Nature Girl by Carl Hiaasen

Nature Girl by Carl Hiaasen

From the Publisher
Honey Santana-impassioned, willful, possibly bipolar, self-proclaimed "queen of lost causes"-has a scheme to help rid the world of irresponsibility, indifference, and dinnertime sales calls. She's taking rude, gullible Relentless, Inc., telemarketer Boyd Shreave and his less-than-enthusiastic mistress, Eugenie-the fifteen-minute-famous girlfriend of a tabloid murderer-into the wilderness of Florida's Ten Thousand Islands for a gentle lesson in civility. What she doesn't know is that she's being followed by her Honey-obsessed former employer, Piejack (whose mismatched fingers are proof that sexual harassment in the workplace is a bad idea). And he doesn't know he's being followed by Honey's still-smitten former drug-running ex-husband, Perry, and their wise-and-protective-way-beyond-his-years twelve-year-old-son, Fry. And when they all pull up on Dismal Key, they don't know they're intruding on Sammy Tigertail, a half white-half Seminole failed alligator wrestler, trying like hell to be a hermit despite the Florida State coed who's dying to be his hostage . . .
Will Honey be able to make a mensch of a "greedhead"? Will Fry be able to protect her from Piejack-and herself? Will Sammy achieve his true Seminole self? Will Eugenie ever get to the beach? Will the Everglades survive the wild humans? All the answers are revealed in the delectably outrageous mayhem that propels this novel to its Hiaasen-of-the-highest-order climax.

⇒ Via: BN.com

Atypical cast of crazy characters in a Florida setting sets the tone for this edition of Carl Hiaasen's Florida capers. A bipolar woman with her estranged husband, a confused half-indian, a telemarketer complete the cast of crazies that stumble into each other raising umpteen laughs.

Lullaby Town by Robert Crais

Lullaby Town by Robert Crais

From the Publisher
Hollywood's newest wunderkind is Peter Alan Nelson, the brilliant, erratic director known as the King of Adventure. His films make billions, but his manners make enemies. What the boy king wants, he gets, and what Nelson wants is for Elvis Cole to comb the country for the airhead wife and infant child the film-school flunkout dumped en route to becoming the third biggest filmmaker in America. It's the kind of case Cole can handle in his sleep - until it turns out to be a nightmare. For when Cole finds Nelson's wife in a small Connecticut town, she's nothing like what he expects. The lady has some unwanted - and very nasty - mob connections, which means Elvis could be opening the East Coast branch of his P.I. office . . . at the bottom of the Hudson River.

⇒ Via: BN.com

Private Investigator hired to find a director's long lost wife finds himself mired in mob violence.Another Elvis Cole caper with Jor Pike.

The Lost History of the Canine Race by Mary Elizabeth Thurston

The Lost History of the Canine Race: Our 15,000-Year Love Affair with Dogs by Mary Elizabeth Thurston

From the Publisher
From the mysterious healing dogs of ancient Rome to the canine conquistadors who helped claim the New World to the American doggie paratroopers of WWII, dogs have been our best friends and helpers from the Pliocene to the present day. Anthropologist Mary Elizabeth Thurston draws on ancient artifacts, documents, and contemporary photographs to dramatize the evolution of the human-dog relationship throughout the ages. 16 pages of photos.

⇒ Via: BN.com

The author covers the origin and evolution of dogs over the course of history tracing the roots of canines from the beginning of time. The initial chapters on history and origins are interesting and chock full of tidbits but the book gets a little slow later on. Not all the chapters are interesting for ex. on dog diet and impact of commercialization on dog feeding habits.

The Bloomsday Dead by Adrian McKinty

The Bloomsday Dead by Adrian McKinty

From the Publisher
In the heart-stopping finale of the Dead trilogy, tough guy Michael Forsythe — bad-boy antihero of the critically acclaimed Dead I Well May Be and The Dead Yard — returns to his native Ireland, where a dangerous and beautiful old flame forces Michael to look for her daughter, who has mysteriously disappeared in Belfast.
Laying low in South America, Michael has been running security for the Miraflores Hilton in Lima, Peru, juggling temperamental tourists, irksome dignitaries, and the occasional lady of the night. But Michael's colorful life in Lima comes to a violent halt with the arrival of two Colombian hit men who trap him in one of the hotel's rooms and force him at gunpoint to take a call from Bridget Callaghan in Ireland.

Michael and Bridget have a lot of history. For one, they used to be lovers. For another, Michael killed Bridget's husband. Bridget offers Michael a terrible choice: come find my daughter, or my men will kill you — now.

Michael arrives in Dublin on Bloomsday, June 16th, the date that James Joyce's Ulysses takes place — but whether this coincidence augurs well for him or foretells his end can't yet be known. In the span of this single day, he penetrates the heart of an IRA network, is kidnapped, escapes, then worms his way into the criminal underground in search of the missing girl. Never certain who to trust, Michael keeps his revolver close at hand — and doesn't hesitate to use it — outsmarting at every turn any number of determined would-be assassins.

Before the day is out, on a windswept ocean cliff, Michael finds himself face-to-face with the kidnappers as well as the lovely and murderous Bridget.It is there that he must finally confront a series of shocking truths — not just about others but, above all, about himself as well.

Riveting, violent, witty, and lyrical, The Bloomsday Dead is vintage McKinty. Packed with crackling dialogue and one-of-a-kind characters, here is an unforgettable new crime novel from a master of literary suspense and the author of The Dead Yard, which Publishers Weekly named one of the fifteen best novels of 2006.

⇒ Via: BN.com

MMichael Forsythe, comes back from witness protection program to find the kidnapped daughter of his arch nemesis.

Short Straw by Stuart Woods

Short Straw by Stuart Woods

From the Publisher
Short Straw reintroduces Santa Fe lawyer Ed Eagle, who first appeared in Stuart Woods's 1992 thriller, Santa Fe Rules. In his first adventure, Ed fell in love with the seductive Barbara Kennerly, and married her-against his better judgment.

Turns out that Ed should have listened to his intuition. Ed Eagle awakens the morning after his fortieth birthday to find that Barbara has vanished, and Ed's money-from his business, his bank, and his brokerage accounts-has been wired to the Cayman Islands. Barbara, it appears, had drugged his birthday wine, neatly cleaned him out and then fled to Mexico, from where she can't be extradited. And as if that weren't bad enough, when Ed arrives at work that morning he discovers that he's been assigned a new client who looks like nothing but trouble-Joe Big Bear, a part-time mechanic charged with a triple homicide. Ed hires two slightly shady investigators to search for his wife. But when they track Barbara down in Puerto Vallarta, they discover that Joe Big Bear may also be embroiled in Barbara's plot. Ed soon finds himself caught in a scheme that is much more far reaching-and deadly-than anyone would have expected.

⇒ Via: BN.com

Wife cleans out her Lawyer husband and issues a contract for his death. Lawyer hires couple of PIs to find her. Weak character development, rushed story as if the author could not wait to finish the book, lame plot, too many characters. The author is losing is edge or is just churning out books for the market.

Dogwatching by Desmond Morris

Dogwatching by Desmond Morris

From the Publisher
Dogwatching answers fundamental and fascinating questions about man's best friend—questions often overlooked by standard dog books and even by dog owners themselves

⇒ Via: BN.com

Answers to common questions and behaviors encountered with dogs. Though it is not an how-to book on raising a dog, it will give you all the information you need on common behavioral questions.

Flat Crazy by Ben Rehder

Flat Crazy by Ben Rehder

From the Publisher
From the Edgar, Lefty, and Barry award-nominated author Ben Rehder comes the funniest entry yet in his hilarious Blanco County mystery series. Some kind of unidentified wild creature is on the loose in Blanco, and, over the protests of sensible game warden John Marlin, the local population has convinced itself that they're dealing with a mythical beast called a chupacabra. Of course it doesn't help Marlin's cause when a dead body turns up with a suspicious fang-like wound in its neck...
Then things really get out of hand: tabloid news programs invade Blanco, good ol' boys Red O'Brien and Billy Don Craddock develop a cockamamie get-rich-quick scheme involving the animal, and everyone is a little surprised at the booming population of voluptuous Chinese dwarves who've turned up in town. Only a first-rate humorist and ingenious plotter like Ben Rehder can tie it all together, and Flat Crazy is further evidence that this fan-favorite author has hit his comic stride.

⇒ Via: BN.com

Amishmash of characters enliven this tale of a small town called Blanco in Texas. The local game warden is called upon to investigate a "chupacabra" sighting, poachers, chinese midget pron stars, shady hunting guides all star in this convoluted tale of murder and mayhem.

Bleeding Hearts by Ian Rankin

Bleeding Hearts by Ian Rankin

From the Publisher
Michael Weston is paid well to do his work and ask no questions. When you're a professional assassin, total secrecy is part of the job. But after a successful mission in London, the police are immediately on his tail. How did they know how to find him? And who is his anonymous employer? Why did he or she want his target, a TV reporter, killed? Was he set up from the start?
The questions lead Weston to his nemesis Hoffer, a private detective who has been hunting him for years. Ever since Weston accidentally killed an innocent American girl, her grieving father has employed Hoffer on a relentless mission to bring Weston to justice. Could Hoffer finally have set a snare that worked?

Weston sets out to find his mysterious employer, traveling from London to Glasgow to Seattle-even if it means encountering Hoffer face-to-face at last. With the brilliant eye for character and taut pacing that have made him an internationally renowned bestseller, Ian Rankin delivers a gripping story that examines what happens when the assassin becomes the target, and proves yet again that "in Rankin, you cannot go wrong" (Boston Globe).

⇒ Via: BN.com

Professional assasin tracks down his employer when he suspects betrayal. The main character is more of an anti-hero and you cannogt but identify with him.

The Watchman by Robert Crais

The Watchman by Robert Crais

From the Publisher
Larkin Conner Barkley lives like the City of Angels is hers for the taking. Young and staggeringly rich, she speeds through the city during its loneliest hours, blowing through red after red in her Aston Martin as if running for her life. Until out of nowhere a car appears, and with it the metal-on-metal explosion of a terrible accident. Dazed, Larkin attempts to help the other victims. And finds herself the sole witness in a secret federal investigation.

For maybe the first time in her life, Larkin wants to do the right thing. But by agreeing to cooperate with the authorities, she becomes the target for a relentless team of killers. And when the U.S. Marshals and the finest security money can buy can't protect her, Larkin's wealthy family turns to the one man money can't buy - Joe Pike.

Pike lives a world away from the palaces of Beverly Hills. He's an ex-cop, ex-Marine, ex-mercenary who owes a bad man a favor, and that favor is to keep Larkin alive. The one upside of the job is reuniting with Bud Flynn, Pike's LAPD training officer, and a man Pike reveres as a father. The downside is Larkin Barkley, who is the uncontrollable cover girl for self-destruction - and as deeply alone as Pike.

Pike commits himself to protecting the girl, but when they immediately come under fire, he realizes someone is selling them out. In defiance of Bud and the authorities, Pike drops off the grid with the girl and follows his own rules of survival: strike fast, hit hard, hunt down the hunters. With the help of private investigator Elvis Cole, Pike uncovers a web of lies and betrayals, and the stunning revelation that even the cops are not who they seem. As the body count rises,Pike's biggest threat might come from the girl herself, a lost soul in the City of Angels, determined to destroy herself unless Joe Pike can teach her the value of life . . . and love.

⇒ Via: BN.com

Ex-Marines mercernary finds himself a de facto protector and guardian of a billionaire heiress who is witness ti an accident involving alleged drug dealer. A Joe Pike series.

Hit by a Farm by Catherine Friend

Hit by a Farm: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Barn by Catherine Friend

From the Publisher
Farms have fences. People have boundaries. Mine began crumbling the day I knelt behind a male sheep, reached between his legs, and squeezed his testicles. This took place one blustery November day when I joined other shepherd-wannabees for a class on the basics of raising sheep. I was there with my partner Melissa, the woman I’d lived with for twelve years, because we were going to start a farm .

When self-confessed “urban bookworm” Catherine Friend’s partner of twelve years decides she wants to fulfill her lifelong dream of owning a farm, Catherine agrees. What ensues is a crash course in both living off and with the land that ultimately allows Catherine to help fulfill Melissa’s dreams while not losing sight of her own.

Hit by a Farm is a hilarious recounting of Catherine and Melissa’s trials of “getting back to the land.” It is also a coming-of (middle)-age story of a woman trying to cross the divide between who she is and who she wants to be, and the story of a couple who say “goodbye city life” — and learn more than they ever bargained for about love, land, and yes, sheep sex.

⇒ Via: BN.com

Author recounts her experiences in setting up and running a farm.

Free Fire by C. J. Box

Free Fire by C. J. Box

From the Publisher
Joe Picket returns, this time to the wilds of Yellowstone National Park. Deftly plotted and full of intrigue, Free Fire is C. J. Box's best novel yet.

Joe Pickett, having recently been fired from his job as a Wyoming game warden, is working on his father-in-law's ranch when he receives a call from the governor's office. Governor Rulon-a devious but down-home politico-has a special request, one Joe knows he can't refuse. For weeks, the headlines have been abuzz with the story of Clay McCann, a lawyer who slaughtered four campers in cold blood in a far-off corner of Yellowstone National Park. After the murders, McCann immediately turned himself in at the nearest park ranger station. It seemed like a slam-dunk case for law enforcement-except that the crimes were committed in a thin sliver of land with zero residents and overlapping jurisdiction, the so-called free-fire zone. McCann had taken advantage of a loophole in the law: neither the state of Wyoming nor the federal government can try him for his crime, so he walks out of prison a free man.

Governor Rulon, sensitive to the rising tide of public outrage over the McCann case, wants his own investigation into the murders. The governor will reinstate Joe as a game warden if he'll go to Yellowstone to investigate. Joe, happy to get his badge back, even under these circumstances, agrees. However, it quickly becomes clear to Joe that McCann is deeply involved with some illegal activity taking place in the park-something tremendously lucrative and unusually dangerous. As Joe and his partner Nate Romanowski search in the unlikeliest places to find the key to the murders, they find out that it may be hidden in the rugged terrain of the park itself.

⇒ Via: BN.com

Out of favor game warden is called in for an unofficial assignment by the state Governor when a Lawyer goes on a killing spree inside the Yellowstone National Park.

Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child

Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child

From the Publisher
From a helicopter high above the empty California desert, a man is sent free-falling into the night…. In Chicago, a woman learns that an elite team of ex–army investigators is being hunted down one by one.... And on the streets of Portland, Jack Reacher—soldier, cop, hero—is pulled out of his wandering life by a code that few other people could understand. From the first shocking scenes in Lee Child’s explosive new novel, Jack Reacher is plunged like a knife into the heart of a conspiracy that is killing old friends…and is on its way to something even worse.

A decade postmilitary, Reacher has an ATM card and the clothes on his back—no phone, no ties, and no address. But now a woman from his old unit has done the impossible. From Chicago, Frances Neagley finds Reacher, using a signal only the eight members of their elite team of army investigators would know. She tells him a terrifying story—about the brutal death of a man they both served with. Soon Reacher is reuniting with the survivors of his old team, scrambling to raise the living, bury the dead, and connect the dots in a mystery that is growing darker by the day. The deeper they dig, the more they don’t know: about two other comrades who have suddenly gone missing—and a trail that leads into the neon of Vegas and the darkness of international terrorism.

For now, Reacher can only react. To every sound. Every suspicion. Every scent and every moment. Then Reacher will trust the people he once trusted with his life—and take this thing all the way to the end. Because in a world of bad luck and trouble, when someone targets Jack Reacher and his team,they’d better be ready for what comes right back at them…

⇒ Via: BN.com

Ex Army MP Jack Reacher receives an SOS from his former buddy when their teammates start disappearing. Hard hitting, take no prisoners approach leads him to solve a conspiracy involving terrorists and latest anti-aircraft missiles.

Dogsmart by Myrna Milani

Dogsmart by Myrna Milani

From the Publisher
This acclaimed guide helps new or prospective dog owners analyze all the variables of having a dog as a pet.

⇒ Via: BN.com

TVery good treatise on dog behavior and how to select a dog based on your personality and temperament. It is not a "Howto" book but more of a "what to look for" book. Insightful and easy read, better than most books in this class. Recommended.

By the Time You Read This by Giles Blunt

By the Time You Read This by Giles Blunt

From the Publisher
Detective John Cardinal is on the hunt for an ingenious killer even as he mourns his own wife’s tragic death in this thriller of heart-stopping suspense Autumn has arrived in Algonquin Bay, and with it an unusual spate of suicides. The most shocking victim yet is Detective John Cardinal’s wife, who has finally succumbed to her battle with manic depression. As Cardinal takes time to grieve, his partner, Lise Delorme, handles an unsavory assignment: a young girl appears in a series of unspeakable photos being traded online, and background elements indicate she lives in Algonquin Bay. Delorme is desperate to find the girl before she suffers more abuse. When Cardinal receives a string of hateful anonymous notes about his wife’s death, he begins to suspect homicide. His colleagues believe he is too distraught to think clearly, and he’s forced to investigate alone. In doing so, he comes up against a brand of killer neither he—nor the reader—has ever seen before.
In his most masterful and thrilling novel yet, Giles Blunt confirms his reputation as a rising international star in crime fiction, and positions Detective John Cardinal among the finest characters in the genre.

⇒ Via: BN.com

Heartbroken detective refuses to believe his wife's suicide note when he starts receiving notes about it from someone. Investigation leads to a psychiatrist practicing bad medicine.