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The Silent Girl

The Silent Girl is the ninth in Tess Gerritsen’s murder mystery series, Rizzoli & Isles. It brings back all the character’s we’re used to, along with now retired Detective Vince Korsak, Angela Rizzoli, and the easily hate-able Frankie Rizzoli.

Along with these characters come the new ones; police officer Johhny Tam, who is eager to investigate a Chinatown murder, aiming to become a homicide detective before the age of thirty. Widowed Iris Fang, seeking justice for a family friend accused of a murder-suicide, while looking for answers for her dead husband and their missing daughter. Persistent Bella Li, Mrs. Iris Fang’s friend and a fellow teaching instructor at the martial arts school; Bella holds a dark past and hidden history, fiercely protective of the widowed woman who has become a surrogate mother. And of course, there’s the elusive, mythical Monkey King, come to life from Chinese legend.

Maura Isles, as usual, is more interested in her personal life and preoccupied by thoughts of Father Daniel Brophy; deciding to have a house guest, teenaged “Rat,” of whom her life is indebted to, she ignorantly shoves aside work files and hesitates on autopsies, to continue going her merry way in her self-centered life. Once again, Maura Isle’s is so aggravating that her chapters are better off skimmed.

Jane Rizzoli draws strength from her worrying but caring FBI agent husband, Gabriel, and her two year old daughter, Regina, and is becoming less self-conscious, pouring her entire focus into a multiple homicide investigation linked to a nineteen year old murder-suicide at Chinatown’s since abandoned Red Phoenix restaurant.

This is by far the best I’ve read from Tess Gerritsen, and suspects are found in spades, from victim’s families, rich Irish mob bosses, and victims themselves. Chinatown is full of secrets, and the Red Phoenix massacre is only the beginning of a very long and complex case with suspects galore; missing girls, multiple homicides, and yearly notes reminding the victim’s families of the long-ago tragedy. The elusive Monkey King appears to have become flesh and blood, traipsing through Chinatown like a cat burglar, in all the wrong places at just the right time, leaving Jane Rizzoli and Barry Frost wondering if they’re just imagining things, or if there really is more to this case than the eye can see.

This book is full of unexpected twists and shocking turns, suspenseful moments and surprising truths, that will make you gasp, cry, and stare in a mix of shock and horror. A wonderful work of gruesome mystery and haunting secrets; an incredible piece of fiction from best-selling author Tess Gerritsen, and highly recommended for any mystery fan. Nine of ten stars for The Silent Girl.

The Mephisto Club

The Mephisto Club by Tess Gerritsen. This is book six in the series, and after reading The Keepsake (the seventh), I was hesitant to start this one. That said, I am glad I did! This was by far one of the best mysteries I’ve read in a long time.

That said, it does have it’s drawbacks. Dr. Maura Isles is more focused on her obsession with the off-limits priest than she is the current murder case. Unfortunately she would rather spend her time even while working, thinking about Father Daniel Brophy and their illicit affair–as well loathing thoughts towards him and his profession. In fact, this is essentially the most prominent thing she seems to contribute to this novel, and is so centered around this that she takes to being rude not only to Father Brophy but to friend and colleague Detective Rizzoli as well. It became increasingly frustrating to read chapters from Maura’s third-person point-of-view, as these chapters only grew more and more centered around her and Father Brophy.

Detective Jane Rizzoli, while always blunt, does in fact have the best intentions in mind with both Dr. Maura Isles and her work partner, Detective Barry Frost; she is happily married and a proud mother, though when it comes time for her shifts at work, she is fully engaged in the cases that come across her desk–unlike a certain pathologist with the Boston PD. In this novel, we get to see the effects that the taxing job of lead homicide detective actually has on her. It comes across in a PTSD sort of form, and with some Christmastime Rizzoli family drama going on, along with the incessant, crude prodding she receives regarding the case, Jane begins to obsess over solving it, working long hours and taking the work home with her.

The work of demons seems to haunt the targeted homes, and the murders are brutal. There are half a dozen suspects, being killed off one by one, only bringing in more mystery and even less clues as the killer strikes again and again. A runaway young woman holds many of the answers that the Boston PD is searching for, but as seen from her interesting, mysterious point-of-view, she is hard to track down, living off the grid as she runs from the Devil itself.

If this book needed a rating between one and ten stars, I’d give it a seven point five, perhaps even an eight. I definitely would recommend this novel to any mystery enthusiast looking for a new read.

The Keepsake by Tess Gerritsen

The Keepsake, also known as Keeping the Dead, is the seventh book in the Rizzoli & Isles murder mystery series by author Tess Gerritsen.

Unfortunately, I must admit that this book was a disappointment given the expectations set by previous novels in the series. The first half was excruciatingly boring, and as a result I cannot recall most, if any, key points of it.

The first few pages, a sort of prologue, were tolerable–almost good, even–and set up a pliable sense of fear and a presumably brutal murder in the dark of night. Tragically, the next six chapters were full of redundant small talk, slow-paced backstories, and some pretty intelligent people displaying some dim-witted tendencies. Even the most important characters, such as Jane Rizzoli, lead detective in BPD’s homicide divison, was rather flat, and simply put, displayed the exact same sentiments and insecurities as she did in novel one (The Surgeon), with little to no development. That right there is a red flag already, along with Maura Isle’s useless infatuation with an older man who has no relevancy to the plot whatsoever.

When the first body was discovered, it was mummified, leading scientists to believe it was from Ancient Egypt, when instead if from approximately twenty years prior to the current date.

Sounds like it should get interesting now, right? Wrong, this was still part of the poorly written section of the book, and actually failed to gain any sort of interest from me–firstly because it was, quite frankly, predictable given the ridiculous and overly dramatized sense of seriousness and talk of not even knowing where the mummy came from; but, also, because there were a number of hints to this fact during a mere three pages, where every historian and scientist in the room simply made excuses and blamed the machine.

My thought process during these sorry pages, followed somewhere along these lines: “No, sorry, you simply didn’t discover an ancient mummy. Go back to school to actually learn about real mummies and, quite possibly, the machines you were blaming, and/or re-examine your life choices.” But I digress.

Next comes the search of the museum–after all, this mummy was found there, it was a recent murder, what else might be down there in that dank basement full of ancient artifacts? After busting down a wall, shrunken heads are found. You read that right, shrunken heads. Like the one in Harry Potter, only from Ancient Egypt and with ritual markings? They’re surely not more victims. . .

Shortly after this brief scare, thankfully, the book takes a turn. Suspects are finally brought in, clues are uncovered, history is dug up. But again, this is around page one hundred fifty, and a waste of approximately four hours of my time. Time is one thing you can’t get back, people, so use it wisely–clearly, I didn’t.

I’ll leave the good parts a mere mystery, should you actually give this book a shot, but the next two hundred or so pages were actually rather intriguing, and while there were certainly a few disturbing elements, it truly did grasp my attention for the last half of the novel.

If murder mysteries and Egyptology are in your alley, you may actually enjoy this book; that said, these are both somewhere in my alley, and I only enjoyed it enough to rate this novel three stars. Sorry, but your time is most likely better spent re-reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, a book where the shrunken head actually had a lasting impression, and characters were already more evolved that the book prior.

Book review; Lux Beginnings

Lux Beginnings by Jennifer L. Armentrout; Obsidian and Onyx from the Lux series.

Obsidian rating: eight of ten stars.

Onyx rating: three of ten stars.

Obsidian (book one in the Lux series) was one of my favorite books of 2019. It’s a brilliantly written book that brought human-alien interaction to the pages in a way just believable enough to want more. It strayed from the stereotypical idea of what an alien is–what they look like, speak like, act like–and brought upon a whole new version of alien. It brought drama, romance, humor–it was a page turner and certainly worth the buy. I thoroughly enjoyed the character or Daemon, and didn’t even mind Katy or Dee, despite several factors that initially had me hesitate.

Going into Onyx, book two of the series, I had relatively high hopes given the success, and my enjoyment of, the first novel. However, I quickly realized that this novel was different, lacking the factors that made me laugh out loud during Obsidian. I turned to the audio book for this novel, if only because I found myself uninterested in picking up the book. The character of Katy, from page one to the end, became so oblivious, self-centered, and prone to not only finding, but looking for, danger; all of this along with her blatant disregard for the feelings of characters Daemon and Dee, with her overall bitchy attitude . . . well, I was put off pretty quickly, if not immediately. After the first three chapters I realized she wasn’t changing her behavior, and unfortunately, Jennifer L. Armentrout disappointed with this sequel. It really felt like it was written by another person, and it gives me the feel of a harried author producing immense garbage for the sake of doing so. I truly finished the novel simply because I’d made it as far as I had, and quite frankly I held out some hope for Daemon, as I felt extremely bad for him due to Katy’s behavior through the book’s entirety.

It took me several months to finish Onyx, whereas it took me about one month to finish Obsidian. Give Obsidian a chance, but going into Onyx, know it doesn’t hold the same sense of magic as the first.

Book review; A Date with Murder

A Date with Murder by Donald Bain (and Jessica Fletcher). I’ll rate this one two out of five stars. While I did finish the book, it wasn’t without some frustration.

It was a disappointment compared to others in the series. While it brought back characters we know and enjoyed from the original television series, there were far too many unnecessary trails, and little to grab onto in terms of clues or, frankly, remote interest.

Furthermore, too often did Jessica Fletcher neglect any use of her brain or any form of intelligence whatsoever, and simply walked into the trap, facade, and at the end, the killer’s house, with full knowledge of doing so. It seems that despite successfully locating murderers, she could not find her senses.

If you’re looking for a book to kill time and invoke boredom, this one might work for you.

Book review; California Summer by Anita Hughes

California Summer by Anita Hughes . . . I initially was quite excited to read this book, when I first opened it approximately three years ago. I never finished this book, and after three years and a number of headaches, I ultimately threw it in the garbage. Overall rating is one-point-five stars with my sincerest condolences to Josh.

This book, while the loose plot is interesting enough, and the love interest, Josh, is formed enough to take slight interest in, Rosie is simply annoying. She is obsessed with her cheating ex even after she has kissed another man, opened a shop, seemingly moved on.

Grammatical errors, useless passages, summaries of prior chapters, names and actions used too often after every sentence, and any number of other mistakes, make this a physically painful book to read.

I could only manage a chapter at a time, and finally had to put the book down after yet another angry headache formed.

I annotated my copy until the point I stopped reading (around page 147) and simply put I could not understand how this author had been published a dozen times prior, how this book made it to publication, and how I read as far as I did.

This book, sadly, is largely a waste of your time, money, and energy. Save yourself the headache and pick up a novel by another author. Truthfully, you could read Gone with the Wind easier than this utter piece of purely intolerable garbage.

Every Breath; book review

When I first saw the announcement of Nicholas Sparks’ latest novel, Every Breath, I was pretty excited, as he’s written several of my favorite books. When it was released, I picked out a copy and sat down to read it . . . only to find myself putting it down after several pages, in favor of another book.

Nearly two years later, I purchased a secondhand copy in paperback, like-new condition, for only five dollars. It looked as though it had never been read—score! And yet, I knew I wouldn’t be able to sit and read it. So, I used up a credit on Audible, and opted to listen to the novel instead.

By chapter six, I had a lot of problems with the novel. I still couldn’t remember anything about them, except for useless backstory—he used so much backstory, there was backstory to the backstory.

Tru Wells: He has an ex-wife, a son, jumps from camp to camp as a guide in Africa, though I don’t know if he hunts or just talks about hunting. He has an excruciatingly stubborn love of The Beatles, has never seen a flounder, is 90% stoic mute, and after two days has a creepy obsession with Hope Anderson, even positioning himself across from her house to watch her while he fishes.

Hope Anderson: She’s got a sick father, who I know about more than her. She works, though I can’t remember as what—if she’s a teacher, not only has this career been used before by Mr. Sparks, he didn’t execute it well at all, as I know more about her father’s teaching career than Hope’s career. She has a dog named Scottie, though apparently, she doesn’t really care much for the dog at all, or she’d pay attention to him.

She’s in her late thirties, yet still believes in continuing an on-again off-again relationship, though spends her entire time in the first six chapters, pretending to be happy for her friends for being where she wanted to be. She wanted to be married and pregnant, and neither has happened. Presumably, if she keeps up her toxic relationship with the boyfriend whom I can’t recall the name of . . . well, she’s nearing her forties, and that dream is going out the window.

Essentially, Hope is jealous of all her friends, miserable, and walks the beach with coffee as she inner-monologues her whole life story, letting her dog get hit by a car—though this was unmentioned until Tru ran up to her and later told his ex-wife all about it—because she can’t do anything more than be, for lack of a better word, a bitch, while Tru remains faceless and flat.

The sex scene was the final straw. Not only did it seem too soon, unbelievable, and like both of them were simply desperate to be laid, but it was out of character for a Sparks’ book. I couldn’t help but make a face and ask ‘why?’ before shutting off the audiobook. I only made it to the scene right afterwards, where he was making coffee. It simply wasn’t written well, and it seemed forced, unbearably annoying, and downright . . . well, unromantic.

Out of five stars . . . quite frankly, I wouldn’t even rate it a one. Save your time and money; try a book that will be a better use of your brain cells and patience. It’s no wonder it took forever to hit shelves, and honestly, I’m simply glad I was able to refund my purchase.