#71 The Perfect Affair: Jessie Hunt #7 by Blake Pierce Jessie deals with her half-sister Hannah while solving a murder that unravels corruption in the DA's office and the upper police ranks and makes another new enemy in the doing of it.
#72 Freakonomics: The Hidden Side of Everything by Steven Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner How economic analysis reveals some startling ideas, many of which have drawn severe professional critique. Is it really possible - or even likely -that at least one major factor contributing to the reduction in crime in the 1990s was the legalization of abortion in 1973?
#73 On Writing by Stephen King Talks about writing - his own process and how we might do it - his life, his near-death when struck by a van while walking down a narrow road in rural Maine, thoughts on life and living it. Interesting peek into this best-selling author's psyche.
#74 The Reckoning by John Grisham In rural Georgia in 1947, a decorated WW2 vet walks into a local pastor's office and shoots him dead. Not Grisham's usual legal procedural, but compelling and has a twist ending. I was kinda fooled.
#75 Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove 21st-century white supremacists travel back through time to give the Confederate States of America AK-47s so they can win the American Civil War and retain slavery. Things don't go as anyone plans. Fun alternate history. This was Turtledove's first published novel, and it turned into a successful trilogy. Fascinating story of people in the Union and the Confederacy who are trying to do the right thing for their countries.
#76 The Guardians by John Grisham Former lawyer turned Episcopal priest now works to free the innocent from prison. Compelling legal procedural combined with a complex but understandable plot about South American drug cartels and corrupt law officers at multiple levels and locations. A tense and satisfying read.
#77 The Perfect Alibi: Jessie Hunt #8 by Blake Pierce Jessie investigates a murder, but a meeting request from a killer she put away, a hacked Facebook account with horribly offensive content, and a harassment campaign she's sure is being orchestrated from prison by her ex-husband distracts her from her main focus, which of course is risking her life to solve the crime and catch the murderer.
#78 The Perfect Neighbor: Jessie Hunt #9 by Blake Pierce Jessie gets involved with a serial strangler, a case which envelops her boyfriend Ryan, younger sister Hannah, and ex-husband Kyle, with overtones from drug cartels and the murder of her profiler mentor Garland Moses. Jessie comes close to death again but barely escapes again - just not unscathed.
#79 The Star Beast by Robert Heinlein Juvenile SF about a centuries-old creature John Thomas Stuart thinks is his pet Lummox. Lummie, though, thinks he (or she, or something else - the Hrooshii have six apparent genders) has spent all this time raising John Thomases. It's a fun youth-oriented adventure which sneaks in an advanced primer on diplomacy and the value of bureaucracy when good people are in the right jobs.
#80 The Perfect Disguise: Jessie Hunt #10 by Blake Pierce Guess I like this series. Jessie's mentor is dead, she killed her ex-husband in self-defense, her little sister is injured, her boyfriend is in ICU, and she's been beat up again. She had enough pain and stress and decides to quit the LAPD to go back to teaching, but a desperate call from her old police captain brings her back for one more dangerous case. The victim is a screaming diva actress who was strangled on her movie set after hours. It's a deep dive into the slightly crazy world of Hollywood and the peripheral nonsense that goes along with it.
