THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO - Stieg Larsson, narr Martin Wenner

From the back of the BOCD: A spellbinding amalgam of murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue.

It's about the disappearance forty years ago of Harriet Vanger, a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden...and about her octogenarian uncle, determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder.

It's about Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently at the wrong end of a libel case, hired to get to the bottom of Harriet's disappearance...and about Lisbeth Salander, a twenty-four-year-old pierced and tattooed genius hacker possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age who assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, astonishing corruption in the highest echelons of Swedish industrialism, and an unexpected connection between themselves.

Contagiously exciting, it's about society at its most hidden, and about the intimate livesof a brilliantly realized cast of characters, all of them forced to face the darker aspects of their world and of their own lives.

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My sister sent the audibook to me for Christmas a year ago and it's been on Mt Git'r'Read ever since. I have absolutely no idea why I waited so long, but I did. I read so many fab reviews that I knew it was time....that and I didn't have any audiobooks from RecordedBooks since I've been mowing through them the last week or so. I pulled it off the shelf last week and listened to it at work. WOW! It was a superb book to listen to and I cannot wait to listen to the other two.

The book does start slow, as I'd been warned it would, but when it picked up, it SMOKED! It's a well told mystery that's actually several mysteries going on throughout. My favorite character is Lisbeth Salander. She's tough and smart, with a big ol' chip on her shoulder, but I think it's a well deserved chip.

There are scenes that are not for the faint of heart whatsoever. I even had to grit down and take a walk after listening to one particularly horrific scene.

It is very sad that the world has to make do with only three of Stieg Larsson's books. He died just after he submitted his three manuscripts in 2004.

Five absolutely outstanding Swedish beans....

CHILE DEATH - Susan Wittig Albert

From the back of the book: China Bayles is looking forward to the annual chili cook-off in Pecan Springs. And when the event arrives, she takes along her fiance, giving both of them a nice break from China's visiting (i.e. meddling ) mother. But then cook-off judge Jerry Jeff Cody dies of allergic reaction --to a peanut. Everyone knows peanuts don't belong in a bowl of Texas chili...and China knows something suspicious is afoot. Now, with rumors flying about foul play--and whispered stories about Jerry Jeff's womanizing ways--things are heating up all over.....

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Just when I think I've read my favorite China Bayles mystery, I read one more that is just about perfect to take its place...INDIGO DYING is going to be my favorite for a little while longer, but this one is a very close second. I always learn a ton of fab info from this series and this one was all about chiles in all forms, hot icing on the mystery that keeps the reader guessing throughout. China admits her foibles and her strengths. I like how human she is. I love the relationship between China and McQuaid, it's like a real couple with arguments and love and friendship.

Ruby is my favorite character, still. She is who I want to be when I grow up....she's colorful, smart, and funny.

Five smokin' hot beans.....

DEAD MARCH: A Civil War Mystery - Ann McMillan

From the back of the book: The opening salvo in a series that will delight mystery fans and Civil War buffs alike.

It's the spring of 1861 and the War Between the States is in its infancy. That's not to say Richmond, Virginia is free of vilent death, however, as two astute and courageous women soon discover. Narcissa Powers, a young white widow, and Judah Daniel, a free black herbalist and conjure woman, try to solve the murder of a young slave woman whose body was unearthed by graverobbers along with the mysterious silk scarf that casts suspicion on the circumstances of her death--and leads to more victims. As the War's casualties begin to pour into the city and the "Dead March" echoes through the Richmond streets, Narcissa and Judah, aided by an eager young British war correspondent, must risk their own lives to discover the killer--or killers--and to save the life of an innocent child.

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I expected to enjoy reading this Civil War mystery, but I had no idea how much I'd look forward to the time I could spend with the characters. Narcissa is a strong-willed woman, not in a aggressive way, but in a well-mannered way. Southern women are to be cherished, but she is a widow and hasn't a place in the world until her sister-in-law, Mirrie, asks her to help her with running of the house so that Mirrie can assist her invalid father with his work. This gives Narcissa a purpose in life as well as the opportunity to investigate the cause of what she is sure is the murder of her brother.

Judah Daniel is cautious with her dealings with Narcissa, but they work well together as they can in the South during the time of the Civil War. I liked learning about the plants she chose for her medicines and what she grew in her garden. I enjoyed watching the relationship build between the two women.

This is a very well written mystery story and I was taken aback by the whodunnit. It made sense, but it was startling.

I am very glad that this is a series. I have the third in the series, CIVIL BLOOD, and I am looking for ANGEL TRUMPET, second in the series. Ideally I'll read the series in order. Keep your fingers crossed.

Five shivery Southern beans.....

LIE DOWN WITH THE DEVIL - Linda Barnes, narr C J Critt

It's been way too long since I've read or listened to a book from the Carlotta Carlyle series and I don't know why it's taken me so long to get back. The last one I read was THE BIG DIG and I wasn't overly enamoured of it, so that might be the reason for hesitancy. No matter, I read great reviews for this one and it went on my RecordedBooks wishlist. I am glad that I did, I was not disappointed. A little startled halfway through when Carlotta stopped telling the story and Mooney picks up when Carlotta goes to ground after being accused of a hit and run murder. To the best of my recollection, the books have always been told through Carlotta's voice and it took me a little (creature of habit that I am) to catch up and like the new eyeballs. Just after I got really comfy with Mooney, Carlotta took up the viewpoint again.

Carlotta is hired by a woman to follow the woman's fiance on a Friday night. She has suspicions that he might be unfaithful and wants to make sure before going ahead with the wedding. As in all good mysteries, all is not as it seems on the surface. Carlotta's client is found dead, a victim of a hit&run. Carlotta is a prime suspect after more and more coincidences start to surface.

To say more would be to reveal some spoilers of this honkin' fab story. It's my favorite of the twelve so far in the series. The narrator, CJ Critt, is the perfect gritty voice of Carlotta. I can't think of anyone else who would fit the bill.

Four Boston beans.......

BLOODSTREAM - Tess Gerritsen, BOT

There is something not right in Tranquility, Maine. Dr Claire Elliot and her son have moved to this small town to start over after the death of Claire's husband and the trouble that her son, Noah, has been getting into in their old city of Baltimore. But not all is as it should be in the town. Patients are slow to come to see Dr Claire, Noah is getting into trouble, through not much fault of his own, in school. Violent fights, vandalism, and murder have attacked this town, mostly in the school.
What is causing this outbreak? There's talk of Satanism, witches, cursed lakefront property... Claire is at a loss what to do, but she knows she has to find the answer, especially as it looks like her son may be affected.
DH wasn't crazy about this one on our work commute the last couple of weeks, but I liked it. I have read Gerritsen before (and liked her), I know that her books are full of characters that you empathize with, completely hate with a vengeance, there aren't many in between characters. I can feel myself wanting to reach inside the tape player and hit some of the characters. I have to console myself that the crapweasels will get theirs in the end.

Four what-the-hell-is-in-the-water beans......

THE GATEKEEPER - Michelle Gagnon, draft copy

I volunteered last week.....I rarely if ever volunteer having been in the Air Force for 22 years (retired lo these last five years), but I saw a fab opportunity on Friday when I read the request from Michelle Gagnon, author of THE TUNNELS and BONE YARD. She was on one of the Suspense and Thrillers group on Shelfari, requesting a Beta reader for her draft of her latest book, THE GATEKEEPER. I jumped right in and emailed her my participation. I then read the part where she would ideally like to have it completed in a week...YIKES! I read fairly quickly, but this was also to let Michelle know where the slow parts were or if anything didn't make sense. I thought I might need more than a week.

Happily, my worries were for naught....I received her email with the draft in word format and I very quickly read and highly enjoyed the ride with FBI Agent Kelly Jones and her fiance, Jake Riley, newly civilianized and working for himself in the security field.

Jake and his partner, Syd, former Agency, are hired by a friend of Syd's to retrieve his kidnapped daughter. Everything begins to spiral to the dark side pretty much immediately.

Kelly Jones has a new case she isn't sure about and a new partner she isn't sure she can trust. Kelly feels she is on the outs with the FBI and is sure this is the reason this case (and this partner) are handed to her to handle. A US Senator from Arizona is found dismembered and impaled on a statue in front of the State Capitol building.

The two cases become intertwined as the reader senses it must, but it is done quite intricately and there was no eye-rolling on this reader's part, as I have done in the past with intertwining case efforts in the past from other authors.

The premise for the story is very current and gripping. This book is different from Michelle's previous two. No serial killers here. This is kidnapping, terrorism, homeland security, immigration...all rolled into a thriller.

I can hardly wait until November and I can read the finished product. I will re-review it then. It will likely get it's five beans, too.

Until then....four suspenseful beans......

BLUEGATE FIELDS - Anne Perry, BOT, narr Davina Porter

I like Anne Perry at times, enough to listen to or read from time to time. Not in a hurry to listen or read another in the near future. I put this one on my wishlist because one of my favorite narrators, Davina Porter, was the voice for the characters. I adore her work and I like Anne Perry, so I gave it a try.

Anne Perry does great work portraying the ways and means of Victorian times. Or at least as I would imagine they would be. Stuffy on the outside and teeming with intrigue on the inside.

Inspector Thomas Pitt is given the case of finding the killer of a young man found naked and dead in the sewers of Bluegate Fields. What was the body of a young man of what looked like good means doing in a place of such squalor and poverty?

Pitt's investigation is hampered by both his superiors and the closed mouth, protective attitude of the upper class families he questions. His wife, Charlotte, takes up the banner and makes her way into society with her well married sister to ask questions of her own.

I think it will be a littel while again before listening or reading Anne Perry again. I will do so, it just takes a while before I can make myself read and/or listen to the tales of that time. It is aggravating, irritating, frustrating for me as I hear how things are handled or mishandled, withheld or grudgingly let go all because of the society of the time.
Three frustrating beans....

THE SPELLMAN FILES - Lisa Lutz, narrator Christina Moore

Okie dokie, once THE SPELLMAN FILES got going, it was a wonderfully fun listen. The first part was a little ragged going for me with a lot of going back and forth in time sequence and a lot of mini chapters. Then it either settled down or I got used to the pattern, but I really enjoyed the story. The Spellmans are a family of private investigators and they don't just investigate for their clients, they investigate each other. That drove me nuts at various times during my listen, but I kept going and, again, got used to it.
Izzy Spellman is the middle child and has to put up with her perfect older brother who wants to be a lawyer instead of work in the family business. Then along comes Rae, the surprise baby sister. She is trying emulate Izzy and will do anything to be like her and keep Izzy from leaving the family business.
Izzy describes each guy she dates as Ex-boyfriend number (assign number here). She's pretty sure she's meant to be alone and away from the lawyers her mother sets her up with. Izzy would rather detect and she is like a dog with the proverbial bone.
Part of the charm was the narrator, Christina Moore. I love her voice when I listen to the Elm Creek Quilt series and she is perfectly gritty for this one.
Four beans!

All Good Choices...Love When That Happens

I love when all of the books I choose are can't-wait-to-get-back-to-them good. Stonhenge Bernard Cornwell, BOT in the car, took a little getting used to, but now I am truly enjoying the story as it spends time with each character. Witch Way to Murder Shirley Damsgaard (bedside book)is another winner and I was able to loll around in bed yesterday after my pre-mid shift nap and read for over an hour. I could finish it today or tomorrow. My absolute favorite of the three, though, is Shadow Man Cody McFadyen. WOW! Thank you, SuziQ, for recommending it. When I get closer to the ending, I will get the next in series, Face of Death and have it ready to go. I'll have to take a break after this one, but the second in series will definitely be soon and I want to have it handy.

I Totally Love Beverly Connor!! Well, At Least Her Books....

I finished One Grave Too Many Beverly Connor yesterday. It was SO FREAKIN' GOOD! I am going out and finding everything she has written and add them to my collection. I have Rumor of Bones and Dead Secret. Now to find the other seven books.

I began another in my stack for my challenges. Karin Slaughter Blindsighted. It fits both challenges again as it is a medical thriller mystery and a new-to-me author. I have heard wonderful things about this author, so I am looking forward to getting more into this one. But it will be hard to top One Grave Too Many.....

It's Raining It's Pouring.....and finished another...

It's been raining off and on since yesterday afternoon. Our plants and lawns are looking swell. What a great day for sleeping. Just off a mid shift and ready to wander upstairs and read myself to sleep with nice calm On What Grounds Cleo Coyle. It was my purse book and I decided it would make a great bedside book instead. Tried to make Nightseer, Laurell K Hamilton's debut novel, my next purse book, but it was too paranormal intense, especially for a mid shift. Verbage anyway. So, I set it aside and will try The Venus Fix M.J. Rose. Smoother dialogue that fits better with a late night read.

I finished Kill the Messenger Tami Hoag this morning on the way home from work. I think this is the best of her books that I have read. Very well written characters and a surprise in the whodunnit/s. Just wonderful. I will have a difficult time with a follow up for my car book, but have decided to try Eoin Colfer Artemis Fowl:The Arctic Incident.

Two More Down, Gazillion More to Go (like that's a bad thing)

I finished Sweet and Deadly Charlaine Harris last night on shift and started On What Grounds Cleo Coyle pretty much immediately. Kind of like chain reading.....I finished Murder of a Pink Elephant Denise Swanson this morning, thanks to my reason for being able to celebrate Mother's Day. Got home a little after midnight and had to read to wind down from my swing shift, so didn't really get to sleep until 1am. Wake up from sweet patootie Lady K at a little before 6am, so I read since she really didn't want me to go back to sleep. And DH was getting his sleep-in he treasures on weekends. Our neighbors were (I guess) celebrating the completion of their bricked up supports on their back porch. They were hootin' and hollerin' when I got home and DH said he heard them until he finally got to sleep at 1:30 or so. I reminded him of the earplugs I keep in my nightstand drawer (clean unused ones!!) as well as the fact that there are two other spare rooms in the house and the basement. He said he didn't think of that. If he hadn't been sleeping in, I'd have got out the lawn mower when I woke at 6am and started it up. I'd have left it right on their side of the garden, too. I reckon I am a little pissy like that.
I haven't started a new bedside book as yet. I may bring in some from my order of books I received from my buddy, Pamala, Our Lady of the Books. After a few cozies, I am ready for something a little gritty.

1 May and I Forgot My Book Journal ta Home....

I was going to post my April books this morning, but left my book journal on my nightstand in my 'rush' to get to work.

I am on tape 3 of 4, side 1 Vineyard Prey Philip R Craig in the car, pretty interesting story.
Still no significant reading in purse book The Laughing Corpse Laurell K Hamilton. This is one of those that you remember the saying, Never judge a book by its cover.....the female on the cover with her head tilted back in what looks to be rapture does not convey the substance within. It is a gooooood book and I really wish I could get back to it.
I am well into the second story in bedside book Bump in the Night various authors.

Yesterday, I bought (& hid from myself) two of the books for the Medical Thriller Mystery Challenge. I had to hide them because I really would like to read them before the 1 Jun start date of the challenge. I have so many in Mt Git'R'Read, so it's 'easy' to set them aside. I do plan to read Nightseer Laurell K Hamilton's debut novel. I picked that up as well. I had a 15% coupon that was about to expire! That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. I think that's going to be the next purse book. My bedside book is going to have to change up to I, Mona Lisa Jeanne Kalogridis, as it is a Big Ol Book challenge on one of my favorite message boards on Weight Watchers. We post Tues and Fridays and I am already behind the power curve. It started today...I forgot....

Busy Book Filled Week

I guess busy wouldn't be the best word, but I did finish quite a few more than I thought I would. Finished Sunshine and Shadow Earlene Fowler BOT in the car and tried starting The Holy Thief Ellis Peters. That one didn't catch my interest, so sent it back to RecordedBooks and started (and liking) Death of a Charming Man MC Beaton. I finished A Charmed Death Madelyn Alt as bedside book when I woke from my nap to prep for this mid shift. First I've read of the series and I will be getting more. I will now go back to Charlaine Harris' Shakespeare series I was reading while DD was taking her bath....Not sure yet what book I will choose for next purse book. I finished How To Marry a Murderer Amanda Matetsky. Good first of this series I've read as well and will be looking for more of this Paige Turner series. Not a play on words, it's the name of the character. Set in the 50s and makes me glad I wasn't born back then. Chicks can biotch how bad it is now to be a chick, back then it was the pits.
I will now go choose my next purse book. Have two in the lab. If it stays quiet again tonight, I can put a goodly dent in whatever one I choose.

Wednesday Morning-ish...

Found a follow on purse book after the deeee-lightful Sleeping With the Fishes MaryJanice Davidson. I tried reading Winter Rose Patricia A McKillip, but it didn't grab my interest. A good chickie buddy sent a box of books my way a week or so ago (which contained the above mentioned SWTF) and I found another fun one, How To Marry a Murderer Amanda Patetsky. Takes place in the early 50s. Fun fun fun already.
On tape 6 of 7, side 1 Sunshine and Shadow Earlene Fowler in the car. No significant reading lately in bedside books. It's late and the titles escape me. The books are at home and I am at work.