No Man's Land

All I can say is thank God for David Baldacci and a long holiday weekend. I just never tire of his books and this one has one of my favorite characters, John Puller.

John Puller's Dad is a three star General loved by the men who served with him but not particularly close to John. His Mother disappeared when he was young.  This fact was buried in the memories of the Puller men and really never spoken about until a former neighbor accuses Fuller Sr. of killing his wife.

 It is plausible because evidently his Mom and Dad were not getting along well.  Also his Dad was suppose to be out of town but as it turns out he returned a day early even though he did not come to the house right away.

John sets out to clear his Father's name and steps knee deep into a Government cover up.  His books are always fast paced with a good story.  Once again he stares death in the face and is lucky to be alive. I can't wait for him to write his next book!

Twelve Days of Christmas

This year, I haven't really stayed true to my tradition of reading holiday novels. I don't know why.  Maybe I don't feel the HO Ho Ho of the season this year. However, I was in my local library and saw Twelve Days of Christmas and decided to give it a shot.

I have read a lot of Debbie Macomber.  She writes romances and I like reading them in between the other things I read.  Her holiday novels usually end up on the Hallmark Channel and I love watching the Hallmark channel during the holiday season. One of my favorites of her that is playing this season is Trading Christmas.  Faith Ford, Tom Cavanagh and Gil Bellows are in the movie and it works.
Twelve Days of Christmas is her 2016 holiday novel and it goes something like this:

Julia and Cain live in the same apartment building.  Actually they live on the same floor, like right across from each other.  She is a perky, upbeat kind of woman and he is an unfriendly, bah humbug kind of guy.  He has no holiday spirit and no people skills.  Julia decides to kill him with kindness to see if she can win him over.  She even blogs about it so the world knows how things are going with her kill him with kindness quest.

Sparks start to fly and I can't tell you more because you need to read it for yourself.

Happy Holidays! and enjoy.

Before the Fall

Eleven passengers or should I say souls in airplane speak, board a private jet one summer evening.  About fifteen minutes into the flight something goes horribly wrong and there is a crash.  Two on-board survive.  The two survivors find themselves in the middle of the ocean and only because of pure determination do they make it to shore.

Several of the people on the plane were high profile kind of guys. Immediately, as is always the case, there is speculation about what caused the crash.  Sadly one of the first questions in any crash now a days is Was it an act of terror?  After that the usual scenarios are reviewed.

What was most interesting about this book was how the author created the story by telling all the back stories about the passengers and the crew.  His take on media coverage was interesting and frightening.  As we have seen many times once the media gets involved the story takes on a life of its own.  I am all for getting information out to the public and transparency etc, but sometimes a journalist will go a little too far and create a story.  The story may ultimately prove to be wrong and innocent people become collateral damage.

Put Before the Fall on your reading list.

The Pursuit

This is the new novel (June 2016) written by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg.  For those of you who don't know Janet Evanovich, she is the author of many novels but most notably the Stephanie Plum novels.  If you choose to read one of the Plum novels I highly recommend  listening to them.  The actress who reads them is very good and really developed great voices the longer she performed for the audio series.  The books have a number in each title and I admit I started the series in the teens rather than from the beginning.  I don't think I will go back to read the others.

Anyway as many published authors seem to be doing, Evanovich has teamed up with Lee Goldberg to write the Fox and O'Hare series.  It's a good writing team.  There is still the humor and character development that you see in her books but the thrill of the chase seems to be added by Goldberg.  By the way, Lee Goldberg is an author and screenwriter who has worked on different crime series.

In this book you have Kate O'Hare the FBI agent and Nick Fox the elegant thief.  They have been partnered by the FBI. If Nick refuses, he will find himself behind bars for a long time.  This time Nick gets kidnapped by the road runners a group of jewelry thieves that do a grab and go type robbery on a large scale.  They have kidnapped Nick for his expertise needed to rob a particularly impenetrable safe.  Nick gets caught and sent to jail.  Kate busts him out of jail and the fun begins because the leader of this group wants more than jewelry this time.  It is a fun read so give it a try.

Amos Decker Part Deux

By now you guys know how much I love reading David Baldacci. I can always count on him to get me engaged in the story.  Since I have been reading a lot of non-fiction lately, this was a nice break.

Once again Baldacci brings back Amos Decker. If you read Memory Man ,which I highly recommend, you would be up to speed on this new character. Just in case you didn't read the first book,  I will give you a little background on Amos just to get you interested. He was a pro football player.  His first game ever was his last.  His helmet collided with another players helmet that knocked him out.  Literally and figuratively.  His career as a pro was over.  He was left with a brain injury that effected his memory.  He can't forget anything.  Anything. He remembers everything and in great detail. I am glad I can forget certain things in my life or at least store them away in a corner.

Fast forward and he is in law enforcement.  One day he comes home to find his family brutally murdered.  Imagine never being able to forget anything and to have that scene play in your head forever.  His career goes into the toilet until by coincidence he gets dragged back into a case.  One that may ultimately help him move on.

But enough about that book.  I am talking the new book The Last Mile. Amos is now employed by the FBI.  He is assigned to a special task force that has been given a stack of cases.  He takes an interest in a case a former football player who is on death row for the brutal murder of his parents years ago. Something doesn't add up and Decker is all over it.

Give these books a try.

In the Summertime when the weather is Fine.

It is summer. It is hot.  This year we have not been able to take a beach vacation. Sad I know. My deck is a toasty 99 degrees no thank you. I thought of getting one of those kiddie pools but there are no kiddies home this summer and I don’t need a mosquito magnet. Thank you very much.

I really haven’t been in the mood to tackle anything deep or meaningful.  What I mean by meaningful is non-fiction or fiction with a heavy duty theme like death and dying.  I seemed to have gravitated towards those this past year.  I have that in real life who needs to read about it right now.  So I have been reading romances and thrillers which I have found to be extremely satisfying.

I have read some that were good and some that were ok.  I will share them with you. You make your own decision.

Me Before You

I read the book Me Before You right when it was released and I have never stopped thinking about it. On June 3 the movie was released and I was one of the first in line to see it.

The casting was brilliant.  Emilia Clark is exactly how I imagined Lou to be as I was reading the book. Sam Claflin is a perfect Will.

In case you have not read the book nor seen the movie I will give you a brief synopsis.  Will had a fantastic life.  He was a successful business man with a beautiful girlfriend.  He was very athletic and traveled all over.

Then in literally a blink of an eye his world shattered.  He needed to live in a new reality.  But could he?

Good movie and Good read.  Take your pick or choose both.