Remorseful Day by Colin Dexter
The final Inspector Morse mystery..... 8(
For a year, the murder of Yvonne Harrison at her home in the Cotswold village of Lower Swinstead has baffled the Thames Valley CID. But one man has yet to tackle the case - and it is just the sort of puzzle at which Chief Inspector Morse excels. So why is he adamant that he will not lead the reinvestigation, despite two anonymous phone calls that hint at new evidence? And why, if he refuses to take on the case officially, does he seem to be carrying out his own private inquiries? When Sergeant Lewis learns that Morse was once friendly with Yvonne Harrison, he begins to suspect that the man who has earned his admiration, and exasperation, over so many years knows more about her death than he is letting on. When Morse finally does take over, the investigation leads down highways and byways that are disturbing to all concerned.

I put off reading this book for years as I knew Morse would die at the end. Morse has always been one of my favorite series both in book form and on TV. John Thaw was so wonderful as Morse plus in everything he did. I cried as I started, during and at the end. But it was lovely and while it was sad he died finishing what he wanted to finish. I'll have to find the new TV series featuring Lewis as the actor Kevin Whately has continued with the character.

Rabbi's Cat by Joann Sfar

The rabbi and his cat live in 1930's Algeria, which was still under French dominion and had a different religious and ethnic demographic than it does today. While many of the themes are independent of confession, religion is the underpinning of this story.

It is interesting when the cat beginst to speak outloud vs in his head. He is so intellectually complicated in a fashion that never turns him from a feline into a person in cat form. The cat is alternately stubborn, loyal, jealous, petty, and generous. He is intelligent without always being wise and sometimes he is wise enough to rue his intelligence. What else can you expect from a cat that starts to speak after eating the rabbi's annoying parakeet, but his first words are lies about eating the parakeet?

Cat loves his mistress but the rabbi does not want cat talking to his daughter and putting ideas in her head. We see they interact in their native Algeria and then travel to Paris to meet the rabbi's inlaws after his daughter marries a french rabbi.

It is a very interesting look at a specific time period and place. We see how Algeria is changing both with religion and attitutes. I really enjoyed this book.

Snow Blind by P. J. Tracy
With the holidays over and the long cold winter looming, January can be a bleak month in Minneapolis. So what better way to bring a little cheer to the good people of the city than sponsoring an old-fashioned snowman-building contest? In a matter of hours, a local park is filled with the innocent laughter of children and their frosty creations. But things take an awful turn when the dead bodies of police officers are discovered inside two of the snowmen – sending the entire department and Detectives Magozzi and Rolseth on high alert.

The next day, Iris Rikker, the newly minted sheriff of rural Dundas County, comes across another body in another snowman. Fearing that Rikker’s inexperience will hamper the investigation, Magozzi and Rolseth head north, in a blizzard, to hunt for clues. As Grace MacBride and her crack computer jocks at Monkeewrench comb the Web for connections, a terrifying link emerges among the dead cops, Magozzi and Rolseth, and Monkeewrench – a link that must be broken before it’s too late.

Ok the Monkeewrench is a red hering! We see more about Magozzi & Rolseth plus the new female sheriff in Dundas County. What this book really comes down to is in regards to domestic violence who is responsible? The person doing the beatings? the police who won't help? the family, friends and neighbors who looks the other way? What would you do if you could take action into your own hands and punish them all? Read Snow Blind and find out.

Written by mother-daughter writing duo P.J. and Traci Lambrecht. Each book takes place in Minnesota and revolve around the Monkeewrench team the police they work with. This was a very interesting look at domestic violence and the consequences. I did not see how this book would end as they did a great job making this look one way and then taking it a 180 turn.

Death at Death's Door by Jill Thompson
Fills in the backstory of "Season of Mists," by Neil Gaiman. Lucifer has abandoned Hell, giving Morpheus the key to its gates and unleashing a host of troubles for the beleaguered Dream King. Thompson's story, while including enough references to "Mists" to bring everyone up to speed, focuses primarily on Dream's big sister, Death, whose apartment is overrun by the dead with no place to go now that Hell has closed up shop. So, acting on their own idea for coping with the legions of former damned, younger sisters Despair and Delerium host a party at Death's house.

I know that this has gotten a lot of positive write-ups because of the success Thompson has had recreating a Manga style but it just didn't do anything for me. I find most Manga really annoying with all the clutter and yelling and shouting that seems to go on endlessly.

Concrete Blond by Michael Connelly
Series featuring Harry Bosch
They called him the Dollmaker, the serial killer who stalked Los Angeles call girls and left a grisly calling card on the faces of his female victims. With a single faultless shot, Detective Harry Bosch thought he had ended the city's nightmare. Now, 4 years later, the dead man's widow is suing Harry and the LAPD for killing the wrong man. This accusation rings terrifyingly true when a new victim is discovered with the Dollmaker's macabre signature. Now, for the second time, Harry must hunt down a death-dealer who is very much alive, before he strikes again. It's a blood-tracked quest that will take Harry from the hard edges of the L.A. night to the last place he ever wanted to go — the darkness of his own heart.

I had read a later story featuring Bosch and wanted to know more about him. He has a very complicated background and we learn why he has such a hard time opening up to women. His own mother was killed in an un-solved crime when he was 12 years old. He spent the rest of his teenage years in foster care or a boy's home. He is not the cop out there but he does try to bring justice to the dead.

Connelly writes in a very interesting voice. Will need to catch up!

Earlier titles in the series:
Black Ice
Black Echo

Simply Unforgettable by Mary Balogh

While returning to the school after a Christmas spent with her great-aunts in the country, Frances Allard encounters Lucius Marshall, Viscount Sinclair, and becomes stranded with him for a couple of days when they are both overtaken by an unexpectedly harsh snowstorm. It is a traumatic encounter, but Frances declines the less than honorable offer Lord Sinclair makes her at the end of it and persuades herself that she will be quite content never to see him again.

Lucius has just promised his dying grandfather and the rest of his family that he will marry before the end of summer, and the perfect bride has already been picked out for him. For a brief interlude he is distracted by his encounter with Frances, but on the whole he considers himself fortunate when she rejects his offer. He will be--or so he tells himself--quite happy never to see her again.

Fortune, however, has other plans in store for Frances and Lucius, who are fated to meet again at a soiree in Bath. And after that neither can be sure that they will never meet again. Indeed, one of them sets out actively to make sure that they will--in London, where Lucius's potential bride awaits his offer of marriage as a certainty and Frances's past waits just as eagerly to catch up with her.

I had read many reviews of this author's work so decided to give it a try. It was interesting and kind of fluffy read. I'm not sure I buy into the getting stranded bit in which they end up having sex with no consequences except they fall in love later. It seemed a bit modern to me. I guess I always enjoyed the Barbara Cartland type of romance where you let your imagination take over. Lots of swooning, etc. It is supposed to be the first book in a quartet featuring four teachers at Miss Martin's School for Girls in Bath. It felt dis-jointed to me as I didn't feel like this book needed any sequels or made me want to know more about these teachers. It almost felt like I had missed a few books before hand to be honest.

Twelve Sharp by Janet Evanovich

In usual fashion Stephanie finds herself in danger when she discovers that a woman is following her. This woman who threatens her and waves a gun around claims to be Carlos Manoso's (aka Ranger) wife! When she ends up dead and Ranger's daughter is discovered kidnapped from Miami by Ranger himself Stephanie knows something is up! A doppleganger has stolen parts of Ranger's identity, marrying the strange woman, kidnapping Ranger's daughter and then wants to go after Stephanie herself. Now she gets to pay Ranger back for all the times he helped her out in a jam. But she'll need the help of both Ranger and Morelli.

Meanwhile she and Lulu are trying to pick up as many FTA's people who skipped their count appearance before Vinnie goes bankrupt. They have to start hiring new bounty hunters and the interviews are so funny! They end up hiring a FTA Stephanie is able to hunt down, a sad sack named Melvin Pickle, who had been arrested for indecent exposure in the multi-plex. Plus Lula, Sally, and Grandma Mazur start up a rock band and find new costumes for each gig!

You can't help but laugh out loud at all the quirky characters but I have to admit that this one had more depth than previous ones. It even ends with Ranger feeding Stephanie cake. yum...

#12 Echo Park

Lincoln Lawyer
Featuring Bosch's half brother, Mickey Haller, who is a lawyer in LA. He's called a Lincoln Lawyer because his office is out of the trunk of his Lincoln Town-Car. I do not believe that Bosch is in this book though.

Closers by Michael Connelly
#11 in the Harry Bosch series and the first book I've read by Connelly. I actually listened to it on CD driving to and from work. It sucked me in and I really wanted to know what happened to am interested in reading some of the earlier works to see who it compares. The readerhas a very interesting voice and it wasn't distracting as he changed his voice to be various characters.

After three years out of the LAPD, Harry Bosch returns, to find the department a different place from the one he left. A new Police Chief has been brought over from New York to give the place a thorough clean up from top to bottom. Working with his former partner, Kiz Rider, Harry is assigned to the department's Open-Unsolved Unit, working on the thousands of cold cases that haunt the LAPD's files. These detectives are the Closers—they put a shovel in the dirt and turn over the past.

Harry and Kiz are given a politically sensitive case when a DNA match connects a white supremacist to the 1988 murder of Rebecca Verloren, a sixteen-year-old girl. Becky was of mixed race, and the case appears to have a racial angle. This was LA before the riots and Rodney King; the city was a powder keg waiting for a match. The detectives who worked the case all those years ago seem to have done a decent job, but something doesn't fit. Meanwhile Harry's nemesis, Deputy Chief Irving, is watching him waiting for him to split apart like a retread tire. But while Bosch kind of flaunders around he manages to get the answer in the end.

#10 Narrows
#9 Lost Light
#8 City of Bones
#7 Darkness More Than Night
#6 Angels Flight
#5 Trunk Music
#4 Last Coyote
#3 Concrete Blond
They called him the Dollmaker, the serial killer who stalked Los Angeles call girls and left a grisly calling card on the faces of his female victims. With a single faultless shot, Detective Harry Bosch thought he had ended the city's nightmare. Now, 4 years later, the dead man's widow is suing Harry and the LAPD for killing the wrong man. This accusation rings terrifyingly true when a new victim is discovered with the Dollmaker's macabre signature. Now, for the second time, Harry must hunt down a death-dealer who is very much alive, before he strikes again. It's a blood-tracked quest that will take Harry from the hard edges of the L.A. night to the last place he ever wanted to go — the darkness of his own heart.

I had read a later story featuring Bosch and wanted to know more about him. He has a very complicated background and we learn why he has such a hard time opening up to women. His own mother was killed in an un-solved crime when he was 12 years old. He spent the rest of his teenage years in foster care or a boy's home. He is not the cop out there but he does try to bring justice to the dead.

#2 Black Ice
#1 Black Echo

What's the Worst That Could Happen? by Donald E. Westlake

When billionaire hotshot Max Fairbanks, who has caught Dortmunder burgling his Long Island estate, tells the arresting police that the good-luck ring on Dortmunder's finger was stolen from him (when it was in fact a gift from Dortmunder's girlfriend, May), Max's fate, no matter how well protected he may be, is sealed.

Dortmunder makes repeated attempts to get his ring back, hitting on ingenious ways to get into the billionaire's lavish Times Square and Watergate apartments, making off each time with considerable more loot with each heist. But while Dortmunder is not unhappy with the loot he is really after only the ring. It's a pride thing.

When Fairbanks goes off to his huge casino/hotel/theme park in Las Vegas, in a deliberate attempt to entrap Dortmunder, does the dour vengeance-seeker shift into really high gear. Other friends from previous Dortmunder outings are collected into a formidable army, pitted against the best security Max's millions can buy, all leading to a showdown only Westlake could have conceived.

Fabulous! This is the most elaborate heist ever! Plus we get to see everyone travel, by bus, by air and by motor home! Kelp finds his own lady friend, Anne Marie, whom he picked up in New York while he was helping Dortmunder break into Fairbank's apartment. Anne Marie who was drowning her sorrows in the bar after her husband left her to go back to Kansas quickly jumps in to lend a hand. She has a knack for it too. Can't wait to read more of this fun, fun, fun series.

Transgressions Vol. 1 edited by Ed McBain

Includes novelas by Merely Hate by Ed McBain, Hostages by Anne Perry, Walking Around with Money by Donald E. Westlake, Forever by Jeffrey Deaver and Resurrection Man by Sharyn McCrumb.

MERELY HATE, was part of the 87th Precinct. It is post 9/11 in Isola, and the detectives are called to investigate the murder of a Muslim cab driver. As usual it isn't a cut and dry serial killer. I was surprised by who the murder ended up being.

WALKING AROUND MONEY focuses on the bumbling crook John Dortmunder. Typical Dortmunder, makes me laugh out loud!

HOSTAGES, in which the head of the Protestant cause in Ireland refuses to step down for a more moderate leader, even when he and his family are taken hostage by men who will stop at nothing, even murder, to have their politics accepted. It was a good story especially the ending.

FOREVER, introduces Tal Simms, a mathematician/statistician working for Westbrook County Sheriff's Department. Simms is considered a "computer geek" by the rest of the detective squad, especially homicide detective Greg "Bear" LaTour. Simms and his eventual partner LaTour are confronted with several suspicious suicides. Older rich couples are killing themselves under dubious circumstances. In most respects, the underdog character Simms is every bit as likable as Lincoln Rhymes.

RESURRECTION MAN tells the tale of a slave who is purchased to be a grave robber for a medical college in the South just a few years before the Civil War. At first it was my least favorite story but by the time I got used to her mixing the past and present together I was ready for more. I haven't read much lately by Sharyn McCrumb so need to start up again. She has such a great storytelling voice.

FOREVER was the longest and I really enjoyed it the best. I actually wanted to hear this CD because of Westlake (I'm a big Dortmunder fan). It was good too.

How to Seduce a Ghost by Hope McIntyre
aka Caroline Upcher

New series featuring Lee Bartholomew - a neurotic 38 year old with a curious reluctance to settle down with her boyfriend of eight years. Lee is a ghostwriter whose assignments have an unnerving tendency to involve her in murder investigations. She lives alone - by choice - in her parent's giant London house in Notting Hill yet every night she lies awake quaking with fear at the thought of the violent crime erupting just the other side of her front door.

Someone is setting fire to houses in the area - along with their occupants and Lee's neighbor, Children's TV prsenter Astrid McKenzie, is the first victim. Wen she lands the plum job of ghosting the autobiography of American soap star Selma Walker, Lee finds herself unwittingly not only at the center of the arson/murder investigations, but also in the arms of a new and highly dangerous lover.

This was a rather more complicated book than it first appeared. Many different complex characters that I would like to know about.

The ending was really fast with more fires and kidnapping and who the hell is really the bad guy here?!? But I would be interested in reading another in the series.