Linwood Barclay’s books, you’ll love Remembering Sarah.

While I was looking up other books I’ve read by Chris Moody on Goodreads.com,  of which there is only one The Missing (Darby McCormick #1) I saw that that series is now up to Book # 4 can you say “Too Many books, not enough time!” oh well, off to the library to pick up the new Karin Slaughter novel Fallen

Post Update: Chris Monney’s Darby McCormick series sits at 8 books. The last book The Snow Girls was released in 2018. While his latest standalone Blood World was released in 2020.

The Baxter Trust – Parnell Hall – Steve Winslow He’s Funny, Too!

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The Baxter Trust - Parnell Hall

So one of my favorite mystery series is Parnell Hall’s Stanley Hasting series. Well now Mr. Hall wishes to be the “King of Kindle” and as such he has placed his books at the Kindle store at bargain prices.

In addition, he has put up a series he wrote under the name of J.P Hailey. These books feature a down on his luck lawyer, actor, and cab driver named Steve Winslow. Book 20 for 2011 is the first of these book The Baxter Trust and while it may not be  great literature, it is great fun!

The Story

The book revolves around Sheila Baxter and the trust fund set up by her grandfather a multimillionaire. The trust will make Sheila a millionaire when she turns 35 but until then she lives on the money doled out by the trustee of the Trust her Uncle Max. Sheila is currently involved in a relationship with a married man John Dutton that revolves around sex and cocaine. When John flies to Reno for a couple of days to finalize his divorce, Sheila is left on her own. When she returns to her apartment there is a note in her mailbox that says “I KNOW ALL ABOUT YOU” !( What does he know, maybe the cocaine?) The note is followed up with a phone call and soon Sheila is headed for the police station. The cops of course can’t do anything and just tell her to go home and let them know if anything else happens. Well the next day something does,  Sheila returns home after begging for some money from Uncle Max and then scoring some cocaine, only to find a man face down on the floor of her apartment with a knife from her knife rack in his back! Soon Sheila knows she needs an attorney and finds one in Steve Winslow a down on his luck attorney, actor and cab driver. Soon Steve is faced with the task of defending Sheila from a murder rap!(Niece of millionaire murders blackmailer, an open and shut case, but is it? That’s what Steve has to find out! Oh, and there is a clause in the trust that the trust is null and void and the money goes to charity if Sheila is involved in any scandal!

My Thoughts

The book was a fast read and highly entertaining. I love the character of Steve Winslow, who is a little like Stanley Hastings, but his own character! The other characters are good too and the story line has some twists and turns as Steve is hit with evidence during the trial.

So go and support Parnell Hall and help make him the “King of Kindle” and for 99 cents you can’t go wrong! As for me I think I’ll move on to Steve Winslow’s second adventure!

Book 19 – Misery Bay – Steve Hamilton

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So I was all set last night to write about my run. How another rock band Voodoo Circle and their new album Black Heart Syndrome was the soundtrack for the 4.2 mile run complete in just under a ten minute per mile pace (which was not bad because I went uphill for parts of the run), but alas that was not to be! I sat down started to read Book 19 Steve Hamilton‘s latest Alex McKnight novel Misery Bay and continued reading until I went to bed,(except for that 1/2 hour nap). I finished the book at lunchtime today.<u> Misery Bay</u> is the eighth book in the McKnight series and the first since 2006 and is a worthy addition to the series.

The story starts when Alex gets a visit from an old nemesis Sault Ste. Marie police chief Roy Maven, who has appeared in past books. Maven asks Alex to do a job for his friend Charles “Raz” Razniewski. Razniewski and Maven were on the State Police force years earlier and recently Razniewki’s son had committed suicide. Razniewski wants McKnight to go to his son’s college and talk to some friends and generally try to find out why his son killed himself.  Alex does just that and when he returns he really doesn’t have any reason for the suicide. When he goes to report his findings to the senior Razniewski, who is staying at Maven’s home, he finds Razniewki laying on Maven’s kitchen floor with his throat slashed! The FBI soon sends two agents to investigate “Raz’s murder because he is now a U.S. Marshall. The agents soon determine that the murder is probably retaliation for some of the unsavory, well connected criminals Raz has put away. But Maven and Alex don’t think so and set of to investigate the suicide and murder. Soon they  connect another police officer’s son suicide to the case and the story moves on from there!

I love everything about this series. The setting Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, which sounds like a wonderful place to visit (maybe for the three days of summer), the characters Alex, Maven, Alex’s friend Vinnie, Leon Purcell and Jackie, owner of the Glasgow Inn. The stories are always interesting and the pages usually fly by! While this the eight in the series, I think that it can be read alone and then the reader can go back and find out about some of the earlier events. Like how Alex’s cabin burned down and what happened to Alex’s love Natalie Reynaud:

Before I lit the match, I took one f the slats of wood and I rubbed the spot where the blood had seeped in forever. I said good-bye to Natalie Reynaud one more time. I kissed the wood once and then put it back on the pile.

So go and visit Alex and the residents of Paradise, Michigan and I’m sure it won’t be your  last visit!!

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Live Wire – Harlan Coben

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Live Wire – Harlan Coben (Myron Bolitar #10)

 Live Wire by Harlan Coben.starts when  Suzze T a former tennis star and client visits Myron and asks him to find an anonymous Facebook member, The Facebook member  left a post questioning the paternity of her unborn child. She also wants Myron to find her husband Lex Rider. Rider is also one of Myron’s clients.He is a member of the famous rock band HorsePowe. Horsepower is  fronted by, the looks to die for, but reclusive, Gabriel Wire. Suzze tells Myron that Lex ran off after seeing the post.

When Myron finds Lex he also finds someone he wasn’t looking for: his sister-in-law Kitty Bolitar. Kitty and Myron’s brother Brad are estranged from the Bolitar family. They ran off years ago and now live a nomadic life roaming the world. As the story unwinds Myron, Kitty and Suzze and Lex’s lives becomes entwined. As everyone faces lies  they’ve told, that have upset their world! Myron is also confronted with his past and sometimes doesn’t like what he sees!

Thoughts about Live Wire

Live Wire is a fast paced read with lots of twists and turns. The conclusion left me a little misty eyed! I love the characters in the Bolitar book’s: Myron, and his best friend Win. along with his business partner Esperanza and receptionist Big Cindi. Add to these characters Myron’s parents Al and Ellen and his nephew Mickey, throw some gangsters the Ache brothers and hit man Evan Crisp, stir up their lives, and what you have is a great book. I don’t know whether you want to pick up the series at Book 10 but I think you could and still enjoy it!

The book also sets the stage for Coben’s first young adult book Shelter which will be released in September. So check it out!

As for me I’m off to the wilds of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula  via  Steve Hamilton’s new Alex McKnight novel Misery Bay. It’s the first McKnight novel since 2006’s A Stolen Season!

Book 17 – Dog On It – Spencer Quinn

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Book Number 17 is the first in a series featuring the detective duo of Chet and Bernie Little, Dog On It. Chet, the narrator of the private eye mystery, is the dog who is on it, on it being a case involving a missing fifteen year old girl, Madison Chambliss.

The story is told from the point of view of Chet and is wonderfully entertaining. Chet works along side Bernie, a small time private eye. Chet flunked out of K-9 school…(it was that incident with the squirrel at graduation, that he’ll tell us about later) and is a true dog, who loves to bark, hunts for food on the floor on  visits to suspects, hates cats and sometimes he doesn’t realize that the sound he hears is actually his tail wagging.

Throughout the book the reader never loses sight of the fact that Chet is a dog! While the story was ok and had some twists and turns and Chet had a big adventure, it was truly the characters that made the book Chet, Bernie, Suzie and all the rest! Here’s what some others say about the book:

“I love this book. I devoured it in one night. It was so much fun. It was like Phillip Marlowe working for Mma Ramotswe from the No.1 Ladies Detective agency spun by Charlotte on her beautiful web” – Cathleen Schine “Sit and stay! You’re going to love Dog on it as musch as i did, because it confirms what every dog fan has long suspected – that our dogs are not only more fun than we are, they’re smarter!” – Lisa Scottoline

I couldn’t agree more! If you’re an animal lover and love mysteries this is your book, so check it out! As for me I’m ready for book 2 in the series, Thereby Hangs a Tail! A copies checked in at the library… soon as I finish Oh, by the way Spencer Quinn is a pseudonym of author Peter Abrahams. whose novels I’ve read and enjoyed!

Book 16 – Gideon’s Sword – Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

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Book 16 is the latest book from the writing team of Douglas Preston and Lee Child Gideon’s Sword.The book is the first book in a proposed series featuring Gideon Crew. I go back a long way with Preston and Child to the first book in the Pendergrast series Relic published in 1995! Unfortunately, I only read the first book and parts of the second Reliquary. That series is now up to book ten and I have several on my Mount to Be Read pile! Anyway rather than go back and catch up I thought I move forward with the new series! At twelve years old Gideon sees his father killed in a hostage stand-off involving his work for the government. On her death bed his mother his mother reveals that his father was a scapegoat concerning a failed project that left twenty six CIA agent s dead! Gideon sets out to clear his father’s name and does that rather quickly in the book. After revenging his father’s death Gideon returns to his favorite fishing hole and thinks he will just resume his normal life. Soon he is contacted by a subcontractor for the Department of Homeland security and offered an assignment to steal the plans for a new weapon from a Chinese scientist who is entering the country. This plunges Gideon into a whole new world, but he may have the talents for it because along the way the reader discovers that he is a master of disguises and a former Art Museum thief. The action is fast paced with several twists and turns. I enjoyed the read but in places found some events very implausible, but sometimes that in these types of books, so you just suspend belief and go along for the ride. The ride is pretty damn good so check it out! I enjoyed the character of Gideon Crew and along the way I learned a few things particularly about the Falun Gong and the Potter’s Field at Hart Island in Long Island Sound. So again check it out as for me I guess I need to go back and read some of those Pendergrast books!

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Books 14 and 15 – Ultralongevity and The Bone Yard

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So I have finished two books in the last week Book Number 14 is UltraLongevity: The Seven-Step Program for a Younger, Healthier You by Mark Liponis and Book Number 15 is The Bone Yard by Jefferson Bass. Both were very good reads! Mark Liponis is the Medical Director of Canyon Ranch Health Resorts and author coautrhor of the book UltraPrevention. The book outlines a seven step program for “a younger and healthier you”! The book is based on the latest research on aging and the immune system. From the dust jacket:

According to the latest scientific research, you can control the aging process, simply by paying attention to one thing: your immune system…. Dr. Liponis also offers an innovative and practical seven-step program that not only gives you guidelines for a healthier life; it reveals some startling facts about aging…..

I found the book very informative and am going to go back through it again and try to implement as many of the aspects of the plan as I can!! You can pick up the paperback at Amazon for $4.46. The links on the sidebar! The second book I finished was Jefferson Bass’ sixth Body Farm novel The Bone Yard . Once again the writing team of Bill Bass, the director of The Body Farm at the University of Tennessee and Jon Jefferson have written a great book! In this installment Bill Brockton is called by a forensic analyist with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Officer Angie St. Claire to help her investigate her sister’s suicide and to determine if she was actually murdered by her husband! While he’s in Florida he’s asked to take a look at a skull of a murdered young child… this leads Bill into the world of the North Florida Boys Reformatory and The Bone Yard! This is a fast paced book that I couldn’t put down! I always enjoy Bill Brockton character and this book is no exception, however, this book is disturbing for it’s portrayal of the grim world of the Reformatory!  So if you like Kathy Reichs and Patricia Cornwell but haven’t read Jefferson Bass do yourself a favor and pick up one of their books! You won’t be disappointed! 

Book 13 – Vince Flynn – Consent to Kill

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Yeah finally finished Book 13 for 2011 Consent to Kill by Vince Flynn. Constent to Kill is the sixth book in the Mitch Rapp series by Flynn, The series is now up to Book 11, so I have some reading to do to catch up on the series! Mitch Rapp is a  CIA assassin working deep Black Ops. in the book prior to this one Memorial Day. Rapp saved Washington from a nuclear holocaust and along the way made some very powerful enemies! Now those enemies have put a price on his head and hired a very savvy assassin to do the job!

Overall I enjoyed the book like all of the Rapp books. I thought this book moved a little slow in the beginning and I kinda knew what was going to happen, but once “the event” occurred the book picked up and moved well from that point on! I enjoy Rapp’s character well as the supporting cast of Irene Kennedy, the Director of the CIA and Mitch’s friend Scott Coleman. I’m looking forward to the next adventure Act of Treason (#7) which is on my bookshelf along with books 8 and 9!!  But I’m sure I’ll find something else to read before diving into them!

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The Secret Soldier – Alex Berenson (John Wells #5)

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Ok, quick quiz , Who is the current King of Saudi Arabia? Who is his son? Brother? Dis everyone get it right! I wouldn’t have! But they are all main characters in Alex Berenson‘s new John Wells adventure The Secret Soldier. This is book 12 for the year, (boy am I way behind!) and the fifth in the Wells series. After several terrorist attacks in the Kingdom, King Abdullah contacts new ex-CIA operative John Wells to determine if his brother Saed and Saed’s son were involved in the attacks. Saed thinks that he is the rightful heir to the throne, while Abdullah wants his son Khalid to succeed him, and Saed is none to pleased with that.   Soon Wells is immersed in a mission not only to make the determination, but also to save US and Saudi relations!!

I enjoy the character of John Wells and have liked all of the previous adventures. I thought that this book started a little disjointed and slow but once it got rolling there was no stopping the action until the last page was turned!

It’s funny!  I wrote a couple weeks ago, that I picked up Vince Flynn’s Constent to Kill a Mitch Rapp adventure and Saed was also a character in that book! Because I was confusing the plots I stopped reading that book, but now that I’m finished I’ll go back and complete that adventure!

Oh, one more question do you know where the largest clock in the world is??

Here’s a picture of it! It sits atop the  Abraj-al-Bait hotel in a Saudi Arabia city! But you’ll have to read the book to find out where and how it ties into the storyline!!

 

Exploring Musical Roots: Fresh Cream Vs. Surrealistic Pillow

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So I put Cream’s debut album Fresh Cream and the first Jefferson Airplane album that I bought Crown of Creation. But last night and today I’ve been listening to Fresh Cream and the Airplane’s breakout album Surrealistic Pillow.

Here’s what Wikipedia says about Fresh Cream:

Cream’s debut album, Fresh Cream, was recorded and released in 1966. The album reached #6 in the UK charts and #39 in the United States.[23] It mainly consisted of blues covers, including “Four Until Late”, “Rollin’ and Tumblin'” (an old blues number recorded by Hambone Willie Newbern in 1926, which became a blues standard thanks to versions recorded by Muddy Waters and Elmore James in the early 1950s), “Spoonful” (written by Willie Dixon and recorded by Howlin’ Wolf), “I’m So Glad” (written by Skip James) and “Cat’s Squirrel”. The rest of the album featured songs written (or co-written) by Jack Bruce, most notably “I Feel Free” (which was a UK hit single,[3] but only included on the American edition of the LP), and two by Ginger Baker (one of which, “Toad”, contained one of the earliest examples of a drum solo in rock music). Ginger Baker also collaborated with Jack Bruce’s then-wife Janet Godfrey to write “Sweet Wine”; Godfrey also provided lyrics for the trio’s first original blues composition, her husband’s “Sleepy Time Time.”

My stand out tracks on the album include “I Feel Free”, “I’m So Glad”,  “Spoonful” and “Toad”. While I liked the version of “Spoonful” on this album I think the live version on Wheels of Fire” is the better version, while “Toad” is better at 5 plus minutes rather than 14 on “Wheels of Fire”. I didn’t care for their cover of “Rollin’ and Tumblin’ ‘”

Now Surrealistic Pillow which was  Jefferson Airplane’s break out album and the first to feature Grace Slick. From Wikipedia:

The group’s second LP, Surrealistic Pillow, recorded in Los Angeles with producer Rick Jarrard in only thirteen days at a cost of $8000, launched the Airplane to international fame. Released in February 1967, the LP entered the Billboard 200 album chart on March 25 and remained there for over a year, peaking at #3. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.[9] The name “Surrealistic Pillow” was suggested by the ‘shadow’ producer of the album, Jerry Garcia, when he mentioned that, as a whole, the album sounded “as Surrealistic as a pillow is soft.” Although RCA Victor would not acknowledge Garcia’s considerable contributions to the album with a “Producer” credit, he is listed in the album’s credits as “spiritual advisor.”

In addition to the group’s two best-known tracks, “White Rabbit” and “Somebody to Love”, the album featured “My Best Friend” by former drummer Skip Spence, Balin’s driving “Plastic Fantastic Lover,” and the atmospheric Balin-Kantner ballad “Today”. A reminder of their earlier folk incarnation was Kaukonen’s solo acoustic guitar tour de force, “Embryonic Journey” (his first composition), which referenced contemporary acoustic guitar masters such as John Fahey and helped to establish the popular genre exemplified by acoustic guitarist Leo Kottke.

So with standout tracks like: “Somebody to Love”, “3/5 of a Mile in Ten Seconds”. “White Rabbit”. “Plastic Fantastic Lover”, “Comin’ Back to Me” and “Embryonic Journey”” The winner for me is Surrealistic Pillow.

Here’s one of my favorite tracks from the album “3/5 of a mile in Ten Seconds” Clapton may be “God” but I’ll take Jorma’s guitar work!