Hide by Lisa Gardner

In bestseller Gardner's first-rate follow-up to Alone (2005), Bobby Dodge, once a sniper for the Massachusetts State Police and now a police detective, gets called to a horrific crime scene in the middle of the night by fellow detective and ex-lover D.D. Warren. An underground chamber has been discovered on the property of a former Boston mental hospital containing six small naked mummified female bodies in clear garbage bags. A silver locket with one of the corpses, which may be decades old, bears the name Annabelle Granger. Later, a woman shows up at the Boston Homicide offices claiming to be Annabelle Granger. Her resemblance to Catherine Gagnon (whose life Bobby saved in Alone) helps stoke a romance between her and Bobby both subtle and sizzling. The suspense builds as the police uncover links between patients at the hospital and long-ago criminal activities. Through expert use of red herrings, Gardner takes the reader on a nail-biting ride to the thrilling climax.

I've read a couple of Lisa Gardner's books and enjoy them. This one was gripping. If you like crime fiction, you'll enjoy this. Although none of the lead characters are forensics experts (which usually seals the deal for me), it's good reading.

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The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

Thriller writer Connolly (Every Dead Thing) turns from criminal fears to primal fears in this enchanting novel about a 12-year-old English boy, David, who is thrust into a realm where eternal stories and fairy tales assume an often gruesome reality. Books are the magic that speak to David, whose mother has died at the start of WWII after a long debilitating illness. His father remarries, and soon his stepmother is pregnant with yet another interloper who will threaten David's place in his father's life. When a portal to another world opens in time-honored fashion, David enters a land of beasts and monsters where he must undertake a quest if he is to earn his way back out. Connolly echoes many great fairy tales and legends (Little Red Riding Hood, Roland, Hansel and Gretel), but cleverly twists them to his own purposes. Despite horrific elements, this tale is never truly frightening, but is consistently entertaining as David learns lessons of bravery, loyalty and honor that all of us should learn.

I quite liked this book. It's not quite what you expect and although it does have the twisted fairy tales and it's not kiddie reading by any means, the book is still essentially about a young boy. As far as twisted fairy tales go, however, my favourite still remains Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes.

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The Beast by Roslund & Hellstrom

Two children are found dead in a basement. Four years later, their murderer escapes from prison. The police know if he is not found quickly, he will kill again. But when their worst fears come true and another child is murdered, the situation spirals out of control. In an atmosphere of hysteria whipped up by the media, Fredrik Steffansson, father of the murdered child, decides he must take revenge. His actions will have devastating consequences. Winner of Scandinavia's most prestigious crime-writing award: The Glass Key for Best Crime Novel of the Year.

This one was okay and translated well. I quite liked the ending but it had extra bits in the middle that just seemed to be there purely as a comment on humanity that didn't really have that much to do with the central story-line. There are far more better written stories in the same genre.

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I Want My Life Back by Steve Hamilton

"At the age of 15 I already had a criminal record, busted by the drug squad for possession of an illigal substance. You'd think I'd have learned my lesson, wouldn't you, but I'm still learning, even though I'm clean of street drugs now - well, just for today - and have a lot of clean time behind me. The hardest lesson of all for an addict is that the nightmare is never over and the powerful seduction of just one more high never ever goes away." Steve Hamilton's story is not a comfortable one. He tells of his life growing up with drugs and his battles with heroin, the book is at times harrowing reading but his story is touching and heartfelt throughout.

I enjoyed this book. It's a little disjointed as he keeps explaining, he is brain-damaged as a result of the drugs and it means things don't happen in order when he remembers them. And that's pretty much how he wrote the book. It's one I'd definitely think of getting my kids to read one day when they get to around that age. It certainly shows all the truly scary things drug-addiction can do to you.

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Life Swap by Jane Green

From the outside, Vicky Townsley would appear to have it all. She lives alone in London, is single and seriously successful. But she'd give it all up in a heartbeat for marriage, children, and a house in the country. Amber, on the other hand, has exactly what Vicky wants. This is a story of the grass not being as green as you might think.

A nice story with the ending everyone hopes for if you're reading these sorts of books ... the characters take a holiday from their real lives for a while, try living in someone else's shoes and realise just how good they had it before. That really your life is the only one made for you. I really needed this book and it's cliche ending right now.

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Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

Geek Love is the story of the Binewskis, a carny family whose mater- and paterfamilias set out-with the help of amphetamine, arsenic, and radioisotopes- to breed their own exhibit of human oddities. There's Arturo the Aquaboy, who has flippers for limbs and a megalomaniac ambition worthy of Genghis Khan . . . Iphy and Elly, the lissome Siamese twins . . . albino hunchback Oly, and the outwardly normal Chick, whose mysterious gifts make him the family's most precious-and dangerous-asset.

As the Binewskis take their act across the backwaters of the U.S., inspiring fanatical devotion and murderous revulsion; as its members conduct their own Machiavellian version of sibling rivalry, Geek Love throws its sulfurous light on our notions of the freakish and the normal, the beautiful and the ugly, the holy and the obscene. Family values will never be the same.

A truly very odd story. I'm not really sure what to say, but if you're a sensitive reader, I'd give this book a skip. It is definitely interesting from a cult perspective although some bits (like Oly's conception) that are just downright peculiar. And the story comes together is a bit of an odd fashion, Oly remembers her history as her present (about as bizarre as her past too) unfolds. This is not for your average fiction reader ...

FYI. Before you get confused between our current term for Geek, as in someone typically obsessed with computers, and what exactly they could possibly have to do with circuses, here's the alternate definition:
"a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts, as biting off the head of a live chicken."

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Freakonomics by Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner

Cult bestseller, new buzz word..."Freakonomics" is at the heart of everything we see and do and the subjects that bedevil us daily: from parenting to crime, sport to politics, fat to cheating, fear to traffic jams. Asking provocative and profound questions about human motivation and contemporary living and reaching some astonishing conclusions, "Freakonomics" will make you see the familiar world through a completely original lens.

Well, I couldn't really have picked a more different book to follow with and I like to do that. I really enjoyed Freakonomics. It was interesting and made me think. Although the Abortion-Crime debate seems to have taken much flak (as with a number of the other ideas they raised), I like it. And I'm hoping we'll see a similar curb in SA's crime in 10 years when our Pro-Choice law turns 20. Anyway, it's interesting reading and I recommend it ... if you can't get you hands on it, start on their blog in the mean time :)

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Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran-Foer

Nine-year-old Oskar Schell is an inventor, amateur entomologist, Francophile, letter writer, pacifist, natural historian, percussionist, romantic, Great Explorer, jeweller, detective, vegan, and collector of butterflies. When his father is killed in the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Centre, Oskar sets out to solve the mystery of a key he discovers in his father's closet. It is a search which leads him into the lives of strangers, through the five boroughs of New York, into history, to the bombings of Dresden and Hiroshima, and on an inward journey which brings him ever closer to some kind of peace.

I loved it from the first page. The 9-year old Oskar's internal voice was written so fabulously and I could hear it perfectly. He is a fantastic character. It's not a particularly complicated story, but it does get confusing in bits (esp. the grandfather's pages that are completely illegible). I also loved the crazy layout of the book. Not confined to the expected norm. But with random pictures and pages with just 5 words on them. Brilliant, I'm sure I will read this again one day.

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Lifeguard by James Patterson & Andrew Gross

Everything is going right for lifeguard Ned Kelly. He is involved with Tess, the most beautiful woman he has ever seen and what's more, a million dollars is within touching distance; his share of the score for the robbery of some world-class art. All he has to do is trigger alarms to throw the cops off the scent. But when Tess is brutally murdered and the others involved in the robbery are massacred, Ned is the prime suspect. He has been set up...

It was alright and quite a quick read. Loulou says James Patterson's book s are usually quite good and I'll give him another read before disagreeing altogether. This isn't the sort of book I usually read, now I remember why, but it was part of my book club selection and I'm open to pretty much reading anything with words ;) It had some fairly predictable bits and some that were just truly unbelievable. It's probably best recommended as a quick holiday read to keep you busy while lazing in the sun!

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A Special Relationship & Pursuit of Happiness by Douglas Kennedy

Sally Goodchild, a thirty-seven-year-old American journalist, suddenly finds herself pregnant and married to an English foreign correspondent, Tony Hobbs, whom she met while they were both on assignment in Cairo. From the outset Sally's relationship with both Tony and London is an uneasy one - as she finds her husband and his city to be far more foreign than imagined. But her problems soon turn to nightmares when she discovers that everything can be taken down and used against you.

I quite enjoyed it. It is one of two Douglas Kennedy books we have at Book Club which initially I avoided since they appeared "way to girlie" from me ... Eventually, I decided to throw caution to the wind and give his The Pursuit of Happiness a read.

Manhattan, Thanksgiving Eve 1945. War is over and Eric Smythe's party is swinging. Everyone is there, including his sister Sara. Then in walks the gatecrasher - Jack Malone, an army journalist fresh from a defeated Germany. This chance meeting between Sara and Jack will have profound consequences.

This one I thoroughly enjoyed and I think it has a much more intricate and enthralling story than Special Relationship. Although SR was quite a hectic story, you knew it had to all end happily ever after no matter how bad it got in the middle, otherwise why would you read it ;) It's not quite the same in Pursuit, there's much more going on. Anyway, I enjoyed these two and would happily read other Douglas Kennedy books, no matter that there'll never be a forensic pathologist in any of them or how girlie the cover will predictably be ;)

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Spud by John van de Ruit

It's South Africa, 1990. The country still squirms under the iron fist of apartheid. Two major events are about to happen: The release of Nelson Mandela, and more importantly, it's Spud Milton's first year at an elite boys only private boarding school. Cursed with parents from well beyond the lunatic fringe, a senile granny, and a dormitory full of strange characters, Spud has to forge a new life for himself in this foreign and sometimes hostile environment. Surrounded by names such as Gecko, Rambo, Rain Man and Mad Dog, Spud takes his first tentative steps along the path towards manhood. (The path, it seems, could be a rather long road.) Armed with only his wits and his diary, Spud takes us from illegal nightswimming to the cricket field, from ghostbusting to teacher baiting. He also invites us into the mind of a boy struggling to come to terms with a strange new world; a boy whose eyes are being opened to love, friendship and complete insanity.

It is a good fun read and from what I gather even more enjoyable if you're a boy who spent any time in boarding school (or so my Dad says!). It definitely had some laugh out loud moments and paragraphs I just had to read to the boyf when we were reading under the trees on his farm in the Free State. Completely enjoyable and even more so because it's set here in our very own South Africa, which I really like.

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Self-Made Man by Norah Vincent

Norah Vincent's witty and compulsively readable memoir tells how she dated women, joined a bowling league, visited strip bars, retreated to a monastery, got a job in sales and even infiltrated a men's therapy group. Norah did not predict how crucial the relationships Ned forged would be and how the burden of being an impostor would became almost too much to bear. The result is a constantly surprising and humane account of what it is to be a man - and a woman - in the modern world.

It was a fairly interesting read. I read some really bad reviews from guys on the Amazon site, but was curious to read it non the less. I believe in making up my own mind about books & movies.

Anyway, I think it the whole concept of what she set out to do is novel and whether or not you agree that she discovered the truth about men & how they interact and just how different that is from us girls, well that's up to you. It's not a scientific thing at all, it's all about her personal experience and interactions. And she certainly put herself in some interesting places, like a monastery! So, if you're curious, I suggest you read it otherwise, leave it alone.

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Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult

When seven-year-old Faith White and her mother, Mariah, swing by the house on the way to ballet class, they find that Daddy is home and he's brought a playmate. This is not the first time he's been caught cheating. After the fuss and feathers have settled and Dad has moved out, Faith begins talking to an imaginary friend who, it seems, is God. And God is not male but female. Faith is able to effect miraculous cures and is also occasionally afflicted with stigmata. When the media gets wind of this, the circus begins. The local rabbi takes an interest (Faith and Mariah are technically Jewish), and the local Catholic priest pays several inquiring visits. There is also a gaggle of psychologists. Throw in a professional atheist for the romance angle and a vicious custody fight with an egomaniacal lawyer, and you have a riveting read. Picoult gets better and better with each book. If you can suspend disbelief on one or two points, this is an entrancing novel.

I really enjoyed this one, especially since I didn't have many expectations of it. I didn't enjoy her book The Pact at all and she has definitely become the season's 'it' writer - which puts me off instantly. But I did enjoy this one. The conclusion isn't earth shattering and she doesn't even bother to explain what is really going on, but that wasn't necessary and I'll forgive it ;) Besides, I'm sure if she did try the book would become ridiculous - kinda like when you get to see the aliens at the end of M. Night Shyamalan's Signs and it just becomes completely silly because they don't look scary at all, in fact they were rather comical. Sometimes it's best to leave things to people's imaginations ... the trick is knowing when.

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Chill Factor by Sandra Brown

Lust, jealousy and murder suffuse Brown's crisp thriller (after White Hot), set in the snowbound mountains of North Carolina. Lilly and Dutch Burton's marriage didn't withstand the loss of their three-year-old daughter, despite their attempt at a fresh start with the purchase of a vacation cabin in bucolic Cleary, N.C., where the novel opens on the divorced couple discussing its sale. Dutch is now Cleary's chief of police, and Lilly is a magazine editor in Atlanta. As she races back to the city to beat a blizzard, her car skids out, striking a hiker emerging from the woods. Turns out he's a man she knows: handsome freelance writer Ben Tierney, whom she met and flirted with the summer before. With no choice but to wait out the storm in the cabin with Ben, who is injured, Lilly calls Dutch, but he can't reach her via the now impassable mountain road. Meanwhile, Cleary is haunted by the case of five missing women - all now feared dead. With Lilly still stranded, Dutch goes ballistic when the FBI arrives in town with evidence that Tierney is the serial killer.

I quite enjoyed it. I didn't guess whodunnit till just before she let you in on the secret, which I particularly enjoy since it is rare. But, it was mostly just a light read for me, so I think I was clearly under-estimating the possibility that it wasn't just going to be the most obvious person. A little bit of romance, a little bit of crazy and of course a murder mystery thrown in the mix.

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Past Mortem by Ben Elton

With old friends like these, who needs enemies? It's a question short, mild mannered detective Edward Newson is forced to ask himself having in romantic desperation logged on to the Friends Reunited website searching for the girlfriends of his youth. Newson is not the only member of the Class of '86 who has been raking over the ashes of the past. As his old class begins to reassemble in cyberspace, the years slip away and old feuds and passions burn hot once more. Meanwhile, back in the present, Newson's life is no less complicated. He is secretly in love with Natasha, his lovely but very attached sergeant, while comprehensively failing to solve a series of baffling and peculiarly gruesome murders. A school reunion is planned and as history begins to repeat itself, the past crashes headlong into the present. Neither will ever be the same again. In Past Mortem, Ben Elton - previous winner of The Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award for Popcorn - delivers both a heart-stopping thriller and a killer comic romance.

I read some bad reviews on Amazon about it, but I quite enjoyed it. True, it had some hectic bits and true, I managed to predict whodunnit well in advance. Although he did occasionally make me wonder if I'd guessed correctly as I read but, I did. It was a fairly quick, easy read. I still liked it. Admittedly my fav book of his so far is High Society.

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