The Night She Disappeared by April Henry

The Night She Disappeared

How can a mystery with no mystery still be suspenseful? This book is about a girl who is kidnapped and how her coworkers ignore the police who believe she is dead and work on finding her. 

Gabie works in a pizza parlor with Kayla and Drew. She is the less attractive of the two girls but has the attraction of a serial murderer. They trade nights when the kidnapper intends to snatch Gabie but he goes ahead and takes Kayla. The story is told from different points of view, including the kidnapper's, so the reader is aware that Kayla is still alive and Gabie is still in danger. Will Gabie and Drew manage to save Kayla? 

Thrillers like this are rare in the Young Adult section of the bookstore and abundant in the Adult section. It is a great introduction to a fun type of book.

My rating for this book:

Dexter is Delicious (2010)

Another fabulous episode of life with Dexter by Jeff Lindsay. The blessed event has arrived and Dexter is now a daddy. This should be just the thing to banish the Dark Passenger and polish the new world that Dexter has created for himself with a house, wife, and children. Out of nowhere, his brother returns, seemingly sincere to be a part of this family. Can he be trusted? And will the bad guys stop doing bad things and distracting Dexter? We want Dexter to be able to enjoy his family but on the other hand, would he be as interesting a character?

I stood up. I just needed to move around, try to calm down, collect my thoughts, tame these weird and wild and brand-new emotions, before they carried me away on a flood tide of stupidity. I walked into the kitchen, where the dishwasher was already whirring away at the dinner dishes. Past the refrigerator, its ice-maker clicking. I walked into the back hall by the washer and dryer. All around me, through the whole house, everything was clean and functional, all the machinery of domestic bliss, in its place and ready to do exactly what it was supposed to do - all of it but me. I was not made to fit under the counter of this or any other house. I was made for moonlight gleaming off a very sharp knife and the soothing ratchet of duct tape purring off the roll and the muffled horror of the wicked in their neat and careful bods as they met their unmaker -

I doubt I would spoil the story by saying that Dexter decides he must keep the world safe for his Lily Ann. Yay!

My rating for this book: ++++

Hush (2007)

Donna Jo Napoli writes stories based on fairy tales and this book is based on a story from an Icelandic saga about a girl named Melkorka who was bought by an Icelandic man named Hoskuld and takes her back to his home. In our book, Melkorka is an Irish princess who was kidnapped when trying to escape her town before the Vikings invaded. She is advised by another slave to pretend to be mute so that her pride and arrogance wouldn't end up getting her beaten or worse.

In the night someone rolls agains me as we lie sleeping. I open my eyes to see Maeve's eyes shining at me in the moonlight. "He's convinced you are an aist - a stork," she whispers. "A stork who has the power to chage form into a woman. He thinks you may be a charodeitsa - an enchantress, but unlike our Irish piseogai, he fears you could be evil. It's only how clean and pretty you are that keeps him from quaking."

Melkorka was sold by the Russian kidnappers to an Icelandic sailor named Hoskuld. She continues to learn about these hard, rough, people from the north and about herself in the process. Her intelligence serves her well by quickly picking up languages and knowledge about healing from another slave.

Life in these northern places was cold, dark, and cruel. By following Melkorka on her voyage we learn about these early civilizations. She was a remarkable girl who wisely used her wits to stay alive. I recommend this book to historical fiction fans.

My rating for this book: ++++

Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang (1994)

What events provoke the formation of a gang? What kind of people commit to a gang? These are two of the questions answered in Joyce Carol Oates book about a group of girls who form a gang called Foxfire and vow to take care of each other and avenge misdeeds by males. Not all gangs are located in large urban slums or are populated by non-white men. These girls live in a town called Hammond in New York state. The one thing in common they have with other gangs is that they mostly come from broken families and have been victims of abuse of one kind or another.

What was it, what would be the instrument of their revenge, or was it to be something more significant more lasting more deeply binding? - Maddy'd heard from murmured words exchanged between Goldie and Lana that a "gang" was possible to be formed, the very sound of the word sent her blood racing, "gang," there were gangs in Hammond in Lowertown in the Fairfax neighborhood but they were all boys or young men in their late teens, early twenties, there were no girl gangs nor were there stories of or memories of "girl gangs" Oh Jesus the very sound "girl gang" had the power to send the blood racing!

One of the major themes that comes out from this book is how females discover (and is it so very different still?) that males hold all the power in the world and females are just expected to respect and accept that. These girls don't and they fight back.

Says Lana, "You get the feeling They're afraid of us?" licking her lips 'cause it's such a nice feeling, and Goldie smiles saying, "Huh! They better be," and Legs says, smiling but serious too, "'First comes fear, then respect' as Father Theriault says. 'The oppressed of the Earth, rising, make their own law.'"

This is a terrific book. I wish that young women who are directly or indirectly associated with gangs today would read this book. They would be able to see how gangs fit into their lives and maybe see how they might be able to live and succeed without them.

My rating for this book: +++++

Dog On It (2009)

I read once that a dog appearing on the cover of a book means the dog dies by the end but I didn't think of that when I bought this book by Spencer Quinn and luckily that maxim didn't hold true this time! Chet tells the story of how he and his master, Bernie Little, solved the case of a missing teen-aged girl named Madison. Luckily Chet understands a lot of human words and can relate their conversations to the reader. We also learn a lot about his world through smells and sounds.

We learn that his favorite things are steaks, riding in cars, and Bernie, who adopted Chet when he failed to get his K-9 certification.

"'What's with you right now?'
Nothing, nothing was with me: stoned out of my mind, that was all. I got my tongue back in my mouth; it was all dried up from the wind, felt more like one of those towels I sometimes found on the laundry-room floor. I liked burying those towels out in the backyard near the big rock, but burying towels was never easy. The chew strips - that was another matter, easy to bury and - Whoa! At that moment I had a very faint memory of burying one that I hadn't dug up yet, near the orange tree by old man Heydrich's fence. Maybe it was still there! I was gazing up at the moon and making plans when we turned in to a driveway and came to a stop behind Cynthia Chambliss's car."

Chet is an amazing dog, quick to respond to Bernie's commands and independent enough to end up in all sorts of predicaments, like time spent in a dog pound. That was a close one! Like most dogs, he doesn't have the best memory except when it comes to scents and can be easily distracted by things to eat or chase.

I give this book a hearty recommendation to people who love dogs and mysteries, two of my favorite things! And no, Chet doesn't die because Mr. Quinn is writing more books! I can't wait!

My rating for this book: +++++

The Beekeeper's Apprentice (2007)

Shame on me! Almost a month since my last post! It was a busy time but I was still able to fit a couple of books in.

Laurie R. King's book introduces a young woman, Mary Russell, who meets Sherlock Holmes (trips over him in fact) and becomes his very able sidekick. This story takes place after the stories in the original books written by Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes is almost in hiding since his friend, Dr. Watson, has publicized his cases in the papers. Mary is an orphan, living with a grouchy aunt, and studying so she can attend Oxford. He appreciates her quick mind and takes her under his wing and she helps him solve cases.

It is no secret I love Sherlock Holmes stories and to pair him with a young woman is a real pleasure for me. I will keep an eye out for more of King's books.

I recommend this to Sherlock Holmes fans and mystery lovers.

My rating for this book: +++++