The Big 3-0!

Not me, silly. I'm about hjkashsk years past that.

John Sandford's new Lucas Davenport book is out and it's the 30th in the series. How is this even possible? I mean, Davenport has aged, sure, but he's still one of the best characters out there. I will admit, I was worried since the last few books that the Davenport we knew and loved was gone and a new, post-gunshot Davenport was here to stay.

Masked Prey brings back Davenport. Where the law is the law, until it isn't.

I can't imagine where Sandford picked up his neo-Nazi, white supremacist plot line (plucked straight from the headlines of 2019?) but it was something we're familiar with, unfortunately, now in this new realm.  Someone has created a 1919 website showing photos of senator's children with neo-Nazi articles. The implication? Go out and kill the kids.

Lucas is brought in by Henderson and Smalls to work with Jane Chase of the FBI to get this figured out before any kids get killed. Once again, Davenport's thought process, his leaps of intuition, brings us to a unlikely culprit that causes a angry, white man to get up his guns and start hunting kids.

At first, I thought the ending was anti-climatic and wasn't very happy. But the thrill is in the chase, and the chase took us on some crazy-ass roads that led us to a showdown. Was Lucas outside the law? Yeah. But I can't fault him.

You can't go wrong with John Sandford's novels. I consider him a GD National Treasure!

Video interview with John Sandford

Sometimes I wish I played video games

Not really. Video games of any kind have never really snagged my interest, for the same reason TV and movies haven't either. I prefer reading. When faced with downtime (prior to COVID-19, that was rare. Now, I have so much down time....), I would always grab a book, newspaper, or magazine and sit down and read.

Five Nights at Freddy's The Silver Eyes by Scott Cawthorn and Kira Breed-Wrisley has made me vow to never play video games. I got this book from a friend and it really kept my attention but also really made me remember how much I hated the Showbiz Pizza animatronic band (really, any giant person-in-an-animal-suit ~ looking at you Chuck E. Cheese). Those creeped me out so much and this book is full of them. Except, in this case, they are killers too.

6 minutes of creepy

A group of kids return to Hurricane, UT to attend a memorial for one of their classmates, Michael. Michael was snatched and presumed killed when the kids were 7 years old and, 10 years later, Michael's parents are setting up an award in his name. Charlie, whose father owned the pizzeria where Michael disappeared, is struggling more so than the others. Her father killed himself (in a rather weird way) and her visit to their old house brings back memories that she had forgotten.

As Charlie starts remembering her past, well, things get stranger than you thought they could.

Charlie and her group of friends go searching for Freddy Fazbear's Pizza for kicks but in up getting much more than some shits and giggles. This book goes all out creepy and somewhat gory, but seems suitable for hardier kids. I might be overstating it because I have no idea what the video game is like, but if you like creep and jump scares, you'll like this. All in all, we do not have many murders so the gore-level is low while the creep factor is high.

*shudder*

Sometimes I need help

I finished reading the second book in the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson. Sometimes, I really wish there was an easy graphic to help explain who the characters are. I feel that fantasy and sci-fi have such creative names that I tend to get lost on who is who.

It didn't help that I had read the first book so long ago.

Either way, I still like this series! I felt this was a bit draggy. We knew early on the Elend (now King Ruler) and his kingdom were about to be attacked and taken over and, while there was action to be had, it took awhile to resolve that issue. "Issue" she says, like having your city invaded is just an issue.

Vin is still the mighty assassin, out to protect Elend, king AND lover. But we enter Zane. Another Mistborn who is trying to convince Vin that Elend is using her and Mistborns should be free to....kill at will? I admit, this part was confusing.

A spy has infiltrated the inner sanctum and everyone is suspecting everyone. Or, not. Because everyone but Vin seems highly unconcerned about this. Honestly, I think it was one plot point too many to keep track of for the characters. They were worried about defending their city!

Elend's own father is one of the leaders at his door trying to steal everything. As much as Elend tries to reason with him, it's not to be.  Towards the end is where the action ramps up, with literally everything happening and dissolving and truths becoming known. It was hard to keep up with but I quite enjoyed it!

I am hoping to grab the next one before I forget everything I just read.


This will be cool as SHIT if they make this happen!

Mistborn movie