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Reviews by Diane S.

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Falling Together: A Novel
by Marisa De Los Santos

Falling Together by Marisa De Los Santos (8/31/2011)

hat a wonderful feel good book. Cat, Pen and Will meet in college and form an intense friendship. Thinking that the level of their friendship can neither be maintained nor let any one else in they decide to go their separate ways. Will and Pen come together 8 years later …more

Darkness, My Old Friend: A Novel
by Lisa Unger

Darkness my Old Friend by Lisa Unger (8/19/2011)

Four threads tie together in this psychological suspense novel. Elois the psychic from Unger's previous novel Fragile. plays a prominent role in this one and she is a character that I find very interesting. Also Jones Cooper attempts to find a new phase in his life after …more

Bad Intentions: An Inspector Sejer Mystery
by Karin Fossum

Bad Intentions by Karen Fossum (8/16/2011)

Fossum manages to cover a lot of ground in a short amount of pages. Interesting psychological story about three friends who make a serious mistake which haunts them in varying degrees. Love these Nordic mysteries.

Before I Go To Sleep: A Novel
by S.J. Watson

Before I go to sleep by S.J. Watson (7/18/2011)

This book would make a great Hitchcock film. Suspense, twists and a completely original story, very well written for a fist novel. The ending was a little to pat for my liking but still a good read. Looking forward to reading more from this author.

Turn of Mind
by Alice LaPlante

Turn of Mind by Alice Laplante (7/15/2011)

One can quickly run out of adjectives describing this novel but I will use chilling and heartbreaking. The reader follows Dr. Jennifer White, age 64, former orthopedic surgeon, as she sinks in the grip of dementia. This story is brilliantly related as she lapses in and out …more

Secret of the White Rose: A Novel
by Stefanie Pintoff

Secret of the White Rose by Stefanie Pintoff (7/13/2011)

Probably a 3 1/2 because although I did enjoy the third book of this series, I did not like it as much as the first. Do like all the history imparted though, the beginning of criminology, the anarchist movement and the beginnings of the fight for workers rights. Also the …more

Breaking Silence: A Kate Burkholder Mystery
by Linda Castillo

Breaking Silence by Linda Castillo (7/12/2011)

One of my favorites of the newer series, this is the third, Kate was raised Amish but leaves the church due to the way a tragedy was handled in her life when she was younger. Now as police chief she investigates crimes among the Amish. Good storylines, characters and a lot …more

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (6/22/2011)

It takes a rare author to make you feel that you are in the Amazon jungle with the book characters. Interesting storyline about drug companies and research as well as a rogue scientist and missing, presumed dead researcher. Also all the descriptions of the jungle and the …more

The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes: A Novel
by Marcus Sakey

The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes by Marcus Sakey (6/19/2011)

A man wakes up naked on a beach and doesn't remember where he is or how he got there. From there it is all thrills and chills as he attempts to find out what happened to him and where he belongs. Plenty of twists and turns, with some very good characters and some not so …more

Misery Bay: An Alex McKnight Novel
by Steve Hamilton

Misery Bay by Steve Hamilton (6/17/2011)

A book that is set in a place you live or at least visited always seems more interesting and the upper peninsula in Michigan is one of my favorite places. Yet even if I had never been there Hamilton does such a great job that one can feel the extreme cold and at times the …more

Very Bad Men: A Novel
by Harry Dolan

Very Bad Men by Harry Dolan (6/15/2011)

A thrilling story with strong characters. Logan, editor of Grey Streets, is at times amusing and at times brash, his girlfriend, she of the glass beads, is a detective who is called to investigate a dead body at the same time Logan receives a manuscript detailing the murder. …more

Faith: A Novel
by Jennifer Haigh

Faith by Jennifer Haigh (6/8/2011)

When I first started reading this book I thought one would have to be Catholic to identify with this story but that was because the author did such a fantastic job with the tone and the setting. I could just picture my old neighborhood and Catholic school in Chicago, really …more

Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead: A Novel
by Sara Gran

Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead (6/7/2011)

Loved this book, first in a new series. Unique character in Claire and a real sense of setting and the emotional makeup of the people involved in the story. Felt for the first time that I had a understanding of what the people actually went through and felt after Katrina as …more

The Language of Flowers: A Novel
by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

The Language of Flowers (5/31/2011)

From its wonderful cover (simple but elegant) to the wonderful characters this book is one that I enjoyed immensely. It is such a unique concept to use the language of flowers as a form of communication and I liked learning the meanings of these flowers. All of us have …more

The Story of Beautiful Girl: A Novel
by Rachel Simon

Story of Beautiful girl (5/20/2011)

I had only read to page 11 when I had the feeling that this book was going to be something special and quite possibly one of the best books I have read this year. So it was. I am usually a quick reader but when I like a book a lot I tend to slow down quite a bit as I did …more

The Fallen Angel: A Nic Costa Novel
by David Hewson

The Fallen Angel (5/19/2011)

When the Da Vinci code was so popular a friend of mine told me that her husband read the Nic Costa stories by Hewson and liked them much better than he had liked the Da Vinci Code. So I picked one up and thought he was absolutely right. Not only are they more centered and …more

The Kitchen Daughter: A Novel
by Jael McHenry

The Kitchen Daughter (5/7/2011)

Delightful but poignant book about a young woman with Aspergers trying to come to term with her parents death. She uses cooking as a way to calm herself when she finds situations beyond her coping skills. She find that when she cooks a handwritten recipe the writer of the …more

The Philosopher's Kiss: A Novel
by Peter Prange

The Philosopher's Kiss (5/5/2011)

Amazing book set in Paris and Versailles about the making of the encyclopedia. We take so much for granted now but these philosophers, Diderot, Voltaire and others actually put their lives on the line to make this book for the future. It was considered heresy by the …more

Bent Road: A Novel
by Lori Roy

Bent Road (5/3/2011)

A very darkly forbidding book, but kept me interested and reading. Family secrets, assumptions, come back to haunt a family moving back home to Kansas from Detroit. From the very beginning one senses there is going to be something violent happening. Well written first novel

The Tiger's Wife: A Novel
by Téa Obreht

The Tigers Wife by Tea Obreht (4/3/2011)

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this book. It was exceptionally well written by one so young, a story about a young doctor, Natalia, who while on her way to an orphanage with inoculations finds out her beloved but terminally ill grandfather is dead. He was, however, in …more

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The Jackal's Mistress
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