The Floating Hotel is the Abeona, a spaceship hotel touring the galaxy. It's definitely light on technology. The Abeona itself is rather retro, with lots of wood and paper and pneumatic tubes There seems to be only one woman on the maintenance team and we never really know many details of how the ship works, just that it does and has been doing so for decades.
Every chapter in Floating Hotel is written from a new character's POV. Most of them are staff or returning regulars, and each has a past, or purpose, that has led them to the hotel. We learn their backstories and see how they spend their days. The stories and characters gradually build a picture of the vibrant life on the hotel, while weaving in a few mysteries as the plot meanders along.
I enjoyed the book, right up until the end. I wish the mystery portion could have somehow worked out differently or maybe been worked through...
Dream Town, the fifth in the Eve Ronin series, is largely set in Hidden Hills in Los Angeles County, and a gated community with wealthy residents and plenty of horse trails. When reality show star Kitty Winslow is killed in her home there and bones are found in the state park adjacent to the community, homicide detective Eve Ronin and her partner Duncan Pavone get both cases. At the same time, the television show about a fictional version of Eve is filming in the area which is creating a bit of havoc and conflict. I do think this is a series best read from the beginning. Eve is not well-liked around the department due to events covered in the earlier books and you'll have a better understanding of her family tensions.
Duncan and Eve make a good team. Eve is focused and ambitious. She's hard-working and has good instincts that often drive the plot. Dunc, who has delayed his retirement, knows...
Gated Prey is a popcorn book for me. It's the kind of book that seems like a mystery/action movie or tv show. I mean that as a good thing. It's action-packed and the setting and characters are described well.
Eve and Duncan are on an undercover sting operation, trying to catch some home invaders. The sting goes wrong and all three of the perpetrators end up dead. While still investigating the robberies and whether there was an accomplice, they get called to what should be a routine stillbirth in another of the gated communities, but it turns out to be much more complicated. For once, the two mysteries are not actually connected. Gated Prey is the third in the series and I would recommend reading them in order. Eve's background and previous cases definitely affect what's going on here and even though they're mentioned, you'll have a better idea of what's going on in the background if you've read the others...
At heart, Lost Hills is a police procedural. Eve is new to the homicide division, having been promoted more due to sway public opinion than because of her actual skills. This is her first major case and it has the potential to make her a star or to go terribly awry. The crime is gruesome, and a lot more bloody than most books I read.
Eve is tough and intelligent. She knows fate threw her a good turn with the new job and she's determined to prove she belongs. She's no-nonsense and super dedicated. She's paired with an older detective who is close to retirement. He provides some of the funnier moments, but he also supports her when it seems reasonable, lends his experience and authority to the investigation, and reminds her to do things like eat and sleep. He believes in balancing life and the job, which is an example she clearly needs.
This is police work that doesn't...
I recently read The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad about spies and violence and politics and it was very good. Killer Thriller is not "good" in the same way, but it is fun and funny and over the top, and it knows it. This is the second in the series and although it works as a stand-alone, the first one is a blast, so I'd read it first.
Ian Ludlow writes cheesy thrillers and one is being turned into a movie. He and his assistant Margo head to Hong Kong to participate in some of the publicity surrounding the shooting and to do some research for the novel he's working on. The problem: once again Ian's plot, although outrageous, is too close to reality for him to be safe. This time, his story's about how the Chinese government is planning a coup of the U.S.A using sleeper agents in high government positions and the surveillance technology that they have hidden in...
I originally picked up True Fiction as a Kindle First for free, but decided I'd rather listen to it, so ended up picking up the Audible version for $1.99. I've enjoyed the Fox and O'Hare series Goldberg writes with Janet Evanovich, but had never read anything else by him. I'm glad I took a (cheap) chance. True Fiction was a fun read, a bit over the top, in a good way.
Ian Ludlow writes a thriller series featuring an assassin named Clint Straker. True Fiction includes snippets of the Clint Straker novels and they are perfect- cheesy clichés. I love that Goldberg is poking fun at the thriller genre while writing one. Years ago, Ludlow and several other authors participated in a weekend where the CIA asked them to come up with disasters, in theory so that the government can be prepared for the worst. But now, the scenario Ludlow came up with has happened, and a bunch of people are dead. Turns...
