Colorways by Vicki Welsh

I finished 6 book in February. Two of them were “read” on our road trip home and two books were a little disappointing by favorite authors (Ken Follett and Michael Connelly). My great surprise of the month was How the Penguins Saved Veronica. It was a very cute read and inspiring for the “mature reader”.

What books did you love in February? My “wish list” of over 200 books is always looking for additions!

I’m a huge fan of Ken Follett but, I admit, I did not love this book. The story is told around the building of Stonehenge. In the story there are three groups of people living in the region: herders, farmers and woodland people (hunter/gatherers). There’s a group of priestesses (the lesbians) who use a wooden henge to track and count days. The use this to make the call out for an annual Midsummer Fair. The Fair is when people from all three cultures come together to trade and have a lot of sex.

There are frequent skirmishes between the three groups and one summer the wooden henge is burned. It is rebuilt but, a priestess named Joia has a vision of having the henge built in stone. Joia and her brother-in-law, Seft, know where the stones are and work out how to transport them from stone valley to the henge site. It’s a monumental task and some people are determined to stop it.

I have always felt, maybe mistakenly, that Follett’s books were really based on historical facts but I don’t think this one is at all. The people behave too modern and the henge is constructed in one generation (rather than over 1500 years). I felt that most of the characters were quite superficial and the focus on sex in the book is a little over the top. Of course, maybe with Neolithic people, that and food were all they were focused on. It’s a “meh” for me.

This is #25 in the Joe Pickett series. I saw recently that book #26 was coming out at the end of February and realized that I had not yet read this one.

After the death of his wife at the hands of Axel Soledad, Nate Romanowski has been off the grid communing with his falcons and trying to process his grief. One day his old friend Geronimo Jones finds him to encourage him to return to find Axel and settle scores. Axel had recently burned Geronimo’s home.

Meanwhile the Governor contacts Joe Pickett to go on a search for his son-in-law who has gone on an elk scouting mission with a very seasoned elk hunter and guide. Both have disappeared.

Neither Nate or Joe knows what the other is doing but their missions will cross paths on Battle Mountain and it will happen while a meeting of the heads of the military and defense industry are meeting at an exclusive ranch nearby.

Fast, fun and easy read. Lots of action and lots of death and some cool falcon activity. The Pickett books have a formula so they are a nice reliable escape read.

We listened to 2 books on our ride home and chose this Sherlock Holmes classic as our first listen. Honestly, I’ve never really read Sherlock Holmes and it was way past time that I did.

The Baskervilles have a family history of being haunted by a ghostly and dangerous hound. Sir Charles was elderly, but healthy, had has died suddenly. He was outside, in the evening, and it appears that he was scared to death.

The new heir is arriving and Sir Charles’ friend is concerned about the safety. Holmes is busy on another case and sends Watson to protect the heir.

This is #8 in the Lincoln Lawyer series. Mickey Haller has made the transition from criminal defense to civil cases. Honestly, I miss the old Haller but this book was still interesting.

A chatbot has told a 16 year old kid to kill his ex-girlfriend. Mickey is representing the parents of both kids against the AI company. This book is so on point for our time. AI is being brought up in the recent Canada mass shooting as influencing the shooter.

The story was good and I feel like it ended about like it might in real life. It’s not the best writing in the world but it was an interesting storyline and a great book for the long car ride home from Tucson.

Veronica McCreedy is 85 years old and has no family that she knows of. She once had a son but had to give him up as a baby. She found out that he had died a few years ago because a cousin in his adoptive family contacted her years ago to tell her. She hires a genealogy expert to find out if she has any other relatives and discovers that she actually has a grandson, Patrick. At the same time she has become obsessed with a TV series on Antarctic penguin research.

The first meeting of Patrick and Veronica doesn’t go so well and he assumed that they will never meet again. But Veronica, against all advice, decides to visit the Penguins on her own and heads off to Antarctica. Patrick, as her next of kin, become her necessary emergency contact and they are reunited and the researchers in Antarctica aren’t sure what to do about Veronica.

The book is a fun, feel-good story with themes of: coming of age, building family, finding love, taking chances and never giving up.

This is an older book by one of my favorite authors and it’s one of my favorites!

When Adam and Kent Austin were teenagers their sister was abducted and murdered. Adam has always blamed himself since he didn’t give her a ride home that day. They event tore the family apart and the brothers barely speak now. Adam is a bail bondsman and Kent is the local high school coach. Kent’s team is a favorite to win the state championship.

Just before the first playoff game another teenager is abducted and murdered in a eerily similar scenario. The victim was the girlfriend of the star football player. She had been to see Adam the day before to get him to help her find the address of her father who was recently paroled from prison. Both brothers are involved in the case for different reasons and have to come together to protect themselves and their family.