Good Gladys ( Embrace the Dead ) by Martin Renaud

A murder mystery with a psychic twist. 

News reports that the famous psychic Good Gladys is missing coincide with the brutal stabbing of her business manager. Gladys's daughter Dara asks an old friend, private investigator Byrne Aase, to help find the murderer. She claims that the man the police have in custody is innocent. In fact, she believes that the accused is her mother, having been transformed into a man during a seance gone awry.GOODREADS




"She has no shame, " thought Sauce......... 

Sauce? yes, that is our protagonists name. It just seems like a really odd name. I think it was mentioned somewhere why he has that nickname but I didn't get it. or is it only because he drinks a lot. First impressions aside: you will love Sauce a.k.a Byrne Aase. 

The story is told from Sauce's POV. This whole book reminds me of one of those old school detective shows or are they games. There's a bunch of people in a house, there's a mystery and they have to solve it. I love those mysteries even if I have a tendency to blame the butler. Good Gladys reminds me of those kind of mysteries  because of the way the characters talked, the way Sauce investigated things and the overall development of the mystery. Together with the protagonist the reader finds clues and tries to figure things out. And when there's a random element thrown in the game like being brought to the governors house, and hearing said governor share his utmost conviction in a psychic who claims to be punished by God and sent back to do a selfless act. You as a reader are as shocked as Sauce. Although it felt like this in the beginning the mood suddenly changes halfway through the book and becomes more suspenseful and bloody.

I'd already chosen sides when I had read chapter one, when I got over the weird name thing. Sauce is this good guy, naive and gullible. He's like a puppy you find on the street, you just know you can't leave it there. That's how easily I got attached to Sauce. Then Dara, his ex shows up asking for his help. Dara is manipulative. In romance novels when the guy forces the girl to go shopping it's romantic but when Dara forces Sauce to go shopping, remodels his whole house. It's aggravating. Sauce's skepticism about the whole psychic thing seeps though the pages or maybe my skepticism  seeps into the book combines with Sauce's skepticism which makes it a really engaging read. Sauce gets curious about the case and gets involved. I had hoped he wouldn't, I had hoped he just wouldn't do what Dara wanted but then there wouldn't be a story.

The way the story unfolds is entertaining. It started to get really interesting when Sauce gets abducted by this crazy family of psychopaths.  Their kids were just excited when they were told they'd get to break Sauces fingers. Of course Sauce gets rescued and when he wakes up the mystery is just about solved.

The last chapters were ridiculous and unbelievable. You know Gladys is a fraud but there are all these people who believe in her ,who willingly allow themselves to be manipulated. Good Gladys the psychic claims on a talk-show to have met Adam and Eve. Claims to have been punished by God and that's why she's in a man's body. and the audience believes her. Sheep, they're all sheep. The one psychic who came back from the other side. Gladys is arrogant, annoying an manipulative. oh and she's also Dara. Turns out the real Gladys died and Dara has been impersonating her to keep the enterprise going.

This is different  from anything else I've read. It's a unique story and a entertaining one. The characters are funny and fascinating  next to Sauce I like the former secret agent, BT who helped Sauce on the investigation and Sauce's cop friend Hammi. I hated Dara because she was so manipulative and overbearing as was Gladys. Gladys sometimes reminded me of those religious people that come to your house. Although I disliked these characters they made the story moving (by this I mean I was annoyed and pissed at what they were doing. Those are emotions as well). 

I enjoyed this book and would love to read more about Sauce. The characterization is great, the writing is awesome. The mystery wasn't complicated and the revelation didn't surprise me. Although getting to know how Gladys tricked everybody was interesting, like finding out how a magician does his tricks. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who loves a good old mystery book.

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** I was asked to review this book by the author. He said it was a suspenseful, witty,fun and engaging book which it definitely is.

Lean Mean Thirteen (Stephanie Plum #13 ) by Janet Evanovich

MISTAKE #1

Dickie Orr. Stephanie was married to him for about fifteen minutes before she caught him cheating on her with her arch-nemesis Joyce Barnhardt. Another fifteen minutes after that Stephanie filed for divorce, hoping to never see either one of them again.

MISTAKE #2

Doing favors for super bounty hunter Carlos Manoso (a.k.a. Ranger). Ranger needs her to meet with Dickie and find out if he's doing something shady. Turns out, he is. Turns out, he's also back to doing Joyce Barnhardt. And it turns out Ranger's favors always come with a price...

MISTAKE #3

Going completely nutso while doing the favor for Ranger, and trying to apply bodily injury to Dickie in front of the entire office. Now Dickie has disappeared and Stephanie is the natural suspect in his disappearance. Is Dickie dead? Can he be found? And can Stephanie Plum stay one step ahead in this new, dangerous game? Joe Morelli, the hottest cop in Trenton, NJ is also keeping Stephanie on her toes-and he may know more than he's saying about many things in Stephanie's life. It's a cat-and-mouse game for Stephanie Plum, where the ultimate prize might be her life. Dust jacket

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This was one hell of a ride, easiest book I've ever read. Stephanie is awesome and the situations she gets into are ridiculous and unbelievable. The humor is one of a kind and puts a smile on your face. Stephanie's a bounty hunter and the things she does on the job , the trouble she gets into, the people she meets and her family,  friends, arch-nemesis that make for a great cast,  makes the whole series something else.

This is book 13 in the series, but some of you might have already  seen the movie One For The Money , which is based on the first book, in which you've  met certain characters already: Morelli, Ranger, Lula and Stephs family . All of them are in this book too, can't say anything about new characters as I'm new to the series. Lean Mean Thirteen is crazy, we got steph getting tazed (twice), rodents exploding, steph stapling some goons balls together (oh yeah, and it was an electric stapler...ouch),steph's ex-hubby's girlfriend stalking her, running through graveyards and a whole lot of other crazy stuff.

Steph partners up with Lula a lot. I like the situations they get into and I like Lula because she reminds me of my friend Lola. 

There's this one scene where steph and Lula work on this one assignment to bring in a guy who robes graves, they  go looking for the guy at his house and this guy has a snake;

"I don't think  anybodies home " Lula said." I didn't see any cars in the yard.""I'm going to snoop around anyways. are you coming?""I suppose, but if I see that snake, I'm outta there. I hate snakes. I don't care if that snake wraps itself around your neck, I'm telling you right now, I'm not staying to help"

Yeah, just like my friend Lola, she hates snakes too and would probably do the same or push me toward the snake and run. run like hell.

There's a lot to like about this book, like Bob. Morreli has this dog ,Bob. I don't like dogs or cats or kittens. I tell people this all the time. I even tell Lola, but Lola doesn't seem to understand this, she's always posting these ridiculously 'cute' pictures of cats on my FB wall. It's annoying. Lola has to be stopped. Maybe I should get her a snake....... that explodes. Anyways back to  Bob, clearly the number one reason to like him is his name, 'Bob'.

Description of Bob:

 "He has a routine. He eats the couch. He takes a nap. He gnaws on a dining room table leg. He takes a nap. He spreads the garbage all over the kitchen floor. He takes a nap."

Naps!! I love naps! Bob loves naps!! I love Bob, I could totally love Bob as a pet. He loves naps and he's fictional. How much attention could he need and he'd never die on me.

So between Lula's crazy character, the trouble Steph gets into and her crazy family. There's also this triangle situation happening between her , Morreli and Ranger. I hate triangles, they're stupid. But this situation is entertaining and fun. Steph and Morreli are a couple now, and Ranger helps Steph out but also shamelessly flirts with her. He cares about her. It's a crazy entertaining trio.

Everything gets resolved in the end , turns out Steph's ex was being protected by Morreli cuz he knew something about the firm he worked for. Steph saves the day and there's clean laundry. But there's a time bomb waiting to happen. Because when Morreli finds the underwear with Rangers name on it there's gonna be some Italian arguing happening. So if you're in the mood for something light and entertaining , this is your book.

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