BOOK REVIEW: The Last Child

Occasionally, while on vacation, I find an author who is new to me. John Hart has written several books but THE LAST CHILD was my introduction to this Edgar Award winning author.

A year ago, fourteen year old Johnny Merrimon’s twin sister disappeared. His father has gone and his mother has fallen into drugs and a boyfriend who abuses her. The town officials have tried to convince Johnny that there is no hope that his sister is still alive.

Armed with determination, a bike, and a map Johnny has a plan to find his sister. His map shows the home address of the known sex predators in town and Johnny spends his nights circling the town watching some very dangerous neighborhoods.

Police detective Clyde Hunt has also been searching for Johnny’s sister. His obsession with the case has caused his wife to leave him and is threatening the relationship with his teenage son. He also knows how dangerous this quest can be for Johnny.

Then another young girl, a classmate of Johnny’s, disappears. This time Johnny has an idea of several men who could be involved.

This book is filled with well developed, sometimes flawed, characters whose stories wind through out the plot. The dialogue is crisp and the motivations ring true. The story is told from several points of view, giving the reader an insight into the minds of the lead characters. Hart also weaves several sub-plots together to take us down some twisted paths.

One of the earlier reviewers said that the book was a combination of Huck Finn and Lord of the Flies. This is only partially true. In THE LAST CHILD it is not the children who are the savages.

I really enjoyed this book. Trust me; I am going to be searching for John Hart titles in my favorite book stores.

BOOK REVIEW: Lost and Found

LOST AND FOUND by Carolyn Parkhurst takes us into the making of a reality show. The fictional television program is a global scavenger hunt where the contestants are given clues as to what the object is and where it is hidden. You are probably familiar with the idea from several shows that are currently running on television.

Parkhurst introduces us to the people who are involved in the show, some counting on the cool million dollars and some for more personal reasons. Slowly we learn the individual secrets that the producers are scheming to reveal.

Laura and Cassie are mother and daughter. One night Laura woke up to find that her daughter had given birth in her attic bedroom. Laura feels that the time spent together during the filming of the show will help to heal the rift between them.

Abby and Justin are newlyweds. They had met three years earlier through a Christian ministry to “cure” gays. We hear Abby’s voice more than we do Justin’s. Surprisingly, Justin turns out to be a very major character in the plot.

Juliet and Dallas are ex-child stars. Each had achieved a large fan base when they were very young. Juliet sees the show as a way to get back her earlier fame. She is afraid that the producers will show the two of them as “bratty child stars who grew up in la-la land.”

Carl and Jeff are brothers who provide some of the comedy relief for the show. Carl is the father of a son who has gone through a serious illness. He is not willing to allow the producers to make his son’s story part of the drama of the show.

The book has some surprising twists and you do get to know these people. It was easy to like and root for several of them. I am not familiar with this type of show, but I have wondered from the promotional ads how much the producers maneuver the outcome. Parkhurst may have given us some insight.

BOOK REVIEW: 6 Reviews From Vacation

(Ed note:  Many of you know that I maintain this blog for my mother.  In spite of her recent travels, she has been diligent in keeping her reviews current.  I haven't been as diligent as she, so this one is a bit late.   I'm back on schedule as of this Wednesday, so keep watching for her weekly reviews! ~Wendy)

Vacation is over. Among other things I did lots of reading. Several of the books that I took are worthy of their own articles; some worthy of being ignored. This group, for one reason or another, is worthy of mentioning.

MORTAL FEAR by Greg Iles is a fascinating thriller. The main character, Harper Cole, is a systems operator for an exclusive, expensive, sexually explicit on-line service called E.R.O.S. Somehow the security has been penetrated, six of the clients have been murdered and Harper is the main suspect.

Once again, Greg Iles has written a fast moving suspense novel. The fact that E.R.O.S. deals with sex fantasies, may make this book too graphic for some tastes. It is still a Greg Iles novel, which means that it is well done.






THE LEGEND by Suzanne Robinson is an above average Historical Romance. Galen de Marlowe has moved to an out of the way, haunted castle. He has tried to keep his gift of clairvoyance a secret, but this time his “visions” are of the murder of the two young princes in the Tower of London.

Honor Jennings is trying to avoid another loveless marriage. She returns to her father’s estate, meets Galen, and discovers his secret. Galen has to do what he can to ensure her silence. This might mean marriage.




SECOND CHANCES by Sharon Sala is a light romance between a man and a young girl who he thinks is involved with his son. Although this is not her best book, Sala’s talent for character development and plot twists save this from being a run-of-the-mill romance.










FETE FATALE by Robert Barnard was a big disappointment. Usually I enjoy his mysteries, but in this one---I just did not care who was killed, by whom, or why.











THE LADY MOST LIKELY was written by three of my favorite Regency Romance authors, Julia Quinn, Eloisa James, and Connie Brockway. I thought that it was going to be the typical anthology, perfect vacation reading. This is one story with three, or four, depending on how you count, plots woven together. I can not pass up a Julia Quinn book and this was a fun read.








THE FIFTH VICTIM by Beverly Barton would be classified as “romantic suspense”.   FBI agent Dallas Sloan has been tracking a killer who has left his mutilated victims on a makeshift altar. Genny Madoc has a reputation for having “sixth sense”.   Her visions have been getting stronger and more violent. Together with Sloan, she finds that she will be the next victim while we learn the dirty secrets of the town.

Barton did a very good job of confusing me to the identity of the killer. If this is your genre, you will enjoy Beverly Barton.




Now that you know what I really do on vacation, I promise to review several really good books!

BOOK REVIEW: Don't Shoot, It's Only Me

If you have a less than perfect understanding of some of our most recent wars, may I make an unusual suggestion to you? Entertainer Bob Hope, with some help from Melville Shavelson, has written DON'T SHOOT, IT'S ONLY ME. This is a history of The United States at war through the eyes of someone who was there.

Bob Hope experienced battlefields from the South Pacific to the Persian Gulf. He had been shot at and bombed on in North Africa, Europe, and Vietnam. He was there at every vital point during the last half-century of America’s history. Mixed among the jokes in this book are vignettes of the people and politics involved. He may have played down the danger he was in, but never what the troops were facing.

Watching the televised USO shows, we had no idea how much danger was there for the cast and crew . The book tells of several incidents where snipers got within shooting range of the stage. More than once he put himself at risk taking helicopter trips to get closer to the troops.

At every opportunity he did special shows for the men and women who were in military hospitals. Some of the most touching scenes in the book involve these visits.

I am old enough to appreciate the human interest stories about the public personalities and celebrities in the book. Bob Hope knew ten presidents and though each of them was a target for his humor, his respect for each of them is evident. His list of friends included some of the biggest names in entertainment. I particularly enjoyed his reminiscences of George Burns and Gracie Allen.

Bob Hope’s humor could take a dangerous turn. At a time when most of Hollywood was afraid of the McCarthy trials and their hunt for Communists, Hope was telling jokes about Senator McCarthy.

DON'T SHOOT, IT'S ONLY ME is truly Bob Hope’s comedy history of the United States, but as it makes you laugh, it might bring a tear to your eye for all of the brave men and women who have fought on the front lines for our country.

BOOK REVIEW: Acorna: The Unicorn Girl

Because our daughter is very fond of author Anne McCaffrey I bought McCaffrey’s ACORNA: THE UNICORN GIRL series for her. I had tried the Dragonriders of Pern, but could not get involved in them. Out of respect for our daughter, I thought that I would give the author another try. I am enjoying them so much that it may be awhile before these books get to our daughter’s house.

Three prospectors are mining the asteroids far from any inhabited planet when they find an escape pod drifting through space. In it, they find an unusual little girl. She has a tiny little horn in the center of her forehead, funny-looking feet, beautiful silver hair, and they are to learn that she also has some curious powers. They name her Acorna because of her resemblance to an unicorn and because the asteroid that they are mining starts with an “A’.

Gill, Calum, and Rafik have not filled their hold with precious metals so they take care of the infant on their own for several months. Acorna grows more rapidly than a human child and they find that she has the ability to purify water and air and to heal.

The men decide that Acorna has grown to the point that she needs to be with other people so they land on the planet Kezdet. Here they find that the planet has its own secrets. Acorna is in danger from men who want to add her to their collection of unusual species or who want to use her for scientific research.

Acorna learns that the great wealth of the planet comes from the cruel use of child slaves and she endangers her life to rescue the children. These children capture the reader as they capture Acorna’s heart.

The book comes to a satisfying conclusion, considering that it is the first in a series. The characters are well done and we start to care enough to see what will happen to them in future books. The second book in the series is titled Acorna’s Quest and in it she has left her friends behind and gone to find her own people. I am already in the space craft with her as she faces new dangers.

I am just not too sure when the books will get to our intended daughter. Thankfully our family understands the necessity of reading a gift book before it is passed on.

BOOK REVIEW: Water For Elephants

The “Best Seller” list gets to be little a boring. I read the books listed and notice the same old names each week. The fact that the same authors appear so frequently makes me suspicious. It is hard to be that prolific without losing some originality.

That is why when I do find a favorite author; I feel that I have met an old friend. Sara Gruen is an old friend. Her WATER FOR ELEPHANTS is one of my all time favorite books and it is at the top of the Trade Paper Best Seller list again. I am guessing that the fact that the movie will be coming out is the reason for the new interest. Because it is still on my Best That I Have Read list, I want to remind you why I liked it so much.

The narrator of WATER FOR ELEPHANTS is either ninety or ninety-two. He tells us that age is not as important as it was when he was younger. He has not really forgotten, just lost track. From his wheelchair in the nursing home he watches a circus set up across the parking lot. This starts the story of how he became a part of a traveling circus in his youth.

Jacob Jankowaski is about to take his final exams at Cornell and then join his father’s veterinary practice. This is during the Great Depression and at the sudden death of his parents he finds that there is no business for him to join.

From this point Jacob takes us into the world that adopts him, a world of freaks, glamour, sleaze, and unusual friendships. Jacob is an innocent, by his own word, “the oldest male virgin on the face of the earth.” The tough, hardened people of the circus do not accept him at first and life becomes a fast lesson in survival. Along the way he makes friends with an old man who has become paralyzed from drinking “jake”. This is a time of illegal booze and not all of what is available is safe.

Once it is discovered that Jacob has some training and skill with sick animals, his place in this tight society is established. The animal trainer, August, and his wife, Marlena, take Jacob under their wing. We watch as August becomes more and more unstable and as a relationship develops between Marlena and Jacob.

The story is full of interesting characters. Each is richly developed although none is as fascinating as Rosie. Rosie is large, gray, very wrinkled, and difficult to train. Her former owners gave up on using her in an elephant act because they felt that she was too stupid. When we learn that she has been using her trunk to pull up the stake holding her, stealing the lemonade, and then returning the stake in the ground, we get an idea of how intelligent Rosie is. In fact, she is a large part of the plot of the book.

Gruen based her facts on old photographs and interviews with circus people. The book is full of actual pictures that add to “seeing” the characters. In the interview with the author Gruen explains that many of the incidents were based on fact---including the lemonade stealing scene.

This is an excellent read. The feel for the Depression as well as for the gritty life of a traveling circus is well done. Here we have dark secrets which involve a murder or two, a love story, and a very large, mute heroine. It also has an ending that I absolutely loved.

Read WATER FOR ELEPHANTS. We can never depend on Hollywood to get it right.

BOOK REVIEW: A Young Adult's Guide To Safety In The Digital Age

From the moment we were born parents and teachers have given us lessons on how to keep ourselves safe. We are told practical things like to look both ways before we cross a street, or to wash our hands after playing with something that is probably covered with germs. As we get a little older the lesson includes not talking to strangers. All of these bits of advice are for our own protection and for the most part we obey.

The popularity of computers and other electronic toys has opened new ways to keep in touch with each other, but it has also opened new areas of concern. Local author, Jeff Sechler, has written a small book titled A YOUNG ADULT'S GUIDE TO SAFETY IN THE DIGITAL AGE to help us navigate the new pitfalls.

Each chapter takes us through a specific danger. Among these dangers are sexual predators and identity thieves. Most of the information has been available in other sources, but Sechler has condensed his advice into a small reference book of one hundred pages.

The one thought that was new to me, and remember I did not grow up in the digital age, was how your social sites can be used in a negative way if you apply for college admission or for a job. The pictures of you at that party may have seemed funny and a little risqué at the time, but the office of admission or of human development may see you as someone not reliable or of not presenting the image that they are looking for.

The author gives no information concerning his expertise on the subject, and I would have felt better knowing something of his background. Although it is well footnoted with examples of what can happen if we get careless, most of the examples have been documented in other publications.

Most of the warnings contained in this small book are common sense, but sometimes we need that reminder to look both ways before we cross a street that may be very busy with cars full of strangers who deliberately are planning harm to us.