Dragon Teeth

Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton.
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Harper;(May 23, 2017)
ISBN-10: 0062473352

 

Amazon Review:
in the Wild West during the golden age of fossil hunting.
The year is 1876. Warring Indian tribes still populate America’s western territories even as lawless gold-rush towns begin to mark the landscape. In much of the country it is still illegal to espouse evolution. Against this backdrop two monomaniacal paleontologists pillage the Wild West, hunting for dinosaur fossils, while surveilling, deceiving and sabotaging each other in a rivalry that will come to be known as the Bone Wars.
Into this treacherous territory plunges the arrogant and entitled William Johnson, a Yale student with more privilege than sense. Determined to survive a summer in the west to win a bet against his arch-rival, William has joined world-renowned paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh on his latest expedition.  But when the paranoid and secretive Marsh becomes convinced that William is spying for his nemesis, Edwin Drinker Cope, he abandons him in Cheyenne, Wyoming, a locus of crime and vice. William is forced to join forces with Cope and soon stumbles upon a discovery of historic proportions.  With this extraordinary treasure, however, comes exceptional danger, and William’s newfound resilience will be tested in his struggle to protect his cache, which pits him against some of the West’s most notorious characters.

A page-turner that draws on both meticulously researched history and an exuberant imagination, Dragon Teeth is based on the rivalry between real-life paleontologists Cope and Marsh; in William Johnson readers will find an inspiring hero only Michael Crichton could have imagined. Perfectly paced and brilliantly plotted, this enormously winning adventure is destined to become another Crichton classic. 

I can't say I am a big fan of Crichton, but I enjoyed this book very much!  I have to admit it was mostly because it took place in the west (Indians and all) in the 1800's and he did his homework to mention what was happening with the Indians at that time. Also I did enjoy that it was early in discovering Dinosaur's.  

This is a very easy and fast book to read, and from reading reviews in Amazon, it's different from most of Crichton's other books.  So if you like the old west and Paleontologist's you will enjoy this book! 

The House of Secrets

The House of Secrets by Brad Meltzer.
Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (June 7, 2016)
ISBN-10: 1455559490

Amazon Review
When Hazel Nash was six years old, her father taught her: mysteries need to be solved. He should know. Hazel's father is Jack Nash, the host of America's favorite conspiracy TV show, The House of Secrets.
Even as a child, she loved hearing her dad's tall tales, especially the one about a leather book belonging to Benedict Arnold that was hidden in a corpse.
Now, years later, Hazel wakes up in the hospital and remembers nothing, not even her own name. She's told she's been in a car accident that killed her father and injured her brother. But she can't remember any of it, because of her own traumatic brain injury. Then a man from the FBI shows up, asking questions about her dad-and about his connection to the corpse of a man found with an object stuffed into his chest: a priceless book that belonged to Benedict Arnold.
Back at her house, Hazel finds guns that she doesn't remember owning. On her forehead, she sees scars from fights she can't recall. Most important, the more Hazel digs, the less she likes the person she seems to have been.
Trying to put together the puzzle pieces of her past and present, Hazel Nash needs to figure out who killed this man-and how the book wound up in his chest. The answer will tell her the truth about her father, what he was really doing for the government-and who Hazel really is. Mysteries need to be solved. Especially the ones about yourself.

When I got this book It sounded like something I would really like.  And, to an extent, I did.  It was fast moving, short chapters (sometimes only 1 page!), but unfortunately it had to do with politics, history, and such. I do like history, but not so much politics and their secrets.  So although I can't say "I didn't like the book", it is one that I was glad was over and I can move on to another book.
I am sure there are those out there that would like this book very much , so I ask you to make up your own mind when you read the Amazon review.  And the fact that it moves very fast and is a quick read.
So.. onward to the next book.

Beyond the Wild River

Beyond the Wild River by Sarah Maine.
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Atria Books (April 18, 2017)
ISBN-10: 1501126954

 

Amazon Review
A highly atmospheric and suspenseful historical novel, set in the 1890s about a Scottish heiress who unexpectedly encounters her childhood friend in North America, five years after he disappeared from her family’s estate the night of a double murder.
Nineteen-year-old Evelyn Ballantyre has rarely strayed from her family’s estate in the Scottish Borderlands, save for the occasional trip to Edinburgh, where her father, a respected magistrate, conducts his business—and affairs of another kind. Evelyn has always done her duty as a daughter, hiding her boredom and resentment behind good manners—so when an innocent friendship with a servant is misinterpreted by her father as an illicit union, Evelyn is appalled.
Yet the consequence is a welcome one: she is to accompany her father on a trip to North America, where they’ll visit New York City, the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, and conclude with a fishing expedition on the Nipigon River in Canada. Now is her chance to escape her cloistered life, see the world, and reconnect with her father.
Once they’re on the Nipigon, however, Evelyn is shocked to discover that their guide is James Douglas, the former stable hand and her one-time friend who disappeared from the estate after the shootings of a poacher and a gamekeeper. Many had assumed that James had been responsible, but Evelyn never could believe it. Now, in the wilds of a new world, far from the constraints of polite society, the truth about that day, James, and her father will be revealed…to stunning consequences.

Well this was a bit different, and I enjoyed it!
They kept the answers slow in coming but the rest of the story wasn't bad.  Atmospheric, and well described how a young lady is raised and expected to act "back in the day".  And then dropping them in a nearly unexplored forest where conveniences are far apart and very small. I would call it a shock to the system to go from one sort of life to another.. and still stay well dressed like they aren't in the wilds of a forest with animals and mud and raging rivers.
Not a bad book.  I read it while I had no electricity from the hurricane! 

The Sleepwalker

The Sleepwalker by Chris Bohjalian.
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Doubleday;(January 10, 2017)
ISBN-10: 038553891X


Amazon Review
When Annalee Ahlberg goes missing, her children fear the worst. Annalee is a sleepwalker whose affliction manifests in ways both bizarre and devastating. Once, she merely destroyed the hydrangeas in front of her Vermont home. More terrifying was the night her older daughter, Lianna, pulled her back from the precipice of the Gale River bridge. The morning of Annalee's disappearance, a search party combs the nearby woods. Annalee's husband, Warren, flies home from a business trip. Lianna is questioned by a young, hazel-eyed detective. And her little sister, Paige, takes to swimming the Gale to look for clues. When the police discover a small swatch of fabric, a nightshirt, ripped and hanging from a tree branch, it seems certain Annalee is dead, but Gavin Rikert, the hazel-eyed detective, continues to call, continues to stop by the Ahlbergs' Victorian home. As Lianna peels back the layers of mystery surrounding Annalee's disappearance, she finds herself drawn to Gavin, but she must ask herself: Why does the detective know so much about her mother? Why did Annalee leave her bed only when her father was away? And if she really died while sleepwalking, where was the body?
     Conjuring the strange and mysterious world of parasomnia, a place somewhere between dreaming and wakefulness, The Sleepwalker is a masterful novel from one of our most treasured storytellers.

Well.. this was a decent read.. and!...a truly surprise ending!!  You have a suspicion but you won't be right lol.
With the Hurricane almost here I am not much in a mood to write about it.. so I hope Amazon did a good job. I was good enough for me to read the book!