Odd Hours by Dean Koontz

Synopsis: 

Now Koontz follows Odd as he is irresistibly drawn onward, to a destiny he cannot imagine. The legend began in the obscure little town of Pico Mundo. A fry cook named Odd was rumored to have the extraordinary ability to communicate with the dead. Through tragedy and triumph, exhilaration and heartbreak, word of Odd Thomas' gifts filtered far beyond Pico Mundo, attracting unforgettable new friends - and enemies of implacable evil. With great gifts comes the responsibility to meet great challenges. But no mere human being was ever meant to face the darkness that now stalks the world - not even one as oddly special as Odd Thomas. 

After grappling with the very essence of reality itself, after finding the veil separating him from his soul mate, Stormy Llewellyn, tantalizingly thin yet impenetrable, Odd longed only to return to a life of quiet anonymity with his two otherworldly sidekicks - his dog, Boo, and a new companion, one of the few who might rival his old pal Elvis. But a true hero, however humble, must persevere.
Haunted by dreams of an all-encompassing red tide, Odd is pulled inexorably to the sea, to a small California coastal town where nothing is as it seems. Now the forces arrayed against him have both official sanction and an infinitely more sinister authority...and in this dark night of the soul, dawn will come only after the most shattering revelations of all.

Chalk this up to another book that I had started during my reading slump and took me awhile to finish.

I think my slump was partially due to not being motivated to read and also being the middle of a few books that I didn’t get immediately sucked into/needed breaks from.

This was the first Odd Thomas book that didn’t pull me in and refuse to spit me out until it was over. There was just something about the storyline that I didn’t really care about. Once I was determined to finish it and actually sat down with the intent to do so, I did enjoy it. But, I was not hooked on the storyline in this one.

Odd Thomas sets out to stop a nuclear disaster. With a little help from psychic magnetism and Frank Sinatra – yes, THAT Frank Sinatra, he gets put into some sticky situations but comes out of it as only Odd can.

The story got deeper towards the end. Odd was in moral conflict with himself which was interesting to read. I hope the next storyline grips me more than this one. I really enjoy this series, but it’s hard when it’s a book that isn’t a “cant put this down” read.

3/5 Stars

Memorable Quotes: “Bad men wound and destroy one another, although as targets they prefer those who are innocent and as pure as this world allows anyone to be. They feed on violence, but they feast on the despoiling of what is good.”

“Sometimes I am a mystery to myself.”

“In fact, people were not in the habit of asking if I would die for them. And I was not accustomed to answering in the positive, without hesitation.”

“No one can genuinely love the world, which is too large to love entire. To love all the world at once is pretense or dangerous self-delusion. Loving the world is like loving the idea of love, which is perilous because, feeling virtuous about this grand affection, you are freed from the struggles and the duties that come with loving people as individuals, with loving one place — home — above all others.”

“Loss is the hardest thing. But it’s also the teacher that’s the most difficult to ignore.”

“Grief can destroy you — or focus you. You can decide a relationship was all for nothing if it had to end in death, and you alone. Or you can realize that every moment of it had more meaning than you dared recognize at the time, so much meaning it scared you, so you just lived, just took for granted the love and laughter of each day, and didn’t allow yourself to consider the sacredness of it. But when it’s over and you’re alone, you begin to see it wasn’t just a movie and dinner together, not just watching sunsets together, not just scrubbing a floor or washing dishes together or worrying over a high electric bill. It was everything, it was the why of life, every event and precious moment of it. The answer to the mystery of existence is the love you shared sometimes so imperfectly, and when loss wakes you to the deeper beauty of it, to the sanctity of it, you can’t get off your knees for a long time, you’re driven to your knees not by the weight of loss but by gratitude for what preceded the loss. And the ache is always there but one day not the emptiness, because to nurture the emptiness, to take solace in it, is to disrespect the gift of life.”

“Of all the things I am, a killer is one of them. Not a murderer, but still a killer. And a fool. The only child of a mad mother and a narcissistic father. A failed hero. A confused boy. A troubled man. A guy who makes his life up as he goes along. A seeker who cannot find his way.”

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Q is for Quarry by Sue Grafton

Synopsis:

She was a "Jane Doe," an unidentified white female whose decomposed body was discovered near a quarry off California's Highway 1. The case fell to the Santa Teresa County Sheriff's Department, but the detectives had little to go on. The woman was young, her hands were bound with a length of wire, there were multiple stab wounds, and her throat had been slashed. After months of investigation, the murder remained unsolved.

That was eighteen years ago. Now the two men who found the body, both nearing the end of long careers in law enforcement, want one last shot at the case. Old and ill, they need someone to help with their legwork and they turn to Kinsey Millhone. They will, they tell her, find closure if they can just identify the victim. Kinsey is intrigued and agrees to the job.

But revisiting the past can be a dangerous business, and what begins with the pursuit of Jane Doe's real identity ends in a high-risk hunt for her killer.

Q is for Quarry is the first Kinsey Millhone book that didn’t completely hook me in. I don’t know what it was about this book. I did enjoy it and the story was interesting. But, it kept losing me and took me a few months to read. That could also be due to the reading slump I’ve been in lately. Maybe a bit of both.

What I didn’t know going into it was that it’s based on a true story. I wish I had known that from the start. I may have been more invested.  Sue Grafton added some details that weren’t from the real story because this is a work of fiction, but she kept the integrity of the case in tact. What’s even better is that she got involved in trying to help solve the case. All of this was added as a note at the end of the book.

You can pretty much get what the whole thing was about from the synopsis. So, I’m just going to include a link where you can read about the Jane Doe of Santa Barbara. Someone has to know who this woman is. We can only hope it’ll get solved and she will get the justice she deserves all these years later.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/205ufca.html

https://www.independent.com/2011/07/21/who-was-jane-doe/

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Target: Alex Cross by James Patterson

Synopsis:

TARGET: HEAD OF STATE

A leader has fallen, and the procession route from Capitol Hill to the White House is lined with hundreds of thousands of mourners. None feel the loss of a President more keenly than Alex Cross, who has devoted his life to the public good. 

TARGET: UNITED STATES CABINET

A sniper’s bullet strikes a target in the heart of DC. Alex Cross’s wife, Bree Stone, newly elevated chief of DC detectives, faces an ultimatum: solve the case, or lose the position for which she’s worked her entire career. The Secret Service and the FBI deploy as well in the race to find the shooter. Alex is tasked by the new President to take a personal role with the FBI, leading an investigation unprecedented in scale and scope. 

TARGET: ALEX CROSS 

Alex has a horrible premonition: is the sniper’s strike only the beginning of a larger attack on the nation? It isn’t long before his fears explode into life, and the nation plunges into a full-blown Constitutional crisis. His ingenuity, his training, and his capacity for battle are tested beyond limits in the most far-reaching and urgently consequential case of his life. As the rule of law is shattered by chaos, and Alex fights to isolate a suspect, Alex’s loyalty may be the biggest danger of all.

First of all, is this book sponsored by Uber? I don’t think I’ve ever seen Uber mentioned that many times in. . . any sort of media ever. That was a strange detail that stuck out to me. 

Second of all, I can’t see this being all that realistic. That took me out of the book from time to time. It was very over the top. I will give it credit for being very action packed though. 

I thought I would like seeing Alex practicing more in his private practice, but I don’t think I do if we are going to have random therapy cases that only exist to add weird angles to his investigations. 

Well, that ending was certainly unexpected. I wrote the previous paragraph before I had finished the book. I guess this time, his client has a bigger role - but only if they follow up with the story in the next book. This one was certainly left on a cliffhanger. 

There was an upsetting lack of John Sampson. 

I have a lot of minor thought about this one. Nothing that really flows together. Overall, it was a solid Alex Cross book. None of them are entirely realistic, so it follows that trend. 

3/5 Stars

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‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King

Synopsis:

'Salem's Lot is a small New England town with white clapboard houses, tree-lined streets, and solid church steeples. That summer in 'Salem's Lot was a summer of home-coming and return; spring burned out and the land lying dry, crackling underfoot. Late that summer, Ben Mears returned to 'Salem's Lot hoping to cast out his own devils... and found instead a new unspeakable horror.

A stranger had also come to the Lot, a stranger with a secret as old as evil, a secret that would wreak irreparable harm on those he touched and in turn on those they loved.

All would be changed forever—Susan, whose love for Ben could not protect her; Father Callahan, the bad priest who put his eroded faith to one last test; and Mark, a young boy who sees his fantasy world become reality and ironically proves the best equipped to handle the relentless nightmare of 'Salem's Lot.

It took me three tries, but I have finally finished ‘Salem’s Lot. There’s something about King’s writing where you have to be in a very specific mood to read his stuff. I’m not sure how to explain it, but I think anyone who reads his books will understand. 

In typical King fashion, there was jumping around from character to character, but it allowed for a depth to the character development and everyone got their own arcs. It took awhile for things to get going, but once they started it was full speed ahead. It went so quickly that I feel like some things may have been left out (somehow, with Mr. Descriptive). I can’t put my finger on exactly what that would be. 

With some of the deaths, it felt sort of like “oh, they’re dead now. Okay.” They just came out of nowhere with not much build up. It was interesting. 

Much like with IT, it took a turn that I wasn’t expecting. I don’t really know what I expected from ‘Salem’s Lot, but I didn’t expect it to be a book about Vampires. That was a bit of a shock to the system, as I don’t typically go for vampire novels. But the time we get to that reveal, it’s a bit too late to turn back. 

Overall – I enjoyed it. I don’t know if it liked it due to the quality of the book or just because it’s a King classic. Either way, if you’re in the mood for some Stephen King, I’d say it’s a good read with some likeable characters. 

3/5 Stars

Memorable Quote: “The town cares for the devil’s work no more than it cares for God’s or man’s. It knew darkness. And darkness was enough.”

“At three in the morning the blood runs slow and thick, and slumber is heavy. The soul either sleeps in blessed ignorance of such an hour or gazes about itself in utter despair.”

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Fifty Fifty by James Patterson

Synopsis:

It’s not easy being a good detective – when your brother’s a serial killer.

Sam Blue stands accused of the brutal murders of three young students, their bodies dumped near the Georges River. Only one person believes he is innocent: his sister, Detective Harriet Blue. And she’s determined to prove it.

Except she’s now been banished to the outback town of Last Chance Valley (population 75), where a diary found on the roadside outlines a shocking plan – the massacre of the entire town. And the first death, shortly after Harry’s arrival, suggests the clock is already ticking.

Meanwhile, back in Sydney, a young woman holds the key to crack Sam’s case wide open.

If only she could escape the madman holding her hostage . . .

I took a break from fiction for a few weeks to dive into True Crime books. The total heaviness of them made me come back to fiction for a quick break before I dive back in. I don’t know why I even tried. Once I got to the end of this one, I started stress eating and my heart rate was rising with each chapter.

And then I got hit with a completely emotional ending that I was not prepared for and I almost cried.

So, thank you for that. I thought I was escaping harsh emotions for a bit, but I was plunged right back in. At least they were fake characters this time. But, now that we are more than one book into the series, you start becoming attached anyways.

So, this is the second book in the Harriet Blue series. We see her get shipped off to the Australian desert to try to solve another case. What seems like just a homicide turns into so much more and she is forced to choose between saving herself or saving a whole village that she has come to protect.

Meanwhile, the search is on back home for who is framing her brother of serial murder. Strides are made in the case, but will it ultimately be solved? Almost. It leads into there being at least one more book in the series, but I can only imagine how emotional it will be.

I’ve had some issues with some of James Patterson’s recent releases. The writing doesn’t seem to be up to snuff, and they just haven’t stuck with me like they used to. This budding series seems to be bringing fresh life to his resume. I can only assume that’s through the help of his co-writer Candice Fox.

4/5 stars

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