Review: Hunting Shadows by Charles Todd

      "Hunting Shadows," is the 14th in the series of Ian Rutledge belonging to the 'Mystery' genre. The title and cover are very appropriate for the story. It is set against rural and isolated villages in England, where gossip is the main source of news. There are good references to the local areas, and the description of the characters are well developed. All the characters are strong, with loneliness a common thread among them.
      The story is well plotted and well written. With the war never far from his mind, a voice from the past like a shadow, he must solve a crime by a sniper using a WW1 weapon. The story holds on to the end, but the end doesn't seem like a big surprise - more like something expected.

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Completing A Book is Like Having a Baby

Completing a book, it’s a little like having a baby. There’s a feeling of relief and satisfaction when you get to the end. A feeling that you have brought your family, your characters, home. Then a sort of post-natal depression and then, very quickly, the horizon of a new book. The consolation that next time I will do it better.

JOHN LE CARRÉ

My Reviews.

      I seem always to have a different hobby. Maybe I can't call it a hobby, more like an interest for a period. A couple of years ago, my interest was to learn how to repair a lawnmower. Not that I planned on going into the repair business - it was because of my neighbor. At the time, I was using an electric mower, and he kept giving me a hard time. He said that he couldn't stand to see my feet getting tied up in the cord. So I picked up some mowers from people and learned how to fix them.
      This summer my interest is learning to do book reviews. Normally, I just gave them stars. Now, I write reviews and put them on Goodreads, Amazon, and my blog. I guess I use something like a template. I've written down all the things I want to cover and them put the book through it. I notice the reviews are getting longer.
      I used to belong to this book club, not Wattpad, where everyone wrote stories, and anyone could comment. It was ok, I got some useful hints. I read this story one time and gave it four stars. Well, it was a woman author and she was livid. How dare I give her only four when it should have been a five. Afterwards, I quit that group. If that were now, I would change the four to a three.
      On Goodreads, they have these threads where people offer reviews for reviews. I thought about that for myself but changed my mind as I read on. This one guy wrote that if you gave him a review he would do one right away without reading the book. Now, the reviews I read, I take with a grain of salt. So I thought that this might not work out too well for me because I would read the book and give it an honest review.

Review: WW 2 Women by Cyrus J. Zachary

"WW 2 Women" is a historical read about women spies from that war. It is a very short read. It is possible that the title on Goodreads is longer than the book. The cover seems to have no bearing on the characters in the book. I have a free copy, and that is what it is worth for information readily accessible on the net. Regularly priced at $4.99. Really!

Review: The Lost Codex by Alan Jacobson.

"The Lost Codex," is an action adventure novel by Alan Jacobson. It is a book I won on Goodreads. It seems aimed at male and female readers. There is some violence, but not an overabundance. It tries to mime "Sigma Force," but falls short. The title "Lost Codex," could refer to its location in he book. Mentioned in the Prologue, it then disappears for the next 30% of the book.
During this 30% hiatus, there was a long winded explanation of the motives and workings of a suicide bomber given to heads of Homeland, CIA, NSA, and FBI. I'm sure these gentlemen have sufficient knowledge of suicide bombers. It seems unnecessary, making the book long.
Being used to my Kindle, I found the printing small. The book has short chapters making it easy to stop reading. I thought the book had too many characters, the Arab names confusing.
After 40%, the story seemed to get back on track and live up more to its hype. From then on, it was continual action.
 I found the ending nothing to get excited about - the author looking for a way to finish it of.

Some Books Refuse to be Written

There are some books that refuse to be written. They stand their ground year after year and will not be persuaded. It isn't because the book is not there and worth being written—it is only because the right form of the story does not present itself. There is only one right form for a story and if you fail to find that form the story will not tell itself.

MARK TWAIN

Bank Experience

      My wife and I went to the bank yesterday. I had to get money for the plumber. He finished all the work, and that's good. My wife, on the other hand, had to verify that she was still alive. She gets a German pension, so every year they send her a letter to check if she is still with us. Heaven forbid that I would just keep the money.
She just has to go to a teller, gets a couple of papers signed, and they send it away. How difficult that depends on the teller. Yesterday was fairly easy. There was one occasion when she was sent to a notary. I got my money faster than she got her signature.

Review: Deadlock (Tweed & Co. #5) by Colin Forbes

      'Deadlock,' is #5 in the series 'Tweed & Co.' by Colin Forbes. It belongs to the Genre of action/adventure. The title is appropriate for the story, but I find the cover a bit bland. The book is aimed at a male audience.
      Having lived for a time in that part of Europe, I recognize a lot of the locations and can verify that they are well researched. There is a lot of accidental dropping of names to move the story along.
It is a fast-paced thriller and a long read, but every page is worth it. All the characters are well developed and so well described you would probably recognize them if you saw them walking down the street.
      From very early in the story, there was a continual reference to scuba divers, but no one seemed to pay any attention to them until the end. The story depended a lot on two new characters. One had a minor role in an earlier book and the other someone new. I would expect to see them in future stories. The book had an ending I did not expect.
      A drawback to this book of good versus evil is that it is similar to all the other books in the series. There were some editing mistakes that seemed to increase towards the end of the book.

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Review: The White Lioness by Henning Mankell

"The White Lioness," is the 3rd. in the "Kurt Wallander" series. This novel is two stories existing in the same book. I found that the stories blended well together and taken separately could be two novellas. Kurt, a man who consistently eats sandwiches tried a pizza this time. The story is fast paced, and the author has a good insight into the Apartheid system. 
I fast read a few pages because too much time was spent on Kurt's mental state. I enjoyed the book, even though the end held no big surprise.

Positive Quotes

Cinderella

What's in the Vietnamese version of Cinderella (Tam Cam)? At the end, Cinderella dismembered her step sister, put the body into a jar of food and sent it to her step mother to eat, which she enjoyed until she found the skull at the bottom of the jar and died of shock.

Won a free book on Goodreads. "The Lost Codex' by Alan Jacobson'

The Color Purple

 

The color purple is the royal color because the dye was so expensive to make: "dye-makers had to crack open the snail’s shell, extract a purple-producing mucus and expose it to sunlight for a precise amount of time. It took as many as 250,000 mollusks to yield just one ounce of usable dye"

Toaster

   

  I have this toaster that was a wedding present - that makes it 47 years old. Used almost every day. Still works. General Electric and made in the U.S.A. They don't make them like that anymore. The problem is, it has one drawback. We can't toast a bagel. I have to use the toaster oven, but it doesn't do a good job. So, my wife bought a toaster at a yard sale. Cost her $5.00. White. Cheap. A piece of junk. But, it does toast a bagel. Guaranteed not to last 47 years.
      My bathroom was supposed to be worked on this morning. He called last night and said he was sick. Even plumbers call in sick. At least he didn't say he was working from home. The new date is set for Friday.
      It's supposed to rain all day, but it hasn't started yet. I'm on the road today. That's my term for taking my wife to do errands.

Review: Richard the Lionheart - Crusader by Tristan Clark

Richard the Lionheart - Crusader is a very short story. If you are looking for some pages from a history book - this would be it. You would find the same, if not more by looking King Richard up on the internet with no need to spend your money. More or less a list of facts.

My lawn is being de-bugged. Lots of birds.

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