Books I've Read Lately

 I read quite a few books but don't write them all down and have already forgotten the last Vicki Delaney book I read and passed along.

I read one in a couple days I got at Winco Foods for $2.98.   I loved it.

Never Coming Home by Hannah Mary McKinnon

 Yup, that's the title, and that's its author.   

When I first began reading it, I was a little bit disgusted.   Lucas tells the story in the first person.   He's visiting Nora, his mother in law, who is dying of cancer.  (or so he thinks).   He's being the faithful loving son-in-law.  Even though......his wife has been kidnapped and after the first ransom note, and a botched ransom delivery, there's been nothing from the kidnapper.

Lucas's fairly new wife is wealthy and so is Nora her mom.   But Michelle, his wife, has a brother, who is a drug addict and still living at Michelle and Lucas's place.   Lucas has pledged to Nora he'll take care of drug addict Travis, and NOra has offered to put Travis's share of the inheritance under a trust controlled by Lucas.  How nice for Lucas.  How long will it take for his kidnapped wife to be declared dead, he wonders to himself when thinking about her money.   Lucas is a very detail oriented man, when it comes to making sure all his plans come to fruition.  Or is he?  I loved the ending!   Couldn't have been better!

The back of this book had a catchy phrase:  Missing Wife; Happy Life.   Yeah maybe, Lucas. Or whatever your real name is.

Here's another one I got for $2.98 at Winco.

Fractal Noise by Christopher Paolini

This one started out so tediusly I nearly scrapped it.   It was never exciting.  In fact, if you never read it, you won't miss much at all.    A research spaceship is approaching a planet they are to study for possible colonization.  Only they discover an anomaly on the surface---a large perfectly symmetrical hole.  What is it, who made it and should they investigate it?  And if so, which of the scientists should go?   The scientists on board, private contractors, are all rather pathetic in their own ways.   Alex, the biologist, is depressed and, as a character, really insipid.  I wanted him to get killed off.  But the other three main characters are no more interesting.   A loud obnoxious Russian is another of the four who ends up landing on the planet, then doing a long walk to reach the hole.   He hates Talia, a religious zealot, and soon they are constantly fighting.  The fourth member of the expedition is Chen, who is even more insipid than Alex.  The book is about the trek, their fighting, their pasts, two of them end up killing one another but Alex trudges on to see the hole.  There's no research of the hole, and it exists only to give a tiny little bit of plot to this useless book.

Yeah that was a waste of time book.

Winter of Secrets by Vicki Delany

  Rich folk can be a pain, especially young rich people.  And Constable Molly Smith's town, Trafalgar B.C., has been invaded with them, at Christmas.  They've arrived to ski, drink, and cause trouble, in the entitled manner of the rich.  Some townsfolk are not happy about it.

  When a car goes off into the frozen river, resulting in two dead rich young men, Molly and the law investigate.   The coroner brings a surprise discovery after the autopsies.  One of the young men didn't drown or die of cold--he was murdered.   Could it have been the driver who killed him, whose rich sister and now parents are in town?

  The young visitors and their friends have been causing all sorts of trouble at the Airbnb where they're staying.  Fights, vandalism, you name it.   

  Molly just wants to ski the fabulous powder coming down.   Instead she now must help in the investigation.

I've read a few in the Molly Smith series.  I like them.  Delany develops the long term characters well.   YOu think you know them after the first Molly Smith book, I swear.  I read one other Molly Smith one after Fractal Noise, but I forgot the name of it already.   Guess I could read it again and not even notice.

What am I currently reading?   I don't even know.  Grabbed it off a pile.  Another cheapo or freebie and already I don't like it.   Little girl is abducted by aliens, to start off the book.  Again.  And shown her half alien offspring like it would make up for all the torture and probing in other times she's been abducted.  She's really horrified to see the "creature" that is her baby.   They send her back down, telling her they're done with her.   Next chapter starts out with an alien coming to earth through a portal.  A drunk homeless is the only witness.  The alien just wants directions to the White House.  In return for those, he somehow cures the drunk of his addiction.   Ok, whatever, this one I'll liklely recycle.