Monday Book Review: Echo Park by Michael Connelly

http://www.amazon.com/Echo-Park-Harry-Bosch-ebook/dp/B000OT8GDA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1312242632&sr=8-2

Michael Connellys famous detective, Harry Bosch, delves back into a murder thirteen years prior that takes him on a merry-go-round of interviews, evidence and mystery. Who are the real good guys and bad guys? Are your best friends cold-blooded killers?

Michael Connelly creates a fantastic character that has spawn numerous other books in the series.  Harry Bosch has been written as a well rounded character, with both good points and bad points, with his flaws for everyone to see.  He’s not written as a superman type of frontman. Rather, he’s written as someone you would love to have coffee or a beer with.

In Echo Park, a young woman disappeared, only her car and a few belongings were ever found in an abandoned car in an apartment complex’s empty garage. Harry keeps coming back to the same case, the same characters and the same outcomes.  Now there is a reason to reopen the decade plus case. This may be the case that does Harry in with guilt.

Hats off to Michael Connelly for creating a believable storyline and a beloved character.  Hopefully readers will love my Novels as well as his have been.

Monday Book Review: “Ghost Moon” by Heather Graham

 http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ghost-moon-heather-graham/1023636182?ean=9780778327967&itm=2&usri=ghost%2bmoon

Heather Graham does it a final time in the last of this serial mystery triad.  My personal favorite character is back, Bartholomew the ghostly Privateer, this time hanging with Liam, an officer in Key West.

There’s a purportedly haunted house in which the owner is found dead at his desk, complete with a fright of terror!  In comes the long lost daughter, Kelsey Donovan, to see to his last will and testament is carried out and stake her claim.  Others have also staked a claim, but not in a court of law.  There’s another ghostly inhabitant of the dark old house on the shores of Key West!

There are plenty of twists and turns to keep even the most jaded reader awake and ‘alive’.  Kelsey’s father ran from Key West with her to escape the clutches of the house.  Her grandfather collected rare and precious cultural items from his work around the globe.  Could it be one of them killed her mother?  Her father wasn’t taking a chance!

How does Liam, Bartholemew and Kelsey find out the truth?

Top Ten EBooks from Yesterday and Today week ending July 15, 2011

Top 10 EBooks last 7 days from Gutenberg.org:

1. The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana by Vatsyayana (5357)
2. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (4101)
3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (3515)
4. The Best American Humorous Short Stories (2889)
5. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (2767)
6. Ulysses by James Joyce (2742)
7. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (2651)
8. How to Analyze People on Sight by Elsie Lincoln Benedict and Ralph Paine Benedict (2466)
9. The Art of War by Sunzi (2317)
10. Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie (2100)

Top 10 EBooks las 7 days from Amazon.com:

	1. 10 days in the top 100 A Stolen Life Jaycee Dugard (Author) Kindle Edition $11.99
	2. 40 days in the top 100 A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Five George R.R. Martin (Author) Kindle Edition $14.99
	3. 30 days in the top 100 Now You See Her James Patterson (Author) … Kindle Edition $12.99
	4. 591 days in the top 100 The Help Kathryn Stockett (Author) Kindle Edition $9.99
	5. 426 days in the top 100 The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins (Author) Kindle Edition $4.69
	6. 408 days in the top 100 Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games) Suzanne Collins (Author) Kindle Edition $7.70
	7. 326 days in the top 100 Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games) Suzanne Collins (Author) Kindle Edition $7.14
	8. 44 days in the top 100 Before I Go To Sleep: A Novel S. J. Watson (Author) Kindle Edition $12.99
	9. Ranking has gone up in the past 24 hours 164 days in the top 100 A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book One George R.R. Martin (Author) Kindle Edition $8.99
	10. Ranking has gone down in the past 24 hours 74 days in the top 100 Smokin’ Seventeen: A Stephanie Plum Novel Janet Evanovich (Author) Kindle Edition $12.99

“L is for Lawless” by Sue Grafton

L is for Lawless

Kinsey Milhone stars in another adventure, courtesy if Sue Grafton.  I’ve only just read this book recently (i’ve only got “J”, “K” and the next one, “V” to read then i’ll have read all of them to date.)

Kinsey is her usual wisecracking, off-the-cuff, casual self in this adventure.  In it, she is asked by her landlord Henry (an octogenarian she absolutely adores and would do anything for) to look into  a neighbor’s bequest and last will.  Of course it leads to misadventure as they all do. She gets involved with a decades old gang that stole money from a bank almost a half a century earlier and a current father-daughter misguided reunion. She not only gets hurt again but doesn’t get paid, either.

Sue spins another delightful yarn for fans of Kinsey Milhone.  The story is lucid and flowing but yet there feels like she falls into crutches towards the middle of the book.  For example, when Kinsey is fleeing the bad cowboy at the hotel, she comes upon a strange area of the hotel and ends up on a catwalk?  How convenient for the story, but is out of place and feels like a ‘gimme’ just to move the story along.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and look forward to getting the others.

Top Ten EBooks from Yesterday and Today Week Ending July 1, 2011

Top 10 EBooks last 7 days from www.Gutenberg.org:

1. The Song My Paddle Sings by E. Pauline Johnson (7231)
2. The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana by Vatsyayana (4973)
3. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (3873)
4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (3548)
5. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (3268)
6. Ulysses by James Joyce (3035)
7. The Best American Humorous Short Stories (2890)
8. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (2809)
9. The Art of War by Sunzi (2406)
10. How to Analyze People on Sight by Elsie Lincoln Benedict and Ralph Paine Benedict (2279)

Top Ten EBooks last 7 days from www.amazon.com:

1. 

   1. 17 days in the top 100

   Now You See Her

   James Patterson (Author), Michael Ledwidge (Author)

   3.7 out of 5 stars (12)

   Auto-delivered wirelessly

   $14.99
2. 

   2. 64 days in the top 100

   Smokin’ Seventeen: A Stephanie Plum Novel

   Janet Evanovich (Author)

   3.2 out of 5 stars (150)

   Auto-delivered wirelessly

   $13.99
3. 

   3. 577 days in the top 100

   The Help

   Kathryn Stockett (Author)

   4.6 out of 5 stars (3,495)

   Auto-delivered wirelessly

   $9.99
4. 

   4. 413 days in the top 100

   The Hunger Games

   Suzanne Collins (Author)

   4.6 out of 5 stars (2,475)

   Auto-delivered wirelessly

   $4.69
5. 

   5. 394 days in the top 100

   Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games)

   Suzanne Collins (Author)

   4.6 out of 5 stars (944)

   Auto-delivered wirelessly

   $7.70
6. 

   6. 312 days in the top 100

   Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games)

   Suzanne Collins (Author)

   3.7 out of 5 stars (1,435)

   Auto-delivered wirelessly

   $7.14
7. 

   7. 22 days in the top 100

   Accidents Waiting to Happen

   Simon Wood (Author)

   4.0 out of 5 stars (62)

   Auto-delivered wirelessly

   $0.99
8. 

   8. 12 days in the top 100

   The Rose Killer

   Pat Gragg (Author)

   4.3 out of 5 stars (22)

   Auto-delivered wirelessly

   $0.99
9. 

   9. 62 days in the top 100

   In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin

   Erik Larson (Author)

   4.2 out of 5 stars (211)

   Auto-delivered wirelessly

   $12.99
10. 

    10. 30 days in the top 100

    State of Wonder

    Ann Patchett (Author)

    4.2 out of 5 stars (96)

    Auto-delivered wirelessly

    $12.99

Top Ten EBooks from Yesterday and Today Week Ending June 17, 2011

Top 10 EBooks last 7 days from www.Gutenberg.org

1. The Song My Paddle Sings by E. Pauline Johnson (13683)
2. The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana by Vatsyayana (5942)
3. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (5637)
4. Ulysses by James Joyce (5044)
5. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (4359)
6. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (4118)
7. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (3756)
8. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (2970)
9. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare (2759)
10. How to Analyze People on Sight by Elsie Lincoln Benedict and Ralph Paine Benedict (2738)

Top Ten EBooks last 7 days from Amazon.com:

1. The Hunger Games

Suzanne Collins (Author)

Kindle Edition

$4.69

2.A Little Death In Dixie

Lisa Turner (Author)

Kindle Edition

$9.39

3. The Help

Kathryn Stockett (Author)

Kindle Edition

$9.99

4. Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games)

Suzanne Collins (Author)

Kindle Edition

$7.70

5. Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games)

Suzanne Collins (Author)

Kindle Edition

$7.14

6. Summer Secrets

Barbara Freethy (Author)

Kindle Edition

$4.99

7. In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American…

Erik Larson (Author)

Kindle Edition

$12.99

8. Buried Prey

John Sandford (Author)

Kindle Edition

$12.99

9. Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His…

Todd Burpo (Author) …

Kindle Edition

$6.13

10. My Horizontal Life

Chelsea Handler (Author)

Kindle Edition

$5.00

“Aside of Murder” Is FREE this week!

Excuse my bit of self-indulgence today.  Announcing my Novel, Aside of Murder, is offered FREE this week!

Aside of Murder, https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/34429, will be FREE to download from March 6th to my birthday, March 12th! Use code RE100! Many formats available, kindle, nook, palm, html, rtf, etc.

Code only good on Smashwords, link above!

Available on:  Amazon’s Kindle Store, barnesandnoble NOOKbook store, and  Smashwords (in a variety of E-Reader formats)

What happens when an embezzling bank executive and a high class call girl blackmail each other into marriage? Revenge and Murder.

Shelley, a naive law student from a poor background was tricked into becoming a call girl by her boss, the Assistant District Attorney. She vows to get out of the ‘business’ by blackmailing Gerald Johnson, (who, in turn, blackmails her into marriage). Gerald is an embezzling Executive Vice President at one of the nations biggest banks. Gerald, along with a crooked insurance salesman, Bill Belcher, is heading the night deposit theft ring.
He is feeling the pressure from one of the bank’s investigators, Joan, for the night deposit theft investigation. No sooner than Joan delves into it, she is partnered with Detective McIntire from the police department. The investigation proves dangerous the further Joan and the Detective get to the center of the case, and find their friend’s lives at peril. As a child, Joan’s parents abandoned her for a life in France, and as an adult Mama and Papa Miller, the elderly black couple who own a grocery store downtown, ‘adopted’ her and her best friend, Sue Phillips along with Sue’s husband, John.
They all find themselves thrown into a murder investigation when Shelley Johnson is missing from her home, and pools of blood are found instead. Gerald flees from country to country as a result and finds himself face to face with Shelley’s accusing spirit wherever he travels.
Joan and Detective McIntire find themselves and their friends and family even deeper into Gerald’s complicated scheme. What culminates affect everyone.

Don’t have a kindle or Nook?  Don’t worry, you don’t need one!  Download the FREE Kindleand NOOK reading app!