Community Chat

[dawg lover]

I just finished two new books: "BITTERSWEET" by Susan Wittig Albert, the latest in her China Bayles series (good) and "THE LIAR", a romantic suspense novel by Nora Roberts (very good, although I figured out the ending early on, but still enjoyed the book).

[lolakimono]

I read this-

I didn't love it.

Archer Mayor's New York Times bestselling Joe Gunther series returns with a complex case involving two corpses, one escaped mental patient, and a long-held secret that binds them together

“Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.” —Ben Franklin

Joe Gunther and his team—the Vermont Bureau of Investigation (VBI)—are usually called in on major cases by local Vermont enforcement whenever they need expertise and back-up. But after the state is devastated by Hurricane Irene, the police from one end of the state are taxed to their limits, leaving Joe Gunther involved in an odd, seemingly unrelated series of cases. In the wake of the hurricane, a seventeen year old gravesite is exposed, revealing a coffin that had been filled with rocks instead of the expected remains.

At the same time, an old, retired state politician turns up dead at his high-end nursing home, in circumstances that leave investigators unsure that he wasn’t murdered. And a patient who calls herself The Governor has walked away from a state mental facility during the post-hurricane flood. It turns out that she was indeed once “Governor for a Day,” over forty years ago, but that she might have also been falsely committed and drugged to keep her from revealing something that she saw all those years ago. Amidst the turmoil and the disaster relief, it’s up to Joe Gunther and his team to learn what really happened with the two corpses—one missing—and what secret “The Governor” might have still locked in her brain that links them all.

[lolakimono]

I didn't love this one either, although it took me less time to read than the one I posted about previously.

The Disappeared is a story of our times, of kidnap and rescue, of abuse and healing. It is the story of Stephen, a teacher whose love for the pupil who shares his dreams brings him face to face with ruin; of Sharon, the child of a feckless stepmother, and her criminal abusers; of Laura, the investigative high-flyer, now faced with rape and secksual slavery; of Justin, environmentalist and Heavy Metal fan, whose obsession with Muhibbah, rescued from forced marriage, spells disaster for them both.

It is the story of a police force fearful of charges of racism, and a social worker, Iona, expected to make a viable community from fragments that will not join.

With dizzying speed The Disappeared uncovers the chaotic underworld of a Yorkshire city, its characters eventually stumbling across one another in a single catastrophe. A victim may bring redemption: but who will it be?

[walkingal]

On 4/2/2015 Judaline said:

If you loved The Paris Architect like I did, Charles Belfoure has a second novel premiering in December. It's called House of Thieves.

sandy, your series sounds good. Will get the first one.

Thanks for the heads up! I did not know this. I loved The Paris Architect. I'll be looking forward to House of Thieves.

[walkingal]

I'm still reading The Grapes of Wrath. I'm reading it slowly as I believe Steinbeck intended it to be read. Some parts are overwhelming and I have to put it down for a while. I also started Shane by Jack Schaefer. This is a favorite of my favorite American West authors. I can see why. I know I'm going to need tissues at the end. I saw the movie on TV the other day. While it was good, and the actors were all good, it is nothing like the book.

[SWEET]

Finished Jodi Picoult's Leaving Time. What a book. Elephants, psychics, old murder cases. Loved it.

Onto Crestmont by Holly Weiss.

[Bridgegal]

On 4/4/2015 lolakimono said:

I am about halfway finished with this one-

On a rainy November night, Dr. Simon Ellerbee stares out the window of his Upper East Side psychiatry office, miserably wishing he could seek counseling for the problems in his seemingly perfect life. He hears the door buzzer and goes to answer it, but flinches when he sees his unexpected guest. Minutes later, he’s dead, his skull crushed by repeated blows from a ball-peen hammer. Once the doctor was down, the killer turned over the body and smashed in Ellerbee’s eyes.

With no leads and a case getting colder by the hour, the New York Police Department calls in former chief Edward Delaney. His search for the truth raises more questions than answers: Who had Ellerbee let into his office? Why were there two sets of wet footprints on the carpeting of the doctor’s townhouse? What caused Ellerbee’s odd personality transformation over the past year? And who murdered, then symbolically mutilated, the prominent Manhattan psychiatrist?

I loved all of his books. Think I read them back in the 70's. I hated it when he died.

[tansy]

On 4/20/2015 Bridgegal said:

On 4/4/2015 lolakimono said:

I am about halfway finished with this one-

On a rainy November night, Dr. Simon Ellerbee stares out the window of his Upper East Side psychiatry office, miserably wishing he could seek counseling for the problems in his seemingly perfect life. He hears the door buzzer and goes to answer it, but flinches when he sees his unexpected guest. Minutes later, he’s dead, his skull crushed by repeated blows from a ball-peen hammer. Once the doctor was down, the killer turned over the body and smashed in Ellerbee’s eyes.

With no leads and a case getting colder by the hour, the New York Police Department calls in former chief Edward Delaney. His search for the truth raises more questions than answers: Who had Ellerbee let into his office? Why were there two sets of wet footprints on the carpeting of the doctor’s townhouse? What caused Ellerbee’s odd personality transformation over the past year? And who murdered, then symbolically mutilated, the prominent Manhattan psychiatrist?

I loved all of his books. Think I read them back in the 70's. I hated it when he died.

One of the best things about those books were the sandwiches Delaney would make himself and the beer he would select to go with it. One of the books, probably THE FIRST DEADLY SIN, was a movie with Sinatra playing Delaney (bad casting -- lol). Faye Dunaway played his wife.

[skyblue]

On 4/20/2015 tansy said:

On 4/20/2015 Bridgegal said:

On 4/4/2015 lolakimono said:

I am about halfway finished with this one-

On a rainy November night, Dr. Simon Ellerbee stares out the window of his Upper East Side psychiatry office, miserably wishing he could seek counseling for the problems in his seemingly perfect life. He hears the door buzzer and goes to answer it, but flinches when he sees his unexpected guest. Minutes later, he’s dead, his skull crushed by repeated blows from a ball-peen hammer. Once the doctor was down, the killer turned over the body and smashed in Ellerbee’s eyes.

With no leads and a case getting colder by the hour, the New York Police Department calls in former chief Edward Delaney. His search for the truth raises more questions than answers: Who had Ellerbee let into his office? Why were there two sets of wet footprints on the carpeting of the doctor’s townhouse? What caused Ellerbee’s odd personality transformation over the past year? And who murdered, then symbolically mutilated, the prominent Manhattan psychiatrist?

I loved all of his books. Think I read them back in the 70's. I hated it when he died.

One of the best things about those books were the sandwiches Delaney would make himself and the beer he would select to go with it. One of the books, probably THE FIRST DEADLY SIN, was a movie with Sinatra playing Delaney (bad casting -- lol). Faye Dunaway played his wife.

Yes! I remember his books! They were very good! The best part was the sandwiches, and I don't even like sandwiches! What a fun walk down memory lane.

[joannecha]

Am between getting some of my books that are on hold at the library, so I'm readying out of my own stash (and that gets me a little worried, as if the stash gets below a certain point, I hyperventilate). Am re-reading some Nora Roberts that I have. Right now it's, "Public Secrets". A lot of my things are read only once, then donated back to the library used book sale, where I probably got it in the first place.