Book Review Thursday - 12/27

I took last week off so I have 3 reviews for this week to stay caught up!

Silent Mercy is the 13th in the Alexandra Cooper series by Linda Fairstein. Alex and Mike report to a scene at a Baptist church in Harlem where a woman's decapitated and burned body has been found along with a Star of David charm. Another body is discovered at a church in Little Italy ruling out a hate crime.

Alex was also int he courtroom prosecuting a former priest accused of molesting boys. With the overlap of religious tones in the court case and the murders, she is removed from the court case and banned from the investigation of the murders. Not that being banned would keep her from investigating.

Knowing that I am finishing the series, I am trying not to give away too much of the personal information in the books when I do these reviews. But I can honestly say that not much changes in the personal lives of Alex, Mike and Mercer. Or many people in her office. I have started wondering what would happen if Battaglia, the elected DA, was not reelected. Would Alex be replaced by the new DA's people?

Night Watch is the latest in the Alex Cooper series by Linda Fairstein. Alex is in France with Luc and stumbles upon human bones in front of his house. The next day, Luc is questioned about a body of a woman that was found near his home. The woman used to work for Luc.

Back in NYC, a housekeeper for a ritzy hotel has just accused the head of a global organization of raping her. While Alex and Luc argue over the seriousness of the claim, Alex gets messages from Battaglia demanding she return to work to handle the international crisis. Once she is stateside, another body is found with ties to Luc and Alex begins to question how well she knows him.

I enjoyed this novel until the end of the book. The last 'scene' became quite cheesy and I was left thinking, "WHAT?!?!?" as the narrator said, "The end." I enjoy the back and forth between Alex, Mike and Mercer, but I think that Mike is getting quite mean in his needling of Alex. If it is jealousy about Luc and an urge to take the relationship to the next level, I hope that it gets resolved and he can stop being so antagonistic.

Curse of the Spellmans is the second in the Spellman Investigations series by Lisa Lutz. The Spellmans are a family of 5 who own and operate an investigation firm in San Francisco, CA (I think... ). Well, the oldest offspring, David, is a lawyer and no longer works for the firm, but he does throw business their way. Izzy is 30 and suspicious of everything due to working for the business since before she was a teenager. And Rae is 16 and has latched onto an inspector with the police department and he can't seem to shack the entire Spellman clan.

Izzy meets her parents' new neighbor, John Brown, and immediately think that he is up to something. As she tries to get information from him to run a background check, she is also cataloging suspicious behavior from her parents, her brother and  her best friend. John Brown is definitely hiding something and as Izzy ramps up her investigating, he increases his attempts to keep her from the truth.

I listened to the first book in the series and I am not sure why I got the manual book this time, but it was hysterical!! There are footnotes to explain things that the reader may or may not know or remember from the first book. There is an appendix with information easily available. The 'chapters' are split into separate headers for easy categorizing. It was a very light read and I was able to get into the book quickly and get through it rather fast. I enjoyed the first book, but after reading the actual book this time, I am wondering if I missed out by listening to the first book instead of reading the actual book. In my opinion, this series is along the lines of the Janet Evanovich books, but I would recommend this series above those in a heartbeat!