Books catch up

Time to log the books piling up  here that I've read, so I can donate them to the annual Curves book sale to support our local library.  There are a couple more, but for tonight  here are four.

"The Collectors"  by David Baldacci published in 2006, was my latest Baldacci read, completed on our RV trip west.  How Baldacci twists and melds  divergent plots so that the interwoven interesting characters keep me on the edge of the pages, always amazes me. In this dual different tales, the first centered on deaths in the Library of Congress' antique book section involving librarians and collectors of  famous old antique  books and  the second a very upscale con artist, Amanda Conroy and her troupe of merry men who avenge her con-father's death on one of Atlantic  cities top dogs by bilking him out of  more than $40 million.  It's a fascinating read how these two settings with unique  characters meet and become responsible  for unraveling a plot of selling top US secrets to unfriendlies. Oliver Stone, alias of a man who has been with special forces and intrigue services internationally for America  but who now works as a caretaker in  a cemetery although still maintaining his skills in security and resolution and who with Milton Farb, Reuben Rhodes and Caleb Shaw  forms the Camel club, an informal watchdog organization to keep the US government accountable to the people.  When Caleb, who's a librarian at the  Library of Congress discovers his mentor dead and is named  by the will to assess and oversee sale of the dead man's antique priceless book collection, the Camel Club becomes involved.  It's a must read  for those who like mystery, intrigue and characters, all Baldacci traits.  This novel though has one of those endings that assure purchase of the next novel, as the wronged Atlantic city mobster is left coming after Amanda who has now partnered with the Camels.  Gotta see what happens in that novel which is likely already published by this prolific author.  Baldacci books never disappoint me.

"Chill Factor" by Sandra Brown is another typical Brown with good twists.  Women are missing in the way back mountain town of Cleary, North Carolina.  Lily Martin has divorced Dutch Burton, now sheriff of the sleepy town and returned to clear all her belongings from their cabin.  On her way down the  mountain pass, in a violent snow ice storm,  her car skids   and strikes a man, Ben Tierney as he comes out from the woods.  They end up returning to her cabin together to wait until the blizzard subsides.  She begins to suspect that Ben may be involved int he murders of the missing women.  Meantime the roads are closed and Dutch, her ex-husband tries desperately to reach her as they fear  that she is about to become the next victim.  Another good one by Sandra Brown.

"The Coffin Quilt" by Ann Rinaldi is an unlikely  little book I picked up in Paducah, KY at the quilt museum.  It fascinated me because of the title and that it was about the Hatfields and McCoys, of Appalachian feudin' fame.  Told mostly through the memories of Fanny McCoy whose sister Roseanna runs off with young Johnse Hatfield, the book introduces  the  family members, their trials  over the years of hatred between these two clans  from 1878 through 1889 and the  terrible destruction of families.  It's a historical novel  and one I'd not have picked up if not for the setting.   The Coffin quilt is made by women as a genealogy with names of the family members   moved into coffins as they die.   It's an ok little quick read, nothing to rave about.

"The Prometheus Deception" by Robert Ludlum had been on my to read shelf a long time, the paperback published in 2000 and I am glad I finally  read it.  I have never been disappointed in Ludlum when it comes to spy, thrillers.  This one is no exception.  After a long successful career as a spy, Nick Bryson  is living an anonymous ordinary life as a college professor in western Pennsylvania until he is lured back into the  spy world of intrigue.  The twist is, was the Directorate, where he  had been employed,  an agency superior to the CIA, or was it a Russian front, and is it now an international conspiracy agent?  This kept me reading until late hours.  Where does the deception end?  He is led to  a mighty undercover operation, Prometheus,  that will reveal the truth to his past and possible terror for the future.  A great intrigue!