Rick Kohut

An astounding book which was made more engaging and exciting by the outstanding audiobook narrator. This non-fictional historical tale is written like the best adventure novel imaginable. The author begins by noting that not one, but two different groups of castaways made it back to England after being shipwrecked in South America. This point sets the stage for how the facts are now able to be told-from the journals of the surving seamen. A great adventure and the telling is vivid and exciting. Hard to belief that the main figures were able to survive ridiculous levels of hardship and therefore able to return safely home so their tales could be told. Highly recommended!

I enjoy the blend of sci-fi, humor and warmth found in a John Scalzi novel. While not necessarily laugh out loud funny, it does a nice job of turning the "supervillain" genre on it's head. There's some great one liners and how cats fit into the story universe is pretty cool. There's enough plot and twists to move the story along brisky. Plus, the resolution is solid and - warm. Not an earth shaking tale nor a story which will linger with you, yet it

As soon as I finished listening to the audio-book of "Mr. Mercedes," I immediately put this audio-book right into my ears. I was eager to hear what these endearing characters - Bill, Holly and Jerome were up to in this 2nd installment. I liked the focus on unpublished journals containing the fourth and fifth novels in one of the greatest character arcs ever published in the world of this book (and reminiscent of the Rabbit books by John Updike in our own world.) And, as a dedicated reader myself, I could relate to the (obsessive) desire multiple characters have to "know what comes next" for a fictional character who has inspired them as much as a real person might. I feel the build up to the conclusion was too slow and I didn't connect much with the two main characters who drove the plot (and weren't in Mr. Mercedes.) While this second novel in a trilogy wasn't a masterpiece like "The Empire Strikes Back" was it it's trilogy, it was still an enjoyable listen. And a valuable one before diving into the amazing third book "End of Watch."

Mixed feelings about this book. I like the titular character as it's great to have leading PI's who are neuro-diverse (see the great "IQ" series of novels for another engaging character.) I like her backstory which I learned from the three Bill Hodges novels. I'd not read the other, more recent, series in which Holly and Barbara Robinson appear. And I don't think I will read it now as there's quite a few references which apparently spoil the climax in at least one of those novels. On the negative side, I don't like mysteries where the identity of the villain(s) is immediately known by the reader. While this gave intense insight in to their heads in this instance, I feel much more suspense could have been built. And then there's the cannibalism - which doesn't remain a mystery for long either. I think it was handled mostly tastefully (pun intended) - except for one scene late in the book which involves lines drawn by a sharpie - which was jaw-dropping for me. Lastly, the "twist" which leads to the climax was telegraphed a mile away. NOTE- I was disappointed in the audio version of this novel. I'd listened to the outstanding reader for the three Bill Hodges novels. Although Holly was a secondary character, he gave her a voice which illuminated her uniqueness. While having a female reader for "Holly" makes sense, I thought she gave Holly a flat, uninteresting and often tough to listen to voice. Overall, a good, mostly engaging story, but lacking in a few key areas.

I listened to the well done audiobook version read by Elijah "Frodo" Woods and know this contributed to my engagment in the story. I am extremely intrested in reading "James" as it seems to be on every "Best of 2024" list I've seen. And since it builds directly off "Huck," I thought it was time to finally read this famous (infamous?) novel which I skimmed when assigned it in high school decades ago. Although Woods did the voices well, I was not impressed with the story. It's a good "road" (river) tale with elements of the "buddy" genre, yet there's not much focus to the plot. It seems more like a series of vignettes rather than a plot with suspenseful development. There's some humor, but it gets lost in storylines which take much too long to unfold. And then there's the "n-word" issue. Dang - Twain/Huck uses it A LOT - likely at least 150 or 200 times. While it was so hard to hear to the point of numbness, it was a reminder of how this word was used as a categorical name of an entire group of human beings. I hope the value of "James" makes the difficulty of enduring "Huck" first worth the effort.