Category: Read in 2011

3/5, Alex Cross, AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, P, RATING, Read in 2011, READING CHALLENGES 2011, SERIES

2011.4 REVIEW – Cross Country by James Patterson

Tara

Cross Country     
by James Patterson 

Copyright: 2008
Pages: 403
Rating: 3/5
Read: Jan. 17 – 23, 2011
Challenge: Mystery & Suspense Challenge; TBR Dare
Yearly Count: 4
Format: Print

First Line: Georgetown, Washington, D.C. The surname of the family was Cox, the father a very successful trial lawyer, but the target was the mother, Ellie Randall Cox.

Blurb: Detective Alex Cross pursues the most ruthless killer he’s ever encountered – to a land of sheer terror and back. It’s the worst crime scene Alex Cross has ever seen, and then more killings, each one more ruthless than the last, quickly follow. After one death comes terrifyingly close to home, Alex realizes he’s chasing a horrible new breed of killer. Digging deeper into the case, Alex and his girlfriend, Detective Brianna Stone, uncover a shocking Washington, D.C., underworld: a gang of teenage thugs headed by a warlord known only as the Tiger. When the Tiger’s elusive trail turns up in Africa, Alex knokws that he must follow. Unprotected and alone, can Alex manage to both survive and catch the killer?

Review: Okay, I’m not going to lie, this was not my favorite Alex Cross book at all. In fact, I actually considered putting it aside at one point. The entire portion of the book in which Alex was in Africa was not my cup of tea. I was a little sick of how cocky Alex got when he was in Africa. I mean, the guy is in a foreign country, not at all wanted there, and yet he goes around thinking that just because he’s a police officer in Washington D.C. will actually mean anything in Africa. It doesn’t work that way in foreign countries. Yet, Alex didn’t seem to comprehend that whatsoever. There is a lot of violence in this book, just a warning to anyone easily offended. I also felt like it was just a little too political for a fiction book. It just really wasn’t all that great in my opinion. I hope that the next book in this series is better, because this installment has left a bad taste in my mouth.

5/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, C, Fiction, RATING, Read in 2011, READING CHALLENGES 2011

2011.3 REVIEW – Where are the Children? by Mary Higgins Clark

Tara

Where Are the Children?
by Mary Higgins Clark

Copyright: 1975
Pages: 290
Rating: 5/5
Read: Jan. 14 – 16, 2011
Challenge: Mystery & Suspense Challenge; TBR Dare; TwentyEleven Challenge; What’s in a Name 4
Yearly Count: 3
Format: Print

First Line: He could feel the chill coming in through the cracks around the windowpanes.

Blurb: Nancy Harmon had fled the vil of her first marriage, the macabre deaths of her two little children, the hideous charges against her. She changed her name, dyed her hair, moved from California to New England. Now she was married again, had had two more lovely children, and her life was filled with happiness … until the morning when she looked for her children and found only one tattered red mitten and knew that the nightmare was beginning again…

Review: This is Mary Higgins Clark’s first mystery novel. I found it just as thrilling as her recent novels! You could definitely tell that it was dated (1975), but that really didn’t take away from the actual storyline. In all honesty, this is a book that can be read 100 years from now and still be good. Overall, I thouroughly enjoyed this book. That’s not to say it was perfect, I did have a little bit of an issue with Nancy’s character. I guess it stems from me not liking such weak women characters. I have very little sympathy for weak women, so I didn’t really like Nancy’s character as much as I could have. I was also a little disappointed by the lack of background about Nancy. For  most of the book I kept scratching my head wondering if I had missed something, and then I decided that there was a lot that wasn’t revealed as early as it could have been. This is a 290 page book that was short, sweet and to the point. It could have had at least 30 extra pages in it to include this background. Of course, then I would probably be complaining about too much background, so I suppose that complaint is a double edged sword. Overall, I really did enjoy this book and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good mystery.

AUTHOR, Book Review, E, Fiction, Read in 2011, READING CHALLENGES 2011, SERIES, Taylor Jackson

2011.2 REVIEW – Judas Kiss by J.T. Ellison

Tara

Judas Kiss
by J.T. Ellison

Copyright: 2009
Pages: 395
Rating: 4/5
Read: Jan. 5 – 14, 2011
Challenge: Mystery & Suspense Challenge; TBR Dare
Yearly Count: 2
Format: Print

First Line: Blood. It was everywhere.

Blurb: It was a murder made for TV: a trail of tiny bloody footprints. An innocent toddler playing beside her mother’s bludgeoned body. Pretty young Corinne Wolff, seven months pregnant, brutally murdered in her own home. Cameras and questions don’t usually faze Nashville homicide lieutenant Taylor Jackson, but the media frenzy surrounding the Wolff case is particularly nasty … and thorough. When the seemingly model mommy is linked to an amateur porn Web site with underage actresses and unwitting players, the sharks begin to circle. The shock is magnified when an old adversary uses the sexy secret footage to implicate Taylor in a murder – an accusation that threatens her career, her reputation and her relationship. Both cases hinge on the evidence – real or manufactured – of crimes that go beyond passion, into the realm of obsessive vengeance and shocking betrayal. Just what the networks love.

Review: Okay, so it took me forever to read this book. But not because I wasn’t enjoying it! I actually really liked this book. For whatever reason, I really like Taylor Jackson as a character! She’s witty, independent, smart, and manages to balance all of that with her love life and work life. It’s amazing what kind of insight the author, J.T. Ellison, has into the psyche of the character she has created. In this particular installment, many of the cases from Taylor’s past come back into her life. It’s interesting to see how she handles it all – along with the pressure of having some really embarrassing tapes being released to the media. This book does have some adult aspects to it, so I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone. (But I’m not really a good judge when it comes to offensive material because I’m not offended by much of anything.) Overall I’m really looking forward to reading more Taylor Jackson, I’m dying to know what she does with the awful Delores Norris (what a despicable woman!).

Here’s a line that made me laugh out loud when I was reading:

She was starting to get a complex; just how many serial killers could the city of Nashville have in one day?

5/5, Alex Cross, AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, P, RATING, Read in 2011, READING CHALLENGES 2011, SERIES

2011.1 REVIEW – Double Cross by James Patterson

Tara

Double Cross
by James Patterson

Copyright: 2007
Pages: 402
Rating: 5/5
Read: Jan. 1 – 5, 2011
Challenge: Criminal Plots Challenge; Mystery & Suspense Challenge; TBR Dare
Yearly Count: 1
Format: Print

First Line: At the time of his formal sentencing in Alexandria, Virginia, for eleven known murders, the former FBI agent and pattern killer Kyle Craig, known as the Mastermind, was lectured and condescended to by U.S. District Judge Nina Wolff.

Blurb: Alex Cross rejoins the D.C. police force to confront two of the most diabolical killers he’s ever encountered. Just when his life is calming down, Alex Cross is drawn back into a lethal game like no other. In Washington, D.C., a maniac stages his killings as spectacles in public settings. Alex is pursuing a genius of terror who has the whole city on edge. And the killer loves the attention – he even sets up his own web site and live video feed to trumpet his madness. In Colorado, another brilliant madman is planning a triumphant return. From his supermaximum-security prison cell, Kyle Craig has plotted for years an impossible escape. If he has to join forces with D.C.’s Audience Killer to get back at the man who put him in that prison – Alex Cross – all the better.

Review: Spoilers possible. This is the 13th in the Alex Cross series. This is one of my absolute favorite series *ever*. It’s amazing what kind of trouble Alex always ends up in (or rather, what kind of trouble always finds Alex…). In this particular installment, The Mastermind (a.k.a. Kyle Craig) makes another appearance – in the form of a pretty interesting prison escape. Alex is also having to deal with helping his girlfriend, Bree, and best friend, Sampson, with the Audience Killer case in Washington, D.C. I thought it was very interesting how Kyle Craig was brought back onto the scene by the author. But what’s even more interesting is that at the end of the book, he is still at large! It sometimes seems a little improbable in regards to how many big cases Alex Cross and the Washington D.C. police department have to deal with. And even though some of the situations that the author poses to the reader seem almost entirely impossible, I still love this series! As soon as I finish an Alex Cross book, I’m always interested to know where Alex will go in the next book. This is one of the few series that I have found that has not really gone downhill as it progresses. I highly recommend this book and series.