72. Storm Child by Michael Robotham

listened on Libby

336 pgs.

2024
Adult Contemporary Mystery/Thriller
Finished 9/21/24
Goodreads rating: 4.26
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Nottingham, England, and the coast of Scotland

My comments: Back and forth between two points of view: Cyrus and Evie, detailing how Evie slowly gets her memories back and discovers what had happened to her, her sister, and her mother.  The first half of the book takes place in their hometown of Nottingham, the second half in Scotland, where the fishing families that continue to be involved in the movement of illegal aliens into Great Britain are still hiding their participation from ten years before....as well as currently.  Good story.  Very well narrated.

Goodreads synopsis:  The mystery of Evie Cormac’s background has followed her into adulthood. As a child, she was discovered hiding in a secret room where a man had been tortured to death. Many of her captors and abusers escaped justice, unseen but not forgotten. Now, on a hot summer’s day, the past drags Evie back as she watches the bodies of seventeen migrants wash up on a Lincolnshire beach.

There is only one survivor, a teenage boy, who tells police their small boat was deliberately rammed and sunk. Psychologist Cyrus Haven is recruited by the police to investigate the murders—but recognizes immediately that Evie has some link to the tragedy. By solving this crime, he could finally unlock the secrets of her past. But what dark forces will he set loose? And who will pay the price?

21. The Trapped Girl by Robert Dugoni

#4 Tracy Crosswhite

listened on Audible

2017
424 pgs.
Adult murder mystery, police procedural
Finished 3/14/2022
Goodreads rating: 4.38
My rating: 4.5
Setting:  Contemporary Seattle & other parts of Washington state

My comments: A woman's body is found in a crab pot in Puget Sound, off Seattle, and has jurisdiction flip flopping back and forth, with Tracy never fully giving up looking for answers...   An excellently plotted mystery that keeps you guessing and figuring things out along with Tracy.  Dugoni is great with creating his characters, setting, and plot....liked this one a whole lot.  (Tracy ends up getting married to Dan at the very end so it's going to be interesting to see how that changes things.)

Goodreads synopsis:   When a woman’s body is discovered submerged in a crab pot in the chilly waters of Puget Sound, Detective Tracy Crosswhite finds herself with a tough case to untangle. Before they can identify the killer, Tracy and her colleagues on the Seattle PD’s Violent Crimes Section must figure out who the victim is. Her autopsy, however, reveals she may have gone to great lengths to conceal her identity. So who was she running from?

After evidence surfaces that their Jane Doe may be a woman who suspiciously disappeared months earlier, Tracy is once again haunted by the memory of her sister’s unsolved murder. Dredging up details from the woman’s past leads to conflicting clues that only seem to muddy the investigation. As Tracy begins to uncover a twisted tale of brutal betrayal and desperate greed, she’ll find herself risking everything to confront a killer who won’t go down without a deadly fight. Once again, New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni delivers a taut, riveting thriller in the fourth installment of his acclaimed Tracy Crosswhite series.

56. The Diamond Bearer's Destiny by Lorena Angell

#4 Unaltered

read on Kindle

2013

286 pgs.
YA Paranormal Fantasy
Finished 5/25/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.15 - 207 ratings
My rating: 3.5

First line/s: "I don't know if I want to be a Diamond Bearer anymore."

My comments: This installment wraps up many of the problems seen in the first three books.  A lot of time is spent revealing Chris's past and his relationship with his father to Calli.  Calli takes on new responsibilities as she switches places with Meitha, adding invisibility and light control to her powers.  Chris defeats his father, and that ends the government's interference with the powers under control of General Harding.  A new generation of diamond bearers is born.  The series could definitely end right here, there don't seem to be any unanswered questions, only possibilities and directions where things might possibly go.

Goodreads synopsis:  The Diamond Bearers' Destiny, book four of The Unaltered. Calli learns about Chris's motives and tries to understand his dilemmas. Given no choice, the two of them travel with a mysterious companion back to General Harding's facility in an effort to dismantle the programs that are exterminating people with powers and wiping Diamond Bearers from the face of the earth.

          General Harding figures out what lies at the heart of Agent Alpha's research project. Harding is determined to complete the studies and become an all-powerful Diamond Bearer--once Chris deceives Calli and delivers her to him so he can destroy her and take the diamond from her heart.
          What General Harding fails to understand is this: Calli's diamond will not make him the most powerful individual on the face of the earth. Most powerful of all are the agents of nature who work for Crimson--the creator of the Sanguine Diamond. Upsetting the balance of nature is the last thing General Harding should do.
          Follow Calli, Chris, Brand, and Crimson as they battle Deus Ex, undead Healers, and the notorious General Harding, in an effort to balance nature and save lives.

112. A Room Full of Bones by Elly Griffiths

#4 Ruth Galloway  - British Forensic Archeologist
listened to audio on Audible
narrated by Jane McDowell
Unabridged audio (9:44)
2012
352 pgs.
Adult Mystery - Police Procedural
Finished 8/2/2020
Goodreads rating:  3.91 - 14,325 ratings
My rating: 4

First line/s:  "The coffin is definitely a health and safety hazard."

What I posted on Goodreads:  Another interesting mystery including a family museum, a horse farm, a 14th century bishop that turns out to be a female (!) and all sorts of ups and downs with parenting...including by Kate's father and Kate's father's wife, Michelle.....

My comments:  The mystery is about the Smith family, their horse farm, drug dealing, aboriginal bones. and a 14th century bishop(who turns out to be female) in the Smith Museum.  It's also about Harry Nelson getting sick and his wife, Michelle, coming to terms witht he fact that he is Kate's father and needs to be involved in her life (very good of Michelle, i think).  At the end of the book, Ruth and Max are becoming a couple.  Upcoming things to contemplate:  Nelson's sidekick is pregnatn, and although she is married, she has had a fling with Casbad.  A good story, though I wish Griffiths didn't use quite as many poinst-ov fivew as she did.  It all come together well, and was quite interesting to listen to.

Goodreads synopsis:  Combine a splash of Alan Bradley with a pinch of Kathy Reichs and you have a gripping new Ruth Galloway Mystery -- a good-hearted mystery series with a dark edge.
           Set in Norfolk, England, A Room Full of Bones embroils, once again, our brainy heroine in a crime tinged by occult forces. On Halloween night, the Smith Museum in King's Lynn is preparing for an unusual event -- the opening of a coffin containing the bones of a medieval bishop. But when forensic archaelogist Ruth Galloway arrives to supervise, she finds the curator, Neil Topham, dead beside the coffin. Topham's death seems to be related to other uncanny incidents, including the arcane and suspect methods of a group called the Elginists, which aims to repatriate the museum's extensive collection of Aborigine skulls; the untimely demise of the museum's owner, Lord Smith; and the sudden illness of DCI Harry Nelson, who Ruth's friend Cathbad believes is lost in The Dreaming -- a hallucinogenic state central to some Indigenous Australian beliefs. Tensions build as Nelson's life hangs in the balance. Something must be done to set matters right and lift Nelson out of the clutches of death, but will Ruth be able to muster herself out of a state of guilt and foreboding in order to do what she does best?

19. Dark Pattern by Andrew Mayne

#4 Dr. Theo Cray/The Naturalist
listened to Audible
narrated by Will Damron
2019 Thomas & Mercer
316 pgs.
Adult Mystery/Serial Killer
Finished 1/27/2020
Goodreads rating: 4.21 - 2317 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporay Texas, St. Lucia, and other points on the map....

First line/s: "Nora watched the doorway.  This was when the Night Lady usually stopped at her room and stared inside."

My comments:  Serial killer hunter extraordinaire!  Whenever I go into one of the Theo Cray books now, I know I have to suspend reality checks.  I'm sure most of - or at least many -  of Cray's technological "inventions" are still science-fiction, but they are what makes these mysteries so different.  You know that he's going to get himself into some stupid cray situations and you roll your eyes at most of his antics, but that's also what makes these books so much fun, as well as his definite Asperger's/Autistic tendencies and his cognition of them.  It also cracks me up how much he irritates people.  A huge part of the plot comes off as comic relief for me, I wonder if it affects others in the same way?  To write this combination of grizzly deaths and this extraordinary character is quite genius.  A real breakdown should be coming for this man!  Or has he had it?  ti's hard to tell from the ending of this book, which did seem a little rushed compared to the rest of it.

Goodreads synopsis:  Dr. Theo Cray is on the hunt for a killer nurse, and redemption, in a mind-bending psychological thriller by the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Naturalist.
          Dr. Theo Cray has a legendary mathematical knack for catching serial killers. Until his exposure to a mind-altering pathogen knocks him off his game. It has upended an investigation, destroyed his reputation, and left him to question his own sanity. One person still trusts him to finish the job. His former professor Amanda Paulson is helping point Cray down a logical path to his prey: a nomadic health-care worker whose murder spree stretches back decades and whose victims number in the hundreds.
          Never more desperate to save innocent lives, and to save himself, Cray follows each new lead around the world. But with his own grip on reality slipping away, Cray knows that to follow the pattern of an elusive killer, he must also confront his own dark side. In those dangerous shadows, he can find what he’s hunting. For Cray, venturing into a world without reason is going to be the most frightening journey of his life.

24. A Shroud of Tattered Sails by Scott William Carter

#4 Garrison Gage, Oregon Coast PI
Listened on Audible
Read by Steven Roy Grimsley
Unabridged (8:43)
2015 Flying Raven Press (2016 for Audio)
282 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished March 3, 2019
Goodreads rating: 4.22 - 376 ratings
My rating:  4
Setting:  Contemporary Barnacle Bluffs, Oregon Coast

First line/s:  "They walked side by side, but alone."

My comments:  Garrison Gage seems to be even more sarcastic and witty in this fourth installment, set again in Barnacle Bluffs, a beautiful tourist town on the Oregon coast.  By the end of this book, Garrison's life seems to be coming together in a really positive way - both with Zoe and a new love interest for himself.  And I'm not sure how I feel about that, to tell the truth.  I'm not sure how having a close relationship will work for him.  This was another good mystery, but not my favorite so far.  But still a 4!

Goodreads synopsis:  A beached sailboat. A missing man. A distraught woman staggering ashore. There to greet her—Garrison Gage, full-time curmudgeon and part-time private investigator, who quickly finds himself thrust into his familiar role of crusader for the desperate and downtrodden. The woman claims to have no memory, but is she lying? 
          When a body later washes ashore, the mystery deepens and the stakes ratchet up another notch. Dark money and even darker intentions. Violence both threatened and real. The woman may be at the heart of it all, or merely an innocent interloper who chose the wrong boat at the wrong time. Only Gage can discover the truth.