American Predator

American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century

by Maureen Callahan

(Truncated) Blurb:
A gripping tour de force of investigative journalism that takes us deep into the investigation behind one of the most frightening and enigmatic serial killers in modern American history, and into the ranks of a singular American police force: the Alaska PD.  

Most of us have never heard of Israel Keyes. But he is one of the most ambitious, meticulous serial killers of modern time. The FBI considered his behavior unprecedented. Described by a prosecutor as "a force of pure evil," he was a predator who struck all over the United States. 


My Reaction:
While parts of this investigation were vaguely familiar, it was definitely not one I immediately recognized or knew much about.  So as far as that goes, it was interesting, but it's one of those cases that just make you angry.  Listening to transcripts of this guy talk is enough to make you want to reach back through time and knock him out, to be honest.  He's infuriating.  The whole situation is infuriating.  

The book wasn't quite what I was expecting:  Based on the subtitle, I thought there would be more mystery—more of a manhunt.  There's plenty of mystery (far too many unanswered questions, in fact), but most of the book takes place after law enforcement have got their man.  It's much less about struggling to identify or locate a murderer than the title led me to believe.  Instead, the story is mostly woven around interrogation, strategic mind games, and trying to get the p.o.s. to talk after he's been apprehended.  

I listened to the audiobook version, which reconfirmed for me that I don't like it when narrators put too much into "doing the voices".  The male voices in particular just irritated me.  (Maybe it didn't help that I was already in a bad mood because of the subject matter.)

I've watched and listened to a lot of true crime, but it's rare I read books (or listen to audiobooks) in the genre.  I do find it interesting, but it can also feel a little too much at times.  Maybe I've just had enough for now.  I will say that my curiosity was piqued by the fact that this was a serial killer from my own generation.  Keyes was only a year older than I am, and most of the "big name" serial killers I'm aware of are from previous generations.  However, his upbringing was so utterly different from my own that I couldn't draw many parallels between our experiences, which was what would/could have been of interest.  His life during his formative years was far from typical.  Well, what did I really expect?  Few people who end up as serial killers have had an otherwise perfectly normal life.  

So, that's it.  The whole thing ends with a feeling of dissatisfaction, and there's nothing you can do about it.  

Love Among the Chickens

Love Among the Chickens

P.G. Wodehouse

Blurb:

The farcical tale of Jeremy Garnet, an author and an old friend of Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge, an erstwhile chicken farmer. Upon meeting Ukridge for the first time in years, Garnet finds himself enmeshed Ukridge's new and struggling chicken farm. Garnet soon falls in love with a girl living near the estate as he struggles with the farm and with Ukridge's bizarre business methods.

My Reaction:

Donald and I read this together—a new-to-us Wodehouse book.  

Wodehouse wrote this short novel when he was only 25, and I've just learned that it was his first work written for an adult audience.  I think it's clear that he hadn't yet reached his full maturity as an author when he penned Love Among the Chickens.  It doesn't have quite the same polish and charm as his best works—but there were still plenty of laughs, and his wit shines through time after time.  

It's good to know that there's still more Wodehouse to enjoy for the first time!

Lock Every Door

Lock Every Door

by Riley Sager

Blurb:

No visitors. No nights spent away from the apartment. No disturbing the other residents, all of whom are rich or famous or both. These are the only rules for Jules Larsen's new job as an apartment sitter at the Bartholomew, one of Manhattan's most high-profile and mysterious buildings. Recently heartbroken and just plain broke, Jules is taken in by the splendor of her surroundings and accepts the terms, ready to leave her past life behind.

As she gets to know the residents and staff of the Bartholomew, Jules finds herself drawn to fellow apartment sitter Ingrid, who comfortingly, disturbingly reminds her of the sister she lost eight years ago. When Ingrid confides that the Bartholomew is not what it seems and the dark history hidden beneath its gleaming facade is starting to frighten her, Jules brushes it off as a harmless ghost story . . . until the next day, when Ingrid disappears.

Searching for the truth about Ingrid's disappearance, Jules digs deeper into the Bartholomew's dark past and into the secrets kept within its walls. Her discovery that Ingrid is not the first apartment sitter to go missing at the Bartholomew pits Jules against the clock as she races to unmask a killer, expose the building's hidden past, and escape the Bartholomew before her temporary status becomes permanent.

My Reaction:

(I listened to the audiobook version.)

I mean... It's very silly, but if you can deal with that, it's a passable bit of escapist fiction for fans of fairly mindless thrillers.  Just don't think too hard (listening to the audiobook while you're doing other things at the same time is great for that) and don't expect too much.  

This novel isn't remotely believable, but given that the other two books I've listened to by this author had supernatural elements, that wasn't something I was counting on, anyway.  I came to be entertained, and I guess it this did the trick.  

The moral of the story is a bit obnoxious, absolutely absent of nuance, and the bad guys are hilariously over-the-top evil villains, but oh well.  It kept my mind occupied while I did housework, so I'm satisfied.  

This next bit is a SPOILER, so continue at your own risk!  

I did find it funny that in the first book of this author's that I listened to, the story felt like a straightforward crime thriller, then took a sudden (unexpected, at least by me) paranormal twist—whereas this one was practically the complete opposite:  It felt like we were headed in the old, familiar direction of "swanky NYC apartment building occupied by a coven", only to have the rug pulled out from under us near the end, replaced with a more realistic... well, let's say a "non-paranormal" explanation.  

SPOILERS over.

There are some plot holes, many things either don't make sense or are disappointingly predictable, and the main character isn't the most memorable—but I already know I'll listen to more of this author's books, because they're "interesting enough".  This is a silly thriller, not a mind-expanding masterpiece, but for what it is, it works.  

Friday's Child

Friday's Child

by Georgette Heyer

Blurb:

When the very eligible Viscount Sheringham, or "Sherry", proposes to Hero Wantage, she is overjoyed. Saved from life as a governess, she begins social climbing, but so naively that Sherry fears drastic action is required, or she will ruin them both.

My Reaction:

The blurb both over-simplifies this novel and makes it sound more dramatic and serious than it really is.  If you're familiar with Georgette Heyer—or at least her works I've read so far—you'll know that her Regency novels are light and fun.  This one is no different, though I did find it took a little time to get going.  After a promising beginning, the story seems to stall out and advance only slowly.  There was too much about fashion, home decor, and diversions of the time for me, personally.  I enjoy the odd book set in the Regency period, but in my opinion Regency references and minutiae are best in small doses, and I had my fill and more here!  Fortunately, things eventually begin to happen again, and I enjoyed the novel much more after that.  

Sherry's friends steal the show here, and as many other reviewers have indicated, there are some real flashes of P.G. Wodehouse-style wit in some of the conversations.  

Tek Kill

Tek Kill

(TekWar #8)

by William Shatner & Ron Goulart

Blurb:

When his boss is wrongly accused of murder, detective Jake Cardigan finds himself trying to convince police to believe in a known drug user's telepathic visions rather than the videotape evidence they already have.

My Reaction:

Donald and I read this together for the 372-Pages podcast.  It's the second in the series the book club podcast has covered, the previous read being the first of the series.  

I have to admit, I never got the love (if that's the right word) some of the 372-Pages listeners apparently had for TekWar.  There were some unintentionally funny elements, but I found it less appealing than many of the other things we've read.  The story was just bland and very samey, and this one was... well, more of the same.  

I don't have anything to say about this, really.  The podcast episodes were mostly fun, as usual, but I think it was clear that this wasn't a favorite of the hosts, either.  

The main thing I took away from this reading is that in the TekWar universe, nearly everything is fake—plas-this, sub-that, neo, pseudo, etc.—to the point that even plants are all merely holograms.  It's a disturbing vision of the future that I'm glad to leave behind!

Jeeves in the Offing

Jeeves in the Offing

by P.G. Wodehouse

Blurb:

Jeeves is on holiday in Herne Bay, and while he’s away the world caves in on Bertie Wooster. For a start, he’s astonished to read in The Times of his engagement to the mercurial Bobbie Wickham. Then at Brinkley Court, his Aunt Dahlia’s establishment, he finds his awful former head master in attendance ready to award the prizes at Market Snodsbury Grammar School.

And finally the Brinkley butler turns out for reasons of his own to be Bertie’s nemesis in disguise, the brain surgeon Sir Roderick Glossop. With all occasions informing against him, Bertie has to hightail it to Herne Bay to liberate Jeeves from his shrimping net. And after that, the fun really starts.

My Reaction:

It's been a while since we finished this one, and it's already beginning to dim in my memory... I'm sure we'd read this before (partly because we own a nice, hardback copy that we bought ourselves), but all these books tend to run together in my mind.  

From what I remember, this was a good one, but not one of the very best, since Jeeves is away for much of the book. Still, a fun read!

(Shared read with Donald, as usual for Wodehouse.)

Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed

Ask Not:  The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed

by Maureen Callahan

Blurb:

The Kennedy name has long been synonymous with wealth, power, glamor, and—above all else—integrity. But this carefully constructed veneer hides a dark truth: the pattern of Kennedy men physically and psychologically abusing women and girls, leaving a trail of ruin and death in each generation’s wake. Through decades of scandal after scandal—from sexual assaults to reputational slander, suicides to manslaughter—the family and their defenders have kept the Kennedy brand intact.

Now, in Ask Not, bestselling author and journalist Maureen Callahan reveals the Kennedys’ hidden history of violence and exploitation, laying bare their unrepentant sexism and rampant depravity while also restoring these women and girls to their rightful place at the center of the dynasty’s story: from Jacqueline Onassis and Marilyn Monroe to Carolyn Bessette, Martha Moxley, Mary Jo Kopechne, Rosemary Kennedy, and many others whose names aren’t nearly as well known but should be.

Drawing on years of explosive reportage and written in electric prose, Ask Not is a long-overdue reckoning with this fabled family and a consequential part of American history that is still very much with us. At long last Callahan redirects the spotlight to the women in the Kennedys’ orbit, paying homage to those who freed themselves and giving voice to those who, through no fault of their own, could not.

My Reaction:

Biographical nonfiction is a genre I only rarely ever read.  When I have, the subject has usually been an author rather than a politician, much less an entire family of politicians—but this sounded interesting, and I thought maybe it would be an entertaining way to learn a little more about this period of American history. 

In school, we always seemed to cover the more distant past in great detail, while anything more recent than WWII was skimmed over hastily, which is a shame.  As important as our earlier history is, there are many lessons in relatively recent history that are just as valuable and possibly more relevant to an understanding of current events.

Anyway… Thanks to my upbringing, I’ve never understood the obsession with/admiration for the Kennedys, and I didn’t know much about them beyond the basics you almost can’t help but absorb as an American adult who sometimes pays attention to politics. 

From skimming others' reviews, I gather that the book has some factual details wrong—things that should have been easy to check during editing.  That's a shame, as it encourages questions about the accuracy of the rest of the book.  Another complaint is that the book sometimes feels a bit gossipy, and I can't disagree, but to be fair, that may be difficult to avoid, given the nature of the material covered.  

On the whole, I feel confident that “enough” of this is accurate to present a reasonably fair idea of who many of these people were/are. The meat of the book is not facts, figures, and details, which can be looked up online at any time, but rather the broader picture of the attitudes, values, and behaviors that seem to have prevailed among so many members of this famous family.  

As someone with no illusions about the Kennedys, I’m not surprised that they’re worse than I knew—and that’s just the stuff that’s evidently widely known and accepted as fact.  I also have to say that few of the “women they destroyed” come out looking good, either—particularly the women who seem to have gone into their relationships despite having plenty of evidence that it was a terrible idea.  The Kennedys weren't the only ones in this book who were driven by an excess of ambition and a lust for power.  

All in all, this was a depressing reminder that the best of us rarely end up in positions of political power, and sometimes even scummy, dishonorable individuals are almost worshipped, if they have the right look, excellent PR, and enough of the media covering for them—oh, and money or influence, either of their own or borrowed from people who are using them for their own nefarious purposes.  It’s disgusting, honestly.  I wouldn't say that no Kennedy ever did anything good for the country, but I certainly don’t believe they deserve the many decades of adoration they’ve enjoyed in our nation, and the notion of “Camelot” makes me sick, quite frankly, especially now that I know the backstory. 

On a personal note, every time I listened to this book, I ended up in a bad mood!  This isn’t the best genre for me, clearly. 

Thud!

Thud!

by Terry Pratchett

Blurb:

Koom Valley? That was where the trolls ambushed the dwarfs, or the dwarfs ambushed the trolls. It was very far away. It was a long time ago.

But if he doesn't solve the murder of just one dwarf, Commander Sam Vimes of Ankh-Morpork City Watch is going to see it fought again, right outside his office.

With his beloved Watch crumbling around him and war-drums sounding, he must unravel every clue, outwit every assassin and brave any darkness to find the solution. And darkness is following him.

Oh... and at six o'clock every day, without fail, with no excuses, he must go home to read "Where's My Cow?," with all the right farmyard noises, to his little boy.

There are some things you HAVE to do!

My Reaction:

I read this with Donald.  (I've yet to read anything by Pratchett that wasn't a shared read with Donald; he's the one who introduced me to the Night Watch series of novels.)

I enjoyed it!  I don't think I have anything specific to say, except that it's enjoyable reading.  

I went in feeling slightly ambivalent (nothing personal, just how I'm feeling about a lot of things lately), but soon remembered that this world is funny and homey. 

Aunts Aren't Gentlemen

Aunts Aren't Gentlemen

by P.G. Wodehouse

Blurb:

The curious case of the Maiden Eggesford Horror

When the doctor advises Bertie to live the quiet life, he and Jeeves head for the pure air and peace of Maiden Eggesford. However, they hadn't reckoned on Bertie's irrepressible but decidedly scheming Aunt Dahlia, around whom an imbroglio of impressive proportions develops involving The Cat Which Kept Popping Up When Least Expected. As Bertie observes, whatever aunts are, they are not gentlemen.

A classic - the last book written by Wodehouse featuring Bertie and Jeeves.

My Reaction:

Another re-read together.  I enjoyed it, though I do think I preferred the Jeeves & Wooster book we read before this one, Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit.  Still, plenty of good laughs, as always!  You can't beat Wodehouse when you're feeling in need of something light.

Bridge to Bat City

Bridge to Bat City

by Ernest Cline

Blurb:

After losing her mother, thirteen-year-old Opal B. Flats moves in with her uncle Roscoe on the family farm. There, she bonds with Uncle Roscoe over music and befriends a group of orphaned, music-loving bats. But just as the farm is starting to feel like home, the bats’ cave is destroyed by a big mining company with its sights set on the farmland next.

If Opal and the bats can fit in anywhere, it’s the nearby city of Austin, home to their favorite music and a host of wonderfully eccentric characters. But with people afraid of the bats and determined to get rid of them, it’ll take a whole lot of courage to prove that this is where the bats—and Opal—belong.

My Reaction:
Donald and I read this one together for the 372 Pages We'll Never Get Back podcast.  

This is one mystifying novel.  I mean, just who was it written for?  It's marketed for "middle grade" readers, i.e. kids aged 8-12, and for the most part, it feels like it's written at that level of complexity—though to be honest, I'm not sure the language has been simplified all that much in comparison with RPO and the author's other novels.  

But on the other hand, so much of the novel is just an excuse to shoe-horn in as many 80s(-ish)-era Austin, Texas "notables" as possible. (In many cases, these people seem to be merely Austin-adjacent.)  Essentially, the subject matter is just nothing that a typical modern child would ever care about.  Heck, I'm in my mid-40s, and I didn't recognize probably half of these so-called celebrities.  

Even if these people (mostly musicians and bands) making cameo appearances had been someone a 9-year-old reading in 2024 would immediately be able to identify, so what?  Reading vague, repetitive descriptions of people (and melomaniac bats!) listening—excuse me, grooving—to music is just not very engaging or entertaining.  

Music is meant to be listened to, darn it!  It would take a more talented writer than this to make it enjoyable to read about a single concert attendance, never mind the numerous gigs presented back to back in this book.  (What in the world was the author thinking?!)

There are other problems with this book I could go into, but why bother?  It's not an entertaining read for an adult, and I can't imagine many of the intended audience will love it, either.  I guess it was just a desperate attempt to make some money based on the author's name recognition.

Good Bad Girl

Good Bad Girl

by Alice Feeney

Blurb:

Twenty years after a baby is stolen from a stroller, a woman is murdered in a care home. The two crimes are somehow linked, and a good bad girl may be the key to discovering the truth.

Edith may have been tricked into a nursing home, but at eighty-years-young, she’s planning her escape. Patience works there, cleaning messes and bonding with Edith, a kindred spirit. But Patience is lying to Edith about almost everything.

Edith’s own daughter, Clio, won’t speak to her. And someone new is about to knock on Clio’s door…and their intentions aren’t good.

With every reason to distrust each other, the women must solve a mystery with three suspects, two murders, and one victim. If they do, they might just find out what happened to the baby who disappeared, the mother who lost her, and the connections that bind them.

My Reaction:

I listened to the audiobook version of this novel.  Actually, I believe I've listened to the audio version of all of this author's novels, so far.  ...And I think I may have enjoyed this more than most of the author's other books that I've read or listened to.  

I predicted some of the twists before they were revealed, but it was still an interesting (though bittersweet) story.  It's less of a true thriller than some of her other work, but to be honest, I didn't mind that. 

There's a murder in the book, but it feels like a subplot to the main story.  You almost don't care what happens with that part of the book, really—or at least it wasn't my main focus.  This novel is more of an emotional relationship drama than an edge-of-your-seat thriller drama.  Normally, that might be disappointing, when an author is known more for the thriller genre, but I ended the book feeling satisfied with the story. 

Into the Uncanny

Into the Uncanny

by Danny Robins

Blurb:

Into the Uncanny is the story of ordinary people who have experienced extraordinary things and want to make sense of them. Each one is a brand-new case never shared before; modern day, real-life ghost stories that will make your blood run cold. It is also a journey of self-discovery, as Danny explores what the paranormal means to us and the exciting and terrifying prospect that we are not alone.

From poltergeists and apparitions, to UFOs and messages from beyond the grave, Into The Uncanny is a thrilling, adrenaline-filled supernatural adventure. Whether you're Team Believer or Team Sceptic, all you need is an open mind and a bit of courage. So, are you ready to investigate?

My Reaction:

After enjoying the Uncanny podcast, and then gobbling down the host's earlier, similarly themed podcast, Haunted, I figured chances were good that I'd like his book, too—and I did.  There's something endlessly engrossing about ghost stories and tales of the paranormal, and both the podcasts and the book left me wishing for more!  

I listened to the audiobook version, which is read by Danny Robins himself, so it has much the same feeling as listening to the podcast (with the caveat that it's one person talking the whole time).  If you're a fan of one, you'll probably at least like the other. 

Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit

Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit

by P.G. Wodehouse

Blurb:

When Bertie Wooster goes to stay with his Aunt Dahlia at Brinkley Court and finds himself engaged to the imperious Lady Florence Craye, disaster threatens from all sides. While Florence tries to cultivate his mind, her former fiancé, hefty ex-policeman 'Stilton' Cheesewright, threatens to beat his body to a pulp, and her new admirer, the bleating poet Percy Gorringe, tries to borrow a thousand pounds. To cap it all, Bertie has incurred the disapproval of Jeeves by growing a moustache. Throw in a disappearing pearl necklace, Aunt Dahlia's magazine Milady's Boudoir, her cook Anatole, the Drones Club Darts match and Mr and Mrs L.G. Trotter from Liverpool, and you have all the ingredients for a classic Wodehouse farce.

My Reaction:

We needed another in-between book, so we chose to re-read a Jeeves & Wooster book.  I never have anything specific to say about these (because I don't bother to take notes), but I do love them.  They're perfect for light reading—the literary equivalent of your favorite cuddly comfort blanket.  You can wrap yourself up in them for a while, enjoy some good laughs, and forget your worries for a moment.  

Listen for the Lie

Listen for the Lie

by Amy Tintera

Blurb:

What if you thought you murdered your best friend? And if everyone else thought so too? And what if the truth doesn't matter?

After Lucy is found wandering the streets, covered in her best friend Savvy’s blood, everyone thinks she is a murderer. Lucy and Savvy were the golden girls of their small Texas town: pretty, smart, and enviable. Lucy married a dream guy with a big ring and an even bigger new home. Savvy was the social butterfly loved by all, and if you believe the rumors, especially popular with the men in town. It’s been years since that horrible night, a night Lucy can’t remember anything about, and she has since moved to LA and started a new life.

But now the phenomenally huge hit true crime podcast "Listen for the Lie," and its too-good looking host Ben Owens, have decided to investigate Savvy’s murder for the show’s second season. Lucy is forced to return to the place she vowed never to set foot in again to solve her friend’s murder, even if she is the one that did it.

My Reaction:
DNF.  I don't know how far along I was when I gave up on it... 20-ish percent through?  I think it was soon after Lucy went to her old friend's shop... Wherever it was, I decided I couldn't face slogging through the rest of this one.  It's just not my style at all, and I don't understand the high average of ratings.  I skimmed through the last chapters just to see the solution of the mystery and... Nope, no regrets.  

I didn't like any of these characters, the humor fell flat for me, and that voice in Lucy's head was beyond annoying.  Oh well!

Ring for Jeeves

Ring for Jeeves

by P.G. Wodehouse

Blurb:

The only Jeeves story in which Bertie Wooster makes no appearance, involves Jeeves on secondment as butler and general factotum to William Belfry, ninth Earl of Rowcester (pronounced Roaster). Despite his impressive title, Bill Belfry is broke, which may explain why he and Jeeves have been working as Silver Ring bookies, disguised in false moustaches and loud check suits. All goes well until the terrifying Captain Brabazon-Biggar, big-game hunter, two-fisted he-man and saloon-bar bore, lays successful bets on two outsiders, leaving the would-be bookies three thousand pounds down and on the run from their creditor. But now the incandescent Captain just happens to be the former flame of Rosalinda Spottsworth, a rich American widow to whom Bill is attempting to sell his crumbling stately home...

My Reaction:
This was a shared read-aloud with Donald.  We needed something to fill in the gaps between 372-Pages books, and Wodehouse seemed like a good choice.  We selected one with "Jeeves" in the title, at random, and ended up with the only one without Wooster!  (I believe we've read them all before this, but it's been a while, and to be honest, they tend to blur together in my memory, so we didn't know which was which.)

The lack of Wooster was a little disappointing, and this isn't Wodehouse at his very best, but it's still not bad.  I think we had some good laughs along the way.

Kaileb's Dream

Kaileb's Dream

by Kaileb Varney

Blurb:

Once just a dream, now turned into reality the young Master of the White Blades, must fight to save the world. There is always good and evil, and the struggle is just a part of that existence. Having only been a Warrior, (an ancient race born in the early years of recorded history) for a few years this young man, must deal with the responsibility of both his new found power, and life. He must learn to find a balance within the world, and himself.

My Reaction:

This was selected by the 372 Pages We'll Never Get Back podcast.  I read this aloud with Donald, as we usually do with the podcast's reading choices.  (As you might imagine, reading aloud only adds to the enjoyment of the rich and unusual language typical of these novels.)

Um... Well, that was an experience.  This is one of the most bizarre books I've ever read, even for 372 Pages, but I have to say that I'd much rather read this than Shadow Moon or Bob Honey... or even Artemis.  At least this one kept me laughing (and wasn't painfully dull, like Artemis' action welding scenes).  

Sometimes I Lie

Sometimes I Lie

by Alice Feeney

Blurb:

My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me:

1. I’m in a coma.

2. My husband doesn’t love me anymore.

3. Sometimes I lie.

Amber wakes up in a hospital. She can’t move. She can’t speak. She can’t open her eyes. She can hear everyone around her, but they have no idea. Amber doesn’t remember what happened, but she has a suspicion her husband had something to do with it. Alternating between her paralyzed present, the week before her accident, and a series of childhood diaries from twenty years ago, this brilliant psychological thriller asks, is something really a lie if you believe it's the truth?

My Reaction:
I'd completely forgotten I hadn't reviewed this one, yet, so I'm coming to it a while after finishing it...

I listened to the audiobook version, though I don't remember much about the narrator, which is probably a good sign.  If I still remembered something about it, it would likely be because I'd found it irritating (like the childlike French accent used for one of the characters in the audiobook I listened to before this one).

I think the book was interesting, though infuriating at times.  I don't think I saw the main twist coming... But I do remember that a few things at the end don't seem to add up to me, straining my ability to suspend disbelief.  And the very ending is just a bridge too far.  What is that even supposed to mean?  

It was fine, for a mindless thriller.  Just don't expect a masterpiece.  (That's true for most of them, to be honest.)

The Paris Apartment

The Paris Apartment

by Lucy Foley

Blurb:

Jess needs a fresh start. She’s broke and alone, and she’s just left her job under less than ideal circumstances. Her half-brother Ben didn’t sound thrilled when she asked if she could crash with him for a bit, but he didn’t say no, and surely everything will look better from Paris. Only when she shows up – to find a very nice apartment, could Ben really have afforded this? – he’s not there.

The longer Ben stays missing, the more Jess starts to dig into her brother’s situation, and the more questions she has. Ben’s neighbors are an eclectic bunch, and not particularly friendly. Jess may have come to Paris to escape her past, but it’s starting to look like it’s Ben’s future that’s in question.

The socialite – The nice guy – The alcoholic – The girl on the verge – The concierge

Everyone's a neighbor. Everyone's a suspect. And everyone knows something they’re not telling.

My Reaction:

(I listened to the audiobook version of this novel.)

This took a while to really get going.  I think the constant shift among different points of view, and at least a few of them with accents that blurred together at first, didn't help.  It took me a while to recognize the names and voices/accents.  Then the story was just kind of treading water for chapter after chapter.  

Once it finally got going, it wasn't bad, but some of the bigger "twists" were predictable—possibly unavoidable when you've read or listened to this many examples of the genre.  

Also, I know you're not supposed to expect/require likeable characters, but it's not always easy to care what happens to characters you don't like. There are a couple of okay-ish people in this mix, but none of them are particularly easy to love. I just felt very "meh" about this collection of characters, and I got very tired of listening to Mimi's baby voice and intonations.  (Sorry, but after a while she drove me nuts.)  

Still, it was something to listen to!

The Naked Clone: A Nick Nolte Mystery

The Naked Clone: A Nick Nolte Mystery

by Conor Lastowka, Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett, and Sean Thomason

Blurb:

This hilarious mystery was written serially by the minds behind RiffTrax, with each writer picking up where the last left off.

There’s trouble in Hollywood.

Big surprise, Sheepdip, there’s always trouble in Hollywood. But for Yours Truly, Nick Nolte, private dick, actor, entrepreneur, collector of exotic and often dangerous commodities, and People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive (1992), Hollywood is a filthy, decaying, half-empty swimming pool, and I’m gonna dive in head-first.

Someone’s kidnapping Hollywood bigwigs? Hell, I wish I’d thought of it first. Clones runnin’ amok from Pismo to Tijuana? Sounds like fun, hand me a gun. A dame in distress willing to hire me for a sack a’ quarters? I’m in. I’ll even put on my best shirt for the job, which is easy, ’cause it’s my only shirt. A diabolical plot to mess with the space-time continuum and take over Tinseltown, maybe the whole damn world? I’m on the case. I might get distracted, or black out a few times, or both, but I won’t stop till I bring in these evil peckerknobs and win the heart of the femme fatale…

…Sorry, blacked out there for a minute. Maybe an hour. Maybe a day—look, who’s counting?

So strap in, Shortpants, it’ll be one full-throttle, mind-twisting, weirdass ride, and I got the wheel. Just hand me that bag a’ pills and that can a’ Sterno and try not to scream so damn much.

—Your Pal,

Nick

My Reaction:

(Donald and I read this together to fill in gaps between 372-Pages podcast episodes.)

This is one crazy ride.  I can recommend it for hardcore Rifftrax fans, but if someone unfamiliar with Rifftrax were to read it, they'd be baffled.  Considering that it wasn't really planned out like a normal novel—and that it was passed along from author to author, chapter by chapter—I don't think it would be fair to critique the plot as I would with a typical book.  There were some laugh-out-loud moments, and I think that's the most you can ask of something that's essentially a strange writing experiment.

I do wish there were some sort of key or something at the end to indicate which person wrote which chapters.  We speculated about that as we read and would've been interested to check the accuracy of our guesses.

"The Thing in the Hall"

"The Thing in the Hall"

by E.F. Benson

Synopsis:

A man invites an unknown spirit into his home.  This proves to have been unwise.

My Reaction (with SPOILERS):

I don't have much to say about this one.  It has some gruesome and creepy elements, but I didn't find it particularly effective, overall.  Not destined to be a favorite, I'm afraid.  The main thing that stuck out in this one, for me, was the fact that cheating at cards is presented as roughly the equivalent of torturing one's own pet to death.  Both are described as "depravity", but needlessly, intentionally hurting an animal (especially one you've agreed to protect and care for) is several orders of magnitude worse than card sharping, in my opinion.  The two aren't even comparable.  I've observed this attitude in books before: In the past, at least in certain circles, cheating at cards was seemingly a much bigger deal than it seems to me.  Not that I condone cheating, of course, but it simply doesn't feel deserving of quite the level of gravity that some authors grant it. 

That my main focus from this story was this should tell you that the rest of it fell a bit flat for me.  There are some things going for it, but they are undercut by the same pseudo-scientific approach and strange pacing that plague many of these stories (from what I can recall of the ones I read years ago).  There are moments of horror and eeriness, but sometimes they're buried under too much "evidence".  Does the author think we can so quickly forget that these are fictional short stories?  Frankly, I'm not interested in made-up science or "proof", because—how can I put this politely?—I know you just made it up.  Trying to dress it up as scientifically documented truth is pointless.  Just make it feel creepy!  To be fair, Benson is doing essentially the same thing as M.R. James and many other successful "ghost story" writers, framing his tales in realism and attempting to lend them a sense of verisimilitude, but maybe he's just not as good at it.  Some of his horror tales are lacking in a sufficiently haunting atmosphere and instead have an almost clinical feel.  

And...that's it!  That was the last story in the collection of E.F. Benson's short horror fiction!

This was a bit of a weak note to end on, but I'm glad to have finally finished this collection of short stories so I can scratch it off the list once and for all.  I can't believe it was sitting neglected on my Kindle all this time with only two stories left to read!  

It's been so long since I read the bulk of the stories that I no longer recall much about the individual tales.  My opinion is that Benson is a much better satirist / humorist than writer of horror, but that's not to say that his eerie stories aren't worth reading (and some might be worth a re-read, at some point).  However, I suspect most of them may be a little too dry to appeal to the casual modern reader; they're better suited to people who appreciate a more old-fashioned writing style.

"Inscrutable Decrees"

"Inscrutable Decrees"

by E.F. Benson

Synopsis:

An unnamed narrator stumbles upon the death notice of a remarkable woman he once knew.  He then shares his memories of the woman, followed by a discussion with an old friend, which reveals the solution to a macabre puzzle.  

My Reaction (with possible SPOILERS:

I can no longer recall if I stopped writing reviews for individual stories in this collection of E.F. Benson's short stories that I have... I know I stopped reading, years ago, but am uncertain of whether or not there may have been a backlog of stories I had read but not reviewed.  At this point, I suppose it doesn't matter.  I thought I might try to finish the collection, so I'm picking up where I left off with reading (if not reviewing).  

I found the beginning of the story was actually more amusing than horrifying, which reminded me that it may be time to revisit the Lucia series again.  As for this story, it was merely okay.  There's some vague creepiness, but you see the culmination coming from a mile away, so there's no element of surprise, and if anything, I thought the crime committed was milder than expected.  The ghostly element undercuts the horror, I think.  I'm not big on stories with seances that reveal visible ghosts, and... well, spoiler alert, I guess!  There's a visible ghost called forth by a seance.  Not the best of his work, but the central character herself is an interesting one for an armchair criminological psychologist to ponder.  

Bitter Sun

Bitter Sun

by Beth Lewis

Blurb:

"Stand by Me" meets "True Detective" in this stunningly written tale of the darkness at the heart of a small mid-Western town and the four kids who uncover it. In the heatwave summer of 1971, four kids find a body by a lake and set out to solve a murder, but they dig too deep and ask too many questions. Larson is a town reeling in the wake of the Vietnam draft, where the unrelenting heat ruins the harvest, and the people teeter on the edge of ruin. As tension and paranoia run rife, rumors become fact, violence becomes reflex. The unrest allows the dark elements of the close-knit farming community to rise and take control, and John, Jenny, Gloria, and Rudy are about to discover that sometimes secrets are best left uncovered.

My Reaction:

DNF one-third of the way through the book.  

This book—or as much of it as I read, since I abandoned it after reading the first third—was such a disappointment!  I enjoyed The Wolf Road, the author's first published novel, and had high hopes for this one.  When I finally had a chance to read it, I jumped right in, but almost immediately it just wasn't working for me.  I think I gave it a fair chance, but instead of improving it was starting to seriously annoy me.  It's time to set this one aside and move on to something else.  I'm still interested in trying another of this author's books, in the hopes that they're more like her first work and less like... this.

So, what didn't I love about this? 

• Set in the United States, yet too often the characters use British words and turns of phrase that simply don't feel authentic to me.  I could overlook this in a more compelling read, but on top of everything else, it was grating.  
• I could have done without some of the tangents (commentary on the Vietnam War, for instance).  Maybe they're supposed to set the scene and paint a picture of the time, but I didn't like them, and in a slow-paced book, the last thing we needed was more blah-blah-blah that didn't advance the plot. 
• I couldn't believe half the things that happened (and that was just in the first third of the book).  Bizarre things, and way too many of them.  No, I don't think this is a fair portrayal of small-town America in the 1970s (or ever), and that annoys me (as someone from small-town America). 
• Gosh, these characters!  There's hardly a decent person in the book. Even the kids were utterly blah.  Everyone feels like such a cardboard cut-out cliche.  There's no joy in reading about these characters.  
• I need a plot that actually moves at something above a snail's pace.
• There are a LOT of "bad guy" characters in this book, and according to their descriptions, they're all absolutely disgusting.  (Quite a few of the baddies seem to be fat, too, by some strange "coincidence"...)

I skimmed some reviews to try to at least see what happens in the end, but I'm still not sure what (if anything) is the solution to the mystery.  What little I did gather about the conclusion is even darker than I was expecting, so I don't think I missed much.  Maybe I'll skip to the end and see if I can learn more, but I doubt it's worth the effort.  The impression I get is that it's not a particularly satisfying conclusion, even for those who like the book.  

I'm just glad to put this in the rearview mirror and try to find something that doesn't make me angry every time I read it!

Doggone Christmas

Doggone Christmas (Polly Parrett Petsitter #1)

by Liz Dodwell

Blurb:

Polly is juggling the care of her wheelchair-bound mother, her pet-sitting business and the sale of the family home. On top of that she finds herself having to deal with an arrogant but really sexy realtor, and Christmas is coming! None of that seems important, though, when she finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation and must find the real killer before an innocent homeless man and his dog are wrongly convicted.

My Reaction:

Donald and I needed something to fill the gap between 372-Pages books, and it was still in the Christmas-y time of year, so we decided to read another "Christmas cozy" from the podcast's shortlist of cozy mysteries.  We went through the ones not selected this time around and chose one that was available to us for free.  

Well, all I can say is that I think it's a good thing they chose the book they did instead of this one.  I'm sure they could have found things to talk about, but this felt much more like a standard cozy mystery to both of us, compared to the one they ended up choosing.  It's very much what you expect from a cozy mystery.

I've forgotten most of the things that stuck out, but I do recall deciding that the author must be British, because a few words/turns of phrase stuck out to us as not sounding authentically American—someone was described as being "in hospital", for instance.  Just a point of interest!

The Pesthouse

The Pesthouse

by Jim Crace

Blurb:

Once the safest, most prosperous place on earth, the United States is now a lawless, scantly populated wasteland. The machines have stopped. The government has collapsed. Farmlands lie fallow and the soil is contaminated by toxins. Across the country, families have packed up their belongings to travel eastward toward the one hope passage on a ship to Europe.

Franklin Lopez and his brother, Jackson, are only days away from the ocean when Franklin, nearly crippled by an inflamed knee, is forced to stop. In the woods near his temporary refuge, Franklin comes upon an isolated stone building. Inside he finds Margaret, a woman with a deadly infection and confined to the Pesthouse to sweat out her fever. Tentatively, the two join forces and make their way through the ruins of old America. Confronted by bandits rounding up men for slavery, finding refuge in the Ark, a religious community that makes bizarre demands on those they shelter, Franklin and Margaret find their wariness of each other replaced by deep trust and an intimacy neither one has ever experienced before.

My Reaction:

It took a little time to get into the flow of the language with this one, and even once I did, I had some issues with the pacing, but on the whole, I found this an interesting tale.  I appreciated that it wasn't remotely as gratuitously dark as so much post-apocalyptic fiction tends to be; that made for a nice change.  

There's a lot I still don't understand about the world the author built in this book.  Why have people forgotten so much about their history, for instance, while they've managed to hold on to other things (like the traditional, Founding-Father names)?  

Anyway, I find I don't have much to say about this, now that I'm done with it.  It's different... If you don't mind a meandering pace and feel intrigued by a future civilization that feels more like a medieval/Old West mash-up than The Jetsons, this is for you.  Ah, just be forewarned that it's a post-apocalyptic romance, minus much of what you usually find in a romance!  (It's an odd book.)