#65 E is for Evidence by Sue Grafton

Date Started: Monday, September 26, 2005
Date Finished: Thursday, September 29, 2005
My BookCrossing Rating: 8 out of 10 stars
Comments:
I liked this one best of the 5 I’ve read thus far. The extra detail didn’t seem to go on as long any more, often just enough to give you a clear picture in your mind instead of cause your mind to wander. The mystery kept me in thrall until the very end, when it all came together in a surprise ending. Kinsey is still a workaholic, but has begun to reevaluate her life and actually thinks about things other than work and her caseload now. :)

At the beginning, I thought it would bother me that Kinsey was framed to look as if she was on the take, because usually when this happens in a story, all the other characters operate under the false assumption that she’s guilty, automatically believing the frame without taking into account that she wouldn’t do this, and in the long run it really screws with everything else in the story. It’s really a pet peeve of mine… Instead, Kinsey and most of the other primary characters worked to find out what was really going on and who had set her up, which led to a much deeper and intricate plot to be uncovered.

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#64 False Memory by Dean Koontz

Date Started: Monday, September 19, 2005
Date Finished: Monday, September 26, 2005
My BookCrossing Rating: 6 out of 10 stars
Comments:
This book started off kind of slow and I was tempted to put it aside a few times as I’ve got so many other TBR books piling up behind it. But I wanted to give it at least halfway, which is about 376 pages since this is a fairly long book. Fortunately, the action got going around page 200 and I was glad I kept reading. This book could’ve been half as long and been even better though… I found it going off on tangents quite often so that my mind would start to wander and I’d forget what I’d just read.

In the beginning some of the phobia characteristics experienced by the characters, one in particular, hit a little too close to home, and since I don’t enjoy being reminded of my own shortcomings, I was getting discouraged with it, and again, almost another reason for me to put it aside. Until around page 200 when it started to become apparent that these phobias were implanted by a madman, then I felt better about that part. :)

Overall, a very odd book, which I had mixed feelings about, but actually liked it more than I disliked it. Thanks for sharing bunnybee!

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#63 Murder in the Hearse Degree by Tim Cockey

Date Started: Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Date Finished: Sunday, September 18, 2005
My BookCrossing Rating: 8 out of 10 stars
Comments:
For some reason, not quite the gut buster for me as his previous 3 novels in the Hitchcock Sewell series. In this one, Hitch is his usual satirical self, and attempts to piece together the pieces of a murdered nanny for an old friend who’s back in town. I think perhaps it’s Pete’s character, and his denial in facing up to the problems in his marriage that bugged me a bit more than it did in the previous book where Pete was first introduced. Beyond that however, the writing is sharp and snappy, and Hitch’s character, though he has hard time being serious about anything, manages to uncover a few secrets which have put other people’s lives in danger. I’m definitely looking forward to more Hitch!

See the BookCrossing journal page for this book for more reviews and information.

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#62 Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Date Started: Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Date Finished: Tuesday, September 13, 2005
My BookCrossing Rating: 8 of 10 stars
Comments:
This was another great story from Neil Gaiman. It’s classified as a children’s book, I guess because the writing style is more accessible to younger readers, and doesn’t have a lot of the subtlety and nuances of adult novels. That said however, the story itself was spooky and intriguing and I gobbled this book down in one day. :) Neil Gaiman has proved yet again, as he did with Stardust, that he is definitely an author for all generations!

See the BookCrossing journal page for this book for additional information.

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#61 The Traveling Vampire Show by Richard Laymon

Date Started: Thursday, September 8, 2005
Date Finished: Monday, September 12, 2005
My BookCrossing Rating: 7 out of 10 stars
Comments:
This was a new author for me, but I enjoyed his work. The book continued to build on the suspense, which did move rather slowly in the beginning, so that towards the end I could barely put it down.

The rest of the story contained more than just a horror though, and for me, that made the beginning or slower parts of the horror story better than they would be otherwise. For it’s also a coming-of-age story, three teenagers&mdashtwo boys and a girl, and their struggles with friendship, loyalty, and even raging hormones. ;)

See the BookCrossing journal page for this book for more reviews and information.

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#60 We'll Always Have Parrots by Donna Andrews

Date Started: Monday, September 5, 2005
Date Finished: Thursday, September 8, 2005
My BookCrossing Rating: 8 of 10 stars
Comments:
This was another great book by Donna Andrews, though perhaps not quite my favorite in the series.

Meg attends a fan convention “con” with her boyfriend Michael, part time actor and college Drama professor, for the cult TV show he’s on. While at the hotel, someone kills Tamalaine Wynncliffe-Jones, the show’s leading lady and executive producer, or the QB as the rest of the cast likes to call her (short for Queen Bi7c4, or as she likes to think Queen Bee). Of course, everyone is a suspect, and since Meg was the one to find the body, she uses her amateur sleuthing skills to dig up information and try to piece together the puzzle of who dunnit, since she feels the cops are continually looking in the wrong direction.

As usual, there’s a chuckle per chapter at least as Andrews seamlessly blends humor in with her mysteries, and you’re left guessing on the killer’s identity right up until the end. Though each book in this series can stand alone, reading the previous books gives you greater insight into each character. Highly recommended!

Refer to this book's BookCrossing journal page for more links and information.

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#59 Bad Girl by Michele Jaffe

Date Started: Thursday, September 1, 2005
Date Finished: Monday, September 5, 2005
My BookCrossing Rating: 9 stars
Comments:
This was a great book, and I look forward to reading more by this author. (I see she has a historical line as well as her newer crime/mystery books too.) Windy is a great character, not dull and boring in comparison to Kinsey in Grafton’s alphabet books. Her relationship with her daughter Cate, her attraction to Ash, combined to make a character you could really like and admire. The story contained a lot of red herrings to throw you off the track of the serial killer, and it kept me engrossed long into the night when I should’ve been trying to get to sleep. :)

See the BookCrossing journal page for this book for more reviews and information.

See more progress on: read 100 books in 2005