Back in October 2022, I reached 200 book reviews. My goal is to be all caught up at some point on reviews, no backlog, but I don’t know if that is really doable. When I’m in the groove for writing them, it’s great. But I get bored writing them all in a batch, I stop, and then it’s hard to get back into it. Which just allows the backlog to grow again.

Since #200, I have reorganized my ebook collection, filling in a lot of gaps so I could have complete “sets” of some stories, and started using Amazon First Reads as well as library networks affiliated with the Ottawa Public Library.

Over the last 50, some truly memorable books are hidden in the numbers…#208, the Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon, a fascinating story of an autistic man who has the chance to “cure” his autism. #245, The Running Grave, by Robert Galbraith, dealing with a cult. Lots of older mysteries with Lawrence Sanders. Some sci-fi by Andy Weir and William Gibson. And I’ve even reviewed some historical mysteries.

My ebook collection shows 46 books in my “Reviewing – New” collection, which are basically books that I’ve added to the collection and read over the last year or so. I also have a “Reviewing – Old” collection with some 187 other ones in there. Which means I guess I’ve cleared 25 or so from the backlog and written 25 other new ones.

As I approached #250, I was trying to decide what it would be. Perhaps The Martian by Andy Weir? Perhaps a classic mystery? Another one by a favourite author?

In the end, I did none of those. I chose a book that I read about six weeks ago where I felt like I was reading a brand new author of amazing skill (she’s not new, just new to me). And for the first half+ of the book, I felt like I was falling in love with reading again. The last quarter wasn’t awesome, a structural problem that would have been difficult to avoid, but still great nevertheless.

The Echo of Old Books by Barbara Davis (2023) – BR00250 (R2024) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸

Onward to #300!

Plot or Premise

A guy tries to buy weed, and all it costs him is a little sample, $22K, and his kidneys.

What I Liked

I loved Timothy Oliphant as Raylan Givens in the TV series Justified. Enough to go looking for Leonard’s books with the character. I read other books by him like Get Shorty a long time ago, a few others here and there, but never any of the Givens’ books. It’s interesting seeing some of the same stories with different characters, arcs, and endings. The story arc is more a series of cases…the mountain deals, the kidney stealer, a bank robbery crew of all women, a female poker player, and some fun with Delroy wanting to play High Noon in a bar.

What I Didn’t Like

One of the things I love with the show is the background characterization. However, in the book, Boyd, Ava, Loretta, even Art/Tim/Rachel all get short attention in the stories.

The Bottom Line

Not as well developed as some of the series’ episodes

Plot or Premise

A woman running from something shows up with her kids at a remote island port to paint a mural in a lighthouse.

My Reactions

The initial premise focused on the lighthouse, women being accused of witchcraft, and missing children. However, while there are elements of witchcraft history, it is surprisingly almost secondary to the premise of the tale, which takes place across three timeframes — the past history of women and witchcraft, along with demons who seem to steal children’s souls; the current tale of the woman painting the mural while raising three kids; and the future tale of one of the kids 20 years later.

As you go through the potential risk of missing kids, an element of demons or evil fae comes in where the missing children are replaced by evil replicants of the original child. It’s much more of a supernatural element than I was expecting, and the story shifts from one of witchcraft to moral tales of women killing their children to save the others. Very dark.

For my overall reaction though, I have to give a SPOILER ALERT. It’s almost impossible to explain my disappointment without reference to the revelation that there isn’t much going on for evil or devilry … there’s a time portal under the lighthouse and people pass through it only to come back at a different stage of life. The weird part is that everyone is focused on the children, but they are NOT the only passengers. At that point, the story falls apart for me. It isn’t just children who are “duplicated”, yet that is the tale. And I love time travel, so that wasn’t the problem for me — it was that there is this “fake” explanation for what’s going on, with tons of time spent on it, and weirdness galore. Followed by the real explanation that is rather hum-drum. Including Children’s Services not seeing any problem with the age of a child changing by 20y.

I was very disappointed against the original description.

The Bottom Line

Never lived up to the description