Finished Tu 7/26/16
(July, 2016 selection The Contemporary Book Club)
Set in Dublin, Ireland. Stephen Moran and Antoinette Conway
Part of a series; DUBLIN MURDER SQUAD 5th in the series
p. 28 Four Girls Names "Selena dated Chris Harper"?
Julia- bad reputation Dix Pix
p. 133 Rebecca steals key at nurse's station; This allows the group outside access after hours
Selena- spacy; cut her long blonde hair; like a pixie
p. 141-143 Recap of the girls' interrogation
p.221 The Nun Ghost Story (Various magical aspects of the story didn't make any sense)
p. 227 Chris's sister will be coming to Kilda. I believed Chris's interest in the girls and his concern for his sister. The other characters thought he was just a sleaze; only concerned for himself. I don't know....
Joanne Heffernan had an affair with Chris before Selena
p.349 Julia sexually propositions Chris 'after hours' in The Secret Place
p. 353 WHAT I THINK IS THE NOVEL'S THEME. Friends and mates tie you down to who you are. Limiting...
p. 363 Rebecca at Ronan's (the groundskeeper/drug dealer) shed. Murder implement. Drugs?
QUESTIONS- What's the deal with TELEKINESIS at various times between the four girls? Was there really a ghost?
Interesting structure. The novel circles around tot he beginning. Holly is revealed to be the one who made and posted the card of Chris's picture (I know who did it) and the last sentence in the book is when she is leaving to see Stephen Moran.
At times I thought that the novel bordered on tedious, and I was really expecting for Conway and Moran to interrogate The Boys. A kind of frustrating read, but I liked it more than slightly than I disliked it.
I very much liked how Moran and Conway evolve in their rather antagonistic relationship and realize that they 'click' in their interrogation techniques.
The real website is called 'ScretPost' by Frank Warren
Selena/Julia/Holly/Rebecca(the killer)
I'm not all that sure as to why Rebecca killed Chris.
For the integrity of the group?
A vow of chastity?
At amazon-
https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Place-Novel-Tana-French/dp/0143127519
Author's page at wikipedia-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tana_French
You Tube interview-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbyghyiRQLA
The title refers to the bill board that the girls can post their secrets. I KNOW WHO DID IT.
PostSecret link-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PostSecret
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
Monday, July 18, 2016
SINGULARITY by William Sleator
Finished Su 7/17/16
This is a trade paperback that I found on the shelf and there is no date of purchase. I read about the book and author online and decided to give it a shot. The author is a widely known writer of Young Adult Novels and although this one was not considered his best, it is a favorite. Sleator was gay man born in the US, but lived, at his death, in a small village in Thailand near the Cambodian border. He died of complications due to alcoholism.
Author's page at wikipedia-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sleator
From Amazon-
"Identical twins Barry and Harry Krasner are house-sitting at their great-uncle's Midwest farm. It's peaceful at first, but soon they realize there's something about the farmhouse that makes locals stay far away. The twins are sure that the locked shed out back is their reason why – but what they find there is more shocking than anything they could have imagined".
Notes:
Singularity is a Black Hole. This is when a star collapses upon itself and the gravity becomes so strong that time is slowed or dilated.
Two brothers go to the home of a recently deceased uncle to take care of the home that the family has inherited. Their parents are in California on a trip that they could not cancel. In the backyard of the house is an out-building referred to as a 'play house'. This masks an entry to another galaxy and is the 'singularity'.
Harry/Barry 16 year old twins
Barry- domineering, mean
Harry- reflective, peacemaker
Novel is set in fictional, Sushan, Illinois
Lucy- a young girl, their age, that the meet in Sushan.
Fred- dog, close to Harry, who is killed in the playhouse.
Barry is tired of being a twin and resents the fact that he is not a real individual. Singular? He threatens to enter the playhouse to become older, but Harry is the one who does it.
Time moves incredibly fast in the playhouse. Three minutes in the playhouse- a year has passed in the outside world. But it seems like a year inside the playhouse.
Harry brings books and develops an exercise and meditation regime in the playhouse. He comes out much more mature and physically fit.
There is a monster/robot that is coming thru the portal or black hole. This device is being sent from the other side to destroy the singularity. No explanation is given, but it's probably that the beings on the other side realize that nothing positive can come from this gateway. It destroys the black hole, and then eats itself.
An interesting read, and I'd give the author another shot (if the library carries some of his other works). I checked the catalog, and the library has SINGULARITY only.
It read the entire book in two settings.
Amazon page with customer reviews-
https://www.amazon.com/Singularity-William-Sleator/dp/0140375988
This is a trade paperback that I found on the shelf and there is no date of purchase. I read about the book and author online and decided to give it a shot. The author is a widely known writer of Young Adult Novels and although this one was not considered his best, it is a favorite. Sleator was gay man born in the US, but lived, at his death, in a small village in Thailand near the Cambodian border. He died of complications due to alcoholism.
Author's page at wikipedia-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sleator
From Amazon-
"Identical twins Barry and Harry Krasner are house-sitting at their great-uncle's Midwest farm. It's peaceful at first, but soon they realize there's something about the farmhouse that makes locals stay far away. The twins are sure that the locked shed out back is their reason why – but what they find there is more shocking than anything they could have imagined".
Notes:
Singularity is a Black Hole. This is when a star collapses upon itself and the gravity becomes so strong that time is slowed or dilated.
Two brothers go to the home of a recently deceased uncle to take care of the home that the family has inherited. Their parents are in California on a trip that they could not cancel. In the backyard of the house is an out-building referred to as a 'play house'. This masks an entry to another galaxy and is the 'singularity'.
Harry/Barry 16 year old twins
Barry- domineering, mean
Harry- reflective, peacemaker
Novel is set in fictional, Sushan, Illinois
Lucy- a young girl, their age, that the meet in Sushan.
Fred- dog, close to Harry, who is killed in the playhouse.
Barry is tired of being a twin and resents the fact that he is not a real individual. Singular? He threatens to enter the playhouse to become older, but Harry is the one who does it.
Time moves incredibly fast in the playhouse. Three minutes in the playhouse- a year has passed in the outside world. But it seems like a year inside the playhouse.
Harry brings books and develops an exercise and meditation regime in the playhouse. He comes out much more mature and physically fit.
There is a monster/robot that is coming thru the portal or black hole. This device is being sent from the other side to destroy the singularity. No explanation is given, but it's probably that the beings on the other side realize that nothing positive can come from this gateway. It destroys the black hole, and then eats itself.
An interesting read, and I'd give the author another shot (if the library carries some of his other works). I checked the catalog, and the library has SINGULARITY only.
It read the entire book in two settings.
Amazon page with customer reviews-
https://www.amazon.com/Singularity-William-Sleator/dp/0140375988
Saturday, July 16, 2016
EVERY LAST ONE by Anna Quindlen
Finished Fr 7/15/16
This was a "Free Book" that I picked up on Interlacken Dr. after a run. I got in the car and came back for a bunch of them. We 5/18/16. My double hernia surgery was the next day.
I loved this novel and will get more by Quindlen. I think the book club would like to read some of her stuff.
I still haven't written this up, and I lent it to Janny on Saturday, 7/30.16 when Jamie's family came over to pick up my Raleigh bike (I bought the Marin on Friday).
Page at amazon-
https://www.amazon.com/Every-Last-One-Random-Readers/dp/0812976886
This was a "Free Book" that I picked up on Interlacken Dr. after a run. I got in the car and came back for a bunch of them. We 5/18/16. My double hernia surgery was the next day.
I loved this novel and will get more by Quindlen. I think the book club would like to read some of her stuff.
I still haven't written this up, and I lent it to Janny on Saturday, 7/30.16 when Jamie's family came over to pick up my Raleigh bike (I bought the Marin on Friday).
Page at amazon-
https://www.amazon.com/Every-Last-One-Random-Readers/dp/0812976886
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
SLEEPING BEAUTY by Phillip Margolin
Finished Tu 7/12/16 Just hours after cataract surgery at the Springfield Clinic. Procedure was scheduled for 1015am and I was home and reading by early afternoon. Amazing- book done by 4pm.
From Amazon-
"Seventeen-year-old Ashley Spencer learned what true horror was the night a serial killer invaded her home and brutally murdered her father and her best friend. But the terror did not end there . . ."
"Ashley Spencer and her best friend, Tanya Jones, both high-school soccer superstars, had just gone to bed at Ashley's house after a post-game pizza party. Their rest was disturbed by an intruder, who slaughtered Ashley's father (her mother was out of town) and proceeded to rape Tanya. Then he inexplicably stopped for a snack, giving Ashley an unexpected opportunity to escape. Although she avoided physical assault, the haunting memory of her father's cries, Tanya's sobs, and the clinking of fork on plate as the intruder raided the family refrigerator have left Ashley emotionally numb. A transfer to a prestigious prep school with a good soccer program seems to be helping, freeing Ashley's mother, aspiring novelist Terri, to take a writing class with best-selling author Joshua Maxfield. When Maxfield's novel appears to be based on the Spencer family assault, Ashley and Terri find that their nightmare is not yet over. Margolin knows how to put together a high-concept thriller, piling plot twist upon plot twist and keeping the narrative pounding ever forward, even, on occasion, at the expense of believability. This time he pulls off a genuinely surprising ending, too, making up in part for the torment he heaps upon poor Ashley, who undergoes more trauma than any teenager should be forced to endure, even for the sake of a good story."
This is the story of a serial killer and the writer who is doing a book on this guy. The hook is that the writer is actually the killer.
Red Herrings galore, and a pretty twisty and convoluted plot, but I guess you have gotten pretty much what you paid for with a novel by Margolin.
author's page at wikipedia-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillip_Margolin
From Amazon-
"Seventeen-year-old Ashley Spencer learned what true horror was the night a serial killer invaded her home and brutally murdered her father and her best friend. But the terror did not end there . . ."
"Ashley Spencer and her best friend, Tanya Jones, both high-school soccer superstars, had just gone to bed at Ashley's house after a post-game pizza party. Their rest was disturbed by an intruder, who slaughtered Ashley's father (her mother was out of town) and proceeded to rape Tanya. Then he inexplicably stopped for a snack, giving Ashley an unexpected opportunity to escape. Although she avoided physical assault, the haunting memory of her father's cries, Tanya's sobs, and the clinking of fork on plate as the intruder raided the family refrigerator have left Ashley emotionally numb. A transfer to a prestigious prep school with a good soccer program seems to be helping, freeing Ashley's mother, aspiring novelist Terri, to take a writing class with best-selling author Joshua Maxfield. When Maxfield's novel appears to be based on the Spencer family assault, Ashley and Terri find that their nightmare is not yet over. Margolin knows how to put together a high-concept thriller, piling plot twist upon plot twist and keeping the narrative pounding ever forward, even, on occasion, at the expense of believability. This time he pulls off a genuinely surprising ending, too, making up in part for the torment he heaps upon poor Ashley, who undergoes more trauma than any teenager should be forced to endure, even for the sake of a good story."
This is the story of a serial killer and the writer who is doing a book on this guy. The hook is that the writer is actually the killer.
Red Herrings galore, and a pretty twisty and convoluted plot, but I guess you have gotten pretty much what you paid for with a novel by Margolin.
author's page at wikipedia-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillip_Margolin
TERMINAL 9 by Patricia H. Rushford and Harrison James
Finished Su 7/3/16
I bought this at the library book sale on Fr 6/10/16. I walked downtown in 95 degree heat. I was recovering from a double hernia operation.
Book 3 in a series
Retired railroad worker in a wheelchair is killed at Terminal 9, near where he had a house. The house is crammed with railway memorabilia and the man is also very wealthy.
Set in St. Helens, Oregon; near Portland.
'Mac' McAllister is the lead detective with his partner, Dana Bennett. Mac is attracted to Dana and he is also attracted to the female coroner. This woman has a kid and a kind of 'punkish' edge to her.
After the murder, the house is burnt down to conceal evidence. And, in the wreckage, they find a body which also happens to be a suspect.
Who dunnit?
The husband of his daugher. Many suspects, and this guy was kind of a minor character and the last you would have thought. He was a scientist and they seemed wealthy and no possible motive.
This is a decent Police Procedural, but nothing to really set it out of the pack.
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/r/patricia-h-rushford/terminal-9.htm
Amazon-
https://www.amazon.com/Terminal-McAllister-Files-Patricia-Rushford/dp/1591452120
I bought this at the library book sale on Fr 6/10/16. I walked downtown in 95 degree heat. I was recovering from a double hernia operation.
Book 3 in a series
Retired railroad worker in a wheelchair is killed at Terminal 9, near where he had a house. The house is crammed with railway memorabilia and the man is also very wealthy.
Set in St. Helens, Oregon; near Portland.
'Mac' McAllister is the lead detective with his partner, Dana Bennett. Mac is attracted to Dana and he is also attracted to the female coroner. This woman has a kid and a kind of 'punkish' edge to her.
After the murder, the house is burnt down to conceal evidence. And, in the wreckage, they find a body which also happens to be a suspect.
Who dunnit?
The husband of his daugher. Many suspects, and this guy was kind of a minor character and the last you would have thought. He was a scientist and they seemed wealthy and no possible motive.
This is a decent Police Procedural, but nothing to really set it out of the pack.
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/r/patricia-h-rushford/terminal-9.htm
Amazon-
https://www.amazon.com/Terminal-McAllister-Files-Patricia-Rushford/dp/1591452120
INTENSITY by Dean Koontz
Finished We 6/29/16
I got this at the library book sale on Fr 6/10/16. I walked downtown in 95 degree heat.
This is essentially the story of Edgler Foreman Vess and Chyna Shepherd.
He is a serial killer and she was an invited guest at a home that he happened to target. His MO is to pick a home with a teenage girl, and then torture and kill everyone in sight.
This is one long Cat and Mouse Game, but satisfying nonetheless. Reminded me of GERALD'S GAME by Stephen King to a certain extent.
The novel is set along the northern coast of California and Oregon.
Chyna is visiting a college friend in the wine country of Napa Valley when Edgler attacks. Since she didn't live in the house, he isn't really aware that anyone else is around. He arrived in a large motor home, and Chyna hides herself in the back. There are two dead bodies on board.
She is witness to Edgler's murder of two convenience operators at a deserted gas station. She learns that he has a sixteen year old girl kidnapped at his house. He is waiting until this girl, Ariel, 'gets ripe'.
When Chyna arrives at the compound, he has located and captured her. She is in shackles and the place is surrounded by vicious guard dogs.
The best part of the novel is when she is shackled in the house and uses Ariel to help her escape. Ariel is in a chamber downstairs and has pretty much lost her mind.
Chyna wears one of Edgler's dog training suits to get outside and into the motor home.
As she rammed the motor home through the gate and escapes. She sees a police car and stops for assistance. It's Edgler- he's a cop.......Later, she burns him up.
In the end she escapes, with Ariel and burns Edgler alive. She had picked up a lighter in the convenience store believing that it could be used as a weapon. All the while realizing that it couldn't really be of help.
In the epilogue she has adopted Ariel.
Anne- Chyna's mother
Woltz- her boyfriend
A great Airport or Beach Read. You have gotten what you paid for with Dean Koontz.
I got this at the library book sale on Fr 6/10/16. I walked downtown in 95 degree heat.
This is essentially the story of Edgler Foreman Vess and Chyna Shepherd.
He is a serial killer and she was an invited guest at a home that he happened to target. His MO is to pick a home with a teenage girl, and then torture and kill everyone in sight.
This is one long Cat and Mouse Game, but satisfying nonetheless. Reminded me of GERALD'S GAME by Stephen King to a certain extent.
The novel is set along the northern coast of California and Oregon.
Chyna is visiting a college friend in the wine country of Napa Valley when Edgler attacks. Since she didn't live in the house, he isn't really aware that anyone else is around. He arrived in a large motor home, and Chyna hides herself in the back. There are two dead bodies on board.
She is witness to Edgler's murder of two convenience operators at a deserted gas station. She learns that he has a sixteen year old girl kidnapped at his house. He is waiting until this girl, Ariel, 'gets ripe'.
When Chyna arrives at the compound, he has located and captured her. She is in shackles and the place is surrounded by vicious guard dogs.
The best part of the novel is when she is shackled in the house and uses Ariel to help her escape. Ariel is in a chamber downstairs and has pretty much lost her mind.
Chyna wears one of Edgler's dog training suits to get outside and into the motor home.
As she rammed the motor home through the gate and escapes. She sees a police car and stops for assistance. It's Edgler- he's a cop.......Later, she burns him up.
In the end she escapes, with Ariel and burns Edgler alive. She had picked up a lighter in the convenience store believing that it could be used as a weapon. All the while realizing that it couldn't really be of help.
In the epilogue she has adopted Ariel.
Anne- Chyna's mother
Woltz- her boyfriend
A great Airport or Beach Read. You have gotten what you paid for with Dean Koontz.
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