The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly

The story begins with Jack McEvoy's termination by the Los Angeles Times due to the newspaper's financial crisis. He is given two weeks to train his replacement, Angela Cook, on the "cop beat" and decides that he wants to write one more major story before his last day. Jack focuses on the case of 16-year-old drug dealer Alonzo Winslow, who confessed that he brutally raped one of his clients, then stuffed her body in the trunk with a plastic bag over her head, tied shut with a length of rope around her neck. Angela, a beautiful and ambitious young reporter, maneuvers to get herself a part of the story. However, after Jack is given access to the defense files, he learns that Alonzo only confessed to stealing the car containing the body, not to the rape-murder. In researching trunk murders on the Internet, Angela unwittingly finds evidence of a similar crime in Las Vegas. However, Angela's research also took her to a "trap" site set up by the real murderer: Wesley Carver, an MIT graduate who is the chief security officer of a "server farm" (colocation and backup services) in Phoenix, referred to by everyone as the "scarecrow" of the farm. Carver cracks her e-mail password at the Times and learns that Jack is headed to Vegas. He promptly creates a fake data emergency so that his company will send him to L.A.

The next day, Jack finds that none of his credit cards nor his cell phone work, so he buys a throwaway phone. He shows the evidence of the identical L.A. murder to the attorney for the convicted Vegas murderer, who gives Jack a letter permitting him to meet his client, imprisoned in a remote location in Nevada. During the lengthy drive on the "loneliest road in America", Jack calls FBI agent Rachel Walling, his former girlfriend to whom he hasn't spoken in years, to report the "under the radar" serial killer and also tells her about his bad luck that day. When he arrives at the prison, he is told that he cannot see the prisoner until the next day and books a room in a local hotel. A cowboy with long sideburns plays slots next to him. When Jack heads to his room, he sees "Sideburns" coming directly toward him in the hallway as his door opens ... to find Rachel inside his room. "Sideburns" passes by. Rachel had taken a private FBI plane to the prison after she concluded that Jack's discoveries and his electronic problems were linked but that she had no way to warn him. Rachel and Jack learn that "Sideburns" was not staying at the hotel and surmise that he must be the killer. When calling the Times, Jack learns that Angela has disappeared. Rachel and Jack promptly take the FBI jet back to L.A., during which Rachel examines the evidence and notes that the murdered women were both exotic dancers with similar body types ("giraffes"), and that both were put in leg braces ("iron maidens") while being sexually abused before death, a perversion known as abasiophilia. On arrival, Rachel admits that her recent relationship with a police detective ended in part because she still had feelings for Jack, but they then find Angela's dead body under Jack's bed, killed in the same style as the other victims.

Because of Rachel's testimony, Jack is cleared of Angela's murder, and the evidence causes both Alonzo and the Vegas convict to be freed. The FBI links the trap site to Bill Denslow, a fake name used by an online client of Carver's server farm. Jack is a featured guest on CNN to discuss the case, but Rachel is summoned to a disciplinary hearing and forced to resign from the FBI under threat of a theft prosecution for "stealing" the gasoline in the FBI plane during the round trip to Nevada. Carver has his assistant, whom he gave the pseudonym "Freddie Stone", help him murder and bury the server farm's CEO and then quit. Jack deduces that the serial killer knew non-public legal information about his victims and finds that all of them were represented by law firms whose sites were handled through Carver's server farm, just like the trap site. He persuades Rachel to join him there, where they pose as potential clients and talk to Carver, who doesn't reveal that he knows their real identities. Following a trail laid by Carver, they find Stone's house, identify him as "Sideburns", and uncover evidence concerning the killings. They call in the FBI, and Rachel is able to use her role in finding the killer to regain her job. Jack agrees to return to L.A. and goes to Rachel's hotel room to say goodbye -- but finds that she has just been kidnapped by Stone. He intercepts Stone, rescues an unconscious Rachel from a laundry bin, and then chases and kills Stone in a battle on the top floor. Rachel tells Jack that the FBI believes there were two killers: Stone and Angela's murderer. With Carver's help, Rachel and the FBI team find evidence that Stone and the missing CEO committed all of the murders.

Jack's high profile causes the Times to rescind his termination, even though Jack's role as a participant means that he cannot write the story of the Arizona events. Jack turns it down and accepts a two-book deal to write about this case. However, Jack then sees a picture from The Wizard of Oz and realizes that the method used to suffocate the victims looks like the classic head of a scarecrow, except using a plastic bag instead of a burlap sack. He immediately heads to Arizona to warn a disbelieving Rachel, including the links to the real Fred Stone and Bill Denslow, but unfortunately meets her in a coffee shop near the server farm with a full-time Webcam in it. Carver watches their discussion, then ambushes the other FBI agents. Carver's plan to kill the agents and fake his own death is foiled when Jack figures it out, and Rachel shoots Carver in the head when he tries to ambush them. In a brief epilogue, Jack's research has revealed that Carver's mother was an exotic dancer similar in appearance to the victims who needed to wear leg braces when not performing, and he and Rachel have continued as a couple.

"This was a really good book, I love Michael Connelly. the only book that I have read by him that I was disappointed in was "The Narrows" THe completion to "The Poet" The Poet was one of the best books that I have ever read. The Subject may be a little disturbing to many who read it, so if you decide you want to read it keep in my it touchs on Child pornography. It doesn't go into descriptions, but it is there in the book.

This book was fast passed and intense, and doesn't slow down at all. The book is left open for a sequal, there are so many questions left unanswered. If you love a good mystery pick this one up and read you wont be disappointed."

Drum of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon

The heroine of the bestselling Outlander, Claire, returns in Drums of Autumn, reunited with her husband Jamie Fraser and facing a new life in the American colonies. As the preceding novel, Voyager, concluded with Jamie Fraser and his wife Claire shipwrecked on the Georgia coastline—and happy to be out of Scotland—Drums of Autumn picks up right where Voyager left off. Except for a new set of lovers introduced subtly in Drums of Autumn and Voyager, Brianna Ellen Randall and her suitor historian Roger Wakefield, safely ensconced in the 20th century. Now orphaned by her mother's departure to the past, Brianna struggles to accept her loss and satisfy her curiosity about a father she has never met, only to discover a tragic piece of "history" that threatens her parents' happiness in the past. This discovery sends Brianna back through time on a mission to save her parents and sends Roger after her.

Drums of Autumn is an intricate tale of the now famous lovers, Jamie and Claire, and their daughter who risked her life and future to save them. As the fourth in what is now a seven-book series (with a promised 8th book[1]) of Claire Randall Fraser and her Highlander husband Jamie, the story is an integral step in a bestselling and surprisingly rich tale spanning the time from the Scottish Rising of 1745, to the American Revolution.

"The books don't slow down or get boaring, but i have to tell you that a lot happens in this book and there is a lot of DRAMA and there are times I want to scream and Brianna and Clair and tell them to stop being stupid! The book is good none the less and ends happy."

Voyager By Diana Gabaldon

Voyager, book three in the best-selling Outlander series, was written by Diana Gabaldon.

The storyline centers on a time-travelling 20th-century nurse (Claire Randall Fraser) and her 18th-century Scottish husband (Jamie Fraser), and are located in Scotland, France, and America.

The heroine of the bestselling Outlander, Claire, returns in Voyager as a mother to Brianna Ellen Randall and living in Boston in the year 1965. The preceding novel, Dragonfly in Amber, ended with Claire and Brianna coming to grips with the truth of Brianna's real father Jamie Fraser and Claire's travel through time. In Voyager Claire and Brianna trace Jamie's life since the battle of Culloden during the Scottish Rising. Discovering Jamie survived the massacre that heralded the destruction of many clans in Scotland sends Claire back to the stone circle that first hurtled her through time - twenty years before.

Voyager is a poignant tale of two lovers finding each other again, embarking on a whirlwind journey filled with danger on the high seas and the constant peril of Jamie's past catching up with them. As the third in what is now a seven-book series (according to the author there will be a Book 8, possibly a Book 9) of Claire Randall Fraser and her Highlander husband Jamie, the story is an integral step in a bestselling and surprisingly rich tale spanning the time from the Scottish Rising of 1745, to the American Revolution.

"I can't tell you which of these books are my favorite because I love all of them. You can't help but to fall in love with all of the characters in the books, ok their are some that you can't help but hate. I think that a good book needs to have a little bit of everything and if that is what you are looking for these are the books.

After searching for her one true love Claire Randall returns to the 1700's Scottland to find her Jamie. They fall right back into what they had before Jamie sent her away. After many trials and a long journey the two of them settle down in the colonies to start their lives over again."

Dragon Fly In Amber by Diana Gabaldon

Scotland, 1968

Dragonfly in Amber opens when Claire returns to Scotland with her twenty-year old daughter, Brianna, hoping to find what happened to the men of Lallybroch after the battle of Culloden. After discovering Jamie Fraser's gravestone in an abandoned churchyard, Claire ends up breaking the news of Brianna's true paternity to her and Roger Wakefield.

The story then flashes back in time (literally and figuratively) to when Claire and Jamie lived in Paris after leaving the abbey at the end of Outlander. As the story develops, we learn about Claire and Jamie Fraser's fight to stop the 1745 Jacobite rebellion and the bloody battle of Culloden - and also why Claire returned to the future.

Paris, 1744

At the end of Outlander, Claire convinced Jamie that they should do everything possible to stop the Jacobite Rising and the slaughter that would follow. After learning that Charles Stuart is trying to get money from the French King, Louis XV, they travel to Paris. In Paris, Jamie agrees to work with his cousin Jared, running his wine business and, since many of his French relatives are Jacobites and are well placed in society, secures meetings with Charles Edward Stuart (also known as Bonnie Prince Charlie) and many well-to-do members of the French aristocracy and bourgeoisie. So, while running Jared Fraser's wine business, Jamie and Claire begin to plot against the Bonnie Prince.

However, their lives are soon interrupted by the arrival of Jack Randall, a character that Jamie and Claire thought had died at Wentworth Prison. Jamie, in spite of promising Claire that he would spare Randall's life in order to spare Claire's previous husband, Frank, challenges Randall to a duel in the Bois de Boulogne. Though he doesn't kill the man, he does wound him and renders him impotent. And, after she witnesses the duel, Claire loses the child she was carrying and is taken away to l'Hôpital des Anges, where they believe she won't recover. Jamie is sent to the Bastille for the crime of dueling.

Scotland, 1745 and the Rising

After recovering from her illness, Claire manages to free Jamie from prison. A condition of his release is that they must leave France, so they sail to Scotland. (Fortunately, Jamie is pardoned for his crimes). Once in Scotland, Claire and Jamie settle in to farm life at Jamie's home at Lallybroch, with his sister, Jenny, and her family. However, Jamie receives a letter from Charles Stuart, announcing his attempt to retake the throne of Scotland. There is no escape, as Charles has had Jamie's name on the letter as one of his supporters. The Rising has begun.

Seeing no option but to fight for the Stuarts, Jamie gathers the men of Lallybroch to join the Stuart army. They fight and win at the battle of Prestonpans, but the tide soon turns against the Jacobites. The Rising culminates in the disastrous battle of Culloden. Jamie, knowing that the Scots won't win at Culloden, takes Claire and heads for Craig na Dun, where he forces her to travel back to her own time, to spare her the battle's aftermath. Before she goes, however, Jamie tells Claire that he knows she is pregnant again. After sending her through the stones, Jamie returns to Culloden, intending to die.

1968, again

The lengthy flashback ends and the reader learns that the child Claire was carrying through the stones is Brianna. Claire explains that Frank asked Claire where she had been during her absence but refused to believe her, thinking she was mentally unstable. Claire told him to leave her but suspecting he was sterile and desperate for a child, he asked Claire to allow him to be father to her baby and only tell Brianna the truth after his death. The novel ends with Roger informing Claire that Jamie didn't die at Culloden. And the reason why Claire wanted Roger to be present while revealing to Brianna her true parentage.

"This books goes into the Political side to the Jacobite rising in the Scotland, and the annihilation of the Clans of the Scottish Highlands. The book starts in 1968 Scotland with Roger Wakefield, looking for Jamie's men who fought at the battle at Culloden field. Claire tells Roger and Brianna the story of her travels through the standing stones her life with James Fraser and the reasons why he sent her back through the stones too her own time."

I think that this book is as good as the first one was, full of love and joy and tragedy. The two of them go through so much together that nearly tears them apart; but when you start book 3 Voyager and read Jamie and Claire's story from the 20 years they are apart, can they come back together and pick up where they left off after living separate lives with other people? Keep reading to find out!

Outlander By Diana Gabaldon

Claire Randall is a practical woman, a nurse in the British Army during World War II. She and her husband Frank, who were separated during the war, have recently reunited and are enjoying a second honeymoon in Inverness, Scotland. They married there and Frank combined their holiday with some research into his family tree, investigating an ancestor named "Black Jack" Randall, who was a Captain in the Army in the 18th century.

After seeing some traditional Scottish sites, such as Loch Ness, Claire goes plant-gathering with an amateur botanist. He shows her a group of standing stones on the hill of Craigh na Dun. Claire tells Frank and he tells her that a group of local women will be enacting a pagan ritual and that the local vicar's housekeeper is one of them. As a history professor, Frank is fascinated; Claire, a budding botanist, is particularly captivated by the flowers and herbs she finds, although the unusual ritual is of interest to her. Returning the next day for a particular plant that interests her, Claire realizes she can hear a buzzing noise from the stones and investigates. The buzzing gets louder as she approaches but makes her disoriented and she blacks out, waking to the sound of battle in the distance. Assuming it is a re-enactment or a movie set, she takes a detour through woods suddenly thicker than they were. Struggling to make sense of her surroundings, she bumps into Captain "Black Jack" Randall, who is, incidentally, Frank's six times great-grandfather and double, physically. Unfortunately for Claire, Randall has earned the "Black" in spades and detains her, asking why she is traveling alone in a "state of undress" and concludes that she is a prostitute. She is saved by an unknown Scotsman who knocks Randall unconscious and takes her with him when he rejoins his party who have been rustling cattle. Still befuddled, Claire doesn't understand the situation, and further puzzled by the reactions to her dress, which everyone calls a "shift," and that her legs are bare.

Forced to travel with them through the Scottish countryside, Claire sees the lack of modern technology and roadways. She begins wondering exactly has happened as the "costumes" and weapons are very realistic. Claire rides with one of the younger Scots, Jamie, whom she met and reset his dislocated shoulder when he was wounded during the fight with the English under "Black Jack's" command. The Scots return to their home, Castle Leoch, seat of the Clan MacKenzie. When questioned by the laird, Callum ban Campbell MacKenzie, Claire claims she was sailing to France to visit relatives and lost her gown, luggage and servant when they were attacked. The Scots are suspicious, wondering exactly who she is. Unfortunately nothing can be proved and after seeing a letter Callum is writing, she realizes when she is for the first time: 1743. The Scots see Claire as a "Sassenach"-- an outsider to Scottish Highland culture and an Englishwoman to boot - though she earns their respect, due to her work as a healer. Wanting to know who Claire really is, Dougal MacKenzie - Callum's brother and war chief of the clan - takes her to the English. She is interrogated by none other than "Black Jack" Randall.

Dougal is horrified at Jack Randall's treatment of her and determined to avoid having to give her to Randall for further questioning, Dougal is informed by Ned Gowan, the clan's lawyer, that the only solution is to make her a Scotswoman. He tells her to wed Jamie but suggests other men when she refuses, telling Dougal she can't marry anyone but admits she isn't married so Dougal ignores her. She gives in and marries Jamie in the same church - much to her horror - that she married Frank. By now, Claire - impressed that Jamie insisted on them having a private room to consummate their marriage and find her a decent dress to marry in - finds that she and Jamie are falling in love, despite Frank and feels guilty.

Claire's healing skills as a 20th century nurse save Jamie repeatedly but as the story progresses, she is determined to return to the stone circle and Frank, knowing he must be worried sick. As life continues at Castle Leoch, Claire's marriage to Jamie, ignorance of local superstition, and jealousy lead to a charge of witchcraft. Thrown into a hole with another accused witch, Geilie Duncan, to await trial, she is rescued by Jamie. Just before her escape, she realizes that Geilie Duncan is from the future too. When Jamie asks her to explain, she initially tells him she can't as he won't believe her, saying it's easier to call her a witch. Shocked by Claire's explanation, he takes her to the stone circle and tells her to return to Frank - seeing for himself, that Claire is telling the truth about the stones. Jamie leaves her there to decide if she wants to return to Frank or stay with him. He is over the moon with her decision to stay and he takes her to his home, Lallybroch, but their happiness doesn't last.

Jamie has a price on his head and is betrayed by Ronald McNab, one of his tenants. Angry that Jamie, after being told by Claire and Grannie McNab of Ronald's abuse of the child, insists Rabbie become a stable-boy at Lallybroch. Jamie is held at Wentworth Prison and sentenced to hang. Sadistic Jack Randall is also at Wentworth and takes the opportunity to torture Jamie. Jamie, however, promises Jack that he'll sleep with him if he lets Claire go. Jack agrees and in revenge, Claire tells Jack she is a witch, cursing him with the "gift" of knowledge that he will marry and have a son but will die before the child's born, giving him the date of his death.

Aided by Sir Marcus MacRannoch, a former suitor of Jamie's mother, Ellen MacKenzie Fraser, Claire, Jamie's relatives and men employed by Sir Marcus, rescue Jamie. She patches him up and they escape to Ste. Anne de Beaupre's monastery in France, where Jamie's uncle is stationed as Abbot. At Ste. Anne's, Claire tries healing Jamie, but discovers broken bones are simple, compared to repairing the damage done to his mind. As he recovers, Jamie tells Claire that his life is hers, that she should decide, will they go "to France, Italy, or even back to Scotland?" for "[they'll] need a place to go, soon." His Uncle, Abbot Alexander, provides Jamie with a letter of introduction, describing Jamie as, "an efficient linguist and translator", to King James of Scotland, living in Rome with his sons Bonnie Prince Charlie and Henry Stuart. Claire and Jamie decide Rome it will be, "to do what they can"(quotes from this paragraph, p 620, Dell Trade Paperback).

Whilst at the abbey, Claire learns more about her faith - she was christened Catholic but not raised as one - and receives absolution from a friendly monk. He describes her as a shipwrecked traveler, forced to survive in a strange land as best she can. He describes her marriages as something she should leave in God's hands as nothing can be done about them. At the last, as they emerge from the healing waters of a sacred hot spring under the Abbey, Claire reveals that she is pregnant with their first child.

As the first in what is now at least an eight-book series (Book 7, An Echo in the Bone, was published in September 2009, and promises at least one more book) of Claire Fraser and her Highlander husband Jamie. The story is the first step in a bestselling and surprisingly rich tale spanning the time from the Scottish Rising of 1745, to the American Revolution.



"This is my favorite books series of all times; I have read all of them and listened to them several times on audio book while I am work sewing. These are the kinds of books that the more you read them the more you get out of them.

You can't help but fall in love with the main characters, there are so many amazing characters weaved in and out of all the books. Some that you love and others that you hate some that you can't wait for them to die; Some characters that you have torn feeling about, you like them but then they do something to make you hate them and some times they don't get back into your good graces.

The thing that I love most about these books is the fact that you can tell Historical fact from Fiction. She has a wonderful companion book to the series call "The Outlandish Companion" she talks about the historical characters the places, the Gaelic language and what the different words that they use in the books.

If you love historical romance a little science fiction and Historical Fictions then you need to check out the Outlander series and go on an amazing journey with Claire Randal and experience what life in 1700's Scotland is like. Here is the link to her website



Plot Summary

The Scottish Bride by Cathrine Coulter

This book is charming and whitty and everyting that you could want from a romance novel. As you are reading this book, it is almost as if you are watching a film unfold infront of your eyes. It's about a widowed Vicar with three children who come into his inheratige and becomes the Lard of Kildrummy castle.

His young Vivatious daughter disquised as his lion (I think that's the term) so that she can go to protect her father whom she says is not worldly enough to know when some one is going to do him wrong. Young Tyson got more than her was barganing for in scotland.

Shortly after arriving at Kildrummy he meets Mary Rose the local bastard, that no one likes or will give the time of day because she has no station. A young women who also needs protecting from her uncle and Erickson a young man with not so noble intentions. We will do what he has to, to get young Mary Rose to marry him even if it means defialing her.

When he returns home, he returns with a young bride and learns what is means to give some one your heart and have them give theirs in return, but can his paritioners handle the changes in young Tyson, and except his scottish wife? can there marriage with stand the challengs that it encounters.

I loved this book, it made me happy reading it. If you like historic romances novel you should add this to your list of must read books. It is book six in a series of ten, Cathrine Coulter is an amazing author and is worth reading, I am going to go back and read the rest of the books!

Beach Music by Pat Conroy

Jack McCall, an American living in Rome with his young daughter, is trying to find peace after the recent trauma of his wife's suicide. But his search for solitude is disturbed when a telegram from a family member summons Jack back to South Carolina to be with his ailing mother. He begins to explore his past and all its demons, as well as a new mystery that his sister-in-law and two school friends invite him to explore. They want Jack's help in tracking down another classmate who went underground as a Vietnam protester and never resurfaced. As Jack begins a journey that encompasses the past and the present in both Europe and the American South, he also begins a quest that will lead him to shocking truths -- and ultimately to catharsis, acceptance and maturity."

This is one of the most emotional book I have ever read, this book had me giggling one minute and teary eyed the next. It is a tragic and beautiful love story between a young boy, his friends and the south that hold nothing but heartache and hurt for him. He loose his best friends to Vietnam and betrayal and the love of his life to suicide. He comes back to sit by the death bead of his ailing mother, to come to terms with his demons from the past, his abusive and alcoholic father, his emotionally demanding mother the town that he holds so much contempt for.

Some of the stories he was told of his mothers past, the past of his mother and father in law left me feeling sick to my stomach and very angry. I can deal with a lot of thing but nothing is more ugly and revolting to me than the way that the Nazi's treated the Jews, The Complete Degradation and slaughter of these religious people. The stories of his in-laws life during WW2 are some of the ugliest and heartbreaking I have ever read.

This books is very long and there is a lot of back and forth, but I think that it is worth reading. You can't help but fall in love with all of the characters in the book, even the scoundrel. If you like drama's you should give this book a chance!