Judge & Jury: 3 Stars

 

Judge & Jury by James Patterson and Andrew Gross

A co-worker recommended this one to me because the audiobook is read by Joe Matenga and she thought he did an excellent job. She was not wrong. He was a fabulous reader and his interpretation of the book alone kept me captivated.

In this novel, Andie  DeGrasse gets served with jury duty.  As a single mother who's an aspiring actress, she has no desire to serve so she tries to get let go.  Instead she gets selected for one of the highest profile cases in the nation. FBI agent Nick Pellisante finally captured Mafia boss Dominic Cavello and he was finally going to be judged for his crimes.  Or was he?

After a devastating attack on the jury, Andie and Nick are left to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives, hoping that Cavello will eventually get what he deserves.  But since it looks like the law may not be able to make that happen, the two decide its up to them. 

This book was a fun, light read, with an excellent narrator. The story was unique and I never predicted where it was going next.

Unfortunately, I am not sure I will read another Patterson book.  The characters were never really likeable and their chemistry never resonated with me. Their characters and relationship felt forced and awkward. It was hard to get into the book when you didn't really care about the characters. 

Rating: PG-13

Recommended for those who enjoy: action, adventure and mildly scary stories.

H.P. Lovecraft's Book of the Supernatural: Classic Tales of the Macabre: 2 Stars

H.P. Lovecraft's Book of the Supernatural edited by Stephen Jones

H.P. Lovecraft, often considered the king of horror, put together a bunch of his favorite supernatural tales that eventually ended up in a book. These stories ranged for the scary to the bizarre. Some of the tales were well known wives' tales and others were scarce stories. I am not sure how he found all of these tales, but they were all very different and unique. 

Considering the one who chose the stories, I was rather disappointed. They were, for lack of a better word, boring. I found very few of them even mildly intriguing. Perhaps these tales were better in a different time, but I was not impressed.

One interesting thing about this book is that the audiobook had several different readers.  One of the readers was Bronson Pinchot.  He did an excellent job of reading, although I was somewhat disappointed he didn't use the voice of Balki from Perfect Strangers.   

Rating: PG

Recommended for those who enjoy: mildly scary, short stories, and thrillers.