The Silent Hour - Michael Koryta

Lincoln Perry is a private investigator drawn into a 12-year-old mystery featuring both a missing woman and the bones of her husband. Lincoln's first client is a parolee that worked for the couple, who ran a rehabilitation program out of their home, and after Lincoln refuses to track her down, a PI out of Pittsburgh gets Lincoln involved. This novel is set just up the road in Medina County and Cleveland, Ohio, so I could easily picture several of the locations. I am a fan, and will need to track down some of this author's other books.

Vanished - Joseph Finder

After a stint in the Special Forces, Nick Heller went to work as a private investigator for a powerful lobbying firm. When he receives a call from his nephew Gabe, he winds up looking for his estranged brother after an attack that left his brother missing and his sister-in-law in a coma, and soon he learns that things are much more complicated. Nick's own father is a former corporate financier, currently serving a long sentence for Enron-like activities, and it appears that the company where the missing brother was in finance himself is involved in mercenary work. This is an interesting new character for Finder, somewhere between Jack Reacher and Jason Bourne, and I look forward to the next novel.

The Magicians - Lev Grossman

Quentin Coldwater is a depressed high-school student, secretly in love with his best friend's girlfriend and obsessed with a series of kids' books set in the fantasy world of Fillory. After a college interview starts and ends with the death of the interviewer, Quentin finds himself taking an entrance exam at Brakebills, a hidden college for would-be magicians. He is admitted, of course, and discovers that magic is much more difficult than Hogwarts would have us believe (watch for passing references to quiddich and Hermione). The reader knows that eventually Quentin and the other characters will have to cross his childhood fascination with Fillory, and indeed this is the climax of the book. This is a crossing of Harry Potter and Narnia, but populated with deeply-drawn characters with realistic human flaws. I really enjoyed this book!

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J.K. Rowling

I enjoyed Chamber of Secrets much more than the first Harry Potter novel. I had already seen the movie (many times I'm sure as my kids love the Harry Potter films) so I knew the basic plot and I don't think that the movie drifted too far from the novel. There may have been a few minor things in the books that you didn't see in the movie, but to be honest, I really can't name one. The pacing on this one improved immensely from the first novel and this one was hard to put down. If I was new to the Harry Potter world, the first book may have kept me from reading further, but this would keep me moving on. 7/10

A Conspiracy of Paper - David Liss

I've had a few of this author's books sitting on my shelf for awhile, and finally pulled one down - and now I wonder why I waited so long! Set in 1719 London, the book follows an ex-pugilist-turned-thief-taker named Benjamin Weaver as he attempts to track down the killer of his estranged father. The effort takes Weaver into the world of the stock-jobbers, men that trade stocks and government issues in various coffeehouses, deploying some tactics that would not look out of place in today's headlines. The author paints a very vivid picture of London, including the cultural divisions of rich and poor, as well as Jewish and English. I will be returning to the author, and his protagonist Weaver, very soon!

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

I might be the last person in the world who has yet to read through the entire Harry Potter series. My wife has read the books and we have seen the movies so far (as of this review, Half-Blood Prince movie was just released). The reason I decided to breakdown and finally read the series is that the last move (HBP) was an awful movie. I just didn't enjoy it and I really felt that I had missed an entire movie or story line as it just didn't seem to flow nicely with the previous movie. I thought it was time to read the books and find out what I was missing.

I knew the story-line of the Sorcerer's Stone and the movie didn't deviate too much from the book, only in a few minor areas that really didn't change anything. I realize that this book was written with the teen / young-adult in mind, but I'll be honest....if I had read this years ago when it first came out and before the movie, I might not go any further. It was not that well written and the story just didn't grab me. Usually the book is better than the movie, well in this case it's the opposite.

Since I have enjoyed the movies for the most part, I'm looking forward to reading further into the series and see what else the movies left out and then of course finish through the series, so when the later movies come out I'll be prepared.

From the viewpoint of an individual novel, I didn't really enjoy this.....but from looking at the bigger picture, I guess you have to start somewhere. 5/10

Die Trying - Lee Child

This is my second Lee Child book. I liked this one so much better than the first book. I can see now why so many have recommend Child to me. While the whole premise of Reacher just being in the wrong place at the wrong time seems a bit of a stretch, man does it make for an exciting and interesting ride. I really like the way it seems that Reacher can extract himself and solve the situation at a moment of his choosing yet he waits, sometimes seemingly just to prolong his own enjoyment of the situation. I also enjoyed seeing a bit of weakness in Reacher in one point and later overcoming this fear and using it too his advantage. Excellent book and can't wait to start book 3. 8/10

The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook - Ben Mezrich

I am only one of the millions for which a daily check of Facebook has become a routine over the past year, and I've been happy to reconnect with high school classmates, banter with coworkers, and waste minutes in front of Farkle and Mafia Wars. Just five years ago, however, Facebook was a concept being launched from a Harvard dorm room and its adoption was absolutely viral. It's an interesting story, and I'm certain that the book gets it at least 80% right - the author wasn't there, but rather created conversations and settings from interviews, documents, and probably whole cloth. Regardless, it does make the reader, or at least me, think about the "how could I do that?" - unfortunately, the answer isn't in the book!

Ground Zero - F.Paul Wilson

Repairman Jack used to be one of my favorite characters, but it seems that the author's writing has gotten a bit looser over the last few books and I was disappointed in this work. Mr. Wilson added a note at the beginning of this book that only two RJ books remain, and it feels like the writing is just trying to tie up all the pieces instead of focusing on a great story. The magic of the past books was in how RJ solved problems for people, often by unique means. In Ground Zero, RJ is still hanging out with the Kickers when he gets a a call from an old friend, Eddie, about another old friend, Weezy. These characters were introduced in The Secret Histories, a prequel issue last year for teens, and again, it feels like Wilson is simply filling in words on an outline. I love most of Mr. Wilson's work, but this one just didn't do anything for me.

Hell House - Richard Matheson

Having seen "I Am Legend" in the theater I wanted to explore another of Matheson's works before I made a decision on whether he was someone I enjoyed or not. I picked this one up based on some reviews and was relatively happy with my choice. Hell House tells the story of a haunted house that destroys it's victims through murder, suicide, or insanity. Our story begins with another group of four trying to solve the mystery of Hell House.

This novel reads more as a mystery with some minor horror elements. Nothing in here made me keep the light on at night, but it did add a bit of the fantastic to they mystery. As a mystery, which I typically do not enjoy, it wasn't too bad. It had enough clues, enough twists and enough kept hidden from the reader to keep me moving forward. The mystery wraps up cleanly in the end without much left unresolved.

Hell House is a very quick read that will appeal to the mystery fan as well as the horror fan (just don't expect too much horror). 6/10