Tanya

Warfare continues as winter approaches the Seven Kingdoms. Robb Stark fights to hold together the Northern territories despite serious setbacks and Jamie Lannister has escaped from Riverrun to execute a trade for the Stark girls. Sansa finds her situation worsening, and Bran must decide to follow a path to safety or to a discovery of his true potential.

Every time I think I've got this series figured out, Martin throws me for a loop! Story lines that I thought were progressing in one direction suddenly diverge in a new direction, characters that were once beyond redemption surprise with a unexpected hidden side, and the twists get more dramatic as the novel progresses.

As the fighting intensifies, characters reveal themselves in fascinating ways. Catelyn becomes obsessed with reuniting what is left of her family, at the potential expense of her son Robb's crown. Robb must decide if he wants to continue fighting the Lannisters or see to the tragedy awaiting him at his home at Winterfell. Jon, traveling with the Wildlings beyond The Wall, sees what is truly approaching the Seven Kingdoms and must decide where his loyalties lie. Even Tyrion and Jamie must decide how loyal they are to their family - and how far they'll go to demonstrate that loyalty when called to do so.

Overall, this was the best yet in the series. As usual, the writing is superb, painting a picture of a land so believable you'd swear it wasn't fantasy you were reading, but a finely crafted political thriller...with dragons. The good guys don't always win and the bad guys don't always lose...and aren't always bad. The plot almost reads like a mystery, full of twists and turns, so much that it's difficult to know what to expect when you turn the page.

I'm trying to pace myself to not get too far ahead of the show, but after reading this installment, I might just have to move on to Book #4.

Written by a resident of New Orleans and a professor of history at Tulane University, this book covers the entirety of Hurricane Katrina - from when it is first spotted by the NWS to the moment the final evacuees leave the city - from numerous perspectives. Brinkley's interviews with the surviving citizens enables him to tell the story from their perspectives, describing the horror of the event from the ground up. Brinkley also describes the failures in government at every level, from President Bush's failure to oversee FEMA to Mayor Nagin hiding in a hotel to New Orleans police officers skipping town in stolen SUVs.

This book was really good. It was an eye-opening look at an event that I thought I was familiar with since I lived through the news coverage of it. After reading this book, I realized I didn't know the half of it. It's full of details and interviews which, while interesting, certainly make for some slow reading. I'd recommend it for someone looking for really comprehensive coverage of the event but not to someone looking for a light read.

“I did the whole making muffins for bake sales and going on trips and being there for homework and inviting friends around. All of that. But I didn't know how to do what was important.”

Grace Covy, mother of two and part-time writer for her local newspaper, races to rescue her daughter when a fire engulfs the posh private school they attend on Sports Day. Upon arriving at the hospital, Grace and Jenny, both badly injured in the fire, are outside their bodies, able to communicate with only each other. The situation becomes even more dire when the police close the case but Grace realizes they've collared the wrong suspect...and the real arsonist still wants Jenny dead.

A unique kind of mystery, this book took off full-bore from the start and never relented in terms of pace and emotional punch. Lupton's writing is superb, and as a former screenwriter she knows how to write a cliffhanger, leaving you unable to leave off after “just one more chapter.” The characters are wonderfully drawn and fully fleshed out, not cookie-cutter as it would have been so easy to do. While part of the ending was a bit predictable, the whodunit portion of the mystery kept me guessing right up to the end.

Hundreds of unemployed citizens line up for a job fair in the early morning hours of a Midwest city. A stolen Mercedes plows through the unsuspecting crowd, driven by a lone driver in a clown mask. When the chaos is over, eight innocent people are dead and more than a dozen more are injured.

Retired police detective Bill Hodges spends his days watching talk shows, haunted by the unsolved cases he left behind. When a letter arrives claiming to be from the Mercedes Killer, he decides to investigate on his own instead of going to the police. In doing so, he must match wits with a crazed psychopath, for whom one murderous rampage was not enough.


“I'm going to kill you. You won't see me coming.”

Mr. Mercedes succeeds in hitting several of my favorite reading elements: a page-turning suspense thriller, well-developed, sympathetic characters, and a seriously creepy bad guy who got under my skin.

The telling of this story in the present tense, a departure from King's regular writing style, has the benefit of moving the narrative along at a rapid pace, which in turn heightened the race-against-the-clock feel for both Brady (the murderer) and Hodges and his crew.

At times the plot feels contrived, particularly the constant rationalization of why Hodges refuses to turn to the police for help even after it becomes clear that Brady is becoming unraveled. This, however, does nothing to diminish the suspense of the novel, as Hodges runs into roadblocks in his investigation and Brady grows more desperate and disorganized.

As usual, King's character development is unparalleled, with a connection being forged between the reader and characters that are only alive for ten pages. While on the surface some of the characters appear to be formulaic (the suicidal, retired detective, the brilliant tech-savvy young kid, the psychopathic maniac with mommy issues, etc.), King's development of these characters is still successful. They are sympathetic and accessible, with even Brady having his moment of sympathy (albeit a very, very brief one).

This book is classic King, probing the conflict between good and evil both within his characters and between them, though this time played out with purely human elements. Despite not being as strong a showing as his last few novels, this was a solid start to what will hopefully be an enjoyable trilogy.