The 23rd Midnight by Patterson & Paetro

23rd Midnight is one of the Women’s Murder Club (novel series).

Quite good.

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. 

Detective Lindsay Boxer put serial killer Evan Burke in jail. 
 
Reporter Cindy Thomas wrote a book that put him on the bestseller list.
 
An obsessed maniac has turned Burke’s true-crime story into a playbook. And is embellishing it with gruesome touches all his own. 
 
Now Lindsay’s tracking an elusive suspect, and the entire Murder Club is facing destruction.

A Monstrous Regiment of Women by Laurie R. King

Sherlock Holmes gets married!

To a much younger woman. Mary turns 21 on January 2, 1921, and Holmes’s age is 58.

Quite a good book.

Both characters mock Arthur Conan Doyle as he increasingly writes about spiritualism.

A Monstrous Regiment of Women (1995) is the second book in the Mary Russell series of mystery novels by Laurie R. King. …

In the winter of 1920, Mary Russell is on the cusp of turning 21 and lives a double life of Oxford University theological scholar as well as a consulting detective and partner of Sherlock Holmes.

After events in The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, both Holmes and Russell are aware that their relationship and partnership has changed, perhaps romantically, but neither is eager to broach the subject. …

The plot revolves around the well-financed New Temple in God and its leader, the enigmatic, charismatic Margery Childe, who preaches empowerment of women.

The role of women post WWI in Britain is discussed in detail.

Another theme is PTSD in returning soldiers.

And addiction.


Harlan Coben’s Shelter – season 1

Harlan Coben’s Shelter is an American mystery drama television series. I got through it — but wouldn’t recommend.

It is based on the 2011 young adult novel Shelter by Harlan Coben. The series was released on Amazon Prime Video on August 18, 2023 … canceled after one season.

I kinda enjoyed the show in a way. It is cheesy. Too much unnecessary profanity. But I was cheering for these kids, against the cliche bullies and bad guys.

Jaden Michael is the good looking, believable lead Mickey Bolitar.

Myron Bolitar is his much more famous (literary) uncle.

Abby Corrigan compelling as an Emo teenager.

Best — really — is Adrian Greensmith as Spoon, the geek.

Shock Wave by John Sandford

The 5th book (2011) in the Virgil Flowers series ➙ Shock Wave.

Quite good. I do like Virgil, a cop who hates guns, and struggles with his religious faith.

The superstore chain PyeMart has its sights set on a Minnesota river town, but two very angry groups want to stop it: local merchants fearing for their businesses, and environmentalists, predicting ecological disaster.

The protests don’t seem to be slowing the project, though, until someone decides to take matters into his own hands.

The first bomb goes off on the top floor of PyeMart’s headquarters. The second one explodes at the construction site itself. The blasts are meant to inflict maximum damage — and they do. Who’s behind the bombs, and how far will they go? It’s Virgil Flowers’s job to find out… before more people get killed.

Close to Death by Anthony Horowitz

I’ve been recommending this series of whodunnits by Anthony Horowitz.

Really fun. Very original.

Something of another British cozy mystery.

  • The Word is Murder (2018)
  • The Sentence is Death (2019)
  • A Line to Kill (2021)
  • The Twist of a Knife (2022)

Close to Death (2024) is just as good as the rest.

Detective Hawthorne is once again called upon to solve an unsolvable case—a gruesome murder in an idyllic gated community in which suspects abound.

Riverside Close is a picture-perfect community. The six exclusive and attractive houses are tucked far away from the noise and grime of city life, allowing the residents to enjoy beautiful gardens, pleasant birdsong, and tranquility from behind the security of a locked gate.

It is the perfect idyll, until the Kentworthy family arrives, with their four giant, gas-guzzling cars, gaggle of shrieking children, and plans for a garish swimming pool in the backyard. Obvious outsiders, the Kentworthys do not belong in Riverside Close, and quickly offend every last one of the neighbors.

When Giles Kentworthy is found dead on his own doorstep, a crossbow bolt sticking out of his chest, Detective Hawthorne is the only investigator they can call to solve the case.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

“What Have You Done?” by Shari Lapel

Shari Lapena is a good writer. I recommend this murder mystery.

Nothing ever happens in sleepy little Fairhill, Vermont.

The teenagers get their kicks telling ghost stories in the old graveyard. The parents trust their kids will arrive home safe from school. Everyone knows everyone. Curtains rarely twitch. Front doors are left unlocked.

But this morning, all of that will change.

Because Diana Brewer isn’t lying safely in her bed where she belongs. Instead she lies in a hayfield, circled by vultures, discovered by a local farmer. 

How quickly a girl becomes a ghost. How quickly a town of friendly, familiar faces becomes a town of suspects, a place of fear and paranoia.

Someone in Fairhill did this. Everyone wants answers.

ShariLapena.com

Eruption by Michael Crichton & James Patterson

A missed opportunity.

It’s obvious that a Volcano story would fit well into the Michael Crichton collection.

And it will make a great Hollywood blockbuster. Sony won the bidding war and, enlisting ‘Free Solo’ creators Jimmy Chin & Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi to direct.

Skip the book, watch the eventual movie.

Eruption is a 2024 novel by Michael Crichton and James Patterson, based on an unfinished manuscript by Crichton at the time of his death.

It is Crichton’s 29th novel, … and the fourth of his novels published posthumously.

A thriller about an eruption of Mauna Loa on the Island of Hawaii, the novel was unfinished at the time of Crichton’s death in 2008, but was completed years later by Patterson, at the behest of Crichton’s widow Sherri.

I wanted more scientific detail, like in other Crichton’s books — and less argument / conflict between the team members assembled to save the world.

This one is more James Patterson’s short chapters and fast pace. At times I lost track of the plan on exactly how the day was to be saved.

Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

Super popular right now … but it didn’t work for me.

It’s original. Very contemporary. Funny. But a bit too schmaltzy.

Margo Millet is a confident, outgoing College student — who gets involved with her older, married English professor.

Using the Rhythm Method, she gets pregnant. And decides to keep the baby.

As everyone else expected, it ain’t easy to be a naive, vulnerable, single teen mom in California.

The plot combines the struggles of single motherhood with, improbably, pro wrestling and the online porn site OnlyFans. 

Nobody wants to help Margo, until her father arrives. Jinx was a legendary professional wrestler, with a history of history of heroin and opioid addiction,.

Margo turns online sex into a type of performance art, where she is writing scripts, directing and world building.  It’s weird.

This is certainly no book for children.

The crux of the book is when the father (who had never once seen the child) divorces his wife and NOW wants full custody of the boy — since Margo is a sex worker.

There is no doubt this book gets people talking. It would be ideal for a book club discussion.

Elle Fanning will star in the planned Apple TV adaptation. With Nicole Kidman as the mom.

Elle narrates the audio book, as well.

related – Washington Post review

Holy Ghost by John Sandford

The 11th book (2018) in the Virgil Flowers series ➙ Holy Ghost.

Virgil Flowers investigates a miracle — and a murder —

Pinion, Minnesota: a metropolis of all of seven hundred souls, for which the word “moribund” might have been invented. Nothing ever happened there and nothing ever would — until the mayor of sorts (campaign slogan: “I’ll Do What I Can”) and a buddy come up with a scheme to put Pinion on the map.

They’d heard of a place where a floating image of the Virgin Mary had turned the whole town into a shrine, attracting thousands of pilgrims. And all those pilgrims needed food, shelter, all kinds of crazy things, right? They’d all get rich! What could go wrong?

When the dead body shows up, they find out, and that’s only the beginning of their troubles — and Virgil Flowers’ — as they are all about to discover all too soon.

Wayfaring Stranger by James Lee Burke

Wayfaring Stranger (2014) is the first Burke book I’ve read.

He seems a very good writer — though I only got through 50% of this one.

It got too bleak. Good people somehow ruining their lives.

It reminded me of Cormac McCarthy. Burke’s also been compared to Thomas Hardy.