MOONLIGHT DOWNS: An Emily Tempest Investigation - Adrian Hyland

Emily Tempest has been away from Australia for a long time, but now she’s returned to the Moonlight Downs “mob,” the community where she grew up, half in the Aboriginal world, half in the white. She is looking forward to a reunion with her childhood friend, Hazel, and to catching up with the rest of the group.
Within hours of her arrival, an old friend, Lincoln Flinders, the tribe’s elderly leader, is murdered and mutilated. The police suspect Blakie Japanangka, a renegade aborigine sorcerer, but Emily believes that the old man was slain for worldly reasons, and she starts asking questions.

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I cannot remember where I saw this book reviewed (I have GOT to start writing this info down!), but it immediately intrigued me. It's set in Australia and not by someone writing from another location about a suspense set in Australia. Rather Adrian Hyland actually walks the walk. (I could have said 'walks the walkabout', but you'll see I thought better of it).

It took a couple of chapters to get the flow of the lingo, but got into it and my enjoyment increased even more.

There's more than the murder to solve here while reading. The author addresses racial tensions and prejudice, rich injustice against poor. And Emily is half Aboriginal half white and is making her way the best she can in both worlds.

Absolutely involving to the reader as much as the suspense involved with the murder of a beloved tribal leader.

Emily isn't sure what she wants to do with her life, but she doesn't seem too worried. She has an excellent work ethic, just isn't sure of a direction. I think she may have found it while doing her part in investigating the murder and the tangential issues she discovers.

I loved loved loved this book and can't wait to read the next in the series, GUNSHOT ROAD.

Five sparkly Australian Outback diamonds....

RAVEN BLACK: Shetland Island Quartet Book One - Ann Cleeves

From the back of the book: Winner of Britain’s coveted Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award, Ann Cleeves introduces a dazzling new suspense series to U.S. mystery readers.

Raven Black begins on New Year’s Eve with a lonely outcast named Magnus Tait, who stays home waiting for visitors who never come. But the next morning the body of a murdered teenage girl is discovered nearby, and suspicion falls on Magnus. Inspector Jimmy Perez enters an investigative maze that leads deeper into the past of the Shetland Islands than anyone wants to go.

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I don't know what it is about mysteries set anywhere in England, Scotland, or Ireland, but they seem to be darker. Dark days, darker nights, dark personalities to decipher.

Inspector Jimmy Perez has a murder of a young girl to solve, one that has similar patterns to a girl who went missing years before. That one has gone unsolved, the girl still missing. The one tie is a solitary, slightly unhinged man. The girls were seen at Magnus' house before going missing.

There are side stories that intertwine throughout the book, lonely characters with dark secrets interacting bringing the book to a startling conclusion.

I really cannot wait to read the rest of the quartet. I have the second, WHITE NIGHTS, on the WWBL highlighted as a soonest get.

Visit Ann at: www.anncleeves.com

Five dark Shetland Isles beans......

THE CULTIST - Mark Boss

From book overview on B&N:
The Cultist: How do you save a lost child no one believes exists?When young yet jaded hacker Takara Murakami meets 10-year-old Tyler online, she doubts the boy's story of escape from a cult group's mass suicide in the New Mexico wilderness. The police find no evidence of Tyler's existence and warn Takara it's a hoax, or worse, a trap.But the death of her younger brother in an earthquake years ago still haunts Takara. As Tyler's laptop computer dies and he loses communication with the outside world, Takara races from high-tech Tokyo to the rugged Gila National Forest to save him. However, cult leader Silas also tracks the boy, determined to kill the only surviving witness to his crime.Who will find Tyler first?

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Tyler is a 10 year old boy whose family is caught up in the noose of a fanatic’s cult. Tyler escapes death and the fanatic. Now he is on his own in the New Mexico wilderness. His only aid comes from a woman in Tokyo, Japan via an online fantasy role playing game called Lair of the Hydra that is about to go defunct.
Time is running out for the boy. The woman, Takara, is doing all she can even though she is half a world away from this boy she knows nothing about except his role playing character. It could be a hoax, but she doesn’t want to take that chance and have anything happen to this boy.
Silas, the cultist, is searching for Tyler. He's the only witness to Silas's evil act of murder.
Tyler is hungry, thirsty, lost and trying to keep out of the reach of the crazed fanatic, Silas. I heartily admired Tyler’s intestinal fortitude in figuring things out as he went. He’s seen Animal Planet and read, so he knew some things about his location and how to survive. The rest he figures out as he goes. He didn’t whine or whimper, he just kept going, doing his best to escape the fate he knows he’ll meet if Silas caught up to him.
I also highly admired Takara for coming to Tyler’s aid when she realized he was indeed in danger. And Tak’s friends, Jiro and Shoda, for all that they did to help. It took a huge leap of faith to go through all that they did.

Mark Boss commented on one of my reviews a month or so ago and asked if I'd be interested in reading and reviewing one of his books. I looked him up and immediately sent him an email saying I'd love to. I love when authors ask if I'd like to read one of their books. I like finding new-to-me authors and adding to the WWBL. I look forward to reading everything else he writes.

Look for Mark here: http://www.chimpwithpencil.com/

Five intestinal fortitude beans....

CLAIRE DEWITT AND THE CITY OF THE DEAD - Sara Gran

From the back of the BOCD:Claire DeWitt is the world's greatest PI and a follower of the enigmatic French detective Jacques Silette, whose mysterious handbook DETECTION has led Claire to use the I Ching, omens, prophetic dreams, and mind-expanding drugs.

Claire also has deep roots in New Orleans. When a respected DA goes missing during Hurricane Katrina, she returns to her newly wrecked former city to find out why. Finding old friends and making new enemies, Claire solves the case, but she's haunted by others gone missing: her best friend and partner in detection, and Jacques Silette's daughter, Belle.

Sara Gran is the author of three critically acclaimed novels, including COME CLOSER and DOPE. A former bookseller and native of Brooklyn, she has since lived in New Orleans, Miami, and northern California.

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I will first comment on the narrator, Carol Monda. Whoever chose her to narrate this suspenseful tale had excellent taste and discernment. Carol was the absolute perfect narrator for the voice of Claire and the rest of the characters, but especially Claire. Gritty, sultry, matter-of-fact-bordering-on-deadpan. Think grittier than C J Critt. That's gritty.

Claire has the most intriguing style of detecting. She says she is the world's best detective in her matter-of-fact tone by following the clues as they present themselves, however they present. Sometimes as a matchbook, piece of paper with the bill at the diner, or a dream. She takes smokes weed, drinks, cusses, is strangely maternal and I like her a lot. I would love to have her on my side or working on my investigation. She doesn't stop even when the client tells her she's fired (they all say that, she tells us). She needs to know whodunnit, no matter how long it takes.

The book is told in sequence, but with sporadic flashbacks to her youth with her friends Kelly and Tracy and with her mentor, Constance. All have been inspired to be detectives because of the book written by the French detective Jacques Silette. The book is found in various locations throughout the book, almost like a touchstone for Claire to pay heed.

I got to see a side of New Orleans I'd not seen before in any other book I've read or any visits.

I hope many people read this book, especially if you can listen to this with Carol Monda narrating.

Thank you Library Thing (http://www.librarything.com )for entrusting me with this hellah noir story!

Five grittier than anything beans......

A BAD DAY FOR SORRY - Sophie Littlefield

From the back of the book:
Winner of the Anthony Award for Best First Novel!
Stella Hardesty dispatched her abusive husband with a wrench shortly before her fiftieth birthday. A few years later, she's so busy delivering home-style justice, helping other women deal with their own abusive husbands and boyfriends, that she's barely got time to run her sewing shop. Since Stella works outside of the law, she's free to do whatever it takes to be convincing—as long as she keeps her distance from the handsome devil of a local sheriff, Goat Jones.
When young mother Chrissy Shaw asks Stella for help with her no-good, husband Roy Dean, it looks like just another standard job. But then Chrissy's two-year-old son is taken, and Stella finds herself up against a much more formidable enemy.
A Bad Day for Sorry won an Anthony Award for Best First Novel and an RT Book Award for Best First Mystery. It was also shortlisted for Edgar, Barry, Crimespree, and Macavity Awards, and it was named to lists of the year's best mystery debuts by the Chicago Sun-Times and South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
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I know vigilante-ism is wrong, but I cheered for Stella the whole time. She took matters into her own hands by killing her abusive husband. She kept their sewing shop open, but has found that lately her off time is getting less and less off and more and more about her other job. She helps other women who want out of abusive relationships.

Stella is my favorite type of woman and character. She is full of piss and vinegar (to use a favorite phrase of my mother), she gets the job done no matter the task or jackass she has to fix.

A BAD DAY FOR SORRY is such a fantastically strong debut. I cannot recommend it enough. I enjoyed my time with it so much, A BAD DAY FOR PRETTY, second in the series, is already on its way and A BAD DAY FOR SCANDAL, third in Stella's story, is on the WWBL to get as soon as it's out in TPB.

Visit Sophie at http://www.sophielittlefield.com/books.php

Five piss & vinegar git'r'done sparkly diamonds.....

THE HUNT FOR ATLANTIS - Andy McDermott

From the back of the book: A lost civilization. A dangerous quest. A deadly secret.

It's one of history's most enduring and controversial legends---the lost city of Atlantis. Archeologist Nina Wilde is certain she's solved the riddle of its whereabouts---and with the help of reclusive billionaire Kristian Frost, his beautiful daughter, Kari, and ex-SAS bodyguard Eddie Chase, she's about to make the most important discovery in centuries. But not everyone wants them to succeed: A powerful and mysterious organization will stop at nothing to ensure that a secret submerged for 11,000 years never resurfaces.

More than one would-be discoverer has already died in pursuit of Atlantis's secrets---including Nina's own parents. Failure isn't an option. From the streets of Manhattan to the Brazilian jungle, from a Tibetan mountaintop to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, Nina and Eddie will race against time---and follow a trail of danger and death to a revelation so explosive, it could destroy civilization forever....

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I enjoy reading thrillers, the well-written ones that keep me turning the page even when I know I have to major league suspend belief. I have sort of stopped reading Clive Cussler because I want Dirk to just take a nap...he keeps going even after multiple beatings, running for what seems like days on end, never tiring....take a nap Dirk, dagnabbit!

Nina and Eddie actually get some rest from time to time and the action is almost non-stop, but is believable with a weensie bit of suspension of that there belief. I really like the chemistry and growing camaraderie of the pair.

I have been fascinated with the Atlantis legend for what seems like forever. The search for the lost city, the good guys trying to keep ahead of the bad ones, some very cool explosions, Nina learning how to climb through a sewer, Eddie's snarks....Nina's comebacks....

Five lost city thriller fun beans......

RUN - Blake Crouch

From the synopsis of the book: Picture this: A landscape of American genocide.....

5 days ago

A rash of bizarre murder swept the country...

Senseless. Brutal. Seemingly unconnected.

A cop walked into a nursing home and unloaded his weapons on elderly and staff alike.

A mass of school shootings.

Prison riots of unprecedented brutality.

Mind-boggling acts of violence in every state.

4 days ago

The murders increased ten-fold...

3 days ago

The President addressed the nation and begged for calm and peace...

2 days ago

The killers began to mobilize...

Yesterday

All the power went out...

Tonight

They're reading the names of those to be killed on the Emergency Broadcast System. You are listening over the battery-powered radio on your kitchen table, and they've just read yours.

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epic {n}: an episode in the lives of men in which heroic deeds are performed or attempted

Don't look into the light...but if you didn't....RUN!

Good thing the young'n was in school, the house ws reasonably clean and my work was caught up...I wasn't getting to anything else until I finished.

RUN is more than a horror/thriller story, it's what happens to a family when all hell has broken loose in their environment.

Some people are affected by the lights and others aren't...the unaffected are the ones who need to run and run fast.

The Colclough family: Dee, Jack, and their two children, Cole and Naomi, are the center of this epic story. They are the unaffected and the story opens with them packing everything to flee whatever is happening and find a safe haven somewhere, somehow.

Finding out what they have inside them to keep going, finding out what exactly makes them a stronger family. And what they have inside that makes them do whatever it takes to protect each other and survive.

RUN is intense and I found myself involved with the Colcloughs and all that they experienced. I read the book quickly, in less than a day, which is, for me and an 80,000 word thriller, damn fast.

I received this e-book from the author. Thank you Blake, it was an awesome ride.

Five sparkly damn fast diamonds....

SHAKEN: Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels Mysteries #7 - J A Konrath

My thoughts on SHAKEN: Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels Mysteries #7....J A Konrath starts the book with the following: that the reader of the Kindle version has a choice...he's trying something new and wrote the story twice..not two stories, but the story written two ways. One was the linear regular way and the other was out of sequence. He wanted to know what the reader thought of each.
I went out of sequence since I don't mind reading a book that way so long as I have a wee cranium's up for the jump in time. Joe complies and I did just fine.
This is a thriller in the finest sense of the genre. Mr. K is a killer who Jack has been tracking for 20 some years. The story goes back and forth through time, beginning with Jack's realization that she has been abducted.
The rest of the book is bringing the reader up to date on Jack's life over the past 20 years, going from rookie cop to private sector investigator. And hunting Mr. K.
I enjoyed watching her learn about Armani and Ralph Lauren clothing in the 80s when she mostly shops at Sears.
What I like most about this series (and this author) is laughing and being freaked out in the same chapter. Dry humor that has me laughing out loud and the graphic scenes that has me squinching myself into my chair to get far away from the murder/torture being depicted on the page. That's talent and a very good book.
Favorite characters....Jack definitely since she's so sure of herself and she's the good guy. Herb and harry, especially Harry, since he makes me laugh. I surround myself with people like Harry. I do love to 'snort laugh'. Herb is a sweetie and a good friend to Jack. My friends are like that too.
I read this in one day, peeps!! It was difficult to put down, so I didn't.
The book had a helluva WTF cliffhanger and I cannot wait to read STIRRED, the collaborative work of art of Joe Konrath and Blake Crouch. Blake is the author of the extremely terrifying DESERT PLACES, LOCKED DOORS, ABANDON, and SNOWBOUND....I have read one and working up the nerve to read the rest.
Go forth and read the Jack Daniels series and anything else that J A Konrath/Jack Kilborn has written and anything he has collaborated on, and, hell, anything he recommends...no, I'm not sucking up, he's just never steered me wrong.

Five not sucking up this is damn good sparkly diamonds.....