Finishing out the year with 100

Made it to the century mark for 2010.

PAINTED LADIES by Robert Parker
Spenser dialogue kills again. Parker’s the best. But Hawk is missing.

****EMMA’S ROOM by Emma Donoghue
Excellent. Fascinating. Different approach to an unusual situation. Mostly related through the eyes of a five-year-boy who has never experienced the world outside the garden shed where he has been imprisoned with his young mother since before his birth.

SANTA FE EDGE by Stuart Woods
This was a little confusing because of all the hopping around the country on private planes with pilots named Bart and Teddy and Todd. Also, all the bad guys got away with a lot of clever stuff and were left unpunished. No main protagonist to root for.

MOONLIGHT MILES by Dennis LeHane (Kindle)
Lehane doesn’t disappoint. Patrick and Angie going on with their lives.

BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE by Aron Ralston
This is the hiker who chopped off his arm.

BROKEN by Karen Slaughter
Will Trent again. A dyslexic FBI agent?

The NAKED LADY WHO STOOD ON HER HEAD
by Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan
A psychiatrist’s stories of his most bizarre cases. Interesting final story on his mentor whose 183 IQ is assaulted by Alz.

SECRET HISTORIAN by Justin Spring (Life and times of Samuel Steward)
Huge book, quite fascinating, very sexual (homo-), but slow read. May buy it.



DEATH ON THE D-LIST by Nancy Grace
Much like her tv show, blah.

THE EDGE by Jeffery Deaver (Kindle)
Board gamer Corte plays deadly mind games with a heavy “lifter”, determined to kidnap and torture a police officer for information.

PRETTY LITTLE THINGS by Jilliane Hoffman
This was more than good. A cyberspace monster trolling for girls on the internet, kidnapping, murder and a FDLE agent with a missing teenage daughter. Solid read.

(95)

I returned a lot of stuff unread or partially read today. Is it me or is it the writers?


FULL DARK, NO STARS by Stephen King
Short stories which I liked in varying degrees. King is a master of observing the human condition.

IN THE DARK by Brian Freeman
Jonathan Stride takes a sentimental, and torturous, journey through his youth and marriage, recreating the 30 year-old murder of his late wife’s sister. Too many suspects, too much pain. Good one.

the last time I saw you by Elizabeth Berg
Berg (who I met many years ago at a reading she did in Albany), author of Talk Before Sleep and other good ones, comes through again in her thoughtful way. Great characterization, reflections on life, at the approach of a 40-year class reunion. I have to be in the mood for Berg, but when I am she doesn’t disappoint.

OUTWITTING TROLLS by William Tapply
Seems fitting that I should end the year with the final book from Tapply, who has been a consistently reliable writer of engaging stories. It is the last Brady Coyne novel and it was a good one as the lawyer addresses the murder of an old friend, but leaving unresolved the conflicts in his love life.