39. Caught by Harlan Coben

listened on Chirp
388 pgs.

2010
Adult mystery
Finished 4/30/24
Goodreads rating: 4.01
My rating: 4
Setting: contemporary NJ

My comments:   A TV journalist/reporter investigates an alleged pedophile's crimes after his murder.  She goes on to investigate him and his four Princeton college roommates, coming up with more and more information that doesn't add up.  And then it finally does.  There are a few places that I had to withhold belief, but 80% of the story is decent and believable. I guess.  Maybe.  I read this in bits and pieces whilst falling asleep over the last month. 

Goodreads synopsis:  17 year-old Haley McWaid is a good girl, the pride of her suburban New Jersey family, captain of the lacrosse team, headed off to college next year with all the hopes and dreams her doting parents can pin on her. Which is why, when her mother wakes one morning to find that Haley never came home the night before, and three months quickly pass without word from the girl, the community assumes the worst.

Wendy Tynes is a reporter on a mission, to identify and bring down sexual predators via elaborate—and nationally televised—sting operations. Working with local police on her news program Caught in the Act, Wendy and her team have publicly shamed dozens of men by the time she encounters her latest target. Dan Mercer is a social worker known as a friend to troubled teens, but his story soon becomes more complicated than Wendy could have imagined.

12. Run You Down by Julia Dahl

#2 Rebekah Roberts
read on my iPhone
2015 Minotaur Books
287 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 1/26/19
Goodreads rating: 3.76 - 1344 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary NYC and Roseville, NY, just north of NYC

First line/s: "Florida was not what I imagined.  There was no ocean where your father lived, that was the first thing."

My comments: (I wonder why, of all the possible titles this could be given, they decided on this?)  I don't remember much of the nitty-gritty of what happened in Invisible City, but I remember I liked it a lot.  Therefore, I read this book almost as a standalone.  There were a number of things that bothered me, but they didn't bother me enough to lower my rating.  The close connection - and I do mean close - between reporter Rebekah and the people of her news story was soooo impossible, but I didn't care.  I didn't mind switching back-and-forth between Rebekah and the mother who had abandoned her 20 years before, other than in a couple of places that information was revealed by Aviva and I attributed that information to Rebekah having known those details, so that was a little confusing until I figured it out.  It was an interesting story, perhaps unbelievable in spots but for some reason I didn't care.  I really enjoyed it, and the peaks into the strict Orthodox Jewish community,

Goodreads synopsis:  Aviva Kagan was a just a teenager when she left her Hasidic Jewish life in Brooklyn for a fling with a smiling college boy from Florida-and then disappeared. Twenty-three years later, the child she walked away from is a NYC tabloid reporter named Rebekah Roberts. And Rebekah isn't sure she wants her mother back in her life.
          But when a man from the ultra-Orthodox enclave of Roseville, N.Y. contacts Rebekah about his young wife's mysterious death, she is drawn back into Aviva's world. Pessie Goldin's body was found in her bathtub, and while her parents want to believe it was an accident, her husband is certain she was murdered.
          Once she starts poking around, Rebekah encounters a whole society of people who have wandered "off the path" of ultra-Orthodox Judaism-just like her mother. But some went with dark secrets, and rage at the insular community they left behind.
          In the sequel to her Edgar Award finalist Invisible City, Julia Dahl has created a taut mystery that is both a window into a secretive culture and an exploration of the demons we inherit.

55. Invisible City by Julia Dahl

#1 Rebekah Roberts
listened on Audible
2014, Minotaur Books
304 pgs. (7:49)
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 6/20/2018
Goodreads rating: 3.59 - 3476 ratings
My rating:  4
Setting: Contemporary NYC including Brooklyn Hasidic community

First line/s:  "I was in Chinatown when they called me about the body in Brooklyn."

My comments:  Okay, so I'm not a big murder-mystery-from-the-point-of-view-of -a-journalist fan, and this was the one drawback to this book.  I think it's horrible how some journalists harass people to get a story, and in many parts of this I was repelled by the way our protagonist, Rebikah, just knocked on doors and asked all sorts of people in uncomfortable situations for information.  That being said, this was a good mystery that she solved all by herself, mainly because it was not being pursued by the police.  I love reading books that take a peek inside the Hasidic Jewish community, and in that way this book certainly did not disappoint.  It gave me that peek, a good mystery, and a short read.

Goodreads synopsis: A finalist for the Edgar and Mary Higgins Clark Awards, in her riveting debut Invisible City, journalist Julia Dahl introduces a compelling new character in search of the truth about a murder and an understanding of her own heritage.
          Just months after Rebekah Roberts was born, her mother, an Hasidic Jew from Brooklyn, abandoned her Christian boyfriend and newborn baby to return to her religion. Neither Rebekah nor her father have heard from her since. Now a recent college graduate, Rebekah has moved to New York City to follow her dream of becoming a big-city reporter. But she's also drawn to the idea of being closer to her mother, who might still be living in the Hasidic community in Brooklyn.
          Then Rebekah is called to cover the story of a murdered Hasidic woman. Rebekah's shocked to learn that, because of the NYPD's habit of kowtowing to the powerful ultra-Orthodox community, not only will the woman be buried without an autopsy, her killer may get away with murder. Rebekah can't let the story end there. But getting to the truth won't be easy--even as she immerses herself in the cloistered world where her mother grew up, it's clear that she's not welcome, and everyone she meets has a secret to keep from an outsider.

45. Eyes of the Innocent by Brad Parks

#2 Ross Carter, New Jersey journalist
listened on Audible
2011 Minotaur Books
304 pgs. (9:43)
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished May 24, 2018
Goodreads rating: 3.89 - 741 ratings
My rating:  4
Setting: contemporary Newark , NJ

First line/s:  "I made at least four mistakes that Monday morning, the first of which was going into the office in the first place."

My comments:  I listened to this great narration, whose inflections realized the subtle humor of the protanogist.  Carter is really honest, knowledgeable, smart, and a pretty darn good writer.  Other than the interplay with Tina, one of the editors of the newspaper for which he works, which gets a little tedious, this was a great addition to the series. The mystery comes together well, leaving no questions unanswered.

Goodreads synopsis: Carter Ross, the sometimes-dashing investigative reporter for the Newark Eagle-Examiner, is back, and reporting on the latest tragedy to befall Newark, New Jersey, a fast-moving house fire that kills two boys.
          With the help of the paper’s newest intern, a bubbly blonde known as “Sweet Thang,†Carter finds the victims’ mother, Akilah Harris, who spins a tale of woe about a mortgage rate reset that forced her to work two jobs and leave her young boys without child care. Carter turns in a front-page feature, but soon discovers Akilah isn’t what she seems. And neither is the fire. 
          When Newark councilman Windy Byers is reported missing, it launches Carter into the sordid world of urban house-flipping and Jersey-style political corruption. With his usual mix of humor, compassion, and street smarts, Carter is soon calling on some of his friends—gay Cuban sidekick Tommy Hernandez, T-shirt-selling buddy Tee Jamison, and on-and-off girlfriend Tina Thompson—for help in tracking down the shadowy figure behind it all.   
          Brad Parks’s debut, Faces of the Gone, won the Shamus Award and Nero Award for Best American Mystery. It was heralded as an engaging mix of Harlan Coben and Janet Evanovich. Now Parks solidifies his place as one of the brightest new talents in crime fiction with this authentic, entertaining thriller.

24. Deadline - Sandra Brown

listened to the cd in the car
2013 Grand Central Publishing
410 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished  4/19/16
Goodreads rating: 4.07
My rating:  4
Setting:Contemporary Savannah, GA and an island just off it

My comments:  Other than a few questionable/implausible plot devices that I was willing to ignore, this was a very listenable mystery.  There was one surprise near the end that really floored - and tickled - me and changed my thinking about a great deal of the prior story.  I'm not usually one to enjoy the 50/50 mystery/romance - I like the "hardcore" mystery with limited romance - but this one wiled away many hours driving back and forth to work.

Goodreads synopsis:  Dawson Scott is a well-respected journalist recently returned from Afghanistan. Haunted by everything he experienced, he's privately suffering from battle fatigue which is a threat to every aspect of his life. But then he gets a call from a source within the FBI. A new development has come to light in a story that began 40 years ago. It could be the BIG story of Dawson's career--one in which he has a vested interest.
          Soon, Dawson is covering the disappearance and presumed murder of former Marine Jeremy Wesson, the biological son of the pair of terrorists who remain on the FBI's Most Wanted list. As Dawson delves into the story, he finds himself developing feelings for Wesson's ex-wife, Amelia, and her two young sons. But when Amelia's nanny turns up dead, the case takes a stunning new turn, with Dawson himself becoming a suspect. Haunted by his own demons, Dawson takes up the chase for the notorious outlaws. . .and the secret, startling truth about himself.

MOVIE - Philomena

PG-13 (1:34)

Limited release 11/22/2013

Viewed 12/10/2013 at El Con with Sheila (Happy Birthday, Laura!)

RT Critic:  92  Audience:  91

Cag: 4.5 Liked it a whole lot 

Directed by Stephen Frears

The Weinstein Company

Steve Coogan (who also wrote and produced), Judi Dench

My comments:   (Spoilers abound, including a bit of ranting.....)  This was a wonderful movie.  Acting - yup, wonderful.  Story - bittersweet, with a little more bitter than sweet.  Leftover emotions - adding fuel to the fire to my deep dislike of the Catholic church. This was the retelling of a true story - with actual pictures of those real people just before the credits. Imagine being a young girl....say fifteen or sixteen.  Getting pregnant after one (pretty wonderful) night with a handsome young man.  Abandoned by your family, thus having not a soul in the world but a few other young mothers in your confined, ultra-religious environment (with lots of nasty nuns and a handful of nicer ones)...and an hour a day with your child.  Add to that being ostracized, demeaned, and put into slave labor for four years. And then, when your child is three, having him adopted without a goodbye, with absolutely no information about where he went or what happened to him.  Not your choice.  You would have NEVER given him away......  

       So much spite, so much hate and un-Christian acts from the nuns at this establishment.  Burning of all the records so that mothers and children could never reunite.  Lying.  Withholding information.  It was one thing for this to happen in the early 1950's, totally another for it to happen in 2003.  Grrrr....

     Dench and Coogan were oh-so believable together.  This relationship, if anything like the real one between Lee and Sixsmith, was pretty special.

  

Rotten Tomatoes:  Based on the 2009 investigative book by BBC correspondent Martin Sixsmith, The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, PHILOMENA focuses on the efforts of Philomena Lee (Dench), mother to a boy conceived out of wedlock - something her Irish-Catholic community didn't have the highest opinion of - and given away for adoption in the United States. In following church doctrine, she was forced to sign a contract that wouldn't allow for any sort of inquiry into the son's whereabouts. After starting a family years later in England and, for the most part, moving on with her life, Lee meets Sixsmith (Coogan), a BBC reporter with whom she decides to discover her long-lost son.

9. The White Mary - Kira Salak

audio read by Joyce Bean
2008, Brilliance Audio
10 cds, 12 hours
$36.95
368 pgs.
Written for adults
Rating:  4/Liked it a lot

Setting:  Contemporary Boston and Papua New Guinea
OSS:  A young, female journalist risks her life tramping through the tropical rainforest of Papua New Guinea following a tenuous clue about her dead hero.
1st Sentence:  "The black waters of Elobi Creek show no sign of a current  It is another dead waterway, Marika tells herself, one that will breed only mosquitoes and crocodiles.  Another waterway that somehow reflects -- in the darkness of the water, in its stillness -- all of her failings."

I certainly had no idea the direction of the plot when I began this book. Marika Vecera, a talented 33-year old journalist who has seen horrible things - genocide, torture, rape, unbelievable despair -  in all sorts of countries around the world, lives, herself, in despair, never allowing herself any happiness.  When she becomes involved in writing a biography of journalist Robert Lewis, whom she has idolized her whole adult life,  she begins a journey through the incredible, dense jungles of Papua New Guinea....a journey that helps her emerge from her despair to begin to understand and appreciate her own life.

50. Sarah's Key - Tatiana de Rosnay

Audio read by Polly Stone (who did a beautiful job with the French accents)
BBC Audiobooks America, 2008
(book published in 2007)
8 unabridged cds
10 hours
293 pages
Rating: 3

The last cd started skipping, so I read the last tenth of the book.

The story is told from two points-of-view. Sarah Starzynski, an 11-year old girl who, in June of 1942, is rounded up with other Jewish families in Paris and taken to the Vel' d'Hiv, then to a camp that is the prelude to Auschwitz; and Julia Jarmand, an American journalist living in Paris who is investigating the horrible crimes committed during the roundup to Vel' d'Hiv. She discovers a close tie to the tragedy when she finds that her husband's family has lived in Sarah's apartment since that fateful time in 1942 and she begins searching for more information, particularly Sarah's fate.

This is a tragic Holocaust story. I like the way it shows clearly how crimes of the past have their own repurcussions in the present and future. The whole story about Sarah is well written, poignant, meaningful. But the contemporary part didn't sit completely well with me. Julia's charming, narcisistic husband, Bertrand, for one. And we're to believe that after fifteen years of marriage, she is told confidential information by her father-in-law, whom she has never particularly gotten along with? And then there's a pregnancy....some of this part of the story seemed unreal to me. Reactions. Feelings. Some were too intense and some were missing. Maybe its the way the story was read...though I thoroughly enjoyed the narrator's rendition. There was just too much about Julia and her family that was "off" or missing or something.....

6. Faces of the Gone - Brad Parks

For: Adults
Minotaur Books, 2009
HC
330 pages
Rating: 4
1st in a brand new series by a debut writer.

Debut writer Brad Parks has hit the nail on the head. He's created invesigative reporter Carter Ross. Smart, articulate, funny and even compassionate....he is a delightful protagonist. Written in the first person,we easily get into Carter's head to see how he thinks, how he puts two and two together. Park has done a superb job with the supporting characters, as well, including his finicky cat, Deadline.

Four execution-style murders have taken place in Newark, the police don't seem to have a clue. But Carter Ross finds a tiny clue and keeps hunting until he gets more and more. Every now and then, in italics, we get a glimpse of the thoughts of "the director," who is the culprit. The array of interesting characters and the glimpse into a darker side of life is so well done...real. And some of it, particularly the things that happen to Carter, are really, really funny.

Apparently Brad Parks was a journalist for 20 years and just quit to become an author and stay-at-home dad. He plans more books in the series. I am certainly looking forward to them!