City Of Bones by Michael Connelly

City Of Bones -- 4 Stars

Yes, yes, yes... I know I read them out of order, but oh well. Good thing about the Harry Bosch novels is that they can stand alone, though I really do think I should have read them in order. Oh, well...

Anyway... when a dog digs up an old bone from a small child, Detective Bosch is assigned the case. It turns out to be a cold case, the bones buried twenty-five years ago. Harry is distracted slightly by a beautiful young "boot", a probationary officer. We follow a budding romance and a gruesome murder of a young boy. Will Harry be able to find his killer after all this time?

Again my only major complaint is the amount of swearing in this novel! Its demeaning. I like a good mystery, the more twists the more I like it. My wish is granted in a Connelly novel, but that amount of swearing is just getting on my nerves.

The Closers by Michael Connelly

The Closers -- 4 Stars

This is one of the books in the Harry Bosch series and the first of which I've read. Detective Bosch has just returned from a three year retirement and he has been assigned to the Open-Unsolved Unit, also known as Cold Cases. His first case is one that is seventeen years old. A teen girl is found dead in the hills behind her home, an apparent suicide. The detectives on the case at the time botched the investigation and her killer was never caught. Now its up to Harry Bosch and his partner Kizman Rider to give this young girl a voice once more.

The investigation unfolds in so many ways and leads the reader down the path to the truth, not the fabrication that everyone else was led to believe over the years. There are so many twists in this book that a map may be required.

I did enjoy the action and the way the plot unfolded in such an intriguing way. However, I personally think that Bosch swears far too much for my liking. I understand that he's an old man, left over from Vietnam and a resident of L.A no less, but seriously? I don't hear sailors swear so much. That was a real detractor for me. The story has great merit but all that useless and stupid language was unnecessary.  

The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly

The Lincoln Lawyer -- 4 Stars

This is the first Connelly novel I've read and I must say it was thoroughly enjoyable! We start by meeting Michael Haller, a defense attorney in L.A. His job is to not just get you off for possession, but to neutralize all evidence that the District Attorney's office may have on you. And he's not too bad at it.

Enter his latest client, Louis Roulet (pronounced roo-lay) who is accused of attempted rape, attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon. Its clear that he's guilty, but guilt and innocence is not Haller's job, acquittal is. Roulet isn't the type of guy we thing he is, though and Haller may in over his head this time.

I read this book rather quickly, but it took me a bit to get the review up. After reading this novel I would absolutely read another by Connelly. I was completely wrapped up in his character and the plot. Speaking of which, the twist at the end had me almost "No way!" at the lunch table at work. It was that unexpected. I'm looking forward to another Michael Haller novel. He's a very sound character, even if he is a defense lawyer.

How The Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill

How The Irish Saved Civilization -- 4 Stars

I picked this up a few weeks ago in a used book store and was rather surprised with the out come. I have seen this title before but never bothered to read it. Oh, why did I wait so long? WHY!? Anyway... Cahill writes in such an easy to read fashion that you can hardly tell this is a history for it reads more like a novel. Using a multitude of available scripts, scrolls and codices we are transported to the post Roman world where only the most wealthy are literate, maybe. The clergy can read and write but usually they are limited to Latin.

In the first millennium, the Irish present themselves in a strange way. Many people today would not think of Ireland as a seat of great learning but in those crumbling years of the Roman Empire, they were far enough away to be just that, an educational Mecca of sorts. Monks, starting after Patrick (yes, the saint), started to copy down every scrap they could get their hands on. Whether Greek tragedies and mythologies, Roman histories, or their own verbal stories passed from the Celts to the "modern" Irish, the monks started to copy down everything, so doing creating libraries.

Knowledge used to be gained through books, pages provided enlightenment. Nowadays we have Google and Wikipedia, when we used to have Encyclopaedia Britannica. From the Dark Ages to the dawn of the Middle Ages, Ireland and the monasteries started by traveling monks and friars were the reservoirs of learning. Once the Vikings started sacking everyone along any known coastline, Ireland lost that, but still today we can look at the early Irish and say "thank you". Had they not copied everything that came their way, we would have lost the stories, the histories and the commentary of their own day and going back certainly farther then the First Century.

Truly a fascinating read!

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...

House On The Corner Of Bitter And Sweet by Jamie Ford

House on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet-- 4 Stars

I picked this book up a few years ago and read so far into it then became distracted and left the book on the shelf for some time. I'm glad that it was recommended that I pick it up again. Such a lovely story, so many emotions in one book! Love, joy, anger, confusion, pain and back to joy again.

We meet Henry, a Chinese boy in Seattle. He falls in love with a girl, Keiko. This is out of the question for several reasons not the least of which her being Japanese and Pearl Harbour is not a distant memory. Henry and Keiko are friends, no matter what his family and the government say. So when the government takes the Japanese people and ships them inland to "interment camps", they continue their friendship, for a time anyway.

Fast forward forty years, Henry is now a widower and his son is at university. Life has been kind to him for the most part, but its also given him pain. His wife has died of cancer and the past has come back to haunt him. An old hotel is being refurbished, the contractors have found a stash of items dating back to those terrible days of 1944 when America was at war with Japan, a time when innocent families put their precious belongings in the basement to save them from looters. Henry recognizes a parasol from his long lost Keiko.

And thus the story begins. Mr Ford writes a wonderful story in which he goes between Henry's past in 1944 and his present in 1986. A part of American history that most people either don't know or don't mention, the interment camps. People, second generation American citizens, were packed up and shipped off to camps around the country, treated as little more then cattle. There were some at the time that viewed them as mistreated human beings, convicted without a court hearing, without justice. Some went home again, most relocated to other areas, never returning to their homes again and starting over.

I couldn't put my book down and had to finish last night, in spite of the raging head ache. I was left with a feeling of having completed a wonderful tale of more then joy and pain, bit one of hope... always hope.