Book Review ~ The Dry by Jane Harper

Title: The Dry
Author: Jane Harper
Published: 2016
Challenges: new author, cloak and dagger, personal reading challenge, library love

Goodreads Summary: 
A small town hides big secrets in this atmospheric, page-turning debut mystery by award-winning author Jane Harper.

In the grip of the worst drought in a century, the farming community of Kiewarra is facing life and death choices daily when three members of a local family are found brutally slain.
Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk reluctantly returns to his hometown for the funeral of his childhood friend, loath to face the townsfolk who turned their backs on him twenty years earlier.
But as questions mount, Falk is forced to probe deeper into the deaths of the Hadler family. Because Falk and Luke Hadler shared a secret. A secret Falk thought was long buried. A secret Luke's death now threatens to bring to the surface in this small Australian town, as old wounds bleed into new ones

My Thoughts: 
this book felt like it took forever to read. That' not to say it was bad it just felt like I really needed to sit down and focus on it. I am not sure if my interest was there 100% to be honest. It has the typical backstory of the main character interweave into a new mystery. This time though we solved both of them so that was refreshing.  The main character was a little standoffish for me but by the middle of the book I came around. I am curious how this is a series since the main character deals with money crimes normally this was a one off for him solving his best friend's murder. I did enjoy the characters and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the who did the actual crime. I think that this has potential as a series to go someplace. I think at this time I will leave it with this book and if I am looking and can't find anything I will look for the second in the series. I really did enjoy the way the outback was described and how the farmers were dealing with the drought. I would recommend it mainly for the way the author describes scenes and yet doesn't make you feel like you are drowning in description. 

Book Review ~ The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchinson

Title The Butterfly Garden

Author Dot Hutchinson
Published 2016

Summary
Near an isolated mansion lies a beautiful garden.

In this garden grow luscious flowers, shady trees…and a collection of precious “butterflies”—young women who have been kidnapped and intricately tattooed to resemble their namesakes. Overseeing it all is the Gardener, a brutal, twisted man obsessed with capturing and preserving his lovely specimens.

When the garden is discovered, a survivor is brought in for questioning. FBI agents Victor Hanoverian and Brandon Eddison are tasked with piecing together one of the most stomach-churning cases of their careers. But the girl, known only as Maya, proves to be a puzzle herself.

As her story twists and turns, slowly shedding light on life in the Butterfly Garden, Maya reveals old grudges, new saviors, and horrific tales of a man who’d go to any length to hold beauty captive. But the more she shares, the more the agents have to wonder what she’s still hiding... 


Thoughts: 
I am not really sure where to start on this review. While I enjoyed the book and clearly read it within the weeks’ time that I had. Now sitting back and reflecting, I feel conflicted. The premise was great, and I loved the shifting of past and present in this story. It felt like we were going down memory lane with the main character Maya. What I didn’t quite wrap my head around was the “big twist” of what she was hiding. It wasn’t that big of a twist, if that makes sense? I won’t ruin it because the book focuses on what she is hiding to reveal it in the last chapter and made me scratch my head.

Now that being said, this book has really stuck with me as I keep picturing the girls with their tattoos and survival of the butterflies. It was interesting enough I was tempted to get the second in the series until I realized that the next book only focuses on the agents who have moved onto another weird case and not really on the aftermath of the butterflies. I may still check it out for the main reason that the story itself was interesting and literally sucked me in. I ended up finishing it up during the Superbowl, LOL, which is saying something. I mainly wanted to know how it ended, which is pretty good as we start off knowing how it ended.

The characters are well-drawn out for the reader, and the gardener himself was just described well enough that the reader was both creeped out and yet weirdly fascinated with him. I enjoyed that while it was POV of Maya we did get to see the other girls through her eyes and what she did to adjust and adapt to her horrible environment. The author did not downplay the horrors in the garden, and yet it was almost like a hazy glass that we were looking through, and I enjoyed that. All in all, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is wanting to read a good psychological thriller.

Book Review ~ In the Woods by Tana French

Title: In the Woods

Author: Tana French
Published: 2008

Summary
A gorgeously written novel that marks the debut of an astonishing new voice in psychological suspense.

As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children. He is gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled sneakers and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours.

Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a 12-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox (his partner and closest friend) find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past. 


Thoughts: 
Okay so this wasn’t what I thought it would be and to be 100% honest I don’t recall any of the characters being mentioned in other books. I should but what I love about this series is that while it focuses on the Dublin Murder Squad each book gets their own lead and doesn’t really bring in the others unless necessary so there is no reason that Rob, Cassie or Sam would ever be mentioned in the other books. Now that I have cleared that up for the record, I have read 2 other books in this series. Broken Harbor was the first one I read, and it was book 4, then I read Faithful place book 3. I still haven’t read book 2 and part of me really wants to just get the whole series and sit down and push through them. The other thing to know about this book is the sheer size of it. There are 429 pages and it is almost always told in the detectives POV which means you don’t want to for any reason skip or skim parts which is usually how I read. If you do you may find out that it was important, and a part was that I had skimmed through in this book, so I had to go back and find that section.

The other thing is this writer is detailed, not overly so but enough that you almost want to ask why that was important. Only to find out that yes it was important and damn it you are glad you paid attention. She is also good at painting the background and scenery for you so that you feel like you are in Ireland. Another cool part is the fact she very rarely uses accents in this book which is great because they tend to beyond distract me when reading. I also enjoy getting to know the detectives on such a personal and close base. Since it is their POV you can’t help but feel as if the detective is telling you this story over a pint in a local pub.

Now the mystery and murder. This book had 2 story lines going on and I’ll be damned if they didn’t intertwine or both get solved. The main mystery is a child murder case which brings up the past of the detective trying to solve it. We figure out the killing slowly as his life unravels due to keeping his identity a secret. He literally loses everything. We also see how the murder does tie in but not to the old case and how much that unsolved case could haunt someone. I’d like to say that Rob grows throughout the story, but he doesn’t and honestly that made it even better. I personally like flawed characters and I like to see them struggle. Sometimes I want growth but other times I like to see that there isn’t always a growth process that takes place in a book that has a mystery that is solved in 2 months. The mystery was interesting and not easy but when it came together, I was like yeah I kind of suspected that but I was so focused on the slight of hands with the other mystery that I couldn’t put all the pieces together.

Is this one I would suggest? Yes, in a heartbeat I happen to really enjoy Ms. French and I always suggest her novels to anyone looking for a good mystery, with flawed characters, interesting backstories and a niche for flowery prose.

Book Review ~ The Bat by Jo Nesbo

Title: The Bat
Author: Jo Nesbo
Published: 2013

Summary
Inspector Harry Hole of the Oslo Crime Squad is dispatched to Sydney to observe a murder case. Harry is free to offer assistance, but he has firm instructions to stay out of trouble. The victim is a twenty-three year old Norwegian woman who is a minor celebrity back home. Never one to sit on the sidelines, Harry befriends one of the lead detectives, and one of the witnesses, as he is drawn deeper into the case. Together, they discover that this is only the latest in a string of unsolved murders, and the pattern points toward a psychopath working his way across the country. As they circle closer and closer to the killer, Harry begins to fear that no one is safe, least of all those investigating the case.

Thoughts: 
Okay first off I this book started off so good. I was invested and wanted to know more about Harry, Andrew and the woman that was killed. Then I am not sure where or what happened. We went from oh that makes sense to… scratch my head and a lot of what the ever-loving hell? I just got so lost and found that by mid-way I was done and tired. I didn’t care anymore for Harry or his troubles. I damn sure didn’t care about the big OMG shocker that was supposed to come and yet it did nothing for me. I got to the point that while I figured out who the killer was and was right, I just didn’t enjoy it. The satisfaction was gone by the time we went through all the wallowing in drunkenness and yet WOW magically we pulled out the killer from our drunk ass and POOF we are amazing. So yeah that didn’t turn out the way I thought it would go. And I have to say I was sorely disappointed. I only read this one so that I could find a new series and I really wanted to read the Snowman as it was a movie tie in but, alas I am glad now I didn’t waste my time.

This is not one I would recommend to anyone. I just didn’t like it and was not invested by mid-point. I forced myself to continue to read it as I wanted to finish the book.

Book Review ~ The Hypnotist by Lars Kleper

Title: The Hypnotist
Author: Lars Kleper
Published: 2011

Summary
In the frigid clime of Tumba, Sweden, a gruesome triple homicide attracts the interest of Detective Inspector Joona Linna, who demands to investigate the murders. The killer is still at large, and there’s only one surviving witness—the boy whose family was killed before his eyes. Whoever committed the crimes wanted this boy to die: he’s suffered more than one hundred knife wounds and lapsed into a state of shock. Desperate for information, Linna sees only one option: hypnotism. He enlists Dr. Erik Maria Bark to mesmerize the boy, hoping to discover the killer through his eyes.

It’s the sort of work that Bark has sworn he would never do again—ethically dubious and psychically scarring. When he breaks his promise and hypnotizes the victim, a long and terrifying chain of events begins to unfurl.


Thoughts: 

I have to say this book started off with a bang and I found myself forced to continue to read it all the way through. Until, that is, the flashbacks happened. I have no idea what it was but, those flashbacks completely pulled me out of the story telling. I understand now that I've finished it why it was important, however it just felt as if someone took the past and plopped it down in the middle of a book expecting it all to work. I have no idea if it was just not the style I am use to or if it really was that jarring. After that I just couldn't seem to get back into the story. I ended up skipping the flashback and skimming the rest of the novel. Add to it there were 2 mysteries happen and that alone through my world off. There is just something about this book that I can't put my finger on that was not enjoyable. Don't get me wrong when I first picked it up it was amazing but then about 400 pages it I just fizzled out with reading and wanting to know more. The characters were not that interesting towards the end and overall I wasn't that impressed with the main detective. Part of me kept waiting for Joona to be a gruff detective I could just fall in love with and move along. However, that was not the case. This detective is so egotistical and so "I was right wasn't I" attitude that I found that I actually hoped for once he would be wrong just so we could see how he would deal with that situation.

Weirdly enough while I did enjoy the book I felt that if they had cut 100 pages or so I would have ranked it so much higher on Goodreads. As of now I have given it 3 out of 5 stars. I would still recommend it but not with the fury that I did when I started. 

Book Review ~ In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff

Title: In The Shadow of Gotham

Author: Stefanie Pintoff
Published: 2009

Summary
Dobson, New York, 1905.

Detective Simon Ziele lost his fiancée in the General Slocum ferry disaster—a thousand perished on that summer day in 1904 when an onboard fire burned the boat down in the waters of the East River. Still reeling from the tragedy, Ziele transferred to a police department north of New York, to escape the city and all the memories it conjured.

But only a few months into his new life in a quiet country town, he’s faced with the most shocking homicide of his career to date: Young Sarah Wingate has been brutally murdered in her own bedroom in the middle of an otherwise calm and quiet winter afternoon. After just one day of investigation, Simon’s contacted by Columbia University’s noted criminologist Alistair Sinclair, who offers a startling claim about one of his patients, Michael Fromley—that the facts of the murder bear an uncanny resemblance to Fromley’s deranged mutterings.

But what would have led Fromley, with his history of violent behavior and brutal fantasies, to seek out Sarah, a notable mathematics student and a proper young lady who has little in common with his previous targets? Is Fromley really a murderer, or is someone mimicking him?

This is what Simon Ziele must find out, with the help of the brilliant but self-interested Alistair Sinclair—before the killer strikes again.

Thoughts: 

This book took a lot for me to get into and it was awhile before I discovered that I wanted to know more. I did figure out who the killer was pretty early on and found I just wanted to see if I was right which is part of the motivation to keep reading. This book had some hit or miss things for me. I didn’t appreciate how easy it was to figure out. Though there was a twist that I won’t mention here. I did find that I wanted to finish it by the time the “killer” was revealed. I also found myself invested in Simon Ziele and his story. There were a few roll my eyes moments especially when we are told numerous things. I also had a hard time believing the techniques used by the detective at this time frame. However, it eventually became second nature and I got use to the writer’s style.

This is a pretty good story and I am glad I read it. I will probably not continue with the series simply because I feel that most of my questions were answered and I didn’t need anything else to feel satisfied.

Goodreads score: 3/5