The College Crowd Digs Me

"Every book is a new book if you haven't read it!"   And so, let us begin. Holly by Stephen King (2023) Hardcover, 449 pages If you are familiar with Stephen King's "Bill Hodges Trilogy" beginning with Mr. Mercedes then you have already met Holly.  In this one, Holly is hired to find a mother's missing college-age daughter.  The missing person case leads to a creepy stomach-churning thriller.  King proves once again that creepy weird supernatural ideas are often no match for the creepy horrible stuff inflicted via human discourse.  Holly is filled with page-turning uncertainties with Holly's detective skills weaved in a believable investigative manner, with King playing fair with all the clues. Holly is a stand-alone hardback novel, but that's no reason to skip the trilogy. (full review) The Feud: The Hatfields & McCoys by Dean King (2013) Holy Schnikes!  The conflict between the West Virginia Hatfields and the Kentucky McCoys  was a comp...

Stinger Robert R. McCammon (1988) Paperback, 538 pages     NO SPOILERS: I wasn't exactly sure what this novel was going to be about.  I avoid reading the front and back blurbs beforehand so as not to give too much away.  Dig the surprise, I guess.  But I had a pretty good inkling this wasn't To Kill A Mockingbird .  Anyway, Stinger is a page-turning, treehouse kind of sci-fi/horror story.  A violent chase between one ET and another ET ends up in a little nowhere town in Texas.  A dying town where the days and nights are filled with a slow sweltering bucket of monotony.  And the town folk know everybody, but mostly just keep to themselves.  That is until an alien standoff hits the fan and the community needs to work out their own differences for the greater good.  There are multiple plots going on and a variety of town characters to meet and sift thru and this keeps everything on the edgier side.  The violence is bang and ...

"Every book is a new book if you haven't read it!"    And so, let us begin. The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss (2008) Historical fiction is spun near the time Alexander Hamilton was attempting to establish the country's first banking system.  Nasty goings-on between money manipulators and a few rebels who seek revenge.  Great characters throughout...all very easy to visualize with plenty of delicious mystery and suspense. (full review) Abandon by Blake Crouch (2012) Abandon was once a thriving mining town in the high mountains of Colorado, but then...poof.  The claustrophobic shadows rear their little heads and make for wonderfully uncomfortable times.  As does the urgency to be somewhere else.  Not Blake's finest, but the pages were well-flipped.  The snowy season ahead will make the perfect setting to curl and read.  (full review)  The Outsider by Stephen King (2018) A terrible murder occurs and a couple of detectives find themselves cau...

"Every book is a new book if you haven't read it!"    And so, let us begin. The Cabin At The End Of The World  by Paul Tremblay (2018) This “cabin in the woods" horror tale involves an adopted girl and her two dads who spend a weekend at a cabin far removed from cell phones and FaceTime. The story has its dark moments and surprises. Reads fast, but moves slow. (full review) Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann (2017) The Osage Indian Nation was forcibly moved by the U.S. government to a piece of squat in Oklahoma and unexpectedly discovered the Osage Indians were sitting atop one of the richest oil veins in the world.  This set off a meticulously drawn-out killing spree of dozens in the community.  The actual number is unknown.  Plenty of photographs and well-written. (full review) The Last Oracle by James Rollins (2009) A novel to reach for when you just want to curl up and burn some pages with a good adventure. This mystery adventure is filled with p...