5. Birding with Benefits by Sarah T. Dubb

listened on Libby

336 pgs.

2024
Adult romance
Finished 1/21/2026
Goodreads rating: 3.59
My rating: 3
Setting: Contemporary Tucson

My comments: Great, fun premise, set in Tucson.  Birding interests me, I love Tucson, and fake dating is always I trope that can be quite enjoyable.  However, the protagonist was too over-the-top for me - very believable as such, but she sorta drove me nuts.  So-so romance. And not enough Tucson.  

Goodreads synopsis:  A divorcee embarks on her “year of yes” and crosses paths with a shy but sensitive birdwatcher who changes her life in this charming rom-com that is perfect for fans of Christina Lauren and Ali Hazelwood.

Newly divorced, almost-empty-nester Celeste is finally seeking adventure and putting herself first, cliches be damned. So when a friend asks Celeste to “partner” with his buddy John for an event, Celeste throws herself into the role of his temporary girlfriend. But quiet cinnamon roll John isn’t looking for love, just birds—he needs a partner for Tucson’s biggest bird-watching contest if he’s ever going to launch his own guiding business. By the time they untangle their crossed signals, they’ve become teammates…and thanks to his meddling friends, a fake couple.

Celeste can’t tell a sparrow from a swallow, but John is a great teacher, and the hours they spend hiking in the Arizona wilderness feed Celeste’s hunger for new adventures while giving John a chance to practice his dream job. As the two spend more time together, they end up watching more than just the birds, and their chemistry becomes undeniable. Since they’re both committed to the single life, Celeste suggests a status upgrade: birders with benefits, just until the contest is done. But as the bird count goes up and their time together ticks down, John and Celeste will have to decide if their benefits can last a lifetime, or if this love affair is for the birds.

40. Desert Run by Betty Webb

#4 Lena Jones, Scottsdale, AZ Investigator
read on my iPhone
2006, Poisoned Pen Press
346 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 4/25/19
Goodreads rating:  3.90 - 332 ratings
My rating: 3.5
Setting:  Contemporary Scottsdale, AZ

First line/s:  "It was a good day to film but a bad day to die."

My comments:  It took me awhile to get into this story, but it grew on me as more and more information about the characters unfolded.  In 1944, 28 German POWs escaped from the American prison camp called Camp Papago in Scottsdale, AZ.  This is the story of the murder of one of those prisoners 60 years later, and the domino effect that had Lena Jones hot on the trail.  It also includes a bit of romance for herself, albeit with a great deal of untrusting on her part, and the loss and near-loss of two friends essential in her life.  Decent storytelling.

Goodreads synopsis:  Things are never easy for Scottsdale private eye Lena Jones. Her partner in Desert Investigations, Jimmy Siswan, is leaving for an upscale wife and a job at Sun Microsystems. Her old Captain at the Scottsdale PD is off home to Brooklyn. She's doing security for Warren Quinn, director of a documentary being shot at Papago Park about the German POW camp and the ""great escape"" of Christmas Eve, 1944, when some prisoners tunneled out and fled. And one surviving escapee, Kapitan zur Zee Erik Ernst, a man in his nineties confined to a wheelchair after a boating accident, has just been murdered. Worse, his Ethiopian care giver begs Lena to clear him.
          Lena, experienced in probing the past for answers to the central mystery of her own life--who is she?--learns that Ernst and two other POWs hid out in the rugged Superstitions. Nearby, on Christmas night, a whole farm family, the Bollingers, was slaughtered. A jury didn't convict the only survivor, the teenage son. What might Chess Bollinger know about Ernst--and vice versa? And how much can Lena trust Quinn, either as a client, a witness, or a lover?

     A complex, stunning case based on real Arizona history, journalist Betty Webb, author of Desert Noir, Desert Wives, and Desert Run, spins an evocative, haunting story.

19. Unwind by Neal Shusterman

listened to on Audible
read by Luke Daniels - bravo!
2007 Simon & Schuster
335 pgs.
YA Dystopia
Finished 2/21/2018
Goodreads rating: 4.18-160,781
My rating:  5

First line/s:  " 'There are places you can go,' Ariana tells him, 'and a guy as smart as you has a decent chance of surviving to eighteen.'"

My comments:  I have a friend who loves everything Neal Shusterman, and since I've had this sitting on my Audible for quite a while, I decided to start this instead of Scythe, which I don't have.  Wow. This is an amazing story. A dystopian America, a place where parents of kids between the ages of 13 and 18 can "rid" themselves of unwanted offspring by sending them away to be unwound. And what is unwinding? It is harvesting every single part of the living body to be used as replacements in other humans. WHOA!!!!
           So much to think about and digest. Thoroughly written, interesting personalities to get to know. Narrated by Luke Daniels, who read the story brilliantly. Neal Shusterman is amazing, I can't wait to read more of his work!

Goodreads synopsis: Connor, Risa, and Lev are running for their lives.
          The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state, is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive.

MOVIE - Only the Brave

My Halloween Night movie, haven't missed one in 15 years!
PG-13 

Wide release 10/20/17

Viewed 10/31/17 at Carlisle 8
IMBd:  8.1/10

RT Critic:  90  Audience:   93
Critic's Consensus:  Only the Brave's impressive veteran cast and affecting fact-based story add up to a no-frills drama that's just as stolidly powerful as the real-life heroes it honors.

Cag:  5/ Story was so well done, acting was superb, and nothing was nicey-nicey cleaned up

Directed by Joseph Kosinki

Studio:  Columbia Pictures

Josh Brolin, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connely, Jeff Bridges

My comments:  What a powerful, well done movie, a lovely tribute to the Granite Mountain Hotshots of Prescott, Arizona. It would be a terrible shock to go to the movie without having a clue about the ending and even then, of course, it's hard to conceive.  What brave, honorable, hard-working men.  Men with families, senses of humor, dedication.  The actors that portrayed them did a wonderful job.  I've been to and through Prescott (Press-kit) many, many times; the first one with Steve and the kids when we left Jerome and twisted around and around the mountains, not knowing where we'd end up.  It was Prescott.  The last time I was there was almost exactly two years ago, on my way home for a letterboxing event in Lake Havasu.  I remember I woke up to snow and hightailed it back to Tucson without looking for a single letterbox!
     How, I wonder, did they film the forest fire scenes?  It looks like it was filmed in and around Santa Fe.  The ferocious flames were unbelievable, and made what happens so, so real and terrifying.  Incredible movie-making.  So hard to rate this film!

RT/ IMDb Summary:   Granite Mountain Hotshots, is the heroic story of one unit of local firefighters that through hope, determination, sacrifice, and the drive to protect families, communities, and our country become one of the most elite firefighting teams in the country. As most of us run from danger, they run toward it--they watch over our lives, our homes, everything we hold dear, as they forge a unique brotherhood that comes into focus with one fateful fire.

58. Empty Houses - Betsy Thornton

(looks like the first in a new series)
read the actual hard cover book that I got from the library!
2015 Severn House Publishers
224 pgs.
Adult murder mystery
Finished 10-21-16 (read in two days)
Goodreads rating:  3.47 - 19 ratings
My rating: 5/ for reasons, see "my comments"
Setting: Contemporary Bisbee, Arizona (called Dudley, but all other places names are correct)

First Line/s:  "The place was a beach town near LA; the event was lunch at La Casita, a Mexican restaurant Harry and Kate went to from time to time."

My comments:  I spent a day just last week in Bisbee, Arizona after reading one of Margaret Falk/J. Carson Black's mysteries that is set there. I've been down there quite a few times.  I wandered the streets and some of the staircases on foot, and drove in and around and all over the place.  So when I started reading this mystery (I've read all the Chloe Newcomb ones), I was RIGHT THERE.  Bisbee (which for some reason Ms. Thornton calls Dudley) is one of the protagonists  in this novel.  There are lots of characters and they were really easy to keep track of.  I like Kate.  She's flawed in lots of little ways, and seems so real.  I really like Malcolm, and I hope that he doesn't get dropped from the next in the series.  He's not so flawed, he's pretty darned cool.....  The mystery was well plotted and kept me guessing. The only thing I didn't like quite so much was the hopping back and forth from coast to coast as easily as they did.  It's not that easy, believe me!  The trips to Tucson and Phoenix were great, I was able to be right there with them.  First book in a bit that I couldn't (or didn't want to) put down.  I'm giving it a five (probably should be a 4 or 4.5) because I want its average to go up higher!  Looking forward to #2!

Goodreads synopsis:  The first in the brand-new Kate Waters series"
          Dudley, Arizona is an isolated desert town attracting people who need to escape. Kate Waters flees there following an abusive relationship. Phoenix cop Malcolm MacGregor comes to recover from the death of his wife. No one knows why Carrie and Wes Cooper arrived. But when they are shot dead, the town authorities first instinct is to protect the lucrative tourist trade and make a quick arrest without asking too many questions. 
          Having once spoken to Carrie briefly, Kate becomes increasingly convinced that the wrong man has been arrested for the crime. Was the shooting random, or is there something in the victims history back east that would explain it? Teaming up with Malcolm MacGregor, Kate is about to uncover disturbing links between her own and Carrie s past. Is Kate herself at risk?

54. Darkscope - J. Carson Black (Writing as Margaret Falk)

read on my Kindle
it says 2010 as a publishing date, but I think it's older than that...
349 pgs.
Adult murder mystery/ghost story
Finished Friday, 10/7/16 - spent the day reading
Goodreads rating:  3.57 - 107 ratings
My rating: 4/ quite an enjoyable read, especially because of the setting, which was a major character in itself!
Setting: Bisbee, Arizona and it surroundings....1930's to 1980's

First line/s: PROLOGUE:  "Lucas McCord knew his death was imminent.  It didn't matter how he knew.  Like an animal searching for a quiet place to die, he had already retreated into that part of his sould reserved for waiting."
PART ONE:  "The volunteer caretaker at the Bisbee Historical Society whisked a feather duster over the display case near the window.  And halted, mid-whisk."

My comments:  The only "ghost" stories I've ever read have been for kids.  This adult ghost story was great fun for me on a number of levels.  I LOVED the setting - Bisbee, Arizona (with forays to Tucson and the area/s between) including lots of explanation and history.  And the story was multi-layered and a really interesting mystery.  I actually could have done without the ghost parts (I think it could have been written as an un-ghostly mystery and been even better), but I enjoy the occasional fantasy, and so much the better if it's about an interesting mystery.

Goodreads synopsis:  After photographer Chelsea McCord’s marriage falls apart, her great uncle Bob talks her into starting a new life in 1980s Bisbee, Arizona, the historic mining town with a notorious past. Bob's father, mining magnate Lucas McCord, helped build Bisbee in the early 20th century.
     Chelsea discovers an old box camera in a dusty trunk, the film still inside. Sfjhe uses it to photograph the town. Is it her imagination, or does the stench of death emanate from the camera’s inner workings?
     And when Chelsea looks through a viewfinder wavy with age, she sees children in gunny sack clothes, their eyes dark and grainy. Children from the 1920’s. She sees a young man and woman at a train station that no longer exists. The same young woman appears in each of the camera's photographs.
     As the past superimposes itself on the present, Chelsea learns the secret of her powerful family’s dark legacy. With one click of the shutter, she has unleashed a pure and hungry evil that will consume everyone she loves.
     Pitted against a supernatural force and stalked by a psychopathic killer, Chelsea rediscovers her capacity to love as she fights to save her beloved uncle–and herself.
     “Skillfully blending elements of mystery, horror and a nice touch of irony, DARKSCOPE weaves a fascinating spell. 4 ½ stars."
---Frank A. Loporto, Rave Reviews
     “Buy the book and send it to people you want to visit here. If they aren’t scared away by the plot, they’ll soon come in.”
---Bisbee Gazette

12. Desert Shadows - Betty Webb

#3 Lena Jones, Phoenix PI
read on my iPhone
2004/2006, Poisoned Pen Press
280 pgs.
Adult murder mystery
Finished 2/22/16
Goodreads rating:  3.82
My rating: 4
Setting:Contemporary Phoenix, AZ

First line/s:  "Gloriana Alden-Taylor wasn't exactly satisfied.  The word rarely appeared in her personal lexicon, but with two new titles due out, Patriot's Blood Press by the end of the week, she felt, at a minimum, gratified."

My comments:  Good mystery, and more unraveling of Lena's own mysterious story.  The setting, of Scottsdale, is somewhat known to me, and I think I'll make sure that on my next adventure that far north I'll take book number 4 with me so that I can check out some of the actual places she talks about!

Goodreads synopsis from Reviewer "Stuart": (The Goodreads synopsis is weirdly misleading, as he also notes...)  This is the third Lena Jones mystery, though only the first I have read. In this story, sub-titled “Publishing can be Murder”, Lena investigates the death of publisher Scottsdale publisher Gloriana Alden-Taylor, who was poisoned at the annual Southwestern Publishers' Convention. She is drawn in to the case because a Pima Indian friend has been accused of the murder.
Gloriana’s publishing house delivers primarily racist texts, so the field is rife with people who may have wanted to kill her, including her grandson, who stands to inherit the publishing house, and who plans to change its direction completely. One of the authors about to be published is a death row inmate, with his own brand of racist drivel, a tract endorsed by the Aryan Brotherhood, whose leaflets Lena encounters everywhere, but which seemingly do not really add anything to the story. I think that’s something that may have been edited out. 
Gloriana turns out to be a complex woman drive by her desires, one of which was her enduring need to secure the genes of her ancestry, from the Mayflower and from President Zachary Taylor. She also turns out not so much to believe in the racism in her books, but in their ability to sell. I was a little annoyed by the digs at the commercial nature of publishing (no-one publishes literature any more, only what sells etc) – perhaps the author has an axe to grind there? 
The book also explores more of Lena’s personal history, she having been brought up in several foster homes, having apparently been shot by her mother at the age of four. She is working out anger management issues with a psychiatrist, and as she does so, we learn more about her past, a story in its own right. And then there is the on/off relationship with her ex-husband, which leads to dangerous encounters, and which will no doubt be a theme of subsequent books. 
The prime suspects end up being the people (publishers) who shared Gloriana’s table at the last dinner of the conference. Lena, who is a private detective and thus has a valid reason for investigating, unlike some others I have read recently (librarians), chases down these suspects, at the risk to her own life at one point. I didn’t feel that all that much detecting went on, however. When the criminal eventually appears, it’s by accident, Lena having focused on the wrong person. That’s not the way to endear me to an author’s work.
However, it was an easy read, and there is a lot in it. I felt it could have been stitched together better – it felt a little choppy, not really smoothly moving towards a conclusion.PS I felt that the Goodreads summary was misleading, even getting Gloriana’s surname wrong, and as the surname was key to the plot, I was surprised. Perhaps taken from an earlier description; the same applies to the Aryan Brotherhood stuff, which seemed to add little to the story, but which was referenced in the Goodreads blurb also.:

71. Till the Sun Breaks Down - Tom Leveen

Deviant Aeon Book 1
read on my iPhone
2015 for Kindle
130 pgs.
genre/audience
Finished 12/10ish/2015
Goodreads rating: 4.00 (only four ratings)
My rating: 1
Setting: Phoenix and LA sometime in the future

First line/s: "Phoenix nights are as warm as the recently dead."

My comments:  Just let's leave it that I won't be reading book 2..... I read this for a book group read (anything by Tom Leveen, who is a Phoenix author coming to the Festival of Books in March).Not a good fit for me, I guess!

Goodreads synopsis:  Malikai awoke in the desert with nothing but a name and a sword, lacking any memory whatsoever of his identity or past. Discovering that his inhuman strength and reflexes made him a Deviant in the eyes of human society -- a monster who must be identified, cataloged, and registered, or else done away with -- he hid himself in an abandoned farm outside Phoenix. 
          But driven by an unnamed and voiceless force within himself, he fights to bring justice to the criminals of Phoenix, a once vibrant city now fallen into ruin. 
          When his zealous quest accidentally ruins one father’s pursuit of his kidnapped daughter, Malikai vows to find the girl and return her safely home. This promise takes him to the shining beacon of Los Angeles, where he uncovers a gang of human traffickers operating below the city streets. But this bloody job does more than expose the evil men do for profit -- it exposes the truth of his own origin and the penalty he has yet to pay... 

33. The Survivor's Club - J. Carson Black

read on my iPhone
2013 Thomas & Mercer
364 pgs.
Adult murder mystery
Finished 5/7/15
Goodreads rating: 3.54
My rating: 4
Setting: mostly in Tucson, AZ, with a little outside LA

My comments:  Plot, characters, setting.  It's the setting that was most wonderful for me in this fairly grizzly mystery - in and around and south of the streets and mountains I know so well - from the Rincon foothills of Tucson to Patagonia and Nogales, even the lonely close-to-the-border ghosts towns where I snooped when I first arrived in this city-in-the-desert. (I never realized the danger I might be in until a few years later, but that's another story!)  The protagonist is okay, quite smart and real, making occasional choices that might be a bit questionable, which makes her even more believable.  The plot, although interesting, is difficult to totally believe, since I don't think Ms. Black ever really gave enough information about why this family did what they did - all as adult siblings. I can understand one of them, and maybe two, but I needed more proof as to how the other two might have been motivated to participate in some of the things they took part in.  All in all I enjoyed its many facets, its many personalities, and its many stops along the route!

Goodreads synopsis: Detective Tess McCrae investigates a grisly crime scene in the ghost town of Credo, Arizona. The evidence suggests a cartel drug hit. But Tess, with a nearly faultless photographic memory, sees what others might miss: this is no drug killing. Someone went to gruesome lengths to cover their tracks.
          The killer’s trail leads from Tucson to California — from anti-government squatters to the heights of wealthy society. As Tess follows the trail of gore and betrayal, perfect and indelible in her memory, she uncovers far more than one man’s murder and solves much more than one isolated crime.

1. Grounded - Heather Ordover

Supposedly #1 in a series (called The Seven) ....

Read on my iPhone

2013, Crafting a Life Books

482 (endless) pgs.

YA fantasy-ish

Finished 1/1/2014

Goodreads rating: 4.19 (this is very hard for me to believe)

My rating:  (1) Yuck

1st sixth - Tucson, AZ, the rest in Brooklyn NY and Stockbridge, MA

1st sentence/s: "This all started because I lit my boyfriend on fire."

My comments:  Holy catfish, this book was NOT for me.  It was endless, but I had no other book on my phone so this was it. I so badly wanted to like it, particularly for the parts that described Tucson so beautifully, but this was a definite DRONE....on and on and on and on with very little meat. Sketchy, too.  There are so few books that I flat out don't like, and my apologies to the author, but....

Goodreads book summary:  Hannah Rose was able to convince herself that she was a normal teenager, even though she usually knew exactly what was about to happen next. Until one day when she set her jerk of an ex-boyfriend on fire-from 15 feet away-propelling herself into a world of weirdness.       
          Rosie is sent to live with her aunt in Brooklyn. There, Rosie discovers a family legacy of strange abilities and dangerous talents. Her training tests her gifts-and her patience-but over the summer she does begin to learn to control her unique skills and meets a boy with equally dangerous strengths. Together, they find a sort of peace that neither has ever experienced, and it looks like it will last-until disaster breaks them apart in a way neither saw coming.

78. The Devil's Hour - J. Carson Black

#3 Laura Cardinal, Tucson Police

Read on my iPhone

2007, Breakaway Media

287 pgs.

Adult Murder Mystery

Finished 12/26//2014

Goodreads rating:  3.72

My rating:    4 - Loved it

Contemporary Tucson, AZ

1st sentence/s:  "Steve Lawson was on his way back to the cabin when he met the little girl.  It was a beautiful morning, the kind Steve loved.  As he hiked, his eye automatically cataloged the glittery trail of schist mixed in with the dirt along the dry creek bed, the granitic boulders flecked with biotite flakes and garnet.  But this morning, he wasn't thinking about the geological events that had shaped these mountains.  He was preoccupied with the message someone had left on his cell phone.  He wondered if the message had anything to do with the break-ins."

My comments:  When I read the first two books in the series, I loved tracing the story in, around, and through the Tucson I know and love.  I've hunted for years for more in the series, to no avail, until I stumbled across a reference to the series here on Goodreads.  Apparently there ARE more in the series, but they're in ebook form.  Fine with me!  I flew through this installment, and loved it.  The story was well told (although I wish there had been a few more surprises), but the descriptions of many places where action took place (up on Mt. Lemmon and out on the Pinal Highway going towards Florence, particularly) were so right on -- I really love this!  Laura Cardinal is smart but not as savvy as she should be, despite some of the training she still reviews from her now-dead mentor, Frank Entwhistle.  Ah well, without goof-ups there'd really be no story, right?

Goodreads book summary:  “J. Carson Black's THE DEVIL'S HOUR is a superior mystery novel in all respects. Fine prose, terrific suspense, believable characters, and one of the most unexpected and satisfying conclusions I've read in a long time. Highly recommended." — John Lescroart, New York Times bestselling author of DAMAGE 
     Laura Cardinal: Packs a SIG Sauer P226 9mm. Investigates homicides in small towns that have limited resources. Brings justice to murder victims—and to their killers. Laura’s job description: Criminal Investigator with the Arizona Department of Public Safety. But maybe it should just say “Troubleshooter.” 
     In 1997, the disappearance of three young girls rocked the city of Tucson, Arizona. Eleven years later, one of those girls, Micaela Brashear, comes home—alive. 
     Laura Cardinal worked homicide for Arizona DPS, but now she's been moved to the Open-Unsolved Unit. With a new job and a new partner who questions her every move, Laura pieces together Micaela's fragmented memories in the hope she will learn the whereabouts of the other two children. 
     When a man walking his dog finds the bones of a child in a shallow grave on the mountain above town, it becomes clear to Laura that Micaela was the lucky one. 
     But the killer isn't through yet, and after the fiery death of someone close to Laura, she realizes she faces an implacable enemy.

MOVIE - A Million Ways to Die in the West

R (1:56)
Wide release 5/30/2014
Century Gateway on Kolb, Sunday night (7:40 show! How decadent!) 8-10-14
RT Critic:  33   Audience:  43
cag: 1.5 - Mostly NOPE
Directed by Seth MacFarlane
Universal Pictures

Seth MacFarlane, Charlize Theron, Liam Neeson, Neil Patrick Harris, Amanda Siefried, Giovanni Ribisi, Sarah Silverman

My thoughts:  There were some funny, silly places, but all-in-all this movie was mainly a colossal waste-of-time. I don't mind x-rated kind of stuff - I'm even know to enjoy it - but the sheer crudeness of many of the "jokes" were definitely unneeded.  There was one set of scenes, out in the desert with Cochise and a band of his men, that was particularly well done, funny, and worthwhile. I went because of this incredible list of good actors. I can't believe that this movie is STILL in the cheap theaters, and at almost 8 o'clock on a Sunday night there were at least three dozen people in the theater watching it....

RT Summary:  Seth MacFarlane directs, produces, co-writes and plays the role of the cowardly sheep farmer Albert in A Million Ways to Die in the West. After Albert backs out of a gunfight, his fickle girlfriend leaves him for another man. When a mysterious and beautiful woman rides into town, she helps him find his courage and they begin to fall in love. But when her husband, a notorious outlaw, arrives seeking revenge, the farmer must put his newfound courage to the test. 

4. The Witness Wore Red; The 19th Wife Who Brought Polygamous Cult Leaders to Justice - Rebecca Musser & M. Bridget Cook

Audio read by the author

12 cds (the last one are some black & white photos)

14 hours.

2013, Hachette Audio

 352 pgs.

Adult Memoir

Finished 1/14/2014

Goodreads Rating: 4.02 (795 ratings)

My Rating: 2.5/The story was fascinating, didn't enjoy the writing or narration

TPPL

Setting:  Colorado City, Arizona, then Oregon and Idaho

My comments:  Fascinating story, and Becky Musser was really brave to tell it (and to live it!), but I had some problems with the book. I'm not a nonfiction reader AT ALL, and as much as I want to read memoirs and autobiographies, I never like them.  A couple of problems for me. I have a really lousy memory myself, but I can't imagine that the details remembered in this book, without a journal or diary to refer to, could be remembered truly. Also, I realize that Ms. Musser is not a writer, but she did have help ....  I found the writing repetitive, pretty simplistic, and boring.  The author, herself, read the book, which in a way was really good, but after awhile her awkward pauses between words in weird places really bugged me.  I'm too picky, I guess.  My heart aches for her and all the women that are in their situation, and I'm really glad I got to hear her story.  However, I found a Dateline episode about this whole story which I found much more interesting and concise.

Goodreads Review: Rebecca Musser grew up in fear, concealing her family's polygamous lifestyle from the "dangerous" outside world. Covered head-to-toe in strict, modest clothing, she received a rigorous education at Alta Academy, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' school headed by Warren Jeffs. Always seeking to be an obedient Priesthood girl, in her teens she became the nineteenth wife of her people's prophet: 85-year-old Rulon Jeffs, Warren's father. Finally sickened by the abuse she suffered and saw around her, she pulled off a daring escape and sought to build a new life and family.

     The church, however, had a way of pulling her back in-and by 2007, Rebecca had no choice but to take the witness stand against the new prophet of the FLDS in order to protect her little sisters and other young girls from being forced to marry at shockingly young ages. The following year, Rebecca and the rest of the world watched as a team of Texas Rangers raided the Yearning for Zion Ranch, a stronghold of the FLDS. Rebecca's subsequent testimony would reveal the horrific secrets taking place behind closed doors of the temple, sending their leaders to prison for years, and Warren Jeffs for life.

     THE WITNESS WORE RED is a gripping account of one woman's struggle to escape the perverse embrace of religious fanaticism and sexual slavery, and a courageous story of hope and transformation.

24. Hand of Evil - J. A. Jance

#3 Ali Reynolds

audio read by Karen Ziemba

2007 Simon & Schuster Audioworks

9 unabridged discs (10. hrs)

384 pgs.

Finished

Murder Mystery

Goodreads Rating:  3.73

My Rating: 1/Didn't like it at all

Setting: Sedona, Arizona

1^st sentence/s:

My comments:  I couldn't wait until I'd finished this.  I didn't like the first one at all, either, so I don't know why I keep torturing myself with this series.  Perhaps because of the locale.  So what is it I don't like?  Ali.  Goody-goody Ali.  Her stupid blog. And the writing.  Every tiny detail is explained over and over. And people remember details of information from 40, 50 years previously.  Sure.  Also, so much more could be said about this lovely community and it's totally missing.  Blech! (I guess I really, really want to like these and I keep getting disappointed....)

Goodreads Review:  "When Arabella Ashcroft, a member of the family who gave Ali a generous scholarship for her education decades earlier, suddenly asks her for a meeting, Ali wonders what it can mean. Before she can satisfy her curiosity, though, Ali receives another startling call: a friend's teenage daughter has disappeared. Ali offers to help, but in doing so, she unknowingly begins a quest that will reveal a deadly ring of secrets, at the center of which stand two undiscriminating killers...."

Arizona - My Adopted State

Books set in Arizona:

Picture books
Little Red Cowboy Hat - Susan Lowell
Mule Train Mail - Craig Brown

For kids/YA
Amelia Hits the Road - Marissa Moss
Fat Cat - Robin Brande


For Adults
All the Wrong Moves - Merline Lovelace (mystery)
At Ease with the Dead - Walter Satterthwaite (mystery)
Cowboy Rides Away - Thornton (mystery)
Dead for the Winter - Betsy Thornton (mystery)
Ghost Towns - Betsy Thornton (mystery)
High Lonesome Road - Betsy Thornton (mystery)
Mission to Sonora - Rebecca Cramer (mystery)
A Song for You - Betsy Thornton (mystery)

BETSY THORNTON Author Page

 NonFiction
The Spanish Missions of Arizona - Robin Lyon

Places to visit in Arizona 
Coronado National Memorial
Kartchner Caverns

Places to Visit In and Around Tucson
Mini Time Museum of Miniatures
Pima County Libraries
Postal History Foundation
University of Arizona Poetry Center

Mule Train Mail - Craig Brown

Illustrated by the author

2009 Charlesbridge

32 pages

HC $16.95 TPPL

Goodreads rating: 3.20

My rating: 3

Author's Note:  two informative pages at the end.

Endpapers:  FRONT:  birds-eye-map-type view of the Grand Canyon

BACK:  illustrations of the mailman/cowboy, his dog, and six mules

Illustrations:  pastel and colored pencils all the way to the edges, no white.  LOTS of brown, gives the sense of desert and sand, sand, sand....

1^st line:  "Anthony the Postman doesn't wear a uniform.  He wears a cowboy hat, chaps, and spurs.  Anthony doesn't drive a mail truck.  he drives a mule train.  He picks up the mail at the south rim of the Grand Canyon."

My Goodreads notes: This book is very simple and suited for younger children. I'm not sure how I want to say this, but it just wasn't .... exciting ... in any way. Although I enjoyed the illustrations, they were all similar to each other, nothing different or surprising. I plan to read it aloud during my Arizona unit, as a starting place for research into the Grand Canyon. I like the information in the author's note at the end.

Goodreads summary: "Mule Train Mail introduces readers to Anthony Paya, wearing a cowboy hat, chaps, and spurs, who leads a train of ten mules on a daily 3-hour trek down into the Grand Canyon to bring mail to the townspeople of Supai."

8. At Ease With the Dead - Walter Satterthwaite

Joshua Croft #2
University of New Mexico Press, 1990
paper $9.95
237 pgs.
Rating: 5

A very fine mystery, taking place in Santa Fe, NM; El Paso, TX, and Navajo country, Arizona and New Mexico. Joshua Croft is a private investigator who functioned without cellphones or the internet, since the book was written over 20 years ago. Really well crafted, an interesting suspenseful tale.

Joshua Craft and Rita Mondragon run the Mondragon Investigation Agency together, although Joshua does all the "legwork." Rita's in a wheel chair and never....ever....leaves her house on the side of a mountain overlooking Santa Fe. The story begins with Joshua Meeting a wise old Navajo man named Daniel Begay while camping and fishing in northeastern New Mexico. They bond. And awhile later, Begay comes to him with a 65-year old mystery that is almost all dead ends, since almost everyone that could answer any questions is either dead or in their 80's. But Joshua proceeds, meeting fascinating people in El Paso and seeing first hand the trepidation that Navajos have for non-Navajos.

There's fighting and killing, with a little detail that's uncomfortable, but not enough to stop me from giving this a top-notch rating. I didn't read the first in the series, but I've ordered the second and can't wait to receive it.

7. A Song for You - Betsy Thornton

Chloe Newcombe #5 (Dudley/Bisbee, Arizona)
Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin's Press, 2008
291 pages
Murder Mystery for Adults
Rating: 5

Wow. I love the way that Betsy Thornton weaves a story, using one major protagonist, then inserting a couple other voices to spice things up a bit. This mystery had me going until almost the end. And the setting – SO much in Tucson, road by road, through Sierra Vista many times, I could see it, I was there. And Bisbee. I need another trip there. She includes the setting as another character. Love it
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And, as usual, she left a few things unsaid, open, ready to add your own slant. Because Chloe has quit her job for the Cochise Country Victim’s Assistance program and become a full-time investigator with a previous fling and cop who has started his own PI company in Sierra Vista. Brian Flynn. Throw in a 17-year old murder, then add another, mix it up with the 10-year old daughter who found her mother 17 years previously…with her head blown off. Raised a hippy, taken by her developer father to the Tucson foothills, where she is now a married preppie. Now throw in the hippie life of Dudley, Arizona (Bisbee, Bisbee!) both now and two decades ago, shake it up with many interesting walks up and down the hills and stairways of an old west town and voila! A recipe for a great murder mystery.

I’ve begun and discarded almost a dozen books in the last couple of weeks, nothing interested me at all, until I found and started this one last night. A winner.

67. Dead for the Winter - Betsy Thornton

#4 Chloe Newcombe/Bisbee, Arizona
For: Adults
Worldwide Mystery & St. Martin's Press, 2004
285 pages
Rating: 4.5 (I was able to figure out a tiny bit too much a little too early)

Good story. Great setting. Well defined characters. This would made a great movie.

When Craig, Chloe's "love interest" from the previous book, leaves for South America, she is once again unattached. She hires Terry Barnett, a local custom furniture maker, to make a bookshelf for her. From the instant he enters her home to take measurements they are attracted to each other, and she accompanies him to Mexico for dinner one evening. Well, lo and behold, the guy's married, so she cuts it off immediately. But they are spotted together. And she still likes him a lot.

But then, Terry is murdered and his workshop is set aflame. Chole is sent as the victim advocate to help and console Terry's wife, Heather. And of course, she is pulled into the sleuthing of the murder. She is even hired by Terry's brother-from-Ohio to continue investigating the case, which she does, because she's been put on a leave of absence - because she was known to have been seeing the dead man, she is a suspect!

Back and forth to Tucson, to Sierra Vista, to the tiny hamlet of Prophecy. I love all the traveling around Cochise County. My trip to Bisbee two weeks ago made the area really come alive for me. I really enjoy this series. Number five takes place in Bisbee, then the newest, just out, is a prequel that takes Chloe back to her pre-Arizona life, to the two brothers; one dead, one in a Buddhist colony in Vermont, that are always on her mind, woven into all the books.

64. Ghost Towns - Betsy Thornton

No. 3 in the Chloe Newcomb series/Dudley (Bisbee), Arizona
for: Adults
Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's/Minotaur, 2002
260 pgs.
Rating: 5

I found quite a few places where editing was needed - words were added or out of order. Not off-putting, but surprising....

Chloe is called to deliver the news to his family that local Judge Cal Thomas has been murdered. Found dead in the ghost town of Windy City, near Tombstone, with no clues and no leads, the Judge's dysfunctional family aren't coping well. She discovers clues that perhaps two of her own friends may be involved....her good friend Nate, a local reporter, and her boyfriend Craig, both disappear. She travels all over Cochise County and up to Tucson, to discover clues and follow trails and dead ends. Thornton fleshes out the setting as well as she might a good character. I couldn't put this down. It was a quick read, and I headed off for Bisbee when I finished it, to get a feel for the setting myself. (Tombstone, Windy City (perhaps Gleeson?) Bisbee, St. David, Naco)

There's a sixth, brand new title just out....so I hope to plunge into four and five asap. Great read.