Ocean City Free Public Library Book Blog

     Paul Tremblay's writing is propelling, it's a heightened ride from beginning to end. For me, it's a challenge to continually read his books as they plunder into my deepest fears, in this case, a viral infection spreading from animal to human. They are all too real, and the small community in which this story takes place could be the one you or I live in, this could happen to you (or me). Do not look at the length of time it took me to read this (10 days) and determine it could not have been good, look at the time it took me to read this and know that every third chapter or so, I HAD to put it down because my anxiety was so heightened by the events therein that I was constantly on the verge of panic. It's that good, Tremblay is that good.      If you've never read him and this book hasn't released yet (July 7, 2020) add it to your TBR and pick up his book  Cabin at the End of the World . Another amazing apocalyptic read about a home in...

      Night Film by Marisha Pessl follows the story of disgraced journalist Scott McGrath as he attempts to unravel the mystery behind the death of the daughter of an enigmatic horror film director, Stanislas Cordova. To solve the mystery of Ashley Cordova's death, McGrath must also unravel the mystery of Stanislas Cordova himself--an endevour previously undertaken by McGrath, which resulted in the loss of both his marriage and his career. In his attempt to expose Cordova, McGrath enters " a hypnotic, disorientating world, where almost everyone seems afraid " ( Goodreads ). ***       If, during the course of this novel, you begin to experience a very faint case of déjà vu , you wouldn't be alone. The descriptions of Stanislas Cordova and the films for which he is famous in this novel, are a bizarre hybrid of Alfred Hitchcock meets Orson Wells; a deliberate choice on the part of Pessl, I believe, in order to allow the reader to be able to ...

      The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (pseudonym of J.K. Rowling) is the second in a mystery/suspense thriller series featuring Cormoran Strike, an young English military veteran turned private eye after a significant wartime injury resulted in the loss of one of his legs, and Robin Ellacott, Strike's secretary, assistant, and detective-in-training.  The plot of the book picks up not very long after the conclusion of the first novel in the series (The Cuckoo's Calling ), with Strike's private investigative services seeing a rise in business following his minor celebrity status due to his successful resolution of the Lula Landry case (the main plot of The Cuckoo's Calling) . Strike is hired by the wife of a formerly prominent author with the job of finding said formerly prominent author who has gone missing. The novel follows Strike's investigation into the disappearance of Owen Quine, and as a result gets drawn into the cutthroat (sometimes li...

The final novel in Larsson's trilogy is just as action packed as its 2 predecessors. Hacker genius Lisbeth Salander is stuck in the hospital after being shot and buried alive while on the outside, governmental agencies, police officers and ex spies are all pissed that she can't just DIE already. And so, they continue to plot even worse things against Lisbeth once she eventually does recover. Lisbeth's main defender against all evil-doers is journalist Mikael Blomkvist. The extremely interesting thing about this novel is that it is so fast paced despite the fact that the heroine is in the hospital 95% of the time. What's even better is that the action is completely believable - no one is jumping off of buildings or setting bombs off; everyone actually uses their brain and nothing more advanced than a computer. Larsson (who unfortunately died before finishing the complete saga) provides a very satisfying conclusion to his trilogy.

Off of Amazon's website: This debut thriller--the first in a trilogy from the late Stieg Larsson. Mikael Blomkvist, a once-respected financial journalist, watches his professional life rapidly crumble around him. Prospects appear bleak until an unexpected (and unsettling) offer to resurrect his name is extended by an old-school titan of Swedish industry. The catch--and there's always a catch--is that Blomkvist must first spend a year researching a mysterious disappearance that has remained unsolved for nearly four decades. With few other options, he accepts and enlists the help of investigator Lisbeth Salander, a misunderstood genius with a cache of authority issues. Ordinarily, I'm not a fan of thrillers or many mysteries, but I've got to be honest - this was a riveting read. Though the pacing is a little slow to start with, once Larsson gets the ball rolling, the momentum is nearly breakneck fast. All of the characters are clearly multi-dimensional and incredibly smar...

Quicksand By Iris Johansen In keeping with my interest in murder (reading about it, not committing it) I always enjoy reading Johansen's books. The main character in this series is Eve Duncan a forensic sculptor who's continuously looking to find her missing daughter. In this book she's being taunted by a scumbag claiming to have killed her daughter and luring her to him in order to hurt her. By Eve's side is her steady guy Joe Quinn an Atlanta detective ( but he never seems to work much) helping along the way is Luis Montalvo who, if your a fan of this series knows, wants to jump Eve's bones. Along for the grim but exciting ride is Megan Blair a psychic, kind of. I loved the book, was a little slow near the beginning, but stick with it . It picks up quite a bit and by the end you'll be staying up all night reading. I won't give the ending away , but even I was a little surprised. My only regret was that the book was done. Now I'll have to wait for anot...

This book falls into the category where you just WISH they'd make a movie out of it even though it probably would be lousy because the scenes wouldn't match up exactly with what's in your head. At any rate, Secret History is a lengthy thriller about a group of friends who attend a small college in Vermont and wind up murdering someone within their circle (I promise I'm not ruining anything, you find out who dies on the very first page). All of them are incredibly intelligent and highly interested in Classics. One night, they partake in a crazy Dionysian ritual and things just go downhill from there...Let's just say that people with big mouths are silenced in more ways than one. Though there was an awful lot of "academic" talk spread throughout the novel (think classics and ancient Greek philosophy), Tartt still manages to create a taut and suspenseful read. Some readers might object to the rampant drug and alcohol use, but it actually helps to captur...