So Book 18 is Lewis Black’s book Nothing Sacred. Even though it’s a short book it’s taken me a while to get through, mainly because I only read it while I’m waiting for the computer in the back room to either boot up or load a webpage something that may take a long time and I need a laugh, and Lewis Black makes me laugh! Whenever I see him on TV either on The Daily Show or his own Comedy Specials, he makes me laugh. I could hear the same stories over and over and I’ll still laugh. Whether he’s talking about halftime at the Super Bowl with Britney Spears and Aerosmith or a Starbucks across from a Starbucks I’m laughing, And while some of the stories in this book I’ve heard before the book I’m still laughing out load. In very short chapters he tells his life story (which makes it convenient to read while you’re waiting for a computer) from his early years, through college and the start of his stand-up career! So now I have to go find his next book Me of Little Faith because while the computer is working ok now I know it won’t last and I’ll need some good laughs!
So I am currently reading The Bone Thief by Jefferson Bass. This is the fifth book in The Body Farm series and I have enjoyed everyone of them.
Let’s play the if then game. If you like Kathy Reich’s books and the TV show Bones, then you will like the Body Farm Books. The Body Farm is the Forensics Anthropology Center at the University of Tennessee where they study decomposition of the human body. The Body Farm was founded in 1970 by one-half of the writing team Jefferson Bass, Dr. Bill Bass. What others say about the Body Farm and the novels:
“Nearly everything known about the science of human decomposition comes from one place—forensic anthropologist William Bass’ Body Farm.”
— CNN.com
There is a patch of ground in Tennessee dedicated to the science of death, where human remains lie exposed to be studied for their secrets. The real-life scientist who founded the “Body Farm” has broken cold cases and revolutionized forensics . . . and now he spins an astonishing tale inspired by his own experiences.
In the Body Farm books the fictional Bill Bass – Bill Brockton and his graduate assistant Miranda Lovelady have been faced with a variety of cases to solve two of which involved women that Brockton had relationships with! With a great cast of characters which include Brockton and Miranda along with defense attorney Burton “Grease” DeVreiss, Medical Examiner Eddie Garcia, fingerprint guru Art Bohanan and other’s coupled with unmatched forensic detail (who knows more about the body farm’s work than the founder!) this series has become a real favorite of mine!
I just started The Bone Thief and the story opens when Brockton and Miranda are called to exhume a body to get DNA for a paternity test. When they open the coffin they find that both of the arms have been surgically removed and the story sets off from there!!
This is a series that in my opinion should be read from the beginning because each case has added to the development of Dr. Bill Brockton’s character and well they’re just all good reads!! So check them out!
Post Update: Here is the Complete Body Farm Series
So I am currently reading The Bone Thief by Jefferson Bass. This is the fifth book in The Body Farm series and I have enjoyed everyone of them. Let’s play the if then game. If you like Kathy Reich’s books and the TV show Bones, then you will like the Body Farm Books. The Body Farm is the Forensics Anthropology Center at the University of Tennessee where they study decomposition of the human body. The Body Farm was founded in 1970 by one-half of the writing team Jefferson Bass, Dr. Bill Bass. What others say about the Body Farm and the novels:
“Nearly everything known about the science of human decomposition comes from one place—forensic anthropologist William Bass’ Body Farm.”
— CNN.com
There is a patch of ground in Tennessee dedicated to the science of death, where human remains lie exposed to be studied for their secrets. The real-life scientist who founded the “Body Farm” has broken cold cases and revolutionized forensics . . . and now he spins an astonishing tale inspired by his own experiences.
In the Body Farm books the fictional Bill Bass – Bill Brockton and his graduate assistant Miranda Lovelady have been faced with a variety of cases to solve two of which involved women that Brockton had relationships with! With a great cast of characters which include Brockton and Miranda along with defense attorney Burton “Grease” DeVreiss, Medical Examiner Eddie Garcia, fingerprint guru Art Bohanan and other’s coupled with unmatched forensic detail (who knows more about the body farm’s work than the founder!) this series has become a real favorite of mine!
I just started The Bone Thief and the story opens when Brockton and Miranda are called to exhume a body to get DNA for a paternity test. When they open the coffin they find that both of the arms have been surgically removed and the story sets off from there!!
This is a series that in my opinion should be read from the beginning because each case has added to the development of Dr. Bill Brockton’s character and well they’re just all good reads!! So check them out!
Ok so the last book I read Nowhere to Run by C.J.Box was the 10th book in the Joe Pickett series and now book number 17 The Narrows by Michael Connelly also the 10th book in the series featuring Harry Bosch only difference is that I have read all the books in the Pickett series and this is my first Harry Bosch book! I had started The Concrete Blonde book # 3 years ago and for one reason or another couldn’t get into it so I never tried to read another Connelly book (the series is now up to 14). What was I thinking! I enjoyed this book, liked both the writing style and Bosch’s character and will certainly read more, having picked up several last week at the library book sale.
The book starts with Harry Bosch, asked by the widow of his former friend Terry McCaleb to investigate what she feels is the murder of her husband. McCaleb’s heart medicine (he had had a heart transplant -the storyline of the book and movie Blood Work) had been switch with shark cartilage pills leading to a heart attack.
Meanwhile, FBI agent Rachael Walling receives a call that she has dreaded for eight years! Eight years earlier she had been involved in the chase to track done a serial killer known as The Poet, who turned out to be her former mentor at the FBI Robert Backus. The Poet is back and operating in the Las Vegas area. Harry’s investigation into McCaleb’s death quickly puts him on to the trail of The Poet and soon Bosch and Walling must join forces to catch Backus!
Like I said I enjoyed this book and the final pages flew by and I am certainly going to read more Bosch novels. I have a lot of catching up to do!!
My bookshelf at Goodreads.com now holds 796 books – 4 more to 800!! Next up the new Body Farm book by Jefferson Bass The Bone Thief another favorite series featuring Bill Brockton and the Body Farm at the University of Tennessee and while I root for Bill Brockton, this Florida Gator can’t root for the Volunteers!
Ok so the last book I read Nowhere to Run by C.J.Box was the 10th book in the Joe Pickett series and now book number 17 The Narrows by Michael Connelly also the 10th book in the series featuring Harry Bosch only difference is that I have read all the books in the Pickett series and this is my first Harry Bosch book! I had started The Concrete Blonde book # 3 years ago and for one reason or another couldn’t get into it so I never tried to read another Connelly book (the series is now up to 14). What was I thinking! I enjoyed this book, liked both the writing style and Bosch’s character and will certainly read more, having picked up several last week at the library book sale.
The book starts with Harry Bosch, asked by the widow of his former friend Terry McCaleb to investigate what she feels is the murder of her husband. McCaleb’s heart medicine (he had had a heart transplant -the storyline of the book and movie Blood Work) had been switch with shark cartilage pills leading to a heart attack.
Meanwhile, FBI agent Rachael Walling receives a call that she has dreaded for eight years! Eight years earlier she had been involved in the chase to track done a serial killer known as The Poet, who turned out to be her former mentor at the FBI Robert Backus. The Poet is back and operating in the Las Vegas area. Harry’s investigation into McCaleb’s death quickly puts him on to the trail of The Poet and soon Bosch and Walling must join forces to catch Backus!
Like I said I enjoyed this book and the final pages flew by and I am certainly going to read more Bosch novels. I have a lot of catching up to do!!
My bookshelf at Goodreads.com now holds 796 books – 4 more to 800!! Next up the new Body Farm book by Jefferson Bass The Bone Thief another favorite series featuring Bill Brockton and the Body Farm at the University of Tennessee and while I root for Bill Brockton, this Florida Gator can’t root for the Volunteers!
Nowhere to Run is my 16th read of the year and the 10th book in Box’s Joe Pickett series, which keeps getting better and better. This books opens with Joe in his last week of temporary assignment in Baggs Wyoming. The assignment has lasted a year and Joe will be returning to his wife and family soon. But Joe goes into the mountains to investigate some strange happenings, which include camp lootings, tents being slashed, and an elk butchered before the shooters can even collect it! There was also the case of a female Olympic class runner going for a run into the woods and never coming back! On the hunt Joe runs into two twin brothers Caleb and Canish Grimm, who appear to be the men who butchered the Elk! When Joe asks for their fishing license and gives them a citation for hunting without a license their wrath is taken out on himand he barely escapes the mountain alive, but not before he potentially sees the Olympic runner……and the rest of the book revolves around finding out who the Grim Brothers are and was that really the lost runner!
Like all Box’s books the characters are great from Joe to his wife Marybeth, Marybeth’s golddigging mother Missy. the kids Sheridan, Lucy and April to Nate Romanowski and the Brothers Grim! Coupled with the characters is Box’s great descriptive writing about the beauty of the mountains that form the setting of the story!
The pages in this book flew by and overall it was a very enjoyable read! The series can probably be read out of order because the story stands on its’ own but to get the full effect you need to know Joe and his past! So get busy because you have nine books to go to catch up but it will be worth the trip!
So there was no time to start another book during the time I was reading Fear the Worst by Linwood Barclay. Simply because I couldn’t put this book down!
I guess I’ll forgive Mr Barclay for not writing any more Zack Walker books if he keeps writing books as good as this one.
The Story – Fear The Worst
The story starts one day when a divorced father Tim Blake questions his daughter, who is staying with him for the summer about some Versace sunglasses that she has. He questions her because he fears she may have stolen them.
The result of his questioning is that she storms out of the house leaving the receipt on the kitchen table. Well, that night his daughter doesn’t come home and after receiving no phone calls or informationas to where she is! Tim sets out to find her and starts at her job a motel in town.
When he asks about his daughter he is told that his daughter has never worked there! Soon the police locate her car abandoned in a mall parking lot in a neighboring town! The rest of the book revolves around Tim and his ex-wife’s frantic search to find their daughter!
My Thoughts
As usual I love all of the characters in the book. But I particularly Tim, who as a desperate father fighting to find his daughter faces a Herculean task! As I said the book moves along quickly as the tension builds and I was up past my normal bedtime to finish the book!!
Definitely a 4.5 to 5 out of 5 stars and I can’t wait to read his current book Never Look Away
So if you’ve never read a Linwood Barclay book, check him out! As for me I’m number 12 in the que at the library to get the book , so I’m off to Wyoming and the new C.J. Box book Nowhere to Run!
Linwood Barclay continues to be a prolific author, releasing new, critically acclaimed thrillers annually. Known for his high-octane plots and relatable characters, his recent work has solidified his status as a master of contemporary suspense.
Update: There is now a sequel to this book – Linwood Barclay’s No Safe House– new problems for Terry and Cynthia Archer when their daughter becomes involved in a possible murder.Check out my review here
So, four weeks plus later and two books read in between, I finally finished Alex Berenson‘sThe Midnight House.The Midnight House is the fourth book in the John Wells series and I loved the first three. The story lines were good and John Wells was a well developed character who I liked. So I had high expectations when I picked up this book, unfortunately, the book fell short of those expectations. It’s not that the book was bad, it’s just that there really was no hook that brought me into the story and made me want to keep reading.
The novel revolves around interrogation unit 673 that operated in Poland at what they called The Midnight House. After their operation ended, the majority of the soldiers have been killed and John Wells is called in to find out the whys and wherefores. The story goes back and forth in time to tell the story of what happened at the Midnight House and at times that seemed awkward and confusing. The last one hundred or so pages were better than the first two hundred some and overall the ending was satisfying. But the story lacked any personal development in Wells’ character, though some things were touched on. Overall this book rates a 2 out of 5 stars for me. Maybe it would be more enjoyable for first time readers of the series. Those with no expectations. But will I be waiting for the next John Wells book, yes I will, because Berenson may just knock one out of the park next time!
While I am still working my way through The Midnight House I finished book 9 of 2010 Reed Farrel Coleman‘s Redemption Street.
Redemption Street is the second book in Coleman’s Moe Prager series and my first read of this series. Prager is a retired New York City police officer, now running a wine shop with his brother.
The Story
The story opens when a vagrant Arthur Rosen comes into the shop and wants Prager to find his sister Karen, only problem is that his sister died in a fire in the Catskills sixteen years prior, with two other girls and sixteen other guests. Rosen, his sister and the other girls all went to the same high school as Prager, with one of the girls being a major crush of Prager’s. Rosen is convinced his sister is still alive.
Prager brushes him off as a crazy and when he goes to apologize a few days later, Rosen finds him, shortly after he has committed suicide and Prager’s name written in blood on his wall. So Prager sets out to set things right and find out what really happened the night of the fire.
Thoughts About Redemption Street
I really enjoyed Coleman’s writing and Moe Prager’s wise-cracking attitude. Most of the story takes place in the Catskill town of Old Rotterdam and Coleman captures the “”sense of the town” and the last gasps of the Catskills after the demise of the Borscht Belt.
The story line was interesting and the characters all believable. Overall a definite 4 out 0f 5. and I will go back and find Walking the Perfect Square the first book in the series and then catch up with the three books that follow.
Called a hard-boiled poet by NPR’s Maureen Corrigan and the noir poet laureate in the Huffington Post, Reed Farrel Coleman is the New York Times-bestselling author of thirty-one novels—including the Nick Ryan series and six in Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone series—short stories, poetry, and essays.
In addition to his acclaimed series characters, Moe Prager and Gus Murphy, he has written the stand-alone novel Gun Church and collaborated with decorated Irish crime writer Ken Bruen on the novel Tower.
Reed is a four time Edgar Award nominee in three different categories: Best Novel, Best Paperback Original, and Best Short Story. He is a four-time recipient of the Shamus Award for Best PI Novel of the Year. He has also won the Audie, Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Awards.
With their kids moved away to far off Brooklyn, Reed, his wife Rosanne, and their cats live in the wilds of Suffolk County on Long Island. Read More
While this book is my first read of a book by James W. Hall it is the sixth book in the eleven book series featuring Hall’s iconoclast beach bum fisherman Thorn. (Anyone know his full name?). The book centers around the senseless slaughter of eleven dolphins at a Key West park that Thorn and his current girlfriend Monica had visited a few days previous. The slaughter is tied to the experiments in pain alleviation being performed on wounded veterans by an old boyfriend of Thorn’s Bean Wilson Jr. Wilson is also being investigated by the DEA for illegal actions and they have placed an undercover agent Greta Masterson in Wilson’s clinic. As Thorn starts to investigate he becomes a target and the rest of the story revolves around solving the mystery of the slaughter of the dolphins and rescuing Greta!
It was a good read and I enjoyed the character development of many of the characters including Bean Wilson, Pepper Tremaine and Thorn. However, I know that there’s a lot of background on Thorn’s life that was missing, so overall I don’t think I enjoyed the book as much as I would have had I started at the being of the series. So now, I have to go back and learn about Thorn from the first five books before I travel forward to the next five. Like I need another series. So check James W. Hall out but start with Under Cover of Daylight.
