spring/summer reading list part 1

When I sat down to write my report on my then most recently finished book I realized I failed to publish my spring reading list for March, April, and May. I was well into the summer quarter so I just decided to wait and publish the spring and summer reading lists together. I can't tell you where spring left off and summer began but I haven't been reading very much this summer. Ten books over six months. Ten is kind of a long list so I'm going to split it into two posts.

The Limpopo Academy Of Private Detection by Alexander McCall Smith – some of you might remember I started this series and wanted to read them in order and it has been a long time since one appeared on my book reviews. The reason for that is that while the library said they had to next in the series and that it was indeed in the library, I could never find it until a couple of weeks ago. Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi meet Clovis Anderson, the author of their private detection bible; save the matron of the orphan farm's job, Charlie saves Fanwell from being wrongly imprisoned, and the cheating by the builder of Rra Rhadiphuti and Mma Makutsi's new house is discovered. I did not enjoy this one as much as the others, too much repetition. A character would say something and the person they were talking to would repeat it and it seemed longer than all the other ones I've read.

Fractured by Karin Slaughter – a Will Trent novel. Abigail Campano comes home after her tennis game to find a body lying in a pool of blood that she assumes is her teenage daughter and is charged by a young man holding a knife. They struggle, fall down the stairs and Abigail in her fury strangles the young man to death. Atlanta police respond but Abigail's father is insanely wealthy and uses his pull and contacts to get the Georgia Bureau of Investigation on the case and Will Trent's boss sends him because 'he sees things no one else sees'. When Paul Campano gets home he notices right away that the body on the floor is not his daughter Emma but that of her best friend and their daughter is missing. Will examines the scene and realizes that Emma has been kidnapped and, with his newly appointed partner Faith, the race is on to find the person or persons that killed Kayla and took Emma before it's too late to save her.

Undone by Karin Slaughter – next in the Will Trent series. Henry and Judith are driving home when a naked woman steps out in front of their car and they hit her. Another car passing by stops and one of the men is a EMT who provides aid on the scene until the ambulance arrives and transports the woman to the hospital where Will has taken his partner Faith after she passed out in the a parking lot. Will learns from the ER doctor that the woman's injuries are far worse than those sustained by being hit by a car, she's been starved and tortured, and so while Faith is being examined he goes to the site of the crash and tries to start his own unwelcome by the local cops investigation. As he turns to leave he discovers a shaft leading to an underground torture chamber the woman had been kept in where he finds evidence of a second victim who was found after a search of the surrounding forest only this woman did not survive. Now two more women have gone missing and Will and Faith are convinced they have been taken by the same perpetrator. In a race against time their investigation seems to be going nowhere until pieces finally start falling into place and both Faith and Will find themselves in separate life threatening situations as they confront the family they think holds the key.

The Lost Kings by Tyrell Johnson – Jeanie King and her twin Jaime live with their aunt and uncle in California after their mother dies when their car hits an elk while their father is deployed overseas. One day their father returns, damaged the way war damages men emotionally, and moves his family to a cabin in the wilds of Washington state where Jeanie and Jaime meet Maddox and they spend their summer exploring the forest and the coast. When Jeanie is 14 her father comes home one night with blood on his hands and tells Jeanie that he is leaving. The same night her brother Jaime disappears and Jeanie is left alone until a teacher from school finds her and she is sent back to live with her aunt and uncle. Twenty years later Jeanie is living in Oxford England where her mother was from with serious commitment issues and seeing a therapist when Maddox shows up unexpectedly telling Jeanie he has found her father hiding out in a remote area of New York. Now she must decide if she wants to confront her father, not only about his abandonment of her but also about Jaime's disappearance. The story is told in sections of then and now and Jeanie had developed into a not particularly likable person and I wasn't particularly liking where the story was going toward the end when an unexpected twist or two changed everything.

Broken by Karin Slaughter – the next in the Will Trent series. When a 911 call leads to the discovery of the body of a young woman weighed down in a lake, the local police botch the investigation that causes an officer to be near fatally stabbed. The suspect, Tommy, is coerced into a confession of the murder of the young woman. When Tommy commits suicide in his cell, Will is called in to investigate not only the murder of the young woman, Allison, but also the officers on the case. He knows they are hiding evidence and lying and when Allison's boyfriend is found murdered by the same perpetrator, exonerating Tommy, things really heat up.