Until Proven Guilty by JA Jance

Finished on 22Nov.

More dead kids. This is the first of the J.P. Beaumont stories. I knew I had read it, and even remembered some of the back story. I just didn't remember that all of that happened in the first book. It was sort of like watching the first episode of "Hill Street Blues" when it finally came out on DVD. The events and story lines that I thought ran the entire first season all opened in that first episode.

Beaumont is one of those depressed cop characters and, as I recall - which may not be the way the series develops at all, he gets more depressed as time goes on. Which at some point has him drying out at a spa in Arizona and encountering Sheriff Joanna Brady - I think, maybe ---

I guess Jance may have to be my next big reread. With all three series, there are a bunch of them.

Bones are Forever by Kathy Reichs

Finished on 21Nov.

Tempe is called to the scene of the discovery of a fairly recently dead newborn infant, and it goes exponential when, on a hunch, they search the apartment and find two older infant bodies. And from there, they follow a trail of dead infants across the frozen northern wastelands. Cheery, but as always from Reichs, a great read.

The truly depressing bit is that this is the most recent one. Not only had I not read it before - there aren't any more yet.

"O" is for Outlaw by Sue Grafton

Finished on 19Nov.

The outlaw in question is Kinsey's first ex-husband, ex-cop Mickey Macgruder. Seems like her second ex was dealt with several volumes ago.

Sadly, these are becoming less memorable as we go along. The vehicle for reconnecting with ex-1 was clever, though. A guy whose sideline during the off-season for roofing is scavenging storage lockers finds a box of Kinsey's belongings in an abandoned locker and sells it to her. There isn't any particularly clear reason while she hunts up good ol' Mickey, however.

Web of Evil by JA Jance

Finished on 16Nov.

I'm glad that somewhere down the line Jance abandons the "Something of Evil" titles; they really make me cringe.

Ali returns to LA for the formal divorce proceedings. After all, her husband's fiancee is perilously close to delivery - in fact, their wedding is scheduled for the day after the divorce is finalized. Unfortunately, murder intervenes and Ali is left a widow instead of a divorcee.

I believe that after this, Ali gets to do her investigating in Arizona.

Edge of Evil by JA Jance

Finished on 15Nov.

The first one of Jance's Ali Reynolds books. Jance has three series with quite different detectives. The first ones I ran into were the Beaumont books about a Seattle cop. Then the Joanna Brady books about an Arizona sheriff. And now these. I'm not sure about the order of writing - maybe she switches around for variety.

In this one Ali has been summarily dumped from her job as a news anchor, and by her husband one of whose hobbies has become pregnant. To add to her distress, an old friend of hers is dead, apparently a suicide. So she packs up, leaves LA, and heads back to Sedona, Arizona, to check into the circumstances of her friend's death.

Deadly Stakes by JA Jance

Finished on 14Nov.

I had started this when I had to reboot my computer - and forgot that I had been working on this file group - and had not saved. Sad, and an ironic event because I had just been commenting that although it was less than three weeks ago that I read this - and I had enjoyed it enough to "run" to Amazon and buy the first two books in the series, which I also enjoyed - I remembered nothing about the story. I am sure that is significant in some way. Or perhaps it is simply my ability to forget all about a whodunit, which allows me to reread it.

High Stakes by Dick Francis

Finished on 11Nov.

This has always been one of my favorites along with a much later one - Shattered. Both feature creative geniuses, this one a designer of mechanical toys and the other an artist working with hot glass.

Steven Scott has made a fortune from his line of mechanical toys and has graduated to big boy toys for himself - in the form of race horses and racing. The story opens as he fires his trainer for systematically cheating him. The opening irony is that Steven has discovered that Jody Leeds, his trainer, has a clever little number going in gambling scams, and when he confronts Jody with cheating him - Jody inadvertently gives away the fact that he has been cheating him on supplies and services. And even that turns out to be only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.