Make Up Reading

Another wonderful Tracy Crosswhite novel. Every time I open a Tracy Crosswhite novel I get excited. I would put Tracy right up there next to Kinsey Milhone as my favorite female leads in a mystery series. This novel did not let me down for the most part.  Before, I get into the mystery let me say what I really liked and the one or two things I felt the need to nit pick a bit. Things I loved? I think one of the best parts of this novel was the bumped up roles of the rest of the A team. We got some good quality time with Faz and Del as well as some good moments with Tracy and Dan and with Tracy and her partner Kins. I liked that Tracy realized in this book that she is not alone, that the A team are her family. Heck, even Nolasco had an actual bit of good advice. My main little nit pick? It is kind of silly but, Tracy's whole watching everything she put in her mouth thing. That is something new added to the series and I just found it to be a bit annoying. It didn't fit her charac...

Once again another great Tracy Crosswhite novel. As you know by now if you happen to read my reviews I adore these books. These mysteries are not the cozy kind but I can't help but feel a fondness that I very rarely feel towards the main characters in more hard boiled mysteries. In all actuality I think that the only other detective in the harder novels that I feel such an attachment to is Kinsey from the Sue Grafton Alphabet novels.  This time around Tracy is dealing with two mysteries, one in the present and one that took place back in 1976. A friend of Tracy's asks her to please look into a case that her now deceased Father was never able to let go of. The case is not a cold case in the sense that it was closed but, her Father seemed to not be happy with the results. The case revolves around the death of Kimi Kanasket a Native American girl in a small town. The case hits Tracy very close to her heart because of the death of her sister. She knows she must solve this case. Mea...

I really love the Tracy Crosswhite series. I read "My Sister's Grave" last summer and enjoyed it so much and was waiting for the new book. I was so pleasantly surprised by the first novel. Tracy, Dan and their world completely won me over. I feel that if you are reading what I would consider darker mystery it is important to really like and care about the main characters. I kind of befriend the main characters in a book series and enjoy each and every visit with them. Robert Dugoni's second Crosswhite book was even better than the first. "Her Final Breath" revisits the murder Tracy was investigating in the first book before she had to leave. In the first book we find out about Tracy's past and visit her home town in the new book we see what Tracy's world in Seattle is like, we meet her partner and the other cops she works with. We meet her cat Roger and of course we follow her as she solves the mystery. I have not liked a character as much as Tracy s...

I really, really enjoyed this book a lot. I loved Tracy & Dan and I am looking forward to more books. This is not a cozy mystery, I would not exactly call it a hard boiled noir either. I think this is somewhere in between. I like that there was a softness to Tracy even though she had been through so much. I also really enjoyed the world and I can't wait for the next book to come out! I give this my highest recommendation possible!

If you are a fan of Alfred Hitchcock or really any classic noir/thriller movies you will love this book. It was fast paced and extremely well written. Please ignore any comparisons to "Gone Girl"because it is nothing like it except they are both thrillers. It has been years, when will they stop comparing everything with that book? I loved it but each book is different! Anna Fox is an agoraphobic who has spent the last eleven months locked in her Harlem brownstone, hiding from the world. Separated from her husband and daughter after a traumatic event Anna spends her time on an agoraphobic website, viewing classic film noir, watching her neighbors through the lens of her camera and drinking wine, lots and lots of wine. She rarely sees anyone in person except for those who come to her home. Her physical therapist Bina, her therapist Dr.Fielding and her tenant David who resides in her basement apartment. Her life is....well, her life. Is she happy? Of course not, but she is just ...

I chose to read this because Peter Monn loved it so I had to pick it up! I really enjoyed it. As someone who is a big Agatha Christie fan this was right up my alley!  1930's, rural Vermont.... Albert Ellingham loves games more than anything. He decides to create Ellingham Academy a school where brilliant and different thinkers can attend for free. The concept of the academy is making learning a fun game. Things are going great until Albert's wife and daughter are kidnapped and a smart female student is killed. The kidnapper/killer wants to play a game and wrote a letter in the form of riddle signed Truly Devious.  Somehow the school manages to survive the kidnappings and murders.  Many years later Stevie Bell, a crime enthusiast with a keen ability to see the little things no one else seems to notice. She decides to write a letter to Ellingham Academy explaining how she wants more than anything to solve the murders and kidnappings. She has read every book, newspaper clipp...

Okay, so let me start by saying that I am not ashamed to be a V.C. Andrews fan. I love the all the books written by her. I don't mind the early books that were written by ghost writer Andrew Neiderman but after the "Ruby" series I felt the books kinda lost their fun. These books came into my life at a time I really needed escapism. I was very sick with asthma and I was kinda stuck in the house, going back and forth between the living room and my room so I really bonded with the leads in the various Andrews books. I felt as if I had no control so they were kind of perfect for me. Anyway, back to my reviews because really, who cares about my crap! lol! "My Sweet Audrina" was my introduction to the Southern Gothic world and I fell in love. I love the way Andrews wrote. There was an almost lyrical way to her writing. You really become part of the word she creates.  I am not going to go into the plot of this book because I feel it would be hard to do without spoilers...