Hoofball Reading Log 2014

Hoofball · 30-09-2014 9:29pm

32)

Author: Kathy Reichs

Title: Bones Never Lie

Comment: This is a decent read and is about the killer that got away years before. Recent evidence uncovered has linked some cold cases with Anique Pomerlau, a serial killer responsible for the murder and torture of young girls in Canada 10 years previously. Another girl has now gone missing and things seem to point to Pomerlau. Ryan also makes a return in this book but I think a bit too much was made of trying to get him back involved. I'd prefer a bit less of the back story for the characters and more on the plot of the novel. A few twists and turns keep this interesting but one twist was a bit too convenient.

Score: 7/10

Hoofball · 16-10-2014 8:56pm

33)

Author: James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge

Title: Burn

Comment: This is the 7th book in the Detective Michael Bennett series. The Bennett family returns to New York after having to hide out during the trial of the crime boss that Bennett took down. He is screwed over by the new chief of detectives who is an old enemy and given command over a new outreach squad in Harlem. This part of the plot never really gets going as he is dragged off that assignment fairly quickly to investigate a burnt body that was found in an abandoned building. This is an OK book but the plot tries to do nearly too much and the ending is a bit poor. Worth the read though.

Score: 7/10

Hoofball · 16-10-2014 8:57pm

34)

Author: Linwood Barclay

Title: No Safe House

Comment: In this book, Barclay returns to the characters from a previous novel, No Time for Goodbye. We get to see how Terry, Cynthia and Grace Archer have coped since the events 7 years previously. Cynthia is living separately from the family and the daughter Grace is starting to act out. Then two elderly retired teachers are murdered and Grace breaks into a house with her boyfriend and events take off from there. The criminal who helped them the last time, Vince, also appears in this book. The story flies along and the plot is decent enough. My major problem is that Terry is a school teacher and some of the decisions he makes in the book just don't make sense for the character. Overall it's a good read, just not one of his best.

Score: 7/10

Hoofball · 08-11-2014 10:15pm

35)

Author: Lauren Oliver

Title: Rooms

Comment: Richard Walker has left his house in the country to his ex-wife and children. They arrive to look after the arrangements and to decide what to do with the house. His ex-wife Caroline, daughter Minna (with her child Amy) and son Trenton arrive and start to sort through the things in the house. They are not alone there however as Alica and Sandra are ghosts of previous residents who are "bound" to the house. Another new ghost of a young girl arrives and Trenton can sense and hear her. The premise is very interesting but unfortunately it feels quite flat in this book. There is never any tension in the story and the characters are just plain unlikeable. The way the story is written, with each chapter from the perspective of a different character gets a bit confusing. Overall an OK read but it's not really a ghost story as such.

Score: 6/10

Hoofball · 08-11-2014 10:16pm

36)

Author: A.R. Torre

Title: The Girl in 6E

Comment: It takes a while for this book to start making sense as the plot isn't really apparent in the beginning. Jessica Reilly is a recluse who hasn't left her apartment in over three years and hasn't had any physical contact with another person in that time. She makes a lot of money from her webcam sex site and she orders anything she needs online or over the phone. The first third of the book is a bit repetitive and goes on about the webcam side of things, it could have been edited a bit tighter at the start. Some of the start of the book is quite explicit, the author normally writes erotica.

The main plot kicks in when she has client who has a very disturbing fantasy using the name Annie. When she then sees on the news that a little girl called Annie has gone missing, she's convinced he's responsible for the girl's disappearance, so she leaves the apartment and does after him.

Score: 6/10

Hoofball · 27-11-2014 11:49pm

37)

Author: Ben Mezrich

Title: Seven Wonders

Comment: Mezrich is a good author usually and this thriller is an OK read. The blurb on Amazon is: "When the reclusive mathematician Jeremy Grady is murdered, it’s up to his estranged brother Jack to find out why. His search leads him on a far-flung journey - from Brazil, India, Peru, and beyond - as he unravels the mystery that links the Seven Wonders of the World, and discovers that Jeremy may have hit upon something that has been concealed for centuries. With the help of scientist Sloane Costa, they discover a conspiracy to hide a roadmap to the Garden of Eden - and the truth behind a mythological ancient culture."

The problem with this book is that it tries to fit in too much in its 300 pages and the pacing is relentless. There are a few plot holes as well which are fairly glossed over such as why an academic instutition (Sloanes) would fund all these flights for them to race around the world.

Apparently this is the first in a trilogy so I'm hoping the pacing is better in the second. Worth a read in any case.

Score: 6/10

Hoofball · 27-11-2014 11:50pm

38)

Author: James Patterson

Title: Hope to Die

Comment: This is the 22nd (!!) novel in the Alex Cross series and it's one of the darker ones for Cross personally. It's the follow up book to the cliffhanger in "Cross my Heart" so I won't say too much about the plot in either book. One of the plot devices made no sense whatsoever to me given the psychopath that Cross is chasing. I can't say anything else without giving away a major part of the plot but it was glaring to me. Other than this it was a good read and a return to form. However, I think Patterson needs to shake this series up a bit with some real unexpected twists.

Score: 6/10

Hoofball · 27-12-2014 11:12pm

39)

Author: Patricia Cornwell

Title: Flesh and Blood

Comment: This was only OK, as mentioned before the characters are becoming caricatures at this stage. Scarpetta comes across as neurotic and self centered, Lucy is acting weird again, Marino is angry all the time and Benton is the silent strong type who always knows more than what he says. While some of the story gets back to what was good with this series, the pathology side of things, all too often it goes off on rubbish tangents. The ending just annoyed me as well, if the plotting had been tighter this could have been wrapped up in one book. I'm not giving too much away by saying this has a cliffhanger ending.

Score: 5/10

Hoofball · 27-12-2014 11:13pm

40)

Author: Stephen King

Title: Revival

Comment: This was a disappointing read from King and felt like a short story or novella that was padded out to become a full novel. A young boy, Jamie Morton, in a New England town in the 60s befriends the new minister that comes to town, Charles Jacobs. The minister experiments with electricity and shows Jamie what can be done. The novel then proceeds to meander along for a couple of hundred pages where nothing, and I mean nothing, happens. There is little character exploration and just repetition of annoying phrases. The ending is just a bit too much out there and seemed to come out of nowhere. I'd say you'd be best to avoid this one unless you have to read everything by King.

Score: 4/10

Hoofball · 27-12-2014 11:14pm

41)

Author: David Baldacci

Title: The Escape

Comment: This is the third book in the Puller series from Baldacci. John Puller is in the Criminal Investigations Division in the Army. His brother Robert, who was also in the army, is in prison for treason and he escapes. John Puller is drawn into the investigation to find him. This zips along a fair bit but the plot is a bit of a stretch with too many coincidences happening.

Score: 6/10

Hoofball Reading Log 2014

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