The Its Monday! What Are You Reading meme is hosted at Book Journey

Today my children finally went back to school after the six weeks of Christmas holidays. My oldest daughter, Simariah, is entering Year 11, Aleah is starting year 4, Makyah is excited to be in year 2 and Jasiah enters year 1, so it’s (finally) very quiet here today!

What I Read Last Week

Free Falling by Nicola Moriarty

The Underside of Joy by Sere Halverson Prince

Good In a Crisis by Margaret Overton

The Fine Colour of Rust by Paddy O’Reilly

Silent Fear by Katherine Howell

Old Loves Die Hard by Lauren Carr

Reviews Posted

Cold Wind by C.J. Box ★★★ 1/2

Me of the Never Never by Fiona O’Loughlin ★★★ 1/2

Maine by Courtney Sullivan ★★★

The Dispatcher by Ryan David Jahn ★★★ ★

Confessions of  Neurotic Hitwoman by JB Lynn ★★★

What I Am Reading Today

Forbidden fruit is always the sweetest… …and no one knows that better than Sammy Divine, High Prince of Darkness. Once an angel, now cast down, Sammy’s out to prove he’s not the only angel who can be led into temptation…  Hope Henderson’s sister has disappeared without a trace, and Hope will do anything to find her–even make a deal with the Devil. An ancient text holds the key to unspeakable power, and it’s the Archangel Gabriel’s job to make sure it stays hidden, even if he has to become human to do it. Lives, love and the fate of the world hang in the balance, as Hope and Gabriel learn that when passion’s involved, it may be impossible to withstand a devil named desire.

What I Plan To Read This Week

{click the cover to view at Goodreads}

The past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past …  Jodie Garrow is a teenager from the wrong side of the tracks when she falls pregnant. Scared, alone and desperate to make something of her life, she makes the decision to adopt out her baby – and tells nobody.  Twenty-five years on, Jodie has built a whole new life and a whole new family. But when a chance meeting brings the illegal adoption to the notice of the authorities, Jodie becomes embroiled in a nationwide police investigation for the missing child, and the centre of a media witch hunt.  Did something sinister happen to Jodie’s baby the night it was born? The fallout from Jodie’s past puts her whole family under the microscope, and her husband and daughter must re-examine everything they believed to be true.  An utterly engrossing exploration of what happens to an Australian family, seemingly just like any other, when a long-buried secret surfaces and a mother’s dirty laundry is aired in front of the entire nation. The Mistake brilliantly explores the media’s powerful role in shaping public perceptions and asks the haunting question: can we ever truly know another person?

When Eden was ten years old she found her father, David, bleeding out on the bathroom floor. The suicide attempt led to her parents’ divorce, and David all but vanished from Eden’s life. Since childhood, she has heard from him only rarely, just enough to know he’s been living on the streets and struggling with mental illness. But lately, there has been no word at all. Now in her thirties, Eden decides to go look for her father, so she can forgive him at last, and finally move forward. When her search uncovers other painful truths—not only the secrets her mother has kept from her, but also the agonizing question of whether David, after all these years, even wants to be found—Eden is forced to decide just how far she’ll go in the name of love.

A few generations ago, college students showed their romantic commitments by exchanging special objects: rings, pins, varsity letter jackets. Pins and rings were handy, telling everyone in local communities that you were spoken for, and when you broke up, the absence of a ring let everyone know you were available again. Is being Facebook official really more complicated, or are status updates just a new version of these old tokens? Many people are now fascinated by how new media has affected the intricacies of relationships and their dissolution. People often talk about Facebook and Twitter as platforms that have led to a seismic shift in transparency and (over)sharing. What are the new rules for breaking up? These rules are argued over and mocked in venues from the New York Times to lamebook.com, but well-thought-out and informed considerations of the topic are rare. Ilana Gershon was intrigued by the degree to which her students used new media to communicate important romantic information-such as “it’s over.” She decided to get to the bottom of the matter by interviewing seventy-two people about how they use Skype, texting, voice mail, instant messaging, Facebook, and cream stationery to end relationships. She opens up the world of romance as it is conducted in a digital milieu, offering insights into the ways in which different media influence behavior, beliefs, and social mores. Above all, this full-fledged ethnography of Facebook and other new tools is about technology and communication, but it also tells the reader a great deal about what college students expect from each other when breaking up-and from their friends who are the spectators or witnesses to the ebb and flow of their relationships. The Breakup 2.0 is accessible and riveting.

Marti is a bartender at a local nightclub who is often said to be the best around. When she’s not chatting up the locals and pouring drinks, she’s spending time with her husband, Spencer. But lately Marti has been feeling very off. She’s tired, moody (or so her husband says), and goes through random intense aversion to food and then intense cravings. And on top of it all, despite being happily married she finds herself falling for the young college upper-grad student who decides to take up bar tending as supplement income next to the work he does for his sister’s photography. With everything being so out of control the last thing she needs is for her marriage to fall apart too.

While you are here…

Do you like historical romance? Meet Christina Brooke

Did you know 85% of book bloggers read 1 to 3 books a week? Read about it here

Which book genre do you avoid and why?

Thank you for dropping by today, I’ll be visiting you soon!

Title: Confessions of a Neurotic Hitwoman

Author: JB Lynn

Published: Avon Jan 2012

Synopsis: Maggie Lee is not your average hitwoman. For one thing, she’s never killed anyone. For another, after hitting her head in the car accident that killed her sister, her new best friend is a talking lizard—a picky eater, obsessed with Wheel of Fortune, that only Maggie can hear. Maggie, who can barely take care of herself, is desperate to help her injured and orphaned niece get the best medical care possible, so she reluctantly accepts a mobster’s lucrative job offer: major cash to kill his monstrous son-in-law. Paired with Patrick Mulligan, a charming murder mentor (who happens to moonlight as a police detective), Maggie stumbles down her new career path, contending with self-doubt, three meddling aunts, a semi-psychic friend predicting her doom, and a day job she hates. Oh, and let’s not forget about Paul Kowalski, the sexy beat cop who could throw her ass in jail if he finds out what she’s up to. Training has never been so complicated! And, this time, Maggie has to get the job done. Because if she doesn’t … she’s the mob’s next target. READ the first chapter

Status: Read on January 22, 2012 — I own a copy {Courtesy Harper Collins}

My Thoughts:

Veering from wildly funny to desperately sad, Confessions of a Slightly Neurotic Hitwoman is an entertaining dark comedy caper.

Maggie Lee survives the car accident that kills her sister and brother in law, leaving her niece, Katie, comatose. Maggie’s parents are no help, her father is doing time for murder and her mother is in a psychiatric hospital. Maggie hasn’t seen her sister in years and her three aunts are their own special type of crazy. A chance encounter with a hitman in the hospital brings Maggie to the attention of a mob boss who makes an unusual proposition. With a little help from God (not THE God), a killer cop and a psychic colleague Maggie just might be able to pay Katie’s hospital bills, if she can become a killer.

As bitter and cynical Maggie is, her quick wit and devotion to her niece renders her likeable. Her background is messy and rife with tragedy so it’s no wonder Maggie is able to embrace the unconventional. The leap from call center agent to hitwoman is a big one but somehow the author convinces us that her motivation is plausible.
Maggie’s mentor, Patrick, is a mysterious figure whose reasons for helping Maggie are murky. I’m not sure I really like him but he is an intriguing character.
The most irresistible character is Godzilla, aka God, Katie’s pet lizard now in Maggie’s care. Maggie isn’t sure if she is going as crazy as her mother or not as the lizard starts talking to her. Smart mouthed, opinionated and endearing, God makes for a hilarious sidekick.

The plot is cohesive even though it requires the reader to suspend belief. Between talking lizards, stoned aunts, hot police officers and a blackmailing hitman the story teeters on the edge of absurdity but is tempered by the darker elements of the story. Combining crazy characters and screwball comedy with a cynical edge, Confessions of a Neurotic Hitwoman is an enjoyable romp and a great start to a new series.

Available to Purchase

@ Amazon I @Barnes & Noble

My post last week was triggered by Rachel at Fikshun who felt that she was a slow reader in the community because she typically reads only 2-3 books a week. Maybe she will be pleased to know that in fact that very few read more than that, and a significant amount read less than that.

The majority of book-bloggers (84.51%) read between 1 and 3 books a week, and I think, from traipsing around many blogs in the last week via memes (300+) and by reading the comments on both Rachel’s post and mine that is likely an average across the board.

There are very few book bloggers who read four or more books a week.

So why do we assume that book bloggers regularly read more than that? I have some theories, but they may be a little controversial.

My first theory is the misconception is reinforced by IMM type posts. The assumption being that people are actually reading the books they list each week, when in fact they read very few of them. There are a dozen blogs I could name that regularly list a dozen or more books a week in these type of posts but a quick scroll through their post archives, or Goodreads shelves,  show they read and review between 1 and 3 books a week. It may look like they are reading a lot when it fact they just have shelves full of unread books. Without naming this particular ‘superstar’ blogger, in 2011 she has listed around 35 books a month in her IMM posts but she has not read more than 12 books a month in that entire time. That publishers continue to provide ARC’s and free books to book bloggers who will likely never read them is a subject for another post.

My second theory is that when we look at a blog we somehow equate how often the person posts with how much they read, so a blogger who posts every day of the week,  even though only one post may be an actual review, is assumed to be reading more that they actually are. I think this is particularly true where a blogger posts a lot of promotional type posts extolling the virtues of a newest release but haven’t actually read it yet.

My third theory has to do with my suspicions that there are some (though very few) book bloggers who actually don’t read the books they ‘review’ at all. Their reviews are typically little else but a rewording of the synopsis and a general throwaway line like, “I really enjoyed this book, you have to read it!!!!” There isn’t an ounce of actual opinion or detail that can’t be found on the back cover in the post, and it’s screamingly obvious when the actual content of the book varies from what the blurb wants you to think the book is about. I can’t speak as to the motivations of these bloggers, but free books (and their resale value) is tempting to some, others may just be desperate to be part of the book blogging community. I really don’t know why someone would bother but it does happen, as evidenced by incidents of plagiarised blog posts.

Lastly, I think that so many of us want to be able to read more, no matter how many books we actually read,  that we feel everyone is reading faster than us even if the evidence proves that is not the case.

Tell me though, if you thought book bloggers usually read more than 3 books a week, what gave you that impression? 

Do you feel better about the amount of books you read a week given the (speculative) statistics?

Brenda

who has won a copy of

Comeback by Peter Corris

Congratulations to

Juliet Madison

who has won a signed copy of

Wings of Fear by Helene Young

Congratulations to

Australian Bookshelf

who has won a signed copy of

Stella Makes Good by Lisa Heidke

You can expect contact shortly!

Title: The Dispatcher

Author: Ryan David Jahn

Published: Penguin, December 2011

Synopsis: The phone rings. It’s your daughter. She’s been dead for four months. So begins East Texas police dispatcher Ian Hunt’s fight to get his daughter back. The call is cut off by the man who snatched her from her bedroom seven years ago, and a basic description of the kidnapper is all Ian has to go on. What follows is a bullet-strewn cross-country chase from Texas to California along Interstate 10- a wild ride in a 1965 Mustang that passes through the outlaw territory of No Country for Old Men and is shot through with moments of macabre violence that call to mind the novels of Thomas Harris.

Status: Read on January 20, 2012 — I own a copy {Courtesy Penguin/NetGalley}

My Thoughts:

I saw a review of The Dispatcher in my RSS feed at Jenn’s Book Shelves but since it was past the publication date I thought it would no longer be available. To my surprise it was still listed so I decided to request it anyway and to my surprise I was approved a few days later. It was both the premise and Jenn’s review that I found intriguing. A small town emergency dispatcher receives a call from a phone box, his daughter, who has been missing for seven years, is begging for his help. With single minded determination, Ian Hunt renews his search for his daughter, willing to do anything to bring her home.

From the first few pages, after Hunt receives the call, I was eager to know what had happened seven years ago and by then introducing Maggie’s point of view, the author had me hooked. There is a palpable sense of urgency as Hunt mobilises the police and Maggie is dragged screaming from the phone box, leaving the receiver dangling. Jahn then lets us into the mind of Henry, Maggie’s abductor – his fury at her escape, his fear at being caught and his twisted justification for kidnapping Maggie. The story unfolds between the three points of view of Ian, Maggie and Henry, overlapping at times to reveal the differing perspectives of the three, allowing us to follow their individual journeys.
Jahn reveals Hunt’s grief in the aftermath of his daughters disappearance – the break down of his marriage, his anger at his son who was babysitting her, the end of his career and the solace he found in a bottle. Hunt is incredibly sympathetic even as he crosses the line into vigilantism. He has been driven past the point of the rational, his focus narrowed to saving his daughter and making her captor pay.
Maggie is fourteen now, she has spent seven years in a dank basement with only an imaginary friend for company, grimly holding tight to the knowledge of who she is. Her aborted escape doesn’t dampen her spirit and while her strength is unlikely given the circumstances it is admirable and with every fibre of my being I was hoping she would escape.
With Henry’s perspective we learn about his own desperation to make his wife happy, the only redeeming feature the man has. It’s a fascinating look at motives that makes this man a monster, but still a human being.

The tension is unrelenting as Ian and the police try to determine the identity of Maggie’s captor, as Maggie looks for another opportunity to escape and Henry grows increasingly anxious about being caught. An explosion of violence starts the chase across the country, Henry leaving a trail of bodies in his wake while Hunt races to catch them with a bullet wound in his chest. The violence in this novel is not graphic exactly but is real and not for the faint of heart. Ian and Henry are both desperate men, Henry determined to escape, Ian to rescue his daughter at any cost, even his own life.

The Dispatcher is a gritty, dark thriller with a frantic, intense pace.  It is not a complex story but is nevertheless completely compelling and I couldn’t put it down.

Available to Purchase

@ Amazon I @ BookDepository

Thriller Genre

Filed under: ★★★★1/2, Fiction, NetGalley Reviews, Provided by Publisher, The Eclectic Reader Challenge 2012, Thriller & Suspense ]]> http://bookdout.wordpress.com/2012/01/28/review-the-dispatcher-by-ryan-david-jahn/feed/ 5 shelleyraedesigns @ Goodreads thriller http://bookdout.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/feature-follow-friday-81/ http://bookdout.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/feature-follow-friday-81/#comments Fri, 27 Jan 2012 03:00:47 +0000 shelleyrae @ Book'd Out http://bookdout.wordpress.com/?p=3796 ]]>  Hi! My name is Shelleyrae and this is Book’d Out!

I’m thrilled to be featured  for

Feature and Follow Friday!

The Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee’s View and Alison of Alison Can Read.

Gain new followers and make new friends with the Book Blogger Feature & Follow! You are about to make some new friends and gain new followers — but you have to know — the point of this hop is to follow other bloggers also. I follow you, you follow me.

You can follow Book’d Out via RSS,  Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Networked Blogs or Email Subscription (form at right).

This week’s question:

Q: Which book genre do you avoid at all costs and why?

While my reading preferences are fairly eclectic I try to avoid the Science Fiction genre.  I’m not exactly sure why I dislike it so much, especially since I am a fan of several science fiction television series like Star Trek (The Next Generation and Voyager), Quantum Leap, Terra nova and The Jetsons but each time I try to read a purely science fiction novel I can’t seem to stay interested.

I think it’s mainly because there is a lack of familiarity with known things, I prefer to read fiction that has some grounding in the real world – which is why I love urban fantasy but rarely read high fantasy.  Science fiction books often have to spend a lot of time world building, both the physical details and the cultural/political details, and I tend to get bored quickly with the minutia of it all. I have also found a lot of the science fiction I have read to be depressing – the earth has usually succumbed to some type of  destruction whether it be environmental, alien invasion or nuclear war and in science fiction someone is almost always trying to kill someone else.

Even though I try to avoid science fiction,  I do have to read a novel from the genre for my Eclectic Reader Challenge this year so I would welcome suggestions from you :

What science fiction novel do you think I should read?

Thank you for stopping by Book’d Out  today, I will be sure to return your visit.

Make sure you visit other participants of the hop who have added their names to the Feature & Follow linky found at

Parajunkee of Parajunkee’s View and Alison of Alison Can Read.

(WordPress doesn’t support javascript so I can’t embed the linky)

Time: Maine

Author: Courtney Sullivan

Published: Atlantic Books Jan 2012

Synopsis: Three generations of women converge on the family beach house in this wickedly funny, emotionally resonant story of love and dysfunction from the author of the best-selling debut novel Commencement
The Kelleher family has been coming to Maine for sixty years. Their beachfront cottage,won on a barroom bet after the war, is a place where children run in packs, showers are taken outdoors, and threadbare sweaters are shared on chilly nights. It is also a place where cocktail hour follows morning mass, nosy grandchildren snoop in drawers, and ancient grudges simmer below the surface. As Maggie, Kathleen, and Anne Marie descend on Alice and the cottage, each woman brings her own baggage—a secret pregnancy, a terrible crush, and a deeply held resentment for misdeeds of the past.

Status: Read from January 18 to 20, 2012 {Courtesy Allen & Unwin Australia}

My Thoughts:

My own relationship with my mother is complicated so the tag line for this novel -<i>”What if the person you love the most hurt you more than any other? What if that person is your own mother?”</i> grabbed my attention. Using alternate points of view, Courtney Sullivan explores the difficult relationships between the female members of the Kelleher family.

What I found most difficult about this novel is that I could barely tolerate any of the protagonists, Alice, Kathleen, Anne Marie and Maggie. These are complex women whose flaws dominate their personalities. These are not women you would want to become or even befriend and while I appreciate the honest portrayal of their issues, I wanted to be able to connect to at least one of the four.
The story flits back and forth in time to reveal the events that have shaped these women. It is a fascinating character study however I generally found them increasingly distasteful people as Sullivan attempts to elicit sympathy for tragic events and poor choices. While I understand how family dysfunction becomes a generational legacy that is difficult to escape, I wanted to tell these women to grow up, to walk away and be honest with themselves.
Still, their stories are compelling if only because their truth is (hopefully) to lesser degree our own. Families are rife with conflict, drama, tragedy, long held resentments and grudges yet we never stop hoping things will change, and no matter how bad it gets, severing the ties of family is the hardest thing to do.

Maine is not a light read for a summer afternoon, though the title that may suggest otherwise. There really isn’t much of a plot to this novel and in the end, for me, I was left vaguely unsatisfied. There is surfeit of drama, angst and emotion but very little action or resolution. I think this is a novel you will either love or hate depending on your own experience of family.

Available To Purchase Online

In Australia: BoomerangBooks I Booktopia

International: Amazon I Book Depository

Title: Me of the Never Never

Author: Fiona O’Loughlin

Synopsis: Fiona O Loughlin is certainly the funniest (and possibly one of the busiest) working mothers in Australia today: a stand-up comedian based in Alice Springs and Adelaide, she is on the road for most of the year, doing live performances, plus regular television appearances. Fiona has also had successful shows at the Edinburgh and Adelaide fringe festivals, the Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. This book contains her stories – funny and sometimes sad stories about her upbringing as part of a large Irish-Catholic family on a wheat farm in South Australia, her chaotic and disorganised family life ever since, living in Alice Springs and making it as a stand-up comedian. She also talks of a darker side of the life of many performers – alcohol.  This book is for anyone who likes to laugh (and cry), who wants to read about a woman living her life on her terms.

Status: Read on January 21, 2012

My Thoughts:

What better time is there to post a review for an Australian celebrity than today, Australian Day! Fiona O’Loughlin is my favourite Australian comedienne and I have been wanting to get my hands on this book for quite some time.  She never fails to make me laugh, mostly I think because she is so candid about the challenges she faces as a wife and as a mother on stage.

Me of the Never Never is an honest reflection on how Fiona came to be who she is. Her family features heavily in the memoir, just as it does in her comedy routines. As one of seven children in a three bedroom house, Fiona’s upbringing may have been slightly chaotic but she was well-loved and cared for. There is genuine affection as she writes of family gatherings, eccentric aunts and annoying siblings. Many of the recollections are amusing, some, like the loss of her favourite cousin in a tragic road accident, and her recent boutwith alcoholism are sad but they are experiences that have shaped her life.
We follow Fiona from her reminisces of her Catholic school days to her courtship with husband Chris, and then to her life as a young wife and mother in Australia’s outback. Fiona has five children all born quite close together and raising them was, and still is, a challenge. Fiona is candid about the mistakes she has made as a mother and the chaos a large family entails, but her love for her children is never in doubt. Fiona has faced many obstacles to build her career, her frequent absences from her home has resulted in some social criticism but I think this memoir makes clear why Fiona has pursued it and how hard she tries to ensure her family isn’t penalised for it.

Me of the Never Never isn’t a collection of jokes and one liners, it is a story of a life lived, for better and worse. That’s not to say it isn’t funny, I found myself giggling quite a lot. The book does tend to wander down a dirt track that leads no where in particular here and there but it is an easy and interesting read. If you are a fan of Fiona O’Loughlin then you are sure to enjoy this memoir.

Here is a clip of Fiona at the Montreal Comedy Festival in 2007.

Meet Christina Brooke

Christina Brooke is a former lawyer who staged a brilliant escape from the corporate world and landed squarely in Regency England.

She was the first Australian to win the Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart Award for her first published novel and was nominated for a RITA award for her second historical romance, writing as Christine Wells. Her books have also been nominated for RT’s Reviewer’s Choice Award, Bookseller’s Best and the Australian Romantic Book of the Year Award.

Christina makes her home in sunny Queensland, Australia with her husband, two small boys and one enormous girl dog called Monty. Monty is the inspiration for Ophelia, the Great Dane in the Ministry of Marriage series. However, the resemblance of any human characters to real life people is purely accidental. Christina loves to travel, particularly to England for research and most especially to see her dear friends and colleagues in the United States. She also loves walking, window shopping for antiques and enjoying good food, good wine and good times with her friends and family.

Australian Cover

Mad About the Earl , the second in her historical romance series, Ministry of Marriage is her latest release, published in Australia by Penguin  and St Martin’s Press in the US this month. I am thrilled that she agreed to participate in my Australian Women Writers feature and answer a few question.

Welcome Christine!

Can you tell us about the The Ministry of Marriage and your newest release,  Mad About the Earl?

First of all, thank you for having me on your blog today, Shelleyrae. Lovely to be here.

I write romance set in Regency England, a time when the Romantic movement influenced not only artists of all kinds but the aristocracy, too. Prior to this, most noble families arranged marriages for their children where possible. By Regency times, love matches were becoming more common. I decided that I would write about certain noble families who form a cabal and agree to arrange marriages for the young people in their clans as a kind of last stand against this falling in love business! Thus, the body flippantly referred to as the Ministry of Marriage was born.

Mad About the Earl is about a couple who were betrothed by the Ministry of Marriage before they even met — Lady Rosamund Westruther and Griffin, Earl of Tregarth. It’s a classic beauty and the beast tale with a Regency twist. I had a lot of fun pitting the stubborn, rough-mannered Griffin against society beauty, Rosamund. Griffin thinks he is unworthy of Rosamund, but of course, Rosamund sees the wounded soul beneath the beastly exterior and she’s determined to win this big brute’s heart.

Read an excerpt of Mad About The Earl

Your series is set in the Regency era in England – what is it that you find most attractive about that period?  What would you have liked least if you had lived in the Regency period?

I love the wit and style of the Regency era and the way people could not always say what they thought—there’s a lot of subtext beneath all the witty banter.

As for what I would have liked least– I almost said that I wouldn’t have wished to be born into poverty in this era but of course, appalling poverty exists today as well. I definitely wouldn’t have liked to live in an era where the infant mortality rate was so high no matter what class you were from—it would be terribly difficult to know that at least one of my babies would probably die in infancy.

What’s the most fun thing you have done in the name of research? Have you ever attended a Regency (Reenactment) Ball for example?

I’m not very interested in acting out the past myself, although I do own a Georgian cookery book I intend to cook from…one day! Probably the most fun I have researching is visiting stately homes in England. There’s a story everywhere you look.

US Cover

Australia was in its infancy during the Regency period, will the Ministry of Marriage’s reach possibly extend as far as Australia in future title?

No, if I ever write a book set in Australia I would write it in a contemporary setting. I think even the Ministry of Marriage’s reach wouldn’t extend to the southern hemisphere!

Could you recommend three historical romance novels by Australian authors, or set in Australia, for the readers?

Midnight’s Wild Passion by Anna Campbell

Bride By Mistake by Anne Gracie

Viscount Breckenridge to the Rescue by Stephanie Laurens

What is your preference?

• Coffee/Tea or other? Coffee
• Beach/Pool or River? Beach
• Slacks/Jeans or Leggings? Slacks
• Butterfly/Tiger or Giraffe Giraffe
• Swing/Slide or Roundabout? Slide

I wonder what all that says about me! LOL

Thanks again for having me on your blog, Shelleyrae!

Thank you so much for your time Christina, I wish you much success with Mad About The Earl and future titles in the series.

Don’t miss the first Ministry of Marriage title,

———————————————-

Christina Brooke’s novels are available

@ Boomerang Books I @ Booktopia @ Fishpond

& and all good Australian bookstores

@ Amazon I @ Book Depository

Title: Cold Wind

Author: C J Box

Published: Corvus March 2011 ( Australian release: Allen & Unwin Jan 2012)

Synopsis: When Earl Alden is found dead, dangling from a wind turbine, it’s his wife, Missy, who is arrested. Unfortunately for Joe Pickett, Missy is his mother-in- law, a woman he dislikes heartily, and now he doesn’t know what to do-especially when the early signs point to her being guilty as sin.  But then things happen to make Joe wonder: Is Earl’s death what it appears to be? Is Missy being set up? He has the county DA and sheriff on one side, his wife on the other, his estranged friend Nate on a lethal mission of his own, and some powerful interests breathing down his neck. Whichever way this goes… it’s not going to be good

Status: Read from January 17 to 18, 2012 — I own a copy  (Courtesy Allen & Unwin)

My Thoughts:

Cold Wind is an enjoyable mystery/thriller set in the wilds of Wyoming, Joe Pickett is a game warden who reluctantly finds himself investigating the death of his father in law, Earl Alden. The local police immediately arrest his mother in law, Missy and while Joe i snot averse to seeing the woman locked up, it seems unlikely she shot her husband, carelessly leaving the gun covered in prints in her car, and then hauled her husband’s body 250ft in the air to hang him from the blades of his own wind turbine. Investigating on his own puts Joe at odds with the local law enforcement and DA, and without his long time friend Nate to back him up, Joe is at risk of getting in over his head.

Identifying the killer in this tightly plotted mystery isn’t easy as CJ Box presents several suspects. Earl Alden, a wealthy man had alienated many of his neighbors in his pursuit of land, had few friends to speak of and when Joe starts poking around he discovers there is something not quite right with the multi million dollar wind farm project Earl was building in a far corner of his ranch.
Bud Longbreak, Missy’s ex husband, started drinking when Missy left him to join Earl, taking his family ranch with her. It seems he is the state’s star witness insisting Missy is responsible for the murder. As bitter about the loss of the family fortune is Bud’s some who has slipped into town virtually unnoticed.
Joe can’t easily dismiss Missy either, his mother in law is the most manipulative and cold-hearted woman he has ever known but with his wife, MaryBeth, distraught at her mother’s arrest he hopes the truth will prove her innocent.
With clever misdirection, CJ Box puts all of the suspects in the frame at one time or another but just as one scenario seems most likely, an alternative is offered. Revealing the killer is, if not completely unexpected, a triumph of sorts for Joe.
Cold Wind touches on several personal issues for Joe, while happy to be back in Saddlestring – his ‘punishment’ ended the Pickett family are struggling financially in the aftermath of the GFC and Joe’s demotion, their foster daughter seems determined to make trouble and their oldest daughter is starting her first year at college. Joe’s estrangement from close friend Nate, after a disagreement in [book:Nowhere to Run|7187391] is also troubling him.
Nate provides the secondary plot for this book. He is forced out of hiding after a murderous attack on his mountain refuge and the falconer, once an elite soldier, will stop at nothing to get his revenge but his vendetta may make him vulnerable to an even greater threat.

With strong characterisation, plenty of action and a complex mystery to solve, Cold Wind is an entertaining read. Despite Cold Wind being the 11th installment in the Joe Pickett series and the only title I have read, I felt the story stood alone on it’s own merit. I do think being familiar with the history of the characters would have enhanced my satisfaction with the book, instead I am simply tempted to pick up this series from the beginning.

Available To Purchase

In Australia: @ Boomerang Books I @ Booktopia I @ Fishpond

International: @ Amazon I @ Book Depository