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Robert B. Parker's Broken Trust by Mike Lupica
Ace Atkins grew tired of writing the Spencer novels or his contract ran out or something. The new man at the helm of Robert B. Parker's Spencer books is Mike Lupica. Lupica has been covering another series by Parker about detective Sunny Randall and is now doing these books as well. And much like Atkins, he's still no Parker. Lupica's rendition of the characters are different from Parker's method, in some ways subtle and in other ways glaring. Spencer was never this glib before and when he quoted poets, he never had to tell you immediately the name of the poet. So, the book felt off to me.
The story was fine. A billionaire tech bro seems to be losing his mind and his wife wants to find out why. Then the wife gets killed. Spenser is fired but continues to investigate until all is right in the end. There are plenty of moments of Spenser and his love, Susan and his other love Dunkin Donuts. There is banter with Hawk and Belson and Quirk. Spenser gets into fights which he wins, of course. Spenser gets to be tough and he gets to be sensitive. We also get a trip through a lot of watering holes and dining establishments. Since Lupica is also a sportswriter, there was a lot of emphasis on the Red Sox and the fact they traded away Mookie Betts to the Dodgers.
When I was writing in the junk food books, this would be an exemplar of that type of the book. Reading the book went down like cuddling up with a bag of chips and just as nourishing. While I was immersed, I enjoyed it, but I feel a little queasy now that it is done.
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Chip > liquor > dwarves > cuddling > ew
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Long Past Dues by James J. Butcher
James Butcher continues to show he is no where near as good as his father. James's series is not as fun as his father's, nor are they as well written. The world building is pretty good but everybody in the books is in a bad mood.
This book takes place six months after the first book. Grimsby is being given crap jobs because his partner, the Huntsman, spends his days at home drinking away his existential pain. Grimsby steals a case to show he can actually do something but the case bears on an old case the Huntsman thought was solved, but no. By the end, Grimsby saves the day and teaches the Huntsman a valuable lesson about team work and partners.
I don't think I will be reading any more of these.
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Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
This is the big hot new fantasy book. It's a bit of a bodice ripper as well. I could also see echoes of so many other fantasy tropes in there as well.
It's a school for magic, but the magic in this case is dragons. It's also a brutal school where students are expected to die from day one. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Violet, who thought she was going to be a scholar until her mother, who is the head of the military, decides she should join the decidedly more dangerous dragon rider school. Violet also has physical ailments that make her smaller than her classmates and her bones are really brittle from a childhood disease. And everybody in the school wants to kill her.
Of course through her wit and courage, she manages to excel. She also falls for the bad boy of the school, Xander. They both hate each other until they don't. There is a lot of graphic sex towards the end of the book. And the sex is the best most climactic sex ever.
The book covers Violet's first year in school. Since there are three years of schooling, plenty more books to come. There is also a threat to the realm which is why everybody is being churned through the dragon school.
I did become engage towards the end as the move towards the climactic scenes where Violet really gets to show her skills and now I'm waiting in the library queue for the next book.
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Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
Yale University is full of secret societies that actually have magic abilities. Alex, a runaway living on the streets in Los Angeles is giving the opportunity to go to Yale because of her unique ability to see ghosts. She joined Lethe house which has the responsibility to oversea the other houses to make sure they don't get out of hand. During Alex's first two quarters things get out of hand.
It's a mystery story where Alex has to solve the murder of a town girl which probably involves one or more of the other secret societies. To make matters worse, her mentor has gone missing. Good times.
I did enjoy this. The characters had some depth. They mystery had plenty of twists and Alex has plenty of her own problems in her backstory. I have the second novel in the series on hold at the library.
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The Craftsmen by Sharon Bolton
A quick read. A retiring police officer goes to the funeral of the man who was the central figure in the case the brought her to prominence after he spent thirty years in jail for his crimes. But clues and leads Florence Lovelady to question whether they put away the right man for the murders. The novel runs on two timelines as we go back and forth from thirty years ago to the current day. As a young constable, Florence, called Flossie by her fellow officers, gets a lot of grief for being too posh and smart for the area. But she pushes to find out why the three teenagers were missing
The story is all well and good and straightforward until towards the end a big supernatural element creeps in that seemed at odds with the realistic tone of the book. I like a good supernatural mystery as much as the next one but this seemed to come out of left field. But overall the story was quite good.
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Final tally: 76 books for 2023
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Yay.
Time to start The Book Count 2024...
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Do you even look at the forum?
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Nah. Too much noise…
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Too much innuendo between you two
the hands that guide me are invisible
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It's the aftereffect of too many long nights spent at Dennys over Tab & tea...
PTSD = post traumatic stress dennys
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Mmmmmm, Tab.
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