65. Fire in His Blood - Ruby Dixon

Listened to on Audible Escape
narrated by  Noelle Bridges and Jeremy York
Unabridged audio (11:28)
2017
331 pgs.
Adult Steamy SciFi Dystopia
Finished 4/15/2020
Goodreads rating:  3.80 - 7928 ratings
My rating: 3
Setting:  Dystopian Dallas TX

First line/s:  "As far as jail cells go, this one's pretty decent."

My comments:  This 12-hour book could've easily been told in six, there was so much repetition of the same old anxieties and worries and passionate scenes.  The story itself was quite fascinating: shape shifting dragons who have come through a crack in the world, and in that span unable to return to their world, have more or less gone mad.  Therefore they attack with mighty fire everything in their path.  The world as humans know it is now forever changed and that's where the story starts, in the desolate poverty-stricken area that is left of Dallas.  The story is mostly told by Claudia, with a few chapters in the dragon-man's voice.  Not a bad story all-in-all, jut too much of it!

Goodreads synopsis:  Years ago, the skies ripped open and the world was destroyed in fire and ash. Dragons - once creatures of legend - are the enemy. Vicious and unpredictable, they rule the skies of the ruined cities, forcing humanity to huddle behind barricades for safety.
          Claudia's a survivor. She scrapes by as best as she can in a hard, dangerous world. When she runs afoul of the law, she's left as bait in dragon territory. She only has one chance to survive - to somehow 'tame' a dragon and get it to obey her.
          Except the dragon that finds her is as wild and brutal as any other...and he's not interested in obeying.
          What he is interested in is a mate. 

82. The Dime by Kathleen Kent

#1 in Betty Rhyzyk, Dallas narcotics cop - #2, The Kiln, will be published in the spring of 2019
listened to Audio - borrowed from Pima Library
2017 Mulholland Books
352 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery/Police Procedural
Finished 8/19/18
Goodreads rating: 3.81 - 1051 ratings
My rating:  4
Setting:  Contemporary Dallas, Texas

First line/s:  "From my position in the hallway - on my ass, head pressed against the door frame, legs drawn up with my gun two-handed against my sternum - I try to recall the layout of the room: three sets of bunk beds, four corpses sprawled across bloody sheets, my partner, shot three times, lying motionless by the nearest bunk, and, somewhere in there, one lunatic, a screaming infant in one hand and a semiautomatic pistol in the other."

My comments:  This looks like the beginning of another decent murder mystery/police procedural series!  Female protagonist who is also a lesbian.  5 foot 11, strong, red-haired, and smart.  Although she's from Brooklyn, which the author uses as a bit of the setting in reminisces, her new home in Dallas is a large part of the story.  Killing off the good guys doesn't phase this author, and much of the action is pretty violent.  That said, I still look forward to a second installment!

Goodreads synopsis:  Brooklyn's toughest female detective takes on Dallas-and neither is ready for the fight.
          Dallas, Texas is not for the faint of heart. Good thing for Betty Rhyzyk she's from a family of take-no-prisoners Brooklyn police detectives. But her Big Apple wisdom will only get her so far when she relocates to The Big D, where Mexican drug cartels and cult leaders, deadbeat skells and society wives all battle for sunbaked turf.
          Betty is as tough as the best of them, but she's deeply shaken when her first investigation goes sideways. Battling a group of unruly subordinates, a persistent stalker, a formidable criminal organization, and an unsupportive girlfriend, the unbreakable Detective Betty Rhyzyk may be reaching her limit.  NOTE:  I do not agree that Betty's girlfriend is unsupported, this simply isn't true!

33. Frame 232 - Wil Mara

Looks like this might be the first in a series about billionaire amateur sleuth Jason Hammond

2013, Tyndale House Publishers

424 pgs.

Adult Mystery

Finished 8/27/13

Goodreads Rating: 4.21

My Rating: It was okay (2)

TPPL

Setting: Prologue (28 pgs. long) is in Dallas on that fateful day in November, 1963 (50 years ago!), but the rest of the book is contemporary - Dallas, Cuba, DC.....

1^st sentence/s:  "Margaret Baker felt more than a little foolish in her makeshift disguise - an overcoat she'd found n a box of her late mother's things, the prescription glasses she never wore, and a pink headscarf she'd borrowed from a friend."

My comments:  I wanted to like this book more than I did.  The premise was pretty cool, but I found the characters either unbelievable, or lacking .... something. There was a bond between the two protagonists that was just "there" and I couldn't quite understand it.  I loved the foray into Cuba, and I liked the way that chapters skipped around and showed point-of-view of different characters.  But my overall reaction....the story was okay.  That's all.

Goodreads Review:  During the reading of her mother’s will, Sheila Baker discovers that she has inherited everything her parents ever possessed, including their secrets. A mysterious safe deposit box key leads her to the answers to one of history’s greatest conspiracies: who killed John F. Kennedy? Not only does she have the missing film, revealing her mother as the infamous babushka lady, but she has proof that there was more than one shooter.

On the run from people who would stop at nothing to keep secrets buried, Shelia turns to billionaire sleuth Jason Hammond for help. Having lost his own family in a tragic plane crash, Jason knows a thing or two about running from the past. With a target on their backs, can Jason uncover the truth in time, or will this shooter finally make their mark?