Tripwire by Lee Child

Published in June 199,but I just acquired this at a book sale and read it in September 2024.  This is a phenomenal early Jack Reacher tale, paperback, 401 pages. Reacher is fit, he's been working digging  he feels in the best shape of his life, pg 10, "Like a condom crammed with walnuts." He has been working digging swimming pools in Key West by day and as a bouncer at night at Costello's bar.  Only that night some strangers come trying to get entrance and Costello is found beaten to a pulp with alll 10 of his fingertips sliced off.  Meantime another investigator is trying to find Reacher at the request of a Mrs Jacobs.  She turns out to be Jodie, Leon Garber's daughter and needs to find him because Leon has left his house to him. Jodie and Reacher had mutual crushes on each other way back, but Reacher ignored that urge, she was too young for him and Leon's delighter.  She is now divorced and a successful  attorney. 

This has twists and turns as every Reacher novel.  The parallel story of grieving elderly parents for their presumed dead Army soldier only son, Hook Hobie.  He was a devoted son but the army will not recognize him as a hero,.  Didn't he die in Vietnam in the crash of the helicopter?  This parallel mystery will present the most vicious enemy Reacher has encountered.  Hook Hobie ii a vicious rfinancial lender and now has Lester Holt captive, he plans to collect his debt which Holt cannot pay.  Soon his wife will be captured with him as Hobie schemes to acquire all their assets.  Can this really be their son ignoring his parents completely and how will Reacher get involved in this?. 

Back Cover of Tripwire

 I was puzzled, would Reacher keep Garber's house and settle down?  Doubted it because there have been several more Reacher novels following this.  

This is another 5 ***** read.  I'm glad I finally found and read it.  It goes on my shelf now with all the othe Reacher books.  

Have You Seen Luis Velez by Catherine Ryan Hyde

 

I read this novel early August 2024.  It is a paperback, 307 pages, published in 2019.  The writing is good and clkear.  It is a very delightful, heart warming tale about an elderly blind woman Mildred Guterman, who lives alone and has no family in an apartment building.  In the same  building Raymond Jaffee, a teenage boy who is totally alone in the his mother's new family. One day as Mildred calls ouit from her apartment, "Have you seen Luis Velez?"  Raymond stops and there begins unlikely friendship that will change and enhance both their lives.  This novel reflects the wisdom of the parable of doing something to help others and thereby helping yourself beyond expectations.  

Mildred had help from Luis who has vanished and she has no way of contacting him.  She does not like to go out on the streets alone with her white cane so Raymond begins to accompany her to the bank, to errands.  Ultimately Raymond begins a quest to search for this missing Luis, using only the phone book which has many by that name., 

Pg 78-79:  "Because I have lived 92 years, Raymond, and if there's one thing I can tell you, it's that we are never as unique as we think we are.  We are all people.  Sure, some things will be different from one person to the next.  Some people have more of those feelings than others. Some have too much, and it causes all manner of havoc.  Some have none at all.
But I can tell you this as a human being whose had a lot of experience being one:  "If you're feeling something other people in other places are feeling it too.""

Ultimately he finds Luis' young pregnant widow Isabel and their children.  Raymond learns Luis was murdered and the trial is coming up.  He brings her to meet Mildred so she will have resolution knowing what happened to Luis and that he did not abandon her.  Isabel had no way to contact her and was concerned too despite all her problems. 

This excerpt pg 157, on living after loss and a long life are wisdom from Mildred:

This is a 5 ***** read

The Jigsaw Priest by Margaret Belle

           This is the second book I have ordered and read by Margaret Belle and it is even better than the first one, The Granddaughters which was also very good.  The author develops wonderful characters and has a unique ability to hold a story line while weaving other stories of characters in the novel through it.  Very well written and I enjoyed every page.  This is excellent fiction mystery about the town priest Father Doyle, town characters  in the town of Graves End New York.    

 The novel begins describing Father Doyle is  writing his mandatory resignation letter due to his age to the Bishop.  Page 1 opens:  

                                              

The description of Graves End on pages 24-25:  "Grave's End wasn't your typical flag waving apple pie and mother loving small town where kids grew up playing T-ball and neighbors held backyard barbeques.  It was a piece of Hell itself where men scraped a living out of the soil, settled their arguments with knuckles and guns, and got drunk at the local saloon on Friday nights.  Their wives were just as tough in other ways and could shoot as strait as their husbands."

This continues telling why Dr Benjamin Hall, the only doctor in town and a primary character in the  novel is here. "He was here because God help him it was his hometown.  He had gone away to college, then medical school, done a residence in Syracuse, and like most of the other young adults in Grave's End wanted out. But he was devoted to his father and while he had planned on simply sending money home from wherever he settled, he realized that as his father aged, he would need to be close by and there was no getting around the fact that the town would need a new doctor.  Now his need to stay was nearing an end, but whether he left after his father died or stuck it out until his own retirement he knew it would not be easy to find a new doctor  for the town.  Not easy at all."

Other characters, the town barber is known as OUCH  and Freddy Russett, the town attorney  is known as  Tater.  Dr Hall's father is in his last stages of life.  Jani Dover is in her last month of pregnancy.  It turns out that  she and Dr Hall had an affair and although he wants to marry her and raise the child she is unwilling, wants to leave and  give the child up.  Ms Catherine Crawford has been  the  parish secretary  as long as Father Doyle has been the priest.  

Millie Bean known as The Widow lives alone on her family farm.  pg 13, "Her parents had divorced the Grave's End way meaning Millie and her mother stayed put after her father got tired of farming and took off.  Millie stayed on after her mother passed away and never left. She preferred keeping to herself."   

Gus Gray is an overweight man who keeps trying unsuccessfully to commit suicide and repeatedly confessing his attempted sin to Father Doyle..  Pg 15-16, :  "No wonder people make fun of me, he thought, I can't even figure out how to do myself in.  Gus pulled on his eyebrow as he searched with a great sense of urgency through his late father's tool box."  

All these will weave through the novel with amazing revelations that solve unknown mysteries.   5 **(*** for this well written enjoyable novel.  

2009 Books by Laurie King

Addendum to previous post about this author on my review of Art of Deception.  Blogger would not  allow me to  edit that published post to add these .  As I recall these were good mysteries and di not contain the stuff of Deception.  Posting here for my reference only.  

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Art of Deception by Laurie King

 

For some reason I cannot determine I am unable to merely start writing alongside the image of the book.  So I will just try this as I cannot spend more time trying to figure out WTH Blogger is doing now. 

 

This book was published in June 2006 but I recently picked it up at a used book sale for $1.  I have read novels by this author in the long ago past.  But after reading this mystery I am no longer interested in any more of her writings. 

Using the fictional character of Sherlock Holmes woven into a modern tale of a San Francisco police detective sounded interesting.  However, it  became too clear the fictional detective, Kate Martinelli is a lesbian in a partnership with her "wife" and together they are raising the wife's child.  Sorry but I am not interested in reading about 2 lesbians no matter the intrigue.  Too much information, culminating with them being the first 2 married in SF.  

The book further spreads the gay life style over the fictional life of Sherlock Holmes.  And describes a fictional group of Sherlockian enthusiasts who gather for dinner to discuss the detective.  This mystery centers on Philip Gilbert's finding  a manuscript  that might have been written by the late Sherlock.  Philip is a devoted fanatic of Holmes. So much that his apartment is done up in Sherlockian decor. and furnishings.  Philip is found dead and the crime investigation begins.  Martinelli will successfully solve this crime with the help of her partner on the force, Al Hawkins.

Inside cover flap

Besides too much gay lifestyle there is continuous description of the Battery area of SF, the Presidio, and oin and on.  I found that boring but kept reading as it did not taqke much concentration and I skimmed a lot of that.  

It could have been an ok mystery but I give this only *** and will not be reading anymore by this author.       

Don't Know Jack by Diane Capri

 I started reading this new to me author and series in May although this  first novel was published in 2012.  A new author to me and one I will continue to read.  I was attracted by the mention of Jack Reacher my favorite character by Lee Child who endorses Diane Capri's work and mentions how he especially admires one of the main characters, Kim Otto.  There are many books already in this series and as of today, September 26 I have read  only 4, all purchased new on Amazon.  I plan to review the others here soon and will be buying more although I took a spending break currently.  Below I have copied the list of all in this series, a few  such as Jack In A Box which I have also read are short stories  (novellas).  I was unaware of that when I purchased it but now that I know about these I will likely download those to my kindle instead of purchasing a hardcopy.    The author has other series too that sound like books I would like to read, so many books, so little time!  She also has a site to sell these directly.  

One nice feature was the list of primary characters at the beginning.  I really appreciate that and  she may be the only one I've read lately who does so.,  Kim Otto and Carlos Gasper are the two FBI detectives assigned to find Jack Reacher, previously unknown to them, this secret project by Charles Cooper.  There is something so secretive agouti their mission that even they are kept in the dark and told there will be no admittance of any FBI involvement should they stumble.  Otto and Gasper are totally different personalities, previously unknown to each other   and are picked by Cooper so undisclosed reasons.  .Pg. 14., "The FBI operated in tyhe glare of every possible spotlight.  Keeping something under the radar added layers of complication.  Under the radar meant no official recognition,.  No help, either. Off the books.  She didn't have to hide but she'd need to be careful what she revealed and to whom.  Agents died during operations under the radar."  

And so their partnership begins with Otto as lead agent.  She is ambitious.  Gasper is a survivor and a family man and wants to maintain his job for another 20 years.  Different life experiences too.  

From the author's website:  "It’s been a while since we first met Lee Child’s Jack Reacher in Killing Floor. Fifteen years and sixteen novels later, Reacher still lives off the grid, until trouble finds him, and then he does whatever it takes, much to the delight of readers and the dismay of villains. Now someone big is looking for him. Who? And why? Hunting Jack Reacher is a dangerous business, as FBI Special Agents Kim Otto and Carlos Gaspar are about to find out. Otto and Gaspar are by-the-book hunters who know when to break the rules; they’ve been told Reacher is a stone cold killer. Reacher is a wanted man, but is he their friend or their enemy? Otto and Gaspar don’t know what they don’t know about Jack. Only the secrets hidden in Margrave, Georgia will tell them."  

I so enjoyed this first novel that when I finished it on June 2,  I wrote this note to myself:  "OMG more twists than a coiled snake.  Who was/is the villain, thought perhaps even Cooper, but no???"       The writing is good, clear and the twists are well tangled.  I give it 5 *****

Back Cover of  Don't Know Jack

Limestone Legacy of a Curse by Tess Kincaid

 

Published 2024, this is a prequel to the author's first novel Pechewah which I read and reviewed here in May.    purchased this  on Amazon in July and read it shortly after first of August over days.  .  It is almost a horror mystery at times,  yet the intrigue kept me reading, wondering what next, how will it end.  The author weaves a magnificent tapestry uniting the years and the family sagas and tragedies. 

We learn toward the end  187-195) the identity of the woman whose car plunges into the riverbed in Pechewa while she is returning home to Ohio from visiting her grandfather in Indiana.  It is Tree Kingston who lived at Limestone with her husband Ramsey.  It is Tree who will continue haunting we learn in the closing pages. 

In  200 pages this novel twista the mystery of this home through it's history beginning in 1810 with the Wyandot Indians who come for their chief known as Leatherlips to the settlers.  They abduct him, accuse him of witchcraft, kill him beginning the Limestone curse.  (Pgs  3-5)  There is a long list of inhabitants of the  home that will be built  along the limestone on   the riverbanks of the Scioto .  At times I set this aside and read something else, because it was agonizing to read of  the constant tragedies.  Yet I kept coming back to it in a day or so because I wanted to know what would happen next.  A good read,  better than not being able to  put it down.  Taking longer allowed me to savor the writing.  Definitely well written, poetic at times.  a 5 *****

Limestone  Back cover

Below are two photos the author shared on Facebook of her former home in Dublin Ohio that was the inspiration for Limestone..  One of the house and one of the living room.