The Affair by Lee Child

The Affair by Lee Child

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


drat! wrote a review and lost it!



The best part was the train - the tracks go right through the town just a block off main street. Many interesting things happen during the one minute that the midnight train thunders through, drowning out everything.



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Don't Stop!

Haven't stopped reading although I haven't posted in awhile.  Be sure to see my comments in GoodReads.

Almost finished:  To End All Wars by Adam Hochschild.  A history of WWI, from the British point of view.  Enough portraits of individuals to make it very interesting.

Currently Reading:  Fragile by Lisa Unger.

Up next:  The Affair by Lee Child.

Well, this is very interesting if you follow linguistics.  Jack Reacher linguistics.

The Ballad of Tom Dooley: A Novel by Sharyn McCrumb

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Sharyn McCrumb has written several novels exploring the facts behind traditional NC mountain ballads.  In The Ballad of Tom Dooley: A Novel, McCrumb re-interprets the true story of Tom Dula, hanged for the murder of Laura Foster, the kinswoman of his true love, Ann (Foster) Melton.  In the novel, Pauline Foster, another kinswoman, travels down the mountain to Wilkes County to be treated for the pox - syphilis - by the local physician.  Pauline decides to seek the hospitality of her cousin Ann & husband James Melton.  Pauline is offended by her cousin's affair with Tom, her lack of interest in doing any work, or caring for her children.  Ann carries on with Tom Dula (Dooley) in the house while her husband and Pauline sleep nearby.  She leaves her two daughters in the care of her drunken mother.  Pauline manipulates sundry and all to bring about the murder of young Laura, presumably by Ann.  Zebulon Vance, senator and governor of North Carolina, narrates the legal side of the story.  Tom is eventually hanged, and Ann goes free, due to her great beauty, according to Pauline.



McCrumb states that she has interviewed and researched to set her version as firmly in the facts of the case as possible.  Pauline is certainly a character, interested only in herself, and taking revenge for slights against her.

If you have trouble accepting this version as a possible truth, I suggest you visit Wilkes county, NC and spend some time there.



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The Most Dangerous Thing by Laura Lippman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm not sure what to call this book - if it were a movie it would be dramatic suspense. Four childhood friends are thrown together when the fifth crashes his car into a Jersey barrier. The friends and their parents lost touch as they grew up - and because they all share a secret. Something bad happened the night of the 1973 hurricane - and all share in the guilt.

Told in episodes from the various character's viewpoints, the angst of growing up and the difficulties of being become clear. Lippman is a great storyteller. The story is haunting and suspenseful and beautifully written.

I remember that Leakin Park featured in a previous novel, perhaps What the Dead Know.

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Running Blind by Lee Child
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jack runs afoul of the FBI when women he investigated while still in the army are murdered. FBI profiler Julia Lamarr is certain Jack is a serial killer. Of course, it is much more complicated as Jack runs around trying to find the real killer and protect his girlfriend (yes, he has a girlfriend for a time). Great vacation read.

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Die Trying by Lee Child
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jack Reacher is ex-military police investigator who lives on the move - no home, no belongings, no family. Buys a new set of clothes when the old ones get too dirty. In Die Trying, Reacher is kidnapped along with an FBI agent from the Chicago streets. The kidnappers are holding her not because she is FBI, but because her father is a high-level military officer. The title is apt, because both Reacher and Holly nearly die trying to escape and to prevent a sinister plot to destroy the world. He is like John McClane in Die Hard - how many times can one man survive near-fatal assaults? With Reacher, it is a very high number.

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Death Roe: A Woods Cop Mystery by Joseph Heywood
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Somehow, I missed this one when it first came out in 2009. I read the 2011 trade paperback version. Grady Service is a Conservation Officer (Woods Cop) based in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In Death Roe, he is tipped to a conspiracy to add contraband salmon roe to Michigan roe by a state contractor. The contractor is responsible for harvesting salmon roe, returning some to the state, and uses the rest of it for commercial purposes. Grady steps on many toes trying to prove that the contractor and many state officials are corrupt.

In this "episode", Grady has been promoted to the detective division of the state DNR. He frequently wishes he could return to his regular policing duties arresting poachers. He is full of angst because of the death of his fiancee and son in the last book, and the impending birth of his grandchild. Grady is like Jane Rizzoli from the male perspective.

Had to get up in the middle of the night to finish it - couldn't wait.

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Boundary Waters: A Novel by William Kent Krueger
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the first book by Krueger I have read. It's number two in the Cork O'Connor series. It is a lot like Joseph Haywood's Woods Cop series. Cork O'Connor is the former sheriff of Aurora, Minnesota, near the Boundary Waters Quetico Wilderness area. Cork is asked to locate a young C&W singer who has exiled herself to a remote island in the Boundary Waters. As it turns out, several groups are looking for her, some of them willing to kill. Two men are claiming to be her biological father, but it is not clear whether they both wish her well. The ending was a surprise twist to me.

Cork is wounded and his wife is letting him move back into their home.

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