Hoofball Reading Log 2013

Hoofball

59)
Author: Jeffrey Deaver

Title: The October List

Comment: I am a big fan of Deaver but I haven't like his last two books, the last Lincoln Rhyme book and this one. This is set up as a thriller written in reverse so it starts with the ending and works back. Given this approach you don't really get a satisfactory ending and it's fairly tedious to read. There are some twists in the story but some of them are a bit silly to say the least. The book is only 256 pages long but felt like about 10,000. It took me quite a while to read this as I really didn't enjoy it. I'm not going to say anything about the plot other than it's about a woman and her kidnapped daughter and how it happened etc. Don't bother with this book is my recommendation.

Score: 3/10

Hoofball

60)
Author: Hugh Howey

Title: Dust

Comment: I was so looking forward to reading the last book in this trilogy and unfortunately it was a little bit disappointing. You need to have read the previous two books to understand what is going on so this is not a book you can read as a standalone and you cannot read this one before the others. This books brings to a conclusion the Silo trilogy and has some major plot turns in it. I'm not going to say much about the plot as it would give things away but we do get to follow several characters in different silos again in this book. It's still well worth a read and if you've read the previous two you have to read this third book. The author has clearly grown a bit with respect to his writing and it shows in this book.

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

61)
Author: James Patterson

Title: Cross my Heart

Comment: This is a good addition to the series but be forewarned that this book ends on a cliffhanger - the story is not completed in the book. Alex Cross and his family are stalked by a deranged killer while he is working on a case. His family are under threat again and this time it gets more deadly. One thing I didn't really like about this book was the fact that a character reappears and it doesn't make a huge amount of sense. The second thing is that Patterson reduces some of the tension at the end of the book when he gives something away. The cliffhanger would have been a lot better without that potential reveal. A quick read as usual with short and snappy chapters.

Score: 8/10

Hoofball

62)
Author: Lee Child

Title: Never Go Back

Comment: Reacher travels back to Virginia to a military base as he wanted to meet the new CO as he liked her voice on the phone. When he gets there she has been arrested. Reacher is in trouble too as he is accused of a murder from 16 years ago. He has to save himself and the CO, Susan Turner. This isn't one of the better Reacher novels and Child seems to be running out of steam in this series. The plot was a bit too out there in this one and there is a lack of definite "villan" in the book. An OK addition but one for the series fans

Score: 6/10

Hoofball

63)
Author: Linda Fairstein

Title: Death Angel

Comment: The blurb for this book is: "In New York's Central Park, Assistant DA Alex Cooper and Detective Mike Chapman race to track down a serial killer before yet another young woman is found dead. Is the body found in the Ramble the first victim of a deranged psychopath, or could other missing women be connected to this savage attack? "

This is a good book and better than the previous one in the series (Night Watch). There is a lot of interesting information given about Central Park throughout the plot as well as the park plays a central role in the novel. Worth a read

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

64)
Author: Michael Connelly

Title: Gods of Guilt

Comment: This is a legal thriller from Connelly with Mickey Haller as the main character. Haller gets a text saying "Call me ASAP - 187". He finds out that the victim is a previous client who he helped get out of a bad life a few years back. There is also a good subplot involving Hallers personal life and especially his estrangement from his daughter. This is one to read.

Score: 8/10

Hoofball

65)
Author: Jason Mott

Title: The Returned

Comment: This is the book that inspired the french tv series. It is about people who start returning from the dead, appearing exactly as they did just before they died. One of the central characters is an eight year old boy who drowned forty years previously. All over the world the same thing is happening and no-one knows why.

This is a strange book with a brilliant premise but the author does not use it effectively in my opinion. There's no explanation of how this is happening, where the "dead" are coming from or going to. The book doesn't fit into any real genre as such, it's not a horror novel despite the plot. Having said all that, there are pieces of the book which are excellently written and it does hold your attention. I just think the author could have done with a stronger editor to give more direction.

Score: 7/10

Hoofball

66)
Author: David Baldacci

Title: King And Maxwell

Comment: The sixth novel in the King/Maxwell series is a good addition. They are ex-secret service agents who are now private investigators. They come across a teenaged boy on a road during a storm and get wrapped up in an international plot. The boy, Tyler Wingo, has been told his father was killed in Afghanistan but he got an email from him the next day. He hires the PI's to investigate but the military are trying to block them. This book zips along nicely but the ending was a bit too much and the plot ending is completely unbelievable.

Score: 7/10

Johnwayne98

The killing of Roy De Meo is a mystery. In kuklinskis book, kuklinski claims to have personally shot him dead,while in the book"murder machine",there's a completely different version.

Johnwayne98

The killing of Roy De Meo is a mystery. In kuklinskis book, kuklinski claims to have personally shot him dead,while in the book"murder machine",there's a completely different version.

Johnwayne98

The killing of Roy De Meo is a mystery. In kuklinskis book, kuklinski claims to have personally shot him dead,while in the book"murder machine",there's a completely different version.

Hoofball

Johnwayne98 wrote: »

The killing of Roy De Meo is a mystery. In kuklinskis book, kuklinski claims to have personally shot him dead,while in the book"murder machine",there's a completely different version.

Yeah, I got the feeling when reading the book and watching the documentary on him that Kuklinski was admitting to things that he probably didn't do just to make himself look more crazy/evil etc.