Darling Downs Book Review E-group

Title: The Body Farm
Author: Patricia D. Cornwell
ISBN 0751512214

A small God fearing town is shocked by the murder of 11 year old, Emily Steiner who was taken from her room and later dumped near the local pond. With parts of her death similar to Temple Gault's murder of a little boy in Viginia, it is believed that he may be in town and involved in this girls murder.

Dr. Kay Scarpetta, is overwhelmed as she faces the realisation of not knowing what her niece, Lucy. When Lucy comes under suspicion about a break-in at ERF. With the added stress of things in the Emily Steiner case not working out and then the death of an officer involved in the case and the heart attack of another, relationships come under tension.

It is only a matter of time to see if Dr. Scarpetta will be able to save her friend from danger, or will she be too late?

A great crime fiction book that will pull at your heart strings and prick your curiosity and want more from Patricia Cornwell. You will not want to put this book down, and if you are familiar with Patricia Cornwell's work, you will understand why it is a great read.

Dr. Kay Scarpetta is the original CSI and NYPD Blue in one.

Rating: 4.5/5

Labels: Crime, suspense

Title: Night-Time Is My Time
Author: Mary Higgins Clark
ISBN: 074320607X

A small community brought together to celebrate its successful class at a twenty year reunion is rocked by disappearances, murders and deaths.
The story follows four main players:
*Jake Perkins - the pesky reporter from the school paper, who dreams of breaking into the New York Post;
*Sam Deegan - an old time police detective, on the verge of retirement;
*Dr. Jean Sheridan - an academic and honoree at the reunion, and trying to save her daughter whom she adopted out 19 1/2 years ago; and
*The Owl - someone who for the past twenty years has been murdering anyone close to Dr. Sheridan, and other random victims.

Mary Higgins Clark establishes each character, sometimes it is painfully slow. But it is due to this brings these characters to life and believeable in the problems they face.
From school yard taunts to power people, the honorees from Stonecroft had become successful. For twenty years, the girls that sat at Jean Sheridan's table at lunchtime, had started ending up dead. There were only Jean and Laura, a successful but currently broke blonde actress, left alive at that table. Jake Perkins is the first to notice the order in which these girls/women had died. Sam Deegan, feels uneasy about these deaths and his unsolved case from 2o years ago.
As the story progresses, it becomes frantic in pace, a real page turner until the very end. The climax peaks at just the right moment and gently ebbs to the conclusion and what has happened since. Although the beginning leaves a bit of wanting, a bit of excitment to liven it up a bit. However, Mary Higgins Clark has done an A class job in keeping you guessing who the Owl is. With everyones point of view acknowledged similar to the 1994 classic of Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction style editting. Mary Higgins Clark transport you into the mind and life of her characters, making you feel what they feel and think what they think.

If you are a fan of thrillers and who-dunit, then this book would have to be in your book collection, or borrowed out on your library card.

Rating: 4/5

Labels: suspense, thriller