Strindberg's Star, Jan Wallentin

This is a Swedish book translated into English. It takes place in Europe as the main characters travel around in search of the truth.

Sorta.

Ok, so our main character, Don, is arrested for the murder of a diver who found a body while diving in a mine. The body is perfectly preserved by some trick of the mine, so it's super old, and appears to be the victim of either an accident or a suicide. So, there's no crime there. The diver, however, took a few things from the cave where he found the body, got caught up in the notoriety, and never told anyone about them. He invites Don up to take a look, since Don is a symbology expert.

Don obviously finds him dead, hence he's arrested.

Oh, Don is also a prescription drug addict.

Eva, is his lawyer. This is where I think maybe some plot points are lost in translation. Don is in interrogation and Eva just shows up and volunteers to be his lawyer. She says she was in the station for another reason and heard about him. I admit I thought it was weird to begin with, but what do I know from Swedish police procedures?

Don gets out of the local station, but only as a transfer by the Swedish federal (?) police. They take him to the home of a German. A home that's part of the embassy, so technically part of Germany. The German tells him a fantastical story about the real reason for the 1897 Andree Expedition to the North Pole. He claims they were actually searching for the location indicated when an ankh found by the diver is combined with the still missing Egyptian star. A mystical location.

When it becomes clear the German's aren't going to take "I don't know" for an answer, Don and Eva escape. This starts the adventure to find the star and clear Don's name. Or does it....

Dark Symphony, Christine Feehan

Ok, so The Scarletti Curse was absolutely unnecessary. Let's just get that out of the way.

So, back in Dark Desire, Jacques' best friend, Byron, acted a little nuts-o. He tried to convince Mikhal that Shea couldn't be Jacques' lifemate and that Jacques had turned. Jacques, being mostly nuts and not even remembering Byron, does not take it well.

Byron feels terrible for his actions and punishes himself with a self imposed exile as a hunter. He's an artisan, not a hunter, so that's quite the punishment.

His wanderings eventually take him to Italy, where he hears a woman play the piano. Antonietta Scarletti is that woman.

This one was a little different for a couple reasons. One, we enter the story after Byron and Antonietta have met. They're actually friends. The other thing I liked was that Antonietta is blind. That added some of that depth I like to see. I've kind of thought generally that the conversion would remove any illness or handicaps someone had, but this proved it.

This was probably the story most like a mystery so far. I guess that could be said for the Scarlatti Curse too, but lets just forget that book happened.

Someone is trying to kill Antonietta and her grandfather, the Don. The book is mostly about figuring out who's involved. Antonietta doesn't want to think it could be someone in her family, but Byron can't see how it couldn't.

Love You More, Lisa Gardner

So much for happy endings.

At the end of Live to Tell, DD and Alex were getting together. As had Danielle and her man. The baddies had gotten what they deserved. And for once, it didn't seem like anyone got away with murder. Sounds like a happy ending for me.

And now it's all ruined.

Sorta.

We start with a State Trooper accused of killing her husband - an abuser. Only then they realize the kid is gone.

Troopers responded to the death at the house, but fucked up the crime scene before they realized there was a missing kid.

So, Ms. DD gets called in.

And everything is wonky from the get-go.

The Trooper, Tessa, is weird. The timeline is weird. The story itself is weird. Everything adds up at face value, but not when you scrape the surface. It's like.....2+2=4, right? But then if you look at decimals, you find out, actually, it's 5.

See what I'm saying. And Tessa is definitely a 5.

So DD starts investigating. Now, the case is this weird mob conspiracy. Basically here's what you need to know.

Unseen, Karin Slaughter

Fucking Lena.

Goddammit.

So, last we saw Lena, she was leaving Grant County with Jared, Jeffery's son, in Broken.

Now Jared's in the hospital after being shot. In the home he shares with Lena. Just days after a raid she's leading goes bad. Really bad.

You can see where I'm going with this right? Lena's sloppiness at least, negligence at most, have caused someone else to pay with their lives. Again.

You would be mostly right. Jared makes it. And while their marriage is going through some issues, they come out at the end intact and looking up. Talking about kids. (Cause Lena as a mother isn't a bit terrifying.) Also, Lena's actions aren't directly responsible for his attack, though they didn't exactly help.

Her case is related to his attack and she could have done more, but mostly after the fact. So, maybe she couldn't have stopped it, but...

She also got Will involved.

You can imagine Sara's opinion on that.

Beyond Reach, Karin Slaughter

Ok, kids, we're doing this one a little differently.

I give a general spoiler warning in the blog intro/description, but I still try to be conscientious of what I give away. I only usually call them out in my reviews if they're pretty obvious and I'm being facetious.

However, as I also say in my review, these aren't meant to be a synopsis of the book, but I do have to give some sort of run down in order to make the parts I want to talk about make sense.

But, in order to discuss this amazeballs book honestly, I need to reveal a huge spoiler.

Which brings me to the different part. Normally, I put the page break in mostly for space and try to place it where it makes you want to read the rest of the review. Because of this major spoiler, I'm placing the break after this intro.

This really was a great book (with and without spoilers), and I absolutely would tell you to read this and the whole Grant County series (in order). But, if you're not like me and a major spoiler ruins it for you, makes you want to not read something, do yourself a favor: Read this book, then come back and read my review.

If not....keep reading....if you dare...

Calculated in Death, JD Robb

Eve Dallas is BACK! :)

Ok, so this wasn't one of my favorites. It might actually be my least favorite. It was a lot of money stuff - in case you hadn't guessed by the whole "Calculated" thing - which isn't really my thing. But there was, as per the usge, a healthy dose of murder and mayhem.

A murder that looks like a mugging but isn't and the coincidences just keep piling up. The case wasn't anything specially. A conspiracy and some dumb as shit criminals.

As always, the interactions between the main characters are enjoyable. There's one part where Peabody uses her feminine wiles to draw a baddie out of his house. It's probably the best part.

There's some Eve and Trina action in there too. I don't think I've mentioned Trina before. She's Eve's hair and makeup guru...well, Eve would call her a hair and makeup torturer.

There's some Roarke and Eve cuteness. He's still worried about her. Not that he ever stops, but her experiences in New York to Dallas have made it harder. She manages her hurt herself catching a baby. Well, really a toddler. She's chasing one of the baddies and he throws the kid like a football. Eve catches it, but pays for it in bruises. Pretty epic either way.

Eve's continuing to evolve, discovering what it means to have friends and family. And I enjoy that. I'm really looking forward to the next one: Roarke's family is coming for Thanksgiving. :D

Calculated in Death, JD Robb

The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova

"...The Historian is the story of a young woman plunged into a labyrinth where the secrets of her family's past connect to an inconceivable evil: the dark fifteenth-century reign of Vlad the Impaler and a time-defying pact that may have kept his awful work alive through the ages. The search for the truth becomes an adventure of monumental proportions, taking us from monasteries and dusty libraries to the capitals of Eastern Europe..."

Nothing in that said "vampires" and "Dracula" to me.

I mean, yes, I know Vlad the Impaler is the...inspiration, let's say, for Dracula, but nothing there indicated that's the route she was going. To me. Now, had I read the quoted blurbs, I wouldn't have been surprised when vampires made their appearance, but I never do. It's not like they're going to put ones that say the book sucks, or could be written better. So, I don't bother.

So, yeah, vampires.

Stormlord's Exile, Glenda Larke

I feel like I should really title this "Ode to Fantasy Fiction." I think I'm a fairly eclectic reader,  generally speaking. Maybe, with the common thread of something different, something not easy to figure out. I like to be surprised. I mean, it's fine to know that everything is going to work out in the end, but that's just common sense. I feel like this book is a really good example about what fantasy fiction can really bring to the table.

It's kind of...coincidental that I picked this book after finishing Unholy Night. In that review, I tried to focus more on matters of faith than religion. That's not going to be possible in this one. So, I'll repeat my disclaimers: 

1)      If you are hyper religious, and find any negative portrayal of religion bad or blasphemous, don't bother with this book or review. You'll probably just be unhappy.

2)      If you are hyper non-religious, and don't see the point in discussing religion you may want to stop reading this review here. I'm going to go into the thoughts religion, which you may not enjoy.

See, one of my favorite things about the fantasy genre is it's ability to criticize society without pissing anyone off because the people/places/things they criticize aren't real. How can you get pissed they're criticizing a religion/politics that don't exist? This book does that and more.

OK, confession time: I don't really remember the first 2 books in the Watergivers trilogy. I vaguely remember them, broad strokes, but the details? Nope. Not really. But I've got enough to sketch out the world for you.

The Expats, Chris Pavone

I have no idea how to write this review. Normally, I don't think about the review while I'm reading the book. I did with this one. Sure I have opinions as I'm reading. I even discuss them while I'm reading, but I don't actively think "what am I going to say," while I'm reading. Here, I just wasn't sure what I would write about. Was I enjoying it? Did I hate it? Was it just one of those books I don't really enjoy till the end? That's happened before. I've been reading a book, thinking "this thing is terrible," until the last 10 pages. I can't not finish a book.

But I didn't hate this book. I can't say I liked it that much either. Ok, the premise here is a CIA agent, Kate, who quits her job and moves to Luxembourg with her family when her husband gets a job offer. Shortly after moving, she meets Julia and Bill Mclean. Shortly after that, she begins to believe the Mcleans are not who they claim to believe and that her husband, Dexter, is hiding something from her. Something big. She's right on all accounts. The Mcleans are undercover FBI agents working with Interpol to investigate Dexter for stealing 50 million Euros. And he's guilty.

Exciting right? Former spy, married to a thief, being investigated by the FBI. It's got all the makings of a suspenseful drama. But it's not. It's not a book I couldn't put down. In some cases I decided to play Sudoku on my phone instead of read. Unheard of!   

Bloodline, James Rollins

Another one from one of my regular series. The Sigma series is kind of like Di Vinci Code meets….G.I. Joe.

Sigma is the covert arm of DARPA. Already a cool idea, right? The organization is super secret, some parts of the government not even knowing they exist and even fewer knowing what they do. They recruit former military/special forces/special operations and retrain them in scientific disciplines. Most of the operatives tend to be a bit of problem children while their in the military. It's kinda that cliché about the kid who gets in trouble in class because he/she is too smart and too far ahead of the other kids.

I've actually been getting a little bored with the series, but not anymore. Sigma's nemesis is a shadowy criminal organization called "the Guild," the secret in all secret societies. Up until recently, I was totally on board, but in the last book or so, I was getting a little sick of it. I was ready to beat the Guild and move on. I would have been mightily disappointed if Rollins had tried to drag it out for more books. Luckily, I didn't have to be!