Books I've Read

Fifth of the Lew Fornesca series. Lew leaves Florida to go back to Chicago to find out who killed his wife several years ago. Good stuff.

Lew Fonesca is hired to prove that a teen didn't kill a guy everyone hated who was trying to shut down the local high school for gifted students. The Dairy Queen is closed; Lew moves AND buys a car for sixty-six bucks. Victor goes home, too. A small quibble with "twelve hundred years" and "twelve hundred centuries" on page seven, but I'll get over it.

Inspector Rostnikov looks for a missing cosmonaut, Sash looks for who stole a motion picture negative, Karpov looks for the murderer of an ESP researcher.

A cop shoots his wife and her lover and then threatens to blow up the building. Lieberman wins the first confrantation with Frankie Kraylaw. Seconnd book in series.

Frankie Kraylaw shows up again. Abe's brother's son is murdered. Sweet Jesus, what an ending.

Hanrahan screws up drunk, the woman he is to protect get killed. Good as always. First book in series.

Abe Lieberman deals with skinheads, Palestinians, Korean mobsters, and vandalism at his temple.

Lieberman must catch a burgler to catch a wife murderer. Pretty good.

Inspector Rostnikov takes a trip on the railroad, Karpov visit a skinhead bar.

Chicago policeman Abe Lieberman eventually catches up with an unfortunate thief, deals with a bar-mitzvah.

Lew Fonesca agrees to find the sister of a mentally-impaired neighbor. And Adele has run off, possibly with all the unpublished manuscripts of a famous reclusive author she met. Plus, people are getting killed. It's all rather depressing... I've decided that Kaminsky's books are peopled by charactors who have had some tragedy in their life, and are often searching for some kind of redemption.

Abe Lieberman threatened by Kim, also there is a little matter of a kidnapped teen boy who is the son of a Mafia snitch.

Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov trys to stop the Russian Mafias from killing each off while fellow officer Sasha investigates a dog fighting ring.

Biographer Cece Caruso investigates a murder in the Nancy Drew fan community. Lots of trivia.

Matthew's family dies in a cholera plague in 1839 New York. Living on the streets, he manages to get a job assisting Dr. Cornwall, a phrenologist. Dr. ABC wants a strong helper. Matthew soon finds out why. Great story

An ex-lawyer now chef/restaurant owner in Santa Cruz (California) finds a dead person, a person that she knows. Well, actually, her dog does. So she investigates. Recipes at end of book.

Detective Sargeant Jack Stallworthy wants to give his precious wife Lily the island paradise she craves, but things keep getting in the way. 279 p.

Nancy Drew helps out an inventor who has been swindled of his patents. How come Nancy needs the diary translated when she has been speaking to the person who wrote it? Read this entirely on the potty at work!

Autobiography of a cowboy and big game hunter. Interesting, but too much detail unless you REALLY like hunting and guns.

Nina Halligan is a former prosecuter, now a P.I., and a black woman, who has magic x-ray/infrared/telescopic sunglasses. An interesting switch from the mostly "white" stories I usually read. Lots of ethnic awareness, but only average story. I think the magic glasses was a jarring note. 304 p.