Dead as a Doornail; I Love You More; Amy and Roger's Epic Detour; Those Who Wish Me Dead; Bones Never Lie; The Girls From Corona del Mar; The Perfectionists

We're going back aways here, I've been busy, so this Charlaine Harris reread was actually from mid-October. Sookie is caught in the middle when shifters and Weres are being shot. Someone tries to burn down her house, but Claudine gets her out in time. Sam is shot but he's okay. Calvin Norris is shot but he's less okay. Captain Flood dies and the Long Tooth pack needs a new master. Sookie goes to the trials and meets Quinn, a were-tiger. She discovers the new cook at Merlotte's is the shooter.

"I Love You More" by Jennifer Murphy was pretty good, I enjoyed it, even if I did figure out the ending before the end. Diana Lane's life is shattered when she learns her husband, Oliver, has two other wives and other families. The three Mrs. Lanes get together to discuss revenge and they decide to murder their husband. Little did they know Diana's daughter Picasso has heard them making their plans.

I really liked "Amy and Roger's Epic Detour" by Morgan Matson. I love road trips, and so a book about a road trip, done well like this one, is a fun read. Amy's life was ruined a few months earlier when her father was killed in a car accident. Her twin brother is in rehab for his drug abuse, and Amy's mom has decided to move the family from California to Connecticut for a fresh start. Amy stays by herself to finish out the school year and then her mother decides to have the son of an old family friend, Roger, drive Amy across country to deliver the car, since Amy no longer drives. So what happens when you put two attractive teenagers alone together in a car to drive across country? C'mon, mom, buy a clue, right? Anyway, Amy and Roger decide not to follow her mom's itinerary and instead they venture out on their own.

"Those Who Wish Me Dead" by Michael Kortya was also really good. Young Jace witnesses two men killing cops who are witnesses in an important case and now the killers are after him. Jace ends up  with a new name, Connor, and goes to Montana to a wilderness survival training camp for troubled teenage boys. The instructor, Ethan, has sworn to hide and protect the boy, although he doesn't know which of his young charges is the witness. The killers are able to track Jace to Montana and attack Ethan's wife. When Ethan hears about the attack, he brings the boys down out of the mountain but Jace is scared and runs off to hide in the woods. It was very powerful.

Dr. Brennan is back in Kathy Reichs' latest, "Bones Never Lie". Brennan has to go find Detective Andrew Ryan in his self imposed exile after the death of his daughter when one of their old child killer perps resurfaces. Brennan finds Ryan and brings him back. Dead girls are turning up with Anique Pomerleau's DNA on them, but when they find Pomerleau's body in a farm up in Vermont, they start looking for her accomplice. It was very good, taunt, and in the end Ryan proposes to Brennan! Huzzah!!

I wasn't a big fan of Rufi Thorpe's "The Girls from Corona del Mar". Other than the neat references to Newport Beach, there wasn't much else to like. Mia and Lorrie Ann are two poor girls growing up in CdM in the 90s. Mia is the bad girl who gets in trouble, Lorrie Ann is the good girl with bad luck. Mia gets pregnant and has an abortion, Lorrie Ann gets pregnant and marries the father and her kid ends up with severe cerebral palsy. Her husband joins the Army so they can pay the hospital bills and is killed in Iraq. Mia goes to college, travels the world, meets a wonderful man. Lorrie Ann gets addicted to drugs and has her son taken away from her for neglect. Mia keeps trying to help her, but Lorrie Ann keeps refusing. It was just tepid, I didn't feel anything for Mia or Lorrie Ann.

Sara Shepard is back with a new series. "The Perfectionists" is about a group of overachieving high schoolers in Washington. When five girls get together in film studies class and decide to get revenge on Nolan, a bully who has hurt all of them, things go very wrong. Nolan ends up dead at his own party from what looks like an Oxy overdose but turns out to be cyanide poisoning. The girls slipped him the Oxy but didn't kill him, however, someone saw them do it and is now helping the cops build a case against them. So far I'm not terribly impressed, it feels rather like "been there, done that" territory, but we'll see.

Perfidia; Blood of My Blood; You Might Remember Me

The amazing James Ellroy is back with a new L.A. Quartet. I was lucky enough to hear him speak for the second time (the first time was at the 2009 LA Times Festival of Books) on October 30, and he is so amazing. Just enthralling. "Perfidia" was hard core, gritty, and on point. It's set in L.A. in December of 1941. A few hours before Pearl Harbor, a Japanese family is murdered. LAPD wants the case wrapped up and wrapped up quick, they don't care is the real killer is brought to justice, so long as someone is so they can get back to business as usual. Many of his characters from other books make appearances, like Dudley Smith, Kay Lake, Claire DeHaven, and Bucky Bleichert. The ending knocked me out, as his endings always do.

Barry Lyga's third book in the Game trilogy, "Blood of My Blood", was awesome. It's a shame he's classified as YA, because I think a lot of adults tend to shy away from YA books, and this is one that shouldn't be missed. Jazz tracks his escaped serial killer father to New York. Billy Dent kidnaps Jazz's girlfriends, Connie, but she manages to escape, but not after seeing Billy has Jazz's mom Janice held hostage too. Billy goes back to Lobo's Nob, and Jazz follows, determined to save his mom. I sort of figured out the big twist beforehand, but it didn't diminish the impact when it came. Wow. Just a great way to tie up the series.

If you're around my age or a bit older, you probably remember May of 1998, and hearing on the news that Phil Hartman had been murdered by his wife Brynn. I didn't watch Saturday Night Live for long, but I did watch during some of Phil's tenure there, and always enjoyed his sketches. I loved him on the Simpsons, too, as Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz. He was slated to be on Futurama as Zapp Brannigan, and he would have been magnificent. Mike Thomas's tribute to Phil is lovely, talking about what a great guy he was, how everyone loved him. Phil always seemed much younger to me than his actual age, just because of how funny he was and how much he seemed to enjoy life. His murder was a real tragedy.