Finished Reading “The Last Widow” and I’m in Atlanta!

Our trip to Atlanta was…uneventful. Which is exactly what you want when you’re driving for 8 hours. Right? We made it safe and sound.

However… check in at the hotel was crazy! We’ve never seen this many people check in on a Wednesday for Dragon Con. It’s possible that some people just arrived a day early to miss the hurricane, but I’m beginning to think that Wednesday may becoming the new Thursday for Dragon Con.

FYI: They're capping attendance at 80,000 this year. 

Here’s what I read since my last update:

Book 46

Dates read: August 26 – 30, 2023
Title: The Last Widow
Year of publication: 2019
Author: Karin Slaughter
Genre: Crime Suspense
Series: Will Trent #9
# of Pages: 446
Paper or plastic: Hard cover
How obtained: Purchased used
Blurb from Book: On a hot summer night, a scientist from the Centers for Disease Control is grabbed by unknown assailants in a shopping center parking lot. The authorities are desperate to save the doctor who’s been vanished into thin air.
    One month later, the serenity of a sunny Sunday afternoon is shattered by the boom of a ground-shaking blast—followed by another seconds later. One of Atlanta’s busiest and most important neighborhoods has been bombed—the location of Emory University, two major hospitals, an FBI field office, and the CDC.
    Medical examiner Sara Linton and her partner, Will Trent, an investigator with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, rush to the scene—and into the heart of a deadly conspiracy that threatens to destroy thousands of innocent lives. When the assailants abduct Sara, Will goes undercover to save her and prevent a massacre—putting his own life on the line for the woman and the country he loves.
Recommend: Yes
My thoughts: I know this is fiction, but there are parts of this book, the parts about the assailants, that scare me (and make me sad, too) because I know there are actual people out there that think just like them.

I’m on two fan panels this year at Dragon Con and even got my name listed for each event (whoo hoo!). The panels are: Nancy Drew and Reginald the Vampire. I brought one copy of Ghostly Liaison, one copy of My Sunny Vampire, and two copies of my short story collection. I figure I'll display the ghost book during Nancy Drew and the vampire book during Reginald the Vampire. And I'll give away one copy of my short story collection at each panel. I also have some swag to hand out. Don't know if it'll do any good, but at least I'm trying!

Happy Reading!

Stacy

Finished Reading “The Kept Woman” and Car Repairs

Next Wednesday we head down to Atlanta for Dragon Con. Last Tuesday, my car conked out on me (the car we plan on taking to Atlanta). $1374 later, it’s fixed. I guess I can’t really complain. This was the first major repair (it has 129,500 miles and turns 13 this month), and it involved a new alternator and something to do with the cam shaft. I’m just glad it conked out before the trip and not during! That would have been a bummer.

Here’s what I read since my last update:

Book 45

Dates read: August 22 – 25, 2023
Title: The Kept Woman
Year of publication: 2016
Author: Karin Slaughter
Genre: Crime Suspense
Series: Will Trent #8
# of Pages: 461
Paper or plastic: Hard cover
How obtained: Purchased used
Blurb from Book: With the discovery of a murder at an abandoned construction site, Will Trent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is brought in on a case that becomes much more dangerous when the dead man is identified as an ex-cop.
    Studying the body, Sara Linton—the GBI’s newest medical examiner and Will’s lover—realizes that the extensive blood loss didn’t belong to the corpse. Sure enough, bloody footprints leading away from the scene indicate there is another victim—a woman—who has vanished…and who will die soon if she isn’t found.
    Will is already compromised, because the site belongs to the city’s most popular citizen: a wealthy, powerful, and politically connected athlete protected by the world’s most expensive lawyers—a man who’s already gotten away with rape, despite Will’s exhaustive efforts to put him away.
    But the worst is yet to come. Evidence soon links Will’s troubled past to the case…and the consequences will tear through his life with the force of a tornado, wreaking havoc for Will and everyone around him, including his colleagues, family, friends—and even the suspects he pursues.
My thoughts: Lots of twists in this one. Kept me guessing.

The forecasted “hottest day of the year” turned out not to be. Lots of storms in the morning kept it from reaching 90, no less 96. Yay!

Of course, I wonder if our abnormally cool summer will turn into an abnormally cold winter. You know you can’t have one without the other, right?

Happy Reading!

Stacy

Finished Reading “Unseen” and “Busted” and Summer’s Back

I know most of the country is suffering from heat exhaustion. Fortunately, it hasn’t been as brutal here, in Ohio. In fact, the grass is still GREEN outside. But this week summer has decided to come back in full force. 90-degree days every day this week. But, by the weekend, it should be back down below normal.

This has been one strange summer. Not that I’m complaining. We usually get 20 90-degree days. I think we’ve had 4 before this week. Not too shabby. For once, I’m happy living where I am.

Shocker, right?

Here’s what I read since my last update:

Book 43

Dates read: August 15 – 21, 2023
Title: Unseen
Year of publication: 2013
Author: Karin Slaughter
Genre: Crime Suspense
Series: Will Trent #7
# of Pages: 394
Paper or plastic: Mass market paperback
How obtained: Purchased
Blurb from Book: Will Trent is a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent, working undercover in Macon, Georgia, posing as Bill Black, a scary ex-con who trails an air of violence wherever he goes. The cover has worked and he has caught the eye of a wiry little drug dealer who thinks he might be a useful ally. But there’s a problem. Cut off from the support of the woman he loves, Sara Linton, Will finds his demons catching up with him. Although she has no idea where Will has gone, or why, Sara herself has come to Macon because of a cop shooting. Her stepson, Jared, has been gunned down. Suddenly, without even knowing it, Sara finds herself involved in the same case that Will is working—with danger swirling around both of them. A novel of fierce intensity, shifting allegiances and shocking twists, Unseen pits detectives, lovers, and enemies against one another in an unforgettable standoff between righteous courage and deepest evil.
My thoughts: Had some slow parts, but toward the end I didn’t want to put it down.

Book 44

Dates read: August 21, 2023
Title: Busted
Year of publication: 2013
Author: Karin Slaughter
Genre: Crime Suspense
Series: Will Trent #6.5
# of Pages: 68
Paper or plastic: Mass market paperback
How obtained: Purchased (at end of the book, Unseen)
Blurb from Goodreads: Detective Will Trent is standing in a Georgia convenience store, waiting on an obstinate Icee frozen drink machine. To the surveillance cameras and bored staff of the Lil’ Dixie Gas-n-Go, however, Will appears to be someone very different—the menacing ex-con Bill Black. Going undercover as Bill, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent is about to infiltrate the most corrupt town in the most corrupt county in the new American South. But first: his Icee.
    Everything changes in one horrific instant, as all hell breaks loose at the Lil’ Dixie. A cop is shot. A bag of cash goes flying across the floor. A young woman disappears while a killer takes off in a battered pick-up truck. Within seconds, Will is in pursuit.
My thoughts: Again, I should have read this short before Unseen, but I didn’t. Not that it matters, story-wise. But still, things happen in this short that kind of breaks into the beginning of Unseen. Lesson learned. Good short, though.

Hubby and I started watching Star Trek: Picard. It started out a little slow (quiet, actually), but we only have two episodes left in season 1 and we’re both anxious to see how it all ends (or if it leaves us hanging for season 2). After Picard, we’ll probably watch Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and finish Star Trek: Discovery (we’ve watched through season 3). As for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, I’m watching season 7. I’m enjoying them this time around. So little I remember from watching when they first aired on TV, though. I had my son bring over Star Trek: Voyager and will get started on those after I finish DS9. I guess I’m just on a Star Trek kick for now.

Happy Reading!

Stacy

Finished Reading “Criminal” and “Snatched” and Planning a Trip

Planning a trip. Like I don’t do that all the time, right? Well, this trip will be to Italy. Maybe. It depends on when it is next year (still in the planning stages) because we already have a cruise scheduled around the same time. But a friend of my daughter’s (who she went to Italy with a few years ago), plans these trips as a business. And ever since Daughter went, Hubby has wanted to go. So… we’ll see. Right now we’re just in the planning stages. But if the dates are right, we’ll be going.

Here’s what I read since my last update:

Book 41

Dates read: August 5 – 14, 2023
Title: Criminal
Year of publication: 2012
Author: Karin Slaughter
Genre: Crime Suspense
Series: Will Trent #6
# of Pages: 462
Paper or plastic: Mass market paperback
How obtained: Purchased
Blurb from Book: Will Trent is a brilliant agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Newly in love, he is beginning to put a difficult past behind him. Then a local college student goes missing, and Will is inexplicably kept off the case by his supervisor and mentor, deputy director Amanda Wagner. Will cannot fathom Amanda’s motivation until the two of them literally collide in an abandoned orphanage they have both been drawn to for different reasons. Decades before, when his father was imprisoned for murder, this was Will’s home. It appears that the case that launched Amanda’s career forty years ago has suddenly come back to life—and it involves the long-held mystery of Will’s birth and parentage. Now these two dauntless investigators will each need to face down demons from the past if they are to prevent an even greater terror from being unleashed.
My thoughts: The back and forth from past to present could probably get to some people (like Hubby), but I was able to follow well enough in print (it’s clearly marked when is when). Hubby listened to the audio book, which might have made it hard for him. Another good read, though.

Book 42

Dates read: August 14, 2023
Title: Snatched
Year of publication: 2012
Author: Karin Slaughter
Genre: Crime Suspense
Series: Will Trent #5.5
# of Pages: 69
Paper or plastic: Mass market paperback
How obtained: Purchased (at end of the book, Criminal)
Blurb from Book: Will Trent, a dedicated agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for fifteen years, knows that there’s definitely such a thing as a cop’s intuition. Which is why he should have listened to his own.
    While in an airport restroom at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International, Will overhears a girl’s pleading, plaintive voice: “Please, I wanna go home.” Something isn’t right here, thinks Will. He feels it in his gut. But he waits too long to act, and now the girl and the anxious, angry man she’s with have disappeared into the crowds at the busiest passenger airport in the world.
    After a desperate search and with time running out, Will makes a call to his supervisor, Amanda Wagner. Will’s partner, Faith Mitchell, immediately sends out an abducted child alert. The entire airport will soon be grinding to a halt: Almost 100 million passengers a year. Five runways. Seven concourses. Six million square feet of space that sprawled across two counties, three cities, and five jurisdictions. All shut down on a dime because Will has a hunch that he is certain is true: a girl, maybe six or seven years old, has been snatched from God knows where. And he intends to bring her back—no matter what it takes.
My thoughts: I almost read this one first (since it was at the end of the paperback of Criminal), but thought it wouldn’t matter. Well, it sort of did. Just glad I was able to get a copy. And basically free! Haha!

With all our travels, you’d think Hubby and I have been to Europe. But we haven’t. Came close in 2020, but that trip was cancelled (gee, I wonder why?). When asked what I was interested in seeing or doing in Italy, I couldn’t name a thing. It’s not really a place I’ve dreamed of visiting. I’m going because Hubby wants to and I figure I’ll see some neat stuff. Like I told our tour guide, “I don’t know what I don’t know.”

Have you ever been to Italy?

Happy Reading!

Stacy

Finished Reading “Fallen” and Feeling Like a Jinx

We like attending Dayton Dragons games (they’re the single A baseball team of the Cincinnati Reds). We have season tickets and see about 6-8 games a year (we share the season with other people). So far this year we have yet to see them win a game.

Yesterday was our second to last game (our last game to see them is on Aug 26). They had a four game winning streak, had won 10 of their last 11, and just moved into first place in their division. And then we went to the game.

They lost…again. My husband told the workers at the information booth that they should pay him not to come to the games!

I do hope they win on Aug 26. I’d hate to think we were a jinx to the team!!

Here’s what I read since my last update:

Book 40

Dates read: July 28 – August 4, 2023
Title: Fallen
Year of publication: 2011
Author: Karin Slaughter
Genre: Crime Suspense
Series: Will Trent #5
# of Pages: 426
Paper or plastic: Mass market paperback
How obtained: Purchased
Blurb from Book: There’s no police training stronger than a cop’s instinct. Faith Mitchell’s mother isn’t answering her phone. Her front door is open. There’s a bloodstain above the knob. Everything Faith learned in the academy goes out the window when she charges into her mother’s house, gun drawn. She sees a man dead in the laundry room, a hostage situation in the bedroom. What she doesn’t see is her mother. When the hostage situation turns deadly, Faith is left with too many questions. She’ll need the help of her partner, Will Trent, and trauma doctor Sara Linton to get some answers. But Faith isn’t just a cop anymore, she’s a witness—and a suspect. To find her mother, Faith will have to cross the thin blue line and bring the truth to light—or bury it forever.
My thoughts: Hubby warned me that the characters in the book aren’t anything like the characters in the TV series, and he wasn’t wrong. I still try to picture them, but sometimes it’s just too darn hard. This book made it more difficult. Still enjoyed the story and wanted to find all the answers at the end. This is a really good series.

I still hate our new DVR. While I was glad to get one with a clock, the display is blue and really hard to see from our couch (plus, the menu stuff wasn’t any different than the one without a display). So… I went and bought a new clock with a larger display and put it on top of the DVR. Works so much better. Too bad it doesn’t fix the DVR issues.

Happy Reading!

Stacy