Nightlife by Thomas Perry

Perry is a clever writer and often brilliant. Nightlife shows both but is so diluted with back stories that the plot suffers. The characters are so well developed, it would be nice if Perry exposed them like Elmore Leonard, without telling us about them and letting their personalities fill us in. The characters are very well defined and likable. PW: When the cousin of Los Angeles underworld figure Hugo Poole is found shot to death in his Portland, Oregon, home, police find nothing at the scene of the crime except several long strands of blonde hair hinting that a second victim may have been involved. Hotel security tapes from the victim's last vacation reveal an out-of-focus picture of a young blond woman entering and leaving his room. Could she also be a murder victim? Portland homicide detective Catherine Hobbes is determined to solve the case and locate the missing blonde, but her feelings, and the investigation, are complicated when Hugo hires private detective Joe Pitt to perform a parallel investigation. As Joe and Catherine form an uneasy alliance, the murder count rises, and both realize that the pretty young woman in the security tapes is not a victim at all. As Catherine follows the evidence, she finds herself in a deadly contest with an unpredictable adversary capable of changing her appearance and identity at will. Catherine must use everything she knows, as a homicide detective and as a woman, to stop a murderer who kills on impulse and with ease, and who becomes more efficient and elusive with each crime.

As the Crow Flies by Craig Johnson

The latest in the Walt Longmire series is excellent. I don't think there's been a weak link in the chain and this episode is at the top of them all. PW: Embarking on his eighth adventure in As the Crow Flies, Sheriff Longmire is searching the Cheyenne Reservation for a site to host his daughter’s wedding, when he sees a woman fall to her death. Teaming up with beautiful tribal chief Lolo Long, Walt sets out to investigate the suspicious death.

The Safe Man by Michael Connelly

Safe cracker "box man" opens a safe with evil and can see the future. Didn't do it for me.

The Racketeer by John Grisham

Like so many Grisham books the antagonist is again an overwhelming force that makes the world seem bleak. But also like the best Grisham books the plots are creative and intriguing. The book starts of slow and angry and gets better as it goes. Didn't really enjoy the narration. PW Who is the Racketeer? And what does he have to do with the judge’s untimely demise? His name, for the moment, is Malcolm Bannister. Job status? Former attorney. Current residence? The Federal Prison Camp near Frostburg, Maryland. On paper, Malcolm’s situation isn’t looking too good these days, but he’s got an ace up his sleeve. He knows who killed Judge Fawcett, and he knows why. The judge’s body was found in his remote lakeside cabin. There was no forced entry, no struggle, just two dead bodies: Judge Fawcett and his young secretary. And one large, state-of-the-art, extremely secure safe, opened and emptied.
What was in the safe? The FBI would love to know. And Malcolm Bannister would love to tell them. But everything has a price—especially information as explosive as the sequence of events that led to Judge Fawcett’s death. And the Racketeer wasn’t born yesterday....

Honor Bound by W. E. B. Griffin

First book in the Honor Bound series was enjoyable. May listen to more in the series, but the narrators are not as interesting as Dick Hill. PW It's 1942. A Marine aviator, an Army paratrooper and demolitions expert, and a non-com radio man are on an impossible mission for the OSS - sabotaging the resupply of German ships and submarines by any means necessary! First Lieutenant Cletus Frade is fresh from Guadalcanal. He teams up with Second Lieutenant Anthony Pelosi and Sergeant David Ettinger for the most critical OSS operation of the war. Under the direction of the mysterious Colonel Loman, they venture into a simmering stew of German and Allied agents, collaborators, and government security thugs, of men and women hiding their pasts and plotting their futures - all in supposedly neutral city of Buenos Aires.

Waging Heavy Peace by Neil Young

I don't know if I'd say this is a good book, but I enjoyed it. Keith Carradine's narration didn't do it for me. I liked the books composition of short stories that wandered around and crossed paths from time to time.

Hot Springs by Stephen Hunter

Passable entertainment, the worst book I've read by this author. Even so I look forward to reading more by Hunter, particularly in the Bob Lee Swagger series, this book was about Earl, his father. PW Earl Swagger is tough as hell. But even tough guys have their secrets. Plagued by the memory of his abusive father, apprehensive about his own impending parenthood, Earl is a decorated ex-Marine of absolute integrity — and overwhelming melancholy. Now he’s about to face his biggest, bloodiest challenge yet. It is the summer of 1946, organized crime’s garish golden age, when American justice seems to have gone to seed for good. Nowhere is this more true than in Hot Springs, Arkansas, the reigning capital of corruption. When the district attorney vows to bring down the mob, Earl is recruited to run the show. As casino raids erupt into nerve-shattering combat amid screaming prostitutes and fleeing johns, the body count mounts — along with the suspense.

The Panther by Nelson DeMille

Enjoyable but the weakest book in the series. Throughout the book the main character cracks unspoken jokes and as I didn't find them funny, it quickly became tiresome. PW Anti-Terrorist Task Force agent John Corey and his wife, FBI agent Kate Mayfield, have been posted overseas to Sana'a, Yemen - one of the most dangerous places in the Middle East. While there, they will be working with a small team to track down one of the masterminds behind the USS Cole bombing: a high-ranking Al Qaeda operative known as The Panther. Ruthless and elusive, he's wanted for multiple terrorist acts and murders - and the U.S. government is determined to bring him down, no matter the cost. As latecomers to a deadly game, John and Kate don't know the rules, the players, or the score. What they do know is that there is more to their assignment than meets the eye - and that the hunters are about to become the hunted.

Journey to Ixtlan: The Lessons of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda

Read this in high school but it was too boring to complete 30 years later.

Mad River by John Sandford

Boy these Virgil Flowers books are sure fun, I think even better than the Lucas Davenport series. Can't wait for the next... PW: Bonnie and Clyde, they thought. And what’s-his-name, the sidekick. Three teenagers with dead-end lives, and chips on their shoulders, and guns. The first person they killed was a highway patrolman. The second was a woman during a robbery. Then, hell, why not keep on going? As their crime spree cuts a swath through rural Minnesota, some of it captured on the killers’ cell phones and sent to a local television station, Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Virgil Flowers joins the growing army of cops trying to run them down. But even he doesn’t realize what’s about to happen next.