16. One Kick - Chelsea Cain

# 1 in a new series about Kit Lannigan

Audio read by Heather Lind

8 unabridged discs

2014 Simon & Schuster

309 pgs.

Adult murder mystery

Finished 2/20/2015

Goodreads rating:  3.77

My rating:    3.5 I liked it

TPPL

Setting: mostly Oregon/Washington and a bit of SanDiego - contemporary

1st sentence/s:

My comments:  Whew!  So what do I think about this book?  Setting, plot, characters, let's see.  Plot, though horribly grizzly, was well conceived and written in an interesting way; jumping back and forth on itself as memories from Kit's kidnapped years keep appearing. There are really three mysteries being examined - current abductions, Kit's abduction, and the mysterious identity and intentions of John Bishop. The setting flips between the American northwest and the San Diego area. The only character I couldn't totally get into was that of the protagonist!  She was so cockily sure of herself, but many of her actions were immature and poorly thought-out.  I felt no sexual pull at all between Kit and Bishop, so when it began straying in that direction, I was disconcerted.  I want to know more information about her "brother", James, and look forward to another book that might answer many of the questions that Kit ... and I ... have about Bishop.

Goodreads book summary:  Kick Lannigan, 21, is a survivor. Abducted at age six in broad daylight, the police, the public, perhaps even her family assumed the worst had occurred. And then Kathleen Lannigan was found, alive, six years later. In the early months following her freedom, as Kick struggled with PTSD, her parents put her through a litany of therapies, but nothing helped until the detective who rescued her suggested Kick learn to fight. Before she was thirteen, Kick learned marksmanship, martial arts, boxing, archery, and knife throwing. She excelled at every one, vowing she would never be victimized again. But when two children in the Portland area go missing in the same month, Kick goes into a tailspin. Then an enigmatic man Bishop approaches her with a proposition: he is convinced Kick's experiences and expertise can be used to help rescue the abductees. Little does Kick know the case will lead directly into her terrifying past…

34. Say Goodbye - Lisa Gardner

Audio Read by Ann Marie Lee & Lincoln Hoppe
Published Jul, 2008
11 Unabridged CD's
13 hrs. 12 min.
368 pgs.
Rating: 5

This was a VERY disturbing story, so I hesitated before giving it a five...but it was quite brilliantly written, though grizzly....gory....and unbelievably sad. Spiders. Pregnancy. Relationships. Child pornography and abduction. FBI agents and informants. Throw that all into the mountains of Georgia and you have the basis for this suspenseful thriller. Told in a number of voices, with an epilogue that makes you cheer out loud -- 20 minutes after shedding tears of sadness....well, you get my drift. What a drive I had while listening, down I-5 from San Francisco to Bakersfield, across 40 to Needles, down again to Blythe, then I-10 to Tucson, it literally flew by. FBI Agent Kimberly Quincy is pregnant and on a case with a GBI agent who becomes a good friend, trying to find prostitutes that have been disappearing over a series of months in the Atlanta area. We keep hearing other voices, receiveing tidbits of information here and there that finally all fit together. It's a fantastic puzzle, quite cleverly written. But it's about young boys who are abducted, abused, held hostile physically and emotionally, and it's about how one of those boys behaves after he's grown up. Abducted by the Burger Man (SPOILER HERE) he later becomes the Burger Man. We also learn a great deal about spiders, their habits, their markings, their personalities per se.

Wow.