Books I've Read

Quick Update

In the midst of sending out seven queries. It takes six to eight weeks on average for a response if one is given. I’ll send more out as rejections come in unless someone kindly gives me constructive criticism that I’ll put to use before sending out anymore.

Books I’ve Read

Read Brad Meltzer’s Fifth Assassin, the second book in the series begun with The Inner Circle about the Culper Ring, a group of deep undercover operatives meant to protect the Presidency, not necessarily the President. In fact, the President in these books is decidedly evil. The story’s murder mystery was solved but lots of story lines left open for another book. I enjoyed the historical facts and speculations on past events.

Close to Home by Lisa Jackson is a romantic thriller, though the thriller part is much more pronounced. The romance all together would have taken up less than a chapter. Lots of repetition and characters were on the cardboard side.

Victoria Holt was a well-known writer. The Captive was written in 1989 and was a major disappointment to me. I can’t remember the names, but I think I read her a lot as an adolescent and liked the stories. This story, told from the perspective of an eighteen-year-old woman, has her captured and put in a harem and solves a murder mystery, but she tells the story as if she’s telling a grandchild a bedtime story—kills the tension. Storyline was not the least plausible.

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger is often on writing gurus’ lists of books everyone should read. Written in 1945, it stands up really well as an expose of a teen boy on the brink of mental illness. No real solution or ending—sad.

Finally, J. D. Robb, aka Nora Roberts, is back at the helm. The latest in death book, Obsession in Death, had that crisp, snarky voice I missed in the last couple of books and just plain better writing. I’d be amazed if she doesn’t use ghostwriters with the output she maintains—at least two in death books and who know how many Nora Roberts books every year. The plot and villain were actually better than usual, but I like the books for the family of characters and there hasn’t been any growth or major upset or event in any of their lives for a while. If that doesn’t change, I think she’ll lose readers.