"Worst Case”                                                                                        by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge

Review #60

Homicide Detective Michael Bennett and FBI Abduction Specialist Emily Parker reluctantly team up to stop a killer targeting not only the children of New York's wealthiest families--but the entire city of New York. 

Within the first part of the book, the body count escalates rather quickly and sharply thanks to our antagonist. His methods are simple but brutal: abduct the only children of rich families in order to quiz them on statistics dealing with Third World Nations. His "exams" come at a cost though...too many wrong answers, and the victim is dead.

The killer doesn't want money, he only wants his captives to apologize for the pain their families have caused society including polluting the environment and failing to help those in Third World nations whose lives beg for assistance. Running out of time, Bennett must locate the victims before they are killed off, one by one.

Note: Bennett is a widower who has 10 children of many races that he and his wife had adopted prior to her illness and subsequent death. He has household help in the form of an Irish nanny named Mary Catherine who, the reader can see, would like a more personal relationship with Bennett...that is, if Emily doesn't get to him first.

Bennett’s grandfather, the local neighborhood priest helps with the family from time to time. (His grandfather had joined the priesthood after his wife passed and after they had raised their family.)

This is the third in the Detective Bennett series written by Patterson and Ledwidge.

I think you will find this an interesting read!

“Revenge of the Spellmans”                               by Lisa Lutz

Review #59

Those crazy Spellmans return, in all their glory. (See Review #55)
This is the third Spellman adventure in the series.

San Francisco PI, Isabel "Izzy" Spellman…amongst other things…endures court-ordered therapy sessions (for stalking the Spellman’s law-abiding neighbor to prove he is a criminal); helps her elderly lawyer friend, Mort Schilling, accept his upcoming move to Florida; and mourns the loss of her bartending job.


Albert and Olivia Spellman, Izzy's parents, want her to return to work for the family PI firm. Otherwise, they may have to sell it. While Izzy contemplates their offer, she moves into her brother, David's, basement guest apartment (unbeknownst to him) and begins to ponder the suspicious behavior of her straitlaced, type-A, lawyer brother, who has traded his Brooks Brothers suits for a bathrobe and taken to calling in sick to work

Izzy also looks into the life of Linda Black, whose husband, Ernie, is certain she is cheating on him and… Izzy must once again contend with Rae, her troublemaking, Twizzler-chomping teenage sister, who's been relocating Izzy's car to various spots around the city. (Izzy has enough trouble finding her wheels when she parks them herself.)

Once again, I found myself laughing out loud at this family's antics!

“Promises in Death”   by J.D. Robb

Review #58

The year is still 2060 and Lt. Eve Dallas is back with another tough case!
(See Book Reviews #17 and #52)

NYPD Lieutenant Eve Dallas always does her best to solve every one of her cases, but her latest assignment just might be her most difficult yet. Not only was the victim, Amaryllis Coltraine, a cop who was killed with her own weapon, but the case also takes on an added personal dimension because Amaryllis was Chief Medical Examiner Morris' lover, and Morris is one of Eve's best friends.
When the killer sends Eve a package containing Coltraine's badge, weapon, and a taunting note suggesting that she might be next on the list, Eve finds herself trying to untangle a case that may be linked to her own past. Dallas uncovers a connection to Coltraine's ex-boyfriend, Alex Ricker, whose father, a notorious criminal serving several life sentences at the Omega Penal Colony, blames Dallas and her super wealthy husband, Roarke, for his imprisonment.

Humorous touches, like the wild poolside wedding shower Dallas is hosting (and must abruptly leave), provide relief from the intensity of the murder investigation. In a nice paranormal twist, Dallas uses dream visits with Coltraine to help expose a devious killer whose identity is a stunner.

I haven’t read a bad J.D. Robb novel yet. She provides a futuristic view of the world that is believable in today’s. I love this series.

"The Promise of a Lie”   by  Howard Roughan

Review #57

Dr. David Remler is a brilliant psychologist and author. But when beautiful, distraught Samantha Kent comes into his office pleading for help with an abusive marriage, he is blinded by her charms and gets personally involved in her case. When she calls him late at night, saying that she is suicidal after having killed her husband, Remler races to the rescue, only to find an empty house with a dead man in it. The police are unconvinced by Remler's story, and regard him as the prime suspect.

Moreover, the real Samantha Kent is alive, happy, and someone he has never seen. Now, Remler is forced to put his genius to the test in a race against time with a mastermind out to frame him for murder.

The novel is well written, fast-paced and nicely constructed, with a surprise ending!

“Irish Lace”  by Andrew M. Greeley

Review #56 

Main Characters: Nuala Anne McGrail (Irish Immigrant) and Dermot Michael Coyne
This is the second in a series of “Irish” books written by Greeley. The above characters star in all of them.

Nuala (pronounced, "Noola") Anne McGrail is a 20-year-old Irish immigrant, beautiful, psychic, a gifted singer, charmingly fey and now in Chicago. This Chicago is peopled by large Irish-Catholic, Democratic families of overachievers. An exception is hero and narrator Dermot Michael Coyne, who has made an accidental killing on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and retired, at the age of 25, to write. He also moons over Nuala: they love each other but are not about to rush the relationship. 


 As in all of the “Irish” stories, there are two mysteries here, one involving Nuala and Dermot, the other a fictional story based on and in the middle of a real historical event! In this book, the first involves recent robberies in Chicago's upscale art galleries that an ambitious prosecutor links to an I.R.A. conspiracy; the second centers around the major psychic pain Nuala Anne has suffered at the site of a Civil War prison camp (now a modern sub-division of houses). As Dermot unearths the story of the Camp Douglas conspiracy to set Confederate prisoners free, (over a hundred years ago), Greeley uses a long (fictional) letter of real-life Letitia Walsh to tell the story of her Peace Democrat father's trumped-up arrest.

Greeley moves effortlessly between the fictional conspiracies of 1864 and 1995 Chicago, throwing in a few stinging words about racism and xenophobia and delivering a rousing defense of the Bill of Rights.

You will find the heros charming and the book fun to read!

“Curse of the Spellmans”   by Lisa Lutz

Review #55

Licensed P.I. Isabel "Izzy" Spellman has been arrested for the fourth time in two months, and no one from her oddball family of fellow investigators will bail her out. This is the second “Spellman” book and Isabel is having the usual troubles with her kin. Her father seems to be in the midst of another “REAFO” (retirement age freak-out, not to be confused with “MILFO”, the midlife version); her mother has been leaving the house in the wee hours to vandalize some poor soul's motorcycle; and her teenage sister, Rae, ‘accidentally’ runs over her middle-aged “best friend“, SFPD inspector Henry Stone, in the midst of a driving lesson.

Then there's new neighbor, "Subject" (aka John Brown), a new next-door neighbor who Isabel is convinced has an evil secret she must expose, even if it means losing her PI license. (Hence, the arrests!) Adding further hilarity is "The Stone and Spellman Show", transcripts of recordings revealing sister Rae's antics. (Per her mother’s instructions.)

This is a soap-opera and sitcom in book form. I laughed out loud all the way through it!

“The Up and Comer”    by  Howard Roughan

Review #54

The strain of living an excessive, brazen, lavishly upper-tier Manhattan life in an "incredibly self-centered, every-man-for-himself world" takes a disastrous toll on the married 30-something cutthroat attorney, Philip Randall. He shamelessly admits to enjoying an extramarital affair with Jessica, his best friend Connor's girlfriend. He's definitely not a likable guy, especially when spewing smug commentary on just about every aspect of city life, and when socializing with wife Tracy's haughty, very wealthy, Greenwich, Conn., family. But… enter penniless "stoner" Tyler Mills, a prep school buddy of Philip's, who has unexpectedly blown into town, and this time Philip's arsenal of designer labels and street-smart manipulation fails him.

Tyler, flashing his "Manson Family grin", has been busy spying on his school chum's secret rendezvous with Jessica and predictably proceeds to blackmail him. Outraged at his friend's audacity and escalating threats, Philip hatches a double-crossing scheme.

Auxiliary characters, particularly Philip's robust boss, Jack Devine, and Jack's kind, innocuous wife, Sally, add the depth and humanity necessary to counteract Philip's almost robotic duplicity.

Good book...it’s rumored that this book plot is going to become a movie plot!

"Southern Lights”   by Danielle Steel

Review # 53

Meet Alexa, a strikingly beautiful Manhattan assistant district attorney who is in the middle of vigorously prosecuting a serial-killer case and Alexa’s equally beautiful teenage daughter, Savannah, who is preparing to graduate from high school and leave home for college. Alexa is a single parent whose husband, Tom, walked out on her and Savannah when the girl was very young. As the serial-killer case moves forward, Savannah begins to receive anonymous and creepy letters, presumably from the killer. Fearing for Savannah's life, Alexa packs her off to South Carolina to live with her father and his reluctant wife. That's when the adventures really start! As usual, everything is tied up neatly by the end, but it's interesting getting there.

This is a little different from Danielle Steel's normal fare, but her fans will readily embrace it.

"Fantasy In Death”     by J.D. Robb

Review #52

The year is 2060 and Lt. Eve Dallas, a top homicide cop for the New York Police and Security Department, faces one of the most challenging cases of her career.

Bart Minnock, the genius founder of the computer gaming company, U-Play, literally loses his head, apparently while he was role-playing against an imaginary opponent in a prototype of a fantasy adventure that could rock the industry. Security logs show no one entered Minnock's building around the time of his murder, presenting a futuristic variation on the classic locked-room mystery.

Now, Lieutenant Eve Dallas has to come up with a plausible theory as to how someone could bypass the foolproof security in the millionaire's holo-room and decapitate him. The fact that the popular gaming guru doesn't seem to have any enemies isn't making Eve's job any easier. But, the more time Eve spends investigating the case, the more evidence she finds that several people may have had a reason for wanting Bart out of the way.

With a little hands-on training from her husband, Roarke, (who was a potential business rival of the victim), Eve sets out to write a program for catching a clever killer.

I have loved 29 of the books in this series. I love Lt. Eve Dallas and her kazillionaire husband, Roarke and the futuristic possibilities of their time. This is the 30th book J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts’ alter ego) has written in this series and it was a little too much fantasy for me.

 If you have never read any of this series and you like fantasy mysteries, you will love this one. If you are a fan of J.D. Robb and her Dallas character…I think…you will be just a little disappointed.

"Sincerely, Mayla”   by Virginia Smith

Review #51

“Sincerely, Mayla” is a great follow up to “Just As I Am”.  
(See Review #41)

Mayla is back and she has been ‘laid off’ her job! Question time… Why didn’t she go to college right from high school? How is she going to find another job before her severance pay runs out? A friend refers her to a possible position and after an interview in wet, snow soaked clothes (from trying to rescue a pet rabbit off the road), Mayla decides to head to Florida to visit the aunt and grandmother that she has not seen in 13 years (due to her mother's decision to end life support for her father).

In this book you will find a dysfunctional family, a pastor who is the object of Mayla’s affections, a stubborn rabbit, a teenager in trouble, a gay friend with a different point of view on Christianity, and then there's Mayla…right in the middle of everything!

Who else but God can help Mayla deal with life and the various circumstances we often find ourselves in? She's a headstrong Christian with a good heart, bent on straightening out a few things in her life. She's not one to "let things go".

I have always believed the idea illustrated here…our lives touch and influence many other lives as we go on our merry way and, sometimes, we never know just how that will turn out!

Ginny Smith has become another of my favorite authors. I cannot wait to see Mayla in book three…coming out in May!

“A Dream of Wolves”   by Michael C. White

Review #50

Part-time medical examiner and full-time ob-gyn doctor, Stuart Jordan is called early one morning to a murder scene at a cabin nestled in the frigid hills of North Carolina. Doc Jordan is surprised at the composure of the confessed murderer, the deceased's common-law wife, Rosa Littlefoot and...her absorption with her four-month-old baby daughter, Maria. Rosa decides the only person she can trust with her daughter is Dr. Jordan. This results in him making a rash pre-arrest vow. Doc promises Rosa he'll care for her child until the end of the trial and not let the dead man’s family get their hands on her.

Despite his age (50), his full-time practice, his current affair with a married woman, and his estranged wife, Annabel (who has drifted in and out of his life for the past 14 years), Doc feels honor-bound to keep his promise and to deal with all that brings into his life. Maria's entrance into Doc's world also, sends him on a new path, unearthing remembrances of his son and Annabel, who has been unstable since their son's death.

Doc has his hands full juggling work, a wife, a mistress, foster-parenthood plus sleuthing on the side!

This book was recommended to me by my cousin, Mary and...it is a good one!

“Quaker Summer”  by Lisa Samson

Review #49

Heather Curridge feels as though she is not fulfilling God’s purpose for her life. She is a woman who, seemingly, has everything, a mansion on a lake, a loving son, a handsome heart-surgeon husband, yet still feels miserable inside. She doesn’t know what’s wrong with her, but something is wrong and she needs to find out what. When she crashes her truck into a ditch and staggers to a nearby house for help, she meets two elderly sisters, one a Quaker, the other a religions explorer. With her husband’s approval, she decides to stay with the sisters for a while. She stays 3 weeks. With their help along with a number of her friends and a crusty old nun running a downtown homeless shelter, she begins to find her answers. Her journey lasts all summer and into the fall and winter and takes her places she wouldn’t have gone before.

I have included this…From the Publishers Weekly Review because it says it better than I can:

“One of the most powerful voices in Christian fiction, Samson delivers what seems, on the surface, to be just another Christian women's novel, but in reality is a staggering examination of the Christian conscience. Samson's unflinching exploration of childhood bullying, as well as inner-city poverty and drug culture, are rivaled only by her portrayal of the soul-desiccating acquisitiveness in which many Christians engage, often in a misguided attempt to numb both their heartache and their awareness of God's potentially life-upending plans. Unlike many Christian novelists, Samson does not tidily resolve every single problem her heroine faces, but instead paints an emotionally and spiritually luminous portrait of a soul beckoned by God.”

My daughter, Marcy, recommended this book to me. I enjoyed it very much!

“FINGER LICKIN FIFTEEN”                                                 By Janet Evanovich

Review #48

Main Characters:
Stephanie Plum…Bail Bond Enforcer, (bounty hunter).
Lula… friend and file clerk in the Bond office
Morelli…Stephanie’s on again-off again boyfriend
Ranger…owns private Security Company, Bail Bond Enforcer and Stephanie’s temptation.


When Stephanie’s ditzy friend and co-worker, Lula, inadvertently witnesses the beheading of culinary TV star Stanley Chipotle on a Trenton, N.J. street, Stephanie's on-again off-again (presently off) boyfriend, cop Joe Morelli, reluctantly takes the case.

Lula get the bright idea to enter the same barbequing competition Chipotle was in town to promote, hoping to lure the murderers out of hiding. With the help of Stephanie’s Grandma Mazur, Lula creates havoc in the Plum households while trying to come up with a barbeque recipe and dodge the killers’ meat cleaver, bullets, fire bombs and car bombs.

Meanwhile, Ranger has recruited Stephanie to help solve a series of break-ins at properties under the protection of Rangeman Security. The inevitable sparks fly between Stephanie and Ranger, with Morelli grumbling on the sidelines.

The book dishes up the usual mixture of shoot-'em-up action (numerous cars explode) and quirky characters (notably a neighborhood flasher with a devoted following and a fire starting guy), but if it were not for the belly laugh situations and dialog, this book would be just like all the others. If you have never read Evanovich before, you will love this book. If you are a fan, you may be a little disappointed with the same old, same old.

“DARK OF THE MOON”    By John Sandford

Review #47

Headed to rural Bluestem to assist local law enforcement with the seemingly motiveless murder of an elderly couple, Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Virgil Flowers happens upon a raging house fire on the edge of town. The house's owner, Bill Judd, killed in the blaze, was an elderly recluse who, back in the day, ran an elaborate pyramid scheme and simultaneously bedded half the women in town. He escaped conviction on the fraud charge, and the money was never recovered. There have been no murders in Bluestem for a half-century, and now there are five in a couple of weeks. Virgil is not an advocate of coincidence and so, begins digging for a connection between the victims. Complicating matters is his affair with the sister of the local police chief.

Flowers made his debut as a secondary character in Sandford’s Lucas Davenport “Prey” series, (Invisible Prey, Chosen Prey, Wicked Prey, etc.) He is a thrice-divorced, low-key loose cannon whose wardrobe consists of alternative-rock t-shirts carefully chosen to match his agenda of the day and…he reports to Lucas Davenport.

There are scary moments and funny moments. There is a lot of action.

Lucas Davenport has always been one of my favorite characters and Virgil Flowers is
rapidly, becoming another one.

“SAIL”   by James Patterson and Howard Roughan

Review #46

Heart specialist Katherine Dunne knows her career has been hard on her three kids, a situation compounded by the death of Stuart, their father, four years ago. Now happily remarried to hotshot lawyer, Peter Carlyle, Katherine is determined bring her family together again and what better way to do it than with a family sailing adventure.

Carrie, the eldest is a freshman at Yale who suffers from depression and eating disorders. Sixteen-year-old Mark is two years younger than Carrie and has little ambition other then getting high while Ernie, with his smarts and innate wisdom, seems much older than his ten years. Acting as Captain aboard ‘The Family Dunne’ sailboat is the capable Jake Dunne, Stuart’s brother and Katherine’s lover during one particularly lonely summer.

Due to an upcoming trial, Peter is unable to accompany his new family but, encourages Katherine to go through with their plans. Thus, the stage is set for an epic adventure where everything goes drastically wrong and culminates in the family coming together even as they are written off for dead.

When a strange twist of fate reveals the Dunne family is still very much alive, things get ugly in a hurry and it will take help from an unexpected place before justice is finally carried out.

I found this to be an exciting, can’t-put-it-down, book.

I heard a rumor that the idea for this book was James Patterson’s but,
that Howard Roughan wrote it. If this is true, then I can’t wait to read Roughan’s other books. I found 2 at the Library by him ("The Up and Comer" and "The Promise of a Lie") and 2 others with Patterson’s name on them also. ("Honeymoon" and "You Have Been Warned").

"The Wednesday Letters”                            by Jason F. Wright

Review #45

Jack and Laurel Cooper are two hardworking, loving Christian pillars of the community who die (of natural causes) in each other's arms one night in the bed-and-breakfast that they own and operate. The event calls their three grown children home for the funeral, including their youngest son, a fugitive from the law who must face an outstanding warrant for his arrest and confront his one true love, now engaged to another man.

While making arrangements for the funeral, the children discover boxes of "Wednesday letters", notes that Jack wrote to his wife every single week of their 39 years of married life. It’s a history of those 39 years…some not known to their children. As they read, the children brush across the fabric of a devoted marriage that survived a devastating event kept secret all these years.

It's a lovely story: heartening, wholesome, humorous, suspenseful and redemptive. It resonates with the true meaning of family and the life-healing power of forgiveness all wrapped up in a satisfying ending.

I liked this book very much.