Dark of the Moon by John Sandford

Considering when I read this book, this review comes a little late; I'm already deep into another book. How did you spend your Memorial Day weekend? I spent mine reading this book. About 30 pages in, I was still thinking about whether or not I was going to finish it or ditch it and move on to the next one. There are too many books on my reading list to mess around with one I don't like or that doesn't hook me in the first few chapters. I used to feel guilty about dropping a book after a chapter or two if it didn't work out, but ever since one of my college professors said it was okay, I don't feel so bad about ditching a book if it's not connecting with me. There's always the next one. Then the next thing I knew, I was in over 100 pages; this book sucks you in like that.

Dark of the Moon features Virgil Flowers, an off-beat agent for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (I think it's an equivalent of PA's State Troopers... some states have state troopers and others have state bureaus of investigation). Flowers works for Lucas Davenport, a main character for Sandford's popular Prey series, and indeed, Davenport does make a few brief appearances in the book. Flowers has been called out to a rural county to assist the local sheriff in a baffling murder investigation that is basically dead in the water--no leads, no suspects. The night Flowers arrives in the small town another man is murdered and his place is torched and before long the bodies are piling up in the small town. The question isn't necessarily are the murders connected--so many murders in a county that hasn't seen one in decades means they are almost certainly related--but how are they connected? The investigation is further complicated by the small town atmosphere where news and gossip spread faster than wildfire, secrets are extremely hard to keep, and everyone knows their neighbors' business. Who can Flowers trust among the townspeople, one whom is the killer? All the man knows for sure is that he's got a crazy person dropping people like flies, and it all may tie into a decades old mystery and cover up perpetrated by some of the town's most notorious citizens.

This was a suspenseful mystery; even though the murders are pretty brutal, the novel has its touches of humor. This is definitely a guy's book. It was written by a guy, and the characters and the language are definitely male. This isn't a bad thing; I read male authors, but I'm not used to reading about characters doing this, doing that, "taking a pee" and then going on to the next thing. Now that I think about it; it sounds like an old guy, and the character, from what I can figure out, is in his late 30's.

One other thing that bothered me a little bit. What kind of a name is Virgil Flowers?

I recommend this book if you're a big Sandford fan, you will enjoy it; you will also like it if you are a die hard crime fiction fan. It is available to borrow at the Matthews Public Library and upon request from every library in Lebanon county.

--Reviewed by Ms. Angie

How To Be A Heroine: Or What I've Learned From Reading Too Much by Samantha Ellis

I feel as if I could write a book subtitled "What I've Learned From Reading Too Much" except all my lessons would be culled from Greek mythology, the Babysitters' Club, the lives of British queens, crime mysteries, suspense thrillers and celebrity and entertainment gossip. I first ran across How To Be A Heroine by Samantha Ellis in an ad in BookPage. The title sounded intriguing and once I looked it up on Amazon, I was in for reading it. It reminds me of the literacy autobiography writing assignment that I had in one of my English composition classes in college--except this is the literacy autobiography on steroids. The premise of this book is that the author revisits the seminal texts that she read in her youth by examining the lessons and impressions of the novels that she had upon her first readings when she was younger. Ellis has then re-read the novels as an adult specifically for the writing of her own book to see if the novels hold up to her original i

Heat Lightning by John Sandford

I'd previously read John Sandford's first Virgil Flowers novel, Dark of the Moon , a few years back and found it to be a quick, well written read. Recently I discovered he has since written three more Flowers titles and decided to start with the second title and read through to the fourth and most recent one. Heat Lightning is the second Flowers installment. The darkness of the crimes committed that must be solved in the novel are leavened by the lighter presentation of Flowers and the story. It works well together--a dark crime doesn't always need dark prose to back it up. Virgil Flowers is Lucas Davenport's go to man in the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension when there's a sensitive, tough or otherwise puzzling case to solve. Flowers has a high clearance rate and can often turn around a case in about a week. This particular case is especially perplexing with quite a few red herrings thrown into the mix to throw everyone--Flowers and the reader in

The Whisperers by John Connolly

If there was one thing Jimmy didn't care for, it was competition, ... There were some exceptions to that rule: he was rumored to have a sweet deal with the Mexicans, but he wasn't about to try to reason with the Dominicans, or the Columbians, or the bikers, or even the Mohawks. If they wanted to avail themselves of his services, as they sometimes did, that was fine, but if Jimmy Jewel started questioning their right to move product he and Earle would end up tied to chairs in the [bar] with pieces of themselves scattered by their feet, assuming their feet weren't among the scattered pieces, while the bar burned down around their ears, assuming they still had ears. from page 86 The Whisperers is John Connolly's newest Charlie Parker installment in which some beloved characters reappear and in which previous characters from another Parker installment reappear to shed further light on the big baddie that may or may not be coming for Parker in the future. This newest inst

A Series Of (Un)Fortunate Reviews

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