Wolf Hall

I love historical fiction.  It is one of my passions and expecially history about Henry VIII.  This book starts out with a fierce battle between a son and father.  The innocent fighter turns out to be someone of great significance in history but he was a pitiful creature in his youth that people pitied. 

So far, I love the viewpoint of this book.  It is not a viewpoint I have read or even considered before but I am enjoying it. 

A Reliable Wife

A man in Wisconsin advertises for a reliable wife.  A woman answers the ad and when she gets in town she is not the plain woman in the picture but a more beautiful woman.  The man feels lied too and is upset.  He intends to send the woman away but on the way a terrible accident occurs and the woman nurses the man back to health. 

I don't know this author at all but I am impressed so far and I can not wait to continue.  I will be most likely be looking for books by this author.

The Rain Gods by James Lee Burke

Skip this book.  I tried and tried and tried to get through this book but it was a chore until I finally realized that I didn't like a single character in this book and Burke spends chapters and chapters developing character histories for characters that no one is going to care about. 

Don't bother.  I've paid the price for many!

The Quite Game by Greg Iles

An attorney and author that has recently lost his wife comes back to his home town in the deep south to give his small daughter some extra tender loving care from her grandparents that she desperately needs.

He immediately gets quoted in the paper for his disappointment in a old, thought to be, racial murder and the whole town is either congratulating him or trying to kill him.  There are links in the case to the FBI and the local police and a local judge.  There is even a link to Herbert Hoover.  Everyone is afraid to talk but they are not above giving clues.

I enjoyed this book.  There were a lot of twists in the book but it was not hard to keep up and follow the story.  I am not sure how believable a one day trial and the stunts played out down a river with a man in his 70's is but I still enjoyed the story.  Thanks Mr. Iles for the entertainment.

Roadside Crosses by Jeffrey Deaver

I am not enjoying this book as much as I did  other "Deaver" books I have read in the past but I still like it and I'm not finished yet.  In "Bodies Left Behind" the suspense was so intense I could barely leave function without finishing the book, "Roadside Crosses" is not as suspenseful but I am hoping it has a big finish.  The places in this book where he could of had more suspense he cut to the end of a tribulation so to surprise us with the answer instead of making us crazy with the journey and suspense along the way.  Just FYI, I prefer the journey and the suspense to being told the answer without knowing the steps taken along the way. 

A female Detective, Dance, is working on solving a case about a teenage boy.  A blog is set up and things are being said that are flat out untrue about the boy.  People doing the blogging soon start a war between themselves about the boy based on things being said on the blog. 

Bad things start happening to the bloggers that say unkind things about the teenager.  Is the teenager getting revenge? 

You can not read a "Deaver" book and let your guard down because things are never what they seem and he tends to make the reader believe things without ever actually saying what he wants you to believe and you realize you jumped to conclusions right after you learn the truth.  Deaver makes you constantly check yourself to make sure you are not making unfair assumptions and to be sure you are reading between the lines.  He's a master of surprise so I expect anything and I am thrilled for the ride. 

I think he is trying to illustrate in this book how people are gullible to what we see on a blog and believe to be true just because we saw it in print.  We are all guilty of believing what we read from time to time.  I enjoy being corrected for my own gullible behaviour from such a master storyteller. 

Fatal Voyage by Kathy Reichs

Temperance Brennan is back in the Carolinas.  A plane crashes killing the passengers and crew.  Tempe assists in identifying the bodies until she finds a foot that can not be identified as a passenger.  Suddenly Tempe is asked to leave the team and may even face charges. 

Tempe's curiosity is not satisfied about the foot and even though she is not allowed on the plane crash site she manages with help from the local sheriff to continue digging into the mysterious unidentified foot.   

Andrew Ryan, Tempe's frequent partner from Montreal, shows up to work the plane crash site because one of the victims is presumed to be his partner.  It is believed the partner was accompanying a prisoner on the doomed flight. 

Tempe continues to dig with help thorough records and local sites around the crash area uncovering a  cannibalism, religous rites, wealthy investors and missing persons dating back many many years.  How does it all relate to the crash and why are so many people trying to keep her away from the crash site? 

I enjoy this book as I have many of Reichs books.  The size of the consipiracy and duration of the canniablism seemed a little over the top for me but who knows, stranger things have happened.  The journey from the beginning of a mystery through it's solution is always well laid out by Reich but always takes many turns giving the reader a bumpy but enjoyable ride. 

Blinded by Stephen White

I have not read anything by White before and I enjoyed this book.

The main character, Alan Gregory, is a psychologist who has a small child and a wife struggling with MS. His best friend is a detective who has had a heart attack. His life is really busy when some of his clients problems become public and the clients are wondering if Alan is telling secrects.

One of Alan's clients, a previous client, he has seen for marriage counseling reveals a secrect that not only gets aired but is extremely troubling. Her husband is killing women.

I enjoyed the storyline and all of the relationships in this book. It's not perfect and clean, it's closer to real life than a lot of books. I don't really care for the title because I don't feel that it was all that hard to figure out and I certainly think the main characters would have figured it out sooner in real life, but it was still interesting and I enjoyed myself.