(38) The Quick Red Fox

Title: The Quick Red Fox: A Travis McGee Novel by John D. MacDonald
Publisher: Random house trade paperbacks
224 pages
Genre: crime mystery

Synopsis: She’s the opposite of a damsel in distress: a famous movie star, very beautiful, very much in control of her life. She’s just made one little mistake and now she needs Travis McGee to set it right. The money is good and Travis’s funds are in need of replenishing. But that’s not the only reason he takes the case. There is the movie star’s assistant—efficient and reserved, with a sadness underneath that makes McGee feel he’d brave any danger to help her.

Review: I love mystery novels and old fashioned hard boiled detective novels are a passion.  Travis McGee definitely delivers.  Dashing yet with scruples Travis takes on cases where his fee is half of the value of whatever he is hired to get back plus expenses.  When the client is an actress those expenses can certainly pile up.

In a time without cell phones or computers detectives had it a lot harder, now days it seems anyone can be a detective.  This is a fast paced thrill ride with a great cast of characters.  I can't wait to read another, and another....

Teaser Tuesday June 25, 2013

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser for today is from Doc: A Novel by Mary Doria Russell

"Along with everyone else in the saloon, the South Carolinian went motionless a heartbeat later, paralyzed by the sight of a short-barreled nickel-plated Colt .38 leveled at his chest.

'Think about how much practice a move like that takes! Hours and hours, ' Bat would say.

(37) The Boy in the Suitcase

Title: The Boy in the Suitcase by Lene Kaaberbol & Agnete Friis
Publisher: Soho Crime
317 pages
Genre: Crime / mystery

Synopsis: Nina Borg, a Red Cross nurse, wife, and mother of two, is a compulsive do-gooder who can't say no when someone asks for help—even when she knows better. When her estranged friend Karin leaves her a key to a public locker in the Copenhagen train station, Nina gets suckered into her most dangerous project yet. Inside the locker is a suitcase, and inside the suitcase is a three-year-old boy: naked and drugged, but alive.

Is the boy a victim of child trafficking? Can he be turned over to authorities, or will they only return him to whoever sold him? When Karin is discovered brutally murdered, Nina realizes that her life and the boy's are in jeopardy, too. In an increasingly desperate trek across Denmark, Nina tries to figure out who the boy is, where he belongs, and who exactly is trying to hunt him down.

Review: I'm a big fan of the Scandinavian crime book invasion.  I like their dark tone and slower pace, a lot of them remind me of the show The Killing on AMC. However, this book just left me a little flat.  I was originally drawn to this book because of the title and the true case of the boy in the suitcase that happened in Philadelphia, only that boy was found dead on a street corner.  This boy is found alive and in a train locker.

The book jumped around a bit too much for my taste and the main character Nina Borg just didn't strike me as this heroic character.  In fact she seemed damaged and incapable.  She sees danger everywhere and so has trouble bonding with her children and fitting in at home and when taking care of this lost boy who she knows people are trying to kill she doesn't go to the police, she just runs around endangering everyone else.   I also had a a problem with the fact that Nina seems so compassionate to everyone yet doesn't seem to be able to create a relationship with her children or family.

The boys mother on the other hand seemed much more heroic and I actually she thought she was the central character until about half way through the story when I realized the authors were focusing more on Nina.  I have the second book in this series, I got them together so I will try that one and see if these authors can hook me or I think I will just pass on any other books in this series.

(36) A Taste for Passion, Vampire Romance

Title:  A Taste for Passion, Vampire Romance (Kendrian Vampires, Book #1) by Patrice Michelle
Publisher: Limitless Ink Press
141 pages
Genre: Romance
Book Type: Kindle

Synopsis: Rana Sterling finally meets the man of her dreams and boy does he know how to push all the right buttons. Only, Mr. Tall, Dark and Too-Good-to-Be-True turns out to be just that-he's beyond her world.
Lucian Trevane has a duty to fulfill. He's expected to take the role of Vité, leader of all the vampires, but he knows he won't take the position without his mate by his side.

Now, after searching seventy years for his reincarnated fiancé, he finally finds his mate in Rana. Only he has a slight problem, Rana refuses to become his vampire wife. Add to the mixture a vengeful vampire, a surprise twist and time ticking against him, Lucian will have to call upon all his vampire skills and beyond in order to draw Rana fully into his world.

Review: This is a short 50,000 word bodice ripper.  Lucian is the steamy, dreamy vampire who is searching for the reincarnation of his lost love.  Rana is a book store owner reeling from the death of her grandfather. After bumping into the handsome Lucian at the cemetery she finds her way to an antique dealer where her purchase of a charmed ring brings her and Lucian's futures hurtling forward.  Steamy, quick read.  Loved it, just what I needed for a quick mind candy moment.

Teaser Tuesday June 11, 2013

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser Tuesday is from A Taste for Passion, Vampire Romance (Kendrian Vampires, Book #1) by Patrice Michelle

"As she drove off in the rumbling car, her thighs tingled and her body still throbbed in unfulfilled desire. How long would she be able to hold off in order to assure herself what they had was real?"

(35) The Right Side of Wrong

Title: The Right Side of Wrong: A Red River Mystery (Red River Mysteries) by Reavis Z. Wortham
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
250 pages
Genre: Mystery

I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher through netgalley.com in return for an honest review. 

Synopsis: Cody is ambushed and nearly killed on a lonely country road during an unusually heavy snowfall. With that attack, the locals begin to worry that The Skinner, fromThe Rock Hole

Constable Ned Parker struggles to connect a seemingly unrelated series of murders as his nephew recovers. As the summer of 1966 approaches, rock and roll evolves to reflect the increasing unrest in this country and the people of northeast Texas wonder why their once peaceful community has suddenly become a dangerous place to live.

Ned’s pre-teen grandchildren, Top and Pepper, are underfoot at every turn. The two lawmen, along with the deputy John Washington, cross paths with many colorful characters originally introduced in Wortham’s acclaimed Red River series: cranky old Judge O.C. Rains, the jittery little farmer Isaac Reader, and the Wilson boys Ty Cobb and Jimmy Foxx.

And then there’s the arrival of the mysterious old man named Tom Bell.

When Cody follows his main suspect across the Rio Grande and into Mexico, Ned understands that to save his nephew, he will have to cross more than a river, he will have to cross over to the Right Side of Wrong.

Review: This is apparently the third book in this series but I didn't feel lost without having read the others.  There was some back story that I had to pick up but it was explained in passing and wasn't that important or hard to piece together to interrupt the flow of the story.  I often found myself forgetting what time period the story was set in until someone made a racist comment about a black lawman, and different dining rooms for "coloreds", that always threw me.  The mystery is multi-layered and without revealing a lot of plot lets just say that as they continue to investigate they find a much bigger mystery with players that have much more to lose.  I loved the characters and the two pre-teens who are always getting in trouble really help move the story along.  I would consider myself a new fan.

(34) After the Ending

Title: After The Ending (The Ending Series) (Volume 1) by Lindsey Fairleigh & Lindsdy Pogue
Publisher: L2 Books
406 pages
Genre: Fiction

I received this book as an advanced e-copy through netgalley.com, it was published in February 2013.

Synopsis: The virus spread. Billions died. The Ending began. We may have survived the apocalypse, but the virus changed us.

When people started getting sick, "they" thought it was just the flu. My roommate, my boyfriend, my family...they're all gone now. I got sick too. I should have died with them--with the rest of the world--but I didn't. I thought witnessing the human population almost disappear off the face of the earth was the craziest thing I'd ever experience. I was so wrong. My name is Dani O'Connor, I'm twenty-six-years-old, and I survived The Ending. 

The Virus changed everything. The world I knew is gone, and life is backwards. We've all had to start over. I've been stripped of my home, my dreams...all that is me. I'm someone else now--broken and changed. Other survivors' memories and emotions haunt me. They invade my mind until I can no longer separate them from my own. I won't let them consume me. I can't. My name is Zoe Cartwright, I'm twenty-six-years-old, and I survived The Ending. 

We've been inseparable for most of our lives, and now our friendship is all we have left. The aftermath of the Virus has stranded us on opposite sides of the United States. Trusting strangers, making sacrifices, killing--we'll do anything to reach one another. Fear and pain may be unavoidable, but we're strong...we're survivors. But to continue surviving in this unfamiliar world plagued by Crazies and strange new abilities, we have to adapt. We have to evolve. 

And more than anything, we have to find each other.

Review: It seems I returned to my world ending fetish but this one doesn't have any vampires, or zombies, which is refreshing.  Broken into alternating stories about best friends Zoe and Dani  who are separated by life and then by a world ending virus.  They survived the virus but finding each other is not going to be easy.  As each girl travels her own path to reach each other they find themselves with some unlikely allies and some unlikely abilities.

Since this is only book one I can say that this series is off to a very good start.  While I did have some trouble in the beginning following whose story I was actually reading, Dani or Zoe's, I eventually got into the flow things.  The way the world devolves reminds me a bit of the tv show Revolution but without the lights being out.  With so few people surviving the world starts to crumble, tech stops functioning as well and people need to start relying more on survival skills rather than 20th century technology and convenience.

The characters were well developed, the situations didn't seem forced and it was easy to like different characters and really cheer them on or want them to be careful in certain situations.  It was nice to be so invested.  There are so many different story lines that were left hanging that I'm hoping book 2 will delve into but I don't want to put any spoilers out there so I'm going to keep them to myself.  This was a great read and left me wanting more immediately.

Teaser Tuesday June 4, 2013

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser Tuesday is BOTH SIDES: SIDE ONE by Paul E Stawski 

" The only way to save you is to reach into your body and take out the living cells - the ones that most make up who you are - and combine them with Sandra's. To create one new you that's both somebody you know and somebody you don't"