All about the books we love

The Blood Eagle by A.L. Hatcher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I met the author at a local book fair and snapped this up because I had gotten a little tired of candy coated murder in all the cozies I've been reading lately. This is a police procedural and on the cover it says thriller. That's accurate. It's more thriller than mystery. That was my own problem with it. I'd have liked more red herrings and investigation than I got.

Other than that, I liked this. Tess Dane is a uniformed officer with aspirations of being a detective like her father (who she now cares for as he has early onset dementia and is in a home). She is called to a particularly gruesome murder scene because a message was left there for her. She is brought onto the case by her mentor Detective Denny Haywood.

As they try to unravel the who and why of the murder, another equally gruesome murder happens. What does it say about me that I recognized the historic forms of torture before Tess researches them? I think figuring out the why was relatively easy but I enjoyed the journey nonetheless. There is a twist at the end I wasn't expecting so that was fun.

I'd definitely get the next one.



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The Recovery Agent by Janet Evanovich

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I'm beginning to think Evanovich's 'humor' is not mine. This was not humorous but it was ridiculous. If you wanted an AU fanfic of Stephanie Plum in Lara Croft's universe, this is it. Gabriela was almost instantly annoying when she finds her contact dead in the jungle and has no reaction to it. She's a recovery agent for insurance companies and others looking for stolen/lost/legendary objects.

After the in media res opening, we get a little of her backstory, learning her family is about to lose the family home in the Carolinas because of hurricane damage that is killing the entire town. Her grandmother said the family ghost told her of Blackbeard the Pirate's treasure (he's theoretically her relative) and if she gets that treasure she can save the town.

Too bad the first clue is in one of the family's beach houses in the Virgin Islands, the house Gabby left to her ex-husband, Rafer. Naturally he wants in on this and we're off trying to find the ring of Solomon but a drug lord/cult leader also wants it so he can summon demons and honor his evil god.

Here's where it went off the rails for me. SOmehow this didn't work in a way Indiana Jones made the ark or the holy grail somehow believable. It has the same problem. The Ring of Solomon has the same religious connotations and even if she is able to find it, she's not going to be able to sell it to save the town. The reasons she wants this thing is what makes it not that believable because it can't possibly work out. It would have worked better for me if it was just some made up treasure she was after.

But we also have super eye rolling tidbits, like her wearing diamond bracelets into the wilderness to off set her jungle wear or the fact that if she had THIS much money to make multiple trips to Peru, the Islands, NYC etc, she has more than enough money to keep the family home. Also where is Rafer getting all the cash for next-day plane tickets right along with her?

None of this really tracked for me and there is an additional annoyance in the audio book, the total overuse of dialogue tags. Listening to he/she said again and again even where there are only two speakers was grating.



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