Category: 3/5

3/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, D, Nonfiction, Read in 2008

Presumed Guilty by Matt Dalton

Tara
Presumed Guilty: What the Jury Never Knew About Laci Peterson’s Murder and Why Scott Peterson Should Not Be on Death Row
by Matt Dalton with Bonnie Hearn Hill

Copyright: 2005
Pages: 192
Rating: 3/5
Read: Aug. 9-11, 2008
Challenge: Triple Eight – True Crime Category

First Line: On April 18, 2003, Scott Peterson, a thirty-year-old fertilizer salesman from Modesto, California, was arrested for the murder of his wife, Laci, and their unborn child, whose bodies were identified the same day.

Matt Dalton was involved in the Scott Peterson case as a defense attorney alongside Mark Geragos in the early stages of the investigation. Matt was the attorney that had primary involvement with Scott while he was in jail after being charged. Dalton is convinced that Scott Peterson is stone cold innocent. In this book he goes into a lot of detail as to other explanations for Laci’s murder. He discusses theories such as the satanic cult group and that the burglary of the house across the street was related. He also says that he personally uncovered six witnesses who could place Laci alive on the morning of December 24, 2002. But the question that he really left unanswered is why those witnesses were never called to the stand in the trial. Now, he states somewhere along the way that it is up to the trial attorney to decide who gets called as a witness. And for anyone who watched this trial like I did, they know that Geragos did not exactly prove Scott innocent like he said he would in his opening statement. If I’m not mistaken, I believe Geragos even mentioned those six witnesses in that same opening …. so why were they not called?! If they could swear under oath that Laci Peterson was indeed alive and out and about when Scott Peterson was out fishing, why wouldn’t or couldn’t they testify?! As you can tell from my comments, I didn’t buy into this book whatsoever. If perhaps Geragos had called those witnesses to the stand during the trial, the ending would have been different. But as the jurors stated after the trial was over, there simply was no other alternative as to who could have possibly committed that horrendous crime. Overall, I felt that Dalton made a good case on some of the points that he pointed out, but in the end, he didn’t convince me anymore than Mark Geragos at trial convinced me.

There is one passage that I would like to quote from this book:

I again got the feeling I’d had when I first met him – that he was docile. He certainly didn’t seem to fit the profile of a psychopath, and he didn’t strike me as a killer. I couldn’t imagine this young man doing anything like what he’d been accused of. (p. 30)

The first thing I thought of when I read that ….. people said the same thing about Ted Bundy.

3/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, J, Read in 2008

Name Withheld by J.A. Jance

Tara
Name Withheld
by J.A. Jance
Copyright: 1996
Pages: 392
Rating: 3/5
Read: July 24-27, 2008
Challenge: Initials Challenge

First Line: With Seattle’s New Year’s fireworks display due to begin soon, the Peters girls – nine-year-old Heather and ten-year-old Tracy – and I shut down our Uno game at twenty minutes before midnight.

When a dead man’s body is found in Elliot Bay, Detective J.P. Beaumont catches the case. What he is faced with is a man, as a biotech executive, has made many enemies along the way. So it’s easy to say that this was a man who was hated and wanted dead by many people. But things are not as they seem. Instead of an open-and-shut case, there are many twists and turns along the way, including the man’s boss admitting that he should be prime suspect number one, and a little old lady from the suburbs confessing to the murder. It will take a lot of thinking for Beaumont to straighten this one out.
Okay, this is the first book that I’ve ever read by J.A. Jance. And I hate to say it, but this will probably be the only book I read. I just was not impressed by it. It honestly sounded like a good book, but I felt that the writing was seriously lacking. It was just okay for me. Nothing spectacular by any means, though.
3/5, AUTHOR, B, Book Review, Nonfiction, Read in 2008

Blood Brother by Anne Bird

Tara
Blood Brothers: 33 Reasons My Broher Scott Peterson is Guilty
by Anne Bird
Copyright: 2005
Pages: 211
Rating: 3/5
Read: July 22-24, 2008
Challenge: Triple Eight – True Crime Category

First Line: On a quiet midweek afternoon in early June 1997, I received a phone call that almost destroyed my life.

Anne Bird is one of the two children that Jackie Peterson gave up as a young woman. When Anne first met Jackie and her family she was glad that it turned out the way that it did. When she meets the “Golden Boy” of the family, Scott, she takes to him immediately. If she had known when she first met her “new” family what was to come she probably would have been a little more cautious. But whatever the reason, she became caught up in the Scott Peterson investigation in a way that no person should ever have to. Her family ties make her want to prove everybody wrong about Scott but her instincts tell her that things just aren’t adding up.
This was probably not the best book on this subject. But I am glad that I read this one. It was interesting to see it from this point of view. She was a part of the family and then yet again she really wasn’t because her adoptive family was the family that she really knew and trusted. And yet I understood why she was hesitant to believe that Scott could have done such a thing as kill his wife and unborn child. I am very interested in everything about this trial, having watched it all unfold daily. But like I said, not the best book to read regarding this case, but definitely worth your time.
3/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, K, Maggie O'Dell, Read in 2008, SERIES

The Soul Catcher by Alex Kava

Tara
The Soul Catcher
by Alex Kava
Copyright: 2002
Pages: 402
Rating: 3/5
Read: July 20-23, 2008
Challenge: Triple Eight – From my TBR Shelf Category; A Well-Rounded Challenge; Series
Challenge Season 2

First Line: Eric Pratt leaned his head against the cabin wall.

FBI Agent Maggie O’Dell thinks that there will be nothing more than routine when she begins to consult on two separate cases. But as she continues to work, she realizes that there might just be a connection between the two seemingly unrelated cases. And that connection is Reverend Joseph Everett, a charismatic leader of a religious sect. But Maggie is not at all prepared when she learns that her mother is part of Everett’s group. Unfortunately the only way that Maggie is going to be able to figure out what is going on with Everett is to use her mother as a pawn in a deadly trap.
I’m going to be honest here. There are currently 5 books in this series. Reading this third book in the series, brings me to a total of reading 4 of the 5. And although I read the first, second and fourth late last year, I vaguely remember them. And I hate to say it, this is the worst one I’ve read. I was just disappointed with this one. I was really flying through this one and enjoyed it right up until the end. The ending was just horrible! It sucked, to be honest. It was just a complete let down to end the book in such a fashion (a horribly unbelievable fashion). I have the fifth in the series on hold at the library and hope that it’s better.
3/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, F, Fiction, Read in 2008

The Disappearance by J.F. Freedman

Tara
The Disappearance
by J.F. Freedman

Copyright: 1998
Pages: 486
Rating: 3/5
Read: July 1-8, 2008
Challenge: Initials Challenge

First Line: The weather had been raw and miserable virtually every day for two months; this was the worst winter in a couple of decades, way worse than those of ’95 or ’82, a continuous, relentless, El Nino-driven hard-falling rain from right after Christmas all through January and February, torrential sheets of cold piercing needles crashing down days at a time without cessation, soaking the ground past saturation, waterlogging everyone and everything.

When fourteen-year-old Emma Lancaster vanishes from her bedroom one night everyone panics. The daughter of a prominent media tycoon, something like this was not supposed to happen to their family. But when her body is found eight days later, all hell breaks loose. Although their are no immediate suspects, her death rips her family and friends apart. A year later when a close family friend is arrested after incriminating evidence is found in his car, it looks like an open-and-shut case. But it will end up being far from that. Defense attorney Luke Garrison has a funny feeling about this case and not even an assassins bullet will stop him from trying to discover the truth.

This book was okay for me. It was extremely slow in the beginning. But it picked up the pace. I found that about 200 pages into it was when it really picked up. The ending was twisted, I never would have guessed which way the author was going to go. I enjoyed the ending a lot. But like I said, it was just an average book.

3/5, AUTHOR, B, Book Review, Fiction, Read in 2008

The Deadly Dance by M.C. Beaton

Tara
The Deadly Dance
by M.C. Beaton
Copyright: 2004
Pages: 233
Rating: 3/5
Read: June 7-8
Challenge: Title Master Challenge; Celebrate the Author Challenge; Initials Challenge

First Line: The thing that finally nudged Agatha Raisin into opening her own detective agency was what she always thought of as the Paris Incident.

After getting mugged in Paris, Agatha Raisin decides that she’s going to open up her own detective agency. Shortly thereafter she realizes that it’s not as the movies portray. She has to deal with missing pets and even finding a man’s son who has run off with his car (with the car being the most important thing to the man). But when Catherine Laggat-Brown walks in and states that there has been a death threat made on her daughter, things finally begin to heat up for the agency and Raisin. It will take all Agatha has and will even put herself into danger in order to get to the bottom of this case.
This was just an okay book for me. It was a little what I consider fluffier than what I normally read. It was a nice break from my “harder” reading, but I’m definitely not rushing out to look for the other books in this series, but I’m glad I gave her a try.
3/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, P, Read in 2008

The Midnight Club by James Patterson

Tara
The Midnight Club
by James Patterson
Copyright: 198
Pages: 349
Rating: 3/5
Read: April 28-May 4, 2008
Challenge: No challenge; personal read

First Line: The night that John Stefanovitch was shot couldn’t have been colder, or the stars more dazzling in high winter skies.

When NYPD Detective John Stefanovitch is shot and paralyzed one cold night, he thinks his life couldn’t get worse. But it can. That same night, his wife is shot and killed in their apartment. Who is behind this?! A man known as The Grave Dancer, The Midnight Club and what they call “street law.” And Stefanovitch will stop at nothing to catch this crazed psychopath.
I’m going to be honest here …. this has to be the most disappointing James Patterson book that I have read to date. I was completely uninterested in it. I usually read his books in 2 days tops, but this one just kept dragging on. I didn’t like it much at all. I felt it hard to follow and am still unsure as to what really was supposed to be going on in the book. I just wasn’t impressed by this book whatsoever. I wouldn’t recommend this one at all.
3/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, C, Charlie Parker, Fiction, Read in 2008, SERIES

Dark Hollow by John Connolly

Tara
Dark Hollow
by John Connolly
Copyright: 2000
Pages: 504
Rating: 3/5
Read: April 18-22, 2008
Challenge: No challenge; personal read

First Line: I dream dark dreams.
Charlie Parker returns to the house his grandfather raised him in. But he cannot escape the feeling that something is not quite right when a good friend of his and her baby are brutally murdered. He sets out to find out who was behind the murder. But he’s still reeling from the murder of his own wife and daughter the year before. His emotions will undoubtedly get the better of him from time to time in the chase for the madman.
I’m going to be honest. I was not really impressed by this book. Maybe it was because I was trying to read it when I was trying to get everything situated for our big move to Kentucky. Whatever the reasoning, I just didn’t care for it. I had trouble concentrating and it took me way too long to finish it. I had read The Killing Kind last year and loved it, but this one was definitely a disappointment for me.
3/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, Nonfiction, R, Read in 2008

A Rose for Her Grave by Ann Rule

Tara
A Rose for Her Grave and Other True Cases: Ann Rule’s Crime Files: Vol. 1
Ann Rule
Copyright: 1993
Pages: 513
Rating: 3/5
Read: April 13-17, 2008
Challenge: Triple Eight – True Crime category; What’s in a Name – Plant category

First Line: Janis Miranda was a little bit of a thing.

Ann Rule’s Crime Files opens up with the story of Randy Roth. Roth was a man who courted, married, killed, and collected insurance on the women he victimized. The way that he appealed to women was amazing! And the way that he demeaned strong, independent women was even more shocking. But that story only takes up the first two-thirds of the book. The rest of the book is spent focusing in on four other true crime cases that Rule covered in the Pacific Northwest. Although Rule is my absolute favorite true crime author, I was disappointed by this one. I think that she does a much better job when she is focused on just one case. The four mini-cases really weren’t long enough for her to do them justice. This book was just okay for me. [With this book, I also finish the What’s in a Name Challenge. I will be posting a challenge wrap-up shortly.
3/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, G, Kinsey Millhone, Read in 2008, SERIES

‘A’ is for Alibi by Sue Grafton

Tara
‘A’ is for Alibi
by Sue Grafton
Copyright: 1982
Pages: 215
Rating: 3/5
Read: April 1-3, 2008
Challenge: Celebrate the Author Challenge; Triple Eight – First in a Series Category

First Line: My name is Kinsey Millhone

Private investigator, Kinsey Millhone vaguely remembers the case of the murder of slick divorce attorney Laurence Fife, some 8 or 9 years previously. Fife’s wife, Nikki, was tried and convicted of the murder and sentenced to 8 years in prison. Now Nikki is out on parole and comes to Kinsey to prove that she did not kill Laurence. Kinsey is reluctant to take the case, eight years cold and seemingly solved. But she takes it thinking there is no way Nikki would bring this up again if she was indeed guilty. But what Kinsey does not expect to find along the way is a second eight-year-old murder and a brand new murder.
I had read part of this book a few years ago and decided to pick it up again since I now own most of the series (I think I’m missing K, O and T). Overall, I was a little disappointed in this. I felt that the writing was a little lacking. Of course, it’s hard to write a novel in 200 short pages. However, I am indeed going to continue this series and can’t wait to get to ‘B’.