Behind Blue Eyes

The Wrong Quarry by Max Allan Collins My rating: 4 of 5 stars I received a free copy of this book through the First Reads program on Good Reads. Wow, that kicked ass! 4.5 stars, easily. I've read Max Allan Collins before, and enjoyed his work, but this really hit the mark more than I expected. This is the 11th Quarry novel (though the 5th published by Hard Case Crime), but it was the first one I've read. It looked like I could jump right in with this and not be confused by missing the previous books, and it seems this was right. Collins provided a nice summary of Quarry's career before this book, and I didn't feel lost or confused at all. Needless to say, I'll be reading more of Collins, specifically more of the Quarry books. This is definitely a series I can get behind.... View all my reviews

The Secret Lives of Married Women by Elissa Wald My rating: 4 of 5 stars Disclaimer: I won a free copy of this book on GoodReads as a part of the First Reads giveaway program. I’d like to extend my thanks to GoodReads, the author, and the publisher. That was different. That is, while I didn't know whether to expect a "hard case crime" noir type story or a story about repressed sexuality, I didn't get either. Or I got both. Sorta. Anyway, it wasn't what I would have expected had I any expectations. It was good, however. I did find there was more "hard" than "crime", but then again....well. I don't want to spoil anything. What I can say is that it was intriguing, and that the prose was excellent. Wald's flow and style bumped this thing a whole star by itself. It was very comfortable to read, even during uncomfortable moments. Yes, I'm being vague. There is so much to explore here that it just needs to be...