Book review: Buried Prey

Buried Prey by John Sandford

I have been a big John Sandford fan since I read his first “Prey” book long ago. He’s an author of which I repeatedly purchase without hesitation, ESPECIALLY if it’s a “Prey” book. And finding Buried Prey at Half Priced Books was a deal I most definitely could not pass up! A bonus for those who don’t know, the Prey series all take place in the Twin Cities!

In Buried Prey, Sandford reintroduces the young and ambitious Lucas Davenport when he started on the police force. It was cool to see Davenport as a “rookie” and see how he worked his way up through the ranks to his current role as an investigator in the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

This book featured one of his first cases—the abduction and assumed murder of two young girls. He wasn’t comfortable with the “resolution” of the case when it happened, but he was just breaking out of patrol work and accepted his supervisor’s decision on the case. Now, twenty-five years later, the bodies of the Jones sisters are discovered in a plastic bag beneath the concrete-floor basement of a house being torn down in Minneapolis, and Davenport is re-examining the case. He reviews his case notes from 1985 and realizes that because of his lack of experience, the notes weren’t incredibly helpful, however, from them he was able to reinterview a couple of witnesses who still remembered the missing girls.

You’ll be missing out if you don’t read Sandford’s latest Prey book.
Check out The Prey Series:

Rules of Prey

Shadow Prey

Eyes of Prey

Silent Prey

Winter Prey

Night Prey

Mind Prey

Sudden Prey

Secret Prey

Certain Prey

Easy Prey

Chosen Prey

Mortal Prey

Naked Prey

Hidden Prey

Broken Prey

Invisible Prey

Phantom Prey

Wicked Prey

Storm Prey

Buried Prey

Book review: Think Twice

“Think Twice” by Lisa Scottoline

I read Think Twice on my own and now it's July's book club selection. I really liked the book; it held my interest and kept me on the edge of my seat. I admit that the plot-line is more like an exaggerated Hollywood movie than a real life happening, but books are for escaping reality, right? So go along for the ride!

Bennie Rosato looks exactly like her identical twin, Alice Connolly. They were separated shortly after birth because their mother couldn't care for both children. Alice was adopted. The twins meet later in life when Bennie, an attorney, represents her sister Alice in a murder trial. Alice was aquitted.

Alice pops up in Bennie's life again, but this time with a plan to take over her sister's identity, or rather, her sister's extensive bank accounts. Early in the novel Bennie finds herself drugged and buried alive at the hands of Alice.

I could not put the book down!

It's easy to see how the twin fooled Bennie's coworkers, as Bennie is the type who stays to herself and doesn't share much about her own life, or show feelings to others. Alice easily "replaces" her sister at work, and with a boyfriend who resurfaces!

The other characters in the book are full of life, especially the crazy Italian family of Mary DiNunzio, who could have a novel themselves! A true Italian "witch" named Valentina is a friend of the DiNunzio family and she sees that "Bennie" is evil but no one believes her.

The book explores whether evil is born or bred. If pushed to the limit, are we all capable of evil...?

Check out Think Twice and see for yourself.

Book review: The Shack

The Shack by William Paul Young was the book club selection for May.

I knew nothing about the book when I bought it; I didn't read reviews or summaries, and had no preconceived notions.

I was really into the book in the first several chapters. Mackenzie (Mack) took his children camping, and while he was saving two of his children in a canoe accident, his other daughter Missy was abducted. They searched the camp grounds and the surrounding area. When they returned to the camp site, they discovered a ladybug lapel pin stuck into Missy's coloring book. Upon further investigation, it's revealed that the FBI has been tracking the "Little Ladykiller" for four years, through nine states without any luck of catching him or finding the bodies of the girls he's abducted. During an intensive search, they discovered evidence that indicated Missy was brutally killed in an abandoned shack deep in the wilderness.

Mack goes into what he calls, "The Great Sadness." Four years later, still in the midst of his "great sadness" he receives a letter in the mailbox from "Papa" inviting to meet at the shack. Is the note from the killer? Or is the note from God?

Mack drives to the shack in the dead of winter, walks toward it, and enters. And this my friends, is where the book loses me... Mack meets God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit and spends the weekend with them. And God is a big black woman. And that is relevant to the story as well.

I found the book interesting in that the God he met with is the God I know. I'm not a church goer anymore, but I am spiritual and I believe in God. However, I do not believe in Hell, brimstone and fire. My God is a loving God who wants us to experience things, to learn from experiences, to grow... my God, and the God in the book wants us to be the best we can possibly be and live a good and loving life. God doesn't punish people. God isn't a vengeful God. God is an all-loving all encompassing God.

I completed the book. It was insightful. Although I am not in AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) myself, I noticed many AA moments throughout Mack's weekend with the Trinity with regards to going through some of The Steps to better himself. Mack learned a lot about himself, forgave, and was able to "let go and let God."

The books asks, is it possible to let go of control and certainty in life? Is it possible to live only in the present?

Will this book change your life?

Journal, 07.03.11

07.03.11

I woke from a dream this afternoon. I could still feel his soft shirt against my face... feel my arms wrapped around him... If you watched me sleep, you would see my arms outstretched and my head tilted slightly. As I opened my eyes, the feeling of his arms left me. But I could still feel the softness of his shirt against the right side of my face.

I want so bad to return to him. The faceless man in my dreams. The man who loves me for me. The one who cuddles with me, holds me close, kisses my head. The man with the softest of shirts. The one who makes me comfortable... safe. The one I miss terribly.

As my eyes fill with tears, my heart fills with sorrow. I'm so incredibly lonely I don't even think there are words that adequately describe my despair. My heart is empty. Sadness escapes through the hot salty tears that fall down my face, blurring the computer screen.

Just when I think "I've changed; I'm ready," I discover that is not the case. Perhaps I am destined to be a sexual play thing for the rest of my life. Why is it so easy for me to revert to sex with a man? Over the phone. In emails, over instant messages... It's so easy. And every time it happens it begins the same way... I feel the energy.

I love the energy.

I love sex. Why isn't that acceptable for women to admit? I love sex! I love everything about sex--the adventure, the sweat and noises; the different positions... heavy breathing, the screams, the wetness... I love the smell afterwards...

...and I love the "get the fuck out" when it's over. Don't get me wrong. I'll walk him to the door and kiss him goodbye. It's just sex. I'm a play thing.

Do men see that in me? Do I project "sex"? What is it about me that make men tell me their deepest and darkest dreams and fantasies? Do they know I won't judge them?

Once the energy is gone though... I'm left empty. A used vessel. Discarded. Discounted. Until the next time. And I KNOW the emptiness is coming, and yet I travel the same path. Why? *sigh* Because sex is easy. I am good at it. Not in a bragging kind of way, mind you, but in the "we all do what we're good at" kind of way. Now having a relationship? That's hard. Fighting? No thanks. Conflict? Run the other way. No thank you. It comes back to not wanting to be abandoned. Yep... I still need to work on myself. Bottom line. I need more "me" time. Until then, the man in my dreams is out of reach.

I need to rethink things. Put something else into the universe. I am worth loving. I am more than a sexual play toy. I am a strong independent woman. I will make my dream man a reality. I will feel the softness of his shirt in reality. Until then... I will meet him in my dreams.

Book review: Two Rivers

Two Rivers by T. Greenwood

I read this book in January so the details are foggy. I read reviews online to refresh my memory but they didn't help much. My apologies in advance.

The book stars Harper Montgomery and opens in a memory of the past... 1968. "Blackberries. The man's skin reminds him of late summer blackberries. The color of not-quite midnight. The color of a bruise. This is what Harper thinks as he looks at the man they have taken to the river, the one who is half-drowned now, pleading for his life: the miracle that human skin can have the same blue-black stillness as ripe fruit, as evening, as sorrow itself."

The book switches between past and present, which I've found to like in novels as of late. Present day Harper lives with his daughter Shelly in an small town apartment. He works at the railroad and has been in a state of depression since his wife Besty died twelve years earlier, the day Shelly was born. Betsy was Harper's childhood crush turned love-of-his-life, and her death devastated him.

Harper was somehow involved in a murder in 1968, but the book reveals little of the crime or why he was involved. However, the event significantly impacted his life and he feels guilty about his involvement.

This becomes more clear after a horrific train derailment occurs present day in Two Rivers, in which many people die. He attempts to save a man who's stuck in one of the train cars under water, but is unsuccessful. The man had skin the color of blackberries. As a result of not being able to save the man, Harper runs out of the water and rushes to a place to be alone, collapses next to a tree, and his mind goes back to 1968 and the murder. After many minutes, he becomes aware that a young pregnant black girl stands dripping wet in front of him, begging for him to help her. Reluctantly he lets the girl stay with him and his daughter, explaining that she's his "mother's friend's daughter."

In addition to flashing back to the 1968 murder, the book also flashes back to Harper and his growing relationship with Betsy, and with his parents. His father invented things to make his mother's life easier, although his father reminded me somewhat of the crazy inventor in the movie, "Honey I Shrunk the Kids," and the inventions were clunky and useless. Harper's very liberal mother spent most of her time alone, writing. Once Harper left for college, she left the home to help register black voters. In Harper's sophomore year of college, his mother started Freedom Press Monthly and had one thousand subscribers. At one point she was beat up so badly that her jaw was wired shut.

Harper's mother printed a special edition of the Freedom Press almost immediately after Martin Luther King, Junior was murdered. The headline read DREAM TURNS NIGHTMARE. She delivered to her usual neighborhoods. "But on April 4, when she drove down Blue Hill Avenue, the street was on fire, and the last thing the residents of Roxbury wanted to see was a crazy-haired white lady driving a Buick through a riot." After the beating she received on that day, she lapsed into a coma at Harvard Medical Center, and quickly died.

Betsy was pregnant at the time of Harper's mother's death. Besty died after giving birth, and the murdered man had something to do with Betsy's death, but we don't know what until the end of the book.

Does Harper find redemption? Forgiveness? I guess you'll have to read the book to find out.

Book review: Water for Elephants

I am so far behind on my book reviews, it’s rather embarrassing. I will do my best to recall each book I’ve read since January 2011. I will begin with…

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Water for Elephants is told as a series of memories by Jacob Jankowski, a “ninety or ninety-three year-old” man who lives in a nursing home. Jacob longs to eat food with flavor and of substance, like corn-on-the-cob or steak, but because he’s “the only one who still has teeth” he’s forced to eat tasteless “mush” at the nursing home. He’s a witty character that will make the reader laugh aloud at times.

The book goes between Jacob’s present non-exciting and lonely life in a nursing home to memories of his past working for The Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. As a young man, Jacob was about to take his final exam to become a vet at Cornell when he was informed that his parents died in a car accident… and that his father mortgaged the family home (and vet business) to send him to school, so he no longer had a home or a vet business. Devastated, he literally ran away; he hopped on a train in the middle of the night only to find out later that it was a circus train.

Thankfully he was able to get a job with the circus because of his veterinary skills. He’s forced to share a boxcar with a dwarf named Walter and his dog Queenie, neither of which are happy about the new living arrangements. Jacob also meets Camel, an alcoholic who later befalls the effects of drinking Jamaican ginger extract for years and loses the use of his arms and legs. Walter, Camel and Jacob eventually get along and become good friends.

The head trainer August is married to the star of the circus, Marlena, with whom Jacob falls in love. August is a violent man who abuses the animals and people, Marlena in particular. This can be seen more vividly after Rosie the elephant is purchased “to save the circus.” August, although sometimes charming, is not a likable character. Jacob develops a guarded relationship with August and Marlena.

August becomes suspicious of Jacob and Marlena’s “relationship” and beats each of them. Marlena runs away to a hotel while she’s not performing. The reader, and August, can clearly see that Jacob and Marlena are falling in love with one another, although neither have acted upon it physically.

Meanwhile, circus sales are down, workers aren’t being paid (sometimes for months) and circus hands are being “red-lighted” (throwing circus workers off a moving train as either punishment or to avoid paying wages).

As Jacob sees the results of August’s beatings of Marlena and Rosie the elephant, he becomes enraged and wants revenge. One night Jacob climbs up and jumps each car, while the train is moving, to August’s room, carrying a knife between his teeth intending to kill August. He sees Marlena in bed with August and instead quietly lays the knife on August’s pillow as a type of warning. When Jacob returns to his boxcar, he only finds Queenie. He realizes that Walter and Camel were red-lighted and Jacob himself was supposed to be too. The train stops in the next town and the tents go up. Some are shocked to see Jacob there…

As the story climaxes, several circus workers who were red-lighted off the train come back and release the animals causing a stampede during the performance.

Panic arises. August is killed by Rosie the elephant, who plunges the stake which had “secured” her to the ground, into his head. Jacob is the only one who sees this happen. Rosie then returns the stake into the ground. As a result of the stampede, the circus is shut down. Marlena and Jacob leave, along with Rosie the elephant, Queenie, and a few other animals, to begin their life together.

We discover that Marlena and Jacob married, had 5 children, and spent the first seven years at another circus before Jacob secured a job as a vet at a zoo, who also took Rosie the elephant. Evidently Marlena died a few years before Jacob was put into the nursing home.

In the present, ninety-three year old Jacob is waiting for his family to take him to the circus. Alas, they forgot. He is deeply saddened, but then decides to walk across the street to the circus by himself. He arrives as they are loading up to go to another city. Jacob meets the manager and finds that he is “home” again. He secures a job as a ticket salesman.