Death in Paradise, by Robert B. Parker

This is the third outing for Chief of Police Jesse Stone.  You'll recall he's the former alcoholic L.A. cop who came to New England to run the small police force of Paradise, a town near Boston.  Originally hired by corrupt town elders because they thought he would be easily controlled, Jesse has cleaned up the town--and himself.  The death in Paradise is that of a young teenage girl who is found in a lake.  After some initial difficulty, Jesse is able to identify the girl as Billie Bishop and determine that she was murdered.  Billie was a wild child and her parents had kicked her out.  She ended up in a shelter in Boston but what happened there to cause her to be murdered and dumped in the lake?  Other than a man's class ring, Jesse has little in the way of clues.  And speaking of clues, Jesse is also still pretty clueless when it comes to solving his complicated love life.  He is still in love with and seeing his ex-wife Jenn, the local tv weather girl, but that doesn't stop him from also dallying with Lilly Summers, the twice-divorced high school principal he meets in the course of the investigation.  This is a really fun series and if you want to start at the beginning the previous two books are still available from the Popular Collection.  Jesse and all the characters in his universe are well worth getting to know.
 

The Associate, by Phillip Margolin

The associate is Daniel Ames, a young lawyer working in a prestigious Portland, Oregon law firm.  Things are going swimmingly for Daniel until he lets a very damaging document get in the hands of the law firm suing one of his firm's clients, Geller Pharmaceuticals.  The lawsuit involves a drug Geller marketed that may have caused birth defects and the leaked document contained research indicating Geller knew the drug did indeed cause the defects.  The leak wasn't Daniel's fault  but the firm needs a scapegoat and Daniel is summarily fired.  Things get worse for Daniel when the lawyer who fired him ends up murdered and Daniel is spotted leaving the scene.  Luckily, Daniel has two talented females on his side.  Amanda Jaffe, the wily lawyer introduced in Wild Justice, agrees to represent him and Kate Ross, an investigator with his former firm, believes he is innocent and decides to look into the murder.  Her investigation will take her to Arizona and back in time to a double kidnapping that happened years ago but is the key to solving the murder of the lawyer. This wasn't quite as good as Wild Justice but I still liked its nice mix of murder mystery and courtroom drama.
 

Isle of Dogs, by Patricia Cornwell

Judy Hammer and Andy Brazil, introduced in an earlier book, make a reappearance in Cornwell's latest.  Hammer is superintendent of Virginia's state police and Brazil is a state trooper.  When the governor decides to introduce speed traps, the residents on the island of Tangier revolt and Hammer and Brazil must deal with the problem.  That's basically the plot and I suppose an entertaining, darkly comic novel could have been fashioned from it had there been funny, interesting characters and story lines.  Didn't happen here.  If I had a lick of sense I would have stopped reading on page 2.  Dumb me kept reading.  I really, really should have stopped on page 188 when some crabs started talking to each other.  I guess the way I read a book mirrors what happens when I paint a room.  Occasionally, I'll start painting and I'm pretty sure with the first roller strokes that I'm not going to like the color I selected but I usually keep painting (don't ask me why!) in the futile hope that somehow it will get better and I'll like it when the whole room is done.  My latest results are a green kitchen I'm not thrilled with and this book that didn't get any better the more I read.  I would have chucked it if the author hadn't been Patricia Cornwell.  I usually like her books but someone needs to tell her that she is not and will never be Carl Hiaasen and she needs to stick with what she does best.
 

America, by Stephen Coonts

America is the very first of a new generation of United States submarines.  While it is being launched it is seized by terrorists in an audacious and unexpected attack and taken to sea--where it disappears.  With its advanced technology, the submarine will be almost impossible to locate.  Enter Admiral Jake Grafton, the hero of a number of other Coonts novels.  Jake is given the assignment to find the sub and the identity of the terrorists.  Scarcely before Jake can get started, the sub launches missiles at Washington and New York City.  What group is behind the attacks and what is it after?  Jake must find the answers before the next attack.  Terrorism against America. The subject could not be more topical and Coonts does a good job of making the events real and terrifying--although not as terrifying as actual recent events.
 

Skipping Christmas, by John Grisham

Who knew?  Unlike Cornwell, Grisham can do humor.  When I was home for the holidays, this was the book being passed around by all my family members.  It's a quick read so everyone got to enjoy it.  Luther Krank (Krank?  Crank?  Hmm.), tax accountant, tallies up his family's expenses from the previous Christmas and finds that $6,100 was spent--with precious little to show for it.  This year for the first time the Krank's  daughter won't be home for Christmas and Luther proposes to his wife, Nora, that they skip Christmas and use the money saved to go on a Caribbean cruise.  When Luther says skip Christmas he really means it--no gifts, no tree, no parties, no cards, and no decorations inside or out.  Nora is reluctant at first but she soon warms to the idea.  What might have been a good plan goes horribly and hilariously wrong due to a couple of little things--neighbors and family.  The holidays are over but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy this wonderfully funny look at one man's Christmas.

 

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