So I can't volunteer anymore and I can barely stand daytime TV. How do I keep from being bored? I play on the internet, do the social media thing, or play solitaire. Every now and then I clean. But mostly I read. Of course that depends on how chemo brain is doing. If I am not tracking well, I can't read "good" books, so I read what I call light garbage. Lately I have been able to read and keep up with the plots. I recently finished a really fun well written book by Jack Fredrickson.
Disclaimer: I consider Jack a friend even though we have never met. I write him fan letters and sometimes we email back and forth. He also is a Facebook friend. When I was so very sick in the hospital, he emailed me regularly. I was too sick to type so Marty would email him back . That said, if Jack wasn't such a good author I would not be recommending his books.
The Confessors' Club is the latest in the Dek Elstrom series. Dek's ex father-in-law, who hates him, hires him to investigate the deaths of some powerful men. Accident, natural causes, or murder? Well it is a mystery so murder sounds right. There are lots of twists and turns. Relationships are pushed and pulled. We deal with his ex wife and his girlfriend. We have a high body count, which blood thirsty me always enjoys.
Dek lives in a multistory turret that he is trying to finish up. And what is the fun of living in a medieval looking building if you can't protect yourself and friends with a medieval process? Just one of the fun parts of the book.
We have the IRS, local police, out of town police, and the FBI involved. Dek is pulling the strings together to find who is the bad guy, or is it bad guys. One of the most tense part of the book is a search of the Confessors' Club. Will he be caught, shot, or get away with it?
A tree is a character in this book. And you will really care about the tree. This is one of Jack's cool touches, he makes you care about something in the middle of murder and mayhem.
Jack has a great way with words. He paints pictures, he keeps us tense, he makes us laugh. And it is a really good mystery. The link above is to Amazon, so read the free chapter and get hooked. Then buy the book. I do recommend you read the books in order. Dek and his friends evolve over the several books. But this book and all of his work as stand alones. If you can't buy, go to the library and have them buy the series.
I hope you will read this book. It is very good and well plotted.
Showing posts with label Jack Fredrickson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jack Fredrickson. Show all posts
Saturday, September 19, 2015
Friday, December 16, 2011
Jack Fredrickson Author
Jack Fredrickson has become one of my favorite authors. He also is an email buddy. I wish now I had saved those emails, they are funny, clever, and rather sweet.
I have read three of Jack’s books.: A Safe Place for Dying, Honestly Dearest, you are Dead, and his newest book Hunting for Sweetie Rose. I have written a blog about one of them. The books stand alone. But I suggest, if you haven’t read them that you read them in order to better understand on-going feuds and friendships. So get out there and buy those first two books.
The latest book comes out February 12, 2012. Jack graciously sent me an advance copy in October. I loved reading Hunting Sweetie Rose.
Hunting Sweetie Rose begins with the death of a clown, a clown who was dancing on the edge of a building. Was it an accident, suicide, or murder? Our protagonist, Dek Elstrom, is hired to find out. From this one incident the story grows into many victims, several villains, and a mysterious client. Who is Sweetie Rose? Why does she care about a clown she doesn’t know. Is that Velveeta on her dining room table?
Dek’s everyday life is interesting. He is rebuilding his grandfather’s turret and battling with the city for permits. Dek is divorced but friendly with his ex. He meets a TV reporter, Jennifer Gale, who seems interested in him, his life, and his investigation. Dek and Jennifer work together on the clown’s death.
In the middle of this investigation, you have town clerk Elvis and the town awash in scandal. Parking issues that will make you laugh out loud. Then there is the friendship of Dek and Leo. Closer than brothers, lots of one upmanship between them. Leo’s mother and friends add a lot of humor and horror to the book. Imagine old old ladies, porn, and stripper poles.
This book peels like an onion. You have deaths, you have a missing socialite. And then more deaths, backgrounds are not what you believed. Some of the victims are innocent. Some, as we say in the South, needed killing. Multiple candidates to be the killer. How can so many people be so cruel and evil?
The plot is well done. You can follow it, believe it, and not guess ahead of the story. Characters are really well drawn. I can see them, hear them. I like some really a lot dislike others. I also can picture everywhere in this book. Trailers, turret, apartments, basement, and graveyard, I can see them clearly.
Go to your favorite bookstore and get on the list to buy this book when it comes out February 12, 2012. It is dark with comic relief thrown in to give you a release. It builds, it peels, it has a very satisfying ending. Read it and enjoy.
I have read three of Jack’s books.: A Safe Place for Dying, Honestly Dearest, you are Dead, and his newest book Hunting for Sweetie Rose. I have written a blog about one of them. The books stand alone. But I suggest, if you haven’t read them that you read them in order to better understand on-going feuds and friendships. So get out there and buy those first two books.
The latest book comes out February 12, 2012. Jack graciously sent me an advance copy in October. I loved reading Hunting Sweetie Rose.
Hunting Sweetie Rose begins with the death of a clown, a clown who was dancing on the edge of a building. Was it an accident, suicide, or murder? Our protagonist, Dek Elstrom, is hired to find out. From this one incident the story grows into many victims, several villains, and a mysterious client. Who is Sweetie Rose? Why does she care about a clown she doesn’t know. Is that Velveeta on her dining room table?
Dek’s everyday life is interesting. He is rebuilding his grandfather’s turret and battling with the city for permits. Dek is divorced but friendly with his ex. He meets a TV reporter, Jennifer Gale, who seems interested in him, his life, and his investigation. Dek and Jennifer work together on the clown’s death.
In the middle of this investigation, you have town clerk Elvis and the town awash in scandal. Parking issues that will make you laugh out loud. Then there is the friendship of Dek and Leo. Closer than brothers, lots of one upmanship between them. Leo’s mother and friends add a lot of humor and horror to the book. Imagine old old ladies, porn, and stripper poles.
This book peels like an onion. You have deaths, you have a missing socialite. And then more deaths, backgrounds are not what you believed. Some of the victims are innocent. Some, as we say in the South, needed killing. Multiple candidates to be the killer. How can so many people be so cruel and evil?
The plot is well done. You can follow it, believe it, and not guess ahead of the story. Characters are really well drawn. I can see them, hear them. I like some really a lot dislike others. I also can picture everywhere in this book. Trailers, turret, apartments, basement, and graveyard, I can see them clearly.
Go to your favorite bookstore and get on the list to buy this book when it comes out February 12, 2012. It is dark with comic relief thrown in to give you a release. It builds, it peels, it has a very satisfying ending. Read it and enjoy.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
READING
I read voraciously. I am in a weekly mystery book group. And I read lots of other books. Sometimes I like the group books and sometimes I don't. And the same for my outside reading.
Janet R our book group moderator receives 100s and 100s of books from publishers. We get to read them and if they are good we report back to her and the group. And we return the good books for her to read.
I picked up one a couple of weeks ago. Honestly Dearest, You're Dead by Jack Fredrickson. He isn't an author I was familiar with. And from the title and the cover I thought Chick Lit or a vampire story. Wrong. I really, really liked this book. The writing is sometimes humorous, very descriptive, and lots of plot turns. Old ladies watching porn, bad dressers, teen love and fights with city hall. All this and murder. The writing is more dark than humorous, but the humor is very helpful to relieve the tense parts. Sometimes I did need a score card for all the players, but I kept up.
I am not sure if quoting from the book is legal, but I am going to do it. The main character has a thing about Wal-Mart and Oreos. It runs through the whole book. And almost makes sense to me.
"I have a theory that, when the apocalypse comes, everyone will be living inside Wal-Marts and won't learn that the outside world has ended for at least a generation or two, and then only because the Oreos run out. For by then , the last of the cities and towns will have long since crumbled away, obsolete as buffalo skins, as dozens of generations will have been born, lived entire live, died and been recycled into puppy food inside huge, windowless Wal-Domes."
This continues on for a page and a half. Loved it. The book is worth reading just for pages 26 and 27, The Wal-Mart Essay.
Janet R our book group moderator receives 100s and 100s of books from publishers. We get to read them and if they are good we report back to her and the group. And we return the good books for her to read.
I picked up one a couple of weeks ago. Honestly Dearest, You're Dead by Jack Fredrickson. He isn't an author I was familiar with. And from the title and the cover I thought Chick Lit or a vampire story. Wrong. I really, really liked this book. The writing is sometimes humorous, very descriptive, and lots of plot turns. Old ladies watching porn, bad dressers, teen love and fights with city hall. All this and murder. The writing is more dark than humorous, but the humor is very helpful to relieve the tense parts. Sometimes I did need a score card for all the players, but I kept up.
I am not sure if quoting from the book is legal, but I am going to do it. The main character has a thing about Wal-Mart and Oreos. It runs through the whole book. And almost makes sense to me.
"I have a theory that, when the apocalypse comes, everyone will be living inside Wal-Marts and won't learn that the outside world has ended for at least a generation or two, and then only because the Oreos run out. For by then , the last of the cities and towns will have long since crumbled away, obsolete as buffalo skins, as dozens of generations will have been born, lived entire live, died and been recycled into puppy food inside huge, windowless Wal-Domes."
This continues on for a page and a half. Loved it. The book is worth reading just for pages 26 and 27, The Wal-Mart Essay.
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