DEN OF INIQUITY by J A Jance

Jance may have written a police procedural, but what I read was a family story. Beau’s family is in upheaval when his teenaged grandson shows up on his doorstep announcing he would like to live with Beau and Mel. Darius’s family is devastated by his death, assuming he has succumbed to illegal drugs. Then the deaths and shattered families start mounting. Jance has written a lively and entertaining murder mystery with some humor along with the excitement of a chase to catch a serial murderer before they can strike again. As always, Jance’s characters are well defined and complex. Her plot is multi-faceted and leads to a brilliant conclusion. Altogether a mystery well worth your time with a complex and satisfyingly intricate plot. 5 stars

FALLING by T J Newman

After you suspend logic, this thriller delivers thrills a minute and then some. The premise is simple. The bad guys have kidnapped a pilot’s family and want hm to crash his plane or they will kill his family. What follows is a relentless thrill ride as we travel along with the crew and innocent passengers. How can our brave pilot save both his family AND his plane. And, of course, why do the bad guys want him to crash the plane anyway. The crew and bad guys are pretty standard characters. Jo, the head flight attendant, is actually a more well drawn character than the pilot. It is obvious that the writer is extremely familiar with planes, the security systems on board them, and the flight attendants whose real job is to keep the passengers safe not serve them coffee. You WILL get drawn into the intricacies of the plot. You WILL stay up late reading to discover how this turns out. A good debut for a first-time author (and former flight attendant) who puts her knowledge of flight systems to good use. 4 stars for a thrilling ride.

GIRL FALLING by Hayley Scrivenor

Insidious and evil. Dark and depressing. Murder or accident? And yet I HAD to keep reading. The writing was beautifully done, keeping ones desire to know and understand at a high pitch. Three women, one evil, one good, and one …also evil?...also good?….which is it? Who is doing the manipulating and who is being manipulated? Interspersing the darkness are lovely descriptions of the landscape of Australia. The mechanics of rope climbing become a part of the story. The characters and situations are believable. There were many times I was ready to put this book down and not pick it up again. But the depth of the writing kept me reading. It is difficult to recommend the book because there is so much of the book that is triggering. I could only recommend it to a limited number of people and I would have to know them and their reading habits well to offer this book to them. There is little light or joyous to be gotten from reading FALLING GIRL. I would not use this book in a book group because of too many triggers and no real resolution. 4 stars for the writing, 2 stars for the darkness of the story

BAD ANIMALS by Sarah Braunstein

I have given BAD ANIMALS a couple days to "sit with me" before writing this review. I'm still not sure how I feel about the book. It was well written, the story was mostly engaging; but I didn't like any of the main characters. I can't decide if Maeve was just a total innocent caught up in circumstances beyond her control or she was a jaded and cynical psychopath who attempted to destroy a child. Or maybe the child was the psychopath who attempted to destroy the adult Maeve. I am certain Harrison was a cynical "user" of people for his own enjoyment and financial gain. Poor Jack was caught in the middle of Harrison and Maeve's shenanigan's and the ultimate loser. The other librarians were simply there for the author's ability to tell the story. So, would I recommend this book to another reader? Maybe? Maybe not? Would I have finished the book if I wasn't writing a review? NO, I would have given it maybe 100 pages instead of my usual 50 before dropping it, but I wouldn't have finished it. But maybe would I have, if only to find out what ultimately happened to Libby, the only character I cared about. SO…. 4 stars for writing . 2 stars for story. 3 stars for the total book.

THE LAST DEVIL TO DIE by Richard Osman

How can a book about 4 murders be a tender love story? And yet, THE LAST DEVIL TO DIE is a tender love story. Our four senior sleuths, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim, are caught up in a drug war, an art forgery, a “love for money” fraud and the murder of one of Stephen’s friends along with three other murders. Osman, who has written three other novels starring the four members of the Thursday Murder Club is back again with a delightful, charming and intriguing mystery. His characters are true to form and fine companions for a chill autumn evening or two with a hot cup of tea. Who will be the “last devil to die” and, therefore, the murderer will keep you guessing to the last pages. The main characters are clearly the focus, but Osman makes even minor characters, like the fox, a fully developed personality. A delightful story well told. Buy it! 5 of 5 stars

DAUGHTERS OF SHANDONG by Eve J Chung

“Girls are nothing more than wives for other people’s sons.” And so begins the story of Hai, her mother and her sisters. When the communist revolution comes to their area, the girls and their mom are left behind by their wealthy landowning family with only a vague promise to return for them. Enemies of the communists because of the family’s wealth and importance, the girls and their mother are evicted with no money or food as enemies of the people. Hai, the eldest daughter not yet a teen, narrates this compelling, barely fictionalized account of the journey by foot through China toward Taiwan. The girls come alive on the pages as their harrowing tale is told. Chung relates the story of her grandmother with deftness and empathy. Although filled with danger, poverty, and continuing disasters, the story offers hope, resilience, love and the power of faith and kindness. Readers will learn much about the Communist takeover of China and the ravages war brings to a peasant population. Book groups will have many topics for discussion from foot binding to the importance of education. I highly recommend this book 5 of 5 stars

DEVIL MAKES THREE by Ben Fountain

I very much disliked this book. It was too long by at least 100 pages. It was too disjointed as time, place, and characters jumped from page to page, even paragraph to paragraph with not even a line break to give the reader a clue to the jump. There was too much incomprehensible talk among the characters about Haitian politics and too many untranslated French words, phrases and sentences for this German speaking American. I knew little about Haitian politics before I read this book and I am still in the dark. I often felt I needed to stop reading and consult Wikipedia’s version of Haitian history. Parts of the book were interesting and well written. One blurb writer called this book “a fast, riveting read. A gripping thriller…” he must have read a different book. This book was a struggle to get through the first hundred pages before the characters and plot started to become clear. I would have enjoyed a 300 page book of Matt and Alix’s treasure hunting adventures much more. I found Audrey/Shelly simply too confusing to like or dislike or to follow her part in the story. Matt had an interesting ethical dilemma. Alix apparently had no problems in the ethical field at all. His sister chose and was in that way my favorite character. 4 stars for the writing: 3 stars for the plot and length.