Lowell/Sheridan Series by Chelsea Cain

Lowell/Sheridan Series --5Stars

This series starts out with a serial killer kidnapping the lead of the task force assigned to catch them, well to catch her. That's right, you heard me, the serial killer is a woman. Statistically, women only account for about 15% of serial killers, its mostly a male thing. Anyway, she kidnaps him and holds him for ten days, torturing him in all the ways that she did her other victims. He's special though, she wants to make it last.

Archie Sheridan is the lead detective of the Beauty Killer Task Force. It has taken him ten years to figure out who she is and that information just may kill him in the end. Gretchen Lowell is the beautiful woman with a psychotic flair. She has no pattern and no similarities, save one. She carve the shape of a heart into all her victims. By the time she is done with Archie, he's completely damaged goods. Somehow he manages to push forward and at least look normal.

These novels are not for the feint of heart. Gretchen is one heck of a crazy bitch and will not stop unless there is a bullet in her brain. They are gruesome and  terrifying in nearly every way. Even through the page, Gretchen has the ability to mess with your head. Chelsea Cain wrote a fantastic character, and I fear to be in the same room with that author without Mase.

Honestly, I love the fact that I can be carried so quickly into that world of fear and lust, blood and passion and still come begging for more.

The Keepsake by Tess Gerritsen

The Keepsake  -4Stars

I admit it, I have a... problem, an addiction, for which there is no cure. I am attracted to novels of murder and serial killers the way a Frat boy is attracted to large breasts and beer. I love the science of it, the mystery of it. The dialog of catching a criminal in a lie. I can't help but be entertained. My attention is held from opening word to last punctuation and few do it better then Tess Gerritsen.

The story starts innocently enough with the CT scan of a mummy found in the basement of a run down museum. Madame X is perfectly preserved and the exam is gather information from under the wrappings without disturbing the mummy itself. Imagine the surprise of every one present when a modern bullet fragment is found in her femur! And thus starts a whirlwind hunt to find the killer before he strikes again.

There are so many delicious twists and turns in this book! I love when I'm not quite sure what will happen next, but my guesses are correct anyway. Is he who he says he is? Was he really where everyone says he was at the time? Its great, like a mini adrenalin rush! My only problem with the whole story is Maura Isles. A brilliant woman is hopelessly infatuated with a man she can never truly have. The fact that she continues to pine after him annoys me to the end of my patience! Blessedly, she has a minor role in this episode from the series.

Nothing ticks me off more then a woman who longs for a man and does everything to prove that she is his best match. If it wasn't for that junk, I would have given it Five stars. 

The Doomsday Key By James Rollins

The Doomsday Key -- 5 Stars

All right, all right... so I'm partial, sue me. I truly love how the novels of Rollins unfold into these grand epics of intrigue and mystery. In The Doomsday Key, Rollins pulls from history and science, which is his usual mix, though it never seems to get old. This time, we follow Grayson Piece and the rest of the people at Sigma as they travel throughout Europe on the trail of an answer to a problem that could wipe out the world's population in a mere few years.

From the science of genetically modified crops and diseases, the political firestorm of over population to the history of the Celts, the pagans and the early Church, we are taken on a whirlwind of adventure. I had a hard time putting this book down, as I wanted to figure out the puzzles with Gray and Rachael and Seichan. There were several times when I was literally sitting on the edge of my chair waiting to see what would happen!

The Sigma Force Series is always a fast moving tale of... well of everything. I never do get tired of reading them and can never wait for the next one to come out. These books are everything that I love. A little mystery, a little adventure, a little history, and a little science with a smidge of romance tossed into the mix to make things interesting (as if they weren't already). With this novel finished, now I can start the next in the series. Oh joy and delight!

The Last Oracle by James Rollins

The Last Oracle-- Five Stars

I have been meaning to read this for some time. Rollins is a favourite of mine and I truly enjoy his Sigma Force Series, reading every new story. The Last Oracle was no different. We follow the usual team on an adventure through Washington DC and Russia with a Romani gypsy and an archeologist in tow. The world is about to be thrown into a nuclear Holocaust and the only hope lies in the hands of a few autistic savant children and a man without a memory.

As with every one of Rollins' novels, it was nearly impossible to put down. Having an hour for lunch doesn't seem long at all when I'm nose down in a good book. Sigma Force is everything that a good adventure should be, face paced and unpredictable. I love a reading books that make me sit on the edge of my chair and hope and pray that everyone will come out at the end all safe and sound. This is one of the few authors that makes me care so much about the story that I will talk out loud to the characters to not go down that road; to duck because there is someone behind that door; to look out because that truck isn't going to stop. I walked away from The Last Oracle feeling satisfied at the ending. And waiting for more...

Break No Bones by Kathy Reichs

Break No Bones -- Four Stars

This is the ninth book featuring the character Temperance Brennan, now a lead character in the Fox show Bones. I love crime thrillers, its my weakness. Give me a good murder and a decent plot twist and I will be a pathetic reader, begging for more. Yes, I have found all that in this novel.

Tempe is on an archeological dig in South Carolina when she finds a body that is not like the others, Much too young to be Pre-Colombian, still intact as well. This sends Tempe on a modern investigation that leads her down a road she never thought she'd be on when she agreed to go to the sea-side in the first place.

Full of technical jargon that is blessedly dumbed down for we poor regular folks, the story is one twist after another. Between the bodies that keep turning up and the boy friend/ex-husband in her life, Dr Brennan has no time to relax. I rather enjoyed the book and look forward to the next Brennan novel patiently waiting on my shelves.

The Barcode Tattoo by Suzanne Weyn

The Bar Code Tattoo
*****- Five Stars

I happened upon this little gem whilst meandering though my local library. Oh the joys of books to read, free of charge! This book was just leaning ever so slightly off the shelf, so I adjusted it, then decided to take a closer look. "Closer", indeed! I read it in a few hours on the road this weekend.

We start in a world set in the future. Everything is smaller and faster then ever before. The latest "in" thing is to get this tattoo on your wrist of a bar code that is unique to you and only you. But see there's a problem in Utopia, isn't there always?

Kayla is one of the very few people who think there is something wrong morally about having your identity plastered on your arm for all the world to see. Medical records, criminal records, schooling records... every personal thing about you is right there for anyone with a scanner to see. Kayla refuses to get the tattoo, which starts to pose problems after the government makes it a law to be tattooed by seventeen.

What path will Kayla choose now? To follow the government and be a good little docile sheep, following the herd? Or will she take a stand for her morals? Are morals and self integrity really important anyway? Is "safety" the price for freedom?

A wonderful story, but then I'm a sucker for the "False Utopia" stories. 1984, Fahrenheit 451, The Giver... There are more I'm sure, but these are my favourites. Is safety the price of our personal freedom? Can we be free moral agents, allowed to make mistakes, yet maintain freedom? What is price we are individually willing to pay? Well... you answer......

The Twelfth Card by Jeffery Deaver

The Twelfth Card

Rated- ****
I just finished this novel, the sixth in Jeffery Deaver's famous Lincoln Ryhme series. I feel it is only fair to tell you now that I enjoy mental candy, brain fluff if you will, by way of books that really are trivial and hold no other purpose other then to completely entertain me. My "go-to" genres in these instances tend to be either murder/thriller or urban fantasy.

Deaver is one of my favourite authors for this mental junk food. His plot lines are everywhere and often have several things going on at once. With the forensic science and the psychology going one in this book, one is never sure where the story is going. Deaver's tale has more twists in it then the Colorado River.

We are introduced to a young girl from Harlem who is determined to get out by using the only weapon she has, intelligence. She is researching an ancestor and happens upon a great "secret", one that some one is willing to kill for. Enter Lincoln Rhyme- a forensic scientist who has one major problem aside from his course manners, he is paralyzed from the chest down. His partner and lover is Amelia Sachs, a street smart cop with a scientist's brain. She works the crimes scenes in the way Rhyme used to. Together they work to solve the mystery of who hired a hit on a teenaged girl and what a "secret" from one hundred and forty years ago has to do with it.

I was very pleased with the experience of reading it. Mr Deaver never disappoints his readers. This was no exception, I am happy to report.