I recently listened to the audiobook of A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard, narrated by Jaycee Dugard. To say this book was difficult would be overstating the obvious. If you have lived under a rock for the past couple years, then you won’t know that Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped at the age of 11 and held in captivity by a convicted child molestor until she was 29 years old. At the time she was recovered, she had two children, aged 11 and 15. 

Just let that sit there in your mind for a moment. She was kidnapped at age 11 and when she was recovered she had a daughter who was 11. But Jaycee at 11 had been on her way to school when kidnapped and her own 11 year old daughter had never been to school. Ever. She had rarely been outside the backyard of her captor-father. Jaycee was younger than her 15 year old daughter when her 15 year old daughter was born. Her children had never been to the doctor, had never been to school, had not known the normal growing up that the rest of us Western families take for granted. They never played with friends next door, organized games of stickball or hockey in the street, didn’t have crushes on the cute boy in class, nothing. 

I cannot tell you how many times I wanted to cry for Jaycee and her daughters while listening to this book. As a woman, a mother, a grown up girl, her story is horrifying. It is beyond comprehension that someone could be forced to endure the tortures and abuses that Jaycee endured. What is almost more incomprehensible is that Jaycee Dugard came through that experience with a seemingly positive outlook on life. She explained that she had some dark times, but the overall impression at the end of the book was one of an amazingly strong woman who just survived and did the best she could for her daughters.

That strength inspires me to do the best for my daughter when push comes to shove in my life. Frankly, I am a queen in a palace compared to Jaycee’s experience, and it really puts my complaints into drastic perspective, but if Jaycee can be strong, loving and optimistic for her daughters, then I can do my very best too. Each of us mothers – who feel strong enough in the first place – could benefit from a read through of A Stolen Life. It will cause you to realize that your shitty life really isn’t all that bad after all, but not in a way that makes you feel riddled with guilt and shame. 

I was tired of Stephen King, historical novels and histories of the Civil War. I needed something exciting that I could not put down, and happily I found what I was looking for. The Neighbor, by Lisa Gardner was my entree to an exciting readers’ list of suspense & thriller books. Lisa Gardner has been writing for many years and has numerous titles. However, The Neighbor introduced me to Seargant Detective Dee Dee Warren of the Homocide Division of the Boston Police Department. 

This is a contemporary murder mystery with an exciting climax and confusing back story. The way the story unfolds, the wife of a fiercely private man is missing. He is the prime – the only – suspect. He is reluctant for police to question his four year old daughter. His story is clean and tight and he always gets it straight. He knows his rights and that only serves to annoy the police. Throw in a local sex offender and an estranged relationship with the missing woman’s father, and it becomes complex without becoming convoluted.

The book is written in two voices, first person of the missing woman, third person for the detective and all other aspects of the story. It is an interesting method that will draw you through the book at break neck speed, but it doesn’t leave any detail out of place, no loose ends untied. Warren finds herself led along several theories as the story unfolds, some more plausible than others, and while you may find yourself wishing you could step into the conference room and correct her during one of the investigatory team meetings, you can’t and it’s tough to have to sit back and wait for Dee Dee to figure it all out in the end.

Which she does. She is the best detective BPD’s got, after all.

Happily, the book is not overloaded with police jargon and for those who enjoy true crime you will be satisfied that the rules of forensics aren’t ignored in favor of a better story line. It is a gripping read with a satisfactory conclusion which I recommend to those who already love the genre and to those who, like me, are looking for something new.

You know how sometimes you read in the paper about some person accused of murder who gets away scot free? For whatever reason, either the case isn’t prosecuted, or heaven help us it is adjudicated and the jury cannot find them guilty. Don’t you ever think to yourself “someone will do us all a favor and take ’em out”? In real life that rarely, if ever happens. The acqitted person goes on a book tour or gets a reality TV show and we are all disgusted by the twist of fate that let them loose to potentially kill again. Well, in the book Darkly Dreaming Dexter, there is someone who does equalize the situation.

Thankfully, Dexter is just a character in a fiction novel, because he’s a bona fide psychopath. He has difficulty understanding people and social situations, he lacks deeper feelings like love and compassion, does not understand what motivates humans to do the things they do, and does not even consider himself human. He knows he is flawed, with a big empty spot where everyone else has a conscience. But Dexter hunts the bad guys. He is a serial killer, and a prolific one, taking out Miami’s garbage. He only kills the killers, though, and he must have proof of the ultimate badness of his quarry, otherwise, his code will not allow him to act.

You see, Dexter was raised and coached by a cop. His adoptive father Harry realized that Dexter was missing “that thing” other people have, and helped him to shape his need to kill into righteous vigilanteeism. Harry created a code, rules that would help Dexter survive in a world he did not understand; rules that would keep him out of the eye of the police and out of jail. Part of Dexter’s cover is to work for the police as a blood spatter analist.

The best predators hide in plain sight, and that is Dexter. He has learned, like many psychopaths before him, to play the role, say the witty sayings, and pretend to feel the feelings, that normal people expect. And while you might think Dexter is a bad guy himself, in this book, he is the “hero” protecting the city from those other murderers who cannot be proven guilty and preventing them from committing their heinous crimes again.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter is the first in a series about Dexter and was the inspiration for the popular Showtime television drama “Dexter.” If you are a fan of the show, be prepared for the book to have its differences that might not make you happy. The key characters are there: Dexter, Deb, Angel Batista, LaGuerta, Doakes, Masuka; but they are the originals as imagined by Jeff Lindsay, not the screenwriters. Dexter himself is as weirdly lovable in the book as he is in the show, and that is part of the guilty pleasure. You feel like you really should not like him, but you just can’t help it.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter is not terribly long, yet the pages turn at an enjoyable pace, drawing you through the story arc and toward a climactic ending that feels a tiny bit rushed. Did Lindsay come up against a deadline? I would have liked the ending to be developed a bit more, but otherwise this is a very good book. I will be seeking out the next installment soon.

Those who know me know I love historical novels, and The Map of Time definitely delivers. Set in late 1890s London and featuring H. G. Wells as a character, the novel takes the reader on a journey from Jack the Ripper’s Whitechapel through to a future of time travel. It is clever, with twists that had me considering the next possible outcome during the times I could not be reading (oh, that dastardly job of mine!).

The author, Felix Palma, wrote the book in Spanish, which I find intriguing in itself. We English-speaking nations don’t generally consider that “other people” might be fascinated with the social mores and scientific discoveries of 19th century England. Mr Palma definitely painted what I believe to be an accurate portrait of the time and was able to believably describe both the lowest classes of prostitutes and the highest classes of the wealthy elite.

The novel is structured as three intertwined stories, all involving the concept of time travel, which H. G. Wells wrote about so famously in his novel The Time Machine, published in 1885. It simultaneously questions the consequences of changing the past as well as exploring the daily lives and loves of its protagonists. Some of the plot lines were so well developed that no detail was left untouched, all the way to exposing one of the source of one character’s fortune having come from the importation of toilet paper – an irony that is both hilarious and revealing of his inner compass.

It’s a bit of steampunk, a bit of history, a bit of science fiction, and a bit of romance, all smash together quite well. It will have you secretly trying out Victorian vernacular while you wax poetical on the possibilities of the 4th dimension. I highly recommend this one!

I listened to The Cypress House as an audio book without knowing much about the story. This is my favorite way to enjoy a book – letting it carry me along without expectations. There are certainly books that I can predict a little bit because of previous experience, such as in a series, or in the case of a Stephen King book – I expect them to be good. But there is something to be said for the naked reading of an unknown story and allowing it to unfold in its unpredictable fashion.

The Cypress House by Michael Koryta is a great story. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but if you like you can click here for the publishers summary. There is a touch of supernatural, a lot of mystery, heroics and romance; the ghosts of the past intruding on the lives of the characters. Set during the Great Depression, Arlan and Paul are workers on one of the many public works projects designed to rejuvinate Americans and break the Depression. Their travel brings them to Florida right before a terrible hurricane, and sets off a series of suspenseful twists and turns that cut open the underbelly of 1930s corruption and criminal enterprise. The novel includes history, empathy and some weirdness that is so unbelievable it is somehow easily acceptable. Arlan is an old fashioned man’s man who might remind you of your grandpa – no nonsense, hard working, dedicated, but loving and caring under the tough calluses and rough edges.

The story unfolds in such a way as to bring you back, revealing a peek at a time and allowing you the reader to put together the pieces of the multiple mysteries at a pace that is quick yet deliberate. The story builds to a crescendo with an unexpected twist and then falls into a satisfying resolution. In a nutshell, it was great.

I have read several books lately, so I’m going to fill up the book review section for you! First up is Dog On It by Spencer Quinn.

I decided to try out a mystery/detective story, and this book was well reviewed by other readers. It also has a different take on story telling – the dog’s perspective. Intriguing. The dog is named Chet and he *almost* graduated from police K9 training school, but for some sort of a mishap during his final exam. Bernie is his owner and a private detective. The two are inseparable and very loyal to one another. While Bernie does the talking, Chet does the smelling, chasing and tail wagging. Chet narrates the story in a hard-boiled detective style, bringing to mind Phillip Marlow and Sam Spade, while keeping his doggy good humor and short memory.

The story is a good entree to a series, as there are a slew of Chet & Bernie Mysteries on the shelves. A frightened mom contacts Bernie to find her possibly missing (possibly just acting out) teenaged daughter. Bernie investigates in the way people do and Chet does his part too, finding contraband, bad smelling house pets and clues along the way. Not only do they follow the leads to solve the mystery, Chet and Bernie show us the dedication between humans and dogs that has gone back thousands of years. There is a reason we call dogs “man’s best friend.”

I would read another Chet & Bernie Mystery in the future, if only to find out what mischief Chet has gotten up to in the next installment. If you want a light read that is funny in parts and exciting in others, give this book a try.

I often get my book fix through audiobooks because I just don’t have enough time during the day to sit and read for any significant length of time. One of the audiobooks I listened to recently was A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. The publishers summary (which of course are always biased) says it’s a sensual and historical mystery about a witch and a vampire basically breaking the rules that prevent their love. 

While the book started out somewhat interesting – a scholar in medieval alchemy and a centuries old vampire – and it ended somewhat interesting – as they prepare to time travel into the past to discover some secrets – the middle was a bit of a bore. Yes, I listened to the whole thing because I kept thinking it would get better, but it kept on in its tedious descriptions of wine, tea, exercise and eating. Riveting. Where was the romantic tension that would inspire me to think it was a sensual story? No where. 

Yes, this is a fantasy genre story, and people who liked the Twilight series might like this story, but I didn’t. As the best parts of the story came about 2 hours before the audiobook ended (at it was 24+ hours long), I came to realize I was being set up for a sequel, and rather badly at that. It was disappointing and I felt used honestly. Many many books end with a sequel necessary to move the story forward, but this one ended right in mid-sentence, so to speak, and it felt disingenuous. 

After having read so many thrillers, Stephen King horrors, and vampire books lately, I was expecting every turn of the page of Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman to bring something terrible. But, I was pleasantly surprised. Not to say that bad things did not happen to Ceecee Honeycutt. They did, in spades, but the title of the book is Saving Ceecee Honeycutt, after all. Without giving too much away, I will try to inspire you to read this book, because it will make you feel good all over.

Ceecee’s mother was a Southern Belle of the 1950s, married to an older man and spirited across the Mason-Dixon to the uncivilized Northern wilds of Ohio. She missed her home state desperately and struggled with mental illness. As her loving daughter, Ceecee tried to live with her mother’s foibles and eccentricities, but they took a toll on the young girl.

Enter her Great Aunt Talulah, Oletta Jones, Mrs. O’Dell, and the eclectic mix of ladies in Savannah, Georgia. One summer they take on the task of saving a young girl who is lost and tangled in the tatters of her life. The South offers hospitality, warmth, humor and love. There were several scenes that brought a tear to my eye.

This won’t be a long review because I don’t want to spoil the story for anyone, so suffice it to say that I highly recommend this book. It is a light read that had me coming back for more every day. The book doesn’t delve too far into racial tensions in 1967 Georgia, but if you are looking for a happy ending, this is the book for you.