The story in Lisa Unger’s latest book, Darkness, My Old Friend, takes place in the small town of The Hollows in upstate New York and follows several characters, pulling the reader along to the conclusion of the book. Jones Cooper forced to retire from The Hollows police department is struggling to cope with his new status with too much time on his hands. Michael Holt grew up in The Hollows and recently returned. He’s been haunted all his life by the disappearance of his mother years ago, and has come back to try and solve the mystery of her desertion. Teenager Willow Graves moved from Manhattan six month earlier with her novelist mother after a bitter divorce.

The stories of these three characters comes together to form the basis of this suspenseful novel. A lot of questions surround exactly what happened on the night of Michael’s mother, Marla, disappearance and Jones gets drawn into the intrigue. Enough other characters and storylines are woven throughout to add interest for the reader and create additional questions that need to be resolved.

The characters in this novel are interesting and they just keep showing up in this book, one by one, chapter by chapter. The writing is so beautiful, the plot so exciting, that it doesn’t matter that you can’t see how all of the characters and storylines are related to each other. It all comes together and in the end, people are who they were all along, but changed by the events, irretrievably changed, some for the better.

If you haven’t read a book by Lisa Unger and love mysteries or medium to light thrillers, this is the author for you. Her stories and characters have such depth. Nothing is ever as it seems at first.

Like your mysteries with some giggles? You might want to try either of my novels, Roman Circus or The Colors of Death. Both of the light mysteries are filled with humor and just a hint of romance.

Roman Circus – www.nobleromance.com

The Colors of Death – www.writewordsinc.com

The book started with promise. A headless burning corpse of a woman is found in front of a church in Manhattan. Alex Cooper and Mike Chapman go to the crime scene – which is written in great detail – almost too much. Right away Mike starts with a history lesson about Manhattan churches. Fairstein does her homework and I usually find the New York city history interesting. This time, not so much. When a second body is found, this one missing her tongue, things start going south. Mike and Alex go to the church in his old Alma Mater, Fordham College, and unbelievable find the tongue! Huh?

In the midst of all this running around, Alex has to go to court to prosecute a pedophile priest. A mysterious man walks into the courtroom and then, disappears. It’s NEVER explained why the man was there. Also, that thread just evaporates – only mentioned in passing a couple of times. As usual, the D.A. is angry with Alex but I’m not sure why. There’s a LOT of filler in this book and quite frankly I’m still not sure what the plot was about. Something about strong religious women. Alex, Mike and Mercer are still wagering on Final Jeopardy. I don’t get it – we know Alex is wealthy, she tells us in every book, so I can see her plopping down a twenty every night but….Mercer is married and has a child. Does he REALLY make that much money working for the NYPD? And speaking of the wealthy Alex, tells us in every book how lucky she is to be living in a secure high rise on the 20th floor, yet in almost every book, someone manages to get up to her apartment to menace her.

I usually read several books a week. That’s why I use the library – I couldn’t possible afford to buy all the books I read and eat! Anyhow, I picked this book up, read a bit, put it down….I just never did get into it. Toward the end, we’re on a train  with the Barnum and Bailey Circus chugging up the coast to Rhode Island! I was scratching my head and going, WTF?”

When the leprosy came into play, I closed the book and quit. Seriously. I only had about 25 pages to read but I just couldn’t finish! No more Linda Fairstein books for me.

For one thing, there is little forensic information in this book. When Reichs started the series, there was far too much forensic information. I remember skipping large sections of text because my eyes were glazing over – way too much detail. Over the course of the series, there has been less and less on bones and more on relationships. Ryan shows up in “Flash and Bone” briefly, and I’m glad. I’m sooooo tired of that relationship. Make up your minds, already! In this book, once again, Tempe finds a hottie and he’s attracted to her too. Come on…the woman has to be near 50 and is usually dirty and disheveled from grubbing in the dirt looking at body parts. How attractive can she be?

There are so many characters in the book that I never could keep them straight. And, two of the main characters were named Gamble and Galimore! Come on Kathy, that’s an amateur’s mistake. A lot of the dialogue is very unbelievable  and far too many of the characters talk in the same “voice” which just adds to the confusion.

What was the plot, you ask? Beats me. In the beginning a body is found stuffed in a barrel and covered with asphalt near the track during NASCAR race week. Besides all the NASCAR stuff, we have the FBI, CDC and I think the kitchen sink. Reichs does a lot of research for her books and unfortunately she puts ALL of it in the books! She actually had one of her characters say, and I paraphrase, “Most people don’t even know this but in…..!”  Basically Tempe is helping Skinny Slidell solve the mystery. Why? She is not a cop and has zero business running around questioning people! I was tempted several times to stop reading but I persisted. I finished and….I still am not sure what the book was about! It was confusing and boring and this time, I swear, I’ll never read another of Reichs’ books again. NEVER!

After a long layoff and months of struggling, Alice Humphries finally lands her dream job managing a new art gallery in Manhattan’s trendy Meat Packing District. According to Drew Campbell, the man who hires her, the gallery is the project of a wealthy, anonymous man who’s starting the project for his protégé/lover.

All of Alice’s friend think the opportunity is too good to be true, and in the back of her mind, Alice knows too knows something is off about the job. But she’s struggled for years to come out of the shadow of her famous director father, and she sees this as her chance to make good.

Everything is perfect until the morning Alice arrives at work to find the walls of the gallery stripped bare of everything but the dead body of Drew Campbell resting in a pool of blood in the middle of the floor. Suddenly Alice finds her dream job is gone, she’s the center of a police investigation and evidence is mounting against her.

This is an extremely interesting story that takes some time to unfold. There are several storylines that seem to have no connection but later begin to intersect. The characters are layered and it isn’t clear who can be trusted even to the end. Many are ethically challenged without any redeeming qualities but there are enough who are to keep you invested in the outcome. It’s a well-written story that kept my mind challenged throughout.

I admit I had a hard time getting into Long Gone because of the multiple story lines. I almost gave up put knew the disparate threads would come together eventually and they did. I was blow away at the intricate plotting and resolution. In my opinion, one of the treads was unnecessary and could easily have been dropped but it didn’t detract from the story.

Too many children of famous authors have been writing and getting their novels published – and most are not good. Fortunately Alafair Burke, daughter of writer James Lee Burke, can write and write well. I’ve read both her Ellie Hatcher and Samantha Kincaid series and enjoyed them both. That said I’m glad Ms. Burke has decided to break out with a standalone novel. Too many series become stale and repetitious after a few books. I look forward to reading her next book.

First of all, the protagonist, Alex Dillieo is suppose to be a woman, but I didn’t believe it for a minute. Some men can write good women characters, some can’t – Frost can’t.  I never believed she was female – and I can’t really point to any one reason why. Just a feeling. And, the investigation took place over the course of, I think, four days but….Alex never changed clothes, showered or apparently ate! EEEUUUU. There were a couple of contrived love scenes between Alex and her partner but they were very awkward and unbelievable.

Speaking of her partner, his name was Harrington. One of the other main characters name was…Hazard. I kept getting them mixed up! Why Frost had two main characters with such similar names, I have no idea but it was not a good idea. That’s a newby mistake and should NEVER have come out in a published novel. Where on earth was the editor?????

Okay so the plot. The author keeps remarking on things that apparently happened in a previous book. I hate that! I haven’t read the book (and certainly won’t now) so it slowed the progress of the novel. Alex is contacted because a man who said he’s her brother was killed, or committed suicide, but Alex doesn’t have a brother. Alex, a cop with Pasadena PD, goes off to investigate. I’d love to give you a synopsis of the plot but I honestly can’t. It was so damn convoluted, I simply could not follow what was happening. It had something to do with a serial killer from 18 years previous who may…or may not have been Alex father. There were coincidences all over the place – another newby mistake and a couple of times my eyeballs were rolling around in my head so fast I stopped reading and said out loud “OH come on!!!” Yeah, that bad.

So, if you feel you have to read “Never Fear” I’d suggest you get it from the library. And if you do – would you please explain it to me? I don’t have a clue.

Want to read a GOOD dark mystery? Pick up a copy of my mystery, The Worst Evil, available at: www.whiskeycreekpress.com

That said, I picked up “Vermilion Drift” because I was familiar with the character. Let me say right off the bat that Kruger is a very good writer. His descriptions of northern Minnesota are sharp and picturesque – you can see those clear blue lakes, hear the wind blowing through the tops of tall trees, small the fresh air. Too bad Kruger left out one important element. Mosquitoes. Hey, I grew up in Minnesota, I know. Those little buggers are all over the place and have been known to carry off small children! Okay, so that was a bit of an exaggeration. My point is that Kruger has idolized the place.

The book starts slow – not good. I teach a Novel Writing Class and always instruct my students to start in the middle of something – grab the reader and make him or her want to continue. In the beginning of “Vermilion Drift”, Max Cavanaugh, owner of a iron ore mine on northern Minnesota’s Iron Range, wants Cork O’Connor to find his sister. She’s been missing for a week and Cavanaugh is getting worried. Cork had been Sheriff of Aurora, the town closest to the mine at one time, but is now retired and only does consulting work as a P.I. The book meanders on for about 20 pages until FINALLY six bodies are found in the Vermilion mine. I won’t ever try to explain what a drift is – it took the book about four pages, four BORING pages. Well, now we finally have something interesting – especially because five of the remains seem to have been in the mine for over 40 years, since “the Vanishings” on the Indian Reservation. Of course Max’s sister is the newest member of the macabre scene.

Sound confusing? Yes, it is. There is a lot of Cork dreaming of his dead father, who was also a Sheriff, lots of characters from “the Rez.”  There are too many characters, too many subplots and quite frankly too much Indian mumbo jumbo.  Cork is one quarter Ojibwa Indian but seems to identify almost completely with his Indian roots.

There were far too many coincidences in the book, a lot of deux ex machina. I think Kruger is simply running out of ideas or getting tired of the character – or something. I figured out quite easily who killed the modern woman and throughout the story we know who killed all the older bodies. There really isn’t a lot of action in this book and I had to force myself to keep reading. When Cork finally figures out whodunit, I was happy that I’d guessed correctly and ready to close the book….but wait. Kruger wasn’t finished! He went on for about 30 more pages, having Cork sit in a sweat lodge with his old Indian friend so he could “finish the journey.” Any reader with half a brain had already figured out who killed all the people 40 years ago – the author basically told us! I skimmed the remaining pages but was disappointed. Kruger should have stopped the book when the modern mystery had been solved.

Right now I’d have to think long and hard about reading another Cork O’Connor book. Good old Corkie has grown boring.

Want to read a GOOD mystery that is exciting from beginning to end? Pick up a copy of “The Worse Evil” at www.whiskeycreekpress.com

The basic plot is that Camille Preaker, a so-so reporter at a third rate Chicago newspaper is asked by her editor to go back to her home town of Wind Gap, Missouri, to cover the murder of one child and the disappearance of a second. Right off the bat we know that Camille has family issues, personal issues and is a raging alcoholic. I got a hangover just reading about the amount of booze Camille drank without ever apparently eating. Camille has one other little problem – she’s a cutter. And not just your ordinary run-of-the-mill cutter, no she carves words all over her body. She’s only recently gotten out of a mental institute so you have to wonder what her boss was thinking.

So, Camille goes home to her totally dysfunctional family.  She hasn’t been back home in years and once you meet mother, you’ll know why. There is somewhat of a mystery about Camille’s older sister, Marion who died young. Or…maybe not such a mystery. While trying to deal with her family, Camille is also attempting to write the story of the dead girl. Of course we find the second girl dead shortly after Camille returns home. Neither of the girls had been sexually molested but both had all their teeth pulled! Yes, it’s an intriguing mystery. Unfortunately the author sent Camille down memory lane and she met and remembered her time growing up in Wind Gap. The mystery was pretty easy to figure out and the book ended rather abruptly. I wish Flynn had spent more time on the ending and tightened up the middle. Oh well. There is some drunken awkward sex with first a detective in town trying to help out the local law – then a high school boy – eeeeuuuu. Camille is…30-ish.

Flynn is a very good writer, for instance “she sat in a room the color of egg yolks”. I loved that and many more of her descriptive sentences. However, she had a few new writer boo-b00s that somehow slipped through the editor’s fingers. For instance, at one point, drunk, she drives to a park and sits there – drinking. Her younger half-sister, thirteen-year-old,Amma, comes by with friends and convinces Camille to go to a party with them. Theres a LONG scene where she’d drinking and taking drugs with Amma. It’s pretty unbelievable, but anyhow they walk home. The next day (after massive barfing) Camille goes outside and gets in her car. Ah, where did that come from? There are several of these gaffs that the editor – or author should have caught before the book was published.

“Sharp Objects” is a slight, 250 page book so it’s fast reading. Unfortunately by the time I finished I was ready to gargle with razer blades – it was just too, too depressing. AND, I wanted to shake Camille and tell her to grow up, get off the pitty pot and make something of her life! I hate whiners.

Want to read a fun, uplifting mystery? Got a copy of my book, “FINDER!” available now at www.wildchildpublishing.com or on www.amazon.com.

In all the “Hollywood” series novels, something serious happens at the end. In the first one…or was it the second? Can’t remember, but the Oracle died. I won’t spoil the ending for you in case you feel you have to read the book but something bad happens here that will affect one of the main characters. I was disappointed in the book and had to force myself to finish it. There was no one better writing about cops than Wambaugh when he started and was still on the force. The longer he’s away from the day-to-day life of real cops, the worse his stories get. More than once, a cop-character in “Hollywood Hills” said they were going to use code 3 to call all the cops to the scene. No, code 3 is lights and sirens – always, everywhere. Wambaugh used the code correctly – once – at the end of the book. Time to hang it up, Joe.

Okay – onward. “Innocent Monster” is the story of Sashi Bluntstone, an eleven-year-old art prodigy and daughter of Sarah’s childhood friend, who has been kidnapped. Three weeks into the investigation and the cops have gotten nowhere and the parents have gotten desperate and everyone believes Sashi is dead. In their desperation they come to Moe Prager for help. Moe is an ex-cop, an ex-P.I. and, with his older brother, the owner of several upscale wine shops around Manhattan with cutesy names like, “Red, White and Vine.”

Moe start sniffing around, gets the reports from the police and is as baffled as everyone else as to what could have happened to the little girl. Many art critics have dismissed Sashi’s artwork as dribbles from a child, others think she’s a genus and everyone knows, if Sashi is dead, her price of her work will go through the roof. Moe starts interviewing Sashi’s detractors, desperate for a lead. The descriptions of some of the characters are priceless. Along the way, Moe meets a woman very casually and starts falling in love with her – then she disappears, too.

About two-thirds of the way into the book, it the police discover one of the suspects has killed himself and….left photos of Sashi’s body. Will her poor parents ever find closure? Of course we know right then and there, this is too neat. Moe is drinking a bit too much and conveniently “remembers” things while sleeping…or passed out. In the end, Moe does find the bad guy, but it would have been darn hard for the reader to figure it out. Also, the ending left a lot of questions. I won’t spoil the story if you want to read the book. I did enjoy most of it but….skipped a LOT of the back story.

Want to read a fun, humorous mystery? Buy a copy of my humorous mystery, FINDER, available at: www.wildchildpublishing.com. They mystery is cleaver, I’ll be you won’t figure it out and….there are a lot of laughs along the way.

“Spider Bones” starts in Canada when a body is discovered. Don’t all the best mysteries start like that? The man accidentally downed himself during a session of auto erotic stimulation. Then comes the kicker. The corpse is identified as John Lowery, but Lowery died in Viet Nam in 1968! So, who is this? Tempe starts following clues and goes from Canada, to North Carolina and winds up in Hawaii with JPAC, the agency tasked with identifying bones from men and woman from all wars and conflicts starting with WWII.  Then things really get muddled. There are potentially four different men who COULD be in that grave in South Carolina. Tempe follows clues, and pontificates. There are so many military acronyms here your eyes will begin to glaze over. On top of that, the various bones are referred to be numbers and I never could keep them straight.

One of my main beefs with Reichs is that Tempe knows EVERYTHING! Mention a snail on the side walk and voila!, Tempe remembers an article she read about Hawaiian snails and goes on to tell the reader all about them. To me it’s a lot of deux ex machina. Reichs obviously does a lot of research and she’s going to by God get it all in the book! TOO MUCH, KATHY! STOP! There’s a second, parallel story line about parts of  bodies found in a bay that had been chewed up by sharks, a drug connection and … I’m really not sure! This book was SO confusing it was really hard to follow.

And of course there is the on-again, off-again romance between Ryan and Tempe. This time both adults bring their daughters to Hawaii and of course they don’t get along. I guess I must have missed something somewhere along the line because Lily, Ryan’s daughter is referred to several times as being black. Did I miss something? I thought she was blonde? Well, never mind. At this point I doubt I’ll waste any more time on the muddled prose of Reichs.

If you want to read a good, no GREAT novel, get a copy of MIND ECHOES! MIND ECHOES is the story of a house call veterinarian who communicates with animals telepathically to help a police detective solve crimes. It’s ON SALE for the entire month of February as a featured book at: www.whiskeycreekpress.com for ONLY $1.99! Why? Because it’a finalist in the 2011 EPIC contest. Pick up a copy today – I promise it’s not the least bit confusing, just fun and entertaining.