Jayne Ann Krentz writes under her own name, as well as two pseudonyms.  Amanda Quick is the name she uses for her novels about women slightly out of place in "polite society."  These novels are typically filled with scandal, duels, mistaken identities, compromised honor, and a large number of petticoats.  Mischief is no different.In this story... Continue Reading →

Iris Johansen is someone I can always count on for a good time.  No One to Trust was no exception.  This is the story of a woman who is trying to escape her past.  Both physically and mentally.  Enter her hero, who is smart enough to realize she has to save herself for it to count. ... Continue Reading →

I know, I know, it's been awhile since my last post.  I've been reading, I swear.  Just veeerrry slooooowly.I had to force myself to crawl through E M Forster's Howards End.  I had a really hard time getting into this novel.  Part of the problem was that it was written in 1910 and set in England. ... Continue Reading →

I was on vacation for the last week and didn't read much (too busy blowing stuff up!).  But I did manage to get through the light reading I had taken with me.  Two Alone by Sandra Brown is one of her early novels, written under a pseudonym and re-released under her real name.  Again, I am absolutely... Continue Reading →

Thornton Wilder was both a playwright and a novelist.  The Bridge of San Luis Rey is a slim little novel with a pretty fascinating premise.  A bridge suddenly collapses, killing five people.  Why those five?  Why not a different set of people? Great question.  I can think of a million different ways to take that story.  Wilder... Continue Reading →

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares is a young adult novel that lives up to the hype that surrounds it.  It is the story of four girls who have been thrust together since birth and who believe that their strength comes from each other.  They are both right and wrong in that belief.The summer of... Continue Reading →

The Science of Sherlock Holmes by E. J. Wagner was not quite what I expected.  I expected the book to be tightly focused on the Sherlock Holmes stories and simply explain the forensics behind solving the crimes.  What this book is is much more.This book really is a history of the early days of criminal investigation, using Sherlock... Continue Reading →

Imagine that you are a Jew, affected by scleroderma, confined to a wheelchair, hoping that today won't be the day you die.  You are taken from your home to The Keep (F Paul Wilson) which is currently occupied by Nazi militia.  They are having a problem with something that goes bump in the night (and... Continue Reading →

You drove a stake through the vampire's heart and it died.  Again.  Unfortunately, the body did not turn to dust.  So much for easy clean-up.  Now you have a body that you need to dispose of.  That is the premise of Richard Laymon's novel Bite. Like any body disposal, things do not go smoothly.  A blown... Continue Reading →

Yes, Stephen King writes very long novels.  But he is also a master of the short story.  Night Shift is the first collection of shorts published by King.  Most of these stories were written before I was born.  They still work.This collection contains the short story that has kept me up more nights than any other... Continue Reading →