Frankenstein: Lost Souls - Dean Koontz

Frankenstein: Lost Souls is the fourth novel in Koontz Frankenstein series. I really thought the last novel killed off Victor and that would be that. But this is fiction so a new Victor is back. Now the new race is starting over again in a little town in Montana. They still hate humans but now they have a whole new way of getting rid of us.  And it seems to be working.  Be aware this is not the last novel.  Once again a book just seemed to stop before it was done.  At least with Koontz I can expect a new installment to keep the story going.  Very highly recommended.

The 7th Victim - Alan Jacobson

The 7th Victim follows Karen Vail, an FBI profiler, on her search to find the Dead Eyes serial killer. I really enjoyed this book.  It's hard to catch your breath things go so fast.  I'm not going to stick any spoilers in here, but you'll never believe who the killer is.  Karen has to deal with an ongoing divorce and her mother's alzheimer's at the same time she's relentlessly hunting a killer.  A killer who stabs each victim in the eyes as part of the killing ritual.  Highly recommended.

The Twelfth Imam - Joel C. Rosenberg

The Twelfth Imam is a book that puts the reader right in the center of the nuclear crisis in the middle east. The novel starts with the takeover of the Iranian embassy back in 1979 and ends in the present day Iran with the nuclear crisis almost at the critical point.  I really enjoyed the book, but it ended abruptly and in my opinion the story is not done.  Since I read this on my kindle, I thought there was a problem with the download, but the abrupt stop was followed by authors notes, acknowledgments, and an author bio.  Strange.  Highly recommended but the ending is disappointing.

Salem's Lot - Stephen King

Salem's Lot is one King novel I missed the first time around.  This is an excellent book.  It's kind of refreshing these days to read a vampire novel where the vampires are the bad guys - Evil, nasty, and scary.  Highly recommended.

Worth Dying For - Lee Child

Worth Dying For is a new Reacher Novel.  Last time around it wasn't clear if Reacher had survived or not.  Now we know he made it out alive, but he's suffering.  Unfortunately for him he passed through a little spot in Nebraska where evil things were happening.  And as usual, Reacher can't leave without cleaning up the mess.  And what a complicated mess.  Very highly recommended.

Curse the Dawn - Karen Chance

Curse the Dawn is book four in the Cassie Palmer series. Now it's really getting interesting. Learning to travel ley lines comes in real handy until one splits open and destroys MAGIC headquarters.  Making a deal with a minor god causes Cassie to swap bodies with Pritkin.  Waking up in a man's body, with something she's never dreamed having, is an experience she won't forget :)  Highly recommended.

Embrace the Night - Karen Chance

Embrace the Night is book number three in the Cassie Palmer series.  It just keeps getting more complicated and more dangerous.  Now that she's the Pythia for real she's dealing with the responsibilities of her new office in addition to the powers.  And that pesky geis is still there.  And the war mages and vampires and demons and fairies and ghosts.  She needs the Codex to find the spell to break the geis but that's proving more challenging than she thought.  Especially when she finds out who her favorite war mage really is.  Highly recommended.

Claimed By Shadow - Karen Chance

Claimed By Shadow is the second novel in the Cassandra Palmer series.  Now Cassie's chasing Tony instead of the other way around.  Unfortunately she's got war mages and vampires chasing her, the little matter of a geis to deal with, and she's still trying to figure out what powers she has and how to use them as heir to the Pythia.  A great series.  Highly recommended.

Touch the Dark - Karen Chance

Touch the Dark is the first in a series on Cassandra Palmer.  Cassie is a clairvoyant who was fostered by a vampire, who by the way killed her parents so he could foster her.  Eventually she figures this out and ran away.  Now Tony the vampire is closing in and that's the very least of her problems.  This is a great series.  Highly recommended.

Blog bypass

I've been remiss in updating lately.  Daylight is spent outdoors doing chores and enjoying the fall weather and my beautiful back yard:

When the sun goes down there's plenty to do and reading takes precedence over writing about it. I'll get caught up tonight and see if I can stay there. With daylight savings ending next weekend I'll shift outdoor activities to the morning.  And finally the hours of sunlight will shrink to only the time I get paid to sit in front of a computer screen. Winter is the season of my discontent.

Ice Cold - Tess Gerritsen

Ice Cold is a book featuring detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles. It's been a while since I read Gerritsen and I have to put her back on the short list. This was a story that had multiple threads but they didn't distract from the main story. Maura is trapped in Wyoming in the dead of winter and fighting for her life. The twists keep coming right up to the end. Very highly recommended.

Fractured - Karin Slaughter

Fractured is the first book I've read by Slaughter.  Abigail Campano came home to her fancy estate to find her daughter lying dead in the upstairs hallway.  She's then attacked by the killer and manages to strangle him to death.  Is that really what happened?  It seems that way at first but nothing in this thriller is what it seems.  The mystery begins to unravel when an unlikely pair of law enforcement officers are teamed up to work the case.  One of the detectives has manage to hide the fact that they can't read or write, and strangely this may give the team the big break they need.  Will the break come in time though?  This is one I had a hard time putting down.  Very highly recommended.

The Lost City of Z - David Grann

The Lost City of Z reminds me of the books I used to read as a kid. Stories of explorers in African and South America who searched for elusive new animals or treasures. I really wanted to be an explorer like that. Grann has done an excellent job of bringing the life of one real explorer, Percy Fawcett, into perspective.  I'm not so sure I'd want the insects and poison arrows that he had to deal with in the Amazon,but it makes an interesting and exciting tale.  And in the end it sound like Fawcett and Grann may have found what what they were seeking, even if Fawcett never realized it.  Highly recommended.

The Colorado Kid - Stephen King

The Colorado Kid is a pretty short novel but I liked it. The critics seems to have problems, but I thought it was a good change of pace.  Sometimes you're better off not knowing. Maybe this is one of those times.  That said, the series Haven, which I'm watching on Hulu, is so loosely based on this novel it's almost hard to find the connection.  I like them both though.  Highly recommended.

Burned - P. C. Cast, Kristin Cast

Burned is book seven in the House of Night series. This one came after a major cliff hanger.  I got out of sync writing what I read instead of reading.  There is a much more satisfying ending to this novel but it's still like going to the Saturday movies where every week they leave you hanging so you come back the next Saturday.  There are starting to be more threads than I like in a novel but it hasn't exceeded my tolerance yet.  Recommended.

Tempted - P. C. Cast, Kristin Cast

Tempted is the sixth House of Night novel.  Almost too busy to read so I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this.  Go to the link and read the reviews.  This was something you had to read after reading the first five books.  I enjoyed it but talk about a cliff hanger.  Recommended.

Black Powder War - Naomi Novik

Black Powder War is another book in the series about the dragon Temeraire. Temeraire and his Captain Laurence are on the way back from China when they're commissioned to pickup some dragon eggs the British have purchased from the Ottoman Empire. They decide to go overland instead of by sea, and along the way they encounter deserts, mountains, wild dragons, duplicity in Instanbul, and are caught up in the Napoleonic wars. The continuing dialog between Temeraire and Captain Laurence over the rights and freedoms of dragons is an interesting side thread, and Temeraire's proselytizing among the other dragons they meet is has some interesting consequences.  Their arch nemisis, the white Chinese dragon Lien is tracking them and causing trouble at every turn.  Highly recommended.

Looks to Die For - Janice Kaplan

Looks to Die For is a murder mystery with an unusual protagonist.  Lacy Fields is the wife of a very successful Hollywood plastic surgeon.  When her husband is accused of murdering a woman he claims he's never heard of, Lacy eventually decides she can solve his case better than the police.  There are some interesting twists and turns.  The writing reminds me some of Janet Evanovich's novels.

I enjoyed the story but there is a dark side to this author's writing.  She takes describing girly stuff to a new high.  You never read "she picked up her purse" from Kaplan.  It would be "she picked up her {insert designer name} {insert weird color} {insert material} purse that matched her {insert another designer name} {insert color scheme} {insert size and how well it fits} {insert name for women's clothes I never heard of} outfit."  Yikes!  Reader's Digest could condense this baby by just removing clothing, accessory, and hair style descriptions.  That said I highly recommend this book.

Bullet - Laurell K. Hamilton,

Bullet is the latest Anita Blake novel.  I read them because it's a compulsion.  This series started out so good and now it's kind of pathetic.  Too bad.  There are so many other good authors out there I may take Hamilton off my list for now.  Not recommended.

Big Jack - J.D. Robb

Big Jack is another futuristic Lt. Eve Dallas novel. The first one I've read where the title doesn't end in "Death".  The year is 2059 and Eve and her crew have to solve a 50 year old diamond heist in order to solve a pair of current murders.  Highly recommended.