Friday Reads: Mr. Mercedes

"In the predawn hours, in a distressed American city, hundreds of unemployed men and women line up for the opening of a job fair.  They are tired and cold and desperate.  Emerging from the fog, invisible until it is too late, a long driver plows through the crowd in a stolen Mercedes, running over innocent, backing up, and charging again.  Eight people are killed; fifteen are wounded.  The killer escapes.

Months later, an ex-cop named Bill Hodges, still haunted by the unsolved crime, contemplates suicide.  When he gets a crazed letter from "the perk," claiming credit for the murders, Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, fearing another even more diabolical attack and hell-bent on preventing it.

Brady Hartfield lives with his alcoholic mother in the house where he was born.  He loved the feel of death under the wheels of the Mercedes, and he wants that rush again.  Only Bill Hodges, with a couple of eccentric and mismatched allies, can apprehend the killer before he strikes again.  And they have no time to lose, because Brady's next mission, if it succeeds, will kill or maim thousands.

Mr. Mercedes is a war between good and evil, from the master of suspense whose insight into the mind of his obsessed, insane killer is chilling and unforgettable."

~ Mr. Mercedes blurb

It's storming again today, so thankfully I picked this book up yesterday and have all day to listen to the rain and read.  Somewhat of a perfect setting, considering we are talking about Stephen King.  Nonetheless, I'm going into this without any expectations, other than I trust King will deliver me something enjoyable and psychotically delicious.  With a cast of dedicated, heroic-style characters, I should add.  So time to open up the window, turn up the blanket, and start diving into Mr. Mercedes.  Stay tuned for my final thoughts.

Have you read Mr. Mercedes?  Without spoiling anything, what did you think of it?  1-5 stars, where does it gauge?

Not So Plaid. Much Too Dull

“Elegant, porcelain-skinned Genna Jing is sure her latest designs are worth a fortune.  That’s why she is willing to pay the fifty grand being demanded by the person who stole her design book.  But when Lydia--backed by her partner Bill Smith--makes the drop, everything goes wrong.  Soon a simple case of high-fashion extortion leads Lydia and Bill from Chinatown to Park Avenue, and from murder to more money: a million dollars in exchange for a missing man’s life…”

~ Mandarin Plaid blurb

Final Thoughts in a Flash!

You know, it’s funny that I put up a fuss two years ago, surprised by how the second book in the Lydia Chin/Bill Smith hard-boiled private eye series, Concourse, featured a narrative strictly from Bill’s first-person view.  See, after the first book, China Trade, I wanted Lydia back; and there was no wrestling me away from that wish.  Nonetheless, it took me two years to get over the fact that S. J. Rozan takes her two private eyes and exchange their narratives book by book.  So I was swollen with the ignorant expectation that Concourse would be filled with a bunch of masculine bull and cock; Bill Smith smoking cigarettes and acting like an ass to women and men alike.  Ironically, he did most of all of that in which I just mentioned--but ever so subtle and charismatically done.  I was afraid that Bill Smith would come across as some type of trope-like private eye.  However, after reading the actual book, I came to realize that he had some of those apprehensive characteristics, but with the addition of multi-dimensional layers used to illustrate who he really was.  So in essence, I liked Bill.  Concourse was not only better than the first book in the series, but it was probably one of the better mysteries that I’ve read in a hot minute.

Really.  I was surprised and angered at myself for taking two years to give Bill the chance he deserved.

So two months later here I am with Mandarin Plaid, finding myself bored to tears sweeping my way through a dull, pedestrian-level mystery.  Additionally, through a narrative that just really isn’t all that captivating.  Or at least isn’t as interesting as Bill.  So yes.  I’ve finally stated how wrong and shallow I am to think that Lydia Chin’s voice/books within the series would be superior to Bill’s.  I was sure that the reason I picked up this series was because, as a Chinese-American woman, Lydia would shower me with diversity and a unique narrative angle in the mystery genre.  And she did.  To be completely fair.  Just that in the end, it wasn't all that amazing in Mandarin Plaid.  I put most of the blame on how I felt like Rozan didn't give Lydia a story as thrilling, gritty, or even challenging like she gave Bill in Concourse.  As I mentioned earlier in the post, Mandarin Plaid was quite pedestrian, and if there was one thrilling part in the entire book, it was during a moment where Lydia had to defend herself from a veiled attacker.  Which I might add was rather easy to deduct, concerning who was behind the mask.

That’s not to say that Mandarin Plaid didn't have its good parts.  It had its plot twist and turns and somewhat of a sue flay rising mystery.  However, the better parts were the nuggets of race and sexual orientation conversations built between certain side characters.  Like a wealthy mother willing to pull out all the stops to keep her son from a relationship with a Chinese-American fashion designer.  Most emphasis on the fact that she's Chinese and, therefore, labeled a "gold-digger" by the mother.  Also, Lydia’s gay brother, Andrew, and his partner takes root within the context of the mystery with all stereotypes thankfully removed.  And I always enjoy Lydia’s tryst with her Chinese mother, who berates Lydia with Chinese proverbs and warnings related to both Lydia’s lackluster love life and profession as a P.I.  Things like that are always sweet.  But the thrill in this book was left severely wanting.

Nevertheless, S. J. Rozan’s tight use of language remains in place, with the exception of a few moments in the dialogue where characters consistently shouted “what” to one another after receiving information related to the mystery.

Just a dull read in the long run.  As I said, the case Rozan employed on Lydia was mediocre.  Perhaps that has a lot to do with Lydia's new found profession as a private eye.  Maybe it has to do with her partner's masculinity "deserving" of more challenging cases.  It doesn't matter, though.  I will be back for book four.  Hiccups in a series are always allowed.  And I trust that Lydia will shine brighter in the future.

Paretsky's Orders

A startling event happened after reading the third book in Sara Paretsky’s V. I. Warshawski hard-boiled P.I. series--I wasn't overwhelmed by her normally convoluted mystery set up.  This go-round it revolved around stock certificates and thoughtful correlations between the Chicago mob and the Catholic church.  However, let me push aside the latter two to focus on the stock certificates ingredient.  Oh, and how that mixed into stock shares, securities, bond markets, and other sprinkled financial components.  While I am exaggerating, I do have to say that the subject matter in Killing Orders was handled a lot less intricately than the subjects of Paretsky’s previous two offerings, which entertained insurance fraud [Indemnity Only] the Chicago shipping industry [Deadlock].  Some may get what Paretsky is laying down the first time, but for me, I had to study the topics her P.I. delved into to understand and follow what’s unfolding in her books.  Especially because her topics pertain so closely to her murder mystery.  Luckily, Killing Orders was the easiest of the three to follow.

It all began when St. Albert’s Priory decided to retrieve their stock certificates to cash in for a new roof.  Unfortunately, those stock certificates turned out as fakes.  So naturally, the church’s treasurer member is taken to task.  Said treasurer happens to be V. I. Warshawski’s nasty, venom-dribbling great-aunt, Rosa.  And she's a woman who has held a grudge worth a millennium against V. I.--or specifically, V.I.’s mother Gabriella.  Nevertheless, as the treasurer of St. Albert’s Priory, Rosa finds herself under investigation by the FBI and SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) on suspicions of exchanging the church’s real stock certificates for counterfeits.  Acknowledging how somber her situation is, the bitter, grudge-soaked Rosa swallows a wedge of her pride and sends for her niece.  Thankfully, her niece happens to be Chicago’s hot-shot female P.I., V.I. Warshawski.  And this shit only gets better!

So, sworn by her dying mother to always, always look after her aunt should she need help, V. I. takes on her aunt Rosa as a client.  Almost regrettably, it turns out that Rosa’s situation is anything but undemanding.  The further V.I. uncovers the truth behind the counterfeit stock certificates, the further the stakes are raised in her direction.  And when an odd phone call threatens to throw acid in V.I.’s eyes, the case becomes very personal.  V. I. calculates how the Chicago mob and the Catholic church are two potent institutions hosting a number of potential aggressors to their individual causes.  Therefore, she quickly learns to traverse around their deadly paths, while uncovering deep family secrets and some of the finer examples of greed and murder by desperation.

Easily a five-star read!  I have to tell you, I couldn't put this book down.  Out of the three I've read so far in this series, Killing Orders is my favorite!  And I should also add that I think I'm finally won on V. I. Warshawski.  However, to be totally honest, I had the intention of cramming her down my throat until I did like her enough.  Therefore, while I've always delighted in V.I.’s ability to shoot a gun and kick ass, it finally dawned on me in Killing Orders exactly how vulnerable and human V.I. actually is.  Much to my complete and utter satisfaction.  

First let’s do away with her appealing ability to make many bad decisions and mistakes, as well as the spring of curse words she has in her arsenal (confrontational scenes are one of my favorites in P.I. novels because of this).  Instead, I stress her vulnerability in light of how this book dedicated itself to illuminating pieces of V. I.’s family history to help develop her as a multi-dimensional character, and not just a woman on a mission.  

You would think that because V.I.'s parents have long passed that there is only room for a solitary, one-note existence contained by her profession as a private investigator.  However, she actually has stand-ins for a mother and father who save her from the miffed, cynical woman she could've become.  Her “mother” is a Viennese physician named Lotty.  And her “father” is a police officer named Bobby Mallory, who worked alongside V. I.’s actual father on the Chicago police force.  Both Lotty and Mallory devoted themselves to V.I.’s well-being, as evident in Killing Orders by their ability to see beyond V.I. herself.  They were the characters who wholly disagreed, argued, and fought with her and her lifestyle as a P.I.  They drew her riling mind in with reason and force, determined to appeal against her magnetism for danger.  All that can be considered when V.I.’s actual blood relative, Rosa, rather have no relationship with her because of her decades old grudge with V.I.’s mother (the same can be said for V.I. who rather not have a relationship with Rosa either).  Added to the fact that Rosa drew V.I. into danger, as opposed to against it.  And even more of an addition, Rosa was a thoroughly religious woman, but could not practice forgiveness for a wrong V.I. didn't even commit.  One thing I can say is that Rosa and V. I. are alike in both their fire and stubbornness.  But thankfully that's about the sum of their connection.

Readers may not recognize this, but there’s a difference between plot and story.  Plot is all that the character does.  Story is all that a character becomes by the end of the novel.  Killing Orders did each of these so, tense, stylishly, and balanced that even I wanted to cry for V.I. toward the end.

A must read if you love hard-boiled detective fiction! 

Pieces of Mae Brown

I read a review once that expressed how Rita Mae Brown’s sleuthing feline series, Mrs. Murphy Mysteries, grow stale as the series continues.  I'm choosing not to buy into that thought just yet, especially because I’m only two books deep in the series and enjoying myself too damn much to believe it.  Or, in fact, enjoying Brown’s “creamy” way with words, character, and ability to uncurl a good cozy mystery.  

It didn't take me long to finish Rest in Pieces.  One day I took the book, laid across the bed, and didn't stop reading until I was halfway through.  The following day, I didn't get out of bed (except for a quick breakfast) until I finished the book before noon.  See, I just had to know what the hell was going on in the small town Brown created and disrupted with murder.  

So I sprawled in bed with no real-life concerns, flooded with elementary school nostalgia from watching talking animal movies like the 90's Homeward Bound and Babe.  Mrs. Murphy and Tucker--a cat and dog duo--were just too enjoyable to put aside.  Nevertheless, my churning curiosity bubbled up in concerns to the pieces of a corpse littering the small, tight-knit community of Crozet, Virginia.  And whether or not Crozet's postmistress, mother of our cat and dog duo, and amateur sleuth, Mary Minor Maristeen (Harry), has the sally to uncover a murderer alongside her talkative pets.

The hook of this series remains that the animals solve the crime.  However, that soft touch doesn't take away from the gritty appeal for murder and small town mayhem that has completely taken me over from within this series.  Can't wait for book three!

Yes, Her Storytelling is Afloat

Taken from The Floating Girl blurb

...After a hostile takeover aided by a deceptively perky college intern, the Gaijin [Foreigner] Times has adopted a comic book format to attract more readers.  It falls upon Rei [Shimura] to write something glowing about the history of comic book art.  During a weekend of research and relaxation at her boyfriend Takeo's beachside house, Rei stumbles on an exquisitely drawn modern comic book that reveals the disturbing social milieu of pre-World War II Japan.

Rei's exhaustive search for the comic book's twenty-something creators leads to three college students.  When one of them turns up dead in a scene straight out of the comic, the art story turns into a murder investigation.  Rei finds herself floating through strip clubs, animation shops, and coffeehouses to get the true story--and to save her own skin.

I sigh with both contempt and elation.  The Floating Girl is the fourth book in the Rei Shimura mystery series, and I’m starting to notice a peculiar trend of loving every other book in the series between the four I've read at this point.  For some reason, I find myself disappointed in the lukewarm, watered-down offers between said other books.  However, first I should be clear in stating that The Floating Girl was a step better than the second book in the series, Zen Attitude.  Zen Attitude was so disappointing and tepid that I took a two-year hiatus from the series after stumbling my way through its rootless mystery.  Nevertheless, The Floating Girl was not the knockout that The Salaryman’s Wife [Book 1] and The Flower Master [Book 3] were.  In all respects, the problem came from the contriving events sprinkled throughout to encourage and push an already mushy mystery.  Mushy in the sense that there were too many structural threads dangling, trying to come together by force; furthermore, through the behaviors and actions of rather quasi secondary (or third) characters.  

One example of the above concerns took place in an ocean scene, within the coastal town of Hayama, Japan.  At this point in the book Rei has theorized that the Japanese crime syndicate, known as the yakuza, who frequent a beach bar in the area, organized the book's murder.  However, having sly interviewed two individuals at the bar, she comes to the conclusion that both are unconnected to the yakuza or the murder.  She can't pilfer any information they don't own, after all.  So what does Rei decide to do next?  She decides to go for a swim to appear unpretentious to the curiously eying innocents to her cause.  That's right.  A swim.  Then this severely staged and cooked-up event happens...

Hayama ~ Societeperrier.com

I coughed violently, whipping my head around so that I could search for swimmers near enough to call to for help.  Ten feet away were a couple of teenagers shooting each other with water guns.  They had been having so much fun, they'd missed the fact that I'd almost drowned.  I knew now that seaweed had not pulled me down--rather, it had been the curved rubber pipe of a snorkel.  Now that the job was done, the man calmly slipped his snorkel in the side of his mouth.

"How are you?" he asked conversationally.  It was like hearing someone talk with a cigar in his mouth.

"Fine," I replied automatically.  I looked at him.  He had flat, unhandsome features, narrow eyes, and chicken pox scar on his forehead.  He was balding.  This was no Kunio Takahashi, that was for sure.

He raised a hand over his eyes as a shield against the sun and looked straight at me.  His gaze was chilling.  "You asked the wrong fellows about business," he said.  "I can tell you what you need to know."

He really was yakuza.  Even though the hand over his eyes had all the fingers intact, I suddenly knew.  The fact that he still had his pinky finger meant that he hadn't been punished for making any mistakes.

I said, still spitting out some water, "I don't think so.  You're more interested in hurting me than helping me."

"I was simply trying to get your attention.  At the bar you didn't notice me."  The man spoke politely, with a faint accent from the Kansai region.  He sounded very different from the working-class joes I've mistaken for gangsters.

"You almost killed me," I said.

"No," he said.  "My superiors have no interest in harming you."

One: He did try to kill her.  Or at least you would think that's how high the stakes have gotten in her investigation.  Nevertheless, instead it was all just a ridiculous show to "get her attention."  Two: How awkward and forced this scene is!  Or is it really just me?  I don't care for the author's setup if it concludes to something so inorganic as a confrontation in the middle of the ocean with a fully gilled yakuza gangster who thought it better to toy with our sleuth instead of taking her head on.  So I guess what I'm trying to say is how do you go from interviewing potential suspects (who didn't know they were suspects), to taking a swim, to having some gangster submerged in the ocean watching you, who then attempts to drown you to "get your attention?"

Please help me out here!  

And there were plenty more of these contrive events.  One of them involves a randomly unnecessary army of motorcycle bousouzoku (Japanese for "reckless tribe") terrorizing Rei, but having no true purpose to the overall mystery other than delivering her lost address book.  They drove in on their bikes heightening the tension.  However, one of them simply threw a package; they drove out.  No conversation.  No nothing.  So what was in the package?  The address book Rei lost previously at the beach bar.

Please help me out here!  Please!  

Those are only two examples, which most likely attributed to the week and a half it took me to soak into the book and close it out.

However, let me share what I did like about this book--so enough of the unbelievable.  As always, Massey dishes out the details and dealings surrounding Japanese culture.  As mentioned in the blurb I shared, the theme of The Floating Girl is the Japanese youth subculture.  Apparently, that brief, awkward scene with the bousouzoku was meant to be an illustration of Japanese subculture.  Which was probably why it came across as a random injection of sorts and not a sound storytelling device.  Nonetheless, much of the subject of subculture in the book revolves around manga and anime; I glowed happily whenever Sailor Moon's name was mentioned.  The other half takes on Rei's constant struggle with owning her Japanese manners.  Being half-Japanese, she acknowledges what Japanese manners require, yet given the situation, she usually does the opposite.  This is always hilarious.  So if all else fails, I do enjoy Rei Shimura herself.  

So with all that said, I look forward to the fifth book in the series, The Bride's Kimono.  I think that overall I'm not going to find many mystery series taking place in Japan with a female sleuth of Japanese origin.  Nor a writer who likes the spread the knowledge.  Even if it sometimes come across through a spin of forced, graceless storytelling.     

Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris

So I finally finished Midnight Crossroad.  Although it’s been a slow reading month, I’m happy to say that it didn’t take me over a week to finish the book (unlike Sujata Massey‘s The Floating Girl).  I say that mainly because Midnight Crossroad was both easy to put down at times, then not so easy.  So it certainly had a revved-go-halt feel to it concerning my personal sense of its pacing.  That doesn't disregard my overall enjoyment of the book and its cast of dusty, supernatural characters hunching together over a Texian (hoo-hoo) murder mystery.  No, that’s only to say that as much as there were arid, unfulfilling chapters, there were just as many (and more) entrancing ones.  Nevertheless, I believe the true seduction to the first book in Charlaine Harris’s fresh series remains within her party of characters.  And I can gladly state that I live in anticipation for the following two books in her new trilogy, especially because she gives you just enough overarching plot and room for character development to bread-crumb you into the proceeding offerings.

So in reflection of my Friday Reads post--where I posted my many speculations about the book--I should share what Midnight Crossroad is really about.  The book opens with an introductory scope of the town Midnight, Texas.  You get the single stoplight.  The old, occupied settings/buildings the characters frequent.  And the registry of West Texas climate and terrain.  So it’s clear that this is a place for seclusion, touched with Harris’s mystical wonders.  Seriously, you just know something isn't right about this town.  

Harris's description of the town comes further expressed in the form of Manfred Bernardo’s arrival in the opening chapters.  Searching for solitude, he’s the psychic of this developing group of supernatural (and natural) characters.  Those familiar with Manfred will realize that he came plucked from Charlaine Harris’s Harper Connelly series.  Next on the list of peculiar people populating Midnight is Manfred’s landlord and owner of the town’s pawnshop, Bobo Winthrop.  Now this took me a really, really good minute to realize this, and I had to sort of mentally cross check Bobo’s background with my suspicions.  Eventually I came to realize that Bobo Winthrop was a character pulled from Charlaine Harris’s Lily Bard series.  It clicked the minute Bobo shared information regarding his racist father, and the reasoning behind his migration to Midnight.  With Bobo tied into the book's murder plot, it dawned on me that the bulk of Midnight Crossroad’s mystery element bubbled out of the mystery contained in the second book in Harris’s Lily Bard series, Shakespeare’s Champion.  When all this clicked, I found myself grinning (as you all know how much I love the Lily Bard books).

One other character comes into Midnight Crossroad from another of Harris’s series; however, the new character--and my personal favorite from within this new venture--is the character of Fiji Cavanaugh.  Fiji is the owner of a New Age shop called The Inquiring Mind.  She sells rearing unicorn statues and stuff like cold case resin statues of dragon fairies.  That’s not all, however.  Considering she identifies herself as a witch (or Wicca), she also sells herbs from her backyard and gives spiritual classes related to her religion.  Fiji easily became my favorite for a host of reasons--besides her being a witch.  She just had that resonance of practicality and reason that I attached to.  Plus, her cat can talk.

Several characters leaked from these three series by Harris

Stack in a gay couple, an odd blond woman who isn’t afraid of enticing murder, and a vampire serving some of the strangest of customers after hours in the pawn shop, and you have a recipe for unscripted scenarios and some tough character motivations.  And the ball begins rolling during a peaceful picnic where Harris’s collection of misfit characters run across the dead body of Bobo Winthrop’s missing girlfriend, Aubrey Hamilton.  Under his duress, this loving casts them comes together to gather their powers--and brains--to seek out the culprit.

And let me clarified how that is absolutely not all contained within their first story.  There are other complexities, complications, and layers worth exploring.  Oh, and several moral dilemmas that even I walked away scratching my head at their conclusion; slightly upset by Harris's set up to be honest.  Yep.  As much as I liked this cast of characters, they were sometimes dimwitted.  I have to stay frank.  However, the funny thing is that this book reminded me of how ruthless Charlaine Harris’s characters can often be.  It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but if I can see a different outcome to a situation, I don't understand how a party of six or so sit on a moral panel and not think differently from one another.  Or at least contest their options thoroughly.

[That last paragraph was vague to save a spoiler!  Come express your thoughts after you've read the book (^_^)]

Another hiccup I had with the book had less to do with the material and more to do with Harris’s reliability with unfolding her characters' state of affairs to the reader.  Given that a multitude of characters bucket-brigade the book, their voices/roles are shared through the third person.  Very well.  That’s a first for Charlaine Harris.  Nonetheless, a problem fell in those moments where important information arrives second-handedly to the reader.  But first let me backtrack a bit and state that the principle characters are Manfred, Bobo, and Fiji.  So while those characters seemingly outside the trio may get a pass for having significant activities take place off-stage, I did find myself frustrated when Fiji reveals important information to Bobo about an e-mail she received from one of her customers related to the mystery.  I had a moment of “excuse me, but why wasn't I there when you got that email?” cross over me.  Clues, red herrings and misdirections must be uncovered to the reader in time with the character providing the sleuthing.  It's no biggie, however.  It didn't take away from the overall experience.

So on that note, I have confirmed that I am absolutely in love with Charlaine Harris’s new series.  It had its moments with both pacing and an unassured narrative flow.  Maybe I'm just a fan of Harris that I'm bias and prone to find a reason to love everything she writes any damn way.  But still, that permeating breeze of mystery surrounding both her peculiar characters and the backbone of the book is what really drove it all home.  Be ready for puzzles, intrigue, and somewhat caginess toward the characters’ rash decisions.  But mostly, be prepared to occupy yourself within Midnight, Texas.

Please share your thoughts if you've read Midnight Crossroad.

Friday Reads: Midnight Crossroads

"Welcome to Midnight, Texas, a town with many boarded-up windows and few full-time inhabitants, located at the crossing of Witch Light Road and the Davy highway.  It's pretty standard dried-up western town.

There's a pawnshop (someone who lives in the basement is seen only at night).  There's a diner (people who are just passing through tend not to linger).  And there's a new resident Manfred Bernardo, who thinks he's found the perfect place to work in private (and who has secrets of his own).

Stop at the one traffic light in town, and everything looks normal.  Stay awhile, and learn the truth..."

Midnight Crossroad synopsis

Like a big dummy I waited a week and a couple of days to finally pick up the first book in Charlaine Harris’s new series, Midnight Crossroads.  Well… actually there was a money-saving, Chicago-headed reason behind that.  And now that I won't be heading to Chicago later this month, and I've already spent money renewing a driver’s license that was a month and thirteen days expired (!!!), I decided to stop fooling around and treat myself [snicker].  See, there was no doubt that I was going to grab Midnight Crossroads, especially because I enjoyed my yearly expeditions through Sookie Stackhouse’s (see my “Farewell Sookie Stackhouse” post) riotous love life and Harris’ darker (and further enjoyable) Lily Bard series.  I may not have made it beyond the first book of Harris’ Aurora Teagarden series--yet.  And I'm still hoping I’ll get to the final book in her Harper Connelly series one day.  But with all that aside I am definitely where I want to be with her current offering.

Because Midnight Crossroads is the first book in a trilogy of her new series, I deliberately avoided Amazon and Goodreads reviews.  So I basically have no idea what this book is about other than it takes place in a dust bin Texas town with one traffic light.  I know it'll include many characters, and because Charlaine Harris wrote it, they'll have funny names.  I have yet to determine if it is paranormal-based, but I can count that the backbone of the plot revolves around a cozy mystery of some sort.  I say that in consideration of Harris’ writing catalog.  The mystery (or paranormal element) will surround a pawn shop--which sounds fun and dangerous at the same time.  So I'm kind of guessing something along the lines of Stephen King’s Needful Things crossed with maybe a touch of Hulu’s original series, The Booth at the End.  I'll stick with those two with a grain of salt, though.


Well, enough speculation.  Midnight Crossroads will be my Friday Reads (and on forward until I finish it I suppose).  While it’s ever possible to go spend time with a friend, it’ll be me, birthday cake crème flavored Oreos, and maybe one episode of Ghost Adventures tonight.  Then… a cozy night of reading…

And reviewing at a later date…

Here's to a fresh start Mrs. Harris.

Have you read Midnight Crossroads?  Please, no spoilers, but between 1-5 stars, what would you rate it?  Better than Sookie Stackhouse, anyone?  No, no.  Don't answer that.  (^.^)