Book Review Thursday - 8/30

Two books finished. I think another 3 started. I wish there were more hours in the day!

I was a little disappointed to see that not every novel in Linda Fairstein's Alexandra Cooper series was available in an audio version. This book was way to big for me to tote around easily so it sat on my bedside table for me to read before going to sleep and got propped wedged on the elliptical machine. lol

The Deadhouse begins with Alex and Mike Chapman watching a news story of a woman being gunned down outside of a home in New Jersey. The story was faked, of course, and the woman was someone who Alex had been trying to help get out of an abusive marriage. When Lola wasn't getting the help that she felt she needed from Alex, she ran across the river where NK DA's had the idea of faking her death by hit men hired by said husband.

After the apparent success of the faked death on camera, Lola still winds up dead at the bottom of the elevator shaft in her apartment building. The only clues in Lola's apartment building that don't make any sense is a shoe box full of cash and a slip of paper with the words "The Deadhouse" on it.

I'm not sure that I liked this book as much as the rest of the series that I have read so far. There is a crazy woman who has found out where Alex's apartment is and keeps showing up with guns and that is never resolved. A window is broken in Alex's apartment by window washers, but it all seems too coincidental and the window is never replaced in this book. I guess that Fairstein is trying to show that even when one case is solved, there are still many others going on, but sometimes it is nice to have everything wrapped up in a bow when you close the cover on a book for the final time.

Regardless of that small gripe that I have, this series seems to be an authentic look into the life of a NYC sex crimes DA. I enjoyed the novel and the way that things flow and the characters. I am looking forward to the next one.

For me, reading a Sue Grafton novel is like returning to a very old friend to catch up on what is going on in her life. V is for Vengeance is the most recent in the series and the audio version is narrated by Judy Kaye who ranks right up there with Barbara Rosenblatt for me. Love them both!!

This novel starts off with the story of Phillip who is a gambler and heading to a loan shark for some cash so that he can gamble a little more and make back the money that he recently lost. Of course, he loses all the money and the loan shark, Dante, comes after him to collect. And Dante's brother "takes care of it" by having Phillip thrown off the roof of a garage.

Kinsey is shopping in an upscale retailer when she notices a fellow shopper with sticky fingers and she reports the incident when she checks out. Security is called and follows the shop lifter, but Kinsey realizes that the woman was working with another shopper. While Security follows the first woman, Audrey Vance, out the doors and arrests her, Kinsey follows the second woman to the parking garage and narrowly misses getting run down by her car. As if all of this was odd enough for you, Audrey Vance winds up dead 2 days later after an apparent suicide by jumping off a local bridge.

The only thing that I didn't like about this book was that it wasn't long enough! I wish that the novels would go on and on forever! I love the stories and I love the matter of fact way that Grafton writes everything. And I like the tough as nails Kinsey as the protagonist. I guess the only other thing that I dislike is that it is taking Grafton 2 years for the next novel to be published.

Sigh... I guess that I may just need to pick a month and re-read the series. :)

Are you reading anything good? Leave a comment and let me know!