Missing You – Harlan Coben

Missing You – Harlan Coben – Journeys into the Past are necessary and often painful!

 

When NYPD Detective Kat Donovan sends her ex-fiancée Jeff Raynes “Their Video” on the dating site  You are just my type.com and his response is “It’s Cute”, Kat doesn’t understand his response.  Eighteen years earlier, before he dumped her and left town, their love was real and magical. Sure his dating site biography says he is a widower, but should his response be that lame? Well, he just wants to move on thinks Kat and so does Kat.  She has more important things to do too, her father’s murderer is dying and she needs to visit one more time before he dies.  When she does the hit man who killed her father, once again proclaims his innocence.

Soon the son of a woman who has gone from her Connecticut home visits Kat in hopes that she will help him find his mother. Why thinks Kat- because the man she ran away with is none other than Jeff Raynes!  So begins Kat’s quest in Harlan Coben‘s latest  Missing You!. Maybe I should say quests because Kat needs to know what happened on the night of her father’s murder, along with what happened to Dana Phelps, the missing Connecticut woman and Brandon’s mother along with the reason that Jeff ran out on her with no explanation.  None of the quests are free from potential pain to those involved!!

So once again Harlan Coben builds  great story around a simple action i.e. a friend signs you up for an on-line dating service and the first time you go in you find an old love. How will he or she react?  Is it better to leave the past behind??? This time throws a potential danger in getting carried away by an on-line dating service!! The book is Harlan Coben at his best. It is one of the few books that I couldn’t put down this year!! When I found the book in the library I had a few days previously checked out two other books. I thought no I’ll just wait and read it later. Then I thought, no it’s Harlan Coben, it will go fast and it will be great! I was right on both counts.

This is the 19th book I’ve read in 2014.  if I can finish to more before the end of the month I’ll be averaging 3 books a month. That will be a great recovery considering the way that the year started!! It is also the 19th Harlan Coben book that is one my Goodreads bookshelf. And they all are good reads!!!

 

 

 

Patrick Lee – Runner – Sam Dryden #1 – I’m ready for Book #2 – Now Patrick!

RunnerSam Dryden has retired after being an Army Ranger, a Delta, and spending five years doing off-the-book black ops with an elite team.t In Runner ,(Book 18 of 2014) the first book of the Dryden series by Patrick Lee, he has to use all his skill and cunning to keep young Rachael Grant alive.  Sam literally runs into Rachael when insomnia forces him out for a middle of the night run, and well, Rachael is on the run too only in Rachael’s case she has a passel of  military men after her using a lot of high-tech gadgetry, with one aim take her out! When Rachael runs into Sam, she hopes that he will save her  and Sam having lost his wife and child an accident five years earlier wants to do just that.

Together they set out to evade the killers and rediscover Rachael’s past, see she can only remember the last two months! Oh Rachael also has a skill that makes her very dangerous to these men and the hidden men in charge!

While Sam and Rachael are on the run, the reader is also introduced to Owen and “the gravel man” who talks to Owen, well actually he sometimes tells Owen what to do, not to his face but in OWEN’S mind, and well if it isn’t something Owen wants to do “the gravel man” gets him to do it by turning up the pain on Owen!! How does this tie into Rachael??

As the story unfolds, the questions continue to mount, who is Rachael and what are the extents of her abilities, and why do these guys want to kill her??? It’s a fast, and furious ride and one that no one knows, how it’s going to end! But along the way the reader surmises,  it’s not going to end well for everyone!!

Patrick LeeI enjoy that writing of Patrick Lee, his other work is the Travis Chase trilogy, that includes The Breach, Ghost Country and Deep Sky all of which are exceptionally good! That series has a little more science fiction in it, well actually a lot more science fiction, but in main characters in both books Travis Chase and Sam Dryden are heroes that you can root for!! So Check Out Runner as well as Lee’s other books! Here’s a few of the things that others say about Lee’s writing……

“Patrick Lee is a huge talent and Runner is his best book yet—breathless, involving, smart, and completely convincing.”
—Lee Child

“Pure adrenaline rush! Finally, an action-packed novel brimming with complex characters as well as genuine heart. Not to be missed.”
—Lisa Gardner, NYTimes bestselling author of Touch and Go and Catch Me

“I’m going to sue Patrick Lee for giving me whiplash: that’s how furiously paced this book is. A terrific cast of characters, unrelenting action—strap in and enjoy the ride.”
—Jesse Kellerman, author of Sunstroke and Trouble

Links

Patrick Lee Fiction
Goodreads
Facebook
Amazon

James Rollins – Grant Blackwood – The Kill Switch – a Tucker Wayne and Kane thriller!!

The Kill Switch by James Rollins & Grant Blackwood

I’ve been a James Rollins fan ever since I picked up Map of Bones (Sigma #2) back in 2005. Since then, I’ve read every Sigma Force novel (except the very first) along with three of his early stand-alones — and every one of them has been a winner.

What keeps me hooked? The science… no, the action… no, the political twists… honestly, it’s the whole package!

As the Associated Press once put it:

“The science reads like the best of Michael Crichton.
The machinations of government read like the best of David Baldacci.
And the action and thrills read like the best of Clive Cussler. Rollins takes the best of all of these and creates an amazing thriller unlike any other.”


A New Series Begins

Rollins’ novel The Kill Switch — co-written with Grant Blackwood — has all those familiar ingredients, plus something fresh: two new heroes, one man and one canine.

Meet Tucker Wayne, a former U.S. Army Ranger, and Kane, his loyal Belgian shepherd. When Sigma Force director Painter Crowe calls on them for what seems like a simple mission — extracting a defector out of Russia — things quickly spiral out of control.

The defector is Abram Bukolov, often called the “Steve Jobs of Russia’s pharmaceutical industry.” And the Russians don’t intend to let him go without a fight. Soon Tucker and Kane are hunted by Russia’s military, its intelligence services, and a deadly sniper named Felice Nilsson.


The Plot Thickens

So why is Bukolov really on the run? His research centers on LUCA — the Last Universal Common Ancestor of all life on Earth. In the right hands, LUCA could transform medicine and agriculture. In the wrong hands, it could unravel the planet’s ecosystem.

The trail leads to the mountains of Namibia, where botanist Paulos de Klerck may have discovered evidence of this elusive ancestor. Tucker’s mission quickly expands: find LUCA before Russian General Kharzin does.

But there’s another danger — a traitor inside Tucker’s team, feeding intel back to the Russians. With Felice Nilsson close on their heels, Tucker and Kane must fight, track, and survive to protect Bukolov and keep LUCA from falling into the wrong hands.


Final Thoughts

With The Kill Switch, Rollins has given us two new characters you can really root for. Tucker Wayne and Kane are a dynamic duo who bring grit, loyalty, and heart to the chaos. Their journey takes you from a simple rendezvous in Vladivostok, through the rugged landscapes of South Africa and Namibia, and finally to a pulse-pounding showdown on the shores of Lake Michigan.

It’s a great ride — action, science, politics, betrayal — all in true Rollins style.

I, for one, can’t wait for their next adventure. Until then, I’ll be diving into Rollins’ latest Sigma Force novel, The 6th Extinction.

Tell No Lies – Gregg Hurwitz – “Simply Brilliant”? – It’s True!

STell No Lieso in keeping with the thought that one should write short I will give you my review of Gregg Hurwitz’s book Tell No Lies using the words of Anne Rice……“Simply Brilliant!

So check it out of the library, buy it on Kindle, now you can by it in paperback just get you hands on it and see if you like me yell at Daniel Brasher  – “Don’t do it – Wait for the police!! But you see Daniel is the kind of guy that will not do that – he has to go for it, never, is he half in, never does he sit back and rest, he needs to be out there doing. He could just be sitting back and living the life of luxury like his filthy rich mother, but no he gave that life up and became a counselor to violent criminals, a position that he is about to leave to move into private practice.

Until a letter appears accidentally appears  in his work mailbox, threatening the lives of two people, telling them if they don’t “admit what they have done they will bleed for it” After Daniel reads that the first victim has been brutally slain, and the clock is winding down to the deadline for the second victim, who lives only blocks away from Daniel’ to admit what she has done, Daniel takes off to save her life! And you the reader know – this is not going to end well! True to form it doesn’t and soon……  there are more threats, including one directed at Daniel. So many questions, so little time…… could it really be one of his patients??  how are these seemingly random victims  related?  what are they to admit to, and does it all connect to Daniel?? All questions Daniel has to answer before his time is up!!

So now that I’ve used too many words to tell you about the book, I may as well give you the whole Anne Rice quote….

“Simply brilliant. Tell No Lies is infinitely more than a thriller, yet thrilling to the last page. Psychologically rich and often beautiful…A true page turner in which every phrase, every character, every little incident counts. Stylish, elegant, and absolutely riveting! An unforgettable read.” –Anne Rice, author of THE WOLVES OF MIDWINTER and INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE.

Yep, it is that good, it was one of those books that I didn’t want to put down. The characters are great, the plot is terrific and the book works on several levels. The themes that the book addresses are real! I don’t really want to say what they are because they deal with the whole storyline!

I read my first Gregg Hurwitz book in 2004 The Kill Clause the first Tim Rackley book. I read the second Rackley book The Program and then three of Gregg’s stand-alones. It seems I read one about every three years. It also seems that has to change!! (Memo to self – get on the stick – take that Trust No One off of your to be read shelf, and get reading!!) So go grab a Hurwitz novel and get cracking and if you don’t like regular novels try Graphic Novels, he writes those to including Batman:The Dark Knight. Bye, I’m off to Trust No One…..

Book 15 of 2014

2014 Reads – How to Write Short has an impact on reading Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone!

Winter's BoneLast night with music from the Hank Mobley Quintet playing in the background, I finished Daniel Woodrell’s great novel Winter’s Bone. While the book is not classified as a mystery, the plot of the novel centers around a big one. Where’s Jessup?  Jessup is the meth cooking father of the book’s central character, 16 year-old, Ree Dolly. Ree has a big problem, if her Pa doesn’t appear for a court date, Ree and her two brother’s, and Ma could lose their family home,  which Jessup posted as collateral to make his bail. So Ree sets out, braving the bitter Ozark winter, searching the hills for her father. But many of the tight-lipped inter-related folks, who live in the hills, live on the wrong side of the law, and would rather fight than give up their secrets. But Ree needs to push on, for her home and the ones who are in her care,  but will she be able to live with the answer??

Now I could go on and on about the wonderfully  drawn-out characters in the book, from Uncle Teardrop to Ree’s Mom, and the various themes, but I want to focus on another aspect of the book and that is Woodrell’s prose.

I started reading Winter’s Bone (Book 12 of 2014)the day after I had finished Roy Peter Clark’s book How to Write Short: Writing ShortWord Craft for Fast Times.(Book 11) Clark’s book focuses on the need to write short in today’s fast paced world, of Twitter, Facebook and the rest of social media. The book is filled with examples of short writing including; tattoos, advertising slogans, epitaphs and Tweets! The first Chapter is Collect Short Writing, which I had no problem doing while reading Winter’s Bone. Throughout the book, I marveled at how Woodrell packed so much punch, in so few words! My awe started with the book’s opening sentence….

Ree Dolly stood at the break of dawn on her cold front steps and smelled the coming flurries and saw meat.

So what did that sentence tell me. First, it’s morning, it’s cold, it’s going to snow and I’m somewhere meat hangs on trees, “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas any more!!

Several of the examples of writing short that I noticed opened chapters….

She became ice as she walked.

The needed skill was silence.

Hillsides knit with ice came apart.

Then there were longer sentences that just blew me away….

A picnic of woods fell from Gail’s mouth to be gathered around and savored slowly

Ree waited kneeling for several minutes, kneeling as raised hopes fell to modest hopes,slight hopes, vague hopes, kneeling until any hope at all withered to none at all between her pressing hands.

I guess the question is would I have noticed these short gems, had not just read How to Write Short. probably not, so thank you Mr Clark!!

Summarizing, great book, full of unforgettable characters, and fine writing, read it!!  If you do read, it be on the lookout for those powerful short sentences

Book 4 of 2014 – Plainsong – Kent Haruf

PlainsongAt the beginning of his novel Plainsong author Kent Haruf provides a definition of Plainsong

the unisonous vocal music used in Christian church from the earliest times; any simple and unadorned melody or air

And that is just what Haruf’s 2000 novel Plainsong (and Book 4 of 2014) is the simple unadorned story song of a period of time in the lives of seven main characters living in the fictional town of Holt, Colorado. These characters are: the Guthrie’s, schoolteacher Tom Guthrie and his two boys, Ike Bobby who are nine and ten years old respectively, the pregnant seventeen year-old Victoria Roubideaux,Raymond and Harold McPheron, and Maggie Jones.

The story chronicles a time in their lives from the fall in the year the Victoria discovers that she is pregnant to the spring when the baby is due. During those months these characters and their lives intertwine in ways as they face problems and situations like one would find in any small town in America. Tom and his boys are dealing with a wife and mother who is so despondent that she spends her days in her room and eventually leaves their family. Victoria, after she discovers that she is pregnant is thrown out of her house by her mother. The McPherons are two elderly farmers who have spent their entire lives, alone together on their farm 17 miles away from town. Maggie Jones is a school teacher at the same school as Tom, is dealing with a father slowly sinking into dementia. Victoria after being thrown out by her mother turns to Maggie, Maggie takes her in,but things don’t work out because of her father she turns to the McPherons, who in turn take Victoria in. One of the treats of the book for me was the development of the relationship between the McPherons and Victoria,from the early days when they explained futures and pork bellies to her, to the buying of her crib and to their worry when she leaves.

Once again this is a book that I am reading as part of my attempts to read more deeply and get more out of a book than just a good story. As such I’ve read several of the available book club study questions, which I again struggled with, however, I did look at some study guides which spoke about the themes of the book. Two of them stood out to me one was the loss of innocence, which certainly applied to Ike and Bobby, Victoria and also the McPhesons, who were innocents when it came to having a woman around particularly one who was seventeen and pregnant! The other was family which I think is certainly a strong theme in the book! At Barnes and Noble’s website I found this quote in a piece about Kent Haruf!

In a 2000 interview about Plainsong. “What I want to suggest at the end [of the book] is that at this point, at least this day and this point in their lives, all these people have found a place in a small community — it may even be an extended family — in which they can connect with other people and find solace and communion.”

So I have to wrap this up now and get to work at Target. If you’ve read the book and would like to add a comment, please do, and if not give it a read while I move on to Eventide!

A Tap on the Window – Linwood Barclay

 Several years ago, well to be a little more accurate back in 2007 I read Linwood Barclay’s first Zack Walker novel Bad Move  That book came to mind when I read the first line of Book 34 for 2013 Barclay’s latest thriller A Tap on the Window 

The Story

A middle-aged guy would have to be a total fool to pick up a teenage girl standing outside a bar with her thumb sticking out. Not that bright on her part, either, when you think about it But right now, we’re talking about my stupidity, not hers.

The narrator is Cal Weaver, a private investigator who lives in Griffon, New York. Weaver makes the decision to pick up the girl, who identifies herself only as Claire, only after she recognizes Weaver and says Cal’s son Scott was a friend of hers

. See Scott killed himself by jumping off of the roof of a furniture store in town, after taking a hit of X. The first thought going through Cal’s head is that Claire may be able to provide him some information that will help his quest, which is to discover who supplied the X to his son only two months earlier.

Soon Cal’s words ring true as he is drawn into a plan hatched by Claire and her best friend Hanna that leaves both girls missing and Cal’s life a mess!

Not that his life hadn’t been a mess before that. After Scott’s suicide Cal and his wife Donna’s marriage has been on the rocks as Cal can’t give up his quest to find out answers surrounding Scott’s death, and Donna deals with the loss by spending her time trying to draw the perfect portrait of Scott, Claire turns out to be Claire Sanders the mayor’s daughter.

The mayor is in a battle over the use of excessive force that seems to  be prevalent on the force.Oh by the way, Cal’s brother-in-law Augie, is the police chief!!

My Thoughts

Like all of Barclay’s books the pages turned fast on this one, as I tried along with Cal, to figure out first where Hanna and Claire were, who they were pulling their scam on, and what does any of this have to do with Scott’s death??

Overall, the plot of the book twisted and turned and the final resolution of the various interwoven storylines was not what I expected.

The book was a little darker than Barclay’s other books, and lacked some of the humor, that I thought was coming based on the first few lines of the book!


Linwood Barclay

About Linwood Barclay

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.


If you like standalone Mystery/Thrillers…….

Here are three Authors whose books might enjoy:

Charlie Donlea
Charlie Donlea
Riley Sager
Riley Sager
  • Charlie Donlea — tightly plotted thrillers often built around cold cases, missing persons, and strong female leads, with twists that keep coming
  • Michael Koryta / Scott Carson — blends crime, suspense, and sometimes the supernatural, with a darker tone and strong atmosphere
  • Riley Sager — modern psychological thrillers with big twists, often centered on isolated settings and unreliable pasts

Book 33 for 2013 – James Rollins – The Eye of God!

The Eye of GodWith all the music listening and writing this week, I totally forgot to write about Book No. 33 of 2013, James Rollins The Eye of God. I have been a fan of Rollins’ Sigma Force novels since I read my first Map of Bones in 2005, and have enjoyed Rollins blending of science, history and of course a lot of action into 9 terrific reads!! It’s interesting as I write this that characters that first appeared in Map of Bones play a central part in this latest novel.

Like Harlan Coban’s Six Years this book is also a quest well actually it is several quests rolled into one action packed story. The most important quest is to find the satellite IoG2 which was studying dark energy surrounding a comet that is approaching the earth. While IOG2 (Eye of God) was preparing to perform and experiment evolving the transfer of dark energy back to its sister satellite IOG the satellite became unsteady and crashed to earth before its crashed pictures of the earth were transfer to the command center where Jada Shaw an astrophysicist  whose theories of dark energy were being proven correct and Director of Sigma Force Painter Crowe were watching. The pictures showed a destroyed eastern coast of the US and more amazingly they were dated four days in the future!! So began Sigma Force’s quest was first to find the satellite whose final resting place was somewhere in Mongolia and then find out what the hell was going to happen and can it be stopped!!

Meanwhile in Italy those characters that previously appeared in Map of Bones Rachael Verona and her Uncle Vigor a priest were about top embark on their quest, which also involved saving the world, but involved another priest Father Josip a priest that Vigor thought was long dead. Josip sends Vigor a skull and the Book of Thomas bound in human skin. The message hidden in these artifacts was clean to Vigor and it pointed to the end of the Earth in FOUR DAYS. So they set off to find Father Josip and a quest which also involves Ghengis Kjan and Attila the Hun!! Mongolian, eh??

And finally former assassin Seichan now in a quasi-relationship with Sigma Force Commander Gray Pierce is on a quest to find Seichan’s long-lost mother. It is a quest that has taken them to the underworld of Macau, China. Only when the trio Seichan, Gray and Kowalski meet an informer who is going to tell Seichan about her mother turns out to be someone who wants to capture and sell Seichan (a large bounty is on her head due to her past) All hell busts loose and Seichan ends up in North Korea and Gray’s quest becomes her rescue!!

Ultimately, as you may have guessed all the quest come together and become a race to save the world from the destruction that was witnessed. The final resolution ties all the threads up in a whirlwind of action.

As always the characters are vividly drawn and while some characters are absent like Monk’s wife Kat and Lisa Painter’s love interest there are new members introduced including the aforementioned Jada Shaw and Duncan Wren who has magnets in his fingers that pick up minuscule oscillations and vibrate in the presence of an electromagnetic field!! and maybe in the presence of dark energy!!

So if you are like me and enjoy books that teach you stuff …. like Attila’s murder, and Genghis Khan’s mother’s birthplace and the quest for Genghis’ tomb, and blends that with cutting edge science and plenty of action, you’ll love The Eye of God… is it a little hard to follow and have a little too much happening maybe, is the action a little over the top with too many bodies, maybe. But the bottom line is that when you turn the last page… you learned something and had a great time doing it!!!

Here’s a cool trailer about the book! And if you’re already a fan of Rollins you can listen to an interview here

Will Trent Collides with Grant Co in Unseen – by Karin Slaughter (Will Trent #7)

Will Trent in Unseen by Karin Slaughter

September was a slow reading month (I listened to more music than mysteries. However, I’ve still been reading and yesterday finally finished Book 30 for the year Karin Slaughter’s latest Will Trent book Unseen.

Unseen is the seventh book in the Will Trent series couple that with the six books in the Grant County series and that makes a total of thirteen great books by Karin Slaughter!!

 

The Story

In  Unseen the  Grant County series and the Will Trent series continue their collision course, as Sara Litton and Lena Adams, come face to face for the first time since the surprising conclusion to the final book in the Grant County series. Beyond Reach.

The story opens with a deadly attack on Lena and her husband Jared in their Macon Georgia home. . Lena takes out two of the assailants and is stopped short of taking out a third by Wiil Trent a Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) agent working undercover in Macon. Jared is Sara’s stepson so she quickly heads to Macon at the request of Nell  Jared’s mother. Soon the lives of Sara, Will and Lena are entwining and creating havoc in all their lives!  The action careens through flashbacks from present events to a failed drug bust that Lena had headed!!

Final Thoughts

As always the story functions on two levels first on the events that occurred prior to and after the drug bust and the attack on Lena and Jared,and on the second level how the events affect the lives of Sara, Will and Lena. The case nearly destroy Will and Sara’s relationship, and forces both Lena and Sara to relive a period of their lives, that they would both rather forget!

Now the question is whether you can read this novel without having read any of Slaughter’s other works. Yes, you can but I don’t think you’ll enjoy it as much as you would if you had read Beyond Reach, So if you are new to Karin’s work do yourself a favor and read that one first. But at a minimum read at least one, then you’ll only have twelve more to go!!


About Karin Slaughter

Karin Slaughter (born January 6, 1971) is an American crime writer. She has written 25 novels, which have sold more than 40 million copies and have been published in 120 countries. Her first novel, Blindsighted (2001), was published in 27 language and made the Crime Writers’ Association’s Dagger Award shortlist for “Best Thriller Debut” of 2001. Wikipedia

 

Tess Gerritsen – The Silent Girl

 

The Silent Girl

Note to Self: DO NOT PUT OFF READING TESS GERRITSEN BOOKS! Which is what I did with her book The Silent Girl, which sat on my bookshelf for a long time before it became Book 28 of 2013!

The Beginnings

I started reading Tess Gerritsen books back in 2003 with The Surgeon, which I absolutely loved!  I quickly went out and read two of her early medical thrillers and then The Apprentice (Rizzoli and Isles #2) another winner,

Since then I’ve read all the Rizzoli & Isles books. Why I put off reading The Silent Girl I can’t say, because once I started I became totally absorbed in the book and rarely put it down until I was finished.

The Story

This mystery involves Boston’s Chinatown, A severed hand is found in an alley, the body it was formerly attached to is found on the roof of the building next to the alley. The hand was attached to a red-haired woman dressed in black, her head nearly severed from her body.  Two strands of silver hair – not human – are found on her body. The murder pulls her into a mystery appears to revolve around a murder-suicide that occurred nineteen years earlier in a Chinatown restaurant. A cook in the restaurant inexplicably lost it murdering four patrons and a waiter at the restaurant James Fang, James’ wife Iris is a mysterious martial arts instructor who believes that the cook was innocent and now she may be the bait to draw the real killer out! Was that woman found on the roof of Iris; studio an assassin sent to kill Iris?? Jane and Maura set out to discover how all the pieces fit together and what really happened during the night of the murders. Along the way, they are aided by a new Detective Johnny Tam and confront the mysterious Monkey King of Chinese folklore!


My Thoughts

As always the characters are well-developed and believable  and the plot has lots of twists and turns that keep the pages turning. Side stories include an appearance by Julian “Rat” Jenkins  a teenager who had helped save Maura six months previously in the Wyoming mountains. “Rat” has come to spend the week with Maura and a new development in the relationship between Jane’s mom and Jane’s retired partner Vince Korsak! But the most intriguing character in the book may be martial arts teacher Iris Fang!

So check it out and I’ll leave you with these words from The Hartford Book Examiner:

The Silent Girl represents an author at the pinnacle of her storytelling abilities. Gerritsen’s plot is complex and flawlessly executed, with elements of fable ambitiously interlaced throughout. further, she explores her beloved characters in intriguing and meaningful ways. Combined with her trademark knowledge of forensics and razor-sharp dialogue, the result is a page-turner that delivers on style and substance.

Where is Tess’ latest – Last to Die: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel released in paperback in June!!


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