X by Sue Grafton | Final Thoughts (Video)

In case you missed my written thoughts, click HERE.

The Swimming Pool Library | Final Thoughts (VIDEO)

In case you missed it, click HERE for the written thoughts.

FRIDAY READS: Depraved Heart by Patricia Cornwell (READING UPDATE)

Let's pray this year's Scarpetta novel makes a lot more structural sense than last year's...

According to Amazon:

Dr. Kay Scarpetta is working a suspicious death scene in Cambridge, Massachusetts when an emergency alert sounds on her phone. A video link lands in her text messages and seems to be from her computer genius niece Lucy. But how can it be? It’s clearly a surveillance film of Lucy taken almost twenty years ago.

As Scarpetta watches she begins to learn frightening secrets about her niece, whom she has loved and raised like a daughter. That film clip and then others sent soon after raise dangerous legal implications that increasingly isolate Scarpetta and leave her confused, worried, and not knowing where to turn. She doesn’t know whom she can tell—not her FBI husband Benton Wesley or her investigative partner Pete Marino. Not even Lucy.

In this new novel, Cornwell launches these unforgettable characters on an intensely psychological odyssey that includes the mysterious death of a Hollywood mogul’s daughter, aircraft wreckage on the bottom of the sea in the Bermuda Triangle, a grisly gift left in the back of a crime scene truck, and videos from the past that threaten to destroy Scarpetta’s entire world and everyone she loves. The diabolical presence behind what unfolds seems obvious—but strangely, not to the FBI. Certainly that’s the message they send when they raid Lucy’s estate and begin building a case that could send her to prison for the rest of her life.

In the latest novel in her bestselling series featuring chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Cornwell will captivate readers with the shocking twists, high-wire tension, and cutting-edge forensic detail that she is famous for, proving yet again why she’s the world’s #1 bestselling crime writer.

~Backup~  But is it really necessary?

Tonight I'm going in on Patricia Cornwell's latest Scarpetta release, Depraved Heart.  I'm praying on everything it's better than last year's Flesh and Blood.  I won't even plot my expectations in this post.  At the end of the day, I love Kay Scarpetta.  I just don't have any reservations for taking digs at Cornwell's story should it fall short.  So it's time to light the candles, turn on the heater, and slip under the covers for another crime-riddled adventure.  That hopefully makes some damn sense!  No seriously, last year's Flesh and Blood was so bad I DNF'ed it and skipped to the last pages.

So stay tuned for the results...

IN OTHER NEWS.  If Cornwell's latest fails, I have this interesting book to fall back on.  For some reason I went to two different stores in search of Tess Gerritsen's latest, Playing with Fire.  It was my intent to have it handy as a weekend reading back up to Cornwell.  However, I just couldn't find it.  Not even Barnes and Nobles had the book out!  Regardless, I finally got the balls to take on William C. Dietz's urban fantasy novel, Deadeye.

HAPPY READING, EVERYONE!

{Saturday - 10/31 Reading Update - 10:39pm}

Depraved Heart has been in my lap all morning.  I woke at about 8am and didn't get out of bed (officially) until 1pm.  I'm 262 pages in and I have to say I'm really, really enjoying it.  It has absolutely zero motion.  No motion or traction at all.  Characters sit around from scene to scene deducting, contemplating, and rehashing a collection of concerns and story matter.  Zero moment.  Yet!  I absolutely am hooked as to what's going on, and where the story will go.  I may be bias because I genuinely like Scarpetta's first person POV, as well as the other characters.  So I don't feel too slighted by the lack of movement in the story.  It's like sitting down with old friends and....  I'll leave that for later.  No, really.  I'm actually enjoying the book.  Besides, the weather–which is wet and chilly–helps the experience.  I'm hoping to have the book complete tomorrow.  Much, much better than last year's disaster, Flesh and Blood.  While Depraved Heart reads like a stalled jalopy, it's a lot more reader-friendly and comprehensible than the spaghetti-splaying Flesh and Blood.

Creatures of the Night BOOK TAG (Video)

CREATURES OF THE NIGHT BOOK TAG
(All links are Amazon affiliate)

1. Vampire - Buffy, The Vampire Slayer: Child of the Hunt

2. Werewolf - Bad Blood by L. A. Banks3. Zombie - Devil's Wake by Tananarive Due & Steven Barnes4. Ghost - Remember Me by Christopher Pike5. Witch/Warlock/Spellcaster - Diana Tregarde Investigations by Mercedes Lackey6. Fairy/Fae - Kiss of Shadows by Laurell K. Hamilton7. Demon - The Bitten by L. A. Banks8. Angel - Surrender the Dark by L. A. Banks9. Alien - Lilith's Brood by Octavia Butler10. Superpowered human - Lies & Omens by Lyn Benedict11. Robots - Christina Aguilera: A Star is Born by Pier Dominguez

Devoted to Robb–and Eve Dallas

TODAY: Book number 41 in J. D. Robb’s insanely popular and lengthy futuristic police procedural series, Devoted in Death.  And while it would help to provide a quick, peachy rundown of what this series contains... I’d rather not.  No.  Seriously.  Condensing 41 books is asking for too much hell.  Besides, I’ve been posting about this series all year.  Ever since I decided to hop back on the Robb-Wagon (best decision ever) after taking two years off.  Thus, this post is probably more objective to those familiar with the world of In Death.

Devoted to Story

So what murderous crime takes place in Devoted in Death–as the 41st book in the series?  To start, New York homicide Lieutenant, Eve Dallas, investigates the brutal killing of a cellist.  His body turns up in downtown Manhattan, in an area known as Mechanics Alley.  Mechanics Alley is part of New York’s low-level district.  It's a district populated with seedy characters.  The prostitutes, gang members, and drug dealers there are far removed from the cellist's circles.  And the street is blocks away from his actual residents.  With his body slumped before a graffiti-covered wall, Eve concludes the body was dumped.  Further examination uncovers a carving in his skin.  It consists of a heart with the initials E and D slashed inside.

So just who the hell are E and D?

E and D stands for Ella-Loo and her boyfriend, Darryl.  These mid-west killers been hitting the road for New York, murdering and robbing along the way.  And, unfortunate to them, Eve Dallas’s radar.  The spree murders started when their car broke down in Arkansas.  Unwilling to waste time, Ella-Loo proceeded to bludgeon a man to snatch his vehicle in its place.  The couple’s taste for fusing murder and sex bloomed and intensified via a stream of murders.  Murders leading to Ella-Loo's dream of New York.  Dallas and her squad will trace their crimes.  And with the help of a former detective handling one of the couple’s murders, as well as the FBI.

It’s Bonnie and Clyde gone ultra-postal.

The ULTIMATE Rita Mae Brown Mrs. Murphy Housekeeping (Haul)

Something in my spirit told me to do this–to go to my local public library.  My intention was to get off my ass and actually write my thoughts out on J. D. Robb's Devoted in Death.  And I got some of that done AFTER I raided the library's used bookstore for an opportunity only a fool would pass up.  Well, only if you're into cozy mysteries where pets help solve the crime.  

I came across a slew of mint (hell, I'd call them new) condition Rita Mae Brown hardbacks.  And by Rita Mae Brown, I mean her Mrs. Murphy cozy mystery series.  You know.  The series I've been screaming and crying about all year on this blog.  Click on the tags below to get what I mean.  

But how much were they apiece?  $1.50!  While there were eight (the last one wasn't in good condition), I walked out with seven.  The real kicker is they are in READING ORDER!  And even more exciting, they're in reading order following the book I just finished!  (Literally, I don't have to go to Amazon and throw money on books and shipping.)  With 24 books to date in the series, this is a decent chunk I've just collected.  

So let's sum this up.  Like-new condition.  Hardbacks.  $1.50.  Reading order.  Nothing was stopping me from this opportunity.  I overheard the workers speaking to one another about cleaning out the library's attic, and can only wonder if this is where these books came from.

Here's what I got.  I'll link each book to their Goodreads profile as well...

ASMR Whisper Reading: Naked in Death by J. D. Robb

For those unfamiliar with the term, I'm going to cheat and add Wikipedia's definition of what ASMR means...

Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) is a neologism for a perceptual phenomenon characterized as a distinct, pleasurable tingling sensation in the head, scalp,back, or peripheral regions of the body in response to visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, or cognitive stimuli. The nature and classification of the ASMR phenomenon is controversial, with much anecdotal evidence of the phenomenon but little or no scientific explanation or verified data.

For the FULL article, click HERE.