I read, therefore I am.....

Get ready, put your copy on hold at your favorite bookstore, or pre-order at your favorite on-line site - Bobbie Faye Summrall is back in the third book of the series, and she's about to be really, really pissed off.

First of all, Trevor is forcing her to train in hand to hand combat. She already can shoot the eye out of gnat at 50 paces. So now he wants her able to kick butt close up, should the need arise, and let's face it, with Bobbie Faye the need will arise.

Secondly, he wants her to set a date for their nuptial, and she dosen't like being pushed about anything. For reasons she can't fully understand, she's hesitating.

Finally, Trevor takes on an undercover job and promises to return after three days and left her under the care of Riles, and they don't take to one another. As in, she really, really wants to shoot him.

Then he doesn't return.

So naturally, Bobbie Faye, with Riles in tow, goes looking for him.

And of course, all hell breaks loose pretty damn fast after that.

However, this book has more to offer than the usual mayhem that accompanies any adventure with Bobbie Faye. This book deals with real growth not only for Bobbie Faye, but for her family and friends. This means there are slightly less laughs in this book, but that's not a bad thing at all. Those moments of seriousness are earned as we see Bobbie Faye come to understand herself and make some real decisions about what and who she wants in her life.

This is not to say there aren't laughs in this book. There are. Plenty.

The villain of this piece is Sean MacGreggor, the Irish terrorist and thief who nearly got himself killed by Bobbie Faye in the last book. Seems he holds a hell of a grudge. He also still holds a rather strange and creepy attraction to Bobbie Faye.

MacGreggor has come up with a plan that will give him Bobbie Faye and leave Trevor suffering the guilt of the damned, as well as a physical hell. It will also devastate Bobbie Faye and, he hopes, break her emotionally so that he can quite literally own her.

This kind of serious threat helps along the books slightly darker tone.

All the regular supporting players are there, including CeCe who makes a chicken foot charm for Bobbie Faye that will turn black when she's in danger. The foot not only turns black, when it can't get any darker, it begins to move.

With settings that include a river boat casino and a stadium filled with LSU football fans, there will be no shortage of spectacular places for Trevor and Bobbie Faye to have their adventure.

Go. Now. Reserve. Prepare to read. You will enjoy.

WP

This book was a first for me. I've read many mysteries that managed to include all manner of hobbies or activities, but this was the first that included ultra-marathoning. Ultra-marathoning, if you don't know, is running EXTREMELY long distances. A marathon is 26.2 miles. I know this intimately because I've run two marathons. Ultra-marathons start at 50 miles and go further.

In this case, it's "Run California." The elite long distance runners of the USA have been invited by GiganticCorp, a huge and wealthy government military contractor, to run the length of the California coast. The team that wins gets $1 million.

Oh, and this is 1969, when $1 million is a hell of a lot of money.

Drake and Melody make up one team. They were previously government agents, he for the USA and she for the UK. Six years after their last contact they find themselves partnered in what could literally turn out to be the race of their lives.

Before the race even begins, Drake's taxi is deliberately rear-ended and he is injured. With lots of help and monetary incentives, he agrees to go ahead and race.

As the race begins, it becomes clear that the CEO of GigantiCorp is using the race to launch his political career. Many former generals and admirals sit on the board of GigantiCorp, and it has the full support of the Joint Chiefs. So he has support for his run.

Then there is an attack from the sea on Malibu as the runners pass by, killing innocents in one of the homes and one of the runners with some sort of shelling or mortar.

When the CEO begins using that attack to promote military control of the coastline, Drake and Melody call in help from their government contacts and begin to look into what exactly is going on behind the scenes at both GigantiCorp and with the race.

It gets a great deal weirder, and there are a lot more deaths before they finally solve the mystery and stop plans that could send the USA into war, at best.

This is an interesting book, and I liked Drake and Melody. I was rooting for them all the way. The idea that anyone could run the distances they're doing injured is beyond my comprehension, though, and to me strained credibility. But, even given that, I found the story interesting and intense.

WP

This book is a complicated story of drugs, politics, and relationships along the border between Mexico and the USA. It begins with several individuals and events, from a U.S. Customs and Border Control (CBC) officer to two teenage boys looking for a way to make money to help their families. Eventually all the stories tie together to form the incredibly complex status surrounding the border and these two countries.

Within the book, the character we are allowed to follow with the most, and to develop the greater relationship is Filipe Vega. He's a CBC officer and Iraq veteran. When the CBC follows several SUVs to the border, he is the one who spots the RPG (rocket propelled grenade) launcher and shoots the soldier pointing it. This soldier is Mexican, and this opens up an inquiry into the relationship of the Mexican military and the drug cartels.

This inquiry goes all the way to the top, involving the Mexican President, who is trying to build a strong government, and the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico who must walk the fine line of diplomacy.

The instability of the Mexican government comes into play, as well as the corruption of officials on every level.

The book is tight, fierce, thrilling, and fascinating. It lays open for the reader the problems of dealing with people mired in intense poverty and the pressure and power the cartels can bring into play.

It's also fascinating how amazing the new technologies come into play in being able to locate and identify the players and the movements at the border. We've definitely gone far past Big Brother and gotten into a whole new territory of surveillance.

WP

Kimo Kanapa'aka is back, and as usual, he's neck-deep in a mystery.

The last time we saw Kimo, during MAHU FIRE, he seemed to have found true love in fireman Mike. But at the beginning of MAHU VICE, they've broken up, and definitely not under the best of terms.

Mike is deeply closeted, and Kimo is not. His outing came during a murder investigation, and was very public, but now that he is out, he doesn't want to hide. This created some tension between them, but the final blow came when Kimo finds out he's gotten gonorrhea from Mike. He knows it has to be Mike, because he hasn't been with anyone else.

Mike had a one-night stand while at a conference for arson investigators in San Francisco.

Their break-up hasn't been good for either of them. Kimo has gone on a series of rough-sex one-night stands, and Mike has begun drinking heavily.

Neither knows this about the other until they find themselves forced to work together again. A fire in a shopping strip that was built by Kimo's father (though he no longer owns it), killed a young boy who was living in the back of a hair salon.

The fire started in an acupuncture business at one end of the strip. Mike is the arson investigator and Kimo and his partner are assigned the death.

Their investigation leads to a prostitution ring and several familiar characters from past books. It also leads back to a mysterious Mr. Hu who orchestrated a series rough sex nights for Kimo. Turns out that not only Kimo, but many other men were being recorded during these nights. The closeted men involved are being blackmailed.

There are also other fires, all of which were set as sites of the prostitution business might have come under some scrutiny. It's the preferred "clean-up" method for this group.

The mystery is tight and tense, and Kimo is constantly caught between protecting the innocent and trying to get the guilty without exposing them. He also has to find a way to work with Mike.

This is probably the best yet of the Mahu series, and a welcome addition to the story of Kimo.

WP

This is one tough book to describe. I started reading it, having no idea what to expect, and the book kept going places that surprised me - and delighted me. A synopsis of it will do it no justice at all.

But here goes:

Adam Weiss and his twin sister Anna are driving to a funeral in New Jersey. Adam is an aimless college student who really doesn't seem to have much on his mind other than his baseball video game, drinking, and women. Anna is a serious student and musician.

After stopping for fast food, Adam finds himself in serious need of a restroom. He stops at a highway rest stop, and while in the stall relieving himself of his noxious meal, a man in the next stall - with a gun - demands his car keys.

Adam is terrified. He gives up his keys, and when he finally has the courage to leave the restroom, finds that the man has not only taken his car, but has also taken his sister.

For the first time in his life, Adam has to really take charge, face a problem, and try to fix it.

As it turns out, finding his sister involves atomic bombs, a 13 year old black computer-genius foster child, a woman dressed as a clown, mobsters, Las Vegas, many cops, federal agents, and eventually Epcot in DisneyWorld.

Seriously.

Oh, and Adam never makes it to the funeral.

WP

I read and reviewed the second in the Eden series, BEYOND EDEN, so I was happy to read the latest. These books are really thrillers, based in a faith-bound mythology that is well-crafted and fascinating.

Eden is a real place. There are those who live in Eden, and there are those from Eden who live in the world as we know it. There are "operatives" and "swords." Operatives take on missions that the people of Eden decide are important either for protecting Eden or for protecting the people of the world.

There are those who have gotten a hint about Eden, and they desperately want to find it. Some believe it is full of worldly riches. Other want to find its secrets to longevity and health.

Jaime Richards is an Army Chaplain. She was in Iraq, and from there she disappeared for three years. The story is that she was kidnapped, injured, and lived with people in a remote area until she regained her memory.

In truth, she was kidnapped, but she ended up in Eden. Now she is an operative from Eden. She continues her work as an Army Chaplain, and she is still stationed in Iraq. She is about to take leave, and while on the surface she will be going for R&R from her military service, in reality she will be on the trail of a box covered in gems that has been placed on e-bay by a Bedouin tribe.

The box carries many secrets. The Bedouin who leads the tribe knows that it was found by he and a friend Rasheed in caves like those where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. Rasheed did not make it out of the caves alive, and it is a horrible secret that he has carried since boyhood.

Those in Eden want to retrieve the box because it may hold secrets that they have long waited to know.

Also, though, rogue CIA operative Frank McMillan wants it, because he believes it will lead him to Eden. He was involved in Jaime's original kidnapping, and he is not above torture and murder to achieve his ends.

This book seemed a bit slower than BEYOND EDEN in getting moving, but once it did, it flew. No matter how one feels about Christian religion, the story and the mythology established with Eden is well worth the reading time.

Jaime is a strong woman and her struggle to find the box and keep McMillan from gaining what he wants is tense and scary.

WP

I'm a huge fan of the Dead-end Job mysteries. Helen Hawthorne is a great character, and her friends and endless series of strange jobs are always fun.

This time she's working as the receptionist in a high-end hair salon. Miguel Angel is a Cuban-American genius with hair. He can perform miracles that change the look of any woman for the better. He's well paid for this talent, with his haircuts costing several hundred dollars.

One of his clients has hired him to do the hair and make-up at his wedding. She's a nurse who is pregnant and marrying a much older man, TV gossip show host "King" Oden. Oden is odious, and there are many who have reason to want him dead, so when he turns up drowned in his own pool after the wedding, the suspects are numerous.

Unfortunately, they also include Miguel, who had a huge argument with the man before the wedding and threatened him with a pair of scissors.

Helen must prove Miguel didn't do it, before his shop goes under completely from the scandal. This is the best job she's had, and she really likes him.

In the midst of this, she's planning her own wedding. She's marrying Phil, the private investigator who lives in the same apartment building. They've been together for a while now, and they decided to make it legal.

This is a very big deal, as the reason Helen lives here and has this long series of "dead-end jobs" is because her first husband was a philandering deadbeat who'd been awarded alimony during their divorce.

As always, the mystery is tightly woven, with generous helpings of humor and threat. This is a series that would satisfy pretty much any mystery reader. If you haven't discovered Viets, yet, go and do so now.

WP

I'd never read any of the Paco and Molly series. Paco is retired police detective Pack LeSoto. His wife, Molly, is a wonderful cook and butchers the English language with constant malapropism. They are a cute couple, and together they make a fine pair of detectives.

This book plays on the psychic connection of twins, and ties several mystery threads all into one not entirely tidy bunch. This is fine, too tidy and it would be ridiculous. The fact that not everything works out perfectly is actually good.

Caitlin Neuman is having nightmares. Her grandmother Olivia Raphael believes the dreams are simply a way of her processing the trauma of her parents and twin sister's death in a car accident, but she's convinced there's more to it. She asks Paco to help her discover the truth.

This search leads to a family with another set of unlucky twins. Newton Boston and his new wife Delylah are trying to merge their families. She has two adult children, a son who wants to be an actor, and a daughter who seems to be more than a little lost in the world. He has twin daughters. One lies in a coma and is cared for by the German nanny the girls had as a child. The other is a troubled teenager, struggling with her guilt over the accident that caused her sister's injuries.

The two families do not merge well, and one factor is that Delylah has a string of husbands in her background, all of whom died rather suddenly.

As Paco digs into the things Caitlin remembers from her nightmares, he uncovers more mysteries than anyone expected, and upon finding the Boston's becomes embroiled in a whole new murder mystery. Newton's troubled daughter has died, and the police are sure she was murdered.

The book starts off with several different threads that come together quickly, and then take off as more events occur that require solving. I enjoyed the mystery, but will admit to not being quite as charmed by Molly's twist of words as probably some readers are. But that was not enough to turn me off to a nicely written book with an intriguing set of possibilities.

This is a series that readers of light and cozy mysteries will really enjoy.

WP

The title of this book makes perfect sense when you reach the end of the story. I'll admit that I wasn't sure where the book was going when it started. We begin with Camille in Albuquerque on a Tuesday afternoon. The phone rings, and she doesn't want to answer it. The phone never brings good news into Camille's life.

But answer it she does, and we hear her conversation with her daughter Elizabeth. Camille is supposed to fly out the following day to be in Houston for a memorial service for her son, Jonathan. Elizabeth has arranged everything, but Camille cannot face the memorial, and backs out of going.

Elizabeth reacts with anger, demanding to know why her mother couldn't, just once, put her children first.

This is not a new argument. This is one that Camille has heard before. She has many regrets in life, and not the least of them is the death of her son Jonathan of a heroin overdose. She hadn't even realized that he was doing drugs.

Camille feels that she's failed her children, and that night when she goes to sleep, something strange happens.

When she awakes, her life is different. She has taken a different path, and things are completely different with her children. This time Saturday is visitation day for Jonathan who is in prison. She soon finds out that he was convicted or murder, when really the death was accidental. In defending his sister against a man who was hurting her, the man was killed. Camille is horrified, but looks forward to seeing her son on Saturday.... He's still alive in this universe, and she wants nothing more than to see him.

Thus begins the three days of journeys through the possibilities that Camille could have seen in life. Each one is different, and in each one, there is something wrong. Also in each one, the one constant is that she wants to see her son, and she struggles to make things right with her daughter.

In the end Camille realizes what the purpose of her three day odyssey has been for, and both she and we the reader are satisfied.

This is an unusual book, but the story is always interesting and never fails to take us somewhere that Camille needs to go in order to come to peace with her life. The author dose a fine job of "showing" us what Camille needs to learn, rather than telling us. Therefore the book is never preachy.

Instead, it's an interesting trip for us all.

WP

This is a sweet easily read romance, with a slight bent toward science fiction.

Brianna James has just lost her job, has a worthless boyfriend, and as a parting gift, two cruise tickets on a nearly defunct ship in the Caribbean. She's just depressed enough to take the cruise, with the lousy boyfriend in tow.

Once out on the sea he begins an affair with a gold digger whose obviously more stupid than he is, because she still thinks he's rich after seeing the cramped cabin he's in. Brianna catches the two of them together there, packs her bags and goes to find somewhere else to be that night.

Unfortunately she ends up sleeping on the deck in a chair. Or maybe that's fortunately, because when she wakes up she's on the deck of a merchant ship in 1717!

There she meets the handsome (and single) Captain Daniel Storme, who has a mysterious past. She immediately trusts him, as well as being attracted to him. She agrees to marry him within 24 hours of meeting.

Thus begins the near fairy tale of Brianna and Daniel.

It's not without its bumps, though, as she struggles to find her way in the past century which includes evil pirates with deep grudges, slave traders, and Turkish princes. But ultimately it does all end well, because this is, after all, a sweet romance at heart.

The book is pleasant and fun, and other than a few grammatical errors, without any major bumps of its own.

WP

I've been fascinated by the history of the Templars for many years, and I'm always up for reading something that uses them as a part of the story.

CABAL OF THE WESTWOOD KNIGHT is chock full of facts, dates, information, photographs, and historical data on the Templars - and the possibility that they may have come to North America sometime after the Vikings, using Viking information.

I found the information fascinating, and I loved the photos and documentation that were used in the book to create the story of how Cameron Thorne, an attorney who has lost his big law firm position and finds himself in a small town in Massachusetts trying to put his life back together. The firm in Boston where he worked was defending priests who had molested children. Incensed when he discovers how the firm and the Catholic church are collaborating to destroy the accusers and hide the crimes, he leaked information. For this he was fired and suspended as an attorney.

One day while in the local library he overhears a man brow beating an older couple in an attempt to force them to sell him their home. Cam immediately steps in and says he will help the older couple. They are greatly relieved, and soon he finds out that the man is a treasure hunter on the trail of Prince Henry's treasure. There is a myth that the Knight Templar came to North America as the Catholic church was trying to stamp out the Templars, and that he hid a great Templar treasure somewhere in New England.

The man trying to buy the home of the couple believes that their land holds a link to the treasure and he is determined to find it.

Soon Cam is helping the couple, and in doing so his cousin is nearly killed by sabotage. Then the treasure hunter is found murdered. Clearly someone does not want the treasure found.

Cam goes to a local historical center and meets Amanda. She is part of a secret organization that believes that Prince Henry was a descendant of Jesus, or the Deux Rex line. They believe that Jesus was married to Mary Magadelene and that they had a daughter together.

When Cam meets Amanda, she agrees to help him research what is going on, and soon she actually leaves her post and goes renegade with him - realizing that something sinister is afoot and that with Cam she might just be able to figure out where the treasure truly is.

There are many complications in the story, including a hired killer who is a Native American, the Vatican's hidden and vicious "League of Jesus," quite willing to kill anyone, even their own, to keep Prince Henry's secret hidden.

The story moves, and the pacing is good. What is flawed about the book is the characterizations. I have to admit that I never really bought into the characters. Cam and Amanda figure out a mystery that has existed for centuries. Yet, they are not smart enough to check to see if their vehicle might have been tagged with a gps device?

I enjoyed the book despite the weak characterizations. The information is fascinating, and it's certainly fun to believe that the Knights Templar were here so long ago and brought their bloodline to that of the Native Americans. It's a delightful idea.

WP

I wasn't sure what I was getting into when I began reading Bailey's book, which is subtitled: "A Historical and Thematic Study," but I was more than pleasantly surprised.

This book is not just an academic study of the roots of African American mysteries and their authors, but also a study of the cultures out of which the fiction and the writers grew. It is more than fascinating.

Quoting from other academic texts, Bailey's scholarship is unquestionable. The book is well researched, and the statements made backed up not only with examples of relative fiction, but with academic texts and commentary.

Part I is dense, but filled with the historical information that is essential to understanding just how far back the actual African American mystery writers go. Most fascinating to me was the depth of the literature's history, and the number of both male and female authors in the genre.

Part II is where the book comes alive, beginning with a discussion of "sleuths and their worlds" and finishing up with "doing justice." This section of the book jumps with the characters, the world created, and the variety of authors and subjects - making the material fly by quickly. I was deeply interested at this point, and found myself making notes of authors whose work I must find.

This is a great source book for anyone writing about African American authors, regardless of genre, but it will be particularly interesting to anyone who has ever picked up a mystery novel. It illuminates the roots of mysteries - all mysteries - though its in depth discussions of why these writers chose the genre and what they had to say in writing their fiction.

The information, while certainly based in a particular segment of the population of the United States, can be applied to writers in general. Yes, it is rooted in the history of African Americans in this country, but the bottom line is that it is about how people take their history, their perspective and use it to create characters who are on all sides of right and wrong in all ways.

Every mystery fan who wants to know more about the genre should read it.

WP

Carmela Bertrand runs a scrapbooking shop in New Orleans' French Quarter. At Mardi Gras time, she's not only busy with helping people make up fancy, creative invitations and favors for their parties, she's deeply involved with her own krewe and float in one of the parades.

One of her dearest friends is Jekyl Hardy, a famous designer of Mardi Gras floats. At his big annual party, his current partner in design, Archie Baudier, is found dying on Jekyl's balcony. He's been garroted with barbed wire, and though Carmela got to him before he was dead, she was unable to free him from the deadly strand before he died.

Handsome homicide detective Edgar Babcock is in charge of the investigation into Archie's death. He's also interested in Carmela, and she's a bit taken with him.

Of course Carmela and her best friend Ava can't help but become involved in trying to figure out who did in Archie. After all, witnessing his death has already traumatized them both, and they want someone to pay for what was done.

Everything seems to tie in to the fact that Archie believed he had found the secret to the buried treasure of the pirate Lafitte. Long thought to only be a legend, Carmela and Ava believe that Archie had found something that would lead to it.

Of course the same person who killed Archie is no more thrilled about having Carmela looking than he or she was about Archie looking, so threats are made, attempts on Carmela's life, and more than a few scary people wander about making not so nice noises at her.

The book has a whole section in the back that gives scrapbooking ideas and recipes for all the wonderful food that Carmela and Ava eat throughout the story. (You will definitely be glad for the recipes, as the food sounds magnificient!)

This is a fun book and a great series. I also want to see what will happen now with Detective Babcock.

WP

Tobias is a writer, and has recently had some success writing a mystery. He lives in the city, but spent his early childhood on a small farm in rural Sweden. His mother was from Iceland, and there seems to be some mystery, as well as some depression that comes from her side of his family.

His father is an old man, but strong. He fell from the loft of his barn and so the woman who lives with him, Sabina, needs some help getting the cattle in before winter settles on them. He goes to the tiny farm to help, and finds himself overwhelmed with memories of his mother, his father, as well as his desires for success - and his need for it.

A hired hand, Hardy, works with them. He's more than a bit of a bastard, and Tobias can't stand him. Sabina tolerates him because she believes him to be a true friend to her mentally challenged son. Hardy has encouraged Adam to be an Elvis impersonator. Adam has a gift for singing, even if he is unable to handle the daily tasks of helping his mother on the farm.

Tobias' life in the city, his success as a writer, seems more distant and abstract by the hour as he finds himself suddenly involved in a violent death. As he struggles to find his way back to the life he once knew, complications keep arising.

The job offer and attraction of Ingelize who was taught to ride by Tobias' mother, the clinging of his lover Marit, the depression of Tobias' ex-wife, and the need to care for his teenage daughter bury Tobias beneath a mound of emotional baggage and fear that he desperately fights.

This is a strange and compelling novel. Having recently listened to the audibook of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, I'm fast becoming convinced there is a wealth of thrillers and mysteries to be found among the Swedish writers.

I can't wait to discover more.

WP

There is SO much to love about Kate Gallagher, and that's not a play on words referencing her weight. The investigative reporter who works for a television station in Durham, North Carolina is not one of those unreal, super thin, size 0 types. Honestly? Who is? I'd like to see someone with more brains than make-up on my local news, so I wish Kate worked here.

When she's put on a few "kilos" of Christmas weight, she figures she'll combine a feature on her friend Riley's new fitness camp, Body Blast, with a chance to lose some weight.

She and Riley were childhood friends from South Boston, so it's only fair that she give him a boost. He's happy to have her come.

Of course, no sooner does she get there than her roommate turns up dead. As if that weren't enough of a problem, Riley's boyfriend Khan seems less than honorable and former pro football player Darwin Innova has some unpleasant connection to the dead woman.

Kate may not be strong on the self-control dieting, but she is a pit bull when it comes to a story, and clearly there is a story at Body Blast. The stronger she holds on and the more she digs, the more frightening things become - and soon even she's in danger.

I love Kate, and I was excited by this book. I got caught up in the mystery and couldn't wait to put together the clues and see if I could figure out what was going on. It was intriguing, funny, and built like a brick shit-house - sound from the base up and damned beautiful.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough, and I can't wait to read more by Kathryn Lilley.

WP

Jennifer Louise Jefferson clearly understands the law as it applies to domestic violence and child abuse, and it's not just her resume as an attorney who worked in the New Jersey Family Court System for many years.

DEFENDING VIOLET is blunt about the law and the realities of women caught up in the cycle of domestic abuse.

Ginger Rae Reddy is an attorney with her own practice who works only divorce and domestic violence cases. She's been on both sides of the fence, working as a prosecutor and a defense attorney. This has led her to keeping her practice in areas where she can compartmentalize better, trying to keep from becoming obsessed with her work as she's done in the past.

She has a solid relationship with her husband and his 16 year old son, but it's been fragile in the past.

She's also had a drinking problem in the past, especially when she was in college.

Therefore she's got issues and limitations, and she's well aware of them.

Violet, a biracial 19 year old, was a client in a domestic violence case. The young woman was beaten by her married boyfriend when she was pregnant. Ginger helped her through the system, got her a job and a restraining order against the boyfriend.

Now Violet is calling her, desperate for help again - only this time it's a criminal case. Violet's son, Teddy, is in a coma in the hospital. The doctors say it's "shaken baby syndrome" and Violet's been arrested.

Ginger is convinced that Violet would never hurt her child, and soon as she begins digging, it comes to light that the abusive boyfriend is back in her life, and was there the night the child was injured.

Ginger sets out to prove that Violet has been wrongly accused, and to make sure that the real villain is put in jail.

The case is not simple, and when Teddy dies, the stakes become higher. What Ginger ultimately finds is that she is still prone to the old mistakes, including taking on more work than she can handle and getting too involved in her cases. She damages both her relationship with her husband, and that with her partner in law.

This is not a happy book. Nothing is pretty, or simple. It's honest and depressing, and very real. It's also an excellent story, solid in its construction and resolution.

While no one may be satisfied with all that happens in the story, no one will be disappointed in the experience of having read it.

WP

However, I think this response from an acquaintance on Facebook seems to me to be the best response to this. He was asked if he was embarrassed about having written to Amazon, posted about the problem, and signing the petition to get them to reverse their position. This is what he had to say:

Bitten by Books is bittenbybooks.com.

UPCOMING EVENT: 4/13 BOOK Contest! Win a copy of Jim Butcher’s Turn Coat.

Location: ONLINE at Bittenbybooks.com

Read reviews of Jim’s books: Click here

Description: It is true, we have 10 hardback copies of Turn Coat, book 11 in the Harry Dresden series by Jim Butcher to give away.

Details for the contest will be posted later today!!

Contest runs from 4/13-4/20 and is open to readers worldwide!

Be sure to tune in for an exclusive rare opportunity on April 29th. Bitten by Books is Honored to host the first ONLINE Interactive Interview and Q&A session with Jim Butcher for his Turn Coat book tour! We’ve been keeping this a secret since last year, and now we are letting the cat out of the bag!

Haven’t read all of the Dresden Files series? Head on over to  Jim Butcher’s Amazon store right now and pick yours up either print or Kindle editions are available! HINT, this will help you in the upcoming contest! Save those electronic receipts.

Amazon.com has removed all materials from their ranking system that have GBLT themes. This means that even an young adult book, if it is about a gay or lesbian character - it is being removed from their ranking system and called "adult material."

However, they have not removed heterosexual material that is adult. Books and publications with explicit heterosexual sex are still ranked and are apparently NOT considered "adult."

I don't know in what universe heterosexual sex is not adult but books with gays and lesbians without any sexual content are, but Amazon lives in that universe.

Please buy your books elsewhere, and make it clear to Amazon why you are doing this.

See this link for more information:

http://markprobst.livejournal.com/WP

Anne Marshall is a law student and court recorder. One night she wakes up hearing the voice of her dead father speaking to her about the case she's the recorder for, the divorce of Tim and Isabella Sherman. Her dad is telling her that Tim is a snake and can't be trusted.

When Anne wakes up she can't imagine why she would dream such a thing, but soon she realizes she's not dreaming at all.

Indeed, her father begins to appear to her and he wants her to help prove that Tim has hidden assets. If she can do that, leading Isabella's lawyer to the evidence, then she'll get a fair share of everything that they have.

And Anne can't resist her lawyer dad, even though he is a ghost, so she begins to look into the matter. She also manages to involve her fellow law students who are in a study group with her. They all have different skills, from accounting to computers to being a cop!

Of course, there is the little matter of the murder of Tim's mistress, the fact that Anne's not supposed to be investigating cases when she's the court recorder, and the fact that if she tells anyone she's doing this at the behest of a ghost...

But Anne is determined. She's her father's daughter. Fortunately for her, she's got good friends, and a loving boyfriend, Jason, who is an Assistant District Attorney. So when it gets down and dirty and someone tries to stop her snooping, she's got lots of help.

The ending leads us to believe that her dad is going to stick around, and that Anne may just be solving more mysteries with the help of her very wise, if very dead, old man.

WP