The 3rd novel (2024) by an excellent author, Alex Michaelides.

This is a murder mystery — and also literature. The writing is excellent.

That said, for me the story wasn’t all that compelling. I really didn’t care about any of the characters.

This is a tale of murder.

Or maybe that’s not quite true. At its heart, it’s a love story, isn’t it?

Lana Farrar is a reclusive ex-movie star and one of the most famous women in the world. Every year, she invites her closest friends to escape the English weather and spend Easter on her idyllic private Greek island.

I tell you this because you may think you know this story …

It had all the necessary ingredients for a press sensation: a celebrity; a private island cut off by the wind…and a murder.

We found ourselves trapped there overnight.

Our old friendships concealed hatred and a desire for revenge.

What followed was a game of cat and mouse ― a battle of wits, full of twists and turns, building to an unforgettable climax. The night ended in violence and death, as one of us was found murdered.

Not being much of a fan of thrillers, I have to admit this one is not bad.

1. Gideon’s Sword
2. Gideon’s Corpse
3. The Lost Island
4. Beyond the Ice Limit
5. The Pharaoh Key

The plot is insane, at times. But it’s certainly never boring.

Gideon is an art thief and nuclear researcher turned government agent — who only has 11 months to live.

Gideon’s Corpse (2012) is a thriller by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.

… a sequel to Gideon’s Sword.

The plot focuses on a nuclear scare, the federal reaction, and Gideon’s attempts to unravel the mystery.

This is only the 3rd novel by Julie Otsuka.

Short. In fact, I’d call it two novellas not particularly related to one another.

The 1st a very original and wonderful tale about the people who use a local community pool.

Swimmers.

Almost magic realism.

“In our ‘real lives,’” Otsuka writes, “we are overeaters, underachievers, dog walkers, cross-dressers, compulsive knitters (Just one more row), secret hoarders, minor poets, trailing spouses, twins, vegans, ‘Mom,’… .”

But once in the water, swimmers are only “one of three things: fast-lane people, medium-lane people or the slow.”

L.A. Times review

It reminded me of my days in the Brainsport Running Club.

Once having changed out of work clothes, people group into entirely new castes based on running ability.

The second half of the book — “Belavista” — finds Alice in a long-term memory residence by this name.

While very insightful into life (prison?) in a care facility, I did not enjoy Belavista as much as the first half.

Otsuka is obviously an excellent writer.

I’ll be reading her two earlier books, as well.

Bit of a silly novela. BUT very memorable.

It’s only available as an Audible original.

James Patterson leads you into the darkest recesses of the mind with this chilling, immersive audio thriller. We meet Brent Quill, a frustrated actor trying to take his game to the next level.

When he learns about the intensive Method acting process, he dives in deep—and immediately lands the lead role in a TV series about a brutal serial killer.

But when the Method’s controversial techniques start to take over Brent’s psyche, the lines between real life and acting begin to blur dangerously. How far will Brent go to “become” the character?

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Outrageous and entertaining.

Outlandish and silly.

And entertaining. 😀

Part of the Gideon Series:

1. Gideon’s Sword
2. Gideon’s Corpse
3. The Lost Island
4. Beyond the Ice Limit
5. The Pharaoh Key

Gideon’s Sword is a novel by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. (2011) …

… first installment in the Gideon Crew series.

The story introduces Gideon Crew, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory who is also a former art thief and master-of-disguise.

He learns from his mother that his mathematician father—who had developed a flawed encryption—had actually warned his boss about the flaws, only to be murdered.

Gideon exacts revenge from his father’s murderer.

As a result of this, he is recruited to be a freelance operative by an ultra-private security and engineering firm working for the Department of Homeland Security.

His mission: to trace and retrieve plans for a mysterious super-weapon being brought to the United States of America by a Chinese scientist before the Chinese can recover them.

Many enjoyed this book. An easy read.

Personally, I found the characters cliche. The plot unsophisticated.

Perhaps the author intended it to be easily turned into a screenplay for a future movie.

On the other hand, it took me 70% of the book to guess the identity of the bad guys.

… a creepy and creative variation on Jurassic Park.

In the near future, advances in gene editing have led to breakthroughs in de-extinction, bringing prehistoric mammals back to life by rebuilding their genomes and muting genes for aggression.

The scientists behind the project have focused on reviving herbivorous megafauna, including mammoths and Irish elk, with the animals allowed to roam inside the spacious confines of Colorado’s Erebus Resort, a luxury attraction near the Rocky Mountains.

When honeymooners Mark and Olivia Gunnerson fall victim to a savage attack at Erebus—their tent is slashed open, pools of blood are left at the scene, and authorities find no signs of their remains—the incident brings Frankie Cash from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to the resort.

She initially believes the attack to be the work of eco-terrorists who object to Erebus’s mission, but as she investigates, more bodies pile up, and the evidence points toward a threat more terrifying than she could have imagined. …

Publisher’s Weekly review

23 1/2 Lies includes one of the Women’s Murder Club (novel series)

Quite good.

James Patterson is the only author. That’s unusual as Maxine Paetro is typically his co-author. And it’s a novella.

Set in San Francisco, the novels follow a group of women from different professions relating to investigating crime as they work together to solve murders.