The Shadow Tracer by Meg Gardiner

 

This has been a pretty good week for me with my book choices.  I read a lot and most books are OK, but forgettable.  I don't review the romances I read because I am kind of embarrassed that I actually enjoy them.  I like most books with a plot that isn't too farfetched and characters that I like and don't want to see killed by Dexter. ( If I ever hope for Dexter to show up and just kill these people and get it over with, I know it is time to read something else.)  I enjoy them and then move on to the next book.  This week I really liked the Jim Gaffigan book, Dad Is Fat...note to Jim, don't let your kid name the next book.  But the best book I have read in a long time is The Shadow Tracer by Meg Gardiner.

I love a good murder mystery or suspense book and this one had it all.  It was full of danger and kept you riveted the whole way through.  There was danger for a woman.  Danger for her child.  Danger for her friend and even her friend's mother.  Shew!

Shortly into the book, skip tracer Sarah Keller has to go to the emergency room.  Her young daughter, Zoe, was in a school bus accident.  Her slight head injury meant she had to be X-rayed and they find a chip in her back.  An RFID chip like you would put in a dog or cat to be reunited in case it got lost.  This one can be read like a bar code and it lists her parents.  Sarah Keller is not listed and the game is on.

What the hospital staff doesn't know, and Sarah doesn't have time to tell them, is that Zoe's grandfather is the imprisoned, but still powerful head of a religious cult.  A religious cult that practices polygamy among the young girls for the leaders and funds itself through criminal activity. This includes making meth and blowing up the odd Federal Building and judges with whom they disagree.   They have enforcers who have no problem killing anyone the head of the Worthe family sends them after.  Zoe's mother was killed and Sarah is her aunt and has been in hiding for years.

To quote an FBI agent in the book, "Worthe is the head of a criminal family that extends across four Western states.  He has enthusiastically practiced stealing, bearing false witness, coveting his neighbor's wife and killing."  Worthe is " the self -proclaimed prophet of the Fiery Branch of the New Covenant.  The Worthe's are white trash mafia who got a bad dose of God.  They're the twenty-first century's version of moonshiners, but more violent and egomaniacal."

This one small incident alerts the FBI and the U. S. Marshall Service, in addition to the Worthe family.  The FBI wants Sarah and Zoe to use as bait to lure the Worthe family into attempting to grab Zoe to get access to the information embedded in her chip.   Then they will finally get the evidence they need to put them away.  The Marshall's Service may want to protect Sarah and Zoe, but there is some ulterior motives in there, too.  You aren't sure if they will help her or use her for most of the book.

Sarah grabs a bag packed at all times, in case of emergency, and goes on the run.  Her skip tracer boss, Danisha,  gets pretty mad when the Worthe "Angels" try to use her mother to force her to reveal information about Sarah.  And she joins in.

The action is fast paced and you don't get a lot of down time when you can put the book down and eat a meal or get some sleep.  So start early on a rainy day when you won't get anything done anyway.  I liked the believable characters and the cross country chase and the final showdown.  Twice!

And then read Gaffigan for a laugh.

Dueling Books

I am currently reading two books.  I don't usually do that because how hard is it to finish one and then read the other?  I guess it makes sense if you are doing research and looking at a bit of information here and there.  But for a novel just read it and go on.

I am a wee bit ashamed to acknowledge that I read romance books.  I actually prefer books with intrigue and a bit of romance over strictly romance.  I used to read only mysteries and then I migrated over to romance.  Now I go back and forth with a few biographies and other non-fiction thrown in.  If I had to analyze it I would say that I like the completed circle of a mystery.  Real life is much more messy and more likely to end badly.  I can get that in the news.  So a good mystery or romance finds the bad guy caught or the good guy with the girl and that is satisfying, somehow.

                                   

Don't ask me why I am reading Darkly Dreaming Dexter.  He is not as good guy.  He is a sociopath who enjoys killing people.  And yet he is the protagonist that you find yourself, in some weird way, hoping will prevail.  I don't even enjoy "caper" books or movies because I DON"T want them to get away with it.

We recently went on a long car trip with our two daughters.  Tara brought along two seasons of Dexter from Showtime to use in the DVD player behind my head.   It was rather strange to drive along listening to people being murdered or the planning of a murder.  And strangely compelling.  I wouldn't say that I am hooked and I don't have Showtime, but I did check out the book from the library to see how it differed from the series.

If you are unfamiliar with the book or the series, it is basically about a pleasant young man who has a need to kill people.  He was adopted as a small child by a policeman father who had rescued him from some unknown childhood trauma.  His father recognized early on that Dexter had some emotional issues after finding pet graveyards of the neighborhood animals that annoyed him.  He went about giving Dexter rules for who he could kill and how to get away with it.  I imagine that there are some cops that wish they could go after criminals that they know are guilty, but can't legally prove it. Dexter grows up to be a blood splatter expert for a police department which hones his skills in escaping detection.

This doesn't sound like a nice guy, but, like I said, he is strangely compelling.  Granted, the Showtime version has a slightly more likable Dexter than the book. 

                                   

I have Dog On It by Spencer Quinn loaded on my Nook.  I bought it some time ago, but have put off reading it.  I like to keep purchased books for an emergency, like a trip where I run out of library books.  I also use it to read at night when I can't sleep.  My Nook has a light so that I don't have to wake Lee to read.  So I have been reading Dexter during the day and Dog On It at night.  I need a break from the darkness that is Dexter and I am really enjoying the Quinn book.

Dog On It is the first in a series about a private detective, Bernie and his dog, Chet.  The story is told from the dogs' perspective.  Chet was almost a police dog, until a CAT ruined his final exam.  He hates cats.  He will start to narrate some part of the ongoing investigation and then get sidetracked by a Cheeto under a chair.  Dust and dirt don't interfere with his enjoyment of a wee snack.  Once he discovered a long lost portion of a burned hot dog.  After consuming it he felt kind of funny so he deposited it on the patio.  He felt MUCH better after that. 

Chet sometimes barks like Lassie to alert Bernie and then he barks like every dog to enjoy the bark.  I am enjoying Chet and will have to order the rest of the series.  I'm not so sure I will read more of Dexter.  It is a little too dark for me.

Video Nightmare

Well, nightmare is a bit dramatic.  I have both of our horses for sale and listed on Dreamhorse.com.  There are pictures of them, but I have been asked to get some video for Claire.  This will help to determine if it will be worth the potential buyer driving to see her.  There are a few people waiting to see Libby when the trainer gets back from vacation.

I am not a technology wizard.  I know how to use the computer for email and this blog.  I can do searches and keep an Excel file.    Then I can....Nope.  That's about it.  I just got a"smart phone"  and it is obviously smarter than I am.  I even took a class, but I am not prepared for anything beyond the basics.

 I have spent most of an entire day taking the video and then sending the video.  Granted the taking of the video was only about an hour. 

I tried to send it from the phone and it "told" me that the file was too large.  I tried to email it from the phone and was told the same thing.  Then I tried to plug the phone in to the computer and send it by email.  The computer wanted to download software.  After quite some time I was told to load the disc with the software. Huh?  I don't got no stinkin' disc!

We went online to the Samsung site.  The phone is too new to have the software available.

Then I tried to download to YouTube.  The 4 second piece loaded.  The longer one did not.  So now Claire has 4 seconds on Youtube. 


So now I am going to try to load it here on my blog. Here goes nothing.

And nothing it is.  I tried my camera and my "smarty pants" phone.  Neither will load.  I am not an idiot.  I can follow prompts.  But I can't get this freaking piece of...I can't get it to load.  Don't bother clicking on any arrows.  There is  nothing there.  Sorry. 

I am officially too tired to deal with this any more.  I am going to channel Annie and think that the sun will come out tomorrow and THEN I will be able to figure this out.  If not I will channel Dexter and then look out world.