Indiana Covered Bridges album

New York City Album Slideshow

Friday, December 28, 2012

Currently reading "Si c'était à refaire" by Marc Levy

I don't read many books in French any more. But Maïlys left this one here for me to read, so why not?

I figured I should include a summary in English, but I can't find one... I'll keep searching though...

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Mushrooms in wine creamy sauce recipe.

It's been so long since I wrote a "personal post" on my blog (my apologies, I have been - uh- busy?) that I wasn't sure where to begin... Then I happened to make dinner. I found this gem of a recipe online not too long ago and decided to give it a chance. My oh my, it is yumi. I love everything in it: mushrooms, garlic, cream, and of course wine, and the result did not disappoint. One tip tough: I had to add more cream, it simply seemed to evaporate and could not get a creamy effect going. So have at it... And enjoy!

img_6052-11

http://italianfoodies.ie/2009/01/28/pasta-with-mushroom-white-wine-and-cream/

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Audiobook "Final Target" by Iris Johansen

Jessica Riley is a psychiatrist whose experience with catatonic trauma is personal as well as professional: she brought her beloved sister Melissa back from total mental withdrawal with her patience and skill. When the daughter of the president retreats into blankness after seeing her nanny and her Secret Service protector murdered, Jessica is summoned to treat the little girl. Although Jessica can't reach into her young patient's frightened mind, Melissa can--and only Melissa understands why Cassie's so afraid. When Michael Travis, the mysterious and not totally benign stranger who rescued Cassie from the kidnap-assassination that traumatized her, arrives at Jessica's Virginia estate, he's able to stop the child's nightmares long enough for Melissa to join Cassie in her self-imposed darkness and pull her back into the light. But the price he asks for his continued presence is one that Jessica, Melissa, and the president may not be able to meet. Is he an ally or an enemy? Even Melissa isn't sure--and her complicated feelings for Travis and Cassie are especially tortured because her unusual gifts allow her to see a bloody future for both of them, one she may not be able to prevent.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Audiobook "Confessions of a Murder Suspect" by James Patterson

James Patterson returns to the genre that made him famous with a thrilling teen detective series about the mysterious and magnificently wealthy Angel family...and the dark secrets they're keeping from one another.
On the night Malcolm and Maud Angel are murdered, Tandy Angel knows just three things: 1) She was the last person to see her parents alive. 2) The police have no suspects besides Tandy and her three siblings. 3) She can't trust anyone—maybe not even herself. Having grown up under Malcolm and Maud's intense perfectionist demands, no child comes away undamaged. Tandy decides that she will have to clear the family name, but digging deeper into her powerful parents' affairs is a dangerous-and revealing-game. Who knows what the Angels are truly capable of?

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Audiobook "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn

 

Marriage can be a real killer. One of the most critically acclaimed suspense writers of our time, New York Times bestseller Gillian Flynn, takes that statement to its darkest place in this unputdownable masterpiece about a marriage gone terribly, terribly wrong. As The Washington Post proclaimed, her work “draws you in and keeps you reading with the force of a pure but nasty addiction.” Gone Girl’s toxic mix of sharp-edged wit with deliciously chilling prose creates a nerve-fraying thriller that confounds you at every turn.
On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick Dunne’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick Dunne isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but hearing from Amy through flashbacks in her diary reveal the perky perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer? As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister Margo at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was left in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?

Employing her trademark razor-sharp writing and assured psychological insight, Gillian Flynn delivers a fast-paced, devilishly dark, and ingeniously plotted thriller that confirms her status as one of the hottest writers around.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Currenty reading "V is for Vengeance" by Sue Grafton

A woman with a murky past who kills herself—or was it murder? A spoiled kid awash in gambling debt who thinks he can beat the system. A lovely woman whose life is about to splinter into a thousand fragments. A professional shoplifting ring working for the Mob, racking up millions from stolen goods. A wandering husband, rich and ruthless. A dirty cop so entrenched on the force he is immune to exposure. A sinister gangster, conscienceless and brutal. A lonely widower mourning the death of his lover, desperate for answers, which may be worse than the pain of his loss. A private detective, Kinsey Millhone, whose thirty-eighth-birthday gift is a punch in the face that leaves her with two black eyes and a busted nose.
And an elegant and powerful businessman whose dealings are definitely outside the law: the magus at the center of the web.
V: Victim. Violence, Vengeance.

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Audiobook "Sing You Home" by Jodi Picoult


Zoe Baxter has spent ten years trying to get pregnant, and after multiple miscarriages and infertility issues, it looks like her dream is about to come true – she is seven months pregnant. But a terrible turn of events leads to a nightmare – one that takes away the baby she has already fallen for; and breaks apart her marriage to Max.
In the aftermath, she throws herself into her career as a music therapist – using music clinically to soothe burn victims in a hospital; to help Alzheimer’s patients connect with the present; to provide solace for hospice patients. When Vanessa – a guidance counselor -- asks her to work with a suicidal teen, their relationship moves from business to friendship and then, to Zoe’s surprise, blossoms into love. When Zoe allows herself to start thinking of having a family, again, she remembers that there are still frozen embryos that were never used by herself and Max.
Meanwhile, Max has found peace at the bottom of a bottle – until he is redeemed by an evangelical church, whose charismatic pastor – Clive Lincoln – has vowed to fight the “homosexual agenda” that has threatened traditional family values in America. But this mission becomes personal for Max, when Zoe and her same-sex partner say they want permission to raise his unborn child.
SING YOU HOME explores what it means to be gay in today’s world, and how reproductive science has outstripped the legal system. Are embryos people or property? What challenges do same-sex couples face when it comes to marriage and adoption? What happens when religion and sexual orientation – two issues that are supposed to be justice-blind – enter the courtroom? And most importantly, what constitutes a “traditional family” in today’s day and age?

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Audiobook "You don't want to know" by Lisa Jackson

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jackson comes a gripping novel of suspense in which a mother’s worst fear is only the beginning of a terrifying nightmare…

In Ava’s dreams, her son, Noah, looks just the way she remembers him: a sweet two-year-old in rolled-up jeans and a red sweatshirt. When Ava wakes, the agonizing truth hits her all over again. Noah went missing two years ago, and his body has never been found. Almost everyone, including Ava’s semi-estranged husband, Wyatt, assumes the boy drowned after falling off the dock near their Church Island home.
Ava has spent most of the past two years in and out of Seattle mental institutions, shattered by grief and unable to recall the details of Noah’s disappearance. Now she’s back at Neptune’s Gate, the family estate she once intended to restore to its former grandeur. Slowly, her strength is returning. But as Ava’s mind comes back into focus, her suspicions grow. Despite their apparent concern, Ava can’t shake the feeling that her family, and her psychologist, know more than they’re saying. But are they really worried for her well-being—or anxious about what she might discover?
Unwilling to trust those around her, Ava secretly visits a hypnotist to try and restore her memories. But the strange visions and night terrors keep getting worse. Ava is sure she’s heard Noah crying in the nursery, and glimpsed him walking near the dock. Is she losing her mind, or is Noah still alive? Ava won’t stop until she gets answers, but the truth is more dangerous than she can imagine. And the price may be more than she ever thought to pay…

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Audiobook "Killer Dreams" by Iris Johansen

Sophie Dunston, a top-notch sleep researcher, developed a drug to battle the insomnia from which her father and millions of others suffer. But her nefarious former boss and his cohorts have used the drug she created to alter the minds of ordinary people like her father, who killed his wife and threatened Sophie and her young son. With hardened heart, Sophie has one goal: to kill her former boss, since every attempt she's made to expose him to the authorities has failed. Just as she discovers that there are many victims of her nemesis' mind-controlling experiments, one shows up with the same murderous intention. Sophie is leery of Matt Royd, and his first thoughts are to use Sophie, the author of his nightmares, to destroy the others. Brutal and deadly himself, Royd leaves Sophie no choice but to cooperate. The danger increases tenfold as the hunters become the hunted in this suspenseful tale of nightmarish evil.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Audiobook "Lone Wolf" by Jodi Picoult

Edward Warren, 23, has been living in Thailand for five years, a prodigal son who left his family after an irreparable fight with his father, Luke. But he gets a frantic phone call: His dad lies comatose in a NH hospital, gravely injured in the same accident that has also injured his younger sister Cara.
Cara, 17, still holds a grudge against her brother, since his departure led to her parents’ divorce. In the aftermath, she’s lived with her father – an animal conservationist who became famous after living with a wild wolf pack in the Canadian wild. It is impossible for her to reconcile the still, broken man in the hospital bed with her vibrant, dynamic father.
With Luke’s chances for recovery dwindling, Cara wants to wait for a miracle. But Edward wants to terminate life support and donate his father’s organs. Is he motivated by altruism, or revenge? And to what lengths will his sister go to stop him from making an irrevocable decision?
LONE WOLF looks at the intersection between medical science and moral choices. If we can keep people who have no hope for recovery alive artificially, should they also be allowed to die artificially? Does the potential to save someone else’s life with a donated organ balance the act of hastening another’s death? And finally, when a father’s life hangs in the balance, which sibling should get to decide his fate?

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Audiobook "Promise me" by Richard Paul Evans

Promise Me

As you read my story, there is something I want you to understand. That in spite of all the pain—past, present and that still to come—I wouldn’t have done anything differently. Nor would I trade the time I had with him for anything—except for what, in the end, I traded it for.

Summary
Beth Cardall has a secret. For eighteen years, she has had no choice but to keep it to herself, but on Christmas Eve 2008, all that is about to change.
For Beth, 1989 was a year marked by tragedy. Her life was falling apart: her six-year-old daughter, Charlotte, was suffering from an unidentifiable illness; her marriage transformed from a seemingly happy and loving relationship to one full of betrayal and pain; her job at the dry cleaners was increasingly at risk; and she had lost any ability to trust, to hope, or to believe in herself. Then, on Christmas Day, as she rushed through a blizzard to the nearest 7-Eleven, Beth encountered Matthew, a strikingly handsome, mysterious stranger, who would single-handedly change the course of her life.
Who is this man, and how does he seem to know so much about her? He pursues her relentlessly, and only after she’s fallen deeply in love with him does she learn his incredible secret, changing the world as she knows it, as well as her own destiny.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Audiobook "Shadow Zone" by Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen





While mapping the ancient (now underwater) city of Marinth in the Mediterranean Sea, submersible designer Hannah Bryson discovers the shocking cause of the civilization's doom from a submerged fresco in the city center--the surrounding waters for hundreds of miles were afflicted with what we now call an Oxygen Minimum Zone or a "Shadow Zone", a condition in which oxygen has been leached from the waters, devastating plant and marine life. For an island dependent on such life for their survival, this caused a famine that many did not survive. In Marinth's case, it was caused by a rare algae. Hannah recovers samples of this algae and hands them off to a sister research vessel to take back to land for further analysis, but the samples never reach the lab. The truck en route to the vessel is brutally attacked. Not coincidentally, Kirov finally appears after disappearing for many months and Hannah suspects that the intrigue surrounding her discovery is what brought him back. Soon it becomes clear that someone has nefarious plans to build a master weapon out of this algae and in their desperate race to stop him, Hannah finds herself catapulted into an adventure in which she finds herself even doubting the intentions of her fiercest protector, Kirov.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Currently reading "Fragile" by Lisa Unger


Everybody knows everybody in The Hollows, a quaint, charming town outside of New York City. It’s a place where neighbors keep an eye on each other’s kids, where people say hello in the grocery store, and where high school cliques and antics are never quite forgotten. As a kid, Maggie found the microscope of small town life stifling. But as a wife and mother, she’s happily returned to The Hollows’ insular embrace. As a psychologist, her knowledge of family histories provides powerful insights into her patients’ lives. So when the girlfriend of her teenage son Rick disappears, Maggie’s intuitive gift proves useful to the case – and also dangerous.
Eerie parallels soon emerge between Charlene’s disappearance and the abduction of another local girl that shook the community when Maggie was a teenager. The investigation has her husband, Jones, the lead detective on the case, acting strangely. Rick, already a brooding teenager, becomes even more withdrawn. In a town where the past is always present, nobody is above suspicion, not even a son in the eyes of his father.
“I know how a moment can spiral out of control,” Jones says to a shocked Maggie, as he searches Rick’s room for incriminating evidence. “How the consequences of one careless action can cost you everything.”
As she tries to reassure him that Rick embodies his father in all of the important ways, Maggie realizes this might be exactly what Jones fears most. Determined to uncover the truth, Maggie pursues her own leads into Charlene’s disappearance and exposes a long-buried town secret – one that could destroy everything she holds dear. This thrilling novel about one community’s intricateyet fragile bonds will leave readers asking, “How well do I know the people I love?” and “How far would I go to protect them?”

Audiobook "The Dirty Secrets Club" by Meg Gardiner

An ongoing string of high-profile and very public murder-suicides has San Francisco even more rattled than a string of recent earthquakes. A flamboyant fashion designer burns to death, clutching the body of his murdered lover. A U.S. attorney launches her BMW off a highway overpass, killing herself and three others.
Enter forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett, hired by the SFPD to cut open not the victim’s body but the victim’s life. Jo’s job is to complete the psychological autopsy, shedding light on the circumstances of any equivocal death. Soon she makes a shocking discovery: All the suicides belonged to something called the Dirty Secrets Club, a group of A-listers with nothing but money and plenty to hide. As the deaths continue, Jo delves into the disturbing motives behind this shadowy group – until she receives a chilling message that dredges up dark secrets Jo thought she’d left deep in her past.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Audiobook "I, Michael Bennett" by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge

Police officers shot

Detective Michael Bennett arrests an infamous Mexican crime lord in a deadly chase that leaves Bennett's lifelong friend Hughie McDonough dead. From jail, the prisoner vows to rain epic violence down upon New York City—and to get revenge on Michael Bennett.

Judges murdered

To escape the chaos, Bennett takes his ten kids and their beautiful nanny, Mary Catherine, on a much-needed vacation to his family's cabin near Newburgh, New York. But instead of the calm and happy town he remembers from growing up, they step into a nightmare worse than they could have ever imagined. Newburgh is an inferno of warring gangs, and there's little the police—or Bennett—can do to keep the children safe.

Target: Michael Bennett

As violence overwhelms the state, Bennett is torn between protecting his hometown and saving New York City. A partner in his investigations, federal prosecutor Tara McLellan, brings him new weapons for the battle—and an attraction that endangers his relationship with Mary Catherine. A no-holds-barred, pedal-to-the-floor, action-packed novel, I, Michael Bennett is James Patterson at his most personal and most thrilling best.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Audiobook "11th Hour" by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

Your best friend

Lindsay Boxer is pregnant at last! But her work doesn't slow for a second. When millionaire Chaz Smith is mercilessly gunned down, she discovers that the murder weapon is linked to the deaths of four of San Francisco's most untouchable criminals. And it was taken from her own department's evidence locker. Anyone could be the killer—even her closest friends.

Or a vicious killer?

Lindsay is called next to the most bizarre crime scene she's ever seen: two bodiless heads elaborately displayed in the garden of a world-famous actor. Another head is unearthed in the garden, and Lindsay realizes that the ground could hide hundreds of victims.

You won't know until the 11th hour

A reporter launches a series of vicious articles about the cases and Lindsay's personal life is laid bare. But this time she has no one to turn to—especially not Joe. 11TH HOUR is the most shocking, most emotional, and most thrilling Women's Murder Club novel ever.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Audiobook "Dangerous" by Diana Palmer

One night, FBI Agent McKuen Kilraven gets a homicide call and discovers that the victims are his wife and their three-year-old daughter, Melly. Only his constant work and an obsessive desire to catch his family’s murderer keep him going. Temporarily assigned in Jacobsville, Texas, Kilraven intends to return to San Antonio after the holidays. Jacobsville’s 911 operator, Winnie Sinclair, is in love with Kilraven, but he has shut her out. His family’s brutal murder has caused such emotional damage that there’s little chance of another relationship. Then Kilraven gets a lead on who might have killed his wife and little girl, and that person is the son of someone so powerful he’s almost untouchable. Kilraven needs someone with an “in” to help him get closer to his target. Unfortunately, that person is Winnie, who’s willing to risk everything for the man she loves, a man who can’t love her back. Readers will be moved by this tale of revenge and justice, grief and healing.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Currently reading "Safe Haven" by Nicholas Sparks


When a mysterious young woman named Katie appears in the small North Carolina town of Southport, her sudden arrival raises questions about her past. Beautiful yet self-effacing, Katie seems determined to avoid forming personal ties until a series of events draws her into two reluctant relationships: one with Alex, a widowed store owner with a kind heart and two young children; and another with her plainspoken single neighbor, Jo. Despite her reservations, Katie slowly begins to let down her guard, putting down roots in the close-knit community and becoming increasingly attached to Alex and his family.
But even as Katie begins to fall in love, she struggles with the dark secret that still haunts and terrifies her . . . a past that set her on a fearful, shattering journey across the country, to the sheltered oasis of Southport. With Jo’s empathic and stubborn support, Katie eventually realizes that she must choose between a life of transient safety and one of riskier rewards . . . and that in the darkest hour, love is the only true safe haven.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Currently reading "Inside of a dog. What dogs see, smell, and know" by Alexandra Horowitz



Temple Grandin meets Stephen Pinker in this engaging and informative look at what goes on inside the minds of dogs—from a cognitive scientist with a background at The New Yorker.
With more than 52 million pet dogs in America today, it’s clear we are a nation of unabashed dog-lovers. Yet the relationship between dogs and humans remains a fascinating mystery, as no one really knows what goes on in the canine mind. Now, in Inside of a Dog, Alexandra Horowitz fuses her perspectives as both scientist and dog-owner to deliver a fresh look at the world of dogs—as seen from the animal’s point of view. Inspired by her years of living with her own dog, Pumpernickel, who was a constant source of delight and mystery, Horowitz’s mind became filled with questions and ideas. In crisp, clear prose, she draws on her research in the field of dog cognition to give readers a sense of a dog’s perceptual and cognitive abilities—and paints a picture of what the canine experience is like. Horowitz’s own scientific journey, and the insights she uncovered, allowed her to understand her dog better and appreciate her more.

Containing up-to-the minute research and providing many moments of dog-behavior recognition, this lively and absorbing book helps dog owners to see their best friend’s behavior in a different, and revealing light, allowing them to understand their pets and enjoy their company even more.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Audiobook "Alone" by Lisa Gardner

Alone . . . Massachusetts State Trooper Bobby Dodge watches a tense hostage standoff unfold through the scope of his sniper rifle. Just across the street, in wealthy Back Bay, Boston, an armed man has barricaded himself with his wife and child. The man's finger tightens on the trigger and Dodge has only a split second to react . . . and forever pay the consequences.

Alone . . . that's where the nightmare began for cool, beautiful, and dangerously sexy Catherine Rose Gagnon. Twenty-five years ago, she was buried underground during a month-long nightmare of abduction and abuse. Now her husband has just been killed. Her father-in-law, the powerful Judge Gagnon, blames Catherine for his son's death . . . and for the series of unexplained illnesses that have sent her own young son repeatedly to the hospital.

Alone . . . a madman survived solitary confinement in a maximum security prison where he'd done hard time for the most sadistic of crimes. Now he walks the streets a free man, invisible, anonymous . . . and filled with an unquenchable rage for vengeance. What brings them together is a moment of violence--but what connects them is a passion far deeper and much more dangerous. For a killer is loose who's woven such an intricate web of evil that no one is above suspicion, no one is beyond harm, and no one will see death coming until it has them cornered, helpless, and alone.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Audiobook "Live to tell" by Lisa Gardner


He knows everything about you—including the first place you’ll hide.
On a warm summer night in one of Boston’s working-class neighborhoods, an unthinkable crime has been committed: Four members of a family have been brutally murdered. The father—and possible suspect—now lies clinging to life in the ICU. Murder-suicide? Or something worse? Veteran police detective D. D. Warren is certain of only one thing: There’s more to this case than meets the eye.
Danielle Burton is a survivor, a dedicated nurse whose passion is to help children at a locked-down pediatric psych ward. But she remains haunted by a family tragedy that shattered her life nearly twenty-five years ago. The dark anniversary is approaching, and when D. D. Warren and her partner show up at the facility, Danielle immediately realizes: It has started again.
A devoted mother, Victoria Oliver has a hard time remembering what normalcy is like. But she will do anything to ensure that her troubled son has some semblance of a childhood. She will love him no matter what. Nurture him. Keep him safe. Protect him. Even when the threat comes from within her own house.
In New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner’s most compelling work of suspense to date, the lives of these three women unfold and connect in unexpected ways, as sins from the past emerge—and stunning secrets reveal just how tightly blood ties can bind. Sometimes the most devastating crimes are the ones closest to home.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Currently reading "True Bue" by David Baldacci

Mason “Mace” Perry was a firebrand cop on the D.C. police force until she was kidnapped and framed for a crime – and then spent two years in prison. Now she’s back on the outside and focused on one mission: to be a cop once more. Her only shot to be a true blue again is to solve a major case on her own. But even with her police chief sister on her side, she’ll have to work in the shadows: A vindictive U.S. attorney will do anything to send Mace back to jail. Enter Roy Kingman…
A young D.C. lawyer, Roy meets Mace after the murder of one of the firm’s female partners. Soon Roy and Mace are investigating together – and uncovering surprising secrets from both the private and public world of the nation’s capital.

Audiobook "The Sunflower" by Richard Paul Evans

In the wake of personal tragedy, two people meet on a humanitarian mission in Peru. Christine is a shy, unadventurous woman whose fiancé broke off the engagement only a week before the wedding, and Paul is a former emergency room doctor whose glamorous lifestyle, stellar reputation, and beautiful fiancée are cruelly snatched from him one fateful, snowy Christmas Eve. Deep in the Amazon jungle, against a backdrop of poverty and heartbreak, they must confront their deepest fears and, together, learn to trust and love again

Monday, August 20, 2012

Audiobook "When day breaks" by Mary Jane Clark

On the day she died, Constance Young was the undisputed star of morning television. But her plans to move herself and her loyal audience to another network were cancelled when she ended up at the bottom of her swimming pool. And the fabled unicorn amulet that Constance had been wearing during her final hours -- a gift from King Arthur to his beloved Guinevere and the centerpiece of the upcoming Camelot exhibit at New York's Cloisters museum -- is missing.
A morning show veteran and now anchor of the KEY Evening Headlines, Eliza Blake is shocked by the death of her former colleague, and is determined to discover who wanted Constance out of the way . . . and why. To do so, she enlists the aid of three KEY News coworkers: "Jane-of-all-trades" Annabelle Murphy, who can switch from producing to sleuthing at a moment's notice; charming and fearless cameraman extraordinaire B.J. D'Elia to add brains, brawn, and a much-needed male perspective to the team; and Dr. Margo Gonzalez, on-air psychiatrist, who understands the complex puzzles of the human mind. Calling themselves "The Sunrise Suspense Society," they set out to get to the bottom of the heinous murder, in a case that will test their ingenuity and their courage to the very limits.
The deeper they dig, the more twisted the trail to Constance's killer becomes -- as the list of suspects grows longer by the minute. Was it her spurned and enraged medievalist lover, or a muckraking author who blamed her for ruining his life? Perhaps money was the motive, and Constance's sister, jealous of her wealth and fame, was responsible. Or possibly someone at Key News was angry enough -- or frightened enough -- to commit cold-blooded murder. The one sure thing is that Constance Young made a lot of enemies—and now one of them is Eliza's enemy as well. And the closer she and the Society get to unmasking the murderer, the closer they each get to dying, suddenly . . . and brutally.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Currently reading "Afraid to die" by Lisa Jackson



Your worst fears don’t come close…
AFRAID TO SCREAM

Others may dread the chill of winter, but he relishes it. The way the frigid water preserves his victims, the feel of their icy skin beneath his fingers... And soon the world will see their beauty—and his vengeance.
AFRAID TO RUN

 The town of Grizzly Falls is on edge in the wake of a serial killer, and Detective Selena Alvarez is no exception. That case was solved, but a new nightmare is about to unfold. There are two victims so far—their bodies found frozen solid and deliberately displayed. Both are women she knew. And each wears a piece of Selena’s jewelry…
AFRAID TO DIE

Selena’s partner, Detective Regan Pescoli, and the entire department are on the case, as is P.I. Dylan O’Keefe—a man Selena got too close to once before. But this killer already knows too much about Selena’s secret terror, her flaws, and the past she’s tried to outrun. And soon he’ll show her that she has every reason to be afraid…

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Audiobook "The Neighbor" by Lisa Gardner



This is what happened …
It was a case guaranteed to spark a media feeding frenzy-a young mother, blond and pretty, disappears without a trace from her South Boston home, leaving behind her four-year-old daughter as the only witness and her handsome, secretive husband as the prime suspect.
In the last six hours …
But from the moment Detective Sergeant D. D. Warren arrives at the Joneses’ snug little bungalow, she senses something off about the picture of wholesome normality the couple worked so hard to create. On the surface, Jason and Sandra Jones are like any other hardworking young couple raising a four-year-old child. But it is just under the surface that things grew murkier.
Of the world as I knew it …
With the clock ticking on the life of a missing woman and the media firestorm building, Jason Jones seems more intent on destroying evidence and isolating his daughter than on searching for his “beloved” wife. Is the perfect husband trying to hide his guilt-or just trying to hide? And will the only witness to the crime be the killer’s next victim?
THE NEIGHBOR

Friday, August 10, 2012

Audiobook "Stay close" by Harlan Coben

When the past refuses to stay buried, three people will discover that the American dream can be a nightmare . . .
Megan is a suburban soccer mom who once upon a time walked on the wild side. Now she’s got two kids, a perfect husband, a house with a picket fence, and a growing sense of dissatisfaction. Ray used to be a talented documentary photographer, but at the age of forty he finds himself in a dead-end job posing as a paparazzo pandering to celebrity-obsessed rich kids. Broome is a detective who can’t let go of a cold case – the disappearance of a local husband and father seventeen years ago.
As the terrible consequences of long-ago events collide in the present, three people living lives they never wanted, hiding secrets that not even those closest to them would ever suspect, will come to realise that the past never truly fades away. And as each confronts the dark side of the American dream – the boredom of suburban life, the thrill of temptation, the desperation that can lurk behind even the prettiest facades – they will discover the hard truth that the line between one kind of life and another can be as whisper thin as a heartbeat.
Global bestseller Harlan Coben returns with a stunning new standalone novel – a powerful psychological thriller that explores how our decisions define us and how our present selves are inescapably shaped by our pasts.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Audiobook "Finding Noel" by Richard Paul Evans

The Christmas season is supposed to be full of joy, but not for Mark Smart. Life had dealt him one body blow after another: he lost his scholarship and had to drop out of school; his beloved mother had died in a car crash; his girlfriend dumped him, and now, late on a snowy night in November, his car had broken down. Stumbling into a coffee house, he was looking for a phone to call a tow truck. What he found was a beautiful young woman with an unusual name who, through a simple act of kindness, changed his life forever.
Macy Wood had little memory of her birth parents, and memories she’d rather forget of her adopted home. A Christmas ornament inscribed with the word “Noel” was the only clue to the little sister she only vaguely remembered, a clue that would send her, and Mark on a journey to reclaim her past, and her family.

Monday, August 6, 2012

Audiobbook "Dying for Mercy" by Mary Jane Clark

To get some much-needed rest out of the public eye, Eliza Blake, anchor of TV's premiere morning news show KEY to America, rents a charming carriage house in Tuxedo Park, New York.
Behind the private park's stately stone gates, sprawling architectural masterpieces and picturesque gardeners' cottages decorate the rolling, naturalistic landscape. Even before she can move in, Eliza is invited to an unusual party to celebrate the feast of St. Francis Assisi and, before the festivities are over, the serenity of the secluded enclave explodes as one of the Park's revered citizens is found dead -- a grotesque suicide which is only the first act in a macabre and intricately conceived plan to expose the past crimes of some of the town's residents.
Eliza and her KEY News colleagues soon learn that Pentimento -- a gloriously restored mansion nestled in the Park's fairytale setting -- is, in effect, a giant "puzzle house," filled with ingenious clues hidden in its fireplaces, fountains and frescos that lead them, first, to suspicious locales throughout the Park -- and, then, one by one, to the victims of a fiendish killer!
As Pentimento gives up its many secrets, it becomes clear that someone wants to prevent one last mystery from coming to light and that no amount of wealth or privilege will keep the threatened residents of Tuxedo Park safe. And as Eliza Blake unearths one final secret, she will come face to face with a murderer who thinks that some puzzles should never be solved.

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Audiobook "All through the night " by Mary Higgins Clark

All of Alvirah's deductive powers and Willy's world-class common sense are called upon as the two stumble into a Christmas mystery. A woman abandons her newborn at a Manhattan church. Simultaneously, a thief is absconding with a treasured artifact, a chalice adorned with a star-shaped diamond. To elude police, he grabs the stroller and disappears. Seven years later, the mother returns to the scene and finds Alvirah and Willy helping neighborhood kids prepare for a Christmas pageant at an after-school shelter. Soon the savvy sleuths set out to solve the puzzle of the missing child and chalice -- and to unmask scam artists threatening to shut down the shelter.

Monday, July 30, 2012

Audiobook "Lady Killer" by Lisa Scottoline

Mary DiNunzio has become a big-time business-getter at Rosato & Associates. But the last person she expects to walk into her office one morning—in mile-high stilettos—is super-sexy Trish Gambone, her high-school rival. Back when Mary was becoming the straight-A president of the Latin Club and Most Likely to Achieve Sainthood, Trish was the head Mean Girl, who flunked religion and excelled at smoking in the bathroom.
These days, however, Trish needs help. She is terrified of her live-in boyfriend, an abusive, gun-toting drug dealer for the South Philly mob. Mary remembers the guy from high school, too. She had a major crush on him.
Then Trish vanishes, a dead body turns up in an alley, and Mary is plunged into a nightmare that threatens her job, her family, and even her life. She goes on a one-woman crusade to unmask the killer, and on the way finds new love in a very unexpected place.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Audiobook "The Chrismas List" by Richard Paul Evans

James Kier looked back and forth between the newspaper headline and the photograph of himself, not sure if he should laugh or call his attorney. It was the same photograph the Tribune had used a couple of years earlier when they featured him on the front page of the business section. While the photograph was the same, the headline could not have been more different. Not many people get to read their own obituary.
Local real estate mogul dies in automobile crash
Utah real estate develop James Kier was pronounced dead after his car collided with a concrete pylon on southbound I-80. Authorities believe Kier may have had a heart attack prior to swerving off the road.
Kier put the paper down. He had no idea what the article was about to set in motion.


Summary
When real estate mogul James Kier is mistaken for another by the same name, he learns firsthand what the world really things of him, and decides to change his future.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Audiobook "Courting Trouble" by Lisa Scottoline





Anne Murphy is the redheaded rookie at the Philadelphia law firm of Rosato & Associates, and one morning she wakes up to front-page headlines proclaiming lawyer murdered -- above her own picture. If she wants to stay alive, she's got to play dead. She'll have to trust people she barely knows -- colleagues who hate her, homicide cops who want her out of the crime-fighting business, and a new love who inconveniently happens to be opposing counsel. But her knack for courting trouble makes it almost impossible for Anne to play well with others, and an unexpected event places her in lethal jeopardy and leaves her with everything to lose.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Currently reading "Fifty Shades Freed"


When unworldly student Anastasia Steele first encountered the driven and dazzling young entrepreneur Christian Grey it sparked a sensual affair that changed both of their lives irrevocably. Shocked, intrigued, and, ultimately, repelled by Christian’s singular erotic tastes, Ana demands a deeper commitment. Determined to keep her, Christian agrees.

Now, Ana and Christian have it all—love, passion, intimacy, wealth, and a world of possibilities for their future. But Ana knows that loving her Fifty Shades will not be easy, and that being together will pose challenges that neither of them would anticipate. Ana must somehow learn to share Christian’s opulent lifestyle without sacrificing her own identity. And Christian must overcome his compulsion to control as he wrestles with the demons of a tormented past.

Just when it seems that their strength together will eclipse any obstacle, misfortune, malice, and fate conspire to make Ana’s deepest fears turn to reality.

Audiobook "Grace" by Richard Paul Evans


Grace is the story of a young runaway girl and the boy who hides her from a frightening world too large and unfathomable for him to comprehend. It is also about two brothers and the love that binds them together through difficult times.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Audiobook "French Silk" by Sandra Brown


Like the city of New Orleans itself, Claire Laurent is a vibrant beauty laced with a mysterious elusiveness. The founder of French Silk, a fabulous lingerie company, she has fought hard to make it a worldwide success. Then a TV evangelist attacks French Silk's erotic sleepwear as sinful. And when he is killed, Claire becomes the prime suspect.District Attorney Robert Cassidy knows Claire is damning herself with lie after lie about the murder, even as he feels her drawing him into her world and her very soul. But neither Cassidy nor her protests of innocence can save Claire unless she reveals a shocking truth -- one she has sworn to take to the grave...

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Audiobook "Running from the law" by Lisa Scottoline

Running From The Law was Lisa Scottoline's first hardcover book, and it received a glowing endorsement from Kirkus by earning a starred review. In it, wisecracking, poker-playing, Philadelphia lawyer, Rita Morrone takes on the defense of the Honorable Fiske Hamilton, a prominent federal judge accussed of sexual harassment, who happens to be the father of her live-in lover. But all bets are off when the case turns deadly, and Rita finds herself at the center of a murder. 

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Audiobook "Final Appeal" by Lisa Scottoline

Final Appeal is Lisa's second novel, and the recipient of the Edgar Award, the highest honor in suspense fiction. In it, Philadelphia lawyer Grace Rossi is starting over after a divorce. She takes a part-time job as a law clerk for a federal judge, but, Grace doesn't count on being assigned to an explosive death penalty appeal. Nor does she expect ardor in the court, in the form of an affair with her boss, the Chief Judge, after which the judge is found dead - an apparent suicide. As Grace searches for the truth about her lover's death, her investigation uncovers a trail of bribery and judicial misconduct and corruption that's even stumped the FBI. 

Monday, July 2, 2012

Currently reading "Fifty Shades Darker"

Daunted by the singular tastes and dark secrets of the beautiful, tormented young entrepreneur Christian Grey, Anastasia Steele has broken off their relationship to start a new career with a Seattle publishing house. 
 
But desire for Christian still dominates her every waking thought, and when he proposes a new arrangement, Anastasia cannot resist. They rekindle their searing sensual affair, and Anastasia learns more about the harrowing past of her damaged, driven and demanding Fifty Shades.
 
While Christian wrestles with his inner demons, Anastasia must confront the anger and envy of the women who came before her, and make the most important decision of her life.

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Audiobook "Everywhere that Mary went" by Lisa Scottoline

Lisa's books draw on her experience as a trial lawyer and Everywhere That Mary Went is the first — and best — example. The novel is the story of an associate in a prestigious Philadelphia law firm much like the one Lisa practiced in. Everywhere That Mary Went was nominated by the Mystery Writers of America for an Edgar Award, the equivalent of an Academy Award in the suspense business. 

In Everywhere That Mary Went Mary DiNunzio has been slaving away for the past eight years trying to make partner in her cutthroat Philadelphia law firm. She's too busy to worry about the crank phone calls that she's been getting — until they fall into a sinister pattern. The phone rings as soon as she gets to work, then as soon as she gets home. Mary can't shake the sensation that someone is watching her, following her every move. The shadowboxing turns deadly when her worst fears are realized, and she has to fight for something a lot more important than partnership — her life. 

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Audiobook "Bittersweet Rain" by Sandra Brown

Caroline Dawson survived the town gossips who whispered behind her back. She survived the slow death of her husband, Roscoe Lancaster, the richest man in the county and her senior by three decades. But she feared she might not survive Rink Lancaster, her husband's son. Years before she married, when she and Rink were teens, he had introduced Caroline to her first tremulous taste of love - and then broke her heart. Now Rink is back. He says he wants to settle his father's estate. But driven by a storm of emotions as undeniable as before and more dangerous than ever, what he really wants is to settle the score with Caroline.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Currently reading "Fifty Shades of Grey" by E L James

When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms.

Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.

Erotic, amusing, and deeply moving, the Fifty Shades Trilogy is a tale that will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Audiobook "Ricochet" by Sandra Brown

and a homicide detective's struggle with his own rules of conduct.
When Detective Sergeant Duncan Hatcher is summoned to the home of Judge Cato Laird in the middle of the night to investigate a fatal shooting, he knows that discretion and kid-glove treatment are the key to staying in the judge's good graces and keeping his job.
At first glance, the case appears open-and-shut: Elise, the judge's trophy wife, interrupted a burglary in progress and killed the intruder in self-defense. But Duncan is immediately suspicious of Elise's innocent act. And further investigation quickly puts Duncan's career in jeopardy -- because he can't deny his increasing attraction to Elisa Laird, even if she is a married woman, a proven liar, and a murder suspect.
Ricochet's plot twists -- as only Sandra Brown can write them -- make this a gripping thriller, in which a decent cop's worst enemy may be his own conscience...and trusting the wrong person could mean the difference between life and death.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Audiobook "Notorious" by Iris Johansen

Beautiful actress Mallory Thane endured the harsh, unforgiving glare of publicity during the trial in which she stood accused of murdering her husband. But even the acquittal that set her free couldn't ease the heartache of her ordeal. Desperate to get back her life, her career, and her sanity, she accepts a new movie deal on an island paradise -- only to realize that she has walked into a trap. Her captor is power player Sabin Wyatt, a dark, enigmatic man who still holds Mallory responsible for his brother Ben's death. But at the root of his scheme is his obsessive need to possess the woman who haunts his dreams, no matter what truth she's hiding.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Audiobooks "The Lost Years" by Mary Higgins Clark


In The Lost Years, Mary Higgins Clark, America's Queen of Suspense, has written her most astonishing novel to date. At its center is a discovery that, if authenticated, may be the most revered document in human history—"the holiest of the holy"—and certainly the most coveted and valuable object in the world.
Biblical scholar Jonathan Lyons believes he has found the rarest of parchments—a letter that may have been written by Jesus Christ. Stolen from the Vatican Library in the 1500s, the letter was assumed to be lost forever.
Now, under the promise of secrecy, Jonathan is able to confirm his findings with several other experts. But he also confides in a family friend his suspicion that someone he once trusted wants to sell the parchment and cash in.
Within days Jonathan is found shot to death in his study. At the same time, his wife, Kathleen, who is suffering from Alzheimer's, is found hiding in the study closet, incoherent and clutching the murder weapon. Even in her dementia, Kathleen has known that her husband was carrying on a long-term affair. Did Kathleen kill her husband in a jealous rage, as the police contend? Or is his death tied to the larger question: Who has possession of the priceless parchment that has now gone missing?
It is up to their daughter, twenty-eight-year-old Mariah, to clear her mother of murder charges and unravel the real mystery behind her father's death. Mary Higgins Clark's The Lost Years is at once a breathless murder mystery and a hunt for what may be the most precious religious and archaeological treasure of all time.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Audiobook "The Switch" by Sandra Brown


The Switch by Sandra Brown

It isn't the first time that identical twins Gillian and Melina Lloyd have switched identities. Yet it's the first time as adults that they've even considered the childhood prank. Melina, the more impetuous twin, proposes that her circumspect sister take her place as a media escort to NASA astronaut and national hero Colonel Christopher "Chief" Hart.

Although it's an enticing offer, Gillian declines for a very personal reason-she's preoccupied with whether or not the artificial insemination she underwent that day will be successful. Besides, she warns Melina, such a switch could have unexpected consequences.

Media-savvy Chief turns out to be an easy assignment for Melina-in fact the evening with him is as much pleasure as business. But the following morning police arrive at Melina's door with the worst possible news: her beloved twin has been brutally murdered in her own bed. And on the walls, scrawled in blood, are obscenities directed at Gillian, along with insults toward Native Americans that indisputably link Chief to the crime.

Dissatisfied with the official police investigation, Chief and Melina form a grudging alliance, strike out on their own...and find themselves uncovering more questions than answers. Mistrusting even the authorities claiming to protect them, on the run with their lives in danger, the two are soon following a crooked and bloody trail that inexplicably leads to Gillian's attempt to conceive a child...and to the threshold of an inner sanctum, where a megalomaniac hatches horrific schemes and lies in wait for Gillian's replacement, her identical twin-Melina.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Audiobook "Catch Me" by Lisa Gardner

N FOUR DAYS, SOMEONE IS GOING TO KILL ME…
At 8pm on 21st January, twenty-eight year old Charlie Grant believes she is going to be murdered and she wants Boston’s top homicide detective, D.D. Warren, to handle her death investigation.
Confronting D.D. at her latest crime scene, Charlie lays her cards on the table. For each of the last two years, one of her childhood friends has been murdered leaving Charlie as the only one of the three friends to remain alive.
But as D.D. delves deeper in to the details of Charlie’s case, she begins to question the young woman’s story. Because Charlie can now outfight and outrun anyone she meets and D.D.’s instinct is that she’s hiding a secret. A secret so explosive that Charlie herself may turn out to be the biggest danger of all…
…BUT THE SON OF A BITCH HAS GOT TO CATCH ME FIRST.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Audiobook "Two little girls in blue" by Mary Higgins Clark




In a riveting new thriller, worldwide bestselling suspense writer Mary Higgins Clark weaves the mystery of twin telepathy into a mother's search for a kidnapped child, presumed dead.

Margaret and Steve Frawley celebrate the third birthday of their twin girls, Kelly and Kathy, with an afternoon party in their new home, a modest fixer-upper in Ridgefield, Connecticut.
The evening of the twins' birthday party, Steve and Margaret attend a black-tie dinner in New York. When they return home, the police are in the house, and they are told that the babysitter had been found unconscious, the children are gone, and a note demanding an eight-million-dollar ransom had been left in their room.
Steve Frawley's firm, a global investment company, agrees to pay the ransom. The kidnapper, who identifies himself as the "Pied Piper," makes his terms known -- on delivery of the ransom, a call will come, revealing the girls' whereabouts. The call comes, but only Kelly is in the car parked behind a deserted restaurant. The driver is dead from a gunshot wound and has left a suicide note, saying he had inadvertently killed Kathy and had dumped her body in the ocean.
At the private memorial Mass for Kathy, Kelly tugs Margaret's arm and says: "Mommy, Kathy is very scared of that lady. She wants to come home right now." More unexplainable occurrences follow, indicating that Kelly is in touch with Kathy. At first, no one except the mother believes that the twins are communicating and that Kathy is still alive. As Kelly's warnings become increasingly specific and alarming, however, FBI agents set out on a search for Kathy. The novel reaches a breathtaking climax as they close in on the Pied Piper and his accomplices, while Kathy's life hangs by a thread.
In delving into the well-documented but still unexplained phenomenon of twin telepathy, Mary Higgins Clark tells a spellbinding tale that takes us deep into the minds of her characters while lifting us to the heights of suspense.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Audiobook "Delirious" by Daniel Palmer





Charlie Giles is an electronics VIP with everything going for him-until his entire life goes horribly wrong. A non-stop thriller, DELIRIOUS by Daniel Palmer races along as Giles, accused of multiple murders, is sucked into a web of madness in his desperate struggle to find the truth.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Audiobook "Spider's Web" by Agatha Christie

Clarissa, the second wife of Henry Hailsham-Brown is known for spinning tales of adventure, but when a murder takes place in her own drawing-room, she finds live drama much harder to cope with, especially as she suspects that the murderer might be her young stepdaughter, Pippa.

Originally a play, this was novelised in 2000 by Charles Osborne.  Agatha Christie originally wrote the play for Margaret Lockwood.  The play premiered in London on 13th December 1954.