Don't Trust Her, by Elizabeth Boles →
Paige invited her friends, Court, Faith, and Blanche, for a girls' getaway at her mountain cabin. After they arrive, an ice storm hits, and they are stranded with no phone or internet.
They share secrets about their lives and some shared events from High School, and then we learn that three of them have been blackmailed by someone. The plot seems predictable, but then it twists, and we don’t know what to expect. One of them turns up dead. It looks like it may be suicide, but it is questionable. The other three try to leave but end up wrecking the car. They are stuck with each other until the ice melts. However, one of them may be a murderer.
Was the death a murder? Will the other three make it out alive, and will one confess to the murder if they do?
The title suggests “Don’t Trust Her.” The question is, who is “the her”?
Finders Keepers by Stephen King Review ( # 2 in the Bill Hodges Trilogy) →
Tom Saubers goes to the job fair where the book, “Mr. Mercedes”, begins. Tom becomes one of those lined up for work, only to be maimed by the attacking Mercedes and left unable to earn a living. So it is a fantastic coincidence that the Sauberses live in the house where Morris lived right after the 1978 robbery and that the 13-year-old Pete Saubers finds a trunk full of literature and loot that Morris buried nearby.
John Rothstein is an iconic author who created a famous character, Jimmy Gold but hasn’t published a book for decades. Morris Bellamy is livid, not just because Rothstein has stopped providing books but because the nonconformist Jimmy Gold has sold out for a career in advertising. Morris kills Rothstein and empties his safe of cash and the real treasure, notebooks containing at least one more Gold novel.
Morris hides the money and the notebooks, and then he is locked away for another crime. Decades later, a boy named Pete Saubers finds the treasure. Pete’s father, Tom Sauber, had gone to the job fair where “Mr. Mercedes” begins. Tom had lined up waiting for work opportunities only to be maimed by the attacking car and left unable to earn a living. So it is a fantastic coincidence that the Sauberses live in the house where Morris lived right after the 1978 robbery and that the young Pete Saubers finds a trunk full of literature and loot that Morris buried nearby.
Finders Keepers is an investigative company headed by Bill Hodges. He retired from the police force right after the Mr. Mercedes incident and was helped by Holly Gibney and Jerome Robinson. They are tasked with rescuing Pete Saubers from the deranged and vengeful Morris when he’s released from prison.
Bill Hodges Trilogy
Mr. Mercedes #1
End Of Watch #3
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Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King (The Bill Hodges Trilogy Book 1) →
The case goes unsolved, and ex-cop Bill Hodges is out of hope when he gets a letter from a man who loved the feel of death under Mercedes’s wheels…
Several months later, an ex-cop named bill Hodges, still haunted by the unsolved crime, contemplates suicide. When he gets a crazed letter from someone claiming credit for the murders, Hodges is shaken and returns from his retirement, believing another l attack w l come and intends to prevent it.
Brady Hartsfield lives with his alcoholic mother in the house where he was born. He loved the feel of death under the wheels of the Mercedes, and he wants that rush again but plans that next time he’s going big, with an attack that would take down thousands.
From the book’s front flap, we learn: “Mr. Mercedes is a war between good and evil from the master of suspense whose insight into the mind of this obsessed, insane killer is chilling and unforgettable.”
Note from Spring 2021: This trilogy was made into a TV series. Was the series as good as the books? The series gave some deeper insight into the characters and was well done. The books were a little better, of course.
Bill Hodges Trilogy
Finders Keepers #2
End Of Watch #3
Never Far Away by Michael Koryta
She becomes a guide in the Allagash Wilderness in northern Maine. Ten years later, Doug dies in a car accident. Daughter Hailey, now 13, calls Nina’s pager, believing it’s the way to contact her aunt, Leah Trenton.
Leah comes for the children and takes them, and they start a new life in Maine. Word of Doug’s death reaches Corson Lowery, the man who thought he had paid to have her killed. He learns the children have been picked up and sends two new assassins to find her.
The plot and characters quickly pull us in and the characters. This is the first time I have read this author, and his skill at developing the story impressed me the most.
5 Stars
How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie →
How to Win Friends and Influence People is a book by Dale Carnegie, published in 1936. Over 30 million copies have been sold worldwide. The text should be a “must-read” for those trying to learn how to network. It is classified as a self-help book, but in addition to that, it is a book about the fundamentals of handling people.
Twelve Things This Book Will Do For You
Get you out of a mental rut, and give you new thoughts, visions, and ambitions.
Enable you to make friends quickly and easily.
Increase your popularity.
Help you to win people to your way of thinking.
Increase your influence, prestige, and ability to get things done.
Enable you to win new clients and new customers.
Increase your earning power.
Make you a better salesman, a better executive.
Help you to handle complaints, avoid arguments, and keep your human contacts smooth and pleasant.
Make you a better speaker, a more entertaining conversationalist.
Make the principles of psychology easy for you to apply in your daily contacts.
Help you to arouse enthusiasm among your associates.
“Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends & Influence People is one of the best-selling self-help books of all time. The book has influenced many people, from Warren Buffett to Charles Manson.
Those two people, Buffet and Manson, really express the weirdness of Carnegie’s book and show that you can read in a couple of different ways, dividing the book’s two intentions far more than was initially intended.
While people like Buffett praise it for its management techniques, it’s also easy to see how one could use those same techniques for evil. Which is to say, depending on who you are, you can read Carnegie’s book in two distinct ways: to win friends or to influence people.
Which route you take can change your feelings about the book, yourself, and relationships.” (see article in Lifehacker)
Split Second, by David Baldacci
Two Secret Service agents sworn to guard those under their official protection lost them in a single moment. Michelle Maxwell, against her instincts, let a presidential candidate out of her sight for the briefest moment, supposedly alone with a widow in the locked and guarded room with a coffin. Still, the man whose safety was her responsibility vanished into thin air.
Eight years earlier, Secret Service agent Sean King allowed his attention to be diverted for a split second, and the candidate he was protecting was gunned down before his eyes.
Both Agents, Michelle and Sean, see their destinies converge as the latest loss takes place, and both of the discredited agents uncover a shocking truth. Their losses were planned long ago, are connected, and far from over.
Not a surprise is the storyline, plot, and action that holds our interest to the end.
Dangerous Habits by Susan Hunter →
A very talented author who crafted a plot with characters that held my interest from the beginning to the end. Her style for this series seems a lot like Dean Koontz or even Harlan Coben, and the surprise was I thought that her book was just as good as those authors so far. How could I have missed her with books dating backsix-pluss years?
Susan Hunter's profile: "Susan Hunter is a happy introvert who lives with her husband Gary, an extreme extrovert, in rural Michigan.
She spent some years as a reporter and then as the managing editor of a small daily newspaper. From there, Susan went on to work at a university in publications and marketing, where she honed her skills at appearing engaged in academic meetings while internally composing her grocery list. She also taught a few classes in English composition, that is, not in faking your way through meetings."
One False Move, Harlen Coben →
Harlan Coben delivers a plot that grabs hold of your attention and doesn’t let go. This is his fifth novel in his Myron Bolitar series. Brenda Slaughter, a beautiful basketball star with the New York Dolphins, is a client whose sports agent Myron wants to sign up but has a problem. Before signing her, he has to protect her from the threats she’s been getting and maybe even track down her missing parents. Myron agrees to protect basketball star Brenda Slaughter and is drawn into helping her find answers to the mystery of her life, and, no surprise, she falls in love with her.
Coben doesn’t disappoint with this story.
The Neighbor, by Dean Koontz →
Some may be put off by Dean Koontz’s different approach in this novella and in the book, "The City,” from which the characters in "The Neighbor" are taken. Just because this didn't seem like a Dean Koontz approach is no reason to punish him with a lower rating, and in fact, both plots work perfectly together and are well done. Koontz’s books are mostly the same, but the relevant point is that they are good. This one was also.
The book’s period is exciting and, again, well done. The ending of "The City" was unexpected, and the profile of the two supporting characters in their own story in "The Neighbor" fits the bigger story and seems to add to it.
The City, by Dean Koontz →
The City is a novel by Dean Koontz and is a different approach that we who are fans of this author are used to. Some may have felt it was slow and spent their time thinking about how different it was. It did take some time to get into but it was a story that pulled you in more and more as your read.
It is the story of Jonah Kirk, son of an exceptional singer and grandson of an great “piano man” and on his own way to becoming a “piano man”. We meet Jonah at 8 years old and follow him closely as he grows up. Years later in his fifties he writes us the story and says:
“The city change my life and showed me that the world is deeply mysterious. I need to tell you about her and some terrible things and wonderful things and amazing things that happened… and how I am still haunted by them. Including one night when I died and woke and lived again.
I enjoyed the city of the 50’s and 60’s and 70’s and the story and experienced a very different Dean Koontz
See more about Dean Koontz in Favorite Author Section
Don't Overthink It, by Anne Bogel →
“Don’t Overthink It: Make Easier Decisions, Stop Second-Guessing, and Bring More Joy to Your Life, tackles life problems of indecision and fear of making the wrong decision. She says that people spend their lives constantly overthinking their decisions believing they are just wired to do it that way.
Anne says that you overcome negative thought patterns that are repetitive, unhealthy, and unhelpful and replace them with positive thought patterns that will bring more peace, joy, and love intoyour lifef Heranswerrjustt toosayy no. No overthinking.
The book presents things you can do that can make an immediate difference and will free up energy consumed by overthinking. Her approaches are practically based on her own life experiences.
Overthinking about things isn't just a nuisance. It can take a severe toll on your well-being. Research says dwelling on your shortcomings, mistakes, and problems increases your risk of mental health problems.
More about Anne Bogel
Anne Bogel is also the author of Reading People, and I’d Rather Be Reading and is known for her Podcast, What Should I Read Next, and her blog Modern Mrs. Darcy.
