A man stumbles getting out of a boat, hits his head and drowns. Was it an accident or premeditated murder? So begins the latest "Inspector Lynley" novel by Elizabeth George, Believing the Lie.
The death is ruled an accident but Lynley is asked to come to Cumbria anyway to carry out an undercover investigation. He asks his dear friends Simon and Deborah St. James to accompany him. While trying to investigate the death, the three of them manage to uncover all sorts of secrets.
Though it's a long book (600 pages), it's a good story and a relatively quick read.
The one thing I didn't like was that Lynley's usual sidekick, the truly memorable Barbara Havers, was left behind in London to carry out background research on the case. I love the relationship between Lynley and Havers, which was mostly carried out via telephone in this book. What I did like was the subplot involving Barbara her neighbor, Azhar, his young daughter and the girl's mother, who suddenly reappeared at the end of the previous novel with motives unclear.
If you've been enjoying the previous books in the series, you will like this one.
If you are unfamiliar with Elizabeth George, start at the beginning with A Great Deliverance.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Friday, February 10, 2012
Break Down by Sara Paretsky
I generally like the V.I. Warshawski novels but Break Down was not my favorite. The plot was way too convoluted and there wasn't enough time spent with V.I.'s old friends Max & Lotty or her boyfriend Jake--which would have been a nice break from this bizarre case.
Break Down starts with a bunch of girls having a ceremony for shape shifters in an old cemetery one night then wanders on to atrocities in Lithuania during World War II, strange goings on in a mental hospital, a nasty political campaign, a manipulative media star, a couple of vindictive brothers,a friend in a coma, blackmail and on and on. Sara Paretsky does manage to tie everything up by the end. But it was a little hard to keep track of everything and everyone.
I made it to the end of Break Down but was a little disappointed on the whole.
Break Down starts with a bunch of girls having a ceremony for shape shifters in an old cemetery one night then wanders on to atrocities in Lithuania during World War II, strange goings on in a mental hospital, a nasty political campaign, a manipulative media star, a couple of vindictive brothers,a friend in a coma, blackmail and on and on. Sara Paretsky does manage to tie everything up by the end. But it was a little hard to keep track of everything and everyone.
I made it to the end of Break Down but was a little disappointed on the whole.
Movie review: The Vow
I was just in the mood for a chick flick and there haven't been a lot of those out lately, so I went to see The Vow. It was neither great nor terrible. Rachel McAdams was better suited to her part than Channing Tatum. She has such an expressive face while he came off as kind of wooden. I also thought Jessica Lange seemed to have wandered in from the set of another movie. And speaking of miscasts, if the filmmakers wanted to film in Toronto, why not just set the movie in Toronto and not say it's Chicago? I almost laughed out loud at the scene where Channing's character is standing on the terrace of a house supposedly in Lake Forest (which is miles north of Chicago)and can see the Chicago skyline.
In a nutshell, the movie is about a happily married couple whose car gets hit by a truck one snowy night. She wakes up with a brain injury and no memory of her husband or their life together. Indeed, she thinks it's five years earlier, when she was living in the suburbs, on a totally different career path--and engaged to someone else. He, with Job-like patience, tries to get her to either regain her memories or fall in love with him all over again.
If you're in the mood for fluff, it's not a bad option. But I think it would have been a better movie with a different male lead.
In a nutshell, the movie is about a happily married couple whose car gets hit by a truck one snowy night. She wakes up with a brain injury and no memory of her husband or their life together. Indeed, she thinks it's five years earlier, when she was living in the suburbs, on a totally different career path--and engaged to someone else. He, with Job-like patience, tries to get her to either regain her memories or fall in love with him all over again.
If you're in the mood for fluff, it's not a bad option. But I think it would have been a better movie with a different male lead.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
11/22/63 by Stephen King
Jake Epping is a schoolteacher in Maine. One day, his dying friend Al shows Jake a portal for time travel. Al insists that Jake go back and stop John Kennedy from being assassinated in Dallas in 1963. And so begins the spellbinding 11/22/63.
Be forewarned that this book is LONG (almost 850 pages). I spent a couple of really late nights getting bleary-eyed reading because it had to go back to the library. But once you get into it, you can't put it down.
Jake is an appealing protagonist. He's an "everyman" sort of guy who figures out how to start a new life in the past, track Lee Harvey Oswald, come up with a plan to stop him--and even find true love. And he never loses his compassion or his conscience.
I liked how clearly Stephen King depicted life in Texas around 1960. And how he considered the implications of time travel--and how changing the past could have a major and unexpected impact on the future.
If you've got a long flight coming up, this would be the perfect traveling companion.
Be forewarned that this book is LONG (almost 850 pages). I spent a couple of really late nights getting bleary-eyed reading because it had to go back to the library. But once you get into it, you can't put it down.
Jake is an appealing protagonist. He's an "everyman" sort of guy who figures out how to start a new life in the past, track Lee Harvey Oswald, come up with a plan to stop him--and even find true love. And he never loses his compassion or his conscience.
I liked how clearly Stephen King depicted life in Texas around 1960. And how he considered the implications of time travel--and how changing the past could have a major and unexpected impact on the future.
If you've got a long flight coming up, this would be the perfect traveling companion.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
The Leopard by Jo Nesbo
I love this series featuring flawed but brilliant Norwegian detective Harry Hole.
No matter how much of a mess his personal life is--and it's frequently a huge mess--Harry will doggedly pursue the bad guy. The Leopard starts with Harry alone in Hong Kong, drinking, doing drugs and staying under the radar because of gambling debts.He's still dealing with the aftermath of the Snowman case and the loss of his beloved Rakel. A Norwegian cop named Kaja comes looking for Harry because there may be another serial killer at work at home and Harry is clearly the best man for the job.
The book takes alot of unexpected twists and turns, so you can't stop reading. Along with the murders, there is a big power struggle going on among the police, which Harry gets caught in the middle of--and which impedes his efforts to solve the crime.
Jo Nesbo gives a good sense of place. Both the Norwegian and Congo settings leave a vivid impression. And features of each landscape are crucial to the plot.
Do be warned, however, that there is a lot of violence in The Leopard.
No matter how much of a mess his personal life is--and it's frequently a huge mess--Harry will doggedly pursue the bad guy. The Leopard starts with Harry alone in Hong Kong, drinking, doing drugs and staying under the radar because of gambling debts.He's still dealing with the aftermath of the Snowman case and the loss of his beloved Rakel. A Norwegian cop named Kaja comes looking for Harry because there may be another serial killer at work at home and Harry is clearly the best man for the job.
The book takes alot of unexpected twists and turns, so you can't stop reading. Along with the murders, there is a big power struggle going on among the police, which Harry gets caught in the middle of--and which impedes his efforts to solve the crime.
Jo Nesbo gives a good sense of place. Both the Norwegian and Congo settings leave a vivid impression. And features of each landscape are crucial to the plot.
Do be warned, however, that there is a lot of violence in The Leopard.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Gun Games by Fay Kellerman
I like this series featuring LA cop Peter Decker and his wife Rina, of which Gun Games is the latest. And I liked the basic plot of this one--which starts off with the death of a student from a tony prep school. Was it a suicide? Accident? Homicide? The boy's distraught mother asks Peter to investigate and he and the cops discover a whole lot of unsavory goings on going on at the school. The plot I could have used less of involved the budding romance between piano prodigy/Decker foster child Gabe and his girlfriend Yasmine. I liked both of those characters but there were WAY too many pages spent on their sneaking around to be together and on seemingly every text they ever sent to each other. I would have preferred more of the Decker family and/or the cop stuff and less teen love. (And I'm not sure why Faye Kellerman devoted so much of the book to those two characters and their forbidden love. I don't imagine that 14 year olds are the target audience for this book.)
Anyway, good book, but not the best in the series.
Anyway, good book, but not the best in the series.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
The Hunter by John Lescroart
Wyatt Hunt runs a successful private investigation agency in San Francisco. He's always known that he was adopted but knew nothing about his birth parents. One day, he gets a mysterious text message asking him if he knows what happened to his (birth) mother.
So starts The Hunter--and I'll admit it, I couldn't put it down.
Wyatt has no clue who sent the text message--or indeed who his real parents were. But he's a good PI and he starts tracking down clues. There are long-lost relatives, possible suicides that probably aren't, travel to exotic places like Indianapolis, even a tie-in to Jim Jones and the massacre in Guyana. All in all, it's quite the page-turner.
So starts The Hunter--and I'll admit it, I couldn't put it down.
Wyatt has no clue who sent the text message--or indeed who his real parents were. But he's a good PI and he starts tracking down clues. There are long-lost relatives, possible suicides that probably aren't, travel to exotic places like Indianapolis, even a tie-in to Jim Jones and the massacre in Guyana. All in all, it's quite the page-turner.
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