Good Girl, Bad Girl

Good Girl, Bad Girl (Cyrus Haven #1) by Michael Robotham    353 pages

Forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven knows who Evie Cormac is. Known to some as "Angel Face," Evie was the girl discovered hiding in a secret room, in the aftermath of a horrendous crime. Still unidentified six years later, Evie is living in a secure children's home, under the care of the home's own psychologist. Evie is an enigma in that she has never told anyone her real name, or her real age, but she also has a special gift: she can always tell when someone is lying.

When Cyrus is called in to investigate the murder of Jodie, a local high school girl, he starts to discover that Jodie had a number of secrets. As it turns out, there's also a connection to Evie Cormac.

I really liked this fast-paced story, which had characters I really liked -- and was just a great thriller of a read. This was one of those "The vacuuming can get done another day. Just let me read" kind of books. I got immersed in the story pretty quickly and then just devoured the book. It looks like there will be another book in the future with the character of Cyrus Haven (which is great!!), but I'm already looking for the previous books by this author. If  this book is any indication, then those other books should be good reads.

Never Tell

Never Tell (Detective D.D. Warren #10) by Lisa Gardner 416 pages

"A man is dead, shot three times in his home office. But his computer has been shot twelve times, and when the cops arrive, his pregnant wife is holding the gun."

As you can see from the title information, this is the tenth book with homicide detective D.D. Warren --- so if you have read other books in this series, you know to expect Flora Dane, as well.  If you've never read a book in this series, you can still pick this up and enjoy it --- there's just some backstory that makes it easier to understand some of the details and plot

When D.D. arrives on the scene, she recognizes the wife as Evie Carter, a woman involved in a case from many years back when Evie's father was killed in an accidental shooting.  Now that Evie appears to have shot a computer and maybe her husband, was that incident from years ago truly an accident?  And what is Evie's husband's connection to Flora Dane?

It definitely makes it easier to explain if you have read the other books in the series, mostly because you have an understanding of D.D.'s background, Flora Dane's background, and how they are connected to each other.  This is a great story where the details are uncovered in layers, one at a time, so it's not easy to make any predictions on how to solve the mystery of the murder.  Like her other books, I feel Gardner excels at building a story quickly and combining it with interesting characters and a quick pace, so you can find yourself engrossed in the book . . . and maybe not realizing you've been sitting and reading as long as you have.

Feared: A Rosato & DiNunzio Novel

Feared: A Rosato & DiNunzio Novel by Lisa Scottoline                  AudioBook:  10 hours, 40 minutes       Hardback Book: 400 Pages                   

I think this is the best book in the Rosato & DiNunzio series that I have read so far and that is saying something because every book in the series that I have read so far has been excellent.  Mary and Anthony are married and having a baby.     Since Anthony is working on his book which looks to the South Philly crowd like pregnant Mary is having to work when she should be relaxing awaiting the birth of their baby but going against the grain of old school Philly Anthony announces he is going to stay home and take care of the baby while Mary goes back to work a few weeks after giving birth.   Made me want to B-slap him myself – o.k. I have Philly ties, too.  J     So much going on in this story and of course Mary’s Pop and Mom, the 3 Tony’s and Elvira have their neighborhood networks helping right along.  This story has one of the lawyers at the firm of Rosato & DiNunzio involved in a reverse discrimination suit and when he comes up dead,  person’s of interest and suspects are stacking up.   So much happening it is an adrenaline ride to the end and all the time the Rosato & DiNunzio law firm’s fate hangs by a string.     And there is a Machiavelli menace waiting to pounce.   Arrrrgggghhh!   Read this one – it is GOOOOOD!   I highly recommend it.   Oh man!  The emotional ride alone will leave you holding your breath without knowing it one minute then the next you will be breathing fast trying to mentally move Mary out of harm’s way.    Yikes!    Read it, read it, read it – Yes, I highly recommend it!   If Middle Schoolers are mature enough to handle in depth murder mysteries go for it all the way to age- infinity.  You will really like this one.

 - Shirley J.

The Weight of Blood

The Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh  336 pages

I usually don’t make New Year’s resolutions, but in 2018 I picked one that I thought I could actually complete.  I decided that I would pick one book that has been languishing on my library shelves. For the March selection, I picked Laura McHugh’s The Weight of Blood. Others I’ve known have told me how much they enjoyed this novel, and I was ready to pull an all-nighter, it was supposed to be that good.

McHugh uses one of my favorite writing mechanics, dualing timelines. In her debut novel, McHugh’s plot line was two disappearances a generation apart.

In current time, sixteen-year-old Lucy Dane has recently arrived from Iowa.  Although her family has deep, deep roots in this Ozark Mountain town of Henbane, she feels like an outsider.

When one of her friends, Cheri, is found murdered, hacked up and put in an abandoned tree log, Lucy vows that she will find her killer. Lucy now has two reasons to go snooping around town. First to learn who killed Cheri and whatever became of the mother who abandoned her.

The other timeline is Lucy’s mother Lila. Many in the town believed she was a witch and never knew what happened to her.

The timelines were confusing at first, as I didn’t get that Lila was Lucy’s mother. Heck I didn’t even realize that it was a competing timeline at first. Ninety percent of all the other characters were in both set of timelines, and since both sections were told in first person, I was a little lost through the first two-thirds of the novel. 

In the second half of the novel, readers get to hear other characters’ point of view. They were told in third person, which I found much easier to figure out exactly where they were in Lucy and Lila’s story.

Although this wasn’t the couldn’t-put-it down read I had anticipated, I enjoyed the story and trying to figure it out.  For me, there were still unanswered questions, which is the reason that

The Weight of Blood receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.