The characters are many and quirky and all of them had a reason to want Grabowski dead. I laughed out loud while reading the book. For a while I thought it was going to be shades of Agatha Christie as several people did something to Grawbowski that COULD have lead to his demise.  Some books that a loaded with quirky characters become tiresome and almost boring, but not this one. Even the names of the stores are silly and fun, like the kite store – Passing Wind.

The entire book takes place in the few days leading up to the big Whirligig festival, for which the the town is known,  where the true identity of the killer is revealed. The interaction among townspeople is not only funny but interesting and the description of the Festival Activities was hilarious!  And then there’s old Bucket, the whale with a very unfortunate habit. I almost shot coffee out of my nose when I read about him.

Don’t wait – go out now and get a copy of “The Big Grabowski.” You won’t be disappointed, I promise! If you like this type of book you’ll enjoy my humorous mystery, “Finder,”  available at: www.wildchildpublishing. Here’s a blurb:

All her life, Carol Reston has wanted to be a published author. Her husband finds a dead body and Carol discovers several women have gone missing in town. With the help of her thrice-divorced, martini-drinking, Jaguar-driving, world-traveling Aunt Sissy Montgomery, Carol locates all the women and discovers the identity of the body. In the end, Carol has a book contract, Chauncy has a new playmate, David has his dream job and Sissy has found a new calling. She’s a Finder.

The novel starts when Lomax and Biggs are called to the scene of a murder. A diplomat’s wife was found stabbed to death in the ladies room of a hotel restaurant. She had been responsible for the death of a 10-year-old boy she killed while driving drunk, but got off because of diplomatic  immunity. Beside her body is an intricate scrapbook. Soon another body shows up with a scrapbook. The duo investigate and follow clues, hoping to find the killer before he….or she, kills more people.

I enjoy the easy banter between Lomax and Biggs and especially like Lomax’s father, Big Jim. That said, I didn’t find this book nearly as funny as Karp’s previous three books. I also figured out who the killer was….and why, fairly easily. The author really telegraphed the ending on this one.

So, if you’re looking for a good, fast, enjoyable read, pick up Cut, Paste, Kill. You won’t be disappointed. Still I hope Karp’s next book gives us more of that famous Lomax and Biggs humor.

If you enjoy reading humor as much I do, pick up a copy of my latest published novel, Roman Circus at www.nobleromance.com. I promise you won’t be disappointed!

Okay, back to my review. I liked Damage Control, but it was far from a five star book. For one thing, it was too long. The manuscript should have been trimmed by at least 50 pages. I found it excessively wordy and skipped big hunks of text. For example, at one point the heroine was driving from point A to point B and it took Dugoni two and a half pages to get her there! I read about a half a page and skipped the rest. It was unnecessary information. Another example was when the police detective went to meet a prospective witness at a restaurant. The author wasted about a page giving the reader background on the restaurant! Totally unnecessary and a waste of words. I’m finding more and more that about 350 pages is the perfect length for a mystery novel. Another example is that Dugoni give the reader excessive amount of background on his characters – most of it extraneous.

The heroine was likable but a little TSTL (too stupid to live). She finds a clue to a murder and goes off to investigate – all by herself – without informing the cops. Her actions cause the death of another man. She pulls several stunts like that and I found my eyeballs starting to roll.  There was something with her husband that I don’t want to mention and spoil the plot for you but….she was TSTL there too. But the thing that really turned this novel into a three rather than a five star review were the mistakes, and there were several. The one that almost made me throw the book against the wall was when Dugoni had one of his characters fly into La Jolla, California! Two finger taps on Google would have let the author know there isn’t an airport in La Jolla. The female twin identified her brother because they had matching moles on their little fingers. Ah, hello? Male and female cannot be identical! They developed from two different eggs and were born at the same time! Can you say fraternal? Silly mistake like that make me want to scream.  He also referred to some jewelry as costing $50,000 for each earring! Oy, I have some of those gems in my collection and believe me they aren’t that expensive. Maybe in huge carat weight but…. As I tell my writing students, always get your facts straight because if you don’t someone, somewhere will know and you’ll lose readers.

Want a fun mystery to read? Try my humorous novel, Roman Circus available at: www.nobleromance.com. Here’s the tag line: “When Harmony Jane Jones loses her cat, her car, her job and her boyfriend, all within the space of a week, she does what any twenty-something woman would do. She runs away and joins the circus!”  Try it – you’ll like it!

So, help me out here. Give me a comment on some GOOD books to read because I sure haven’t found any lately.

Looking for something good to read? Check out my list of published books at www.manicreaders.com/CarleneRaeDater and buy one or two. You won’t be disappointed!

The book started with an interesting premise. Mace Perry (her parents named her Mason – Mason Perry – Perry Mason, get it? Oy),is  getting out of prison. She was a cop and served a two year term for burglary. While in prison, she did what prisoner do – she got buff. Okay, her older sister Beth, is the Chief of Police for Washington DC and got Mace (I HATE this name!) out two days early to avoid publicity. Mace is determined to clear her name and get reinstated with the police force. She’s DYING to get back on the force and we know this because she tells us, over and over and over and….but we really never know why she has SUCH a  passion for the job.

Things start to go downhill with this novel almost immediately. Beth managed to save Mace’s Ducati motorcycle so as soon as she can, Mace jumps on the bike and roars around DC – lamenting the fact that she’s no longer a cop. When she gets home, big sis Beth who remember is the Chief of Police, gets called out on a homicide. Ah, no, I don’t think so. Chief of Police is an administrative post. Chief’s do not investigate crimes. That’s what they have detectives for! Not only does Beth the Chief go to the crime scene, she hauls Mace along with her! And of course because Mace is obnoxious, she starts asking questions at the crime scene! Can you hear my eyeballs rolling around in my head? There are so many mistakes in this book I’m just dumbfounded.

Beth takes Mace out for dinner and they both have a glass of wine. That’s nice but….Mace is on parole. Parolees are not allowed to drink, take drugs, carry firearms or hang out with other convicted felon. Doesn’t everyone know that??? I guess everyone but Baldacci. Later once again, Mace is in a bar with another character and she’s sipping a beer. She goes to the ladies’ room and encounters Mona, a gorgeous, wealthy U.S. District Attorney who hates Mace and railroaded her into prison. They exchange harsh words. Mace goes back to her companion, picks up and finished her….Coke! Did anyone edit this book? At that point I couldn’t stand it anymore and gave up, not even half-way through the book. I had tried to push my way to the end, but when I went to Amazon.com to see if I was nuts, I discovered that almost everyone hated this book. Additionally the author never reveals who framed Mace and put her in prison! After that I figured why bother finishing.

First of all, I hated Mace. She’s extremely masculine and not the least bit believable. Some men can write a credible female character – Baldacci can not. None of the female characters were the least bit real. Mace uses all kinds of slang words (cops are blues, bad guys are bandits and on, and on, and…) Real law enforcement people do not talk like that. I’ve been around a lot of them, I know. None of the characters were believable and the dialog was awful. I won’t even go into the plot because it’s typical Baldacci – a big government cover up where the bad guys are killing folk and getting away with it. Blah, blah, blah.

Save your money – save your brain cells. Do not bother with “True Blue.” It’s a poorly written, poorly researched book by an author can do better.

The book takes place in 1985 when Pender is in his 40’s. He’s not a typical F.B.I. agent by any means. He’s 6′4″ tall, overweight, bald and, by his own admission, he’s ugly. As if that weren’t enough, he drinks too much and smokes too much, wears garish clothing but still manages to romance a few of the local ladies, even though he’s married.

The books starts when 15-year-old Luke Sweet, Jr. gets a call from his father, Luke Senior, telling him to clear out now! Luke then turns the phone over to Teddy, his transsexual step-mother but is hurt because he knows his father is professing love for Teddy but didn’t bother to say anything to his son. Big Luke is killed in a shoot-out with Pender and other F.B.I. agents. Seems Big Luke and Teddy have been making snuff films! Teddy kills herself and Luke takes off, lost and alone, trying to survive.

The first half of the book is told from Luke and Pender’s POV. Luke finds himself in horrendous trouble and I was never sure if all his problems were accidents or if Little Luke was a psycho. That’s what made the story interesting. Then, half-way through the story, out of the blue, Nasaw introduces a new character! We hear very little from this guy and more about Pender and a P.I. named Skip. I won’t go into details of the story in case you want to read it. Suffice to say, there are some pretty graphic scenes of torture.

I had to force myself to finish this book and when I got to the end – I turned the page looking for more! Yes, it’s one of those books that just stops – it didn’t have an ending. I’m not sure if Nasaw ran out of time, got bored or what but the ending was very poor.

At this point I’d be willing to read another Pender book, just because the character is so interesting. Too bad “The Boys from Santa Cruz” wasn’t better because I really can’t recommend reading it.

Come along with Harmony, a tall curvaceous blond travels who travels to Oklahoma to help promote a local circus. She only has one little problem, okay, maybe two. She hates clowns, and she doesn’t have a clue how to promote the circus. Talk about on the job training. Sure, she worked with the world famous BEBOP, an ad agency in San Diego, so promoting a circus should be a snap, right? While traveling from town to town in her pink SUV, nicknamed the Pink Putter for its unfortunate habit of back-firing, Harmony survives a tornado, adopts an abandoned dog, rescues her brother from evil kidnappers and meets the man who might ultimately father her children.

So, why am I posting the information here? Because there’s mystery in here too!

Roman Circus is a humorous sweet romance that’s suitable for all audiences. Available row in e-book format from:

www.nobleromance.com

ENJOY!!!

I picked up one of her older books at the library, “Last to Die” because it had an interesting premise. Someone is waylaying women in the Bitter roots area of Montana in the winter, by shooting out their tires of their cars so they crash The killer then rescues them and lets them start healing from any injuries they obtained in the accident…then ties them to a tree, nude, and lets them freeze to death. The killer carves a star into the tree above their heads with two letters. Sounds interesting, huh? Well, it could have been. The story ambles along at a very slow pace. It jumps from character to character, but Jackson never really develops any of the characters to the point you care about them. Of course there’s a blizzard to hamper the efforts of local law enforcement.  Speaking of the local law – that was one huge red flag. All the dead women are found tied to trees around the small town of Grizzly Falls, Montana – but the police force is huge. They have several detectives, lots of cops, crime scene analysts – way too many people for a small town.

There are twists and turns and a LOT of boring internal dialog. I won’t bother to tell you any more because I would not advise you to read this book. Why? Because Jackson does not solve the crime! Yes, that’s right – no ending, no solution. Instead she has the unmitigated gall to tell her readers to pick up the NEXT book, “Chosen to Die” that was published a full year after “Last to Die,” and she’ll finish the story! HUH? So, the reader just spent almost $8.00 for a paperback novel, it took several days to read and….now he’s supposed to wait another year to find out who the killer is???? I don’t think so.

I would never have expected this type of shoddy behavior from a best selling author like Jackson. I’m not sure why she did this but…I will never read another book of Lisa Jackson’s again. I will never spend a penny on a book by Lisa Jackson again and I will tell everyone I know who loves to read mysteries to do the same. Why would anyone support an author who pulls this kind of trick? There are so many lessor-know authors who wrote SO much better than Jackson. Let’s all support their work and stop buying books by Lisa Jackson. Maybe she’ll realize it’s not nice to fool your readers!

That’s my take – what do YOU think?

The book starts with Michael Canella, a Wall Street hot shot, and his girl friend of four months, Ivy Layton, cruising on the company yacht with a group of high achievers from the investment firm of Saxton Silvers. Ivy is bored with the vapid wall street wives and convinces Michael to go off and rent a boat just for the two of them. They sail, sun, drink, make love and decide on the spur of the moment to get married. Too much wine ensues and when Michael awakes early the next morning with a killer hangover, Ivy is gone, and presumed dead.

Fast forward four years to the day of Michael 35th birthday. He’s on his way to another awards dinner and not thrilled. When he walks into the hotel lobby, two men in trench coats approach him, flash FBI badges and tell Michael he has to come with them. The whole thing is an elaborate ruse set up by Michael 2nd wife, Mallory who has planned a surprise party for his birthday. The party is a success and later in their hotel room while waiting for his wife to get ready for bed – and some hot sex, Michal checks his bank balances and finds….a zero balance. Someone has stolen his identity and drained his accounts dry. His only clue is a new email message: Just as planned, xoxo.

If you think things can’t get worse, just wait. Mallory is incensed over the loss of all “their” money – although she’s done nothing but spend what Michael earned. Then she flies into a rage, accusing Michael of still being in love with his first wife, Ivy. Michael tries to assure Mallory it’s not true, but deep down he knows he’s still in love with Ivy. He never really accepted her death and feels that somehow, somewhere, she’s still alive. But, right now, he’s got more important problem. He contacts his mentor at Saxton Silvers and to his horror finds that someone has begun to short sell all of Saxton’s stock. Soon he’s accused of insider trading, no one will believe his identity has been stolen, Mallory wants a divorce and everyone on Wall Street hates him.

Just when you think things can’t get any worse, they do! Michael is on the run, accused of murder. While he’s trying to figure out what happened to his life and elude the police and FBI, he realizes someone is trying to kill him. There are so many plot twists and turns it’s hard to keep up and the ending will leave you breathless. Grippando explains in very easy language just what happened to cause the stock market meltdown and I understand more now about what happened than I ever did before. I won’t tell you any more about the plot because I don’t want to ruin the surprises in this book. Just go out and buy a copy of “Money to Burn.” You won’t be sorry. Grippando is an excellent writer with a wicked little sense of humor that I love. I can’t wait for his next mystery to come out.

Basically David Loogan meets a man named Tom Kristol, the publisher of a semi-literary mystery magazine, Gray Streets. Tom asks David to be an editor for Gray Streets and, having nothing else to do, (and you wonder why),  David agrees. What he doesn’t realize is that the stories in Gray Streets tend to follow the simple formula: Plans go wrong. Bad things happen. People die. Tom and David become good friend and before you know it, David is having an affair with Tom’s wife, Laura.

After the beginning where David helps Tom bury a body, more people die, and all of them are associated in some way with the magazine. When Tom turns up dead, Elizabeth Waishkey, a detective with the Ann Arbor, Michigan police department doesn’t quite know what to make of David Loogan. Is he a killer, or an ally who might help her find the truth?

The book kept me guessing until the end because I couldn’t figure out who was killing everyone. Well, you won’t figure it out either and that’s the problem. I don’t want to spoil the book in case you decide to read it but…I feel the author didn’t play fair with his audience. I didn’t like the ending and the last two pages made me groan out loud. Suddenly, out of nowhere, David was conversing with dead people – and that was the first and only hint of anything paranormal. It simply didn’t fit.

The other problem I had with this book is that every character sounded the same. From the kind old man who wrote mysteries, to the female detective to her fifteen-year-old daughter, they all had the same voice. It made for some very tedious reading.  So do I recommend the book? Yes, I do but be prepared to be confused. The plotting is very convoluted and I’m not sure you’ll like the ending.