Faceless Killers (Wallander Mystery)

By Henning Mankell

Kurt Wallander, a Swedish detective, is called out to a small farmhouse.  There he finds an elderly couple, the husband beaten to death, and the wife left to die with a noose around her neck.  Before she dies, the wife says the word "foreign" over &over again. Why would anyone want to kill these old people in such a brutal way?  Were foreign refugees really to blame for all this violence?

Can't say I loved or hated this book.  The main story was good, but something was lost in the translation.  Why I needed to know that Wallander had roaring diarrhea after every lunch still baffles me...

Mrs. Pollifax Pursued

By Dorothy Gilman

Mrs. Pollifax discovers Kadi Hopkirk, a young girl who has been hiding in her hall closet. After hearing a weird story of Kadi running from kidnappers, and seeing a suspicious white van driving up & down the street for hours, Mrs. Pollifax jumps to the rescue. A phone call helicopter ride later, Mrs. Pollifax and Kadi go undercover at a circus until they can figure what's going on.

I like series that you can jump in the middle of and not be completely confused.  Good thing this storyline is good, because I had no idea this was number eleven.

Thyme of Death (China Bayles Mystery)

By Susan Wittig Albert

China Bayles, a former lawyer, now owns the Thyme and Seasons Herb Shop in Pecan Springs, Texas. She's trying to escape the tension and headaches of her old job, but stress comes in different forms. Now, her good friend Jo has killed herself.  When another death happens, China starts to think the maybe someone killed Jo as well. She's smart around people, and knows her way around the law, so this is the first mystery heroine in a while that didn't stumble around until she figured out whodunit.

The Lottery and Other Stories

By Shirley Jackson

Originally written in 1948, The Lottery is a perfect example of post WWII paranoia.  No one trusts anyone, nor should they, as a town is gathered for their annual lottery.

The title story is terrific. The more I read of the rest of the stories, the more bored and/or disgusted I became.  I stopped reading about halfway through, so who knows what else I missed, but I was tired of wasting my time.

Bloodborne

By Gregg Luke

Ubersmart Dr. Erin Cross sits in a deli, receiving mysterious, threatening text messages right before a man starts shooting the place up.  She escapes unharmed, thanks to Sean Flannery, a former Marine.  If the shooter meant to kill her, why did he kill himself instead?  Erin & Sean eventually go into hiding together, as Sean inexplicably tries to keep Erin alive.

Such a jumbled storyline.  While Erin & Sean are hiding in the Utah desert, a mad scientist is trying to unleash a strain of killer mosquitoes on a small island in Hawaii.  Convoluted bio-terrorism at its finest.

Engaged to Die

By Carolyn Hart

On the night of Virginia and Jake's engagement party, Jake goes missing and is later found murdered.  Bookstore owner Annie Darling is drawn into the investigation, since her clerk is also in love with the victim.  But while she's trying to solve the murder, a stalker is watching her every move.

Blech. Maybe it's due to an overload of mysteries, but this book was horribly stupid.  'Nuff said.

The Woman in Black: A Ghost Story

By Susan Hill

Arthur Kipps is a young lawyer sent to Crythin Gifford to settle the estate of recently deceased Alice Drablow.  No one will talk about her or her house, Eel House, but Kipps knows that something is horribly wrong.  His routine business trip turns into a nightmare, as Kipps is haunted by a child's cry, strange noises in the fog, and a mysterious woman in black.

Although this story was written in the 1980's, the style is more like a Sherlock Holmes novel.  It lent a nice historical touch, although some may think it's hard to follow.  I knew what was coming at the end, and kept hoping I was wrong.  Then I was disappointed that the author skimped on the details, leaving tension and feeling out when I wanted it the most.

The Shape Shifter

By Tony Hillerman

Navajo Tribal Police Lt. Joe Leaphorn is newly retired, and still not ready to give up cases.  An old friend asks for his help finding out about a cursed Navajo story rug supposedly destroyed but recently photographed in a magazine.  The friend disappears shortly afterward, which adds to Leaphorn's curiosity.

This story was pretty convoluted... lots of back and forth, which made it hard to follow.  However, the ending was harder to predict than a usual Hillerman book, which was a pleasant surprise.

Talking God

By Tony Hillerman

While Joe Leaphorn tries to identify a body found murdered in the desert, Jim Chee is arresting an attention hound for desecrating whites' graves.  The man, Henry Hightower, is a Smithsonian curator who wants thousands of Native American bones returned to their tribes.  Somehow, the dead man and Hightower are connected, and Leaphorn and Chee attack the case from their own angles to solve the crimes.

Hightower claimed to have a Navajo grandmother, yet he secretly recorded chants and didn't even know how to dress like a "regular Indian", preferring to copy the Hollywood version.  He also never needed to prove his heritage, which was strange, especially since he was blond.  I never believed the altruistic side of Hightower, which made the story unbelievable. Plus, they threw in this weird story arc about Chilean leftists that was only partially explained.  But I always like when Leaphorn & Chee are working together. Not Hillerman's best, but good.

Coyote Waits

By Tony Hillerman

Officer Jim Chee waits to have a cup of coffee with Delbert Nez, unaware that the other officer has been killed.  Chee arrives on the scene in time to pull Nez from his burning patrol car, then find an old drunk walking in the road with a bottle and the murder weapon.  Feeling guilty about not helping his fellow officer, Chee investigates the case, trying to find out why the old man would kill Nez.

Lt. Joe Leaphorn is also helping the suspect's family, who thinks the old man is innocent.  But if he didn't kill him, who did?

The only reason I would give for NOT liking this book is that Chee has such bad intuition about romance.  I know he lives out in the middle of nowhere, but why crush on someone that works in the defender's office?  They will always be on opposite sides!  It distracted me from the mystery, because I kept thinking "Here we go again -- another hopeless mess like his last girlfriend."  I guess that's why he's also stupid enough not to provide backup to another officer. 

The Power of Six

By Pittacus Lore

John Smith, aka Number Four, is still running from the Mogs, with the help of his best friend, Sam, and Number Six.  They are also accused of being terrorists after escaping the town of Paradise, Ohio, where the Mogs found them and the resulting battle destroyed the high school and killed 5 innocent people.

Meanwhile, Marina, or Number Seven, is in hiding in a small Spanish convent.  She knows about John and his friends from the internet, and is intent of finding them.  But she also has Mogs chasing her, and has no idea how to get to America, or how to use her "legacy" powers.

I really enjoyed the first book, I Am Number Four, so I was disappointed by this book.  John & his friends just move around randomly, living in abandoned houses and miraculously finding transportation without a lot of effort.  If they are so "wanted", why is it so easy for them to move around?  Also, the whole love triangle was awkward and kind of pointless.  The action towards the end was good... it felt like there was finally some plot line,  and I enjoyed the alternate story-lines between John and Marina.  The ending saved this book.

Into Thin Air

By Jon Krakauer

The author describes his 1996 Everest climb, in which eight climbers died.  A series of bad weather and small errors could have killed the entire expedition, especially since some of the climbers were not as fit for the climb as they maybe should have been.  The story also includes a rough history of why Everest is still known as "the ultimate climb".

Not really my first choice for reading material, but I was sucked into the humanity of the story.  However, the author is one of the few to survive, so he doesn't have a lot of people around to contradict him.  While it's true that the story demonstrates all the little mistakes that lead to huge consequences, which is typical of real life, I have trouble with him placing all of the blame on one person.  Climbing Everest has turned into a part of people's bucket list, and is not taken as seriously.  Plus, the weather turned bad without warning, so it seems flippant to blame the guides for every mistake.  I've read other books by Krakauer, and while I enjoyed them, I still don't believe everything he writes --- in fact, I rarely agree with his opinions.

The Heat of the Moon

By Sarah Parshall

Veterinarian Rachel Goddard has a panicky flashback when a child's dog is injured.  Is she just imagining her sister as a child, crying and terrified during a rainstorm?  Her mother sees no reason to discuss the past, and no reason to talk about their dead father.  When Rachel tries to discover the truth on her own, her manipulative mother does everything she can to stop her.  Only Luke, Rachel's boss, seems to sympathize and support her, which only turns Rachel's mother & sister against him.  But Rachel has no idea what she is about to uncover about her family.

This was kind of a cross between Mommie Dearest meets James Herriot. Weird combination, but it works.  There are the inevitable plot holes, but the characters were interesting and the story suspenseful.  I just kept wondering why she keep her revelations from her sister --- every time she talked to her, she either flipped out, or ran & told their mother.  Rachel could have saved herself a lot of grief by leaving her sister out of the loop.