" Hostage"  by Robert Crais

2011 Book Review # 50


Jeff Talley is a burned-out former LAPD SWAT team hostage negotiator trying unsuccessfully to hide from his demons in the tiny community of Bristo Camino. When three toughs rob a convenience store, kill the owner, and take refuge in the home of an accountant, Talley quickly finds himself in the middle of a double hostage situation. 

The toughs are threatening to kill Smith and his children, but what they don't know is that the accountant works for the Mob and happens to have in his possession what amounts to an annual report on Mob activity. 

The Mob bosses kidnap Talley's wife and daughter and make it clear to him that they will kill his loved ones if he doesn't get his hands on the damning computer discs before the cops do. Talley finds himself in the unenviable position of helping to free Smith while executing a clandestine plan to save his own family. 

My Thoughts:  I found this book to be complicated but, interesting!  Crais is becoming a favorite author.

“True Grit”  by Charles Portis

2011 Book Review #49

REMEMBER THE MOVIE WITH JOHN WAYNE, GLEN CAMPBELL AND KIM DARBY?

Summary:

True Grit is Portis’ most famous novel-- first published in 1968, and the basis for the movie of the same name starring John Wayne and now the film by the Coen brothers starring Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon. 

It tells the story of  Mattie Ross, who is just fourteen years of age when a coward going by the name of Tom Chaney shoots her father down in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robs him of his life, his horse, and $150 in cash money.

Mattie leaves home to avenge her father's blood. With the one-eyed Rooster Cogburn, the meanest available U.S. Marshal, by her side, Mattie pursues the homicide into Indian Territory.  True Grit is eccentric, cool, straight, and unflinching, like Mattie herself.

My Thoughts:  I remember the movie and really enjoyed reading the book that started it!

An added enjoyment relates to the fact that I lived for 5 years in Ft. Smith, Ark and still have family there! 

“44 Charles Street”  by Danielle Steel

 

2011 Book Review #48

Book List Review

When Francesca Thayer and her husband, Todd, divorce, he wants to sell their art gallery as well as their charming house at 44 Charles St., and split the proceeds. Francesca can't bear to part with either. She talks her artist father into becoming a partner in the gallery, but that still leaves the problem of how to keep her home.

Against the advice of her mother, Francesca decides to share her house with three other people. She chooses carefully: Eileen Flanders, a young, fresh-faced teacher; Chris Harley, a divorced father with shared custody of his little boy, Ian; and Marya Davis, a newly widowed, famous chef who doesn't want to live alone.

It looks as though Francesca's problems are solved. However, Eileen isn't as innocent as she seems, and the men she meets on the Internet and brings home range from incredibly rude to physically abusive, shattering the peace of the new family.

This book is classic Steel lots of emotion, friendship, romance, heartbreak, tragedy, and danger. Her countless fans are guaranteed to find it impossible to put down.

My Thoughts:  This is the first Danielle Steel book I have read in years.  Most of them are romance novels I read when I was much younger.  However, this is a mystery and she is just as good a writer as I remember!  Loved it!

“If Wishes Were Horses”  

          by  Robert Barclay

2011 Book Review #47

  Library Journal Review

Wyatt Blaine is still grieving the death of his wife and son in a DWI accident on his birthday five years ago. Even so, he decides to reinstate on his family's Florida ranch a therapeutic riding program for troubled teens that had been a beloved project of his late wife.

Gabby Powers, the widow of the driver of the other car, would love to see her 15-year-old son included. With great reluctance and a nudge from his own irascible father, Wyatt accepts the teen, who definitely doesn't want to be there.

Gabby and Wyatt are attracted to each other but are afraid to act on those feelings. Family loyalty and love, self-forgiveness, learning to love again after loss, and the benefits of equine therapy both physical and emotional are themes developed in this faith-tinged tale.

With detail on horses and their use in rehabilitation services, consultant Barclay's first novel is ultimately a feel-good story. The couple eventually find love but without engaging in graphic sex; still, the frequent use of off color language might be a deterrent to fans of Christian fiction.

My Thoughts:  I am not a big fan of romance books, but this story appealed to me because of the emphasis on the Horse Therapy.  There is a lot of bad language but, it is used as I suspect anyone in those circumstances would use it and…you can skip the words as you read. Don’t let that stop you from reading this book.  I liked it!

“Chasing the Night”  by Iris Johansen

     An Eve Duncan Mystery

 

2011 Book Review #46 

Summary:  

A CIA agent's two-year-old son was stolen in the night as a brutal act of vengeance. Now, eight years later, this torment is something Catherine Ling awakens to every day. Catherine needs to find someone as driven and obsessed as she is to help her.

Eve Duncan shares her nightmare, since closure is also something that eludes Eve after the disappearance of her daughter Bonnie.

Now, Eve must take her talents as a forensic sculptor to another level, using age progression as a way to unite Catherine with her child. As Eve gets drawn deeper into Catherine’s horror, she must face looming demons of her own. 

Bonnie’s killer is still out there. And… a new killer is taunting Eve and Catherine at every turn. Is Catherine’s son alive, or not? These two women endure the worst fear any mother can imagine in Iris Johansen’s latest thrill ride, a gut-wrenching journey into the darkest places of the soul.

My Thoughts:  I love Eve Duncan books!  This is no exception!

"L.A. Requiem"   by Robert Crais
     An Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Mystery
            
    2011 Book Review #45
                                     
                  Book List Review

Karen Garcia is shot in the head while jogging in an L.A. preserve. It would have been written off as just another violent death, but her father, Frank, is the most powerful Hispanic politician in L.A.   Frank Garcia's Hispanic background tells him not to trust the cops, so he asks Joe Pike, an ex-cop, to observe the investigation. Many on the force still believe Pike killed his partner 12 years earlier.   Pike is also one of Karen Garcia's former lovers. 

Pike's partner, Elvis Cole, serves as our guide through an investigation sullied by politics, personal ambition, and a growing media spotlight. Cole finds his own life thrown into chaos when Pike becomes a suspect, the lead female detective on the case takes an interest in him, and it appears that the killer may be connected to the death of Pike's old partner. 

The eighth Elvis Cole^-Joe Pike novel is easily the most ambitious in an outstanding series. Readers will learn what drives Pike; how he uses his taciturn demeanor as a shield; and why the toughest thing he ever did involved neither guns nor physical bravery. This is an extraordinary crime novel that should not be pigeonholed by genre. The best books always land outside preset boundaries. A wonderful experience. --Wes Lukowsky

My Thoughts:  I have read several books by Robert Crais.  I liked them all, particularly the characters.  This book explains some of the reasons  Joe Pike is the way he is and it makes the rest of the books more personal.  You will enjoy this book.

"The Sentry"  By Robert Crais
   A   PI Joe Pike Mystery


2011 Book Review #44

Near the outset of Crais's impressive third thriller featuring L.A. PI Joe Pike (after The First Rule), Pike notices two suspicious characters enter a Venice, Calif., sandwich shop. Pike, an ex-Marine and former LAPD patrol officer, walks into the shop just in time to rescue its owner, Wilson Smith, from a vicious assault. 

Pike soon takes an interest in Smith's niece, Dru Rayne, whose "smart eyes" and warm smile lure him into a lethal gangland battle involving La Eme, the Mexican mafia, and a Bolivian drug connection. The LAPD and the FBI both try and fail to warn Pike off, but PI Elvis Cole, the lead in nine other Crais books, is as ever ready to support his pal. 

Heartbreaking ironies, frustrated desires, and violent nonstop action make this a standout. Crais just keeps getting better at giving depth to the laconic Pike and the anguished Cole, who still pines for his lost love, Louisiana attorney Lucy Chenier.

My Thoughts:  I liked this book.  There is a lot of action going on and sometimes it is confusing to keep up with, but, the characters are interesting and BUSY!