Book Review Thursday - 10/11

A couple of finishes this week. Actually, one was later in the evening tonight, but a finish is a finish and now I can move on to another couple of books. :)

 Firestorm is the fourth book in the Anna Pigeon series by Nevada Barr. Anna is serving as a medic for a wild fire burning in a California state park. On the day that the crew is supposed to be heading home, a man injures his knee and requires a carry out. As the crew is carrying the strapping young man out of the area, a firestorm rages forcing the crew to leave the injured man and find shelter for themselves in the form of pup tents. Once the storm subsides, the weather prevents rescue and a body is discovered inside one of the pup tents.

New in this novel, Barr also leads us on FBI Agent Frederick Stanton's journey as he travels to the national park in hopes to help with Anna's rescue. When he learns that there is a body, he does leg work on his end to research everyone who is stranded and give Anna the moral support that she needs.

I listened to this while I was attempting my marathon quilting session last weekend. I forgot how nice it is to have an interesting book to listen to while driving the machine and the time seemed to just fly by. It didn't hurt that the narrator is Barbara Rosenblat, my all time favorite! I was really drawn into this novel and thoroughly enjoyed it. I think that the books are much easier for me to listen to than to read the hard copy.

Death Perception is the 8th book in the Psychic Eye series by Victoria Laurie. Dutch's cousin goes missing in Vegas and Abby and Dutch head out to see if they can help. Chase was working as a bodyguard for Dutch's security firm and he was kidnapped with his client after a shootout. While helping with the investigation, Dutch goes missing and Abby is running out of time to find him and save the day.

I think that these books are much easier for me to read the hard copy than to listen to the audio version. I think it is because they are just an easier read than the Barr, Fairstein and Cornwell books that I enjoy as well. But it is always nice to have something that you can breeze through, right?

The only thing that I didn't care too much for in this book is that there are big tidbits that are dropped to make the story seem plausible, but I think are details that should have been alluded to in previous books. For instance, Dutch has a security firm that brings in at least a million a year? If so much money is being made and the firm was so important to his well being, why is it just being brought up in book 8? Candice has roots in Vegas? This one was a little more plausible, but there were other things dropped that Abby was aware of that the readers were not. Candice has a sister who died several years ago and she still uses her identity and it just so happened to save the group from a sticky  situation. A little 'too easy,' if you ask me. But I guess that is why it is such an easy read.

I do enjoy this series and the action is intense in a way that I never want to put the book down. The way that I am going, it shouldn't be too long before I am all caught up with the series. :)