Alone - T.R. Sullivan

This is the kind of story you think up in your head whilst sitting on the loo. Some dude in the States wakes up one morning and all is quiet. Turns out he appears to be alone in the world, everyone has disappeared. It plays out pretty much as expected but is still a good read, going through the process of losing day to day facilities. His faithful dog is the only other character but fortunately has more personality than the basketball from Castaway.
A great fight scene with the rats and I never really understood how the animals escaped from the nation’s zoos but the author clearly needed to have something to add a bit of danger. It meanders a bit towards the end, got the impression the author had finished with the excitement of the guy being alone and wanted to get the thing finished. Still I liked this one.

4/5

Hostile Witness (The Witness Series,#1) by Rebecca Forster

Young girl who is clearly a bit of loony gets done for murdering her step-grandfather, who is some top judge in California. Her mum, also a bit of a mentalist, asks an old friend for help who happens to be a lawyer surprise surprise the lawyer has a big back story including getting a murderer off who then went on to kill her family...
Not a bad book really, the girl has similar personality traits as that dragoon tattoo bird. Some good twists but I thought the end got a bit weak.

3.5/5

Fire and Ice - Dana Stabenow

Disgraced demoted Mounty gets posted back to remote Alaskan town where before leaving the airport he stumbles across a murder and his ex who he promptly shags in her pick up. Quite liked this one, although the last 20 pages I thought were a bit lame.
One extremely cool and pacy light aircraft flying sequence and some yoga bits that were very random. Good characters though and a nice story.

4.5/5

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself - Harriet Ann Jacobs

Exactly what it says in the title. Struggled to get through this book as it got a bit heavy to read. Managed 50%. Being a slave in the US clearly was a very unpleasant exsistance.

2/5

Broadmore Revealed: Victorian Crime and the Lunatic Asylum - Mark Stevens

Some good stories about the asylum, covering many different aspects including female prisoners, escapees, and some of the real loonys. Not a bad read. I really liked the lady who tried to poinson loads of people in Brighton by sneaking poison chocolates into the local sweet shop.

Could have made a better job of providing a feel for life inside the place though.

2/5

Fariy Tales Every Child Should Know - Hamilton Wright

Reading it to my kids. Bit weird that they feel the need to call Goldilocks "Silverlocks".

2/5

The Pawn - Steven James

Very good american serial killer book with a decent lead character. All set in the Blue Ridge mountains (iirc) whcih created a really good atmosphere to the book. Strangely the second book in a row to have a character called the Father. As usual with these types of stories the cop has a back story of death and misery, but this one is quite well played out, bringing in his step daughter who becomes (predictably) involved in the case

4/5