A Series Of (Un)Fortunate Reviews

I'm catching up on my reading from 2012: I've read the latest releases from Karin Slaughter, Tana French, Tess Gerritsen and now S.J. Bolton.  I've done some sleuthing on the 2013 releases of these authors and the only one I found information  on (via Amazon's UK site) was Bolton's follow up to Dead Scared , called Like This, Forever , or at least that's what they're calling it in the U.K.  That comes out in April in the U.K.  I haven't checked into the U.S. release date.  I still have to read the 2012 releases from John Connolly (Charlie Parker series) and M.J. McGrath and John Sandford (Virgil Flowers series).  I also want to track down the latest from Anna McPartlin--what is up with her anyway?  She released something in the U.K. last year or the year before, but I haven't heard anything about any new releases from her. Dead Scared is the latest from Bolton--and it is a scary and terrifying ride.  I do have one quibble I wish to get off my...

Last to Die is the latest in Tess Gerritsen's Rizzoli & Isles series.  My initial reaction to the murders in this latest outing is that "it's a trap!"  And now that I think about it, that first reaction turned out to be correct in the end. Three young kids, Will, Claire, and Teddy, have each survived the respective massacres of their families; the massacres occurring within the same week.  Two years later each survives the massacre of their respective foster families.  Will and Claire have come to Evensong Academy where child survivors of violence find safety, kindred spirits and an education that teaches them how to deal with a dangerous world and helps them to heal from their traumas. In Boston Teddy survives the massacre of his foster family, and Det. Jane Rizzoli, with Dr. Isles' help, puts the pieces together and realizes that Teddy may still be in danger.  Jane races to Teddy's emergency foster family placement just in time to prevent the mas...

I'm behind on my reading, okay?  I only just finished the most recent installment in Slaughter's Will Trent series, which was released last summer.  Normally I'm all over a new release by one of the authors that I follow.  Only I haven't been reading much of anything in the past year as evidenced by the sparsity of reviews posted here on the blog.  I'm cautiously optimistic that the drought is over.  But one can never tell sometimes when it comes to these things. On to Criminal , the most recent and most terrifying installment of the Will Trent series.  If there is one complaint I have about Criminal it's that there's not enough Will.  And his estranged wife, Angie, who gives all Angies a bad name and taints the name itself with her malicious and toxic manipulation, makes an appearance.  (Okay, that makes two complaints--I can deal with the former, but not so much with the latter; I really wish Angie would be dealt with once and for...

I'm not sure how many of you are Karin Slaughter fans.  Over the space of her previous two or three releases I've become a hard core fan due to the vivid characters, twisty mysteries and first rate writing.  Really, it's because the merger of the Atlanta series starring Will Trent and Faith Mitchell with the Grant County series starring Dr. Sara Linton that the series has really taken off for me as a reader.   Fallen is Slaughter's highly, highly anticipated follow up to Broken .  I'm already looking forward to the follow up to Fallen . When Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Faith Mitchell arrives at her mother's house, she finds a bloody hand print on the front door and a trail of blood leading from the door back to the locked shed where Faith's mother keeps her gun.  Faith sees her infant daughter hidden in the locked shed and that her mother's gun safe is open.  The gun inside it is gone.  Faith knows her mother's in trouble, so she calls f...