The One with The Burnt House

75. Title & Author: The Burnt House by Faye Kellerman (464 pages)*

Genre: Fiction--Crime & Mystery

Completed: 2 February 2009

Summary & Review: 

An airliner crashes into an L.A. area apartment building killing all on board as well as many residents of the complex. After a tip off from her parents, LAPD detective Peter Decker discovers that Rosanne Dresdent, a flight attendant for the airline that had the crashed, was not actually killed in the accident as originally reported. But, if Rosanne wasn't killed in the plane crash, where is she and who do the unaccounted for bones from the crash site belong to?

I think I liked this book better than the one I have read by her husband, Jonathan Kellerman (Obsession, #48). The plot was entertaining and it was overall a good criminal mystery who-dunnit. The only drawback was that when the case was finally solved it wrapped up in a couple of paragraphs. After reading over 400 pages of build-ip, it was a little unsatisfying.

Rating: 7.5

The One with The Bone Garden

74. Title & Author: The Bone Garden by Tess Gerritsen (502 pages)*

Genre: Fiction--Mystery & Suspense

Completed: 15 January 2009

Summary & Review: 

Julia, a young divorcee, finds the centuries-old remains of a woman in the garden of her new home. As she searches into the past for the story behind the bones she stumbles upon a tale of a mysterious killing spree where a young Irish immigrant named Rose and a young medical student named Norris have to prove their innocence and solve the mystery behind Rose's orphaned niece.

There were two story-lines at work in this book. One took place in the present and the other in Boston in 1830. The chapters of the book would jump back and forth between the two times, with the story set in 1830 making up the majority of the book. Until the very end of the book--the very last chapter, actually--I didn't see the point of having the present day storyline at all. But, it all satisfyingly connected with much more than just the mysterious bones that Julia found from the 1830's. 

Rating: 7.5

The One with Fleeced

73. Title & Author: Fleeced: How Barack Obama, Media Mockery of Terrorist Threats, Liberals Who Want to Kill Talk Radio, the Do-Nothing Congress, Companies that Help Iran, and Washington Lobbyists for Foreign Governments are Scamming Us...and What to Do About It by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann (307 pages)*

Genre: Nonfiction--Current Events & Politics

Completed: 5 January 2009

Summary & Review:

Dick Morris, former political consultant for Bill Clinton, along with his wife Eileen McGann, presents myriad ways that the people of the United States are being "fleeced." These topics include the ones listed in the subtitle as well as others.

This book was a paradox. While at times Morris and McGann seemed conservative, at others they were extremely liberal. It was strange because their various approaches to solving these problems were inconsistent in ideology making solutions to other problems seem like contradictions to statements said in previous chapters. Also, while all the topics had the "us-getting-screwed" thing in common, the book felt disjointed because other than that they didn't relate.

Rating: 6.0

The One with Hand of Evil

72. Title & Author: Hand of Evil by J.A. Jance (395 pages)*

Genre: Fiction--Suspense

Completed: 29 December 2009

Summary & Review:

After a string of gruesome murders occur and a friend's daughter runs away from home, Ali Reynolds gets caught up in all of them. The tragedies involve friends, family, and even a woman whose generosity allowed Ali to go to college.

Maybe this is just something that Jance does, because the last book I read by her had the same problem: too many competing storylines. In this book the only tie between the three completely separate plots was the character of Ali Reynolds, who wasn't that intriguing of a character anyway.

Rating: 5.5

The One with Drop Shot

71. Title & Author: Drop Shot by Harlan Coben (341 pages)*

Genre: Fiction--Thriller

Completed: 25 December 2008

Summary & Review: 

Sports agent and former Fed Myron Bolitar gets wrapped up in solving the murder of a young former tennis star. As his investigation proceeds, he realizes his new star athlete is somehow deeply involved in a conspiracy that stems from more than six years previous.

While the plot to this book was pretty good, the protagonist, Myron Bolitar, was kind of strange. Here is a sports agent running around investigating a murder, even interrogating witnesses. It was just weird. This guy, in the real world, would have no jurisdiction at all and most likely the people he was talking to would have told him to get lost. Plus, what was he supposed to do when he caught the guy? It's not like he can arrest him.

Rating: 6.5

The One with Stone Cold

70. Title & Author: Stone Cold by David Baldacci (527 pages)*

Genre: Fiction--Thriller

Completed: 21 December 2008

Summary & Review: 

Several members of the Camel Club leader Oliver Stones' ex-CIA assassin team are murdered and the casino mogul Jerry Bagger is on honoarary Camel Club member Annabel's tail. With both problems simultaneously coming to a head, how will this ragtag bunch of unlikely heroes survive? (much less solve the mystery behind who is sytematically eliminating the former government agents.)

This is the second book featuring the Camel Club that I have read by Baldacci. Like the first one, The Collectors (#23 on this list), this was a better book than the non-Camel Club Baldacci I read (Simple Genius, #40). It was an entertaining story and the hit man, Harry Finn, was a great character. While at first he seemed like the villian, you were still rooting for him from the beginning rather than hoping he would get caught.

Rating: 7.5

The One with Tales of Beedle the Bard

69. Title & Author: The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling (111 pages)
Genre: Fiction--Fantasy

Completed: 5 December 2008

Summary & Review:

This little book contains five wizard fairy tales from the world of Harry Potter, including "The Tale of the Three Brothers" which plays a fairly important role in the seventh installment of the Harry Potter series. Along with the fairy tales, there is commentary written by Rowling in the guise of Albus Dumbledore as well as illustrations and notes done by Rowling (as herself). 

It was fun that Rowling released these stories in a format that any Harry Potter fan could get their hands on. A little while ago she made only a few hand-made and hand-written copies that sold at auction for charity (Amazon.com has one of them) or were given as gifts to her friends. Now, this hardcover version was only $8 or so at Target, Wal-Mart, etc. The fairy tales were fun to read, but the commentary "by" Dumbledore is really what completed the book. It only takes about 45 mins to breeze through this, but it was an enjoyable read.

Rating: 7.0