3. Dead of Autumn by Sherry Knowlton

listened on Audible (purchased)

286 pgs.

2014 (first audio recorded 2020)
Adult mystery
Finished 1/14/2025
Goodreads rating: 3.97
My rating: 3.5
Setting: Contemporary Carlisle/Cumberland County, Pennsylvania

My comments: Pretty cool that this book takes place in Carlisle, PA - where I live!  There's much mention of streets, locales, and public lands that I know of quite well, with a few that I don't....so that was really fun.  The story was okay, though incredibly predictable, the protagonist is feisty but somewhat dull-witted at times, and there were a few ways that the reader read that didn't appeal to me 100%.  But I enjoyed it for the locale.  There are others to follow, so I'm hoping some of my problems with the story will smooth out as the stories continue.

Goodreads synopsis:  The Alexa Williams novel that started it all.

An ethereal blonde sprawled by a mountain stream.

Three young girls on a blanket in the woods.

Decades separate the discovery of these dead bodies, but the lesson they offer is the same. Evil can lurk much closer than you'd ever imagine.

Alexa Williams is a successful lawyer, volunteers weekly at a women’s clinic, and has a sexy weekend boyfriend—not to mention an endearing best friend in her giant English mastiff, Scout. But one autumn day, when Scout takes off into the Pennsylvania woods, Alexa discovers a nightmare she’d never imagined. From that fateful day, Alexa becomes entangled in a murder mystery—one that she tries to unravel by linking it to experiences and symbols in her own life.

Dewilla Noakes, a child of the Depression, has recently lost her mother. Her father, packs up the girls—and their attractive cousin, Winnie—and hits the road to look for a job on the east coast. Along the way, money becomes tighter, food becomes scarcer, and relationships become strained. Dewilla’s father fears he’s failing his daughters. Running out of options, he begins to consider the unthinkable to end the misery he’s brought upon his family …

Alexa soon finds herself amidst violence aimed at the clinic where she volunteers, brought on by pro-life extremists. In a bizarre turn of events, she’s almost raped, ambushed by religious zealots who wish to convert her, then taken by surprise as another romance enters her life. Plus, she seems to be seeing quite a lot of the local law enforcement these days.

No matter what else happens in her life, Alexa can’t shake feeling some sort of connection to the mysterious murder victim. She thinks back to the stories she heard as a child, about the Babes in the Woods, who were murdered close to where the victim’s body was found, wondering if that might be why she draws the connection. But when the murderer strikes again, Alexa must rely on her knowledge of local history and terrain in order to save her own life.

DEAD of AUTUMN ties together the struggles faced by females, young and old, past and present, and the degrees of power they embrace to combat their situations.

51. The Substitution Order by Martin Clark

listened to audio - Chirp
narrated by David Aaron Baker
Unabridged audio (13:22)
2016 Knopf Publishing
352 pgs.
Adult mystery/legal thriller
Finished 3/11/2020
Goodreads rating:  3.92 - 1051 ratings
My rating:  5
Setting:   contemporary suburban Virginia

First line/s:  "For years I was an excellent lawyer, as honest and effective as you would ever want, and I'm a decent enough person, and despite my mistakes, which -- I concede -- were hellacious, I deserve better than this misery."

My comments:  Talk about clever!  This mesmerizing story was so well crafted that I couldn't put it down.  A remarkably likable protagonist weaves his way through nail-biting trauma to come out just fine on the other side.  I don't usually like legal thrillers as much as I like police procedurals, but as long as I could recall the cast of characters I was totally entrenched in the story.  It was really good.  And I was really sad when it ended.  Id love to know what becomes of Kevin Moore now.

Goodreads synopsis:  From Martin Clark--praised by Entertainment Weekly as "our best legal-thriller writer"--comes a wickedly clever, tenderhearted, and intricately plotted novel about a hard-luck lawyer's refusal to concede defeat, even as fate, the court system, and a gang of untouchable con artists conspire against him.
          Kevin Moore, once a high-flying Virginia attorney, hits rock bottom after an inexplicably tumultuous summer leaves him disbarred and separated from his wife. Short on cash and looking for work, he lands in the middle of nowhere with a job at SUBstitution, the world's saddest sandwich shop. His closest confidants: a rambunctious rescue puppy and the twenty-year-old computer whiz manning the restaurant counter beside him. He's determined to set his life right again, but the troubles keep coming. And when a bizarre, mysterious stranger wanders into the shop armed with a threatening "invitation" to join a multimillion-dollar scam, Kevin will need every bit of his legal savvy just to stay out of prison.
          A remarkable tour of the law's tricks and hidden trapdoors, The Substitution Order is both wise and ingenious, a wildly entertaining novel that will keep you guessing--and rooting for its tenacious hero--until the very last page.

71. Reasonable Doubt by Whitney G.

Volumes 1 - 3.25
Listened on Audible (purchased)
read by Sebastian York and Erin Mallon
Unabridged audio (8:46)
2014 for book, 2015 for audible
313 pgs.
Very Adult Romance
Finished 8/3/2019
Goodreads rating:  4.22 - 7013 ratings (Vol. 1, 2, 3 each have over 26,000 ratings well over 3.10 - amazing!
Steaminess rating:  4/4
Setting:  contemporary Durham, NC and NYC

From the first page:  "My rules are simple.  One dinner.  One night.  No repeats.  This is casual sex, nothing more, nothing less.  At least it was until Alyssa....  She was supposed to be a 27-year old lawyer, , a book hoarder, and completely unattractive.  She was supposed to be someone I shared law advice with late at night, someone I could trust with details of my weekly escapades."

My comments:  Triple X rated for the most part, though there is some actual story mixed in mostly near the end.  These kinds of stories are incredibly unratable for me and I do wonder why I read/listen to them.  You have to be in just the right mood, I guess  I couldn't get past the fact that he was 32 and she was 22, because he acted older and she acted younger, so it seemed like the age difference was even more than 10 years, which was really quite disconcerting...

Goodreads synopsis:  The complete New York Times Bestselling serial, now available in one book! 
          My cock has an appetite. 
          A huge and very particular appetite: Blonde, curvy, and preferably not a fucking liar...(Although, that's a story for another day.) As a high profile lawyer, I don't have time to waste on relationships, so I fulfill my needs by anonymously chatting and sleeping with women I meet online. 
          My rules are simple: One dinner. One night. No repeats. 
          This is only casual sex. Nothing more. Nothing less. 
          At least it was, until "Alyssa"...She was supposed to be a 27 year old lawyer, a book hoarder, and completely unattractive. She was supposed to be someone I shared law advice with late at night, someone I could trust with details of my weekly escapades. 
          But then she came into my firm for an interview--a college-intern interview, and everything fucking changed...

PICTURE BOOK - Ruth Bader Ginsburg: The Case of R. B. G. vs. Inequality by Jonah Winter

Illustrated by Stacy Innerst

2017, Abrams Books for Young Adults

HC $18.95

40 pgs.
This is a picture book for older kids, perhaps grade 4 and up?

Goodreads rating:  4.39 - 359 ratings

My rating:  5

Endpapers"  Shelves and shelves of books, with Ms. Ginsburg on a ladder, accessing them.  Lt. brown background, with books in shades of browns and reds.

Illustrations:  Most are in browns and reds, Most are fine, but I don't really like the cover. I'm sure others do.

1^st line/s:  "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury: During this trial,  you will learn about a little girl who had no clue just how important she would become.  You will see the unfair world she was born nto - where boys were valued more than girls, where women were not encouraged to achieve and aspire.  You will see evidence of that unfairness, just as she herself has seen it all her life.

     Here are the facts of her case."

My comments:  This seemingly tiny woman is a powerhouse.  I love hearing her speak when I see her on Facebook or on the tv.  Smart,  Fair.  And, unfortunately getting older.  Born in 1933, that makers her somewhere in her 84th year, and still going strong!  Highly recommended to school age kids AND adults!

Goodreads:  To become the first female Jewish Supreme Court Justice, the unsinkable Ruth Bader Ginsburg had to overcome countless injustices. Growing up in Brooklyn in the 1930s and ’40s, Ginsburg was discouraged from working by her father, who thought a woman’s place was in the home. Regardless, she went to Cornell University, where men outnumbered women four to one. There, she met her husband, Martin Ginsburg, and found her calling as a lawyer. Despite discrimination against Jews, females, and working mothers, Ginsburg went on to become Columbia Law School’s first tenured female professor, a judge for the US Court of Appeals, and finally, a Supreme Court Justice.
          Structured as a court case in which the reader is presented with evidence of the injustice that Ginsburg faced, Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the true story of how one of America’s most “notorious” women bravely persevered to become the remarkable symbol of justice she is today

16. The Opposite of Everyone - Joshilyn Jackson

listened to this on Audible/iPhone
2016 - William Morrow
352 pgs.
Goodreads rating: 4.07
Adult CRF/Mystery
Finished 3/8/16
Setting: Contemporary Atlanta, and other places around the country - a traveling mama

First line/s:  "I was born blue.  If my mother hadn't pushed me out quick as a cat, I would have been born dead and even bluer; her cord was wrapped tight around my neck.  She looked at my little blue lips, my blue toes and baby fingers, and named me after Kali.  Kali Jai."

My comments:  I have definitely become a Joshilyn Jackson fan.  Her story-weaving gets better and better with each book.  She flips back and forth between Kali/Paula at 12 and currently, where we slowly learn/guess her background story.  What great characters!  Her protagonist has so many flaws - making her so real - that you love her and hate her and question her... keeps you busy throughout the whole novel!  I listened to this one, her brand new book.  I usually greatly enjoy her reading, but the voices she used on this one, other than Cali, Kai, and Birdwine, were a little bothersome.  She made her 23-year old brother sound around 12, and I had to keep resetting his image in my mind because of this.  Very engrossing.

Goodreads synopsis: Born in Alabama, Paula Vauss spent the first decade of her life on the road with her free-spirited young mother, Kai, an itinerant storyteller who blended Hindu mythology with Southern Oral Tradition to re-invent their history as they roved. But everything, including Paula’s birthname Kali Jai, changed when she told a story of her own—one that landed Kai in prison and Paula in foster care. Separated, each holding her own secrets, the intense bond they once shared was fractured.
          These days, Paula has reincarnated herself as a tough-as-nails divorce attorney with a successful practice in Atlanta. While she hasn’t seen Kai in fifteen years, she’s still making payments on that Karmic debt—until the day her last check is returned in the mail, along with a cryptic letter. “I am going on a journey, Kali. I am going back to my beginning; death is not the end. You will be the end. We will meet again, and there will be new stories. You know how Karma works.”
          Then Kai’s most treasured secret literally lands on Paula’s doorstep, throwing her life into chaos and transforming her from only child to older sister. Desperate to find her mother before it’s too late, Paula sets off on a journey of discovery that will take her back to the past and into the deepest recesses of her heart. With the help of her ex-lover Birdwine, an intrepid and emotionally volatile private eye who still carries a torch for her, this brilliant woman, an expert at wrecking families, now has to figure out how to put one back together—her own.
          The Opposite of Everyone is a story about story itself, how the tales we tell connect us, break us, and define us, and how the endings and beginnings we choose can destroy us . . . and make us whole. Laced with sharp humor and poignant insight, it is beloved New York Times bestselling author Joshilyn Jackson at her very best.

57.The Garden of Burning Sand - Corban Addison

Audio read by Robin Miles (there are lots of different accents, and she nailed every one of the, making the book even more realistic for me.)

12 unabridged cds (12.25 hrs.)

2013 Regulus Books, 2014 Recorded Books

448 pgs.

Adult Mystery

Finished 9/12/2014

Goodreads rating: 4.06

My rating:  4/I very much enjoyed this 

Setting: Contemporary Lusaka, Zambia

1st sentence/s:  "The girl walked alone on the darkened street.  Lights moved around her as cars drove by, their headlights shining on the dusty roadway.  But no one seemed to notice her or care that she was alone.  Her gait was steady but her steps were irregular since one of her legs was shorter than the other."

A good quote:  "Life is a broken thing.  It's what we do with the pieces that defines us."

My comments:  The best part about this book?  Getting to know contemporary Africa a bit.  This book is set in Lusaka, Zambia with forays to Livingtone and Victoria Falls.  The protagonist, Zoe Fleming, is an ex-pat whose father just happens to be running for president of the United States.  The story centers around an orphaned teenager with Down's Syndrome who has been raped, and Zoe's legal team gathering evidence to prosecute her rapist.  Many issues are thoroughly examined...AIDS and HIV, rape (not only in Africa, but in the US, since part of Zoe's past includes this), the culture of Zambia including the gaping socio-economic differences, medicine man/voodoo (my words) beliefs, and the realities of rich (country) vs. poor (country).  Disadvantaged vs. Advantaged.  I enjoyed listening to this book a great deal.

Goodreads book summary: Zoe Fleming is an American attorney working with an NGO devoted to combating child sexual assault in Lusaka, Zambia. When an adolescent girl is raped in the dark of night and delivered by strangers to the hospital, Zoe’s organization is called in to help.
          Working alongside Zambian police officer Joseph Kabuta, Zoe learns that the girl’s assailant was not a street kid or a pedophile but the son of a powerful industrialist with deep ties to the Zambian government. As the prosecution against him grinds forward, hampered by systemic corruption and bureaucratic inertia, Zoe and Joseph’s search for the truth takes them from Lusaka’s roughest neighborhoods to the wild waters of Victoria Falls, to the AIDS-ridden streets of Johannesburg and the splendour of Cape Town.
           As the rape trial builds to a climax and sends shockwaves through Zambian society, Zoe must radically reshape her assumptions about love, loyalty, family—and, especially, the meaning of justice.

31. The Burgess Boys - Elizabeth Strout

Random House, 2013

320 pgs.

CRF for adults

Finished 8/17/2013

Goodreads Rating: 3.53

My Rating: Liked it quite well (3.5) 

Acquired: TPPL

Setting: Contemporary NYC and rural Maine (with a few pages hiking in the AZ desert...)

1^st sentence/s: "On a breezy October afternoon in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, Helen Farber Burgess was packing for vacation."  (There was a prologue, but I chose to ignore it for the purpose of 1st sentence, it had nothing (much) to do with the story....and gave away a few hints that I would have rather figured out myself as I read.)

My comments:  What do I think? Hmmm. Hard to say. First off, this was definitely a "Maine-Basher" book, which turned me off completely. I am a Mainer, and proud of it. However, I loved the way that Strout developed the characters. At first I felt the plot was being forced, but then when I understood the reasoning behind poor Zach's behavior (throwing a pig's head into a mosque!) I no longer felt that. When you have genuine feelings for characters (hatred, pity, apathy...), I guess you're relating to them, and isn't that what you want in a book? And thirdly, I will think about this awhile, even as I read other stories. It's not a forgettable story - at least not for me. Yes, I liked it.

Goodreads Review:  Haunted by the freak accident that killed their father when they were children, Jim and Bob Burgess escaped from their Maine hometown of Shirley Falls for New York City as soon as they possibly could. Jim, a sleek, successful corporate lawyer, has belittled his bighearted brother their whole lives, and Bob, a Legal Aid attorney who idolizes Jim, has always taken it in stride. But their long-standing dynamic is upended when their sister, Susan—the Burgess sibling who stayed behind—urgently calls them home. Her lonely teenage son, Zach, has gotten himself into a world of trouble, and Susan desperately needs their help. And so the Burgess brothers return to the landscape of their childhood, where the long-buried tensions that have shaped and shadowed their relationship begin to surface in unexpected ways that will change them forever.

MOVIE - Lincoln Lawyer

Michael Connelly & Matthew McConaughey - a winning combination!
Wide release 3-10-11
on DVD 7-12-11
viewed 4-21-11
R (1:59)
RT:  83% cag:  84% (hey, we agree for once!)
based on the book by Michael Connelly
Lionsgate Films
Director:  Brad Furman
Matthew McConaughey

Matthew McConaughey is Mickey Haller, a lawyer whose office is his Lincoln Continental.

2. Dark of Day - Barbara Parker

Audiobook read by Elizabeth S. Rogers (beautifully)
BBC Audiobooks America, 2008
10 unabridged cds
11 hrs. 59 minutes
352 pgs.
Rating: 5

I listened to this on the train trip from Boston to Harrisburg, then on the plane from Dallas to Tucson, finishing up this morning as I knit many rows onto Brian's blanket. I figured out most of it quite early, the whodunit and the "secrets" that the protagonist kept, but it was told - and read- beautifully. The usual whodunit, the usual love-in-the-making story, typical good guys and bad guys....grittiness, not coziness...all that I love in a mystery. I read Barbara Parker's first Suspicion series book years ago on a 30-hour car ride to Florida, and remember it (I don't remember too many details, usually) because I liked the way that she told the story. She died last March at the age of 62 after "a long illness." Too bad.

This story is about a lawyer, C. J. Dunn, who works and is friends with the rich and famous of Miami. She knows how to manipulate the media to help her clients - and this is why she's hired to keep a U. S. Congressman, Paul Shelby's, name out of the papers when there's a possibility he'll be linked to the murder of a pretty actress wannabe, Alana Martin. Her actual client is Rick Slater, Shelby's chauffeur. An unlikely chauffeur, to be sure, his past is in the army and security. Of course, a bond forms between C.J. and this rough, tough cutie. A young friend of Alana's also takes a strong role, as well as C.J.'s best friend and investigator, Judy. Although there are lots of subplots and dips in the road, the story is easy to follow and interesting. It also showcases the rich and famous lifestyle of Miami.

Think it's time to get started (or REstarted) on the Suspicion series. And I've never been to Miami. That's where DEXTER is set. Next year's summer road trip???