Category Archives: Book Reviews

“Forget Me Knot” is the first book I have read by Mary Marks and it is the first in her series of Quilting Mysteries. It was a really good first book. I just wish the author had stepped off the political soapbox as it probably offended some readers early enough in the book that they put it down and didn’t finish it. That is a real shame as the story, plot, and characters made the book a really worthwhile read. This is the primary reason I rate it 4.5 instead of a solid 5.

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A cozy mystery set in a fictional town on the coast of Maine, “Twisted Threads” is the first in the Mainely Needlepoint series by Lea Wait. Angie Curtis was raised by her grandmother Charlotte in Harbor Haven after her beloved but wild mother abandoned her nineteen years before. Angie left town ten years ago but is now returning home from Arizona because her mother’s body has been found. What seemed like abandonment turns out to have been murder.

Once home again, Angie finds out that Charlotte has started a custom needlepoint business along with a few other townspeople. The business has had a bad turn as their agent has double-crossed them. Angie steps in to help right the business and, at the same, using the skills she learned as a private investigator’s assistant to find her mother’s killer.

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“The Drowned Boy” is the first Inspector Sejer Mystery that I have read. I often read books translated into English and generally give them some lee-way for things such was awkward phrasing or references that make less sense. In this case, the translation was so well done, that it read very smoothly.

What was different is the type of detective who is in charge and how the investigation is conducted. Inspector Sejer is an introspective man who wants to do the right thing. He is also very concerned about some health issues he is facing, and assuming the worst (as most of us do), he is reluctant to seek medical advice. He is a thoughtful and reflective man who follows rules and seems to care about his victims and those who are left behind. He also seems to have accepted that sometimes people who do bad things can get away with it but continues to try to bring those he can to justice.

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Sometimes when I take a long plane flight or before taking a vacation, I will pick a book that is a little bit different just because it is a good time to try something a little out of the ordinary. This is that type of book for me. What intrigued me about this book was the subject matter. Once I started reading it, I found myself engrossed and knew I had made a good choice. At approximately 330 pages long, the book is fast paced and an easy read.

“Drone Command” is a political thriller that centers around a crisis between China, US, Japan where the main character, Troy Pearce, and others need to fix things quickly before the world plunges into war.

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“Protocol Zero” was a bit of a let-down following James Abel’s debut thriller, “White Plague”. These are the first two books of a series involving Joe Rush, a Marine Colonel who is also a medical doctor and a bio-terrorist expert.

While the author gives the reader a lot of information about a lot of various things in this book, what it lacks is a moment in which I am, as the reader, so caught up in the action that I can’t put the book down. “White Plague” was a book that I wanted to read in one sitting. I read this book over the space of a week and the last 50 pages or so over three days by themselves.

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