THE MEPHISTO CLUB

TITLE: THE MEPHISTO CLUB
AUTHOR: TESS GERRITSEN
pages: 356
Date: 28/05/2007
Grade: 4.5
Details: nr. 6 Dr. Maura Isles & Jane Rizolli Mystery
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When a woman is found murdered and dismembered, Jane Rizolli and Dr. Maura Isles know they have to be dealing with a very twisted person.
The second victim they find is a fellow police officer. She is found in the garden of a house belonging to a man who the Mephisto Club. A group of people studying and confronting evil in it's purest form. Somehow the murders are connected to this group and to a young woman, who doesn't want to be found.
And although Maura and Jane don't believe in Evil being more than a very human "character flaw", they have to work with the Mephisto club in order to confront the one performing these evil acts.
The theory that there are those among us who are pure evil, with an ancestry that makes them so, is one I find interesting. After all, who knows why some people do horrendous things without a second thought, take pleasure from it. We just call them sociopaths and terms like that, not knowing what makes them so.

BURNT OFFERINGS

TITLE: BURNT OFFERINGS
AUTHOR: LAURELL K. HAMILTON
Pages: 392
Date: 27/05/2007
Grade: 4+
Details: nr. 7 Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Mystery
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Anita Blake has been in more trouble than she should have been able to handle before. But when the Vampire Council comes to town to challenge Jean-Claude, she and those around her are in way over their heads. And there's the added problem of Richard, werewolf and former boyfriend, who is very angry with her and Jean Claude while at the same time the three of them are joined.
And problems just keep mounting up when Buildings owned by vampires start going up in flames, often while the vampires are inside. Now the vampire hunter has to find a way to safe those she hunts as well as find a way to deal with the council without getting herself and those she cares for killed or worse.
Really just more of the same; thrilling and sexy. But written in such a way that it's still keeping my attention. A book that does what it says on the package.

SANCTUARY

TITLE: SANCTUARY
AUTHOR: LISA APPIGNANESI
Pages: 360
Date: 22/05/2007
Grade: 4
Library

Leo Holland is in New York, ready to go on a road trip with her friend, Isabel, when the latter fails to arrive from England without any explanation.
Convinced that something is terribly wrong, Leo travels to London and starts investigating her friends' disappearance. An investigation that leads her to Isabel's analyst, where Leo pretends to be a patient, hoping to find answers. But she soon finds she's in over her head, as Isabel's apartment, where Leo is staying, is broken in to, and Leo attacked. And during her sessions with Isabel's analyst, Leo finds herself opening up about herself and her past, almost despite herself. Now she's facing not only Isabel's disappearance and past, but also her own past and insecurities.
Not a bad story, but the twists where not really very surprising. The possible baddies not bad enough and there was not enough of a thrill to make this a real thriller for me.

THE BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DEAD

Title: THE BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DEAD
Author: KEVIN BROCKMEIER
Pages: 252
Date: 17/05/2007
Grade: 5+++
Library

This is a very special book.
In Antarctica, Laura Byrd is alone. Her two research companions have left to find help, after their equipment started breaking down, but they've been gone for too long, and she knows they won't be coming back. And so she starts on a journey towards help herself. A journey that does not only take her across the ice and through snow storms but also through her past life and towards her death.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world is being wiped out by a very fast spreading and very deadly virus.
Then there is the city, where those who have died go. A city, where they stay for as long as there's anyone left alive who remembers them. Once they're forgotten, they disappear from the city, but where they go, nobody knows.
Right now, a lot of people are disappearing from the city, until those that do remain all appear to have some connection with Laura, who is slowly losing her battle with the elements.

I have always loved the theory that people don't really die, until there's no one left to remember them. And this book explores that theory in a very original and fascinating way.
It's hard to describe this book properly though. A lot of what happens in the story should be very scary, but isn't because it's described in such a matter of fact way and because the story is really a vehicle to share the theory. And I'm glad it was written in such a way. If the emphasis had been on the "thriller" aspects of the story, the theory would have been lost.
As it is, I think there's probably a lot more in this book than I got out of it during this reading. I will have to read this book at least one more time in the future, while concentrating on that which lies beyond the superficial story.

THE KILLING DANCE

Title: THE KILLING DANCE
Author: LAURELL K. HAMILTON
Pages: 387
Date: 16/05/2007
Grade: 4+
Details: nr. 6 Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Mystery
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Anita is still dating both Richard and Jean-Claude (Alpha Werewolf and Master Vampire respectively) when Edward, a friendly hit man, calls to warn her that somebody has put a very high price on her head, to be paid only if she's dead.
Edward offers to protect her, as do Richard and Jean-Claude. But Richard has problems of his own in relation to being a werewolf and dealing with the rules of the pack.
And the price Anita has to pay to keep not only herself but also the two men who love her, alive is very high.
Again a thrilling read, getting ever more sexy. Not for the faint-hearted.

SUMMER IN THE CITY

Title: SUMMER IN THE CITY
Author: PAULINE MCLYNN
Pages: 313
Date: 14/05/2007
Grade: 5
Library

This, for me, is Pauline McLynn best book yet.
On a quiet cul-de-sac in London, two women are nursing their respective loses.
Lucy has been betrayed and deserted by the husband she loved and trusted implicitly. Not only did he disappear, he also took all her money with him. So now she's living from her small car.
Helen is trying to survive the ultimate loss any person could ever have to deal with, but appears to be stuck.
But now, with Lucy's arrival on the cul-de-sac, things start to move for both of them.
And the other inhabitants there, all with issues, small and big, of their own, create the ideal environment for trust, love and more importantly love and self-belief to surface again.
There isn't anybody in this story who doesn't learn something about him/herself and life, during the course of this book.
This story is at times heart-breakingly sad and at other times laugh out loud funny, with a full range of emotions in between.
All characters get the required amount of attention. I was never left feeling that I should have been told more about one character or another. And that in itself makes this a fabulous and very satisfying read.
This woman needs to publish more books!

THE DEVIL'S TEARDROP

Title: THE DEVIL'S TEARDROP
Author: JEFFREY DEAVER
Pages: 373
Date: 12/05/2007
Grade: 4.5
Library

Parker Kincaid, forensic document expert, resigned from the FBI to raise his kids and keep them safe.
Now, on New year's eve, Washington is being held hostage by a man who has had random people at a metro station shot, and is threatening to keep on doing so unless he's given 20 million dollar. The city decides to pay, but the money is never picked up because the brain behind the shooting has been killed in a hit and run, with his accomplice, the shooter, still out, set to kill three more times before midnight, and no way of stopping him.
The only clue the FBI has is a note from the now dead mastermind, and Margaret Lucas, Agent in Charge, turns to Kincaid for assistance.
Facing a custody battle, the last thing Kincaid needs is to volunteer for a job that could put him or his family in danger. But hoping to safe lives, her reluctantly joins the investigation, where nothing is as it seems and danger and disaster could well be around the corner for him.
Good thriller, but not as good as the Lincoln Rhyme (who makes a brief appearance in this story) ones. In a lot of ways this story was a bit predictable, although I did miss a few of the twists.

DECKED

Title: DECKED
Author: CAROL HIGGINS CLARK
Pages: 277
Date: 07/05/2007
Grade: 4-
Details: nr. 1 Regan Reilly Mystery
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When Regan Reilly, private investigator, goes to a school reunion in Oxford, England, the body of a fellow student how went missing 10 years ago, is found. Regan would love to stay on and help in the investigation, but instead she finds herself on a cruise back to the USA, chaperoning an old lady.
But she shouldn't have worried. Because while in Oxford Inspector Livingstone is collecting clues, it appears that the solution to the mystery is sailing with her, determined that she and her companion won't make it home.
Not so much a who done it, as a why done it, and definitely not a great mystery or great writing. But an easy to read, fluffy story; a comfort read.

THE BOOK THIEF

Title: THE BOOK THIEF
Author: Markus Zusak
Pages: 584
Date: 06/05/2007
Grade 6
Library

I don't usually mark my books with a 6, since my scale only goes up to 5, in fact I don't think I've ever given a book a 6 before. But this is the best book I've read in a very long time, marking it a 6 is the only way I have of making that fact instantly clear.
This story is related by Death and set during WW II in Germany.
Death makes a great narrator in this book because even though Death comes to all of us and he is (obviously) well used to all the ins and outs of death and all the various forms it takes, even he can't help being touched by the plight of the Jews in the concentration camps. As he says: "That Germans in that basement were pitiable, surely, but at least they had a chance. That basement was not a washroom. They were not sent there for a shower. For these people life was still achievable.
Death tells the story of Liesel, a young girl sent to live with a foster family just outside Munchen, when her parents are sent to concentration camps as communists.
Liesel is fascinated by words and to feed her hunger for them, she steals books.
This is also the story of her foster parents, good people, despite the situation around them, and the other people on Himmel street; The way the war affects their lives, the things they do, hoping to protect those they love, the risks they take, despite knowing better.
What makes this book so special is that the Germans in this story are not depicted as monsters or villains. They are normal people, trying to make could choices under very difficult circumstances. Himmel street contains just as many good, bad and indifferent people as any other street, in any other country, at any other time.
This is a heartbreaking story, but how could a story about WWII and Death, ever be anything else.

BORN IN DEATH

Title: BORN IN DEATH
Author: JD ROBB (Nora Roberts writing as...)
Pages: 201
Date: 04/05/2007
Grade: 5
Details: nr. 23 Eve Dallas & Roarke mystery

Oh, do I love this series!
The year is 2060 and Eve is called upon to investigate a double murder. An engaged couple, living in separate houses but working for the same accountancy firm, are tortured and murdered in their separate places. And the murders appear to be related to their work.
Then, while Eve is deep into her investigation, a very pregnant friend of an equally pregnant Mavis goes missing, and when Mavis asks her to find the woman, Eve should but can't refuse.
Now Eve is juggling two cases, while faced with a deadline on at least one of them. And then there is the horrifying prospect of having to be Mavis' birthing partner.
These books really never disappoint. 23 books in and I can't wait to read the next one. I like the fact that even though the books are set in the future, the world as described in the books is close enough to my world to make it all very realistic and believable.
The relationship between Roarke and Eve is deep and sexy and very satisfying to read about. While the mysteries are always well worked out and plausible.

KILLJOY

Title: KILLJOY
Author: JULIE GARWOOD
Pages: 442
Date: 03/05/2007
Grade: 5
Details: Loosely connected to HEARTBREAKER and MERCY)

Avery is supposed to join her aunt Carrie in an exclusive spa in Aspen. But when Avery arrives, there's no sign of her aunt, and the reservations for their stay have been cancelled by someone. As have the reservations for two more women.
Then while still in the spa, trying to get information, Avery receives a call from an unknown woman, telling her to find her aunt before... "Boom".
Avery has no idea what or whom she's up against, but Jean Paul Renard, handsome man of mystery, does. The brain behind whatever is going on is Monk; a professional killer Jean Paul has been after for a long time. Monk has always worked alone, but he has now teamed up with a mystery woman with something against Avery and her aunt, for some reason.
And while Carrie and her fellow victims, desperately try to avoid being blown up, Avery and John Paul have to avoid being killed by Monk, while trying to safe Avery's aunt.
The twists and turns in this book were not limited to the final chapters, but started earlier on, and this is only one of the reasons this book kept me reading on the edge of my seat.

This book is loosely linked to both Heartbreaker and Mercy, as they were loosely linked to each other, and is equally good as the previous two. I really enjoy these books by Garwood and hope I'll be able to find the next two soon.

THE SAME SWEET GIRLS

Title: THE SAME SWEET GIRLS
Author: CASSANDRA KING
Pages: 400
Date: 29/04/2007
Grade: 5++
Details: By the author of The Sunday Wife

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The Same Sweet Girls formed their group in college and have been meeting bi-annually ever since. Now that they are approaching 50, three of them tell their story in this book.
Lanier, who made one dreadful mistake that has cost her her marriage and maybe even her children.
Julie, the governor's wife, who after 25 years of marriage is questioning everything about her life.
Corinne, still plagued by her manipulative ex-husband, is carefully trying to re-establish a relationship with her son, when illness forces her to reassess her attitude towards life.
These three women we get to know really well. The other three we only see through their eyes, never learning a lot about what motivates them.
What shines through this book is the beauty of friendship, without ever glamorising or idolising it.
These six women don't all like each other equally, they keep secrets from each other and have fights, safe in the knowledge that as a group they are solid because they are the Same (maybe not so) Sweet Girls.
And this is one of the reasons this book is so good; it is a realistic story of friendship. Another reason I really liked this book is that Cassandra King managed to avoid making use of quite a few possible, very obvious, plot twists. Had she used them, this would have been a very average and predictable book. Because she didn't the book held my attention all the way through.