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FEAR THE REAPER - Davide Housewright

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Former St. Paul police detective, Rushmore McKenzie, is on a weekend getaway with his wife and a group of friends, including Bobby Dunston, a current police detective. They are in northern Wisconsin having drinks at a local winery when a man carrying an AR-15 walks onto the winery property and starts to point his weapon at all the people on the patio. McKenzie and Dunston react the way you hope police would - rushing the man and disarming him just as a burst of shots fire harmlessly into the sky. The local sheriff applauds the quick action of the two men, but the local DA and judge remind the men that Wisconsin is an open-carry state and since he hadn't fired his weapon, he had every right to carry it onto the business and they the two men could (and perhaps should) be arrested for assault.  The sheriff, being busy enough with other work and in just a little over her head, asks McKenzie to help do some investigating - why was the man sent there (as determined by a text on his phone...
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THEY'RE PLAYING MY SONG - Bruce Pollock

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One of the main reasons I selected this book was because of the subtitle: Fifty-Two Great Songwriters Discuss Their Craft . I'm generally fascinated by the music world and the ability to write lyrics and compose music. The possibility of getting more insight into how different people make this happen is compelling for me. Author/editor Bruce Pollock has been writing about music and interviewing musicians for publications for more than half a century and this book collects 52 of those interviews (some, as he notes in his introduction, for the first time since their original publication, and some newly updated) going back as early as 1973. I generally liked what was presented here - we definitely do get a glimpse of some true genius at work. And who doesn't enjoy learning how a popular or favorite song was conceived?  Perhaps I'm on my own with this, but while I recognized a majority of the names of the people included here, there definitely were a few people whose name was p...
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THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY - Erik Larson

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 One of the biggest events to take place in the United States in the 19th century, that was not a war, would have to be the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago ( World's Columbian Exposition). Noted non-fiction author Erik Larson takes readers on a deep dive into the machinations behind the event and ties in the workings of one of the world's most noted serial killers after England's notorious Ripper. The background on the fair is truly fascinating. Larson's research really captures the political maneuverings behind such a massive event, how it would benefit the city (and its politicians), and the struggles to actually make it happen. The number of challenges and disasters was rather staggering to me. What I found most interesting was the work behind the Ferris Wheel - something to rival France's Eiffel Tower - and its own successes and failures. (A bit of a side note - I learned from my father that my grandmother had gone to this fair and I couldn't help but wonde...
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TESLA'S ATTIC - Neal Shusterman & Eric Elfman

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Fourteen year old Nick, his younger brother, and their father move into an old, run-down Victorian house that they've inherited. It's a little bit eerie, but for a pair of curious boys, exploring an old house can be a lot of fun. And dangerous.  When Nick opens the door to his room in the attic, he is hit in the head by a flying toaster. Things only get stranger from there. The old house contains a great deal of ... junk. Nothing looks useful, in any case, so they organize a garage sale to get rid of all the old items in the attic. During the course of the sale, Nick meets and befriends some local kids his age - Mitch, Vincent, and Caitlin. Exploring first the unusual items from the attic, and then the attic itself, the group of teens learn that the items from the attic had been placed there by engineer/inventor Nikola Tesla. These were his last inventions and contained special, very unique properties. But more than that, the attic itself was a special vortex and it needs the i...
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BEST WOMEN'S EROTICA OF THE YEAR, VOLUME 11 - anthology

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I don't know what happened, but something happened with this book! I generally use a couple of different websites to request an advanced reading copy (ARC) of a book prior to its being published. You can generally see where I get my ARCs at the end of my reviews. Having generally enjoyed the previous volume of this series, I requested, and was granted access to, this edition, Volume 11. I loaded the PDF onto my Kobo reader and as it moved up into my reading queue, gave it my time and attention. Finished with the reading, I've gone to post my review and, as I typically do, went to Goodreads to grab the cover image to post on the review. And the book isn't there. I checked Edelweiss, the site from which I requested the book, and there's a status update: Cancelled. And a Google search indicates that the book has not been released anywhere, with one author posting on their blog: "I’ve been informed directly that the book my next story was planned to be in, Best Women’...
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SKYRING WATER - Louis L'Amour and Beau L'Amour

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I have enjoyed reading Louis L'Amour books. Not just his westerns (which I do like), but his few other books, more adventure titles and historical fiction (ala The Sacketts series). And I've been aware that since his death in 1988 a number of his unfinished works are either being finished by his son Beau, or presented in collections of "Lost Treasures." Skyring Water is a thriller based on a first draft that Louis L'Amour wrote many years ago, when he was still trying to be considered for more than just a 'western' author. Even so, L'Amour (according to his son Beau at the back of the book) recognized that it didn't live up to its full potential. Louis and Beau plotted some potential changes to the original work, but Louis died of pneumonia before he could complete the work. Now Beau has taken up the mantle and decided to finish it. Sadly, this still doesn't live up to its potential. We're in a period known as the Cold War and former Navy ...
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THE MEDIATOR - Robert Bailey

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Max Ringo had been a tremendous courtroom lawyer until she'd been in a car accident and subsequently became addicted to painkillers. The addiction destroyed her career and personal life but she's been given the chance for some work that could begin to restore her name and credibility. From a list of potential mediators offered to the two parties in a  divorce settlement, Max is the only person that both sides agree to work with. Max is grateful for the opportunity, but she recognizes that the two sides are big time players in the business community and the husband has worked in the company that the wife's father built. There's a lot of bad blood and the parties are suspicious of one another - if someone wants something, the other side doesn't want to give it to them just because they suspect there's a financial reason for it. And there is. The husband is willing to give up everything for controlling ownership in the business that he helped turn into the success ...
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