Gone is the latest suspense thriller by Lisa Gardner.

After reading Alone, I was expecting a simliar experience. I didn’t get it.

Not that an author should be tied to writing one style of novel, mind you.

But I do ask that at least the book be entertaining. And Gone wasn’t quite as entertaining as Alone. The middle of the book sags a bit and while there is some suspense, it’s not quite the page-turner that Alone was. Part of it may be that the story often descends into predictability, thus ruining much of the drama since I guessed what was happening next and where things were going.

A New Frontier novel by Peter David is, in general, a good bet. My only problem with them—we only get a new installment once a year and I find myself having to slow down and savor the book, instead of consuming it all in one gulp like I’d love to do.

The story picks up right after After the Fall left off. It’s still three years later and we’re slowly filling in details of what happened during those three years. David deftly balanced four separate plot threads, bringing each of the stories together in a satisfying way in the last third of the book. Along the way, David makes some stunning changes to the New Frontier universe. I won’t say exactly what they are, but I will hint there are stunning, jaw-dropping and series changing. And the ending while not a literal cliffhanger did leave me looking around, hoping there was more book hidden in the last few blank pages before the binding.

Peppered with David’s typical humor and off-beat characters, After the Fall shows exactly why the New Frontier series is the best thing happening in Trek publishing today. Every book is great and worth the wait. But Mr. David, could you please have the next one come out, oh, let’s say tomorrow. I’ll be first in line for the next one.

For the first time, I find myself coming away from a Minette Walters mystery disappointed.

The Echo has an intriguing central mystery but it’s just not well explored. Or maybe it’s that the plot works too hard to tie some things together and connect two mysteries together. Either way, there are large chunks of the story that just tread water and don’t add or subtract from the central mystery. It’s not a page-turner like The Shape of Snakes or Fox Evil and there’s not any one character you latch onto and enjoy learning more about like in those books. Overall, it was pretty disappointing.

Essential is right. This is 20 plus issues from the early days of Peter Parker’s adventures as Spider-Man and some of the best. The storytelling by Stan Lee, the art by Steve Ditko…it’s all here and it’s all great. Memorable villians, fun stories, great artwork. This is a must-read for any Spidey-fan. I had a great time reliving old memories of the days I read these as re-prints in Marvel Tales.

I’m not a fan of the Baltimore Ravens. So for this book to make me actually care about and like some of the Ravens players and coaches is quite the accomplishment.

John Feinstein takes us inside an entire season with an NFL team. We get to see behind the scenes of the 2004 season with the Ravens from the last days of the 2003 season to the last loss of the ‘04 campaign. Feinstein hit paydirt in ‘04 since the Ravens had several off-the-field dramas take place including the T.O. situation, Deion coming back and the court case against Jamal Lewis.

It’s an interesting book that shows you the fine line between winning and losing in the NFL.

If you love the NFL, read this book—despite Feinstein’s obvious bias against my beloved Redskins, about whom he has no kind words. Come on, John! Get over it and be a bit less biased!

One thing most Enterprise fans can agree on—it ended too soon. Just as it was getting good and delivering on the promise of the series, it was cut down.

Oh well, I figured. Given how well Pocket has done with the New Frontier novels and the DS9 relaunch, I figured they might do some great things with the Enterprise novels.

Which is why I picked up Rosetta.

Also, I have enjoyed Dave Stern’s other Enterprise novels. They’re not Peter David great, but they’re solid and enjoyable.

I wish I could say that about Rosetta. What could have been a fascinating look at the underutilized character of Hoshi instead turns into a bad book full of Trek cliches. It even goes so far as to have a major character “die” halfway through when we all know he or she can’t really be dead. This makes the second half of the book frustrating becuase the emotion and rage the crew feels at the death of the character is hollow since we all know he or she will come back by book’s end. And when I can guess some of the twists a mile away and the crew doesn’t see them, it doesn’t help much either.

So, if you’re an Enterprise fan looking for a fix, I’d suggest saving up the money for the DVDs. This ain’t gonna help.

It’s hard to talk about The Motive without giving away too much of the mystery in the book. But I’ll do my best.

A house fire in San Francicso of a wealthy man and his fiancee turns out to be arson and murder. Seems the man was marrying a younger woman and planning to write the children out of his will. The prime suspect in the case is his daughter-in-law, Barbara, who is also having martial difficulties. In fact, she went and confronted the father about the will the day of the fire and was at the scene as the house burned.

She’s soon under suspicion and becomes the prime suspect.

Things aren’t helped when the mayor’s office intervenes and tries to put a different investigator on the crime since the deceased was a big campaign contributor.

The story is deceiving. It takes you one way only to change and go back another as the investigation deepens and the layers of the mystery are slowly unravelled. To say more is to give away the last half of the book and the twist at the end, which is not that unexpected really given the hints dropped in the first half. But the mystery itself does sustain the story and the novel is populated by characters who are interesting, compelling and will keep you interested.

Most of us know Wil Wheaton as the writer kid from Stand By Me or Wesley Crusher from the early seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation. After he left TNG to pursue a film career, Wheaton seemed to fall off the map, but now he’s back, with a successful weblog and a career as a writer.

Just a Geek is the story of the transition from struggling actor to writer that Wheaton made. It’s candid, it’s enlightening and it’s unflinchingly honest. We watch as Wheaton makes peace with his decision to leave Star Trek, we see his inner struggles to find a job to help support his family, we get a look inside the mind of Wil Wheaton. Wheaton pulls no punches and puts himself fully on display for the world to see. He may be just Just a Geek, but he’s a human being and after reading this, you may see Wesley Crusher in a new light.

This is a great book and one I recommend to anyone who feels lost in your life’s search or was just a fan of Wheaton’s work on TNG. Even if you hated Wesley, give this book a try and I think you might be surprised by the man behind the uniform.

Greg Iles doesn’t write formula thrillers and he seems to not be content to write the same novel twice. And that’s a good thing. Each of the three books by Iles that I’ve read have all been different and brilliant in their own way.

We come now to Blood Memory that’s one part serial killer novel and one part pyschological thriller. Iles’s first-person narrator this time is Cat. Cat works with the New Orleans P.D. from time to time, offering up her expertise on dental matters. She is involved with a married man and expecting his child—part of a pattern of being involved with older, married men. Cat is also in a cat and mouse game with an old professor who hints he may know more about her past the night her father was murdered than she knows. Over the course of the book, Cat becomes relentless in finding the truth about the serial killer she is investigation and the truth about her own past.

Neither is pretty.

Iles pulls no punches. Just as you start to feel safe and secure, he pulls the rug out. I will say that some of the middle third of the book gets a bit repetitive but you can understand why in the conext of what is happening to Cat as a character. Iles tells the story well and never seems explotative of his material.

Political blogger Wonkette realizes the dream of many bloggers—professional publication.

After reading Jessica Cutler’s The Washingtontienne, I was wary of another book by a blogger about Washington politics. But as a blogger I felt somehow obligated to read this one and give it a fair shake. I approached it when an open mind and hoped for the best.

And it’s not bad. It’s actually suprisingly good. Well written and there is some deft satire in here. Sure, some of the characters are a bit one-dimensional at times but it’s not making you want to scream at the book and throw at the walls in disguist bad like a certain other book. It’s quick, fun and entertaining read.