City of Bones

Harry Bosch #8

City of Bones

Michael Connelly

Harry has another love interest. You don't serve plus 25 years on the force without making enemies within it. IAD certainly but superiors more interested in political expediency than justice don't help. And officers who leak information to the press don't help either.

Matters heat up when a retired doc out for a walk with his dog has it return with a human bone leading to the discovery of the skeleton of a 12-yr.-old much abused boy buried in a shallow grave for 20 years.

The story has the usual twists and turns. It all comes to a rather violent end.

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A Short History of Indians in Canada: Stories

A Short History of Indians in Canada: Stories

Thomas King

This set of stories is told in jest with a great deal of hyperbole. It is meant to be taken with a great deal of salt. Mind you there are some underlying truths here and a great deal of animus.

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The Cash Cache Mystery

The Cash Cache Mystery: A Case Twins Adventure

Dorian Rockwood

Identical seventeen-year-old twin brothers but one's an artist and the other a boxer. Paul the boxer is a south-paw, Dan is right-handed. Paul wears glasses, Dan doesn't. The cover photo shows a hunky pair.

The dynamic between the pair is interesting. How do you insult a person who is your mirror image. Paul is two minutes older.

In the version of the book I'm reading titled is used instead of tilted. The freebie version I'm reading frequently causes Kindle to freeze. For the record a bullet would have reached the brothers before the sound of the shot.

The plot here is rather contrived. It's the dynamic between the brothers that makes the story.

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A Taste for Vengeance

Bruno, Chief of Police #11

A Taste for Vengeance

Martin Walker, Robert Ian MacKenzie (Narrator)

Gruesome murders and a female soccer star's career impacted by pregnancy.

The involvement of the IRA adds an international element to the tale. Bruno gets honours and a promotion of sorts.

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The Long Call

Two Rivers #1

The Long Call

Ann Cleeves

Early on we learn the title refers to the call of a herring gull.

Matthew Venn is the Instspector in charge it would appear. There's an outgoing DCI named Oldham, a hyperactive jock named Ross described as pumping iron, and Jen who moved to Barnstaple from the city after being victim of spousal abuse. Matthew has a husband named Jonathan who runs at a charity called the Woodyard and the deceased appears to have been one of its clients.

The challenges of dealing with people with Down Syndrome as adults with the minds of small children is highlighted. The well meaning efforts of agencies to give them a sense of independence has the side-effect of making then wander off and get lost from their care-givers.

As is too often the case little is as it seems here and when the detectives start digging the scandals run deep.

Being the first in this new series many of the characters remain under developed.

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Need

Need

Robert Thomson

Granted that the gay experience encompasses a great deal of diversity. The present collection is 25 years old but seeing the rather masculine looking profile picture of the author complete with facial hair and reading that he's a cross dresser I'm a bit surprised. I've only read a few opening pages but they're filled with a great deal of personal information. And most of it is rather crude.

The book appears to be autobiographical. At 16 his first employment is in the food industry and he is not complimentary to his clientele or particularly enamoured of his fellow workers or employers. Underpaid and overworked, demeaning and condescending customers and employers.

Both he and his partners appear to be commitment shy. And it's HIV that has turned random gay sex into Russian Roulette.

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Anxious People

Anxious People

Fredrik Backman, Marin Ireland (Narrator)

Once more the tale is hindered by too much critical analysis and too many side plots. We don't need all that background material.

Two things to know about this tale aside from the fact that Netflix has created a TV Series based upon it.

There are online banks that have no branches these days so in this cashless society where everyone uses credit cards why not banks that have no cash?

When police try to question witnesses they endlessly go off on tangents that have nothing to do with the question asked or answer questions with questions. Like the Real Estate Agent who endlessly repeats her sales pitch or the short bank teller who is vexed at being asked how tall the robber was.

This is the second time I've tried to read this book. At ten hours in Audiobook Format it is larded with hours of subplots that have nothing to do with the business at hand. Like the consumers of social media we suffer from a surfeit of information. Why for example do we need to know that one of the hostages at the real estate open house was sent to a psychologist because she requested prescription sleeping pills?

One quarter of the way into the story I've had enough. I for one don't understand the popularity of this tome.

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The Templars' Last Secret

Bruno, Chief of Police #10

The Templars' Last Secret

Martin Walker

An audiobook again. Listening tends to make one hungry though most of us, even if, as I do, they cook from scratch don't employ the kind of exotic ingredients this man uses. And our wine cellars are more plebeian. I do envy him his backyard garden.

This volume involves French Cave Paintings and International Terrorism. Tales Bruno way outside his usual comfort zone.

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Evolution of the Word: The New Testament in the Order the Books Were Written

Evolution of the Word: The New Testament in the Order the Books Were Written

Marcus J. Borg

The Word in question is the New Testament and the issue at hand is the order in which the "books" were written. Up for debate is what it means to say that any part of the Bible is "The inspired Word of God". There are 4 Gospels including Acts which is an extension of Luke; The Epistles arranged in order of length; and Revelation. Another assertion is that Paul wrote only 7 genuine letters and the rest were written in his style. Those letters include the acceptance of slavery and the misogynistic pronouncements.

Who the authors were, where and when the lived, and to whom they wrote is all part of Borg's discussion. Included is the text of each "book".

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Reading the Bible Again for the First Time: Taking the Bible Seriously but Not Literally

Reading the Bible Again for the First Time: Taking the Bible Seriously but Not Literally

Marcus J. Borg

Just because it's Biblical doesn't mean it's right in our modern context. The world isn't flat, slavery is not acceptable, women are to be subservient and silent, God doesn't actively punish wrongdoing, stoning gays is not advocated. On the other hand our world could probably use more self-discipline.

I find Borg's approach self-affirming, confirming opinions I'd arrived at years ago.

The Bible isn't so much the Word of God as the record of man's attempt to understand God.

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Fatal Pursuit

Bruno, Chief of Police #9

Fatal Pursuit

Martin Walker

I've jumped two volumes not on offer at my library. With all the books I have I resist buying more.

Bruno is without a paramour at present but is busy organizing a car rally while he has visitors from Alsace, his town's sister city. Drafted to act as navigator, codriver for one of the racers. This is France so Citreons figure along with more exotic cars. I've heard of Bugattis but never seen one. An E-Type Jaguar I have seen and a neighbour owned a Triumph Spitfire.

Feuding neighbours, bullying, international money laundering and food all figure here. Can't say I have any interest in foie gras or goose.

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The Elf Queen of Shannara

The Elf Queen of Shannara

Terry Brooks

Terry Brooks had a hit on his hands with the buddy buddy fantasy Sword and Sorcery novel Sword of Shannara and parleyed it into an ongoing succession of serial novels. I enjoyed the initial trilogy but after a while Malthus Theory of Diminishing Utility sets in. If nothing else this Audiobook addition to the fable should be good for insomnia.

Seems it occurs 500 years after Shea Omsford of the first novel in the series. The Elf Stones still live in the hands of a fairy or someone with elf blood.

Seems this is a good versus evil tale. And where does evil come from. It results from good people's bad choices.

The story turns into a journey of escape as Wren attempts to lead a group of protectors from their fortress home to freedom while beset by demons and other threatening creatures. The land is fraught withe dangerous terrain and an erupting volcano. One by one she loses members of her party before they finally reach shore and Tiger Ty the Roc Rider .

The entire series has been derivative of JRR Tolkien. The descriptive passages stretching out the narrative unnecessarily. The stress is eased by the knowledge that should Wren not make it there would be no need for the volumes that follow.

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Winnowed Wisdom

Winnowed Wisdom

Stephen Leacock

The average Canadian lives in Red Hat Saskatchewan stands 5 8 and weighs 139. It would seem he's put on some weight since 1926.

To learn the tone of Leacock's take on Shagsper remember that he wrote the sonnets before he died. And lest we get too high flown remember that the road to Stratford upon Avon in Ontario leads through Punkydoodle Corners, also Shakespeare and quite properly London on the Thames is to the South, Waterloo to the East, and None of It to the North.

Jest is made of Henry I-VIII plays. Given the dubious status of the present holder of that name Henry IX is in doubt.

Among my observations is the fact that back then people still crossed the pond on luxury liners so news was slow to spread. WW#2 soldiers got to cross on Cunard's Queens painted gunmetal grey to match the seas they crossed. None were ever hit.

Some of Leacock's humour is rather dated and facetious. It is interesting to see how some of his prognostications have turned out nearly a century later. All in all I like Gregory Clark's gentle humour better.

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UNASS

Situation Normal #1

UNASS

Chris Lowry

A Chris Lowry world is violent and Sci-Fi and this one is no exception. The aliens have superior weapons, the narrator is a cameraman who has had a weapon thrown into his hands. The outcome is left up in the air.

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Psalms: Prayers of the Heart

LifeGuide Bible Studies

Psalms: Prayers of the Heart

Eugene H. Peterson

Looking at the Psalms as prayer. This book is not a commentary on 12 Psalms but a collection of questions on each Psalm to guide a group's examination and discussion of each Psalm.

Would not be my first choice for a study of Psalms. The study uses the NIV version of the Bible. I do not like this translation.

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Cursed! Blood of the Donnellys

Cursed! Blood of the Donnellys: A Novel Based on a True Story

Keith Ross Leckie

This is a story of vigilante justice meted out when the law failed to protect citizens from feuding neighbours.

The massacre took place in 1880 and was written about in books I read published in 1954 and again in 1962. This latest account is four years old. Obviously none of the principals are still around to argue the facts.

People were killed here but when it comes to warfare truth is in the eye of the beholder and depends on who is telling the tale.

At the one third point in the novel the couple are on the run at sea in a tramp freighter having burned their bridges behind them.

After squatting on another's property the Donnellys enjoy 7 good years save for the death of young Vinnie in a stump clearing tragedy and Johannah produces 7 sons. With 2 months before the end of the 7-year term the owner shows up to claim the land the Donnelly's have worked so hard to clear and improve and the troubles begin at the half-way point in the book.

And the neighbours choose sides. The Protestants an obvious choice but Johannah's friendhip with a Protestant Doctor a bone of contention. Pity the poor old County Sheriff.

Little love lost here and only vigilante justice. Young John O'Connor gets to spit on the grave of the last member of the Peace Society.

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The Twisted Truth

The Twisted Truth

Ava Burrows

Wish I'd read the reviews first here. Were this a high school composition it would get a failing even a negative grade. The writer needs a remedial course in English Composition. Nothing less than a total rewrite would save this train wreck, it isn't worth an editor's time. How it rated 5 star ratings is beyond me. Worse yet the file causes Kindle to freeze.

The writing improves dramatically as the story continues. The fact that our dick uses floppy discs and has a computer slot to read them dates that piece. They stopped making them in 2011.

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Snow Fever - Mountain Adventures in New Zealand, Canada, France & Switzerland

Snow Fever - Mountain Adventures in New Zealand, Canada, France & Switzerland

Jack Moscrop

Author is a travel writer. Small collection of shorts concerning his ski holidays.

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A Good Man with a Dog: A Game Warden's 25 Years in the Maine Woods

A Good Man with a Dog: A Game Warden's 25 Years in the Maine Woods

Roger Guay, Kate Clark Flora, John Pruden (Narrator)

Here the ghost writer is acknowledged. I'm listening to an audiobook version. This game warden operated in Maine which abuts NB and PQ. I've driven from Houlton Maine to Bangor in the fall of the year and camped at a park in the Katahdin Wilderness. What we have to remember on my side of the border is that our wardens do everything these men do but do it unarmed. Expect an American would feel naked without his side-arm.

To most including young Roger poaching is a game, the crime is in getting caught. Three days in jail, a $1000.00 fine, and confiscation of your catch or meat and rifle or fishing gear is no minor matter.

What stands out when game wardens offer their services to other enforcement agencies is the compartmentalization of law enforcement in America and the failure to share information between agencies.

This is not a feel good story and certainly not for the squeamish. Yet another author critical of FEMA and it's ineptitude in New Orleans where Katrina served to exacerbate existing crime and corruption.

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His Small-Town Girl

Sutter's Hollow #1

His Small-Town Girl

Lacy Williams

I can identify with wanting to get away from confining small town claustrophobia. Cord joined the military to do so but comes home to settle his grandmother's affairs. He finds a dilapidated run-down ranch that's in debt to the local bank. Runs into former neighbours and acquaintances and has a waif on the run from her own troubles show up at his door.

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Salt-Water Moon

Mercer series

Salt-Water Moon

David Benson French

I intend to read the text but can claim to have seen the play performed live in the back yard of a heritage home in Trinity Newfoundland with the lad playing Jacob Mercer seated on a swing attached to a tree in that yard. Nothing could have made it more authentic. Seems the performance was June 13, 2010.

What I had not realized until I started reading the texts is that this play occurs 20 years before the first in the series in time when Mary and Jacob are their sons' age.

The author began a long tradition of Newfies leaving home for Toronto and making a career of writing about home and the immigrant experience. French was 11 when Newfoundland voted 51% to join Canada in 1949 a month before I was born.

The two plays that follow this one are not available in e-book form. 1949 and Soldier's Heart.

To the play. It's been nearly 14 years but I have a sense that the version I saw in Trinity was an adaptation. The basics:

The boy who left home to seek his fortune come back to woo the gal he left behind him. The fact her wedding to another man is pending added urgency to his mission. Having now read the two plays that are the after history we know he was successful. Alas his interactions with his own sons proved history repeating itself.

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Of the Fields, Lately

Mercer series

Of the Fields, Lately

David Benson French

This second of the plays begins 2 years later when Ben comes home from working in Saskatchewan for his Aunt Dot's funeral and learns his father has had a heart attack at 52. Ben is 20. Jacob loves his son but can't help himself but to be always nattering away at him. Dot's widowered husband Wiff complicates matters.

The play begins and ends with Ben turned directly to the audience.

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Leaving Home

Mercer series

Leaving Home

David Benson French

Jacob left school with a grade three education. His son Ben has just graduated from Grade 13 and is headed to university on a scholarship. Seventeen year old Billy is on the eve of his marriage to Kathy a Catholic whom he has gotten pregnant because he was too embarrassed to buy protection at the drug store. What elder son and father have in common is an Irish temperament. Billy's inlaws add to the fray. So, did the couple actually follow through on the wedding and start housekeeping with Ben as their tenant?

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Shaking Hands

Shaking Hands

Glenn McGoldrick

For whatever reason I had trouble getting Kindle to recognize this file however I tried which explains why I'd not read the book earlier and reviewed it and Goodreads only recently discovered it.

It is, of course, typical Dark Teaside noir.

Be sure your sins will find you out. Even if it's only your guilty conscience.

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Selling to the Goyim

After Dinner Conversation Short Story Series

Selling To The Goyim

After Dinner Conversation Short Story Series

J. Weintraub

Someone swallowed the thesaurus on this one. Buys into the stereotype of Jews as hucksters. Is it okay because the author is probably Jewish?

That a Jew would flog a book on holocaust denial just because it would sell smacks of selling one's soul to the devil.

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