Stephanie Plum has settled in to her job as a bounty hunter, and so picking up a missing NJ girl who failed to appear after stealing her boyfriend’s truck seems like a cakewalk. And there’s a bonus — the boyfriend is willing to give her money too to find her and get some supposed love letters back from her. Easy peasy. Except nothing is easy for Plum, ever. The missing girl wants to stay missing, and her mother and co-worker are helping. Even when somebody else is looking for the girl too, and willing to hurt people to get them to talk.
What I Liked
Plum has an extra helper in this case, a guy who’s good with codes and clues. A flamboyant cross-dresser, he livens up the scene. And the relationship with Moretti leaps forward with the two cohabitating for a while. I love the scenes where the women were talking about guns and what type of gun to carry, use, etc.
What I Didn’t Like
There are some baddies who are painfully obviously involved, which Plum misses for most of the book. And someone who is out to get her is obvious as well. Also painful to watch. Oh, and one of my favourite characters, Ranger, has nothing to do for the entire book. More like an afterthought to include him.
The thirteenth item on my vaguebooking list was “13. Thirteen years and counting”. The year 2015 marks 13 years that Andrea and I have been together. We were also married on the 13th of September, back in ’08, so this will be our 7th anniversary.
We swore that we wouldn’t become home bodies that never went out anymore, and that is certainly true when it comes to restaurants. We eat out a lot. Mostly simple places with Jacob. But, to my mind, that’s not enough. We have very little “just the two of us” time, instead of “all 3” time. And as with the rest of the things I talked about, I feel like we’re just drifting along. Not in a bad way, not at all. More content. Just perhaps a little too content with the status quo.
So, 2015 is the year I commit random acts of romance. Maybe without out the random part as much, after all I am a planner. Nor do I want to mention everything here since Andrea may one day be totally bored on a bus and read my blog. Shhh, it could happen. Just saying, if she does, I don’t want her to know all the plans in advance. Obviously.
However, some are obvious ones that she’ll have to know about. Like the big one, which is supporting her this fall when she takes off work to finish her M.Ed. It’s going to be a long semester for all three of us, with a lot of disruption in our schedules, workloads, etc. But it’s part of the commitment, to make it work for all of us, without her killing herself either.
I’m also committing to more of Jacob’s routine, which hopefully should ease burden a bit on her, as well as taking over a good part of the meal planning so it’s a little more planned for longer periods of time, with built in flexibility. We’ve been running on a 2-3 day cycle the last little while, so we got back to the 2-week plan this past week, and will likely bump it up to a 4-week extended plan to guarantee more variety within weeks. It also helps with my grocery shopping.
We have an entertainment book, and I’m going to pick a bunch of restaurants in advance and then we’ll schedule regular outings. I had hoped to do Stratford this summer, but didn’t really see any home run choices that I wanted. Hopefully we’ll do a play or two next year (hopefully after Xmas!), although we likely won’t have time for the NAC Pops series. We are however doing that now, which gives us at least one outing per month or so up until June sans cubby. For the entertainment book outings, many of them will still involve J, but at least they’ll be different outings.
I’m also hoping she enjoys the “Daddy and me” nights with Jacob, and takes advantage of them to do something more than just hang out by herself out at home (although that’s always fun too).
I have a few other things in mind, but again, won’t be mentioning them in advance. Commit to the quest — romance now!
Keziah Dane is a struggling single mother in 1939. Her husband died two years before in a flood, trying to rescue other townspeople, and her son was taken too. This leaves Keziah with no money, and she has to look after four remaining sons and two daughters. In addition, her mother-in-law has gone a little batty with the loss of her son, leaving Keziah to take care of her too. A passing drifter sees the family burying the family dog and figures if they are burying something, it must be money. He ingratiates himself into the family posing as an unconventional minister, and tries to figure out how to get the money. The sub-stories are fairly straightforward – the oldest son wants to go back to the flooded town and dive for salvage, despite the danger; the second oldest son is working for a local farmer and falling in love with the daughter; and the remaining family members are struggling through being at school with much wealthier families.
What I Liked
The sub-story with the second oldest son falling in love with the local farmer’s daughter is really well-done. Her mother is a hypochondriac with a small problem with her foot, but it is interesting to see how the son deals with her, ending up as an excuse to spend time in the house near the daughter. The blossoming romance between the two of them – one practical, one romantic – is really well done, and natural, albeit perhaps mis-placed in time (would work even better in the 1800s, except for the physical side perhaps). I also like the hook for using the farmer himself to drive a plot twist near the end. There is a scene with the drifter and the buried treasure that is beyond disgusting, and made me shudder – a perfectly done description by Grafton. I could see it and I really didn’t want to anymore. Blech. In a good way. The struggle of the children to adapt to their situation, the realization that they are poor and what that means, is strongly written, and captures the heartache, pride, jealousy, desire, fear, happiness, and importance of family that goes along with it. I thought there were a few too many young kids to talk about in the story, and Grafton could have got by with two fewer in my view, but it was not a complete distraction.
What I Didn’t Like
The opening is fairly basic, reminiscent of Old Yeller, and doesn’t do much to hook the reader. I’m almost ambivalent towards Keziah Dane herself as she seems like the perfect mother – understanding when she needs to be, long-time sufferer or martyr who soldiers on, but I would have liked to see more conflict within her. A lover perhaps that she goes to visit occasionally. In addition, there is a conflict near the end of the story that is bizarre in detail, although so confused and disjointed in places that it is hard to tell what exactly is happening. The ending is also a little pat, with everyone better off. Grafton potentially missed an opportunity with the chronology – setting the story in November 1939 could have included a hint of the outside world intruding, but no wind of change is blowing their way. It could have easily been set in the 1800s with no real loss of story.
Tempe finds herself in Guatemala investigating a mass grave, and while she’s there, the local police decide to avail themselves of her forensics expertise to investigate four missing girls and one dead body in a sewer.
What I Liked
The cast of characters is large and there are some historical elements included related to Guatemalan history.
What I Didn’t Like
Tempe bounces around Guatemala too much, helping the only honest detective in a sea of corruption, and figures out missing girls, links to stem cell research, and takes her sweet time doing it. She even finds time to link it to her friends in Montreal, who just so happen to have gone to school with her detective partner in Guatemala. Beyond far-fetched, and casting aspersions on everyone she describes and the way they work, this one should have been a secret Reichs took to the grave. And finally, a bit of a spoiler, she rips off Janet Evanovich’s technique of not finishing the romance part of the book — you know she’s chosen someone but not whom. Stay tuned to the next in the series to find out which one, I suppose.
Beaumont’s case with an up-and-coming ambitious partner focuses on a woman working at the local school board office who winds up dead — semi-clothed in a closet with a clergyman-turned-security guard and the hints of an affair.
What I Liked
The school board politics and the politics around the police station office are first-rate, and it is nice to see a positive side to the journalist character who constantly hounds J.P. A large cast of characters helps keep the story interesting.
What I Didn’t Like
The sub-plot is a bit obvious and while the cast of characters is good, it leaves a bit of a feel of happenstance rather than expert detecting.
