Tucson Bookworms

We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver

This is an emotionally gripping story as told in a series of letters written by Kevin's mother to his father, her estranged husband after Kevin kills seven fellow students, teachers and a janitor in a mass schoolhouse murder.  It is a compelling work of fiction about a mother who didn't necessarily look forward to motherhood but did her best to be the mother little Kevin needed and of the father who explained away Kevin's strange behaviors beginning in infancy.  It is not an easy story to read but will stay with the reader for some time, particularly the surprise ending.  The movie has been released in some markets but apparently not yet in Tucson. 

Mortal Pursuit by Michael Prescott

Trisha, a rookie cop is having a really bad day. It started when her toilet overflowed and she was late for roll call. It only went downhill from there. Her partner and her walk into an ambush which leaves her alone, unarmed and the only one standing between a ruthless team of killers and a young girl and her family. 

This book was fast paced with a lot of action packed suspense.  

I am fast becoming a die hard Michael Prescott fan and Mortal Pursuit didn't let me down. This one had be hooked, I finished this book in two days.

Blind Pursuit by Michael Prescott

Blind Pursuit had me hooked from the beginning when Erin is attacked on her own doorstep. It a dark thriller full of scary moments as she is taken captive and held in a dusty basement. The psychological battle with her captor and also with her own thoughts of escape, and her predicament, begins.  The plot develops well as Erin discovers more about why she was chosen and her connection to her sister Annie. A suspenseful read that I would recommend. 

Riptide by Michael Prescott

A novel based on interesting material about London's infamous Jack the Ripper. The story toggles back and forth from the late 1800's to the present and does not disappoint.

While this book didn't initially hold my attention quite as well as did Michael's book, Blind Pursuit, this one was still a good read.

Wrecker by Summer Wood

A boy named Wrecker is born, three years later his Mother lands in prison and he is taken by the state. He is scared and angry when he arrives at a place called Bow Farm in the  truck of an uncle he's never met before and his actions match his name.  Bow Farm is a mix of eccentric characters, not a family but a community and they are about to go on a new journey with this boy called Wrecker.  It is a tribute to an unconventional family and the most genuine form of love.

This is a heartwarming read, I recommend it to my fellow readers.

They're Watching by Greg Hurwitz

This was really a page-turner!   A gripping, suspenseful story with many twists and turns and I didn't see any of them coming! 

On the verge of a big break, screenwriter Patrick Davis gets fired after allegedly punching the film's star. Now teaching film classes at the local college thinking things can't get worse, he learns that someone has invaded his home and has been secretly videotaping him and his wife. To get them to stop, Patrick must follow their instructions without question, even when it means breaking the law. 

If you enjoy suspense stories, this is a well-crafted one with an interesting twist.

Stealing Faces by Michael Prescott

Cold Wind by C. J. Box

When Earl Alden is found dead, dangling from a wind turbine, it's his wife, Missy, who is arrested. Unfortunately for Joe Pickett, Missy is his mother-in-law, a woman he dislikes heartily, and now he doesn't know what to do - especially when the early signs point to her being guilty as sin.

But then things happen to make Joe wonder: Is Earl's death what it appears to be? Is Missy being set up? He has the county DA and sheriff on one side, his wife on the other, his estranged friend Nate on a lethal mission of his own, and some powerful interests breathing down his neck.

Whichever way this goes...it's not going to be good.

This is another great C. J. Box novel, I have read several of his books and have never been dissapointed.

You're Next by Greg Hurwitz

I enjoyed every minute of reading this fast-paced page-turning thriller, I was led into directions that I not imagined.

This book hooks you from the very start. Mike Wingate is left abandoned as a child and cannot remember anything about his father except that he had blood on his sleeve. He spends his childhood waiting for his dad to come back for him. He befriends another young boy and the two are constantly in trouble. Mike decides to change his life around but Shep continues a life of crime.

Years later, Mike has a family and his own business when things start going bad for him. He has to call his old friend Shep to help him sort through all the things that are going wrong and to help protect his family. 

This novel is not only a thriller, but also a mystery: Who is behind the relentless assault on Mike and his family, and what is there in his past that is motivating it? 

The characters are well portrayed, especially Mike, Annabelle, his daughter Kat, and Shep his childhood friend, a dangerous man with a criminal history. The bad guys are truly evil, vicious, psychopathic types. 

If you like a page turning thriller I recommend this book. this is the second Greg Hurwitz novel I have read and I there are nine more awaiting me.

Agents of Innocence by David Ignatius

Agents was written in 1987 and it established the author as a master of the spy novel. It is about an idealistic headquarters CIA agent, Tom Rogers, who is transferred to Beirut.

Tom's job is to fight a secret war against terrorism. The players and the situation are extremely intricate, but Ignatius handles all of the complexities, and the ambiguities very well.

Bob Woodward of the Washington Post said “An unparalleled and hauntingly accurate portrait of how the intelligence game is really played.”

I say that it is fascinating and has the feel of accuracy. The characters experience the full gamut of emotions because it is not a “feel good” story, instead it is a realistic story.

The Black Echo by Michael Connelly

 In the book, Connelly introduces Harry Bosch, a Vietnam veteran who served as a tunnell rat during the war, who became an L.A. police detective, advancing to the prestigious Robbery-Homicide Division. However, after killing the main suspect in the "Dollmaker" serial killings, Bosch is demoted to Hollywood Division homicide, where he partners with Jerry Edgar. The death of Billy Meadows, a friend and fellow "tunnel rat" from 'Nam, attracts Bosch's interest, especially when he determines that it may have been connected to a spectacular bank robbery using subterranean tunnels. Bosch suspects that the robbers were after more than money and he then partners with the FBI, in particular agent Eleanor Wish, in an attempt to foil their next attack.

Bosch and Wish end up connecting the robberies to a group of Vietnamese living in Orange County, as well as some Americans that may have been involved with them.

Doc: A Novel by Mary Doria Russell

Will the real John Henry Holliday,  Doc, please stand up. 

The Doc Holliday and Earp brothers that I know are based on shoot-em up Western movies and novels beginning in the 50s. 

Russell’s Doc Holliday (and the Earp brothers) novel is neither a shoot-em up nor a Western. It is a nuanced novel about the characters, not about the gunfighters, in a Dodge City as she perceives it.

Russell’s book is interesting because it is a very different account than any of the other stories that I have seen or read. But in my opinion her book reflects academia more than reality.

Work Song by Ivan Doig

This is the first novel by Ivan Doig that I have read, it was not a book that I could not wait to finish but did hold my interest enough to finish it.

The characters are colorful in this tale about the underground mining industry in Butte, Montana around 1918 and early 1919. The character Morrie Morgan arrices in Butte to make a fortune fron "The Richest Hill on Earth."

Morrie is also hoping the loud and raucous Butte will help him hide. He used to be Morgan Llewellyn of Chicago with a brother famous in the sport of boxing. A bet gone awry in a boxing contest has the Chicago mob hot on his heels so Morrie decides to escape.

Morrie soon finds boarding and lodging at the home of a widower, Grace Faraday. Grace also has two other renters who are on the last legs of their mining careers. Having lost his only belongings on the train up to Butte, Morrie must find work quickly. He takes up a job at a local undertaker’s and attends many a loud Irish wake in this capacity. Soon the crazy hours get to him and when he gets offered a job at the local library, Morrie jumps ship.

Give Work Song a shot you may just hum along with it.

Kings of Colorado by David E. Hilton

Hilton debuts with a stark novel of violence and fierce friendship in a 1960s Colorado juvenile penitentiary. After 13-year-old Will Sheppard stabs his abusive father while trying to protect his mother, he's sent to Swope Boys Reformatory, a work ranch where the only rule of law is that of a greedy warden, corrupt guards, and vicious fellow inmates, the worst of them a boy named Silas Green. Shepherd befriends a few boys--Coop the literary mind, Benny the kid with the big heart, and Mickey the ornery runt with an ironclad outer shell--and they must all survive the brutishness of head guard Frank Croft and the nihilism of Silas and his cronies while doing back-breaking labor in the horse stables and out in the fields. Hilton's portrayal of adolescent friendship is authentic and touching, and the story moves at a speedy pace as the boys' innocence is shattered in ever deeper and more profound ways. While the writing can flirt with melodrama, the characters are well drawn and their trials are harrowing

I highly recommend this book, the characters are very real, I felt the joy, fear, anger, power and love along with them. 

The Princess & the Penis by R.J. Silver

A beautiful, chaste, and completely naive princess encounters a strange lump in her mattress. The lump soon morphs into a shape familiar to everyone but her, triggering her curiosity and her father's greatest fears. He frantically tries to intervene, but having a large phantom phallus in a curious maiden's bed is never a good combination.