noattentionspan

I am likely going to miss a couple of books I’ve read in this review since it’s been a while, but I have a pile of them here that have to go back to the library so I’ll hit those at least. There have been a couple of really enjoyable books this time through and one that I would even call a page turner!

So, in the order that I read them:

This was my first Tami Hoag book although I’m sure I’ve seen her name before. I am pretty sure I haven’t read anything by her before. Anyway, turns out I was at Safeway and out of book so I had to suck it up and purchase one of the rack and this is what I grabbed. When I finished it the next afternoon I went to the library and found another one by her (that I haven’t ready yet) along with all the books below.

This was good. It was more movie cops than tv cops in some of the realism of the situations, but that didn’t detract from the very good story writing at all. I enjoyed the characters, I liked the way the bad guy(s) were written and I found things believable for the most part.

It was good enough for me to look for more books by her at least.

Rating: 7/10
Buy it? No, get it from the library.

---

For sure this was my first Alex Kava book. When standing in Safeway deciding what to buy, I had this book in my hand and was going to buy it but I changed my mind and went with the Tami Hoag. Either way I would have been pleased with my purchase and I was very happy to find the same book on the new book rack in the library.

This book tells two (almost three) rather different stories and does it well enough to keep you guessing. The characters are a bit flatter than I would have liked, and one or two of them are just unlikeable, but the story telling is interesting and carries it bast the weaker characterization.

Rating: 6/10
Buy it? No, library again.

---

Again, a first by this author that I’ve read and an author I will look for in the future. There were a couple of things about 18 Seconds that I liked that made a good book seem better to me. As a regular Science Fiction and Fantasy reader I am used to having to temporarily suspend my disbelief about a given technology, magic or whatever. With mainstream fiction that attempts to put seemingly real people in seemingly real places the need to bend or warp reality to make a story point is a flaw rather than a bonus. In 18 Seconds though there is a single thing you just have to accept as being ‘real’ for the story. It’s done so well that Shuman doesn’t have to call attention to it in weird ways and doesn’t feel the need to justify it. You are simply asked to accept and that’s all there is to it. Honestly, it worked really well.

That being said, this was still just a good book, not a fantastic book. I will look for the author name again though.

Rating: 6.5/10
Buy it? No, again. Library is fine.

J.A. Jance’s Failure to Appear is a popcorn novel. You consume it, burp and forget it was ever there except for this greasy feeling on your fingers. Actually, it wasn’t bad at all, but neither was it exceptional or even that memorable.

This one could sit in the bathroom for those quiet moments, or by the bedside for before sleep reading and wouldn’t miss anything from the gaps in the times where you were reading.

I sound overly negative here, but there wasn’t a whole lot bad, just not a whole lot good.

Rating: 5/10
Buy it? No, I’d question even bothering to read it.

The more books I read about L.A., the less I want to go there. Hamilton takes us into L.A. with her story and has a newspaper reporter as the primary character. The lead character leaves me wanting more from everyone around her. Definitely well thought out she stands head and shoulders clearer on the page than any other character. Not enough brush strokes on the other characters and it leaves them very 2 dimensional in a couple of places.

The story itself was interesting in a few ways, but some of the cool story arcs just didn’t pan out as well as they looked like they could.

Overall probably the worst of the bunch, but it may just shine less brightly, by far, than the next book.

Rating: 4.5/10
Buy it? No need, it will be come a TV movie soon I’m sure.

This would be the page turner, enough so that I was annoyed at interruptions like swimming, running, sleeping and work. It might just be that I have been on a mystery/cop thriller/fbi profiler kick for a while (Criminal Minds if you are wondering) but I really enjoyed this book. Everything was good from the characters, through the pacing and right into the twisty turns of the plot.

I had a gut feel for the bad guy in this one and while I was right, there wasn’t a lot of direct evidence to point it out, it was more oblique. This was totally ok though, I wanted to get to the next page, read the next chapter, finish consuming.

Turns out it’s the author’s first book so that is even more amazing.

Rating: 7.5-8/10
Buy it? I dunno, maybe yes, maybe not. Get from the library first and give it a read.

S