Got 90+ pages in before realizing I wasn't interested in any of the characters, all of whom seemed to be phoning in their appearance in the novel. Moving along.

When bad editing happens to good writers. #smh

"This was how a kind heart broke, after all; inward, making no shrapnel."

Her favorite series even though it's well below her reading ability. The look on her face says it all. It's just the way I feel when I come to the end of a great series. She has read it a thousand times this weekend.

"This was the velvet rope mothers offered: enough silence to make a noose with."

Is as fine a meditation on loss as it is a hard-ass-hard-boiled-reluctant-detective novel. You really do want to be on the ground floor of this new series, folks.

Family rule, now in its third generation: Want to see the movie? Then you must read the book first! Mission accomplished, and just as much fun to hear my grandchild read it as it was to hear my sons read it 30 years ago.

My former boss insisted I take this one; she never urged me to read something she didn't REALLY like. I'm really in the mood for a lighter read, but proximity is 90% of the decision to go ahead and start it.

Trust me. You need to read this. Don't ask; just DO.

A favorite for hammock Saturdays.

Scurrying to Google to research some locations and customs now that I've finished this one. I'm going to have to add the rest of my series to my TBR stack now. A real treat.

What a delight this was, and it makes me want to read so many of her novels again. The best memoirs are those in which an author not only reveals themselves but compels the reader to get to their own places of recollection and truth. This is a "best memoir."

I have loved, to some degree, every book she has written. This one didn't hold any appeal for me when it was published, and I just never read it. That said, I'm glad I put it on my list, and I'm delighted to say it now joins all her others on my favorites list. Do grab a hanky.

Is there a better moment when reading than that one which happens when you're expecting an old turn of phrase, but the author gives you something truly fresh instead?

I want the Minette Walters who wrote The Sculptress back.

I'm ready for a good creepy read. This seems promising. I loved Minette Walter's early novels and am hoping this has the punch that they did.

"The laughter. The kindness. The beauty. All of these things deserve to be spoken about." That is from the author's preface, and it is exactly what I need after finishing the last book i read.

This is how I had to read most of the novel. Writing my full review is going to be tough, but in a few words: I need to go take a walk and listen to the birds singing to remind myself that this was fiction. Terribly graphic violence but I was unable to stop reading.

There are more seriously whacked people in this book than there are at Republican debates this year.

It actually took me a little while to become fully engaged, but once I did every turn of the page brought another wonderful gift. A nearly perfectly rendered novel.

"You have minds...but minds are not to be trusted. Minds are always drifting toward ambiguity, toward questions, when what you really need is certainty. Purpose. Clarity. Do not trust your minds." This sort of screamed CURRENT EVENTS to me.

Shut. The. Door.

I always like a down and dirty cop story after a think-y book. This one come highly recommended. So far, so good.

I cannot read her books without lots of little pieces of paper at hand, to mark all the passages that sing out to me. This one requires some work on the behalf of the reader, but that work is not without great reward.

"So joy can be joy and sorrow can be sorrow, with neither of them casting either light or shadow on the other."