Open your eyes and then open your eyes again.

 I had a hole in my reading history, a big void. I'd read Terry Pratchett when he teamed up with Neil Gaiman with Good Omens but hadn't ventured much into the Pratchett catalog. It's a daunting catalog, to be fair, and I really didn't have any idea where to start. 

As I was listening to Craftlit (currently running The Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc by Mark Twain), Heather, the host, mentioned The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett and even said that, while it's a YA book, it's an excellent place to start. Perfect! And my library had the audiobook! More Perfecter!

The Wee Free Men (narrated by Stephen Briggs) is an EXCELLENT book for young adults and adults. Tiffany Aching is a 9 year old girl who is a bit different from other 9 year old girls. She regularly has to care for her younger brother, Wentworth, and she is very good at doing her chores, including making butter and cheese. Her grandma, Granny Aching, has passed on but Tiffany greatly admired her. Turns out, Tiffany is a lot like Granny Aching. She's a witch. 

Tiffany always aspired to be a witch, but the day that she saw little blue men in kilts and Jenny Greenteeth, a green monster coming up from the water, she realized there is more to the world than she was aware. In order to get rid of Jenny Greenteeth, Tiffany uses her little brother as bait, then smacks Jenny with an iron frying pan. Ingenious and clever, Tiffany is.

At this point, the wee blue men, The Nac Mac Feegles, come out of hiding enough to interact with Tiffany and she meets with up with another witch, Miss Tick who explains some things to her and also just adds to Tiffany's confusion. While Miss Tick leaves to fetch more witches, she leaves her familiar, a toad with somewhat good advice, to help Tiffany navigate her new world.

When Tiffany's brother is kidnapped by the Queen of the Fairies, Tiffany full on enters a new reality with the Nac Mac Feegles by her side. She takes on dreamland (not as nice as it might sound) and the Queen in a quest to save her brother (even though she doesn't really like him THAT much).

This novel is technically first in the Tiffany Aching series and 30th in the entire Discworld series. It really is a perfect introduction to Pratchett and the worlds he created. Tiffany is such a smart and brave girl, you often forget she's only 9. When everyone around her is scared to move forward, she marches ahead with her frying pan, ready to face down whatever crosses her path. She really doesn't tolerate patronizing adults and is able to think her way out of sticky situations.

The Nac Mac Feegles are always ready to fight, drink, and steal for any cause and stay by Tiffany through her quest. They are hilarious and Stephen Briggs' narration with their Scottish accents is superb.

There are 5 novels in Tiffany's series and I'm thoroughly excited to tackle them all!

This fellow recorded the entire book - click the link to the first chapter and to see the whole playlist

Old..Professional..Killer

 The New York Times has a stellar book review section. It's frankly one of my favorite sections of the paper to read. Usually they have a dedicated page of mystery/thriller reviews that pique my interest. Flush with a tax refund, I ended up ordering several of those books one day. At around 210 pages, Quarry's Blood by Max Allan Collins was a perfect quick read.

It's the latest in the Quarry series and, while I think I would have benefited from starting at the beginning, there wasn't much that wasn't explained from past books. Quarry is a former Vietnam vet/sniper turned professional contract killer turned old dude who wants to be left alone. He's in his 70s now and living out his life managing a little lodge resort in Minnesota. It's mainly set in current (COVID) times but we do get a flashback to the 80s to further set the plot in motion.

Ever the hyper alert former killer, even with bad knees, he's prepared when he gets an unexpected visitor to his cabin. Susan Breedlove is a youngish (to 70+ Quarry, at least) author who has written a book about him and his exploits in the past. Now she wants to do a sequel and wants his help. But wait, how does she find him?? Turns out his pasttime was writing "heavily fictionalized" books about his killings. WTF, man. That's not living in obscurity!

He sends Susan away and tries to get back to his life.

But wait! Someone is trying to kill him! 

That escalated quickly.

Despite the bad knees and prior heart surgery, Quarry is pretty badass still at staying alive. He teams up with Susan to figure out who has a grudge against him (um....everyone?) and ends up traveling around to meet people, maybe kill them, and get his questions answered. There's a lot of corpses. 

A lot of corpses. A lot of sex and strip clubs and sleazy hangouts and shady dudes. Just want you want in a hard boiled crime novel.

I'm off to read the back catalog. 

Son of a ...

 I read Wicked by Gregory Maguire back in 2007. I know I liked it but don't remember more than the basic plot (ignoring the musical - although it's awesome, it's not the book). Somewhere along the way I picked up the second book in the Wicked Years series called Son of a Witch and it lingered in my stacks.

I finally picked it up after reading so many heavy books, expecting a light hearted take on Elphaba's son. That is not what I got.

Liir is just a kid when Dorothy did in Elphaba. He hid with Nanny and the Lion while the deed was done. Afterwards, Dorothy was matter of factly ready to get back to Oz to prove she killed the Wicked Witch, but Liir now had no one. So he went with the crew, back to the Emerald City. Again, as in Wicked, Dorothy is not painted in a good light here and honestly, she shouldn't be. Liir doesn't know if Elphaba was his mom or who his dad is, but he's hoping to find something in Oz. He has no choice. He no longer has a family.

We get this back story on Liir only because his body was found by travelers, nearly every bone broken and on the verge of death, who take him to some sisters (Maunts) who would take him in and try to repair him. His bones are set but he remains in a coma. That is, until Candle, an orphan dropped at the Mauntery by her uncle, sits with Liir and plays her Domingon, music that is causing all of Liir's memories to surface.

While this is happening, we have maunts and travelers who are turning up dead with their faces scraped off (see? not a light hearted read). We have the Wizard gone from Emerald City and Glinda in his place, until she is replace by a straw man government. We also have an Elephant Princess who made Liir promise to help her return to her Animal form with Elphaba's magic that surely he must also possess. 

Everything is a mystery... until it's not. There are so many plot threads to keep up with, but in the end, most makes sense. I enjoyed this book but I had trouble with Liir's moping until about page 200, when he finally became himself. I didn't like most of his decisions but seeing how he was raised and how he had to try and grow up along (Thanks, DOROTHY), he really did the best he could.

Interestingly, the book ends with another green child. The granddaughter of Elphaba.

Fun comparison of the Wizard of Oz movie and Wicked

Temperance Broke My Slump

 I put the new Anthony Doerr book on hold at my local library and wandered in anyways to browse the new book section. The library set up a contactless way to pick up books that I completely bypassed to go in and fondle books. I've really missed browsing the stacks, let me tell you.

I've been in a slump for everything, really. But especially book reading and writing up reviews. I blame 2021 for feeling like 5 years in one. But I was pretty excited to see a new Kathy Reichs book on the shelf and grabbed it. The Bone Code is the 20th book in the Temperance Brennan series (The TV show Bones is based on this book, and weirdly referenced in the book as a show that Brennan watches). I finished this within a day. Yowza. Slump broken?

Brennan is doing her thing, her forensic anthropologist thing, when a hurricane starts hitting the East coast. After getting through the storm with Birdie, Brennan is contacted by a Charleston coroner because bodies in a box washed up on shore. This happens, sadly, but Brennan heads out to take a look. As she is doing her exam, she realizes the details are nearly identical to a case she dealt with in Quebec fifteen years prior. She heads back to Canada to do more investigating.

Andrew Ryan, her former work partner turned boyfriend, is there to greet her and help with the investigation of the cold case. The case turns hairy pretty quickly when it becomes obvious that Brennan is upsetting folks who want their secrets to stay secret. This was a fast-paced book to a pretty satisfying resolution. 

For the science nerds among us, this is heavy in the science of DNA and vaccines, which is pretty timely, eh? I could see this being fodder for anti-vaxxers but I don't believe they read much so we should be good. If you can keep up with the science and all the acronyms involved, you'll learn a thing or two about how vaccines can be altered to really alter your DNA. 

Interview with the Author

A Distant Grave

 Last year, I got an early copy of Sarah Stewart Taylor's The Mountains Wild and enjoyed it, but it felt, at first, like an uphill trudge then got so good I read til wee hours of the night. I got an email that Taylor had a new book coming out this week and would I like a copy to read? Why yes, yes I would.

I downloaded A Distant Grave, Maggie D'Arcy #2, and went on essentially the same rollercoaster. I'm wondering if this is the style of the author since this is only the second book of hers I've read. I'm definitely not arguing with the style (maybe the wee hours in the night thing should stop. I'm getting old.)

Maggie is back in Long Island, investigating a homicide of a man shot to death on a beach. We find his name is Gabriel Treacy and he's from Ireland. Which, coincidentally is the same place  Maggie and her daughter Lilly are heading to for vacation. In the first book, Maggie reunites with Conor and, in this book, they are a full on, very long distance couple. Conor doesn't seem thrilled with Maggie's career choice and is concerned this murder might make her miss her vacation. Maggie mixes vacation with work and, while in Dublin, continues investigating Treacy's past.

Treacy's past is a doozy, to be honest. The investigation is nicely intermixed with stories from Gabriel himself about what happened to him when he was kidnapped as an aid worker in Afghanistan. When another murder happens in Ireland that appears related to Treacy's murder, things get a bit twisted up. The American murder throws in some twist with the murder weapon that confuses matters but eventually Maggie puts all the pieces together, while everything around her is really falling apart. She's a pretty stellar detective and honestly, I hope she ignores that boyfriend of hers enough to keep going on her path. 

There were just a few pieces that confused me but it's possible I skipped something in the first book. The DA Jay Cooney was incredibly hostile to Maggie in this book and I had a hard time figuring out why. Even with the reveals at the end, his hostility was, hmmm, extreme. Otherwise, this is a really good book, and most likely will be a good series. I really enjoy the America and Ireland connections and the fact that Maggie works well in both.

My Literary Boo

 I will never give up on Harry Dresden. He's been my wizardy, literary boo since day one. Battle Ground is the newest novel by Jim Butcher and it's a damn doozy. It follows Peace Talks fairly quickly in publication and thank god, because where we ended on Peace Talks was not a place to end!

Spoilers be ahead, you've been warned. Although I will keep them to a minimum.

We are prepping for battle against the Last Titan, Ethniu, since she has declared war on Chicago in Peace Talks. But first...Harry battles a kraken. That's within the first few pages, as Harry and Murphy come back from Demonreach where he left Thomas, safe and sound and unreachable. There's no foreplay in Battle Ground. We're immediately in the fight.

Everyone gathers at Marcone's castle to come up with their battle plan. The good guys, even the somewhat good guys, are ready to die for Chicago, and sadly, a lot of them do. General Toot-Toot and his gang are pivotal in helping Harry and River Shoulders is more of a force to be reckoned with, despite his broken spectacles he insists on wearing. Vampires from the Black Court, including Drakul, take advantage of the chaos and end up taking down members of the White Council (RIP). Giants (Jotnar) come out of the water and nearly destroy the city and the entire Chicago skyline. Huntsman are wreaking havoc in the residental areas, eating people. Huntsman might be the most terrifying creature in here. And still they fight.

Butters, Murphy, Sanya, even the detective Bradley are in deep. But not everyone makes it to The Bean where the showdown with Ethniu will be. This part was heart wrenching. You've been warned.

The Bean apparently is a storehouse for weapons (someone in Chicago need to check this out) and Mab is making her stand here. Dresden arrives with ordinary people, an army of civilians willing to fight and die for their city. 

People fight, they die, some live, and some turn out to be much more than you ever thought possible. I bought the actual hardback for this because I knew I'd need to hug it when I was done. And I did. 

I can't wait to see where we go from here. EVERYTHING has changed.

Do other books have trailers???

Has It Really Been Six Years?

Seems like yesterday that I read Skin Game by Jim Butcher (because it kind of was). Six years since Skin Game, we finally have Peace Talks! I got this as an audiobook and, while it took me some time to get my head back in Dresden's world, it took off at such a speed and twist that I ended up doing marathon listening sessions. I'm so glad Dresden is back. He is my literary boo.

I actually finished this mid-September and can't really say why it's taken a month to write a review. It was a long, long wait for Peace Talks and perhaps I was just savoring it. Or life just got chaotic. Either way, here we are. Harry Dresden is a wizard in Chicago. He's had 15 books prior to Peace Talks of just trying to be a wizard detective but then getting all twisted up in the evils of the Underworld. He's a good guy, just ends up in the wrong place at times. 

If you are new to Dresden, here's your backlist to catch up on. Battle Ground, book #17, came out Sept 29, 2020, so get ready!

Dresden is not just a Warden of the White Council, he's also The Winter Knight. Conflicting careers that make everyone around him doubt his morals. His half-brother is a Vampire, his granddad is one of the most powerful wizards on the Council. Harry has taken on raising (very loosely) his daughter, Maggie, with help from the Carpenters, one of which is a retired Knight of the Cross who has protection from angels. There are a lot of people in play in Peace Talks, but in the end, I think we come down to Dresden's family. Since he's an orphan, Dresden chose the people in his family and it's amazingly comforting to see how well they have his back, regardless of his conflicting obligations.

Thomas does something so weirdly unlike him that I still can't quite figure out why (hoping that makes more sense in Battle Ground). He gets in desperate trouble that puts his life on the line and Harry, knowing Thomas as well as he does, tries to get him out of it. This forces Harry to work in tandem with Thomas' half-sister Lara Raith, an even more powerful vampire and head of the White Court. He's also required by Queen Mab, the Winter Knight's boss, to perform whatever favors Lara desires as payback for another favor. Harry is in a terrible position. I say that a lot throughout the book.

Ebenezar McCoy, Harry's granddad, is a bit of an ass in this one. He's 100% against vampires and has no knowledge that Thomas is his grandson. Instead he chooses to constantly lecture Harry on how stupid he's being with his choices. McCoy even attempts to kill Harry, but there's a LOT of action leading up to that (or is there?).

So, if you think everything written above is the plot of this book, you are wrong. This turns out to just be the subplot, or a minor, plot. After the big...twist? reveal? Oh shit moment? you actually start forgetting everything that happened prior and your only concern at this point is what's next. 

Ethniu, the Last Titaness, crashes the party. And threatens to destroy Chicago and anyone who tries to stop her.

We leave Peace Talks on a cliffhanger. Dresden and company look to be in a no win situation, but it's Dresden, right? 

Dresdenverse (spoilers be here, be warned)

Harry Dresden series (just 1 season but still good!)

Trailer for Peace Talks (since when do books have trailers??)

There's Definite Improvement

 I cleaned out a bookcase on my staycation (which felt horribly like a regular workday - just without work) and found a book from Lee Child called Die Trying. Based on the bookplate inside the front cover, I've had this particular book in my possession for over 20 years. I wasn't really into Jack Reacher back then, I most likely just thought it sounded good.

Well, now that I read quite a bit of Reacher (all out of order, you know me. Wouldn't do a series any other way), I plucked this from a donation pile and read it. I can definitely say that Child has improved the Reacher character over time.

Die Trying is book number TWO in the series and it didn't feel very Reacher-y to me. But Reacher is fresh out of the military and starting his jaunt around the country. He's not.... broken in yet.  But he still has the knack for being in the wrong place at the right time.  

Reacher is just strolling through Chicago when a woman leaves a dry cleaners. She has a full load of clothes and is using a cane which causes her to trip and Reacher to jump in and assist. Being fully the gentleman, Reacher offers to carry the clothes to wherever she's going while she limps along beside him.

And then they are abducted.

From here, we get to know the woman is Holly, an FBI agent who has very close ties with higher ups in the government. Reacher is just a fortunate mistake for the kidnappers. They are taken to a compound of people who feel the government is doing them wrong and want to create their own 'Murica. (Gosh, how familiar does this sound in 2020?) Since Holly is so connected, they are using her as bait. For whatever reason, the apparently brilliant leader of the group keeps NOT killing Reacher despite knowing he's a threat. If someone like Reacher entered my compound, and kept nosing around, I'd want him gone. But... I'm not a brilliant leader of rogue 'Mericans.

Die Trying had a lot of action and was, for the most part, a satisfactory Reacher book. I think Reacher gets more stoic as the books progress so definitely read this if you want emotion from the man.

It's a whole new game

Funny enough, I read Jim Butcher's Skin Game almost exactly 6 years ago (previous review here). I've been waiting OH SO PATIENTLY for #16 in the Dresden Files series and it's here!!! Since it's been six years, I wanted to re-read Skin Game to bring back all the memories.

Oh yes. Harry Dresden is my literary crush. And being thrown back into his world was just what this jacked-up dumpster fire of 2020 needed. You can read my old review for the plot. 

This go around I listened to the audiobook because James Marsters is the narrator.

Spike!

He's an excellent narrator and makes a great Dresden. I love this damn series. Onward to Peace Talks.

BTW, did you know The Dresden Files was a show as well? I found it on Amazon Prime and started re-watching. Makes me just as happy :) Most definitely not the books, but worth watching.

The Dresden Files show

Jim Butcher at Comic Con 2020

I didn't expect THAT

I picked up Make Me by Lee Child from my stacks prior to heading to a doctor appointment because I was thisclose to finishing another book. I could either grab a new book to start or take two books to the appointment because I refuse to sit and wait without something to entertain me!

This is #20 in the Jack Reacher series, which I constantly read out of order. It's ok to do that with these books, really. Reacher starts out making a spur of the moment decision then gets all entangled in some seriously bizarre shit. I'm super glad I'm not Reacher. I'd hate to think, "This is an interesting town, I'll get off here" and then end up in....whatever the hell this was.  Side note: Mother's Rest IS an interesting town but geez oh pete, I was not prepared for that kind of interesting.

Reacher wants to know the history behind the name Mother's Rest, a spit of a town in the middle of nowhere. He gets off the train and is immediately accosted by Michelle Chang, a hot (of course) former FBI agent, who is in Mother's Rest looking for her partner, Keever. Keever has went missing and she's hoping he just went home for a bit and was coming back. Keever called her for backup then just disappeared. We know exactly what happened to Keever from the first page, but Chang has no idea.

Reacher is apparently bored so he agrees to stay and help Change figure out the mystery of the town. There's a group of townspeople who are keeping tabs on Reacher and Chang, including the one-eyed motel manager. They are harassed and finally, literally, ran out of town. But not before Reacher kicks dudes in the balls and the head repeatedly, because that's really what he does best, right? His body count isn't as high in this book as the last I read, but he did kill one man twice.

They engage with a science reporter, Ashley Westwood, whom Keever wanted to contact, but was not able to (seeing as how he was dead). Westwood wants the book rights if there is a story so he comes along for the ride in LA back to Mother's Rest.

Once they get with Westwood's contact about the Deep Web, things get dark, very dark. We find out what is happening in Mother's Rest but it's not enough to explain what they have already encountered. Back to Mother's Rest we go. I was trying to come up with all sorts of scenarios they would run into and I was so incredibly wrong on all of them.

I'm going to assume I'm just not a dark enough person to imagine these things and that's why the twist was a real twist that surprised me. So....good job, Child! *shudder*

Link: Child really doesn't like Reacher and is happy to hand the series over to his brother to take on

Brennan is the best.

I felt like I missed something when I read this. I scrolled back through the Temperance Brennan books and didn't seem to have missed anything. But we start off with Brennan's boss being murdered and Brennan having a brain aneurysm as well as being blackballed from her job by her boss' replacement. Did I miss where all this happened?

Either way, Brennan plunges ahead on a case of a faceless corpse that is found, without being in official capacity to do so. I worried about Brennan, she seemed a bit unhinged and paranoid in this book. But it turns out she had a right to be.

Something is very off about the faceless corpse, as well as the new head honcho's description of the case. Skinny Slidell, as well as others, don't have a lot of respect for the new coroner so they help Brennan out.

The key word in the title is Conspiracy. We went deep into conspiracy theories, the dark web, podcasts spewing garbage (much like what we have today) and Brennan went DEEP.  The rabbit holes are far reaching and you'll enjoy them more discovering them on your own.

Once In A....

Here's another review I swore I wrote, but, in reality, I just discussed it with a friend. Am I losing it? Probably. I both need to interact with people and do not want to be around people. What strange times.

I quite like Jack Reacher, even if his circumstances are a bit unbelievable. In book #24, Reacher sees an old man, with an envelope full of money, fall asleep on a bus. He also spies a rapscallion who is eyeing the envelope. When the old man gets off at his stop, so does the rapscallion. And so does Reacher.

Reacher thwarts a robbery and, in his insistence on helping the old man home, is now eyebrows deep in gangsters and mafia goings on. How does he do this?

The old man is actually using the money to pay back a loan shark, and, for some reason, Reacher decides to act as the old man to get more info. We get the back story on why this old couple hits up mafia loan sharks in the first place (it feels slightly incredulous) and it must hit Reacher's sympathy bone, because he stays on to help them out.

A waitress comes along for the ride in taking down all of the mafia. Again...what?

If you disregard the credibility of such a story and you choose to go on the ride without thinking, this is an excellent book with an abnormal amount of violence, even for Reacher.

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 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

Will There Be A 27?

The Stephanie Plum series is one I've come to rely on for it's consistency. You always know what you are going to get with Stephanie so it's a cozy, comfort series.

Until now.

Just kidding. It's still the series you love but, did you notice something different?? As I was reading, I kept noticing changes from the norm. And I liked them!

Grandma Mazur decides to get re-married. Most unfortunately, her new husband, local gangster Jimmy Rosolli, drops dead 45 minutes into the marriage.  Grandma is both upset and soaking in the attention of being Jimmy's widow. Jimmy was the Keeper of the Keys. No one has any idea what that means, but his fellow gangsters really want them back. They're targeting Grandma since they are sure she has them.

Stephanie does everything in her power to keep Grandma safe while trying to figure out where the keys are and keeping up with her job as a bounty hunter.

When Stephanie starts really bringing in her bounties (alive and without a lot of mishap) with Lula, I raised an eyebrow. Is Stephanie getting good at her job? When Grandma starts handing out, dare I say, profound advice, I raised an eyebrow. Is Grandma mellowing?

I really appreciated this book and the last line and page of the book make me curious where it's going...

I was smiling too. "Fortune and glory, Grandma. Fortune and glory. Let's go find a treasure."

Does this mean the next book will not have a number title? Are we going off in a different direction?? We get a hint of a new character coming in 27 here.

I can't wait to find out!

Jack Reacher isn't short

I keep picking up Lee Child books at every book sale I run across. He has so many books out, I figured it will be some time before I end up with a duplicate Jack Reacher book. So far, that's held true. Gone Tomorrow is the 13th Reacher book and, while I am clearly reading out of order, it doesn't seem like it matters. Each book is a stand alone that catches you up with what you need to know.

Child describes Reacher constantly and I have a picture of him in my head. It's vague, sure, but Reacher is a giant. He can't hide, he can't be "Everyman" invisible. Yet, Tom Cruise plays him in movies. Cruise is my height. I'm not intimidating and I blend into a crowd. C'mon.

(Rumor has it Reacher is getting a Netflix show? And will be played by a new actor? I hope so!)

This story has Reacher in NYC, on a subway, eyeballing his fellow passengers. He walks us through a list of 11 points of a suicide bomber. The lady on the train tracks on nearly all of those points. Ruh Roh, Reacher. In a move I don't quite understand except as a plot moving device, Reacher confronts the woman who then blows her brains out with a gun that was hidden in her bag.

This could seem to end all right here. But wait, there's more.

Cops come in and take Reacher to the precinct for questioning. The lead detective claims, possibly jokingly, that Reacher pushed the suicide lady to the edge. Feds come in with more questions. Reacher is released and...wait, there's more. Guns for hire have MORE questions. Now we know, this lady wasn't just a run of the mill lady, she was somebody and lots of people want to know what she gave Reacher before she killed herself.

Enter in a gorgeous Ukrainian and her old mother. But wait...you get the picture.

This one just piled WTH on top of WTH until I was slightly confused on who was who and who I needed to care about. People dropped like flies in this book, mostly thanks to Reacher.

The final showdown was quite excellent.

But wait.....

Just kidding :)

I'm leaving this here because Lee Child AND Stephen King

Look Alive Twenty-Five by Janet Evanovich

I'm surprised I got this book from the library when I did. I was 186th in line for the audiobook! Thankfully, the hardback line was much shorter. I enjoyed this one and whipped through it pretty quick, but it felt different to me and it took me a moment to realize why.

For one, Grandma Mazur is barely in here. When she appeared, she was funny, but I'm hoping her lack of antics in 25 isn't an indicator of things to come. Grandma is pretty damn funny.

The second, it didn't feel as chaotic as a regular Plum book. I realized it was because Stephanie was always...ALWAYS...with Ranger, Morelli, or one of Ranger's men. ALWAYS. The crack team of Plum and Lula didn't have much opportunity to get into their normal trouble. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the dudes and the sexual tension. But they stepped in and helped too much.

Vinnie has to take over a deli, that was used as collateral for a bond. Harry the Hammer, Vinnie's father-in-law, makes Stephanie the manager and Lula associate. The big problem? Neither has ever managed anything before. Gamely, they arrive to open the store only to hear that managers end up kidnapped, leaving only one shoe behind, by the dumpster. Rangeman services step in with round the clock bodyguarding until Hal, one squeamish at the sight of blood bodyguard, ends up kidnapped himself.

Trenton's finest (Morelli) and Ranger protect Stephanie while using her as bait. We have a lot of bizarre things in this book, and many literal LOL moments, but most of the heavy lifting is from the dudes surrounding Stephanie.

I hope Twenty-six finds a happy medium between twenty-four and twenty-five.

The Whispering Room by Dean Koontz

I know I started on book 2, because that was the only one available from the library. Normally, books in a series recap the book before so, even if it's not a stand-alone book, it can still be read like one.

Not here.

I was lost.

We just JUMPED right into Jane Hawk's adventures. Her terrifying, horrifying adventures. I learned enough to understand that people, rich people and the government, want to mind control everyone and shape how the direction the world moves. That's terrifying and just a smidge to on the nose lately. Jane's husband (apparently from the first book), killed himself but only because the nanobots in his brain told him to. The puppet masters didn't want him around.

Cora, a schoolteacher for special needs kids, is another one of the victims of the puppet masters. How in the world she could destroy the future is beyond me, but they decided she needed to go. She killed herself in a fiery explosion that took out many other innocent lives.

Jane's goal is to get to the puppet master himself and make him confess his crimes so she will be believed and not on the FBI's most wanted list. As a fugitive, former FBI, she does a great job stealthily going across the US in search of her answers. She's more prepared for anything than I would ever be!

Luther Tillman, the sheriff in the small town were Cora lived and died, believes something is very wrong. His own sleuthing leads him to Iron Furnace, Kentucky. Jane's already on her way there as well. They end up allies and continue on, saving children and running to safety.

In the end, this book didn't wrap up. It left a lot of questions for us and for Jane. Nothing ended like she had hoped.

For the most part, I enjoyed this, especially Jane. She is going to be a great new lead to get on board with. I did end up skimming quite a bit because the writing was very, very descriptive. I loved the Odd Thomas books but skimmed the descriptions there as well. The inside of a building really doesn't need 4 pages of descriptions.

The Midnight Line by Lee Child

I just randomly pull Reacher's out when I can get them. I'm not these need to be read in order, so if the library has one, I get it. I still cannot get over the description of Reacher (Bigfoot, Incredible Hulk) and correlate that to Tom Cruise (Reacher in the movies).  How did that even happen?

The Midnight Line had a weird premise. Reacher finds a West Point class ring in a pawn shop. He wants to find it's owner. That's how the story starts and that's what prompts Reacher on this crazy-ass trip across the Midwest. The pawn shop owner is the first stop for intel, obviously, which leads to Jimmy Rat and his hoodlums which leads to Scorpio and his "laundromat" that is clearly a front for something else.

Which leads to the middle of Wyoming, Mule Crossing, to be exact. 

Reacher teams up with a PI, hunting for the sister of his client, and the sister herself. It turns out that the missing sister belongs to the West Point ring.

What we end up in the middle of is a drug ring. It's interesting and a bit terrifying, if this is our future in the opiod epidemic, but a good ride, nonetheless.

I don't feel that Reacher's heart was in this one as much as the other novels I've read. The ring seemed like a weak premise to start this adventure and it seemed to be the only thing Reacher thought of. People died? Ok, gotta return the ring. Hot woman next to you? Ok, gotta return the ring. Someone ate by a bear? Ok, gotta return the ring.

It was good but....slightly off.

Spider Bones by Kathy Reichs

This is 13th in the Temperance Brennan series (Bones TV show was based on this series). I say this with every Brennan book and I'll say it again: this series is 1000 times better than the show. I liked the show at first but then, I didn't.

You might know that Brennan is a forensic anthropologist and spends her time between Montreal and North Carolina, doing whatever work is needed for any case that needs her. She's called to a body that was found wrapped in plastic and weighted down with a rock tied around the ankle, sunk in a pond. At first, it seems like murder. Until, the body is unwrapped and it's discovered that it was autoerotic activity. The fact that the male victim was dressed like a naughty nurse was a good first clue.

The victim was ID'd by fingerprints as John 'Spider' Lowery....

who died in Vietnam in 1968.

So who is buried in Lowery's grave in America? Brennan exhumes the body and, at the insistence of Lowery's father, accompanies the body to Hawaii for identification.

Things get very screwy with at least 4 bodies appearing without ID and bodies showing up and getting incorrectly ID'd. Detective Ryan comes to Hawaii (and continues hitting on Brennan) to help investigate when the plastic-wrapped body's DNA did not match Lowery's mother's DNA.  Something is seriously a miss.

I figured it out half a page before Brennan realized the whole picture and that was near the end of the book. It was one curvy, weird ride and I liked it!