"To Be Sung Underwater"

Do you have a love from your youth -- your teen years -- that you'd like to revisit?  Tom McNeal's novel, "To Be Sung Underwater," tells the story of Judith Whitman from the point of view of her present life and marriage.  However, into this life with a "perfect job" and  seemingly perfect marriage but a not so perfect daughter (but then she is a teenager so that might explain a lot!) creeps slowly a seed of discontent surrounding a bedroom set her husband and daughter want to dispose of.  It is a bedroom set from Judith's teenage years when her parents had divorced and she made the choice to leave her mother and go live with her father in Nebraska.

As Judith finds a place to stow this bedroom set where she can also visit it, she begins to revisit her past -- the memories of her parent's divorce, her decision to move in with her father as well as her memories of her time with him, and her first romance with Willy Blunt with the pale blue eyes and the easy smile and sense of humor.  They were planning to marry but Judith's decision to go to California to college changed all that and they drifted apart and she married someone else.  Revisiting memories and the past has its drawbacks -- Judith begins to suffer from headaches and her family and work also suffer as she decides to find Willy and other friends from her past.

Judith does get her chance to revisit the past in a way and that visit comes with some surprises.  Did she make the right choice to leave it behind in the first place and will she decide to do so again?  Does she have regrets?  How does revisiting the past change her present and her future?  This is a very thought provoking book and that will keep me pondering for some time. 

The author has another book, "Goodnight Nebraska," that I plan to look for next.  That book won the James A. Michener Memorial Prize as well as the California Book Award.  McNeal has roots in Nebraska and currently lives near San Diego with his wife and sons.  Check out his web site at www.mcnealbooks.com.     pazt

"No Mercy"

"No Mercy" is Lori Armstrong's first mystery in the Mercy Gunderson series.  She's also the author of the Julie Collins mystery series.  After reading the first book in both these series, I'm hooked and have the second book in each series downloaded on my Kindle for an upcoming long flight. 

Mercy Gunderson, the heroine in "No Mercy," grew up on a ranch in South Dakota but she left a long time ago to serve in the military in a special unit with orders to kill specialized targets.  She's good at her job but an injury sends her home to recuperate shortly after her father's death.  Old family tragedies rear their ugly heads and interfere with present day living and family secrets Mercy was unaware of come to light.  Investors are trying to buy the family ranch and the pressure is on to sell from one side and not to sell from another.  As if that weren't enough to complicate her life, murders occurring on the ranch bring everything in Mercy's life to a head and she finds herself dealing with Sheriff Dawson -- the man who took over her father's job and exudes a sexual attraction that Mercy must not give into if she doesn't want to complicate her life further.  In the meantime, she has some murders to solve despite the objections of the Sheriff and her friends and family.  Attempting to solve them will put Mercy in harm's way but, given her military background, she's used to that.  pazt

Doc Martin Series 5

I really am a fan of Doc Martin but my spouse not so much although he will watch it with me reluctantly.  Even though Doc doesn't particlarly "play nice with others," I enjoy the humor of the show and the real life struggles of the characters.  Season 5 is a 2 disc DVD I found at the library and they don't yet have Season 6 available -- maybe it's the current 2013 season?  Anyway, we're caught up to date as much as we can be with Doc and Louisa and their baby son as well as all the other "characters" in Portwen.  This season  Louisa's mother turns out to be a huge disappointment as a baby sitter and the Large men have financial difficulties.  The cast has an addition - Eileen Atkins - who plays Doc's psychiatrist aunt who has inherited his deceased aunt's farm.  Needless to say, life is never dull in Portwen with loan sharks lurking about, unexpected medical emergencies, an unhinged pharmacist, and a cat lady trying to raise money to feed her rescue cats.  I have my feelers out there for season 6!  pazt

"Sunset Express"

"Sunset Express" by Robert Crais is another Elvis Cole novel.  Cole and Lucy Chenier, a lawyer he met while working on a case in Louisiana, have continued their long distance romance but now she's coming to Los Angeles on business and bringing her son along.  The plan -- to stay with Cole during the visit but the plans are slightly complicated by the fact that Cole has taken on a high profile case.  Jonathan Green, a hotshot -- and good -- lawyer has asked Cole to do some investigating in a murder case.  Green is convinced his client is not guilty of murdering his wife and needs Cole's help to prove it.  Green is also convinced a female cop, Angela Rossi, planted the evidence that is supposed to convict his client and asks Cole to start the investigation there.  However, Cole's partner, Joe Pike, has a history with Rossi and he doesn't believe she's guilty of anything other than being a really good cop. 

So who really are the good guys and the bad guys?  The investigation and Cole's new romance are full of twists and turns that make excellent reading!

My personal quest to find the next book in the Elvis Cole series, "Indigo Slam," had its own twists and turns.  The two local libraries only have it available in audio form -- no hardback, paperback, or kindle versions.  Amazon.com did have paperback copies -- new and used -- so the order was made and a copy is on its way to my home.  pazt

"Sizzling Sixteen"

I've been reading Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels in order - or so I thought -- but when I saw the cover of "Sizzling Sixteen," I decided I'd missed reading this one.  As I read it, it did seem a little familiar so I suspect I did read it before then forgot I had so it was pretty much like reading it anew.  As always, Plum's sleuthing troubles tend to be fun for the reader.  My husband thinks they're a little predictable but I notice he hasn't stopped checking them out of the library.  Her latest, "Notorious Nineteen," is waiting  for me on the new Kindle Paperwhite I received for Christmas. 

Back to "Sizzling Sixteen," though....Stephanie has inherited a "lucky" bottle from her Uncle Pip but she doesn't know what is in it nor what type of luck it brings -- good or bad????  She appears to be having a lot of bad luck at the moment because her bounty hunter boss  (who is also her cousin Vinnie) has racked up a huge gambling debt to a mobster and Vinnie's been kidnapped and is being held for ransom. If she finds him, she has to find a safe place to hide him while she comes up with a way to raise the $786,000 he owes -- or Vinnie is likely to end up dead and Stephanie will be out of a job when Vincent Plum Bail Bonds has to shut its doors - or is leaving the career of bounty hunter behind good luck?

She does have some good luck since being a bounty hunter means she has some skill in finding people as well as the joint skills of  Vinnie's office manager, Connie, and Stephanie's sometimes sidekick, Lula, to help her track Vinnie down.  Between the three of them and with a little help from their friends they also might come up with a way to raise the money to pay the ransom.  Stephanie also has the hottest Trenton cop, Joe Morelli, (as well as his being her on-again, off-again boyfriend) and security agent, Ranger (who she lusts after but also fears getting romantically involved with), to watch her back -- and her back defintely needs watching because Stephanie can get into more trouble than anyone I know.

Will she save Vinnie, pay the ransom, and keep her job?  It's worth the read to find out...pazt

"The Pleasures of Men"

The novel, "The Pleasures of Men" by the English author, Kate Williams, was given some high praise.  "Good Housekeeping" (UK) says, "A charged, fast-paced ride through the dark underbelly of Victorian London in the footsteps of a serial killer."  Williams has written several books and she teaches creative writing at London University.

A few years ago I heard Nancy Pearl, a Seattle librarian, speak at our Friends of the Library meeting and I've never forgotten one piece of wisdom she imparted.  She said take your age and subtract it from 100 and that's how many pages you need to read before you decide you don't want to finish a book.  Give yourself permission to not finish in other words!  I think I got a little further than that but then skimmed the rest of this book just to see how it ended but I just couldn't read it word for word, detail for detail.  If you decide to read it, I'd love your feedback....pazt

"Love In A Nutshell"

Janet Evanovich and Dorien Kelly teamed up to write "Love In A Nutshell."  Since I like almost anything Evanovich authors, I had to check it out.  It's a combination mystery/romance with Kate Appleton as the heroine.  Kate is reeling from a husband who left her as well as being fired as a magazine editor.  Her only asset is the "Nutshell" - her parents' summer house in Keene's Harbor, Michigan.  She wants to turn it into a B & B but it needs lots of renovation and that requires money she doesn't have so she resorts to accepting the only job she can find -- trying to uncover a saboteur at a local brewery owned by Matt Culhane.  Matt wants Kate to go undercover in his brewery to try to figure out who is trying to undermine him.  That requires her to work at different jobs and learn the brewery business from the ground up and she doesn't even like beer!  The more Kate is thrown into situations with Matt at work and at community events the more attracted she is to him but the last thing she needs right now is romance.  Things come to a head when someone tries to  kill Kate -- is she getting too close to uncovering who is behind the sabotage?  To protect her Matt moves her into his guest room which complicates both their lives and, knowing her parents wouldn't understand, their upcoming visit requires a move back to Nutshell -- still in stages of renovation.  This is a light, fast-paced, fun read!  pazt

"Love From Ashes"

"Love From Ashes" by Yvonne Lehman appears to be book 3 in the Aloha Brides series.  Although it was an easy read and contains some historical references, it didn't entertain me enough that I'll be looking for any of the other books in the series.  As I discussed it with my husband, we did talk about some of the issues it raised -- like the lack of males after World War II and the creative ways women left with children chose to support themselves and one another.  It, of course, deals a lot with loss -- parents who lost sons (since women weren't usually found in combat zones in that era), those who came back damaged physically or emotionally from the war, those who lost siblings in the war, those who lost or never knew a parent, and/or those who lost husbands, fiances, boyfriends because of the war.  Those only touch on "military" losses but civilians were also killed or psychologically damaged in that war as well as all the holocaust victims.  Internment of the Japanese brought its own losses and long lasting prejudices because of the attack on Pearl Harbor.   The author dedicates the book to authors of articles in "Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai'i" from whom she gained personal insights. 

Amelia Thurstan, the daughter of a Hawaiian minister and his wife, meets and falls in love with Joe during World War II but then he is killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor.  When Joe's brother shows up after the war to meet this woman his brother wrote home so glowingly about, Amelia does her best to keep him from learning her secret.  pazt

"Lethal"

When I read "Lethal" by Sandra Brown, I not only read an outstanding book but I also found a new author to follow and, fortunately, it appears she's a very prolific writer! 

"Lethal" starts with Honor Gillette, a policeman's widow, and her young daughter, Emily, preparing for a birthday party but those plans as well as their life are interrupted by a stranger (Lee Coburn) lying in their yard.  He's a fugitive wanted for murder and he thinks Honor is hiding something left by her late husband and he appears willing to do almost anything to get it.  Honor goes from living in fear while the stranger is in her home to going on the run with him when she discovers the life she's lived and the people she's trusted may actually be endangering her and her daughter.  She has to find out the truth about her late husband, Eddie, hoping to clear his name after hearing what she believes are lies from this stranger.  It leads them on a trail to discover a merciless crime boss,"The Bookkeeper," and uncover a web of murder, corruption, and deceit.  The only questions are who can they turn to for help?  Who can they trust?

This novel starts out fast-paced and doesn't slow down until the heart-stopping ending.  I look forward to more of Brown's work!  pazt