CBR 13 # 17 In A Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

It's one of those books where the "mysterious events of the past" are mysterious only because the narrator isn't telling you about it.  

Leonora, 26 years old is a crime author and lives a solitary and lonely life.  Then, she receives an email from a woman she does not know, inviting her to a "hen party" for a friend she has not spoken to for a long time.  But she goes.  This hen party is for the wedding of Leonora's childhood friend Clare.  A wedding which she was not invited to.  It's held in a modern glass house in the middle on the woods with four other of the bride-to-be's friends.  Of course, there are mysterious happenings, secrets unravelled, and maybe a little murder?  Okay, you know there's a murder since the book opens in the present time then Leonora is in the hospital with injuries and the police have told her that somebody has died.  But she does not remember what happened.  So it goes back and forth between the present time and flashbacks to the hen party events.

You have to suspend a lot of disbelief with these random thrillers/ psychological mysteries with big twists.  But the way the characters act are so far from how a normal person would act that I just can't.  The heroine is, to put it bluntly, a bit pathetic.  She is hung up on the first and only boyfriend that she had when she was 16.  And the main incident that led to her sad life could have been avoided by a single text.  And that's also the incident that led to the whole series of events years later.  And the motivations are so questionable.  She's just not a very compelling lead character to me.

Par for course in these kinds of books, it is thankfully short and quick.  Of course you want to hurry up and find then end to the mystery.  But you know what?  I didn't even care enough to take guesses and try to figure stuff out like I usually do when reading these kinds of books.  It was a bit boring.  I didn't like it.  Oh, and contrary to marketing, it was not scary at all and the woods weren't really a huge part of the story.  Just for a little bit of atmosphere.  It could have happened at a remote farmhouse or something like that.

CBR 13 # 10 The Other Woman by Sandie Jones

It has been around two weeks since I've finished this book and frankly, its taking me some time to conjure up details of the book.  Not to say that it's bad, maybe just a bit generic?  Even the title and the author name is generic (sorry Sandie Jones) I'm sure I've read a lot of psychological thrillers like this.  You know that ones where the bad guy could be anyone, and there is definitely a *SPOILER ALERT* big twist or some misunderstanding.  This one book just hangs along the with the rest of them and does not really rise above.

Emily met the man of her dreams.  Adam seems to be the perfect man. His brother James is also perfect (maybe too perfect) but his mother Pammie is the mother in law from hell.  And he seems unhealthily attached to her.  But Emily is never really sure that her Pammie is actually being horrible.  Everyone seems to think she is wonderful.  What  is up with all that?

Like I said above, it is a serviceable psychological thriller and it is a function of the genre that they must be compulsively readable, even if just to confirm if your theory is correct.  In that sense, it is a success.  However, I think it fails in giving is a heroine that is fully characterized.  Her characterization is very superficial.  I know nothing of her except that her ex fiance cheated on her and she is super in love with Adam.  And she makes some fairly stupid choices.  But I do appreciate that unlike most books like this, her bestfriends and her family completely believe her, even when her assertions seem paranoid at times.  So that's a plus.  Makes it less frustrating to read. Anyway, it's not bad for what it is, just a bit forgettable.

CBR 12 #3 Before I Say Good-bye by Mary Higgins Clark

Our local used bookstore chain (Booksale) is littered with Mary Higgins Clark books.  Somehow, in the hours I spent in those stores (all branches), I never thought to pick up the works of the "Queen of Suspense".  My sister is a very different reader than me and our bookshelves rarely intersect.  It was snobby of me but I tended to think of the books she reads as "easier" to read.  Still having the vision problems due to the autoimmune disease that I have, I have taken to raiding her bookshelves for these "easy books" when I'm having trouble focusing on more serious stuff.  Quick reads to the rescue when I am falling behind on my Cannonball reads.

Nell MacDermott. is an orphan (whose parents died in an airplane crash) brought up and groomed by her powerful congressman grandfather to be his successor. But tragedy finds her a second time when her self-made architect husband of three years, Adam Cauliff seemingly blows up and dies in an explosion on his boat, along with 3 other people he was working with on an important new development.  Of course, things are not as they seem.  Allegations and suspicions against her husband regarding corrupt building practices may not only destroy her chances of becoming a congressman, but also her loving memories.  So Nell tries to figure it out.  Who blew up the boat? Was her husband corrupt?  Is he even dead?  

The characterizations, expectedly, is not the focus.  I would imagine that the Queen of Suspense is about plot, plot, plot.  I don't really get much of a sense of who Nell is, as a person really.  But I did appreciate that in the first fourth of the book, it made me vacillate between thinking that Adam was the bad guy  No, it's the secretary.  No, it's the grandfather, No, it's the business partner.  But by the middle of the book, I basically knew how it was going to end.  Even the supposed "twist".  It also did not really deliver on the supernatural elements other than Nell being slightly psychic and able to feel when her parents and grandmother died, and some premonitions.  And a psychic medium.  There is also, a luckluster love interest that I feel was tacked on just for the sake of having a love interest.l  Why did that have to happen?  I don't think that's really necessary in a mystery, especially one where our lead was just newly widowed.  It made a not particularly realistic story even more unrealistic when the love interest (who Nell met randomly) is ALSO somehow connected to the case, albeit in a tangential manner.

So.  It was, indeed a quick read.  It did not merit paying close attention, really, I just speed read through it and don't think I missed anything.  Useful for getting myself out of a reading slump but pretty meh overall.  

CBR 12 #2 The Trespasser by (Dublin Murder Squad No. 6) by Tana French

When I like a book, I have the tendency to obsessively read everything the author has ever wrote.  Such was the case after I read In the Woods by Tana French.  I loved the atmosphere, the mystery, and especially the characters.  I of course, read all the Tana French books I could find.  When I was going through the epub files in my laptop to find a quick read, I was pleasantly surprised to find a French book I haven't read yet.  Or have I?This is still set in the same Dublin Murder Squad as most of the French books are.

The books are not strict sequels to each other but have a shared universe.  Minor characters in a book basically have spin offs and become major characters in the next book.  This particular book focused on Detectives Antoinette Conway and Stephen Moran, who were also characters in the previous book, The Secret Place.  In the secret place, Moran was the main character while The Trespassed focuses on Conway.

Conway and Moran are partners in the Murder Squad (the newests members).  Moran is mild mannered and likeable.  Conway is another matter altogether.  She is of mixed race and had a difficult childhood.  An incident early in her tenure at the Squad had her feeling ostracized and she felt that everyone in the squad except for Moran was after her.  She is prickly and distrustful, building walls and never letting anyone in completely, not even her partner.  In fact, the bullying she felt at the squad was so bad that she was contemplating leaving.

The murder of a young woman, with very little physical evidence but a very good suspect seemed routing at first but suspicions that their perfect suspect seemed too perfect would turn their investigation in different direction.  Gangs, disappeared fathers, and even one of their own.  The case provides not only a good mystery to solve, but an opportunity for Conway for self discovery and growth.

Reading the book, I was struck by how familiar the Squad drama was and even remembered the ending to the drama.  However, while the murder was familiar, I could not remember the end at all.  In the end, I decided that I have read the book before but completely forgot abour it.  I don't know if that says something about the book or myself.  But seriously, Conway is a bit of a struggle to get to like.  She is super prickly and even a tad paranoid.  The story was ok, if a but implausible, but well, aren't all her books, really?  Fortunately they are saved by good writing and characterization.   This is my least favorite among the Murder Squad books that I've read.

CBR V # 4 - Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Nick and Amy Dunne  moved to Missouri after years of gallavanting in New York.  

The novel starts off with a first person narrative from Nick Dunne, who is suspicious as fuck.  He is constantly hinting upon a secret, and how he's not a good guy and how his wife disgusts him.  Even sounding incest-y (or maybe just too much reddit for me).  I mean, I really got into disliking the guy.  Anyway, it's their anniversary (I forgot which number) and he discovers his wife is gone. The house is ransacked (like there has been a struggle) and his wife is just.. GONE.

The book then inserts excerpts from his Amy Dunne's diary, narrating their meet-cute up to the days prior to the disappearance.   Her entries also appear to make nick look guilty as hell, and it contradicts his present-time narration.  By this time in the book, you get start to get an inkling bout what's really going on.  

*spoilers*

Then the books includes Amy's present day narration.  No, she's not dead.  She is just simply evil and manipulative and one sick fuck.  She is scary. Turns out she had this convoluted plot to make Nick pay for his adultery.  She has some serious psychological issues.  Not surprising since she is the inspiration for a children's book series about a perfect little girl named Amazing Amy authored by her therapist parents.

*end spoilers

I really enjoyed the book as a psychological thriller.  The characters weren't particularly likeable (not even Nick) so the author was very successful in making you doubt everybody.  Who was really telling the truth?  All the characters were interesting, not just the main ones.  And the ending was brutal.  Not in a gory, kill everybody way.  Just, brutal.  Suspenseful and mysterious.  I liked it a lot.

# 40 The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

During the 14th century, during the time that the Catholic church was divided about the controversy of Apostolic poverty, Franciscan friar William of Baskerville , with his an accompanying novice, Adso of Melk, travelled to a monastery in Italy, namely to attend a talk between the two sides of the controversy. However, once there, some suspicious deaths prompt the abbott to ask assistance from William, him being known to have superior intellect, in solving such murders.

The book is primarily a mystery, but is much more than that. William and Adso quite obviously reference Sherlock Holmes and Watson. William uses deductive reasoning to solve stuff. It also has extensive discussions about theology, the afore mentioned issue on Apostolic poverty, the different Catholic orders at the time, and the two popes. It paints a great picture of the Catholic Church, its policies, its politics and beliefs during the medieval period. It actually led me to want to learn more about that topic. As a mystery, it also works pretty wall. It is absorbing, puzzling and quite thrilling at times.

Overall, a great book which I loved and will probably join the prestigious ranks of one of my favourites. hah.

# 23 - The Reunion by Sue Walker

Seven teens meet and spend a few months at a progressive adolescent psychiatric unit. Twenty-seven years later, most of them are living their own mostly successful lives, trying their damnedest to forget that they were ever mental cases, studiously avoiding contact with each other. That is, until a phone call comes for Innes, the last teenager to join that batch of patients. Innes ignored the phone call, despite Isabella being one of her closest friends at the Unit. A few days later, Isabella is found dead, supposedly by suicide. Innes finds out that another patient, Danny has also recently died by drowning, and another almost died by a fire and is now semi comatose.

Innes, sensing a connection between the deaths, investigate the mystery of why her co-patients at the Unit are dying. The narrative goes back and forth between the present and 1977. There is also a narrative that is chronologically behind the "main character's" point of view.

Naturally, the kids are hiding a secret, a dark, huge and stomach clenching secret. Innes is actually the most out of the loop out of all of the former former patients. I guess this was necessary to make her not guilty of what the others did, but it was weird to have a main character not really have anything to do with the happenings, except that she knew the people.

The book is suspenseful and fast moving and fairly unpredictable. There were some twists that I did not anticipate. It attempted to flesh out normally "evil" characters, like the former teen sex offender, which I almost felt sympathy for. However, the secret was truly horrible, made me queasy, and totally erased all the sympathy I might have had for the characters involved.

# 10 River Rats by Caroline Stevermer

I like YA fiction. I also really like post-apocalyptic fiction. I also really, really like rock n roll. But somehow, this book which combines the three is not really doing it for me.

It's post-apocalyptic America,where the population has been drastically reduced by an event the characters call the Flash, and further so by the pestilence, which kills quickly and terribly. Some cities survive, as well as small pockets of civilization, as do the Wild Boys, a band of kids who live in the infected wastelands, immune to the pestilence.

The River Rats are a group of kids living in a paddle wheel steamboat. Too rebellious to live in cities which must necessarily have a lot of rules in order to survive, but too level headed and organized to be wild boys. They go up and down the Mississippi, delivering mail, providing news and staging rock concerts in exchange for clean food and water. Life is almost routine for these kids (as routine as post-apocalyptic America can be), and they are surviving pretty well as a family. However, they encounter some excitement when they rescue King, an adult being chased by scary big guys,the Lesters, an unsavory family controlling a village. And so starts their adventure. Being chased, held captive and so on...

The story is told from the viewpoint of one of the rats, Tomcat. He is perhaps, the most irresponsible and "wild" of all the rats, but he's a good kid. They all are, actually, acting as family for one another in a world where family is scarce.

It is an exciting adventure story with interesting backdrop. The author's imagination of society after the apocalypse is pretty good with the aforementioned enclaves or good places, as the rats call it, amidst the destruction.

Why didn't I like it? I don't know, it just didn't speak to me. I mean, I don't hate it, I'm just meh about it. I guess it is a pretty good YA adventure, just not for me.

# 6 - The Killer's Cousin by Nancy Werlin

The Killer's Cousin is the story of a teenager (David) who had been tried for the killing of his girlfriend. Although he was acquitted, life was not, and could never be the same. David moves to Massachusetts to live with his mother's semi-estranged brother and his wife and daughter to escape the constant scrutiny and persecution in his home town. To give him a new life, so to speak. But life is anything but good in his new home. He is lonely, his aunt and uncle don't talk, and his 11 year old cousin Lily is uber creepy.

So, is Lily a budding sociopath or just a weird lonely kid with issues? Was David rightly acquitted or did he really kill his girlfriend. Some questions are answered and some not, but one thing is certain, this is one creepy book. Lily can get quite scary for an eleven year old, and I was always scared that David would snap and do something horrible.

But the end is quite surprising. I was expecting it to be the typical "evil kid"/bad seed sort of thing, but it was actually quite touching and unexpected.

The Killer's Cousin is about guilt, and forgiving one's self. And the importance of family and having someone there for you. i quite enjoyed the book. Thrilling and unexpected. It did, however, seem very YA and the adult reader may not enjoy it as much as its intended audience.