The Innocent by David Baldacci

     Will Robie is a forty year-old hitman for the US government.  He never questions orders and always hits his target. He is very good.  Very good at staying alive. But then one day the unthinkable happens.  He is given an assignment, but the target is unexpected and for the first time, he did not kill.  He did not complete his mission. And it looks like a set-up to him. Now he himself is the target running for his life.
    
     Soon, another complication.  While on a bus trying to flee the men now assigned to find him, Robie witnesses another hitman making an attempt to kill a fourteen year old girl. This he could stop, but now he is on the run with baggage, a girl named Julie from the DC foster care system, who is in as much danger as he is and he can't seem to leave her. They are on the run together. But Robie has to find out what is going on and who is behind the attempts on his life. And now he also must find out why Julie is a target while keeping her alive. Will FBI Special Agent Nicole Vance be a hindrance or a help?

     But neither Agent Vance or Julie or certain they can trust Robie.

     This was a really good read that I enjoyed very much. Robie was believable, as was Julie and I became fond of both of them as I read. The plot moved quickly as if I were watching a Bruce Willis movie or an installment of Mission Impossible.

     Oh! It was David Baldacci! Of course!
    

The Thirteenth Tale - Revisited

     The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield is the best books I have read in years.
 
     Margaret Lea, who has already written one biography but who's life is mainly books and her fathers book store, is asked to write the life storey of Veda Winter, a famous writer. Veda does not always tell the truth and the story is not what Margaret had expected.  And why was the book titled The Thirteen Tales on  the first edition when there are only twelve in future publications?

    But it is not the mystery uncovered at the old house where Veda lives that makes this book wonderful. It is Setterfield's writing. Her use of words and mood kept me on the edge of my seat and glued to the pages long after I should have been in bed on a work night. The story within a story was incredibly well done. 

     Before I gave the book to my daughter to read, I placed a sticky note on the page containing the following paragraph, asking her to call me so we could talk about it when she finished reading that page.

"I have always been a reader; I have read at every stage of my life, and there has never been a time when reading was not my greatest joy. And yet I cannot pretend that the reading I have done in my adult years matches in its impact on my soul the reading I did as a child. I still believe in stories. I still forget myself when I am in the middle of a good book. Yet it is not the same. Books are, for me, it must be said, the most important thing; what I cannot forget is that there was a time when they were at once more banal and more essential than that. When I was a child, books were everything. And so there is in me, always, a nostalgic yearning for the lost pleasure of books. It is not a yearning that one ever expects to be fulfilled."

     She was also moved by the words. This so completely described our own experiences with reading we were amazed.  I read the paragraph several times on discovery and find myself, years later, still picking up this book, just to reread this and other parts I have marked throughout.

"There is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you prisoner. Wind themselves around your limbs like spider silk, and when you are so enthralled you cannot move, they pierce your skin, enter your blood, numb your thoughts. Inside you they work their magic."

     Sigh! Diane Setterfield, you have expert hands.  I impatiently await your next book.

Out of Time by Deborah Truscott

     One of my favorite books ever is a time travel book. (The Mirror by Marlys Millhiser.)  There have been others, like Outlander, that have been good, but most miss the boat somewhere.  Out Of Time kept me going and did not cause me to roll my eyes every other chapter.

     Kathleen Findlay has separated from her unfaithful husband and is living in limbo.  Her mother, Lila, is trying to help, but marriage is not her expertise, divorce is.  She's had several of them.  Kathleen is doing her best to keep her two children's lives as normal as possible, even as her own world seems to be falling apart. When her Uncles dies and leaves her his Revolutionary War-era house, it gives her something to focus on.  She will fix it up a little and sell it.  She leaves her children with her mother and contacts a realtor.

     While searching for a rake in the gardening shed, Kathleen encounters a man, dressed as a revolutionary British officer. Colonel Robert Upton has apparently fallen through time. And he has a vague feeling he did not come alone.

     Yes, it is a love story and I found Robert charming. There is a little suspense and was historically well done. This book has a plot that is much more believable than most and characters I actually liked, especially Lila, who was very real to me.  Roberts encounter with the 21st century was often amusing and sometimes thought provoking. There was a point about half way through the read that I had to force myself to press on, but it was brief and the ending of this book surprised me. Kathleen is also very believable as she finds herself.

     A very good romance read.