YURK!

Flesh Wound by Jon Say

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Oh, Man....what we have here is a contemporary Male Fantasy loosely disguised as a "thriller". Studly ex-Homicide Cop literally runs into the car of a high-priced Fetish Call Girl..."Love" follows like mould spores...with acts of domination, humiiiation, boot licking....but no penetration.Except off-the-clock..the Cop and the Call Girl...

Somewhere in between the thinly veiled "talks" on relationship dynamics and the role of private erotic fantasies..there is a tale of financial chicanery...investment bank mergers.the sale of T-Bills to the Chinese...the success of which hinges on satisfying the sexual desires of one lone Chinese diplomat.....throw into the mix a horny SEC regulator...a snidely State Department agent, or two....one confused/bitter ex-wife...gorgeous, athletic strippers..and two adorable 4-year-old girls.....adds up to one glorious Mess

I received this book through Library Thing's Member Giveaway...otherwise I never would have read..I give it 2 Stars...the reading was slowed due to the fact that too much information was crammed into the dialogue....making for undue distraction. The Characters were of the Cartoon variety....PLAYBOY without the Wit....too much "stud" in the Hero...too much perfection" in the Heroine.

This was a cheap, easy read...if you're looking for erotic thrills, go elsewhere...no THRILL this.



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History

The Gendarme by Mark Mustian

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


*I received this book through Library Thing Early Reviewers*

Emmett Conn/Ahmet Khan, in the last days of his life, is haunted by dreams of a horrible time in his past...his time spent as a gendarme, herding Armenians from Turkey to Syria (the ARMENIAN GENOCIDE 1915-1923).During this time he met a young woman with eyes of two different colors....named Araxie...whose memory haunts him still. the fact that he loved her and abandoned her.

At the end of his life, Emmett/Ahmet, a naturalized US citizen, has time to reflect on his past, since he is dying of a brain tumor. Having suffered memory loss, after surviving the battle of Gallipoli and the subsequent airlift to England (having been mis-identified as a British soldier), he knows well the vagaries of memory/reminiscence. How much of what he "recalls" is real? How much is the residue of recorded history? How much is "merely" guilt? this is where the story goes deep. Emmett's dreams are fraught with horror and violence...and regret. He sets himself the "task" of confronting them....and damn the consequences.

I don't often read "war novels" and am not fond of the stories that tout the "triumph of the human spirit". Too often those books spiral into screeds of accusation and whining...writ Large. This book, on the other hand, is writ small...in scope. Small enough to fit into a dying man's heart and brain....into a man trying to make sense of old horrors, loves, and regrets. The ending is a "stunner" and I won't give it away. Suffice to say, Ahmet dies with a modicum of peace.

I recommend this lovely heartbreak of a book to anyone who likes prose gracefully written...who prefers history confined to the heart rather than the Headlines

4 Stars



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Fearless

Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



......and lo! the title is appropriate! Ms Hamilton's work is surely one of my guilty pleasures...at least the first four Anita Blake titles, before the "stories" devolved into what I call WALMART PORN-cheesy enough to not offend the sensibilities of the average "Christian" housewife...with just enough "hard sex" to raise the reader's temperature....puhleez! How many descriptions of exotic blow jobs can one read before the eyes start rolling and laughter rules the day? Or is that just me?

Someone, or some thing, is killing the Master Vampires in St. Louis. Anita Blake, who raises the dead and slays vampires for a living, is on the case, albeit unwillingly. A gal can be bitten, stabbed,thrown against walls, and attacked by were-rats only so often before she concedes defeat, right? From Vampire Strip Clubs to a Hellish circus......dungeons to cemetaries....the hunt is on. In the company of a seductive, boyish stripper (who is also a vampire junkie), an armed, amoral yet dependable hit man....various cops, colleagues and, yes, vampires (plus a zombie or two)...Anita has her work cut out...She raises a few dead folks...slays a few "bad" vamps, including the Baddest One of All....infiltrates the Church of Eternal Life (don't ask)...and comes out in, more or less, one piece. A few busted ribs, one more grave to visit, and the mysterious Jean-Claude...who "made" her what she never wanted to be. Not too high a price, or is it?

The series begins here....which, to my mins, is THE place to start, where the story ruled and the sex was peripheral. These books won't give Anne Rice any competition, and Bram Stoker still rules the roost.

3 Stars for a wild, sexy walk on the wild side..with just enough violence and gore to satisfy the little bloodsucker in each of us!



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The Inscrutable East

Out by Natsuo Kirino

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


HEADS-UP:

my reading notes for this book were as long as the book itself....what I post here is what i posted to another LT friend (not in OUR group) but, it might work...until i figure out something better.

# 26

Out by Natsuo Kirino

4.5 stars

This is one of the best books I've read in quite some time...Ms. Kirino has a knack for getting inside her character's heads....thereby getting inside the reader's head...so we all go to Hell together (no Yellow Brick Road)

my notes for this book are as long as the Effing book...if i write a review it will have to hit me very quickly...Read the damned thing...and squirm with pleasure...Ms Kirino is a rare bird...she can write a Thriller that Thrills...and make one think...that "it can happen here"

Four women working dead-end jobs...living in dead-end relationships...One woman murders her abusive husband....from there it's a slippery slide into the Tokyo Underworld....

Ms Kirino is a kill-hell writer....made this reader feel as if she was living the story. I have known women in this situation..in that case, real life, there was no murder...But who knows what lurks in the heart?

Not for the squeamish, faint-of-heart, or those who are only comfortable with "nice" books. This one rocks...and will leave you thinking about many things....that maybe aren't on your Agenda. I have two more of Ms Kirino's books...look forward to the "pleasure" of her company....



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CHICAGO, Not so Toddlin' (1968)

Jackson Park by Charlotte Carter

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Set in Chicago after the Martin Luther King assassination...after the subsequent riots...the story features a Black family (of sorts..by necessity) caught up in a series of events born in the old Chicago political system and reared in the Black Power movement of the late 1960s. How these pieces fall together..and some lives fall apart...makes a good "mystery" but a better mini-History lesson writ bloody but not screamingly LARGE.



Ms Carter also wrote the NANETTE HAYES Trilogy:

Rhode Island Red,Coq Au Vin, &Drumsticks....all three sexy, sassy, and real (do i detect a Chicken theme?) Funky Butt chic, to be sure! Go, seek them out...

WOT????

Mallory's Oracle by Carol O'Connell

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Am re-reading MALLORY'S ORACLE by Carol O'Connell...the first of the MALLORY series. I had forgotten what a good book this is....great plot, well-developed characters..the whole thing...Kathleen Mallory is an early, American version of Lisbeth Salander (GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO)...another Wild Child, computer hacker extraordinaire...Ms Mallory dresses better, and lives in NYC...but under the skin they are the same....amoral to a fault, in the cause of their version of Justice.... (

Another PLUM

Ten Big Ones by Janet Evanovich

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


....where Stephanie & Lula stumble upon a deli-robbery....except..Stephie sees the perp

Stephanie loses another vehicle...and stands to lose her life

one more trip into GANGLAND..and Miss Plum might stumble onto something UGLY..

Keystone Kops here...in North Jersey

the horror of modern-day life....sifted through Ms Evanovich's wondrous EYE$


3 Stars