The Winters in Bloom
by Lisa Tucker

The book was good. Couldn't put down once I was towards the end. It took me a bit to get into thought. It definitely had a good twist!
 
 

The Midnight Feast
by Lucy Foley

This book has been so popular that maybe I expected a bit too much. (Which is why I usually avoid whatever is on bestseller lists and choose older titles.) The spookiness factor was good. But none of the characters was particularly likable, maybe because each of them was pretending to be someone they weren’t, so they didn’t inspire empathy. Best part of the whole book was the last quote by some random guy in a bar. Oddly enough, a line popped into my head during the next-to-last chapter, as the last big reveal was made, and the final quote was almost exactly the same. So this supposedly creepy tale ended with a fun chuckle. Odd side note: Foley uses a lot of British slang and names for things that we don’t hear in the US. Maybe other British writers tend to write with American readers in mind and avoid so much of that. Hope I remember to read the print version of my next Foley title so it’s easier to look up the unfamiliar words. Example: biro(sp?), which is some kind of pen or marker. With some foreign authors (Tana French and Stieg Larson come to mind) challenging pronunciations of places and people make audio preferable so my brain isn’t constantly struggling with how a word sounds even as I read silently. But Foley strikes me just the opposite. Love having the option of print or audio and deciding which authors are best in which format.
 
 

Long Gone
by Alafair Burke

Loved the ending! Give this 3.5 stars, taking off a bit because of an important plot point that was illogical but that allowed Alice access to information she needed to make progress in solving the mystery. It felt like a careless addition to a story that had delicious twists and turns otherwise. The art world peek was entertaining, all the NYC location info added flavor, and competing law enforcement offices increased the tension. Seemingly random characters and towns were confusing at first, but Burke mostly brought them together in the end.
 
 

Best in Snow
by David Rosenfelt

Cosy Mystery. Fun, easy read.
 
 

The Girl In The Ice
by Robert Bryndza

A very good thriller. Couldn't put it down towards the end. It took a bit to get into it.
 
 

No Safe Place
by Michael Ledwidge

A retired cop goes on a fishing road trip, he is surprised to bump into someone he admired as a youngster, and some serious hijinks ensue. The premise was fun, the problem to be overcome was a unique one, the action was fierce, and the resolution was unexpected. It’s always exciting to find a “new” author that I enjoy. This reminded me a bit of the King & Maxwell books (Baldacci), which was good. Because of reading/listening to several books at a time, it took me a couple chapters to get into this one, but once I soaked in the characters, it was a great adventure that offered suspense, intensity, and surprises without any forced sentimentality, and these are some of my favorite aspects of fiction. It was a bummer to discover that this is the 4th in a series (Michael Gannon), which probably added to my initial confusion. But BCL has the first 3, and they’re now on my list. Hoping they’ll ramp up the rating to 5 stars, as I get to know Mr. Gannon.
 
 

All the Wrong Places
by Joy Fielding

The last book I read by Fielding was notable because of the lack of any likable characters. Not sure how it’s possible, but this one had that same problem. It’s pretty bad when you really don’t care what happens to the people in the story. A saying came into my head near the end: Play stupid games; win stupid prizes. The main characters made repeated Idiotic choices, so it was hard to be empathetic. Essentially the theme was that saying. Sure, there was a horrible murderer. There was a cruel, cheating husband. A drunken mother. An emotionally abusive father. And another mother who constantly said “darling.” (Does anyone IRL use that word regularly? Ugh, hopefully not.) I’m just relieved the book is over. If it hadn’t been the audio version, I’d never have finished it. No more Fielding for me.
 
 

Unlucky 13
by Maxine Paetro & James Patterson

As with all the Women’s Murder Club titles, #13 is formulaic, and January LaVoy’s reading is fine. Nothing about this will make anyone toss it on the DNF pile, nor will it send them running to the bookstore for a personal copy to re-read over the years — no The Stand or Ender’s Game here. It’s one of those ideal audiobooks for long days up & down the highway. This one pits Detective Lindsay Boxer against an unusual bomber while putting one of her besties in a life-threatening situation AND bringing back an old foe that could endanger her happy little family. One negative: LaVoy’s “Asian” voice irks me to no end; just because Yuki is a small woman does NOT mean she sounds like a nasal Minnie Mouse. One positive: since she joined the WMC, Cindy has been immature & annoying; by the end of this one, she’d started to grow up a bit. Claire Washburn is always my personal favorite of this group. So yeah, #14 will eventually end up in my car’s CD player for another few days’ road entertainment.
 
 

City of Bones
by Michael Connelly

Connelly is an amazingly consistent novelist. LA’s Detective Bosch first came to me in the Amazon series, and although that was years ago, and I’ve read numerous books featuring Harry Bosch since, the character still carries Titus Welliver’s face, voice, and manner as I read. Harry is damaged, flawed, and often contrary, but his morality is his driving force. This story finds him twisted and turned as he investigates a decades-old murder that hits painfully close to home. His confusion leads to personal losses that will surely haunt him going forward, but as a Vietnam Veteran, that will be nothing new.
 
 

Still Missing
by Chevy Stevens

It's been a while since I read a book in one day, but the "missing" character quickly grew on me, and the weaving of the mystery kept me rapt to the last page. Although violent crime and its spreading repercussions were central here, this story had a degree of painful personal growth and was well worth a day of reading. Initially, the dialogue seemed choppy, but then it became clear that it was a character's awkward cadence, not the author's. As soon as I finished Missing, I put Stevens' next book on hold! Warning: violent sexual assault makes this one a miss for some readers.