KCR: One Shot, a Jack Reacher novel (crime, sniper, detective, novel)

Another sniper novel... almost same premise as I, Sniper... sort of. A sniper kills 5 office workers with 6 shots, and disappears. Forensics picked out one guy, and he was arrested. However, he refused to cooperate. Instead, he said, "You got the wrong guy. Get Reacher for me."  However, Reacher was already on his way... Having seen the news. You see, Reacher knew this guy... who did the exact same thing a long time ago... However, Reacher will get to the bottom of this... and deal justice the only way he can.

This book has quite a few twists and turns, and enough red herrings that keep you guessing which side some of the characters are on, which is great for mysteries. Overall, a great read, esp. if you like the genre.

Rating: read it!

Related articles

• Killing Floor, by Lee Child (mrsaubergine.wordpress.com)
• Bad Luck and Trouble, by Lee Child (mrsaubergine.wordpress.com)

KCR: The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes (book, crime, detective)

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as drawn by Sidney Paget, Image via WikipediaThis edition put out by Castle in 2004 contains all original stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, including the novel "The Hound of Baskerville" as well as 256 original illustrations by Sidney Paget the guy who depicted Sherlock Holmes as wearing a deerstalker hat and a pipe. It is a beautiful hardcover book.

The words of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle still stands this day. All the plot makes sense, and has aged surprisingly little, except for few minor details, like using ink, sending telegrams, and such.

And yes, I am a fan of the new BBC Sherlock series too.

This book is usually on sale as low as $9.99, get it if it is just for reference.  The stories do get a bit repetitive by the end, but that is to be expected.

KCR: Scarpetta (novel, mystery)

I found this book to be virtually unreadable. The book spent way too much time on background and descriptions, with minimal action. When there was any sort of action, or just interaction, it keeps referring back to old events (i.e. other books) and really makes me cranky because each novel should stand alone. Scarpetta is obviously not quite normal, dealing with the dead most of the time, that she clearly can't have a normal relationship with the two men in her life. Apparently the one she liked practically raped her, while the one she does not like was married to her, and the book somehow went through page after page of her mind, his mind, that other his mind, and so on. It's like sheesh, get to the point!

Then there's setup, which is exceedingly clever... a dwarf (i.e. little people) checked himself into Bellvue, claiming he was framed in the death of his girlfriend, and he will only be examined by Dr. Scarpetta, who will exonerate him. It's a good hook, as you don't know whether this guy is crazy or not. However, the execution is botched. You can't identify with the guy who's acting crazy, but not quite THAT crazy. The ton of red herrings did not help either. The ending was not really a surprise either. 

I am usually not a fan of mystery. I got this book as a gift, apparently from the bargain bin. If you like the genre, skip this book and start from the very beginning. This one is formulaic, the setup TOO clever, and ended up a complete mess.